Title: You're Okay

Author: Eena

Disclaimer: Don't own TVD-really want to, but don't.

Characters: Caroline & Damon, with a hint of Caroline/Damon towards the end.

Spoilers: Season 2, episode 13.

Summary: They bond a little, after she gets out of the cage . . .

Notes: for the .?page=8#commentsWomen of TVD Comment Ficathon

~0~

It's night, Elena and Bonnie are asleep on the bed with her. She should be resting-it's been a long day. But there's a shift in the air around her; she stiffens and goes immediately into a sitting position. Only by virtue of her vampire speed and grace do her friends stay sleeping.

He's sitting on the chair by her vanity, oddly out of place amongst the pink and glitter around him. Her sight flickers and she remembers when their positions were reversed, when she sat at the vanity and he watched her from the bed. It's not an easy memory-but it isn't the worst.

She watches him and he watches her. Somewhere down the hall, her mother tries to glide softly across the carpet to her own room. Caroline's eyes flicker to her clock; it's four a.m. and the sheriff is just getting in. No doubt the pile up of dead bodies near Wickery Falls kept her busy tonight.

Her mother eases her own door shut and Bonnie suddenly mumbles in her sleep. Elena snorts in a way that would funny any other time and both her friends shift a bit. She looks to them and then looks back to him. He's gone from the seat and is now perched on her window sill.

"You're okay," he says, not like it's a question, but like it's an order. She frowns, not sure if this is concern or something else entirely. She's never sure with Damon.

"I'll see you tomorrow," and then he's gone. She sits on her bed, in the middle of her two friends, and feels more disoriented than ever.

~0~

When he says tomorrow, he apparently means the same time tomorrow.

She's alone this time, because it's a bit suspicious if Elena and Bonnie are constantly sleeping over. Despite that, neither girl left until the last possible moment, when the phone calls from father and guardian suddenly became too frequent to ignore. She smiled at them as they left, feeling her heart warm at their fidelity and their love. They've been far to absent from each other these past few months. It should never happen again.

She wakes just like last time, but she can take her time because she's the only one in bed. She twists around and grumbles, unhappy at being woken up for the second straight night in a row. She's feeling mulish, irritated, and uncooperative. "You know, I was traumatized yesterday; locked up and thrown in a cage while being periodically shot at with vervain and wooden bullets. Do you really think now is the time to start stalking me?"

His eyes darken when she brings up what happened. She watches in confusion as his lips purse and his eyes narrow. Maybe she's misjudged the situation, maybe he's come for something else. Maybe mouthing off an emotionally unstable Damon is a bad idea, but it's too damn late for that.

"They took you, because they could," he tells her, his voice cold and hard. "They took you because you don't know enough to defend yourself. They will come for you again, if they can, because you've shown yourself to be the weak link."

"Well, send them a fruit basket," she retorts, stubbornly refusing to let her fear show through. "They'll rid you of your Vampire Barbie problem and you can go back to mooning at Elena in peace."

Definitely not a good idea to mouth off an emotionally unstable Damon.

He's still too fast for her, too strong. He's suddenly on her bed, hand on her throat, and body pressed tight against hers. "Watch your damn mouth. Tomorrow night, my house-bring some actual sweats and not those stretchy short-shorts you flounce around in for cheerleading practice. We're doing to work on . . . everything."

Then he's up and sitting on her window sill again. She's barely had time to suck in air, barely had time to be properly afraid, and she's still trying to wrap her brain around what he just said. "On second thought, bring the shorts. I might as well get something out of this."

~0~

He makes her train, makes her test her speed and her strength; he teaches her fight fair and to fight dirty. It's hard, he's unrelenting, and she's actually exhausted every night because he pushes too damn hard.

"Does Stefan know about this?" she gasps from her spot on the floor of the Salvatore boarding house. He sits next to her, a hand coming up to brush away some fly-away hair in a gesture that is discomfortingly intimate.

"Stefan can't teach you this," he answers finally. "He's too busy learning it himself."

He always sends her home with two blood bags in her. "No animal bullshit; you can be moral when we're not in mortal danger."

~0~

He starts her on vervain only on her second night of 'training'.

She squeals and coughs up blood all over his living room rug. He waits patiently until she's done, wipes away the tears that escaped, and gives her some blood to make it better.

"You're young, so it hurts more," he explains. "But it's not a good excuse anymore. You need to get stronger."

In her weaker moments, when he's too demanding and pushing too hard, she'll snap at him. "I wouldn't have to be anything if it wasn't for you!"

He'll grab her then, by the shoulders or the throat, get far too close, and practically snarl at her: "Get over it!"

He'll drop her then and she'll make a swipe at his legs. They'll fight and tumble all over the damn house, breaking furniture and windows and demolishing walls and doors. Finally, when she's too tired to continue, he'll scoop her up and drop her on the couch before getting her another glass of blood.

"We're only as strong as our weakest link," he says before handing her a drink. "Remember that, and fight harder."

~0~

Jules comes for him way too soon after she gets out of the cage. The werewolf spends hours with him, torturing and bleeding him vindictively.

Caroline comes over for her lessons, as usual. She smells the blood from almost down the road. She doesn't take time to think, doesn't take time to second guess herself. She speeds off for the house, slides in through a kitchen window, and slams the other woman into the ground before Jules can react to her scent.

