Okay, so it's been a really freaking long time since I've posted on this story, I know. First, I lost all inspiration for it. Then, I lost my flash drive where I keep all my writing, and then when I found it, it broke. I mean, it physically broke and I couldn't access any of my stories that were on it. Then, my husband got the data off the flash drive but we were in the process of moving so he was 3 hours away from me so he could start his new job before we moved, so I had no way of getting the stuff. And then we did move and everything was a mess. So, as you can probably tell, my writing was on the back burner for a while. But I've been doing a crapload of writing over the holiday and there are updates to my other stories coming very soon.
Also, this chapter was longer, but I split it up into two because it was almost 6,000 words and to me, that's just too long for one chapter. I'm posting this chapter tonight and then I'll probably post the next one tomorrow night, because it's almost one AM here and I really need some sleep. Again, reviews equal love.
"Did anybody notice that something was definitely wrong with Rebekah tonight?" Klaus asked as they walked through the front door later that night. "I mean, she was totally off. And don't get me wrong, Caroline, but since when are the two of you so friendly with one another?"
Caroline sighed, tugging off her coat. It was only September, so it wasn't too cold yet, but she wore a jacket that night anyway. She figured that if she hadn't worn one, she would have gotten cold, and like Esther was always telling her, Caroline liked to be prepared.
"It's nothing big, Nik," Caroline said, hanging her jacket in the living room closet. "Maybe my relationship with Rebekah is changing. It'd be nice, you know. I hate this anti thing that Rebekah and I have had going for all these years. I want to get along with her. Whether or not she accepts it, she is my sister and I'm going to treat her that way."
"What happened to 'I hate her guts, Nik, I wish she was dead'?" Klaus said in an imitation of Caroline's voice. Damon snickered.
"First of all, that's a piss poor imitation of me, Nik," Caroline said. "I do not sound like that. And second, I said that when I was sixteen. Every teenager I've ever met is melodramatic."
"It's true," Damon said, jumping into the conversation. "You should have seen Stefan when he was that age."
"You're not that much older than him," Caroline reminded Damon. "You're what…three years older?"
"Almost four, but that's not the issue here. We were talking about teenagers. At that moment in time, I was not one."
"Anyway," Caroline said, changing the subject. "I hate this animosity bullshit that is between myself and Rebekah. It's there because she's always treated me badly and I really hate that. Maybe things are turning around – hopefully."
Caroline knew that that probably wasn't how things were going to go between herself and Rebekah. She knew that, after everything was over, Rebekah was going to go back to hating her, and Caroline was going to respond the way she always had. The whole hateful thing that they had going on wasn't something that Caroline embraced – in fact, it was something that Caroline hated. She wanted something better with Rebekah, but after eight years Caroline wasn't going to hold her breath.
"I don't know, Caroline. It's just really suspicious," Klaus said, sighing before coming over and kissing Caroline on the cheek. "I'm going to bed."
"It's only ten thirty," April said, speaking up for the first time, but Klaus just ignored her. Caroline looked over at her friend, "I told you, he's a Marine. He's up at the ass crack of dawn every morning so he doesn't stay up half the night like other people do."
"Hey," April said, plopping down on the couch, "I don't need as much sleep as normal people do. I only need, like, four hours and I'm good."
Caroline, Damon and April stayed up for another hour, having a few drinks of the special rum that Caroline kept in the freezer for special occasions and chatting. April talked about how much she missed Chicago, even though she was glad she left.
"In a crazy way," April said, taking a swig of her drink, "I miss it there. It was always so busy, so full of life. I loved that big city feeling that I got there. But I knew that I had to leave. Dylan was…it was just bad. I knew if I didn't leave at that time, I'd probably end up dead. Or worse, like in the hospital like you were, Care Bear. I'm still surprised that your brother Elijah didn't kill him for that."
Damon looked at Caroline, concerned, "What is she talking about?"
Caroline shot a look at April before sighing and saying to Damon, "Tyler put me in the hospital once. Really, it was no big deal."
"No big deal?!" April exclaimed. "Yeah, sure, it was no big deal. You were just in coma for, like, three weeks."
