It had been exactly thirty minutes after they managed to get Stefan locked up. Caroline knew that between herself and Damon they could get Stefan to turn his humanity on, she just wasn’t sure how he would cope after he had it turned back on, he’d been human for a little while. She didn’t even know what it meant that he was a vampire now.
Someone had been sent to find Kol Mikaelson as Caroline took a deep breath and opened up the door and leaned against the doorframe.
“So… Looks like hunting is out of the question for you.” She greeted.
Between his too near humanity and the new, incorrigible thread of vampire running through Stefan, he sped to the door just as soon as Caroline opened it. Only, he found himself held about 2 feet from her by a strong ward. He bashed his hand against it and thus repelled, stepped back to consider his wife.
He tilted his head. “Going to dry me out and beg for sad, guilty Stefan? I know how this goes.”
“Historically, it works, and seeing as you know that, you could save us all a lot of time and turn your humanity back on, besides, we both know you didn’t turn it off because you wanted to.” She countered quickly.
Stefan didn’t provide her with the detail required to answer that question. Instead, he smirked at her and lounged back on his chair. “Historically, we haven’t been in Atlantis and historically, I haven’t been attacked by a completely new breed of vampire with the Cure in my body.” He paused.
“So I could be aging and dying right now. Poor me … and no one to drink.”
“You’re right, you could be dying, you could die in the next hour, and you would leave me again, is that really what you want to do Stefan?” She sighed shutting her eyes before opening them again with a stone voice.
“I remember our wedding, do you?”
“Let me out of here and we can make sure whatever happens happens well,” Stefan said. He was sure that there was little to do with dying but cared enough to use it as a tool of manipulation. He even pouted for effect.
“I remember our wedding, of course.”
“You’re not going anywhere and you know it,” Caroline laughed it off, his words hurt but she wasn’t going to let him know that this hurt her, she couldn’t, even though she knew it was impossible to hide it all.
“What do you remember about it?”
Stefan rolled his eyes. “Go home and leave me alone, Caroline. If you’re not going to let me go free, at least let me desiccate in peace.” The thirst had been building; now, it was a warm fire in the back of his throat. Soon, he knew it would overwhelm him. And being so newly new, he didn’t have the strength to rip out his bonds.
Particularly when he knew and understood how smart his wife was. It’d probably decapitate him with a vervain-laced axe.
Sighing she crossed her arms. “Oh, I’m not going anywhere until I get my husband back and you know my inclination for never giving up.” She said leaning against the wall watching him carefully.
“I know that you’re particularly adept when it comes to being a pain in my ass and a suck on my good time,” he told her with a curled lip. “It’s old. You can either fix me by turning me loose or stake me here because this is where we are. Guilt-addled, human, squirrel-eating Stefan isn’t coming back.”
14 MARCH
Hope put up a sound barrier between where she and Caroline were standing and where Stefan was locked up making it impossible for him to overhear the conversation.
“I need you to bite him.” Caroline looked at Hope directly in the eyes.
“What?” Was all Hope could come up with.
“You heard me, I need you to bite him.” Caroline felt like it was the only thing she could think of to get to Stefan, fear could be a good motivator.
“You want me to bite him, you know that could, you know…”
“We aren’t going to let him die, I want to scare him, it can be a motivator.” Caroline’s mind was focused completely on Stefan and fixing him.
“Did Uncle Kol try to compel him?” Hope asked feeling that double standard thing her Uncle had mentioned once or twice was in play here.
“It didn’t work,” Caroline admitted. “It was my first choice.”
“So, whatever happened to him to turn him back into a vampire has other side effects.” Hope sighed. “Great.”
“Hope, I need you to bite him and give me some blood so I can heal him.”
“You know you could try asking, I’m not a personal bite and heal machine,” yeah, those double standards were in effect.
Caroline looked down frustrated. “I know this isn’t something I would normally ask you, but it’s my husband,” she looked up at Hope's eyes pleading.
“Fine, but I think it’s a stupid idea.” Hope wasn’t sure what she thought about the idea itself but she was angry about the whole situation.
She waved her arm taking down the sound barrier, there was a piece of her that wondered what would happen if she bit Stefan and didn’t give them the blood right away. Hope followed Caroline to the cell that was holding Stefan as the door opened she stepped into the room. Caroline went to the right, while Hope went to the left.
“Are you sure?” She asked looking to Caroline.
Stefan’s eyes followed Klaus’ daughter warily, his trust having been misplaced in the Mikaelsons so many times that it seemed only right to watch her. He trusted his wife. Hope, however, was mouthy enough to be a wildcard. And besides being incarcerated, he was far too thirsty and wouldn’t be able to fight back as much as he would have liked anyway.
“Get the kid out of here,” he said wearily. “I’m not interested in any more Mikaelson gawkers.”
“First of all, gross,” Hope responded to Stefan. “And I know you like to play the heartbroken not bad boy bad boy but you really aren’t all that.” Something in her made her really protective of her Aunt Rebekah in that moment. Hope didn’t know everything but she knew enough.
