With Bonnie and Jeremy being in Mystic Falls for a few more days, the girls decided this was the perfect opportunity to go help Elena find her wedding dress.

They walked into the bridal store and were all blown away by what was in front of them.

Caroline was sure she'd never seen this many wedding dresses in one place. This store had every type of dress for your big day that you could possibly imagine; ones that were strapless, ones with straps, ones that had a 6 feet long train behind it, ones that came with a tiara veil, ones with the most gorgeous lace; it was incredible.

"Wow, I think we just walked into what Caroline's dreams probably looked like when we were 10!" Bonnie said with a laugh as they all looked around in awe.
Caroline rolled her eyes at Bonnie but with a smile. Truth was, Bonnie was pretty much right! Caroline had been planning her wedding day since she was six years old. She could remember sitting up in her room and creating a scrapbook of everything she wanted. She definitely had to have a June wedding. She wanted an elegant, but rustic wedding. She wanted white, navy, and turquoise as the colors. She wanted Fairy lights and panels of airy white fabric hung from the rafters adding an air of romance and whimsy to the decor, while elements like tree slices, distressed wooden table numbers and mason jars filled with bright seasonal blooms. And her wedding dress would be strapless, with elegant lace throughout the entire dress, her train would be long, but not so long that it would get in the way of her special night. She hoped one day this would all happen for her, the way it was supposed to.

"I don't even know where to start!" Elena said as she shaking Caroline from her thoughts.

Caroline snapped into best friend/wedding planner mode.

"Okay, first things first, you need to decide if you want a strapless dress or not."
"I don't think so, I think I'd like a more traditional dress."
"Perfect, I see a bunch of those already."

Caroline and Bonnie spend the next two hours giving Elena their opinions on every single dress she tried on. They were up to number 25 next.

Elena stepped out from behind the curtain and Caroline and Bonnie gasped at the sight in front of them.

Elena stood in a beautiful, timeless, and elegant wedding gown. The sweetheart neckline and back were lined with a soft Organza accent. The skirt fanned full and the veil was beautiful. The dress complimented Elena's olive skin tone perfectly.

"That's the one" Caroline said breathlessly as tears started to fall from her eyes.
All Bonnie could do was nod as she too began to cry.

"Guys, don't cry, you're going to get me started and we all know I won't be able to stop!" Elena said as she let out a small laugh and wiped away a single tear.

"Damon is going to die when he sees you in that!" Bonnie said as she spun her finger, telling Elena to spin around for them.

"Let's hope so" Elena said.
"Oh, there's no doubt. Have you seen yourself in that dress? He's not going to be able to keep his hands off of you!" Caroline said as the girls laughed.

Elena told the sales lady that she would be getting that dress and went to take it off.

As Caroline walked around the store some more, taking in the beauty of the dresses, she glanced out of the window, across the street and saw a pair of eyes staring right back at her and instantly her entire body tensed up.
A bus passed by and just like that, he was gone.
But she already knew who it was. Tyler was back again.

Bonnie was standing next to Caroline and sensed how tense she had just gotten.

"Care, what's wrong?
Caroline just stood completely still, her eyes fixed on something across the street.
"Caroline. What's going on?" Bonnie said, a little louder this time.

Caroline slowly turned toward her friend, "He's back again" she simply said.
"Who's ba-," and then it clicked for her. "Tyler? You saw Tyler!?" Bonnie responded, now with a panic in her voice.
Caroline just nodded her head.
"I'm calling the guys right now" Bonnie said as she pulled out her phone and walked away to go tell Elena.

Caroline walked outside of the store and looked around. She didn't see him, but she knew he was still there. She could feel it.
She decided to walk to the car and just sit in there until Elena and Bonnie were done.
She turned toward the parking lot and began walking when she heard his voice…

"Well, you are a hard person to get alone these days, Care."

Her stomach dropped and her veins turned to ice. Just the sound of his voice was enough to send sheer panic through her entire body.

She turned around and there he was; Tyler Lockwood, The guy who was supposed to have been the man of her dreams and had instead turned into the thing that haunted her nightmares now, standing in front of her with his arms crossed and an evil smile on his face.

She was facing him now, but still slowly backing up as much as she could.

She stayed silent for a few seconds but then finally managed to find her voice, "What do you want Tyler?"
"Like you even have to ask Caroline, I'm here to bring you home."
"THIS is my home now."
He laughed like she'd just told the funniest joke ever. "With him? You think he actually loves you? Think he won't get tired of you in a few more months? Sorry to break your heart princess, but you're not that special Care. I'm the only person who has ever been able to put up with you. I'm the only man who will ever truly love you."

