I don't own The Vampire Diaries.

A/N: This chapter is dedicated to KoffeeKath for being my 400th reviewer! Thank you so much to everyone who reads this story :) And thanks to everyone who takes a few seconds to review! It means a lot to receive your support and suggestions.

Hope you like :)

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Chapter 14

Caroline felt like it happened in slow motion but it couldn't have been longer than one second. She saw Logan, his eyes locked with hers, the watch compass was clearly pointing in her direction and she froze as he pointed the gun at her with the sheer shock that she felt. She heard the shot ring then she felt the most excruciating pain of her life in her stomach. It felt like fire mixed with her insides being ripped to shreds and she couldn't help crying out.

"I'm not a vampire." She whimpered then fell to the ground and Logan gasped in shock.

"No! Caroline! Caroline! Oh my God!" Logan shrieked as he ran over to her. Caroline sobbed at the blinding pain she felt.

"I'm human." She cried and Logan burst into tears.

"I'm so sorry. I thought… I didn't mean to… Oh my God. Please don't die." Logan sobbed then he yanked out his radio to call for help.

Damon was on the other side of the forest trying to keep away from the council. He'd overheard them saying that they were going hunting. He'd been keeping at a distance listening carefully to see if they could get a hold of Anna or the other guy. He was mildly surprised when he heard a shot ring out and a small scream. The scream was kind of familiar but he hadn't been listening closely enough to really pick up who it was. He was however surprised minutes later when he heard police and ambulance sirens ringing out. He moved a little closer, keeping an eye on his surrounds to make sure that he wouldn't be caught.

He neared the road and the ambulance whirred past him on the way back to town and he wondered who was in it. He saw in the distance that Logan Fell was being handcuffed and put into a cop car and he felt really confused, so he moved a little closer. He spotted the compass in Logan's pocket, so he didn't feel like he'd be caught. He hurried over to a council member taking his stake out so that it looked like he'd been hunting too just as the police car with Logan drove away.

"Hey, what's going on?" Damon examined one of the men quietly and he looked at him sadly.

"You should probably get to the hospital, Damon." He suggested to Damon miserably.

"Why?" Damon tested confused by why he specifically would go to the hospital.

"I've never seen the Sheriff cry before." Damon heard another guy say to someone else.

"What's going on?" Damon asked worriedly because he could only think of one thing that could make the Sheriff cry and he just knew that the next thing that they were going to say would gut him…

"Logan had the compass and he came across Caroline." The guy explained and Damon paled because, no, dammit! This wasn't going where he wanted it to!

"And?" Damon pushed too loudly, seconds away from losing it.

"And he shot her by accident." The man revealed and Damon took a step back with the sheer shock he felt. He was frozen in place desperately trying to remember if he'd given her enough blood earlier to heal from that… but then he remembered the band aid. He hadn't!

"What?" Damon gasped. "How could…" Damon trailed off, blinking rapidly trying to comprehend it because although she acted like a vampire, thought like a vampire and mentally was a vampire... she was a human. A fragile human who could die. No, she couldn't die! He had to make things right! He had to have more time with her! She was perfect and he refused to lose her!

"Where's your car, Damon?" The man queried putting his hand on Damon's shoulder, cutting Damon out of his thoughts that were probably about to make him snap like a crazy person – everyone knew that Damon was dating her since the town liked to gossip.

"That direction." Damon pointed absently through the woods then turned on his heel and ran as fast as he could keeping it at human speed until he was out of their view then he ran at vampire speed all the way to the hospital.

Present

"No." Damon gasped and they all looked at him.

"What? What's wrong?" Bonnie pushed.

"She went into the woods to find me." Damon stated wide-eyed with the level of guilt he felt. They'd tried to call her when they found out that she was looking for Damon but her phone was off.

"I know, I told you that." Stefan remarked confused by Damon's reiteration then Damon met his brother's eyes.

"Logan Fell shot her thinking that she was a vampire." Damon publicized stunned and they inhaled in shock.

