Chapter eleven
And I will try to fix you.-Coldplay, fix you.
They got out of the basement/cellar/torture chamber okay, and where making their way down the hallway, Tyler at the front and Stefan and Damon flanking either side of him. They slowed down as they approached Alaric and Bonnie. The witch paled noticeably, upon seeing Caroline limp and damaged in Tyler's arms. Tyler's eyes were almost pitch black, and Stefan and Damon looked grim. Alaric swore softly glancing at his blonde student. Damon mouthed 'go. Now.' And they moved towards the door quickly, glancing around. Bonnie froze in her tracks. "Well, well, well," came the drawling voice of Elias. "What have we here?" They all stopped. Elias was looking at them with a grimly inquisitive look, like the way a predator looks before it snatches its prey. Alaric held his hands up. "Look, you've had your fun. She needs help, or Caroline's not going to make it. Please, let us take her."
Elias looked amused. "I rather would have preferred you to have asked first. But since you said please..."
"Wait, you're letting us take her?" Bonnie asked disbelievingly.
"Yes, yes I am." Elias said simply. Bonnie blinked at him, clearly confused.
"But why?" She asked.
Elias smiled at her and Bonnie looked taken aback. "Because I've had my fun. My dear Miss Caroline has been great entertainment for Greta and myself. I think the next part will be trying to get her out of this."
Tyler glanced down at Caroline, who, if anything was looking worse. She was lying limp in his arms, until her body started to convulse. "Stefan..." He said alarmed. Stefan looked at Caroline.
"She needs more blood," he said, a tone of urgency in his voice. They edged towards the door.
"Oh, that may be what she needs now, but she had plenty of it before we arrived phase two of having fun with the vampire." Elias said pleasantly.
"What?" Bonnie asked bluntly.
"Good luck trying to wean her off the blood." Elias grinned, winked conspiratorially at Bonnie and slammed the door after them, not after giving Bonnie a lingering look.
They hurried to Mason's van, and piled in. "Bonnie, blood bags." Stefan said demandingly, and Bonnie silently passed them over. "We need to get these out." Stefan said shortly, referring to the wooden bullets.
Caroline was so, so tired. She was in pain, but she just wanted to sleep. But anytime she tried, something would jerk her awake. She heard noises and sensed people around her. At least two were like her. So tired. Then her mouth opened as she screamed silently as pain overtook her, a sharp object digging into her back. Please, she thought, let it stop. Caroline squirmed, trying to move her back away from the sharpness. "Damon, Tyler, hold her still, we need to get these out, now." Stefan said practically. Damon held onto her legs, and Tyler took a hold of her arms.
"I'm sorry," Stefan whispered as he plunged the tweezers in again, deftly picking out the second and third. By the time the last was out, Caroline was writhing across the table they'd set up. Elena drove fast, Jeremy telling her to slow down; and Bonnie tell her to speed up. Mason said alarmed, "Don't wreck my van!", and glancing between Caroline and Tyler. Alaric was helping Stefan by starting to pull out the wooden splinters.
Damon, sensing he could help get them out, held her legs with one hand and swiftly plucked the splinters with speed with his other hand. Caroline still flailed about helplessly, and Tyler grabbed her hand and put his other on her face. "You'll be okay," he murmured. Caroline stopped flailing and whimpered slightly. Tyler was horrified to note that her face was clean, and he realized it was because her tears had washed away the blood and dirt.
"Stefan, why can't we give her the blood?" Bonnie asked, as Stefan had refused every time she'd offered. "She's not healing!" Bonnie was right; even though they'd got all the hurt hurting her out of her system, her wounds refused to heal as she'd lost so much blood.
"We can't. We have to wait until we get back to Mystic falls. Giving blood to a starving vampire can be dangerous; it would be stupid to give it to her in the confinements of this van." Stefan replied. Stefan, Damon and Alaric worked fast and Elena drove faster. All the trees and road signs blurred, and time passed. All they concentrated on was getting Caroline home alive.
XxX
They burst through the doors of the Salvatore house in a madness of blood, noise and mayhem. "Bonnie, Elena, Jeremy, Ric, over in that corner, you can't get too close." Damon barked at them and they scuttled away. Bonnie had silent tears streaming down her face, and Elena clung to both Jeremy and Bonnie. Ric moved to the back of the room to the bar and grabbed the bourbon bottle, then thought better of it and put it back. "Damon, blood bags." Stefan ordered as Tyler set Caroline on the table gently. Damon took them out of his pockets and handed them over. Stefan took them and tore the first one open. At the smell of the blood Caroline's eyes flew open, and her crazily dilating pupils darted around. Stefan lowered the first blood bag towards her lips. Caroline drank greedily, sucking the bag dry. Stefan paused before giving her another one, then another. After three bags, Caroline started to stir as her wounds were healing. Tyler moved towards her from where he was rooted to the spot.
