10. Christmas Through Your Eyes

2007, Christmas

"How many marshmallows are you going to put in your hot chocolate, Aria?" Caroline asked, as her and Aria stood by the hot chocolate stall at their high school's Winter Festival.

"A lot more, Care Bear" Aria replied, putting more marshmallows into her hot chocolate.

"Your cup has more marshmallows then hot chocolate" Caroline pointed out.

"And?" Aria asked.

"You need help" Caroline teased.

"And you need to live a little" Aria teased back.

Caroline and Aria looked at other and suddenly the two best friends bursted out in laughter.

"I love you" Caroline said, putting her arm around her best friend's shoulder.

"Back at you, Forbes" Aria said, smiling at her best friend.

As the best friend stole more marshmallows, a snowball hit Aria in the back, shocking her.

"Are you serious, Jeremy?!" Aria yelled, while the youngest Gilbert laughed at Aria's expression, "Stop laughing, I nearly dropped my marshmallows!".

"I had to Aria, it's Christmas" Jeremy defended.

"We are officially in war!" Caroline yelled, making both Jeremy and Aria laugh.

"Yes we are!" Aria yelled.

"Come on you two drama queens" Jeremy said, putting his arms over the two girls, "Let's check the tree out".

"The tree that I picked out" Caroline reminded.

"We know" Both Aria and Jeremy said stimuteanously.

"You haven't stopped reminding us Care, since you got the damn tree" Aria said.

"I need people to know that it is due to me they have such a beautiful Christmas tree" Caroline defended.

Aria and Jeremy looked at each other, amused expressions on both their faces.

***

Present Day,

"Mom!" Aria and Caroline yelled, running over to their mother and hugging her.

Liz chuckled but nonetheless hugged her daughters back, "I missed you to both as well".

"Wait" Caroline said, breaking the hug, "What are you doing at our dorm? You're supposed to be at the Mystic Falls tree-decorating ceremony".

"I'm playing hooky this year" Liz replied, "I figured, just because my daughters and their kids can't come home for the holidays, doesn't mean the holidays can't come to them".

Aria chuckled, "Oh my god" she said, looking into one of the boxes Liz brought with her, where a ornament with a picture of baby Caroline and baby Aria was in, "You brought all of mine and Care's favorite ornaments".

"Liz, next time you give us an order, please make it more clear" Kol said, entering the room, "We had no idea what Christmas lights you wanted so we bought all the ones we could find".

Aria, Caroline and Liz looked at Kol in shock when he placed two bags full of Christmas lights on the ground.

"Oh my god" Aria whispered shocked.

"Yeah, they don't listen to me" Rebekah said, entering the room, with little Hope in her arms.

"Hey, littlest Mikaelson" Aria greeted, taking Hope from Rebekah, "Did you miss your favorite Aunt?".

"Hey!" Rebekah complained.

"Don't be jealous" Aria teased, making her best friend laugh.

"Wait, where's my son?" Caroline asked.

"And where are my kids?" Aria asked confused.

"With their fathers at the car" Kol replied, "They are bringing in the rest of the lights".

"Did you idiots buy the whole store?!" Caroline asked shocked.

"Most of the store" Kol corrected.

Aria turned to an amused Rebekah, "Why didn't you stop them?".

"Because it was very entertaining seeing three ancient vampires have no idea which Christmas lights to buy" Rebekah replied, "You should have seen your kids face Aria, seeing their father, godfather and uncle look so clueless brought them a lot of joy".

"Stop spreading false rumors, Barbie Klaus" Damon said, entering the dorm room, with Asher in one arm and a bag of Christmas lights in his other arm.

"What did you do, mom?" Aria asked, seeing so many lights.

"I didn't think they would be this clueless" Liz defended.

"Have you met them?" Caroline asked, taking Hope from Aria, so she can take Asher from Damon.

"Forget the lights, please bring Alec, Mia and Jayden in, it's freezing outside" Aria said.

"On it" Kol said, as he and Damon left to grab the remaining kids.

"Now this feels like Christmas" Liz said, smiling at her daughters and the little ones in their arms.

Suddenly, Aria's phone started ringing, "Hey, Ric" she greeted, taking her phone out of pocket and realising Ric was calling her.

"Have you seen Jo?" Alaric asked.

"Not today" Aria replied, "Why?".

"I think Kai might have her" Alaric replied, shocking Aria.

***

"So I asked Noah to ask around the hospital, and according to him, Jo has been M.I.A since last night" Aria revealed, as her and Damon met with Alaric at his apartment, after leaving the triplets with everyone else, "But according to Noah, last night a bunch of stab victims had come to the ER, and now along with Jo, there's a stab victim also missing".

