thirty-three. prayer for the dying
Forbes Residence
Caroline wakes up on her big queen-sized bed in her bedroom, hearing some noise from downstairs, and checks the time to see that it's 6:32 A.M. She slowly goes downstairs to see what the noise is; suddenly Colin, the cancer patient, comes up at the main door glass window, "Caroline Forbes."
She gasps and jumps back a little in pure shock, "Oh my God. Colin."
"What the hell did you do to me?"
After a while, Isaac shows up from being called by her over the phone, to which he speed-walks inside through the main door in concern, "Hey."
"Hey. Mom's still sleeping. Don't wake her up." His best friend advised lowly.
The older young man looks down at the now-unconscious cancer patient lying down on the living room's three-seated couch, "What happened?"
"I don't know. H-He was fine when we left him at Duke, remember? He was running around and pain-free and scarfing down all that disgusting vending machine food. A-And now he's the opposite of that." The blonde reported with her arms folded, anxiety clearly plastering itself on her frowning face.
"Yeah? Well, clearly, he's not fine now. Wait. I thought you compelled him to forget everything after you fed him your blood. How did he find you?"
The younger one shrugs anxiously, "I don't know."
"What if this blood isn't even his? Is there any chance that your mom signed the house over to you?" The twenty-two-year-old vampire asked.
"I don't know. Maybe. She's been running around like crazy, saying she need to get her ducks in a row or..."
Isaac opens the thick main floral curtain slowly; Colin's unconscious face starts to burn under the sunlight, "He's a vampire, which means after you fed him your blood..." He trailed off to let his logical best friend finish.
"He died." Caroline looks up at her childhood friend in horror, wide-eyed.
****
Whitmore College
Minerva is walking across the campus courtyard alone with a light pink file on her right arm, closely holding it to her chest, on her way to the dormitory building when she is about to walk past a rushing Elena, who stops her.
"Hey." The younger caramel brunette mentioned, smiling.
"Hey. There you are." The older chestnut brunette returns the smile.
The Devon girl shrugs, "Here I am. What's the rush?"
Her vampire best friend sighs, "I'm late for my volunteer shift at the hospital. I only had a bite of Damon's sandwich earlier. Oh well. But hey--"
"I'm not buying you some. As you can see, I'm in a rush too."
"I see. Okay, I know everyone has their doubts about Jo's magic, but she has an entire month to get stronger and win the merge with Kai, so a little bit of support wouldn't kill anybody." The supportive medical volunteer advised.
"Speaking of killing people. How's Kai?" The curious banshee asked.
"Yeah, about that. Either he's still counting sheep or whatever the hell that psychopaths dream of, he's still a catatonic serial killer, which is good. Look, Alaric's gone out of town to get some mystical thingamabob to give Jo an edge, and Damon's job is to baby-sit Kai, unless you can do part-time because hey, I need him by my side, okay?" The Gilbert girl reminded her.
"Okay, so why can't Stefan and Rosie do the same?" The junior brought up.
"Because Kai already tried to kill them." The girl replied in an obvious tone.
"Right. True love prevails, good for those two. Babysitting, okay. Sounds good. Let's just hope Damon won't smother him with a pillow."
The vampire laughs slightly, "And if he starts twitching or something, just give him fifty milligrams of pentobarbital. You know how it goes."
"Yeah, just keep in mind that you're not a doctor, yet."
"You're just jealous that I'm so cute when I'm all doctorly." The professional medical intern teased her friend, which earns her a look and she giggles.
"Look, I can't promise to look after him tonight, okay? Mom's friend thought of bringing Mom, or maybe me too, to dinner at this little Italian joint that has eggplant so good that you actually think you're eating people."
Elena laughs slightly, "You don't even like eggplant. Unlike me."
"Yeah, well, my mom happen to have a weird eggplant obsession, just like you. Perfect." The nineteen-year-old banshee retorted sarcastically.
"Great." The sophomore smiles in a genuinely positive manner, "Damon also thought of maybe bringing me to this Arthouse Theater after dinner. They're playing some pretentious French flick."
Minerva laughs slightly, "You don't even speak French. Unlike me."
