So turn away from the ones who hurt everyone,
I can tell by your smile, you're coming undone,
I could bleed for a smile; could die for a gun,
Walk away from the sun and kill everyone.
Walk Away From The Sun by Seether
Chapter Twelve: I Care About You
Caroline's eyes fluttered open and she was barely able to recognize her surroundings, she was still in the Boarding House. She looked down and saw herself covered in her own dried up blood, she was remembering the fight now with Katherine, and then Stefan stepping in and saving her. And him giving her the blood to help her heal up through the night. She shifted in the couch and looked out the window and saw the sun just starting to rise. She looked at the chair next to her and saw a sleeping Stefan and about five or six empty blood bags on the coffee table. Did she really drink that much blood? She looked at her arms and legs and all the dried up blood and guessed that she really did need that much. She sat up on the couch and was amazed that she was able to sit up without any trouble at all.
She quietly walked up the stairs to the bathroom in the Boarding House and she wanted to see where else Katherine got her. She looked in the mirror and saw all the dried blood around her neck and on her shirt. She sighed and looked at the shower right there. Stefan was asleep downstairs, and he wouldn't mind, she just wanted all of this blood off of her, and there was no way she would be able to sneak into the house this early in the morning, her mom would be up and walking around getting ready to go to work.
"Stefan won't mind" Caroline told herself and turned on the shower
Stefan woke up and realized that Caroline wasn't on the couch anymore. He started to panic for a few seconds, but then he heard the shower turning off and figured out she was probably washing all that dried up blood off of her. Realizing that Caroline was safe, he looked at the coffee table and saw all the empty blood bags there from when he was trying to get Caroline's strength back up. He stood up and started getting rid of all the blood bags and the empty glass that Caroline was drinking out of last night.
A few minutes later, Stefan heard gentle footsteps coming down the stairs. He turned around and saw Caroline walking into the kitchen.
"Oh, hey" Caroline said "Sorry. I kinda stole one of your shirts, mine was completely covered in blood" Caroline sighed
"It's fine" Stefan said and turned around to hide a smile from Caroline, he kinda liked the sight of her wearing one of his shirts
"Something tells me with Katherine pissed off at me, I'm gonna have to start a whole new pile of dirty clothes: The blood stained pile" Caroline sighed and sat down at the kitchen table
"Don't worry about Katherine, Damon and I are gonna handle it" Stefan said and looked at Caroline and she just gave him a small nod. "So, feel better?"
"Yeah, I don't even really remember much of last night past Katherine pouncing on me and starting to tear me up" Caroline sighed "…If I were human still, would that have killed me, what Katherine did last night?"
"…Probably" Stefan said "Why?"
"Just curious I guess" Caroline sighed "Thanks for saving me Stefan"
"I promised you that I wasn't going to let anything happen to you" Stefan sighed
"Why do you look so sad? I'm fine. You saved me" Caroline said "You kept your promise"
"No, I didn't" Stefan sighed
"Stefan-"
"Katherine still hurt you" Stefan said
"And I lived through it" Caroline said "Don't go all serious and broody on me now" Caroline said and Stefan smiled a little, he knew she hated the serious side to him, but she always managed to make him laugh and smile. He looked up and saw Caroline smiling too. "Promise me no serious Stefan today? I don't want to see you beating yourself up over something you couldn't stop" Caroline said
"Fine, no serious Stefan" Stefan said "I promise"
"Cross your heart?" Caroline asked
"Cross my dead and un-beating heart" Stefan laughed and crossed his heart with a X
"Pinkie swear?" Caroline asked and held out her pinkie
"Caroline" Stefan said
"Pinkie swear" She said firmly
"Fine, yes, pinkie swear" Stefan said and pinkie swore Caroline
"Good" Caroline said happily and smiled "So, now that there is no serious Stefan to worry about, what are we doing today?"
"Well, I have to go meet up with Alaric and Damon and talk about the…Katherine problem" Stefan said
"Oh" Caroline said "I probably should go home anyway today, my mom's probably looking for me and everything" Caroline sighed and stood up
"Want me to walk you home and attempt to be normal people?" Stefan asked with a smile
"Sure" Caroline smiled and grabbed her blood stained t-shirt off the kitchen table and followed Stefan out the front door of the Boarding House
Caroline and Stefan were walking up the street, the sun was just rising, and her mom was walking out the front door and stopped and starred at Caroline and Stefan right by her car.
