ETERNAL.
011. | ❛ humanity police. ❜

The sun shines into the room through an open window with bars attached to the inside. Caroline awakens on a bed, only to realize that her wrists had been slit while she was unconscious, causing her to bleed out all over the bed.Caroline uses all the strength that she has rattling the bars on the windows, but it is no use. She groans and growls in frustration as she shakes the bars to no avail. She pants heavily, clearly out of breath from trying so hard to break free.

Every move Caroline makes it feels like sandpaper rubbing against her veins. They are trying to desiccate her by drying her out, then draining her blood, then starving her.

"Knock knock" someone said. Caroline turns her attention to  the sound of the voice. Caroline does not look pleased, as do Natasha and Steve.

"Natasha, let  me guess-- Humanity Police was your idea." Caroline cockily pointed at Steve.

"We really want you back, Caroline. "

Caroline lays on her side on the bed with her head propped up with one hand.

"I'm not here to preach to you, Caroline. I just came to show you this." She holds the envelope up and slips it through the bars. Caroline looks up at her, and gets up off the couch to take the letter and examine it curiously

"This letter from Phil arrived just a few days after his funeral. Apparently there was something he wanted to tell you."

"His impeccably perfect handwriting? Yep. I remember when he taught me how to write like that." In that moment it almost seems like she's feeling some emotion as she stares at her mother's handwriting on the envelope, but when she looks back up at Steve and Natasha, her eyes say it all.

"So, what, am I supposed to read this and snap back to sad, pathetic, motherless, lonely Caroline?"
She grabs a match book off the top of the old fireplace and lights the match, holding it up to the letter.

"No!" They both shout.

"Sorry guys,"she walks over to the table and drops the flaming letter in the ashtray,"But, if you want me back, you're gonna have to try a lot harder than that."
The letter burns, and their looks devastated, but Caroline looks gleeful at having beaten them at their game.

The other Avengers come into the room and see Caroline in this state. They start discussing a plan but she could only overhear small parts of the conversation

"Let me in, I can help her" Steve proclaimed and pacing around the room

"It's too dangerous we don't know what she is capable of." Natasha tried to calm Steve down.

"I know that she won't hurt me. If the Caroline that I fell for and the Caroline that you guys know is still in there, then she wouldn't hurt me. " Steve stood his ground and looked around for anybody who opposed but all were on board.

A fraction of a second later, she heard the door open quick and slam shut. Steve stood there and looked down at a very pale Caroline.

"I heard you. You know what else I hear?" She gets up from the bed and makes her way over to Steve, tripping over things. She leans forward toward him, and Steve looks uncomfortable

"Your heart. And it's racing." She moves in closer to him as though she's about to kiss him and whispers,"Am I making you nervous? Because I know how I make you feel."

Steve looks even more uncomfortable as he pulls away from her. Caroline seductively wraps her jacket around his neck. She then quickly yanks on the sleeves of her jacket, twisting it so that it hurts his neck but doesn't kill him. Steve grunts in pain before he falls unconscious onto the bed. Caroline sighs and smiles before she walks toward the door. She summons up all the strength she has and starts violently kicking the door, which, like the windows, is reinforced with iron bars. On the third try, she kicks the door right off the hinges and walk through the threshold and down the hall.

Caroline is driving a car down a dark, quiet road, when a police cruiser turns on their lights and siren behind her. She smiles gleefully,"Oh, thank God. Snack time."

Caroline pulls over and waits as the officer gets out of the cruiser with gun and flashlight in hand as they approach the car. The cop points the gun directly at Caroline as she approaches the window. Caroline turns with a smile at first but it disappears to complete shock when she sees her mother is the officer who has pulled her over. Liz looks at her angrily,"Step out of the car."

Caroline whispers,"Mom, what are you..."

"I said get out of the car."
Caroline gets out of the car, and goes toward her mother, but Liz immediately turns her around and pushes her roughly against her own car.

Liz said furiously,"You're under arrest "

"Mom, it's me. It's Caroline."

"I'm afraid you're mistaken. My daughter's kind, compassionate. She looks after those in need."

Caroline shakes her head desperately,"You're not real. You can't be real."

" I raised my daughter to be a good person."

"Stop!" Caroline turns around,"I know what you're doing."

"And she knows how hurt I would be to see her this way."

