So this was born out of watching the scene in 4x14 yet again and also feeling inspired after the news from Comic-con, which has me internally screaming all weekend. Klaus has eternal plans for Caroline!

Disclaimer – I do not own The Vampire Diaries, or any of its characters. If I did, Klaroline would be an established couple already.

She Knew

"Fine. Then maybe it's because I'm pure evil...and I can't help myself."

Caroline's body was burning with fever, as the poison of Klaus' bite seemed to rip through her very veins, igniting her every nerve ending and hazing her vision as she tried to keep from passing out from the pain. His voice broke through the haze and she gritted her teeth before replying,

"No. It's because you're hurt."

She lifted her eyelids, tilting her head to look his way. Lying on the couch, her hands rested on her stomach, she appraised his tense posture as he met her eyes.

"Which means that there is a part of you that is human."

Intrigued by her words despite his better judgement, Klaus pushed his body from the wall he was leaning on and walks over to her side, kneeling beside the couch and tilting his head in puzzlement,

"How could you possibly think that?"

He had stabbed her and bitten her. He had allowed her to endure the agony of his venom scorching through her veins for hours now as he taunted and cruelly provoked Tyler. The anguish that currently corrupted his insides and clenched his heart in its icy grip was an emotion he had been fiercely ignoring and trying to shove down, to no avail. Seeing Caroline in her weakened state, vulnerable and dying, ignited a furious need to protect and soothe her. It only infuriated him further in the knowledge that he couldn't possibly give her his blood to cure her or he'd lose his upper hand. His pride was steadfast and couldn't be swayed. He could not allow the hold she had over him to continue. He was certain that he was prepared to let her die. And she still thought there was some humanity in him?

"Because I've seen it."

Her voice was weak, and her words drawn-out as though it took a great amount of effort to speak.

It seemed that she was about to speak again when her body suddenly lurched forward, coughing up blood. Choking, Caroline's hand came up to cover her mouth, and taking her hand away to see it covered in blood, she began to panic and tried to calm her body down.

Klaus closed his eyes for a brief second to the sight of her in pain, he felt his guilt rip through him and couldn't prevent himself from rising to lift her up into his arms, settling behind her on the couch as he held her tightly in his arms and pressed his nose to her hair.

As her body shuddered with the strain, Klaus felt tears spike his eyes, anguish raking through him. It had been some time since he had felt true remorse for his actions. He'd spent centuries committing atrocious and sadistic acts of violence and murder. He was a murderer, and yet he was so much more. He had seen and done things that most could never imagine even if they lived for half his lifespan. And yet no amount of evil actions could even begin to match the crime that he would be committing if he were to allow Caroline Forbes to die, taking her light with her.

All he had wanted was to punish Tyler. And her. He had intended to punish her for her harsh words to him.

To prove to her and to himself that she may be beautiful to him, that he may adore the way her lips would quirk up into this sneaky, seductive grin when she was teasing him, that her anger and her way of challenging him at every turn may keep him on his toes and simultaneously infuriate and excite him, but he was not for a second about to allow her to insult him in front of Tyler of all people and get away with it. It made him seem weak and Klaus Mikaelson refused to ever allow the mere idea that he could be weak. He had rid himself of weakness when he finally rid himself of his beloved father.

Funny how things turn out.

Twisting his neck, Klaus reached behind himself for the box of Kleenex on the Gilbert's side table. Dabbing at Caroline's mouth with all the gentleness he could manage given his current turbulent emotions, he kissed Caroline's head and held her tighter. He had a brief thought to get her some water to clean her mouth from the kitchen, gritting his teeth as he recalled his current inability to set a foot out of the room. His annoyance was dampened by the sound of Caroline's shallow breaths. He stroked the long blonde strands of her hair back from her face, as she tried to recollect herself. His throat tightened as his beautiful girl nestled into his arms and turned herself slightly to look up at him. Their faces were so close, and Klaus could hardly dare to believe that he saw tenderness in his gaze. Again he stroked her hair; she seemed to settle slightly at his touch and drew a quick breath to speak again.

"Because I've caught myself wishing that I could forget all the horrible things that you've done."

"But you can't." He stated in near resignation, "Can you?"

Caroline stared up at the man who held her, seeing his eyes filled with such gut-wrenching suffering. She reached up a hand to lightly touch underneath his blue eyes. Those eyes had always seemed to have a particular talent for seeing right through to her soul, and in that moment they were filled with more sadness than she'd ever thought capable. Maybe she should be repulsed that she was only dying because of the man who held her in his arms...as though she were the most precious thing in the world to him. Perhaps she was hallucinating as she found herself only wanting to comfort him. She recalled how he had smiled with her at the pageant; teasing her on her Miss Mystic application and laughing as she tried to grab it from him. She'd hated to admit it to herself, but she'd never found him to be more handsome than when he'd flashed her this killer smile, teeth and dimples and all; she hadn't had the willpower to stop herself from smiling and laughing back with him.

