Disclaimer; I do not own KC/TVD/TO/Anything.
Okay - sorry about the last chapter - it was quite sad for me to write though which is why here I am literally two minutes after posting it, am starting to write the next chapter - because I would not like to be left with that ending for an extended period of time.
Please review - hope you enjoy
Caroline gasped. Where the hell was she? She patted her chest where she'd been stabbed, nothing, no pain, no blood. Nothing. She glanced at her clothes, jeans, a t-shirt. She looked up and saw the trees, wincing as the sun leaked through the leaves, she rolled over and lifted herself up groaning.
She was dead. Is dead? Was dead? That was when she stopped for a second. That was when she felt the hunger and her pupils dilated. "Definitely some sort of dead." She whispered. She had died, of that she was sure, and she was also sure that that made it the second time? I mean obviously not counting the countless amount of times her neck had been snapped.
She'd died in Nik's arms. But how long ago was that really? The five minutes that it felt like it had been, or one thousand years ago, she wondered, slowly coming to the conclusion that she was in present day Mystic Falls.
She was however, a vampire, not a ghost, meaning that she was alive - well, okay not alive - but alive enough. She gritted her teeth and set her jaw in determination, trying desperately to stop the pressure of tears behind her eyes from seeping out, knowing that if they came they would never stop.
"Okay Caroline, just concentrate, where are you?" She gave herself a mini pep talk, before whizzing round as she heard the sound of a car horn beeping and mindless chatter. She slowly walked over in the direction of the talking and the cars, trying hard to keep one foot in front of the other, her eyes drooped slightly and she cursed as she tripped and fell. "Ow," She muttered, slightly angry but mostly embarrassed, yet thankful that no one had seen her fall.
She slowly got up to her feet and made her way to the road, she sighed as she realised where she was, school. She glanced at herself up and down, she looked like a complete mess, dirty, tired, her hair had a twig in which she quickly pulled out. "Oh god, this is going to be fun." She pushed aside her hunger, trying desperately to not listen to the sound of hearts pumping blood round the body. There wasn't many people outside, a few stragglers, late goers she was guessing by the way they hurried in.
Immediately her thoughts cut to Elena, and Bonnie, Matt, Stefan, Jeremy, heck even Tyler and Ric, were they inside? Only one way to find out.
She cautiously made her way over, ignoring a few startled stares from the few people lingering outside, she tentatively made her way up the stairs, ignoring the pain in her legs - pain from what, she had no idea - then she felt that pain in her chest again, she looked down in surprise to see blood slowly starting to appear, a wound reopening as though she'd just been stabbed, what was this delayed effect or something. Not that it mattered, she was a vampire, she would be fine, it would just make matters slightly more complicated.
Caroline made her way into the hall, students were trickling into classrooms, until suddenly a whisper started, and a whisper spread, and suddenly every head had turned to look at her. Then she heard a familiar voice gasp her name, "Caroline?" Where the words she heard coming from a brunette's mouth, but she was tired, and oh, so tired, she felt her control over her legs fade, she felt weak. She felt her legs give away as she collapsed onto the floor, her eyes struggling to stay open as she heard Elena's concerned words.
"Someone call an ambulance." A voice ordered, but Caroline was no longer conscious enough to recognise who was speaking, she leant her head back, feeling Elena's arms holding her up, wishing they were Nik's.
The next thing she awoke to was quiet chatter, and beeping, she slowly turned her head to her side, feeling someone's hand on her wrist. She bit back a sob as the words ran through her head, "Mom?"
Liz Forbes twisted her neck around to face Caroline's, her eyes widening, "You're okay, you're okay, you are safe." She repeated, and Caroline closed her eyes again a tear falling down her cheek. She stayed like that for a few moments, before forcing herself to scan the rest of the room.
Damon sat on the sofa besides Liz his arm casually outstretched quickly drew in to awake Elena who sat next to him. He'd obviously been talking to Liz as Elena slept, in front of her Caroline saw Matt leaning against the wall looking nervous, for her health? She wondered before moving on, Bonnie sat on a chair to her right, Jeremy perched on the armchair with his hand comfortingly on her back - well that was a new - Caroline thought, she looked at the tears which had obviously been running down her face, and offered a small smile to try to remove the guilty look on her face.
Her head painfully swivelled round when she heard a voice coming from the doorway, Tyler.
As she made eye contact with him his eyes widened, and he nearly dropped the drinks he was holding, he quickly set them down on a table before seating himself by her feet, shooting her a concerned look and seeming as though he was restraining from talking.
"Where am I?" Caroline asked quietly, returning her attention to her mother
"At the hospital. You're okay," She heard her mother say, as she tried desperately to ignore the pain building in her chest. This move clearly noticed,
"We don't know why you're not healing normally," Damon cut in, "It's just that wound, in every other way you are still a vampire, any new wounds heal normally," That was when Caroline remembered that the pain in her chest wasn't solely from missing Nik, she had of course been attacked,
"I was stabbed," She said slowly, her eyes widening as she began to recall the events more easily, another tear slipping down her cheek, "Nik." She whispered so quietly that if there weren't supernatural beings in the room, no one would have heard it.
