Hi everyone! Thank you so much for all the nice reviews and for the story alerts, it really means a lot that you like the story.

Thank you to Ojazz who helped me with the grammar because English is not my first language.

I don't own anything in TVD.

Caroline tried not to think about the previous night after Klaus had dropped her home. She didn't want to think about torture 101 with Alaric and even less about Klaus. What the hell had she been thinking when she asked Klaus if she could stay in his mansion, in his bed. Wrapped in his arms! No, she hadn't been thinking. And she couldn't let it distract her now. She needed to focus on the Ric problem.

It wasn't hard to guess that the meeting at the boarding house would be a disaster. Klaus and the Salvatores plotting together. Definitely not a good idea. Everyone would be there, Bonnie, Elena, Tyler. Tyler. Caroline's stomach knotted at the thought of him. She hated the idea of Klaus and Tyler in the same room. Tyler hadn't known what had happened last night. Otherwise he would have come to rescue her, she was sure. But even he wasn't strong enough for Ric. And how could she tell him about spending the night at Klaus 'mansion? Well maybe she could just tell him about the saving part? Caroline immediately felt guilty with the way she was thinking. How could she even contemplate lying to the boy who spent weeks breaking every bone in his body for her? But she couldn't just tell him the truth either, he would be devastated. Besides, it wasn't as if it meant anything anyway. She had acted on fear and pain. Last night didn't mean anything at all. As Caroline let the shower wash away the last of the blood stains she still had on her body, she couldn't help but wonder why it was so hard to convince herself of that.

Klaus couldn't stop thinking about the previous night. He was oscillating between fury and amazement. Fury against Alaric and what he had done to Caroline. And amazement to have held her in his arms. He would have preferred to have her in his arms in other circumstances, but still, he would never forget the feel of her body against his. It was the first time in his life that he had shared his bed without any ulterior motive. Of course he wanted Caroline. She was so beautiful it was impossible to think otherwise. But he also deeply cared about her. And last night hadn't been about lust. It had been about comfort, about being there for her. And it was something very new for Klaus. He didn't even know that he had it in him. But that was the magic of Caroline. She made him feel things that he hadn't felt in forever. She made him do things that he wouldn't have done for anybody else. Caroline was his light. His redemption. And he would fight as hard as he could to win her over.

He was still thinking about it when he arrived at the boarding house later in the afternoon. The meeting wouldn't be a pleasant affair but he couldn't help but feel glad about meeting Caroline again. Klaus didn't bother to knock before entering the boarding house. He introduced himself in the living room where everyone was already gathered. His eyes searched automatically for Caroline and he saw her sitting on the couch. Tyler was right next to her, and when he saw Klaus, he slid an arm around Caroline's waist and pulled her closer to him. Klaus couldn't help the little clench of his heart on seeing her in Tyler's arms. Now that he knew what it felt to have her in his arms, seeing her in someone else's embrace was painful. He briefly wondered if Caroline had told Tyler that she had spent the night in his arms but he highly doubted it. Caroline gave him a ghost of a smile when their eyes met and he was about to talk to her when Tyler snapped.

"Does he really have to be here?" he spat. "How can you trust him to help us after all he has done?"

"I did help you last night by saving your girlfriend" Klaus retorted sharply. "Where were you while she was being tortured?"

Tyler growled in fury. "I had no idea Alaric had her. Otherwise I would have saved her myself."

Klaus scoffed. "It's easy to say now" he stated coldly.

Tyler was about to retort when Caroline intervened.

"That's enough now. Both of you."

She turned to look at Klaus. "Tyler had no idea that I was in trouble ok?" Then she turned to Tyler. "He did save my life last night, so please, cut him some slack."

Tyler and Klaus glared at each other, anger perceptible in their eyes but Damon cut anything they were about to say.

"As fascinating as this may be, we are not here to see you two fight over Barbie, ok? We have a much more important problem to solve, remember?"

Klaus and Tyler broke their murderous stare and eventually the discussion started. Tyler didn't remove his protective arm from around Caroline and Klaus could have sworn that she didn't like the way he was trying to mark his territory. She broke the embrace the first opportunity she got to sit next to a crying Elena, trying to comfort her. The meeting didn't bring forward any useful ideas, mostly because almost all the people in the room weren't still able to process the whole Ric killer thing. Minus Klaus, they all just had lost a friend and looking for a way to kill him was extremely hard. After a whole afternoon of pointless arguments, they finally decided to wait for Alaric's next move. It wasn't the best option, but they didn't know what else they could do. When everyone started to exit the boarding house, Klaus noticed Caroline climbing in Tyler's car. He shamelessly eavesdropped on their conversation.

"Do you wanna go home or you want to go to the grill?" Tyler asked.

"I'm not in the mood for the grill, let's just go home" Caroline sighed.

"Why can't we just hang out for a bit?"

"No offense Tyler but I'm exhausted. I would like to be alone for a while."

Klaus heard Tyler scoff. "Does this have anything to do with Klaus saving you yesterday?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Caroline snapped.

"Well you kind of defended him earlier" Tyler said a little sharply.

"He did save my life Tyler, ok? He didn't have to but he did. He did come to that classroom and fought Ric to get me out of here. He could have died but he came anyway."

