An Elemental Difference - FIRE - Book 2 (Stefan Salvatore)

Chapter 53 - Soft or crunchy?

A/N: Jenna was such an amazing character that the writers either took advantage of or forgot she was there. Here is my take on Jenna being an awesome guardian and what her character could have brought into the fold if she knew wayyyyyy earlier. Enjoy xoxo

GILBERT HOUSEHOLD

"Ow!" Caroline hissed as Jenna used her tweezers to remove another shard of wood from Caroline's skin.

"Sorry," Jenna winced, placing the wood in a bowl with the many other shards she'd removed.

Caroline shook her head; she hadn't moved her eyes from Aella's still unconscious body since Jenna began, "No, it's fine."

Jenna placed the tweezers down with a tired sigh, "Caroline?" The blonde didn't move her gaze, so Jenna gently turned the blonde tear-stained face to meet hers, "Honey? It's not alright." She gestured to the tools and bloody gauze around her, "This will never be alright."

Caroline tried to hold back more tears, "But I'm a vampire; I'll heal." She showed Jenna the arm that had been cleaned up only minutes before, "See." She tried to smile brightly, but the tears that followed betrayed her, yet she pushed on with the act, "Look, I'm already healing; you'd never know."

Wiping the tears, Jenna smiled sadly at the teen. "But you know...." She pointed to Caroline's heart, "Here-" then to Caroline's head, "-and here. You will always know."

Caroline swallowed down her sobs, glancing back over to Aella, who remained unconscious, Stefan unmoving by her side before whispering heartbreakingly, "I was so scared."

"Oh, Honey," Jenna pulled the blonde into her arms, allowing Caroline to finally break down. When the eyes of her niece and others focused on them, she waved them away, smiling thankfully at Ric as he closed the door separating the kitsch from the living room. "You are safe now, Caroline. You will always be safe here."

"He just wouldn't stop," Caroline sobbed. "He acted like it was game, a water gun with vervain, and he would write stupid vampire puns on the wooden bullets. He put me in a cage like an animal, he spat on me, and he leered down at me with this sick look in his eyes." Jenna just held her tight, this was Caroline's time, but she couldn't stop the tears from falling the more the teen spoke.

"I thought..." Caroline pulled back and roughly wiped her face, which Jenna was quick to halt. "I thought that when I became a vampire, I'd never feel so dirty, so demeaned by someone. I'm immortal, the strongest I've ever been physically and emotionally, and he just..." she sobbed into her palms.

"You are strong," Jenna forcefully told her, pulling her psalm down so she could look Caroline dead in the eye. "You were in a cage and tortured." Caroline flinched at the last word, but Jenna continued. "But you prevailed. You are sat here, safe and loved. You are surrounded by so many people who love you. And what about him? Where is he?"

Caroline huffed out a laugh, "He's teeny tiny pieces."

Jenna pulled back, confused, "What?"

A real laugh fell from Caroline's chapped lips, "Yeah, Aella exploded him into teeny tiny bits."

Jenna blinked, then blinked again, "Okayyy." She blinked a third time, her shock making Caroline smile to herself. Even unconscious, Aella could stun. Jenna composed herself, "Okay. We'll table that for when my delinquent-" she side-eyed where Aella lay "-awakens. But for now, know you are safe and you are loved. Got it?"

Caroline nodded her head, "Got it."

Jenna picked up the tweezers with a wiry grin, "And so we continue." She had just started on another wooden piece when there were raised voices from the living room. Just as she plucked the wood out, the doors flew open, and there Damon stood, "Damon," Jenna smiled a little too widely, her gaze on another piece she was about the remove, "I wondered when you and your need-to-know-all attitude would burst in here."