Title: Like A Dog With A Bone

Author: Eena

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: Smith owns TVD

Characters: Caroline/Tyler

Spoilers: 2.07 and some of the promo for 2.08

Summary: He knows she knows, and he won't let up until he finds out why . . .

Notes: I'm on the Caroline/Tyler bandwagon-and mostly due to that promo. I love it when Caroline knocks around the boys, and seriously, this ship would be all kinds of messed up and hot.

~0~

He tells Matt that Caroline has heart, and he means it. The girl cares about everything and anything-even the things she probably shouldn't care about. And her inherent nosiness keeps her well involved in everyone's business, which she cares about and therefore tries to fix. He remembers the week before the accident, with her pushing and prying and prodding Matt to make up with him. Their friendship isn't exactly her concern-in fact, he knows that she barely even likes him. But she hates that two friends are fighting, hates that people she knows are hurting-so she tries to make it right. The girl has heart.

She's also got a mean left hook and more strength than someone her size should have. When Matt's rushing for him in a drunken haze of God-Knows-What-Crawled-Up-His-Ass, she floors her ex with a quick smack to the face that actually bloodies the guy. And later, when he's hunting down answers and she's avoiding him (which she is freakishly good at-it's like she's Superman or something with that speed), she grabs him by the arm and freaking knocks him around like he's made of nothing.

"Leave it alone, Tyler," she says, and what she means is 'leave me alone'.

But he's a Goddamn werewolf now and she smells too different to be completely human (God, humans stink!). He can sniff her out no matter where she goes, and she always seems to know he's coming, so they race around the town in circles because he wants some damn answers.

(Plus, the memory of her helping him is almost always focused on that red dress she was wearing and how it made her legs seem like they go on forever-if he didn't want answers, he'd be after her just to stare at those legs. That may be the wolf or just him being himself).

~0~

She bursts into the Boarding house, face full of thunder and wrath as she slams the door shut with enough force to sends clouds of plaster floating down from the ceiling. Stefan's in the living room by the time she enters, and Damon is nonchalantly pouring himself a drink, as if this was all old news. She ignores Stefan, brushes past Damon to steal the glass from his hands, and throws herself down on the couch.

"Here Caroline, have a drink," Damon announces in a tone of forced sweetness. There's bitchiness lining the corners of his lips, but there's more amusement twinkling in the light of his eyes. He's getting used to her like this, finding things about it that are enjoyable rather than annoying. It's been slowly getting to the point of reluctant camaraderie, mostly stemming from the fact that she saved his ass by putting her own in the fire.

"Tyler Lockwood is following me," she says in lieu of a greeting, or an apology. She glares at Damon like this is his fault-because even though they get along a bit now, she still likes blaming shit on him. It's easier than having to find the actual responsible party and it soothes her ego to slap him around when the memories of his abuse resurface and she's trapped in a haze of anger and bloodlust.

Stefan and Damon share an ominous vampire look that must be something they inherited from their father, because she can never look that serious/frustrated/amused/worried without also looking constipated (so she's trying out her vampire looks in the mirror-she doesn't really need to sleep as much and sometimes she gets bored). Stefan wanders over to the windows, peers through the blinds, and then gives Damon a grave nod.

"And you led him here," Damon rolls his eyes, but doesn't lose that amused light in his eyes. "Thanks Blondie."

"Listen, I'm hungry!" she snaps before knocking back her drink. The alcohol burns its way down her throat and does very little to settle the ache in her stomach. "He follows me everywhere! I can't shake him! He wants answers, but I can't give them, so I avoid him. But no matter how far I go, he's back on me in like half an hour! I can't hunt on my own, because he wants to know why I'm always in the forest! It's like he can sniff me out, wherever I go! He's like-he's like-"

"A dog with a bone?" Damon offers with a shit-eating grin. She huffs and throws her empty glass at his head. He dives out of the way, it smashes against the wall, and Stefan's suddenly at her side, giving her his disappointed vampire look.

"I'm hungry," she mutters mutinously, like that's a good enough excuse for her to be behaving like a child.

A glass of blood appears under her nose. She looks to the side and Damon's joined her on the couch, slinging an arm around her shoulders as he waves the blood in her face. "You just have to ask," he says in a patronizing manner. She takes the glass, gulps down the contents, and purposefully doesn't thank him. He's become more of an ass than ever, pretty much since he tossed Katherine into the tomb. She gets the poetic justice thing, she does-but why the hell the melodramatic idiot couldn't set her on fire is beyond Caroline. Katherine Pierce's continued existence is not good for anyone in this town. And that magical barrier has come down before-Damon should remember that, considering he's the one that brought it down.

"We'll take care of him," Stefan promises.

"How?" she wants to know. "He can't be compelled now. I've tried like a hundred times."

Stefan frowns, like he usually does when she mentions anything about using her vampire powers. Damon just chuckles and gives her an over-the-top kiss on the cheek that has her elbowing him in the side while he smugly says: "Maybe you're not doing it right."

Stefan's forehead wobbles. "Damon."

Damon's grin only widens. "Stefan."

She jabs a finger into her chest and glares at the both of them. "Caroline," she growls. "Now, help me!"

Now Stefan's fighting to cover the amused twinkle in his eyes and Damon's tugging on her hair playfully. "We'll take care of him," Damon repeats his brother promise and then waggles his eyebrows at her. "And then you'll thank us properly, right?"

She elbows him again. "Like I'd touch this drama," she huffs as she goes to pour herself another glass of blood. "Elena's the masochist, not me. I just want to kill bunnies without having to worry about Tyler catching me."

