A/N: This story begins in season 4, episode 9, "O Come All Ye Faithful," right after Hayley snaps Caroline's neck. Further notes at the end. Enjoy!

Portrait of a Frozen Heart

"Caroline? Oh my god…"

It took a minute for Caroline to get her brain back online. Being dead on a public restroom floor had that effect on a person. The first thing she remembered was snow. A snowflake… Klaus… she'd insisted that they didn't have a "thing," and his expression had told her as plainly as words that he knew otherwise. But why was she thinking about that while April Young screamed in terror—oh. Right. The werewolf bitch had taken her by surprise and snapped her neck… and April had found her dead body.

Caroline's hand slapped against the door before April could open it. Her trachea finished healing from its abuse at the exact right moment, and her voice came out in a satisfyingly crisp snap. "Forget everything you saw," she instructed, pupils widening as she spoke. "You are Miss Mystic Falls—now get back out there and attend to your duties."

"Okay," April responded, and bumbled back out the door. Caroline rubbed her neck and made a mental note to murder Hayley the next chance she got. A werewolf during the New Moon cycle was hardly stronger than a human, but anyone could snap a girl's neck with the element of surprise on their side. Although, granted, Caroline had been a little preoccupied with the Damon and Elena drama… Making another mental note to be more aware of her surroundings, she took a deep breath and yanked the bathroom door open.

"Caroline," Matt exclaimed when he saw her. "There you are, I've been looking all over for you."

An irritable comment about April died on Caroline's lips when she remembered Hayley, who seemed to have her own agenda. Maybe now was not the time.

"Did something happen?" she asked.

"I just can't get a hold of anyone," Matt responded. "Stefan's not answering his phone, Elena's completely off the grid…" Irritation surged up Caroline's spine, and she had to fight to suppress it.

"Adrian's leading Klaus to the old Lockwood Cellar right now," Matt added in a low voice, and the irritation turned to a jolt of fear. The plan hinged on Hayley, and Hayley was somehow messing with them, she knew it. Otherwise, why would she have attacked her? Especially when she had just announced that the new plan would work. But why would she want to betray the hybrids? She couldn't possibly have any loyalties to Klaus; she hated him. So then, why?

Suddenly, a memory struck, and Caroline's knees went weak. Kim, while shattering her arm and hand repeatedly back when she'd been trying to take over from Tyler, had gloated about the kinds of things she would do to her if he didn't submit.

She'd also talked about a plan for dealing with Klaus—her plan, that Tyler had rejected.

She'd wanted to stuff a grenade in his stomach, and then put the bits of him into a small safe. Without enough space to re-grow in the directions it was supposed to, his body would mutilate and he wouldn't regain enough strength or leverage to break out. Tyler had vetoed that plan for two reasons. The first, the one that the rest of the pack had listened too, was that there was no way of guaranteeing how long Klaus would remain incapacitated.

The second reason, which only Caroline and Hayley were privy too, was that despite everything that Klaus had done to all of them, Tyler had felt that this was crossing a line. They weren't the bad guys. They were just people who wanted their freedom. It was only today that she'd learned that that was why he'd volunteered to sacrifice his own body for the somewhat less graphic plan.

But Hayley, sitting in the background, swirling her drink in the Lockwoods' ornate glass, had rolled her eyes and scoffed quietly. Now that Caroline knew everything, she realized that Hayley must have felt that Tyler was being an insufferable martyr.

She must have wanted them to have to resort to Kim's plan.

A part of Caroline—the more vampiric part—reminded her that, really, Klaus deserved anything that he got at the hands of his former victims. But that part of her was quickly silenced by the much louder, stronger, kinder part of her that she'd worked very hard to develop since the week of her transition, when no one had expected her to make it to the next Friday.

'When did this kind of think become okay?' she thought fiercely, the ice in her stomach replaced by molten anger. 'At what point do any of us have the right to do these kinds of things to each other?'

She was moving, flashing out of the Grill and down the street in a blur of speed before her thoughts could fully form into a definite course of action. If the plan failed—possible—then the hybrids would not see another sunrise. Mass-murder was never okay. If the plan succeeded—also possible—then the hybrids would be even greater monsters than they were already becoming. Kim would gain power, Tyler would become at best the odd man out, at worst a target. And Klaus…

That scenario was also not okay.

So Caroline ran.