"It was Kai" Alaric realised, "Jo knew he'd come after her, and he did".

"Not to give you boyfriend lessons or anything, but if you knew Jo's wack-job brother was out on the loose and after her, don't you think keeping an eye on her would've been a smart move?" Damon asked Alaric.

"And what would you have had me do, Damon?" Alaric snapped, "Ask you to compel Jo to stay put?".

"Hey!" Aria called out, "Putting personal feelings aside, right now we need to figure out a plan on how to save Jo from Kai".

"Plan's easy, find Kai, then kidnap Kai" Damon said.

"No, kill Kai" Alaric snapped.

"Kai is not dying until I know for sure he can't help us keep my kids safe" Damon snapped back.

Aria sighed, she didn't know who to support in this argument, Alaric did have a point, Kai was dangerous, but at the same time, Damon was right as well, Kai knew how to stop his father from hurting the triplets.

"Look guys, we'll figure out what to do with Kai, once we figure out how to save to Jo" Aria said, "And right now, Kai can't merge with Jo, she has no magic, so she's relatively safe, for now".

"Jo doesn't have magic because it's stuffed in a knife that was stolen and hidden by yours truly" Damon revealed, "Kai won't find it".

"When the hell did you go to Portland?" Aria asked confused.

"Me and Kol went while Caroline was giving birth" Damon replied.

"Of course, you two did" Aria mumbled, not even surprised.

"What if Kai does a locater spell?" Alaric asked.

"That's impossible" Damon replied.

"Why?" Alaric asked.

"Cause Kai doesn't have his own magic" Aria informed.

"If the only way to restore Jo's magic is to reunite her with that knife, Kai's gonna come for it" Alaric said.

"Not if I cloak it" Aria suggested, "I mean, I haven't met a witch who can fight my magic, not yet at least".

"Perfect" Damon said, "Let's do that then".

"Great" Aria said, "So Damon, where's the knife?".

"The knife is right here where I hid it" Damon replied, grabbing a portrait from Alaric's wall, and opening the back of it, "Ta-da".

 "Damon" Aria said shocked, "There's nothing in there".

"Opps" Damon said, realising someone had managed to take the knife.

Aria opened her mouth to tell Damon off, when her phone started ringing, "Yeah, Kol?" she answered.

"Ri, you need to get to the hospital now" A panicked Kol said, confusing both Damon and Aria.

"Why?" Aria asked, "Is everything okay?".

"It's your mom Aria" Kol replied, shocking Aria.

***

"Dad's not here yet" Caroline complained, walking over to her mother.

"Oh, yeah, you know what? He's not gonna make it" Liz informed, "You remember his friend Steven? He needed help moving a couch or something, so he's gonna miss out".

"But it's an undeclared law that the sheriff and her husband put the star on the tree" Caroline said, annoyed with her father's absence.

"Then we will just have to let the Lockwoods have the honors this year" Liz said.

"Or, instead of the sheriff's husband, the sheriff's daughter helps her put the star on the tree" Aria suggested, walking over to the duo.

"Even a better idea" Liz said, smiling at her best friend's daughter.

Caroline sighed, "Is something going on between you two?" she asked her mother.

"It'll be fine, I promise" Liz assured her daughter.

"Mom, I'm a freshman in high school, okay? I can handle adult conversations" Caroline said, "Right, Aria?".

Aria nodded, "Definitely" she said.

"No worry during the holidays, okay?" Liz told the two best friends, "And that tree is not gonna decorate itself, go you two".

"Yeah, come on Care, after this I have to leave" Aria said.

"Why?" Caroline asked.

"You know why" Aria replied, walking away from her best friend and her mother.

Caroline sighed and turned to her mother, who was looking at Aria's retreating figure with a sad smile.

"You know every holidays Aria visits her parents grave, and I know you don't want her to be sad on the holidays, but you need to let her do this, for herself" Liz told her daughter.

"Yeah, I know" Caroline mumbled, "I just hate seeing her upset"

"I know baby" Liz whispered, in the same boat as her daughter, but she knew that neither her or Caroline can stop Aria from going to her parents grave.

***

"Caroline!" Aria yelled, running over to her sister.

"Aria" Caroline cried, hugging her sister.

"What happened to her?" Aria asked, looking at their mother through the hospital window.

"I don't know, she just collapsed" Caroline replied, "You know, one second, we were decorating, and then the next, she's just on the ground, maybe she forgot to eat, you know, sometimes she skips breakfast".

"Yeah, maybe" Aria said nodding, "I mean, that's probably the most logical situation, what else could it be?".

