SUMMARY: Caroline liked being a vampire. The life-altering change had shaped her in ways she couldn't even imagine, and she had loved the new her. But when she woke up in the back of Katherine's car two weeks after her high school graduation, she knew that that life she had grown to love would never be the same again. (Rewrite of my story Begin Again.)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Vampire Diaries, or any of the spin offs. I'm simply using the world and its characters to create a version of events that I think is entertaining.

A/N: Oh My God! It is here. I repeat. It is here. I am finally uploading the first chapter of Still Breathing. For people who are probably confused by that start, this story was originally titled 'Begin Again'. It was an unfinished story that I didn't really know how to finish. I ended up deciding to completely reoutline, rewrite, and repost the story. And I have to say, I'm really happy with how the story has gone this time around.

Any who, here is the first chapter. It would mean a lot if you could leave a review and let me know what you think, especially if you're someone who has read the first, unfinished, version of this story.

CHAPTER ONE:

'I watched it begin again.'

Begin Again by Taylor Swift.

CAROLINE P.O.V.

Every muscle in my body ached. A constant wave of pain running through me. That was the first thing that I noticed when I woke up. The second thing I noticed was that I was moving. Well, not necessarily me, but the ground beneath me.

I let out a small involuntary gram and slowly opened my eyes. The light was blinding as my eyes cracked open and I quickly shut them again, trying to ignore the pain that shot through my head. I shifted my body and pushed myself up into a sitting position. Nausea pulsated through my stomach as I sat up.

Trying to regain my balance in what I could now tell was a car, I held my hand to my face and shielded my eyes from the sun as I forced them to open again. This time the light didn't seem as bright, and I could finally see where I was.

I looked around the large car that I was seated in, looking at the backseat where I was sitting. I didn't recognise the car. I hadn't been in an SVU like this one before. I looked towards where the driver would be, not being able to see them because of the black screen that separated the front and back seat.

I looked down at myself, noticing that instead of the dress I had worn to graduation, I was wearing a pair of tracksuit pants and a sweater. I dropped my hand from my face, my eyes having adjusted to the brightness of the warm day, and stared out the window in an attempt to get a grasp of where I was and where I was going.

I shuffled closer to the window looking outside to see if there was anything there that I could recognise. But there was nothing that could tell me where I was and who exactly I was with.

I jumped at the mechanical hum of the black screen lowering. Fear shot through me as I saw the familiar curly-haired brunette that sat behind the wheel in the driver's seat. Katherine.

She was wearing her usual black leather jacket and skinny jeans, with her hair handing loosely over her shoulders. She was facing forward, keeping her focus solely on the road as the screen barrier lowered between the two of us.

I didn't speak, afraid of what would come out of my mouth if I spoke to her. The faint sound of some foreign band came from the stereo, and I tried to get a look at what I could see in the front seat.

The car looked brand new, sparkling more than my bathroom after I went through one of my cleaning binges. The faint 'new car' sell reached my nose as I looked to the passenger seat. There, resting on the seat, was my large bubble gum pink duffel bag.

"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty. How are you feeling?" Katherine said, still not turning to look at me.

"Katherine, why am I here? What did you do?" I asked, my voice cracking from dryness. How long had I been asleep? Why was I with Katherine? The last thing that I remembered was saying goodbye to Klaus and heading towards my car after the other side being down.

"I'm doing great, thanks for asking." She muttered, looking over her shoulder at me.

"What the hell is going on, Katherine?"

She didn't reply as she flicked on the indicator and pulled up onto the side of the highway. She turned the key in the ignition, killing the engine, and shifted in her seat to look at me. Looking her up and down, trying to figure out if I could overpower her long enough in this situation and run for it. I figured she would have me back in the car within a matter of seconds with her increased strength due to her age.

"Look, Blondie, I'm doing you a favour. It's a long story and we've got a long drive until we reach out final destination. I'll tell you everything you want to know, but you're gonna have to sit up from and listen. Without interrupting me. Because I'm not in the mood to repeat myself, got it?"

I nodded, slightly confused, and opened the door to climb out.

The minute my feet hit the ground pain shot through my legs and they gave out under my weight. Katherine was at my side in a flash, holding me up and helping me onto the front seat, chucking my duffel bag over onto the back seat.