"It was more like two, and I'm fine, alright? I just...I pissed Tyler off and he got physical. It was the last time he had ever done it, too. I left not long after." She finished off her drink in one swallow, looking at April, "Thanks for bringing it up, too. Not that I didn't want my dirty laundry aired out all over the place or anything." With that, she went upstairs.
When Caroline woke up, she was surrounded by a white so bright it hurt her eyes. She blinked a couple of times and she felt pain. Her head hurt. In fact, her entire body hurt, and her throat felt like it was on fire. It hurt when she swallowed, and she didn't even want to think about how it would hurt when she talked. One of her eyes was swollen shut and she couldn't see a damn thing out of it. Her eyes – well, eye, really – darted around the room to try to figure out where the actual hell she really was and, after a moment, she realized – she was in a hospital room. Elijah was in a chair next to the bed, leaning back and he was asleep.
She cleared her throat, trying to figure out if she could even speak, but the noise was enough to wake Elijah. He had always been a light sleeper, after all, and he blinked a couple of times to get the sleep out of his eyes before saying, "Care. You're awake. How're you feeling?"
"Throat hurts," she got out, and Elijah nodded.
"I figured as much. They had a tube down your throat because you stopped breathing. I bet it hurts like hell. Here," he said, offering her a Styrofoam cup full of water. "Take a drink. It should help." He reached over, pressing the call button for the nurse, and said "You've been asleep for two and half weeks. I was starting to think that you weren't going to wake up at all. The doctor said it was a chance."
"What happened?"
"Right now, Tyler Lockwood is in the county jail, but he'll probably be making bail within the hour. His mother is, after all, the mayor of Mystic Falls. She isn't going to let him rot there, as much as he deserves it. He beat you pretty good, Care. Do you remember anything?"
Right away, Caroline got irrationally angry, "I'm not one of your clients, Elijah. I'm not a fucking victim, okay?" She sighed before adding, "Okay, sure, I am an abuse victim, but it's not like that. Don't treat me like a client; I'm your fucking sister."
"I get it, Care, and I'm sorry," Elijah apologized almost immediately. "It's just I've been doing my job for a long time. Okay. Let's start over. What's the last thing you can remember?"
Caroline sighed, "Uh…I was arguing with Tyler. I'm not sure what happened, but I remember one minute we were arguing and the next he took a punch, and…oh crap," she said, her eyes going wide. "He put me here, didn't he?"
Elijah nodded, "Yeah, he did. You're pretty banged up. A couple broken ribs, a broken collarbone, a broken wrist, a broken ankle, several bruises – you look really bad. He tried to strangle you, too, which is partly why your throat hurts so much. I mean, the tube helped with the pain, but he really did a number on you. You're going to have several bruises, including those finger shaped ones on your throat. You're going to be okay, though. You're a survivor, Care."
Caroline was silent for a moment, digesting every detail that Elijah had just given her before a thought hit her. "Hey, Elijah, Mother didn't come here did she? I don't want her to see me like this."
"I persuaded her to stay in Richmond," Elijah said. "Actually, the hospital called Elena, who was your emergency contact in the paperwork, and Elena didn't want to tell Mother – not right away. She was afraid of giving her a heart attack. I called Mother on my way up here and asked her to stay in Virginia until I called her again. She knows that you were hurt pretty badly, so I want you to call her the first chance you feel up to it, okay?"
Tears started to fill Caroline's eyes, "Okay."
"Care," Elijah said gently, "Why didn't you tell anyone? Why didn't you tell me, or Mother? You know that Niklaus would've put in for leave if he knew that this happened. You're an excellent actress – nobody even expected this."
Caroline sighed, "I thought I could handle it. I mean, sure, when it started, I was embarrassed. After everything I've been through, I let someone hurt me. After everything that bastard Mike Jones put me through, I walked into another abusive relationship. I didn't want anybody to know. And then, I was in so far that I couldn't get out. Tyler's gonna kill me, you know that, right?" Tears were overflowing over her eyes, and started to fall down her cheeks. "I'm not saying that to be melodramatic, either. I mean he's literally going to kill me. Nobody ever leaves a Lockwood."
