Chapter 3
"I need clothes," Caroline says. She and Damon enter the boarding house, and he motions toward the brooding half of the mansion.
"Check Stefan's room. Elena may have a couple of outfits tucked away for 'emergencies'," Damon says with a sarcastic flip of his eyes. Then he makes a beeline for the living room and his stock of bourbon.
"Stefan's room?" Catching the bitter look on Damon's face, she whispers to herself as she heads upstairs. "Right, Stefan and Elena are still dating,"
Damon's vampiric hearing picks up her soft voice, and he makes a mental note to revisit the topic after the blonde fills him in on more important issues. The tale of his baby brother's epic romance with Elena Gilbert is not one he wants to hear right now. Maybe ever. Being told definitively that Elena fulfills her promise to never forgive him for his massively stupid mistake of killing her brother, albeit temporary, is not something Damon ever wants to experience. He certainly doesn't want the perfect life between Stefan and Elena recanted to him in the vivid details Caroline Forbes is sure to provide. Assuming this is, in fact, Caroline Forbes from the future.
Which it most certainly is not, Damon reminds himself.
He pours a much-needed glass of bourbon while Caroline slips into some clothes and grabs a blood bag. He watches the amber liquid swirl and considers everything the blonde told him during their trek home. Basically, nothing. This Caroline isn't shy about withholding information, especially about the "future". He frowns and gulps down his glass. Slamming down the empty crystal, Damon pours another three fingers as Caroline joins him in the living room.
"So do you believe me yet?" she asks. She sips from her blood bag before tilting her head to listen for other occupants until she's satisfied that they're alone. "Where's Stefan and Elena?"
"Shouldn't you know that? Being from the 'future' and all." He twists his finger into air quotes, and Caroline narrows her eyes at him.
"I don't know everything, Damon. Just what I remember."
"What do you remember?"
"I remember Katherine scaring the shit out of me every chance she got." Caroline slumps onto the large sofa while drinking from her blood bag. "I was so happy when we managed to trap her in the tomb, however short-lived that was."
"The tomb? The tomb isn't sealed anymore. How would we trap her in there?" Damon sips from his bourbon, taking mental notes. He has to admit, the idea of trapping Katherine in the tomb, where she was supposed have spent the last 145 years, is really appealing.
"Bennet magic." Caroline reveals a small smile as she recollects the glory days with one of her oldest friends, then she shakes her. "But that doesn't matter. I need to focus on finding the girls."
"No, what you need to do is tell me what you know about Katherine, the doppelgängers, werewolves, this Klaus guy, and anyone else who might pose a threat to Elena."
"Elena is going to be fine, Damon," she says. "We all pull together, and we keep her safe. For the most part."
Damon slams his glass against the table. "What does that mean?"
"It means…" Caroline pauses to place her empty blood bag on the end table and watch Damon. The anger masking his concern reminds her that this Damon is a lot less stable than the one in her timeline. How would he react to hearing that Elena dies in less than a year? But, not dead-dead. Just turned. It's been too long since Caroline has had to deal with angst-Damon, and she can't really judge what's going to send him into psycho-killer-murder-spree-Damon or over-protective-controlling-dick-Damon. Neither option seems pleasant. Besides, the more Caroline reveals, the more things will change in this timeline. That can be problematic for several reasons.
"It means that things happen the way they are supposed to happen."
"That's not good enough," Damon says.
He growls and blurs to an inch in front of Caroline on the couch. He towers over her with his vampire face, but the blonde huffs and rolls her eyes at his posturing. She stands up and strolls to the large window as though the elder Salvatore had merely suggested a white wine with her blood bag.
Damon frowns at her lack of reaction. The Caroline he knows would be cowering and spewing as many words as possible, but he can't seem to get this one to say more than one phrase at a time. When she twists back to face him, Damon pauses to meet her gaze. He doesn't recall every seeing this hardness in Caroline's eyes or steel in her voice.
"I need to find my girls, Damon."
"Your girls?"
"Yes, my girls. Jo and Lizzie are my twin daughters," Caroline says, and Damon's eyebrows shoot up in surprise.
"Well, now I know you're crazy, since vampires can't procreate." Damon shuffles back to the liquor cabinet with an amused snort.
"Not biologically, of course," she says. "But we adopted them when they were less than a year old. And we've raised them as our own since."
"We?" He pauses mid pour, dreading her answer. I better now be a part of that 'we'. I will kill this crazy bitch right now if she says I'm part of 'we'.
"My husband and I."
"Who the hell would marry you?"
"Stefan." Caroline jumps as the younger Salvatore walks through the large font door. Damon looks up from his drink and nods an acknowledgment at his younger brother.
"Caroline, what are you doing here?" Stefan says. He glances between her and Damon, surprised to see the baby vampire socializing with her sire. She's made it clear that she doesn't enjoy Damon's company in the slightest, since he treated her so poorly when she was human. While Damon's treatment of Caroline has only improved to the point where he mostly ignores her, it's better than actively trying to kill her.
"Oh, I was just..." Caroline bites her lip, trying to think of a reason to be there. "...visiting with Damon. He decided to apologize for all the terrible things he did to me."
Damon's eyes narrow as he stares, speechless, at her audacity, and his anger builds. Damon Salvatore does not apologize.
"Yeah right." Caroline chuckles while Stefan snickers at the joke. "I just came to pilfer your supply of blood bags."
She motions to the empty bag on the coffee table, and Stefan frowns at her. "I didn't realize you were off the animal diet. Are you doing okay?"
"She's fine," Damon says. "Where have you been, Stefan? Did you make up with your girlfriend after your little tiff at the Grill?"
