November 2017.

Caroline glanced at him with her back against the kitchen counter as Damon poured himself a glass of bourbon as if he was at home.

"I don't have the whole day, Damon."

Damon faked a mile and headed to the living room. Caroline followed him with her arms folded, trying not to lose patience.

"Nice apartment" he said, flopping onto the couch.
"Damon…"
"What the hell is…?" Damon leaned forward and took the note that was attacked to the branch of daisies. "Thanks for the dinner, it's always a pleasure. Daniel" he read. "What the hell is this and who the hell is Daniel? Are you dating someone?"
"He's a friend. Turns out that a vampire is working for the same newspaper than me."
"Mm, just a friend? Because I remind you that you're still super into my brother, blondie."

Caroline snatched the note from his hands and placed it on the furniture.

"What do you want?" she asked, staring at him.
"Turns out" he said, repeating her gesture "that I lied."

Damon looked at her with raised eyebrows and Caroline pursed her lips.

"Remember when I told you that Stefan had told me thing he told you and blah blah blah? Remember I told you that I knew nothing about his whereabouts? I kept in touch with him and also… I know the reason why he really… left" Damon closed his eyes, waiting for her reaction. Maybe a push, another punch, or a broken neck this time. When he did not get any of the three, he opened an eye and saw that Caroline seemed frozen, looking blankly at the ground. "Yes, he actually asked me to take care of you" he continued. "But he didn't leave for the reasons that you think."

Damon's voice and words were like a distant echo to her.

"Honestly, blondie, how could you be so dumb to think that my brother didn't want to be with you? In what world?"

Caroline finally looked up to meet his eyes. Her face was harsh.

"He had to choose, okay? It was joining them or seeing how they killed you. And we know how much Stefan likes to show off his hero hair."

Damon took a sip of his drink.

"And, actually, I'm bored of being alone in the house, so… What do you say if…" Damon rose and took his phone to look for Stefan's number "you call him and convince him to come back? He can't say no to you" Damon handed the phone to her but Caroline did not take it. She stared at the screen with his Stefan's name and number. "Blondie?"

Caroline turned to the window and ran a hand across her forehead. Her heart was beating fast due to the nerves and she felt as if her world was falling apart.

"Leave, please" she said.
"What? But…"
"Damon…" Caroline turned to look at him. "You… You can't do this. You can't come and tell me that you've been lying to me for a year. You can't come now and say that Stefan lied and didn't want to tell me the truth and…"
"You were in danger, Caroline, and-"
"I don't care, Damon" she stared into his eyes and Damon was surprised to see that she was not angry. "I know that it may sound selfish, but he shouldn't have… left me like that, he should have trusted me. I… I've been going crazy thinking it was my fault, thinking I wasn't enough for him" she covered her face with her hands and Damon looked away, somewhat uncomfortable, since he did not know what to do. "It's been months of torture, of…"
"But you had him wrapped around your little finger, how could you think that-"
"Damon, stop" Caroline looked at him with pleading eyes. "You can't come and tell me this after everything I went through, after moving out and trying to move on. I can't leave everything behind. I don't even know if I'd be able to…"

Caroline closed her mouth and swallowed with watery eyes. Damon clenched his jaw and glared at her. He took the note again and a pen and wrote something on it as Caroline looked at him, confused. Damon put the note in her hands and turned around to head to the door. He slammed it and Caroline jumped. Once alone, she started to cry.

Caroline moved her foot against the floor nonstop, staring at the fire of the fireplace. When she heard the door opening, she rose immediately. There he was. Stefan came in, looking tired, and Caroline walked towards him.

"Where were you? I was worried. Was it really hard to… I don't know, reply to my messages?"
"Hello to you too" Stefan said, taking off his jacket.
"Stefan…"
"It's only has another of my many meetings with the heretics. They were a little mad at us for taking the house again and…"
"Why didn't you ask me to go with you?"

Stefan looked at her in silence, remembering what they had done to him. He approached her with a soft smile and sad eyes and he cupped her cheeks with his hands. Caroline looked at him, a little confused.

