AUTHOR NOTES:

Okay, I can't believe you guys responded so well for this story! I feel so happy and warm inside! J Anyway, I hope you like this chapter too, I don't want this fic to be too long but I don't want to rush it either so I honestly have no idea how long this fic is gonna be but I am trying to pull my thoughts in order (which is no easy feat for me, I tend to have a very jumbled up line of thought) to process how to get to each point in the story, but no worries, I'll get there, hopefully! J

Oh and to my guest reviewer, I don't know what a kitsune is but I'll google around and see what it is. LOL J

Anyway, on to the chapter!

I DO NOT OWN THE VAMPIRE DIARIES

CHAPTER 3:

An hour later, Caroline found herself alone inside her house, lying on the sofa with a blanket over her. She went up to her room in search of her bag, which was lying on top of her bed. As soon as she saw her bag, she reached inside it to look for her phone, once she got it she saw two unread messages, one from Bonnie and one from her mom.

'Hey Care, Matt, Jeremy and I are gonna have dinner at the Grill, we'll meet you there at 6, okay?' said the text she got from Bonnie. Caroline looked at her wristwatch and saw that it was only 3:30 in the afternoon so she texted Bonnie back saying that she'll be there too.

After replying to Bonnie's text, she then proceeded to read her mom's message, which wrote:

'Sweet heart, I'm going to the founding families library and read about anything that could possibly be relative to what's happening to you, I'll be home late so don't worry too much. I love you, Care bear.'

Upon finishing reading her mom's text, Caroline felt a tear fall to her left cheek, her relationship with her mom had definitely changed over the years, it even improve when she turned, despite the fact that her mom is a member of the founding families, whose main task is to keep the town safe from creatures like her.

Caroline replied to her mom telling her that she'll be heading over to the Salvatore's to see if they know something about her 'condition' and then was having dinner with her friends at the Grill. After sending her text, put her phone back in her bag, slung her bag onto her shoulder, grabbed her car keys from the mantle near the door and was on her way to see the Salvatore brothers.

30 minutes later, Caroline finds herself in the door way for the Salvatore house.

"Stefan!" Caroline shouted, she knew that unless there was something going on, the Stefan would always be home.

"Stefan, I know you're in here! Get your butt down here! I need to talk to you!" Caroline said as she made herself comfortable on the sofa. A moment later she heard a swooshing sound and she found herself face to face with Stefan Salvatore.

"Hey Care, What's up?" Stefan said as he watched Caroline stand up and hugged him really, really tight.

"Well, for starters, I'm back!" Caroline said as she sat back down, forcing Stefan to sit beside her. "So how are you?" she continued, trying to make small talk.

"Well, let's see, Elena's left town, Damon has been miserable and I am just dandy, concerned for my brother and worried for my ex who is in love with my brother, God I'm such a martyr." Stefan said as he gave Caroline a glass of whiskey.

"Aw, Stef. You're not a martyr. You're just a really, really good person." Caroline said as she took the glass of whiskey and gave Stefan's hand a squeeze.

Stefan smiles at that and then leans back on the couch "So, tell me, how are you?" he asks.

Caroline sighs and then looks at Stefan, she figured she should just blurt it out so that her fears would be laid to rest; everything's perfectly normal, nothing bad is happening to her, right? After all, even if this weren't normal (which obviously, it isn't) Stefan would help her figure out what's wrong.

"I haven't been drinking blood, of any kind, for at least two months now." She said a little to fast. 'There,' Caroline thought 'its out in the open'.

"I'm sorry, what?" Stefan asked, not sure if he heard her right.

Sighing, Caroline repeated what she said, "I said, I haven't been drinking and craving for blood for about two months now." Caroline said slowly and clearly. She looked at Stefan to see his expression, hoping that it would be his normal "nothing-to-worry-about" expression, instead of seeing that though, she saw confusion and a little bit of worry start to mar his face.

"So how are you not desiccating? Two months with out blood of any sort would be driving me crazy by now." Stefan said, trying to get more information about what's going on with Caroline.

'I don't know. I wouldn't have even noticed this until Bonnie joked about me eating as if I were a starved human and that they didn't know a dead person can gain weight too!" She purposely left the part where Elena was also technically there too, "I haven't been craving and it's like my thirst has disappeared!" Caroline said, "Have you ever encountered something like this before, Stefan?" She asked, hoping that she could finally find out what's wrong with her.

"I'm sorry Care, but this is new territory for me too. I've never met a vampire who hasn't felt thirsty or even remotely cared for human food the way you currently do." Stefan said, a little worried that he didn't know what was going on, "Don't worry Care, we'll figure this out, I mean, we do have an eternity to live so we've got plenty of time." Stefan said giving Caroline a reassuring smile as well as trying to lighten the mood.

