Whatever It Takes {Two | Alaric Saltzman}

I Carry Your Heart with Me

Abigail entered Bonnie and Caroline's dorm room without making a sound. Bonnie was sitting on her bed, holding Ms. Cuddles and writing in her journal, Caroline, however, was sleeping soundly with the comforter that matched Bonnie's wrapped all the way around her. So, with a point from the bed next to her to the door, Bonnie rose to her feet.

Caroline dramatically cleared her throat.

They spun around, Abigail's voice coming out faster than Bonnie's, "We were trying not to wake you."

Caroline sat all the way up, motioning for them to join her in her twin sized bed. "Well, I would lose more sleep if you snuck in and out without saying, 'Hi!'"

"Hi!"

Bonnie sat down right next to her. "Am I gonna catch fire?"

"That's just me." Abigail sat down on the edge of the bed. "Because, apparently, holding you hostage in the boarding house wasn't enough. Valerie had to turn your skin into vervain."

"Neither is torturing you on the side of the road and blowing up your car. She had to make it impossible for me to hug you when you told me the epic story of how you got the love of your life back." The smile on Caroline's face was soft, strained by a tightness that threatened tears, but she couldn't help but send it in Abigail's direction. "Valerie is basically out to get me."

Bonnie reached out for Abigail's hand, connecting her and Caroline in the only way they could be. "I'll work on unraveling the spell when I-"

"I asked Stefan to talk to her," Caroline cut her off. "I figured you had enough magic to worry about."

"Stefan?"

"Turns out Valerie was Stefan's first love. His first everything."

Abigail tilted her head to the side. "Katherine before Katherine?"

"She wasn't a vampire back then," Caroline said. "Just a witch who had no power of her own, an amulet, to be siphoned in times of need, and a job from Lily Salvatore."

"Is that why she put the burning spell on you? To keep Stefan from touching you?"

"As if it couldn't be more obvious."

"Lily must have sent her at the same time she sent Oscar to Damon," Bonnie said.

Caroline nodded. "She didn't want to leave for Europe without knowing her boys were safe, so she sent Valerie and Julian, her 'vampire-gentleman friend,' to Mystic Falls to check on Stefan. But he was in a rush, so he convinced Valerie to lie to Lily. To tell her that Stefan was happy."

"How could she do that?"

"She told me Julian had a way of convincing anyone to do anything." Caroline took a long, deep breath. "Lily said she let me go because of Stefan's honesty, and I want to believe him when he tells me Valerie being back doesn't change things for us. That he doesn't wonder anymore. That he doesn't care about the past. That all he cares about is being with me. But, you know, I overthink things. Especially when it's something I've wanted for a really long time."

"Then believe him," Abigail said. "Caroline, believe him."

Abigail entered through the front door of the apartment. She wasn't really paying attention, not between the conversation she had in the hall with a neighbor, the voicemail she was listening to, and the mail she was flicking through. So much so that she almost forgot to close the door behind her.

"Ric? Are you still here?"

"Just us."

She looked up to see Damon standing over Oscar's desiccated body with a drink. "How the hell did this happen?"