"What? What's happening now?" Elena questioned almost deliriously at the thought of Caroline being hurt.

"She doesn't have enough vampire blood in her system to turn." Damon advised nervously and they looked shocked as they realised just what he meant.

"No! Caroline!" Bonnie screamed then ran over to the couch where Caroline's body was lying… greying. She and Elena burst into tears at the sight of her vampire body dying.

"She died?" Stefan yelled at Damon who was just bug-eyed with his jaw dropped at the fact that Caroline was dead… he'd been feeling everything that his past-self felt… and he felt totally heart-broken that she'd died. Especially because she'd only gone into the woods to look for him. To make sure that he was safe… even after what he'd done to her. He really was completely distraught about it. He never even got the chance to apologise for all of the things that he'd done to hurt her. She died without knowing how he'd felt about her. Damon felt like he was being suffocated…

However, he knew that his past-self was going to lose it big time if she really was dead.

Past

Damon darted to the hospital into the emergency area and followed the commotion. He looked into a room and saw Caroline lying on a hospital bed and her heart monitor had flat-lined. They were hurriedly getting out a defibrillator and they put the paddles to her chest – but there were like eight doctors in the room. Damon didn't know how to get in there to give her blood without them all noticing as he knew that as long as he got blood into her while her heart was beating, even just for a few seconds, she'd turn… then he had an idea and hurried down to a supply room as fast as he could.

Damon pulled out a brand new needle and syringe and stuck it in his arm and extracted blood from himself until it was full. He hurried back out of the supply room then rushed back down to the room that Caroline was in. He saw a doctor heading towards the room then stepped in front of him and stared into his eyes.

"When Caroline's heart starts again, inject this into her body. If anyone asks, it's a blood coagulant. You will forget that I gave this to you after you've done it." Damon compelled then handed him the syringe and stepped out of the way. Damon stood staring into the room, praying to a God that he wasn't sure that he believed in that she would live. He needed her to live.

A minute or two later, Damon saw her heart start again and he watched the doctor discretely inject her with his blood. Seconds later, her heartbeat strengthened and he was sure that she would survive and if not then at least she would turn, so he hurried down to the waiting room to see if Liz was okay. He stepped in and saw Liz crying her eyes out in a seat. She spotted him and stood up and hugged him – he was surprised by that but he hugged her back. He was kind of taking comfort from it too.

"She's going to be okay, Liz." Damon whispered.

"How do you know?" She sobbed. "I saw her flat-line." Liz cried.

"Before they pushed me away from the room, I saw her heart beating again." Damon soothed and she pulled back to look at him.

"Really?" She tested in a small voice with a sob and he nodded.

"She'll be okay." Damon promised.

Present

Bonnie and Elena were hugging each other and crying because they were so beyond heartbroken.

"She's colouring." Damon stated with a relieved smile and the girls and Stefan looked – even Stefan had tears streaming down his face. They saw the grey fading and her skin coloured again.

"Oh, thank God!" Bonnie exclaimed.

"That was like the worst moment of my life." Elena sobbed surprising Stefan and Damon as she'd had a lot of terrible moments in her life.

Past

Caroline came out of surgery and was put in a private room (thanks to Damon's compulsion, of course). He and Liz slipped inside to wait for her to wake up. Liz eventually fell asleep in a chair while Damon sat in another chair next to Caroline's bed on the other side from where Liz sat. He listened to her heartbeat and was so relieved that she hadn't died. There were drips in her arms, oxygen tubes in her nostrils and Damon had dropped another couple of drops of his blood down her throat to help her heal faster, but not so much that the wound would heal completely considering the doctors wouldn't understand how she was suddenly healed.

He really regretted that he hadn't turned her earlier, but on the other hand, if he had, then Logan would have staked her. Logan. Damon was planning to tear him apart for shooting her. He was so furiously angry at himself for not going to see who screamed. He could have saved her from going through all of it if he'd just gone. He realised then that in just a week, she'd become seriously important to him.