Klaus didn't hear Tyler answer because he ignited the car but he had heard enough. Caroline was grateful to him. Maybe she wouldn't hate him anymore now? It wasn't a very big thing, but it was still a start.

Klaus couldn't help but think about Caroline all evening. He tried to read, he tried to paint, he tried anything and everything to distract himself but he failed pitifully. He still had her scent in his nostrils and the feeling of her body in his arms. How could he sleep now that he knew how it felt to have her in his arms? His bed would never be the same without Caroline. Klaus growled in frustration. This girl was driving him crazy. He hoped she was ok after what she had to go through the day before. Without even realizing it, Klaus took his jacket and headed to Caroline's house. He wanted to make sure that she was ok. He needed to make sure that she was ok.

Caroline was tossing and turning in her bed. She was replaying the fight she had with Tyler in her head. She could understand why he was mad but after all Klaus did save her life. She had every right to be grateful. But maybe not every right to spend the night in his arms, said a little voice in her head. She had deliberately forgotten to tell that part of the story to Tyler and she still felt guilty about it. But she was vulnerable. She had just been tortured. She needed to feel safe. And she had felt safe with Klaus because he was the one to save her, Caroline reasoned. It made sense, didn't it? As Caroline was desperately trying to convince herself that spending a night in her savior's arms meant absolutely nothing, she slowly drifted into sleep. Only a couple hours after, the nightmare hit her again. She was in that classroom all over again and Ric was planting wooden pencils in her hands. Caroline cried in her sleep and then started to sob softly.

Klaus heard Caroline cry from the garden he was standing. Without a second thought, he climbed her window and rushed into her room. He understood immediately when he saw her struggle with her sheets. Like the night before, Klaus firmly shook Caroline and spoke loudly.

"Wake up Caroline, it's a nightmare. Caroline!"

He called her name until she opened her eyes with a scream. She jumped in terror when she saw someone in her room but she breathed in relief when she noticed it was Klaus. It was extremely odd. Since when was she relieved and not scared to find Klaus in her room? Without thinking about it, she threw her arms around Klaus 'neck and snuggled into him. Klaus wrapped his arms around her protectively and laid her down. Like the night before, he whispered soothing words in her ear until she calmed down.

"I'm sorry" Caroline finally sniffed. "I'm not usually this emotional."

"There is nothing to be sorry about, love. What you went through yesterday was really hard and even more because you knew him and trusted him. You didn't have the time to grieve about the loss of a friend that he turned into a monster and tortured you. You have every reason and every right to be upset."

Caroline lifted her face to look at him. "Why are you so nice to me?" she whispered.

Klaus smiled and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"You know why."

"Actually we didn't finish our conversation from last night" said Caroline. "I had warned you that it wasn't over."

Klaus chuckled softly. The girl amazed him a little bit more every day.

"What do you want to know, love?"

Caroline hesitated. She absent mindedly started to play with the buttons of his shirt and she finally dove in.

"I want to know why you stayed. You could have run the second Stefan told you about Ric but you didn't. You came to save me and today you were at the meeting to try and find a way to kill him. Why would you do that? You run from Mikael for a millennium to stay alive so why not now? It doesn't make any sense."

Klaus cradled her face in his hands and made her look at him. "I'm going to give you the same answer as yesterday, love. Because of you. There is no way I'm leaving town with you staying back unprotected, especially when you were that vampire hunter's first target. If I could, I would take you with me but I know you will be unhappy. Your friends and family mean the world to you and I can't take you far away from them. And you will be unhappy to have to live constantly on the run. So I have to stay and protect you until you can be safe again."

Caroline swallowed hard. Klaus' eyes were burning with passion and she couldn't remove her gaze from him. He was telling the truth. She knew he was the greatest liar and the best manipulator in the world. But she could have bet her life that he was telling the truth. Without really knowing why, the thought warmed her heart. Caroline smiled at him a little shyly.

"Wow, this is certainly a way to get through a girl's heart. The whole hero thing." Caroline was trying to joke but her voice was shaking and Klaus knew that she was touched.

"Well, is it working?" he asked hopefully, playing along.

Caroline buried her head in his chest, avoiding his gaze.

"I'm exhausted" she deflected. "This nightmare was really.." She didn't end her sentence but Klaus felt her tense against him.

He tightened his grip around her. "You are safe here Caroline. Alaric can't come inside your house."

Caroline nodded. "I know" she answered. "But I'm scared of closing my eyes" she confessed softly.

"Will it help if I stay with you?" Klaus asked.

Caroline hesitated. She knew it wasn't right. She knew her friends would be mad at her. She knew Tyler would be mad at her. But Klaus' arms around her were the most reassuring thing she had ever known.

"Yes it will help" she answered quietly.

Klaus smiled happily.

"So it's done, I'm staying."

He made himself comfortable cradling Caroline closer to him. He wrapped an arm behind her shoulders and the other one around her waist. Caroline snuggled into him with a sigh and rested her head on his chest. She put one of her hand under her cheek against his chest and extended her other arm across his torso. The feeling of his muscular body against hers was more comforting than anything else she had known. She knew it shouldn't feel so right to be in his arms but it did.

She quickly drifted into sleep, and like the night before, the nightmare didn't come back.

Thank you for reading. I would love to know what you think about the chapter so please let me know :-)