Caroline's eyes opened drowsily. Her mouth opened a couple of times, like she was struggling with how to speak. "Care," Tyler murmured and touched a finger to her cheek. "It's okay. You're safe now, you're home." She looked up at him and whispered in a small, strangled, broken voice "I'm sorry," Before she went unconscious. They stood staring at Caroline for a moment, when Damon left the room and they heard bath water running. He came back into the room again. "Okay, I'll get Blondie clean." He said. Elena's jaw dropped open.
"Excuse me?" She said, astounded. Damon rolled his eyes and looked at her. He talked very slowly and clearly, like talking to a child. "Well, Caroline has traces of vervain on her skin which will irritate like fuck. I'm going to go clean it off."
"Oh, no you're not!" Mason said indignantly.
Bonnie crossed her arms. "Do you really think we'd let you do it? Elena and I can take care of her!" she sneered.
"Oh please, it's not like I haven't seen her naked before." Damon retorted easily. Stefan looked pained. "Damon, you can't think of Caroline like that anymore, you aren't together."
Damon smirked. "I can see her naked anytime I want." Bonnie raised an eyebrow, and Damon closed his eyes. "Wahoo. There you go, see?" He said smugly.
"Damon!" Stefan said sharply. He looked absolutely disgusted, and glanced anxiously at Bonnie.
Bonnie glared at Damon and he doubled over screaming. He looked at Elena, who glared at him mercilessly.
"I'll do it." Tyler seethed, barely containing his anger. He gently picked Caroline up, gave Damon a death glare as Mason stood over the writhing vampire, fuming. Elena and Bonnie follow Tyler out of the room.
"We'll help." Elena added, and Bonnie nodded. To Stefan, Bonnie said "We'll be fine, she's knocked out." They left the room.
XxX
Elena smiled softly as she pulled the blanket over Caroline as Bonnie fluffed the pillows for her. Bonnie caught her eye. "It's about time we do this for Caroline," Bonnie murmured. Elena nodded. "When my dad left, she stayed up with me all night, and at two in the morning called him." Bonnie laughed.
"Hey asshole," Caroline said sharply down the phone from Bonnie's house. Bonnie was sitting beside her, wide eyed and dazed. There was chocolate and empty tissue boxes around them. There was grunting down the line. "Who is this?" a distant muffled voice asked. Caroline smiled grimly. "I'm your worst nightmare. You seriously hurt Bonnie, and I swear to God I'm going to make your life a living hell. So just know that anytime you go near her, or hurt her, I will be there smacking you down like the hand of God every single time, you got me? Every. Time. Oh, and will you tell that skank of a girlfriend to ease off the makeup.-Oh, she's sick? What, did her cement mixer that she mixed her makeup in break or something? Remember. Every time you break her heart, I'll break you. Nice talking to you, loser." She finished, hung up the phone and smiled at Bonnie, whose eyes were wide and she had a hint of a smile on her face.
Elena laughed, "I remember that! When my parents died, she'd just come to the house and bring coffee and make breakfast, every day that summer. It was her that got me out of my bed, taught Jenna how to cook, and convinced Jeremy to talk."
Elena lay face down in her bed, feeling numb. She knew there were things she should be caring about, but she just...didn't. None of it seemed important anymore. Her room was dark, even though it was eleven in the morning. Suddenly her door opened and light flooded through the room. Elena groaned quietly and pulled the cover over her head. Caroline entered the room, and bustled around, picking up discarded clothes and rubbish. "Elena, I made pancakes." Caroline said lightly. Elena didn't answer. "Elena, sweetie, you need to get up." Elena moved slightly.
"Why should I, Caroline? My life has turned to shit, why go out and face it? Why can't I stay here and deal with the pain I have instead of hurting even more?" Elena asked monotonously
"Because even though things have gone wrong; there are still people that care about you."
"Wrong?" Elena asked in a strangled voice. "Wrong? My parents are DEAD, Caroline!" She yelled at her. "They're dead." She repeated softly. "They're dead, Caroline." She sobbed. Caroline immediately went over to her and held her friend while she cried. After the sobbing stopped, she said, "I know Elena," She said softly. "I know. But they wouldn't want you to be like this. They'd want you to be happy and live your life. Don't you think?" Elena sniffed and nodded. "Okay then. I'm going to help you get ready and we're going to go down stairs and eat pancakes. You haven't been eating enough. Or according to Jenna, anything at all." Elena smiled sheepishly.
"It's time to get back to your life Elena."
Bonnie nodded. "I remember, she'd just go and yell at you sometimes."
"I needed it. She shocked me back to reality."
" Oh my GOD, Elena!" Caroline snapped one day when Elena sat and complained about how she was alone in this. "Get over yourself!" Elena blinked at her.