He felt really badly about their earlier fight. He knew that he was out of line, that she'd only been trying to help his brother since he had refused. He planned to try his damndest to make it up to her. He wanted to make her smile at him with that big happy smile again. He liked being on the receiving end of her happiness, not her anger or disappointment like earlier when he'd snapped at her.

When she'd lost her temper with him, that was the first time that he really got that she was indeed a vampire. She was only human physically, but mentally she was very much a vampire. In all honesty, he'd been seriously turned on by her fury. The fact she'd actually pushed him against a wall and held him by the throat, she was so ballsy and brave and hot and… she was just perfect. He was getting really impatient for her to wake up too. He really wanted to apologise. He wanted to tell her that he'd just been a jealous idiot, that things with Stefan made him nervous… that he couldn't bear to share her.

But he already knew that she wouldn't do that. He knew that she only saw Stefan as a friend. He knew that he'd just been a colossal ass and had no real reason to be so angry with her. He wanted to kick himself for threatening her. He'd just been so mad. She was his, dammit.

But again, no, she wasn't his. She wasn't property. She was her own person who made her own choices – that was engraved in his brain after their earlier altercation. He wasn't good at the feelings thing, okay? It had been a very long time since he had any. And then they'd been for Katherine… but she'd only ever been selfish – whereas, Caroline was selfless. They were such different women.

Damon really thought about it. They were both beautiful but in different ways. Katherine was a dark beauty that pulled him into the blackness. Into a world of death, destruction, pain, horror, deceit… and being alone. She made him self-conscious, made him doubt himself, made him hate his brother, made him a monster, made him feel like he would never be enough, made him want to die when he was in transition…

Caroline was beautiful for so many reasons, too many to list. She was the sunshine. Nobody had ever made him laugh so much. He hadn't smiled that much in… well, he couldn't remember a time that he had. He was feeling again. He hadn't even thought about killing anyone when feeding in days. He was kind of getting along with his brother with her encouragement. Caroline accepted him completely, didn't want him to be different, didn't make him feel like he wasn't enough and made him want to be less monstrous but at the same time didn't ask him to be less monstrous. She was bringing him back into the light where there was caring, intimacy, affection and friendship. He hadn't trusted anyone since he was a human… yet, he trusted her.

There really was no comparison between the women because Caroline beat Katherine in every category. Damon felt serious relief that he'd met Caroline. He couldn't imagine how awful life could have been if he had continued his mission to get into the tomb without having started a relationship with Caroline…

Present

Damon obviously was remembering all of the thoughts that his past-self was having and he really wished that the past had gone like that the first time around – obviously without Caroline getting shot – because his past-self was right. He just wished that he'd seen it sooner…

Past

Caroline's eyes fluttered open with the first rays of light that entered the room the following morning. Her whole body hurt, she couldn't remember what happened exactly. She remembered being shot… then there was just darkness and pain and blood after that. She vaguely remembered the sound of sirens but she didn't remember seeing anything but darkness.

Her throat was seriously dry, it felt like it had been torn. She remembered that feeling from the first time she'd been human – she'd obviously had a tube down her throat. She couldn't swallow, her whole mouth felt like painfully dry sand. Her eyes stung a little from all of the crying she'd done the night before but in all honesty, the worst was how dry her mouth and throat were. She then felt that someone was holding her hand. She also felt a tiny bit of pressure against her side, which caused her gaze to avert to her left side.

Caroline was shocked to see Damon there, sitting in a chair, holding her hand, with his head resting on the bed at her side and he was fast asleep. She was shocked that he'd clearly been there long enough to fall asleep. Her gaze went to the other side of the room and she saw her mother slumped in another chair asleep too. She was really glad to see her mother there.

Caroline, however, needed water. She couldn't take the dryness for another second. It was so dry and rough that it felt like a painful burn. She was ridiculously weak but she lightly squeezed Damon's hand hoping to wake him. He didn't stir and she rolled her eyes at how deeply he could sleep. She squeezed his hand again a bit tighter and she saw him twitch a little then seconds later his head lifted and he rubbed his eyes with one hand as he hadn't let go of hers.

