A.N.: Here that teeny tiny voice? That's my muffled attempts to say hi under the mountain of reviews you've sent me! Thank you, everyone! To everyone who reviewed without signing in, I really wish I could reply. A lot of reviews are written in the same vein, curious about Giulia being affected by the Gilbert device. Is she supernatural? Is she a Hunter? Will she turn? The answers to those questions – I shall not give you! Hahahahaha! Oh, and Elena Hater, you are so right in your review!
Just watching 'What Lies Beneath' in season five, and even though Caroline's completely justified and honest while she's telling off Elena for keeping the Stefan-killed-Enzo secret, somehow Elena manages to suggest that it hurt that Caroline accused her and Stefan of being "make-out buddies" and Caroline loses all momentum in her argument to start apologising to Elena – WHAT?! God I HATE Elena. Loving that Enzo snapped her neck in the previous episode! *Rant over.
Dangerous Beauty
03
All About the Setting
After her conversation with Stefan over boeuf bourguignon, Giulia had come to the unsettling realisation that once the shock of her transformation wore off, Caroline might undergo a long and destructive process of accepting that Giulia had lied to her their entire lives. Jeremy accepted, understood, even, that Giulia had kept her own family's secret because it was just that – her own. No-one else, until Elena had stuck her nose in, had needed to be privy to the dark secrets that made the Boarding House even more so the creepiest house in Mystic Falls: even then, Giulia didn't believe Elena had ever had any right to demand Salvatore family-secrets. She wasn't a Salvatore – and a tiny voice inside Giulia's head said, And she never can be.
But Caroline was different. She was Giulia's best-friend, the sister she had never had, the second part of her soul. She was devastated Caroline had turned, but what could she do? She followed Caroline's lead, no matter how numbed her reaction might be, but Giulia knew her best-friend. Shakespeare had once said it was a wise father who knew his child: Giulia knew Caroline. If the others were worried Caroline would snap and pull a Ripper, that was their fear. Giulia knew better; Caroline was taking her newfound vampirism in stride, the way she always had everything else life threw at her. Her parents' divorce – her dad coming out – devastating milestones in Caroline's life, now her own death was something she had accepted wholeheartedly and was moving forward with that irrepressible enthusiasm Giulia so admired in her best-friend.
She was just waiting for the other shoe to drop – for the shock, if any lingered after their marathon talks about the reality of Giulia's life – now Caroline's life too – to wear off. For Caroline to realise she was…upset with Giulia, angry, for keeping the secret, worse, blame her for what had happened to her. As impartially as she could, Giulia had told Caroline the events that had culminated in her murder. Her transition. Once Giulia had explained the transition process, Caroline had been able to understand and appreciate what she had gone through; knowing about Bonnie not de-spelling the Gilbert device, she now understood – as much as any of them did – why Tyler had been affected, lost control of the wheel, putting her into the hospital. She was working through it, the same way they all were. Giulia was just more anxious than any of them that Caroline might turn to her one day, and tell her it was all her fault.
And Giulia couldn't handle that.
She worried that one day Caroline would come to resent her friendship with Giulia for what had happened to her because of it – she now remembered everything about her 'relationship' with Damon that he had erased from her memory. The feeding, generally being a dick to her. But she'd been so forthright about reassuring Giulia that…sex with Damon had always been way more than consensual on her part. In Caroline's words, "He really knows what he's doing down there."
More than Giulia needed to know.
It might have been too many marshmallows but she'd had to stifle the reflex to vomit at that.
And if Giulia was anxious, Caroline woke up one morning and…started behaving strangely. The usually optimistic, chatty Caroline was quiet. It was unnerving, unnatural, and did nothing to soothe the knot of anxiety coiled in the pit of Giulia's stomach, dreading when Caroline might look at her with a stranger's eyes, accusing her of killing her.
It didn't help that Car was limited to the house during daylight – the promised heat-wave was ramping up, teasing them with incredibly fine mornings and clear blue skies, and rain in the evenings. Caroline was frustrated at having to stay indoors, annoyed by her skin burning every time she passed by an un-shuttered window, and with the frequency Matt was calling her even Giulia's nerves were stretching to their limit: she didn't understand how Caroline hadn't called Matt to tell him off and screech at him to stop calling her. But she didn't.
He'd finally told Caroline he loved her.
That was a new development. The same night they had learned of Caroline's transition, Matt had told her how he felt – something she'd been dying to hear for weeks. The irony was awful.
