Disclaimer: I own nothing but a warped imagination and a weird sense of humour
A/N: I've had this written for a while but I've re-wrote it so many times because it was never right…it still isn't right but if I kept it for much longer I'd never post it. Enjoy if you can :)
Secret Admirer
It was 9:00am, Valentine's Day. Caroline had come into work to find a large white box on her desk, tied neatly with a red bow and small card attached. 'Caroline, Happy Valentine's Day From?' Elena had come in some time later to find Caroline staring intently at the package.
"Ooo, someone's got a Valentine!" she cooed, perching herself on the edge of her desk.
Caroline grimaced before looking away from the box. "It's probably just something off creepy Jim…his toenail clippings perhaps?" she looked up to see Jim Jones over the other side of the office, chewing on the lid of his pen and grinning in her direction. She picked up the box and placed it to one side, a shiver running down her spine as thoughts of its possibly contents from him invaded her mind.
Elena picked it up, held it up to hear ear and gave it a small shake. "Doesn't sound like toenail clippings." She mused, placing it back down. "It actually sounds like paper, probably freshly chewed this morning." She joked and Caroline shuddered. "You're really not going to open it?"
Caroline shook her head before typing away. "Nope. Well at least not until I'm outside and near a bin so I can throw the most-likely disgusting contents away immediately."
"Come on, you can't just leave it sitting there, it's rude. Besides, what if it's not off him? What if it's off Damon or Stefan…what if it's off Klaus?"
Caroline snorted. "Yeah right, I'm sure he's just dying to send me gifts." Elena chuckled, placing her hand over her mouth to conceal the inhumane sound as people in the office turned to see what was so funny.
"Elena, I'm mortified about that enough without you bringing it up every five minutes."
"I think you'll find you're the one who brought it up," Elena blurted, her hand slapping over her mouth as she snorted. Caroline glared. "Sorry, sorry, but it's hardly every five minutes, in fact that was the first time I've mentioned it since yesterday."
"Yeah? Well I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't mention it at all. Ever."
Elena sighed, clicking her pen. "Fine, I won't mention it until your wedding day. It can be the joke in my tale of how the two of you fell in love."
Caroline rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Besides, it isn't off him, he already sent a card." She signalled to the few cards on her desk.
Elena picked up the first one, narrowing her eyes as she looked at the writing. She recognised that messy scrawl.
"The one off Klaus is the one with the glass heart-thing on the wrong." Caroline muttered, waving her hand towards the cards but not removing her eyes from her computer screen.
Elena wasn't listening. "Why has Kol sent you a Valentine's card?" her tone was accusing as she furrowed her brows. Since their coffee date she and Kol had been casually seeing each other. Neither of them wanted to put a label on what they were and were quite happy continuing their none-relationship.
"Well if you bothered to read it instead of analysing the handwriting and jumping to conclusions, you'd realise it's a thank you for bringing you to work here." Caroline rolled her eyes as a huge grin spread onto her friends face.
"Aww, isn't he sweet." She sighed dramatically, looking down at the message written in the card.
"Yeah, sweet. You've got a few cards and a couple of gifts." Elena squealed in excitement as Caroline went into her draw and handed them over. "I'm guessing they're from the Salvatore's, Kol and some mystery man who may or may not be Mason Lockwood."
Elena grinned to herself, humming as she opened the cards and practically drooled over the messages written inside. At one point Caroline reached across to read one, only to have her hand slapped away and the card move as far out of her reach as possible.
"No fair." She pouted, folding her arms and glaring at her friend.
"I'm not sharing until you open your present." Elena grinned smugly, clutching her cards closer to her.
"Well you're going to be waiting a long time." Caroline huffed, sitting back in her chair and folding her arms across her chest.
"So are you."
"I have patience. You should hope you do too." Caroline's eyes drifted as Klaus walked from the board room with Kol and the Salvatore's. Today he was sporting a black jacket which he chose not to close, a red shirt with the top few buttons undone and a pair of perfect fitting black pants. Her mouth hung open as she watched him walk up the steps and enter the office, not even glancing in her direction. She sighed and pouted, jealously building in her stomach as the Salvatore's and Kol grinned over to Elena who waved and flashed them a winning grin.