"Yeah, Damon knows it. But not to see the movie, silly. To hide in the back and throw popcorn at the hipsters." Elena laughs as the other frowns, "That look tells me that Damon and I have gone on this date already, haven't we?"
"Oui." The brilliant caramel brunette smiles.
The chestnut brunette sighs in a tired manner, "This is cheating, okay? He already knows everything about me. It's not fair."
"Cheating? Cheating is erasing all of your epic memories with him. That's cheating. And how's the truth not fair, hm?" The younger one teased back.
"I'm serious. Look, if Damon and I are going to do this, then we can't just pick up where we left off. Because I don't remember where that is."
"Aw, then how is any of this my fault?" Minerva earns a desperate 'Help me' look from the half-amnesiac which makes her laugh slightly, "I'm sure he gets that, Elena. It's just, where would you like to start?"
"At the beginning. What time is your mom going?"
"At six, if possible. Her friend's going to pick us- her up then."
The older one nods once, "Okay."
"Great."
"Great."
"Good."
Elena smiles and resumes to walk away, "Bye."
"Bye." Minerva simply waves at her best friend and proceeds to walk off in the opposite direction, across the yard, of the main dormitory building.
Once she enters the building, she heads down the corridor, remembering that today is Luke and Liv's twenty-second birthday and she plans to bring them out, if possible. Slowly, she stops in her tracks when she spots the twins' father, Joshua, in front of their closed dorm room door, who knocks while Minerva watches, "Olivia? You home? Sweetheart, it's your old man."
When there is no response from inside the room, Minerva finally approaches and mentioned him with a polite smile which he returns genuinely.
"Minerva. Is Olivia home?"
"Yeah. She's probably still asleep. Fancy seeing you here."
"Oh, I'm taking her and Lucas out to dinner." The man informed her.
"I see."
Just then, the room door finally opens to reveal Liv, who appears to have just got out of bed and she glances between the two before she focuses her gaze on her proud father, "Dad, hi. I thought we were meeting later."
"Well, we were, but I wanted a couple of extra minutes with my girl." Joshua hands his youngest daughter a wrapped present, "Happy birthday."
"Twenty-two. Yay. Go Gemini." Minerva added on and walks into the dorm room to find Tyler watching from behind the open door, looking puzzled.
****
Whitmore Medical Center
In a private room somewhere, Stefan, Rosie, Elena, Isaac, Damon and Jo are looking at the taken detailed X-rays of a cancer patient's brain, Colin Phelps.
"I had Duke over Colin's medical records. This head scan is from earlier this week." The forty-year-old magical doctor places another clear scan on the board, "This one was taken right here, ten minutes ago. See all that red?"
An anxious, greatly sympathetic Rosie sighs in a tired manner, "Oh God."
Damon reviewed bluntly, "Well, I'm no doctor but that guy is screwed."
"So the blood didn't heal him, it sped up his cancer and killed him." The Kartwright girl figured out intelligently as she looks at the scans in horror.
"So now, I have a stage ten cancer patient. Which, by the way, doesn't exist. Who is beyond terminally ill and a vampire, meaning all of his emotions are heightened and he can't die." The soon-to-be merging twin explained.
"Hey, no offense, but could someone tell us why we were called down here to listen to the story of Colin the Cancer Vamp?" The oldest vampire said.
"Damon." The caramel brunette mentioned him to mind his chosen words.
Liz comes in with her transparently-guilty daughter, "Because Caroline fed me her blood last night. So the same thing is going to happen to me."
A couple of minutes later, Isaac walks out of the hospital building, where Elena and Minerva are sitting outside together, waiting for him in concern.
"Hey." The young man mentioned as he walks up to the two girls.
"Any news?" The older girl asked as she gets up after her banshee friend.
"No, not yet. It's a little outside of Jo's expertise." The older vampire said.
The anxious chestnut brunette sighs in a nervous manner, "Did you both know that Caroline was going to give her mom vampire blood?"
"Yeah, we were there when it healed Colin." Her banshee friend replied.
"And then you left and then he died, so it didn't actually heal him; it did the opposite." The greatly sympathetic Gilbert girl surmised anxiously.