She doesn't look at Damon, doesn't need to, just remembers the night in the cage and the bullets and the vervain. Jules is strong, but it's not the full moon, it's not her time. She can push Caroline off, but Caroline's faster now, smarter. The vampire is back on top of Jules within seconds, slamming the bitch's head into the hardwood floor over and over again.

Werewolves heal, she remembers, but not as fast as vampires, and Caroline never lets up. Her mind seems to go blank, the rage is too much to bear, and all she can think is never again; never, ever again.

There is blood all over the first floor by the time Caroline finally plunges her hand into the wolf's chest. She can feel the heart, beating erratically, under her fingers. It makes her pause, for a second, makes her look down at her intended victim. Jules's face is a mess and her eyes are wide and fearful. Caroline remembers being afraid, she remembers begging for mercy.

She didn't get any. She doesn't show any.

"You're never going to stop," she whispers sadly, hand tightening all the while over that pounding heart. "This is our town, but you came and you won't stop. I'm sorry, but you should have left when you were told to."

She doesn't look when she does it, hears the sickening crunch of bones and the tearing of skin and tissue before the heart is free of Jules's chest and suddenly still in Caroline's fist. She doesn't look back down, drops the heart where she stands, and finally looks over to Damon. It takes only a minute to free him of his bonds, another few minutes to get him some blood. Caroline's whole front is smeared red and she thinks she can pick out the different donors by the hue and tint of the splotches.

"Don't bother," he rasps when she's close to crying. "Don't feel it-you did what you have to. There's more of that coming, more than you know."

~0~

They get a call from Elena. Brady is also dead and Tyler is probably hiding underneath his bed right now. Stefan is okay, but weak, and the couple is heading back to town.

Damon helps her pick up what's left of Jules and they wordlessly trek out to the woods. Damon's favourite ravine is getting crowded, so he takes her to some ruins not too far from the boarding house and there they burn the body and the heart. Caroline is still covered in blood, some dried and other spots still drying. The smell constantly makes her hungry, and it takes a lot of strength not to lick her face and hands clean like a cat. She tells herself that she's not an animal; she's not a human, but she's not an animal. She tells herself that audibly when she tosses Jules's heart onto the fire and the stench of burning flesh turns her stomach.

"I'm sorry," he says suddenly.

She feels confused. "For what?", because really, there's so many things.

"Not for all of it, because that's who I am," he clarifies. "But for teaching you this, for making you like me as much as possible. It's not who you were meant to be."

"Katherine made the choice," she reminds him. "You were trying to be nice, I think."

"And look where it got us," he flashes her a smirk, the same one that made her insides melt so many months ago. "I think we've all learned a valuable lesson on what happens if I try to be nice."

He's trying to make a joke, trying to make it light so she won't feel it as much. He's trying because it needs to be removed, to be impersonal, because he's right; there's so much more coming.

She hugs him then, and it surprises him because he can't seem to figure out what to do with his hands. It makes him feel awkward and weird, but she doesn't let go. She hugs him tight and wordlessly watches the fire burn. It takes some time, but he finally understands, and just hugs her back.

The fire dies down; she steps away from him. "I'll see you tomorrow, for lessons."

He nods and for the first time since she's turned, she thinks she sees something like approval in his eyes. "Tomorrow, for lessons."

~0~

He's still an ass; he still pushes too hard and too far. Their lessons still devolve into destructive fights that must cost him a fortune in repairs. Stefan joins them sometimes, and sometimes he doesn't. Damon regulates everything she learns and sets an intolerable pace that she figures he does just for the sake of being an ass.

She needs time off to plan the junior prom; he makes some snide comment about priorities. It ends with her tackling him through the basement door and both of them tumbling down the cement stairs at bone-breaking speeds. They roll apart and both take in huge gulps of air while their bodies mend.

"Who are you taking?" he finally asks.

"I don't know, no one-I'm going stag I think," and she shrugs like it's no big deal, but it is. She doesn't bother to tell him the latest in her Matt drama, because he doesn't care and she doesn't want him to know.

"Fine, you can have one night a week to plan," he concedes.

She snorts and shakes her head, "I need at least three."

"Two," he growls.

"Three," she repeats firmly, "but we'll double the time on weekends, to make up for it."

He likes to argue, so they bicker for five more minutes before he agrees. Then he puts her into a headlock and they proceed to plough into his wine closet, breaking far too many bottles of vintage stock that he shrugs away. "You can pay me back later."

~0~

On the night of junior prom, she is ready to enter the gym alone. She's wearing this adorable strapless pink gown, looking every inch the prom queen she'll never be because everyone knows she couldn't scramble up a date to this shindig.

He steps out from behind some lockers, dressed in a black suit with a tie and shirt that complement her dress. He ties a corsage to her hand without a word and actually smirks at the dumbfounded look on her face. "I might owe you this one."

She thinks about protesting, about bringing up her mother and her friends and everyone else who will raise eyebrows at Damon Salvatore escorting Caroline Forbes to the junior prom.

She says nothing. He offers his arm. She takes it.

Elena is voted prom queen, and Stefan is prom king.

She finds that she doesn't mind.

~0~