AUTHOR'S NOTE: Super sorry for the delay in posting this chapter, the more invested I get the more I refuse to half-ass it by posting the original without taking the time to go through it for you guys. I've been busy as hell with lots of work and little play but I'm working on the next few chapters now so hopefully they'll be less wait time for you. It was a shit time because of the cliffhanger and I sincerely apologize, I swear I wasn't just trying to torture you guys.

I know this plot twist shock to most of you and when I wrote it it was a shock to me, too. Remember, this was written before Elena actually became a vampire on the show - before the s3 finale, actually. I still think it should've gone a little more like this...

It was Damon who snapped into action after a long moment of horrified shock. Slowly, with infinite care and tenderness, he slipped his arms under Elena, cradling her prone form.

"I'm taking her to my room," he said, voice hoarse as he tried to block the scent of her blood as it clotted, as he tried to ignore the wound fracturing her skull.

Stefan didn't answer. He was barely aware of his surroundings, too stunned by what had just happened to function.

He'd killed her. And Damon had unwittingly given her a chance at rebirth. She would wake up, and she would look into Stefan's eyes knowing he'd ended her life. And she would hate him. She would hate him for... forever.

An eternity of misery, he thought, heart pumping pure anguish through his veins. An eternity of misery, starting now.

He didn't know how much time had passed when a figure appeared at the front door, not bothering to open it and instead ducking through the shattered glass frame. The figure spoke, but Stefan heard only a dim buzzing in his ears. Letting out an irritated sigh, the person extended a hand and cupped Stefan's chin, tilting it upward and forcing his gaze to meet a pair of big blue eyes.

"Earth to Stefan. Hey, Salvatore, are you in there?"

"Caroline," he said, looking at her blankly. His tone was flat, empty.

"The one and only," she responded, forcing her voice into a light and airy breeze. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. "Damon called me," she supplied when Stefan remained silent. "He told me to come over. Actually he told me to 'get your ass here ten minutes ago.' I told him I'm still perfecting the art of time travel but he'd already hung up. No one appreciates my humor."

Silence, silence that beat violently, loudly, against her skull.

"Stefan!" She snapped her fingers in front of his face, fully prepared to slap him if the need arose. "What happened?" Despite her attempt at cheer, she was starting to panic.

"Elena," Stefan managed finally, his voice cracking.

Caroline knelt into a crouch and kept Stefan's eyes riveted on hers. She recognized the shock on his face - she'd seen it in the mirror not so long ago, the day she'd woken in a hospital bed and lusted for blood. Her heart was beating hard and fast, but she kept her tone level.

"What about her?"

"She's - " Stefan broke her gaze and dropped his head into his hands. Caroline felt a brutal twist deep in her gut.

"Stefan. Stefan. Is she - is she..." she swallowed, closed her eyes, opened them again. "Is she okay? Is she..." She couldn't seem to form the word and chose its opposite. "Is she alive, Stefan?"

"Depends on your definition."

Caroline's head whipped in the direction of Damon's voice as the sick feeling in her stomach intensified. She licked her lips, her throat having gone suddenly dry.

She got to her feet and noticed with a distant sort of surprise that her body was trembling. Vampires had little reaction to temperature; this chill wasn't in the air. It was in her very bones. "Damon, please tell me you don't mean what I think you mean."

Damon's tone was as blank as his face. "If you think Elena died with vampire blood in her system and will be coming back as a vampire any time now, then yeah. I mean exactly that."

Tears filled Caroline's, a reaction as knee-jerk as Pavlov's dogs responding to the dinner bell. Not Elena. No, not her, not the girl who'd already lost so incredibly much. Oh, God, this would destroy her.

One thought chased another as Caroline suddenly wondered, feeling a little frantic, if Elena would choose option B - the option none of the vampires in the room had gone with. Which was, of course, why they were vampires.

What if she refused to feed? What if she did what Caroline's own father had done, and just gave up, gave in? Elena loved her share of vampires, sure, but what she loved about them was their humanity, the good in them, not the monster, not the blood junkie.

But no, she'd never give up. Elena Gilbert was too strong for that. If not for herself, she'd feed for her brother. She wouldn't leave Jeremy to face more loss, more grief. Not when she could do something to prevent it.

Damon didn't offer further explanation, and Caroline abruptly got to her feet, deciding to ask the only question that really mattered in that moment.

"Where is she?"

Damon nodded. "That's why you're here. I want you to be there when... I want you to be the one she sees when she wakes up. She'll need you more than she needs either of us."

Caroline didn't comment on that, because she agreed wholeheartedly. Not because Elena wouldn't want to see Damon, but because sometimes, you just needed your girlfriend. God knows she would've been grateful to wake up in the hospital to Elena's warm, comforting presence on the day her life ended and began all at once.

She gestured to the mug Damon gripped tightly in his hand. His knuckles were white. "You're gonna break that. And you've already got a big mess on your hands."

Damon looked down at the cup; he hadn't realized it was there. Shaking his head to snap himself back to reality he thrust the cup into her hands. "For Elena. When she - if she..."

