Because you're you-and I'm me

A/N:

Disclaimer:

~VD~

"What the hell do you want?" She asked. Christopher shrugged.

"Talk."

"Yeah, so not doing that." She smirked, and tried to walk past him, out of the door, and he let her. But she was stopped by Braeden and Kern, who both entered the door, pushing her back in. She rolled her eyes.

"I can take you guys, you know." She said.

"We're not here to fight." Braeden responded, quietly.

"Given our history I doubt that." She said, carefully.

"Well, let's recount said History then." Kern said, biting his lip, leaning against the door. He then pushed himself towards her, walking around her.

"We tortured you, bit you, damn near killed you." He started.

"Then you find a way to escape, and miraculously, survive." Braeden continued.

"Casper goes mad…blahblahblah." Christopher added.

"You go undercover for… 3 or 4 years, yeah?" Kern recalled, as if he would ever forget.

"Then, all of a sudden, you come back."

"And you're no longer that little 13 year old, let me say." Christopher winked at her. She looked at him annoyed.

"You swoop in, start hell and stuff, kill everything in sight, etc." Kern continued, after elbowing Christopher in the ribs, chastisingly.

"Except me." Braeden spoke out then. "Why?" He asked. He was standing directly in front of her.

Caroline didn't say a word. They were all looking at her, curious. She sighed, dropping the protective shield.

"You want an answer?" She asked, slowly. They nodded.

"I'm not meant for killing people. He may have you convinced otherwise, but I don't do it for fun. You weren't an immediate danger. I was being the bigger person, had you attacked me, you'd no doubt be dead." She said, gazing at him, her head tilted.

"But what I did to you…I…"

"Are you just looking for a reason to die? Is that why you came here?" She asked irritated. "It's gone, buried." She yelled. Their jaws fell open, all at once.

"But your scars…" Kern started. Caroline rolled her eyes. She made them visible. They gasped.

"You mean these?" She challenged.

"Yeah." Christopher choked out.

"They're a part of me. Were it not for them, I wouldn't have survived taking down Casper." She mused. Braeden dropped down in front of her.

"I know I in no way deserve it, but I deeply apologize for ever hurting you. I don't expect you to forgive me."

"Stand up. You're being ridiculous." She barked. He stood. "I will not blame you, for the execution of the idiotic ideas Casper planted in your head. You're forgiven." She said. "Now what did you really come here for."

"To keep you company at this rager of a dance." Christopher joked.

"I was actually enjoying myself." She huffed.

"Right. That's why you were sitting in a classroom by yourself."

"Oh fuck off." She growled. He laughed.

"You're funny."

"Chris, would you tell the girl what you wanted to tell her?" Kern ushered.

"I was getting to that. Touchy, aren't you."

"I sense another vampire." He shrugged. "Of course I'm nervous."

"Yeah. That'll be because we just killed one." Caroline dismissed.

"Caia didn't die." Christopher blurted out.

"Uh. I know."

"She's plotting to kill you." Braeden warned. He'd been awefully quiet. Caroline laughed in hysterics.

"And when was there ever someone who didn't want to kill me? Quite seriously, I know how to handle myself."

"We just wanted to warn you." Kern shrugged.

"And to tell you that we are now fighting on your side. We'll protect you." Chris noted. Then he gave her a note. "A way to contact us." He explained. She nodded, putting it in her purse.

"Well, you can leave then, can't you?" She asked. The three stood still for a moment.

"Yeah." Christopher acknowledged. Then he reached out to shake her hand, and as soon as she took it, he was ripped away, and pinned against the wall.

"What did you do to her? Why do you all keep trying to take her away from me?" Damon growled, damn close to snapping his neck.

"That'll be the other vampire, Brother." Braeden whispered to Kern. Damon turned around in disgust.

"Werewolves?" Damon asked, confused. Then he went back to Christopher, breaking a nearby broom, and aiming it at his heart. Christopher looked very scared.

"Damon, stop!" Caroline yelled. He looked at her.

"I won't let them hurt you."

"They're on my side." She chastised. Damon dropped Christopher immediately.

"Sorry about that." He smiled. Then he came towards Caroline.

"And what were they doing here?" He asked.

"Leaving." She replied, not meeting his stare. They nodded, and shuffled out the door. Caroline turned around, not meeting Damon's gaze. What was he doing here?

~VD~

"Will you ever grace me with a look Caroline, or are you going to keep ignoring me?" Damon asked, after staring at her for 10 minutes. She cleared her throat.

"Yeah, I should get back to the dance." She said, trying to push past him, but he surprised her. He grabbed her roughly, pushing her against the wall, and capturing her lips in his. She gasped involuntarily.

