I was wondering if it was better to continue on Caroline's side for a couple of chapters more, but ultimately decided to throw the ball back to Stefan. As always, I'm happy to read your comments.

Wanna make you promises I keep
Unlock my heart and loose the key
Just tell me what it is you need
There is nothing I wouldn't do

I wanna be the one that calms you down
Be the one when your world turns inside out
Wanna be the one when the sun goes down
Wanna be the one

Ross Copperman, "The One"

60. A JUNE PROMISE.

They finally find her, and Stefan thinks it's almost like she wants to be found, because there had not been clues until Italy. He does feel a bit guilty to confess he read her diary, but he cannot regret it. After all, this is also another reason why he got to find her.

Anything that brings her back to him is a necessary thing. That's what he tells himself when he gives Bonnie a sign so that Caroline feels enough pain that he can vervain her without much fight.

In the end, he does get her back. However, her heart is in a delicate state and it doesn't take long for her to let him know that the road from here will be a difficult one.

"There's something else I have to tell you," she hesitates, and her eyes wander around the room before she looks him in the face, in a way he knows that, whatever she's going to tell him, it's not something Caroline wants to say. Or something he wants to hear.

"I kissed Silas."

When he tells her that all that matters is that she's there, safe, with him, Stefan means it. But it still makes him wince internally to listen to her confession, even if he already suspected Silas might be taking advantage of Caroline's confusion.

Nothing about their relationship resembles any of his previous relationships, and it shouldn't start now, but Stefan is thinking back to the time Elena made a very similar confession, and it was the beginning of the end for them.

No, the beginning of the end might have started much before.

This is not the same.

"You were not being yourself. I understand."

That's not completely true. He wants to ask why, but that would mean making Caroline relive the past month again, and it's that's the last thing she needs at the moment.

They just got back home. Well, to the Boarding House, but hopefully this might become home to her in the future. He knows that part of her might already be as familiar with these walls as himself.

"Do you? I don't even understand it myself." She whispers, moving her gaze to the view through the room's window. "But I think I knew it was wrong, even with my humanity off, that's why I escaped to be on my own."

Then she turns around, her body facing him again, and her arms wrapped around herself.

"And I feel so jealous of Jo." Stefan notices the wedding invitation on the night table, and wonders when did he ever get it.

It was probably Bonnie or Elena, who also came to check on her as soon as they arrived in town.

"It's so selfish, because this is how things were always supposed to be for her. The twins are hers. Not mine."

"You're allowed to want that human life, Caroline. You can have it if you want to."

Although she struggles with her desire to stay a vampire, and her desire to have bits of life that their nature forbids them to have, Stefan also knows how long she's held onto the idea of being a mother.

"It's not the same." She shakes her head and smiles bitterly. "That's how messed up I am now."

He closes the distance between them with a single stride, and grabs both of her hands, feeling them soft and small into his.

"Caroline, you are not messed up, not more than the rest of us. Things happened to you, and I know you need time to heal. When you left, I thought that it was for the best if I wasn't part of your problems anymore, but then I realized I cannot do that. You never left me alone when I was going through bad times. This is what we do. We are there for each other."

She cries and she smiles.

"Why do you always know the right thing to say?"

Stefan doesn't always know what's the right thing to say.

For example, he doesn't know how to explain Caroline that Damon is trying to convince the new, resentful Luke Parker (a threat the witch apparently acquired after merging with his sister, or so his brother says) to get revenge on the Gemini coven by helping them get their mother back from the prison world where she's been trapped for ages.

"Don't pretend that you aren't curious as well, Stef."

He is, and he isn't. After learning some details about the Heretics and his mother, as much as Caroline was willing to share, he feels some pity for them. At least for his mother and for Valerie. It would be hypocritical on his part to condemn them for their killing spree, when he was who he used to be.

So far, Damon has not succeeded, but Stefan knows his brother well enough to understand this cannot end well.

Therefore, he keeps his mouth shut the next week, watching as his brother and Alaric walk the thin line between being buddies and a-step-away from killing each other, all at the same time.

At one point during the bachelor's party he sneaks away from the noise and calls Caroline to check on her.

Since coming back to Mystic Falls, she's tried hard to go back to a routine, compelling professors into accepting her reasons to be absent for so long and letting her take the exams, and keeping in contact with her friends.

But it's one thing to try and live a normal life, and another to be ready to go to parties when she's still mourning (more than anyone can tell). Caroline insisted, so he can only worry about her.

Her phone rings for so long that Stefan is ready to hear the well-known voicemail when she picks up his call.

"Hey!"

"Hey. How are things over there? Are you having fun?"