Caroline gave one sharp nod. "Where is she, Damon?"

"My room."

"Have you called Jeremy?"

"Just you."

She nodded again. "Okay. Good call - ha, ha. That's probably best for now." She turned to Stefan. "Hey, Salvatore," she said. Her tone had a decided bite to it. "You need to snap out of it. She's going to need you - all of us. So get it together or get out of the way. It's gonna be hard enough for her without having to deal with your guilty conscience." The guilt, the pain, was a shroud, wrapping itself around Stefan in a death grip.

How was it possible that he looked like he'd aged since the last time she'd seen him?

Stefan looked up, eyes bleak. He ignored the accusation and got to his feet. "Need some air," he murmured, walking away without another word.

"What did you mean about the guilty conscience thing, Caroline?" Damon's eyes blazed with something - anger, she decided, borne of his complete and total helplessness - as they met hers.

"I'm not blind - it's all over his face. Yours too. I don't know what you guys did, but you need to deal with it on your own time. Can you do that?"

Damon gave her a dry, utterly humorless smile. "Called you, didn't I?"

"There's hope for you yet, Damon salvatore."

She was a caring person, one who would never relish someone else's pain. Even though she and Damon didn't have the best history, she'd never wish this agony on him. Clearly, one way or another, he was responsible for Elena's death - and Elena's new life. Both brothers were; she could see that plain as day. And she could see just as clearly that it was killing them. Holding the mug in one hand, she reached out with the other and squeezed Damon's hand briefly.

"It's going to be okay. Know why?" He didn't answer, but she hadn't expected him to. "Because there's no other option." She said it firmly, in a voice that brooked no argument. "We're a family, Damon. We're an incredibly dysfunctional, effed up family. But we're a family anyway, and we take care of each other." She jerked her chin in the direction Stefan had gone. "That said, you should go talk to your brother. You don't know how much time you'll have to collect yourselves and put on a happy face, but I'm not letting either of you see her until you stop looking like the walking dead."

Damon arched a dark brow, something almost like amusement flashing through his eyes.

"You know what i mean," Caroline said, giving him a look.

"Thanks for coming, Caroline."

She blinked, thrown momentarily by the word. Or rather, the word coming from Damon's mouth. "Of course. I'll come to you when she's ready. No rushing this, right?"

"No. No, whatever she wants - no rushing. We'll go, if you think that's - Jesus, Caroline, I don't know - "

"Damon, stop. There's no time for this. Go get your brother and be ready with the game face thing."

"Yeah. Yeah, okay."

"How about 'yes ma'am,'" she offered, giving him a cheeky grin.

Caroline Forbes was a healer, through and through. In this moment, Damon was grateful for, not irritated by, the quality.

"Yes ma'am," he said, humoring her.

"Much better."

Dismissing him, Caroline took a long, slow breath, gearing herself up for what would be a difficult encounter - to put it very, very mildly. So many thoughts crowded her head, so many things they'd need to take care of - and God, how would Bonnie react? Would she make Elena another ring, or would she be all bitchy and witchy about it like she'd been for Caroline herself? And Jeremy, how on earth would he handle this? Especially when he found out whatever role the Salvatore brothers played in this whole screwed up situation? Would either brother be able to keep it together in front of Elena? Would she even want to see them? Maybe she could keep Stefan from her bedside, but Damon would only maintain his distance for so long.

Caroline mimicked Damon's earlier move, shaking her head hard to clear it, to dislodge everything in it except the one thing, the one person, who mattered.

Elena needed her. And she wasn't about to let her best friend down.

The human brain is a fascinating thing. Beyond all its obvious functions, the brain is capable of shutting down entirely, blocking out things too disturbing for their human host to handle. It's a defense mechanism, repressing the bad memories, turning them off in an act of self-preservation.

Elena knew it firsthand; she'd shoved her memories of the night Jenna died into a shadowy compartment of her brain, refusing to acknowledge them, refusing to remember her aunt the way she'd been that horrible night.

And now, on a day when memory repression would've been an absolute blessing, that defense mechanism was nowhere to be found. When the neurons in Elena's brain started firing again, when her eyes slowly opened to a whole new world, she wasn't given even a moment's reprieve. She remembered everything.

And she knew. Before she'd even taken a breath in this old but entirely new body, Elena knew the one solid truth ringing violently in her ears.

She was dead. And she was alive.

There was only one explanation for such a combination.

"Morning, sunshine."

Slowly, Elena sat up. The world was brighter than she remembered, and even though her best friend had spoken in a low, gentle tone, Caroline could've been speaking right into her ear.

Hypersensitivity, Elena remembered. Heightened senses. Everything was as it had been; everything was so much more.

So this was what the transition was like.

"I can smell it," she whispered, her eyes focusing in on Caroline's face, drinking in its beautiful familiarity in an unfamiliar world. "Caroline, I can smell my blood." Tears welled in her eyes and she didn't bother blinking them away. What the hell was the point in denying the emotions churning so viciously through her?

"I can smell my blood. It smells good." She shuddered. "Oh, God, I don't want it to smell good."

