A/N: Sorry for updating late! It's crunch time at school, and it's definitely crunching me! However, hope you enjoy the chapter!

"Elena was so pissed when I told her I had to borrow her car to pick you up," Katherine said, flying down the interstate.

Yeah, I had to call Katherine. My least favorite Gilbert sibling. I had the fleeting thought of calling Klaus, but I thought that would stir up more problems than solutions. Also, a part of me was still haunted by Rebekah's words that I would ruin him worse than he was.

"You told her?!" I asked in outrage.

"I had to," Katherine said. "You think she would have let me use the car if I hadn't?"

I frowned and crossed my arms. All I needed was for everyone to know I got abandoned in Richmond. We were working our way back to a sad case again.

"Don't do that," she said.

"What?" I snapped.

"That whole pissy-face thing," she said. "I'm not the one that left you in Richmond. I'm the one that came to pick you up. It would be nice if you said thank you."

"Thank you," I said with just enough sarcasm to be both real and to express my irritation.

"There you go."

We were quiet for a minute. Katherine's choice of pop music played through the speakers, and she tapped on the steering wheel.

"So what did you do to piss Rebekah off this time?" she said.

I growled.

"I'm just asking," Katherine said, running a hand through her curly hair, which was one of the only physical differences in the twins. "Must have been pretty good for her to risk the wrath of Stefan when he finds out."

"Nothing," I said.

"Um hm," Katherine said. But she kept giving me one of those knowing looks.

"It was about Klaus, okay?" I said.

"You still on that?" she asked, getting off on the exit that headed to Mystic Falls.

"What does that mean?"

"I mean, Klaus usually uses and loses," she said. "Why haven't you or him lost interest yet?"

"Why do you care?" I asked.

"I've been there," she said. "He's really hot and persuasive. I get it. But move on."

I looked at her. Katherine had been my friend, well, sort of my friend, as long as Elena. However, that didn't mean she ever looked out for me. That wasn't the kind of person Katherine was. She was always out for number one—herself.

"Why is everyone so interested in me and Klaus?" I asked.

"Trust me, Caroline," Katherine said. "Don't get involved with Klaus. I know I haven't been the best friend, like, ever, but I'm really trying to look out for you here."

"So tell me what happened between you two," I said.

Katherine looked at me in surprise. "Why?"

"Give me proof that he's such a terrible guy," I said a little heatedly. "Because the last time I saw you, you weren't the best person in the world either."

She gave me a look, but she didn't disagree. "It's a long story," she said.

"We have twenty minutes before we get back to Mystic Falls," I said.

"The past is the past, Caroline," she said. "I understand that, but what I've seen, Klaus is the same guy."

I looked at her. Her eyes were on the road, and both of her hands were gripping the wheel tightly. This wasn't normal Katherine. Normal Katherine drove like Kol—with a disregard for safety. What had happened between her and Klaus?

"Stop looking at me like that," she said, suddenly turning towards me.

"Like what?"

"Like you're trying to pick me apart so you can fix me," she said, finally removing one of her hands off the wheel and propping it on the sill of the window.

"I was not," I defended.

"I know that look well, Caroline," she said. "You gave it to me plenty of times in high school."

"Because you were an idiot in high school," I said lowly.

"And you were a bitch," Katherine said. "My, how things have changed."

I looked at her in outrage until I saw her smiling at me. Then, I broke out in laughter.

"I think I've missed you," she said, turning her eyes back to the road.

Strangely, I think I had missed her too. I had missed her honesty. I was sure there was no one more honest in the world than Katherine, except maybe Damon.

I bit my lip before I asked, "Do you think I've fucked up my life?"

Katherine looked at me with a curious expression. "Why do you ask?"

"Rebekah said-."

"Rebekah said?" Katherine asked. "Since when do you listen to anything Rebekah says?"

"It's just that-."

"Caroline Elizabeth Forbes," Katherine said. "Don't even spend one more moment thinking about what that self-absorbed bitch-monster said. I don't even care what it was."

"So you don't think I have?"

