Chapter Fourteen

The girls and Liz stood for a while, waiting for the Salvatore's to wake up before doing anything. Once the brothers woke up, Damon finished off the other officer to get blood in his system, it made Caroline want to scream, but she knew that she couldn't control Damon. Today had been hell for her, and what was even worse was that she knew she couldn't call her dad. She had to deal with the fact that she had killed again all on her own. It didn't help any that she also had to deal with her mother trying to kill her friends, and with her mother's hatred for the species that not only her real family was, but that she was too. Caroline tried not to pay attention to Damon as he killed the man, it was hard enough to fight the bloodlust as it was. Once Damon had finished though, he crawled over to Stefan,

"You need to drink some deputy blood." He told his younger brother.

"Oh, no, I'll be fine. It's just going to take a little bit longer." Stefan replied, not looking up from the ground.

"Damon's right, you know. If there's ever a time to break your diet…" Caroline tried, she hated seeing her friend in such pain.

"He said he didn't want it, okay?" Elena snapped.

"This is a most unfortunate situation." Damon said, standing before continuing, "Two deputies dead. And you. What am I going to do with you?" He looked at Liz as he finished.

"You are going to do nothing. She is my mother, I'll take care of it." Caroline said, standing up to make her claim.

"You don't have the guts to do what is necessary if she says she won't keep this a secret!" Damon yelled back.

"I don't have to have the guts! All I have to do is convince her not to try and kill you again!"

"She could tell the whole counsel!"

"She hasn't yet, why would that change? Besides, you don't get a vote. You treated me like trash, and used me for weeks, you can leave and never come back for all I care, but you sure as hell don't get to vote on how I deal with my mother!" Caroline yelled, stepping towards Damon as she spoke. Elena and Stefan watched on in fear, neither of them had ever seen her like this before. Liz looked on in awe, she was acting exactly like her father, fearsome and commanding. And just like the majority of people who crossed paths with Elijah, Damon backed down and walked away. Once he had left, Caroline turned to Elena and Stefan,

"Do either of you have something against me dealing with this?"

"No." Stefan replied, Elena sat silent beside him.

"Good, then go home and heal, and maybe think of a way to deal with that Mason guy." Caroline finished. Stefan only nodded as Elena helped him to his feet, and they followed after Damon. Caroline stood silent for a moment, trying to calm herself before she faced Elizabeth. She couldn't even force her brain to say mom anymore. She had been betrayed. Worse than that, though, was that Liz was so against vampires in general that everyone that existed apart from Caroline was on her kill list. The only thing that Caroline thought was keeping her from thinking the same of Elijah was that he at least acted like a gentleman and had been upfront about who he was. Caroline had believed at one point that her adoptive mother would never have done such a thing, she believed that's what her dad thought too, but here she stood, and it had happened. Caroline wanted so badly to just go home and call her dad and cry, she didn't want to deal with this, she didn't want to face the mother that had just tried to kill a friend of hers.

"How could you?" Caroline finally spoke, not yet turning to look at her mother, though.

"They are murderers, Caroline, I had no choice."

"No choice? Really? No choice? You had every choice you needed. They are no more evil than I am or dad is. I just killed a man in front of you, so if murderer is your definition of reason to kill, shoot me!" Caroline yelled, turning to face Elizabeth.

"Caroline, I would never hurt you."

"It's way too late for that. Can you not understand the fact that by trying to kill them, you hurt me more than you ever could have if you had aimed that stupid gun at me?!"

"What are you talking about?"

"I am one of them! So is my entire family! Don't you get that by that one choice you just told me that everything that I am, every little thing that has made me, me since the beginning of my life is something so vile to you that you would kill it in cold blood!"

"Caroline, that's not true!"

"It is true. I get every bit of who I am from my father and his memories and his experiences AS A VAMPIRE! Everything that I am is from the species you just attacked. On top of that, I am one of them. You called me your daughter, you said you loved me, how could you ever love me when you hate who and what I am?!" Caroline paused before lowering her voice, "don't say a word of this to anyone, don't try to do this again. If I find you have done either of those things I'll call dad and tell him you are a threat to my life and his plan, I'm sure he will have a way to get rid of you that will be more merciful than what I have in mind right now." With that, Caroline walked out. Her heart felt as if it had shattered, she had just lost the only mom she had left, and she didn't think she would ever get her back.

Liz sat in the cellar for a while, eventually though Damon returned, he paused at the door.

"You know if you let me lock you up til the vervain is gone, I can make you forget everything." He offered.

"I can't, There is too much at stake for me to erase it all."

"Oh, you mean the fact that you're not actually Caroline's mother?"

"How?"

"Overheard the argument. Although I'm not sure one could call it that."

"You can't say a word to anyone, Damon, not even Stefan and Elena." Liz said, standing to look more directly at him.

"No worries, secret is safe with me. I couldn't care less who Caroline actually is, it doesn't affect me."

"Is there a way for you to get me to forget what happened today, without taking everything else?"

"Sure thing, piece of cake. We will just have to wait for the vervain to leave your system. Until then you should probably stay in the cellar of that boarding house."

"Why?"

"There are other vampires hanging around. You'll be vulnerable without your vervain. Best to keep you as safe as possible." Damon answered.

"Very well. Just let me go grab some stuff from the house."