"Who's Nik? Why'd he stab you?" Tyler asked sounding possessive and angry,
"What, no, Nik, Nik didn't stab me." Caroline looked confused for a second before figuring it out further, "Some men came into our house trying to rob us and, Nik had gone to get something,"
"How did they hurt you? Were they supernatural?" Matt took his turn in asking,
"No, they just took me by surprise,"
"How, I mean, what about vampire hearing?" Tyler asked
"I wasn't a vampire." Caroline replied reflexively,
"She's clearly delirious," Damon whispered to Liz, "Maybe we should ask questions later,"
"No. I'm not." Caroline said wincing as she sat up, she ignored her mother's concerned looks and continued, "When Bonnie did that spell, do you even know what you did?" She asked Bonnie, not caring that her question sounded angry, she was slightly annoyed at Bonnie's carelessness, but at the moment she didn't care, she wasn't really that angry, Bonnie's mishap had led to her meeting the Mikaelsons and the best year and a bit of her life, she just needed to get the story out and was in too much pain to sugarcoat anything,
"Not really," Bonnie admitted, "Caroline, I'm so sorry,"
Caroline however didn't answer, she just waved off Bonnie's apologies, on a roll, "Bonnie's spell sent me back in time a thousand years." She revealed,
"Definitely delirious," Damon whispered, provoking a glare from Caroline, she needed something to prove it, and she reached for her finger, for her ring, stopping in confusion as it wasn't there.
"Where's my ring?" She asked, her heart dropping at the confused looks she was getting, "When I got here, where did they put my personal belongings?" Caroline asked,
"Caroline, you didn't have any personal belongings." Her mother gently told her,
"What? No, my, my ring." She muttered, her fingers tracing the spot where it had lied for less then a day. "Oh god." She realised, "It's still there."
"Still where?" Liz asked,
"On my body. My body is still there, what the hell?" She was talking mostly to herself,
"Caroline what do you mean?" Liz asked again,
"I died, like really died, I think that's why I'm back here. I think I died a thousand years ago and the spell wore off and I'm back here."
"So your saying you died," Tyler started, and Caroline could already tell by the slightly mocking tone of his voice that she would not like where this was going, "And your corpse has been buried a thousand years ago. Right." Tyler trailed off,
"Cremated," Caroline reflexively replied, and in response to the questioning looks she received, "It was their tradition to cremate not bury, they bury personal items."
"Like your ring?" Her mother asked,
"No, I think," She paused, "I think Nik would have kept that."
"Who's Nik?" Her mother asked her,
"My fiancee." She replied ignoring the shocked looks, she held a hand to her face, finding that she didn't care when Tyler recoiled slightly, in fact she was slightly pleased, "They're dead." She exclaimed. "Like really, really long gone, dead." She let out a humourless laugh. "And I thought I was the one dying. That's why this isn't healing," She began, gesturing to the knife wound, "Because it was inflicted upon me when I was a human, I think," She paused again, "If you give me vampire blood, it'll heal." Tyler and Damon exchanged looks, confusing Caroline greatly,
"Probably best to not give her hybrid blood," Damon muttered, extending his wrist. Caroline nodded at him, taking a small amount of blood from his veins, ignoring her hunger. True to her hypothesis, her wound began to heal, she smiled slightly, before truly thinking about what Damon had said,
"Hybrid blood? What the hell is hybrid blood?" She asked, causing the entire look to exchange glances,
"You, you've missed a lot Care," Tyler decided to say, before his eyes glowed yellow, but his veins around them constricted. "Part wolf, part vampire." Right, thanks Tyler, because that explains everything.
"Okay," Caroline halted Damon, "Sun and the moon curse, fake, instead hybrid curse on one of the original vampires, who then killed," Caroline stopped herself, brushing past the killed Jenna thing realising that it was probably not exactly what Elena and Jeremy wanted to be hearing, "Then, Klaus was it? Took Stefan on a ripper binge and Klaus didn't know Elena survived the sacrifice, until he came back here, you guys met another Original, Klaus realised that Elena's blood could create hybrids, turned Tyler into a hybrid, got Stefan to flip his switch, then ordered him to protect her, right?"
"All good so far,"
"Elena daggered the new Original, which is basically how you kill them without killing them because you can only really kill them with a white oak stake, which are a limited edition. So then you got the Original Vampire Hunter, a big baddy, to kill Klaus with one of those limited editions which he happened to have, that failed, because Stefan stopped it?"
"Yes."
"Ric became a serial killer, turns out Stefan and Klaus were friends, ages ago, Tyler is sired to Klaus, which means he does what ever Klaus wants him to, and now all the Originals are awake, and so is their mother? And she's invited you to some ball tomorrow night?"
"Pretty much."
"Damn so I leave for 15 months and I miss this much?"
"15 months? It's been five maybe?" Tyler told her, causing Caroline to be very confused,
"So time passed differently. Right this is so normal. All so normal." Caroline shook her head, refusing to get caught up in all of this, "Are you going to this ball?" She asked, and Elena nodded,
"We need to see what the Original Witch wants."
"So despite what I want, in that she be safe," Damon sent a glare at Elena which she returned just as easily, "She's going, and me and Stefan will escort her,"
"Talking of Stefan, where exactly is he?" Caroline asked,
Damon and Elena exchanged another look, however it was Matt who answered, "He was in the tunnels, sorting some stuff," He told her vaguely, but Caroline just nodded, she couldn't be asked to care that much.
"I'm going." She told them,
"Care, it's kind of an invitation thing," Elena replied,
"I don't care, I need a distraction. Distractions are good." She admitted, and Elena sent her a concerned look,
"Your mother won't-"
"Elena, I don't really care about what my mom thinks. I've missed her, and I love her, but she doesn't control my life." Caroline said, shutting down Elena's attempts quickly, and ignoring the looks she was getting.
"I have to go." Tyler said, "I shouldn't really be here, I'm meant to be getting de-sired but you know, I needed to see you," He paused, "Klaus can't know I'm in town. I'm glad you're okay Caroline." He said, before leaving the room.
"He's missed you." Elena said, and Caroline winced, she should have she supposed, she should have missed him, but she didn't really. Instead of saying that however, she just nodded slowly, no need to explain just how much she wanted to go back, when there was likely no way of ever going back. Of ever seeing them again.
"Damn," She whispered as a tear slid down her face, she would never see them again. Never see Nik again.