"Caroline had every reason to think it would work." He defended the girl for the sake of the blonde's unfortunate mother and also the girl's raw hope.
"I just wish that you'd done a little bit more research. Or waited like, a day." The younger vampire voiced, "You know? Don't rush it."
"Because you were thinking so rationally when Damon died. Right? Her mother is terminal. You didn't see the hope in her eyes when she thought that maybe her mother didn't have to die. And I didn't want to be the one to take that away from her." Isaac retorted in genuinely honest admittance.
Caroline is standing behind him; Minerva, Isaac and Elena all look at her awkwardly before the blonde begins to inform them, "Uhm, Jo has an idea."
****
Caroline is in the middle of the main hospital hallway, in front of a vending machine with the intention to distract herself when Isaac comes over, "Hi."
"Hey. The coffee machine's broken. Seriously, what kind of hospital is this? If you can't fix a coffee machine, then how are you supposed to be able to fix people?" The frustrated, overwhelmingly guilty Forbes girl sighs tiredly.
"Sure you don't need some real food? There's probably a machine around here that vends--" Her best friend whispered the last part, "--O-positive."
She sighs and leans against the broken vending machine, her arms folded, "I screwed up. Big time. Why did I feed her that blood? Ugh, you were right."
"You were trying to help." He reminded her of the truth of her intention.
"No, I was trying to fix something that I had no business trying to fix. It's like textbook definition of control freak from Hell, which I am." The blonde spat.
"No. No, you're not. Listen, you are an optimist. You always have been. You want to believe that anything is possible and that is exactly what your mom needs to hear right now. Okay? So you need to stop blaming yourself."
Loud unmistakable exclamations of pain are suddenly heard from a nearby private patient's room, that both Isaac and Caroline look up in surprise.
"Oh my God. That's Colin's room." The younger vampire stated.
Colin is suicidally stabbing himself in the chest lethally with a long metal bar when Caroline and Isaac rush in, Isaac closing the door behind them.
"I can't die." The poor man pulls the long bar, covered in his own blood, from his bloody chest and drops it on the floor, "Why can't I die?"
"Hey, hey. Calm down, calm down. It's okay. It's okay." Isaac begun.
"It's not okay. I'm in agony. I can hear my tumors growing!"
"Okay, we'll try to help, but just please stop hurting yourself." Caroline said.
Colin vamp-speeds over to her and grabs her arms, "You want to help me? Help me die." Suddenly, he collapses on the floor and Damon is standing right behind him, holding Colin's heart, surprising both Isaac and Caroline.
"Why the hell did you do that?" The horrified Forbes girl mentioned.
"He made a wish, I granted it."
"God." The twenty-year-old girl sighs in a tired, incredulous manner.
"The blood transfusion didn't work. So you didn't just kill him, Blondie."
"That's enough, Damon." Isaac piped in between them to defend her.
"No, it's fine. You know, he's just saying what everyone else is thinking. I killed my mom." Caroline walks out, slamming the door behind her.
****
Flower Shop
Caroline is browsing a variety of flowers somewhere near the medical center when Isaac, who has been searching for her around the hospital, comes in.
The young man watches his best friend in pure sympathy, "Caroline..."
"Good, you're here. I actually need a second opinion. I kind of like this because sunflowers are her favourite flower, but at the same time, I was also thinking maybe they're a little too over-the-top cheerful for a memorial service." The Forbes girl walks over to the pink roses, "So this was the second option, um, because roses are classic, right? I mean, especially in this shade of pink. Obviously, I would change out the vase, but--" She looks over to her friend, who is just watching her, "If you're thinking of saying something to make me feel better, don't. I don't deserve to feel better."
Then what does she deserve then? Isaac simply replied, "I wasn't."
"Good." Not, considering she made a huge mistake about her mother.
"I was actually thinking that you have far more important things to do than plan a memorial service for your mother. Who's still alive, by the way."
The positive blonde nods a little, "Yeah, but all of this still needs to be done, right? She's not going to want to live out the rest of her life as a vampire in excruciating pain. So I should do something that I'm good at, instead of making everything worse. Which arrangement?"
