FTGF 4
Caroline pressed one finger deep against the bruise that hand formed along her hipbone. She focused on the ache it created. She eased her finger off the bruise only to press into it once again.
At least this was a pain she could control. This was an ache that was under her command.
Caroline hadn't left her room at her father's house since the night her world had crumbled into dust around her. For days she'd been held up in her childhood bedroom, counting the minutes until she could close her eyes again for the night and escape her own mind for a few hours.
Her father left the occasional tray of food, most of which she barely touched.
It wasn't until the fourth day of her self-imposed exile that Caroline pulled herself around. She didn't have time left for self-pity.
The house was silent as Caroline walked down the stairs and made her way towards the kitchen. Her need for coffee was the only thing that could motivate her out of her room and taking the risk to run into her father.
As she poured the steaming liquid into her mug, she heard familiar footsteps behind her. Caroline suppressed a sigh.
"Good morning Carebear" Bill greeted her as though it were any other morning in a normal household. Caroline didn't speak, bringing her coffee cup to her lips to avoid conversation. She wasn't about to sit down to have breakfast with her dad as though the past few days had never happened, as though the past few years had never happened.
Caroline had on a pair of pajamas that consisted of a cotton pair of shorts and a matching short-sleeve button-up shirt. Large stretches of her skin were visible, making it impossible for her father to miss the bruises that stretched up and down her legs and arms. He seemed to be avoiding looking her in the eyes, for if he did, he would see not only hatred there but also the gash that stretched across her cheekbone and brow.
Bill didn't know that he'd only placed some of the marks there, Tyler being responsible for the rest. Bill would be left under the assumption that he was the only perpetrator of his daughter's injuries. Caroline allowed him to think that.
She'd saw no point in confiding in her father the struggles she had with Tyler. Why would her father care about another man slapping her around when Bill did the same? Part of Caroline was aware that Bill's pride may have coerced him into action, but putting a strain on the relationship with the Lockwoods would only put Bill in a worse mood. Trading one pain for another hadn't seemed worth it to Caroline, especially when she had been living under the hope that she'd only have months left on her sentence.
" I wanted to discuss with you" Bill began carefully, watching his daughter the way one might watch a feral dog, waiting for it to bolt at any minute, speaking quietly to try to keep it calm.
"The news will be coming out in the paper today. Nothing flashy, just a footnote in the society pages. I'm thinking we'll have them do more of a full piece at your engagement party"
"Why would you do that?" Caroline asked cooly, not bothering to look up from her coffee cup.
"It's not just bored housewives that read those journals, Caroline. The news of a merger between our family and the Mikelsons will cause a stir. Let people know we are a force to be reckoned with"
Caroline swallowed the lump in her throat. The word merger had set her on edge. How formal her father made it all sound, as though he were referring to a business dealing and not the gifting of his only child to a group of strangers. Strangers who had a ruthless reputation. Strangers whose last name brought a shiver to the spine to even the most intimidating of men.
"I thought we'd host the party in a few weeks" Bill offered as if Caroline's answer would have any impact on his decision.
"That gives you time to" Bill's eyes scanned the black and blue marks across this daughter's limbs " prepare" he finished.
Time for her to heal. Time for her bruises to fade enough to be covered convincingly with makeup. Time enough for her to be able to play her part convincingly.
"I believe a member of the Mikaelsons clan may call on you soon. In order to make arrangements for the celebrations, maybe even to discuss preparations for the wed-" Bill seemed to trip over the word wedding, as though it did not fit quite right in his mouth.
"For your day. Of which we still need to pick a date, we'd prefer it of course to be this spring, but if you'd prefer early summer, that could be arranged as well. Perhaps we-"
Caroline didn't respond, merely took her coffee cup and strode out of the kitchen past her father, her head held high. She would have no hand in planning this rouse.
...
"Caroline Forbes, what the actual fuck?"
Caroline's bedroom door slammed open and Katherine stormed into her room, followed by a much calmer but very concerned-looking Elena.
'What is this?" Katherine demanded, waving a newspaper in her face.
"I get back to our dorm and find John fucking Gilbert packing up your stuff" Katherine hissed her biological father's name
"you don't answer your phone for days and then I open the paper and see this!"
Katherine tossed the paper on the bed in front of Caroline and jabbed her perfectly manicured sharp black nail at the announcement section of that morning's news.
" Bill Forbes of Mystic Falls Virginia is pleased to announce the engagement of his daughter Caroline to Niklaus Mikaelson, son of Mikael Mikaelson of the United Kingdom" Katherine read aloud, completely in shock.
Katherine was so busy fuming that she hadn't actually taken the time to look at her friend properly. Elena, being more sound of mind, took in the sight in full. She was horrified.
"Care, what happened to you?"
