Above All Else

chapter 11

Caroline awoke to the sound of her cell phone. Groggily from her spot on the bed laying on her stomach, she turned her head and reached out to grab it. Her eyes widened and she rolled over sitting up as she seen it was already past ten in the morning. "Crap!" She scurried out of bed after she scanned through the multiple text messages she had from Stefan telling her they were back and to head to Elena's, wondering where she was and why she wasn't there yet. Caroline grabbed her fluffy white robe off the back of her door and left her room to head to the kitchen for some much needed coffee. As she started the coffee pot she idly recalled her dream from last night. It was the same dream she had while sleeping at Elena's on the sofa the other night. It wasn't abnormal for her to have the same dream over again but this one was strangely specific, like it was trying to tell her something. It had played through her head almost like a memory she didn't recall ever having. The coffee pot beeped letting her know is was finished, and at the same moment her mom's booted feet started walking down the hall towards the kitchen, snapping Caroline out of her thoughts.

Liz walk into the kitchen setting her gun and holster on the kitchen island, "You're up later than usual, did you sleep alright last night?" she said as she went next to Caroline to fill a cup of coffee. "Thanks for making the coffee; I was so out of it last night I forgot to set the timer."

Caroline smiled at her mom, "No problem and yeah, by the time I finally fell asleep I was out like a light until just a few minutes ago. With everything that's been going on I must have been pretty exhausted myself." She decided to leave her mini breakdown in her bathroom last night out of the conversation.

Liz sipped her coffee and turned to face Caroline, leaning against the counter with her hip. "You mentioned something last night about Tyler? What happened?"

Caroline inwardly beamed with joy that her mom was asking her about, let alone remembered, what she had tried to tell her last night. Caroline rolled her eyes and mirrored he mom's stance, "Well, you remember that girl Hayley right?" At her mom's nod she continued, "Turns out he really had been sleeping with her for God knows how long."

"Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry. I know you were worried about what was going on between them." Liz responded to her with sorrow in her voice.

"Oh that's not even the worst part! The only reason I found out was because I went over there without calling first." Caroline snorted, "My stupid mistake I guess, since I caught them in the middle of the act in the barn. That's a sight I don't think I'll ever get out of my head."

Liz rubbed her hand up and down Caroline's arm soothingly, "It will go away with time I promise. He was never good for you anyways; he was always dragging you into his problems without thinking about what it would do to you."

Caroline chuckled, "Yeah that's what Steven said too."

Liz removed her hand from Caroline's arm, taking another drink of her coffee, "Oh so you, ah, talked to Steven?"

Caroline knew her mom didn't mind her talking with Steven, but it did understandably make her uncomfortable. "Yeah, I went to his cabin for a couple days, you know, to just get away from everything for a while. Which by the way turned out to be a huge mistake after what everyone did while I was gone."

Liz furrowed her eyebrows in question, "What'd they do now? I thought it was odd that I haven't seen them around lately; Damon normally stops by the station for a night cap every few days."

Caroline wrinkled her noise as soon as the name Damon came out of her mom's mouth. "Well they all went off to that island to look for the cure, something went wrong I guess and they're back. In fact Stefan's been texting me all morning wanting me to get to Elena's."