The evenings were still coming early – not as early as usual, but spring was coming, and seven a.m. saw the sun shining brightly, mist evaporating amongst the new buds of life. It was while they were cooped up indoors again – onto season five, with the glorious Logan Huntzburger, and Giulia's alter-ego, the eccentric Australian Finn – that Giulia, watching the lushiest trust-funders Emily could procure for a "Male Yale" party to introduce Rory to the right kind of boys, sighed heavily. This wasn't enough.
It was Spring Break. Caroline was a new vampire. And Giulia knew witches, and wanted Caroline to learn the perks of being a vampire and not have to feel guilty about it. Caroline was a new vampire; the entire world was open to her. There was nothing she couldn't do if she put her mind to it – the same held true for her even as a human, so in that regard little had changed for Caroline. But Giulia had noticed that becoming a vampire had helped Caroline shed that cotton padding of insecurity and self-doubt. Now she would be unstoppable – as long as nobody (and Giulia had several names on the tip of her tongue she had to bite back) made her feel bad about her personal evolution.
"So…what happens when Damon wakes up and finds us gone?" Caroline asked, breathing deeply the fragrant early-evening air; the sun was a dying red orb staining the entire skyline orangey-gold, vivid and entrancing, but the sky was already turning dark sapphire, a few stars glimmering, and they had a half-hour before dark descended completely. They could drive through the woods to the interstate without Caroline being endangered.
"Not much," Giulia shrugged, tugging the driver's door open. She handed Caroline a vintage silk scarf, securing a black elastic around her own head to keep her hair out of her face. She tossed her purse negligently in the backseat, and Caroline glanced at the clean leather seats before sliding into the passenger-seat. "When he finds his Camaro gone…? Different story." Caroline laughed softly. It was the first time she'd really laughed all day, and Giulia didn't miss the hesitant look Caroline shot her way when she thought Giulia wasn't looking.
"Are you even gonna tell me where we're going?" Caroline asked, twisting in her seat to check the backs of the seats. "Do we need a map-book?"
"We'll wing it," Giulia shrugged. She knew where she was going, but last time Damon had driven them. The powder-blue Camaro was a VIP pass to an underground parking-garage in the city and Giulia knew where they needed to go. She didn't have a specific plan, only a vague inclination – she would see how things went. The engine rumbled sexily into life and Giulia smirked as she drove out of the garage, onto the road and away from the Boarding House. She'd permitted Caroline her cell-phone and that was it; if they ran into trouble along the way, Caroline would get a crash-course in perfecting the compulsion she had already learned to utilise the night she turned.
They blazed out of town as the sun gilded everything with a burning gold light, Giulia saw the way Caroline sighed and bit her lip at the sight of such a beautiful image: she fed the new CD Ashlyn had sent her in their latest goodie exchange into Damon's updated stereo, the debut album from Paloma Faith, and Caroline pulled an impressed face, already liking the music. Rarely did the two agree on musical tastes – Giulia loved classical or classic rock and punk; Caroline was addicted to MTV and had never heard of the majority of the most iconic musicians in the last fifty years. Damon's CD collection – since updating his collection from cassettes to CDs with a new stereo to match – spanned the breadth of the twentieth-century musical evolution, but like Giulia he was influenced mostly by classic rock, punk, big-band and classical, and it was tucked inside a huge 100-CD case in the trunk; Giulia had brought it out before they set off, and she had Caroline change the CD often enough that the music never got stale as they blazed up the i95.
"Why are we stopping? We're in the middle of nowhere," Caroline said, glancing around. It was fully night now, nine p.m. and street-lamps were humming as she pulled off the interstate toward a cluster of hotels, restaurants and gas-stations. She had stopped here with Damon when they had gone to New York after the ill-fated tomb-raid: the small diner just off the highway served the best pies and chilli.
"I'm starving," Giulia groaned, stretching as she stood outside the car. She'd forgone a jacket and goose-bumps prickled her bare arms, having also left off a bra – she had stolen Damon's keys and grabbed Caroline's hand, pulling her to the garage before her thoughts had truly formed. She ran her fingers through her wind-tousled hair and yawned. "You are going to go into that diner, order us a bunch of food, and we're gonna find somewhere pretty to eat it."
"Er…okay. You didn't give me time to grab my wallet – d'you have money?"
"You have compulsion," Giulia said sternly, leaning her palms on the ledge of the door, arching an eyebrow down at Caroline. She had rolled the top down before they had left Mystic Falls, driving too fast in the dark with the music blazing and her best-friend, talking and laughing… She wished they could've done this ages ago. Caroline glanced uncertainly from Giulia to the diner, windows glowing warmly across the parking-lot. An expression of resolution, of self-confidence, suffused Caroline's face, warm and easy, and she climbed out of the car.
