A/N

Hey guys! Words cannot accurately describe how sorry I am for delaying this chapter. It's been a bit of an insane month and a half. However, to make up for it, it's super long! The next one will be up soon, my profuse apologies! As always, review, check out my other stories, and enjoy!

Ch. 14

The Dead and the Dying

No one witnessed Katherine's death. Everyone was much too busy dispatching the remaining six vampires with ease. The Salvatores tore the hearts out of three, while the Winchesters staked two. The sixth one ran for Stiles, and even with a knife in his gut he was able to cut of her head. He gazed down at the woman he had just killed, Asian, beautiful, deadly. Oh my god, he had just killed her. Oh my god, he had killed them all.

No one witnessed Katerina's death, no one but Stiles. As he was bleeding out he sank to the ground on his knees, in a death-like trance. His compulsion was broken, and he gazed upon the three women on the ground in front of them. One was a decapitated tomb vampire. One was a manipulative killer. One was a human girl. All he had killed.

"Caroline." he whispered, gazing at the dead girl with the long blond locks, who had taken him in. Caroline, the girl he had trained to fight, and had died fighting. Oh, god, Caroline. The world was turning black for Stiles, and as he was slowly losing consciousness, one searing thought snaked through his mind.

What have I done?

Zach Salvatore was pacing the Salvatore boarding house furiously in front of Elena, Bonnie, Tyler, Matt, and Alaric.

"You're saying not only did I not realize Damon had escaped, he was also last seen attacking a whole horde of vampires outside the school?"

Everyone nodded.

"And one of them was your friend, Stiles?"

"No." Bonnie corrected. "Stiles was compelled to attack Damon."

"And kidnapped." Elena added helpfully.

Zach sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the large, heavy wooden door. Zach walked briskly to it and threw it open, revealing Damon Salvatore himself, looking grim as he stood there stiffly with his hands at his side, his black clothes covered in dust and blood.

Zach took several startled steps back. Damon raised his hands in surrender, and took a slow, cautious step over the doorway.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Zach." Damon said, his voice full of pain, and something odd. Grief. His eyes looked haunted. "I'm not going to hurt anyone."

"Where's Stefan?" Elena asked tentatively.

"He'll be here in a moment." Damon said sadly. "Elena, I am so sorry for what I did to you. I'm sorry to everyone."

"Damon, what happened?" Bonnie asked. "Where are Stiles and Caroline?"

"Stiles got stabbed. He passed out. His brothers took him to the hospital." Damon replied, distantly and without much emotion. He was a world away. His mind, and his energy, was focused on remembering.

"Stiles!" Sam and Dean exclaimed, running over to their little brother as he collapsed next to Katherine's corpse, eyes fluttering and shirt soaking with blood. Stefan ran over to him too, but Damon stopped dead in his tracks, staring down at Katherine. The woman he loved, the love of his life, who had made him immortal and who he had chased for 150 years, was dead. Killed by a teenage hunter, but dead because of her own pride. Damon felt torn between breaking down and crying and killing Stiles out of rage. Yes, Katherine had said she had never loved him, but he had loved her. And now she was dead, dust, desiccated... Right next to her best friend Pearl, decapitated by Stiles, but damned herself by Katherine. The irony was overwhelming.

"Take him to a hospital."Stefan told the Winchesters sternly, gingerly lifting Stiles from his resting place. "The wound isn't that bad, he can pull through. What could kill him is the blood loss. The hospital is five blocks east of here."

"Dean, help me carry him!" Sam said urgently, nodding his head in thanks at Stefan as he struggled to lift his little brother.

"What about the girl?" Dean asked, nodding to blond of the three female corpses laying side-by-side-by-side. Pearl, Caroline, and Katherine.

"I'll take care of it." Stefan said. "I'll take care of all of this. GO!"

Sam and Dean picked up Stiles and ran for their car, all the while carrying their brother carefully.

When they were gone, Stefan moved at inhuman speed, taking away the corpses and heads, while Damon was stupefied. At last, there were only two left. Caroline and Katherine.

"Damon," Stefan said gently, "I need to take her. I need to bury her body."

Damon, in his grief, thought he was talking about Caroline.

"Go ahead." he said thickly, choking back tears. Stefan looked unsure, but rushed forward anyway, picking up the brunnette with the long curls. Damon, realizing his mistake, made a noise of protest, but it was too late. Stefan rushed away, gone, with the love of Damon's life in his arms.

History repeating.

"Damon, we need to go!" Stefan said after he returned, shaking Damon's shoulder gently to snap him out of his daze. It didn't work. To Damon, all noises and sensations were far, far away, lost in the time of his happiness, gone to 150 years ago.

"Damon, we need to go." Stefan repeated. "She's going to wake up soon."

"No." Damon said wistfully, still thinking of Katherine, how peaceful she looked on the ground, her blond curls tumbling over the grass. "No. Let her sleep."