"Of course you have," Katherine said.

My face fell, and I directed my eyes to my lap.

"Of course you have," Katherine repeated. "You have because everyone has. Everyone. Even my perfect sister has fucked herself over a time or two. That's life, Caroline. It happens. Hell, you're still in better shape than I am."

"No, I'm not," I said.

"Yeah, you are," Katherine said.

"I've never been out of Mystic Falls, except to move to New York," I said. "You've been everywhere and done everything."

"And all my possessions fit into one bag," Katherine said. "I don't have anywhere to call home. I constantly moving because if I stop, I might realize that I have nothing. I don't have people who care about me like you do."

"You have Elena and Jeremy," I said quickly.

Katherine laughed humorlessly. "They are family," she said. "They have to care out of obligation. It doesn't count."

"I care about you," I said truthfully. "Apparently Rebekah does too."

Katherine chuckled. "Forever trying to save everyone, aren't you? " she muttered.

"I am not," I said.

"It's not a bad thing," she said, pulling onto the highway that led into town. "You just need to realize not everyone deserves it."

I frowned but said nothing in return. I didn't believe what she said for a minute. Everyone deserved a second chance. Everyone deserved help.

Katherine pulled the car onto the narrow driveway that connected to the parking lot in the back of the bakery. "Elena said to bring you back when I got you," she explained, shutting off the car.

As she pulled out the key, I caught her wrist. "Katherine," I said, "you know that this is always your home. If I can come back, so can you."

Katherine smiled. "Like I'd ever settle down."

I smiled knowing that, even though she was joking, she had heard me.

"I still can't believe she left you," Elena said later that night at the bar, pouring me a drink.

Elena had said that about a million times since Katherine and I had walked into the bakery that afternoon. She had even insisted that I come out to the bar for a drink and dinner after I helped her close the bakery. I guess there were perks to having a terrible day.

"Good thing good ole Katherine wasn't busy, eh?" Katherine said from my side, shooting her third glass of tequila.

"I said thank you," I said, picking at my fries.

"Still," Elena said. "Stefan was livid when I called."

"You called him?" I asked. This was news to me.

"He had a break at 6, so, of course, I called," Elena said. "He needed to know that Rebekah's leash needs to be tightened again."

"What is it with you two and telling people things they don't need to know?" I asked, looking between them.

It was scary how much they looked a like. Katherine's hair was curly while Elena's was straight, and if it weren't for that, I would have thought I was seeing double. Their facial expressions were the same at this moment.

"Don't do the twin faces at me!" I said.

They looked at each other, and their faces relaxed.

"Strangely, I agree with Lena on this one," Katherine said, stealing one of my fries.

"It's just going to start something," I said. "I would rather just take of Rebekah myself."

"Take care of her?" Katherine asked. "Are you going to murder her?"

I shot her a glare.

"Just asking, Tony Soprano."

"Even I think that was too far," Damon said from the other end of the bar.

"Well, so happy everyone's got an opinion on this," I said, putting my elbows on the bar and rested my head on my hands.

"I think what we really need to be talking about here is how you're going to get Rebekah back," Katherine said.

"Kat," Elena reprimanded.

"What?"

"Do you really think that's a good idea?"

"Do you think there's another idea?" Katherine asked. "I mean, obviously Caroline being nice doesn't work. Obviously Stefan telling her to stop doesn't work. What else is there?"

"I don't know," Elena relented. "But there's got to be something better and less juvenile than doing something horrible to her."

"Do I get a vote in this?" I asked.

The twins looked at me, and I continued. "I'm not going to do anything to Rebekah. I'm not going to talk to her. I'm not going to look at her. If I do something to her, that just means I'm on her level, which I'm not."

"Look who's being surprisingly mature," Damon said from beside Elena. I noted him wrap his arm around her waist just enough for his fingertips to graze her slightly protruding stomach.

"Someone's got to be with you and Katherine around," I said.

Katherine shrugged but reached behind the bar to pull out a bottle of whiskey.

"If you drink that entire bottle, you're paying for it," Damon said, removing his arm from around Elena to point at Katherine.

