A/N: Okay, first of all, I just want to say this: If you have not been to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter yet, you need to go. It is amazing, it's like stepping right into Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. Oh, and Hogwarts is HUGE! Plus the ride inside the castle is awesome, I went on it like three times :P Anyway, that's kinda why this chapter is late, I was caught up in my birthday stuff and then going there and yeah, so anyway, here's the next chapter!
P.S. Thank you guys so much for all the reviews on the first chapter! ;)
xoxo, Avril
Chapter Two: Holding On
"Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty." Damon said as he waltzed into the cell where Stefan was still and sitting in a corner of the room fast asleep but started to move and wake up when he heard Damon walk into the room and slam the door shut behind him, but that wasn't the only thing that woke him up.
It took all the strength Stefan had left in him, but he got up and pinned Damon up against the wall in the cell.
"Where is Caroline?" Stefan asked
"Calm down," Damon said and easily pushed Stefan off of him since he was still weak "Just came down here to bring you some bunny blood, can't have you back on that human stuff." Damon said with a smirk and sat down on the bed in there as he tossed the bottle to Stefan and he caught it and started drinking it.
"Why is her scent all over you?" Stefan asked
"What are you? A bloodhound now or something?" Damon asked
"I'm just asking." Stefan said innocently even though he would rip Damon's heart out without a second thought if he found out that he did something to Caroline or worse…
"I just went to go visit her this morning," Damon said with a smirk "Said hi, she slammed the door in my face, nothing happened." Damon shrugged even though Caroline was still here at the Boarding House and still asleep up in Stefan's room.
"Oh." Stefan said and nodded slightly, he could sense that Damon was telling a lie, but he had no idea what he was lying about. That Caroline slammed the door in his face or that Caroline was home. Both of the outcomes made Stefan want to kill Damon.
'Well, on that note then, I'm going to go check up on our little werewolf problem. We have a pissed off werewolf running though town and she'll probably turn the other one against us too, which means someone has to watch Blondie." Damon said with a smirk
"Damon, why are you doing this?" Stefan asked as Damon walked towards the door "You have Elena, why do you want Caroline? Because she turned you down? Is that it?"
"No." Damon stated
"Then what is it?" Stefan asked "Why are you doing this to me and yourself?"
"Because, you always get the girl." Damon said and faced Stefan and he saw a hurt expression on Damon's face now
"You got Elena." Stefan said
"And who had her first? Who does she still talk about every single day?" Damon hissed "I don't have Elena, and from the way she talks about you still…I never will" Damon said and glared at him now "You got Katherine, You still have Elena, and now you have Caroline too. But that's going to change." Damon said and walked out the door now slamming it shut behind him
"Damon, you can't make someone love you!" Stefan called out to him from the door as Damon walked down the hallway
"Watch me." Damon said "Katherine did it, I can too." Damon said as he walked up the stairs and shut the door and locked it behind him, not that it could stop anyone like Caroline from getting down there, but at least he'd know if she did try to get down there.
Caroline woke up in Stefan's bed. Her head hurt and her eyes stung as the sunlight streamed into the room. Why was all of that bothering her though? She thought with the whole being a vampire thing, that she wouldn't feel like complete crap the next morning after waking up from crying all night, but apparently, you still felt like crap the next morning. Caroline slowly sat up in bed and looked around Stefan's room, everything was still in place, no one was here last night secretly packing while she was asleep and that made her feel a little better, but not much better. She slowly got out of bed and made her way to the bathroom and got showered and dressed back in her clothes from last night just so she could get back to her house, but she hoped her mother wouldn't see her otherwise she'd have some trouble explaining things.
Caroline quietly walked downstairs only to hear Damon in the kitchen actually making breakfast. She looked in there completely confused at the sight of seeing Damon doing something so…domestic. Here was this big bad killer vampire that made everyone think that he could kill you in the blink of an eye, and he was making pancakes and drinking orange juice.
"Hungry?" He asked her and it startled her since he had his back turned the entire time and she was pretty sure that he didn't see her walk in
"Uh, no" Caroline said
"You sure?" Damon asked
"Yeah, I'm fine" Caroline nodded as Damon turned around to face her now "I better go though…I'll be back later I guess"
"You sure?" Damon asked "I don't want to go out later and find out you went on some killing spree because you're upset"
"Why would I do that?" Caroline asked confused although some fresh human blood right from the source sounded pretty good to her right now.
"Because, vampires tend to kill a lot when we're upset." Damon shrugged "Try to bury it with blood I guess."
"I won't kill anyone." Caroline sighed "Don't worry about that, but if you see a bunch of dead bunnies, you know what happened."
"Good to know." Damon said and watched Caroline walk towards the front door quietly, something was different about her.
