A/n: First Karoline fic, but I love the pairing! They have such good chemistry on the show. Anyway, I'm not going to bore you with a long author's note, but I have to add in that I don't own these characters, just the plot. Enjoy!

Back Again

Chapter one: It's Good To Be Home

Caroline's heart pounded in nervous anticipation as she passed the road sign that read, "Mystic Falls 10". She would be home for the first time in 5 years in just about 15 minutes. She hit the gas, wanting to get there faster. It was not as if she had chosen to stay away from her mom and all her old friends for so long for any particular reason, but when she had decided to go away to college like any normal, non- vampire, 18 year old girl, she had found that getting away from all the drama and chaos that she had been living with throughout her junior and senior year was a welcome breath of fresh air. She needed that time to herself so that she could think about her eminent endless future away from her loving and helpful- yet smothering – friends, Bonnie and Elena. She still kept in touch with the two of them, but she didn't call them nearly as often as she should have. Bonnie and Elena! Goodness, just thinking about seeing them again was enough to make her excited for her lame 5 year high school reunion. It wasn't as if this would be her last 5 year reunion to attend, but it would be her first, so that had to count for something, right?

When Caroline pulled into town, it looked as if nothing had changed. The parking lot of The Grill was packed with trucks, and there were quite a few teenagers milling about, trying to find something fun to do. Of course, there were a few more trees planted in town square, and it looked like there was a semi-fresh coat of paint on City Hall, but of course those little changes were always happening; Mayor Lockwood jumped at any chance to throw another party/fundraiser, it was what the town was good at. After just a short drive, Caroline pulled up the driveway of her childhood home which was still home base for her mom, the town sheriff. Well, here goes nothing, she thought as she applied a quick layer of her favorite lip gloss, stepped out of the car and threw her keys in her purse without bothering to lock the car doors. In her 18 years living in Mystic Falls, she had heard of one car getting broken into, and that was when Stefan had broken into Elena's car to fill it with balloons and flowers for her 18th birthday.

Caroline ruffled her medium length, loosely curled, blonde hair as she walked up the drive and walked through the front door like she did when she had still lived there. "Mom, I'm home!" she called, as she glanced around to see if her mom was in her usual comfy chair in the living room where she could almost always be found after a long day at the office. Instead, Ms. Forbes walked out of the kitchen, drying her hands on a dish towel as she did so.

"Caroline! I'm so glad to see you! How was the drive?" Caroline crossed the foyer vampire-quick and pulled her mom in for a tight hug. Ms. Forbes stiffened at the unexpectedly abrupt contact, but quickly softened in her daughter's arms. It had been too long since she had seen her only daughter, having visited her once a year while Caroline was in college, but it was still not enough. Caroline knew that she missed being able to give her hugs like this one, and she didn't let go for a while.

"It was easy, and pretty fast," Caroline responded when the two finally broke apart. "I'm just glad to be home again, I've really missed this place."

"Well, I thought that you might be hungry after your long drive," her mother said as she turned back to the kitchen and Caroline followed her. "I made all of your favorites, pork chops, rice casserole, and asparagus." Of course, Caroline's mother knew that she was a vampire, and that regular food was not exactly what she'd need to sedate her hunger, feeding her daughter her childhood favorites was all she knew to do, and it was the thought that counted. It wasn't as if she expected her mom to bring her some freshly killed wild game.

"That sounds perfect, mom" Was her only response.

The old, wooden table was set exactly like it always was, from the flowered yellow placemats, to the blue cutlery and the crystal pitcher of lemon zinger iced tea. Seeing the table set like that made Caroline feel like so content and loved, and as if she had never left home in the first place.

When Caroline was unpacking in her old room a little after dinner, she felt that familiar dry and burning sensation in her throat and realized how right her mom actually was to assume that she'd be hungry after her long trip. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't fed since the night before she left because she had run out of blood from the local blood bank, and had been in such a hurry that morning that she didn't have time for a trip to the woods to grab a quick snack. Rather than head over to the hospital for a quick raid, Caroline decided that it would do her some good to go for a nice walk in the forest to get some fresh air, and collect herself before she called up Elena and Bonnie to tell them that she was back in town.

She stopped on her way out to throw a light jacket to go along with her dark shinny jeans, brown leather boots, and white lace top. Even though the cold didn't affect her anymore, she had to keep up appearances in case she ran across someone. Caroline ran out the back door and into the woods, relishing the free feeling of running as fast as she could. Before she knew it, she had run miles, and found herself on a piece of land that she had made it a point to avoid whenever she could. It was the land that Klaus had bought and rebuilt that mansion on when he was planning on bringing his family back to life. After all that had gone down between Caroline, her friends, and the Mikaelson family, Caroline preferred to just ignore the place all together to avoid the chance of any conflict.

However, when Caroline decided to turn around and focus on finding something to drink, she turned to find a handsome, well built, muscular man leaning against a tree with a familiar cocky smirk on his face.

"Why Caroline, what a pleasure it is to run into you here. You look a bit thirsty, would you like to come in for a drink?" The man asked coolly. Caroline searched her brain for a clever excuse not to go with the man, but couldn't come up with anything. This is what I get after 5 years of college education? She thought to herself bitterly. Without an excuse, she found herself answering with,

"Thanks Klaus, I'd love to."

A/n: I hope you guys liked it! I know that I barely scratched the surface, but believe me when I tell you that it'll get a lot deeper in the next few chapters. I'm going to try and get the next chapter up by the end of the week. PS. I can't tell you how much I love to read reviews (Wink Wink)!