"Of course, aren't you? I thought you guys would be MIA by now." He can almost picture her teasing eyes just by hearing her tone. "Or are you missing me already?"

He chuckles. Perhaps he was overthinking things. She's back to being the bright, ever optimistic Caroline Forbes.

"I'm fine, Stefan. You don't have to worry about me."

"I'm sorry. I can't help it."

The loud music in the background becomes even louder.

"Is Damon planning on destroying the house with that party?"

"You know my brother."

"Yeah, I don't know why I asked. I have to go now. I cannot make it as the maid of honor, but I'm working my way onto being the kid's godmother one day, and I need to beat Elena to it."

"I have no doubt you'll win. Ok, I'll see you later."

"Have fun. But not too much. Love you."

"I love you too."

At night they sleep side by side, and she snuggles next to him, but nothing else happens. Stefan knows that Caroline is still on her road of recovery.

When she smiles and laughs it's not a pretense. The nightmares are still there, too, but even if he doesn't know anyone else who can bounce back from a non-humanity phase at the speed she has, that doesn't mean there aren't struggles.

It's just that Caroline manages to deal with life in such a way that it makes everyone around her assume she is the text-book definition of positivity.

Except the moments when she panics because things don't go as planned.

He walks into the room right behind Bonnie, and his eyes follow her as she paces back and forth, complaining about Jo's wedding planner that has failed at the last minute and how they should have let her handle the whole thing from the start (Caroline wasn't around back then, but that's not the point she's trying to make).

Stefan is pretty sure if her professional ambitions weren't focused elsewhere, Caroline could have established herself as an event planner a long time ago. She's been doing this for years now, the go-to person in Mystic Falls even since they were in high school.

"No sign from her?"

Bonnie shakes her head.

"I'm sorry. She's not picking up her phone either."

It doesn't stop Caroline from trying again.

"This is supposed to be Jo's magical night and you are ruining it. We're starting without you", She calls Elena out through an angry voicemail. And of course, she has every reason to be pissed off, but maybe it's not the best idea to be so loud about how the maid of honor is missing, when the bride is already nervous in the room next door.

He clears out his throat.

"Uhm, I don't want to tell you how to run your wedding, but-"

"We're not waiting anymore. Tell them to cue the music." Caroline says with resolve, and he goes to do as she says, but gets to listen to her comment to her friend. "Bonnie, when you choose your maid of honor, just remember who's the most dependable one girlfriend here."

Stefan smiles and shakes his head as he approaches the musicians, and not long after that, his brother and Elena miraculously appear, and Caroline is sitting by his side as the ceremony starts.

Her smile grows wider, and her shoulders finally relax as everything seems to be going alright.

All he can think about as he looks at her is that, whether immortal or human life, this is what he wants. A lifetime by her side.

'Should we go next?'

The thought occurs to him, even if he's not crazy enough to voice it.

It's too soon, not the right moment.

As it is, he counts himself lucky to hold her close to him as they dance that night. She rests her head on his shoulder, and one of his hands travels to draw a line down her bare neck. He's getting drunk on the flowery scent coming from her. She is not indifferent to this sudden thirst, because he feels her shiver in his arms. When they lock eyes, neither of them need to say it. It's time to leave the party.

Somehow they make it to the woods, his house is too far away. He leaves a trail of kisses from her jaw to her neck and back to her lips, and she reacts with the same urgency, her hands quickly taking off the many unnecessary layers of clothes and her legs clinging around him, rocking against the lower part of his body in the most impossible delicious way.

"No!" She suddenly stops, placing her hands on his chest, and there's a frown slowly forming on her face.

"What is it?"

If she wants to stop now, he will, but god knows his whole body is screaming in frustration.

"We left too early. I didn't get to stay for the bouquet toss." She purses her lips. "After working hard all day, I can't believe I missed it."

He can't help but laugh out loud, which gains him a punch on the arm.

"It's not fun."

"It is, actually." He kisses her again, his hands roam down her waist and stop at her hips. "You don't need that bouquet. June is already ending, we'd have to wait for the next one."

The words come out without much thinking, but it's clearly a mistake. Her eyes are wide open, as if his scandalous confession is too much for her.

"How much of my diary have you read?"

All of it.

Maybe.

He shrugs, refusing to make things worse for himself.

"I swear, I was just trying to understand where you might have gone when you left."

And it did help, after all.

She bites her lower lip. "Just because everyone in town read your diary, it doesn't mean you can do the same with mine."

"I'm sorry."

"And I hope that's not you proposing."

"It's not." Not yet.

"Good. Because it wasn't romantic at all."

She proceeds to kiss him again, and they don't go back to the wedding reception afterwards.