The Touch Of The Obsession (Steroline AU)

Chapter 10: Without even realizing it

When Caroline woke up the first thing she saw was Stefan's face resting on her bed, his eyes closed. It was just them two in the room. She smiled at him and then put her hand up to touch her head which was bursting with pain. Last night's events started rushing back into her mind and her heartbeat started raising. She looked at the scars on her arms and felt the bandage on her forehead. She got out of bed and ran into the bathroom, locking the door behind her and cried silently. She cried her heart out in the first time in a while. Then she heard a knock on the door, "Caroline,  are you okay?" It was Stefan again trying to be there for her but she didn't want that right now, she wanted to be alone.

"Yeah, I'm just coming out." She barely got the words out of her mouth. She washed her face and put on her best fake smile. She opened the door and greeted Stefan.

"Good morning." She tried to sound cheery but Stefan could see right through her.

"Morning, how are you feeling?" Stefan just wanted to grab Caroline into a hug, he couldn't bare her in this state, acting like nothing happened but dying inside.

"Great! How are you?" Stefan knew she had been crying, he could easily tell.

"Caroline do you wanna talk about last night."

"Nope." Stefan sighed.

"Caroline I need to know what exactly happened, I need Klaus to get the pain he deserves."

Caroline closed her eyes at the mention of that bastard. "Stefan, I don't want that, I don't want you to take his case, I just want to shower and get on with my day, normally. Can you help me do that?"

Stefan knew she was hurt and he knew she had to talk about it, but he also needed to be there for her in whatever way she needed him. If she wanted to be alone, he would let her be alone but the anger he felt towards Klaus since Damon told him what happened, wasn't something that would go away soon. He was gonna ruin Niklaus Mikealson's life like Klaus had almost ruined his, no matter how he had to.

***
Days had passed and Caroline always acted like nothing ever happened. She joined work and was great professionally. She even started ignoring her feelings for Stefan. She didn't tell him even though her mum insisted. She didn't want to face Stefan after all these scars so vividly showing on her face and arms. She felt insecure again, scared that if she ever told him how she felt, he wouldn't want her, even if he did feel something for her. She was being silly, yes, but she had always been second choices with all her other boyfriends and Stefan did tell her that their make-out had been a mistake. She knew Stefan cared for her and would never hurt her intentionally but why would he want to be with her? She didn't want to talk to him and even though Stefan had tried to get through to her, it hadn't worked, so he was giving her space, they hadn't talked all month like they hadn't after their makeout-only this was worse. 

Stefan wanted to tell her that he was in love with her but he knew she needed time to heal and he would wait until she had. So he showed her his love for her by making sure Klaus was behind the jail for at least 12 years. It was so hard without Caroline being present in court but they had her account of what had happened from that night plus Stefan's account of Klaus drug dealing illegally. He fought the case knowing that Caroline didn't want him to. He knew Caroline would hate him if she ever found out but he couldn't let Klaus ruin anyone else's life especially hers. Right now he was going to Caroline's house just to check up on her though he knew that she wasn't gonna talk to him, he just had to see her. So he made the excuse of meeting the Sheriff instead.

To his surprise, Caroline was sitting on her porch stairs and when she saw Stefan she tried to get up and leave though Stefan didn't let her.

"Hey." He said forcing Caroline to look directly at him. Caroline half smiled "Hey Stefan."