It didn't matter how old or strong or invulnerable a creature was; if you caught it by surprise and struck its weak points, it would go down. She'd proved that many times over in her brief time as a vampire. She's also just had it used against her.

Klaus was immortal, invincible, and had a thousand years of experience on her, but a broken neck would incapacitate him just like anyone else. Then if she paid attention, maybe she could re-break it each time he healed until the hybrids had time to put some distance between themselves and Mystic Falls. After that… she didn't have a plan after that. She was acting on instinct and adrenaline and panic all mixed together, and that didn't make for the clearest head. This was quite probably suicide, unless he liked her a lot more than she believed. Perhaps this wasn't the day to have told him that they didn't have a "thing…"

But she couldn't let this end as messily as it was going too if the hybrids were allowed to settle this amongst themselves. She had to save Tyler. She had to save the pack.

She had to save Klaus.

She sped up, breath ragged in her throat, praying to any deity or supernatural power-that-be that might be listening that she wouldn't be too late, that he wouldn't expect her, that she'd be fast enough to save fourteen people tonight, that she wouldn't die in the next ten minutes.

Adrian and Klaus had apparently been moving at normal walking speed. Perhaps Adrian was giving the others time to prepare. Perhaps Klaus was being cautious, sensing a threat. Perhaps Hayley had warned him, as part of her throwing a wrench into the gears, and he had already killed Adrian and was circling around to approach from a different angle. Whatever the reason was, despite their head start, the two hybrid men were still a few hundred yards from the cellar when Caroline scented them and slowed down a little to silence her footsteps. If Klaus noticed he was being stalked, he might snap and start killing people.

"Where's the witch?" Caroline heard Kim's voice demand shakily. Adrian heard as well, and tensed, then apparently figured out what was going to happen and ran for it, but Klaus was faster—and there was something long and straight in his hand.

"Kim?" Adrian called in terror as the sword descended on him.

That was when a rock flew out of the woods like a cannonball, knocking the sword point aside just as it grazed the hybrid's neck.

Caroline flung herself on top of Klaus, kicking his knees out from under him, at the same time that Adrian put on a burst of hyper-speed to cross the open space between himself and the rest of his pack. All was still for a heartbeat as each hybrid stared in surprise at the blonde vampire, still in her white party dress and high heels.

"Don't just stand there!" Caroline shrieked, breaking the spell. "Run!"

As twelve figures scattered and blurred away through the trees, Klaus regained himself and tried to fling Caroline off of him, but she was ready, locking her legs around his middle and rolling with him as she tried to get her hands around his neck. He was still conscious, and she'd lost the shock factor.

This couldn't end well.

The Original Hybrid grabbed her calf and ripped her away from him, sending her flying into a tree, which shivered and scattered them both with bare winter twigs. He turned away, apparently more interested in chasing after the pack than fighting her, but she ripped an already-bending limb off of the tree and swung it at him. He dodged, but in doing so got several steps away from his sword, which he had dropped to free his hand while they grappled. Although he didn't need the weapon to kill Caroline or the Hybrids, apparently it was valuable to him, and as he realized that he no longer had it, she struck again, taking instant advantage of the millisecond when his focus was elsewhere.

This time, she got him from behind, locking her hands around his neck and jaw, but he stomped on her foot, probably breaking it, and threw her to the ground. She hung on grimly, turning in midair with a wrench of her hips so that he fell beneath her, and they both slammed into the hard earth, making the surrounding trees tremor, and frightening away the few brave birds that hadn't already sought shelter somewhere less violent.

Klaus's eyes met Caroline's for the briefest instant, and she knew from his expression that she'd gone too far, pushed his tolerance over the line.

He was going to kill her.

She felt… frighteningly calm.

Maybe it was because now she knew, even with all that was going on, through all the violence and pain and cruelty and death, and perhaps because of all that, that deep inside, the person she'd become would protect others instinctively. There was a strange, immense power in selflessness, she thought, as adrenaline and vampirism sped her brain up so that each fraction of an instant could be filled with thoughts. She felt a little pleased with herself, a little sad that she couldn't make completely sure that everyone walked away from tonight alive and whole. But she wasn't afraid. The hard tension seemed to leech out of her muscles as she stood.