"Damon, I fed her my blood." Stefan said. "Last night, in the woods. She's going to wake up soon."

"Remember when we woke up?" Damon said sadly, "when she fed us her blood and killed us? Last night in the woods?"

Stefan sighed deeply. "DAMON!" he yelled, though not with anger. "Snap out of it! Caroline is in transition!"

Caroline. Damon thought. Caroline. The girl next to Katherine, lying together on the ground and the grass, killer and killed. Caroline, the girl who I compelled and drank from just like Katherine did to me. Caroline, who was killed in the woods trying to do the right thing, save a friend. Killed by someone she couldn't see, the snap of a gunshot and the break of a neck echoing in the same empty forest.

Damon snapped out of it.

History repeating.

"Damon!" Bonnie was shouting. "Damon! Where's Caroline?"

"She's with Stefan." Damon replied. "They'll be along in a moment."

"Hey!" Sam yelled furiously into a startled hospital atrium as he and Dean stumbled in with a barely conscious, bloody Stiles holding himself up by their necks. His eyes were fluttering and his head was lolling, and he was making indistinct noises. "Hey! We need a doctor!"

A young, brunette woman with a stethoscope slung around her neck rushed over to the three brothers. "I can take him." She barked an order at a nearby nurse, and soon a white rolling bed was brought to them. Sam and Dean carefully laid Stiles in it, and the boy grasped their jacket lapels as they tried to back away, as if to say don't you dare leave me. Then, he was descended upon, paramedics surrounding every side of his bed and picking him apart like vultures, calling out conditions and diagnostics while he was wheeled away from his brothers. Stiles gave Sam and Dean one last look of anguish, blood making his lips ruby red, before he was obscured by a pair of swift and heartless double doors.

Dean looked crazed enough to march in after Stiles' procession, but Sam held him back.

"He'll be fine, Dean."

"Easy for you to say." Dean grumbled. He looked around at their sterile surroundings and shuddered. "I freaking hate hospitals." He then promptly turned on his heel and began to storm out.

"Where are you going?" Sam called after him.

"All we can do is wait." Dean called back. "Least I can do is clean the blood off of

my car."

Stefan carried Caroline's broken body over the threshold and into a chorus of silence. Elena, Bonnie, Tyler, Matt, Alaric and Zach could only stare in horror as he set her gently on the couch, her head lolling unnaturally, her eyes closed.

She did not look peaceful.

That was the only thought raging through Elena's tempered brain. She did not look peaceful, because only the dead had peace. And Caroline wasn't- couldn't- be dead. Elena searched Caroline's face frantically for anything. The twitch of an eyelid, the flutter of a cheek, the movement of breathing, any sign of life, but there was nothing. Caroline wasn't moving, oh god she wasn't moving, but she couldn't be dead because the dead are at peace and Caroline looked restless, she must be sleeping. She did not look peaceful. She did not look peaceful.

And then Elena understood.

"She's in transition, isn't she."

All heads snapped in Elena's direction, and Stefan nodded grimly. Head bobbing up and down like Caroline's, unsupported on the couch.

"Yes." Stefan said quietly. "Katherine broke her neck in battle, and the blood I used to heal her wounds was still in her body. She'll wake up soon."

"Where is Katherine now?" Tyler asked sharply, voice heavy with accusation.

"She's dead." Damon said weakly, leaning against a wall for support. Everyone jumped at his sudden input. He looked Tyler dead in the eyes with a strong but hopeless gaze. "Stiles killed her, a stake to the heart. She's dead. She was lying next to Caroline and I thought- I thought-"

Stefan cleared his throat, cutting his brother off. Tyler averted his eyes from Damon's powerful gaze.

Bonnie gazed at Caroline, wondering how things had gotten so bad to the point where one of her best friends was waiting to be resurrected on a nearby couch.

Tyler gazed at Caroline, wondering how things had gotten so bad to the point where he wondered, as he looked at his dearly departed friend, if he was next. Mason had never explained how one became a werewolf.

Matt gazed at Caroline, and wondered the same thing. If he was next to die. Him, his sister, his friends? If more vampires came to Mystic Falls, who would be caught in the crossfire next?

Alaric gazed at Caroline, and swore to stop hunting his wife. Damon said she was a vampire. Fine. She left him. She made her choice. She should be forgotten before more people get hurt.

Zach gazed at Caroline, and began making plans to move.

Elena gazed at Caroline, and knew, deep down, that it was all her fault. Maybe not Caroline's death- she wasn't the one to tell her to run into battle, but he had given Stefan a reason to stay in Mystic Falls. They say a death puts everything into perspective, and Elena's world was rocked. Messing around with vampires had seemed fine at the time, but really it was like playing with fire. Elena had to wake up, or it would be more than Caroline making an early departure.

As all of this happened, Caroline began to feel the eyes upon her, just as Stiles began to hear the clanging of metal on metal.

