Chapter twelve

Long is the way, and hard, that out of hell leads up to light.-John Milton, Paradise Lost.

Caroline got better. It took nine days for her to be okay being around more than two humans at a time. It was four days before she bugged and nagged Stefan, who hadn't left her side, to let her see Tyler. "Stefan," She began. Caroline had just poured her heart out to Stefan, telling him what she'd gone through. "Caroline," he replied with wariness laced in his voice, hesitant as to what she would ask. He was terrified that she'd ask more about his past, and his 'ripper' stages. Caroline looked up to him, needed him. He was Saint Stefan to her, and if she found out he screwed up, and as terribly as he did, it would break her. "I want to see Tyler." She said firmly.

Stefan groaned. "Caroline, it's dangerous." Caroline crossed her arms over her chest, and she looked ridiculous in the too big outfit. "It's Tyler, Stefan. Do you think I would hurt him?" She asked in a hurt tone. "I don't think you want to hurt him." Stefan replied slowly. Caroline pouted at him.

"Tyler!" She called, knowing he could hear her. "You can come up." She smiled sheepishly at Stefan. He frowned at her as Tyler bounded up the stairs. "Stefan, I'll be fine. I won't hurt him. You can stay in the room, you like." Caroline said irritably. Stefan shook his head, then smiled at her.

"Fine. I'll be outside the door." He said.

"Stefan." She said meekly. Stefan turned around from the door.

"Thank you," she said softly. "For everything." She shot him a small smile, and Stefan wanted to breathe a sigh of relief. He had been worried that Caroline wouldn't be able to get out of the state she was in, but she was on the way to recovery. Stefan smiled at her. "Anytime, Caroline. You know that." He left the room as Tyler arrived. "Caroline?" He asked cautiously. Caroline smiled at him, her pretty blue eyes welling up with tears. "Tyler," She breathed, and that was all it took. Tyler came towards her and held her frail body to him. "I- I'm so sorry!" Caroline hiccupped.

Tyler kissed her pale blonde hair. "No, Caroline, I'm sorry. It should have been me." He said, the agony clear in his voice. "No, Tyler. I don't regret anything. I'm sorry about earlier. I freaked out." She shuddered. "I love you," She murmured into his shirt. Tyler held her close.

"I love you Caroline. More than anything. And I'm not letting you out of my sight ever again."

"Even when I'm showering?" She asked lightly, in attempt to lighten the mood. Tyler grinned at her.

"Especially when you're showering."

"Pervert." She grumbled at him. "Don't leave me," she muttered and snuggled down as she switched on the television. "I won't." he promised as he settled more comfortably. Caroline brightened.

"Look, America's Next Top Model's on! It's a marathon!" She said enthusiastically. Tyler moaned and chuckled. "Hey, I was just captured and tortured for two weeks, I'm allowed to watch what I want, Wolf boy." She said darkly. Tyler laughed.

"Okay, fine. But we're watching Formula 1 after."

"In your dreams." Caroline snorted, and they settled, knowing everything would be okay.

four days later, she was able to see Elena and Bonnie. Caroline paced her room, agitated. She was bored, and wanted out of the room, but Stefan would only let her out when everyone else had gone home. "Stefan, my mom is going to be worried about me!" She'd yelled at him one night, frustrated. "Does she know I'm back?" Stefan looked uncomfortable.

"We thought it would be best if we didn't tell her-"

"Stefan, she's my mom. My MOM." She stated. Caroline threw herself back on her bed dramatically. "I want to get out of here, Stefan. I need to organise a fund raiser and the carnival and catch up on school work and-"

"Caroline," Stefan interrupted, smiling. "I think that's already dealt with." He said and nodded at the door. Caroline lifted her head and shot up. "Bonnie? Elena?" She said, stunned. In the doorway were her two friends, each loaded down with fast food, junk food, DVD's, sweets, magazines, nail polish and Caroline's school work. "We brought you some stuff," Bonnie said lamely with a wobbly smiled before bursting into tears. The three girls lurched towards each other, hugging each other tightly. "We're so sorry Caroline!" Both Bonnie and Elena cried.

