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Chapter 3: Slow Dancing In a Burning Room
Can't seem to hold you like I want to
So I can feel you in my arms.
Nobody's gonna come and save you,
We pulled too many false alarms.
"What is so urgent that I had to leave—"
Jo cut Damon off, "Kai's back."
Damon stopped walking like he had ran into a wall. He turned to look at his best friend's wife who sat on the sofa rocking her infant daughter back and forth.
"Kai? As your insane twin brother who tried kill us ten years ago?"
Jo gave a tense smile. "The very one."
"Fuck," Damon growled. He couldn't stand Kai Parker. He was by the far the most sadistic person Damon had ever come in contact with. And he was Damon Salvatore. He himself could be rather sadistic.
"Try not to curse in front of Annabelle," Alaric remarked coming into the room with a mountain of books in his hands.
Damon looked at his best friend of sixty years. Never did he think when he met Alaric that he someday be a father. Then again, Alaric was a vampire when they first met, so of course he wouldn't think that. However, when Alaric crossed over the border then years ago and started once again relive his death, Jo saved him before he could die; thus making him a human once again.
"She is months old. She won't remember Uncle Damon saying bad things about her mom's psycho brother. I thought the other side had a tight lid on Kai."
Alaric sighed. "It did, it does. Kai is still there, but a witch has been contacting the other side and wants to let someone out."
"Kai?" Damon asked.
Alaric shook his head, "Turns out Kol Mikaelson is over there, and she wants to let him out."
Damon was at a loss of words. "Why would anyone want a dead Mikaelson back on this planet?"
Damon had never had the pleasure of meeting a Mikaelson who were better known as the Original Vampires, but the stories were enough to keep him away. He did too much stupid shit, that with luck, they would want him dead. It was best for him to stay away.
Kol was the youngest boy and was outright insane. He took a baseball bat and destroyed anything he came in contact with during the eighties because he was bored one night. He was an immature human who had no responsibilities, and as a vampire he was just idiotic. He did whatever he wanted because he knew he didn't have repercussions.
"We don't know. What we do know is that this witch is strong. She might be able to do it. The problem isn't Kol though. From what I understand, he hadn't made a scene in the ten years leading up to his death. The problem is that if the walls of the other side are weakened Kai can easily slip through, and if he gets out he will come after us. We are the ones that put him there," Jo explained patting Annabelle's back.
"So let's stop her."
Many years ago, if this situation arose, Damon wouldn't hesitate in just killing the witch and being done with it. That was before Elena. She had never killed another human which is a feat for a vampire. He had helped her through her transition and quickly realized he didn't want her to go on a killing spree like his old self. In wanting this, he understood she didn't want him killing people either. He learned to control himself and had not fed from a living human in half a century.
"We can't find her. She has hid herself pretty good," Alaric responded, aggravated with the whole situation.
"So what do we do? Sit and wait for Kai to just come back?" Damon asked.
"There isn't much we can do if we can't find her."
"Great. It was just by chance we beat him before. There is no way in hell we can do it again."
Damon was furious. He was so tired of this shit. He thought Kai was dead and gone. Now, he had to worry he was coming back and killing all the people he cared about.
All for Kol Mikaelson.
Bonnie Bennett was a powerful witch. She learned of her powers over eleven years ago, and she refined them to make her one of the best. She never thought about doing something as big as what she was thinking, but if it could bring Kol back she wanted to take the risk.
Maybe it was ridiculous for her to even try, but she didn't want to give up on him yet. He had done so much for her in the ten years they were together, and she couldn't just throw him aside like he was nothing. Especially since he shouldn't have died. He was protecting her. Klaus pissed off the wrong person and they came after her, his brother's witch. Kol was just making sure she wouldn't be hurt. Now she needed to protect him.
She would practice a harder spell each night, and she could feel the power simmering inside of her. She knew she could do it. She knew she could set him free. She just didn't know if she could do it without letting Kai free too.
Kol had explained to her how insane Kai was. He had slaughtered his entire family and to a Mikaelson that was the worse offense. The Mikaelson's had done some crazy things, and Klaus had daggered them all, but at the end of the day they were family and you don't slaughter your family.