"What's wrong with me?" I moaned out, trying to calm the ache in my muscles.

Katherine shut the door, racing back around to the driver's side. She didn't answer me until we were back on the road, heading in an unknown direction. "I don't really know why your muscles ache so much, but I can tell you what happened."

"Then tell me."

"What exactly do you remember from the night of your graduation?" Her tone was guarded, not giving away anything.

"Well, I remember graduating, obviously. I remember the barriers being broken down and being attacked by Kol and the witches. Klaus came and helped up. The last thing I remember is saying goodbye to Klaus and heading back to my car."

Katherine let out a small sigh, wiggling in her seat and flipping her hair over her shoulders. I watched silently as she thought about what she was going to do next, seeing the thoughts tick through her brain.

"Okay," She said, keeping her eyes trained on the road ahead. "I can fill in the blanks of what I know. I was fighting with Elena in the school. I was angry that Quetsiah wouldn't grant me immortality, and even angrier over Elijah dumping me because of what Elena had said. I was going to kill her, not gonna lie, and I would have done if you hadn't intervened. You pulled me off of Elena just before I could rip out her heart…and just before Elena could shove the cure down my throat."

I tried to remember what she way telling me, straining against the blur in my mind, by everything remained blank. No matter how hard I pushed, I couldn't remember any of this happening.

"That doesn't explain what happened t-" I cut myself off, Katherine's words finally sinking in.

'Just before Elena could shove the cure down my throat.'

Elena was going to use the cure on Katherine. I had pulled Katherine off of Elena before she could do it. My hand covered my mouth as I gasped out a choked 'no'.

Katherine looked at me from the corner of her eye and then back to the road, her arms and back tensing.

Everything I had been feeling since I woke up in the car suddenly made sense. The fact that I couldn't hear anything outside of the car, or even the quiet music within the car. The muscle aches were probably because my body was readjusting to the lack of 'super strength'. And now that I thought about it, the usual burn that sat in the back of my throat, the tell-tale sign of my bloodlust, was gone. I was human.

"I'm sorry that it happened to you. I know you didn't want the cure."

"My being cured doesn't explain how I got in your car." I shot back, ignoring her useless apology. "What happened after Elena shoved the cure down my throat?"

Well, you passed out. So did Elena. I had had my hand buried in her chest when you pulled me off, and the strain knocked her out. Then I went over to you, realised what Elena did, then took you home." She paused, taking a deep breathe. "Your mum freaked out when I took you home. She thought I was Elena and invited me in, I put you on the bed, explained what happened, then left. A few days later your mum came to the house I was staying in, I hadn't left town yet because I wanted to see what happened, and she told me that you still weren't awake. I don't know what she expected me to know, but she ended up telling your friends you went on a spur-of-the-moment holiday, when really you've been unconscious for the past two weeks."

Two weeks. Two whole weeks. It was like I had been thrown under water. Everything swam around me as my brain fought to take everything in.

I was human again. And whatever the cure did had caused me to be unconscious for two weeks. And for some reason my mum trusted Katherine over my friends.

"Why did my mum go to you instead of Elena and my friends? She had no reason to trust you?" A thought hit me and my head snapped to the side to stare wide-eyed at Katherine. Pain show through my neck, but I tried my best to ignore it. "Did you compel my mum?"

Katherine scoffed at me, her lip curling. "No, I didn't compel the good sheriff. I don't really know why she trusted me. I guess she noticed that I was in some way grateful for you pulling me out of the way. That, and she appealed to my curiosity over the cure."

I nodded softly, not sure whether I could trust her word or not. As soon as I was near a phone I would be double checking with my mum just to make sure.

I settled into the soft car seat and watched as the trees went by. The tension in my muscles easily slightly as I tried to relax. I watched the scenery move outside the window for a while before I even realised that Katherine hadn't mentioned where it was that we were headed. I looked around for any sign or landmark that would tell me where we were going, but there seemed to be nothing around. We could have been anywhere. I didn't know how long we'd been driving, and I didn't even know which direction we had started on.

I turned in the side, moving to face Katherine as much as I could while buckled into the car. I opened my mouth ready to shoot another round of questions her way, but was cut off before I could even say one word.

