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In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.

- Albert Camus

::A few weeks later::

Rebekah

She looked out of her window and saw Caroline lying in the grass on a blanket, Nik sitting next to her. They seemed to be talking, and Nik's hand was wound around the sensitive place behind Caroline's knee.

Rebekah didn't mean to spy on them, but she looked just a little longer, remembering a time when someone had touched her like that. It was intimate, without any sexual innuendo, and therefore powerful all the more. It had been forever since she allowed someone to touch her like that or had touched someone with such familiarity.

She wasn't certain if Nik had ever experienced those feelings, but she was almost sure that he had never sat together with someone just for the sake of it. Not after they had become vampires, for sure. How was it possible that this young girl made him do such mundane things?

::Present::

Klaus

Klaus felt odd. He often felt that way, but usually he had different reasons. This was a different kind of odd. Now he sat beside young Caroline, on a plane to Mystic Falls, and found it hard to distinguish between what his werewolf-side screamed at him, what he actually felt, what he should feel, what he thought.. It was a tiring battle, and he ended up being angry at himself.

When he had seen Caroline for the first time, she was beautiful. Still human, but the way she walked told him that she realized. That she actually lived her life, short as it was. She was walking a few steps ahead of him, eavesdropping on couples near her and, as he saw when she turned her head a little to the side, grinning to herself, when she suddenly stopped in her tracks and he took it as an excuse to bump into her. While he had later made her forget the encounter, and Original as he was, she wouldn't remember until he wanted her to, their short conversation had changed something within him.

"I'm so sorry," she had said and looked up at him. He had asked her why she suddenly stopped, and she pointed her finger at the sky. "Isn't it beautiful? It looks like someone threw up colors all over the clouds," she had said, then frowned, "My skills at describing things have always sucked, sorry." He had lifted his head as well, and realized what had grabbed her attention. The sky was reddish-white, with flecks of lilac, orange, yellow and blue. It had reminded him of a painting he once had seen. Angels Going To War, he thought it was called.

Until that moment the day had been gruesome: He had talked to a witch who was unable to tell him whether there was a new doppelganger, which led to him reflecting upon the joke that was his current state of existence. Katerina be damned. His mother be damned. Mikael be damned. Now here he was, a fine hybrid, spending his time in despair and rage because after his sacrifice of Katerina, there was no doppelganger-blood to use for his hybrids. When he had found out that she had born a child, he was twice as ecstatic as he was angry at her keeping it a secret, and made his siblings help him. They knew Mikael was out there, and despite it all, they were family, and they all wanted to live. But then he had spent hundreds of years searching for a new doppelganger, all around the world, without any success.

The blond girl had reminded him of something. He knew it was one of his habits, obsessing over people, but in this case, it was different.

The more she talked, the more his wolf wanted to rub himself against her, bathe in her scent and words. It was insanity, and he had to contain himself. Her voice had a throaty note to it, as if she had once been the lead-singer of a Hard Rock band. The mental image made him grin, and as if she noticed he was thinking of her, she turned to him.

"Do you really think I'll learn how to control it?" she said again, playing with the lapislazuli around her finger. After she had woken up, he made her drink human blood, and then shown her why exactly she couldn't just continue living in her human world just yet. If he was lucky, she wouldn't want to after the time spent with him. He didn't want to manipulate or Compel her. He wanted her to come with him, aware of what she agreed to.

"I will help you through it, dove," he assured her. He knew it was wrong to have dragged her into this, and to have deceived her, but there was no other way. He had been talking to an associate when she walked into the bar. The fourth time he had seen her after their first encounter. She didn't remember any of them.

A few seconds later, Elijah had called him, telling him he had found the doppelganger. Klaus felt something within him rise to the surface, and by the time he could think clearly again, she was already in Transition and he had killed the vampire he was talking to just a few minutes ago. He wasn't sure how much of a part he was in her transition: He hadn't turned her, but apart from that, neither he nor Caroline knew anything more. Damn him.

"Best not think about it too hard right now. Tell me about why you were in Chicago," he offered.

"Um.. I don't really know why Chicago. I just graduated, and in my last year of High School things happened that made me realize I needed some time to see things. Not through the lens of a photographer or with the influence of my friends' observations about which concert was awesome and which lame, which sight worth seeing, and which not. So.. you know.."

"I presume your mother wasn't overly excited about that?"

"Well, she did worry. But she allowed it anyway. I think she felt guilty for liking me more when I was down. We bonded then, you know? It's like, before, we didn't have much to talk about, but then suddenly, we did. But she didn't want to see me unhappy, and knew that I had thought about traveling for a long time, so.."