-0-

Klaus snarled wordlessly, catapulting back onto his feet before she could completely regain hers. He flashed around to grab her from behind, jaws wide and fangs extended to deliver a lethal dose of venom. She was out of second chances—past the point of no return—and he had bigger prey to hunt tonight. But she wasn't giving up without a fight. Her relaxed body moved impossibly quickly, and before he could strike, she smashed her elbow into his open mouth, breaking one of his fangs so that it fell into his throat, causing him to choke and lose his grip on her.

Without pausing, she whirled, using the momentum from her attack to propel her around to face him. As his lungs spasmed involuntarily to try and dislodge the long, sharp tooth from his throat, Caroline hammered the heel of her hand into his solar plexus with the force of a semi-truck crashing into a concrete wall. Although the blow dropped him to his knees, it did cause him to hack up the fang, which he spat into her face quite accidentally. It slashed a deep, angry red line across her cheek, but she barely flinched, already descending on him to ram her fist again and again into his jaw.

The Original Hybrid was hit with a wave of dizziness as she pounded mercilessly on the pressure point, but after a few seconds he was able to collect himself enough to catch her fist. With a powerful wrench like she'd used just moments ago, he rolled until he was on top of her, twisting her arm behind her back to hold her down. She struggled futilely against him; he was older and stronger, had more experience, and leverage and gravity were working against her.

His fang had not grown back yet—bones took a little longer than skin to regenerate—but he still had one perfectly good tooth, which he sank into her exposed neck. She cried out, but it was more a shout of frustration than an outright scream of pain or fear. Klaus snarled again as he sat up, keeping his hold on her while he surveyed his work, making sure she was done-for. Not only did her neck have a deep, infected wound, the elbow she'd broken his tooth off with had been grazed and poisoned in the act. The slash on her cheek had also likely gotten a dose. She was dead for certain.

And Klaus found that the terrible emptiness that had consumed him for the last hour, as he learned that Caroline, Stefan, Tyler, Hayley and all of his Hybrids had each betrayed him; the cold, painful void of loneliness, which he had not been able to imagine becoming worse, now somehow ripped even further into him, pulling him lower and lower into the dark, despairing pit that had been forming inside his heart. Caroline was going to die. There would be no more chances with her—no more slim possibilities that this time she wasn't distracting him or being used as a bribe, that maybe, for once, she just enjoyed his company half as much as he enjoyed hers.

"Why?" he half whispered, half growled. With vampiric speed, he stood, pulling her up and pinning her against a tree, her arm still twisted, her body trapped between the rough bark and his own chest. "I gave them everything. I freed them from a lifetime of agony!" he continued, almost feverishly, voice rising with every word until he was shouting into her face. "I provided an outlet to Stefan—gave him someone worse than himself! And you… You!" His face was inches from hers, his hazel eyes searing into her blue ones.

She stared up at him unabashedly, features unnaturally calm for someone who had werewolf venom racing through her veins and was being pinned to a tree by an enraged hybrid. She had to know that she was going to either die quickly, right here and now, or slowly over the next few hours. Yet there was no fear in her eyes as they met his. The wave of emptiness hit him again as he realized that even through his rage, he was vaguely impressed by her boldness. Gone would be the feisty girl who was neither afraid of him when he rampaged nor impressed by him when he didn't. Whatever words he had been about to say to her about her repeated betrayal were stolen away, like the finality of her imminent death had been another winding blow to his lungs.

He allowed the rage to take a stronger hold of his mind, coloring his eyes eerily gold and distracting him from the pain. It was better to be angry than to be hurt. He felt his fang grow back in, and he ran his tongue over it experimentally.

"What did you expect?" she demanded, voice strong, clear, piercing. "Did you really think they would just lie down and lick your feet, Klaus? They're people, not pets. You saved them from a lifetime of pain, yes, but in exchange you took away their free wills, condemning them to a lifetime—an immortal, eternal lifetime—of servitude to you. You replaced a terrible fate with a worse one!" Once again, pain ripped through him, and although he was careful not to show it with his body, it was so powerful it nearly made him stagger back. So being with him was worse than a lifetime of agony, was it?

"And they're just supposed to accept that?" she continued, either not noticing or not caring how much her tirade hurt him. "I'm amazed that somebody who's been around as long as you have doesn't know more about basic human nature."

"What would you know about it?" He snarled back, finding his voice. "What do you think you know about me? You cannot imagine what it's like, to be hated by every single person who knows your name! If I cannot be loved, then I will be feared instead. You know nothing!" He shouted, twisting her arm harder and forcing her further into the tree-trunk.

