Hey all, I've had some ideas for a fic bouncing around in my head for awhile now and I found that 3x11 was the inspiration that I needed to get writing again. My original direction was that Tyler was going to attempt to kill Klaus in order to break the sire bond which ultimately resulted in Tyler getting tortured, but based on the preview for next week I might leave this for awhile and see if the whole Bill Forbes torture plotline would better lend itself to my ideas. But anyways, here's a start to what will hopefully be more than just another oneshot!

/

"I love you,"

"...What?"

He had seen that look on her face before, standing on her porch right before the first time that he kissed her. The gentle, disbelieving shake of her head, the way that a gasp parted her lips in the slightest way, her eyes wide with shock and confusion, sometimes it made him feel like she thought he was insane. Maybe he just always felt a little bit crazy when it came to her, but their situation wasn't exactly a normal one to begin with. Everyday he grew more comfortable with their supernatural lifestyle. The most unusual thing about this exchange was the fact that he had just confessed his love for a girl and he genuinely, whole-heartedly meant it.

Caroline kept staring at him like he'd spoken some foreign language and she needed help understanding what he meant. He had no problem trying to communicate it to her in another way, he leaned in and cupped her face, pulling her in for a simultaneously firm yet gentle kiss. He pulled back and nervously searched her face, panicking that she might really be giving up on him. He was met with her dark eyelashes fluttering and a small, beautiful smile spreading over her lips before she went in for another kiss.

He felt her cool hands on his neck and his movements became frantic and desperate. His lips drifted from hers and ghosted over her jaw line to land on her neck. The way she tasted and smelled drove him wild, he didn't think it was possible for anything to tear him away from her in that moment. An impossible twisting inside of his stomach caused him to tighten his grip on her, at first he wrote it off as lust but there was something more familiar about the sensation than that. Realization dawned on him seconds too late and as he unconsciously sunk his fangs into her pale skin. It was hunger and it disappeared just as quickly as it had came.

"Ouch! What the hell? Ow..." Caroline shrieked as she pushed Tyler away from her. Her fingers came up to touch the small wound above her collarbone. The bright red blood that leaked from it looked absurd against her smooth, white skin.

Horrified, Tyler clasped a hand over his mouth, the coppery taste of her fading from his tongue. He felt an icy coldness growing inside of his core. This couldn't be real, he thought, there was no way that he just bit Caroline.

She stared at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. "What just happened?" she whispered, looking like a fragile, broken little girl.

"Oh, no," was all that Tyler could get out, shaking his head, wanting more than anything to take it back.

The fear in her features didn't disappear, but it became clouded over with a scornful lament, "did you... did you just bite me?"

The world around him seemed to have violently lurched off its axis, he stepped towards her, mumbling an incoherent string of, "oh no," and "oh god," as he tried to understand what to do.

She fell back against a nearby tree and sank to the ground, struggling to wrap her head around the situation. Tyler tried to move closer but she glared at him so disdainfully that he froze, "C-Caroline?"

"Just get away from me!" she screamed, "get away from me!"

Completely lost and derailed, Tyler took a few clumsy steps away from her, torn on whether or not he should turn back and do something. But what could he do? How could he fix this?

His pace started to quicken as he tried to form a plan. Klaus. He would make Klaus cure her if it was the last thing he did. Soon he was flying full tilt towards the man he hated more than anyone else on the earth. Except for maybe himself. Tyler seemed to lack total control over his body as he blindly sped through the forest, travelling farther away from a dying Caroline Forbes with every passing second. His brain also seemed to be disconnected from him as the only thought he could comprehend was that he could not stop until he found Klaus. She wasn't going to die, especially not at his hands. He wouldn't let her.

He felt numb. Everything had been perfect mere minutes ago. He thought he had discovered a way to beat his sire bond; he thought he finally found a way to be with her. He had experienced electrifying nerves, overwhelming happiness, and bone-chilling fear in such a short period of time that he was completely disoriented. If it wasn't for his supernatural instincts it would have been impossible for him to carry himself to Klaus' newly-claimed den. He didn't falter when the building came into sight, he kept charging through the doors at light speed, finally bursting into the foyer where the evil man responsible for this catastrophe resided.

"Ah, Tyler, I was wondering how much longer you would keep me waiting," Klaus began with a smirk before being forced into the wall opposite of the entrance so powerfully that it left cracks in the bland, white plaster.

"You have to save her!" Tyler spat at the elder hybrid through bared fangs, his eyes blazing a vicious golden amber color as he tried to conceal the enraged wolf inside of him. He pinned Klaus in place, the original's shirt balled up tightly in Tyler's shaking fists.

Klaus calmly stared back at his distraught companion, the devious grin on his face doubling in size, "and why would I do that?"

A growl ripped it's way out of the teenager's throat as he belligerently shook Klaus, once again slamming him against the crumbling wall. "This is your fault! You made me do this and you're going to fix it!"

In a motion too quick for Tyler to reverse, he was spun around and shoved face first into the spot he had been holding Klaus in. "Actually, this is Stefan's fault, you can blame him for all of the horrid things that are going to happen to your precious little girlfriend. Now, are you going to calm down and let me reward you for being a good boy, or need I remind you who calls the shots around here?"

"Stefan's already so far gone, do you really think that killing Caroline is going to have any affect on him? She's going to die for nothing!" Tyler cried out in frustration, fighting against the hands that effortlessly kept him in place.

"Maybe it won't bother him at first, but one by one I'm going to take every single person in his life away from him and he'll be left with no choice but to give me what I want. Your beloved Caroline, she's just the beginning."