"Excuse me?" Elena asked, dumbfounded.
"Elena, you're hurting, and I get that. But God, you are NOT alone in this! You're so selfish!"
"Caroline, my parents died, you have no right to call me-"
"Elena you aren't the only one lost them! Jeremy lost his parents too, Jenna lost a sister, my mom lost a best friend, even that asshole John lost a brother! You cannot say you're alone in this because a hell of a lot of people lost them. And Bonnie and I lost you because you've been so self absorbed! Did you even THINK about how this was affecting them? Jenna is a college student who, a couple of months ago was drinking shots off a hot, ripped college guys stomach, and now she has a dead sister to grieve, a college course to finish and two teenagers to keep from falling apart. But what about her? Didn't you think that maybe she's falling apart? But she can't show it because she has to be strong for you guys."
"Caroline-" Elena said weakly.
"And what about Jeremy? It took WEEKS to get him to talk. He wouldn't talk to anyone and I had to lock myself in a room with him and talk to him for an hour about my hair, nail polish, clothes, the notebook and eventually had to resort to bra's and lady problems I DON'T HAVE to get him to talk And run the hell away from me. You didn't even notice! Do you know he's taking drugs?"
Elena's eyebrow shot up, and she paled considerably. "Yep," Caroline continued unhappily."He's using. And selling, I don't know. I can't get him to stop. But he'll talk to me, which is a start." She sighed. She glanced at Elena, who was staring at her with a mixture of emotions: anger, shock, wonder, hurt, and guilt. "Caroline. I...I'm sorry." She croaked. "I'm sorry that I didn't think that Jenna and Jeremy were hurting as well. I was just..." she trailed off.
"So wrapped in your own grief that you can't even think about helping others with theirs." Caroline finished for her. Elena nodded sheepishly. Caroline smiled tentatively at her. "Come on. Let's go get junk food and watch some movies." Caroline put her arm around her friend and squeezed her shoulder. They both got up and went downstairs, under the silent, fragile act of stubborn friendship that finally got Elena to wake up.
Caroline's clothes had been ruined, so they'd dug out a t-shirt of Stefan's and pyjama bottoms. Both girls stood in silence a moment and marvelled how their friendship had survived so much. It was only when they realised Tyler was still in the room that they talked again. They were still wary off him, of what he could do. "So, Damon told us about the bite." Elena came right out and said it in a very Caroline like manner, blurting it out like she couldn't hold it in anymore. Tyler flinched under the unwavering stare off the two girls. Feeling like he had to explain himself, he said "Uh, yeah. It turns out that I needed to do that. To complete the whole mating process. It didn't hurt her," he added hastily. "The mating gave her immunity to it. My bite, anyway." He corrected himself.
Still feeling under scrutiny, he kept talking. "And Mason wouldn't hurt her either. He won't admit he likes her, but he does. And I apologize to you for punching Damon. Three times." He closed his eyes. "But he did deserve it! And I know you probably hate me because Caroline got taken instead of me, and I swear-"
"Tyler!" Bonnie interrupted. Tyler looked at them, like a deer caught in headlights.
"It's okay. We actually like you. And we know that you wouldn't have let her go if you could have stopped it." Bonnie said. Tyler nodded and smiled ruefully at them. Elena was staring forlornly at Caroline, an expression of worry on her face. "I wonder what he meant. Elias, I mean. When he said 'good luck trying to wean her off the blood.' He starved her; that is obvious. He must have been killing those people, not her." She said unhappily. Bonnie shrugged uncomfortably. "I honestly don't know, Elena. I wish I did. But let's just concentrate on getting Caroline better, okay? We'll cross that when we come to it." Bonnie finished wisely. Elena glanced at Tyler. "We like you," she repeated what Bonnie had said earlier. "But if you hurt her, Bonnie here is going to give you aneurysm that will have you're little jock brain burst and I will quite literally get Stefan to rip off your balls. We clear?" She smiled brightly. Tyler nodded, stunned into silence. "Great. We'll leave you two alone then." Elena said and Bonnie and she left the room, giggling quietly.
That left Tyler with the practically comatose Caroline. He didn't want to let her out of his sight. He figure the rest of them could catch up with her when she woke. He padded quietly to the bed and slid in beside her. He gently reached out a hand to her arm, and her skin was like ice. "Your freezing," he commented, directed at her but said to himself. He eased himself closer to her and wrapped his arms around her frail, fragile body. Staring down at the girl he loved, his girl, Tyler wondered how it came to this. How it came that he was friends with vampires, witches and Doppelgangers. That his history teacher is a vampire hunter, that his uncle was a werewolf and so was he and the girl he loved was a vampire and she'd just been tortured by an original vampire. Tyler wondered how his life got so fucked up. All he knew was that he'd never seen a bunch of people go through so much.
