There's a tingling in her fingers, toes and lips and for half a second she remembers that this is what being cold felt like before. The thought fades as quickly as it comes because vampires obviously don't get cold, so something must be very very wrong.
Plus even though it's been rainy all week it's July, so there's not really any cold to be found.
She looks around her quickly, hair sticking to her chin and cheeks as she turns. Caroline spots a girl not that far away. She's got red hair and Caroline thinks that they have a class together, though she can't really remember.
They've been really busy trying to resurrect Bonnie and deal with the fact that Stefan's been trapped underwater for almost an entire year and it's so sad that Caroline used to be able to deal with all of this and get good grades.
She sends a smile towards the girl and bites at her lip a little bit, hoping that if she increases her borrowed blood flow, they'll stop tingling. It's only when she tries to turn and step away, to continue heading home that she realizes that she's feeling kid of dizzy now too. She puts a hand to her head, cool fingers sliding into her hair against her equally cool scalp and the motion is soothing for an instant.
Half a minute later, her knees are hitting the concrete of the sidewalk and she feels her skin scraping and bleeding and healing an instant later. There's a little blood left on the skin there, a reminder of pain that's already gone. She tries to shuffle on her knees but it feels like there are fireworks going off under her skin; tingling and burning, stinging like raindrops when your arm is out the car window.
The ground is coming up to meet her, and she knows that it's not how it works so she reaches out hoping to stop herself, only her elbows give out and her face finally hits concrete. She tries to crawl away, preservation instincts kicking in even when she can't focus on anything other that the pins and needles.
She manages to roll onto her back, just as the red-haired girl comes walking up. Her youthful appearance seems to fade and she's suddenly much older than before. "I am so lucky that I found you, lonely little Caroline Forbes."
She knows that she's not going to last much longer, and while this isn't going to kill her it's not going to make the rest of her life pleasant. She's flashing back to her father trying to fix her, and Ric tying her up and she's certain that this is some kind of spiritual vervain soaking down into her soul. "Why?"
The woman smiles down at her, all sugary sweet and it makes Caroline want to move away, but her muscles won't cooperate. "I've never tried this with a vampire, channeling their beauty into myself to hide my aging I mean. Plus, the whole one true love is different when you've got all of eternity. If nothing else this should be very interesting."
She sighs sadly, and there's something in her eye that Caroline doesn't want to think about. "You're so beautiful and you're going to be beautiful forever. No pesky wrinkles, no silly frown lines. You'll be young and gorgeous for all of eternity. Maybe I will too now."
The woman trails a finger down her face, and Caroline can barely turn her head away body screaming at her that they should just die (again) already. She's already had to sit through her movie villain monologue about her creepy plan while pretty much writhing in agony with no way to respond and now she's getting all touchy. Worst day ever.
She thinks that she hears someone calling her name, maybe, she thinks she might be imagining it, but then darkness takes over and oh- she doesn't hurt anymore.
Finding Caroline passed out on the sidewalk on campus is not the scariest thing that's ever happened to them, but Stefan thinks that it might be the one that there's no reason for. She's still alive, or undead, or whatever, but they can't wake her up.
After that it doesn't take long to find the witch that cast the spell. It also doesn't take long for Elena to snap just a little bit more (she's had a rough year), and shove her hand into the woman's chest squeezing and squeezing and oh yes, she's finally talking.
It's a true love spell, almost exactly like the one from the Disney movie. Only this time Maleficent steals Aurora's beauty to keep herself young forever, and then when one girl dies she does it again with a new girl.
"The only way to break the curse is with a kiss," she says, breathing heavy, grinning even though Elena's hand is still in her ribcage, "so I would get to kissing. At least you've got plenty of time to get it right."
At that Elena twists and pulls her hand back, and as the witch falls lifelessly to the ground she seems to age a few hundred years to become mushy and old and decomposed, and really, wasn't there a Disney movie like this too?
