Who: Tyler, Caroline and NPC!Liz (with brief appearance by NPC!Ethan) What: Caroline loses her mom Where: Hospital to movie theater back to the hospital When: Night of March 16 - Morning of March 17 Warning/Rating: NPC death Status: Complete
It had been a long journey for Elizabeth Forbes. One that she knew was coming to an end. Liz could feel her life beginning to fade away. She was trying to hold on. For Caroline. She wasn’t ready to say goodbye to her daughter yet. And as strong as Caroline was, Liz knew she still needed her mother.
Since Liz had gone into the hospital Caroline hadn’t left her side. That was no way for Caroline to live. Liz wanted her daughter to have a life, to keep living her life. She didn’t want Caroline to put her life on pause for her. Liz needed to know that Caroline would have a life to keep living once she was gone. So she had convinced her daughter to take a night off from sitting by her side at the hospital. Go out with that guy she had been seeing. But of course Caroline wouldn’t leave unless someone else was there with Liz. Which was why Liz was currently looking at her daughter’s high school boyfriend.
“Thank you,” Liz said to Tyler, her voice weak. “For doing this, for Caroline.”
Tyler had never particularly liked hospitals, or sick people for that matter. He liked it even less now that he was a hybrid, where he could smell the sickness that clung to some of these people, smell the blood, hear the cries of the sick and dying.
But Caroline had asked if he could keep Liz company, and Tyler had agreed. Liz didn’t deserve to be stuck here on her own. And as much as Tyler hated Caroline’s smarmy boyfriend, she did deserve a night out. Not stressing out over Liz like she was. Tyler wished he could do something, anything, to ease her suffering. But he knew better than to make Liz drink his blood - they had all seen how that turned out in the dreams - and he was hardly a doctor. Even if he was, well, there was nothing he could do.
He took Liz’s hand in his, and tried not to think about how fragile it seemed; how unlike Liz it was. Even if he was still human, he was sure that if he held on too tight it would break. “I’d do anything for her,” he said, a little surprised at his confession but knowing it was true. “But I’m doing this for you too. Do you need anything?”
Tyler’s confession may have surprised him, but it didn’t surprise Liz. She knew how much Tyler cared for her daughter. She saw the way he looked at her when they all went to dinner not long ago. She also knew how Caroline felt about him. She remembered how heartbroken Caroline had been when they broke up in high school. Hell her daughter even considered giving up Cornell and joining Tyler at Duke. Liz had to convince her to go to Cornell, live her life for herself and not for a guy. It had been the right choice for Caroline, but now that they were both living in the same place she didn’t see what was keeping them apart. Or why Caroline was suddenly dating a pretentious older man.
“Yes,” Liz replied. Although what she needed, it wasn’t what Tyler though. It wasn’t something he could do for her at this moment. “I need you to take care of Caroline. I need someone to look out for her when I’m gone. Make sure she gets past this.”
Tyler didn’t need to be told to do that. Taking care of Caroline, protecting her, was practically wired into him, even when she’d been stronger than him for the majority of their dreams. But who knew how well he’d be able to do that. Ethan was still in the picture, even if Tyler hated it, and the older man and Caroline both would probably have something to say about it if Tyler involved himself too heavily. But this wasn’t the time to bring up any of that with Liz.
“Of course I will,” he said, giving Liz’s had a gentle squeeze.
Liz knew Tyler would. Caroline may be dating Ethan for now, but Liz knew her daughter. She knew it wouldn’t last. Tyler though, even if he wasn’t dating Caroline, Liz still knew he would be in her daughter’s life for a long time.
“She’s become this strong, independent woman.” Which she was sure Tyler already knew, but it needed to be said anyway. She needed to make sure Caroline was reminded of that. If not from her than from Tyler. “She’s extraordinary,” she continued. “I need her to know how proud I am of her.”
“She knows. But even if she didn’t, you’ll be able to tell her when she gets back.” Liz did not look to be in a good way, but she hadn’t since Caroline had come back. There was no reason for him to think that that would change. “If you want, I can go get her now.”
“No,” Liz replied barely able to get the word out. Her eyes were beginning to feel extremely heavy. “She needs a night off.” And Liz hated that her daughter was seeing her like this. Not because Liz looked weak. She just hated seeing how much it was clearly hurting Caroline. “Just… make sure she knows,” Liz managed to get those last words out before her eyes shut.
“She’ll know when you tell her,” Tyler said again, but by then, Liz had already fallen asleep. He sighed, and leaned back in his chair to get comfortable. He’d stay there until visiting hours were over, but there was still quite a few visiting hours left.
Only a couple of minutes had passed before one of the shift nurses came to check on Liz, though Tyler didn’t notice how she rushed out of the room until she returned with a couple of doctors.
“Sir, we’re going to need you to clear the room,” one of the doctors said to Tyler, and Tyler sat up a little straighter in his chair.
“Is everything okay?” he asked.
“We need you to leave the room,” the doctor repeated. “Since you’re not family, we can’t tell you anything else.”
