Caroline takes a look at the compound, mansion, whatever it's called nowadays. New Orleans. She watches the sun and decides to go in.
There's nobody at first to meet her, and it feels more than weird, like maybe she walked into the wrong huge house, but she knows it's the right place. Lord knows she has come back here so many times over the years, even if they tore down that place to the ground, she'd be able to tell which stone used to belong where.
And then, there's the yelling, and the smashing, and more yelling.
Ah, home sweet home.
She chuckles.
"Care!" Rebekah exclaims, almost appearing out of thin air.
"Beks," she salutes her back.
"Rebekah, I think we need…" Some girl says coming in.
One look, and both Caroline and the girl know who each other are.
"Why did you call her?" The chick whines to the Original, who rolls her eyes."
"Because you're out of your depth, peach," Caroline answers with her brightest and fakest smile.
"I'd introduce you but…" Rebekah starts, with a knowing smile.
She doesn't finish but Caroline knows what comes next. The girl is not here to stay.
The girl is a brunette, and she looks good, nice even, Caroline thinks. She sniffs the air and exclaims:
'Oh and you're a witch! How cute! Do us a spell!"
Rebekah laughs, while the girl looks legitimately broken, and Caroline can relate.
The breaking and shattering carries on, and the Original sighs.
"Can you?" She asks Caroline, who gives her a secure smile.
Rebekah leave them, feeling reassured, and Caroline knows it must be awkward for the girl.
"So," the brunette starts. "You're … her."
"Yep."
"I don't understand why she called you…"
"You do, peach, we both know you do," Caroline says, as she keeps track of the noise upstairs.
There's a moment of silence, and the girl appraises her, like she's seizing the competition, except there's no competition…
"I'll play the game if you want," Caroline says, bored with the silence. "Beks called me because Klaus' latest plan went south, and he's throwing a tantrum. Even though you're his latest pet, you can't get him to calm down."
"His … pet?" The girl says, crunching her nose.
"Sadly, it's the most accurate description of what you are. Tough, I know."
"I'm not his pet…"
"But you sort of are, aren't you? He was bored and you came along, a witch with probably a vague link to his past, or you reminded him of someone from before, and he became… besotted with you. You're screwing. You think it's for real, that you're the one for him, the one that will put that bitch Caroline to shame. Truthfully, you're not… I could pursue this analogy, implying you're a bitch in a doggy sense bringing him a ball hoping it will appease him, but I don't think you would like it…"
She doesn't mean to be a bitch, it's just so … typical. And boring.
"If I'm his pet, then what are you?"
"I'm The Woman, capital T, capital W." Caroline says like it's obvious, and it should be. Maybe the girl is a bit slow.
She can see that the girl wants to fight her. Hell, she even feel the shiver in the air which means the girl is summoning her powers, but she danced this dance before, with previous pets and previous dolls, and she knows what happens next.
"Why… Why did he seduced me if you're the one for him?" The girl ask, deflating like a beach ball.
"I wouldn't say I'm the one for him, but let's play still. Klaus and I… We are good, because we're not always together. He finds new pets, new dolls he can break, and I play around with boys, men, sometimes dolls of my own too. Then, we get back together, and the dolls and the toys are forgotten. You're like … a shiny ball he could play with, until he was reunited with his best friend, the one he doesn't need toys to have fun with, though to be fair, we've had our fun with toys," Caroline winks, trying to lighten the mood.
Klaus is still upstairs, being mad. She can't believe he didn't sense her arrival. He must be really pissed.
"I'm not a doll," the girl whines.
"Not, you're a broken doll, big difference," Caroline explains. "You are a toy he liked for a while, and he broke. Now he keeps you around, until he doesn't want you around anymore. I know it's harsh, but he doesn't need you. You're an injured pet he's keeping until he has to put you down, and you should know that he will put you down, metaphorically, or at least likely metaphorically at some point."
"I'm no pet, no doll…"
"Yet he's broken you. And he would break you again. You're running around like a headless chicken, trying to make him feel better. You know what he needs to hear?"
The girl shakes her head.
"Fuck you."
"What?"
"He needs someone to tell him to piss off, to get over himself, to go fuck himself. But you can't say those words, you'll die before you get to the vulgar words. I can."