After a quick detour to the woods, Stefan calls Liz to explain what's going on. They'd taken Care to the Salvatore Boarding House out of habit, and she comes to pick her up and take her home. She should be in her own bed when she wakes up (when. They're all positive it's going to be when and not if, they just have to stay positive).
Stefan helps carry her in, and when Liz starts crying because there's nothing she can do about this, just like there's very little she can do about so much else, he leaves a note to call when she's ready to start trying to break the spell.
It takes almost a day for Liz to call, and Stefan and Elena don't quite know what to do while they wait.
Jeremy's in summer school and Elena has a couple of classes that she has to attend to finish the year, but it doesn't seem worth it when she's worried about her friends. Stefan had been trying to finish the classes that Silas had been going to, but they all ended last month so there's nothing for him to do other than sit around or go to the Grill (or any of the other things that Caroline had been saying they were all going to do together this summer, but that seems wrong without her there).
Damon on the other hand does what he normally does. He drinks and he reads and he complains when Elena and Stefan get too mopey, but then the call comes in even he relaxes just a smidge. Damon isn't exactly friends with Caroline, but he doesn't want anything to happen to her.
Stefan decides that Max, Caroline's current boyfriend, should be the one to come and kiss her first. No one really thinks that the two of them going to be together for any long period of time, but what kind of friends would they be if they had random people kiss her before her boyfriend.
He thankfully knows about vampires and witches and hybrids and the insanity that was life in Mystic Falls, so it's not that hard to explain what happened. He seems to accept it easily enough, and makes the drive out to the Forbes' house.
He's greeted by Liz at the door, and a crowd of people in the living room, lounging like they've got nowhere else better to be. "Uh, hello."
They were talking about Jeremy's classes but the chatting stops when he walks in even though they had almost all heard him since he pulled into the driveway. Elena's the one to respond to him though. "Hi."
"So I just have to kiss her?" The room itself seems to sigh in relief as he cuts through the small talk.
Stefan speaks up this time, taking on the role of 'fact giver' their ragtag band of people who want Caroline awake again. "As far as we know. There's always the chance that we were being lied to but, I don't think we were." People tend to tell the truth when your hand is inside of their chest cavity.
Stefan follows him to her room, and lingers in the hallway with Liz. They try and avoid watching, but they are standing there and watching for a reason. He exchanges a look with the sheriff and they watch as Max takes a seat on the bed and leans in.
It's very dark and there are a few sounds, far away and quiet like the dull roar of the ocean in the distance or a radio station that you can't quite get to come in.
But the worst and most important thing is that she's alone.
Time seems to pass oddly here, and whenever she tries to think of something for too long or too intensely everything seems to fade for a while until she's not noticing anything and time is racing past.
When she finally realizes that wherever she's at she can move, she spins around and comes face to face with Max. She can feel herself smiling, and saying his name, but he doesn't seem to hear her. He reaches forward and pulls her into a hug and she feels the warmth of him, but can't seem to feel him, and then a moment later he's gone, and she's surrounded by just cool air again.
"It didn't work. It's not me." Max doesn't storm out of the house like Stefan had been expecting. Instead he goes to sit on the couch next to Elena, and looks as though he wants to start planning with them. He looks accepting; like he knew this would happen, and Stefan wishes that he had had the chance to get to know Max better before all of this. "So who's next?"
Stefan goes to the Grill to get Matt (and food for Liz, Max, and Jeremy while he's there), and then calls Tyler on their way back to the house. He doesn't answer like he usually doesn't answer, but Stefan leaves a message explaining what's going on and asks that he comes home, just for a couple of days so that he can do his part in trying to wake Caroline up.
He doesn't bother adding that they'll call if she wakes up before he gets there, if he comes at all. That's just obvious.
When they get back to the house, they take a break so that everyone can eat, but it doesn't take long until Matt's standing and walking through the house worry emanating off of him with every step.
