Who: Jace and Caroline What: Jace checks on her When: Backdated to after their net Where: Caroline's cell Warnings: Nope
Things with Elena didn’t go as they planned. It sucked but Caroline realized quickly that the pain that Elena was going through was tremendous and now went farther than what she thought. It wasn’t just about Jeremy anymore but now it was about Kol and this place, being here and dealing with it and finding out that she hurt Damon. It was a lot she guessed and all of that pain forced Elena to turn it off a second time. Caroline didn’t plan for it and she couldn’t catch Elena who left, not wanting to be found again.
She didn’t know what she was going to tell Stefan and Damon. She knew that this was going to force either of them to try again but she didn’t think it was possible. Caroline didn’t want to believe it but she wondered if Elena could get over her pain so quickly. She saw how fast it happened, how quickly Elena decided that she rather not feel it all again than deal with it. It happened right before her very eyes and it was Elena’s choice. There was nobody there to tell her.
It would have been easier to just blame Klaus but he had done what he could. Klaus did what Caroline asked so there was no point in telling him anything as much as she thought it would make her feel better. While in some ways she could blame the Mikaelsons for this outcome she couldn’t blame them for Elena’s decisions. Humanity it or it wasn’t as if the matter of choice was gone. Elena made her choices so maybe she had to live with them.
With the Salvatore brothers still gone Caroline made the choice the tell Bonnie of her misadventures before retiring to her cell. She had no idea where Rose was but right now it wasn’t a concern. As Caroline laid there in her bed she could feel someone staring at her.
Lifting her head, Caroline was surprised to find someone at her cell door, her eyes taking in a blond who she remembered seeing and talking to.
It seemed that everything and everyone that Jace cared about was slipping through his grasp and he was having a difficult time pulling it back, reeling everything back in. He was losing himself, falling deeper and deeper into a state where when Jace looked in the mirror, he had no idea who was staring back at him. And no, he wasn’t possessed, but he was at a crossroads with what to do with his life, his choices. He was on the brink of disaster and falling into a darkness that he might not be able to pull himself from.
He managed to find himself alcohol, either on raids or in the prison and he was drinking heavily whenever he had the chance. He was a mess. He lost himself, lost his friends, lost Clary and now he was just trying to keep it together. He was moving on and into a direction that he didn’t think he was ready for.
And being here didn’t help anything. No, this place wasn’t home and there was a chance they would never see home again. Not even Magnus could get them out of here - Magnus who couldn’t even get his name right.
The shadowhunter was walking through the prison and toward his cell when he noticed the girl he was talking to a few nights before. Caroline. Jace figured he’d at least go and say hi in person and not over a network. Instead of heading toward his own cell that he shared with Derek, he headed toward Caroline’s and when she looked up, he was giving a tap to the bars.
“Hey,” he said, moving toward the opening the cell. “I saw you, so I figured I’d stop in and see how you were,” he explained. “Are you going to bed?” He asked.
Caroline had noticed that Jace was only a few cells down from where she was staying with Rose. It was bad enough that she slept next door to a werewolf although it was sort of nice waking up a little early to “accidentally” walk by Archie and Alec’s cell. The act was practically the highlight of her morning since the two of them didn’t know how to put up the sheet when they were changing into their clothes. She always apologized but she had a feeling the two of them had caught onto her antics already.
“How I am?” Caroline asked, not sure what he meant by that because she didn’t think she looked perturbed or annoyed. Her whole day felt like it was shot with so much aggravation that she just couldn’t get out. She wanted to talk to Stefan but he was somewhere away from the prison. She knew he was trying to help his brother but really? Did it have to take a few days to do that?
“It’s just been a long day.” Caroline sat up and swung her legs over her bunk so that she could stand up. She hadn’t changed already she had meant to. She didn’t usually call it a night so early but she was mentally exhausted from having to deal with Elena and then having to listen to Klaus go on and on about how he was going to help her. Caroline didn’t need his help anymore. It wasn’t going to fix anything.
“But no, I’m not going to bed.” She didn’t think that she could. Caroline’s mind was racing with worry so right now the company was actually pretty nice.
“Yeah, I know what you mean.” He didn’t. He didn’t know what Caroline had been doing but Jace knew that the days were longer and more exhausting, mentally and physically. He used to be an expert at suppressing and concealing his emotions but now, it was difficult doing that. He tried though. If anything for Caroline, if she was exhausted, it didn’t show. Either she was an expert or she was just hot no matter the emotion or how tired she was.