Kol had the pleasure of meeting Kai on the other side. Kai in his demented mind thought he and Kol could team up and destroy everything together. Kol quickly made sure he thought Kai should rot in hell. He explained he would kill him if it wasn't for the fact he was already dead.
Kol didn't want to be set free because he didn't want Kai to be let free of his prison. Whoever put Kai in the other side assumed he would not be set free. They probably did not even think it was possible for someone to get out, but Bonnie was a powerful witch. Kai literally fed off power and if he knew Bonnie had the power to set him free he would hurt her to get the power she held, and Kol would rather be stuck in this hell then ever let someone get to Bonnie. It was what got him there in the first place.
Caroline sat alone as she picked at her lunch. She wasn't much hungry, but it gave her something to do until her next class. Bonnie dropped down in front of her with a sigh.
"Kol thinks it is a bad idea."
Caroline was surprised. She would think Kol would do anything to be alive again. "How bad is this Kai character if Kol thinks he should stay locked up?"
"Good point. I think I could beat him if he came through though," Bonnie explained, and Caroline shook her head.
"Do you want to take that chance? This guy sounds like bad news, Kol said so himself. Maybe you need to really think this through."
Bonnie narrowed her eyes, "I thought you were okay with this."
"No, I said I was sorry for how I acted. Look, Bon, if it was just Kol then I would say go for it, you deserve to be happy, but Kai is dangerous. He can't be set free and wreak havoc. You can't overlook that."
Bonnie sighed, "I know. I know. It was all so simple before this Kai character."
Caroline reached over and grasped Bonnie's hand, "I know, buddy. We will figure something out."
"Can I sit with y'all?" Caroline looked up to see Elena holding a plate of food.
"Totally, Bonnie, this is Elena Salvatore. Stefan's sister-in-law," Caroline clarified for her best friend. She hadn't really had a chance to clear up the whole Stefan and Elena mishap with Bonnie yet.
"Sister-in-law," Bonnie said slowly.
"The one and only—" Elena said, taking a seat, "wait, did you think that Stefan and I were married?"
Caroline gave an embarrassed nod.
"Oh wow, that makes so much more sense. Okay, no. Never. We dated a long—"
"You dated your husband's brother?" Bonnie asked.
Elena shut her mouth and pushed her hair behind her ear. "Uh, yeah, when I first met Stefan we dated, but he introduced me to Damon, and Stefan and I realized that we were so wrong for each other, and then Damon and I got really close—" Elena rambled trying to explain herself.
"I did not mean for that to come across so rude. I am just shocked y'all can live under one roof," Bonnie said.
"Oh yeah, we are good. No harm, no foul."
Caroline awkwardly sat there. So Elena and Stefan had dated. Well, that made things extremely awkward for her.
She saw Stefan walk by throwing something away, making eye contact with her. Caroline didn't want to see him at that moment, so she decided to make that her time to exit. "I need to go."
"Oh okay. I will see you at home," Bonnie said as Caroline leaned down to hug her.
Once she had walked away, Elena asked, "I take it y'all are close?"
"Yup. We have been best friends since we were born, pretty much. Our moms were friends, and after my parents died I moved in with her," Bonnie explained.
"I'm sorry to hear that."
Bonnie shrugged. "I was young so it was easier. She, on the other hand, isn't taking her mom's death very well. I worry about her." Bonnie sighed.
"I understand that. She told me about her mom. I am sorry for that, too."
Bonnie thanked her. "Caroline is the only family I have left, and I hate to see her this way."
"Well, I was about as bad when I lost my brother, and it does get easier. She just needs to take it one day at a time and not keep it all bottled up."
Bonnie nodded in agreement, "You know, I think we will be good friends."
Elena smiled, "I think so too."
"Why are you avoiding me?"
Caroline turned in the empty hallway to look at Stefan. "Why are you following me?"
"I am not following you."
"I am not avoiding you," she retorted. Stefan looked around before pushing her slightly into the nearest classroom.
"Yes you are. You have been dodging me for two days now."
Caroline smirked, "Aww, have you missed me?"