"I hate you." Caroline muttered as Elena slipped back into her chair, the grin still on her face.
"You love me really, Forbes."
It turned out Elena didn't have even the slightest bit of patience. All morning she refused to shut up about the package, the only time Caroline got a break from her talking about it was when Kol or one of the Salvatore's walked in her line of sight. She even returned from the printing room to find Elena trying to break into the package and take a peek inside. She quickly snatched the box away and placed it on the floor beside her chair before looking up to see Elena poking her tongue out and sighing in defeat. By the time their break came round, Caroline was close to boiling point. So close in fact that she made the decision to just open it. Get it over and done with and shut her up she told herself.
"Open it, open it, open it!" Elena chanted from where she was perched on the bathroom counter. Caroline took a deep breath and undid the bow before lifting the lid from the box. She furrowed her brows. The box was full of scented red tissue paper and amongst it all was a small black velvet box with a card tucked underneath the silver ribbon tied in a neat bow. She took another deep breath before slowly lifting the lid, her eyes bugging and a small gasp emitting as she looked down at its contents. She'd been expecting to see something really creepy – a severed dolls head or a lock of someone's hair. She hadn't been expecting what lay before her.
"Wow," Elena gasped, leaning forward to get a closer look. The silver bracelet gleamed, even under the dim bathroom lights, the iridescent blue stones sparkling beautifully.
"Yeah, wow," Caroline agreed, gently tracing her finger over it, ensuring it was really there in front of her.
"Who's it from?" Elena questioned, flicking her hair over her shoulder and taking the box from Caroline's hand to admire the bracelet.
Caroline picked up the card. "I don't know, there's no name." she flipped it over to find the back decorated with what appeared to be a hand-drawn rose.
"Are you sure it isn't from Klaus?"
Caroline sighed. If only. "Why would he send me anything after what I did, never mind something as beautiful as this."
"Well are you sure the other card's from him?"
"Um…yes?" In all honesty she wasn't sure, she just presumed. The message inside had seemed like something he would write and the writing looked pretty similar.
Elena sighed and shook her head. "That's basically a no." she hopped down from the counter, giving her hair a Charlie's Angels worthy flip. "Okay, we're investigating this."
"Investigating?" Caroline scrunched her face up in confusion, taking the box as Elena handed it back to her. "What exactly do you have in mind?"
"I'll get some handwriting samples from Lexi, his included and all we have to do is compare."
"In theory that would work, but don't people tend to change their handwriting in Valentine's Cards? Well people who aren't as forward as Kol."
Elena cast her a look that said 'Really Caroline?' "Kids change their handwriting, we're adults. We don't have time for those sorts of things, our body clocks are ticking, wrinkles are forming, grey hairs are multiplying and gravity is grabbing everything it can!" she was practically blue in the face.
Caroline grabbed her shoulders and gave her a slight shake. "Elena, breath. We'll go talk to Lexi."
Elena let out a breath and nodded. Caroline placed the large box in the trash—not before Elena could rifle though all the pieces of tissue paper in search of 'evidence'—grabbed the small velvet one and left the office behind Elena.
They headed straight for Human Resources where Elena took delight in letting Lexi in on what they were doing. Lexi had gladly provided numerous handwriting samples, even revealing that Klaus had three different types of handwriting, one for notes, one short-hand and one for when he was trying to be neat. They had intended to stay there and allow Lexi to join in on their comparing, but Joyce—head of the department—had interrupted their little investigation and practically forced Elena and Caroline to leave.
"It doesn't match any of our suspects." Elena groaned in frustration, throwing the valentine's card and piece of paper on the desk. She was glad she'd proven Caroline wrong about the card being from Klaus, but she was doubting the fact that they were all too old to be changing their handwriting.
"Neither does the card from the package." Caroline sighed, placing the piece of paper down, scowling at it.
"We need more suspects." Elena huffed, pouting as she looked around the office.
"We're not detectives on a case, Elena." Caroline sighed again, feeling deflated. "I told you it wasn't from him." Even though she'd doubted he would send her anything after the disaster that was the Christmas Party, but there had still been a part of her that was hopeful he could overlook the mishap.
Elena pouted, a look of determination on her face. "It is, it's got to be." She nodded to herself. "I'm certain of it."
