Tiberius Salvatore: Mikaelson Extended

38

"Maybe some fresh air would be better. Let's go outside." Rio said, as Caroline started to lead Ivy to the stairs. It dawned on him that the girls were upstairs sleeping.
"It's okay, upstairs is fine." Caroline shrugged.
"I'll come with you." Rio offered and headed in front of them.
"Um, okay." Caroline said, slightly suspicious, leading Ivy up behind him. Rio opened a room but it turned out to be the guest room the girls were sleeping in so he quickly shut the door and opened the next one. Stefan's room.
"What was wrong with the other room?"
"Spiders." Rio blurted out.
"Spiders?" Caroline raised a brow.
"Hey! There is nothing wrong with a man being scared of spiders."
"No, but there's something wrong with a grown vampire being scared of spiders. Gender has nothing to do with it."
"Whatever. Want to snoop in Stefan's room?"
"Oh please, I have more class than that." Caroline rolled her eyes. Rio moved around the room opening drawers here and there.
"Dear Caroline. I've been avoiding you-" Rio read aloud from Stefan's journal. "Looks like he wrote to you in his diary. For the past," Rio flipped pages in Stefan's diary. "four months. Well, isn't that adorable?"
"Let me see!" Caroline said reaching out for the diary.
"What happened to having more class?" Rio smirked before reading more excerpts. "Dear Caroline, I've missed you. More than I care to admit aloud. I've been avoiding you the most because you're the one I want to talk to most. Besides I know if I do, I'm going to make my way back to Mystic Falls. I don't want to. I now understand how Rio felt, why he never visited. Why it took him a century and a half to visit the town in which he lost his brothers. I wish I could tell you how much I miss you." Rio snapped the book shut. "You two need to date."
"Okay, so, first of all he has a girlfriend." Caroline said. "Secondly, he's just a friend. Ish."
"You love my brother." Rio told her looking at a sleeping Ivy. "And I'm pretty sure he loves you. This whole dating Ivy and having a normal life? It's not him. And he's going to end up in Mystic Falls again. One way or another. Against my wishes."
"He gave up on looking for Damon and Bonnie."
"They died, Caroline. I wish they didn't but they did. Just like Charlotte died. Where exactly is he supposed to look? Take a peek behind the veil?"
"If it were Damon, he'd be doing the exact same thing."
"What, look for Stefan in the land of the dead?"
"Yes."
"Caroline. They're dead. And no matter what, that's the way they're going to stay. Since when are you pro-Damon? And what is Stefan supposed to do? He spent a little while with me. Then he went chasing leads everywhere, every day. Every hour. He didn't sleep. He didn't feed. He basically turned into a... vampire zombie. So I made him stop. He moved here, and he set up a life for himself. Then you and Enzo came and now his life is just going to crumble down."
"We have a new lead."
"Then I'll check it out."
"There's this coven of witches, they found a way to communicate with their ancestors before. Maybe they could-"
"What are they called?" Rio sighed, exasperated.
"The Gemini coven."
"What?"
"They're called the Gemini coven."
"Are you sure?"
"You know them?"
"I know enough. Look I'll call up. See what I can dig up. Okay?"
"Thanks." Caroline smiled.
"Yeah yeah. You're still in love with Stefan."
"I missed you, Rio. You're a great friend and you, no matter what, care. It's a good quality."
"Thanks."
"When Charlie died, I didn't know what to do. There you were, the nicest person ever, and we repaid you by taking away what you loved most. In hindsight it was obvious. He was an Original, they can compel other vampires and they can survive daylight, werewolf bites and even a stake to the heart. Obviously there'd be some repercussions. We could have researched more. And Esther hated all vampires. But we focused on how much we wanted to get rid of Klaus, your best friend. What kind of friends were we if we could do that to you?"
"Caroline." Rio stopped her self loathing rant. "Look, when she died, I was upset. If I didn't have Anya to look after, have that responsibility for her, then I wouldn't have been the same. I would have probably turned off my humanity. My stellar reputation might be a little different, but I did have her. I was angry, because I loved Charlotte, but also because I loved all of you and I couldn't hate you. I felt betrayed, and angry, and sad, and confused. I had all these feelings inside that I couldn't let out. But I spent one hundred and forty eight years with her. That's longer than any human, and if I focus on being angry rather than ungrateful for the time I did have with her, then I wouldn't be honouring her memory. She wouldn't want that. Because then I wouldn't be me. I wouldn't be the man she fell in love with. And I don't want to not be me. Lottie left a piece of her in me, and if I change I'll lose that. I don't want to. I loved her. More than anyone would have ever thought possible. And I'm not going to hate any of you. Besides, you killed Finn. Not Lottie. It was an unfortunate side effect."
"I'm still sorry. We broke you."
"Do I look broken to you?" Rio tried to joke.
"Yeah, you do." Caroline smiled at him sadly. "Especially now that Damon's gone."
"I want Stefan to try move on. I've lost too many people, I can't lose him too. He was completely immersed in searching for a way. You name a witch, he was there. He didn't tell me all of the places. He didn't wait for Alaric to give him some leads. He found some of his own."
"But he stopped."
"Because I made him. He took it too far. He stopped looking after himself, all he was after was leads for Damon. I'm pretty sure he's still looking every now and then. After Lottie died, I knew dark magic was the only way I could bring her back and she'd hate me if I did. I had Anya to look after, so I couldn't immerse myself in it. I love Anya, she's the most precious thing in my life. And Sam helped a lot. That woman saved us- without her, I would have fallen apart. We leaned on each other. We used to hate each other, in fact. She was Lottie's best friend, but we could never get along. It wasn't the wolf and vampire thing- she and Lottie made great friends but for some reason we just were 't, I don't know, compatible? But now, she's family."