Klaus doesn't even remember the name of the first young girl that he killed.
It hadn't been on purpose, he hadn't slit her throat or shot her, or anything. He'd simply been trying to save his younger brother. The two of them had been playing, swimming in a pond near their home with Rebekah and Kol, when Henrik had slipped under the water.
When Kol had found and pulled him out of the water, he wasn't breathing. Klaus had just put his hands on Henrik's chest to give him CPR when all of a sudden he was breathing again.
Klaus had leapt back and ran to get Elijah while Rebekah held Henrik and cried. Kol was trying to get Rebekah to loosen her hold on their youngest brother so that he could finish coughing up water. It wasn't working too well.
And not far from them, young Meredith Fell collapsed in the street and was hit by a car.
It was all made null and void by the fact that Henrik ran up to give Klaus a hug goodnight that evening and fell over dead.
Esther cried, and Mikael's subtle emotional abuse grew into harsher words with the addition of stern fists as well.
Klaus grew tough, and realized that when he touched dead things they would come back to life, and when he touched them a second time they would die, and stay dead this time.
He didn't like the uncontrollable nature of the exchange, wished that he could decide who was taken in order to make things even. That's why he tried to stick to bringing people back for less than a minute. It wouldn't do to lose his sister, or another one of his brothers. Their deaths will not be on his hands.
That's why it was a surprise to Stefan, a private eye and friend of Klaus', when Klaus wanted to rush back to his hometown, a tiny place called Mystic Falls, after reading an obituary.
A young girl by the name of Caroline Forbes died in the night. She was found on her bed with her face in her pillow. Authorities believe that she fell asleep and accidentally smothered herself.
The funeral will be tomorrow, Thursday, at 3 in the afternoon. Anyone who knew Caroline is invited to attend.
Smothering isn't the best way to die. Caroline isn't sure that there is a good way to die, but she'd prefer to not have been smothered by her best friend's secret twin sister.
Well, actually she'd prefer not to have died in the first place, and she's not going to think much about the fact that secret twins are something that she has to deal with now.
Not that she'll ever be able to see Elena again for it to matter. She'd had a funeral and it was a stroke of luck that Klaus and Stefan had made it in time to sneak her out of her grave and away from her hometown.
"So you're saying that I can't see anyone from my old life?"
"No, Caroline. You're literally dead to them."
In the grand scheme of things, it's not a lot to give up for herself to be alive again. She didn't want to be dead, had futily fought for her life but in the end it hadn't mattered. That doesn't mean that she's just going to be able to do that though. Those are her friends, her family!, she doesn't feel like it would be right to just leave them to grieve while she moves on to live her life. No matter what Stefan and Rebekah are telling her she should do.
Though as far as she can think there's nothing else for her to do. All of the reasons that she can think of for being dead one moment and alive the next, don't explain why she's back.
Had she witnessed a crime and faked her death, then why was she back? If it were all a big misunderstanding, then why did she let them go through with the funeral? Why had she let them be in pain for so long?
It's enough to give her a headache, so she grabs her fork and tucks into the slice of pie that Klaus had put in front of her. It's mixed berry something and she thinks that it's the best thing that she's ever tasted.
They're back in The Pie Hole and Caroline makes an effort, decides right then with her mouth full of dessert and her lips slowly turning the blue-purple of the pie filling, that even though she can't see her family again, she's going to make the most of this second chance.
That probably means that she should get more clothes (she's still in the dress she was going to be buried in), and probably a fake identity so that she can get a job (she has to pay for the clothes somehow), and a place to live. The things that she needs to do keep coming to her and all she can do right that minute is ask for another slice of pie.
It's apple this time, and as she takes a bite and thinks about how much work it actually is to be alive.
In one moment Klaus Mikaelson had touched her death and changed it, life returning as the funeral home director in the next room dropped dead of a heart attack.
(She doesn't know that part though. Not yet.)
Kiss her or keep her? It's a simple question that spins around his head constantly.