"And you're that girl?"
"Hell yeah."
It's the truth.
"Must be nice to have so much self-confidence," the girl says snidely.
"It is, thank you for noticing. It must sucks to know how little you matter in your case."
The girl looks on the verge of crying.
"You're not liking the truth game so much now, are you?" Caroline asks.
She won't lie, she enjoys squashing the girl and her hopes, but part of her remembers what it felt like to be her.
"How come he didn't break you?" The brunette asks.
"He did. He just didn't destroy me. I still existed without him. I keep on existing without him. He finds it terribly irresistible, the idea that he can be in someone's life without being their sun and moon and stars…"
"So I should play hard to get?"
"I think you need a new play friend… No offense, but I'm going to go upstairs, and say those words you wouldn't be allowed to utter. He will look at me, and see me, existing without him, having survived his mind games, and you will be … forgotten. I'm not overselling this, I'm talking from experience. Why do you think Klaus and I aren't a permanent item? Because we just don't work like that. Maybe later on, when he's done some growing up, and become more mature…"
The girl chuckles with her, at the thought of the Original needing to grow up.
"Not to mention, being with him is fucking exhausting. So intense, always plotting… We must conquer the state of Texas and get the Earth rid of people who wears Stetson hats!" Caroline says, imitating Klaus' accent and his resolve.
The girl chuckles again.
"But you're not jealous?"
"Oh Peach, don't make me hurt you. Why should I be jealous of you? You know he's not yours, right? By now, you should have understood… every time you're not on his mind, I am. When you're in the shower next door, he's mine. When he rolls over in bed and looks at the ceiling, he's mine. When you speak and he doesn't listen…"
"He's yours."
"Yeppers. Oh come on, don't look at me like that. I know it's old fashioned, that you kids don't say it anymore, but don't make me feel old. I'm only a century or so older than you are…" Caroline exclaims when the girl winces at her use of the old colloquialism.
"I'm so stupid…"
"I will say you're not, to be polite, but truth be told, I don't know you well enough to make an educated affirmation here. No you're not stupid. You just liked what you saw. You didn't see what it meant, and now that you see it, you're not sure what your next move is."
"What's my next move?" The girl asks.
"Fuck me if I know."
"Will I get unbroken?"
Caroline doesn't answer, to avoid telling her a lie.
"Fuck…" The girl says.
Caroline can empathize. She had truly thought she would never heal, be whole again, until she had. She also knows she is and will always be the only one able to do so.
She remembers the picture of horses he had given her such a long time ago.
"When you got back on your feet, after him, why did you go back to him?"
"I didn't."
And she hadn't. He had seduced her, and it had taken him decades. Fool me once and all that. She was no fool anymore.
"Should I leave?" the girl asks.
"It's up to you. We're not going to jump in bed, if that's what you're worried about."
Horizontal surfaces are not always needed, but Caroline keeps her advice chaste.
"I'll tell him to get over himself, he'll be pissed, and we'll fight. He'll threaten to kill me, and that's when you will be completely forgotten. He can't kill me. If he did, he wouldn't know what to do with himself. Daggering his brothers and sisters is one thing, but killing the Woman… tsk tsk tsk."
And so the girl leaves.
Caroline almost feels bad for her.
Then again, not really.
She only has so much time she can spend here.
Rebekah reappears and says:
"He's going to start ripping the paper of the walls…"
Caroline laughs, knowing it's the blonde's way of saying that she needs to be her perky annoying self now.
"If someone had asked me a hundred years ago," Caroline says, "I would have said there was no chance in hell you and I could ever be friends."
"Right back at you…. And between you and me, blondie to blondie, the mansion has stables now…"
"I know," Caroline says with a smile, thinking of her horses back in Mystic Falls.
They had been the grand gesture that had made Caroline feel like Klaus wouldn't break her again.
"Then why aren't you using them?"
"I want him to beg…"
Rebekah pretends to be disgusted then moves on.
Caroline slowly climbs up the stairs and knocks on the door where the ruckus is coming from.
"Felicia, I'm not in the mood for your games!" Klaus screams through the door.
She can't help but smile, before slamming the door open, and saying, calmly, looking him directly in the eyes:
"Fuck. You. Klaus."