Chapter Eight: Caroline Forbes

Three and a half years ago

Mystic Falls, VA

New Year's Eve, 10:25pm

No time was wasted trying to open the hatch with a key, as Caroline grabbed the handle, ripped off the lock, and pulled the door from its hinges completely, releasing a gust of black smoke that engulfed her and then filtered out into the air. Two voices were heard shouting, but as neither of them were Stefanie, Caroline jumped into the cellar and focused on finding her first. "Where is she?" she yelled, her vision obscured by smoke, the only light dancing from the flames surrounding the ceiling near the staircase.

The voice was footsteps away, "Here, they're both here, we need to lift them out."

A thump came from behind her as Damon landed in the cellar. Caroline headed towards the voices on the floor, crouched next to Stef and picked her up. Her body hung lifelessly in her arms and a wave of panic hit her. With desperate voices surrounding her, she focused on hearing Stef's heartbeat, but she couldn't hear one. Fear clenched her heart and sank heavily in her stomach. She wouldn't hand her to Damon like this; she needed to hear that heartbeat first. As the two boys beside her tried pulling up another teenager lying unconscious on the floor, she ordered, "Damon, get the others out! I've got Stef!" She ran past Damon and took Stef out of the hatch, avoiding his demands that Stef be given to him. Caroline was faster and he knew it. He wouldn't argue about it for long.

Stef was placed on the cold ground outside the bar, her clothing grey from the smoke, her skin tinted blue, black coating spread thinly around her mouth. Caroline felt for a pulse. Nothing. She felt her chest for a heartbeat. Nothing. She placed the side of her face next to her mouth, silently pleading to feel or hear her breath, no matter how shallow. Anything. She needed any sign of life, but there was nothing.

This couldn't be happening. Elena couldn't lose her daughter. Damon couldn't lose his daughter. She couldn't watch her friends go through another loss like this. Stefanie was too young. The girl she'd watched grow up couldn't be gone.

Caroline drew back the tears forming in her eyes as two teenagers dragged themselves out of the hatch, coughing and panting. Turning, they helped pull the third boy up, and then Damon followed. She couldn't cry in front of him, not yet. She hadn't tried everything.

As soon as Damon was out, his eyes went to Stef, and then to Caroline. He saw her expression. She was already grieving.

"No," he whispered, frozen in fear.

Seeing his face, Caroline couldn't hold back any longer, and a tear started to fall. But she knew there was one last thing she needed to try. She bit into her wrist.

"No!" Damon cried, charging towards them, and kneeling next to Stef. "You can't, Caroline!"

"We have to try!" Caroline protested.

Damon started chest compressions, leaning over his daughter, putting all his weight on her sternum. "It's not over, I can save her."

"There's an ambulance on the way." Adam, halfway off the ground, stumbling weakly, noticed Phoenix. "We need to help him."

Caroline gritted her teeth, concerned that Damon was going to regret refusing Stefanie her blood. But he was with her, focused on what he thought best for her - mouth-to-mouth, chest compressions, ambulance on the way - she just had to trust he was doing the right thing. She sped quickly over to Phoenix, hearing his heart-rate rapidly fading, and forced her blood into his mouth.

"What are you doing?!" Adam yelled in shock.

"This will heal him," Caroline assured him. "You need it too."

A voice coughed into the ground. "Give it to Stef then." Raid was still weak, lying on his front, but whatever this woman was doing, he believed in her. He didn't know what kind of magic this healing blood was supposed to be, but, on nothing but gut instinct, he knew he trusted it. He knew magic; he felt it within him as clearly as he could feel his own breath and heartbeat. He'd seen the kind of magic Cristian performed while claiming it to be all an illusion to his audience. Raid knew it was real, he just didn't know how. "If you can heal us, then use it to heal Stef."

Caroline couldn't answer. She didn't know how to answer. Instead she focused on not losing any more casualties to this fire. She walked over to Adam, allowing him to drink from her wrist, and then offered it to Raid.

Raid pushed himself up onto his knees, looking at the outstretched wrist being offered to him, the blood pooling as thickly as the tears in his eyes. It wasn't him she should be trying to heal; it was Stef. He looked over at Damon, desperately trying to pump oxygen around his daughter's body, screaming her name with every push, begging her with every breath. Raid returned his eyes to Caroline, bitterness spreading across his face, and he swiped her arm away. "If she's not getting it, then neither am I."

Caroline took in Raid's stone-cold determination and nodded gently. She understood. He didn't want to live with the guilt of knowing he took something that Stef also needed. She returned silently to Phoenix to continue reviving him.

Damon's yells were becoming more choked, strangled with sadness, the realisation hitting him. "Please, sweetheart, come back. You can't go. We need you, honey, stay with us."

Raid's breath fluttered as he tried not to sob at Damon's words. He sat back on the ground, his knees hugged to his chest with one hand, pinching the bridge of his nose firmly with the other to prevent tears. He couldn't hear this. He couldn't hear the pain in Damon's voice. He needed to hear determination. He needed him enraged.

"She's gone," Raid told him.

"No! Don't you dare say that! If I hear that, I'll kill you! She's not dying on me!" Damon exploded with the anger Raid needed to hear from him. His determination regained, his compressions deepened, his anger manifesting into physical force. Then he heard a rib crack.

Stef gasped in shock, her eyes widening in fright.

Damon jolted back, his hands suspended over her, ready to resume if his eyes were deceiving him.

But they weren't: she was alive.

Stef rolled onto her front, coughing desperately until dark sputum hit the ground. She groaned at the pain in her chest, then looked up at her father. "Dad?" She never thought she would see him again. She tried to push herself up but an ache within her only caused her to roll onto her back again.

It didn't matter, as Damon covered her body with his own, hugging her, sobbing louder than she'd ever heard, the relief hitting him harder than he'd ever felt.

Her dad's head tucked into her shoulder, Stef wrapped her arms around his neck. "I guess I'm in deep shit, eh?" she muttered, her laugh turning into a cough.

"Later," he whispered, smiling, too exhausted, too nervous, still too afraid to laugh back.

A sudden realisation hit her, and she pushed him back slightly. "Where's the others?" Her head darted around, trying to take in the scene around her, trying desperately to find Raid, Adam and Phoenix as she pushed herself onto her elbows. Her breathing was returning. The ache in her chest lessening, as Raid crawled over and sat beside her, taking her hand, but also blocking her view.

"Adam?" she asked him.

"He's fine," he replied, both of his hands clasping hers now, his forced smile both one of relief and one of sadness. "We're both okay."

Both okay? There were three of them; those were the wrong words. "Phoenix? What about Phoenix?" Seeing Raid's eyes drop at his name, she spoke louder, her voice rasping, "Where's Phoenix?" When the reply didn't come, she pushed herself to her feet, her balance unsteady, her father standing with her, gripping her for support.

She saw Phoenix lying motionless in front of Caroline, her hands lifting from his chest, a sad and gentle head shake towards the ground as she slipped back onto her heels. Stef saw grey; everything about Phoenix was grey: his clothes, his skin, his chin-length hair dirtied, no longer blond. Dried blood smudged against the black around his mouth. She yanked herself from her father's grip and stumbled towards him, slumping down next to him, pulling his cold hand into hers. She could hear the sirens now, but it was too late. Tears parted the dirt on her face, leaving streaks against her cheeks.

"Phoenix, don't go," she whispered. "Please don't go."

She knew her pleas were redundant. He'd already gone.