"Caroline, you took a risk. It didn't pay off, but you did it out of love. You made your mother sicker, okay? But what are you going to do now? Are you just going to bury your head in the sand? No, of course not." He begun.
She looks away, "I don't know...I don't--I don't know what to say to her."
"You don't have to say anything to her. Just sit with her." Isaac advised.
His best friend is on the verge of tears, "I can't. I can't even face her."
"Look, I know you're doing everything you can to avoid her. You're pretending like you're doing all these things for her, but you're not. You're just afraid to see her like that. And trust me, when she died, you would have this feeling that you'd give anything to have one more day with her."
She sighs heavily, "Oh God. What if she can't forgive me?" Her own daughter; her own mother deserves to resent her for what she did to her.
"She doesn't think there's anything to forgive. She just wants you to be with her. Because you're the one and only daughter she has." He expressed.
Caroline sighs and takes Isaac's warm hand; they leave the shop together.
****
Alaric Saltzman's Apartment
Tyler takes off the oximeter from Kai's right index finger; beeping; he keeps unhooking wires from Kai; a frustrated Minerva walks in, a sense of irritation building her up when she finds him which she mentioned with attitude, "Bad timing, Tyler. I'm in a mood. What do you think you're doing?"
Tyler is speechless when caught and Minerva throws her satchel down on the nearby couch before she marches over to him, using all of her mortal strength to grab him by the throat and slam him against the doorframe.
"What the hell--"
"What the hell are you doing, Tyler?! Oh wait. This has something to do with your beloved, doesn't it? Didn't she tell you to mind your own business and that means staying clear of the Gemini coven? Yeah, I'm pretty sure she did."
He breaks loose and starts coughing, "Liv's dad is in town, remember?" Today is also their birthday, hence Joshua Parker is here to watch them merge, though he obviously can't have that, considering it should be the other pair of twins' job to do so regarding the status of their own coven.
"Or you just have anger issues and like to pick on people while they sleep now that you're no longer a werewolf or a hybrid. That's sad. Hey, don't you have like, a Sociology exam to sit for this week? I think so." She snapped.
"What the hell is wrong with you? I told you earlier that Liv's trying to convince her dad to let Jo and Kai do the merge so she can live." With Luke.
Minerva scoffs, "Oh, so you just thought you'd come and grab Kai as a failsafe in case Josh says no to Liv and Luke. You just turn him loose and he merges with Jo anyway, huh? While I appreciate your efforts, sweetie, he's a sociopath of a siphoner. I'm not going to just let you walk out with him."
"Whose side are you on?" Her close friend snarled in confusion.
Minerva has an idea and grabs Tyler before she walks over to the bed and injects him with the Pentobarbital, causing him to pass out on the floor.
"Yep, that stuff works really well. Nighty-night. That should keep you down for an hour." The satisfied nineteen-year-old banshee tightly smiles before she takes her own close friend's cell phone to dial Liv, who answers.
"Not a good time." Considering she's now seated at a table for four people in the middle of the Skull Bar restaurant with Luke and their own father.
"Well, I'm sorry to hear that, hon. Big pitch going south, is it?"
The blonde twin frowns in utter confusion, "Where's Tyler?"
"Well, the good news is, your boyfriend and I, I think, have come up with a solution. Now it's a bit of a Hail Mary, but I think everybody gets what they need. I just have to ask Dad one question, so do you mind putting him on?"
"I want to talk to Tyler. Now." Her roommate demanded.
"He's, uh, out at the moment." The caramel brunette glances down at him.
Liv hands the phone to Joshua obediently, who takes it warily, "Yes?"
"Hello, sir. Minerva here. You know, I was planning to bring Liv and Luke out for today, but I see you want them all to yourself now that they're old enough to merge. About that, I've been sitting here Googling celestial events happening today and I was just curious: Would a Mercury-Venus conjunction give you enough juice to do a little Gemini merge party?"
"Why?" The strict leader of the coven grimly asked her.
"I'm going to take that evasive answer as a yes. So, here's the situation: I'm going to need you to use that planet party to merge your set of blonde twins ASAP. Because, well, unfortunately, your formerly comatose son is going to be on the loose and Hell-bent on beating you to the punch." Minerva then hangs up just as Kai is coming around then, "Rise and shine, karissimo."