"No?" she countered. "What can't I imagine? What don't I know? Being hunted down and tortured by my own father? Check. Having friends who turned out to be staying close to me as part of a half-baked grand scheme to expose me as a vampire and kill me? Check. Being captured, shot, vervained, burned, staked, had my bones broken for sport? Check all down the line. Oh, I don't have to imagine, Klaus. I may not have lived as long as you, but accounting for my brief time as a vampire?" Suddenly it was her eyes boring into his, and he couldn't look away. "I do know. I get it."

"Then why?" he roared into her face. "If you have all the answers, miss-17-year-old-small-town-vampire, then by all means, share. What the hell is it that makes it so damn impossible for people to just—" he clenched his teeth together, anger and hopelessness overwhelming him.

"To 'just' what, Klaus?" She snapped. "How were you going to finish that sentence? To just obey you? To just care about you? Because you demand it! You keep acting like you think you're God or something! And guess what? Most people don't react very well to having their free will taken away!"

"They were slaves to the moon before!" Klaus shouted.

"Yep," she countered with a nod, voice clipped, volume normal. "One night a month. Now, they're slaves to you every hour of every day. And yeah, you took their pain away, but you replaced it with more. How many of them have you served up to be killed? By Connor, by Jeremy? How about when your father came to town—how many of them died then? You didn't free them from anything!"

"I was the first! I was supposed to lead them! I was the exception, the indestructible, the king!"

"And so you treat people like you think you're better than they are, and expect them to be grateful to you? How would you like that? What would you do if you were them? Lie there and take it? When someone says 'jump' you say 'how high?' A person's freedom to make their own decisions is what makes them who they are. Take that away, and it's almost like you've killed them. You don't respect them, so they don't respect you."

Bile rose in his throat, pushed there by the despair roiling in his stomach. So he'd been a fool to even expect anything?

"What do you know about free will?" he demanded in a growl, unwilling to give up. "You've never been sired, unless there's something about you and Damon that you're not telling me, although judging from your conduct towards him, I highly doubt it."

She surprised him with a dry, humorless laugh. "Well, yeah, actually," she said. "It is because of Damon that I understand. I was human when the vampires came to town, and Damon, being a vampire, needed a food source. And Damon, being Damon, wanted a lot more than that." Her eyes unfocused a little, remembering. Her voice was soft—it seemed even quieter, after all the shouting.

"I was his slave, compelled to get him into places, fetch him things, orchestrate events, keep his secrets quiet, sleep with him, feed him at his demand, smile like a sycophant, and repress my natural, self-preserving fear. And for my trouble, he emotionally and physically abused me, and was planning to kill me when he was finished with me."

For a moment, Klaus was confused, as his old rage combined with a new wave of crushing hatred for the unworthy creature who had done this to her. It shouldn't have upset him. He was a dark man, and had done dark, cruel things to the point where it no longer bothered him. Anyway, Caroline would be dead soon, so it didn't matter what she'd suffered in the past. Pain surged through him once again at the thought of her death. But she was out of second chances, he reminded himself.

"I agree that the hybrids owed you some gratitude and loyalty for freeing them from the Lycanthropy curse," she continued levelly. "But not their bodies, minds and souls, Klaus. No one deserves to have their liberty taken away like that. They chose to go through hell to get their freedom back. That is their right as people. I'd do the same thing if I were in their shoes—even if I wasn't sired to someone who didn't have my best interests at heart. Even if I was sired to Tyler, somehow, or even better, Elena! In the end, I'd still do anything I needed to do to break it. And even though it's like drinking acid, and it makes me weak and sick, I drink my vervain every morning, because I would rather die in agony than exist without living. And I believe that's how they feel, too."

She fell silent, eyes still locked on his, face set and determined. She wasn't backing down, or pleading, or working an angle. There was nothing behind those eyes but bold, uncensored truth.

Thick white flakes of snow began to drift through the treetops, landing on Caroline's hair and sticking there for a long time before they began to melt. The forest was impossibly quiet. The hybrids were long gone, and the animals were all either hiding from the chilly night or from the violent creatures.

