Author's Note: I know the last chapter was rough. I'm sorry! I was right there with you as far as tears go. I'm incredibly sad to see Liz go, but I assure you there is a purpose, I wouldn't do something that extreme if I didn't have something in store for our characters. I got quite a few reviews expressing their issue with the death, both here and on tumblr (even a death threat, which floored me, I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one) but the majority of you seemed to like it. I have a lot of fun writing this fic and I hope you guys enjoy reading it.

I also got a lot of questions about the spoiler I mentioned at the end of the last chapter. It said that there was going to be massive casualties in this week's episode, including someone we've known since season one. We don't know for sure that it's going to be Liz or Carol. That's just my opinion because everyone else that seems like they would be in danger has already filmed episodes past this one. All just my opinions of course. Casualties can mean injuries, not just death so I could be completely off. I'm rambling, just ignore me.

Chapter Twenty-Five – Time to Mend

Give it space my love
Listen and hear me. I won't be too far.
Honest, trust me, I've been you before
It's not the end, cause you still have time to mend.

"Are you are you sure you want to do this right now, Caroline? I'm sure we could get Carol and the lawyer to come back. You've barely slept. This can wait," Stefan told her, his hands resting on her shoulders as he stood in front of her. He was worried about her. She hadn't slept at all the night before, neither had he or Rebekah, but that was out of necessity. With the hunter out there, someone had to be vigilant and Stefan didn't exactly trust Klaus's hybrids to do the job. She hadn't fed in over 24 hours, something that was evident in her sunken in eyes and paler than usual skin. Her normally bouncy curls were pulled back in a messy bun on top of her head, still damp from her shower and she hasn't bothered to get dressed in anything but a pair of sweatpants and an old sweatshirt that had probably once belonged to her father. The girl standing in front of him was a far cry from his normally-bubbly best friend.

Caroline shook her head slowly, "I have to do it. I might as well get it over with. It's not going to be any easier if I wait. Mrs. Lockwood has already called three times this morning and now she's here. Putting it off won't do any good." She ran her hands over her face as she looked around the room. It felt so strange to even be standing in the house. Her mother not being home was a feeling Caroline was used to. It was the realization that she was never coming home again that Caroline still couldn't wrap her head around. It was so simple to trick herself, tell herself that her mother was simply working the day shift, whatever time of day she needed to excuse her absence. She tried not to. She was trying to make herself accept it, but the idea of being alone was more than she could take. No family. No one to make sure she did her homework or ask her about her day. She knew the day was going to come when her mother would be gone. She was a vampire, she was going to live forever and her mother would not. She just thought she would have more time, her mother was young. She should have had forty more years, but here Caroline was, about to plan her funeral and she didn't even know how she could walk in the room.

"Are you sure you don't want Elena and Bonnie over here? They were your friends before Damon and Klaus happened. I think part of you knows they are still your friends," Stefan offered up.

She shook her head, "It's not that I don't want them here. Part of me does, but part of me doesn't. It's okay not to like my choices. No one put a gun to their head and forced them to be on my side. I don't want them to be here because they think it's what they should do or just because we've always been friends. It won't make a difference. We've been growing apart for a while. The Damon-Klaus issue is just the straw that broke the camel's back. You shouldn't have to repeat old memories to spend time together. Being friends is about making new memories. We haven't done that in a while. Plus them being here is just two more people sitting around this house doing nothing. I don't even like that you and Rebekah feel like you have to hang around here."

"First of all, I am here because you are family to me Caroline. The little sister I never had. It's not because I feel like I have to be or because I'm keeping an eye on you. I would never leave you alone right now." He pulled her into a tight hug. "I think Rebekah is here because she wants to be too." He pulled back, looking down at her, "Your relationship with Elena and Bonnie is your business, but I wouldn't be so quick to throw away a friendship that you've had your whole life. It might take time and you and Elena have it. Just don't write them off forever okay? When you are a vampire, your friends become your family. Your initial reactions can be strong and emotionally charged, but things have a way of cooling over time. I'm sure you aren't thrilled about the idea of her and Damon, just like she isn't about you and Klaus. Give it a decade, you probably won't feel so strongly."

She nodded, thinking carefully about his words. "I don't know about that, but thank you for trying to make me feel better."

"It's my job. I know it's tough and it feels like nothing is ever going to get better right now, but it will," he told her, as the tears began to well up in the corners of her eyes once again. "It'll be okay, we'll get through this."

