XV

A ringing phone, her own ringing phone woke Caroline up in the middle of the night. It took Caroline a few attempts to sit up because she wasn't used to having a belly, though it was unexpected she had just entered her fourth month of pregnancy and she was just going to get bigger.

She finally managed to get her cell phone. "Hello?" she answered the phone groggily.

"Caroline, Caroline, its mom." Liz sounded urgent. Caroline remembered briefly that Liz sometimes worked the night shift, though she wondered why she was so freaked out.

"Mom," she grumbled. "What's going on?"

"Your store," she urged her to wake up. "Someone robbed your store."

Caroline's eyes shot open as panicked entered her body. She hadn't installed a decent security system she knew that, but Mystic Falls was such a small town, she hadn't thought that somebody would actually rob it, apparently she had been dead wrong.

"I'm on my way," Caroline said as she started looking for her slippers.

"No Care, the place is swamped with police and it will take a while to clear everything, just stay at home and come in the morning." Liz could feel Caroline's hesitation. "Please Care, for me honestly everything in a mess right now and you don't need to see it."

Caroline looked at her clock, four am. There really was nothing that she could do now, defeated she return back to bed. "All right," she ran a hand through her tangled blond hair trying not to cry. "I'll be over there in a few hours, I love you mom."

"I love you too," Liz hesitated. "By the way I told Klaus."

Caroline's raised her head. "Why would you tell Klaus?"

"Because the store may be in your name Care, but he bought it." Liz shrugged. "And anyway, he deserved to know."

"Oh my god." Caroline shrieked so loud early the next morning, that she wasn't surprise when a few people turned to look at her. Her store, her beautiful store was ruined, and she didn't even know who had caused the damage.

Whoever it had been had thrown a rock through the window and dozens of the clothes were gone and several pieces of jewelry, Caroline was only glad that she had removed what little money she had had in the cash register.

She closed her car door and held it tight feeling that she was about to faint.

"Caroline," Klaus was stepping out of his own car, he was dressed and ready to go to work. "I heard, your mom called me last night." He saw the way that Caroline's whole face was blotchy and red like she was trying not to cry, which wasn't good especially since Klaus wasn't good with sentimental women. "Are you, um ok?"

"Of course I'm not ok, Klaus." She snapped, hating herself for getting angry at Klaus. "Everything is ruined," she went inside and saw that it was worst. There were clothes and furniture all over the place. "Everything is ruin." She burst into loud sobs, while Klaus stood up awkwardly not sure what to do, should he comfort her, rub her back, tell her to stop crying?

"We'll fix it," he said instead. "There's not need to cry."

Caroline gave him an angry glare and Klaus kept his mouth shut, perhaps it was better if he didn't say anything.

"What is Caroline's security in her own apartment?" Klaus demanded, her own store had been robbed, Klaus wouldn't doubt it that a serial killer might be able to get inside Caroline's own home.

"Why are you asking me?" Katherine snapped. "Do I look like Caroline?"

"You're her best friend, you must be useful for something." Klaus said.

"Nice one, Klaus." She looked over her shoulder and saw that her adviser was giving her the evil eye. "Look, I have to go and how many times do I have to tell you not to call me at work?" she hung up before Klaus could offer a response.

"Pierce," her adviser said as he looked over his clipboard. "They need you in the maternity ward. Room 369. "

"Can't you get a nurse to assist you?" Katherine snapped. "I don't know anything about babies."

"A lot of the nurses called in sick and they need help," her adviser glared back at her. "Might I remind you that this is part of your necessary training?"

Katherine didn't respond as she headed to the third floor, most of her rounds sometimes included the patients that weren't in danger health wise or on very few occasions the ER, but Katherine had rarely assisted in the maternity ward and it wasn't something that she was looking forward too.

She pushed opened the door of the room and stopped short when she saw a woman on the bed trying to give birth, looking more dead than alive.

"Katherine, please assist Mrs. Hanes." Dr. Fabio instructed, even she looked pale and tired. "Encourage her and check that she has enough oxygen and nutrients."

Katherine nodded as she went towards, Mrs. Hanes. She checked her vitals. "Deep breaths, deep breaths," she ordered as Mrs. Hanes did as she was told. "Yes, that's perfect."

Mrs. Hanes whispered as she felt another contraction. "I never felt pain like this before with my other, I can't feel it moving." She winced as she felt another contraction.

"Mrs. Hanes I need you to push," Dr. Fabio ordered. "I can see the head, on the count of three start punishing."

It seemed like an eternity to Katherine the time she spent there and Mrs. Hanes seemed to become paler and paler, finally she saw Dr. Fabio raise her head, though Katherine knew that something was wrong.

She rushed towards her and saw that the tiny baby that she was carrying was so pale that it was almost blue, it didn't cry and it didn't move. A stillborn. "Time of death 4:52 PM." Dr. Fabio turned to her. "Katherine . . . Katherine are you ok . . . Katherine."

Katherine didn't respond as everything suddenly turned black.

"Katherine . . . Katherine . . . Kat, sweetheart wake up." Katherine felt someone gently patting her face as her eyes opened, it took her a minute to realize that she was in one of the extra rooms at the hospital and that the one that was patting her face was Elijah.

He looked worried.

"Elijah," she murmured, her voice sounded groggy. "What happened?"

"You fainted." He said. "They called me, what happened? Were you feeling sick-"

"No," she said, the image of the stillborn baby was still fresh in her mind. "I was assisting in the maternity ward . . . and I saw a still born baby . . . it was so horrible Elijah . . . so scary . . . its face was so pale and the body so tiny." Her entire body shook as Elijah rubbed her back. "And the woman . . . the mother was screaming . . . and I almost did that Elijah. ...I almost gave up my babies. .like that."

"Don't cry, honey, don't cry, its ok." Elijah said gently.

"I'm just so tired Elijah." She muttered, it was the first time she had admitted this, it was hard enough carrying twins, but trying to complete her medical residency, studying, and working long hours shifts was hard on her and she felt tired all the time.

"I know." Elijah said, he had noticed that she had looked tired even though she was supposed to be taking it easy, but hadn't mentioned it because he didn't want to upset her. "Katherine, if you want to take a break . . . or quit, I understand. I have more than enough money to take care of you and the twins, you don't have to do this by yourself. At least think about it, please."

Much to his surprise she gave a little nod. "Ok."

-End of Chapter Fifteen-