Caroline Forbes is full of light (miss_mystic) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-07-18 20:26:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, caroline forbes, tyler lockwood |
Who: Forwood and NPC!Bill Forbes
What: Caroline's dad is worried about her taking Tyler back
When: Saturday, July 13
Where: Restaurant
Rating/Warning: Mediumish - references to torture
Status: Complete
William Forbes was worried about his daughter. The last time they had all had dinner he warned Tyler not to hurt Caroline. And he had done just that. For months Bill listened when Caroline called him crying. All he got was that Tyler had broken up with her and wouldn’t even talk to or look at her. There was more to the story he was sure but Caroline hadn’t told him. And now the man was back in her life. Bill did not approve. He wasn’t going to let Tyler hurt his daughter again.
And yet there Caroline was, eyes shining, a smile on her face as she looked at her boyfriend. Bill watched them carefully.
Caroline was having some serious deja vu - to the last time she was at a restaurant with her boyfriend and her dad. That night had gone amazing. Tyler had handled everything with her dad pretty well and then later he had finally said those three little words to her. But she had a feeling tonight wasn’t going to go as well.
“Did I tell you Tyler is coaching full time now?” she asked her dad, though she knew she had already told him. But she needed to say something and reminding her father that her boyfriend no longer worked at a club seemed like a good place to start.
“You mentioned it,” Bill replied sternly eyes locked on to Tyler as he spoke.
Tyler swallowed. He’d known that this meeting wasn’t going to go as smoothly as the last time he’d met Caroline’s dad, if that could have been called smoothly, but this was worse than he’d been expecting. Bill kept looking at him like a snake would look at a rat, and while Tyler was pretty sure he could take him in a fight, that’s not where he wanted this to go.
Of course, he wanted to win Bill’s approval. He knew that Caroline would be with him with or without it, but it would be easier with it. But the longer this meeting went on, the less sure Tyler was that such a thing was possible. There was a big part of him that just wanted to compel Bill to forget when Tyler and Caroline had broken up, but he knew that Caroline would not approve of that.
“Yeah, actually, I was just in Texas for a work conference,” Tyler said. “Have you ever been? To Texas, I mean.”
Caroline knew the reason her father pretty much hated Tyler right now was her fault. She had been so heartbroken over everything fo months and it wasn’t exactly like she could tell her dad the full story. But still she wanted him and Tyler to get along. It would make her life so much easier. They were the two most important men in her life after all.
“No,” Bill replied tone cold. “What exactly do you talk about at a coaching conference?” Bill questioned picking up his drink and taking a sip. As far as he was concerned his daughter was too good for Tyler. Not necessarily because of his job. But because he didn’t want his daughter settling for her high school boyfriend. Especially when he had broken her heart not once, but twice now. Not that Bill was counting.
“Uh, coaching, mostly,” Tyler said, a little awkwardly and realizing only after the words were out of his mouth that they might have come across as sarcastic. “Like, different plays, types of workouts. How to deal with problem players. We watched a lot of old games and broke them down. Tried to figure out what worked and what didn’t. That kind of stuff,” he added hurriedly, shooting Caroline a wide-eyed look.
Her poor boyfriend. She could tell he was really trying. Not only that but he was nervous, maybe even a little scared. She wasn’t going to lie. She was nervous too. Her dad could be a bit of a hard ass and she really wanted this to go well.
“He’s a good coach, Dad,” Caroline jumped in defending Tyler. How could she not? She loved him. Plus he was giving her that look. “He cares about his players. He even went to visit some of their families.” Something that Caroline thought was beyond sweet and made her love Tyler even more.
Bill? Not so much. “And what about my daughter?” Bill jumped right in eyes on Tyler. “Do you care about her? Or are you just going to stop talking to her again?”