Kai tries to use the traveler magic on Minerva, though it doesn't work.
"Yeah, sorry. That's not going to work. Looks like all that magic you sucked up drained away while you were asleep, which is good for me. Don't worry, I know where you can get more." Kai sits up and laughs once, humorlessly.
"You really think I'm going to trust you?" He looks up at her suspiciously.
The girl simply shakes her head, "No. And I'm not going to trust you. I just happen to need a siphoner and you're the only one in town." Urgently.
Kai looks down at the unconscious former hybrid, "Hi." He hops over him, off the single bed and fixes his gaze on Minerva, "Let's discuss my fee."
****
Whitmore Medical Center
In Liz's private room, Kai is washing his hands in the sink, "Alright. I need a twelve-gauge needle, stat. I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I need it." He walks to the bedside, where Elena, Damon and Minerva are.
"You're not a doctor, so stop playing games. Because I am a vampire and I will rip your head off if you screw this up." The former threatened him.
"What she said. So do your stupid little magic-suction trick and suck the magic out of her. Right now." Her boyfriend asserted with his arms folded.
"I get what you two see in each other. It's very dys-FUN-ctional." The young man laughs, "See what I did? Stressing the 'fun' in dysfunctional--"
"Just get on with it, Kai. Listening to you talk makes me want to die." Liz quickly interrupted him out of pure resentment and burning annoyance.
"That's good." An amused Kai puts his right warm hand on Liz's arm, the other on her cheek, sucking the magic from her; causing her to be in pain.
Damon unfolds his arms in deep concern as they watch, "Is it working?"
"I have no idea." His girlfriend's banshee friend replied with equal concern.
Jo comes in, sees Kai and stops in her own tracks out of horror and disbelief of her twin's presence, "What the hell is going on? What is he doing here?"
"Hey, sis. Little busy. Be with you in a jiffy." The siphoner mentioned.
"Elena?" The anxious doctor called out, desperate to get away from him.
"I'm going to let Minerva explain." Her medical intern quickly told her.
Minerva and Jo leave the room to talk while Damon stays by Elena's side. Jo leads Minerva into another room and Minerva closes the door behind them.
"Have you actually lost your mind?" The older woman retorted strictly.
"Hey, shh. Listen. You told me Liz was going to die in eight hours if the magic kept doing it's thing. He steals magic. You made it through med school, I figured you knew where I was going with this." The girl spoke.
"If you think Kai is doing this out of the goodness of his heart, I can assure you: he doesn't have one. What's the price?" Jo demanded assertively.
"He wants to merge. Tonight." Minerva revealed reluctantly, at first, and she picks up on the sound of Liz starting to have a heart-attack, "Oh my God."
"Yeah, I can't merge tonight. I'm not ready--"
"I think she's having a heart-attack." The young banshee reported.
The doctor frowns, clueless and horrified of the reference, "What?"
Minerva tries to drown out Liz's voice with little success, "I'm sorry." She rushes out of the private room, unawarely rushing past an invisible Kai, cloaking himself skillfully, who enters the room where Jo is to reappear.
"Huh. I guess she do know how to take a hint." Kai mentioned to his sister, who gasps in surprise of him, "Isn't this the part where you start running?"
"I've spent my entire life running from you. I'm not running anymore."
Kai smirks, grabs Jo's arm and they walk out. Meanwhile, Minerva stops outside of the waiting room, breathing heavily just as her cell phone rings; it's Cassie, which she declines. In a slight panic, she dials Isaac, who is not around the medical center with Caroline, but it only leads her to voicemail.
"Hey, it's Isaac. Leave a message."
"Where are you? What are you doing out there with her? Liz is dying and--" Minerva stops when she can hear Joshua starting the merge ceremony between Liv and Luke, somewhere, who have taken their father's hands.
"Sanguinem desimilus, sanguinem generis fiantus."
Minerva starts to cry when she can also hear Liv and Luke start experiencing striking agony, "Just come back, Isaac, okay? Please. I need you."
"You're merging us?" Luke cried out in denial through the agony.