"No need. I've got it covered." With that they set off to the boarding house. They walked in silence, neither of them really wanting to talk to the other.

Once they made it to the boarding house, Damon showed Liz straight to the cell in the basement. He then handed her a phone,

"Call the station, you won't be in for a bit." Liz grabbed the phone out of his hand and began to dial. Once she had finished the call, she handed the phone back.

"Thank you." Damon said as he took the phone, he paused for a moment before speaking again, "It's not exactly the Ritz, but it's secure. I brought you a good thread count. And once the vervain's worked its way out of your system, I will compel you to forget everything that happened today, and you'll be a free woman." As Damon spoke he saw Caroline walking towards the door, Liz not able to see her spoke freely which made Damon flinch,

"Keep Caroline away from me, please. I don't want to see her."

"She's your daughter, Liz."

"Not anymore. My daughter's gone. All that is left is her father."

"You have no idea how wrong you are about that." Damon replied, watching as Caroline set the bag for her mother down, walking away.

Caroline made her way straight to her house, before she began to throw everything into any bag she could find. She packed everything that was hers, bedding, photos, wall art, clothing. Once she was packed she went to the village, and she unloaded it, decorating that house that had been her parent's with everything she owned. Even with how little she owned, it took almost an hour to set everything up, tears falling from her eyes the whole time. With all but one bag completely empty she reached for the bag to find that it only held two things. A photo of her father and her from Paris, and the book. She sank to the floor, holding each item to her as she finally let herself fully break. She wished more than anything that she could just call her dad, and yet she knew if she did, she would risk messing up everything he had been planning since she was a baby. So she threw her phone onto the bed on the opposite side of the room. She sat for what seemed like forever until she heard a small knock and the door opening,

"Caroline?"

"Bonnie? Is that you?"

"It's me, Caroline, Damon told me what happened." Bonnie explained as she walked in, closing the door behind her. Once she was seated on the floor beside Caroline, she spoke again,

"I know we are not on the best terms right now, but I didn't want you to be alone, and since nobody else knows of this place, I knew I would be the only one able to find you."

"She disowned me for standing up for them."

"Caroline, I'm sure she didn't mean it. You know your mom, she doesn't hate vampires, she was just scared."

"She wasn't scared, she was mad." Caroline replied, her tears making her voice crack.

"Caroline, you know that's not true. She loves you, she thinks of you as her daughter."

"She thinks of me like you do, as a Mikaelson. A vampire who could lose control at any minute."

"That's not true. And I don't think of you as a Mikaelson. I think of you as Caroline, the person who was always there for me whenever I needed you to be, no matter how badly I treated you. I think of you as the girl who always helped me remember to have fun when life was hard. I think of you as the girl that fought for what she believed in, no matter what stood in her way, who never gave up on being different even when you became a vampire, you insisted on being different." Bonnie replied, trying her best to comfort her friend. Bonnie thought that Caroline looked so broken and different from the girl she had known. Yet, as she sat there she realized that this was the life Caroline had lived all her life. She had never had her parents nearby, she had been different all her life. She had been alone, from the beginning, and none of her friends had ever seen it, or helped her. Now the lady who had claimed to be her mother had given up on her too.

"I want dad." Caroline's voice came out more broken than Bonnie had ever heard. It sounded so weak and as if she was reduced to the lowest she had ever been.

"I know you do. I am sorry that you can't call him. I know he would be here for you if there was any possible way."

"I need him." Caroline's voice had gotten even smaller somehow. Bonnie quickly got up, she walked out into the clearing. Lighting the candles that were still there from the last time Caroline and her had been here messing around. She began a quick spell that would let her project herself to Elijah without anyone else seeing.

Elijah sat in an almost empty diner sipping on a cup of coffee, he was waiting on a call to tell him to make his move. He had been at this diner every day for a week waiting on the phone to ring. He hid his surprise when Bonnie Bennet projected herself in front of him. With a calm glance to make sure there was still nobody in the diner, and that the staff was still in the back, he spoke,

"To what do I owe this very dangerous pleasure?"

"Nobody but you can see me. I'm here about Caroline."

"What happened?"

"Liz acted out of fear, she tried to kill Damon and Stefan. Caroline was forced to step in, she killed a deputy, and then she faced her mother. She was broken that Liz would want to kill the species that she is, that you are, that makes her who she is. Liz disowned her, said she didn't want to see her, and that Caroline wasn't her daughter anymore. Caroline is more broken than I've ever seen her. She moved everything she owns to the house in the village, and she has been crying on the floor for hours. She is holding the book you gave her like it is the only thing that will save her. But…"

"But what, Bonnie?" Elijah asked, worried beyond measure for his daughter, all while trying to hold back the anger that was running through his body after hearing what Liz had done. He knew that it had been fear, she had told him about it the last time he was in town. How she was afraid of what Damon and Stefan were going to do, of how she was going to protect her family, and her town.

"She keeps asking for you."

"Damn it. Okay. Let me figure out a few things here, and then I will be there as soon as I can."

"Elijah, you can't risk that, there is too much at stake."

"All I am doing is waiting for a phone call. As long as I stay out of sight and make sure someone will send the phone call through to me, I can be there instead of this stupid diner." Elijah replied. He had made a promise, and he was going to keep it no matter what. Bonnie only nodded before ending her spell and returning to Caroline's side until her father could get there.