"We're heading to see a very powerful witch that I know. We've been on the road for 5 hours, and we have 9 left until we reach where we're headed. So, I recommend you sit back and relax. If you reach back for your duffel bag, your mum put in a couple of books she thought you might enjoy. Or, you could go back to sleep and I'll wake you up when we get there."

"Where is 'there', exactly?" My voice was quiet, afraid of all of the places outside of Mystic Falls that we could be going. I'd never been outside of Virginia, even my dad had remained when he had moved in with Steven. And now I didn't even know when I'd be going back home.

"A place that is renowned for having some of the most powerful witches in the world. It also happens to be a sort of…hub for supernatural creatures. Which happens to be both a blessing and cure for us. On one hand, we should blend right in. On the other hand, it's ruled by a pseudo 'king' that has a weird obsession with you."

Chills ran up my spine. I knew exactly where we were going. I only knew of one person who would ever dare call himself 'king', and he was living in New Orleans.

#

I ended up falling asleep after an hour of reading The Great Gatsby, one of the books my mum had packed for me. I only woke up when Katherine shook my shoulder and told me we had arrived.

I groaned and stretched, trying to ease some of the aches that seemed to have settled in my body, knocking the book off of my lap and onto the car floor. I jumped at the noise and hesitantly opened my eyes. I looked around at the darkness around us, my eyes landing on the house that sat before us in the glow of the car lights. I wondered how long I had slept this time

Unlike anything I had seen in real life, the house was three floors high and something that Scarlett would probably adore. A plantation house. Not uncommon in New Orleans. I wished that I still had my enhanced sight so that I could take in all of the details at once.

I looked down at the dashboard clock and saw that I had slept for far longer than I thought, considering it was now the middle of the night.

Katherine was fixing her makeup in the rear-view mirror when I managed to tear my eyes away from the clock. She looked more nervous now than I had ever seen and a wave of panic settled in the pit of my stomach.

Was this where Klaus was living? I highly doubted she had enough guts to drive straight to Klaus' doorstep, so if it wasn't him, who was it?

"Who lives here?" I asked, watching her face closely, trying to gage what sort of reaction she would give. "Is this Klaus' house?"

Katherine grimaced at me as she adjusted her shirt and hair. No Klaus then. She stared at me out of the corner of her eyes, pushing her door open and landing on the ground with a dull thud. She gave a deep, heavy, sigh.

Her eyes were hesitant as she looked up at the house, the fearful look in her eyes making my panic rise to an almost breaking point. She didn't reply to my question, just continued to stare up at the house with dread in her eyes.

"Katherine!" I snapped out, trying to keep my voice relatively quiet, not wanting whoever was in the house to hear me. "Where the hell have you taken me?"

Another shuddering sigh rolled through her body as she brushed her fingers gently through her curly hair. "The person who lives here is likely to react just as bad as Klaus would to my arrival. But, she's our only option for now."

Katherine flashed to my side of the car and pulled the door open with so much force that it let out a grating groan. I stayed seated, her words not making me any calmer. She gave me an indignant look, her head tilted to the side with one perfect brow raised.

"Seriously, Caroline. Did you really think I'd drag you all the way out here if I thought you were going to be killed?"

"Yes."

"She won't hurt you. I hope. But me, that's debatable."

I reluctantly pulled myself from the car, wincing at the pain that shot up my sore legs, and picked the book up from the ground and placed it on the seat.

"Like that's going to make me feel better." I muttered to myself.

I followed Katherine along the long driveway, all the way to the stairs at the front of the house, staying as close as I could without tripping us both up in the dark. She walked slowly up the steps, taking them one at a time, the closer we got the slower she'd walk. She didn't speak again, and I followed suite. I didn't want to be attacked by whoever it was we were here to see.

Katherine came to a stop in front of a massive set of ornate doors, staring up at them. Or more precisely, staring at the cord that hung next to the door. What I could easily guess was an old fashioned doorbell. She didn't make a move to pull it.

The cold night seemed to seep into my skin as time ticked by without Katherine doing anything. I rolled my eyes. Katherine could stand in front of Klaus, teasing and taunting him, but she was afraid of the person she had decided we would seek help from? It didn't make any sense at all.

I reached past Katherine, grasping for the cord in the almost pitch black, and yanked on it. The sound was haunting as it rippled through the dark, sending chills across my skin. It rang only for a few seconds before silence filled the night once again.