“Are you up for company? I mean,” he smiled a little as he stepped inside of her cell, but stayed close to the door. “I happen to play a mean game of Go Fish,” he joked, referring to the other night when he was wasted and asking to play cards on the network. It was something else that proven to be not like him, but what did it matter anymore? They weren’t home. There was no Clave. It was just them, living a life without that. He could do whatever he wanted. He had nobody to answer to but himself.
“Or we can just talk.”
His tone was a little more serious this time. It was a sure bet that Jace was looking for something he probably didn’t deserve, but the truth was, he was lonely and distractions were distractions. Not that he would only think of Caroline that way, but his track record would say otherwise. This was how Jace lashed out, this was how Jace operated when things were out of control.
She had wished that she had the time to just be a teenager, or at least an “adult” pretending to go to college since she was forever seventeen. It was weird that there was a future for her since she had...daughters or something. Caroline didn’t fully believe it but there were these teenagers who had called her mom and right now Caroline wasn’t in the mindset to understand that, nor did she want to. The future wasn’t something that she needed to know. It wasn’t like it was going to matter here in this zombie filled world.
“What do you want to talk about?” Caroline wasn’t really that interest to share her life story. A lot of the people at the prison had a history but this place and this world was what they had to live with now. The Caroline Forbes of Mystic Falls didn’t matter to many and wouldn’t unless they were still not over the whole shock of vampires and other supernatural beings.
She didn’t think there was anyone who didn’t know that she wasn’t a vampire. She didn’t find it in herself to hide and her need for blood was something that she had to tell others because it was how Caroline survived. She could handle human blood and wasn’t one to give into her impulses.
“We can talk about anything,” he said and walked more inside of her cell. He stood opposite her and leaned against the wall as she sat on her bed. There was so much they could probably talk about. This place, where they were from. It wasn’t like Jace could talk about who he really was and he doubted that she wanted to talk about the fact that she was a vampire, but it was pretty well known at this point. She didn’t hide who she was and Jace was a little curious about it. He wasn’t a stranger to having a sort of feeling toward a downworlder, so this was nothing new.
He slid down the wall until he was sitting down and leaning against it. This wasn’t usually how it worked with him. Then again, the circumstances were different. He wasn’t sitting in a bar, drinking whiskey after whiskey and picking up some chick sitting beside him. Instead, he was sitting on the floor in Caroline’s cell, no alcohol in sight.
“How about this,” he said as he looked at her. “You tell me two truths and one lie and I can try and guess which is the lie. Or you can just keep me guessing, up to you. Then I’ll do the same to you.”
He was learning very quickly that she wasn’t like other girls and he didn’t know if that was a relief or not. It was clear he was still interested because he was still here but admittingly, when he had spoken to her, it was only for one thing. Jace had a lot of faults and his promiscuity was definitely one of them. At least when he was single.
“Two truths and one lie?” Caroline had played this game before. Sometimes it was fun but then sometimes it could cause drama. Caroline frowned as she sat down on the bed, trying to think about two things she could say that wouldn’t give too much away. “Okay let me think.” Caroline sat back down on her bed, her mind pondering a few things until her face lit up a bit.
“Okay, so I dated a werewolf, a vampire and a human.” Caroline knew two of those were the truths. She dated Matt and then she dated Tyler. She had never dated a vampire although Caroline wondered if that would have to be her eventual end game. Caroline was a vampire too which meant she wondered if she would have to date...a vampire. Otherwise wouldn’t her boyfriends just pass away?
She didn’t like that. Caroline didn’t like living hundreds of years and knowing that eventually her non-vampire boyfriends. She also wondered if Jace would give her truths regarding the people he dated. “So, I guess you have to guess which one is the lie.”
Jace raised his eyebrow at what she said. It shouldn’t have been surprising because she was a vampire but her admission to who she had dated still surprised him somehow. It shouldn’t have and he thought about what she said, his eyes on her as he tried to read her, trying to see if she was going to give something away.
“Hmm,” he began. “So you’ve had an assortment, huh?” He teased and smiled. He couldn’t have really said anything considering who he had been with and that was with him not even being in a relationship with them. He had no room to talk.
“I’m going to say that you have dated a human and a vampire and you haven’t dated a werewolf,” he concluded. “And I say that because you’re a vampire. Not that I haven’t seen it, but I’m going to guess that it isn’t exactly easy.”
As he waited for her to respond, he thought of his three statements he would say to her and he had the feeling that she would want to know about his past. Which kind of sucked, but that was the name of the game at the moment.