Caroline didn't think that black darkness could be bright, but apparently she was wrong. She squeezes her eyes closed and tilts her head down, trying and failing to move away from it, only to find that there are hands in her hair pulling her head up and forward.
She reaches out and grabs, opens her eyes and finds that Matt is standing very close to her. Something is poking at her scalp, and she's waiting for him to lean in and kiss her, when instead he turns them and pulls her down into a dip and her hair is falling down, the pins that had been holding it up falling with the tiniest of little clicks onto a floor that she's sure isn't there.
"This'll never work." She thinks that she can almost hear what he's saying, but it's fuzzy like an old photograph, a memory too often thought of or not thought of at all.
"What? What will never work?" She sounds too loud to her own ears, but Matt doesn't seem to hear her at all, just looks sadly down at her from inches away, and without giving her the chance to stand up or get her bearing back he's gone and her head is hitting that ground that still doesn't seem to exist.
While Matt had taken his moment to kiss Caroline, Tyler had called them back. He's apparently somewhere in Tennessee and will be there as soon as possible, which will still be somewhere around a few hours since he's driving back.
They're trying to decide on whether or not they should continue with the kissing (it can't hurt to have all of her friends kiss her, just in case), or whether they should wait and let Tyler be next.
Liz decides for them when she closes Caroline's bedroom door behind Matt and says "Two people per day. I think that's reasonable." Stefan can see that she's mainly trying to gain some control over a situation that's completely out of her hands.
Stefan can't help but nod, wanting to help in the only way that he can, adding "Plus, if there's some kind of time delay on the curse breaking this should give it time to sort itself out."
They all thank the sheriff for letting them camp out in her house for the afternoon, before they leave in a wave, only Matt staying behind. "I should make sure that she's okay. Plus someone should be here when Tyler shows up, since he's definitely not going to stop off at home or anything."
"Right. Call me if you want to go home to get some sleep or when you have to go to work. I'll take the next shift." It's reminiscent of keeping watch for something bad, even the lurking knowledge that eventually someone else is going to come and take over from you and you're going to be left worrying instead of actually getting sleep.
"I'll probably just sleep on the couch, but thanks, man."
The next morning Stefan wakes early, and goes to the woods to workout and hunt. He's got his phone ready in case Matt calls, but he sets to working the stress and worry out of his muscles. It doesn't work like it usually doesn't work and even after a couple of bunnies, he's craving human blood the way he does when things go wrong, but instead of getting himself lost in the bloodlust, he finally runs home to shower.
He's just pulling a shirt on when his phone rings. It's Matt calling to say that Tyler's there. Tyler sounds impatient in the background, but he's waiting for the rest of them to get there before he goes to try and wake Caroline.
He yells to Damon and Elena on his way out the door, and then they're following behind him; Elena because she cares, Damon because he's bored.
They're there long enough to exchange hellos before Tyler walks down the foyer hallway and into Caroline's room. The rest of the group follows Liz into the kitchen where she passes out coffee for all of them.
Caroline is still sprawled out on the floor when she feels the next change around her.
Everything feels warmer, though she's not really cold and then there's the sound of a growl that makes her skin prickle. Her head spins around as she sits up, moving up to her knees as she continues looking around trying to find the source of the sound.
By the time that she's on her feet she can feel her fangs in her mouth, and she knows that the veins on her face must be clearly visible, but then she sees Tyler and while his eyes are glowing that bright vivid yellow, she relaxes with a sigh. "Tyler."
It's been so long since she's seen him, and she had known that she missed him, but it feels different, less intense than it used to be. She doesn't get a chance to think more about that though, because he's reaching out and pulling her close. She shakes a bit in her newly realized high heels, and really how does she not keep noticing that all of this stuff is happening.
A second later they're dancing, fast and close and their footsteps are loud in her ears, his breath hot on her face, until they aren't dancing anymore and she's being pressed again what she knows is nothing, because if she reaches behind her there's nothing there, but she can't seem to move backwards away from Tyler.
