Chapter2. Crumble
The hospital was somber and quiet when Caroline's boots noisily clicked away on the tiled white floors. The phone call had left Caroline feeling first a buzzing silence and then the erratic pounding of her blood in her ears. Shaking and stumbling she made her way out the door while her Mom informed her of the room number where her best friend is supposedly lying, battling to hold on to the tether of life. The sky had started to pour by the time she managed to reach her jeep and the biting cold water soaking her clothes made her realize that she had been standing unmoving at the door. She was not sure if she was ready to get in and face this reality, she hadn't processed the news just yet. The sight of the keychain on her keys in her trembling hands, the same keychain Elena had proudly gifted with the biggest smile to her when she bought her jeep, was like a slap to the face, reminding her of what needed to be done. Somehow she managed to stop the tremble shaking her body and got in the jeep and drove to the hospital.
Now, though as she made her way towards the hallway, she could hear the commotion of doctors and nurses running around. She could hear the unmistakable detached tone of paramedics and officers informing and instructing someone about the accident.
The trembling was back. Her knees felt too weak to function and the blood started to pound against her temples once more. Caroline didn't have time to settle herself when she rounded the corner. The sight made her still.
Before her, behind the bustling medics and the solemn officers, in at the end of the hallway was Jeremy Gilbert. The barely 15-year-old boy was holding his sobbing Aunt on the floor. But the sight of his empty eyes as he fixedly looked at the wall deliberately ignoring everything else in the vicinity was enough to bring her out of her dark mind. It made her find the strength to pull herself together. She couldn't be weak. Not now. Her family needed her.
Caroline made her way to her mother. Elizabeth was surprised at the state of her daughter, soaking wet and shaking yet composed to the eye. "What happened?" was all Caroline asked and Elizabeth knew when to answer her daughter with all her words.
They received a call a few hours ago about an accident on the bridge and it was only when she reached the hospital to gather information on the victims and investigate the cause did she come to know that it was the Gilberts. Miranda had been announced dead at sight and Grayson had held on until he reached the hospital before he too followed his wife. Elena was unconscious but her vitals had been stable enough to show chances of survival. She had called the Gilbert house as soon as she could and the next call was made to Caroline. Elizabeth knew what the Gilberts meant to her daughter. She wasn't completely oblivious to Miranda essentially raising Caroline alongside Carol when she had failed to look past her failed marriage to be a mother to her daughter. Elizabeth watched on with worry as Caroline listened to everything without a flicker of emotion on her face before making her way to a doctor to ask about Elena. After making sure that Elena was going to be okay Caroline made her way toward the crying woman and the unresponsive teen.
Jeremy Gilbert has always been a happy kid. Even when he was a child he had been the kid with a near-constant smile who played with everyone without much fuss. His parents had always been prideful of his respectful character and sweet nature. Jeremy always believed he has all the reasons in the world to be happy. He has parents who loved and adored him. A sister who was almost his best friend. He has some good friends he loves to hang out with. He has his art and his family's support and encouragement to pursue it to his heart's content. Jeremy didn't know if anyone could ask for more so he believed he had every reason to smile. But now as he sat on the chilly tiles of this daunting white corridor with the smell of disinfectant in his nose, weird beeping and buzzing sound in his ears and the knowledge of his parent's death, Jeremy Gilbert didn't know why he ever smiled. The phone call an hour ago still didn't make sense. His sister had wanted to come home early so his parents went to pick her up. He had waved them goodbye as he beated Jenna for the third time that night. She had never been as good as him in board games. It had not been even an hour before the call came and he still didn't understand how his life has flipped upside down in less than an hour.
A hand on his shoulder finally broke him into the present and he looked up to find Caroline looking at him. He was glad she was here. She had always been able to make him understand even the most complex parts of his homework so surely she would be able to make sense of this situation. But she looked weird. Caroline has always dressed perfectly, to every occasion. The entirety of mystic falls could vouch for that. He had never seen her look anything other than primly put together, like she has everything under control. But not right now. She was wet and pale and he could see her holding back from shivering in the cold hallway. And she looked blurry. Why did she look blurry?
It was only when Caroline carefully extracted Jenna from him arms and made her sit on a bench in the hallway and then engulfed him in a tight hug did Jeremy realize the problem was with his eyes. He had started to cry.
Caroline held Jeremy as tightly as she could as his frame shook with sobs. Jeremy wrapped his arms around her, holding her wet shirt in clutched fists trying to hold on to his sanity as he buried his face in her shoulder, finally allowing him-self to try and understand the situation. Jenna managed to wipe her tears watching and realizing that she had failed in soothing Jeremy under the weight of her own grief and pain.
It took a while but Jeremy managed to calm down enough to ask why this has happened. It broke Caroline's heart watching the kid trying and failing to hold onto his reason. She had no answer, nothing that can sooth his pain and loss, so she held him tighter, hoping her actions will convey what her words would fail to. Jeremy cried for long time until he exhausted himself into sleep his face still in her shoulder and his hands still clutching on to her. Caroline carefully shifted under him asking Jenna to ask for an empty bed before gently picking him up and carefully laying him down in the family waiting room outside the ward.
Caroline covered him with a quilt and silently left him to sleep. He will need his rest for what is to come. She found Jenna, in much better condition than before sitting on the bench. Before she could approach the woman, her mother called to her. Walking a bit away, Elizabeth looked her daughter over. She was still wet and the shivering had increased since her arrival but other than that she looked okay. She looked weirdly composed. She wasn't even crying. Elizabeth was worried her daughter might be in shock. Before she could enquire about her well-being, Caroline started asking if she could possibly allow Jenna and Jeremy to stay. It wasn't for her to decide but she was sure that could be managed. "Are you okay?" the question was hollow and pointless even to herself but she didn't know what else to say. Caroline looked at her and she thought she would finally react in some way but she just looked towards Elena's room and kept quiet. Elizabeth could feel the isolation and distance that she herself had placed in their relationship but like every time before that, she had come to that realization she didn't know what to do.
"I am okay," Caroline replied, hoping to possibly ease her mother a bit, before moving towards Elena's room. Her hands shook at the door and she could still hear Jenna crying behind her, but she knew what she needed to and so like she has always done, Caroline willed herself to keep going. The door creaked open with a soft click and then she saw her best friend.
She looked at her. Elena was lying on the hospital bed. She looked fine, alright, asleep even. If Caroline could ignore the beeping instruments connected to her body and the hideous gown they put her in, she could almost convince herself that Elena really was asleep. That she was still the same girl Caroline danced with at the party mere hours ago with all her life and its infinite possibilities in front of her. That she still had the ability to grasp those possibilities with hope and vigor. That everything that happened till now, everything she heard, everything she saw, was a new cruel way her warped mind came up with to torment her. But try as she might, the insistent beeping and buzzing of the machines, the glaring fluorescents in the room, and the unmistakable stench of medicine and disease in the air, could not be ignored. Her body trembled with the unexpected onslaught of grief and anguish, as the reality started to sink in. She can't ignore that her best friend has been in a car accident in which she lost her parents and barely survived herself. She can't ignore that the woman she has seen as her mother figure, the man who had acted like her father in more ways than her own father ever had, is no more. This found family that had constantly welcomed and accepted her all these years with kindness and love, will never be the same. The realization finally hit her and brought her to her knees. Her lungs seem to forget their function as she gasped through the wretchedness of it all. Pain spread across her chest to every fiber of her body and soul and chased away the numbness that had held her together until now. And as the tears finally fell, Caroline Forbes broke down sobbing and whimpering, curled up on the floor next to the bed that held her unconscious best friend.