"Tell me to stop, and I will." Damon purred against her neck, convinced he'd won her over. Caroline took a deep breath.

"Damon, stop."

His eyes snapped up to meet hers.

"Did you just-" He started, she cut him off.

"Just don't. Please don't." She licked her lips absently, looking down. Damon wrinkled his forehead.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked, lightly, poking her in the side. When she looked at him, tears were pricking her eyes.

"You know exactly what's wrong." She spat out, shoving him away to leave.

"Look, uh…I'm sorry about Vicki. I get that you're mad, hurt…and stuff." He tried. She was almost out the door, but then she turned around, to glare at him.

"Yes. I'm mad. I'm hurt as well. But you know what sucks the most? That I'm not allowed to be mad. Because you broke up with me!" She yelled at him. Damon was taken aback. Her sudden outburst wasn't expected. He tried to say something.

"No! No. Damon. You're not allowed to speak now! It's my turn. Cause you did all the speaking back then. I was going to go kill the bastard, because I didn't want my first boyfriend ever to have to keep on worrying about me. I wanted to end him, so I could be happy with you. So I go to your place, but instead of finding support, I end up with an overly, and unreasonably, jealous boyfriend." She vented. Damon tried to speak again, but she looked at him, full of rage, shutting him up.

"…I get it yeah, I lied. I said I was going to a concert. A concert, mind you, that you compelled Lucas to take me to. So go ahead, say you can't trust me anymore, and shit like that. That's completely fine. But then you go and try to force me to turn? What the hell is wrong with you?" She was screaming at the top of her lungs now, and Damon looked thoroughly scolded. But she was only beginning.

"I made it very clear that I couldn't be a vampire, nor did I want to be one. You knew that. Did you honestly expect me to be ready for that, after 3 weeks? Seriously Damon? You have no idea of the impact being a vampire would've had on me-" She paused when she looked at him, to find him giving her a knowing look.

"I do know. I didn't back then, but-"

"I'm not finished." She cut him off. "What would you have done, had you turned me? I still would have left to kill him. I would've still been gone over three months. Saying you want to turn me, means you want to be with me forever. Am I correct?" She said, dangerously. Damon just kept staring at her, trying to hide how turned on he was.

"DAMON!" She snapped at him. "Am I correct?"

"Yes." He cleared his throat. She looked at him.

"Then why the hell, did I come back to someone, ready to turn, confessing my love, when it took you all but three months to move on?" She asked, her voice dangerously low.

"Think about that." She mumbled, as she left the room, tears streaming down her eyes. Damon couldn't move. He couldn't get that one sentence out of his head.

Then why the hell, did I come back to someone, ready to turn, confessing my love, when it took you all but three months to move on?

ready to turn

turn.

Did he miss something?

No. That was exactly what she'd said.

~VD~

"Caroline. Where are you going?" Jeremy asked as Caroline passed by him, hiding her face.

"Home. I told you I hate these kinds of events." She sobbed. Jeremy sighed, taking her into his arms.

"Damon again? What did he do?"

"He didn't do anything. I just got overwhelmed, yelled at him, and then realized most of it was irrational."

"You do know that he probably deserved it?" Jeremy smirked. Caroline laughed through her tears. She was feeling pathetic.

"Yeah. But I just…I need to go home. Damon is still here somewhere, I'd venture. I don't fancy running into him again." She mumbled.

"Fine. I'll drive you."

"Really? You fif-aeh…sixteen year old?" She smirked.

"Yeah, takes some getting used to, doesn't it?" He stuck out his tongue.

"Shut up." She laughed, swatting him on the forearm.

"Just let me say bye to Bonnie. I'll meet you outside." He nodded. She nodded, then she headed.

~VD~

Caroline was standing outside, trying not to freeze, but it was hard. Then she heard her phone get a call. What was her phone doing in her pocket? She hadn't even been to the cellar. She made a mental note to get it. Then she found the phone. That wasn't hers. It seemed like a burn phone. She picked up reluctantly.

"Hello?"

"Who is this?" She heard Lucifers exotic accent. She smirked.

"You don't really care. I, on the other hand, care more about how this phone landed in my bag." She disclosed. She heard him laugh.

"Caroline. You got it then?"

"You could say that, yeah."

"Good, good. How are you?"

"Seems a bit of an effort to smuggle a phone into my purse just to ask me about my wellbeing, doesn't it?" She laughed. She had no idea why she laughed. Just a minute ago, she'd been crying. God, she was going mental.

"Right. I assume you got their message then?"

"Whose?" Caroline decided to play dumb.

"Don't play that with me. I told them to put the phone in your bag."

"Argh, damn, you got me." She rolled her eyes.

"Seriously though, Caroline, everything has healed?"

