Stefan walked over to where she was seated reaching into his top pocket for his light torch to shine in Caroline's eyes. He saw her breath hitch as his face approached hers. Probably still nervous about being in the hospital he thought.

"So... how long have you been back?" Caroline questioned catching him off guard. This was the first time since he's been back that she has initiated conversation and with the biting retorts she's been giving him lately he didn't expect it. He stuttered mouth open in shock, not knowing what to say. She raised her eyebrows at him expectantly before he responded.

"About a month actually..." . She seemed annoyed by his answer as her eyes moved behind his shoulder, as she let out a "huh". She was thinking about what that meant. He may of been gone five years but he still have himself a little credit in reading her in this moment. She was annoyed he didn't come to see her. Thought he didn't care.

"I tried to stop by your mom's house the day I got back but nobody lives there anymore?"

He did try try to get in contact with her his first day the overwhelming emotions he had of being back home caused him to turn up at her door instinctively without even thinking about it. It was probably a good thing she wasn't there he told himself. He wasn't ready to see her anyway. Since that day he has distracted himself in every way possible trying to not think about her until she turned up at his work.

"Yeah well, we couldn't really afford to live there anymore so... Anyway I probably would of just slammed the door in your face" Caroline gave a wide sarcastic smile to him as it felt like that door was being slammed in his face right now. He shone the light in her eyes checking to see any damage the hit to the head might of given her.

"You left your phone here by the way. The other week?"

"Ohhh.. I was wondering where I left that thing"

"Bonnie didn't tell you I had it?"

"Bonnie?"

"Yeah , you're phone started ringing and I picked up. Bonnie knew I had it...She didn't tell you?"

"No, she didn't" Caroline whispered almost to herself. She was lost in her own thoughts for a moment.

"I can't believe you still have that old thing"

"Well my mom got it for me" Caroline said in an almost annoyed tone, underlying with something he couldn't quite put his finger on.

"And that Bon Jovi ringtone?" Stefan teased

"That's because you changed the settings and I don't know how to stop that bloody song playing" Caroline complained.

"You asked me to do it" Stefan stated.

"I don't even like fucking Bon Jovi!" Caroline all but screeched.

"You got me two tickets to Bon Jovi?" Stefan questioned to which Caroline smiled and nodded her head. Stefan had a massive grin on his face as he stood up from the bar stool to wrap her in a bear hug.

"Thank you"

"You're welcome. Happy birthday!" Caroline laughed as he leant back to face her the grin on his face only widening more.

He examined the tickets as he sat back down in his spot while Caroline sat down next to him.

"So when are we going?" Stefan questioned looking for the date on his tickets.

"Oh, you don't have to take me. They're are present... for you. Take whoever you want."

Stefan lifted his gaze from the tickets to Caroline's smiling face, as he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Seriously, I got them for you to have fun so take Ivy or... Damon" Caroline scrunched up her face at the latter's the name making stefan lightly chuckle.

"Well I think I would have the most fun if I brought my best friend in the whole world" he raised his eyebrows to her in a challenging way.

"Oh okay do you want me to call your mom then?" Caroline questioned with mock seriousness before smirking.

"Shut up"

Caroline reached over and grabbed his drink, downing it in one.

"Long day?" He questioned signalling to the bartender for another round.

"You could say that" Caroline mumbled sliding her jacket off.

Stefan looked to her waiting for her to elaborate but she dismissed it with a wave of her hand. "Doesn't matter, it's your birthday we should be celebrating" at that moment the bartender slid them their drinks and Caroline smiled down at the glass.

"Caroline.."

"Seriously Stefan, Its fine. We can talk about it tommorow. Besides today is about celebrating.." Caroline lifted the glass and held it to toast, as Stefan begrudgingly grabbed his own glass.

"Happy Birthday, May you forever be older than me" They clicked glasses. Stefan took a sip from his drink smiling into the glass, while Caroline downed hers. He looked to her trying to decipher what was wrong, as Caroline turned the subject back on him.

"So what are you doing for your birthday?" Stefan decided to let it go for today. Clearly she didn't want to talk about it right now but she would eventuall. He will just have to wait till she's ready to tell him.

"Well Damon said he would meet me here.." He looked down at his watch "...an hour ago to get me so wasted I forget how old I really am"

"Actually brother .." Damon interrupted approaching their seats at the bar "..I think I said until you forget how utterly boring Caroline's party for you will be" Damon smirked his evil grin to Stefan's stern narrowed eyes.

"Damon!... you're ruining the surprise" Caroline whined like a five year old.

"Relax Barbie he already knew"

Caroline turned to look at Stefan who looked like a deer caught in headlights. He sighed and came clean."You sent out a group text to everyone last week but forgot to take me off the list." Caroline smacked her hand against her forehead in a 'doh' moment. Stefan and Damon both started laughing at her, the latter getting a nudge to the ribs as he leaned on the side of her chair ruffling her golden locks like a child.