"What I said at the ball? I meant it," she finally sighed. "You don't relate to people because you don't even try to understand them. You don't put yourself in their shoes, try to feel their pain, think about what they want and need. That's why you're alone. Not because you're a 'monster,' or because your family life sucked, or because the people you try to have relationships with are just horrible people. It's because you refuse to feel compassion. That's the basis of relationships, Klaus. Without it, all the compulsion and sire-bonds and charm and charisma and expensive gifts in the world won't make up for it. I'm sorry," she finished softly, "but that's the way it works."

Finally, Klaus broke the connection of their gaze, turning his eyes downward and blinking hard a few times. Despair was a cold feeling—colder than the snow slowly coating his hair, colder than the wind whirling and spinning and speeding between the trees and tugging at his coat.

"Now, unless you're going to cure me or kill me on the spot," Caroline murmured, "please let me go. I have some stuff I'd like to talk to my mom about."

Klaus's eyes flickered back up to meet hers for a second before he turned away, releasing her. Her expression was sad, but not afraid or calculating or angry, as anyone else's most likely would have been. He could see that all three wounds were infected, and as she walked away, favoring her injured foot, he began to fully comprehend that in a day or two, she wasn't going to exist anymore. The girl with the heated gaze, who wasn't afraid to speak her mind, even to him, who was strong enough to deal not only with enemies but with the complexities of her friends… She was going to die.

She wouldn't have gone for him anyway, he thought as he stood there like a statue, hand still brushing against the tree trunk. She would never have chosen him over Tyler—Tyler, who could convince a dozen other people that it was a good idea to shatter every one of their bones over and over and over again. It was the first time since his father's death that Niklaus had felt inferior to anyone, and he hated that feeling. He knew that even killing Tyler wouldn't make it better. He would still be alone.

And Caroline would be dead, so he would even have their constant banter to look forward too.

She was the one keeping Stefan from going over the edge and becoming the Ripper of Monterey again. Perhaps after she was dead, his old friend would come back to him. Or perhaps Stefan would hate him from the edge of insanity just as much as he did now.

If he couldn't have her, then no one should.

She was the one who supported the other members of her dysfunctional friend group as they fell in love, became immersed in hatred, and generally tried to coexist. She was the one who demanded humanity out of them; who insisted that they show up at social events and live their lives even when the world was falling to pieces around their ears. She was the one who forced her mother to see vampires as more than just monsters. When she was gone, they might possibly turn on one another. That would be fun to watch.

Or perhaps the deep, cold emptiness filling his chest now would spread to the lot of them.

When she was gone…

It took exactly seven seconds for Klaus's enhanced, hybrid brain to fully imagine what the world would be like without Caroline. In that time, she had walked through the trees, past the cellar entrance, and nearly vanished from his sight.

At vampire speed, it took him a mere instant to rush after her and appear in front of her, blocking her path. She looked at him questioningly.

He rolled up his sleeve, not meeting her eyes.

No, she would not love him. Because he was out of second chances—past the point of no return. But she would still exist. He could find it in himself—in the darkest, coldest part of himself—to enjoy the idea that the people who kept betraying him and hurting him would suffer without her. Yet in spite of that, in spite of the fact that he would be doing a kindness to people he hated, that was still better than the alternative. He needed her to exist.

He wanted her to live, even though she was not his.

When he'd rolled his sleeve up to his elbow, he finally looked up at her face, offering his exposed skin wordlessly. She stared at him for a moment, as if deciding whether to trust his offer or not. Then she stepped forward, grabbed his wrist, and sank her fangs deep into his arm, moving just a bit faster than human speed. Although she wouldn't beg, she wanted to live pretty badly, he thought with something like wry amusement. As she sucked away at his blood, he shifted slowly forward so that his chest was touching her back and right side, and wrapped his free arm around her waist, resting his forehead against the side of her head.

He felt her fangs withdraw when she'd drunk enough to heal herself, but he didn't let go, and for a moment, she didn't pull away, but stood there and let him hold her. Then she turned to look up at him.

"You'd better be careful," she warned softly. "Someday I may not take you seriously as a threat anymore."

He'd rather have bit his own tongue out than admit how much he wished that were true.

He settled for glaring at her, and growling softly that she shouldn't push her luck any more that night, before letting go and turning back towards town. She walked beside him in silence until they reached paved streets, lights and other trappings of civilization. Then she looked over at him awkwardly, eyes flashing to his face, then down to the street, then back to his face again.