"Okay," she said, accepting the gauntlet Giulia had thrown down. "What do you want?"
"Cheeseburger – they do one with bacon and a huge onion-ring in it. And they do the best pies – there's Shoofly and this peanut-butter one, and they call this really good one 'Chocolate Crack' pie, and grab some chilli too," Giulia said. Caroline nodded, flipped her hair over the shoulders she held back confidently, and strode toward the diner. Giulia watched her, pride blossoming in her chest. It wasn't about getting the food for free.
It was about Caroline walking in there like she owned the place and having the confidence to order the food and walk away with it after not paying. The conscientious girl in her, the well-brought-up Miss Mystic, would have balked at dining-and-dashing: and Giulia knew it wasn't outside a vampire's means to make financial investments. But still. One day Caroline might find herself without anything but her own resources. She'd rather Caroline exhausted the novelty of compulsion now, binging on burgers and probably a Fifth Avenue shopping-spree, than on high-schoolers who failed to tumble properly during cheer practice, or was seen talking to Matt a few too many times, as had happened when they'd gone to the small bonfire Tyler had hosted at the swimming-hole last night.
Stefan had started laughing at Caroline – "everyone is at the swimming-hole having fun and Matt is there and he finally told me that he loved me, but I've been blowing him off and now you want me to eat bunnies and I'm kinda freaking out, okay?!"
It was the first time Giulia and Stefan had shared a laugh, catching each other's eye and trying to stifle their snickers. "And now you're laughing at me. Great."
"No, no," Stefan chuckled. "I'm not laughing – none of this is funny, trust me. It, uh, it's just that…"
"What?" Caroline snapped, frowning intensely at Stefan, hands on her hips and frustrated by the bunny-diet Stefan wanted to put her on.
"When someone becomes a vampire, all their natural behaviour sort of gets, uh…amplified," Stefan said, barely able to control the smile lingering on his lips, as Giulia snorted and stuffed another potato-chip in her mouth as Caroline turned narrowed eyes on her.
"What do you mean?" Giulia smirked at Stefan delightedly, challenging him to explain to Caroline tactfully what they were both realising. That Caroline as a vampire was a very different handful to manage than the insecure human one.
"Uh, as a human, I cared deeply for people, how they felt, if they were hurting I felt their pain, I felt guilty if I was the one who'd caused it," Stefan said, gesticulating and wincing slightly. "And…as a vampire, all that…got…magnified."
"So you're saying, that now, I'm basically an insecure, neurotic control-freak – on crack?"
"Well, I wasn't gonna say it…like that," Stefan winced, his eyes sparkling with humour. Caroline sighed to herself, shaking her head.
Giulia sighed, leaning against the side of Damon's car, and started subtly when her phone started to vibrate deep inside her purse. She fished it out, quashing the feeling of annoyance and disappointment spreading through her stomach like ivy creeping around oak – she was disappointed because he had taken so long to call her back, annoyed that she had found herself wishing she could talk to him at all. She glanced at the diner, where she could see the glimmer of Caroline's hair golden in the light by the counter, hand on her hip as she waited for her order.
"Hi," she said softly, trying to keep her tone level.
"I just listened to your message," Elijah said. Not I didn't get your message; he hadn't listened to it. She was oddly charmed by the honesty but she sighed, watching Caroline through the diner windows.
"Cara says you've been recruiting," she said, instead of addressing what she'd said in the voicemail she had left Elijah. She had called him shortly after cleaning up Caroline in the disabled restroom at school, the night of the carnival. She was a little mortified, reflecting on what she must have sounded like in that message. And then she was too sad to be embarrassed.
"Giulia…" he started, then sighed heavily. They both remained quiet for a moment, then Elijah said quietly, "How is she handling the transformation?"
Giulia watched Caroline, sadness and pride mingling together and making her eyes burn, "Like she was made for it."
"And you?"
"What else is there to do but embrace it wholeheartedly?" Giulia said, her voice dull even to her own ears. This wasn't the life she would ever have wanted for Caroline – she suited it, Car seemed to have a better handle on vampirism than she had on being a human teenager – but there were things that Caroline could never have now that she was a vampire. And they were still too young to truly appreciate what those things were. She wasn't a child, she wasn't Claudia, but in the same vein, Caroline would never grow older, never die – never bear a child.
She had always wanted a little girl of her own.
"You do not sound wholly enthusiastic," Elijah said softly, his voice gentle and non-accusatory.
"I'm still in shock, maybe," Giulia said softly. "We all are. And she's taking it so well."
