Barely A Memory

Chapter 22

The moment they pulled up to the Salvatore boarding house, Stefan was the first to get of the car. As soon as he came in contact with the fresh, Virginia air, he inhaled deeply. Elena wondered how long he'd been holding his breath.

The first thing Stefan noticed was Caroline, happy and waving on the lawn. As soon as he saw his friend, he dropped his duffel bag on the asphalt driveway and ran at her with a smile on his face, colliding with her in a hug that nearly sent her off of her agile feet. "Jesus. Hey!" Caroline giggled, wrapping her arms around his shoulder to keep balanced. "Nice to see you too!"

Stefan laughed and buried his face in her shoulder. "I missed you." Caroline grinned widely. She had to admit, it felt great to know that at least someone cared. It meant the world to her that her friendship with Stefan, although he did not remember all of it, was the most solid thing in his life.

Once they pulled away from their hug, she slapped him on the arm. Hard. She was a vampire, after all, and she did not hold back.

"Ow!"

"You are terrible at responding to texts!" she complained angrily. "I sent you like thirty and the first time you actually text back is today. Really?"

Stefan laughed again and shrugged his shoulders. Elena watched this exchange from afar, her heart heavy in her chest. So that was why Stefan was on his phone during the whole trip. She hated the twinge of bitter jealousy she felt in the pit of her stomach. In Stefan's eyes, Caroline could do no wrong. She was there for him, in ways she could never be. Elena wanted to bring that smile to Stefan's face. She wanted to make him laugh simply by looking at him. But she couldn't. At times, sure, but now, after being given multiple chances...

She'd blown them all.

"So is it true?" Caroline asked after the two had quickly caught up, heading into the boarding house with a few bags in tow. "You remember?"

"No," Stefan quickly answered, shaking his head. "I don't remember any more now than I did when I left."

"Then what were you talking about in your texts? You said, 'I can remember.'"

He took one of his bags off of her shoulder as they made their way up the stairs into his room. It was kind of strange, how familiar old Stefan's room was becoming to him. "I can. If I want to." When Caroline gave him a confused look in response, he continued, "Think of it like a locked box. I have the key. When I want to open said box, I can, but I haven't yet."

She nodded her head in understanding but needed to vocalize the question swimming through her brain. "Why not?"

"I don't know," Stefan sighed. "I was going to do it with Elena. You know, choose a meaningful moment. But now, I don't know. I just don't know."

XXXX

Elena tried to be helpful with carrying bags, but all she really ended up doing was following Damon back and forth as he brought their few belongings into the house; her mind was elsewhere. Now, after everything was settled, she was left alone with him in the parlor, which suddenly felt a whole lot emptier than it used to.

"So these vampires," Damon started, dropping Katherine's heavy bag on the ground, "They just left?" He raised a suspicious brow, to which Elena simply nodded. "From your text at least, they seemed pretty... determined."

Suddenly interested in the cracks on the floor, she swallowed. "I don't know. I just told them we had backup and... um, I said that we had Elysia on our side." Her lies appeared effortless, but not effortless enough. Damon once again rose an eyebrow but simply agreed.

"They've probably heard of her."

"Yeah." Elena finally looked up to meet his eyes in a gaze that fed the awkward silence. He was waiting for her to say something, anything else, but she had nothing to say, nothing except for a possible Where's Stefan? She needed to talk to Stefan, yes, but she decided not to press the subject around Damon. "So, you and Katherine." Her voice was cautious, venturing into unknown territory.