"But the writing does match and like you said 'we're adults, we don't change our handwriting'" Caroline mocked, imitating Elena's voice.
"Hey!" the brunette scowled. "I don't sound like that!"
"If you say so…" she turned her attention to the computer screen, groaning to find she'd received a fair few emails whilst being distracted by their investigation.
"What about finding out who it is?" Elena questioned, irritated by how easily Caroline could just return to her work.
"We're at a dead end. We might as well just accept the fact that we might never know and just hope that maybe one day the sender will reveal himself."
"Or herself." Elena added. Caroline looked up wide-eyed. "We didn't check any female handwriting samples and Jeremy's pretty convinced that Vicki's got a thing going with April from Marketing who was seeing Meredith from International Relation's cousin Jules."
"What the—where the hell do you get this stuff from?"
"Lexi." Caroline nodded. There was no need to inquired further. Lexi Branson was one of those people who was the first to find out about anything remotely interesting that went on within the company. When Finn started an affair with Sage—the wife of an important business partner of Mikaelson & Co. Vladimir Voikevich—Lexi had been the one to 'out' it to the company, although no one knew she was the source. At first it was just a rumour floating around the offices. This then led to all eyes being on them and eventually it came to light that the rumour was in fact true. Lexi had made 500 dollars. No one bet against her after that.
Elena let out a breath, throwing her hair over her shoulder. "I'm going to get some more handwriting samples, just in case." Caroline didn't look away from her screen as Elena slinked off back to Human Resources. It hadn't occurred to her that the admirer might be a girl. In a way it would be flattering, there were plenty of pretty females in the office, her outrageous best friend and favourite gossiping blonde being two of them, she told herself she would feel special that whoever it was had chosen her. The disappointment was still there though, there was only one person she wanted it to be off.
Elena returned sometime later with a shake of her head. "None of them matched, but I have narrowed one down." She picked up a card with a teddy holding a heart on the front. "This is from Jeremy, he says you're his favourite."
"Aww, that's so sweet." Caroline cooed, opening her communicator and typing a message to Jeremy. She'd suspected the card had been from him. The message inside was extremely sweet, something you'd expect off a younger cousin or son trying to cheer up his mother single mother on Valentine's day.
"I'm telling you Caroline, it's from him!" Elena banged her fist down on the table, causing Caroline to jump. "It's got to be, there's no one else, there's no other explanation."
"Elena, chill." Caroline stated, taking deep breaths and urging Elena to copy. "I'm over it and you should be too. The whole psycho-crazy behaviour doesn't suit you, your hair's starting to expand."
Elena's eyes widened in horror before she shifted her head to the side to check out her appearance in her darkened computer screen. "I look like a mad-woman." She exclaimed, running her fingers through her hair. "Do you have a brush or comb."
Caroline rifled through her top draw and handed both a brush and comb to Elena who thanked her before attacking her wild hair. Five minutes later it was back to the normal size and its owner seemed to have gotten over her obsession of finding out who sent the present.
Caroline frowned as a message came through on her communicator from Lexi. Apparently the printer in Human Resourced had crashed and burned and she needed some contracts printing and copying. She hit print on the document before heading off to the printing room. The contract in question was 50 pages long and Lexi needed 50 copies. Caroline groaned inwardly, stuffing the papers in the top before hitting the copy button.
The paper ran out twice, it jammed around 100 times and even the toner decided to run out when she was two copies in. Once they were finished printing Caroline gathered them in her arms and scurried to Human Resources, dumping them on Lexi's desk and telling her to staple them together herself. Caroline had considered being nice and doing it, but after her disagreement with the printer she wanted nothing more than to sit down at her desk and have a cup of coffee.
"Elena, what's this?" she questioned in confusion.
Elena looked up from her desk to see Caroline holding a pink envelope. "No idea…"
"Did you not see who put it here?"
Elena looked around the office as if expecting to see the culprit sneaking away. "No, I've been here and I didn't see anything…although I was talking to Kol so…"
"So you were otherwise preoccupied?" Elena grinned sheepishly. "Well judging from the handwriting it's from whoever sent the bracelet." She peeled open the envelope to find a crisp white piece of card inside. "It's instructions to collect further instructions from Bonnie at 6:15."