Katherine shot me a withering stare over her shoulder and took a step in front of me, shielding me from whoever it was that would answer the door. Seconds later Katherine tensed, someone was coming.

I watched as Katherine shook her hair behind her shoulders and pulled on a calm look of disinterest just as the door was pulled open.

An involuntary gasp left my body as I took in the woman in the doorway. Tall lean body, rich olive skin, straight brown (almost black) hair, and facial features that were unmistakable. If I hadn't already seen the extent of how identical Katherine and Elena were, I would have thought that this woman was another doppelgänger. But, she was close enough in likeness, without being an exact duplicate.

Her button nose was a mirror image of the one Katherine wore. The shape of her eyes and the bone structure was just as similar. The one thing that she didn't have in common with Katherine was that she had a pair of piercing green eyes. Eyes that were looking down at Katherine with anger and dismay.

The mystery look-a-like continued to stare at Katherine, as if she couldn't fathom how or why Katherine would be there. Even with her cocky mask in place, Katherine still stood too afraid to speak.

A moment later the green stare moved from Katherine to me, she raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow as she looked me up and down.

"What an interesting choice in a travelling companion, Katerina. I never would have pegged you for someone who would bring your meals along with you."

Her heavily accented voice made my stomach drop and I flinched at the implication behind her words. She assumed that because I'm human, that I'm some sort of meal. Katherine seemed to snap out of whatever trance she was in and she placed a hand on her hip as she flipped her hair over one shoulder.

"I'm not some meals on wheels you know." I said softly, not realising I had actually said it out loud until they both turned to face me.

I coughed slightly, trying to cover up my words. Katherine turned back around and shifted her weight from one leg to the other.

"I'm surprised to see you here, Katerina. In the middle of the night. Without any sort of warning." She sighed, leaning casually against the door and peered directly into Katherine's eyes.

"I didn't want to risk the chance of you running away and not being here when I turned up, Nadia." Katherine looked unsure of herself. Her voice taking on the same accent as the woman, Nadia. My theory of this woman being Katherine's sister seemed to solidify.

"You were afraid of me running off?" Her hands flew up in aggravation. "Last time I checked it was you who always does the running away, not me."

"Nadia, if you just let me explain-"

"There's nothing to explain." Red and blue veins began to appear beneath Nadia's eyes. The white of them turning the colour of blood as she opened her mouth and hissed violently. "I found you after 500 years. You were frightened and ran for it. I got on with my immortal life. The. End."

"Well, I'm here now. Doesn't that count for something?"

"You can't just change your mind when you wish to. Not when it's just so you can get something that you want. Which is why you're here in the dead of night, I'm assuming."

Katherine took a deep unsettled breath and clenched her hands tightly. "Why can't I have just decided to come and visit? Why do you assume that I want something from you?"

"I am not a stupid woman. You want something from me. Probably somewhere to say so that Klaus doesn't rip your heart out." Nadia snarled at Katherine and took a small step forward. "I will not risk my life for you, not when it's blatantly clear that you would not do the same for me. So, why don't you and your little friend here turn around and go back to where you came from."

Katherine's shoulders slumped and defeat flashed across her face before she could pull her cool mask back into place.

"Nadia, I understand that my actions when we first met each other probably weren't the best. But, I've had time to think over everything and I would like to get to know you." I listened to Katherine closely but watched Nadia over her shoulders. She wasn't impressed. "You have to understand my shock at having you show up after all this time with me thinking you were dead."

"I understand that you were shocked, but you didn't have to be so harsh about it. I spent the last 500 years looking for you. I turned myself into a vampire so that I could find you. And you brushed me aside like I was nothing. And now, just because you want my help, you think I'm okay with you trying to…cosy up to me?"

Katherine furrowed her brows, raising one of her arms and taking half a step forward, opening her mouth in what I could tell would only resort in a more furious argument.

"Look, Nadia. This is bigger than-"

"Okay, excuse me." I said, pushing past Katherine and holding my hand out to Nadia. She stared down her nose at me curiously. "My name is Caroline Forbes, I'm a…well, for lack of a better term, I'm a friend of Katherine's."

"Nadia Petrova." She took my hand and gripped it tight. "It's nice to meet you Miss Forbes, and I thank you for interrupting Katerina. But, I don't care what either of you want, I'm not getting involved."

