Author's Note: So, I'm obsessed with Caroline. And Klaus and Caroline. In my break between summer and fall classes I am rewatching and found myself wondering what Caroline may have hallucinated about when she was bitten by Tyler and later by Klaus himself. We now that she was hallucinating at least the first time, because Matt mentioned it but we never got to see it. So this is my interpretation. Hope someone out there likes it. This is my first TVd fic, my first fic posted in ages so I know that it is rough and unbetaed but it's been swirling around my head for days so I had to get it out. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I definitely don't own The Vampire Diaries, The Originals or any of the characters therein, but I will put pen to paper in regards to their lives when the muse strikes.


He can hear Caroline's shaking breathing before Tyler even opens the door to the house. Once they enter the house he can smell the sweat beaded on her skin as her fever increases, can feel the anger and hatred rolling off of the teen in waves. Klaus clenches his teeth before they come into view, falling into the mask of alpha male and trying to play nonchalant Big Bad Hybrid.

Tyler gently lays Caroline on the living room floor, just inside the spelled doorway. Klaus looks regretfully down at the blonde as her lead lolls to the side, big blue eyes blinking up at him, then gazes up at the posturing hybrid.

"You want to be in control, Klaus? Here. Now you get to be in control of her life. If you want her to die, fine. But then you can sit here and watch her die yourself." With that, the teen storms from the house, leaving the weakened baby vampire in his wake.

Stalking toward her, he steels his nerve before speaking, "Nothing personal, love. But if I cure you, that means victory for him. Don't worry. It won't be long now."

She rasps a shallow breath and he watches her eyes lose focus as she falls into a vision only she can see. Klaus pulls Caroline into his arms, jostling her as little as he can, knowing how much it will hurt her ragged body, and lays her gently on the couch. He reaches out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, pausing when she flinches away and lets out a muted whimper before her breathing speeds up, panic flooding her features as he chest heaves.

"Wait…don't…gah…get away from me! No…"

Caroline falls silent again and Klaus stalks across the room, eyeing her warily. He can't place the tight feeling in his chest just now, but knows it was cause by the cries she just let out. He had never seen her so…defenseless. Not when he'd entered her room to heal her the first time, not even when he bit her just hours ago. The strength that radiated from her very being had still shone through her eyes then. The closest he could remember seeing the blonde look to being that vulnerable before was when she was fleeing the hunter, but even then, there was an inherent power visible.

Her eyelids flutter open again and she mumbles incoherently, giving him the impression he was only getting her half of a conversation, before her voice rings clearly. "Will these bites turn me into a vampire?"

Another moment and fear clouds her features again, murmuring, "Are you going to kill me?" He understands the helplessness she exudes now – this is a human memory.

Caroline falls silent for a while, her fever rising higher as the red wound on her neck growing. Klaus watches her closely from across the room, grinding his teeth as he hears her breathing growing more labored by the minute. The venom is spreading quickly through her system, he knows she probably doesn't have long before she succumbs to the blackness. He doesn't know how long he stares at the shallow rise and fall of her chest before her voice reaches his ears again.

"Elena? What are you doing here?" She's silent for a minute, her brow furrowing while she listens to the doppelganger's response. "What are you talking about? What message? Aahhh!" She jerks violently to the left, sinking into the cushions while she screams.

"I remember," Caroline states calmly, and for a moment Klaus thinks she's speaking to him. He scrabbles to think what she could be talking about, but she continues and he cocks his head to the side, interested in what she has to say.

"I remember how you manipulated me. You pushed me around. Abused me. Erased my memories. Fed on me. The memories have been coming back, in pieces." She pauses, apparently listening to a silent voice again, and he growls lowly, contemplating who she is speaking to.

"I have a message from Katherine. She says, 'Game on.'" She exudes the confidence he knows now, and Klaus gathers that this conversation took place after she was turned, the power stemming from the vampirism. He moves slowly closer to the couch, leaning against the wall while her face contorts again, feels that tightening in his chest at the sight of the agony in her features.

"Why are you doing this to me? Why are you doing this to me? Why?" She cries, her voice breaking. "Get me out! Let me out!" She seems to fall in on herself, arms wrapping around her own chest, trying to feel some comfort from the embrace. A few moments pass and her features loosen, her 'in charge' expression fighting its way to the surface as she calls to the mangy pup who left her here.

"Tyler. There's a latch. There's a latch on the door and I can't get to it. Tyler? Tyler, please, Tyler?" There's that catch in her voice again, pulling the breath from his lungs. But her face turns stony and she continues, picking up another one-sided conversation.