"I'm not so sure about that, but I'll take your word for it. We should probably go in there. They are both waiting."

"Do you think maybe you should feed before you go in there?" he asked out of concern.

"I'm not really that thirsty. I don't know. I'm fine. I promise I won't eat Mayor Lockwood while we're in there," she said dryly.

"As long as you are sure." He wrapped his arm around her, pressing a friendly kiss to her temple before he led her towards the living room.

Caroline took a deep breath before opening the doors and walking inside. Her lips pressed into a tight line as she saw their family lawyer seated on the couch with a stack of papers sitting in front of him in his brief case, next to him sat Mrs. Lockwood, wearing the same expression of muted sadness. She knew her and her mother had been friends, tentative at best, but having supernatural children probably gave them a lot to talk about. She still wasn't on the list of people she actually wanted to be around.

"I'm so sorry for your loss, Caroline. If there's anything Tyler and I can do, please let us know. I know he wanted to be here this morning, but I thought it best to give you more time before you had visitors," Carol said, looking up when Caroline walked into the room.

"Thanks, I'm really not up for anyone being here right now," she said solemnly, shaking her head as she took a seat in the couch across from them, Stefan sitting down next to her. They sat there in silence for a few moments. They were clearly trying to figure out what to say to her. She wasn't sure there was a right answer to that question. "So what exactly do we need to do today? You both sounded so urgent on the phone?" she asked, readjusting her seat in the chair. She wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible.

"Oh, yes, sorry, Ms. Forbes," the lawyer spoke, pulling a few things out of his suitcase and setting them on the desk in front of her. "Your mother's will is pretty straight forward. She left everything to you. The house, the car, bank accounts-"

"You would also get her pension from the city and her life insurance policy," Mrs. Lockwood added.

"That's true. In addition, your father's entire estate was left to your mother for your care and that would belong to you as well. Both your father's condo in Atlanta and this house are paid in full. You shouldn't have worry about money until you are well out of college. It's a pretty substantial amount."

Caroline simply nodded; money was the one thing she had not been worrying about. She hated the idea of using compulsion as a way to steal, but she knew she always had it to fall back on. It was comforting to know she wouldn't have to do that for a while. "So what do I need to do?" she asked, quietly.

"Just sign some paperwork." He clicked a pen and set it down on front of her on the stack of paperwork. Caroline picked it up and tucked a loose curl behind her ear before beginning to sign the paperwork.

"Now about the funeral." Caroline's hand froze against the paper at Carol's words. She could feel the plastic beginning to give under her fingertips as she gripped it. Stefan put his hand over hers when he saw it happen.

"I think that's enough for right now," Stefan said.

Caroline shook her head, "No, I can do this. I just want to get it all done," she said her voice already beginning to break. "Just tell me what I need to do."

"Well, your mother had most of her plans laid out in her will. She wanted to be cremated so that simplifies things if you would like to stick to her plans." Caroline nodded, the tears once again beginning to brim her eyes as Stefan held her hand. Her bone crushing grip not bothering him. "When would you like to have it?"

"S-Saturday?" she asked, her voice wavering. "I know it's quick, but I don't want anyone to go to a funeral or have it looming over their heads over the holiday."

"We'll take care of everything," Carol assured her before Caroline finished signing the paperwork and handed it back over to the lawyer. The two of them made their exit and left Stefan and Caroline standing alone in the room.

Stefan opened his mouth to say something, but Caroline quickly stood up and separated herself from him. "I think I'm going to go lay down. This has all just been more than I can handle." She walked out of the room without another word. Stefan sighed as he watched her walk up the stairs, knowing exactly where she was headed. Aside from this meeting, she hadn't been out of bed all day. He knew this was hard for her, it had only been a day, but seeing his normally bubbly best friend like this was difficult.

"How is she?" Rebekah asked, walking into the house with one of Klaus's hybrids trailing behind her with two large brown paper bags in his arms.

"The same. Doesn't really want to talk about it. Won't feed. Won't sleep. I don't know how to help her when all she wants to do is lock herself in her bedroom and pretend it's not happening." He shook his head. "Have you spoken to your brother lately?"

"Not in a while, the calls aren't going through. Service is spotty at best in Russia. Last I heard from him, he was alternating between killing and compelling people to try to get out of the airport. The grounded everything because of the storm, but I think we both know that's not going to stop Nik," Rebekah said, rolling her eyes.