He leans in like he's going to kiss her, and he does only when she tilts her face towards him, he just moves and kisses her jaw, moving down her neck until his mouth is at her shoulder and she can feel his fangs as he opens his mouth, but just as he goes to bite down he's gone before she has the chance to do anything.
She feels whatever she's leaned against disappear, but this time she can catch herself and she left standing there, feeling wobbly on her feet and lonelier than ever.
Tyler comes into the kitchen and looks rough.
It's obvious by the way he's standing, and the fact that he's alone, that it didn't work but no one says anything. Instead Liz just hands him a cup of coffee of his own. "So who's next?"
They fill him in on the fact that Matt and Max have already tried, and that they've decided that they should do it in batches of two a day instead of having a line out the door of anyone Caroline's ever met before.
"I was thinking it should be Stefan next." Damon's broken into the blood stashed in the back of the fridge and is splitting it between his empty mug and Elena's. He offers a bit to Tyler who shakes his head. "He's the next most likely to win Barbie's affection."
"Damon." Elena sounds exasperated, but as usual Damon just smiles and sips his breakfast.
Liz seems to agree. "That sounds fine. I think we should wait a little though, have you guys go do whatever it is that you need to do, have breakfast, or lunch by now, catch a movie, whatever. That should give me time to change her into some other clothes. She's starting to smell like old rainwater."
At this she sends a glare to Stefan and Elena who had found her lying on the sidewalk in the rain after an unknown amount of time. They look sorry, but neither of them had any choice in how long Caroline had been laying there.
They agree to come back later, and in a single group they all head out, leaving the Forbes' alone.
It's mid-afternoon when they all get back to the house, and Liz has just started a movie on Caroline's laptop on the table. Four of their group crowd in to watch it, Jeremy settles in to trying and do his homework, and Stefan makes his way back to Caroline's room. He can hear them chattering away in the living room, but he doesn't focus enough to listen to what exactly they're saying.
He can hear Elena laughing at something that just happened in the movie, and then there's the sound of popcorn popping, and Stefan finally looks down at Caroline.
She's just as dead looking as she was when they had found her yesterday, as she was when Max had kissed her. Liz has changed her into a clean dress, and seemingly curled her hair, and Stefan can't imagine what she's going through. It's hard enough that it's his friend laying here. If it were his child he probably wouldn't be handling it as well as she is.
"Caroline. Care, just wake up. Please." He doesn't know if he's asking for her to wake up after he specifically kisses her, he just knows that he wants her back among the land of the living. He takes a deep breath and tries to relax, before leaning in to press a kiss to her lips.
It feels like an eternity passes, but also like no time at all has gone by and that might be the worst part of being trapped here. Not the random encounters with people that she knows, but the time between them. It makes her feel like she should be doing something productive.
Instead she feels herself just waiting, though she's not sure for what, and isn't that just the problem. If she knew what she was waiting for she would know when it got there.
Caroline feels someone grabbing her shoulder and then she's spinning into Stefan's arms, and they're swaying together, dancing to a song that she can't seem to hear.
She can feel the fabric of her dress swishing against her legs, but she's also wearing a coat thick enough that she can't feel Stefan's hand where it rests on her waist. There's a scarf tied too tightly around her neck, and the feeling of an undoubtedly matching hat on her head must explain why she can't hear what Stefan's saying.
She can see that he's mouthing something, and there's a pleading look on his face that she's only ever seen while he was looking at Elena, so Caroline reaches up to tug the hat off of her head, throwing it off into nowhere, but she still can't hear him. The music that had been there just a second ago is gone, and she thinks that she's might be starting to understand just a little, because when Stefan disappears it's not a surprise.
Stefan heads into the living room, and everyone turns to look at him. He shakes his head and sits down next to Elena. He remembers to text Max to fill him in on what's happened, and Stefan has to promise that he will text him when they all meet up tomorrow. They all stay long enough to finish out the movie before everyone slowly starts heading out.