"I'm fine… Do you know what they did to me?.. I lied to protect my friends. I lied to protect you. Don't you get that?.. You just stood there. When they were going to kill us – you just stood there. You didn't do anything. You help your friend. That's what you do… No, it's too late. Because we're not friends anymore. And what happened to me tonight – that will never happen again. So you take that back to your little werewolf pack and you get the hell out of my house." The hybrid grinds his teeth, adding another to the list of reasons he should kill the boy. The sad lilt to her voice is back when she speaks next.

"Why didn't you say goodbye? You just left… Well, if we're going to die, I might as well know the truth. Why did you leave me?" He remembers this conversation. It took place when he had the two captive for the sacrifice. "I was hurt. You know, you turned your back on me when I needed you." He wonders vaguely why no one seems to put her first, no matter how many times she gets hurt doing so for them.

"Do you think my mom wants to kill me?" She questions, suddenly. He moves to contradict her, knowing the bond between the women, but she continues quietly, "Yeah, well, I don't really know what to do with me either."

The uncertainty in her voice enrages him, bringing him to his feet so he can stalk across the room. Does she really not understand her own significance? Pacing like the caged beast he is, Klaus rakes a hand through his blonde hair while he tries to control his breathing. He notes worriedly that Caroline's has become even more labored, and he genuinely hopes she will fall into true unconsciousness soon, that she will stop suffering because of what he, and so many others it seems, have done to her. An hour passes silently and he's seated against the far wall with his head in his hands when she calls out. Eyes red rimmed with turmoil and exhaustion, his head flies up so he can see her.

"Daddy? Daddy, are you there? Why won't you talk to me?.. Dad?.. Just, let me go. No, Dad, no. What are you-? What are you doing? What are you doing?" She's shouting now, terror and confusion clouding her eyes. "What are you doing? Dad?" She waits for a response. She's sobbing when she speaks again, shouting in a pained and raspy voice, "No! Please! Stop! Please, stop! Please. I don't hurt anyone. I swear. Dad, I swear. I can handle the urges. I can." Her eyes darken and the light glints off of her delicate fangs momentarily before her head pulls to the side, staring at him with unseeing eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry… That's impossible. Daddy, you can't change who I am." She screams incoherently and Klaus slams his palms over his ears while his chest constricts painfully. He knows first hand the degree of pain that ones own father can inflict on a person.

The sounds die down after what feels like an eternity and her quiet, defeated voice barely reaches him just the few feet away. "Dad, I'm ok. I've learned to adapt. I don't need to be fixed. I can't be fixed… I can't… Daddy, I'm starving… Why? You know this isn't going to work. Why are you trying to fix me?" Another sob and she's apologizing again. The blonde girl's features smooth out slightly, and she voice is childlike when she speaks again, tears in her big blue eyes. "I just always thought he was the one who got me… He hates me. My dad hates me."

He doesn't know when he came to stand beside though sofa, but this time he does stroke her hair tentatively. There was a time, centuries ago, when he had cried to himself the same way. He flashes away when her eyes fly open.

"Did you—did you just bite me?" Panic is evident in her voice and he's not sure if she's coherent or still lost in a painful memory so he doesn't respond immediately. "Just get away from me! Get away from me!" Now he's sure she isn't speaking to him, but to Tyler. Though the guilt still rings through him, as it was his fault, and he knows what she is going to say next. "Are you going to kill me?" She waits for him to respond and he mouths the words and sees the fierceness flash through her eyes when she snaps a short 'yes' at him before listening to her memory again, continuing quietly, breaking his thawing heart again as she had that night, "I don't want to die."

Klaus is almost ready to say 'screw it' to the point his is trying to prove to Tyler. He doesn't want her to die, either. It was easier those months ago, when he didn't know anything about her except for the strength and light she exuded, even here on her deathbed. But her strangled breathing draws his attention, and when he sneaks a peek at her from the corner of his eye she is gazing at him with clear eyes. She sucks in a deep breath and speaks to him, instead of at him, for the first time since he bit her.

"If you don't feed me your blood, I'll die." One short sentence, and he remembers why they are in this position, why he can't escape the agony she's been revealing to him all night. And his resolve steels once again, though he can't look at her when he finally responds.

"Then you'll die. And Tyler will have learned his lesson the hard way." It shocks him that he so easily slips back into the villain persona he adopted centuries ago. The ice in his voice is honed and dangerous, even if his expression is faltering.

"How can you do this to him? To his mom?" Caroline questions earnestly, drawing a shaking breath before adding the final question, the one she really doesn't understand, "To me?" She thought he cared for her, wasn't that what he had been trying to convey? How could he not only let her die, but be the cause?

"I'm a thousand years old. Call it boredom," he clips out stubbornly. He still can't look at her, knows that if he meets her gaze he will give in.

"I don't believe you," she whispers, sucking in another pained breath.

"Fine. Then maybe it's because I'm pure evil, and I can't help myself," Klaus snipes, sarcasm drowning the hurt he feels, knowing that is how she feels about him on most days.