"Damon." She whispered because she couldn't speak and his head snapped to look at her face and he saw her open eyes.

"Oh, Caroline, thank God." He said with more relief than she'd ever seen on him.

"Water. Please." She whispered and he was up like a shot out the door and returned moments later with a large cup of water and a straw. He moved it to her mouth and she drank it down and the respite from the dryness she felt from it was almost instant. She finished the whole cup then licked her lips and he watched her. "Thank you." She acknowledged a little easier. It wasn't a whisper but her voice was still scratchy and rough.

"Do you want more?" He asked softly.

"No, I'm okay." She refuted, her voice still not much louder than a whisper. He sat back down and retook her hand.

"Do you want me to get a doctor?" He offered concerned.

"Just a minute." She said. "I'm not fully coherent yet and I don't want them to start their prodding just yet." She sighed softly and he nodded.

"Does it hurt?" He tested hesitantly, his expression stricken. She saw all over his face that he felt majorly guilty.

"Everything hurts." She admitted and he winced. "What happened?" She queried.

"Logan shot you." Damon said and she nodded but barely.

"I know. I remember that part. He didn't mean it. The compass was pointing in my direction." Caroline explained and he looked stunned.

"You're not seriously defending him." Damon said shocked and she sighed.

"If he'd gotten you, you'd be dead." She whispered and he looked like he'd been slapped.

"That's why you were in the woods?" He questioned in true horror understanding what that meant.

"I had to warn you." She said squeezing his hand and he paled and looked truly broken-hearted at that… Even after their fight, she'd put herself at risk to make sure that he wouldn't get hurt… and she'd almost died trying to protect him. She saw his eyes glass and she looked confused. "What's wrong?" She asked softly.

"You got hurt because of me." Damon said with more guilt than he'd ever felt and she sighed.

"I've been through worse." She muttered shocking him. "Stop worrying so much." She added. "You're brooding like Stefan." She teased and he couldn't help the small smile on his face – she was lying in a hospital bed with a gunshot wound yet was trying to make him feel better by trying to make him laugh… it made him feel guilty all over again.

"I'm so sorry about yesterday… I just… care about you so much already… I don't want to lose you." Damon explained and she watched him – she saw that he meant it. But she also wasn't going to put up with his crap.

"I'm only going to say this once, so remember it." She started quietly but it was clear by her tone that she was very serious and he nodded for her to continue. "I am not Katherine." She declared and he blinked in surprise – how did she know exactly what he'd been so worried about? "I find no amusement in more than one person at a time or multiple lovers and I certainly have less than zero interest in pitting two men against each other, let alone two brothers." She cautioned and internally he didn't think that he'd ever been told anything better. "I care deeply about Stefan in my time because he's a good man and was a friend to me at a time where I really needed one, so now he needs help and I will be the first person in line to help him." She affirmed even though her voice was still quiet. "In my time, I've often wished that I could somehow adopt him as my brother because he understands me and my various crazy personality attributes in a way that nobody else has ever bothered to." She admitted and he felt really badly for being so jealous – she saw Stefan in a brotherly way. He kind of wanted to kick himself.

"I'm sorry." He said sincerely and she nodded.

"You're forgiven." She responded surprising him.

"Just like that?" He tested confused and she gave him a small smile with a sigh.

"I don't know what it is about you, Damon, but I always forgive you for everything." She said and he stared into her eyes.

"I'll try not to screw up again." He promised and she let out a small giggle.

"Good luck with that." She winked at him and he chuckled and rolled his eyes at the fact she was totally mocking him – he knew that she knew that it wouldn't be the last time that he screwed up.

"I did say 'try'." He smirked and she smiled.

"The fact that you try is what matters." She replied and he was sure that was the moment that he fell for her…

A/N: Let me know what you think if you have a second :)