"Where did you go?" Stefan asked, choosing not to comment on Rebekah's nonchalance with the rising body count in St. Petersburg due to her brothers.

"She's out of blood and alcohol. Both seemed relatively necessary all things considered." She motioned for the hybrid to set the bags down on the table. "I'll get her to drink," she sighed. Babysitting wasn't on her to do list today, but she might as well make the best of it. She grabbed a few things off the shelf in the living room along with a few bags of blood and a bottle of wine before heading up the stairs. Knocking lightly on the door, she walked inside.

"I kind of just want to be alone, Rebekah," Caroline said, her eyes never leaving the blank patch of wall as Rebekah walked further into the room, clearly ignoring her request.

"No. Wallowing is pathetic. You are allowed to be sad. You are not allowed to lie in bed until your body desiccates." She dropped the blood bags on the bed next to Caroline. "Now, we have decades of cinematic advancements that I missed because of a dagger and a box. This seems like as good a time as any." She picked up Casablanca and placed it into the player in the corner of Caroline's room before sitting down on the empty side of the bed.

They were halfway through Gone with the Wind before Caroline finally reached for one of the blood bags and pulled the safety top off the tubing before bringing it to her lips. The veins under her sunken in eyes blackening and rippling at the scent of the blood hit her nose.

"Good. I was one more movie away from pinning you to the bed and forcing it down your throat," Rebekah commented.

"Does it get easier?" Caroline asked when the blood bag was finally empty. She didn't look at Rebekah when she spoke, "Living in a world where your parents are dead?"

Rebekah sighed, craning her neck to look at Caroline. "It depends. Mikael was no loss. Nik, Finn, and Elijah took care of me. They protected me. They threatened boys who wished to step out with me. If anyone acted as my father it was the three of them. And after a thousand years of being hunted down like game, you lose all meaning of the word father. We were a wrong he needed to correct. Not children. He never thought of us that way again. My mother was different."

Caroline turned to look at her, raising an eyebrow. She didn't say anything though, giving Rebekah opportunity to continue. From everything she knew about Esther, she seemed worse than Mikael, but she didn't pretend to know the whole story. She knew better than anyone that relationships with parents were always complicated.

"She was never this hateful when we were growing up. Mikael was always distant, but Mother tried to make up for it. There was a time when she loved us, even Niklaus. We would spend the day making meals and telling stories while we waited for Mikael to return home each evening. She taught me spells, training me to be like her. Then one day she was gone. I missed her for centuries, but life went on. It always does. I'm certain you will figure out how eventually. There comes a time when you don't feel guilty for letting yourself be happy anymore."

"At least you always have your brothers. My mom was it for me," Caroline sighed, shaking her head.

Rebekah scoffed at the words. "Finn is dead. Elijah and Kol would prefer gallivanting around the world with their whores than checking in or taking me along. And Niklaus, well, he's himself and love him or hate him, that's never going to change. It's his way or no way."

"He cares about you, Rebekah. He's just not great at showing it."

"Words have never been his strong suit," Rebekah sighed. "And you have people. Just because your mother is gone, doesn't mean you are alone."

"Not really. Stefan and you seem to be getting along well. You have each other. Damon and Elena, Bonnie will find someone."

"And Nik? I was under the impression you two were a thing?" she said, the last word hanging on her tongue.

"We are. And I really care about Klaus, but I'm not foolish enough to think that I can hold his attention for very long. I'm an eighteen year old baby vampire who isn't cultured or worldly or any of the things he is. He's a thousand years old, it's only a matter of time before he realizes what a mess I am and realizes his mistake. I've never been the first choice. Matt and Damon wanted Elena. Tyler wanted Hayley. Even my dad left, twice. Once when I was a kid and then he chose to die instead of be what I am. No one would ever choose me if they had another choice. No one except my mom and now she's gone. So as much as I like him and I want to try to tell myself that it's different this time and maybe I'll be enough this time, the story is going to end the same way. So I'm just going to enjoy my time with him until he finds something he wants more, because everyone always wants more than I can give them."

Klaus stood outside her bedroom door for what seemed like an eternity after that, silently debating whether or not to tell her he had heard her speech. He wanted to tell her she was wrong, but telling her wouldn't be enough. It was in that moment he realized that despite the image of perfection she tried to show the world, she was just as broken as he was and he would spend a lifetime trying to prove her wrong.