"You should smile more." She told him, giving a weak smile herself, "You have such a nice smile."

She couldn't resist even in her state getting a little dig in at him, "It's really funny that a thousand year old hybrid has dimples."

She was clearly succumbing to the hallucinatory side effects of his venom, Klaus thought, distressed as he leaned into her touch. Her fingers were cool, yet his skin burned where they traced. His eyes slid shut as she continued her ministrations.

"You know, all you require to heal yourself is my blood." He opened his eyes to question her, "You could just bite me now, we are close enough."

A soft smile graced her lips, "I could. But it wouldn't be the same. You have to want to give it to me. I want you to want to save my life."

His eyebrows furrowed and his mouth twisted in confusion, for once not able to come up with a response. Again she traced under his eyes,

"I know that you're in love with me."

Klaus caught her hand in his as she continued.

"And anybody capable of love, is capable of being saved."

The tension between them only heightened by their proximity seemed to crackle with energy, despite Klaus' growing torment and Caroline's ever nearing death. Their eyes locked, eyes dilated and the air becoming stifling.

"You're hallucinating." He tells her, desperately trying his pounding heart and the voice in his head that sounded distinctly like Elijah telling him "For god's sake, just heal her already!"

Staring at him in a daze as she tries to put words together to form a response. The haze was settling heavier over her mind, and she tried to fight through the dream-like fog which threatened to envelop her into unconsciousness.

Her hand held in his she replies, "I guess we'll never know."

She could feel herself fading, and couldn't fight off the intense need to sleep for much longer. She had to tell him something first though.

Licking her dry lips, her parched throat burning with a fierce hunger, Caroline sighed. She was exhausted, both physically and mentally. Her emotions had been raging inside her like a riotous storm ever since she had first regained consciousness and realized that Klaus had bitten her. He'd actually stabbed her with a lamp, pulled her into his arms and sunk his teeth into her neck. She recalled his hand tangled in her hair, the other wrapped tightly around her waist, the shock of his sudden attack freezing her in place as he held her securely to him. She'd felt his teeth sink into her, as his tongue licked at her skin, drawing blood from her body. She felt every inch of him pressed up against her in those fleeting moments before he let her fall to the ground. Was it wrong that despite the situation, the tiniest part of her had enjoyed being so close to him? She'd always had the strangest curiosity over what it would feel like to be held by Klaus; she could hardly remember the night he had came to save her, only the things he said and the way he had looked at her. She'd always held an almost morbid fascination where Klaus was concerned.

"I'm sorry for your loss."

She'd caught the look on his face earlier when she and Tyler had loaded his brother's charred remains into a black body bag. His grief was vivid, etched into his features and she'd resented the parts of her that wanted to comfort and scorn him in equal measure.

His lips were set into a stubborn line as he tried to not let her words affect him. It was his grief from Kol's death which had spurred him to react so angrily to Caroline's contempt.

Part of Caroline had felt sure she was actually going to die in that moment; the part of her that was eternally insecure, feeling worthless and that there was not a person in the world who loved her. It was that part of her, knowing she was always the second choice that felt that even Klaus would never choose her, not when his pride and his revenge were at stake.

Deciding that it was her last chance to do so, she used her remaining strength to lean forward, closing the distance between them to press her lips to his. It was softer than she'd imagined, and she kept it brief, but the passion between them that was before crackling was now burning in its intensity. His kiss sent thrills of pleasure down her spine, prickling her nerves in the same way his venom had. She broke away, their faces close together as they breathed the same air, taking in gulps of oxygen they didn't need, before her head collapsed onto his shoulder.

Nearly beside himself at the feeling her lips against his stirred up in him, Klaus wrestled against the emotions that screamed at him to give her his blood, to heal her and make her well again, knowing damn well that no amount of suffering Tyler would feel would even compare to what Klaus would endure if she were to die. Broken from his thoughts as Caroline's body began to convulse, he called her name, internally begging her to respond, to show any sign of life, until he felt her body grow limp in his arms.

An icy feeling of dread settled into his heart as she seemed to not even hear him, and he knew she was close. He felt a startling devastation crash over him to comprehend that she could only have mere minutes left, and he immediately enclosed his arms around her, holding her to his body as gently as he could while biting into his wrist for her to drink. Fearing he may have waited too long, the moments in which she was unmoving felt like eternity, until he felt a gentle tugging from her mouth that let him know she was finally drinking his blood.

