Tyler was gone, Jeremy was dead, Elena had turned off her humanity, Bonnie wanted to sacrifice 12 innocent people, Stefan and Damon were arguing over Elena as usual… where did all this leave her?

Caroline needed to come to terms with the fact that her life had changed completely in these past few days. For what? A cure that was now in the hands of none other than Ms. Katherine Pierce. Not to forget that the great, immortal Silas was now back in action as an aftermath of all this.

All Caroline wanted right now was for someone to tell her that everything was going to be okay; someone to hold her while she cried her heart out because even though she was trying to maintain a hard exterior, she was in an emotional battle on the inside. What perturbed her most was that Klaus was out there, in search of Tyler, hell bent on killing him as soon as he found him. She wanted to go after Klaus and beg for mercy for Tyler, but she had done that already with no positive results. There was no way she could even talk to Tyler about all this because he wasn't receiving any of her calls. So, she was a mess with no one to help her through this.

Caroline suddenly heard the front door opening and all her vampire senses went on alert. "Mom, is that you?" she called out, not sure if she was just imagining the noise.

She heard another noise in the living room and jumped. "Who is it?" she called out again, to no avail.

Caroline thought to herself, "I'm a vampire. I can handle anyone who tries to hurt me," and decided to go check. When she reached downstairs, everything was untouched and it felt so quiet that she could hear her own heartbeat. Before she could breathe a sigh of relief, she was attacked by someone with a vervained stake. She tried her best to fight but the intruder shot at her with vervain darts and she found herself losing consciousness as she tried to call out the name of her attacker, "Ka-the-rine…"

Caroline woke up to find herself tied to a pillar. She tried to move her hands but realized the rope was soaked in vervain and let out a cry, only to realize that the gag around her mouth was also vervained. She flinched with pain and tears came rolling down her eyes even as she tried hard to control herself. She remembered only too well how she was tortured the last time by Jules' werewolf pack and started to feel the panic rushing in, as she tried to remember who had attacked her this time.

When the answer finally came to her, she started to shiver. Katherine being back, even after getting the cure could not mean anything good. Caroline tried to calm down and think of a reason behind the bitch taking her as a captive. Before she could do much of that, she heard footsteps coming down to the place she was held in. Her senses were on overdrive as she tried to see who this person was in the dim light of the room. She gasped as she finally saw who it was.

"Klaus…!" was all she managed to say through her gag.

Klaus wasn't prepared for what he saw. He hadn't expected to see her, out of everyone, tied to that pillar. He saw her expression change from that of astonishment to one of betrayal. Before he could say anything to her or even remotely try to understand why she was the one here, he heard Katherine behind him, "Like what you see?"

That was all it took to undo him, "What is the meaning of all this? Have you completely forsaken the desire to live?" he practically screamed at her, on the verge of doing exactly what those deadly eyes suggested he was capable of.

"Come on, Klaus. You asked me to send a message to that bunch in Mystic Falls. This is perfect for the purpose." Katherine said, pretending to ignore any holes in her logic.

"Katherine, I asked you to get Elena. Was it so hard to remember or have you forgotten what your doppelganger looks like?" Klaus was in no mood to tolerate Katherine Pierce and her tricks.

"But… Klaus… Elena is of no use. She switched off her humanity. Torturing our dear friend here, on the other hand, would definitely be more fun and send across a louder message." Katherine was all for playing the game.

"Leave, before I rip your heart out."

"Klaus, come o-"

"I SAID LEAVE" Klaus cut her off and she obeyed this time, after seeing the look on his face.

Once she had left, Klaus turned to face Caroline. Caroline-why did it have to be her? Why did he feel so powerless around her? Even after everything she and her friends conspired to do against him, why did he not have the courage to hurt her to send the message? Why couldn't he use her to teach a lesson to Tyler and the others?

All these thoughts raced through his mind as he walked up to her and sat beside her, removing the gag from her mouth. He found himself apologizing even when he knew he didn't need to apologize to anyone. But, he had to, only to her. "I'm sorry, love. I didn.."

"Oh shut up, Klaus." She cut him off before he could even complete his sentence. "How can you even think of apologizing after doing all this? You wanted to TORTURE me?! I really thought there was something human inside you, but guess what? Now I know I was wrong. You are a monster!" Caroline was so mad at Klaus that she didn't care how much it hurt to speak right after the vervained gag was pulled off.

Klaus had never imagined that someone could hurt him with their words. So many people had told him they hated him and called him a monster. He never cared. But today, for the first time in his life, it hurt. It hurt to know that Caroline thought of him that way too. As he undid the rope tying her hands, he could see that the fight had left her and she was in pain. It broke his heart to see her this way. Why? Why did she have this power over him?

He touched her cheek where the vervained gag had left a wound and she jumped. She gave him a look of pure hatred before getting up and walking in the direction of the stairs.

"Where are you going?" He has barely asked the question when she started to fall to the ground because of the torture that had been inflicted on her by Katherine. He managed to hold her right before she fell and scooped her up in his arms. She groaned as his hands scraped the wound left by the stake Katherine has used against her. "You'll be fine soon, love. I won't let anyone hurt you."

He took her to his room in this house in Tennessee. He laid her on his bed, tended to her wounds, and put a blanket around her. As he watched her sleep, he decided that Katherine would have to pay for this. He didn't care about his deal with her. She had hurt his Caroline…

I really like the dynamics of Klaus-Caroline relationship and wanted to see if I can create some magic with these characters. Please review and let me know if you like this! :)