Tyler was thankful at the assist, but it was obvious that Bill wasn’t buying it, and suddenly, he was angry at him. Maybe Bill didn’t know the circumstances, but to imply that Tyler didn’t care about Caroline made his blood boil. This coming from the man who, if the circumstances were right, would torture his daughter for days. Say what he would about Tyler, Tyler would never stoop so low.
“Of course I care about Caroline. I love her,” he snapped, and bit back his next comment about if Bill really loved her. This man hadn’t actually strapped Caroline to a chair so he could starve and torture her, and as much as Tyler wanted to, he couldn’t throw that in his face.
Again Caroline was about to jump in and defend Tyler but he had already snapped back at her father. Of course she loved hearing that Tyler loved her, but she didn’t particularly like the anger in his tone. She understood why he was. The whole not talking to her thing hadn’t been Tyler’s fault and it was unfair to blame him for it. But she couldn’t explain that to her father. Not without explaining what they were. And with how he reacted to her vampirism in the dreams? Caroline wasn’t so sure about telling her dad here.
“Yeah?” Bill replied cooly not missing a beat. “You sure don’t have the best way of showing it.”
“How would you know anyway?” Tyler asked. Maybe he should calm down, but he was on a roll now, and it was hard to curb his anger once he let it out. “You show up, what, once a year so you can come in here, what, flaunt how much better your judgement is over Caroline’s? She’s a grown woman, she can make her own choices.”
This was not going at all how Caroline wanted it to. She knew Tyler had a temper. She also knew her dad wasn’t exactly the most reliable person, that he was being a little too hard on Tyler, and yeah that he wasn’t the best guy in the dreams. But he was still her dad. The only parent she had left.
“Stop,” Caroline finally said eyes on Tyler first then on her father. “Both of you. I love Tyler and that’s not going to change,” she turned to look back at Tyler. “And I love my dad. So the both of you need to figure out how to get along.”
With that Caroline stood up and left the table. But she’d still be listening. Ready to come back when they figured their shit out. Or worst case jump in again if this went badly. But hopefully they both cared about her enough to respect her wishes.
Tyler bit back anything else he would have said when Caroline told him to stop, and watched Caroline leave, feeling properly abashed. There was more that he would have liked to say to Bill, but Caroline asked him to stop and so he would.
That didn’t mean he was going to apologize though. He sat back in his seat, arms crossed, waiting to see what Bill’s move would be. If he wasn’t going to listen to Caroline, well, Tyler would be justified in all the things he wanted to say.
Bill watched as his daughter walked away. Slightly proud of her for being able to stand up to both him and Tyler and put them in their place. Maybe she would be okay with Tyler. She had turned into a very strong woman. Still he had hurt Caroline a lot over the past few months and Bill couldn’t exactly let that go.
“Listen Tyler,” Bill began. “I may not be here all the time, but we still talk. She hasn’t been happy lately.” Well the past month she seemed better, but before that she was a mess. “Caroline has been through a lot,” with her mother, which apparently Tyler was there for. “She doesn’t deserve any more heartbreak.”
“No, she doesn’t,” Tyler agreed. Sometimes - a lot of the time, really - he didn’t think that he was good enough for Caroline. He thought she deserved so much better than what he could give her, but she’d chosen him and he wasn’t going to talk her out of that decision. After all, Caroline was the best thing that had ever happened to him. “Which is why I don’t plan on going anywhere.”
“Now where have I heard that before?” Bill replied. He wasn’t about to let Tyler off the hook. Not after what he put Caroline through. And especially not with the way Tyler had just spoken to him.
“You don’t know anything that was going on then,” Tyler snapped. “Caroline does, and she’s forgiven me for it, and that should be good enough for you.”
Bill was pretty sure the only reason Caroline had forgiven Tyler was because she was blinded by love. His usually strong daughter seemed to have a weak spot when it came to Tyler Lockwood and Bill didn’t approve. “Whatever was going on then,” Bill snapped. “Does not excuse the way you treated my daughter.”
