Wicked Schemes

Chapter 28

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Let the rain
Wash away
All the pain of yesterday
I know my kingdom awaits
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Caroline knew that teenage girls could sleep for a long time if they really wanted. She'd done it before, though maybe not as often as some considering how jam packed her days had been in high school. Between cheerleading, her other extracurricular activities, and the never ending supernatural chaos that seemed to reign in Mystic Falls over the last two years, sleep was always something she'd put on the back burner. Which had been easier to handle once she'd become a vampire and didn't need it as much as when she'd been human.

It seemed like it was something Davina heavily enjoyed and as much as Caroline wanted to wake her up and get an answer, she didn't feel like upsetting the girl either. Patience was a virtue that Caroline hated, one that seemed to be more trying than any of the others, but it was one she knew that she needed, especially in that moment.

So when Davina still hadn't woken two hours after the sun had risen, Caroline finally headed out of the room and down the stairs. She didn't know what she was going to do if Davina decided against waking Klaus. It had to remain the girl's decision, but knowing there was an answer that was so close to helping him and not being able to use it...she worried that it might drive her mad. And could anyone really blame her if it did?

Yes, she had a ton of responsibilities and Caroline knew that she couldn't shirk those, nor did she want to, but she had a responsibility to Klaus as well and she wasn't about to forget that. No matter how some of her friends seemed to want her to do so.

She spotted Stefan sitting alone as she was passing by one of the rooms and headed toward him. Part of her had expected to see him and be reminded of everything that they had all gone through only days before, to be reminded of Silas and all he had done, but it didn't happen. She only saw her friend, sensed her friend and none of the coldness that she'd come to associate with the dead immortal.

Stefan didn't look good though. He seemed endlessly exhausted to her and Caroline wondered if he was getting any rest. She had a feeling every time he shut his eyes that he was seeing his death again and she didn't know how to fix that, to help him. She had all of this power at her fingertips and she couldn't use it to help her mom, to help Klaus, to help Stefan. Bonnie. It wasn't fair, but that was life, wasn't it? She couldn't save everyone. Unfortunately that included the people she loved.

"Hey," Caroline greeted, hating how hesitant her own voice sounded. She'd seen him a few times since breaking him out of the safe, but had regulated Rebekah to helping him, her attention focused on everything else. They hadn't been alone together in quite some time.

He turned to look at her, offering up a smile that didn't quite work out before patting the space on the couch beside him. "I'm sorry about your mom," Stefan told her as she sat down, watching her carefully. "I don't think I got to tell you that yet."

"Everything has kind of been insane," Caroline pointed out, leaning back on the couch and reciprocating the concerned look. It seemed she wasn't the only one worrying about a friend's well-being. "I'm sorry it took so long to realize what happened to you."

Stefan took hold of her hand then, squeezing it gently. "Don't." He shook his hand. "You had no clue, Care, and you found me in the end."

"Me and Rebekah," she murmured, squeezing back. If knowing he'd been down in the water for six weeks haunted her, she could only imagine what having experienced it for that long was doing to him. "How are you doing? I mean aside from the whole 'oh god setback of PTSD watery thing' that you have going on?" Was that not what she should say?