"Shut up! Stop! You can't be here."

"You are not my daughter!"

"I know what you're doing to me, Steve. My mom died. She's dead. This isn't real."She grabs Liz by the neck and chokes her.

Caroline gasps awake in bed to find that Steve is sitting above her. Steve was holding her hand sending thoughts into her hand. Vampires could get visions from other people if they think about hard enough. 

"It's working. The pain you're feeling, let it in."

Caroline said furiously,"Starve me, bleed me out, put visions in my head? That was your plan all along?"

Steve said sternly,"You need to come back now, Caroline."

"Just get away from me."

"I want to show you something. Just take my hand." He reaches his hand out so Caroline can grab it.

"Ugh!" She pulls a piece of the shutter off the window and points it at Steve, "I said get away from me."

"I can help you if you let me. Just please, take my hand. Please, Caroline."She sighs, lowering the stake and reaching out as though she's going to take his hand. He nods reassuringly, and she smiles before she quickly jams the broken shutter in his stomach. He groans and sputters in pain.

"I don't want your help, Steve. I just want you to die. Your heart's racing again, Steve. Let me fix that." She stabs him again, and Steve yelps.

"Agh! Caroline, please stop." He grabs hold of Caroline's hand, which is wrapped around the makeshift stake, and uses his mind to show her a memory. When she starts to see the memory, she stops what she's doing.

VISION

Steve walks into Coulson in the lab, "Hello, Coulson."

"I'm surprised that Caroline isn't with you. All she ever does is talk about you. "

"Well I guess that that's a good thing right?" he asks

"It's a good thing, from what she told me. You're a good to her, Steve. She certainly has missed you."

"Well, with everything going on, it may be possible that Caroline and I are heading in the same direction. I finally have her after all this time. After chasing her for so long."

"I'm just going to ask you one thing, Captain. If you've chased her for a long time, and you get her. Don't ever let her go."

The memory fades away, and they both return to the present, where Steve is starting to pass out  from the small part of the stake that is rubbing against his heart. Caroline quickly realizes what is happening and pulls the stake out. Steve gasps in relief, and Caroline steps away from him, looking emotional.

"I want to see the rest." Steve gasps and Caroline impatiently and forcefully grabs his arm to see the rest,"Let me see him!"

The memory fades back in. Steve is outside of the door, and he smiles as he walks away. Phil smiles back at him and closes the lab door, just as Caroline rushes up the door to see him.

"Wait, wait. Phil! Phil! It's me! It's Caroline. "She emotionally knocks on the door,"Just come outside. I want to talk to you."

Phil walks away, unable to see or hear her, and since Steve had left, there was no more of the memory for Caroline to see.

Caroline says desperately,"I want to read your letter! Please. Phil!" She continues frantically knocking on the door,"Phil, please. Come back."

She cries and turns around to find Steve ,"Make him come back!"
In the present day, Caroline is pleading with Steve, who looks at her sadly.

"I can't."

Caroline starts to cry,"No. Just show me the vision again, okay?
I... I want to see him, Steve. I... I need to know what he said in that letter."

"I already gave you the letter."
Caroline realizes what she did and frantically rushes over to the ashtray, only to find that the letter has been completely burned.

"No. No. No!" She starts to sob ,"What do you think he wanted to tell me?"

"Whatever it was, it's gone."

"No. I did this. This is all my fault." She drops onto her knees on the floor,"No. I tried to kill you, and then I hurt Natasha and then ...Oh, my God."

She becomes overwhelmed with emotion, and Steve looks at her sadly and tries to console her

"It's okay, Caroline. It's okay."

"I'm so sorry, Steve. I ruined everything. I ruined everything."

She sighs defeatedly, visibly overwhelmed with emotions about the acts she's committed. She closes the files and stands to her feet as she returns to the ashtray, still full of the ashes of the letter she never got to read. She starts to cry again.

Steve after being patched up, hesitates before entering the room to see her.

"Hey..."

"Hey."

"Caroline..."

Caroline whispers,"Don't... Don't."

"You okay?"

"How can I be okay after everything that I ruined?" Steve looks at her sadly, not knowing what to say.

"Just don't worry about me. I'm not gonna turn it off again, but you... And... Us... This... I just really need to get out of here."
She walks past him quickly, and he turns to watch her go.