The perks of being a vampire is that they have a high pain tolerance and it takes a whole lot to kill one if you avoid the heart and decapitation. The downfall of being a vampire is that they have a high pain tolerance and it takes a whole lot to kill one.
So when Caroline and Reese got blindsided by another driver, Caroline was awake to practically smell the fear rolling off of her witchy friend and hear the erratic beating of her heart. She was awake to see Reese cringe at the impact, awake to see Reese black out and go limp, and awake to hear the devastating sound of what was going to end up being a horrific car accident.
By the time Caroline's world stopped tumbling and came to a stop upside down, she choked back a sob as she struggled to yank off her seat belt. Trying to stay as calm as possible, Caroline looked towards to the side only to find Reese unconscious and barely breathing. The smell of blood was so strong but the fear that Caroline felt for her friend was enough to keep her thirst at bay.
"Reese? Reese!" Caroline shouted as she fell free from her restraint, her hands barely catching her from falling unceremoniously upside down. "Come on, Reese, wake up! You have to wake up!"
Caroline situated herself on all fours before crawling out through the smashed passenger window. She glanced over to the the truck that had hit them, frowning in it's direction because it was that driver's fault for the accident before running to the driver side of the Camaro to get to Reese. She was paying close attention to Reese's breathing that she almost missed the stuttering of Reese's heart.
"No, no, no." Caroline muttered before reaching in, tearing the seat belt from her friend and catching her.
All her knowledge about never moving an accident victim without a professional medical examiner present flew out of her mind as she dragged her friend from the wreckage. The left side of Reese's head of hair was matted down with blood and Caroline cringed when she realized that her head must have bashed into the window. Caroline didn't bother to hold back her tears anymore and bit into her wrist before shoving the bleeding wound to Reese's mouth.
"Come on, Reese. Don't do this." She cried. "Not to me and definitely not to Stefan." She listened for any changes in Reese's breathing, crawling over and situated Reese's head in her lap. Her heart stammered for a couple of seconds before Caroline couldn't hear it anymore. With a heartbreaking sob tearing through Caroline's throat, she tore her wrist from Reese's mouth and blindly patted down her jacket pockets for her phone.
She hurriedly unlocked her phone, speed-dialing her number two and shakily held her phone up to her ear. The phone only rang a couple of times before the caller answered. "Mom?" Caroline croaked, not waiting for her Mom to politely say 'hello'. "I think Reese is dead, Mom."
"What?! What you mean dead? What happened, Caroline?"
"T-there was an accident. Somebody hit us." She downplayed it greatly as her eyes traveled to the smashed in and overturned car. "Reese was knocked out and barely breathing. I fed her my blood but her heart just stopped, Mom. I don't kno-"
Reese gasped, her eyes fluttering open without seeing before falling shut again.
"You don't know what?" Liz's frantic voice crackled over the phone line.
"S-she's breathing again." Caroline blurted. "But she's not awake. Mom, I need to get her to the hospital now."
"Caroline, what about you? Are you fine? Do you need an ambulance?"
"I'm fine. I'm healing." Caroline told her as she finally registered the cuts that littered her arms and hands. "But the other driver, they're knocked out. They might need an ambulance but I need to get Reese out of here. And fast."
"Okay.. okay. Just tell me where you're at. I need to dispatch EMS to the site of the accident. Most of the deputies are in on the new Council so I can tell them you got your friend out and to the hospital."
"That's fine." Caroline sniffled. "W-we're on the road coming back into town. We had just left the Boarding House."
The sound of a car engine filled Caroline's ears, as well as the moment they hit the brakes, but Caroline was focused on her call. "Alright, baby, I'm sending someone now. You get Reese and take her to the hospital."
"I will. Bye, Mom."
Caroline had just pocketed her phone when the felt the presence of another vampire speed up to her. Looking up, she's faced with a shell-shocked Damon. "What the fuck happened?" He blurted before his eyes darted over to Reese's car then back down to Reese's unconscious form.
"Car accident." Caroline answered. Her own eyes darted from Damon to a seemingly shell-shocked Elena who was standing at Damon's car. "I-I need help. She needs to get to the hospital now, Damon! And someone needs to call Stefan."
"Yeah. Okay." Was all he said as he kneeled down beside them, hooking one arm beneath Reese's neck and the other arm beneath her knees. Caroline had blood of her own dripping from her hairline and he didn't need the young vampire attempting to pick up Reese when she probably had internal injuries of her own still healing.
"We're also going to need Meredith." Damon paused a moment at Caroline's statement before looking at Elena who was already reaching for her phone. "She was barely breathing when I pulled her out and fed her my blood. Then her heart stopped while I was talking to my Mom and then she awoke with a gasp but she's not waking up."
"Okay." Damon agreed. "Elena, call Meredith and tell her I'm coming in with a friend. Caroline, call Stefan and tell him to meet us at the hospital. I'm going to run her there instead of jostling her anymore by getting in and out of the car."
Elena did as she was told, easily getting Meredith on the line as Damon disappeared. With shaking hands and a new round of tears on the way, Caroline pulled out her own phone and dialed Stefan.
