The Beginning Of Our Forever [1]

5. Revelations

Elena found it strange to be back in Stefan's bedroom, she hadn't been in there in such a long time. She could see that Caroline had added her own touches to the room with various colourful cushions, prints and a wardrobe that was fit to burst. Elena wandered over to the bed and perched on the end of it and watched as Caroline marched over to the wardrobe and started rifling through it.

"Caroline, could you just hold on a sec with the clothes, I just want us to talk for a second. I'm sure there are so many things I have missed out on," Elena inquired.

Caroline turned around to face her and walked over to a cupboard on the other side of the room. As she opened the cupboard Elena caught a glimpse of about 6 or 7 boxes all stacked up. Caroline opened the lid of the top box and pulled out a thick, A5, leather bound book. She walked back over to Elena, clutching the book, and sat down on the bed next to her.

"This is the first of over 100 journals I have kept over the past 72 years, like you asked. This one covers everything that happened in the first year you were gone. Just promise me that you won't go crazy and try and read them all at once. There is a lot of stuff in here. Just take your time." Caroline cautiously handed the journal over to Elena who just vacantly stared at it for a while.

"I promise Car. Thank you so much for doing this, at least I'll be able to read everything and feel like I was there this whole time," Elena smiled and reached an arm around Caroline's waist and squeezed her in close.

"I take it Damon explained about Bonnie, Matt and Ric..." Caroline's voice trailed off after mentioning Ric's name.
"... did he tell you about the others?" she added.

Elena was beyond worried at this point. 'Oh god, please don't tell me someone else has gone' she thought to herself. She shook her head. Caroline put her hand on top of Elena's but couldn't bring herself to look into her eyes.

"Elena, you have been gone for an awfully long time. I just want you to prepare yourself because you'll find out that not everything has worked out the way you wanted it too. Just please believe me, we are all here for you and you will get through it. We will tell you anything you need to know." Caroline was very wary of how Elena would take this news.

"I just want to know what happened to Tyler... and Jeremy please." Elena's tears began to choke her as she thought about Jeremy.

Caroline took a deep breath and prepared herself for the colossal meltdown that Elena would inevitably have after hearing this.

"Okay, if you're sure. Stefan and Damon made me promise that I wouldn't dump everything on you on the first night you got back. But this is important. Tyler left Mystic falls almost immediately after what happened to you. He didn't explain where he was going or how long he was going for but he just said that he had to go. Mystic falls was a huge chain around his neck you know? After everything that happened with Liv and the fact he was a werewolf again... he just couldn't stay. He popped back a few times after that, you'll see why when you get to that part in my journal. But after that, we didn't see him for years. The next time we saw him was at Ric's funeral. He didn't even come over to talk to us. When Matt died we all expected him to be there but he never showed. We all just presumed that we didn't spot him- there were so many people there, even the Mikaelson's, Hayley and Hope showed up. At the wake, Hayley came and spoke to us and told us that Tyler had been living with her pack, the Crescent wolves, for the past few decades. We heard from her that Tyler had died a few years before and was given a typical wolf funeral... something about a burning boat I think. Apparently he was really happy with them, possibly the happiest he had been in his whole life. To start with, I was so angry with him because I didn't know where he was or even that he was dying. It was Stefan that convinced me to forgive him and just be thankful that he turned things around and embraced who he really was. A wolf." Caroline finished talking and looked over at Elena who was staring vacantly at the wall.

"Did you hear what I said Elena?" she asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. Elena looked around and Caroline saw the tears streaming down her face. Caroline pulled her in for a hug,
"We can carry on talking tomorrow, I think that's enough for today."

Elena forced herself away from Caroline, "No!" she snapped, "I need to know what has happened to Jeremy," she shouted.

At this point Stefan opened the door and walked over to the girls,
"Elena, come with me please," he asked. It was clear he had been listening to their conversation from the other side of the door.

"No Stefan I'm not going anywhere until Caroline tells me what happened to my brother!" she shouted, standing up to face him.

"I'm not having Caroline tell you, it's upsetting enough having to talk about Tyler," Stefan looked over at Caroline and Elena tuned around to look as well, quickly noticing that Caroline was crying. Caroline turned her back to them, hoping they hadn't realised she was upset.

It pained Stefan to see Caroline like this but Elena was adamant that she needed to know about Jeremy.
"Fine," he sighed, "I'll tell you myself."