Damon often found himself lately comparing Caroline to sunshine. She always smiled and laughed and was bubbly and happy. She was sunlight and always shinned and glowed bright, sometime she was even blinding from how happy she was. But today she looked…dull. Like someone extinguished the sun and put it's fire out. She looked paler than usual, she had dark circles under her eyes that looked like someone gave her two black eyes, and even her hair seemed paler and lifeless, she looked like a wreck and sadly, he knew he was the cause of that.
"Hey, Caroline." Damon said and Caroline turned around to face him with a blank expression on her face "If you want, you can come over here later again, or we can go hang out or something…I feel bad about Stefan just…leaving you here" Damon sighed
"Thanks." Caroline said "I'll call you later if I wanna hang out." She simply said and walked out the front door
Even though it was a bright sunny, cloudless day today in Mystic Falls, Caroline felt like it was a dreary, cloudy, rainy day, at least if she had her way she would make it like that so the weather would match her mood. She never felt like this when a boyfriend dumped her or they left. Sure, she felt sad for a little bit, but this was different. This felt like Stefan ripped her heart out and threw it out into the ocean never to be found again. Everything seemed dull and lifeless to her. Nothing meant anything to her, even the tall, bright green trees that lined the forest that used to make her smile at the memories of her and Stefan couldn't make her smile today, instead they brought sadness and brought her to the verge of tears.
When Caroline walked through the front door, she was barely able to hold herself together, and thankfully her mother had already left for work. She walked into the kitchen and saw that her mom left her a note on the fridge.
'Went to work, where were you last night? By the way, Tyler called for you, it sounded important.
Love, Mom'
Caroline sighed as she pulled out her cell phone and turned it back on. A few seconds after it was on she saw all the missed calls and voicemails from her mom and Tyler, none from Stefan. She listened to her voicemail and started going through them. The first half were her mom, which she didn't care about right now, she'd just say she went to Bonnie or Elena's last night and forgot to tell her…and that her phone died. Then she got to Tyler's voicemails and something sounded…different. He started off nice, but then by the last message, he sounded really pissed off, he didn't say much, he just said to call him. She stopped her voicemail and called Tyler and waited for him to pick up.
"Hello?" Tyler answered sleepily
"Ty, what's up? You called me like a million times last night, are you okay?" Caroline asked and felt a little bad that she turned her phone off, but she wasn't in the mood for more drama last night than there already was
"Uh, yeah, can you meet me at the Grill in like an hour?" Tyler asked
"…Sure, you okay?" Caroline asked again
"I'm fine" Tyler said "I'll see you there" He said and hung up before Caroline could say goodbye
Caroline put her phone back in her pocket and walked up to her room to get changed and ready to go to the Grill. Sleeping in Stefan's room last night did make her feel better, after she talked to Tyler, she would have to ask Damon if she could stay in Stefan's room until he got back, he would have to come back eventually, right? She got changed and since she still had tons of time to kill, she decided to go after those bunnies, she needed to kill something and humans were off the menu.
Caroline walked into the Grill and looked around to see if Tyler was there yet. She finally spotted him on the corner of the place in a booth having a soda while waiting for her. She walked over to him and sat down without saying a word as Tyler looked over at her.
"God, you look like hell" Tyler said
"Gee, thanks." Caroline said and rolled her eyes
"Are you okay?" Tyler asked and Caroline heard the concern in his voice
"I'm fine." She huffed "What did you want to talk about?" She asked
Tyler opened his mouth to speak but instead he stopped and thought about it for a minute. Jules did tell him that Caroline was lying to him, that there were more vampires in town than just her. But she looked like she had been though hell last night, and he wasn't going to attack her with questions, he was just going to ask her.
"Hello?" Caroline asked and waved a hand in front of his face
"Care…who are the other vampire's in town?" Tyler asked her
"…I don't know what you mean." Caroline said and bit her lip
"Just…tell me Care, I really don't care that you lied to me anymore, I mean I was pissed last night but…just tell me, please?" He asked practically begging her and he gently grabbed her hand and held it hoping she would tell him, even though he felt hurt and betrayed, he also in a strange way wanted to protect her from the other wolves Jules told him were coming to town.
"…There's me," Caroline said and paused "Damon, there's a vampire locked up in a tomb named Katherine, but she's a really long story, there was a vampire named Rose, but she left, and there was…Stefan but…he's gone" Caroline said and heard her voice break as she said that last sentence about Stefan
"…What happened to Stefan?" Tyler asked worried now that Jules had gone after him after what she said about running into three vampires in the woods.