"Stefan, what's going on?" she asked.
"Nothing, just… I just want to look at you" Stefan stroked her cheeks with his thumbs and watched her face, trying to remember every part of her.

He leaned his forehead against hers and closed his eyes, trying to stay calm. What would he do now? How could he tell her that he was going to forget her? The mere thought of not remembering Caroline Forbes one day was killing him.

"Stefan, what's wrong?" she insisted, caressing his shoulders and neck with her hands. Stefan shivered at her touch.
"Nothing" he whispered before pressing his lips against hers. Two weeks, that was the time he had been given to decide, to get used to the idea that forgetting her was not fair, to get used to not having her in his arms.

Caroline pulled away gently and looked into his eyes.

"What happened with Lily?" she asked again.
"Everything is okay. We made a deal, actually."
"A deal? With them?"

Stefan nodded and tucked her hair behind her ear, stroking her curls.

"I'm going to have a shower" he said. Caroline nodded and Stefan released her to head to the stairs, but she took his hand.
"Don't leave like this ever again, okay?"

Caroline buried her face in his chest and Stefan hugged her, fingers tangled in her hair, burying his face in her curls, and closing his eyes to stop the tears that threatened to fall.

Caroline suddenly opened her eyes and sat up on the bed, breathing heavily. She covered her face with her hands, shaking her head.

"No, not again" she whispered, trying to calm down. She put her head between her knees and wrapped her legs with her arms, closing her eyes tightly. "Why did you lie, why…?"

She opened her eyes and the silence of the night overwhelmed her. She looked at the bedside table, lit by the moonlight that filtered between the curtains. Damon had written down Stefan's new phone number below Daniel's message.

She took the note and her phone with a knot in her stomach and dialed the number without really knowing what she was doing. It was 4.30 in the morning.

One pip, another one, and then someone got the call, but did not say anything.

"Stefan?" she asked in a whisper.

Silence. That only could mean that he was there.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she said with weak voice. She was about to burst into tears. She could hear his breathing. "Stefan, please. I… I need to hear your voice and know that you were real" Caroline sobbed and led her fingers to her lips in order to try to control her emotions but she was not able to. "I tried to hate you. I tried with all my will, but I can't. Because it's you. You are you. Tell me that you haven't forgotten me. Tell me that-"

He hung up. Caroline's breathing shook and she let the phone fall on the mattress to hug herself, unable to restrain the tears.

December 2017.

Caroline tapped her fingers on the desk, waiting for a document to load on her laptop screen. The raindrops hit the glass window of her office, and the clouds in the sky roared, making clear that the storm would last.

"Psst."

Caroline looked up from the laptop after rolling her eyes.

"What do you need now, Daniel?" she asked, shaking her head.
"Have you ever had a slip, Care? You know, like a… crazy slip of drinking everybody's blood."
"What are you talking about?"

Daniel put some photographs on her desk to show them to her. Caroline realized that there were bodies covered in blood in the pictures.

"This is horrible" she mumbled.
"I'm in charge of the crime section this week. So what do you say?" Daniel sat on the desk and looked at her with enthusiasm. "Do you think the murdered could be a vampire?"
"Daniel, the vampire fascinated by vampires" Caroline gave him the photos and he took them. "I'll never understand you. It doesn't have to be a vampire."
"Maybe not, but maybe it has. Have you ever heard about the Ripper of Monterrey, Caroline?"

Caroline tensed and stared at the keyboard.

"He's a legend. I've read and researched about the events related to him and… so far no one has been able to confirm if he's real or not. But what if he really does exist? What if he made this?"
"He didn't" she said quickly.
"Why are you so sure?"
"Because…" she let out a sigh. "Because I knew him, and he got better."
"Did you meet the Ripper?" Daniel sat down on the chair in front of her desk. Caroline knew that he would ask more questions. "Tell me his story."

Caroline opened her mouth without knowing what to say, her eyes fixed on the desk. She swallowed and tucked her hair behind her ear.