"How did this occur?" Giulia hesitated, but sighed and told Elijah everything, from what happened after they had stopped their sexting so she could deliver condolences to Mrs Lockwood and Tyler, to the Gilmore Girls marathon and getting Caroline up to speed on the supernatural underworld of Mystic Falls.
"Now we're on the road," Giulia said, sighing. "I've stolen Damon's Camaro and we're headed north."
"A Lost Weekend," Elijah said warmly.
"It's past time," Giulia said softly. She wished she could have told Caroline everything so much earlier on – if she had ever had to tell Caroline at all. But this was the way it had worked out, and for the moment Caroline was still talking to her despite everything.
"Are you headed to the city?" he asked, and Giulia smiled wanly; 'the city' could only reference one place. Just as 'Town' referred to London in all Austen novels, 'the city' was Manhattan for Elijah.
"Yes," Giulia said, glancing back at Caroline still waiting for their food. She didn't want to hurry the phone-call but she also…didn't want to share Elijah just yet – she didn't want to have to explain all to Caroline. He was hers, for now.
"Have you acquired daylight-jewellery for Caroline yet?" Elijah asked.
"No," Giulia said flatly, frowning at the thought of Bonnie. And given she had backhanded her granddaughter, Giulia didn't think Sheila would be up to spelling anything to help Caroline as a favour to Giulia. Sheila wasn't as hateful but she was more cautious about vampires, and she sat on the Council – to Damon's annoyance. She sighed heavily. "Does it have to be lapis?"
"Unfortunately," Elijah said. "You're not the first woman to bemoan the choice of stone used in the original spell for daylight rings."
"I suppose it's all about the setting," Giulia sighed. She smiled sadly to herself, remembering Elijah's glittering workshop in the Connecticut mansion. The mechanised starling, the eggs… "I know who to ask to do the spell, I just…wonder if Van Cleef & Arpels do anything with lapis lazuli. Car loves Lily van der Wooden's style." Elijah chuckled softly; given Ashlyn's taste for Gossip Girl, he understood the reference.
"Where do you intend to stay during your visit? That is assuming you plan to sleep," Elijah said quietly.
"Well, I'm with a baby-vamp so it's best-behaviour Giulia," she sighed.
"Best-behaviour Giulia? I think you mean best-behaviour for Giulia on a Lost Weekend with her best-friend Giulia," Elijah said, and Giulia smiled warmly.
"Exactly," she said. "I'm going to call Cara and see if it's okay we crash at her house while we're in the city."
"I'm sure she won't mind," Elijah said. "I shall have my housekeeper drop something by for you."
"Shall you?" Giulia said, teasing lightly. Always so proper – not always, she reminded herself.
"Yes," Elijah said smilingly. "It is all about the setting, after all."
Giulia smiled sadly to herself. "Thank you," she half-whispered.
"I should have listened to your message days ago," Elijah said quietly.
"You've been busy."
"I should never have put you in the position you questioned whether I – I do not wish you to think that –"
"I know you care, Elijah," she said softly, sniffing and looking down at the ground, scuffing her boots. She stifled a yawn, suddenly very tired, eyes threatening to slide closed, her body achy. "You just have people you care about more, though… Besides, I got through it on my own." She glanced toward the diner, watching Caroline receive a tray of drinks, eyeing a waitress eagerly for the two bags of food she carried over from the kitchen.
As much as Giulia had wished she could talk to Elijah that night – she didn't need to. She was perfectly capable of pulling her own shit together. Depending on the mess it could take days, some things might take her years to work through, but Giulia could do it without any help from anyone. Her father had raised her to be independent, and she was. "We're all going to get through it." She watched Caroline grin and strut confidently out of the diner. "Caroline's coming."
"Enjoy your weekend, la Bella," Elijah said softly, and she smiled to herself before ending the call.
"Who was that?" Caroline beamed, striding over laden with food. There was a bounce in her step and Caroline's smile was jaunty and self-satisfied when she reappeared, bearing a cardboard tray and two bags full of food.
"Your mom. Damon reported us," Giulia sniffed, tossing her phone into her purse in the backseat with a negligent shrug. "So – add grand-theft to your college application."
"Hey, it worked for Ryan Atwood," Caroline smirked, referencing her old-time favourite TV show back when Juicy Couture sweat-suits, trucker hats and pukka-shells were all the rage (again).
"How'd you do?" Giulia asked, glancing at the bags and tray Caroline was balancing expertly.
"Piece of cake," she smirked, wedging all the food carefully on the backseat.