Minerva ends the voicemail and enters the empty waiting room to forcefully listen to the cries of her loved ones despite her trying to drown them out.
"Kai has been released. He's going after Jo. I can't let him get to her." Joshua announced to his youngest twins while Liv cried out for him to stop.
"I'm going to kill her! She's not strong enough, Dad."
Joshua apologized before he continued to chant, "There's no other option."
Minerva breathes a sigh of relief when Tyler comes and shoves Joshua away. Although her banshee-hearing doesn't end there when Minerva can still hear Elena doing compressions on Liz, who's critically isn't responding in her room that the young banshee refuses to emit her scream as she gets up and decides to leave the building which she starts to do so, weakly.
"It's her heart. I'm losing her, Damon." No, this can't be happening.
"Okay, no offense Elena, but I think we need to get a real doctor."
"So find one! Now!"
Suddenly, Minerva can hear the chant of the merge ceremony between Kai and Luke which has her to stop in her tracks for a while, breathing heavily.
"Sanguinem desimilus, sanguinem generis finantus."
A young female nurse is about to walk past her, the sensitive banshee has her ears covered as she tries to cry silently, gasping each time that the nurse gently holds her back in a comforting manner, "Sweetie, are you alright?"
No. "Y-Yeah, yeah--"
"Are you sure?"
"I'm fine. It's just, a headache."
"Okay. Then you can stay in the waiting room while--"
"No, I-I'm waiting for someone. Outside." Minerva lets out a shaky sigh, utterly nervous about her premonitions, when the chanting stops.
"Okay." The young nurse watches the caramel brunette walk away.
Outside of the hospital building, Minerva is sitting by the stone bench when Cassie and April finally show up; Minerva sighs and rolls her eyes at them.
A genuinely relieved sigh leaves the tired April, "Oh hey. There you are."
"Sweetheart. Baby, what happened?" The woman sees the dry tears on her daughter's face, "Oh dear. Are you alright? Is Liz okay? I was so worried you didn't answer your phone, so we came here. We heard the Sheriff has--"
"She's down. Damon probably compelled a doctor to save her, which is good enough, for now." The younger Devon said, "How was the dinner?"
Cassie sighs as she senses her smart daughter's all-too-familiar sarcasm, "I called you if you wanted to come, but it seems like you're busy and--"
"I've been busy listening to the near-death of the people I care about, if you haven't noticed." Minerva gestures to the transparent dry tears on her face.
Cassandra slowly shakes her head, guiltily, "Sweetheart, I am so sorry--"
"I'm not blaming you, Mom, really. The thing is, I don't know who's going to die anymore, and it hurts, just hearing them in pain, struggling to hold on to their lives. And the grief that follows..." The poor banshee shakes her head.
Cassie sits beside her and tries to hold her close when Minerva lightly pushes her away as the caramel brunette is on the verge of tears once more.
"Minerva, look at me. I'm here now, Mommy's here. I can take you home and we can have dinner together, just the three of us if you like." A family.
"I wanted to tell you everything that you don't get to hear, but you were always so busy. But surprisingly, you're not really that busy when it comes to your friends, huh? I wonder what it is about them that's so special."
Cassie looks away from her for a moment, "Well, they're gone now. You can tell me whatever it is that I don't get to hear. Maybe on the way home?"
The older teen shakes her head a little once again, "It's all about you."
"No, no." Elena starts the compressions again, inside of Liz's private room, on the unconscious cancer patient, "I will not let this happen. Wake up!"
"What is?" Cassie questioned, clueless, with a serious frown on her face.
"Hey, she's gone." Damon told his denying girlfriend.
"Come on." The determined medical intern keeps trying.
"No, no! Mom, Mom! Mom, Mommy! No, Mom, no." Caroline comes in, "Don't leave me, please. Please, no. Please don't leave me, Mom."
Minerva turns to her mother who has a questioning look, deciding whether or not to tell her before she shakes her head once again, "Forget it."
"Life's too short, Minerva. Immortal or not, don't waste another minute." Cassie advised as her only daughter gets up and blinks the tears away.