"Not much to tell. He…" she looked at the daisies, remembering the orchids, remembering his smile. "He was special" she shrugged. "No one understood him until…"
"Until what?"
"Until he found someone who did" she said. "Someone who helped him to slow down, someone who believed in him."
"A woman?"

Caroline looked up at him, who was staring at her with raised eyebrows, expectantly waiting to hear the rest of the story.

"Yeah, a woman."

Caroline left the building of the faculty with Bonnie at her side and a coffee in hand as she told her friend about the heavy essay that would take pages and pages to write. Bonnie elbowed her suddenly and Caroline looked up and stopped talking.

Stefan was there, in the distance, leaning against his bike, arms crossed, watching her with a soft smile on his face. Her heart began to beat fast and she gave Bonnie the coffee without looking away from him.

"I'll see you later" she said.

She started walking briskly toward him, smiling as she approached him. Stefan gave a step forward just before Caroline pounced on him, wrapping his waist with her legs and his neck with her arms.

"You're back" she said.
"What did you think? That I was going to leave behind Mystic Falls and the most adorable thing the town has?" Stefan put his hands on her hips and Caroline bit her lower lip.
"Technically, we're in Whitmore" she said with a giggle. "How was the boys trip with Damon and Alaric?"
"Um, you know, a lot of bourbon, too many bars… Not the company I'd have liked."

Caroline laughed and Stefan pressed hi slips against hers, but just when she was about to give her all, he winced and pulled away, looking at his left. There was a girl on the floor that had fallen off her bike and whose knee was bleeding. Stefan started walking toward her and Caroline followed him.

"You okay?" Stefan asked her.
"Yeah, just… A stupid fall" the girl said, a little embarrassed. Caroline watched Stefan pulling a handkerchief out of his pocket and placing it on the girl's knee to make the wound stop bleeding. "Thanks."
"Let us help you" Caroline said, grabbing her arm to help her stand.
"Wow, you're strong" the girl said. Caroline nodded.
"Yeah, that's what people tell me" she said with a smile.

The girl thanked them for the last time and walked away. Caroline looked at Stefan askance.

"What?" he asked. Caroline shook her head.
"Nothing" she said.
"It wasn't that bad. She wasn't bleeding that much for me to…"
"Shut up" she said, rolling her eyes and laughing.

She stroked his chest with her hand and looked into his eyes.

"You should be proud" she told him.
"No need, it's enough if you are" he took her hand and led it to his lips. "Because it's thanks to you. It'll always be because of you."

Caroline blushed and shook her head.

"Stefan…"
"You, Caroline" he insisted.
"Forget it" she said with a shy smile.
"How could I possibly forget someone like you?"

"What happened to them?" Daniel asked.

Caroline swallowed hard and looked away at the window.

"He left, and she was never able to forget him. But he did."
"Oh, come on. For being a ripper, he seemed very much in love. Why would he forget someone like her?"

She turned her face slowly to him and looked at him with bright eyes. She smiled slightly, trying to keep the tears in her eyes. He shrugged with a smile.

"I knew there had to be a reason why you didn't like my daisies."

Caroline could not help but laugh as a tear fell down her cheek.

January 2018.

Caroline stopped the car in front of the house and looked at the front after letting out a sigh. She looked up at his window, the curtains were drawn, of course.

She got out of the car with a knot in her stomach and opened the door with the key that she had never thrown out. The Salvatore mansion was completely silent, which was surprising considering that Damon was still living there.

She grabbed the knob of the door of Stefan's bedroom and opened it, taking a deep breath. She walked to the center of the room slowly while taking off her jacket and hung it on the back of the chair. Everything was so dark.

She closed her eyes for a second, remembering him reading on the bed as she watched him.

She drew the curtains and the room lit up. She opened the window to air it out. And then she realized that her heart had waited a long time for her to finally be ready for that moment. To open the windows, to let the light enter that room again.

When she heard some footsteps behind, she turned around.

"So…"
"So" Caroline said, looking at Damon, "we bring him back."

Damon glanced at the closed boxes full of journals and nodded at her.