"You don't give a damn about my wellbeing; ask what you really want to know."

"I'm inquiring about your plans to kill Caia." He mumbled.

"Um..yeah. I have… plans." She said, looking around. She didn't. Being busy kind of kept her from her plotting. "And another question." She trailed off.

"Well go ahead." He urged.

"Yeah, that's not really the best thing to discuss over the phone in the middle of a parking lot." She mumbled.

"I'm sure you're alone, otherwise you'd never have picked up."

"Well you never know, right?" She said, ducking under a branch to walk a bit further. "What with all these vampires and werewolves running around." She said, pointedly. She heard him chuckle.

"If I know you, you'll have made them leave by now."

"But you don't know me." She snapped. She heard him sigh.

"Just ask the damn question, and then we'll see if I know you."

"Is it normal, for…uh…demons to have…powers?" She asked, unsure of what to say. God, she sounded like an idiot.

"Try being a bit more specific." He snorted.

"As in…shooting…'lasers' out of my hand?" She breathed out.

"Uh…I might need to do some research on that." He confessed.

"Yeah, you do that." She said, finding Jeremy on the parking lot, calling her name.

"I got to go." She hung up.

~VD~

Caroline walked into her room, undoing her hair. She felt defeated. She stared at her hand for a while, wondering where the hell the green lasers would come from. It wasn't as if she was magic, right? She was part demon though. That she knew. But it wasn't hereditary. Wasn't handed down from her ancestors. It was, if one could put it that way, an infection. From Lucifer. And…the others. How irrelevant they seemed now. She chuckled. Shaking her head, she moved to undo her zipper, when she heard someone cough.

"You might want to be dressed for the following conversation." Damon said, from behind her. She turned around, glaring at him.

"What are you doing here?"

"Your mom let me in." He said, running his hand through his hair. He was obviously nervous.

"What are you doing here?" She repeated her eyes steely-cold.

"I've come here to talk to you about a possible misunderstanding in our conversation previously. Or…more like your monologue." He started.

"I didn't think there was anything I hadn't made crystal clear." She drawled, avoiding his stare again.

"God, Caroline, why won't you look at me? You used to stare me down." He said, frustrated.

"Because I can't stand looking at you now, I'm afraid it'll affect my judgment." Her voice was completely indifferent, but her words were loaded. Damon was taken aback.

"So…earlier, while your yelled your heart out, you said something that caught my attention."

Oh shit.

Oh shit, oh shit. Oh shit. She was so done. She'd let it slip.

"And…what was that?"

"Something about you being ready to turn." He said, nodding. Caroline frowned. She bit her lip.

"Caroline…you did say that, right?" He tried. She still wouldn't look at him. Dammit. He grabbed her chin, roughly, forcing her to look at him. She didn't even flinch. She was probably used to rough handling. He didn't want to remind her of her past. He wanted to resemble her future. He softened his grip. He saw her lip quiver, and her eyes blinked. He saw a slight green light flash behind them, catching him off guard, distracting him. He smiled when he understood.

"Trying to make me forget it? Yeah, that's not going to work. Vampire." He smirked.

"Trying to what?" She asked, truly confused. She didn't do anything.

"For a second there, you looked like you were about to compel me."

"I'm human."

"You're certainly something, but not human."

"I'm human." She pressed out, becoming angry again. How dare he?

"That's a discussion to have another day. Did you, or did you not say what I think you said." He asked, carefully. Inside he was shaking.

"It doesn't matter. It was stupid." She said, ripping his hand from her face with brutality. She left small scratch marks, that didn't fade. Damon eyed it carefully. Then he looked at her, questioningly.

"How can it be stupid, if you were basically professing you want to spend eternity with me?"

She didn't say anything.

"Caroline, did you mean it?" He asked, again.

"Does it matter?" She scoffed. He rolled his eyes.

"You know you can't turn."

"And so do you, so why the hell do you keep drawing me in?" She yelled. He shrugged, biting his lip.

"I need you, care. You're it for me." He stared into her eyes, and this time she stared back.

"But it's not going to work. Don't you see that?" She cried.

"I love you, you love me. Or at least you did last night. We can make this work." He urged. She sighed.

"This isn't some weird romance movie. There's no happy ending." She yelled, frustrated. He sighed.

"We could make one." He yelled back.

"Are you daft or something? I don't want to turn?" She yelled. "I don't want to be a freaking vampire!" She stood strong, even though tears were now flowing freely from her face.

He swallowed a lump in his throat, cleared his throat.

"Okay." And then he was gone. Caroline broke down to the floor.

"I just want to be human." She choked out, nearly suffocating from her tears.

~VD~

Uhh…gloomy chapter. The happiness does lie ahead though, fear not. Review please.