Hurt and Heal

Chapter 9: Worry

Damon and Caroline didn't leave their room until dinner time. They'd even slept a couple of hours after a healthy lunch of blood bags heated at their personal microwave. It had been a very good idea asking the old man for a room with its own appliance. Now, rested, fed and, more importantly, warm again, the two descend the stairs in hopes of joining the evening meal. Caroline had opted for a long dress, thick enough to keep the cold out, but airy enough to feel natural. Damon had instead chosen his usual black jeans, a dark green blouse with a serpent coiled around the shoulder blades, and his signature leather jacket. Inside the restaurant, the hustle of human life was heart-warming and beyond comforting. Maybe it had been the cold making this town creepy, may be it had been their imagi–

No! It hadn't been the cold or their imagination. The moment they'd stepped inside, all activity stopped suddenly and abruptly. People's heads turned to scrutinize the new comers, some glaring, some indifferent, others intrigued, but all fearful beneath it all. The only one apparently unaffected was the old man – Mark Trotter – who greeted them with the same smile and friendly remarks. However the moment he had arrived, the other guests had shifted their view and resumed their meals as if nothing had ever happened. Damon's bad feeling worsened.

Old man Trotter smiled, his eyes twinkling making Damon remember a character in a book series he'd read not long ago. He'd never trusted the old wizard in it as he can't help being suspicious of their host. He turns to Caroline and watches as she laughs and jokes with him, appearing not to have noticed the eerie reaction all around. Either that, or she's a far better actress than he ever gave credit – which might actually be true, considering her choice in college classes, drama club and all that. Is she only manipulating the situation to their advantage? Is she fooled by the kind act? He can't figure out, regardless, they need to eat and there is a table for two just a couple feet away. He touches her shoulder, almost blinded by the megawatt smile she always seems to have plastered on, nodding toward it. She agrees and they order the night's special dish.

Taking a seat, they occupy the time by talking, something they'd been sorely lacking lately. Damon asks about her and Klaus, she asks about Liz and him, he mentions the amnesia, she reciprocates by wondering how he's coping with Katherine's death. A game of cat and mouse, never ending... until she breaches the most important and untouchable subject – Stefan. Damon recoils as if burned and chocks on the drink he'd been in the middle of swallowing, but answers nonetheless. She listens, attentive and without a sound as Stefan was her friend, her best friend, and hearing about him in a bad light hurts, but she knows better than to be naïve about people, she knows the truth. She can't blame him, it's not in her to truly hold a grudge, but he's not absolved of any crime either. They, him and Elena, couldn't have known what was happening, she realizes that, maybe Damon does too, maybe he doesn't, but the fact remains, they were needed. For once, they were both truly and irrevocably needed and that is where it had gone wrong, they'd left him behind.

"But he'd heard! Elena told him, if he hadn't anyway. The fact stands: They left me when I needed them most, they could care less about me! I was in the middle of getting cut in half for heaven's sake and they just rode off into the sunset with their judgmental and holier-than-thou attitude!" he raises his voice. Caroline closes her eyes, regretting not being able to remember everything about then, and a tear stains the tablecloth, her hand stretches out to take his, but she can't reach it in time, the food has arrived. Blinking several times to keep the rest of the tears at bay and keeping her head bowed as if drinking from her glass, she waits for the waitress to leave, before lifting her head to look Damon dead in the eyes. Blue meets ice-blue and she smiles. Smirking, he nods at her. It is a moment of absolute clarity between the two and immediately they realize they hadn't been talking lately because they'd forgotten how they are together, the rape had changed things and her recovery had also, but now they remember. They never talked much, they didn't need it half the time because, since Stefan left, since she'd found Damon there and saved him, they've gotten closer than anyone else, they can understand one another without words, with only a look or a smile or a gesture. That's who and how they are.