Tyler was finally asleep and she had went downstairs to make herself a cup of cocoa. Stefan hadn't come over the previous night and she had taken in Tyler so he didn't have to spend the night in his big empty house. The absence of his mother was hanging in the air and it almost felt graspable.
Her phone rang and she went to look at it.
It was a message from Elena.
Kol is dead. The tattoo is complete. We'll go find the cure tomorrow.
A knot formed in her stomach. Kol was dead? Instantly the memory of him and his brother drinking in the grill came back to her; the time she had been send to bait Klaus and lure him away from Kol. She remembered the look on his face as he realized something was off and old guilt mixed with new compassion. Did he even know? How did Kol die? If the tattoo was complete, Jeremy must have killed him. Oh my god, they had committed vampire genocide. And Klaus would kill them. Were they okay? Quickly she pressed dial.
Elena answered immediately.
"Hi Care."
"Oh my god, are you okay? What happened?"
"Jeremy killed Kol. But that's a good thing, now we're one step closer to the cure."
"What about Klaus?"
"Yeah, about that. Bonnie trapped him in our living room. But the spell will only last for the next three or four days. We have to be quick about the cure and use it on him. He made it pretty clear that he plans to kill us all."
Caroline gulped, trying to take in all the information at once. So Klaus was trapped in Elena's living room. She couldn't help but wonder how he was. He had just lost his brother, after all.
"Care?"
"Yeah, still here. I'm glad you're okay. Tell me if I can help."
"I will. See you soon." With that she hung up.
Caroline sat down at her kitchen table, staring down at her cocoa, then took a sip.
She shouldn't feel bad for Klaus, really. He'd brought all this on himself. But no matter how much she tried to keep her mind from wandering, she repeatedly ended up thinking about him, trapped in Elena's living room, most likely alone with his grief.
She remembered how it had felt to lose her father and she had to take a deep breath to cope with the wave of emotion rolling over her. Klaus was a lonely man. Even though he gave his best to hide between an emotionless, sarcastic facade he'd showed her other sides of him. Even if it was Klaus, she couldn't just simply leave another person alone like that, in a moment of need. Even if he had just inflicted the very same grief on Tyler.
When she arrived at the Gilbert house, she started moving cautiously towards the door. She saw the light burning in the living room. Slowly she pulled down the doorknob and peeked inside. The part of the living room that she could see was empty, so she entered and took a few steps inside, taking in the destruction having been done to the house. The part of the living room she could see was partially blown to pieces. She suspected the damage had been inflicted in a fit of rage. When she turned her head to the kitchen, she drew in a sharp breath.
Kol, or what was left of him, lay on the kitchen floor. She was taken aback by the cruelty of it, leaving him trapped in the living room, the corpse of his brother in plain sight. She started questioning her friends' actions: Killing Kol and his entire bloodline with him, making Klaus their mortal enemy.
When she turned her head back again, she almost had a heart attack when she saw Klaus standing right before her.
The expression in his eyes was unreadable. A tumult of different emotions, clearly tormenting him. In his hand he held a bottle of scotch, supposedly taken from a stack of alcohol Alaric had kept in the living room. Or maybe it was still Jenna's. Jenna. She tried, but being faced with him in this state she still couldn't bring herself to hate him for what he had done.
"Caroline," he said, stating the obvious, then he gulped, obviously unable to decide how to proceed. She crossed her arms but she couldn't manage to keep a look of concern off her face. "Klaus," she answered.
His gaze dropped to the ground, but the expression on his face remained the same.
She took a deep breath and bit her lip, pondering about what to do next.
"Do you need anything? I could get it for you, you know." Yes, she knew that was lame. And yes, Kol lying dead in the kitchen was virtually the elephant in the room. But she didn't know what else to do.
He looked up again, opening his mouth to say something but then decided against it and closed it again. He cleared his throat.
"Some blood would be nice." His tone was rough and low, slightly broken.
She gave him a small smile and then walked into the kitchen, taking a few blood bags out of the fridge. She'd have to explain this to Elena. She didn't even want to think about Tyler. Maybe he just didn't have to know.
She turned her head to the living room from where she stood in the kitchen, looking at the lost man standing in the middle of it, his gaze fixed on the ground before him. She made a brave decision and stepped inside.
He elevated his head and looked at her, a hint of surprise added to the look of hurt still evident in his eyes. She took another step towards him and with another small, concerned smile she offered up the bags to him.
"Thank you," he said as he took hold of them, his voice still raspy.
He walked over to the coffee table and put down the blood bags and the alcohol. Then he sat down on the sofa. Caroline sat down beside him.
They sat in silence, he looked down at his hands, seeming a little more composed. She watched him. No, she was not afraid of him, even now. Somewhere inside she felt a pull at that thought. She knew that he had brought this on himself and he sure as hell wasn't an innocent in this, but for a moment she just cursed the circumstances they were in. In another world, at another time they might have been friends. Suddenly the need to reach out to him, to comfort him, intensified.
"You know, I'm particularly good at this comforting thing. It's kind of my specialty." He turned his head towards her and looked at her but still didn't give a reply.
"I don't mean to belittle your pain, but I think I know how you feel. I've lost people, too," she went on, watching for his reaction.
There was none. He didn't break eye contact, though. At least he didn't get defensive.
"You know, if you want to I can go again. But if you need someone – I'm here. I can stay a little, if you want," she offered, still searching his face for a reaction.
He gulped, then looked away and took a slug of his drink.
She stared down to her hands and took another deep breath.
"Stay, please," he finally said, the crack in his voice revealing vulnerability.
She eased up a little and looked back at him but he kept his face straight ahead.
They sat in silence and from time to time he took a sip.
Suddenly he buried his face in his hand and a sob escaped his mouth. She froze in surprise, her eyes widening. She'd never expected him capable of crying, much less in front of people. In front of her. He had always seemed so guarded.
She was suddenly overcome by another wave of compassion. And no matter how wrong the comparison was the posture of the man before her reminded her so much of Tyler, just days before that she couldn't stop herself from wrapping her arms around his huddled form, hugging him, resting her chin on his shoulder.
Instantly he froze and so did she. What the hell was she doing?
Well, it was too late now, anyways. She prayed to god he wouldn't say anything.
And he didn't. Slowly the both of them relaxed, their breathing evening out. She could hear silent tears rolling down his cheeks. She began to lightly stroke his arm, drawing patterns on the fabric of his jacket while tightening her other arm around him.
They sat like that for a long time, silently, and despite everything the awkwardness had gone for good, replaced by a feeling of belonging.
After what seemed like hours she slowly released him, shifting back onto her side of the sofa. He quickly rubbed his face with his hand and made a small sniffing noise. Both of them took a deep breath. She stood up and looked down at him, he returned her gaze. Although he looked exhausted his expression seemed to have gone back to his normal composed self. He gave her a nod and she gave him another small smile, as if to confirm a silent understanding between them. Then she turned around to leave the living room. When she was at the door his voice stopped her.
"Thank you," he said, his voice still low.
She pressed down the handle and left.
Back at home she undressed and crept in with Tyler, trying not to think about how much she had just deceived both her friends and her lover by committing a simple act of compassion.