"Caroline, where have you been all night? And why are you wearing one of, what I'm guessing to be, Stefan's shirts?" Her mother asked and starred at Stefan while she was asking the question
"Mom, it's not what it looks like" Caroline said and hid her shirt behind her back before her Mom could see it covered in blood
"I've more than easy with you Caroline since you got out of the hospital. But I think this is exactly what it looks like" She said and starred at Caroline now
"Mom!" Caroline said and walked up to her "I'm not with Stefan" Caroline whispered to her
Her mom sighed and looked between Caroline and Stefan. "I'm not dealing with this right now. We'll talk later Caroline" Her mom sighed "I got to get to work right now. Another animal attack on the edge of the forest. Two campers"
"I'll talk to you later mom" Caroline sighed "Bye"
"Bye" She said and got into her car
Caroline stepped aside and watched her mother pull out of the driveway and head towards the police station. Stefan walked up the driveway right next to Caroline and saw she was blinking back a few tears.
"I hate keeping secrets from my mom" Caroline sighed and wiped away a stray tear
"Things are gonna get better Caroline, I promise" Stefan said
"Better? I'm a frickin' vampire! Things can only get worse from here" Caroline sighed "Katherine wants me dead; Bonnie, even though I knew she's still trying to be my friend, hates what I am; I've attacked Matt and nearly killed him; And too top it all off, my mom is part of some stupid council where if she finds out what I am, she'll kill me" Caroline said
"Don't think like that Care" Stefan said and hugged her "Everything's going to be okay"
Caroline squeezed Stefan tightly and tried to calm herself down.
"Caroline" Stefan said
"Yeah?" Caroline asked while still squeezing him
"Your kinda crushing me" Stefan said
"Sorry!" Caroline said and let go immediately "I'm still getting used to the strength I guess"
"It's fine" Stefan smiled
"So, I'll, uh, see you later?" Caroline asked
"Yeah" Stefan said
"Try not to get killed" Caroline smiled "I'd really miss my vampire teacher/ best friend if he got killed"
"I've been alive for 162 years Care, I don't think I'm going anywhere anytime soon" Stefan smiled
"Good to know" Caroline smiled and gave Stefan another hugged and tried to not crush him this time
Caroline and Stefan finally released each other from the hug and they found themselves both kinda standing there for a minute, not knowing weather to walk away or what to do. Stefan finally broke the stand still and leaned in and kissed Caroline on the cheek. But right after that, Caroline leaned in and kissed Stefan and wrapped her arms around his neck and Stefan wrapped his arms around her waist. After they pulled away from each other, Stefan and Caroline were still just inches from each other still in their embrace and Stefan just smiled and her and she smiled back.
"I promise to keep you safe from Katherine, no matter what" Stefan said
"I don't want you to promise that" Caroline said "I want you to promise me that if you are going after Katherine today…that you'll come back alive"
"As alive as I can be" Stefan smiled
"Promise me Stefan" Caroline said "…I care about you"
"I care about you too" Stefan smiled "I promise to come back"
Caroline smiled and leaned in and kissed Stefan again. Stefan wanted to stay there, but he knew if he did, Damon and Alaric would start looking for him. So he pulled away and after a quick goodbye to Caroline, he took off towards the Mystic Grill while Caroline walked into her house. She looked down at her shirt she still had in her friends and sighed at all the blood.
"It was my favorite shirt too" She sighed and walked into the kitchen and threw it in the garbage, knowing there was way too much blood on that for it to ever come out
A/N: Okay, so I hope you guys like this chapter :] I can't wait for Kill Or Be Killed tomorrow! Hopefully there is more Steroline stuff because I missed the Steroline scenes this week :[
Anyway, in the episode tomorrow, it looks like Caroline's Mom is gonna find out she's a vampire, so I wonder how that's gonna go over. Oh, and I thought I should share this, I saw a tweet from Candice (Caroline) and their filming Episode 9 right now, and I'm serious, in the picture, there were people dressed up as Ghostbusters. I am completely stumped on what they could be doing that involves Ghostbusters. Maybe another Halloween episode? I don't know, but I thought you guys would like to know :]
I love you guys! xoxo, Avril
