Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. Story title comes from the Marianas Trench song "Haven't Had Enough". Photo credit is currently unknown. Please message me if you are the creator/know who it is.

Summary: Immediately following the events of Season 3. Caroline's got a grand plan to fix everyone's problems, but since when did plans ever work right in Mystic Falls? Ensemble, Caroline-centric. Features Damon/Caroline, Stefan/Elena, and mild Bonnie/Jeremy.

Spoilers: All aired episodes. Everything else is just speculation/AU.

Author's Notes: This is my first ever fanfiction, guys! So please be kind. Any constructive criticism is welcome.

This is a heavily character development based story and will be a very slow build. If you are looking for amazing action and plot as well as character development, please see authors like Honeeym and starzee. In fact, this story is heavily influenced by BOTH their works. :)

Thank you VERY much to Fenmir for the phenomenal beta work! (Re-uploaded 17 October 2012.)

CHAPTER 1: GOODBYE FOREVER

Bonnie tucked the ring into Caroline's palm, her watery eyes screaming emotion.

"Bonnie, you should be the one – I mean, Elena will – "

"No. I'm sorry, Caroline, but I, I can't. Not after…" Bonnie looked away and took a deep breath, steeling herself to finish her sentence. "Not after you. After Abby. And Alaric. And Jeremy. And Vicki, Jenna, John…. There's been too many deaths, and I… I can't deal with this right now."

"Bonnie…" Caroline reached out and gently ran her hand down Bonnie's arm. "You can do this. Look at us. Look how far we've come. You hated me, Bon. And now, we're back to best friends. It'll be the same with Elena. I'm sure of it."

Bonnie looked up and Caroline couldn't stop the gasp that escaped her. There were tears running down her cheeks, but there was fierceness in her eyes, a look ofdetermination and fury that Caroline had never seen before.

"No, Caroline. I love you, but this is wrong. Vampires are wrong. Look at Klaus! Look what he became after a thousand years! Nothing is meant to live that long! Even Damon and Stefan… Caroline, you're still you now, but what about in a hundred years? Or in five hundred? Who will you be then, Caroline?" Bonnie shook her head, tears flying off her face. "I'm sorry. Give Elena the ring. But I don't want any part of this anymore. Goodbye, Caroline." With a small smile that didn't reach her eyes, Bonnie turned away and walked towards her car. Her head was held high and there was no hesitation in her steps, but Caroline was stuck, frozen to the sidewalk.

She had known Bonnie would have a hard time with Elena turning; they all were. Caroline still hadn't had a proper sit down with Jeremy, she was too wrapped up in Tyler still being alive and trying to work through her feelings about Klaus's death. But this reaction was unexpected.

When she truly thought about it, she knew she shouldn't be that surprised. Bonnie had lost as much as Elena, and she didn't have two super strong, incredibly dedicated brothers fighting for her every breath. Instead, she was constantly forced to do spell work with minimal training, unable to take the time to grieve for the people she'd lost. Even if they were technically still walking around, Bonnie's mother, her teacher, and her friend were dead from Bonnie's point of view.

Caroline closed her fist around the sunlight ring Bonnie had given her. It was just like Bonnie to think ahead, to do as much as she could for Elena before saying goodbye forever. 'But it's not. It's not goodbye forever,' Caroline thought fiercely. She would fix this. Klaus was gone, they were all still alive, and they would not lose each other now. She squared her shoulders and headed towards her own vehicle. The first step to any plan is to gather allies.

She knew Matt was staying at the Gilbert house to keep Jeremy company, but she still felt guilty for not spending time with either boy. Elena was all Jeremy had left, and Matt was still reeling from nearly dying (not to mention the carefully buried guilt of causing Elena's death). But Elena had the Salvatore's taking care of her every need; Caroline knew that right now the humans needed her.

'The humans,' she thought irritably. As if she was so very different from them. She hadn't been a vampire for more than a year, and yet she was already thinking so differently. After what had happened with Anna and Vicki, Caroline was concerned that Jeremy would be more determined than ever to turn. Although she'd come to terms with her own vampirism, she certainly wasn't comfortable with Jeremy making that change.

Too soon, she was in front of the Gilbert house. Matt's truck was there, which she counted as a victory. Not only would she not have to explain herself more than once, but Matt was level headed and would be able to help her rope Jeremy in.

