Prompt: "But I don't want to leave."
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She closes the door gently, tying not to wake her mother who just fell asleep. He smiles. She smiles. And he follows her down the stairs.
"I still think we should've stayed at the hospital."
"The doctors said she could leave so don't worry about it." He says with a smile she doesn't see.
"Well, they might be wrong. And it's not like they know a lot lately." She huffs without looking at him, taking the few glasses on the table and walking to the kitchen.
And he follows.
"Caroline, Kai took all the blood effect from her system." He says quietly, watches as her moves slow down. "She's fine."
"Yeah." She mumbles. "My blood is out of her system, no vampire blood to speed up her illness." She turns around then, her body resting against the sink. "But she's still sick, stilldying."
It's like a stake being pushed into his flesh, looking at her in this state. The way her lips tremble and her eyes water. The way she looks away from him.
"Hey." He whispers, moving one step from the door before stopping in his place. He doesn't know what to do. More like, he can't hold her anymore because he can't see her break anymore. He's seen lots of that lately and he doesn't like the sight of Caroline Forbes falling apart.
She chuckles, it's forced and has no sense of relief in it, just an attempt to lighten up the situation.
"It's okay." She looks at him. "I'm not going to break down in the kitchen." She chuckles again, and he doesn't like it. "You can leave. Go, have some rest. That's enough for one day."
She offers him a smile, it's real and warm and he really wishes if it was under other circumstances so he could've actually enjoyed it. So he stares, not sure what to do or what to say. He just knows that he doesn't want to see her in pain, that this person, Caroline, hisCaroline, deserves a lot better than this.
"But I don't want to leave."
He doesn't know how he said it, where did the courage come from and how did he actually put the words together since he seemed to be shocked just like her.
She lets out a breath, almost a laugh. Her face lightening up a bit, her features relaxing and her lips curving into a smile. Then they tremble again, and her arms which were crossed against her chest are falling to her sides as she lets out another breath. different from the first, more broken and shaky.
They both walk to each other at the exact point, moving in sync till their bodies meet. Her head hits his chest, hands clinging to his back as he wraps her in his arms, one hand holding her head and the other moving against her back. He hushes her even though she's barely making any sound, but she's shaking and her fingers almost hurt him from the pressure.
"It's okay, everything will be okay." He lies, because it will only get worse and worse. He just has to be here.