"Why didn't you say anything?" she complained to Stefan. He shrugged his shoulders. Truth is he didn't know why. He knew she must of put a lot of thought into it and didn't want to disappoint her.

"Well I'm never using this stupid phone ever again" Caroline announced as she through the device on the bar.

"What is it with you and this phone?" Stefan questioned as he inspected it.

"I don't know. Mom got me it as an early graduation present and now I need to pretend to like it till I 'accidentally' drop it down the toilet" she raised her fingers to quote the accidentally .

Damon grimaced "nice" while Stefan chuckled at his disgust.

"Oh, come on like you've loved every present you've ever been given"

"Doesn't mean I throw it down the toilet" Damon retorted.

The cogs started turning in Stefan's head

"Is that what happened to the snowglobe I got you?"

Caroline tried to fight the smile on her face as Stefan narrowed his eyes on her.

"Oh come on you purchased it at a quick stop"

"Caroline!"

"Remind me never to get you anything" Damon made a passing comment

"Oh like I would ever want anything from you"

"O I know exactly what you want from me" Damon wiggled his eyebrows and gave his wide obnoxious grin. The one he especially reserved to piss Caroline off.

"Ehh, you're so disgusting"

Stefan looked down in his hand to see a missed call from Bonnie on Caroline's phone. He interrupted Damon and Caroline's bickering presenting her phone to her.

"You missed a call "

Caroline let out an annoyed huff

"Why won't it ring!" She whined tossing the phone back to Stefan "fix the stupid thing for me" Stefan started playing around with the settings on her phone smiling down at how annoyed Caroline got over the littlest things. Like how annoyed she was at Damon right now as they continued their bickering.

"...And another thing never call me on that phone while you're on the toilet"

"Why would I be calling you ever, I don't like talking to you as it is"...

Stefan continued fiddling with her phone changing the settings, tunning out to their current slanging match. You got use to ignoring it after a while. Picking your battles of when you need to step in on their arguments that happened every time they saw each other. This current one was no more than a 2 on a scale to 10.

""...calling you Satan would be an insult to Satan"

"Well we're not all perfect saint Caroline!"...

Maybe a 6.

After figuring out that she just turned her phone to silent Stefan had a great idea. He changed her ringtone before catching the tail end of their argument.

"Who invited you anyway, scram"

"I invited her..." Stefan interrupted handing the phone back to Caroline who gave an appreciative smile "..You said you would be here an hour ago"

"Yeah well brother, had to sort out a few things, but I'm here now. We can start enjoying you're birthday before the bore fest this evening"

"Hey!" Caroline complained giving Damon a dirty look. Stefan gave Caroline a reassuring smile.

"I'm gonna take a leak. Make sure there isn't any annoying pests around by the time I get back" Stefan gave a tight lipped smiled to Damon in preparation for Caroline's response but instead she just rolled her eyes while he sauntered off.

After taking a deep sigh she smiled to Stefan. He could tell something was still bothering her and it wasn't just Damon.

"So how are things going with Ivy?"

"Fine...I think"

Caroline slowly nodded "good". She gave her innocent smile to him and he felt something inside him stir. Something he has never felt with Ivy. He knew he didn't love Ivy that he was just with her because it was easy. They had this unspoken mutual agreement that neither of them had deep feelings for the other. It was easier having relationships like that.

"What about you? Still steering clear of all men?"

She pondered the thought for a moment in her head before deciding with a stern nod "yes". Stefan took another sip of his drink, mumbling into it "Right". He looked over to her as she looked to be lost in her thoughts again. She looked sad.

"Well at least the whole Klaus fiasco is over" . His comment seemed to make her even sadder as she looked down and whispered a "yeah" that he would have missed had he not been listening so intently. She looked up to meet his gaze and gave her 'i'm fine' smile which he knew was a lie. Whatever was bothering her was bothering him and birthday or not he wanted to know what was wrong.

There was a brief pause where neither of them said anything before Caroline started to put on her jacket.

"You don't want another? We can just ignore Damon". She laughed.

"Nah, I gotta sort some stuff for the party tonight. Don't let Damon get you too drunk. I want you to remember at least some of it" she responded reaching into her bag before pulling out her purse. Stefan gave her a dismissive wave:

"Don't worry I got it"

She slammed the money down on the bar.

"Birthday boys don't pay everyone knows that"

Just then a bonjovi tune rang from Caroline's phone. She tilted her head to the side narrowing her eyes to him.

"You didn't"

"I did" he had a wide grin spread on his face while she looked on at him exhausted,before looking even more annoyed at the caller ID, before answering.

