AN: Because I need Caroline to have more of a reaction to Enzo's death… And I got prompts for some ghost!Enzo.

Regrets

"I didn't want you to think any less of me."

Caroline hugged herself and watched the woodshed burn to the ground, not acknowledging what Stefan had said at first. She was still torn by what he had said earlier – about the weird chemistry thing she and Enzo had shared. Her first instinct had been to deny it, which she had done, of course, but now she was caught in self-reflection.

One day and a handful of conversations didn't make a relationship. To be honest, Caroline wasn't sure she liked Enzo all the much… except that he made her think. Just when she thought she'd had him pegged, he would say something that would force her to re-evaluate her opinion. No one had done that before, not really.

And now he was dead and trying to kill her friends.

So how did she come to terms with the conflict… was he vengeful murderer, or a good man? Was he the arrogant monster, or the thoughtful man who wanted to thank a woman for giving her reason to live?

"Care?" Stefan asked softly, and she realized he was waiting for her to respond to his statement.

"I wouldn't think less of you, Stefan. You're my best friend. Short of killing me, there's not a whole lot you could do to make me think less of you… but you should have told me. And that you didn't? That hurts."

She continued to watch the fire until, and finally Stefan turned away from her, making his way back to the car. She closed her eyes, letting the heat of the fire radiate on her skin.

Then she felt it.

She had felt it earlier, on the deck. That sense of simply not being alone. It caused a chill, but not the kind that inspired fear… it was… comforting, in its own unique way. She hadn't realized how tense she was, until she felt that chill and her body began to relax.

"Enzo?" she said to the air, and she knew it was foolish. Even if he was there, how was he going to let her know? Shove a stake through her?

She felt phantom fingers ghost against her skin, ruffle the tips of her hair, and she felt her throat work as her own fingers came up to rest on the strands he had touched.

"I'm so angry right now," she said. "Angry with Stefan and Elena, angry with you. What were you thinking. Seventy years grasping to your humanity, and you let Damon make you turn it off?"

She swore she felt him next to her and she rubbed her arms, opening her eyes to look at the fire.

"This place is one of the last connections I have to my dad, you know. If you had burned the actual cabin to the ground? Ghost or not, I would have ended you."

She felt his fingers again, and she let out a choked bark of laughter.

"I don't know what to think about you," she said, and it was so much easier to say this now, when she could pretend he wasn't right there, but it was so much more painful, too, because he was dead and hadn't there been enough death? "You tell me Maggie made you realize you were a good man, then you snap Tom Avery's neck. You say all you want is to thank her, then you turn off your humanity and attack the people I love the most. And you piss me off, because I can't peg you but I thought you were better than that. I thought you were better than Damon and every other boy that proved they weren't worth it, because you survived seventy years of torture and never gave up your humanity. Until you did and it makes me so freaking mad."

There was no touch this time, but Caroline could almost imagine him standing there, reaching out with his hands, his fingers just millimeters from her arm. She could imagine him there, but she couldn't picture the look on his face. Would it be grim, apologetic, angry?

She turned away from the fire finally, and looked into the open air in front of her.

"Before I became a vampire, I never knew what regrets were. Now, I can't seem to get away from them. I think I might hate you a little bit, that you made yourself just another one of my regrets."

She gave the fire one last look, then she walked away, the chill of Enzo's presence disappearing the further they walked.

REGRETS

I thought that would feel better.

Enzo closed his eyes as she walked through him again, the words he had spoken earlier in the day flashing through his mind. He turned to watch her back as she left, blonde hair dangling down her back. Since their very first meeting, Caroline Forbes had been nothing if not a force of nature, but now she looked so very resigned. Tired, as someone so young should never be.

I think I might hate you a little bit, that you made yourself another one of my regrets.

He wanted to hit something, to throw something. It had been so easy earlier, when his hatred and anger towards Damon had made it so easy to want to hurt them all. When Stefan and Elena's cavalier treatment of his death had made him want to see them burn. He had been so focused on his anger, that collateral had never crossed his mind.

In all of this, he hadn't meant for her to be hurt. Hadn't thought he had the ability to hurt her. She had always seemed so aloof, so distant, that it had never crossed his mind, that he'd had as much an effect on her as he had on him.

He had called her his temptation, and it had been meant as a joke… but there had been a distinct grain of truth to it.

He had told her once that Maggie reminded him he was a good man. It had been the truth, but what he had never told her was that Caroline Forbes did the same. When he was with her, he had felt something approaching… peace. He had lacked peace since Maggie, and there had been a time when he had thought to say his thank-yous to the woman he had once loved, then surround himself in the peace he found with another. Then he had discovered Maggie's fate, and the rage had risen and destroyed that peace, had made him want to hurt someone. But that hurt wasn't meant to touch her. Never her.

He didn't want to be just another one of her regrets. He wanted to be the boy who did end up being worth it. He didn't want to be dead and unable to do more than graze his fingers against her and hope she felt it.

He didn't want to be dead, and he cursed himself for a fool because he had done this to himself and now he was filled with rage and regrets that he wasn't sure he would ever be able to free himself from. He wanted to follow her, to try and find that peace again, but her words continued to echo in his mind, and he couldn't bring himself to go.

I think I might hate you a little bit, that you made yourself another one of my regrets.

Given enough time, he thought perhaps the regret he felt for her might turn to hate as well. Just a little bit; not enough to want to hurt her, but perhaps enough that regretting her might hurt him a little less.

AN: Apparently I like sad Carenzo these days. That is all.