Caroline had been listening from the alcove near the bathroom, keeping an eye on her boyfriend and her father. Things didn’t seem to be going any better with her gone. She knew this wasn’t going to be an easy dinner, but she needed the two men in her life to get along. She just wasn’t sure how to make that happen when she couldn’t explain to her father that none of if, save for the whole turning off the humanity part, had really been Tyler’s fault. But clearly leaving them alone wasn’t working.
With a sigh Caroline made her way back to the table taking her seat next to Tyler. “You two figure out how to get along yet?” she asked even though she already knew the answer. Her dad at least didn’t know she had been listening in, though Tyler had probably assumed it.
Tyler had been ready to respond when Caroline returned, and he snapped his mouth shut. He gave Caroline a frustrated look, because he knew that she knew exactly how their one-on-one time had gone. He would be glad when Bill finally went back home.
“I did my best,” he said, shrugging. It wasn’t his fault Bill was an ass.
Caroline frowned looking over at her dad. Waiting to hear what he had to say.
“It seems your boyfriend and I aren’t seeing eye to eye.” And he didn’t think they were ever going to. He did not approve of the way Caroline had been hurt and that wasn’t about to change.
Another sigh from the blonde. “Look, Dad,” she began. “I know you only heard about the bad parts over the past few months.” Which there were a lot with the whole not talking to her thing and then everything when his humanity was off. “But he’s also made me happier than anyone ever has. I love him and that’s not going to change.” Caroline had tried multiple times to get over Tyler. Back in college, when she first moved back and Tyler was getting over his ex, the past few months after he broke her heart. It was no use. Tyler was the one for her. Forever. “So you’re going to have to get used to it.”
Tyler couldn’t help but smile at Caroline, and he reached for her hand, both because he wanted to have the contact and partly because he wanted to rub it in her dad’s face that Caroline might have been his daughter, but in the end, she was Tyler’s. He couldn’t help but admire her, and admire her strength. He’d never been able to stand up to his own father the way Caroline was now, and he wondered if it was possible that he was falling even more in love with her.
Bill focused on his daughter and ignored the smug look on Tyler’s face. “Are you sure this is what you want? Even with everything he put you through?” Because it was clear to him that this wasn’t changing. He knew Tyler had been an important person in Caroline’s life for years. Even if he hadn’t been around much when she was in high school he had heard about him nonstop. And she only seemed to keep finding her way back to him. Even if Bill didn’t think he deserved her daughter.
“Yes,” Caroline replied not missing a beat. “I love him,” she repeated not backing down in the slightest.
“I love you too, Care,” Tyler said, because it felt like he should. Maybe it would get under Bill’s skin, but as far as Tyler was concerned, that was a plus right now. It wasn’t that he wanted to be on bad terms with Bill, but he wasn’t going to back down from Caroline either.
Although Caroline was disappointed in both her father and Tyler for not being able to figure out a way to get along, Tyler’s words still caused a small smile to form on her face.
It was Bill’s turn to sigh as he looked from Caroline to Tyler and back again. “I guess that’s all I can ask for,” he paused looking back at Tyler and narrowing his eyes. “And that you never hurt her again.”
“I’ll do my best,” Tyler said, because he wouldn’t make a promise that he couldn’t keep. In this place, with the dreams, it was impossible to know exactly what would happen. Maybe if their life was remotely normal, then it would be different.
It wasn’t the answer Bill was looking for but at least Tyler was being honest. And he could tell his daughter had had enough of their arguing. So he’d let it go… for now.
“Now can we please just have a nice dinner?” Caroline asked looking from her father to Tyler.
“Yeah, of course,” Tyler said, giving Caroline’s hand another squeeze. He wasn’t sure if ‘nice’ was going to be an adjective that would describe it, but he was willing to bite his tongue for the rest of the meal and not say anything that would make Bill happy if he was willing to do the same. And maybe the meal would be tense and possibly a little quiet, but at least there would be no more fighting.