"Exactly" Caroline said, both sisters on edge seeing their mother in the hospital bed.

"Where's Nik?" Aria asked.

"He's gone to get me something to take the edge off" Caroline replied, "Where's Kol?".

"Since I came here, Kol went to help Alaric and Damon with Kai" Aria replied.

"And the kids--".

"Are with Rebekah, Enzo, Jeremy and April" Aria finished, "They're fine Caroline, and mom's going to be fine too".

"Yeah, they have her sedated" Caroline informed, sitting on the chairs, "She's going to be asleep for a while, can you just come and distract me? Let's talk about you and Damon?".

"Me and Damon?" Aria asked confused, sitting next to her sister.

"I think it's great how he's always been there for you when it mattered" Caroline said, "You know, through thick and thin, and good times and bad times".

"Just like Nik's there been there for you" Aria said.

"Yeah" Caroline whispered, a small smile on her face, "We got pretty lucky didn't we?".

"A little bit" Aria replied, making Caroline laugh.

***

"Here" Klaus said, handing Aria a cup of coffee.

Aria gave Klaus a small smile, and after grabbing the coffee from his hand, turned back to look at mom, "Nik, Mom just fainted, so why are they so many doctors around her?" she asked, "Do you think it's something bad?".

"I have no idea, Ari" Klaus replied honestly.

"I need to know" Aria said, just as one of the doctors came out of the ward, "I need to know what's wrong with my mom".

Before Klaus could stop her, Aria quickly ran infront of the doctor who came out of the ward.

"I need you to tell me what's wrong with Liz Forbes" Aria compelled.

"Her recent MRI showed a lesion on her brain stem, we think it's metastasized to her spine".

Aria looked at the doctor in shock, not believing her ears, "Is it curable?" she asked, "Like maybe through a operation or something?".

"If the tumor's already spread, it would be impossible".

"Please tell me she didn't know" Aria cried, "Please tell me my mom didn't know about this, tell me she didn't hide this from me and Caroline".

"I'm sorry, but Elizabeth Forbes has known for a few weeks now, but news like this takes time to digest".

Hearing the doctor, Aria stumbled back in shock, but before she could fall to the ground, someone grabbed her.

"Careful, Aria" Noah said, steadying her.

"My mom" Aria whispered, tears streaming down her face, "Noah, my mom".

"I know, Aria" Noah said, "I heard everything".

"I can't--I can't--", Aria suddenly started having trouble breathing.

"Woah, Aria, you need to breathe" Noah said, as Klaus rushed to over to his best friend.

"Ari, breathe" Klaus said.

"I--", black dots suddenly started clouding her vision.

"She's having a panic attack" Noah realised.

"Caroline" Klaus whispered, texting his girlfriend who was outside talking to Rebekah, "She needs Caroline".

"Hey, hey, stay with me Aria" Noah said, seeing Aria slowly lose conscious.

"I can't--breathe", Aria whispered, she felt like she was dying, her heart was pounding rapidly, and she had no control over her breathing.

"Aria, I need you to stay with me" Noah said worried for the tribrid.

"Mom" Aria whispered, "Mom".

"Dammit!" Noah yelled, seeing Aria lose conscious and go limp into his arms.

"Aria!" Caroline yelled, running over to her sister, shocked seeing her unconscious, "What happened to her?!".

"She had a panic attack" Noah revealed, picking Aria up in this arms and taking her towards an empty hospital room.

"Why did she suddenly get a panic attack?" Caroline asked Klaus, worried for not only her mother, but now also her sister.

Klaus looked at Caroline, not knowing how to tell Caroline the truth about her mother's condition.

"Say something Klaus" Caroline snapped.

Klaus sighed, "Ari found out the truth about your mom's condition".

"What truth?" Caroline asked worried.

"Caroline, your mom has a brain tumor" Klaus revealed, shocking Caroline.

***

"Aria, please listen to me" Noah pleaded.

"No" Aria snapped, standing up, "I am completely fine Noah, I just had a small panic attack, okay?! But I need to be there with my mom, she needs me, my sister needs me!".

"You can't be there for them if you aren't fine" Noah said, blocking the door.

"I am completely fine" Aria said, trying to push past Noah but failing.

"Yeah, that's why you just had a panic attack" Noah retorted.

"Noah--".

"Shh" Noah said, putting his finger on Aria's lips, "I get wanting to be there for your mother and sister, but first you need to make sure your fine, if you are not fine, you can't help your mother and sister, they need the strong version of you Aria, not the weak one".

"If I lose my mom, I don't think there will be any version of Aria left" Aria cried, "It will destroy everything Noah, it will destroy the last thread of humanity I'm holding on to so tightly".