Elena started clapping and squealing, drawing attention to herself. "Isn't it exciting!"
Caroline fell into her chair. "Not really. Terrifying covers it better…what if it is from Jim?"
"I don't think Jim has that much taste." She signalled with her eyes towards the open box on the desk beside Caroline.
She looked down at it before casting her eyes over to Jim who appeared to be eating paper, a line of saliva running down his chin. He certainly couldn't have that much taste, right?
At 5:00pm, Elena shut down her machine and stood up from her desk, stretching into the air. A squeal emitted from her throat as Kol grabbed her waist teasingly from behind. She chuckled and turned to him, slapping him playfully on the chest. "Care, I'm gonna head off now, you okay to wait on your own?"
Caroline rolled her eyes. "I'm a big girl Elena, I can walk in heels and everything." Elena smiled, shoving the cards into her bag before heading out with Kol. "You two have fun!" Caroline called, watching them go. She sighed to herself before busying herself in work.
Caroline looked down at the clock on her computer screen. 6:05. She shut down her machine and stuffed the few cards she'd received into her bag. She picked up the small box and opened it, smiling down at the bracelet. She had no idea who it was from or who she was about to meet up with, but she put it on anyway. After all, it was only polite.
She neatened up her desk and headed towards the main reception. There was hardly anyone around, just a few stragglers who stared at their computer screens with furrowed brows and tired eyes. Human resources was eerily empty, all the employees having left around an hour ago. As she walked she calmed her nerves with the knowledge that Jim had left the office at 5:00 on the dot so it couldn't be him. She opened the door and walked up to Bonnie's desk.
Bonnie was sat behind it, inspecting her nails with a bored expression on her face. She normally left just after 5 and had obviously been asked—and probably paid—to wait behind. Caroline was even more certain that Jim wouldn't have that kind of influence, or the money required to pay for Bonnie to stay after work over an hour longer on a Friday, bored and with nothing to do. She didn't look up as Caroline approached. The blonde stopped at the other side of the desk and cleared her throat.
"Um, do you have something for me?"
Bonnie looked up from her nails, a coy smirk on her face. "Certainly." She reached to the side and pulled out a black envelope from her tray of papers. She smirked once more before holding it out to Caroline. "Good luck."
Caroline took the envelope, her brows furrowing in confusion. "Why, will I need it?" the receptionist didn't say anything, just grinned. "Who's it from?"
"I'm just the messenger. My lips are sealed." She made a zipping motion across her mouth with her hand before tossing an imaginary key over her shoulder. She stood up, picking up her bag and walked out from behind her desk. "See you Monday, Caroline."
"Yeah, Monday…" Caroline waited until Bonnie was out the doors and out of sight before looking down at the envelope. Her name was written in cursive across the front in shining silver ink. She turned it over to see a wax seal and chuckled at how very Harry Potter the whole thing felt. She pulled at the seal and removed the red card from inside.
Meet me in board room C
Yours,
An Admirer
She flipped the card over but there was nothing at all on the back. She stuck it in her bag before taking off in the direction of the board room. She arrived to find the door closed. Should she knock? She quickly decided against it, pushing the door tentatively open and peering inside.
A white table cloth covered one third of the table, littered in red and black rose petals and a bottle of champagne and two glasses stood in a shining silver bucket in the centre. Caroline looked up and down the corridor. The coast was clear. She slipped into the room, shutting the door behind her before walking towards the table. There were a few chocolate covered strawberries on a silver plate beside the bucket and a plate of small hors d'oeuvres on another. Caroline edged towards the table, jumped as the sound of footsteps sounded down the corridor.
She lost her nerve. She quickly slipped behind the notice board, peering through the small gap. The door opened and then closed, leaving Caroline with a clear view of who'd just entered the room.
Mason Lockwood.
Her heart sank. Despite trying to convince herself it wasn't from Klaus, a part of her deep down couldn't help but think that it was from him. She watched as Mason walked towards the table. He stopped and readjusted some of the rose petals and the angle of the glasses sticking out of the bucket of champagne on ice. Caroline jumped as his phone started ringing loudly.
