A/N: This chapter has the first of the few flashbacks that Caroline will be having while she doesn't have all of her memory back. There will be a few more of my favorite moments from the first story. This first flashback comes from the first story of course and in Chapter Three ;) Oh, and I also being back in a character that wasn't very present in the first story, she'll be helping Stefan, Damon, and Bonnie actually to get Caroline's memory back…Anyway, I hope you like this chapter! xoxo, Avril

Chapter Seven: In My Veins

"Do we have to keep doing this?" Caroline asked frustrated and sat down in the forest by the tree she had just climbed down from while trying to attack Stefan since today he volunteered to train her all over again on how to fight. "I'm tired, hungry, and covered in dirt."

"Yes, we have to because I'm not stopping until you get me at least once." Stefan said and sat down on the ground in front of her with a smirk on his face and not a scratch on him.

"Can we at least take a break then? It's been non stop for the past two hours." Caroline huffed

"Fine, we can take a break." Stefan smiled

"Alright." Caroline sighed and leaned back against the tree more and closed her eyes, letting all the muscles relax in her body.

"You have to admit though, this is better than school." Stefan said and laughed a little

"Yeah, I guess so." Caroline said "I have no idea what I'm going to tell my mom though, she's been acting weird around me the past few days as it is."

"…Damon took care of your mom for you." Stefan said

"What do you mean?" Caroline asked confused and opened up her eyes to look at Stefan now.

"…Actually, me and Damon kinda took care of her. We figured with you being a new vampire again and everything, we wanted her to know what to do in case you got…out of control. So we told her about vampires and everyone who was one in the town. She knows everything now. She's a little scared of it I think now, but at least she knows." Stefan said

"Oh…okay…good." Caroline said and nodded

"You're still not comfortable with the whole vampire thing, are you?" Stefan asked

"No." Caroline admitted. "I know I've been a vampire for a few months now but everything is just…so hard. I wish I remembered the past few months…"

"We're working on it for you, me, Damon, and Bonnie." Stefan said "Don't worry about it, okay?"

"…Okay." Caroline said and stood up again now "Ready?"

"You sure you wanna go again?" Stefan asked and smiled a little.

"Yeah, I think I got it this time." Caroline smiled back. "Go on, I'll find you." Caroline said and with that, Stefan took off into the forest. Caroline stood there waiting a minute, getting ready to go off and find him. She made sure she could hear everything and that she was ready to react to something if he jumped out at her again. After a deep breath, she took off after Stefan, following his scent she memorized now after the past two hours.

It didn't take long for Caroline to finally catch up to Stefan's scent and she knew he was around here somewhere, hiding and watching her, waiting to pounce. She had to find him first before he came after her. She heard him moving somewhere close by, he was getting ready to come after her, she focused in on where he was coming from and ran off in that direction. She grabbed him by the shoulders and tackled him down to the ground with all her strength and she smiled when she finally had him firmly pinned down to the ground.

"Good job, you finally got me." Stefan smiled

"Only took me two hours." Caroline said

"You needed the practice." Stefan said

Caroline noticed that she still had Stefan pinned down and he hadn't tried to push her off yet, so she finally decided to move off of him and sat down next to him as he sat up. A familiar smell caught Caroline's attention, she knew it was blood now, but she didn't want to feed on it even though she knew she was hungry. She looked around and finally noticed some blood on the back of Stefan's head.

"Oh, god, I'm sorry Stefan!" Caroline said and instantly felt guilty for hurting him

"For what?" Stefan asked confused

"…You're bleeding…from the back of your head, when I slammed you down to the ground." Caroline said

Stefan reached for the back of his head and felt the blood there now. "Oh, that's fine, it'll heal up, I'll wash it off later" Stefan shrugged "No big deal, don't worry about it Care, okay?"