Afterward, Liz is just waking up once again in her private hospital room inside; Caroline is sitting on the edge of her bed, watching her in concern.
"Hello, stranger."
Her greatly concerned daughter feels a sense of relief wash over her, "Hi."
"Are you okay?"
The younger Forbes nods, "I've just been sitting here, trying to figure out what to say. I guess I should lead with: I'm sorry for almost killing you."
The older one laughs slightly, "Oh, sweetheart, please. You know me, I'm the world's unluckiest gambler."
Caroline shakes her head, "I'm just sorry that I wasn't here. I couldn't--"
"No, no, no, no. This wasn't your fault. I need you to stop beating yourself up. Can you do that for me?" The woman requested in a sweet manner.
"Okay."
"Can you say it like you mean it?"
"I will. Mom, you put the house in my name."
Liz nods, "Couple weeks ago. Just in case anything--"
"Yeah. Well, I don't--I'm not ready for that yet."
"I'm sorry. And I promise you: I will stick around as long as I can. Okay?"
Her one and only beloved daughter nods, "Okay."
"Come here." They hug right before Isaac comes in with a new cup of coffee.
"Hey." Caroline slowly pulls away from the embrace and sees him.
"Hey." Her childhood best friend smiles at them both.
"Where'd you get that?" The Forbes girl mentioned.
"I guess someone fixed the coffee machine." Isaac gives Caroline the coffee.
"That smells amazing. I would give you a million dollars for a decaf latte. What do you say? Would you mind getting one for your poor, sick mom?"
"I can do that. I'll be right back." Caroline gets up and walks out of the room.
"So, looks like we can cross miracle cure off the list." The woman begun.
"Must be some other option." Her own daughter's best friend remarked.
"I need you to promise me something."
The twenty-two-year-old nods a little, "Okay."
"When I'm gone, Caroline is going to need you. Even if she doesn't know it. She's going to need someone to help her move on with her life. Someone to just make her smile." Liz cries, "Promise me that you will do that, Isaac."
Isaac gently takes her left warm hand in his own sincerely, "I promise."
Without their awareness, a torn Caroline is actually outside the wide open door of her mother's private room, listening with a frown on her lovely face.
****
Whitmore Park
An anxious Jo is holding an unconscious Luke in her arms, crying in the center of the park where the merge took place, "Luke. Luke, wake up. Luke."
Damon and Minerva finally come quickly into the main park together.
"Oh God, Luke." She rushes over to kneel by Luke's unconscious state.
"Good. You're still alive. That's going to save me a huge blowout with Ric when he gets back." The vampire looks down at Luke and Kai on the ground, both unconscious from the spontaneous merge decided by the younger brother instead, "We are definitely coming into something late."
"Luke showed up and he merged with Kai." The woman stated tearfully.
"We know. I heard them." The nineteen-year-old banshee reported with pity.
"Huh. So I guess adding the words 'twin merge' to my vocabulary was pointless, 'cause they ain't twins." Her doppelgänger's ex-lover uttered.
"He's not supposed to be here. The only reason he's here is because you let Kai out!" Jo directed at the Devon girl, who winces with hot teary eyes.
"I'm sorry--"
"Luke. Luke, wake up. Wake up, Luke."
"Well, uh, let me give him some of my blood." Damon offered in sympathy.
"It wouldn't help. It's up to them now. Whoever wakes up is the winner. And whoever doesn't..." Luke takes a breath and opens his eyes; Jo gasps in surprise, "Oh my God. Luke. Can you hear me? Can you hear me?"
Luke's cell phone rings for the fifth time, and Minerva knows that it's Liv, who is somewhere in the back alley of the Skull bar with Joshua and Tyler, awaiting for Luke to come back and wondering where he is, concerned.
"Luke? Wake up, Luke. Oh, God. Come on." Her youngest brother opens his eyes; Jo feels for a pulse, horrified, "No. Oh my God." She begins crying, "No, no, no. Oh my God. Luke. He's gone. He saved me and he's gone."
"You win some, you lose some." Minerva looks up while Damon turns and Kai is standing there, grinning triumphantly, "Except for me. I always win." Damon moves toward him, but Kai disappears, cloaking himself instantly.