A New Beginning (sequel to Coming Home)

15. Who are you?

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Stefan poured himself out a drink and offered one to Caroline, Rebekah and Elijah. At Elena's annoyed expression he shrugged, "You do remember that you are a guest in my home, right? I can offer a drink to whomever I want. Understand?"

It broke Caroline's heart to hear Stefan so... empty. Rebekah accepted the drink but Caroline and Elijah declined. There seemed to be some kind of stale-mate going on. Rebekah lowered the drink Stefan handed her, all the while never taking her eyes of the doppelganger. It was obvious the original sister wanted nothing more than to rip Elena's un-dead heart from her chest and feed it to her, but she couldn't. Not without hurting her friend... in a very literal way.

"Excuse me?" Caroline suddenly asked. All eyes turned to her, "No one said anything Barbie." Damon smirked.

"Um..." Caroline stuttered, "I know... I meant... excuse me... a moment..." With that she disappeared out of the house. Elijah didn't miss the way Stefan's eyes followed Caroline as she left, and when he started to follow after her Stefan stopped him. "If you'll excuse me, as much fun as this is, I'm going to go catch up with Caroline."

Before anyone could reply to him he sped off after his former best friend. He found her by the Falls a short distance away talking to herself. "How am I supposed to do that exactly?" She was asking the empty air.

"Caroline?" Stefan's voice was dubious as he called out to her, "Is everything ok?"

Caroline spun in his direction, her eyes blazing. "Seriously Stefan? And people call me a dumb blonde. No, everything is not ok. Jennifer ended all this crap almost a year ago. Everybody was staying away from everybody else, and as sad as it all was nobody was dying. Now my former friends are trying to kill Jennifer... and her baby..." Caroline paused in her rant to look at Stefan... really look at him. "And why didn't you ring me when Elena clearly lost her mind? I would have come back."

Stefan sighed as he sat on a large boulder looking out over the waterfall. "That's exactly why I didn't ring you Caroline. I knew you would come back, and I was so tempted to do it. But I couldn't do that to you, like you said, it was all over. You got away from all... this." Stefan waved his hand in front of him, indicating the town below them. "I couldn't pull you back in."

Caroline didn't even hesitate, she threw herself at Stefan, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. Of course the motion was so quick and sudden that it knocked Stefan back off the boulder, causing them both to land on the ground in a tangle of limbs. They both laughed a little, and it felt good. They lay there, tangled for the briefest of moments before remembering the real world. The pushed themselves up and grew serious once more.

"Caroline, what exactly is going on?" Stefan asked, his voice now sombre.

Caroline filled him in on everything she knew, about New Orleans, the witches, the pregnancy... everything she knew right up to the mystical coma that was slowly killing Jennifer.

Stefan shook his head sadly as he took it all in. "I would like to say it's not possible that Elena would do this. However it's like the Elena I thought I knew no longer exists. She is all about partying and revenge these days. When she saw I wouldn't join her she told me I was a bore, that she had obviously chosen the wrong brother to be with."

Caroline hadn't thought it was possible she could feel angrier at Elena but apparently she could. As she was imagining ripping Elena's cold heart from her chest she felt Stefan take her hand, she looked down at the joined hands and then into Stefan's smiling face.