This caused Katherine to stop and really examine her friend.
"Oh my god," Katherine crawled onto the bed beside Caroline and carefully ran her finger over the gash on Caroline's face.
Concern plaguing her face, Elena also sat down on the bed and took Caroline's hand.
"What happened to you?" Elena asked again softly, squeezing Caroline's hand lightly as Katherine turned Caroline face side to side, examining the marks that were etched there.
"That happened," Caroline said simply, gesturing her free hand at the paper.
"Oh my god you're pregnant" Katherine accused, sitting back on her knees, utterly scandalized.
" what?" Care demanded thinking that her friend at lost her mind.
"You're dad found out that you're with child, roughed you up a bit and now you have to have a shotgun wedding. Oh my god, I don't even know what to do with myself. I can't believe that you didn't tell me that you were seeing someone, let alone having unprotected sex with them! I've told you a million times that there are condoms in the top drawer of my nightstand!"
"Jesus Katherine, I am not pregnant"
"Then explain this!" Katherine demanded, gesturing to now crumpled newspaper and Caroline's battered face.
"Kath!" Elena hissed at her twin, a warning in her voice.
"Sorry sorry" Katherine amended " Just start at the beginning" Caroline let out a frustrated sigh.
"It's not a long story. Tale as old as time really" Caroline stated, picking up the paper and staring at her own engagement announcement for the first time.
"I'm so confused. I thought last week was the first time any of us had ever met a Mikaelson" Katherine pushed.
"It was" Caroline deadpanned, her eyes still fixed on the print on the page in front of her.
"What?" Kath pressed, still no understanding. Elena's face however had fallen.
"No. Caroline...he didn't. I mean your dad isn't making you"
"He is" Caroline answered, running her finger over her name on the page.
"Making you what?" Katherine asked, still confused.
"Think about it, Katherine. What's the easiest way to make an alliance?" Elena asked.
"Fuck off" Katherine whispered " No, you're kidding. This is not some Tudor shit. This doesn't happen in real life"
"I guess it does, there it is in black and white" Caroline threw the newspaper at her.
"and you said yes to this?"
Caroline gestured to her face " clearly I said no. My answer just wasn't accepted"
" I can't believe your dad did this" Elena said softly, grazing her fingers over her bruise.
Caroline swallowed the lump in her throat. Of course, Elena couldn't imagine it. Miranda and Greyson Gilbert were the kind of parents people dream of. They'd both rather harm themselves before laying a hand on any of their children. Miranda and Greyson had stepped in when Greyson's brother John had gotten a girl pregnant and had intended to walk away.
Bill Forbes didn't have that same paternal instinct. Power was what Bill cared about the most, and there wasn't much he wouldn't do to get it.
"What are you going to do?" Kath pressed her displeasure mingling with her intrigue.
"What can she do?" Elena demanded, not seeing a single way out for her friend. There was nothing that Elena nor Katherine could do to aid in Caroline's struggle. They were bound by the same laws and loyalty. Anything they did to aid her that wasn't in the best interest of the family's business would only put a target on their backs and of those they loved.
"Is he the cute one at least?" Katherine demanded. " There are so many of those Mikaelsons running around, I never bothered to learn which was which, but I did favour the one with the brown eyes"
Caroline's thoughts filited briefly to Niklaus, or Klaus as she'd asked him to refer to him by. While his dark blue eyes ruled him as the suspect who had caught Katherine's affection, she could not deny that he was handsome, maybe even beautiful, but none of that changed her emotions towards him. His arrogance and presumptions made her stomach turn at the very thought of him, let alone the idea that she was to be his wife.
"As if that matters to her right now" Elena protested, cursing her sister's insensitivity.
"I'm just saying" Katherine defended " If you're going to be shackled against your will to another person for all of eternity, wouldn't you want it to be a face you wouldn't mind waking up to every morning. For all their faults, at least the Mikaelsons have a decent gene pool"
"It might not be so bad" Elena tried to comfort, squeezing Carolines had once again.
"There are worse things than marriage" Elenas eyes flitted down to the ring on her own left hand.
"You can't say that. Your marriage and whatever it is my father has arranged for me are nothing alike, they are not cut from the same cloth. You chose someone to love. You didn't just give something away, you go something back. I have nothing to gain, only lose. Your marriage is bonded in love, it's not the same"
Elena twisted her ring self consciously.
"This can't be the end, there has to be another answer" Katherine pressed again.
"This won't be the end" Caroline promised. This war would never be over for her, not until she won her freedom, no matter how many battles she had to lose. She would attend her engagement party, she would smile whenever her father required, she would even walk down the aisle and promise herself to a man she did not love, or even like. She would not, however, lay down and die. She would not accept this as her fate. One day, her life would be her own again. Mind, body, and soul.