Gravity

Family dynamics

"You can't do this Caroline, you have to stop seeing him."

Caroline froze on the porch stairs of her house, she shook her head hopping that she had heard wrong, that this was just from the shock because with everything that they had gone through she never expected Elena to be this cold about her new relationship.

"I'm sorry but... what?" she asked trying to keep her voice under control although her head was wobbling everywhere.

Elena slowly placed her hair behind her ear. "Caroline... it's Klaus."

"Oh my God..." she tried to snap away from her increasing shock. "This is your reason? Because he's... Klaus? Seriously Elena, you're standing outside of my house telling me that I can't be with someone because there's history between the two of you."

Elena gave Caroline a look. "He killed Jenna." She opened her arms trying to reenforce her dramatic stance.

Caroline had a deep breath. "Elena, I know that he did some really dark and bad things but I'm not the only one dating a bad vampire."

Again Elena gave her a judging look, she knew where Caroline was going with this but she was avoiding it. "He tried to kill me more than once, in fact he actually succeeded once. He went after Bonnie as well and he killed Alaric last night, and he was my last family Caroline."

The words should have softened Caroline to the point where she would hug Elena but surprisingly they had the opposite effect on her, she couldn't help it, Elena was seeing all this from the wrong perspective, her perspective and she finally snapped at the doppelgänger. "Alaric killed my father. Should I really be sobbing on my bed over his permanent death? He killed a lot of humans because his immortality ring drove him crazy and when Damon turned him we just all forgave him and hopped for the best. No one questioned Damon, not even once but how do I know that Alaric didn't go around killing people anyway?"

"He wouldn't do that." Elena defended fiercely.

"Like he wouldn't kill his girlfriend? That went really well until he snapped and went all Scream trilogy on her."

Elena folded her arms not liking a bit that she was being confronted like this. "It still doesn't make it ok for Klaus to constantly hurt everyone in our lives."

Caroline closed her eyes, she breathed calmly and fought to find the right words to tell her childhood friend. "I haven't talked to Klaus since yesterday. I came home to spend the day with my mother and I know what happened because Stefan called me to do pretty much what you are doing right now. But I am going to tell you what I told Stefan already, I am not the distraction anymore and I will not let you use me as a weakness against Klaus. You have no right to do this and I won't give up on the one good thing that came out of all this."

"He threatened Damon and Stefan, he's using my life to keep them on a leash." Elena finally snapped as well.

"Then stop trying to kill him and his family, stop pushing him. Haven't any of you noticed that Klaus will only retaliate when he's being provoked? If all of you would just let him be and moved on from this obsessive revenge number he wouldn't go around sticking Damon like a Voodoo doll."

Elena lowered her eyes, Caroline had played the right card, the real reason Elena was so upset was because of how she had to watch Damon in so much pain. "This isn't you, you sound like he compelled you or brain-washed you. This isn't my friend Caroline."

"No Elena, Klaus never compelled me or used me like Damon did." Caroline shook her head sad that Elena was so blind. "Klaus didn't feed on me and compelled me to forget about it, he didn't use me for sex and made me think that I loved every bit of it, he didn't call me stupid and made me feel worthless. Klaus never told me that I was a useless waste of space..." She crossed her arms upset. "Klaus didn't smother me with a pillow so that he could send a message to you, Klaus didn't try to kill me once I was turned, he saved me and I love him Elena. For the way that he loves me and makes me feel loved and wanted, appreciated for what I am... which is more than I can say about any of you. Sometimes I feel like dying wasn't enough to prove myself to my friends."