I am back with another dream sequence. I was going to publish this as one-shot, but it doesn't make sense without the context of these two fics, so here it is, an extra for you while waiting for the next chapter.

Some of you mentioned Stefan dreaming about a life he never lived, but... didn't he?

Thank you everyone for staying so long with me through these stories.


Previously...

"As he waits on the rooftop for the first rays of sun to appear, however, he is reminded of blonde curls and a sweet sounding laughter.

There is Caroline, somewhere in the distant future, but whoever she was, or would be in his life, Stefan just knows she deserves so much better than him."


29. The part of me that's you will never die

This party would have been much better if she had organized it. Mrs. Lockwood doesn't have good taste, or creativity, for that matter.

And why is she stuck with this man again?

"I want to help. Carry on uncle Zach's legacy, I am sure you understand that."

Caroline understands. After all, the whole reason why she came back to Mystic Falls after her mom passed away was to carry on with her role as the one Forbes in town. But this is also why she does not trust Damon Salvatore.

"It is not a decision I can take on my own, Damon."

"Come on, Caroline, I know you are part of the Council."

"Since you did your research already, then you know my presence is not a heavy weight on the council, but I will see what I can do." Offering her best smile, she picks a glass of champagne and goes to look for Matt.

She might not be sheriff or detective, but she is a journalist after all, and her inquisitive nature hasn't failed her more than a couple of times in all these years. So she knows the former resident of the Salvatore Boarding House had no other living relatives.

Caroline thinks about Sarah, and wonders if things would be different if her friend was still around. Would Sarah have been stuck in all this craziness of vampire hunting as well? Because this is certainly not how they pictured their lives to be like back when they were in middle school.

Now everything about Gail and Sarah's death ten years ago, and Zach's passing just weeks before Damon arrived in town, claiming to be a distant nephew, makes Caroline wonder if there was more to those deaths than what they thought.

Elena thinks she is being suspicious of Damon for no reason, so Caroline already gave up on that front (let Bonnie talk sense into her, they are best friends after all). It's like she is smitten with the new Salvatore, and it is irritating, given that Elena's boyfriend just moved to town because of her, leaving a perfectly good hospital just to be stuck in this town where no one will ever be someone. Of course, Tom is a nice guy.

Just as she is thinking about this, she catches sight of him, and it is a coincidence that he turns to look in her direction and smiles at her, too.

No, she won't go over that again. Tom is Elena's boyfriend, and he is cute, but Caroline loves Matt.

It is just that when she looks at Tom, she has this feeling of familiarity, comfort even, that is so hard to describe.

Her eyes fall on her ring. In just a couple of weeks, she will be a married woman, and things are just as they should be, so it is better not to start thinking nonsense.


She comes across the picture a week later, after days researching in the council archives.

Damon and Stefan Salvatore.

It confirms what she already knows, Damon must be a vampire. But it is the other man's image that sends a chill down her spine. Stefan Salvatore, who died in the same year as Damon, looks exactly like Tom Avery.

But Tom is not a vampire, she knows that. He and Matt drink the vervain that she and Elena secretly place in their drinks.

No, this man is dead, and Caroline knows this with a certainty that makes her heart ache.

Why?


As long as she keeps quiet for a few more days until they can kill the vampire, then they will be safe. This is what she thought. But Matt didn't know, and he let the monster enter their home.

So when she arrives that day, it is the picture of Matt unconscious and bleeding on the carpet of the living room that makes her freeze on the spot. Terrified, Caroline isn't sure how she manages to finally move towards him, kneeling by his side and checking his pulse.

Call 911. She needs to call 911.

But just as someone takes her call, Damon appears and breaks the phone in pieces with his bare hand.

"What did you do to him?"

"You should have let it alone, Care."

There is poison laced in his words.

How did he know?

"I told Elena. And Bonnie. They will take you out, even if you kill me."

Damon smirks, and grabs her chin to force her to look at him.

"Things would have been easier for everyone if you just stayed out of this. I was going to behave. All I wanted was to be close to them."

He means Elena and Tom.

"Why? Because he looks like your dead brother? But Tom isn't Stefan, you probably know that by now." Caroline spats. "And you were never going to behave. You killed Zach. And I am sure you killed Sarah and his mom, too."

His blue eyes are cold ice, a bottomless pit that threatens to swallow her whole.

"You are so annoying. A goody-two-shoes that thinks she is morally superior to everyone else, just like—" he stops, then grabs a knife. "Nevermind. People will only remember you like the crazy bitch that killed her fiance and then commited suicide."

Caroline feels the piercing pain of the stabs, and can't do anything as he leaves.


Her will to live is stronger, though, and she hangs on for longer than she should, and is rewarded by the soothing sound of Tom's voice, telling her to keep fighting, that she is going to be fine.

Is she, though?

Matt is dead.

In between consciousness and fantasy, she pictures the house framed with family pictures, a couple of children running around and filling the house with laughter. This life she will no longer have.

Her wedding was supposed to happen just two days from now.

Curiously, when she thinks about the wedding she does not think about Matt. She is dying, and in her fantasies she sees Tom.

"You told me once that I would fall in love without even realizing it and that's what happened."

Forest green eyes that are still calling for her.

"Caroline? Damn it, we are losing her."

Nothing makes sense.

She thinks the saving grace is this, being able to look at him for the last time, the last face she sees in this life. Her lips part as she tries to say something, anything, but it isn't his name that she calls before her heart finally stops beating.

"Stefan."