"Look, I don't know what happened between you and Katherine. And to be perfectly honest, it really isn't any of my business. However, she thought that coming here was a good idea, and I'm not going to argue with that. So, instead of having all of our time wasted, it would mean a lot if you could just hear her out and if you still don't care we'll climb back in that car and exit your life. Because I am tired, I am sore, and I don't really have any other options at the moment."

I took a deep breath in, feeling the air make its way painfully through my chest and down into my lungs. I had either just majorly pissed her off, or she would see the desperation in my eyes and let us explain. Well, let Katherine explain.

Nadia turned towards the open door and called out in a foreign language. Moments later a tall curvaceous black girl appeared behind her. She stood around the same height as Nadia, looking no older than 17, but somehow seeming to hold more age than all of us combined. Her tight white curls were pulled back by a large bandana, and her dark skin contrasted with the tribal-patterned colourful mishmash that was her dress. When I met her eyes they shone a brilliant honey gold. Not a supernatural gold, like Klaus, but a natural shade that appeared to swirl behind her eyelids.

She looked to Nadia, tilting her head to the side and waiting for some further instruction. Then she spoke in a thick accent like Nadia's. Nadia gave her a sharp nod, muttering quietly in the same language before stepping back into the house.

"You may both come inside." She said, her English coming out strained and broken.

Katherine didn't wait before she pushed past both me and the girl, heading straight into the house. I rolled my eyes, thanking the girl before following Katherine and Nadia through the entrance.

I gasped at how beautiful the inside of the house way. The ceiling hung high above our heads, with a glorious iron chandelier lit only by actual wax candles. I wondered how anyone could possibly reach up that high to light the candles, but quickly dismissed the thought as I remembered that I lived a life surrounded by vampires and witches.

I looked further into the room, my eyes resting on the staircase that stretched high up onto the second floor, and a portrait that hung on the wall at the top. It was a wall-sized painting of Nadia standing with a man. They were both dressed in clothes that were clearly from the 1920's, Nadia wearing a short flapper dress, with the man in a black suit. Nadia was standing behind him with her hand on his shoulder. Her husband maybe?

Katherine called out to me, catching my attention, and making me realise that I had been standing blankly in the middle of the room while she and Nadia had reached a door at the back of the room. I quickly caught up with them, walking into a small sitting room and coming to sit on a rickety-looking couch across from Nadia.

I looked Katherine up and down as she sat close to me, her body angled between me and Nadia. As if Nadia would have let us in if it hadn't been for me. While Nadia walked over to a small cabinet and poured us each a glass of whiskey.

They glared across at each other, neither of them speaking. I rolled my eyes and leant back against the kind of soft cushion of the chair, making myself comfortable while I waited for their silent conversation to be over.

"So…what are you two doing in New Orleans?" Nadia asked after five minutes of us sitting in a complete silence. "The real story."

Katherine cleared her throat and shifted her bum on the seat, looking around the room trying to figure out what to say. "Caroline was in a slight accident a couple of weeks ago. Her mother and I thought that a witch here might be able to help her."

Nadia let out a rough laugh, tapping her nails on the edge of the whiskey glass that rested on her knee. "I'm going to need more information than that. I'm not letting you stay here if this witch is some minion of Klaus' that you need to steal, or if you plan on burning the city down to the ground to get what you want. I don't want any involvement in that."

Katherine looked over her shoulder at me, as if to ask me permission for her to tell Nadia what happened. I shrugged my shoulders, too tired to care who knew that I had been cured. She pushed herself up straighter in the chair, her eyes running over the length of the room before landing back on Nadia. "It's rather a long story, Nadia. Complicated."

"I have plenty of time."

"Caroline was cured of Vampirism."

Nadia's eyes flew to me, shock filling them. She stood up from her chair, drinking the remnants of her drink and then refilling it to the brim. She took a large gulp from that and then turned back to Katherine. "Is this some kind of sick joke? A cure is impossible."

"It's true." Mine and Katherine's voice's came out at the same time. Mine defensive, hers disinterested.

I took a sip of my drink, grimacing at the burn of the cold liquid as it ran down the back of my throat.

"I turned Caroline into a vampire over a year ago. And up until two weeks ago, when I had the cure shoved down my throat, she was a vampire. It's a long and involved story including her friends getting into things they'd be best leaving alone, the original family, me, and a whole bunch of dead people."

