"slowly, so slowly. like petals falling from a rose." 

Text to; Stefan Salvatore                                                                                                                                                        I hope you are safe

Unread

"I was born in 1450, that makes me 500 years old." We are sitting in the library, Rose's head is laying on my lap. She is taking long labored breaths, I feel the rhythm in my thighs.

"Well, if you were a bottle of wine." Damon comes in carrying a bag of blood, a sad smirk on his face that I can see through. That Rose and I can both see through.

"So I can die I've lived long enough," she sighs on my lap. A deep breath rattles through me.

I giggle, "I think I've been here longer than that, so it's my time to go too then." She strokes a hand over my thigh, gentle and kind.

"You sure have been Lola," another deep breath.

"You know, if you're gonna be morn, I'm just gonna kill myself to put me out of my misery." He pours some of the blood into a heavy scotch glass and holds in front of me.

I look at her intently, "What do you actually know about me Rose? You told me the first day that we met that I looked just like her, who was I then?" She struggles to laugh and it comes out in little connected coughs. "I'm afraid that it isn't my story to tell Lola." I accept it, at least I try to and I continue to swirl my fingers over the tough leather of this couch we are laying on.

"Come on, it's just a little werewolf bite." Damon is so worried, it shines through in every thing he says, every careful movement he makes.

'Just a little, fatal to a vampire werewolf bite."

"Well, according to a legend with a notoriously unreliable source. Drink up." He slowly tips the glass of blood back in front of her lips, she swallows it with care. "Blood heals."

She does get some of her energy back, she can sit up for a second again, "Yes it does feel like it's working."

"Let's have a look, come on. Let me see." She sits up and leans on my leg, Damon pulls down her bathrobe from her shoulder. The wound is looking worse than ever. Festering and infected it has spread down her back, showing black veins and red wound.

"Definitely better, right Elena?" She has joined us in the room and is staring slack mouthed at the wound, he doesn't ask me because he knows I would be too honest. It would hurt.

"Um, it's not bad." She stutters out and I know that Rose can feel and hear my silence.

Damon speaks again, "where is Stefan?" Elena shakes her head in response.

"He left. I need you to talk to him. He's convinced that he has to find Isobel but I think that's going to upset Elijah," at the mention of the original vampires name I look up at Elena. She nods her head in understanding, telling me that we will discuss the terms of the deal later.

Damon takes a breath, "No can do. I'm with Stefan on this one, but if you could play nurse for a little." Rose coughs up some blood. "It's not necessary."

"It is necessary. Elena is a do-gooder. It's in her nature, she just can't resist. And Lola will do it out of guilt, just like she does most things in her life." I flip him off behind my back.

Damon and Elena leave the room for a bit and I don't know what they are talking about, I can guess however that it is about Rose's quickly impending death. She lays her head down on my thigh again and closes her eyes to the world. I finally let out my own breath.

She supports herself with on arm on Elena's and one on my shoulder, we are carrying her through Damon's room and into his large bed.

"I hate this. I'm a vampire, I haven't had a cold in five centuries." I smile at her.

"Just get in the damn bed Rose."

"You used to be nicer Lola, a few centuries ago when the weight on your shoulders wasn't a heavy."

I help her lay down and Elena puts the blanket over het, tucks her in tightly.

"What a shame, I wish I could've met me then." She cringes when her back touches the mattress.

"We don't get sick. When we die, it's fast and sudden and it's certainly not drawn out in illness."

Elena sighs, "you're not gonna die." She responds in a raspy voice.

"Such a human thing to say." I notice Elena looking around Damon's room, exploring it with her eyes and taking all the information in. So does Rose.

"You've never been in Damon's room before, have you?" she asks as I sit down on the other side of the bed beside her. The question makes me feel uncomfortable because I know that Elena knows that I have been in here, more than once.

"Not what you expected?" she smiles, "it's just a room with a bed. Maybe I expected there to be silk sheets." I giggle. "That's my fault, I stole them for my couch fort."

We all smile for a bit, forgetting about jealousy and death and everything else.

"You're lucky, you know. No one's ever loved me the way you are loved." She looks at us both, slowly turning her head to look me in the eyes.

"I doubt that," I smile and put my hand in hers carefully.