"Okay…sorry." Caroline said

"It's fine." Stefan smiled

Caroline smiled back and looked away, trying to focus on other things going on in the forest now. She heard the wind and a few bunnies hopping around, now that she remembered what human blood tasted like thanks to Damon and Stefan with their stash from the blood bank, she didn't want to kill bunnies anymore. But she couldn't help but think that there was something…familiar about this place, that something important happened here before, but she just couldn't remember it to save her life. Then she felt Stefan's hand gently grab hers and just hold it there, she didn't give much attention to it because in a way, she didn't want it to scare Stefan away, she liked him holding her hand. She also liked when he hugged her, and when he unexpectedly just sat closer to her without noticing. It was as if he had been doing that all along, she had no idea what hers and Stefan's relationship was before she lost her memory, but she was guessing that they were close friends at least. But when he gripped her hand tighter, everything went black and she thought she passed out for some reason, but she still felt conscious at the same time. She felt her body relax and Stefan must have been holding her in his arms now since no one else was out there in the forest with them.

"Caroline! Caroline!" Stefan said frantically and held her close to him

She was about to get scared, wondering what was happening to her, when all the sudden, she could see again. But she knew it wasn't present time, since it was morning with her and Stefan and what she was seeing…the forest was in darkness. It was almost like she was watching a movie. She saw herself running though the forest and finally pinning something down on the ground when she realized that it was Stefan.

"Finally! I caught you!" Caroline watched herself say. "It only took me 20 tries." She laughed.

"Yeah, you got me." Stefan smiled "But now," He said and in one swift motion, he had Caroline pinned down to the forest floor. "I got you."

"That's not fair!" Caroline protested.

"Vampire fighting isn't fair." Stefan said and laughed a little.

"Really?" She asked with a smirk and then in a swift motion had Stefan pinned back down to the forest floor.

"You're stronger than you let on Caroline, for a two day old vampire." Stefan smiled

"I guess so." Caroline smiled and laughed a little

"You know, it's nice to hear you laughing tonight." Stefan smiled

"I guess I'm just in a good mood tonight, not all vampires can be brooding like you Stefan." Caroline smiled

"I'm not like that because I want to." Stefan laughed "Have you met my brother? He promised me an eternity of misery and has been keeping that promise."

"Ugh, don't remind me of Damon." Caroline said and slowly let Stefan up from the ground as she sat down on the ground beside him. "He's a pain in my ass."

"Welcome to my world." Stefan sighed and sat next to Caroline and took her hand that had the ring on it and looked at it again. "It was really nice of Bonnie to do this for you."

"I know." Caroline sighed and looked at the ring now too, but then her gaze was refocused to the woods around her as she heard something moving and a heartbeat.

"Relax Care, it's just a deer." Stefan said and shortly after that Caroline saw a deer run by them.

"You've never called me Care before." Caroline smiled

"Oh, uh-"

"I don't mind." Caroline smiled "It's nice, it means we're friends." Caroline smiled "I like being friends with you Stefan."

"I like being friends with you too Caroline." Stefan smiled back at her.

And it was as if gravity was pulling them towards each other and before they knew it, they were kissing. Caroline sat there watching her and Stefan kiss, she knew now that this was a memory, this had really happened before. Her and Stefan were way more than friends obviously, or at least this was the moment where they became more than friends. As she watched them kiss, it almost felt like Stefan's lips were really on hers and she had that tingly feeling in her stomach, the kind she didn't get too often, but when she did, it meant that she really liked a guy. But there was something else there too, something she never felt before, even though she was just watching a memory, she felt like she was there in the kiss, right there in Stefan's arms and practically seeing fireworks.

Just like that, as soon as the memory came, it left, and she was back in the darkness again, but only for a minute. Then she slowly woke up, to see Stefan still holding her in his arms, looking terrified, worried, and scared all at once, not noticing her waking up and too busy focusing on everything around him, trying to decide on what to do. Caroline smiled and slowly sat up, startling him and he finally realized that she was awake.

"Are you okay?" Stefan asked frantically.

"I'm fine." Caroline smiled a little bit "I…uh…I-I think I remembered the first time you took me to this forest to train." Caroline smiled.

"Really?" Stefan asked a little shocked "What did you remember?"

"Well, me pinning you down." Caroline smiled proudly which caused Stefan to laugh. "And…I…I remembered something else about that night to."

"What was it?" Stefan asked feeling slightly hopeful about what she remembered

"I remembered this." She said and without a second thought she leaned in and kissed Stefan.

