He wakes up with a start when she flops down on the couch next to him, and the first thing he notices is that he aches all over. Worse, he feels entirely drained. His side also hurt's like a bitch, and he moves the blanket away to see a nice bullet wound on his left side.

"Oh, yeah, you got shot. But it's healing."

Well, that's just fucking peachy. His life is seriously messed up already, and now he's been shot. The only sane part of his life here is Caroline, and she's a vampire, so normal isn't really in his vocabulary anymore. He groans as he struggles to sit upright, he feels like he got hit by a truck, or you know, shot.

"You were right, I shouldn't have come home." He means it when he says it, but the look in her eye when he turns to face her makes him question everything. She looks lost, and scared, and more than a little hurt.

"No, you just...never should have left."

He hurt her; probably more by leaving than by betraying her when she needed him, he can see that now. But he'd been scared, and feeling alone and so he'd done what he thought was best at the time.

"And you shouldn't leave again."

He's still shocked to hear her say that, even with all they've been through. "You're kidding right? This is the second time I've tried to kill you."

She gets this adorable look on her face and answers back with, "Well, no friendship is perfect."

He kind of loves her for saying that.

But then she tells him that Matt broke up with her, and she looks so sad that it does funny things to his heart. He realizes then that he can't leave again, not if it meant leaving her behind.

When she curls up next to him and lays her head on his chest, he says, "Thank you Caroline, for taking care of me." And he means it probably more than she realizes.

He and Caroline are basically inseparable from that point on. She helps him catch up when he gets back to school. They also spend every afternoon together, but never at Caroline's because she's still avoiding her mom. He's scared for her, but he promised her he'd protect her, and she knows that he will.

They're sitting in The Grill after school a few weeks later when Matt walks in to start his shift. He sees her whole body tense up when she notices him walk through the door, and she looks like she could crumble at any moment.

He hates seeing her like this, and Matt's definitely not high on his list of favorite people at the moment. Mostly because of what he did to Caroline, but also because Matt shot him. It's all healed now, but still. Tyler doubts they'll ever be friends again.

He reaches across the table and gently places his hand over hers. She's still looking at Matt who's ignoring their table altogether.

"Caroline, I know you're hurting, but you need to realize that he doesn't care anymore, and you could be missing out on someone who does," he says, barely above a whisper. She might be focused on Matt, but he knows she can hear him.

"I know," she replies, finally turning to face him. A single tear slips out, and she quickly wipes it away, and his heart clenches in his chest.

He knows she doesn't understand right now, but she will eventually. He's going to stick around to make sure of it.