"Ha-ha, Stefan Salvatore tries to be sarcastic!" Caroline replied, "Why don't you come with Bonnie and I to Florida? It's Spring break and you did say you were bored and becoming a martyr here in Mystic Falls. What do you say?"

"I'd rather not Care, the last time I went to Florida was around the 1930's and I was at the peak of my ripper days, I'd rather not go through all that memory lane, even though Florida's totally different now, the memories and the images of the people I've killed…" Stefan said, suddenly becoming quiet, Caroline knew that he was remembering his past and would soon feel regret and disgust for himself and his actions.

"Anyway, I am having dinner with Bonnie, Jeremy and Matt tonight, you are going with me!" Caroline said, bringing Stefan out of his daze and distracting him.

"Alright. Where are we eating?" Stefan asked.

Caroline gave him her 'are-you-seriously-asking-that-question' look and said "Honestly Stefan, we only always ever meet up at one place! The Grill!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. What time are we leaving?" Stefan asked now smiling.

Caroline looks at her phone and says, "Well, we are leaving right now! It's almost 6pm!"

Entering The Grill, Caroline and Stefan immediately went over to their group's "table" and saw that Bonnie and Jeremy were already there.

"Hey Care! Stef, Matt's just finishing his shift then he'll join us." Bonnie said, noticing that the two had arrived.

"Oh great." Caroline said as she took a seat next to Bonnie while Stefan took a seat beside

"Hey guys, what are you having tonight so that I can get them ready before my shift ends and we can all eat together?" Matt asked, taking they're orders.

"I'll have a veggie burger and a coke, thanks Matt." Bonnie said as Matt lists her order down.

"I'll have a cheese burger with fries and a soda" Jeremy said.

"I'll have what Jeremy's having too." Said Stefan.

Matt took the two men's orders and then looked at Caroline, waiting for her order.

"Hmm…" Caroline hummed while looking at the menu, "I'll have a veggie burger with cheese fries, oh! And some taco's too, and a diet coke please." Caroline finished as she looked up and smiled at Matt.

"Well, that's it?" Matt asked with a bewildered look on his face.

"Uh-hmm, thanks Matt!" Caroline said.

After Matt left to take care of their orders, the group chatted amongst themselves while waiting for Matt's shift of end and also for their food to arrive. After their food had arrived, along with a now work-free Matt, the group began to eat and catch up again with one another.

Somewhere along their chat, Caroline, with the help of Bonnie had explained to Matt and Jeremy what had been going on with Caroline and when Bonnie had asked Stefan if he knew anything about something like that ever happening before to which Stefan had said that he hadn't heard of anything like what Caroline has been going through ever since he turned into a vampire.

"Guys, It's my mom, I have to take this" Caroline said as she picked up her ringing phone and answered it.

"Hey mom, what's up?" Caroline asked as she answered her phone.

"Honey, where are you?" Her mom asked.

"I'm at The Grill with my friends, why?" Caroline said, she didn't know why but she felt quite uneasy with the tone her mother was using to talk to her with.

"Okay, come home as soon as you can, I think I found something but I'm not sure exactly if what I found is right." Liz said, "By the way, is Stefan with you?" she added.

"Okay, I'll be home in 20 minutes mom and yes, Stefan is with me too, why?" Caroline asked.

"Good, you might want to tell him to come over too." Liz said.

"Okay, let me just ask him" Caroline face Stefan and asked him to come over to her place, once Stefan nodded she turned back to her phone and said "Okay, he said he'll come over too."

"Good, take care, sweet heart. Bye" Liz said as she put the phone down.

"Thanks mom, bye." Caroline said.

After explaining her conversation with her mom to her friends, Bonnie, Jeremy and Matt told her and Stefan to go ahead and leave and to tell them what they found out about the whole 'Caroline Incident' as they now dubbed it, as soon as possible. As Caroline and Stefan grabbed their things and left the Grill, Caroline couldn't help but feel relieved that they were finally going to figure out what was happening with her and that everything would finally return to exactly how it should be.

Little did she know; everything she knew about her life was just about to become anything but how it should be.

A/N:

I honestly had difficulty writing this chapter, I felt that if I just post a chapter where Care and her friends met up and just had a good time, it would sort of be just a waste of a chapter, hopefully the ending gave it a better substance (?) not sure what word I'm looking for here but any way, Some crazy Shit is about to unravel in the next few chapters!

Belated Happy Valentine's day!

xx