Who: Caroline and Tyler What: Tyler gets some voicemails from Caroline and goes to check it out. When: Early March Where: In front of Caroline's house Rating/Warning: Low/none Status: Complete
Tyler wasn’t entirely sure where the voicemail messages on his cellphone came from. According to his call log, he didn’t have any missed phone calls, but it wasn’t like he’d never had voicemails without a missed call before. He usually chalked it up to his network having dropped the signal when whoever it was had tried calling him.
Still, five two messages was a little much for the explanation, and he frowned as he brought the phone to his ear.
“Hey,,” Caroline started, and Tyler’s breath caught in his throat. “I know that I’m not supposed to be calling.” Tyler couldn’t help thinking that that was Caroline’s choice, not his. “But something happened. I need to talk to you, Tyler. So please call me.”
Whatever it was, it had to have been bad for Caroline to call him. Filled with trepidation, he listened to the second message. “Tyler, it’s me! Again. So, I was thinking about it, and you probably ditched your phone, which is the smartest thing that you could do.” That seemed like one hell of a leap, and it only made Tyler even more confused. “So I don’t know when you’re going to get this but things were looking kind of bleak there for a minute. I don’t know, maybe things are starting to turn around. So when you get this call me back and I’ll tell you everything.</i>”
Tyler didn’t need to listen to the other three messages on his phone. If she kept calling, things maybe hadn’t turned around, and he was genuinely worried that she had gotten into some kind of trouble. He hung up, and immediately dialed Caroline’s number, only for it to go straight to voicemail.
He hung up and tried again, and then, not willing to play phone tag when something major had clearly happened, he put his phone in his pocket and rushed to Caroline’s house. He banged on the door, but there was no answer, and then, not knowing what else to do, he sat down on the stoop and hoped that she’d return home soon.
Caroline’s dreams were hitting a little too close to home lately. Of course there were always similarities between her dreams and her real life. Her whole friend group from high school were in her dreams after all. But lately she was having similar situations in the dreams to her real life. Tyler’s dad died, then she dreamed of his mom’s death. She wasn’t talking to Tyler in real life, he left and they were no longer talking in the dreams, which of course was Klaus’s doing. Just Klaus could partially be blamed in real life. If he hadn’t made Tyler break up with Caroline, who knows, maybe Tyler would have kept his humanity on. But Caroline couldn’t let herself think like that. Tyler made his choices and now they both had to live with them.
Still, her dreams only made her miss Tyler more. It didn’t help that she was leaving him like a million voicemails telling him just how much she missed him, how much she needed him. But he was gone for good this time. That was made perfectly clear to her when she learned he left his house to Matt, a human who had to invite her in. It was Tyler’s way of protecting her from Klaus when he couldn’t be there to do it himself. It was all explained to her in a letter.
Dear Care, I miss you more than I can put into words. But I know as long as Klaus is alive, I can't come home. He won't stop trying to kill me. And you won't stop trying to protect me. Which means the only way to make sure you're safe is for me to go and never come back. I left Matt the deed to the house. It will protect you in ways that I can't anymore. I will always love you.
Caroline woke up to find that exact same letter on the pillow next to her. Reading it brought tears to her eyes. She missed Tyler more than could put into words. She would always love him. But she still couldn’t take him back. Not after everything he had done. No matter how much she loved him, Caroline still had her morals.
Putting the letter aside Caroline got up and went to work. Back to distracting herself with her job. At least she also loved planning events. Of course she saw when Tyler called. It took all her strength to ignore the calls. Especially the second one. All she wanted in both the dreams and here was to hear his voice. She had to remind herself this wasn’t the dreams. Talking to Tyler would not only confuse him, but make it harder for the both of them to move on.
The last thing she was expecting was to see him waiting on her front porch when she got home from work. She stopped in her tracks. “Tyler,” she said softly before reminding herself that she couldn’t be with him. “What are you doing here?”
Tyler had only just been considering listening to the rest of the messages from Caroline when suddenly, she appeared. He got up when he saw her, solem, and walked up to her, moving to place a hand on her arm. “I got your messages,” he said. “Is everything okay?”
Carolines’s brow furrowed. “What messages?” she asked pulling her arm away from Tyler’s touch. Really, she just wanted to wrap her arms around him. Tell him to never leave her like he did in the dreams. But she knew she couldn’t do that. It wouldn’t be fair to either of them.
For lack of anything better to do with them, Tyler stuck his hands in his pockets. “All the messages you sent me,” Tyler said, a little confused. “You said that something had happened. It sounded pretty bad, and I thought…” Well, at the time he thought Caroline needed him. Now he didn’t know what to think.
Caroline frowned. “I didn’t leave you any messages,” a pause as her dreams came back to her. Although the thought that Tyler might have received those messages didn’t cross her mind. It was more that they were just fresh on her mind. Along with his stupid letter. “Unless you count in my dreams. I left you a ton of messages there. Because you went and disappeared.” Thanks to Klaus but she left that part out. “And all you left me was a letter.” Yeah, she was a little bitter. Of course she knew it wasn’t Tyler’s fault. If he came back Klaus would kill him. But did that mean he couldn’t even talk to her? Answer her call? It wasn’t like Klaus forbid him from talking to her like he had done here.
Tyler opened his mouth to argue that she obviously had, otherwise he wouldn’t have any messages. But then he closed it again. The messages had felt a little like deja vu, but Tyler had disregarded the feeling. If he’d thought to examine it again, he would have recognized the messages on his phone from the dreams he’d had years ago.
“You’re right,” Tyler said after a moment. “They must have come through your dreams.” Which was… strange. It definitely wasn’t something that had happened to him before.
“Great,” Caroline said maybe a bit too coolly. “Guess that settles that then.” She walked past Tyler to her front door. However before she turned the lock she looked back over at him. “I’m sorry,” she said her voice softening. “That something from my dreams carried over to you.” Because yeah it was pretty strange. And Tyler didn’t deserve that.
“Don’t be sorry,” Tyler said. “It was good to hear your voice.” And it was nice to be able have an excuse to see Caroline again. Even if it seemed like it had just been a misunderstanding. “You take care of yourself, Caroline.” He didn’t tell her if she ever did need anything he’d be there. She already knew that.