He absentmindedly stroked Caroline's hair. They were strong, that's why they'd made it. Awhile later, after he'd closed his eyes, he felt Caroline move about, thrashing. He also heard her breathing, or lack of it. His eyes shot open and he sat up facing her. She was gasping, struggling to breathe and had a look of terror on her face. "Breathe, Care, breathe!" Tyler said desperately. He held her hand to his chest and took a deep breath, getting her to try to breathe with him. She gulped, struggling to catch a breath. She spluttered a couple of times, and took in a short, raspy breath. "That's it," Tyler chanted, relief. Caroline's breathing evened out, though it was shaky.
"Where am I?" She whispered, looking terrified.
"You're at the boarding house. You're back in Mystic Falls, Care. We got you back." Tyler said quietly. Caroline's eyes quickly darted around the room, and relaxed once she recognised the room. "How are you?" He asked and brushed his thumb across her jaw. She stiffened and tried to wiggle away.
"You need to get out." She said in a calm, icy tone that scared him. Tyler followed her.
"Wait why? What's going on?" He asked. "Care, I'm not leaving you."
"You have to," She hissed at him.
"Why?" He repeated louder. She slammed into him, knocking him off his feet and onto his back. She pounced on top of him, her vamp face coming through. In all the times he'd seen it, this is the time it's seemed the least in control. She seemed dangerous. "Because I can't control it!" She yelled at him. "I want blood and I can't control it, Tyler!"
Tyler looked at her confused. "But you needed blood. He starved you."
"I'm aware of that," she said bitterly. "But the first week, he made me do what I never wanted to do," She said, her voice getting higher with each word. Stefan came running into the room.
"Caroline." He said gently. He bent down and picked her up around the waist.
"He made me drink from humans. He made me kill people!" She screeched. Stefan succeeded in lifting her struggling body. "He said if I didn't, he'd compel me. So I did it! But he didn't have to compel me because I WANTED TO! I wanted more! He didn't have to compel me to like it because I did!" She screeched, and broke down into sobbing. Her previously thrashing body went limp in his arms. "I killed people, Stefan. I killed people." She repeated brokenly, still sobbing. Stefan held her up against him. "I know, Caroline. But don't turn it off. I know that it hurts, but you can't turn it off." He murmured urgently. She banged her head against his chest. "But I want to," She moaned. "I can't feel like this Stefan."
"Yes, you can." Stefan said firmly. "Caroline if you turn your emotions off you won't be able to love. Look at Tyler. I want you to look at Tyler." He said and she rolled her head and looked at Tyler as she breathed deep, trying to control herself. "If you turn your emotions off, you can't love. You won't be able to love him. And I know you do love him, so I want you to think about how that feels. Do you want to lose that? Caroline. Do you want to lose that?" He repeated. Caroline shook her head violently. Stefan glanced at him. "Tyler, you need to get out. I'm sorry, but you can't stay. Go down stairs." He said and when Tyler opened his mouth to argue, Stefan said "No buts. Downstairs, now." He said. Tyler nodded and got up off the floor and crossed the room towards the door. "You'll be okay, Care. Just don't turn it off." He said. "Take care of her," he said softly to Stefan. Stefan nodded curtly and Tyler exited the room and went down the stairs, where Bonnie, Elena, Jeremy, Mason and Ric were waiting. "How is she? What's going on?" Jeremy asked immediately.
"She's not good." Tyler said finally. Elena clutched Bonnie's arm.
"What do you mean she's not good?"
"I mean she wanted to kill me." He admitted, shocking them into silence.
XxX
"Stefan, how do I control this," Caroline asked in despair. "I want to be able to be around Tyler and Bonnie and Elena and Jeremy."
"You have to learn to fight it. Now, it'll just be harder to fight. But Caroline, I will help you. I helped you when you first turned and I will help you now." Stefan stated. Caroline looked up at him.
"Why? Why do you care so much?" She asked him. Stefan smiled at her.
"Because I love you. You're like my sister, Caroline. And I am so sorry about what happened. I want you to know that. I want you to know that I am so, so sorry."
Caroline eyes filled with tears. "I know, Stefan. I know." She reached out and hugged him. "I forgive you, mister broody." Stefan laughed. "And I love you too, by the way, in case you didn't know that." She giggled. "I could hazard a guess." He replied, smiling.
"You're going to be okay, Caroline." He said seriously.
"I know." She replied earnestly. And she did.
Heeeeeeeeeeeey guys! This is the longest chapter I've done in a while. I hate to say this but it'll probably be half a month or a month before I get writing again, I have a shitload of exams. Fun, right? Anyway, I will leave you with this chapter to sate you and the knowledge that it isn't over, and I have more stories in the pipeline. I love you all, thanks for being understanding! xx