Right away he kissed he back which caused her to smile into the kiss. She felt like she found where she belonged all over again as the fireworks returned and Stefan held her the way he did back in the flashback she had and for the first time since she lost her memory, everything was perfect. Stefan pulled away from her first and smiled at her as he tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her ear and she was smiling too.

"I'm thinking we were a little more than friends, weren't we?" Caroline asked

"You could say that." Stefan said and smiled

"How come you didn't tell me?" Caroline asked confused.

"I didn't wanna freak you out more than you already were and…I thought with you having a clean slate again that…maybe you'd find someone else because…there really are a few things I don't want you to remember so you don't have to go through that pain again." Stefan sighed

"Stefan, no matter what you do, I would remember it eventually anyway since it looks like I get these flashbacks now." Caroline said "And nothing can ever be all good. Even though I wish it could be, but even with no memory of the past few months, I know that nothing can be perfect. But I want to remember all the memories I have with you, good and bad. Because the way I felt just kissing you there…I don't care how many bad things I have to go through to be with you, but I know that I want to be with you no matter what."

"Care-"

"Don't give me a speech Stefan. I've made up my mind. I want to remember everything, good and bad. And if that means we have to do something similar to it to get me to remember, then we'll do it, can you promise me that?" Caroline asked

"…No." Stefan said firmly "If you want your memories back, fine. But I'm going to find another way, I'm not going to act out all the bad things for you to go through that pain twice, I'll find a way to get your memory back without it having to be like this, okay?" Stefan asked

"…Fine." Caroline sighed and nodded "I can deal with that."

"Good." Stefan said and quickly kissed her which caused her to smile again. "Let's go get some blood in you and then you can go get cleaned up, I think I went a little rough on you this practice." Stefan said and looked at Caroline's healing bruises.

"It's fine, I guess I used to be a good fighter, huh?" Caroline asked

"You have no idea." Stefan smiled

"I'll get back there again, you'll see." Caroline smiled and stood up and helped Stefan up now too.

Stefan was walking upstairs, hearing Damon talking to someone up there in the living room. He trusted Caroline to be down there in the cellar by herself, she was down there drinking her blood and since he didn't trust whoever Damon was talking to, he warned her to stay down there just in case. Stefan cautiously walked into the living room to see Damon sitting there by himself, drinking his scotch as always as if no one was up here.

"Damon, I swore I hear you talking to someone." Stefan said and Damon shrugged

"Boo." A familiar voice said from behind him and Stefan turned around to face Katherine standing behind him with that familiar smirk on her face. "Did I scare you Stefan?"

"What are you doing here Katherine?" Stefan asked annoyed.

"Easy little brother, I called her over here." Damon said and stood up off the couch.

"Why?" Stefan asked harshly

"Because I think I have a few ways and possibly know a few witches to be able to get your precious little girlfriends memory back." Katherine said with a smirk.

"Why should we trust you?" Stefan asked.

"Well, one, I'm bored being out of the tomb and all. Two, I still care for you Stefan," She said and smiled at him. "And three, seeing you two fight over blondie is pretty fun to watch actually. Even though Damon seems to have gone crawling back to my little doppelganger, I can still see that he has a thing for her…just like how he still does for me." Katherine said with a smirk.

"Believe me, if there was anyone else, even if it was a werewolf, I would have asked them for help before I asked her." Damon said "But, we're stuck with her since she's the only one that knows around here." Damon grumbled

"Hope you don't mind, but I'm going to be staying here too while we try to cure your little girlfriend." Katherine said and walked over to the couch and sat down like she owned the place now. "That going to be a problem?"

"Not at all Miss. Katherine." Damon said sarcastically and sat back down where he was before in the living room, as far away from Katherine as possible.

"Good, because I have a warlock I know that owes me a favor coming over here in a few days, his family is one of the few that know how to lift that little curse Caroline has on her." Katherine said

"How long is a few days?" Stefan asked

"Well…about a week, maybe two." Katherine smiled

"Great," Stefan sighed "I'm going to go check on Caroline."

"Tell her I said hi." Katherine smiled and Stefan rolled her eyes at her as he walked back down into the basement where he left Caroline.