Nadia looked scandalised for a moment, looking between Katherine and I with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth. She took another gulp of her drink, plopping ungracefully back into her chair as she spoke. "Please tell me you didn't wake up Silas?"

"Like Katherine said, my friends have a knack for getting into things they shouldn't."

Katherine stood up from the couch, walking over to the glass wall on the opposite end of the room, leaning against the window with her arms crossed across her chest as she stared at Nadia.

Nadia groaned and closed her eyes, resting her head on the back of the seat. "And?"

"He's dead. My friend turned him into stone and then smashed him to pieces, dumping him in a safe at the bottom of a lake. My friend Elena was given the cure, but I guess she decided that she didn't want to be a human again."

I looked to Katherine to see if she was going to elaborate at all, but she was staring at Nadia with furrowed brows. There was definitely sadness there, which shocked me. Usually the only emotions you saw in Katherine's eyes were anger, self-love, or pity.

"Your friends are obviously idiots." Nadia remarked, staying in her relaxed position in the chair, with one hand now covering her closed eyes. Her comment seemed to brighten Katherine up a bit and she let out a sharp laugh. I shot her a glare. Misguided, maybe? But my friends weren't totally stupid.

Katherine sat back down in her chair while Nadia moved her hand and looked down at me. My stomach tightened as I awaited whatever questions she was planning on shooting my way. "So, how come you're human and not this…Elena? You don't seem too enthused by your situation."

I shook my head. "I don't actually remember how I was cured. It's all blank."

"Which is where I come in." I downed the rest of my whiskey as Katherine spoke. "I was the one who was supposed to be cured, but Caroline decided to be the hero and break up a fight between me and the inferior doppelgänger. It was a 'wrong place, wrong time' sort of situation."

"You really weren't joking when you said it was a long and complicated story, were you?"

"Nope." The effects of that one glass of whiskey were washing over me, and although every inch of my body still thudded achingly, it was now blurred by the calming wave of alcohol. "Nothing is ever simple when it comes to Mystic Falls."

"Okay, so none of that explains why you're in New Orleans looking for a witch."

"I need access to a specific witch guarded by Marcel. The cure knocked Caroline out for a couple of weeks and the witch might be able to tell us exactly why, and what's happening to her body now that she's human again. You can never tell what'll happen with these ancient spells."

Nadia thought over Katherine's words before she turned her head to the door and called out. The black girl who had invited us into the house appeared in the doorway seconds later, this time carrying a tray holding a sandwich and a steaming mug of tea. She walked directly past Nadia and placed the tray down on the coffee in front of me, motioning for me to pick it up before she came to stand next to Nadia's chair.

"This is Kida. She is my most trusted friend. She takes care of the house and will serve both of you while you stay here. It's quite late and I'm guessing that you'll both need your rest before you go off trying to convince Marcel to help you…without the Mikaelson's finding out what you're doing."

Katherine stifled a laugh as she looked across at me. I glared over at her, taking a bite out of the sandwich as my stomach flipped at the thought of Klaus knowing I was here. I was glad I had the distraction of food, especially now that food actually tasted good. I took another bite as Nadia looked between us questioningly. I just shook my head at her. I didn't want to get into logistics of my history with Klaus.

"Alright, then. I'm going to head up to my room. Kida will show you to yours once Caroline has finished eating her food." Nadia headed towards the door, stopping in the doorway and turning to look back. "Oh, and Katerina, don't think this means that we aren't going to talk about your dismissal of me."

"Of course, Nadia." Katherine muttered sarcastically. "I wouldn't dream of avoiding that conversation."

"I could care less about your incessant need to push your past away. If you are going to stay in my house, then we are talking about it."

"Of course, Nadia."

I sat silently as Nadia stormed from the room, Kida exiting just behind her. Katherine looked sadly after her, and suddenly everything made sense. The tension between the two of them, Katherine's fear of showing up here, and the way that Katherine had been acting since we arrived.

I shoved the rest of the sandwich in my mouth, gulping down the cup of tea and placing it back down on the table. Kida, who seemed to appear out of nowhere, glided into the room and motioned for the two of us to follow her out.

I turned to Katherine as we made our way through the entrance and up the steps, a small laugh making its way from my lips. "You were afraid of your own daughter."