“And as for me,” he started. “I’ve been with a werewolf, a nephilim and a demon,” he said, looking at her and waiting for her to guess which was the lie. “And I’m sure you can conclude what ‘been with’ means.” Because Jace didn’t necessarily do relationships. Clary was the only serious girlfriend he had and really, he didn’t want to think about her, but talking about this, he couldn’t help it.
“Nope. I’ve been with a human and a werewolf. Never my own species.” It wasn’t that Caroline didn’t want to. The opportunity just never came up and Caroline was still very much in love with Tyler Lockwood although Caroline wondered if she would ever see him again. She knew it was a mistake to think that one day he would show up but right now she was keeping her options open. Of course she knew that one day she would have to get over it. Caroline’s heart couldn’t be kept caged forever.
When Jace told her who he had been with she thought that one of them was kind of obvious. She didn’t think that Jace was that “type” to bang a demon. She didn’t know much about what he was but she heard the rumors and it wasn’t like nobody knew about Alec Lightwood and his inability to get along with half of the prison.
“Well, I know from hearing about Alec that you’re something called a shadowhunter. I’m not entirely sure what that means but I don’t think you’re in the field to be having sex with demons. I’m going to go with you being with a nephilim and a werewolf.” Which meant they weirdly had something in common if it was true and Caroline wasn’t expecting them to.
He honestly didn’t expect her to not be with her own species. He would figure that a vampire would want to be with a vampire, but even Jace knew that wasn’t always the case. And of course, she found his lie. Jace would never be with a demon. Besides protecting the mundanes and even the downworlders from demons, there was just no way that Jace could ever bring himself to even consider it. Being possessed was something he wasn’t going to get over anytime soon.
“You’re right,” he shook his head and leaned his head back against the wall. “And a shadowhunter is what I am, what Alec is and there’s a couple of others here too. We aren’t supposed to talk about it but being here, I don’t think it matters. We’re nephilim, half angel, half human. We’re chosen to keep the peace between the demons and the downworlders, like you and protect the mundanes,” he explained. “You know, just in case you were wondering.”
He knew it was confusing, but it was something that wasn’t exactly talked about. He figured the council must have known about them because of Clary being on it, which .. was something that Alec had a problem with. Then again, Alec had a problem with everything these days and was more interested in scolding Jace than actually being there. Not that he needed Alec. And maybe that was a lie, but it was how he felt right now.
“How were you turned?” He asked, curious as to how she turned into a vampire. “And … if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. I was just curious.”
Caroline didn’t understand what being a shadowhunter meant. She didn’t even know that nephilims existed but they did and apparently Jace was half angel. She never thought that she would actually meet one and she wondered what it meant, if there were special powers that Jace had by being half angelic. Caroline knew that she was supposed to be undead although vampires from her world were so much more than that. They still had a heartbeat and everything. They weren’t pale or cold. Caroline was still very much alive but she needed to feed on blood to stay that way and of course she was immortal.
When Jace asked how it happened she gave him a small look. It was kind of personal but at the same time she guessed that it wasn’t. It happened a few years ago and Caroline had fully accepted her vampire nature that it didn’t bother her anymore. She loved being a vampire and she liked how powerful it made her feel.
“Without going into too much of a story time I was at the hospital recovering from a car accident. Vampires in my world can feed a human their blood and if that person dies within twenty-four hours with that vampire blood in their system they come back as a vampire. Well, I was smothered to death by a pillow with vampire blood in my system. It’s not exactly the best way to go out but I woke up a vampire.” Caroline didn’t reveal that it was Katherine because then she would have to explain that and how it mattered.
Jace had a feeling there would be some tragedy connected to how she was turned but when she said it, he still felt a little stunned. It was clearly not her choice. She didn’t choose to be that way. A vampire. The undead. Although … she didn’t look undead. She still looked vibrant and her skin was bright, not pale, like Simon’s was. He realized quickly that not all vampires were the same and Caroline did have the ability to walk in the sun. She was a daywalker, he had seen her. For Simon, that was a big deal, to Caroline, it seemed normal, natural.
“Wow, I didn’t expect that,” he said honestly and looked down at his fingers that were in front of him.
“You seem to do alright. Not struggling. Do you regret it? Being a vampire?” He asked, his eyes meeting hers then. Another personal question asked, but Jace’s curiosity was there. Curiosity about her definitely because some part of him wanted to get to know her a bit more.
“There’s a guy I know, Simon - he struggles. He does okay, but I think it’s just natural for a vampire to struggle around blood. It’s what they need. Sometimes they can get out of control and do things they don’t mean to. And you just - don’t seem like the type to do that.”