"It's rude to eavesdrop, Damon," Stefan says. "But if you must know, Elena and I are on a break, thanks to Katherine's drama."
"Right…" Caroline whispers to herself as she remembers the faux break up for her benefit.
"What was that?" Damon asks pointedly, but Caroline shakes her head with a dismissive smile when Stefan glances at her.
"Well I'm going to change and then head out for a hunt." Stefan motions toward the empty blood bags. "I'd invite you along, but it looks like you're all set."
"Yeah, I'm good. Thank you," Caroline says with a genuine smile. Stefan returns a grin and shuffles upstairs. A few minutes later, they hear him exit through his balcony.
"What was that?" Damon asks.
"It's better if no one else knows I'm here."
"Why? You said what happens here has no effect on your time line, so why do you care if things change?" He sips from his bourbon and watches the blonde over the rim of his glass.
"This isn't my first rodeo, Damon," she says. "I've done this before. And my only advantage is that I know how this story progresses. If I reveal too much or instigate too many changes, I lose that edge. I can't predict what will happen or how new events will affect this timeline. I like my life and how everything turns out. I'd hate for the me in this timeline to miss out on all the wonderful things I've gotten to experience."
Damon sets his glass down. "What about the bad things, Blondie? You can't tell me the future is all rainbows and unicorns."
"Of course not."
"Why not help prevent the bad stuff?" Damon rushes across the room to slip an hand on her arm. "Like your mom."
"How do you know about my mom?"
"I saw your reaction to seeing her in the park. It was like you were seeing her for the first time in ages. Which tells me, she's been dead for a while."
Caroline stares at him. She shouldn't be so surprised by his perceptiveness. Damon's always been quick to notice the little details that pull together a completed picture. She even considers his offer for moment.
"No, I can't. There's nothing either of us can do to save my mom."
"Then what good are you, Caroline?" Damon says. "What's the point of traveling to the past if not to change it? What, did you just wake up this morning and decide to create a time portal to 2010 with the sole purpose of irritating the hell out of me? If so, mission accomplished."
"I didn't decide to time travel. It just happened."
"I'm sorry. What?" He grips his forehead with one hand as though it could help him process her statement. Caroline groans but returns to the plump couch cushions, resigned to explain how her trip to 2010 occurred.
"I was at the boarding house finalizing the finishing touches on the wedding. And everything looked gorgeous! I mean, I had spent the last three months making sure every detail was perfect for Bobby and Gina. Because, you know, Bobby had worked so hard to master his magic, and he's doing a great job leading the Bennet coven. I feel like he deserves the perfect wedding. And it's the least I can do since he-"
"I don't care about your social life. Get to the good part, Barbie"
"Right, sorry," she says. "Anyway, I finished up and stepped outside to find my dear children opening a time portal. I have no idea what possessed them to do such a monumentally stupid thing! Last time, they nearly died trying to close it."
"So, wait. How many times have you time traveled?" Damon asks, pouring himself another glass. He pauses to add, "Assuming any of this is true."
"A few times," Caroline says with an amused smile. "When the girls realized they were powerful enough to do it, they got a little carried away at first. Of course, Hope likes to get them all riled up, so that doesn't help."
"And who is this Hope?"
"Hope is Klaus' daughter and the most powerful witch in the world. The only witches that come close to her power are Jo and Lizzie. Together, I think they could rival Hope's strength, but I don't care to test that theory."
"There's that name again," Damon says in a sing-song voice, swinging his glass from side to side. "Yet you haven't explained why he's so dangerous."
"Long story short: he's a twelve hundred year old werewolf-vampire hybrid." She tugs Damon's glass from him and finishes it off. Surprised by her answer, Damon doesn't flinch when she steals his drink and returns the empty glass. Taking it from her extended hand, he nods and returns for more liquor.
"That's…unexpected," he says.
"Trust me, it just gets weirder from there," Caroline says. "I can't be sure because it happened so fast, but I think I saw Klaus enter the portal as I was exiting the house. The portal was at least halfway down the drive way in the middle of the yard and, at first, I only noticed it out of the corner of my eye. By the time I realized what was going on, Hope had slipped through, and then the girls saw me coming. The way they spoke to me…They aren't themselves, Damon."
"So I take it, killing them isn't an option."
"Absolutely not," Caroline says as though she expected the question. "Besides, I doubt you could do it even if you wanted to."
"Excuse me?" Damon raises an eyebrow over his fresh glass.
"What part of 'the strongest witches in the world' did you not understand?"
Damon shrugs, unimpressed, and Caroline shakes her head at his antics. "Besides, if Klaus is here, you don't want to be anywhere near him. He really dislikes you."
"What's new?" Damon lifts his glass in a toast toward to her. "So what, you just chased after them? How come I didn't see anyone but you at the park?"
"They did something to the portal. They must have rigged it to move after I entered," Caroline says. "I've never seen a portal that wasn't anchored to one spot. I wonder where they moved it to?"
"How do you know they didn't just close it?" Damon sits across from the blonde on the plush couch.
"Because it can't be closed with us here. Dead or alive, everyone that passes through it must be returned to their orginal timeline. If they tried to close it, we'd be jerked back through like a bungee cord. And once a portal is closed it can never be reopened. At least, we haven't found a way to reopen one."
"You just said, you've seen several portals."
"Different portals to different times," she says.
"So, why are your Village-of-the-Damned-children traveling through time? Do you think they're just visiting grandma? Or maybe they wanted to see how Mommy met Daddy? Will they be waiting long?" Damon says with hand flourishes to complete is sardonic message.
"I don't know, but it's nothing good. Not with how they were acting next to the portal. Especially, if Hope and Klaus are involved."
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