Stefan rolled his eyes. "No."
He leaned in to capture her lips, but before he had the chance, she put her hand on his chest and pushed him slightly.
"Why didn't you tell me you and Elena dated?"
Stefan scrunched his nose. She always found this face rather cute. He only did it when he was truly confused, and it was a rare occurrence that Stefan Salvatore was confused. "Cause I didn't find it important to tell you."
"I think it is important to tell the girl you are having sex with that you have had sex with her friend."
Stefan cocked his head to the side. "A friend you have had for a week."
"I just think you should have told me."
"You know, sometimes I feel like you seek me out just to fight with someone," he muttered running his hands over his face.
There were times where they would go weeks without fighting. Then there were times when she was having a bad week so she found it necessary to pick a fight with him about everything. On these days, he avoided her.
"I don't seek you out. You came to me."
"And you turned it into an argument!" He raised his voice, making her glare at him.
"I was just making a statement." The last thing she wanted was to turn this into a fight. She just felt so awkward seeing him and Elena. She wasn't jealous, at least she didn't think she was. She just worried he was comparing her to Elena the whole time. Plus, he once told her of how he had been in love once, and she broke his heart. She feared that girl was Elena. "I don't want to fight, Stefan. I just feel awkward sitting there knowing she has had sex with you. I just wanted a heads up."
"Then here is your heads up. Yes, she and I dated. Yes, she and I had sex. We were in an actual relationship. Unlike us. So you don't really get to pass judgment for me not giving a list of my conquests to the girl I occasionally fuck."
Caroline was shocked by his anger. He had never really been mean to her before. She didn't think Stefan knew how to be mean. Of course, they had bickered, but he was never mean to her.
"You're a dick."
She stomped out of the room, slamming the door in the process, leaving an ashamed Stefan in her wake.
When he walked into math class, she was already there laughing it up with some frat boy tool. He didn't know why this angered him so much, but it did. He felt his blood boil as she pushed the boy's shoulder away flirtatiously. She didn't flirt with him. She didn't talk to him. She just yelled at him.
She only looked at him briefly as he moved passed her. He sat his homework on the front table before slumping in his chair. He chanced a glance back at her to find her leaning over, showing a problem to the boy. Of course, John he thinks his name is, found the inside of her shirt much more interesting. Stefan rolled his eyes. She probably thought she was actually helping.
He turned back in his seat determined to ignore her presence the rest of the class.
She hadn't even needed to look up to know he had entered the room. His smell was potent to her. She could pick it out easily in a room. She was still rather upset from their fight an hour before. He wasn't supposed to get to her, but he did and it bothered her.
He wasn't going to talk to her like that though. She deserved better than that, and he would be silly to think she would just let him take her to bed and then talk to her like some cheap skank.
She glanced up at him as he passed. His eyes mirrored her empty ones, and she sighed before turning back to Jake and helping him with his work.
Once her professor had begun lecture she couldn't keep her eyes off the back of Stefan's head. The girl next to her kept trying to ask him questions and was all buddy with him making her scoff.
She decided watching this girl flirt with him would just put her in a bad mood, so she turned back her attention to the lecture. She didn't know why she was jealous, but she was.
The girl beside him felt it was necessary to try to talk to him throughout the whole entire lecture. He found it rather annoying. Of course, he didn't need the lecture, he could figure it out without the professor, but he still found it disrespectful this girl was talking over the professor. It had always been a pet peeve.
When he heard Caroline scoff, he felt a smirk form on his lips. So she did get jealous.
Of course she does. That's what led to the fight that took place just before class.
She always strained the rule that they did not care for each other, but he knew it would be impossible for them to have sex at least twice a week for eight months and not feel something for the other. He wasn't saying he was in love with the girl. He was just saying he didn't like the way he felt when she didn't want to speak to him or even when he hurt her. He denied it of himself long enough. He knew he cared about her. He would never tell her that, but he didn't mean to upset her. He just felt like she was always mad at him for the silliest things. Like the fact he had slept with Elena. It had been over fifty years ago. He couldn't tell her that though. In Caroline's mind, it probably seemed rather recent.