“At first it was kind of hard. Vampires can’t walk in the sun so we have to wear these rings.” She went ahead and showed Jace the lapis lazuli ring she wore, wiggling her fingers a bit. She wasn’t sure why she wanted Jace to understand her kind but she did. She trusted him with the info and she thought it was a little fair since she knew a bit about his kind without actually having asked him.
“We can compel people. Although if someone is wearing or is ingesting vervain that can’t be compelled. Remind me to get you some. It’s probably a good idea because even though your vampires might be different compulsion from vampires pretty much works on people who have a heartbeat. Although I don’t know if it would make a difference being a half angel.” Caroline frowned, her thoughts leaving her before she shrugged.
“If you asked me back then if I would ever regret this I probably would have said yes but now….I don’t. I love being a vampire. I love the strength that comes with it. I love that I’ll be like this forever.” There was so much mystery now. The world was always going to be there for her and yes, while Caroline knew she would live hundreds if not thousands of years she had the mindset of knowing that each life she lived would be like living a new one.
“Sorry. It’s probably weird to hear that but you ask.” Even though Caroline didn’t ask for this she knew she didn’t want to let go of it. She never wanted to be human ever again.
Jace couldn’t imagine being immortal, watching the people he loved and cared about die. He didn’t ask her about that part of it because it was probably a little too personal and a little depressing and this whole meeting had turned into something else besides what he had intended. He didn’t regret it weirdly, he enjoyed talking to her. But while he was enjoying her company, he was listening to her. Vervain, the rings. It was something to keep in mind when dealing with vampires. Her kind could walk in the sun with the rings on, but if they were to run into a vampire who was giving them a hard time, attacking them - the ring would be vital. He kept that in mind.
“No, not weird at all.” He smiled faintly, if not sadly. How was it possible that someone who was considered to be ‘dead’ loved life more than Jace did at the present time. It just seemed like each day that passed, it just got harder and harder.
His eyes met hers then. She was like … sunshine. And he was this dark cloud.
“Vervain - that’s an herb, right?” He asked, wondering if it would be found here in Everett. “Have you found it already? Have you told the prison that they should ingest it?” He continued because that might be a good call. That way nobody was in fear of actually getting compelled. Not that he didn’t trust the vampires to an extent, but he didn’t trust the vampires to an extent. The only vampire he trusted was Simon and that was because it was Simon.
“It’s something that I told the others when they first found out I was a vampire. I thought it was something they should know. I mean, if they came across vampires outside of the prison who weren’t good. People need to know how to defend themselves.” Caroline didn’t want to be the reason anyone died because she wasn’t truthful about what she was. Faith and the others knew. They knew about vervain, too. She thought the prison would at least make that memo clear.
“I’m sure they’re growing some. We have a garden and I think someone is already on top of it.” She didn't’ want for Jace to go around not having it. She didn’t want him to be caught in a vampire’s compulsion. Caroline knew first hand what that did to someone, to have their choices stolen from them.
“I’ll bring you some. If you want me to.” Caroline frowned because she caught the look in Jace’s eyes. It looked a little like disappointment. Like maybe the two of them shouldn’t have been talking. It was also here that Caroline realized that Jace’s eyes weren’t completely the same color. Both of his eyes were blue but one of them had a splash of brown. It was actually quite easy to get lost in.
Jace hadn’t heard anything about it, but it wasn’t surprising. He wasn’t on the council and he didn’t hear any of the inner dealings of it. Here, he was nobody, which was kind of a relief to him. He didn’t have to be the best. He didn’t have to live up to something that just didn’t matter anymore. Maybe that was why Alec was so disappointed in him. Then again, Alec was Alec and he was disappointed in everything. So it was really no surprise.
“Sure, you can. I think I can take a vampire though. It’s pretty much what I do,” he said, giving her a knowing smile because she was in fact, a vampire. Which meant yes, he could take Caroline down but it wasn’t as if he wanted to. He didn’t. He didn’t want to take anyone down who didn’t deserve it, although sometimes those lines got a little blurry.
He saw the look she was giving him and he laughed, “What? You think I can’t?” It was a challenge, maybe a little more on the flirtatious side, but still - a challenge. “Hey if you think you can take me down, we can always find out ourselves who can take down whom.” He raised his eyebrows, waiting for her response.
“No, I don’t think you can.” Not that Caroline didn’t believe in Jace’s skills but she knew how fast she could be although she wasn’t sure what sort of skills a shadowhunter would have. They were half angel so obviously they had something special about them. Caroline was a little curious as to what and she almost wanted to ask. Then again, it was always better to be shown than to tell.
