Chapter 3

Over the next week, Caroline walked aimlessly through the moments of her life. She did not spend time dwelling on Klaus or his baby, she lived life like a normal college girl. She went to class, attended parties, added decorations to her dorm. Living with Bonnie and Elena was what she always wanted, but she found more and more that she craved time alone. She couldn't talk to them, not about Klaus, or even about college. They both seem to be reluctant to participate in the human experience. The girls were more involved in the supernatural aspects of their lives.

Caroline and Elena were sitting in their dorm on their respective beds. Bonnie was off with Jeremy somewhere doing God knows what. Caroline was badgering Elena to get into gear again.

"You have a paper due tomorrow, Elena. You need to work on it." Elena rolled her eyes at Caroline's mothering. "And why do I know your schedule better than you do?"

"Caroline, I just don't feel like doing this right now."

"What, your paper?"

"No, college. We've spent so much time being attacked and grieving our losses. I just want to take some time to myself without any extra stressors."

"College isn't an extra big stress. This isn't Silas bringing back the dead, or witches coming to kill us all, or—"

"Or Klaus having a baby with another woman?" said Elena, acknowledging an elephant in the room.

"Wh—I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure you do Care. Klaus was obsessed with you and now he's living his life with someone else. I know you feel like he played you."

Caroline was taken aback by Elena's assumption. "Klaus didn't play me."

"Caroline its okay, it happens to the –"

"He didn't play me, Elena! I knew what I was doing."

"Okay, what were you doing?"

"I—just—never mind. I don't even know why were talking about him."

"I think that we all need to take some time" Elena said switching the topic away from Klaus, "maybe college is getting in the way of that right now. We need a mental health month. I feel like we've all earned it."

"So you're dropping out for the rest of the semester? Do you think that's a good plan for your future?"

"Caroline, we're vampires. We have eternity. We can go to college now, or five years from now or a hundred years from now. You don't need to rush your life."

But she did, she needed to move faster. She shook her head and turned away from Elena, effectively ending their conversation. Something told her that she was ticking. She knew that she had forever, yet she was moving at warped speed. All she could think about was experiencing as much life as she could right now. Strangely, she also knew that she wasn't moving towards her demise. In fact, wherever she was going, she was excited to get there. When she thinks of the future she feels, elated, expectant, hopeful. That future is not at college, its not in Virginia. The time was soon coming when she would leave this place behind. Knowing that, missing out on anything happening in Mystic Falls feels unacceptable. Leaving her family and friends behind; that's something she could never do. "I owe them too much," she thought.

Elena rolled over on her bed and waited for Caroline to acknowledge her. When Caroline turned towards her friend Elena sighed, "Care, its okay to want to move on. A lot has happened here. I need some space from everything. So do Damon and Stefan. Maybe you do too."

"Yeah. Maybe" she said quietly. The silence that followed was filled with the tension of a room that's thinking. She knew that Elena was also trying to plan out the next few weeks of her life. They each used that time trying to figure out where to go from here. It took only two more days for her to realize her path, the one she had probably chosen weeks prior.

Tyler Lockwood was at the grill. He still hadn't left Mystic Falls or abandoned his plan to terminate the supernatural pregnancy of a girl he once trusted. There was no help from the people who he used to call his friends. They had all sided with Caroline and Stefan. But that didn't matter. His wolf pack was meeting him here in order to plan their attack. He knew it was safe to be here, Matt wouldn't divulge his secrets, and everyone else was off at Whitmore. He was safe. "Okay, this is what we are doing," he began relaying his plans. Telling each of the wolves where they would need to be positioned, who they would take out. There were very few vampires in New Orleans with daylight rings so the attack would be met without the cover of darkness. And it needed to be perfect in order to work.

Unbeknownst to Tyler, Sheriff Forbes sat quietly in the corner of the very same restaurant. Meals without her daughter were lonely, and she enjoyed being surrounded by people when she was eating. Today's meal however was less enjoyable. Tyler was planning a move against Klaus. She did not want to lose her daughter to that man's madness. There is no sense in taking on a vampire that powerful. Her daughter could not be involved in this, could she? Even if Tyler was planning revenge, she needs Caroline to know it's not worth it. The Sheriff sets her money on the table and walks outside the restaurant. She opens her phone and calls her daughter. "Caroline. We need to talk. Why don't you come home for the weekend?"

Home would be nice right now, Caroline thought to herself as she listened to her mother's message. It would give her time to think about what Elena had said. She quickly packs a few of her belongings into a bag, and then whooshes into the night.

"Hey mom what's up?" Caroline asks as she walks into her house. Her mother is sitting at their kitchen table she looks up at her daughter and gestures towards the seat across from her. She looked at the woman who raised her and felt a lecture coming on, "Okay, clearly you want to talk about something."

"Do you want some coffee" Liz Forbes gets up and pours two mugs of hot coffee for her and her vampire daughter. Caroline sits down, and before she can begin to ask what her mother is so upset about the sheriff offers an explanation.

"I want to talk to you about whatever you're planning with Tyler."

Caroline looks up at her mother confused. Liz sits down and continues, "its not worth it Caroline."

"Mom. What are you talking about?"

"I don't understand this at all, I thought you and Klaus had a truce. Why would you decide to attack him?"

"I'm not attacking Klaus, why do you think I am planning something against Klaus?"

"I overheard Tyler—"

"What? Where? What did he say?"

"At The Grill," The sheriff was confused, she was sure her daughter would be involved. "He was planning something with a group of people. He was instructing them on where to be stationed, which men to take out. I heard him say something about a girl, I just assumed it was you."

Caroline let out a large sigh, "No mom, he wasn't talking about me."

"Well, either way Caroline, I do not want you involved in any more of this. Do not put yourself in unnecessary danger. Tyler shouldn't be doing it either, but I am not his mother. "

Caroline felt panic, for who she could not say, "Mom, you're an officer of the court, can't you do something to stop Tyler? Isn't that your job?"

Liz smiled, sometimes Caroline still thinks of her as Wonder Woman. "You want me to lock up a supernatural hybrid? I think you and I both know that would never work."

"But I can't just sit by and let Tyler attack Klaus' ba— family. All of the Originals are together now. Klaus will kill Tyler."

"Tyler is making a choice Caroline. He is doing what he believes is right. I don't particularly agree with him but we can't stop him."

Caroline thought about Tyler and Klaus, those two stupid headstrong hybrids. Nothing seemed to stop them when they set a plan in motion. Nothing except…

"You can't stop them, Mom. But I can."

"Caroline, no." Liz Forbes shook her head. She could not believe her daughters reaction to this.

Caroline was already standing up and moving towards her bag. She couldn't even remember what she had packed for her trip home. Looking inside she saw two pairs of jeans, a few t-shirts and a jacket. Underneath that is makeup and a hairbrush with three hair ties wrapped around the handle. Caroline closes the bag and looks up at her mother.

"Mom, I have to go," before her mother can object, Caroline continues, "Tyler won't hurt me and I have to warn Klaus about this, I have to make sure he won't kill Tyler."

"And what about Klaus. He can hurt you."

"He can't hurt me the way you think he can."

A/N: Okay this is my least favorite chapter I have written so far. And that is not me searching for compliments or negating compliments, I just feel like this chapter is a mega filler, and it gives Caroline a reason to leave, but I also feel like its static. More action in the next one I swear.