"Good night," she finally said, and sped off in the direction of her house.

"Good night," he responded, a moment too late.

-0-

"What do you mean, 'he didn't kill them?'" Shane demanded, hands shaking with rage.

"I mean exactly what I said," Hayley snapped. "I told him what was going on, he went and fetched his sword out of his car and followed Adrian into the woods, one big bundle of hybrid rage. Half an hour later, the other hybrids had scattered, and Klaus was walking out of the woods with Caroline freaking Forbes, little white dress all covered in bloodstains and dirt, but totally alive. He looked calm as anything; I don't know what happened."

"Refresh my memory—Caroline Forbes?" Shane asked tiredly, rubbing his thumb and index finger into his eyelids.

"Vampire, cheerleader, perky blonde," Hayley listed in a bored tone. "Tyler's girlfriend, Miss Mystic Falls, Klaus wants to get in her pants..."

"If you knew he had interest in her, why didn't you get her out of the way?" Shane hissed.

"I snapped her neck and left her in a public restroom," Hayley protested. "How was I supposed to know that the first thing she'd do when she woke up was run headlong into the middle of a hybrid massacre? That's suicide for just about anyone!"

"Clearly not for her," Shane pointed out. "Perhaps Klaus cares more about her than you realize."

"Look," Hayley sighed. "It didn't go as planned. I'm sorry. But it really doesn't need to be hybrids, right? Any 'demons' will do?"

"It's not ideal," Shane responded, "but yes, twelve vampires or werewolves would suffice."

"Well, okay then," Hayley said, standing up to leave. "Klaus is still a killer—it shouldn't be too hard to get him to do the deed. All I have to do is make sure that Caroline is otherwise occupied that day. Given her love for parties, fashion and all things ridiculously girly, that can't be too difficult."

"Do whatever you need to do," Shane replied. "But make sure she stays occupied. If she mellows him out, then he's of no use to us. Endanger the people she cares about or something—make sure every corner of her brain is as full as it can be. No mistakes this time, Hayley."

"I won't," Hayley snapped, turning on her heel and exiting the room.

A/N: Hello, folks!

So, here's the deal: I love Caroline. I ship her with Matt, I ship her with Tyler, I ship her with Enzo, with Stefan, with anybody who makes her happy, because she's simply my favorite character. You will never hear me dis any other Caroline ships, provided they're safe and healthy for her. But I particularly ship her with Klaus.

And one thing I noticed about her, throughout the show, is that she doesn't appear to be quite… normal. She's the only human character that a vampire can communicate with from a long range (Damon in season 1, an yes, I know, that's one of those plot elements that they just cut out in later seasons, but still, I'll happily use it as evidence). She's stronger than the average vampire—she kicks Damon's ass repeatedly, Mason Lockwood, who was stronger than Stefan, multiple tomb vampires at once, who were all substantially older than she is—she never actually loses a fight when her opponent doesn't take her by surprise. She's also pretty smart. None of the characters ever seem to attend school, yet she passes everything, tutors others… And she comes up with ideas… There's just something really special about her.

Anyhow, I'm exploiting that—not by much more than the show allowed, really. At the end of the episode, she said she felt guilty over what they were doing to Klaus. Well, if she thought what they were doing was going to potentially be worse ("Kim's plan") then I think she might've tried to stop it. And so, here we have the beginning of a diverging plotline. Sometimes the story will differ radically from the show, and sometimes it will follow closely, but with a more Klaroline focus.

As for the title! What is Red Queen, anyway? So glad you asked! It has a three-fold meaning. 1. In Season 5, Caroline defines the term as referring to the relationship between predator and prey. "The rabbit runs faster than the fox because the fox is chasing its dinner—the rabbit is running for its life." That would be Caroline herself—she had everything going against her from the day she turned, but somehow she has flourished. 2. If Klaus is the big, bad wolf, then Caroline would be Red Riding Hood. But! 3. Since Klaus is the king, that makes Caroline the queen. And we all know that's her personality anyway. Ergo, I present to you, Red Queen.

Flames will be directed towards Klaus, while I hide innocently around the corner and let him deal with them. You have been warned. I will not be held responsible for what he does about it.

(Except for any wrath having to do with the fact that I started another chapter fic while I already have one in progress and two awaiting sequels… Those I probably deserve. I have dreams of someday finishing those stories—does that count? No? Didn't think so…)