“I’ll tell you what. How about we each show each other something we can do?” Caroline got up and yes, she knew they were in the short space of her cell but she was sure that they could manage. It wasn’t like she was asking him to fight her or do somersaults across the floor of her cell bed.
“You can go first.” Caroline sat back down, her legs crossing as she tried to figure out what she would show Jace first. She wanted to maybe show him her speed but that would be a little hard to do unless she got creative.
“Really? You don’t think I can?” Jace was only mildly insulted but overall, he knew what abilities vampires had. Caroline was different from the kind he knew of, but he figured they ran along the same lines with the exception of the daywalking. It seemed every vampire that was like her was a daywalker.
When she sat back down, looking a little sassy, he only smirked. “Fine,” he said. He took off his jacket that covered his arms and put it over a table in the room before he walked closer to her and sat down beside her. He raised his eyebrow and pulled out his stele. He held it up to her and to her, it might have have looked like just some ancient metal, designed piece. He held his arm out and ran it over one of his skin where a rune used to be. The skin was scarred slightly and as he drew the run on his skin once more, he watched Caroline.
“It’s a rune. It gives me extra power, or abilities, or emotions - whatever I need at the time.” He held up the stele. “Without this, I can’t reactivate or draw the runes. Some fade, others don’t,” he told her. His eyes searched her face as she looked at it and then he cleared his throat, pulling the stele away so he could put it down.
“Now,” he continued and reached up to touch her hair softly before taking his hand away.
“Your turn. Make it good,” he grinned.
Drawings on his skin? Caroline watched how the rune glowed lightly, the rune now etched into his skin. It was like he had drawn some sort of tattoo on himself. Caroline almost wanted to touch it but she refrained, knowing that they were playing this game. Jace had showed her something so now it was her turn to show him what she could do. It wasn’t going to be anything extravagant. She was sure that Jace had seen a vampire before but maybe not all their abilities were the same.
She could have grabbed his hand with her speed but she didn’t. It was actually...nice to be touched, even if it was ever so lightly. Caroline swallowed as she stood up, deciding to use her speed in another way by the stele in the blink of an eye and backing away, something that Jace could have missed if he blinked. She wanted to see the stele up close and make him realize that if she wanted to Caroline could disarm him.
“I mean, I’m sure you know vampires are fast. I mean, I don’t know how fast vampires are in your world but I’m pretty fast. It makes getting places easily. Makes me taking things from you also really easy.” Caroline smiled as she tossed the stele back to him, her brows lifting as she smiled. “Your turn.”
Jace was a little annoyed she was able to get his stele in the blink of an eye. Or barely. Either way, it was something else to know about these vampires. Because in the end, that’s what she was, but even Jace knew it wasn’t the whole of her. He learned that. She stood there, proud of herself as she tossed it back to him. She did disarm him and that’s when he stood up and put the stele back in his pocket.
He watched her for a moment and he held his arms out. “How about we save the show and tell for another night,” he suggested and he stopped in front of her. “It’s getting late anyway, I should probably go.” Not that he wanted to but it was probably a good idea that he did. Then again, Jace wasn’t doing anything these days that he was supposed to. Alec was disappointed in him, ashamed - clearly, Jace was doing something wrong but did it matter anymore?
“Although, there is something else I can show you. Just,” he smiled a little, “I’m going to need your participation, this is a team sport,” he informed her and nodded his head, his eyes on her. That was until he he leaned in and kissed her. His hands that were at his sides were now on her hips as his fingers grasped at the material and he deepened the kiss.
“A team sport?” Caroline asked, not sure if this was a serious suggestion because she wanted to laugh until Jace came forward, his lips touching hers and for a moment the thought of pushing him away quickly came to the forefront of her mind. First of all Caroline was technically still dating Tyler. Well, technically. It had been two months and Caroline wasn’t sure if she was ever going to see him again. Holding out for a werewolf she knew she would give up anything for was something that had started to slip away from her as time went on.
So, she kissed Jace back but it was just to show that she liked it because the truth was she did. It had been...so long since she had felt any sort of comfort in the physical sense. It didn’t feel wrong to kiss Jace. It was nice and it wasn’t anything serious. Nothing about this was ever lasting because their lives were horrible. Nothing could happen - nothing could stick which is what Caroline told herself.
Breaking away, Caroline took a moment to look at Jace before making up her mind, her hands catching the fabric of hs t-shirt to pull him in, this time being the one to kiss him only there was nothing sweet about it. Two long months and finally Caroline knew she was close to feeling something that could help ease the tension she was feeling.