Tyler pursed his lips together, and then stood up, but before he could say anything the doctor was guiding him out of the room. “Wait,” Tyler said, and looked the doctor in the eyes. “I need you to tell me what’s going on.”
The doctor frowned, and looked back toward the room where Liz was lying, and then turned back to Tyler. “It doesn’t look good,” he said. “It’s unlikely she will make it until morning.”
Tyler cursed under his breath, and then grabbed his phone to call Caroline. But then he remembered that she and Ethan were watching a movie, and he doubted she’d be checking her phone. With another curse, he rushed to the parking lot, got in his BMW and sped to the movie theatre. He compelled his way through into the theater, and once in the theatre it didn’t take him long to spot Caroline’s blonde hair.
“Care,” he whispered loudly at the end of the row.
Caroline wasn’t sure she could leave her mom. Even if it was just for a few hours. But her mom was insistent that she take an evening off. And Ethan had been asking when they could go out again. So Caroline had reluctantly agreed but only if someone else would be there for her mom. Tyler, being the amazing guy he was, said he would stay with Liz.
Even though Ethan had taken her to a movie Caroline was keeping an eye on her phone. She had to be available at all times. But she hadn’t received any calls. So when Tyler showed up she practically jumped out of her seat.
“What?” she asked not caring there was a movie going on. “What happened? Why aren’t you with my mom?”
A few of the people in the audience shushed her but it didn’t even register for Caroline. However, it did for Ethan. The man got up following Caroline to the end of the row where her friend Tyler was. “Maybe we should step outside,” he suggested keeping his voice low to not disturb the movie anymore. He gave the patrons an apologetic look before ushering Caroline out of the theater.
Thanks, Ethan. As if Tyler hadn’t been about to suggest that exact same thing. He took a breath to calm himself down - now he should be there for Caroline, not fantasizing about punching her boyfriend right in his smug face.
Tyler followed the two of them out of the theatre, and waited until they were in the lobby before he continued to speak. “The doctor’s kicked me out,” he said by way of explaining why he wasn’t with Liz anymore. “I’d hate to cut your movie short, but you should really go back.”
Ethan had a feeling Caroline’s mom was fine. This Tyler guy was probably just using her as an excuse for Caroline to get back. “I’m sure it will be okay,” he said in a reassuring tone his words were to Caroline but he gave Tyler a look. Like he knew what the guy was up to. “I’ll take you to the hospital as soon as the movie is over.”
“Are you crazy?!” Caroline shot back to Ethan. “I have to go now!” She was already heading out of the building still talking to Tyler as she went. “Why did they kick you out?! What happened? Is she okay?”
The hell was that look for? Or that attitude. He stood up a little straighter and threw back his shoulders. “How about this? I pay you the $20 for Caroline’s ticket and you can finish watching it if you’re that invested in it?” he snarled.
Then, he turned to Caroline, his expression softening a little. He didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t say anything. The words were stuck in his throat. There was no way to tell her that there was a good chance her mom wouldn’t be around by the time morning hit. “The doctor’s wouldn’t tell me much,” he lied. “I think it’s better if you get it from them.”
Caroline was no longer concerned about Ethan and whatever the hell was going on between him and Tyler. In fact she didn’t even notice. All she could think about was her mom. Hell if it wasn’t for the fact that Ethan and driven her she would have forgotten he was there entirely. “Take me to her?” she asked Tyler trusting him more in this moment than Ethan.
This is what Ethan got for dating someone with a sick mother. They were never going to have a proper date. It was always about her mom or going to her friend’s show. Maybe he should start dating some more mature women who actually had time for him. However, he still wasn’t going to allow himself to get shown up by this Tyler guy. “I can take you,” he told Caroline ignoring Tyler’s comment about the $20.
“Of course,” Tyler said, turning to leave with Caroline.
Of course, then Ethan had to open his mouth again. Tyler had been trying very hard to, if not be nice to Ethan, not kill him. But now… he turned and he grabbed Ethan by the neck, his fingers wrapping around his throat. It would be so easy to snap his neck and drain him dry. But nearly immediately the thought rose to his mind that he needed to get Caroline to the hospital now, and leaving a dead body was a surefire way to make sure that they wouldn’t be going anywhere any time soon. Frustrated, Tyler pushed him back.
Ethan made a choking sound when Tyler placed his hand around Ethan’s neck. Thankfully Tyler let go after only a moment. Ethan grasped his neck coughing trying to get Caroline’s attention, get her to see what her ‘friend’ did, but she didn’t seem to notice at all. Before he knew it she was out the door and he we left in the lobby in the theater, alone.
“I knew I shouldn’t have left her,” Caroline muttered more to herself than Tyler as she climbed into the passenger seat of his car. Tears began to well up in her eyes.
Tyler wanted to tell her that it would all be okay, but he couldn’t lie to her like that. He’d dreamed this before, although at that point in his dreams, he and Caroline weren’t exactly close. He’d been angry at her for sleeping with Klaus, and he’d been caught up with protecting Liv from her psychopath of a brother or the ritual that would almost certainly leave her dead, absorbed by her twin. But he couldn’t let her blame herself for not being there tonight.
