vampireboulevard | spamalot } { crossed wires

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spamalot } { crossed wires

Moving clear across the country so that her fiance could join another pack to get away from his crazy dad is not exactly what Caroline Forbes had planned on doing with her life at this particular age, but when it comes to things like fiance (mostly that fiance being Tyler) and getting Tyler away from his crazy dad she's willing to make little changes in order to benefit the good of all. It also helped that Elena and Matt were already on this coast to make the transition a little easier.

(It was five hours to Palo Alto. Five hours driving was still better than all the coordination it takes for a five hour plane ride.)

Still, once she actually arrived in Beacon Hills, she's willing to admit that she may have prejudged this town a little harshly. It's actually more than a little adorable. It's got a Mystic Falls vibe all it's own, but lighter, which I guess is what happens when your mayor isn't a psychopathic alpha werewolf trying to make your life miserable. Talia Hale? A plus alpha from what Caroline could tell - which, she could tell a lot, if just knowing Cora even as little as she does is anything to go off of - and she has a feeling they're going to be very happy here. The TV station even approved her transfer to the local syndicate, so as soon as they find an apartment, she's pretty much set.

Which is what she, Elena and Matt (poor, poor Matt) are doing while Tyler is doing his alpha bonding with Talia and getting to know the pack as a whole. It's been a few days of meetings up at the Hale house, and him coming back to the hotel seeming so much happier than she's seen him in a long time, and that? That is worth every inconvenience, every hiccup, every ounce of homesickness because they fought for this for so long, and now they finally have it.

(This is probably the only universe in existence where Caroline Forbes would actually be grateful for Klaus Mikaelson. Whadaya know?)

She's coming out of one of the buildings, finishing up the details with the realtor, when she spots Tyler coming up the sidewalk and grins. Once they part ways, she's skipping over to him, throwing her arms around his shoulders and pulling him in close. "I love this town."

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"Yeah, I figured as much, but has no one even bothered to tell him you're not dating anyone? I mean the entire pack is keeping him in the dark on that?"

"No, it's just ... " she exhales slowly. "When we talk we don't really talk. Not about him or about me. We talk about things that are ... neutral. I'm just glad he's at least talking to me, I don't want to push us to the point where we're not talking at all."

Because that would be worse. Maybe not for Tyler's nose, but for her.

"It hasn't come up. So I don't think anyone's thought to tell him."

"So basically you guys have changed roles and he's the one not talking about his feelings and you're trying to draw him out." Yes, he was smirking. "You see the irony in that, right?"

She huffs a laugh at that, before shaking her head. "Trust me. I'm aware."

"Listen, if everything you say he's been through is real, I can sympathize. I've been there. You saw what I lived through. And you see I came through it fine because of my friends, and Care. He can do it too."

"I know he can. He just has to let us help him - that's the hard part." It feels like they're making progress though. Another reason laying her feelings out there for him to deal with might not be the greatest idea right now.

But now it might have to be sooner rather than later.

"I think we're getting there, though."

"Just keep working on him." He licked his lips. "But I can tell you one thing. The boy still loves you."

Her throat goes a little dry at that, unsure of what to say at first. "What makes you say that?"

"Guy like that comes after me, threatening to rip me apart because he thinks I'm cheating on a friend of his? That's someone thinking more than a friend. Somewhere under all that hurt, Cora, the boy still loves you."

She pauses for a moment, quietly processing that. There's a part of her that hopes, no matter how much she tries to clamp down on that, but she knows that it's going to be a lot of time before he's anywhere close to trusting her again.

And she'll give it to him. She just needs to remind herself that this isn't going to be fixed overnight. So she just accepts Tyler's statement in the silence, before pushing away from the wall.

"I should go. Derek's waiting for me and I don't want to keep you from Caroline."

"Yeah. Go, I'll chat with you later."

And with that, he hung up.

Cora takes a deep breath as she hangs up the phone, staring at it for a moment, before pocketing it and continuing on her way to Derek's.

When she gets there, she doesn't even bother to knock, just lets herself in the front door, makes her way into the living room and faceplants into the empty couch. She takes a deep breath, inhaling the mingling scents of her brother, Fiona, Bob and another wolf that must be Liam. It calms her down a bit, but she's still going to stay there for a while.

Unless Bob comes over. If Bob comes over, he gets pets, but her hand's the only part of her body that's moving.

Derek was sitting at his desk when Cora walked in. He just watched her, one eyebrow going up at her dramatic entrance.

Liam, being on the patio with Bob playing lacrosse, came in at the smell of the new wolf. "What the... who's that?"

"That would be my sister, Cora." He went to stand up as Bob went over to check on the female wolf. "Why don't you hit the showers, and I'll introduce you when you're done."

The fourteen year old nodded, running for the stairs that lead up to the landing and his bedroom as Derek went to sit on the coffee table across from her. "Should I even ask?"

Bob licks at her hand and Cora reaches over to scritch him behind the ears as she formulates the best way to answer that question. Eventually she shifts a bit, rolling onto her side so that she's facing Derek and sighs.

"Stiles punched Tyler, because he saw him with Caroline, Tyler's fiancee, because for some reason he thought that we were together, and that he was cheating on me."