Caroline came and sat beside her best friend, slipping her arms around Elena's shaking shoulders.

"I know, sweetheart. I know. It's gonna be okay, Elena. I promise you, it's gonna be okay."

Elena buried her head in the crook of Caroline's shoulder; Caroline stroked a hand up and down the back of Elena's head, cautiously avoiding the area matted with dry blood on her friend's scalp.

"Let go, if that's what you need to do. You're not gonna get any judgment from me," Caroline added, her tone light. Elena managed a strangled laugh, but it lasted only seconds before devolving into racking, full body sobs.

"I'm scared, Caroline. I'm so scared."

Caroline rocked Elena gently and made low, soothing noises in her throat. When Elena began to breathe evenly again, Caroline held her at arm's length, keeping her gaze locked on Elena's, the soft blue of her eyes hypnotizing in a way entirely opposite from Damon's. His eyes made her pulse pound; Caroline's soothed.

"I have something here for you," Caroline murmured. "But only if you want it."

Elena didn't need Caroline to elaborate. She already knew what her friend was offering.

"My stomach feels sick just thinking about it."

"I know. It'll make you feel better, though. It helps the nausea. Do you need some time... to decide?"

Elena took another deep, deep breath. She didn't break Caroline's gaze as she slowly moved her head back and forth.

"No."

"I didn't think so." Caroline's smile, beaming and brilliant, seemed entirely out of place. And so entirely perfect. "You're a strong woman, Elena Gilbert. I'm proud of you."

Elena's vision blurred with tears. Caroline began delicately extracting herself from Elena's grip, which tightened convulsively.

"Don't leave me," she whispered, her voice full of heartbreak.

"I'm just gonna grab you your medicine," Caroline told her gently, avoiding the "b" word. Still, she kept one of her hands in Elena's and reached out the other arm, snagging the mug from the bedside table. "Be a good girl and drink up, or I'll go all Nurse Ratched on your ass."

In spite of herself, Elena smiled. "Someone was paying attention in English class."

"I'm a woman of many talents," Caroline answered, making an expression that aimed for knowledgeable sophistication. She pressed the mug into Elena's free hand and watched her steadily. "All kinds of strengths," she went on, flexing her biceps. "You don't wanna mess with me. Don't be fooled by the blonde thing. I'm pretty bad ass."

Elena choked on a laugh, trying desperately not to break down again. It was all so overwhelming, so goddamn scary, but at least she had Caroline at her side. Everything in that moment was so heavy, so draining - it was all too much. And somehow, the amazing Caroline Forbes was making her laugh.

She looked down into the mug she held, simultaneously compelled and repulsed by the blood inside.

One sip. One sip, and she'd be sealing her fate. One sip and the life she'd known was over and gone, forever.

But she'd spoken the truth when she'd told Caroline she didn't need time to think about it - just as Caroline had been right that Jeremy was her tether to this life. She wouldn't leave her brother. She'd kept it together this long, fought this long and this hard. Life kept throwing her curve balls; apparently death would do the same.

Complaining about it wouldn't make a difference. Denial would serve absolutely no purpose. This step was a necessary one. She was terrified, scared down to the marrow in her bones, overwhelmed, nearly paralyzed by the reality of the situation, the reality of her life. Of her death. But she wouldn't run and hide. She'd fight, just as she'd always done.

Caroline squeezed her hand, and Elena lifted her gaze from the blood to Caroline's eyes.

"Hey, you know what's cool?" Caroline's voice was bright with excitement.

"What's that, Care?"

"You know the whole BFF, best friends forever thing?"

Elena forced her eyes to remain on Caroline's, refusing to let them return to the blood sloshing in the mug. Her stomach roiled. "What about it?"

"With us, it's literally true!" Caroline's smile was luminous.

The tears that she thought she'd beaten spilled over onto Elena's cheeks, but her laugh wasn't forced. In spite of everything, she felt so very lucky to have this girl, this brilliant ray of sunshine, beside her, holding her hand.

"Maybe later we can go get some friendship necklaces," Caroline went on, drinking in Elena's smile and taking great heart in the fact that her friend could smile at all. Things would be okay. They would be hard, and they'd be shitty, but in the end, it would all be okay.

"Lesbian friend necklaces?" Elena asked, raising one brow.

Caroline's laugh was light and bright and beautiful. Her eyes were warm, filled with compassion and reassurance and a seemingly endless well of patience, of strength.

"I mean, I just think the world should know about our love," she answered easily.

Elena took one more deep, calming breath.

"I'm right here, Elena." Caroline squeezed her best friend's hand. "Always." She couldn't help adding, "And forever!"

Elena's lips quirked ever so slightly, and she nodded. Closing her eyes she lifted the cup to her lips.

And she drank.

AUTHOR'S OTHER NOTE: When I said I think it should've gone this way, I simply meant that I think Damon was right when he said "feed or die" and Stefan playing into and encouraging Elena's denial was pretty lame. I know he was desperate but I mean, face the facts, dude.

Question - the "life" column that starts at 90 days and keeps shrinking, does that mean my stories won't be accessible after that period?

MORE SOON! xoxox