“You can’t do that,” he said. “You can’t blame yourself for taking a night off when you’ve been with her every night. Liz understand. She wanted you to go out tonight,” he reminded her.
Caroline didn’t care. She didn’t care that her mom insisted she go out. She didn’t care that she made sure Liz had someone there with her while she was gone. None of it mattered. All that mattered was that she wasn’t there with her mom now.
Caroline didn’t have it in her to respond. To argue with Tyler. What was the point? So instead she just sat there in silence, tears falling from her eyes. The care ride felt like it was taking forever. Finally they arrived at the hospital. Caroline didn’t even wait for Tyler to fully park the car before she jumped out and ran inside, straight to her mother’s room.
By the time Tyler made it inside Caroline was already talking to the doctor. He was informing her that her mother’s brain was no longer functioning. Then he said the same thing to Caroline that he had told Tyler, Liz wouldn’t make it till morning.
“No!” Caroline told the doctor refusing to believe it. But he only repeated the same thing to her before leaving to answer another page. “No,” Caroline said again her voice softer. The tears were streaming down her face now. She rushed to her mom’s side, placing her hands on Liz’s shoulders. “Mom!” she cried out with a gentle shake. “Wake up!”
Tyler could hear Caroline’s conversation with the doctor long before they came into view. He couldn’t help but listen to every word, while at the same time thinking that he shouldn’t. He didn’t like feeling useless, and right now, he felt more useless than he ever had in his life.
For a while, he stood in the doorway of Liz’s hospital room, watching Caroline. He wasn’t Caroline’s boyfriend. Caroline had another boyfriend, who Tyler had nearly strangled tonight. But he couldn’t just stand there and watch. It was impossible, and before he knew what he was doing, he was kneeling down beside Caroline and placing an arm around her shoulder.
“Mom,” Caroline cried out again. “Mom,” she repeated it a few more times her voice growing softer each time. The realization that this was it, her mom wasn’t going to reply, ever again, sunk in. She could no longer speak, all she could do was cry, sob even.
When Tyler placed an arm around her Caroline was already full on sobbing. Thoughts of Ethan were long gone. She forgot she had a boyfriend. All she could think about was losing her mom. And that small gesture of comfort that Tyler was giving her was much appreciated. Without thinking herself Caroline turned to him, burying her head in his chest as she continued to cry.
Tyler buried his nose in Caroline’s golden hair, and wrapped his arms around her, letting her cry into his chest. He didn’t know what to say, and he wished that he did. But then, Marguerite told him that the best thing to do sometimes was to just sit in silence with someone, and that, he guessed, was all that he could do right now.
Caroline remained sobbing in his arms for quite some time. Eventually her cries grew softer, but still she remained in his arms. She felt safe there. After a few more moments she pulled away, focussing back on her mom. Caroline perched on the side of the hospital bed, taking her mom’s hand in hers. Tears began to fall once again, but the sobbing was done for now. She turned to Tyler, eyes glassy. “Can you stay?” She needed him right now.
Tyler stayed where he was, crouched beside Liz’s hospital bed, when Caroline got up, and he looked up at her, eyes filled with empathy. It was hard seeing Caroline like this, normally so full of life and now filled with pain. “Yeah, of course I can,” he said. “I'm here with you, for however long you need me to be.”
“Thank you,” Caroline replied attempting to give him a small smile through her tears. Caroline remained there, perched on her mother’s bed, hand holding Liz’s for hours. She didn’t sleep. She couldn’t. The entire night Caroline sat there, sometimes silent, sometimes talking to her mother. Telling memories of her childhood, letting her mom know how much she loved her. Caroline told herself that even though Liz wasn’t conscious she could still hear her daughter. She had to believe that. She needed her mom to know what an amazing mother she was.
And then it happened, she watched as her mom stopped breathing, heard the beep of the machine signaling her heart had stopped. And just like that she was gone. “No!” Caroline cried. “I’m not ready. Mom!” The tears began to stream down her face. “Mom! Please don’t leave me.”
Tyler had moved from where he was crouched to one of the chairs next to Liz’s bedside. He must have fallen asleep at some point, because the next thing he knew, he was waking up to the sound of a flatline and Caroline crying.
He roused quickly, and watched her for a few moments, not sure what to do. Then he got up, and laid a hand on Caroline’s shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze.
A doctor came in to turn off the machine but then left the room. He knew it was best to give the family some time before moving the body. Caroline and Tyler were left alone with Liz.
Caroline forgot Tyler was there until she felt his hand on her shoulder. “She’s gone,” Caroline finally said her voice soft, barely even a whisper, tears still streaming down her face.
Had Tyler been a more eloquent man, he might have said something along the lines of the fact that she would always live in Caroline’s memory, but Tyler wasn’t. He tried to swallow the lump in his throat, and when he discovered he couldn’t, he sat down next to Caroline and pulled her into his arms. “I know,” he said softly, rubbing her back. “I know.”
Caroline sunk into his arms, taking any amount of comfort he could give her. There wasn’t anything that could take Caroline’s pain away, make her feel any better. But in Tyler’s arms she at least felt safe. And that’s exactly where she stayed.