#tvd 3x07

[forbescaroline]

MY TOP 5/10 ROMANTIC SHIPS PER SHOW ↳ the vampire diaries edition #10. Jeremy Gilbert and Anna Zhu

[roadhousearchives]

BEST LAID PLANS “Don’t cry, Caroline. I’m supposed to be the bad guy.”    FORBES, Caroline; SALVATORE, Stefan       Caroline visits Stefan during his imprisonment.       c. S03.e07-08 (missing scene)   wc. 1k       cw. ref. to canon-typical violence

She tiptoes down to the cell just before dawn, holding her breath, trying to creep on barely her tiptoes so she won’t be heard. It’s dank in the cellar and what happened to her here is still fresh, pervasive in the gloom. She has every intent of opening the door, of delivering the speech she’s practiced a thousand times in the mirror, but as her fingers brush the lock panic rises up in her throat, her heart starts to race and she bites her lip enough to draw blood, trying to keep herself under control.

She sinks to the floor, her spine coming to rest against the steel. She leans her head back, looking at the ceiling, closing her eyes and listening to the ragged sounds of his breath on the other side. She had wanted so many things form this moment, to accuse him, to save him, to fix him the way he had fixed her because she owes him that much, at least. She sighs at how her best laid plans always seem go astray, because now that she’s here she just can’t. Can’t see him like this, starving as she starved, suffering as she suffered. The lines between them are too real, and she knows that if she looks him in the eye she’ll let him go, because they are the same and she has to believe it’s what he’d have done.

She thinks in the quiet, with only his rasping to pace out time. He was once her salvation, and now he simply breathes and it illustrates her deepest fears: if he can’t be saved, what hope is there for her?

She loses track of how long she’s sat there, leaning up against the steel door, the metal as cool as her skin with neither warming the other. She doesn’t doze, doesn’t dream, doesn’t dare to move. And then he speaks.

“Caroline.”

It chills her and suddenly she feels like ice. She stills herself, stops her breath, tries to even stop her heartbeat. She doesn’t want to be here anymore, but she can’t just run away.

“Caroline.”

Her name is soft, melodic, sweet and low. It’s a loving note that hasn’t flowed through her in forever, but it still resonates to her core. She closes her eyes and draws in a shaky breath, shaking her head, telling herself no, no, no.

“Someone kept you in here. Just like this.”

She can feel herself start to tremble again, her eyes pricking in the way that heralds tears. She wishes, for once, to feel the pressure of the change. Her eyes stained with blood would be less painful than having them salted and drained.

“You can't deny it, you’re all over this place. You and charred flesh. You were hurt here. Burned. Weren’t you?”

It’s a question she can’t answer, but she doesn’t have to. The evidence in locked in there with him, and if the ghosts of her cries have left, her blood still stains the stone floor, her skin is still fused to those chains where the vervain they were treated with burned her. She covers her face with her hands.

“You’re ignoring me. You think I don’t remember, because I don’t care, but I do. I remember. I promised I’d never let anything happen to you.”

It hurts to hear him say it again, hurts to be reminded that his promise meant nothing, that he doesn’t care anymore, that he isn’t on her side. Her forehead drops to her knees and she squeezes her eyes shut because the tears are coming now, a gentle, insistent trickle.

“I would have stopped it. I would have come. Even monsters keep their promises.”

It’s not quite the apology she wants, the apology she’s wanted from everyone that didn’t save her, the apology she never gets. He isn’t sorry, he can’t feel sorry, but it feels like this admission is as close as she’ll ever get, so she accepts it, assimilates it. Believes it.

“I don’t deserve this, Caroline, no more than you did. I can’t change what I am. Nobody can fix me, there’s nothing here to fix.”

She’s crying quietly, holding herself tightly to keep form falling apart. He’s saying all the things she once said, and even if she knows he’s playing her, trying to manipulate his way to freedom, every word rings clear and true within her heart.

He doesn’t ask her to release him, he just speaks, his voice calm and even, only the slightest edge betraying his hunger and his pain. She listens and she weeps, for him, for her, for all the space that’s come between them. She weeps until her tears run dry, and then she quiets before fresh tears allow her to weep some more.

“Don’t cry, Caroline. I’m supposed to be the bad guy.”

She turns, damp eyes looking up at the covered window into the cell, remembering the thin light that filtered in through that small slit, the faint hope even such slight illumination brought her. She bites her lip, crawling up the door, pressing her forehead to the closed shutter, pressing her body up against the steel to feel something, anything besides the impact of his words and the resonance of his voice. She thinks if there are bad guys, they are not down here this morning and curls her fingers around the latch to slide the shutter free.

“Caroline?”