"Care, you just left my house. What do you want?"
"Stefan? You need to get to the hospital." The blonde vampire sniffled.
"Why? What happened?!"
"It's Reese."
..
..
..
By the time Stefan gets to the hospital, he's a mess of nerves which says a lot seeing as he's a fearless vampire. The moment he sets eyes on a bloodied Caroline and a worrying Damon, his stomach drops. Elena is sitting off to the side and worrying her bottom lip as she watches Damon pace and Liz is trying to comfort her daughter.
Walking up to them, Caroline finally senses his presence and quickly stands to wrap him in a hug. "What happened?" He asks around the lump forming in his throat.
"T-there was an accident." She tells him. "Drunk driver hit us. We flipped a couple of times before landing upside down." She can feel Stefan tense against her but he deserves the truth. "She was barely breathing, Stefan. I tried feeding her blood but then her heart just stopped." Stefan sucks in a breath, eyes welling up with tears even as his brother watches him but he doesn't care at the moment. "She started to breathe again but her heartbeat was very weak. It's like my blood wasn't working but I know it was because I saw it heal a few cuts so we called Meredith while Damon ran her here. She's still checking Reese's injuries in the back." When Caroline chances a look at her best friend, she catches sight of the tears streaking down his face as he bites his bottom lip to keep it from trembling. "It's going to be okay." She weakly assures him. "It has to be."
Stefan nodded, wanting to believe his friend wholeheartedly but if the vampire blood didn't fully heal her earlier, what were the chances now?
Liz finally led her daughter and Stefan to some chairs, making them sit down to wait for Dr. Fell to give them some answers. While waiting, Caroline texted both Matt and Bonnie what had happened. Bonnie, as expected, was freaked out and booking the next flight in back to Mystic Falls and Matt showed up only ten minutes later. Matt joined in with the pacing before sitting down and letting his knees bounce in anticipation.
Almost an hour later, Meredith appeared from behind the double doors in her Doctor scrubs. Everything about the Doctor screamed exhausted and Caroline was already expecting bad news.
"Well?" Damon blurted when no-one said anything.
Meredith took a moment to size up the small, yet loyal, group before sighing. "It doesn't look good, guys." She tells them. "There's a couple of broken bones and punctured organs. It's a miracle she's even breathing at all right now."
"So we feed her blood!" Stefan harshly whispered. "You do it all the time."
"I know." Meredith glared at him before letting her features soften. "I tried it already. It isn't doing anything to her. Her heartbeat stays weak and she isn't waking up."
"So what do we do?"
"We wait." Dr. Fell frowns. "We do a lot of compelling to keep the other doctors and nurses away from her room, and you call in her family.. if she has any family." Stefan and Caroline deflate at the news, Damon sighing at the news before he dragged Elena in the direction of where Dr. Fell pointed them. "I'm really sorry." She tells them. "But really, all we can do is wait." She offers the group one sad smile before leaving in the direction that she had sent Damon and Elena.
Caroline chokes back a few sobs, Liz silently crying in her corner and watches as Matt tries to comfort his friend. Stefan sniffles, violently wiping his tears away before pulling out his phone and scrolling through his contacts.
"What a-are you doing?" Caroline asks.
"Making a call." Stefan tells her before walking down the hall, leaning his back against the wall, and sliding down to sit on the ground.
The phone is already pressed to his ear as he listens to the ringing before a familiar voice answers. "Hey, Stefan!" Liam chirps happily.
"Hey, little man." He replies. "I, uh- is your Grandpa around? I really need to speak to him."
The phone line is quiet, sans the static before he hears Liam hum in acknowledgment. A moment later, Chris' gruff voice in on the line. "Stefan? What's going on, son?"
"Mr. Emerson.." His voice cracks at on his name. "You need to get to Mystic Falls. Now."
When Reese comes to, she doesn't know why she's sitting up or why her eyes are clamped shut. She has a feeling that her eyes are clamped shut because of some bright light but when she slowly opens her eyes- and blinks rapidly- she realizes everything is pitch black. She rubs at her eyes, white dancing balls of light floating into her vision behind her eyelids before opening her eyes again, only to be met by the same emptiness.
Huffing in agitation, Reese pats down the surface she's currently sitting on. She fee;s the soft cushion of a chair before letting her arms spread out and then she feels the wicker armrests on either side of her. It's silent all around her, not even a buzz to annoy her, and slowly but surely the blackness of her vision starts to let up and become lighter.
It takes a few minutes before her vision comes to but when her vision becomes lighter, she realizes everything is hazy and blurred out. It was like that one dream she had, where she met one of her ancestors that told her she was a witch, but now she can't make anything out. Colors finally start to make themselves known but they are muted- less vibrant.
As the colors start to appear more and more, so do the outline of bodies. Reese tenses, because what the hell where bodies doing appearing from thin air, but feels at ease when a familiar voice calls out to her.
"Calm down. Just a few more moments."
The moment Reese recognizes her Mom's voice, everything focuses in her vision and she's bombarded by the amount of woman that are in the room. Half of them are dressed in the typical gypsy clothing while the other half are dressed in more modern clothing.