Well that's annoying, won't it stop?

Caroline's neck hurt. It was stiff and sore and she wanted to rub it but couldn't for the life of her move her hands. Her limbs were heavy, so, so heavy. Her chest was constricted, as if she had spent a lot of time not breathing. She also couldn't open her eyes. They must be glued together with sand. Ugh.

Stiles' stomach hurt. He felt horrible, he ached all over. His eyes were fluttering but he couldn't open them. The sound of metal clanging on metal rew louder, but he couldn't cover his ears. His limbs were too heavy to lift. He felt as if...

...I've come back from the dead.

Caroline started. She wasn't sure where that thought came from, but it was scary enough for her eyes to fly open. She gasped for breath, her back arching as she gulped down air with haste. She began to rub her sore neck quickly, working out the kink with her fingers as she took in her surroundings. A fancy room, dark wood panelling, lots of fancy objects and a generous quantity of sunlight streaming in. She looked down at her clothes. Jeans and a floral top. The same clothes she had run into battle with.

"Hungry."

Caroline hardly recognized that voice, raspy and desparate. Yet, impossibly, it was hers. "I'm so hungry."

Instead of her statement echoing around an empty room, Caroline's desperation was met with a chorus of gasps. Winching at the harsh yet soft beams of sunlight, Caroline could make out quite a few people in the room -which she now recognized as the Salvatore house- with her. Elena, Bonnie, Alaric, Matt, Tyler, and a guy she didn't recognize were all staring at her, open mouthed, while Stefan looked at her with grim resignation. Damon looked at her deeply, lost and regretful, as if he truly felt remorse for all he had done to her. Feeding on her, making her forget...

Caroline screamed as he bit her neck, but no one could hear her. He looked her dead in the eyes with a chilling, remorseless gaze.

"You just met up with your new boyfriend" he instructed calmly, pupils dilating, "and the two of you went to the mall and did nauseating couplely things. You're going to go home and not remember what just happened."

Wait. Where had that come from?

"Caroline." Stefan said softly, stepping gingerly toward her. "How are you feeling?"

"Sore." Caroline croaked. "What happened?"

"What do you remember?" Stefan asked. Not taking his concerned gaze off her, he motioned to the unknown guy to leave the room. The guy did, after a curt nod of understanding.

"I- I-" Caroline hesitated. What did she remember? "The woods. Last night in the woods-"

Damon winced at the phrase. Caroline's eyes narrowed.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she screeched. "Should I feel bad for bringing up being attacked by you?" Caroline stood up quickly, ignoring the complaints of her creaking joints, shaking with anger, tears in her eyes. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly at the sudden surge of raw emotion coursing through her veins. Where had it come from.

Damon didn't react. No startled jump, no snide remark, no languid smile. He merely stared blankly into the abyss of Caroline's anger.

"Caroline, maybe you should calm down." Stefan said, approaching her slowly with his hands up, as if she were a volatile explosive. "What else do you remember?"

A face flashed in her minds eye. "Stiles. He didn't come home." Caroline's present company winced, but she plowed on. "Then he wasn't at school, and we were all worried, but then he was. Only he looked- wrong. You fought. You and Stiles fought. He ran, and- and-" Caroline's voice began to shake as her story began to unravel. She unconsciously started running her trembling hands up and down her neck. "I ran after him." she whispered, her memory crashing down in front of her. "And I didn't come back, did I? The last thing I remember is lopping of a vampire's head."

Stefan shook his head regretfully. "Caroline, you had my blood in your body when you died. You're in transition."

Caroline covered her mouth in horror. Meanwhile, the unknown guy had returned, holding an object behind his back.

"This is my nephew, Zach." Stefan explained. "He has something you may want." Zach held up the object from behind his back, a blood bag.

Caroline audibly gasped, and she had to hold back her entire body from lurching forward and snatching the bag from Zach's wrist. Or better yet, biting Zach's wrist.

"What I do?" she asked with a shaking voice, her mouth hurting more than her entire body.

"Caroline," Damon said with a shaking voice, "It's your choice."

Clang! Clang! Stiles couldn't take it anymore. His eyes flew open to fluorescent lighting and a bleached ceiling. A hospital. Lovely.

"Stiles?" a voice said, a pretty doctor with long brown hair. "Stiles, my name is Meredith Fell. You're at Mystic Falls General Hospital. Can you hear me?"

"Yeah." Stiles rasped. "Yeah, I can hear you." Stiles squinted at the sudden intake of light, but it didn't matter as he was soon assaulted by a flood of memories. His hands flew to his chest, crinkling his paper hospital gown, where he found a patched up wound. Then he remembered things he had heard. Things he had heard while bleeding in his brother's arms.

Ignoring the rapid beeping of his heart rate monitor, and the aching in his worn out joints, Stiles bolted upright, looking haunted and breathing only a single word.

"Caroline."