Caroline's feet pounded through the forest. The tears streamed down her eyes as she ran. She didn't know if Klaus was following her or would eventually. He had looked ready to kill her. She had messed up badly. Even though she hadn't meant to, she had betrayed the tentative trust they had built. Damn it! She should have mentioned it to him the moment he had told her about Stefan.
She reached the Salvatore house and stopped outside the door, not wanting to go inside yet. She knew the "I-told-you-so's" she would hear once everyone saw her and she just wasn't ready to face it yet. Caroline stood in the yard and sobbed in the moonlight. A howl sounded in the distance. For some reason, she knew it was Klaus. He had changed into his wolf form.
Why? Why did nothing work out in her favor? Matt dumped her for being a vampire, Tyler was killed and now Klaus would hate her forever. It was her own damn fault. What the hell did she do to deserve all this?
"Fuck!" Caroline yelled out.
"Caroline are you alright?"
Caroline whipped around to see who had sneaked up on her.
"Mom? What are you doing here?" She quickly whipped the tears away from her cheeks, embarrassed by her uncharacteristic swearing.
"I came to talk to you. Are you sure you're ok?" Liz Forbes took a few cautious steps towards her daughter, reaching her hand out slightly.
"Yeah mom I'm fine. What's going on?"
The sheriff looked at her skeptically, but then nodded in the direction of the house. "Come on. I need to talk to all of you."
Caroline sniffled. Her eyes pinched together as she examined her mother. She really wasn't in the mood to be hated on anymore for tonight. But the seriousness of her mother's face, the fact that she was even here, counted for something. "Fine. Let's go inside."
She headed for the door with her mother following behind her.
Once inside Liz asked Caroline to have everyone meet downstairs so they could all talk at once. She still didn't say anything about why she had suddenly decided to show up. Caroline went upstairs and grabbed Damon and Elena. If she didn't know any better, she could have sworn that she had almost caught them in a semi-compromising position. Bonnie and Jeremy walked into the front door as they came back downstairs. Alaric was already standing in the living room with Liz.
"Good, you're all here," the sheriff began.
"So Liz, what brings you behind enemy lines?" Damon questioned her suspiciously.
"Well Damon, I don't know if you're aware of this. But the town's water supply is now vervain free," Liz replied.
"Yes. Well aware. It makes showering so much nicer now." His mouth twisted up into a sarcastic smirk. "If that's all you have to say—"
"Aren't you the least bit curious as to why?" She had him there. Damon stayed silent and let her continue. "Carol Lockwood and I arranged it so that the vervain was cut off."
"Why would you do that?" Elena asked.
"Because, we want this war to end."
"Vervain or not. It's not like were going to be able to change everyone's minds about supernaturals," Jeremy weighed in.
"Actually," Alaric said, "I've discussed this with Caroline and Damon. They can compel everyone to forget the existence and everyone's identity as a supernatural. Things can go back to the way they were before."
Liz nodded. "That's what Carol and I thought. I know it's a long shot, but we've got to try something. This town is going to tear itself apart."
"You're damn right it's a long shot," Damon said stepping forward, "even if the two of us are going to compel everyone in Mystic Falls how are we going to do it? We can't exactly go into people's houses while they sleep."
Liz replied, "You get them altogether in one place."
"Oh yeah that will be easy."
"It will be," she continued, "the council wants to stage a public execution of one of you. The whole town will be there to see it."
"A public execution," Damon scoffed, "isn't that a little medieval?"
"Still if the town is all together how can we get them to stay put long enough to be compelled?" Elena asked.
"Don't you guys have some sort of a 'super compulsion' or something?" Liz suggested, "Carol said Tyler mentioned it once."
"No. No such thing as super compulsion," Damon replied.
Bonnie stepped forward, "If the town is altogether I can cast a spell that will immobilize them and keep them in one place long enough for Damon and Caroline to compel everyone."
"Bonnie can you handle that?" Elena asked. Jeremy also looked concerned next to her.
"It'll take some serious power, but I'm sure I can handle it."
"So who's going to be the lucky martyr?" Damon quipped.
Caroline, who had been watching the plan unfold, stepped forward. "Me, it has to be me. We can't risk anyone else."
"Caroline would also seem to be the easiest to capture. The council could take her just like they did with Tyler Lockwood," Alaric added.
"That's what I was thinking," Liz said, "In fact that's already the council's plan. I'm supposed to make up with you and invite you back into the house. Then the council will come tomorrow morning and retrieve you. They'll hold you until tomorrow night when they're hoping to stage the execution." Liz looked at her daughter nervously while she spoke.
"This is dangerous," Elena said, "there are a lot of things that could go wrong."
"Yeah," Caroline said, "But it's the only chance we've got."
Over the next hour the group formed an exact plan. Caroline would go back to her mom's house tonight, seeming to have made up. Liz would call the council and let them know Caroline was there. From there she would go along with the council's plan, which was to have Liz inject Caroline with enough vervain so that she would be weak and the council could lock her up. Meanwhile, the rest of them would be preparing to make it to the execution. They would stay back long enough for the entire town to arrive. Bonnie would cast her spell before Caroline actually gets staked. Then Damon would move in and start compelling people. Caroline would join him once Elena frees her from the execution set up. Alaric and Jeremy would be protecting Bonnie while she holds the spell.
It was a complicated plan and there was a lot that could go wrong. The slightest hitch and Caroline or someone else could wind up dead. But they all agreed that they had to take the chance. Once everything was finalized and details were taken care of as much as they could be, everyone decided to turn in for the night. They agreed that the best idea would be to have everyone in one place for the next 24 hours, so Bonnie, Jeremy, and Alaric were all staying at the boarding house that night.
Caroline walked with her mother to the front door. She had packed a small bag of things to take with her. It was a bit awkward between them. After all, last Caroline knew, her mother hated her and they had just spent the last hour planning her death.
"Caroline, I want you to know that I didn't mean any of it," Liz said turning around to face her daughter. "When I uninvited you, I didn't mean it. I had to make the council believe that I was truly on their side. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to influence the vervain supply and we wouldn't have this chance."
Caroline gave her mother a little shrug. "It's ok mom I understand."
Suddenly Liz walked forward and gave her a big hug. Caroline's eyes began to well as she wrapped her arms around her mother and squeezed back. Liz pulled back and brushed the hair away from Caroline's face.
"You and I have never had the best relationship. And since you became a vampire it's only gotten more confusing. But you are still my baby Caroline. I love you and I never want anything to happen to you," Liz's eyes also began to tear up, "Seeing the look on Carol Lockwood's face after Tyler—I could never stand to lose you."
The sheriff hugged her again and Caroline cried into her mother's neck. After everything that had been going on, it felt good to have her mother comfort her. Especially thinking of what might happen tomorrow. Caroline might very well die if something goes wrong. She knew her mother was letting her know she loved her, in case anything did happen.
"Don't worry mom," Caroline sniffled, "It's going to be ok. We've been through worse than this." She offered her mom a reassuring smile.
Hello dear readers! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Also I hope I did a good enough job explaining the plan so that everyone could understand it. Like the characters said, it's super complicated. Everything has to be just so. Let me know what you thought of the chapter! Are you guys excited to almost be at the end? Just 3 more chapters after this!
Also, unrelated to this story: Do you guys prefer reading longer stories or one shots? As I said before, I have another story in the works, about half done, but its shaping up to be a bit longer than this one. I try to write one shots but they always end up developing into something bigger :) So yeah, definitely let me know what you thinks!
As always, thanks for the reviews and support
Cheers!