"So she supported you. I think she might have been entitled to worry. After all, look where your vacation got you," he said, to see how she would react.

"Yes, you're right about that," She laughed, "But parents are always entitled to worry about their children. If they don't, then they're crappy." Ah, Esther and Mikael would beg to differ. "But seriously, no one would have guessed that I would wake up in a hotel. Though it made sense that it was yellow."

"Yellow?" he asked. He needed to know more, he wanted her to share more with him, and he realized that sometimes she only offered details because she wasn't certain if other people were interested in hearing what she had to say.

"I told you that my parents are divorced, right?" Yes she had. That was why he had only asked about her mother, not her overly-absent father. Her exact words had been, 'Right now I'm actually glad my parents are divorced, or else I would have heard them having sex with my new super-hearing.' He nodded.

"They still get along well enough, but after dad moved out, mom decided to redo everything in our house. She painted all the rooms yellow. She meant well, but that color seemed to mock me. And then school started and they painted the class-rooms in this light-yellow, saying that studies suggested students are more attentive when surrounded by calming, light and positive colors." She sighed and looked slightly amused. "It was like it haunted me. I swear!"

"Yellow sometimes makes people feel that way," he laughed. They continued to talk, but he realized talking about her family and friends ultimately made her think about whether or not she posed a threat to them, which was unnecessary at that point, so he slowly led the conversation to other matters.

She had read one of his books about vampire-history, and also talked to one of his witches when she had gotten her ring, so she knew the basics. It mattered to him that she knew. His wolf approved of the way he thought. She needed to know.

"You should know what to expect in Mystic Falls, dove," he started, then grinned at her expression. "What?" he asked. "You're so obvious. Whatever, please go on."

"Well, you know why I have to go there. Mikael won't stop until he has killed all of us, and the only way to protect us is to get more of me." She knew that he was a hybrid, he had been nervous and antsy until he told her, then finally satisfied. His wolf-genes sometimes irritated him. "We need to see if the new doppelganger can help us or not." she said. If he were a cat, he would have purred. Us.

"Exactly. But you have to be careful. We'll go there, meet Elijah. Then we need to go and meet some other people, but we'll be back at least two weeks before school starts. It'd be best if you'd befriend her and find out what type of person she is. But she shouldn't know you're a vampire or that you know me, at least at first. I don't know what type of impression the others left."

"So we don't want her running away, screaming vampire and Original hybrid, in case those first impressions sucked," she assumed correctly. "But I should warn you. I'm not the best when it comes to making friends." All the better for him that he was one of the few who appreciated her candor, because that was what he assumed others could not: Realize that honesty was worth more than nice words. He annoyed himself with those thoughts, but it was true all the same: If you live as long as him, you are bound to appreciate people who are unable to properly lie. Of course, if you were him, you could simply Compel them to tell you the truth. But after a few decades it all becomes exhausting. Not worth the trouble and power at all.

"What will happen once you know whether or not she'll help you?"

"Well, that remains to be seen. I assume I'll ask her to give me some of her blood to see whether or not it really enables me to share my power. If it does, my family will finally be free and reunited."

"That sounds huge. I mean.. Gah. I'm starting to sound stupid again, so.. What I mean is, from what you told me, I gather you've been waiting forever for this. I feel like I'm holding you back from all of it."

"Far from it," he scoffed. "I can't enroll in her High School, neither can my brother. My sister could, but she knows the other vampire there, so I can't ask her, either. I have two other siblings, but both are rather anti-social, and one of them looks too old in any case. As it is, spending a few days preparing everything and helping you adjust isn't hindering me at all."

"Hmm," she started, "Maybe I should have bargained.. I mean, sure, you're helping me and all, but apparently I'm the most important person when it comes to getting Elena to help us.. And my loan is to have to repeat the final year of High School?" she joked. And so it went on, until she fell asleep, leaning against his side like it was the most natural thing in the world. He wondered if she could feel it inside of her, too, or if he was the only one.

* * Notes * *

I can't believe I actually got PMs, reviews and alerts! Thank you so much for your encouraging messages! 3

I hope this chapter works out for everyone. Let me know what you think in the comments/review section if you have the time! I also hope the characterization of Klaus and Caroline makes sense. I feel like when you change a person's history, you have to alter their personality in some ways, too, but I hope the differences between my Klaus and Caroline and their canon!versions still make sense and are somewhat likable.

Sidenote: I'm trying to write this in AE, but I grew up with BE, so I might switch back to British English in the future.. so, I already apologise for all the.. "characterisation"s and "theatres" and "tyres".. ;)