Matt offers to stay again, but Stefan says that it's his turn and after everyone's gone he asks Liz when the last time she ate was.
"I had some eggs this morning with Matt before Tyler got here." She recounts it all like she has to be sure.
"I'm going to cook you something then." He starts to head into the kitchen, and Liz follows him looking like she can't believe what he's doing.
"You don't have to, really. I was just going to order a pizza. It'll last a couple of days and give Matt something to eat when he shows up again."
Stefan stops looking into the cabinets, to look Liz square in the face. She needs a good night's sleep and food that's actually good for her, and this is what Caroline would want; someone to take care of her mom since she can't. "It's really no problem, I'm a very good cook. Plus it gives me something to do. That isn't just sitting around waiting for tomorrow."
"Okay, but only if you eat something too." He nods, and she smiles at him, before going to check on Caroline. When he's finished cooking the two of them sit at the table together and talk about the town and the upcoming events and movies that they enjoy and everything that isn't the girl in the next room.
They get a late start the next day, Matt and Tyler showing up sometime around eleven, with Max showing up about half an hour later, and Damon and Elena showing up about an hour after that.
Liz had had some things to take care of at the Sheriff's station so she'd gone to work after giving Stefan the look that she usually gives criminals, and threatened him with vervain if he didn't call her with any changes.
This doesn't stop her from calling around noon to check in. The distraction is a welcome one though, because being stuck with Caroline's protective exes and her current boyfriend is not the most pleasant environment, even if they're only talking about sports.
Stefan has to promise that only one kiss will be done before she get home, and then he's back in the conversation about what they thought about the Super Bowl and who's looking the best for the World Cup.
Damon and Elena show up just before the three of them start getting too competitive, and then they're all back to that state of remembering that every time a person goes to kiss Caroline the possible people her "true love" could be shrinks and it's less and less likely that she'll wake up.
Damon goes quickly though, wanting to get his part in this all finally over and done with, and Stefan follows, watching through the door like he hasn't done since Max, because he still can't quite trust Max and after everything that happened with Damon and Caroline, he doesn't think he can completely trust his brother either.
Seeming to read Stefan's thoughts he says, "Don't trust me, brother?" Stefan doesn't answer, just gives him a look but Damon doesn't even sit down on the bed. Instead he just bends down to give Caroline what is probably the most awkward kiss ever.
The next thing Caroline sees in the darkness is a pair of cold blue eyes. The rest of the person seems to materialize and then it's Damon standing in front of her, smirking in that way that makes her want to snap his neck.
His fangs start to show then, and she tries to turn and run away, every muscle in her body screaming to run away, she can get away from him now, but she finds that she can't move no matter how much she wants to.
He's coming towards her now and she feels like this is the end, a sense of doom filling every part of her. She opens her mouth to scream, and nothing comes out, but then he's lunging at her and she closes her eyes, finally hears herself screaming and then right when he should be attacking her, she opens to find that she's alone.
She falls to the floor and cries for the first time since got wherever here is. She just wants to be at home.
The two of them head to join everyone in the living room. "It wasn't me, but I think that was obvious." Damon flops down onto the sofa next to Elena and Stefan reclaims the chair he had been in before.
"So I'm next, right? And then Jeremy, I guess?" Elena speaking and looking at the wall like the answers to waking Caroline are hidden in one of the pictures there. "And then who?"
There's no real way for them to test everyone in Mystic Falls, and then there's the rest of the world and people who haven't been born yet and Stefan thinks that it's all looking like a very large, very real, task.
Tyler's responds first while everyone else tries to come up with a plan. "Well, when does Klaus get here? Do we know?"
Stefan can feel the shame of his stupidity rolling off of him and looking at the people in the room with him, other than Tyler and Max (who doesn't know about Klaus' relationship with Caroline though he knows about the Original Hybrid), sharing that same feeling.