"Trevor was my best friend. Nothing more. I spent all those years on the run from Elijah. I just never thought it was a good idea to set up roots. The whole idea of family is not exactly compatible with being a vampire. Why are you so eager to give up?" Elena shakes her head.

"I'm not giving up on anything." She hands her a glass of blood.

"And how about you Lola, what do you call your deal with Elijah if it isn't giving up?"

"I needed him to be safe Rose-" I let my head fall into Damon's many pillows "-I owe him that much. It was my best option."

"It was your easiest option," she retorts but Elena interrupts her, "That's not fair."

"Do you really think that your witch friend destroyed the moonstone?"

"I spoke with Bonnie. I know that she had the help of another witch; unless you mean it's Elijah's witch, so no, I don't." Rose coughs.

"You really are determined to die, aren't you? At least I ran, you're not even trying." She starts to slowly close her eyes and her breathing slows down, "I'm so tired." I slowly get up from the bed, trying not to move her around too much, so she can sleep. Elena and I are ready to go, standing in the doorway when she starts to talk in her sleep.

"No, stop wait. Tell them to prepare the horses." She tosses and turns.

"It's okay Rose. Just get some sleep. You'll feel better when you wake up."

"Trevor, don't be so stupid. You're never going to make it there before the sun."

Suddenly she sits up, I can see the pain in her eyes.

"Lola, Lola, I need more blood." Elena hands me the glass she was holding in her hands and I take it from her, we share a look of worry in passing.

I slowly feed it to her, like I saw Damon do in the library, it barely passes her lips before she starts to throw it up, covering my shirt in blood. She starts panting loudly.

"It's okay, everything's gonna be alright." I pet her hair softly and she lays back down. I sign to Elena to follow me to the bathroom. She scrubs at my shirt with a sponge, behind us Damon's large bathroom with his free standing bath. The blood doesn't come out, so we give up and return to the room. When we come back Rose isn't in the bed anymore.

"Ro-" comes out of my mouth before I am thrown back and Elena gets pushed against a wall by Rose, her hand tightly wound around her neck.

"It's all your fault, Katerina. You Katerina, you did this." Elena tries to breath.

"It's Elena. Rose, Rose! I'm Elena." But Rose doesn't respond and pushes her against the wall harder.

"You betrayed us!"

I raise my voice as loud as I can, "Rose-Marie!" her full name comes to mind all of a sudden. She lets go of Elena's neck and she glides to the ground.

"Lilyana?" Rose whispers. And I don't know exactly who it is, but it must have been me once.

"Yes Rose, it's me Lola." I reach my hand out to her and she takes it.

"I always did like you better than your sister." I don't know what it means but I accept it as the truth as Rose squeezes my hand.

"I'm Lola and that is Elena, you remember Elena right?" she turns around and looks at her and immediately the hallucination is broken, her vampire face disappears.

"Oh my god Elena. I'm so sorry. I don't know what's happening to me. I'm sorry." Elena gets up from the ground slowly, supporting herself on the wall.

"You're gonna be alright."

"My mind, I'm." I look at Elena and we both know the same thing. This is the slow descent of Rose, she is dying and she might be dangerous.

"It was just for a second." I lie when I take her hand in mine, she looks so fragile like this, nothing like the dangerous vampire she was a second ago.

"I'm sorry, don't be scared of me."

"I'm not. I'm not but you need to rest." Elena spins the rest of the lie together, calming her down. We once again help her to Damon's bed and tuck her in.

"I'm scared." Lola whispers and I feel my heart break into a thousand pieces.

"You're not alone, we're right here." Elena responds, she lays a hand on her forehead.

"Here, where's here?" so confused. So obviously dying and it hurts to see.

"Damon's bedroom, you're in Damon's bedroom." I tell her carefully.

"I want to go home." There are tears starting to form in her eyes now and with my free hand I grab Elena's, we're in this together. She squeezes it in acknowledgement.

"Tell me about it, your home." Rose lets out a satisfied sigh.

"St. Austell, thirty kilometers south of London. With fields and trees and horses." Elena smiles.

"Sounds beautiful."

"When you live long enough, everything disappears. So much time wasted, I just wish I wouldn't have been so afraid."