"What do you want Damon... Yeah I'm still here ...I'm going, I'm going..." She said as she stood up to leave mouthing a happy birthday to Stefan before giving him a wave goodbye. He waved back watching as she retreated from the bar.

"...are you calling me from the toilet?!...errr you're disgusting!"

"Yeah at 3.30... do you know where to go?...oh..ok, thanks Damon.." She breathed a sigh of relief as Stefan entered the room catching the end of her phone call with Damon. After answering some more generic questions about her health, Caroline now sat on the patient bed awaiting some blood samples to be taken.

She looked to be debating something with him on the phone currently, as Stefan walked across the room.

"...Ok just this once though. I'll see you when I get home then. Oh and don't-" she looked down at the phone where Damon had clearly disconnected the call making a face at it "..ok bye" she huffed at the inanimate object. Stefan was sulking in the corner trying not to listen in on their conversation. Trying and failing. He couldn't help it.

"Thanks" she motioned to Stefan his office phone that she used when she asked to check in on Damon.

"It's no problem" he responded taking it from her hand placing it back on his desk. But it was a problem. She couldn't go an hour without talking to him? What kind of parallel world did he enter.

Damon and Caroline. It was a match made in hell. The anger was building and nothing he did would stop it. He had no right. They hadn't been in each others lives for years. But it was just sick. Her and Damon were all wrong for each other. He couldn't stop this rage building within him. He needed to know more.

"So, uhh... you and Damon huh?" He approached not looking her in the eye, rather the syringes on the tray he just brought into the room placing them down next to her.

"Me and... Damon?"

"How long have...have you two been .. uh..." he stuttered out awkwardly still not meeting her eyes.

"Been what?" She asked confused.

"Been together" he angrily huffed out. It never used to be this hard to pry information out of her. He vividly remembers her telling her life story to strangers on the street back when they were friends. He was the closed off one.

There was a long pause till his eyes finally met hers.

"...Ewwwwwwww... gross!"

Taking a syringe in his hand. Stefan approached her slowly.

"You two aren't?" He asked confused.

"No! ... that's the most disturbing thing I have ever heard"

"Yeah" Stefan couldn't help the slight twitch on the corner of his mouth as he breathed a sigh of relief.

He immediately started to relax around her again and brought the syringe to her arm. Her breathing quickened and body started to shake. He started doing the same both for completely reasons. The close proximity was getting to him and as he took a blood sample from her he saw the pain in her face as she winced. He thought to distract her by making conversation.

"So... how's your mom?"

Her body turned rigid as her head snapped to face him wide eyed, open mouth.

"Uhhh... She ahhh..She died". She gave her sad 'I'm fine' smile as Stefan froze stunned to silence for a few minutes.

"I'm.. I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"-it's fine, I just...I thought Damon would have told you" . Damon told him she was sick that day he left but he just assumed she got better. He never questioned it. He should of. How could he be so selfish. No wonder Caroline hated him. He abandoned her when she needed him most. Why had no-one told him. Why didn't he tell him?

"Damon and I haven't been on speaking terms for a long time now. He told me she had... did she die of-"

"-Cancer. Yeah it wasn't long after she got diagnosed.. but errr... Yeah". She shrugged fighting her eyes full of water as she looked to the floor. Stefan sat down next to her on the bed as he digested the news.

"I'm so sorry Caroline" he placed his hand over hers. It used to be a reassuring thing they did and he hoped it still held some strength. She slowly lifted her head to meet his eyes .

"I should of been there and I wasn't" he repented full of regret as they gazed into each other as silence engulfed the room. After a long pause he continued.

"And I know I can never make it up to you...But ... I'm here now ... if you ever want to talk about it."

Caroline couldn't prevent the single tear that leaked down cheek as her walls began to crumble.

"I really miss her Stefan. Everyday I try to move on with my life, try to get past this, but... she's my mom and ...I'm never gonna stop missing her".

"Well that's life Caroline. You're probably always gonna miss her...All you can do is try and move on with you're life. Be happy...It's what she would of wanted" Stefan gently nodded to her as she smiled sadly releasing another lone tear down her cheek, to which he whipped away with his thumb.

"Yeah... She was a really amazing mom" her voice cracked at that.

"The best" he smiled.

Caroline's eyes started to water again and all attempts to prevent the waterfall of tears was futile. It broke his heart to see her like this and before too long tears clouded his own vision of her pain. He knew their current relationship was still on Rocky territory, but his arms instinctively wrapped a found her pulling her face to his chest.

"Shhh.. it's okay".

He held her tighter as Caroline crumbled in his arms, her tears drenching through his shirt. They stayed in that position as minutes past. Only sounds of Caroline's muffled tears. He wished he could take this pain away from her. He would sell his soul for her to be happy again.