Was this the fresh strawberry pie? Kiss her or let her live? Should he tag along with Stefan on this case or should he pull her into his arms?
Should he be reasonable or reckless?
In the end it always comes down to what's better for her, and it's better for her to be living and breathing and wreaking minor havoc around his business, tagging along to try and comfort people in their last minute.
Klaus doesn't really care if they're comfortable, he cares if they tell him what killed them. Stefan cares that he gets his money quickly enough that he has enough time to go sit in the dark of his office and brood.
It's really just a waste of time. Why brood when you can bake or solve more unsolved murders and tease your sister about her crush on one of the regulars.
The best part about the teasing is that Marcel has a crush on Rebekah as well, but neither of them want to say anything. Klaus loves to just add more fuel to the fires of their nervousness. It's not hurting anyone and it makes him feel better.
Or he feels better until he finds Rebekah and Marcel making out in the alleyway behind The Pie Hole. That was a sight he could have went without.
He sends Rebekah home for the day and threatens the life out of Marcel, before letting him leave as well. There's no doubt that he's off meeting Rebekah at the apartment that she shares with Caroline, but he doesn't really care so long as it's not distracting her from work. And that he also doesn't have to see them.
Jealousy is one of his more awful traits.
He won't admit it, but Caroline can see it in his eyes when she throws her arms around Stefan, or when she tries to comfort a crying customer with a hand on their shoulder.
It's not that those things are strictly impossible for them, it's just that they have to be so much more careful, that it's not worth the hassle and the worry.
She could put on a pair of gloves and hold his hand, use the sleeve of her jacket to protect her as she leans into him, the barrier of his scarf helpful as she tucks her face into his chest. But what if she looks up as he glances down, or they trip and fall in a bundle of limbs, what if someone bumps into them and the universe decides they weren't being careful enough.
It's a chance she's not will to take no matter how much she wants to.
It's also something she's not willing to admit because she still hates him. Or she's still supposed to, angry that he had let someone else die so that she could live (she hadn't spoken to him for a week after finding out, had left and spent a week driving his giant SUV around the state before coming back home. She feels bad about that when she remembers the look of relief and awe on his face when she'd walking back through the door), that he can just bring other people back and use them to earn easy money, that he can be so charming and cavalier when he's kind of a murderer.
There's no kind of to it. He's killed people to save her, to save his family, to keep the people that he loves safe. She thinks that if the exchange had that he had to actually kill someone with his bare hands to bring her back he still would have done it.
It's scary in the way that she's never had anyone care about her that strongly before.
He thinks about taking her to dinner, decides that he should, and gets as far as asking if she'd like to go. She grins and asks if they can't just have pie instead.
"You're going to fall into a sugar coma if you don't have something else to eat." But he serves her anyway, a slice of chocolate and a slice of strawberry sitting side by side on the plate.
He mostly sticks to the chocolate as he thinks about what he could cook for her to have an actual dinner and she's sitting at the counter with the plate unfairly close to her though he doesn't mind as he leans over the counter to share. From where he is he can smell her perfume, and the light from the windows behind her makes Caroline glow.
It makes him want to start painting again. For the first time in years he misses the art supplies hidden in the back of his closet.
They're fighting with their forks, being extra careful as they take turns taking a bite, and he's suggesting foods that he can cook for them, dishes growing more delicious sounding with each name he lists off and she's not sure how on earth she's supposed to decide.
She's reaching forward, napkin in hand, to shove at his carefully covered shoulder to tell him to knock it off and choose one already, he's making her really hungry, when she has an epiphany.
Caroline is happier now than she ever was before. She misses her mom sometimes, and yeah one day everything is going to fall apart somehow, but she's really happy.
She can't tell Klaus that though, it would make him even more insufferable, and she can't kiss him like she really wants to, so instead she just keeps reaching out for him, hits him on the shoulder, scoops up another mouthful of pie and tells him that he should get to work before she starves to death over here.