"Fuck," he hissed, looking down at the screen before pressing a button and holding to his ear. "I'm either too late or too early." He stated, turning and heading towards the door. He stopped and looked back at the table "Right, got it," he walked back to the table and adjusted some more things before opening the door. "Yeah, okay." He left the room, shutting the door behind him. Caroline sighed, letting out a breath she wasn't aware she'd been holding. She stepped out from behind the board, walking over to the table and standing in the spot where Mason had been seconds earlier.
The bracelet on her wrist sparkled in the setting evening sun. She looked down at it, her stomach dropping. Of course it wasn't from Klaus, why would he want anything to do with her after the way she'd acted. She puked on him then make the huge mistake of not talking about it properly. She was certain things would have been different if she'd just sat down and talked with him. He certainly wasn't entirely unreasonable, he'd been nothing but the perfect gentleman about the whole situation, not once making her feel guilty. Caroline managed to do that perfectly well on her own.
"Mason Lockwood." She sighed to herself, brushing her hair from her face. She could have known the entire thing was too exciting and needed an anti-climax. She was somewhat thankful that it hadn't been an entire flop and Jim had been the one to walk through the door.
"Caroline." Her heart started pounding as a British accent filled her ears. She turned slowly, mouth drying and her breath caught in her throat. Klaus was stood inside the room, the door closed behind him. She hadn't heard him come in. The first thing she noticed was how incredibly hot he looked. He'd changed his shirt to a white one, the top few buttons undone and his jacket nowhere in sight.
"Klaus, what are you doing here?" she asked, frowning slightly.
For the first time she'd seen Klaus Mikaelson looked confused. "Why wouldn't I be here?" Caroline tilted her head to the side. "I did arrange all of this."
"For Mason?"
Klaus chuckled. "Well Mason did do a lot of sneaking, but no Caroline, I didn't do this for Mason. I did it for you." He signalled behind her to the table. Caroline turned, noticing a silver envelope on the table. It hadn't been there when she arrived. Mason must have put it there before he left. "I can see you haven't opened it so it would appear I overestimated my timing skills."
"You sent the letters and the bracelet?"
He nodded. "Of course."
"Why?"
"Because ever since you started working here, I haven't been able to get you off my mind."
"I puked on you!" she blurted, cringing as the memory tired to invade her mind.
Klaus lowered his head and chuckled. "Yes you did, a rather unfortunate incident but I'd be a fool to let a bit of vomit deter me from getting what I want."
"What you want…" her voice was barely a whisper. She had a pretty good idea of what it was he wanted, but she didn't want to presume. She'd presumed in the past and she'd been wrong. She needed to hear him say it.
"You Caroline, I want you."
Her eyes widened. She was convinced she was dreaming these kinds of things only happen in movies, she told herself, blinking rapidly. Klaus smiled and stepped forward stopping inches from her. "As the champagne appears to be still unopened and the cork is still intact, I'm presuming I'm safe to move forward." He questioned with a teasing smirk, stepping closer and brushing a stray piece of hair behind her ear. "You're not feeling nauseous are you?"
"Definitely not." She breathed out, her heart beating rapidly against her chest as his thumb gently brushed over her cheek.
"Caroline Forbes, as corny as this sounds and as much as my Kol will take delight in forever torturing me about using this line…will you be my Valentine?"
A grin so huge it hurt consumed Caroline's face. "Do you even need to ask?"
He grinned, his finger hooking under her chin as he lent down, tilting her so he could press his lips against hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck, tugging lightly at his hair as his tongue skilfully worked its way into her mouth, tangling with her own. Her knees wobbled as he pulled her closer, pressing her body against his own. The kiss was nothing how she'd imagined. It was so much better. He pulled away when the need to breath took over him.
"I've wanted to do that for so long."
"I've wanted you to do that for so long." She grinned, the bracelet catching her eye as the setting sun reflected the blue stones. "Did I ever tell you I love the bracelet?"
"You can send me a memo." He grinned as his arms snaked around her waist, pulling her closer for another kiss. As the butterflies in her stomach erupted in celebration, she couldn't help but wonder if it was from excitement that one of her fantasies had been fulfilled, her pure relief that she'd managed to keep hold of her stomach contents. As his hands trailed up her back igniting all her senses she smiled into the kiss. They were definitely celebrating both.
Thanks for reading, the reviews, the favourites & the follows, it means a whole lot to me! Xo
Next Prompt: First Date