"Uh, I sent you in there for pie," Giulia said, giving her a remonstrating look as she tugged the driver's door open and climbed in. Caroline rolled her eyes.
"Where next?" Proud of Caroline, Giulia drove off, joining the i95 until they came to the turning off toward a small town very like Mystic Falls, with a gorgeous waterfall at the public park in the woods.
"Alright," Giulia said, grabbing one of the bags of food in one hand, wrapping her tongue around the straw of her milkshake as she adjusted it against her chest, trying to lock the car with the keys in the same hand, before managing to drop the keys into her purse, curl her hand around the milkshake, after taking another slurp, and, Caroline giggled, poised and waiting as she grappled with the other food and the metallic purple digital-camera her dad had given her for Christmas (Giulia had shoved it in her purse before they'd left Mystic Falls). "Ready! …Steady! Go!" She launched herself into mid-air, and Caroline, giggling giddily, managed somehow to catch Giulia – they both screamed as Giulia pitched forward, momentum threatening to throw her over Caroline's head as she bent at the waist, jiggling Giulia's weight on her back.
"Oh. You're not as heavy as I thought," Caroline mused, linking her arms under Giulia's knees as Giulia wriggled more comfortably onto Caroline's back, linking an arm around her neck. She narrowed her eyes at the side of Caroline's face, and nipped her ear. "OW! You bit me?!" She laughed. "What? Eugh! Wait – smile!" She held the camera out in front of them at an angle, and Giulia was temporarily blinded as she sucked on her milkshake straw.
"Wonderful, that's gonna be very glamorous," Giulia said drily.
Caroline giggled. "So where are we going?"
"Through the woods, up the ravine, to the top of the waterfall," Giulia said.
"Okay, and how do I know where that is?"
"Listen," Giulia said, sucking on her straw again. Caroline was having absolutely no problems carrying her piggy-back style, laden with food in the dark woods that would once have given her the creeps. "Listen for the rush of water where it's the loudest, and start running toward it."
"What if I run into a tree, or like a boulder or something?"
"Have you ever when you've been hunting with Stefan?"
Caroline sighed; she disliked the bunny-diet. "No."
"Well, then," Giulia shrugged. "Come on, my food's getting lukewarm."
"Okay," Caroline sighed, then she nodded, set her chin high and narrowed her eyes at the middle-distance shrewdly. Giulia heard her whisper, "Rushing water…" And they were off – she had to cling on, laughing gleefully as they sped through the woods, dew-damp leaves whipping her face, the undergrowth exploding with scents as Caroline tore through it. They found the river, and Caroline zoomed up the rocky, near-vertical cliff-face, to the grassy outcrop at the very edge of the waterfall. Mist danced in the air and the sky opened up before them, a town glittering below, miles away. The stars glittered, the moon nearing full and Caroline let Giulia slide off her back to set their food down on the picnic-bench perched obscurely at the edge of the waterfall. The view was very pretty even in moonlight.
"Wow," Caroline breathed softly, tucking her hair away from her face to just gaze out. "It's really pretty." Giulia nodded, arranging their food on the bench, pulling several Altoids-tin heaters/mini-campfires and candles out of her purse. Unnatural white light from a camping-lantern would've killed the ambiance, and in the early-spring evening, there were nocturnal birds and smaller animals coming out, giving them a subtle background concert for their meal. "How did you know about this place?"
"Damon's brought me here, a couple of times," Giulia said, sipping the strong black coffee Caroline had got for her. Caroline turned away from the ledge to come and sit at the picnic-table with her, dusting off the seat first. "I think he might even have brought this table up here."
"So you do this kinda stuff with Damon?" Caroline asked. "Like, Lost Weekends?"
"We used to," Giulia said, starting on her burger, eyeing the large moth that came fluttering to the open flame a foot from her. Caroline, usually afraid of anything that fluttered in the dark, tilted her head, eyeing it curiously. Giulia wondered what she saw. "He'd blaze into town and abscond with me – amusement-parks, gigs in the city, college parties, road-trips. Anything. After we got inside the tomb and realised Katherine wasn't in there, we went to New York."
"With that Romilly girl you said you let out of the tomb," Caroline added, remembering the details. Giulia nodded. "And she's a friend of Vera and Cara's, your great-great…whatever-great aunts."
"Yep. Well, Carafina's my ancestress," Giulia added. "Our family-line goes back to her in Rome in the 1490s, when she married into a noble family in the Papal States. Originally she and Vera are from Florence, and their direct lineage traces back to the 900s A.D."
"Wow," Caroline said softly. "So – why is Damon your favourite? Is it just the whole Lost Weekends thing? I don't really see Stefan letting loose like that."