Hope’s attention turned back to Caroline. “Forget what I said earlier if you’re sure...”
Caroline was torn. When Stefan called Hope the kid it forced her to confront the concept that Hope really was just a kid, but the other part of her mind told her she, Elena and Bonnie faced worse when they were teenagers.
“That depends Stefan, do you want to live?” She said forcing herself to sound cold even though everything in her was breaking when sh said it.
Stefan rolled his eyes and leaned forward, arm extended outward. “You think pulling Klaus’ daughter in to give me a hybrid bite will make me scared? Come on, Caroline. You don’t want to do without me.”
He turned to Hope and let his eyes go dark, the veins growing large and distended as it flowed out and vined across his cheeks. “Bite me, honey.”
“Do it,” Caroline said, she didn’t want to live without Stefan but if he was going to make this difficult she was going to threaten him with everything she could, and she knew first hand how painful it could be being bit.
“I’m a tribrid,” Hope corrected Stefan. “Which means,” she waved her hands speaking a spell under her breath causing his fingers to start to bleed without healing right away. Holding her hand out she focused on making the blood vessels in his head start to feel like they were boiling. She didn’t however, bite him.
The pain roiled beneath Stefan’s skin, exacerbated by the lack of blood or nourishment received since he’d been a vampire. Instead of shying away from it, he leaned in and let it surge through him. He growled up at Hope and reached out toward her with his bleeding fingertips.
Hope focused on what she was doing, at the very least it would bleed him dry a little quicker. “Hope, That’s enough,” she heard Caroline say and she let go of the spell taking a step back.
“Do you still want me to bite him?” She asked looking at Caroline. Hope would if she needed to but she’d really rather not have to, for some reason it just felt gross to her.
“You can go,” Caroline said to Hope, Hope rolled her eyes and shock her head with a disapproving sound before exiting the room leaving Caroline and Stefan alone. “Your welcome,” she said just out of earshot.
Caroline’s attention turned back to Stefan. “You know, I would have thought you’d want to turn your humanity back on, you promised you would, I knew it’d be difficult, but the fact that you so desperately don’t want to feel tells me you’re afraid of something, what is it? Afraid you’ll lose me? Or do you not love me anymore? Are you afraid of the pain that you’ll feel, or the good stuff? You have the choice right in front of you, you have a whole new life ready and waiting for you and it’s up to you if you take it. I know it’s easier to leave yourself locked away without a care in the world, but you do care, even now, even when you’ll tell me you don’t and I can rot in hell. Would me dying bring you back?”
Stefan couldn’t. Not with the pain from Hope’s spell still pinging in his body, not with the thirst so deep and all-encompassing. He couldn’t abide the thought of a world without Caroline. It read in the deep scowl that marred his face as he let himself splay back against the wall, his eventual gaze weaker than it had been since he had been caught.
“Don’t say that,” came quickly. “Just don’t.” He cleared his throat. He knew precisely what drew his fear; Enzo’s death and Bonnie’s scream, the countless gallons of blood, the lives lost, the potential for loss in Atlantis. It would hurt so badly. He would have to face it even here, this place of second chances.
“Please.”
The pain and thrill of getting close to breaking through was so overwhelming a couple of tears fell from her eyes. She hated every second of this but she’d do it. She’d push until she saw the full change in his eyes.
“What would you do if I forced Hope to bite me?” She continued almost over his, please. “What if I am about to start hallucinating and die a slow and painfully from the poison?” She was sure to pull up her sleeves a little bit to where it looked like there could be a bite. “What would you do? Sit there? Saying please but not fully meaning it yet?” It was harsh but she knew how hard turning humanity back on was and the crushing weight of all those actions that didn’t matter seconds before.
His mind was on fire. He could feel his skin crawling, urging him to rip free from his bonds and fight for survival. But there was that small voice which echoed louder and clearer with every breath taken. His resolve rattled as he peopled his world without Caroline. It was a blood-drenched world; one free from pain but bereft of meaning. And it had been that meaning he’d meant to chase here, in the world where he was meant to have a second chance with her. With the love of his life.
“I …” he took a breath, feeling the last bit of his vampiric will slip away. He looked up with pain-soaked, clear eyes. “I would fight for you until I drew my last breath, Caroline.”
Caroline felt the tears before she realized they were falling, she knew the pain that rushed in when humanity was turned back on, the guilt, the fear, the overwhelming human feelings horrible, intense and beautiful in their own right.
“I know,” she whispered. The room was still spelled so she wasn’t worried about him getting out if this was an act but it didn’t feel like an act to her. Stepping closer she undid one of the ropes and reached up putting her palm against his cheek. “I will always fight for you.”
Stefan’s free hand curled in Caroline’s golden locks and he let himself lean into her grip. As long as she was near, he realized the weight of all his transgressions seemed to abate enough to be a bit less than overwhelming. He smiled softly.
“I’m back. Because of you.”
He was back. Tears were threatening to fall, a few slipping out. She got him back, Caroline was still worried about the aftermath but they were at least on the right track now. Undoing the rest of the ropes she leaned back just enough to tilt his head upwards.