"Why? It wasn't you're fault." Caroline said comfortingly. Bonnie hiccupped.

"It was because we'd had this fight and you were going to find Stefan when Elias saw you. Stefan told us." Bonnie wailed. Caroline glared at Stefan, who looked at her guiltily. 'You SHOULDN'T HAVE TOLD THEM,' She mouthed. Stefan mouthed back 'sorry!' Elena, in a slightly less hysterical voice than Bonnie said to Caroline. "We should have helped you. We should have known you knew what you were doing with Tyler. We trust you, Caroline. And I don't want to lose you again." Elena said in a trembling voice. "It's okay, guys," Caroline soothed. Stefan crept out of the room, not wanting to interrupt the bonding moment. Caroline seemed fine; just happy to have her friends back.

Once Bonnie had calmed down they sat on the floor in a circle. "So," Elena said. "Sorry we're late. It took awhile to get all of this-" she gestured wildly at the pile of books "-organised. But we got all of your notes, Ric has some stuff as well for essay's, we have a couple of books, and also we brought you some suggestions of buildings for the fundraiser. We also got the numbers of a couple of places that would be willing to donate stuff for the carnival and we've convinced some people to rent the carnival rides for free!" Elena finished, grinning.

"I totally love you guys," Caroline said, stunned. Bonnie shrugged.

"We knew you could do with the help. Come on, we brought some movies, let's watch them and deal with all this crap." Bonnie said and jumped up and put the movie on. The notebook started playing, and Caroline squealed as Bonnie and Elena rolled their eyes. Caroline reached over and dragged the quilt over the three over them. With Caroline in the middle, and Bonnie and Elena on either side, she rested her head on Elena's shoulder. The three girls crowded together, and settle in the knowledge that if they could stop it, nothing was going to happen to their friendship.

A day later, while the much needed girl bonding was taking place upstairs, Jeremy was talking with Stefan and Tyler. "Come on, guys, I want to see her," he whined, realising he sounded like a child but not caring. "It's Caroline. She helped me through a tough time, I want to help her!" He protested.

"Absolutely not, Jeremy. If we have her around too many people, she could snap again. With Bonnie there, she can take care of it if something happens-"

"You mean she can mess with Care's brain." Jeremy said bitterly and Tyler winced.

"Well, yes. But I'm not taking that chance with you." Stefan said firmly.

"Come on, Stef," Damon called, coming into the room with a glass of scotch in hand. "It won't kill the kid. Well," he amended. "It might. But Jere-bear has that nifty little ring that'll bring him back to life if he dies." Damon said merrily.

"Are you drunk?" Tyler asked disgustedly. Damon smirked at him.

"We've had a hard few days. People cope in different ways. Steffy here gets extra broody, Uncle wolf likes to hit things, witchy likes to have a good ol' cry, you get extra pouty about Caroline, Jere-bear likes to whine like a nine year old girl and I-" he made a grand sweeping gesture. "Get drunk off my ass. My motto is: Enough just isn't enough!"

"Did you just call me Jere-bear?" Jeremy asked, dumbfounded.

"Twice." Damon corrected. Jeremy shook his head.

"Whatever," he stated, clearly deciding to leave it alone.

"I don't pout," Tyler said through gritted teeth.

Damon smirked at him. "You really, really do."

"What do you fucking mean by pouting?" Tyler seethed.

"Well, your lips press together and push out-" Damon demonstrated over exaggeratedly. Tyler stayed silent, fuming quietly. "Not that you should be pouting with a girlfriend like that," Damon said approvingly.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean, you bastard." Tyler asked quietly.

"Damon," Stefan warned.

"It means," Damon continued, "That even though Blondie is annoying, she talks too much and cries a lot, she's good in the sack."

"Damon," Stefan hissed, appalled.