"Oh, he doesn't," Giulia assured her. "Well, no, that's not true. There's a reason Stefan survives off animal blood."
"Because he goes a little crazy?" Caroline asked, eating fry after fry after fry.
"Human blood to Stefan is like crystal-meth to a human," Giulia said, sighing heavily. "He can't feed off humans without turning into a Ripper."
"What's a Ripper?"
"The reason vampires have such a bad rep in pop-culture," Giulia said grimly. "Stefan in his Ripper phases will feed so hard, he'll black out – when he comes to, the person he's fed on is in pieces. He'll feel a great tsunami of remorse and try to put the pieces back together – but it's still a drug in that he'll do anything not to come off it while he's 'using'." Caroline looked shocked.
"He's killed people?" she half-whispered. Giulia nodded, eating an onion-ring.
"Stefan's body-count is exponentially larger than Damon's. If Stefan's on one of his Ripper benders – and he's shut off his emotions – he'll leave a trial of dismembered bodies for years… In 1917 he slaughtered an entire community of migrant workers in Monterrey," Giulia said, and Caroline's eyes widened. "Other vampires still know him by the moniker 'Ripper of Monterrey' today. He didn't do it for sport, he – if he's in touch with his emotions, Stefan will struggle with what he's doing; he won't torment people for his own amusement. But if he's shut his emotions off because he doesn't want to feel the pain, the remorse for killing all those people so horrifically, then…he is exponentially more dangerous than Damon has ever been. It's – Jekyll and Hyde. And Stefan hates it, that's why he tries so hard to be this Stefan, the one we all know, the one he only ever wants Elena to see. Because he's proud of being that considerate, conscientious person, the good boyfriend, the guy you can rely on. And he hates the Ripper, until he is the Ripper."
"So… Damon's better, then? A better vampire, I mean?"
Giulia shook her head, "They're both fucked-up." She sighed, dunking fries into a polystyrene cup of chilli. "Stefan struggles eternally with his Ripper alter-ego, the urge to drink human-blood… In his way Damon's always tried to help Stefan face his issues, but it never goes the way he expects; and Damon's got his own issues, he…sometimes he misses being human and the only thing he can do is lash out. So he does… And who's to stop him? Half the stuff he's pulled in Mystic Falls recently though, that's mostly all been about pushing Stefan's buttons. It's their own brother-drama, but like a hurricane debris gets drawn into it, swept up for a while and discarded." She glanced down at the slice of pie she was eating – they'd even put whipped-cream on each slice – and had to struggle to swallow as thoughts of her dad rose up, unbidden, biting her tongue from saying, It's what got my dad killed. Zach had gotten involved in the eternal Salvatore-brother feud and paid the price for meddling.
"Because Stefan made Damon turn, after he thought Katherine was dead," Caroline said, and Giulia nodded. She sighed, eyeing the slices of pie Caroline had acquired.
"I think…back then, after Stefan forced him to, Damon realised how much he didn't want to turn," Giulia said softly. Damon's feelings about turning back in 1864 had always been a no-go zone, even at their most drunk. But with Stefan's recent Ripper-detox and his anguish about Katherine, getting Damon killed, killing his father, a lot of things had aired out that Damon and Stefan had both been keeping to themselves for far too long. Caroline frowned.
"But Damon's like…a great vampire," she said, tilting her head to the side. "Not a good one, I don't mean that, but he's like…a real vampire. He feeds on people without killing them, he knows how to compel people brilliantly."
"Well, he enjoys it," Giulia said fairly. "Stefan struggles; but Damon doesn't. He knows who and what he is. And he wouldn't give it back." Caroline chewed a mouthful of burger, swallowed, and sighed, reaching for her own milky, sugary coffee. Caroline was usually a strict Starbucks hazelnut latté girl with extra foam and two sugars; it was Giulia who slung back the tar. But she had to get used to drinking the strong stuff if she didn't want people gasping at how cold her touch was.
"So…who do you think…?"
"Caroline?"
"Who do you think…is a better vampire-mentor?" Caroline asked uncomfortably. "I mean, I know you don't like me going out hunting with Stefan…"
"Caroline. You're seventeen, you've gotten through – almost – all of high-school without having an eating-disorder. I won't allow Stefan to give you one now: I'd rather you learned how to feed properly and moderately rather than binge like he does, that's far more dangerous for everyone – and since I'm your best-friend and I'm human and delicious, well…" Caroline scoffed, laughing, her eyes sparkling in the firelight. She offered Giulia one of the slices of pie. "I think half Stefan's efforts with you stem from his own issues, you know. He's trying to remind you of your humanity, being considerate, not abusing your powers because he has forgotten at times…"
"So…you're not worried I'll crack and go on a murder-binge through town?" Caroline asked, frowning earnestly at her. Giulia shot her the look that anxiety deserved.