Max asks, "Who's Klaus? Do you mean really old hybrid Klaus?" and at least they know that the guy isn't as completely stupid as the rest of them.
"We forgot Klaus." Stefan says, shaking his head and taking a drink of the bourbon he's been nursing most of the afternoon.
Elena looks distressed and she's leaning forward to put her face into her hands, hair falling around her to curtain her off a bit. "How could we forget Klaus?"
Tyler looks almost worried about their sanity, but he turns to Max to explain everything that's happened between Klaus and Caroline. He ends his story, by turning to Stefan to say, "And I'm not going to be the one to call him." There's still anger in his voice, because you don't get over someone killing your mom, but there's an undercurrent of fear, like he's not sure that Klaus isn't going to kill him the next time they meet.
As far as they know he's right.
But they still take a while to argue as a group about who should call, before deciding that Klaus will be angry, but less so, if Stefan's the one to make the call. He rolls his eyes, but gets up and walks outside. It looks like rain, but the sun is still trying to shine and there's a nice breeze blowing.
When he gets to the right contact in his phone, he hits the button to call.
Liz has just gotten home, and is carrying a stack of pizzas up to the door when Stefan finally gets off of the phone. He smiles weakly at her, drained from the conversation, and grabs the pizzas, following her in after she opens the door.
"Klaus is coming." He says as he steps into the living room, "And Liz brought pizza." He grabs a slice from the top box even though he should really get some blood. No one looks surprised at either of these facts, probably having heard and smelled them before he announced everything. "Also I think Klaus wants to kill us all even more than usual for not calling him, but he should be here sometime tomorrow afternoon."
"Obvious." Damon says from around his own slice of pizza, and after that conversation turns to what Liz was working on and what everyone is studying in school and before they know it Elena's heading towards Caroline's room.
There's a loud laugh and when Caroline spins around she sees the Elena from when hey were little. It's a shock and Caroline hasn't really thought about her childhood in ages, but when Elena reaches for her hand she can feel herself become a little girl again her age the same as Elena's.
With Elena's hand in hers, they run off and then they're playing hopscotch and Elena is laughing and she looks so carefree that Caroline thinks that she wouldn't mind if this kept on for just a little while longer.
They stop running around and playing very quickly though, and they drop down to lay side by side on the ground, looking up like they could used to do when they tried to find shapes in the clouds.
"I'm so sorry, Care. I'm just really really sorry." Elena sounds like Caroline remembers teenage Elena to sound, even though everything is still muffled like she's underwater or like Elena's got a hand over her mouth.
She wants to say that it's not Elena's fault. She doesn't know, or doesn't remember what Elena is apologizing for but she wants to console her friend, only when Caroline rolls over to look at Elena, she's gone and Caroline is alone again.
Elena comes back into the living room shaking her head, and the feeling in the room isn't exactly a positive one, but they still have one more day, before they need to start panicking about what they're going to do. They spend a little while longer talking before everyone seems ready to get some sleep.
Stefan says that he's going to be the one to stay, because even though Elena keeps protesting that he's already had a turn, he's the one that Klaus is going to be least likely to lash out against when he shows up. And while they're probably all going to be there when he does show up, they don't want to take any unnecessary chances.
Knowing Klaus and his feelings for Caroline it's a wonder he didn't find a way to teleport to them while Stefan was still on the phone with him.
Damon and Elena take Max back to the Boarding House so that he doesn't have to drive out just to drive back to Mystic Falls again in the morning.
Matt and Tyler head out together, going to work on their friendship more or something and Stefan slouches down onto the couch, kicking his feet up to stretch out as much as possible before the Sheriff gives him a glass of bourbon.
She's got a glass too, and she takes a sip before asking, "What do you think is going to happen?"
Stefan mimics her by taking a drink. "I don't know." He finds that it's the truth.