"Mom? Who-.. What's going on?!" Her Mother, Elizabeth, smiles sadly at her before moving forward and standing by her side, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Am I dreaming again? Is that why you're all here?" She gestures to the crowd standing or sitting around her before catching sight of her ancestor from her dream before. She, too, was smiling sadly at her.
"Calm down, baby." Elizabeth squeezes her daughter's shoulder. "You'll remember soon."
Reese gapes at her Mother, turning in her seat to face forward as she takes in everyone's appearance. They are all smiling sadly and/or avoiding her gaze. She opens her mouth to ask yet another question, when from her peripheral vision, she sees a blinding light zooming towards her. The closer it gets, the brighter it got before she slammed her eyes shut and cringed into her Mom's side. When nothing happens, the memory of the crash flashes in her mind and in the next second, she's on her feet. "No, no, no!" She mutters. "This can't.." She glances around the room- attic?- they're in. "I can't be-"
"You're not." Elizabeth quickly cut her off. "At least not yet."
"Not yet?!" Reese scoffs hysterically. "No, Mom, you don't understand. I can't die!" She whines, tears welling up quickly and falling down her face. "I have Liam to take care of! Dad!A-and Stefan.. and Caroline. Just.. no!" Elizabeth's there instantly, pulling Reese into a hug and laying her daughter's head on her shoulder. "Mom.." Her voice is muffled against her Mom's shoulder. "I can't leave them. I can't."
"And you won't." Elizabeth tells her. "You have to let me explain though." Reese takes a moment to cry while her Mother holds her before her cries eventually turned into sniffles. Elizabeth finally leads Reese back to the chair she had vacated and makes her sit down. When Elizabeth was handed her own small stool to sit on, she held on to her daughter's hand and looked her in the eyes. "I'm not going to lie. The accident you were in, it was fatal." She tells her, eyes filled with grief. "But Caroline, your friend, managed to pull you out and tried feeding you her blood so you could heal." Reese perks up a bit but Elizabeth shook her head to stop her from talking. "Caroline wasn't fast enough, sweetie. She managed to get very little blood into your system but by the time it started to heal you, your heart gave out."
"M-my heart gave out." Reese deadpans. "So then I did die." Her eyes dart up and glance around the room one more time.
"Yes." Elizabeth confirms. "But you died with vampire blood in your system." She lets that information sink in and when Reese's eyes go wide, she knew her daughter caught on. "You're going to wake up and it's going to be hard to learn control but before that, we kind of kidnapped you for our own selfish reasons."
"Selfish reasons?" Reese's eyebrows scrunch up in confusion. "I don't understand."
"You see-" A woman stepped forward now, the same woman from Reese's dream all those months ago. "Emerson magic is very powerful. The powers you gained are more powerful than anything we've ever seen and we don't want to lose that."
"Okayyy?"
"So we need you to pass along the magic."
Reese gapes, and she realizes she's been gaping a lot for the past couple of minutes, before turning to look at her Mom. "But our magic is only passed on through birth." Elizabeth stays silent. "And in case you haven't noticed, my boyfriend is a vampire. This isn't Twilight, Mom."
She hears a couple of mumbled, "Thank goodness for that!", and suddenly had a new found fondness for these strangers. "No but there is a spell." Elizabeth cuts off her mental ramblings. "You get the person of your choosing to recite a certain spell and your magic can be transferred so when you die, Emerson magic will live on."
"When I die? I thought I was already dead?"
"No." Elizabeth tells her fondly. "We're keeping you alive right now but only barely and only for enough time for you to explain what's happening before you pass on your magic."
Reese sighs. "Well, that's great and all but who exactly am I supposed to pass on this magic to? I know it has to be kept in the family since it's Emerson magic but my sisters, even if I thought about choosing one of them, are in Texas or wherever Michelle decided to run off to."
"Yeah, about that.." Elizabeth coyly grins. "Your ancestors and I have been thinking and.. well we think it's time for us to stop being sexist and bring in a male witch."
"Okayyy." Reese drawls. "But once again, my brothers are hundreds of miles away. And again, I wouldn't choose either of them."
"Yes, well, your Father and Liam will be in your room when you wake."
Reese huffs sarcastically. "Wow. So my two choices are Dad, who has no idea about the supernatural and is at risk of actually having a heart attack if I tell him or Liam, who's too young to even take this on."
"We'll bind his magic." Elizabeth tries to assure her. "Bind his magic until he's old enough to control it or he's out of school and staying in Mystic Falls with you so he can take on the Grimoire, and read the incantation that he'll use to break the bind."
Reese lets go of her Mom's hands, her hands flying up to rub at her temples. "But that's only if he wants it, right? I'm not going to force it on to him."
"Oh, he'll want it." Elizabeth chuckles. "Trust me."
Reese sighs, taking a moment to close her eyes and then nod. "Okay so what do I do now?"
Elizabeth smirks, taking her daughter's hands again. "You wake up!"
Well, technically I did kill Reese but at least she's coming back, right? Don't judge me! I don't remember what I was thinking when I wrote this.