"Never," she said honestly. "I know you. You're my best-friend. You've already shown more composure as a vampire than you usually did as a human." She glanced at Caroline, searching her face for hints of blame, anger, the warning Giulia should abandon the subject – or the hurt, that Giulia had wounded Caroline's feelings; she found none. She licked her lips, eyed her pie, and said, "I think being a vampire suits you."
"You do?" Caroline said, her voice catching slightly. Giulia shrugged, frowning.
"And – I'd just like you to learn from Damon how to enjoy being a vampire," she said honestly. "I don't want you to be ashamed of yourself for eternity." Caroline sighed softly, swirling her straw around her milkshake cup.
"So Stefan's killed people as well," she finally said, very softly.
"Oh, his list of victims is a long one – a couple years' of it is inscribed on the booze-cellar wall in his apartment in Chicago," Giulia said, and Caroline's eyebrows rose slightly. "Look, none of us has clean records – my tally is over three-dozen." Giulia's eyes popped.
"What?"
"There were the twenty-four vampires in the tomb," Giulia said, helping herself to some of the lime slushie Caroline had ordered and now turned her nose up at. "And the half-dozen vampires I killed who tortured Stefan for info on Katherine."
"When was Stefan tortured?"
"Did I not tell you about that?"
"Um – no," Caroline pulled a face. So Giulia told her about the morning Stefan went missing – the student-teacher wonder-duo Ric Helsing and Giulia tearing their way through half the nest of very pissed off old vampires. Caroline stared at her, her face becoming paler, eyes wider, as Giulia recounted – probably a little too graphically – how she had killed each vampire separating her from Stefan. Caroline got this look on her face, this stern frown, eyes sharp and cutting through bullshit, the more Giulia said.
"So… Damon killed your dad after Stefan drugged him because he was protecting Elena. You spend months spiralling and just generally abusing your body with alcohol and parties and drugs –"
"And boys."
Caroline pursed her lips, narrowing her eyes, "They ignore you, put you in danger, they don't even care that you moved out or that you disappeared for two weeks over Winter Break, they don't care, and yet, you helped Damon get into the tomb so he could rescue Katherine. You blame him for your dad's death but you killed a half-dozen vampires to rescue Stefan." Giulia ruminated on that conclusion for a moment over sips of black coffee, cooling swiftly.
"That's about it," she shrugged.
"Well that's not right," Caroline snapped, looking vehement. "Why are you letting them walk all over you? You did that with Tyler and look where it got you."
Giulia stared, surprised. "Different situations, Car, and you know it," she said.
"They ignore you but the second they need help, you don't even hesitate," Caroline frowned.
"They're my family," Giulia sighed, feeling defeated. She shrugged.
"That is so messed up," Caroline declared, pursing her lips. "They are out of line… So is this why you go on your Lost Weekends? D'you hope they'll notice?"
"No," Giulia said, half-laughing. She smirked, sipping her milkshake. "Fact is, Damon was only ever the diabolical vampire-godfather who taught me how to party – he was never a parent. And I have little respect for Stefan considering his hypocrisy, condemning Damon. And he looks younger than me. Beyond that, they only ever came for short visits… This is the longest they've ever stayed in town, and they've never integrated before. My Lost Weekends were because they were fun, I got to enjoy myself with new people who didn't just…know me, the old me…"
"You mean they don't hold you back from doing things you want to do like I do," Caroline said, and Giulia stared at her. Her gaze was earnest and perceptive. "I know you think I see you in a certain way and get disappointed when you don't live up to my expectations – but you don't; you exceed them, all the time… I just – there are so many things I haven't felt comfortable even talking to you about because the situation – even before I knew about all this vampire stuff – was so awkward, I just couldn't even do it."
"Well, I bit my tongue too," Giulia said quietly.
"No duh. There's a reason you explode when no-one expects it, you keep everything buried so deep under the surface!" Caroline blurted. "I mean, smacking Bonnie?! …I guess I understand now, why things got so bad. Now that I know it all I can see why you were acting the way you were… I just – you're letting them push you out of your own life!"
"I removed myself from a toxic situation," Giulia corrected her. "It's not forever – they can't stay forever, not without effort. And I thought you supported my moving out."