Liz nods and throws the rest of her drink back, before standing to go and check on Caroline before she head to sleep. She's almost out of the room when she stops, and without turning back, she whispers, "I think it's going to be Klaus."
Stefan nods and throws back the rest of his drink as well, before settling in to try and finally get some sleep.
Jeremy doesn't have school the next day, and so everyone heads over early again. Liz made eggs and bacon and biscuits and it makes Stefan think that at least Caroline and her mother share their love of food.
They all crowd around the table and eat and they talk and laugh and it's a good time, but the feeling that something's missing is hard to ignore and they all eat faster in the hopes that time will somehow also speed up.
Damon, Elena, and Tyler crack open another one of Caroline's blood bags, but Stefan's been trapped in the house for too long, and so when Jeremy goes into Caroline's room, he goes to find something more suited to his diet.
Caroline is still just lying there even though it's been what feels like it's been forever, when she feels something land on her face. It doesn't rain wherever she is, or at least it hasn't yet, so when she opens her eyes she's surprised to see Jeremy standing over her, holding out a handful of flowers that he seems to have stolen from his neighbor's yard.
He used to do this all of the time when they were really little, pick the flowers and dandelions that grew through the Gilbert's yard and give them to her and Elena and Bonnie and the girls would make flower chains, necklaces and crowns and bracelets and while Jeremy would still tear down their sandcastles when they made trips to the beach or throw grass into their hair when they weren't looking he never messed with their flower chains.
At least not until he got a couple of years older, because eight year old Jeremy didn't want Elena's approval as much as six year old Jeremy did. Plus by then the girls were ten, and too busy to do things with Elena's little brother.
So it's not surprising that he's giving her flowers, but it's surprising that he's a teenager doing something from so far in their past. He sits down with her and helps her to quickly knot them together, and the stems here are so much stronger than they are at home, because none of the flowers pop off and they're done in record time.
He takes the crown from her, and stretches to put it on her head. Right as she looks up at him to say thank you he disappears and drops the flowers, but the crown still manages to fall perfectly onto her head.
When Stefan gets back, everyone but Caroline is sitting in the living room watching another movie, the table pushed farther from the couch so there's more space for people to sit in front of and on it. He thinks that it's a comedy even though they all seem incredibly tense. There are still another couple of hours before their next ''Prince Charming'' will get there, and everyone's bodies seem to reflect that.
He settles in anyway, and forces himself not to think about what will happen if Caroline doesn't wake up soon, or the possibly scarier option that she does.
Klaus arrives at exactly noon, and everyone seems to become some mixture of more and less on edge than they had been before he'd gotten there. It doesn't help that the first thing he does after walking in the door is smile at their tension.
It's that wicked kind of smile that Stefan's seen him wear before he goes off to murder someone with no qualms about it. He would be worried if it were anyone other than Caroline lying in that bed. (Of course if were anyone other than Caroline in that bed he wouldn't be there in the first place.)
"Sorry it took so long; traffic was a nightmare." He doesn't really say anything else, just continues to look at them all, and Stefan can hear Max's heart speed up. Stefan can't blame him, he's the one with the least experience with the Original family and they're quite intimidating.
"She's in her room," Stefan says, turning to move out of Klaus' way. The two of them nod at each other before Klaus heads off down the hall.
Max seems to calm down, and he mutters quietly enough that Klaus probably wouldn't be able to hear even if he were paying attention to anyone who isn't Caroline, "Well, he certainly is terrifying."
Tyler huffs and laugh and looks over at him. "You don't know the half of it."
Caroline's fiddling with a spare flower from the crown on her head, tearing it piece from piece and then tearing even those pieces tinier and tinier until she can just take a deep breath and blow them away.
She stands to maybe try and walk around some, she feels like she's been sitting forever, but then she sees a light in the distance. She squeezes her eyes closed and rubs her hands over them, sure that what she's seeing can't be the truth. There's been nothing but darkness, and occasionally her friends, for as long as she's been here. There can't suddenly be light.