That was something that Tyler had told her several times. "Nobody's ever left a Lockwood," he had told her, "and it isn't going to start now. It's either me or nothing else."
"You're going to leave, Care," Elijah said, "because after you get out of the hospital, I'm taking you over to the apartment myself and we're going to collect your things. You're going to come back to Richmond with me, and Mother already said that you could stay in her guest room."
"I can't do that," Caroline said. Elijah looked at her sympathetically.
"You need to, Care. I'm not going to force you to do so, though. You are, after all, an adult and I can't tell you what to do anymore. But think about it, Caroline; he almost killed you this time. What's gonna happen the next time you piss him off? Your neighbor might not be a girl that Tyler Lockwood had beaten and left for dead, so she wouldn't have the mind to call the cops like she did this time."
"Who was that?" Caroline asked.
"Um, her name is Amy something. She heard the yelling from your apartment and she called the police. They got there and you were passed out, Tyler's hands around your throat. They got him off in time, but your brain was deprived oxygen for three minutes, and they thought irreparable damage might have happened. You've been in a coma for two and a half weeks and the doctor was starting to worry that some kind of damage had actually happened. But you're okay." He got up, coming over, and hugged Caroline gently. He gave her a kiss on her forehead, "God, Care, we were all so worried. Niklaus doesn't know about this yet, but you know he's going to want to know."
"I know. But, Elijah," Caroline said, wiping her eyes, "he's gonna be so disappointed in me."
"Oh, Care," Elijah said, taking her hands in his, "We're not disappointed in you. You didn't deserve this, and please, you need to press charges. You need to do it so he can't do this to anyone else."
"I'm not going to press charges, Elijah," Caroline sighed. "There's no way in hell I'm going to chance this. No one ever leaves a Lockwood, and no one definitely ever prosecutes one."
"The Lockwoods aren't any better than you or me, Care," Elijah said.
"Maybe not, but they have friends in high places. I'm just the lowly foster kid that nobody ever loved enough to adopt. Nobody's ever gonna take my word over his."
Elijah sighed, and Caroline started to worry. She knew that sigh. She had pissed him off. Elijah was always cool and collected, and he always had a level head. He never shouted when he got angry – his anger was calm and even. And that's what Caroline hated.
"Mother loves you. We love you, Caroline. You are part of our family, even though that bitch of a case worker you had never let us adopt you. Case workers get paid by the amount of kids they place, you know. No kid is unadoptable, I promise you that. You are wanted. We want you."
Tears were pouring down her cheeks now, and Caroline hiccupped as she started to wipe away her tears unsuccessfully. Starting to sob uncontrollably, Elijah came over, sitting down on the hospital bed beside her, and put his arms around her. She leaned into his embrace, sobbing on his shirt. Elijah always wore a suit, so, while Caroline was a little upset about getting snot and tears all over his nice shirt that was dry clean only, she loved the feeling she got from her family. Elijah had been right – whether she was a Forbes or a Mikaelson, she was wanted. That was all she could ask for.
Healing after that attack from Tyler went slowly. It went extremely slow, if she was being honest. She was in the hospital for a week after she woke up from that coma, but it felt like an eternity. She was in tremendous pain a lot of the time, but the emotional pain was what hurt the most. And true to her word, Caroline didn't press charges against Tyler. She wasn't going to – everyone knew that you didn't fuck with a Lockwood.
After changing into a pair of cheer shorts and a tank top, Caroline lay on her bed, just thinking things through. She was damaged – and she knew it. And here she was, with Damon…a guy who made her feel like herself. He made her feel whole. He made her feel beautiful. Damon made her feel like she was wanted, and he made her feel like she belonged. She was falling in love with him, and she couldn't have that. He was getting to know her too well, and she was going to have to break it off. There was no way around it.
Just remember, the next chapter is coming tomorrow. I also thought I should add here, I don't think like other people do. I'm a very tactile person and so casual touches to other people doesn't equal flirting or seem abnormal to me. I also don't have any siblings, so I'm hoping that I am writing the sibling-y contact right. If it reads a little weird, I'm sorry.