"No, it won't" Noah assured, "Look Aria, I know losing your mother is a very scary thought, but you still have to hold on to your humanity, not for yourself, but for your mother, and for your kids, I know you don't deserve this, any of this, but you have to be strong, don't let your mom see her daughter fall apart, she needs to know that both her daughters will be fine without her".

"I won't" Aria sobbed, "I won't be fine without her Noah, neither us will".

Noah sighed, he stepped forward and hugged the hysterical tribrid, letting her cry it out, knowing this is what she needed right now.

***

2009, Christmas

"Now. that's what I call a Christmas tree" Liz said, standing on stage, while Aria and Caroline stood infront of the stage, smiling at her, "Isn't that gorgeous? The holidays are all about being with loved ones and I think that's what makes this tradition so special in our  town, it's a reminder that no matter where you turn, you have a friend".

Aria and Caroline looked at each other, with huge smiles on their faces they laced their fingers together.

"Aria and Caroline--?" Caroline started.

"Are forever" Aria finished, "Aria and Caroline promise".

"Aria and Caroline promise" Caroline repeated, side hugging her best friend.

"So, what did Damon give you for Christmas?" Aria asked curiously, as she had forced both Damon and Caroline to buy each other Christmas gifts.

"The worst gift ever" Caroline replied.

"Which is?" Aria asked.

"A book on how to be less judgey" Caroline replied.

Aria laughed, causing her best friend to glare at her, "Sorry" she laughed, "So what did you give him?".

"A book on how to change his wardrobe alongside his attitude" Caroline replied, making Aria laugh even more.

"God, I love you" Aria said, hugging Caroline

"Same" Caroline smiled, hugging Aria back

***

"That just doesn't make sense" Caroline said, sitting in one of the hospital seats next to Klaus, she refused to believe her mother was dying, "My mom would've said something to me and Aria".

"Ari was worried, so she decided to compel one of the doctors for information" Klaus informed.

"Okay, so my mom has a brain tumor, then we'll just give her vampire blood" Caroline suggested.

Klaus sighed, "Love, vampire blood can heal a lot of things, but I don't think it can cure cancer, if it did then someone out here would have said something".

"Fine, then when are they gonna operate?" Caroline asked.

"They aren't" Klaus replied, shocking Caroline.

"Why not?" Caroline asked, "Are they giving her chemo instead?".

"The tumor is growing at fast pace Caroline, they don't think any treatment will work" Klaus replied.

"Well, then they're wrong" Caroline snapped, "Because they don't know her, they don't know how strong she is, I mean, she's gonna get through this, Klaus", Caroline looked at her boyfriend, tears welling in her eyes, "Right?" she asked.

Caroline suddenly started sobbing, the reality of the situation hitting her, Klaus didn't say anything just pulled Caroline into his chest, letting her cry it out.

***

After seeing her mother, Aria couldn't take the hospital atmosphere so she quickly ran out of there, while running, Aria ended up bumping into someone.

"Sorry" Aria mumbled, not seeing who she bumped into due to her blurry vision because of the tears.

"All good".

Aria froze hearing the familiar voice, "Kai" she realised.

"Hey Aria" Kai greeted, a smirk on his face.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Aria snapped, in no mood for anyone's crap tonight.

"Well, I just came here to inform you that your boyfriend and honorary boyfriend managed to rescue Jo, well that was after I forced Jo to take her magic back, oh and did I mention there is no longer an anti magic border around your hometown?" Kai asked.

"What?" Aria asked shocked.

"Yeah, thanks to me of course, I siphoned the magic away" Kai replied.

"Good for you, would you like a cookie?" Aria said.

"No, but I would like a torture buddy" Kai replied.

"Then go look for Kol" Aria said, turning to leave.

"So you don't want to torture Elena Gilbert?" Kai asked, stopping Aria in her spot.

"What did you just say?" Aria asked.

"Elena Gilbert is currently in the trunk of a car I stole, so what do you say Aria want to take your frustration out on your biggest enemy?" Kai asked.

For a second Aria hesitated, but then she realised there was a lot of pent up frustration and anger in her, and she needed to take it out on someone, so she looked at Kai, and nodded, "I'm in".

***

Presenting 6x10 of The Vampire Diaries . . .

How was the chapter?

Thoughts on all the Christmas flashbacks of our two favorite girls?

Thoughts on Aria and Caroline's reactions after finding out about Liz's tumor?

Thoughts on Noah comforting Aria?

Thoughts on Kai and Aria becoming torture buddies? Whose ready for Kai to bring out dark Aria? I know I am!