"Caroline."
That startles her enough to open her eyes. She can finally hear clearly, and it's Klaus standing in front of her. She's listened to the voicemail that he left her too many times to remember, and that must be what this is, another memory to get twisted around to tease her, but she's grateful that he's there.
"Klaus." I've missed you. She doesn't say it out loud because she knows that even here, wherever here is, she's not allowed to say it, but does smile at him because that's okay.
She thinks that he gets it though, because he smiles at back at her.
He walks forward a few steps so that while there's still some space between then but if she were to take a couple of steps forward she could reach out and put her hand on his arm. "I can help you wake up, if you'd like. Or I can just leave you here. There's a whole world still waiting for you. Aren't you ready to rejoin the land of the living?"
She's having minor déjà vu, but she's gotten pretty good at ignoring this kind of stuff since she's been here.
"I don't want to be here anymore."
Klaus nods and takes a few steps towards her, finally close enough that when she reaches out she can catch his wrist with her hand.
She's starting to feel tingly all over and there's a memory coming back of a red-haired witch stand over her and saying something but the words are fuzzy again and she can't hear them clearly.
"I'm scared, Klaus." It comes out as little more than a breath but he still seems to hear her. She isn't sure what's happening but she knows that she wants to go with him, even though she's terrified down to her soul.
Klaus just smiles at her again; the sweet smile that always makes her heart melt and makes her forget about the bad things he's done. "Don't be, you're fine. I've got you."
She doesn't know what to say to that, so she does something that she's wanted to do for a very long time.
The tingling fades when Caroline steps forward, and closing her eyes, she leans in and-
The first thing that Caroline sees when she opens her eyes is that Klaus is very close to her. The second is that it's incredibly bright in her room. She closes her eyes again, and Klaus laughs a bit at her, grinning from just inches away from her face.
Everything rushes back at her just then. The witch casting a true love spell and knocking her out, and she figures that when her friends had showed up in her dream they must have been trying to wake her up. And then Klaus had finally shown up and-
"Oh. Hi." She says, finally realizing what it means that he's here as she's waking up. Being in that dream state must have messed with her mind. It makes her think that she'll never watch Inception again. Not after having lived some twisted Disney version of it.
"Hello, Caroline." Klaus says, and there's a flutter in her stomach. It's not anything new, but for the first time she's not even the least bit ashamed of it. "Your friends are waiting for you."
Instead of getting up and going to see them, she reaches a hand up and places it on the back of his neck, pulling him down so that she can kiss him again.
It feels like sparks shooting through her and his hands move from where they were supporting him on the mattress to rest on her hips, warm and strong through the fabric of her dress. They trail up her sides and one slides under her head to cradle it and the other rests on her jaw, thumb rubbing gently while she slides the hand on his neck up into his hair, and then using her free hand she pushes up his shirt to run a hand along the smooth skin of his back.
There's only a moment before her mom or friends wonder what's going on but for just this second she's going to just kiss Klaus.
When Klaus comes walking out of Caroline's room grim-faced and alone, everyone else in the house loses the last bit of hope that they had.
Stefan starts thinking about other people they can call, and he doesn't have time to take in much more than the fact that Elena's got her head in her hands and Tyler looks ready to throw something, before there's movement in the hallway and then there's Caroline grinning at them.
"Did you miss me?"
It's all kind of a blur after that, of everyone getting a chance to hug her and welcome her back and fill her in on what happened with the witch, and while they're all distracted Liz comes over to speak quietly to Stefan. "I told you it was going to be Klaus."
"And you were right." He can't help but think how happy Caroline seems to look, that she's almost glowing. It's a good look but it makes him turn to Liz and ask, "What do you think happens next?"
They watch as Klaus and Caroline exchange a look, private grins there for only each other and gone an instant later, happiness like a sickness spreading from the both of them.
"I'm pretty sure the story says they live happily ever after."