Tyler thrashed around and struggled against the iron grip that was restraining him. "You can't do this," he pleaded in breathy gasps, worn out from straining to break free. "I get it now, okay? I'm sired to you whether I like it or not, but you can't just let her die! I'll do whatever you want, but you have to save Caroline!"

"But isn't that the point, Tyler?" His blood boiled as the voice behind him released a cruel chuckle, "you'll do whatever I want regardless of whether or not she survives because you don't have a choice."

The rage inside of him continued to accelerate at an alarming pace, Tyler felt his wolf dangerously close to breaking the surface. He growled and shook uncontrollably, his eyes snapping shut as he felt control rapidly fleeting from his body. He braced himself for the start of a painful transformation when suddenly the arm that dug into his back disappeared, followed by the sound of footsteps leisurely clicking away from him. He wheeled around, tense and ready for battle, but he remained in place. He cocked an eyebrow, staring at the back of Klaus' head as he waited for the original's next move.

Klaus slowly paced the room, his eyes wandering the blank walls of his hideout as if he was waiting for them to answer some unasked question of his. An excruciatingly long minute ticked by, another minute draining away Caroline's life, before Klaus broke the silence, "tell me, Tyler, do you love her?"

The question caught him off guard, but he tried not to show it, "what does that have to do with anything?"

The ancient hybrid turned to make eye contact with the angry young man before him, "time is quite valuable for her right now, isn't it? I suggest you don't waste your time asking me to explain myself and answer the question."

Tyler unblinkingly glared back at his opponent, swallowing before sternly responding, "yes."

Klaus smirked back at the boy, his arms clasped behind his back, "why?"

He couldn't hide his surprise at the unexpected inquiry, "w-what?"

"A moment ago you were ready to rip my head off in order to rescue your girl, and now you can't seem to follow a few simple orders. Answer. The. Question."

"I... I..." Tyler stuttered stupidly, trying to figure out what Klaus was getting at.

"You're not very convincing, mate." Klaus taunted, warning Tyler that his patience was wearing thin.

"She saved my life," Tyler quickly babbled out, "she was there for me when nobody else was and-"

"I don't want your story, Tyler, I want to know about her. What is she like? What's so special about her? Why should I let her live another day?"

Tyler swallowed and tried to gather his thoughts enough to find a place to begin. The words just started to spill out of his mouth, "She... she's incredible. She's a perfectionist, she works really hard at everything she does. She's beautiful but she doesn't think so, she's always worrying too much about what she looks like. She loves to argue, and she won't stop unless she gets the last word in. She can be so stubborn sometimes. She loves her mom more than anyone but she hates to admit it. I used to think that she was just some stuck-up party girl but she cares about the little things, and she would rather stay in and watch a movie than go out and do something. She's got a huge heart, and she can't stand to see other people in pain. She puts the people she loves first, she almost got herself killed trying to stick around and take care of me during my first transformation..." He paused to look up at Klaus, lost in his rambling, he remembered where he was and what was going on and searched the other man's face for a reaction.

"And would you do the same for her?" The original questioned, taking slow steps toward the teenager.

Tyler offered a confused look as a response, was Klaus really asking him what he thought he was asking?

The elder hybrid stopped a few feet in front of him, "I'll make you a deal, Tyler, a life for a life. You sacrifice yourself and I will go straight to her house and cure her. Are you willing to do that for her?"

He recalled the time he had led the Salvatore brothers to Jules' trailer; the time they had captured and tortured Caroline for information. He remembered staring into her eyes as his werewolf mentor held a gun to the back of her head and the scared, desperate look in her eyes while he failed to rescue her. He remembered hating himself and swearing he would do whatever it took never to let her down like that again. Now here he was, responsible for the fact that she was withering away, positive that she would never forgive him for what he did to her. She hated him, he knew it from the look in her eyes when she screamed at him to stay away from her. He couldn't live with her resenting him, not when he loved her so much. This way he wouldn't have to. He gritted his teeth, stared directly back at Klaus and answered, "yes."

Once again, Klaus smirked at Tyler. "Ah, how noble of you. I have to say I expected more out of you, but I guess that love is capable of turning anyone into a fool." He closed the distance between the two of them and placed a hand against the boy's chest, causing Tyler to gasp at the contact. He leaned in, positioning his mouth beside Tyler's ear as he gently spoke, "any last requests?"

Tears threatened to spill out from behind his eyes so he shut his lids tightly to hold them back. He did his best to relax but the hand over his heart seemed to weigh a thousand pounds. He gulped nervously and told himself it was worth it. She would be better off without him anyway. Tyler shook his head, not trusting his voice to respond.

"Alright then. Farewell, mate." Tyler tensed and waited for the blow that would end his life. Klaus' hand rammed against his chest and Tyler released a guttural yelp as his back hit the wall.

It took a few seconds for Tyler to realize that he was hungrily gasping for air that he technically did not need. His eyes flew open and he looked forward to see the room spinning but still very much real in front of him. Klaus' hand still rested against him but it wasn't buried inside of him and clenched around his severed heart like he expected it to be.

"I respect your loyalty, Tyler. I'll fix your girl, but from this point on you will obey me and you will never refuse to do what I ask of you again, are we clear?" Klaus quietly said, still hovering beside his ear.

Tyler couldn't form any words, he just nodded his head over and over, quivering with fear and relief. Klaus released him and turned towards the door. His vision blurred as he began to cry, sinking down to the floor and burying his face in his trembling hands.

He was still alive. Caroline was going to survive.