Hearing him say anything about Stefan suddenly made her feel a little bit braver.
She took a step forward and pointed a finger right in his face, "You know NOTHING about him, or about me anymore. You lost the right to even speak to me the second you laid a hand on me, Tyler. So don't you dare come here and try to tell me who does or doesn't love me, because you sure as hell never did!"

She saw his eyes change as soon as she began talking, they turned dark, the way they did before he was about to lose it. She dropped her hand and started backing away again.
But this time when she did, he began to slowly follow her, like he was stalking his prey.

"Ya know Caroline, I came here to try and make amends with you. I came to tell you that I've been talking to someone and working on all my issues and to tell you that I was finally ready to be with you again. But you thinking that you can talk to me like that is the reason this all started to begin with. You need to learn your place. You don't get to talk to me like that…EVER."

Caroline was backed into a car now and he was practically in her face by this point.

"Just leave Tyler, please. I'm finally happy, why can't you just let me be happy!?" she screamed in his face as tears began to fall.

He grabbed her by the neck and squeezed, "Don't you get it Caroline? You don't get to be happy if it's not with your husband."

She tried to scream, but it was pointless. He was squeezing so hard, she could feel all of the air leaving her body. She closed her eyes and waited for what she knew was going to come next; the pain of his fist hitting her head.

She could feel her hearing start to go out and her head get fuzzy and light and just as she was about to pass out, she felt his hand released from her neck and heard shouting.

The second he'd gotten Bonnie's phone call, he felt like his whole world was about to fall apart. He rushed out of the house so quick he didn't even know if Damon and Jeremy were following him.
As he sped to the bridal shop, he silently thanked God that this town was so small that he was able to make it there in less than 5 minutes.

He pulled up in front of the shop but didn't see her anywhere so he began running to the back parking lot. And that's when he finally saw her. And he saw HIM. He saw Tyler with his hand wrapped around Caroline's neck.

He would never be able to describe the rage that filled his entire body as he rushed to where they were.

He pulled Tyler by the back of his shirt, spun him around so they were facing each other and landed the hardest hit on his jaw that he possibly could.

Tyler fell to the ground and caressed his throbbing and aching jaw. But Stefan wasn't done. Not even close.

Stefan stood directly over him, grabbed the front of his shirt this time and shouted, "You stay the hell away from Caroline you piece of shit" as he hit him over and over and over and over and over again. Tyler was completely unconscious and Stefan still continued to pound on him.

Finally Damon and Jeremy caught up to him and pulled him off of Tyler.

"Stefan you're going to kill him!" Damon shouted as he stood in front of his brother, his hands on Stefan's shoulders to hold him back.

"He deserves to die Damon!" Stefan shouted back.

"Stefan, hey! Look at me!" Damon said, needing his full attention.
Stefan finally looked him in the eyes.
"I know he deserves it, but right now, you need to go take care of your girl."

With that one sentence, Stefan's eyes softened but also widened with fear realizing that Caroline was just ten feet away and had witnessed his rampage against Tyler.

Stefan looked over by her car and saw Caroline huddled over, her head between her knees, sobbing as Elena and Bonnie tried to calm her down.

He began walking over to her and nodded a thank you to the girls when they stood up and walked away.

He kneeled down and took her hands in his, and was thankfully when she didn't jump away from him. Instead, she lifted her head to look at him and he saw the hand print marks around her neck and his heart shattered into a million pieces.

He pulled her into a tight embrace as she continued to cry.
"Baby I'm so sorry, god I'm so sorry. I should have been here, I should have protected you. I'm so sorry." He kept repeating over and over to her as her sobs started to calm down.

"Please take me home." She said through baited breaths and a tear-stained face.
Stefan nodded his head and offered his hand to help her up.

They walked passed their friends without anyone saying a word, which Stefan was thankful for. He knew Damon would take care of Tyler when he finally came too again.

Neither of them spoke on the ride home, but Stefan made sure her hand was in his the entire time, letting her know he was there.
He felt riddled with guilt thinking about what just happened.
He was supposed to always protect her, and he had failed her.
His stomach was in knots and his heart hurt just looking at his beautiful girl, who was staring out of the window, still silently crying.

He didn't know how yet, but Stefan was going to make damn sure that no one, especially Tyler, would ever hurt her again. He would make sure of that…even if it killed him.

Hello my beautiful readers! I hope everyone is doing great this wonderful Tuesday. I just wanted to thank you all for being so patient with me with these updates! I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. So, Tyler is Caroline's husband! All of that craziness will be explained next time! lol I'm already working on the next chapter so I hope to have it up within the next day or so! As always, reviews, comments or questions are appreciated. I always love hearing what you guys think about the story, whether it's good or bad, it truly helps as a writer to have any kind of critique!