"Look, I do, okay, I do, it's just – knowing everything like I do now, it's just so much more screwed up," Caroline declared, resting her forearms on the table in front of her, her posture relaxed. "It's a good idea that you moved out but it's not okay that they don't even know that you did."
"Well…whatever."
"Don't do that – don't just roll over."
"I'm not – I'm choosing my battles."
"What happened? When Damon came to town you were giddy to spend time with him. You – tolerated – having Stefan hang out with us. What changed – besides the obvious," Caroline added hastily.
"'The obvious' isn't reason enough for us to drift apart like tectonic plates that cause a tsunami?" Caroline sighed, arching an eyebrow at her.
"What happened?" she asked, and when Giulia gave her a significant look, Caroline fiddled with the end of the wrapper the waitress had tucked on the straw for her lime slushie. She flicked her glance up as Giulia sipped her coffee, and said quietly but confidently, "Elena?"
"Like I said, I pick my battles," Giulia said drily, sniffing. "And bide my time; ten years down the line, Stefan will be gone, she'll be fat and saggy." Caroline blurted a laugh, blushing with embarrassment at laughing at Elena's expense. "I'll be in my prime, tearing through the world with you!" Caroline's smile started out tiny and embarrassed at laughing at Elena, growing to a glittery-eyed grin as she realised the implications of what her life might look like ten years on. She sighed, though.
"Don't pretend it doesn't bother you that Damon's mooning over Elena," she said gently.
"Actually, I've been perfectly verbal to Damon about my opinion on his taking a liking for sloppy seconds," Giulia said, taking a long draw on the soda Caroline had got for her. She frowned, realising between the two of them they had about eight drinks and enough food for a family of five. And no leftovers in sight. "She is emotionally manipulative and intellectually inferior."
"He really is smart, huh?!" Caroline blurted, setting down her own coffee cup, tilting her head to one side thoughtfully. "I noticed that when we were – whatever we were." She rolled her eyes impatiently.
"Mm-hmm. Although smart doesn't mean wise," Giulia sighed. "You'd think he'd avoid repeating history, given how it's treated him."
"Thank you for getting me out of town, by the way," Caroline suddenly blurted, giving her a dazzling smile. Giulia frowned, sensing something was wrong.
"Caroline. What aren't you telling me?"
Caroline hesitated, but eventually her shoulders slumped and she sighed. "When…I went back to my house the other night for dinner with my mom – Katherine was there… And I'm so scared of her, Giulia."
Giulia's entire body sizzled with the power of her anger, and maybe her face looked as murderous as she felt, because Caroline's eyes widened. "Caroline. She killed you. Now, who are you more afraid of, her, or me, for her killing you?" Caroline's smile was tremulous, but it warmed up.
"Fair point," she said, though her expression became troubled as she swept her navy eyes over Giulia's face.
"You leave that little whore to me," Giulia said, finishing her milkshake. She sniffed, glancing up at Caroline and asking succinctly, "What'd she ask you to do?"
"Spy on Stefan and Elena," Caroline bit out, wincing. "She doesn't want them together." And not for the usual selfish reasons of Katerina being incapable of sharing her toys – if Stefan was out of the way, if she managed to push the Salvatore brothers out of town, that left the doppelganger wide open and ready for the plucking.
"Well, neither do I," Giulia said unconcernedly. "But I haven't yet resorted to murder. Okay – that much. Seriously, don't worry about her."
"She threatened you, Giulia," Caroline said, after a moment's quiet. Giulia glanced up, blinking bemusedly.
"Me? We haven't even been introduced and she's plotting my assassination? Rude. And foolish," she sniffed unconcernedly. She glanced up at Caroline, who still looked uncomfortable. "Well – seems she's observant enough to realise she can try to use us against each other as leverage. Wasted opportunity, though, with killing you. If I was her I'd have tried to use you to leverage me – so either she's just not that clever–"
"Or she doesn't realise just how dangerous you are," Caroline said, her voice low and earnest, and Giulia gave her a gentle smile, oddly flattered that Caroline had come to that conclusion. "Aren't you worried?" Giulia shook her head. She was in a unique position – she knew exactly what Katherine was in town for, exactly what she was after – exactly what she'd do to get Elena isolated. After a minute, Caroline asked, "So, what next?"
A.N.: Hello, lovelies! So, a few issues cleared up – and we start to see the emergence of the new and improved Caroline! I love her, I really do. Best female character on TVD by galaxies. I like the way Giuline's relationship is maturing, it's must more equal, I think. They're now both such strong characters, Caroline actually has a shot of being as supportive of Giulia as Giulia so obviously is of her.