"What, Stef? Me and wolfy here know it to be true, she's a good fu-" Damon didn't get to finish that sentence, because Tyler had launched at him, rugby tackling him to the floor. Tyler punched him in the face, and Damon shrieked. "Not the face you wanker!" He said indignantly. "The fucking face is worth more than the fucking ass!" He rolled over and pinned Tyler down, who struggled underneath him, snarling. Mason, Stefan and Jeremy watched them in amazement. "Shouldn't Damon be beating the shit out of Ty?" Mason asked.

"Nah," Stefan dismissed him. "Damon's drunk, and bored. He's just looking for something to entertain him."

"Should we stop them?" Jeremy inquired. They were silent for a moment, when Mason said "Nah."

"I'm going to fucking bite you!" Tyler threatened.

"It's not a full moon, dumbass." Damon taunted. "Say you're a wank," He tightened the vice grip he had on Tyler's neck. "You're a wank," Tyler wheezed.

"No, say you're a wank," Damon taunted again. Tyler grunted, and pushed at Damon.

"Well," came a dry voice from the bottom of the stairs. "This isn't something you see every day."

Both Tyler and Damon looked up to see Bonnie, Elena and Caroline standing at the bottom of the stairs. "Caroline! What are you doing out?" Stefan asked, not unkindly.

"Stefan." Caroline said firmly. "I am perfectly capable of walking down some stairs and talking to some friends," then she added, "and Damon."

"Love you too, Blondie." Damon grinned and blew her a kiss. Caroline turned on him, grabbing him by the throat and hissed menacingly. "Listen, jackass, I just spend the last two weeks with a fucking original vampire. You may be older and stronger, but you can't say that you did what I did. I learned some tricks that I don't want to try out ever again, but on you I would. I heard what you said about me, and I'm kindly going to forget you said that. Now, I'm going to go hang out with my friends that I haven't seen in days, and you're going to try not to be a little bitch. Sharing is caring." She gave him a hundred watt smile, and released him, shoving him off Tyler.

Damon rolled to his feet, and coughed. Stefan looked at Caroline in concern, and Caroline shrugged. "Bonnie isn't the only one that can burn his ass to hell. And he was messing with my boyfriend!" She defended. She stood up. "And scaring Damon isn't something I get to do every day! Come on, the look on his face was good though, right 'Jere-bear'?" She air quoted at Jeremy, who grinned at her in response. "Come here!" He said, and she launched herself into his open arms. He caught the bouncing blonde as she laughed in delight. "I missed you!" He exclaimed, and she kissed him on the cheek. "Jere, You are never playing James Bond or Rambo or whatever over me again!" She squealed. "I don't know, Care, it was pretty fun, I got to crawl along the floor and play with guns." Elena rolled her eyes.

"Jeremy, that was a plastic gun."

"No it wasn't, it had-"

"Pellet's in it. And you were crawling around the hallway's here a few hours ago."

"I didn't want to wake Caroline up!" He protested. Bonnie snorted with laughter.

"It's okay, Jere." Caroline said solemnly. "I appreciate you. And you're very good in stealth mode, I nearly didn't hear you at all." She grinned at him and he set her on her feet. She went over and hugged Alaric, then tackled Mason into a hug. While Caroline was practically chasing Mason around the room,

"Hug me," Caroline demanded.

"No way, blondie."

"Mason, don't be a bastard. Didn't you miss me?"

"Slightly. It was a lot more quiet without you."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" She whined as she rounded a table towards him.

Elena sighed and went over to Stefan."Stefan, can we get takeout, before they murder each other?"

Stefan smiled at her. "I thought you'd never ask."

Sup bitches! Miss me?:D Sorry it took so long, I had exams and then I was sick for two weeks! But this chapter is finito! To be honest, I don't know where this story is going, so I have to see... But it will be finished, one way or another!

P.S- I have a book blog, incase any of you are interested! I just started it, so it's bare, but, be patient!

Reviews are love!

P.S.S- Are any of you guys Cassandra Clare fans? If so, did you read Clockwork Prince? OMG, Right?