Damon pulls an exaggerated face at the mention of bunnies while Stefan just smiles at her reassuringly. "We will take care of it."

She sighs, offers him a shaky smile, and goes back to drinking her blood.

~0~

Stefan's creepy older brother wants Tyler to stay away from Caroline.

Actually, he wants Tyler to stay away from "his cheerleader", which leaves a bad taste in Tyler's mouth. How old is this guy? And why is he always chasing high school skirt? Like nobody sees the way he stares at Elena Gilbert (and sometimes, Tyler sees him looking at Caroline and Bonnie the same way-though Bonnie only glares death at him while Caroline gets extraordinarily bitchy).

And then the guy gives him this weird, bug-eyed look that goes on for way too long. Maybe it's not just high school skirt he's after? Whatever, the dude is creepy and Tyler doesn't get why his mother thinks Damon Salvatore hung the freaking moon.

It doesn't help that neither Stefan nor his brother smell human, either. They kind of smell like Caroline, but also a bit different. Stefan smells a bit like the school library (dust and paper) while Damon smells of copper and scotch (and the good scotch at that). They all smell a bit like damp earth, but Caroline like salt and cinnamon-which is the weirdest combination ever, but does weird things to his body when he's on her trail (and why does she spend almost all her time at the Salvatore house?).

Matt notices things and gets bitchy. "Why are you after my girlfriend?"

"Ex-girlfriend," Tyler corrects him. "And what are you going to do about it? Get drunk and insult my dead father?"

Matt shuts up, Caroline's still running, and now Jeremy's on his case now. "Leave her alone, and get serious about this," Jeremy warns him at lunch one day. "The full moon is coming."

"Why is everyone keeping her secret?"

Jeremy shakes his head, tells Tyler to invest in some heavy-duty chains, and then runs off to chase after Bonnie Bennett.

~0~

"Don't you sleep?"

It's hard to keep the aggravation out of her voice, but this is getting beyond ridiculous. So much for the Salvatores taking care of things, because now Tyler's hiding out in her backyard, watching her window all night long.

He steps out from the shadows of the elm tree and glares up at her. "Don't you?"

She swallows a scream of frustration and then gruffly orders him to come up. He scales the tree with speed just a bit more than a normal person. But he's not normal anymore, and she's not in any position to point fingers.

She's waiting for him, standing in front of her bed, arms folded across her chest, and bitchface on at full blast. "What is your problem?"

He rolls his eyes at her before turning around to close the window. "They're going to hear us anyway, aren't they?"

Well, he's getting good enough to smell out vampires. And Stefan and Damon probably could hear him from their hiding spots. She rolls her eyes and takes a seat on the edge of her bed, a pout threatening on her face. "Seriously Tyler, this is not cool. It's like stalkerish!"

"You could just be honest with me," he shrugs and it takes a lot of willpower for her to not throttle him.

"Isn't it enough that we know and didn't tell anyone?" she gives him a dirty look. "The way you're behaving-everyone's going to know that something is up. It's not smart, Tyler."

"Just tell me," he demands and she shakes her head.

"You don't want to know more than you do," she assures him.

"I should know enough to stay alive," he snaps back at her. "Don't play the for-your-own-good line with me, Caroline. Got enough of that from my uncle-and none of it stopped this from happening! It's not in my best interest to be stumbling around in the dark like some idiot!"

He leaves then, and she lets him. Because, he's not wrong.

~0~

He follows her after school, and he wonders why he bothers. He should just drive straight from school to the Salvatore house and she'd be on her way soon enough. This isn't getting him any answers, but hell if he isn't stubborn enough to keep at it.

A knock on his window startles him. Damon motions for him to get out of the car and Tyler does so reluctantly. "I am against this," is all he says before indicating that Tyler should follow him. They go into the house and right into the living room, where Elena, Bonnie, Caroline, Jeremy, and Stefan are all waiting.

"This is like an intervention?" he asks, only half-joking. "Because it's too late on the wolf front."

Caroline rolls her eyes and points to the armchair. "Sit-it's time we play Show and Tell."

He sits, they talk, and he listens.

Caroline was right when she said he didn't want to know the rest.

~0~

Two weeks later, the full moon is coming and things are completely reversed.

"Was it this creepy when I was following you?"

She steps out of the darkness and takes a seat next to him on the porch swing. She feels a little embarrassed, but they've trusted him with a lot of information and he hasn't really indicated which way he's leaning. He's a bit stiff when she joins him, but slowly relaxes as the silence stretches on.

"You sure you should be out here?" he asks suddenly. "Apparently, I can kill you."

She rolls her eyes. "Your bit is only lethal when you're in wolf form."

"So, if I bite you any other time, you'll be fine?"

She gives him a weird look. "Why would you be biting me at any time?"

He shrugs, fails at hiding the smirk on his face, and kicks off from the ground with his feet, making the swing sway back and forth. "This is really fucked up stuff, Caroline."

She sighs and leans back to look up at the night sky and the nearly full moon. "It really is, Tyler."

~0~

She's waiting for him in the morning, a change of clothes and a bottle of water in hand. He is, thankfully, still in the underground cellar, chains firmly in place.

"I just think it should be said that Damon and Stefan having a dungeon in their house is freaky," he says as way of greeting. His voice is raspy and his throat is dry, but the smile on her face makes him feel better than okay. She hands over the clothes and the water and leaves the cell with a saucy wink thrown his way.

This wolf thing might not suck as much as he thought, if this is how he's going to wake up after every full moon.

He downs the water, shrugs on his clothes, and chases after the hot little vampire that hardly ever leaves his thoughts.

~0~