She wants to peer through the window into the cell, wants to see his face turned up into the dim light, perhaps straining in the dark to see her. She wants to, but she can’t, can’t hold his gaze with him still bound and her still on this side of his subjugation. She cinches her eyes shut, positions half of one within his sight, presses her palms flat against the door, and breathes. Her eyes snap open for one brief second, just long enough to catch a glimpse of her fallen saviour.

“I’m sorry, Stefan...”

And then she runs: into the sunlight, into the open air, into the freedom she can’t quite enjoy anymore.

a/n : this back catalogue entry was originally written and posted in 2011. We have preserved it's original format, and no additional editing or alterations have been done. many thanks to @aniresrene, @velvourne, @sorryitsmyfirstdayonearth and @middleearthislife for the encouragement, the fics are being released.

Thank you for your patronage of The Roadhouse Library. Please consider supporting out project with likes, comments and reblogs. Follow @roadhousearchives to stay current with new additions the archive's holdings.

[the-shadow-of-your-heart]

not bonnie saving the whole town while having to come to terms with the fact her boyfriend's cheating on her with a ghost 😞

[zalrb]

So SCrs have a post comparing 3x07 with 8x10 and saying that Elena made everything about her, about Stefan feeling anything or he'd lose her, but Caroline makes it about him regardless of their relationship... I know you didn't watch the episode, but what do you think?

I watched that scene and here is where context comes into play.

In 3x01 we learn that Elena has been searching for Stefan all summer, like literally for two or three months basically all she’s been doing is chasing leads.

and she’s been fighting everyone about searching for him:

and in 3x02 she faces werewolves for him:

In 3x03 she hid in a murder closet while Klaus the Original Vampire who thinks she’s dead, is right outside so she can see Stefan and bring him home:

and then Stefan breaks up with her after all of that:

and then in 3x05 she is hit by Klaus:

she watches Stefan tear apart her classmates:

and she’s still there like:

telling him to fight and he just needs to want it bad enough and he’s compelled to bite her which puts her in the hospital:

but in 3x06 she’s right there like:

and then 3x07 comes around and before that moment that the SCers are comparing to 8x10, Elena spends the day learning from Lexi on how to get through to Stefan, it’s about her methods and the things you have to do to get him to feel again:

She watches him suffer, listens to him talk about how he wished her never met her and she just has to take it , like it’s exhausting being there and going through that while at the same time her brother is cheating on her best friend with a ghost, Klaus is trying to make hybrids, like the world is coming apart at the seams and she’s needed elsewhere so she goes where she’s needed and Stefan asks her if she’s giving up, the one person who has been his cheerleader, who has been relentless in getting him back, who has been there no matter how hard he’s tried to push her away:

and she says:

Like no, I’m still here, I’m still your cheerleader, I’m still stubborn and she also says:

which is fair because she’s done everything, she’s risked her life for him, she brought his dead best friend to help her get through to him, tortured him, pleaded with him, but he needs to want it too, which is a line very much about him as is this:

and this line:

is an appeal to his humanity which makes absolute sense because it has been established and re-established that his humanity is directly linked to Elena.

In 3x01, she’s the one he calls, not Damon, not Caroline, it’s Elena:

In 3x05 he freaks out when Klaus hits her:

he told her she was what kept him from giving up:

Klaus marvels at the love he has for her:

and he fights compulsion for her:

So why wouldn’t Elena appeal to his humanity by threatening to give up on him? After everything she’s done for him why wouldn’t she realize that she’s spent so much of her time and been consumed with getting him back?

When 8x10 rolls around, what has Caroline done for Stefan by that point? Nothing. She’s talked at him.

In 8x08 they haven’t even interacted, she hasn’t been searching for any plans or any methods to help him out of his deal.

In 8x09 she talks at Damon about Elena and dances with him then talks at Stefan then stakes Stefan and throws a ring at him.

In 8x10 she manages to get him chained up and talks at him some more:

She didn’t risk her life for him, she hasn’t spent months searching for him, she’s a vampire so she has eternity on her side while Elena was a human who was being hunted by original vampires, Caroline is just getting started when Elena was invested by the time 3x07 rolled around. They are in two very different places and frankly Elena and Caroline mean two very different things to Stefan. Give me 3x07 over 8x10 any day.

[forbescaroline]

11k celebration: top 50 m/f friendships (as voted by my followers) #02. stefan salvatore and lexi branson - the vampire diaries

[forbescaroline]

235 FAVORITE SHIPS OF ALL TIME (ranked by my followers) 41. jeremy gilbert and anna zhu - the vampire diaries

[forbescaroline]

TOP 5/10 CHARACTERS PER SHOW (as voted by my followers) ↳ the vampire diaries edition #10. Damon Salvatore portrayed by Ian Somerhalder

[the-shadow-of-your-heart]

jeremy's 100% one of those girls who thinks they can't function out of a relationship so he's always on the rebound. he wasn't over vicki when he was with anna and he wasn't over anna when he was with bonnie. he needs some alone time to reflect on himself.