He didn't mean to upset her. If only he could explain himself.
It had been days since he had spoken to Caroline. She had been giving him the cold shoulder ever since their fight. He could feel himself on edge and wasn't just because he hadn't fed that day. Not since he went to help out Elena and Damon right before their wedding four months ago had he gone this long without her, and even those two weeks seemed long without her.
At least then he didn't have to see her every day. He sees her in class and around campus. With each passing day, he just wants to shove her in the nearest classroom. Making matters worse, he walked into his own house to her sitting there watching TV with Elena. He couldn't get away from her.
He kept telling himself he just wanted her for her body. That's why he was so annoyed. He hadn't had any sort of release in eight days, but he knew that wasn't it. He figured that out when the girl from his math class had seen him at Mystic Grill and tried to take him home. She landed a big wet one on him, and Stefan had to resist the urge of pushing her away. He even tried to fuck her, but he couldn't do it. Every time she moaned he just growled because it wasn't Caroline's voice.
He sounded like a girl.
But because of his annoyance with the situation he found himself at some random party Elena dragged him to. The only way she knew how to get him out was to tell him Caroline would be there.
So that was why he sat on a stool chugging beer after beer. He wanted to not think about Caroline Forbes and her womanly ways for a little bit. It might make him feel better, if he could just forget about her.
"Can you and Stefan kiss and make up? He is literally sulking all the time," Elena explained to her new friend.
Caroline glanced across the house at Stefan who seemed to be putting the drinks back pretty fast. "What do you mean make up? That would mean we are together."
Elena rolled her eyes, "I'm not saying y'all are. All I am saying is that you two have been pouting all week so whatever weird thing y'all have makes you all sad when it is not a thing."
"He is just cranky cause he isn't getting laid," Caroline muttered.
"Trust me, that isn't it."
"Well, then he shouldn't have been a jackass."
Elena sighed. She had already spoken to Stefan about the whole situation and she could see where he was coming. Of course, there were better ways he could have said it.
"Yes, what he said was mean, but you need to see it from his point of view. He and I were so long ago that even I forget we were together. So of course he would be taken aback when a girl who he has been messing around with starts asking about a complicated relationship," Elena defended her brother-in-law. Caroline sighed, looking back over at Stefan. She didn't want to admit she missed him, but she would be lying if there were times in the last eight months where she would make up reasons to go see him.
You don't like him Caroline. You know that you can't.
"You understand y'all have been a thing longer than he and I were even together."
Caroline looked back at Elena with a questioning glance. "Really?"
"Yup. Plus, maybe he said it cause he wants more," Elena suggested, and Caroline laughed.
"Trust me, Stefan and I would never work like that."
Who are you trying to convince?
"If you say so."
"Dance with me."
Caroline cut her eyes over Elena's head to see Jake standing with a PBR in hand. His free hand had come to rest on Elena's hip. Caroline assumed he was speaking to a peeved Elena, but he was looking smugly at Caroline.
She had helped him in math class to be nice because she actually understood what was being taught. Now, she regretted her decision because Jake was proving to be the average, hormonal tool.
"Me?" Caroline asked, feeling a cringe run up her back at the idea.
Jake's smug face twisted into a conceded smirk, "No babe. Mysterious new girl here." His eyes slid over to Elena who gripped his hand tightly and moved away from her personal space. If it was up to her she would have held it a little stronger than a human girl physically could, but she knew better than that.
Caroline's head cocked to the side at the mention of the word 'babe.' Not even Stefan called her that.
"No, thank you," Elena politely smiled.
"Why not?"
Elena gave Caroline a shocked look. "Other than the fact I am married, I do not want to."
"Married, huh?"
By this point, Caroline had made eye contact with Stefan, hoping maybe he could get Jake away from Elena who looked to be two seconds away from punching Jake.
Stefan seemed to have noticed the SOS because he had pushed himself away from the counter and shuffled slowly over to the trio.
"I'm sure he wouldn't mine," Jake tried to reason.
Stefan clapped his hand down on Jake's shoulder and squeezed tightly. "Trust me, buddy. He would."