"No," Caroline's soft voice interrupts his thoughts, "It's because you're hurt. Which means there is a part of you that is human," she states matter-of-factly. The word causes his head to jerk in her direction reflexively.

"How could you possibly think that?" The question is gritted out through his teeth. The girl before him has never been shy about her opinions of him, how evil she believed him to be. He doesn't know what she's getting at, but he doesn't trust it. The distrust doesn't stop him from crossing the room, the words drawing him to her.

"Because I've seen it." The words are out before Caroline can think the statement through, her mind growing hazy. She decides to take it another step, to drive the accidental thought home with a truth she has barely begun to admit to herself. "Because I've caught myself wishing that I could forget all of the horrible things that you've done."

That blasted tightness in his chest, newfound emotions squeezing his heart painfully, makes the words come out choked. "But you can't. Can you?"

Drawing a strangled breath before continuing, the dying girl buys herself a moment before responding, not answering his question but pointing out something she isn't sure he's even admitted to himself. "I know that you're in love with me. And anybody capable of love, is capable of being saved." Caroline, the bright, strong girl who brings light into the lives of everyone she meets, genuinely believes it; believes that the monster of a man before her can be saved. That is the only reason she is able to say the words, because not only is he—his humanity—capable of being saved, but she wants to save him. The glimpses she's gotten of his softer side have her intrigued and enamored. And she wants to see if that man can surface and be with her.

Klaus draws a shaky breath as he envisions Caroline by his side, by the side of Niklaus the human not Klaus the hybrid even, and his eyes cloud. He shoves the thought away and scoffs, "You're hallucinating." She can't actually feel that way about him, so he refuses to entertain the idea, no matter how much the mere thought pleases him. His ears pick up the faint whimper and the catch in her breath before she speaks to him a final time.

"I guess I'll never know," she relents sadly, and slips into the darkness. Struggling for another breath, Caroline squirms and tries to open her eyes. She hears Klaus call to her, fights to respond but nothing comes out.

"Caroline?... Caroline?" He sniffs quickly, fighting an internal battle. He's lived alone for so long, never feeling this way for anyone in a thousand years, and wonders in a fleeting moment if it wouldn't be easier if she did die. Wonders if the feelings would go away. But he sighs heavily as his thawing heart breaks at the mere thought of her not being there to snub and fight with him in days to come, the thought of her not one day relenting to her own feelings. With a broken sigh, the big bad hybrid rises and lifts the painfully still baby vampire from the arm of the couch she is reclining against and sliding into the gap gently. A quiet crunch rings out in the silence as his fangs puncture his wrist and he brings his strong arm around her, lifting the wound to her lips. For a moment he thinks he waited too long, that he did kill her. But then he feels her lips move, her mouth suckling gently against his pulse point.

She doesn't know if her eyes have been closed for seconds or hours, but they flutter open and she brings her hands up to clutch at Klaus like a lifeline. The sweet blood flowing down her throat isn't the only thing she finds herself reaching for. She feels his hand stroking over her hair gently, feels his lips against her crown as he whispers comforting words. She can't be certain, but Caroline swears she feels a wetness seeping into her hair, but she brushes it off and tangles her fingers with his, drinking down more of his blood as she feels her neck wound begin to tingle.

A few minutes later, her grip on him loosens and Klaus feels the petite girl sag back against him. He continues dragging his fingers through her silken hair as she curls into his chest. Exhaustion overwhelms her and he pulls deep breaths into his lungs, accepting that she is alive, that he was able to save her again. After listening to her reliving all she has gone through, Klaus wants nothing more than to pull her into his arms and never let her out into the world again. How can anyone so good, so pure of heart, be put through so much abuse and still hold onto hope with every new person they meet? A thousand years ago, he had been a gentle man, a hopeful man. But vampirism had changed him. His heart had hardened and withered and he defaulted into rage and violence in any given situation now. It made him question if he wouldn't end up snuffing out her light if he stayed around. But, then again, her own friends hadn't managed it yet and they had put her through more than he had.

The thoughts swirled around in his head for hours, until the sky lightened and birds began sounding outside the windows. Caroline shifted in his arms, murmuring slightly in her sleep. She tucked her face into the crook of his neck and he was finally able to glimpse the pinkened skin where his bite had been raging earlier. The flesh had knitted itself back together and she would be no worse for the wear after she rested and drank her fill of blood in the morning. But he swore to himself then and there that she would never go through this pain again. Pressing a barely there kiss to her hair, Klaus closed his arms around Caroline once more, sinking slowly into the couch cushions and closed his eyes and she snuggled into his neck.

They were in the same position hours later when he heard Tyler's boots stomping up the walkway, onto the steps and to the door. He slid out from underneath the sleeping girl and flashed across the room, letting his contempt of the boy show on his face as the louse rounded the corner, calling to the girl they both loved.