Caroline heaved a great sigh before throwing herself out of her car. Because of Alaric's revelation, she and Tyler were still in grave danger from the Council. Fortunately the Forbes and the Lockwoods were founding families. It would take more than the claim of some newcomer history teacher to sway the entire Council into action. Meredith Fell was also on their side, and she would be very helpful inattempting to convince the Council that they were still human. Still, it meant she had to act fast to keep Bonnie from turning her back on them forever, before Caroline skipped town.

She could hear the pair of elevated heart beats, but that just confirmed the obvious: a video game marathon. She could just barely differentiate between Jeremy, Matt, and the television. She frowned as she thought that Tyler should be with them. She'd called him immediately after speaking with Bonnie and asked if he wanted to accompany her to the Gilbert house, but he'd refused. A bit too gruffly, in her opinion, but she knew he was just freaking out about the Council. His near brush with death hadn't helped.

She lifted her hand to knock, then hesitated. Matt and Jeremy sounded so happy, so carefree. It was as if they hadn't just lost someone else. Now, she was coming to tell them that Bonnie was done with all of them. It wasn't fair.

'But what has been, lately? Time to suck it up, Forbes,' she thought to herself. With that, she knocked hard on the door to get the boys' attention.

As soon as she was finished with her short recap of the conversation with Bonnie, there was a moment of silence. She didn't have to wait long. Their reactions were pretty much just as she expected. Jeremy had snapped, attempted to storm upstairs, and then sulked on the couch when the combination of her strength and Matt's plaintive "Come on, man" stopped him in his tracks. Matt was upset, but looked like he wished he had done it first. He was close to making the exact same decision Bonnie had made. Caroline knew that unless they all figured something out, it would quickly turn into "humans vs. supernatural" and that was the last thing she wanted.

"Look, I know this sucks. I've been friends with Bonnie for just as long as the two of you. But I can't force her to be a part of a world that's done nothing but hurt her—hurt all of us," Caroline stated, trying to placate the both of them.

"Then what's the point?" Jeremy snapped, glaring at her.

She tried to quell her anger. Jeremy was still grieving, and him lashing out was better than him trying to off himself, either permanently or to become a vampire. She took a calming breath, but before she could speak, Matt interrupted her.

"She has a plan. Don't you, Care?" Matt asked curiously.

Caroline grinned. Matt had always been way more intelligent than people gave him credit for.

"Give the boy a prize! I do, indeed, have a plan," she replied.

She looked from one boy to the other, letting the anticipation build. She knew she was torturing them, but she was still a little grumpy at Jeremy for snapping at her.

"Well?" Jeremy finally ground out.

"Bonnie wants to get out of the supernatural world, right? So let's give her just that. But," she said, holding a hand up to stop Jeremy's protests, "let's all get out of the supernatural world!" she finished excitedly.

Jeremy looked at her dully. Sensing a snarky remark was on the tip of his tongue, Matt quickly interjected,

"Uhh, sounds good, Care. How exactly do you propose we do that?"

"Magic, of course," she said smugly. "The boarding house has tons of books, many of which are grimoires. All we have to do is go through them to find a spell to change us all back to humans. Remember Esther's plan to kill her kids? She wanted to turn them all human. So the spell she wanted to use, or at least a similar one, should be easy to find," she grinned, feeling incredibly proud of herself. It was quite the plan, especially since it had been formed in the short ride from the Grill to the house.

"Yep, sounds real logical, Caroline," Jeremy sneered. "And how long do you think it's going to take for you to find this spell? And convincing Bonnie to do it? She seemed perfectly okay with just dropping all of us like yesterday's trash."

"Jer…" Caroline murmured. "It's not like that. Bonnie is hurting, just like the rest of us. She's trying to protect herself."

"I think it sounds like a good plan," Matt said encouragingly, looking worriedly between Jeremy and Caroline.

"But Jeremy does have a point. It's not like we can just Google through all those books. It could take weeks to go through all of them, and that's assuming that there's a spell that exists that does what we want. It's kind of a long shot."

Caroline's face fell. Okay, so maybe she hadn't thought this through entirely. That didn't mean that it was over. "Alright guys. I'm not going to deny that it does sound nearly impossible. But haven't we been specializing in impossible for the past year and a half? Vampires, ghosts, werewolves, freaking hybrids! I'm not going to give up on Bonnie, or let her give up on us. I'm just asking that you do the same."

Matt and Jeremy looked at each other. Finally, Jeremy sighed and threw up his hands. "Fine, Caroline, you win. We'll try to talk to Bonnie. And we'll be on the lookout for a spell or something. Okay?"

"Perfect," Caroline beamed. Step one, complete.