"Stefan left Mystic Falls" Caroline said "…It's a long story" Caroline said and wiped the stray tear away
"You can tell me Care." Tyler said and squeezed her hand and Caroline cracked a small smile and squeezed his hand back
"…Damon kissed me last night-"
"He what?" Tyler said shocked and felt his temper flare up a little bit
"Tyler," Caroline said and put a hand on his arm "Calm down." She said and hi nodded for her to continue her story. "He kissed me and…Stefan saw him kissing me. I didn't kiss him back! But…he was just on my nerves yesterday and, I guess he was just… I don't know." Caroline shrugged "All I know is that Stefan is gone and not coming back anytime soon. He left me." Caroline said and felt the tears falling again and this time Tyler wiped away her stray tears before getting up and getting on Caroline's side of the booth and hugging her tightly and she hugged him back burying her face into his shoulder. "Sorry to bother you with this," Caroline sniffled and pulled away from him before looking back over at him "I'm sure this is the last thing you want to hear today." Caroline sighed "…Is there anything else you wanted to know?"
"Yeah," Tyler said "Why did you lie to me? About you being the only vampire?"
"I was, I guess I was protecting Stefan." Caroline shrugged "He had enough shit to deal with, I was just trying to keep him safe in a way. But now that he's gone…there's no one here left to protect other than Bonnie, Elena, and you."
"Why me?" Tyler asked confused
"I care about you." Caroline said "I'd be sad if something happened to you and…I'd miss you. I protect people I care about, it's my first instinct"
"I thought that was to kill things for blood?" Tyler asked jokingly and smiled a little
"Okay, maybe not my first." Caroline said and smiled a little "But pretty close."
"…I didn't think you cared about me." Tyler shrugged
"Tyler, I wouldn't have risked my life and my relationship with Stefan to be with you during the full moon if I didn't care about you." Caroline said
"Your relationship with Stefan?" Tyler asked curiously
"You know how jealous he is…was." Caroline said
"Yeah, I remember" Tyler said and laughed a little
"Did I ever apologize to you about that?" Caroline asked
"About a million times." Tyler smiled
"Well, I'm sorry still. He was…out of control." Caroline said and shook her head "I just thought he did it because he loved me but now…I don't know anymore." Caroline said and felt the tears coming again
"Hey, look at me Care." Tyler said and held her face in his hands as she looked at him "Don't let him leaving you bring you down. He's an asshole for leaving you, especially like that. A guy like that doesn't deserve you, in my opinion, he never deserved someone like you." Tyler shrugged "You were way too good for him and you always will be too good for him."
"Thanks Ty." Caroline smiled and hugged Tyler tightly
Tyler hugged her back and smiled as he held her there. He looked out the window where the booth was and he saw Jules standing there glaring at him, he could tell she was angry. But he wasn't going to let her turn him against Caroline, she cared about him and he cared about her…a lot. Vampire or not, she was still his only friend and he wasn't going to let anyone take her away from him. He would kill for Caroline if he had to. And if he had to kill a few werewolves along the way to keep her safe, then he would do just that. He would kill his own kind, just to keep her safe and be able to see her smile. Jules stormed off after their brief stare down and just as she left, Caroline pulled away and smiled at Tyler, she looked a little better, but still depressed.
"You're the best friend I've ever had, you know that?" Caroline asked him with a smile on her face
"Now I do" Tyler smiled
He gently grabbed her hand again and she didn't seem to mind, it was almost like she didn't notice. But it felt right to Tyler, for him to be there next to her and holding her hand, and even though a vampire and a werewolf were completely against nature, it felt right to him, it felt natural.
Damon paced around the Boarding House waiting for someone, anyone to call at this point. He really wanted to hear from Caroline, but after finding nothing to do today, he wanted someone. His phone finally rang and he was more than relieved when he saw that it was Caroline calling.
"Hello?" Damon answered casually
"Hey, Damon…do you think that maybe…with Stefan being gone and everything that…I could stay there at the Boarding House, up in his room? I know it's weird but…I don't know, I just want to be close to him." Caroline said "I won't be there forever, I promise, just a few days maybe…"
"I guess so," Damon sighed and made it seem like a big deal even though he didn't mind having Caroline here for a few days and nights.
"Thank you so much Damon." Caroline said and Damon could hear some happiness back in her voice "I'll be there in a few, okay?"
"Sure, don't stay out too late." Damon joked
"I won't" Caroline said and laughed a little
"Care, come on!" Damon heard the all too familiar voice of Tyler Lockwood in the background
"Hold on!" Caroline yelled at him "Okay, I'll see you later, thanks again Damon!" Caroline said and hung up before Damon could ask her anything
Damon grumbled as he hung up his phone. He could never win, every girl he wanted never loved him back. Every time he threw himself out there, every time he let someone in or at least tried too, they took his heart and threw it away as if it was nothing, as if he wasn't good enough. He was never good enough. He wasn't good enough for Katherine, he was never good enough for Elena, and he'll never be good enough for Caroline. Damon took his glass of scotch he was drinking and threw it right into the fire as the glass shattered and the fire livened up a little as the alcohol hit it. After a few seconds the fire died down again and went back to normal. He sat there on the couch and watched the fire burn and burn and he would sit there and wait until Caroline would come over just to break his heart again with her sad looks or knowing that if she has a smile on her face that he wasn't the cause of them, that Tyler was.