Jake shrugged Stefan's arm off. They might have classes together making them acquaintances, but not close enough for Stefan to tell him what he could and could not do. "Well I don't see him here, Stefan, and I don't think it is you, so just move along."
"Well," Stefan mimicked, "my big brother could easily be the scariest person you could meet, and he taught me how to handle pricks like you, so why don't you leave my sister alone because you definitely want to deal with me rather than him."
"Fine. Caroline?" Jake growled.
Caroline scoffed, but Stefan answered. "Leave her alone, too."
"I think she can answer for herself."
"Yeah, Stefan, I can say no all by myself," Caroline deadpanned.
Stefan gave Caroline an amused look. "What is your problem? You were all but throwing yourself at me in class, and yet now you have a chance to open your—" Stefan didn't allow anyone to hear the rest of his sentence, because he had cut him off with a punch to the jaw.
"Stefan!" Caroline and Elena yelled simultaneously as Jake skittered off.
"He shouldn't talk to you like that," Stefan grunted, pushing through the crowd and away from the party. With all the bodies and heaters, the cold had yet to get to him, but now by himself the bitter January air hit his face harshly.
Caroline ran out after him as she pulled her coat on. "Stefan!"
She chased after him and, as she closed distance, she grabbed out at him. "Why did you hit him?"
"He was annoying me. You shouldn't allow people to say things like that," he snapped at her.
"Oh, so only you can?" She glared, crossing her arms tight across her chest.
"I'm sorry for what I said. I was mad, but it doesn't change the fact you can't allow people to treat you like that."
"Why?"
"Because you are better than that, Caroline! How low do you think of yourself?"
"Do not come in here all high and mighty. You are just as fucked up as I am, and you know it!" she yelled shoving a finger into his chest.
"Of course I am. Why else would I continue this farce if I was stable?" Stefan threw his arms roughly out towards Caroline.
"It's not a farce," she whispered.
"You use me to not think about all the things that make you cry after we are done. You have sex with me so you don't have to be alone,"
"So what do you get out of it?"
Stefan shook his head. "I don't know. I'm going home."
"Fine. Go. It isn't like I care,"
Stefan gave a slow nod, "Yeah, whatever."
He turned to walk away from her, and she felt this overwhelming need to make him stay. "Stefan," she whispered, grabbing his jacket.
"What?" He snapped annoyed spinning around only to have Caroline's lips attach to his.
Stefan didn't hesitate in pulling her closer by her coat. Caroline grabbed onto his hair, clutching it tightly in fear he would reject her. She wasn't sure what she was doing, but she wasn't ready for him to walk away from her. Not yet.
It's not a silly little moment,
It's not the storm before the calm.
This is the deep and dying breath of
This love that we've been working on.
Can't seem to hold you like I want to
So I can feel you in my arms.
Nobody's gonna come and save you,
We pulled too many false alarms.
We're going down,
And you can see it too.
We're going down,
And you know that we're doomed.
My dear,
We're slow dancing in a burning room.
I was the one you always dreamed of,
You were the one I tried to draw.
How dare you say it's nothing to me?
Baby, you're the only light I ever saw.
I'll make the most of all the sadness,
You'll be a bitch because you can.
You try to hit me just to hurt me
So you leave me feeling dirty
Because you can't understand.
We're going down,
And you can see it too.
We're going down,
And you know that we're doomed.
My dear,
We're slow dancing in a burning room.
Go cry about it - why don't you?
Go cry about it - why don't you?
Go cry about it - why don't you?
My dear, we're slow dancing in a burning room,
Burning room,
Burning room,
Burning room,
Burning room.
Don't you think we oughta know by now?
Don't you think we shoulda learned somehow?
Don't you think we oughta know by now?
Don't you think we shoulda learned somehow?
Don't you think we oughta know by now?
Don't you think we shoulda learned somehow?
Don't you think we shoulda learned somehow?
Don't you think we shoulda learned somehow?
Don't you think we shoulda learned somehow?
Don't you think we shoulda learned somehow?
By: John Mayer
I hope y'all enjoy this! I guess let me know if you did!
I will have the next chapter up at some point this week!
Till then, Cheers and Smiles All Around.