Before Caroline began the drive back to her own house, she sent a quick text to Tyler. 'Heading home. Wanna meet me? Got news! :)'. She didn't have to wait long for a reply. 'Yea. Btr b imprt." Caroline wrinkled her nose. She hated the stupid shortened slang Tyler used to text. It made his texts seem grumpier. She sighed and tried to not to overthink it too much. She had been ecstatic that he had survived what she'd thought was a death sentence. She shouldn't allow silly annoyances like a misspelled text let her forget that.

When Caroline pulled up to her house, Tyler was standing on her porch, leaning against her door. She didn't see his truck, so she assumed he ran there. 'Geez, from the Lockwood property? That's kind of unnecessary,' she thought. After Tyler had returned from breaking his sire bond, he seemed much more accepting of his new abilities. He wasn't quite the arrogant hybrid Klaus had been, but he was closer to "old Tyler" than he'd been in a long time. She wasn't sure how she felt about that just yet. There was a reason (or many) why she and "old Tyler" hadn't been very close.

She walked up to him with a big smile, but it began to fade when noticed how tense he looked. His arms were crossed across his chest, his eyebrows were furrowed, and his mouth was set in a thin line. He was staring her down with hard eyes and it was beginning to make her uncomfortable.

"Ty? Everything okay?" she asked.

"You smell like baby Gilbert," he muttered.

"Wow, what a welcome. Geez, Tyler, if I knew you were in this kind of mood I would have just let you stew. Now I'm glad you didn't come with me to see Jeremy and Matt," she retorted. She pushed past him and unlocked her front door. When he tried to follow her, she threw out her arm to block him. "On second thought, I think we can wait to have this conversation until you're in a better mood, alright?"

Tyler's eyes narrowed and she could have sworn she heard a snarl before his face cleared and softened. "I'm sorry, Care. I didn't mean to snap at you. It's just all this stress about the Council. You know my mom; she's terrified of them killing me like they did my dad. She doesn't understand why I haven't left yet, and frankly, neither do I." Caroline opened her mouth to respond, but he held up his hand. "But that's no reason to take it out on you. I really am sorry. You said you had news for me?"

Caroline sighed and let him in. These little fights were getting more and more common, but she supposed it was to be expected when their lives were in constant danger.

Not wanting to provoke him into another argument, she quickly retold the story of Bonnie's decision and Jeremy and Matt's agreement to help. Although she was focusing more on her explanation than Tyler, she couldn't help but notice how he seemed to be reacting strangely. He had kept a straight face through the talk of Bonnie, even though she knew she still looked upset about it. Even weirder, when she repeated some of Jeremy's comments and mused aloud that she probably smelled like him because she'd practically had to tackle him and strong arm to get him to listen, his fists were clenched so hard she was surprised he hadn't broken his skin. He and Jeremy had a rocky history, sure, but they had gotten so much closer recently. When she finally finished, she blew out her breath in a big gust and looked at him expectantly.

"I don't know what you want me to say," he said dully.

Her eyebrows shot up. "You don't know what to say? How about, gee, great Caroline, thanks for working so hard to keep all your friends together? Or how about, is there anything I can do to help? Since, you know, you're supposed to be my supportive boyfriend!" she snapped.

"Caroline," he growled. "That's shit, and you know it. You shouldn't give a damn about all these humans! You should be focusing on saving yourself, about getting out of this dead end town before it ends you. This is your chance to see the world, and you're sitting here, making plans to do research!"

Caroline's mouth flopped open and closed for a moment. "Get out," she finally snarled. "Get out of my house right now, Tyler Lockwood. Don't you dare speak to me again until you've seriously reconsidered everything you just said. Those humans?! Those humans are my friends, my best friends. I've known them my whole life. I thought they meant the same to you."

"Caroline, I'm just trying – "

"GET OUT!"

Tyler clenched his jaw and looked away. Without making a sound, he walked out her front door, letting it slam heavily behind him.

Exhausted, Caroline fell back onto the couch. Tears were pricking her eyes, and despite her anger and hurt, confusion spread throughout her body. Why was Tyler being like this? Yes, he'd always had a temper, and he always thought she did stupid things for her friends. But he'd never yelled at her like that. Or spoke of their friends like that. Calling them humans? Where did that come from? She curled her body on the couch, pulling a cushion to her chest. It was times like these that she desperately needed Bonnie, or Elena, or hell, even Stefan. But they weren't there. They had more important things to focus on.

"Get it together, Forbes," she whispered to herself. "This is just the beginning."