Katherine poured her drink and saluted him with the other hand.

It was moments like that when I realized why Damon had fallen for Elena rather than Katherine. Usually, it seemed that he and Katherine were similar and would go together very well, but other times, I realized they would have been one of those couples you read about in the paper that are involved in a murder-suicide. Damon needed Elena to calm him, and Elena used Damon to come out of her shell.

"Care!" a voice said from the door.

I hung my head. Stefan.

"I'm so sorry," he said, sitting next to me. Elena and Damon suspiciously became very busy. Katherine, of course, couldn't have cared less and continued to sit there on my other side.

"It's fine, Stef," I said. "You didn't need to leave work for this."

"Of course I did," he said. "I can't believe she left you in Richmond."

"It's not like that," I said. All I needed is for Stefan to freak out on Rebekah, then she would really be on the warpath.

"I don't know what to do," Stefan said.

I realized that he didn't mean he didn't know what to do about this situation. He meant he didn't know what to do about Rebekah…because of me.

"You're going to go back to work," I said, hopping off my stool so that I was eye-level with him. I grabbed his face between my hands, so that he had no choice but to look at me. "You're going to learn a ton and work hard, so that when you get home you'll feel accomplished. You're going to let me deal with this myself because this isn't about you."

"Care-."

"Nope," I said, letting go of his face. "This is a problem between Rebekah and me. Don't get in the middle of it, Stefan."

Stefan frowned and reached out for my hand. "I've already asked her to spend some time at her parents."

"What?" I asked.

"You're my best friends, Caroline," Stefan said. "I can't have my future wife treating you that way."

I noticed that Elena and Damon had walked a little closer to us, and Katherine had stopped drinking.

"What did you do, Stefan?" I asked slowly.

"I postponed the wedding," he said.

"WHAT?" Elena, Katherine, and I all yelled.

"I postponed the wedding," he repeated. "I can't marry her if she treats people I love this way."

"Stefan," Elena said, "that's not why I called you."

"I know," Stefan said. "But I don't know what else to do. I can't just stand by and let her continually treat people this way. I love her, and I've loved her for years. Maybe that's not enough."

"Stefan, I don't need you to fight my battles for me," I said. "I appreciate it, but I don't want you to-."

"Caroline," Stefan interrupted, "this was just the last straw. Rebekah is going to have to sort herself out before she expects me to start a life with her."

"So, the wedding's off?" Katherine asked.

"Not off, per se," Stefan said. "I would still love to marry her, but she's going to have to sort out her issues with Caroline at the very least."

I felt Katherine, Elena, and Damon's eyes on me.

"Stefan," I said slowly. "I don't want you to do this for me. So I don't get along with Rebekah. That's my problem. This is your life. Don't put your life on hold for me."

"Care, I love you," Stefan said. "It's one thing to know that you and Rebekah don't care for each other; it's another for her to abandon you in another city. If I didn't do something, I would be the world's worst friend, and I'm still trying to keep my title from the whole engagement debacle. While this is about you, it's also about me, and what I won't stand for."

"Stef-."

"Care, it's done," he said, getting off his stool. "Look, I just came to check on you during my break. I've got to get back to the hospital. Don't put this on yourself, okay? This was my decision, and this is how I want to handle this." He reached over and got me off my stool. "I love you, okay? Everything's fine."

I hugged him, but I knew everything wasn't fine.

He pulled out of the hug and put both of his hands on my face so that I had no choice but to look at him. "Everything's going to be fine."

I nodded, and he kissed my forehead.

After Stefan had walked out the door, Katherine said, "You know Rebekah's going to kill you, right?"

"Murder her in a violent manner, more likely," Damon added.

Yep. That sounded about right.

A/N: So, there's the fall out from Rebekah leaving Caroline. I know a lot of you thought she's call Klaus, but are they really there yet? Besides, Katherine's still entertaining, right? Hope you enjoyed it, and please review! And because you have been so great to stick with the story, as soon as I get fifteen reviews, I'll post the next chapter!