The relief which filled him was nearly as dizzying as when he would feed after a prolonged hunger.

Horrified by how close he'd actually come to killing her, Klaus gently stroked her hair as she continued to drink from his wrist, needing more blood due to the extended amount of time she'd been exposed to his venom. His eyes were wide and exposed the very real terror which lingered in his heart. He'd never known fear like this. Fear both of and for another person. Not even Tatia, the girl he'd loved as a human, had come close to meaning as much to him as Caroline. The clever blonde teenage girl with a fixation for arranging trivial human events, who loved her friends and risked her life for them on a near daily basis, who stood up to him, enthralled and judged him; he didn't think he would ever not love this woman. And he did love her. How accurate that Caroline would be the one to call him out on it, and help him to realize it at the same time. Now that she'd crept under his defences, she was firmly engraved into his heart. He could try to hurt her, push her out of his heart and head, and insist both to himself and to her that he did not love her. He was a hybrid of werewolf and vampire and he had always believed that as a vampire he could not feel or care for anyone or anything that was not family.

And yet, in the midst of his chaos, there she was.

Caroline had a hold on his heart that he could not break even if he wanted to; his healing her was proof of that. Anyone else would be dead.

But no matter how much Caroline frustrated and angered him,

No matter how many times she would play the distraction to fool him,

No matter how her honest, razor sharp words would cut him down,

No matter how many times she rejected him and reacted with revulsion despite the connection between them, he could not let her go.

Klaus knew he would follow Caroline to the ends of the earth or time itself, if only to keep her safe. Every inch of his soul was painted with his desire, his affection and his adoration of her.

He loved her.

When Caroline's eyes opened later in the evening, it was still dark outside, though she wasn't sure what time it could be. She felt a little like she was coming down from a bad hangover, and slowly sat up, staving off the wave of dizziness, her hand automatically coming up to her neck, where the wound previously festering there had now vanished. Her eyes flit about the room until she found him, exactly as she remembered, leaning against the archway of the Gilbert's living room. She narrowed her eyes lightly in confusion as she tries to remember what she must have said to get him to change his mind and give her his blood. He was in the exact same position as she last recalled, as though he hadn't moved, but he had to have done, if he'd healed her. Which he obviously had done, since she wasn't dead. But what had convinced him to save her life, she wondered, when he'd been so set on allowing her to die?

The following evening saw her bargaining with him for Tyler's safety. It saw her pleading with him to show mercy, like she would show to him if the roles were reversed. He had granted Tyler a head start, forcing him to leave town and Caroline. Outside on the porch where Klaus stood before her, he bared his twisted, bruised heart to the only woman who'd ever truly held it.

"I've done more than enough. I've shown kindness, forgiveness...pity, because of you, Caroline."

He stares at her, desperately willing her to understand, to remember what happened between them the previous night. He'd known as soon as she'd awoken and her eyes had caught his that she didn't remember.

"It was all for you."

The look she gave him had him nearly throwing caution to the wind, grabbing his girl and kissing her senseless, but instead he nodded and forced himself from her side. Much like she would only ever want him to save her of his own volition, Klaus wanted Caroline to want to kiss him, for it to be her choice; like it was the night she thought she was going to die.

Months later, when they are standing in the forest near the Salvatore home, Caroline once again takes that first step and kissed him. She is aware it isn't really their first kiss, given Klaus' actions when he inhabited Tyler's body, yet only he is aware that it is actually the second time Caroline has kissed him in his own body. Their lips entwined and her tongue gently teased his own, spreading pleasure through him like wildfire. When they pull apart, their bodies shuddering with desire and pent up lust, both breathing heavily and their eyes locked on each other, Klaus feels his heart ready to burst with sheer joy that she was finally showing him her true feelings. She had said she would be honest with him about what she wanted. And she wanted him; he couldn't help but to smile at her in wonder. And when she smiled back at him, her light shining brighter than he'd ever seen it, he could see it her eyes.

She knew.

I hope you enjoyed reading as much I've enjoyed writing. The quote "And yet, in the midst of his chaos, there she was." is not my own, it is originally "And in the middle of my chaos, there was you." I don't actually know where this quote originates, but there's a KC pic with the words that inspired the line. Also, who picked up on the HIMYM references when Klaus is thinking about his love for Caroline? I'm still annoyed by that finale. Robin should have ended up with Barney!

Anyhow, thank you for reading.

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