Yep. Her life has become a soap opera. If that's what the universe is aiming for, she personally thinks that she should be having way more sex.

"Stiles punched someone? Stiles, who's currently afraid of shadows and hiding in mom's house went up to another werewolf and punched him?"

Derek didn't know if he was supposed to be proud of the young man, or beat him over the head for his stupidity.

"Why would he think you two were still together?"

"I don't think he knew that Tyler was a werewolf."

It's not like he can tell like they can. She isn't sure if that makes it better or worse, but at least it's something. She can't justify his behavior any more than that though - even if Stiles hadn't been through what he'd been through, she can't see him punching anyone - on her behalf or not.

"I have no idea. Tyler said that Elena might have told Stiles that Tyler was moving to town and he knows that I was looking for an apartment - he might have put two and two together and gotten five." There's a beat as she shifts, stretching out more so that Bob can hop up onto the couch and settle into the spot between her and Derek. Her fingers curl around his collar, keeping him closer and closing her eyes as she admits the next part. "And the thing is, Tyler and I were never actually together."

"After you two broke up, did you see Stiles or talk to him beyond Scott or Malia's wedding?" The Stilinski-Grayson wedding had been very different with only Malia and Scott having gone to represent the pack. The grooms side of the chapel had been very small and it should have been the first clue of how controlling Suzanna would become.

She shakes her head. She didn't even really talk to him at either occasion. He didn't really want to see her, so she respected that as best she could. "I'd ask about him sometime, mostly to Scott, but no. It just seemed easier that way. He was starting another life."

There's another sinking feeling of guilt that comes with that statement. Maybe if she had fought harder to still be in his life, to still talk to him, she could have seen what was going on sooner. She could have helped him. She could have done a lot of things differently, maybe saved Stiles a little pain, but there's nothing she can do about that now.

Edited 2014-07-30 16:57 (UTC)

Derek sighed. He wasn't going to say anything, but she would be able to tell from that sigh that Derek was sad to hear that.

"Well, seeing that if you show up to two separate weddings, a year and a half apart, and you have the same date - anyone is going to think you're in a committed relationship. Especially if no one's telling you different. Which, is also a failing on the rest of you guys for not keeping him in the loop." She can share the blame on that with Scott, Isaac and Malia since they were the only lines of communication that Stiles had when he was still in contact with them.

He leaned forward, regarding her a moment. "Cora, we've always respected your decision without question, but I think I need to know why you actually did break up with Stiles to help you figure out how to resolve this issue."

She's taking that "we" to mean the royal "we" because Malia definitely didn't fall under that category. Most of the pack was okay with it, but Malia had always called her out on being stupid for it and maybe she was. But in some ways, she knows she needed it too, which is what makes it harder.

"I wasn't ready." She shakes her head a bit, fingers playing with Bob's collar. "I was looking at grad schools and he was talking about moving in together and I got scared. I kept seeing him give up things for me and put things aside for me, and maybe I needed him to do that in the beginning, to pull out of me what I wasn't sure I could give, and that was fine, but I didn't want him to be doing that forever. I wanted him to do things that he wanted. He never ... " She sighs. "I knew how I felt about him but I was scared about what it meant, and the fact that I could tell he felt it too just made it worse and so I panicked."

She shakes her head again before looking back down at the collar. "We were the only people we'd ever been with. You're not supposed to get it that right the first time. The world isn't supposed to work that way."

"Doesn't work that way - you have spent time with Scott and Malia, right?" Because they were both with their one and only loves, and were way too sickenly sweet sometimes. But he sighed again. "Cora, you always followed in my footsteps in everything, and I really wish I had a better example to give you in this. But I felt the same way with Paige that Scott did with Allison. I'm pretty sure that if she hadn't died... I'd still be with her."

Not that now he couldn't imagine his life without Fiona. She was his mate and she was stuck with him.

"Sometimes good things happen. But it's normal to get scared, so I get that. But I don't think Stiles ever gave up anything for you. He gave everything to you."

"I know it sounds stupid now. It even sounds stupid to me. And it wasn't you."

She hates that he would think that, that it was anything but her own head getting the better of her and her thinking more than feeling, but it's too late for that now.

"And I didn't get that then, that there was a difference. I just saw him passing up opportunities and focusing on me, and I couldn't handle that. I wasn't ready, Derek."

She's ready now. She'll take him as he is with no questions and no stipulations in whatever capacity he can give her because being around him is worth it at this point, and she doesn't deserve more than that.

"Which is why I feel like I was right. I just ... wish I'd done it differently. Or that there was another way for me to have ... " She sighs softly. "I just needed more time."

"I think you need to have this conversation with him. Hard as it is going to be - I think he really needs to know this. And expect him to be very pissed off, but if he still feels the same for you and isn't too damaged enough that he can't find that part of him again... he'll find his way back to you. Look at mom and dad."

"I know." She does. She knows she needs to talk to him. "I was going to even before he punched Tyler in the face, but ... I figured he had enough going on. He was already thinking about bolting, I didn't want to make it worse."

Derek's eyebrows went up. "Bolting?"

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