I'm so sorry this has taken a while; I've been so wrapped up in Our Dark Soul and the other stuff I'm working on and studying. But I hope you guys like it :)

Thank you for all the positive feedback (and ideas!), it really keeps me writing :)

Chapter 3: No Exit

He understands

"It was terrible!" she exclaimed. "A disaster. Whatever's worse than a disaster."

Klaus chuckled in surprise at the way the blonde had answered the phone. "Pardon?"

"My day – my day was a disaster!"

"Ah," he nodded. "Worse than yesterday?"

"Yesterday was a sunny frolic in the park compared to today."

Caroline sighed and fell onto her bed, burying her face in a pillow.

"What's wrong, love?" Klaus asked, sounding worried.

Caroline pinched her eyes closed, thinking about everything that had happened today – where should she even start?

"It's been Katherine this whole time," she muttered eventually, her voice coming out muffled.

"Did you say Katherine? I was under the impression that Katerina joined the dearly departed the last time we saw each other."

Caroline turned her head and sighed into her phone. "It's been Katherine this whole time. In Elena's body."

There was silence as she imagined Klaus frowning.

"You've lost me, love."

"Katherine Traveller-magicked her way into Elena and now she's passengered in Elena's head," Caroline growled.

Revising her words, Caroline realised how little sense her explanation probably made.

She was about to elaborate when Klaus made a sound of recognition.

"Ah, the Travelers. Katerina's late father was one, I believe."

Caroline's jaw dropped. "Wait, you know about Travelers? And Katherine?"

Klaus smirked. "There isn't very much you don't learn about someone when you spend five hundred years hunting them down, sweetheart."

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Oh, right."

She'd forgotten about that for a second.

"Well do you know anything about them that might help?"

"I've never met one myself, something I regard as being quite fortuitous. Travellers are an inferior parasitic race in the light of which even humankind seems worthy."

Caroline sighed, waiting for him to get to the helpful part.

Klaus noted her annoyed silence with a small smile.

"Furthermore, I've only heard rumour that their transferred selves are to be eliminated by the means of a particular knife."

She considered his words, her eyes widening. "Right! The one Katherine used to stab Nadia's boyfriend!"

"Nadia?" Klaus enquired.

Caroline hesitated. "Um… new girl in town. Anyway, that means it was in Mystic Falls at some point. Here's hoping Katherine doesn't still have it."

She flipped herself over to stare up at the roof, silent as her mind whirred.

For some reason she'd felt the need to keep Nadia's parentage a secret from Klaus. Which was weird, considering that she hated Katherine's daughter for what she'd done to Matt and she was in no better spirit with the eldest Petrova right now.

Was she scared it would bring Klaus to town?

Was she scared that he'd be able to restrain himself despite having even more reason to come back?

"I get the feeling there's more on your mind," he noted evenly.

Caroline stuck her thumb in her mouth, biting her nail as she thought about the conversation she'd had with Stefan.

"I just… can't believe I didn't realise she's been Katherine this whole time. I mean she's my best friend. I'm supposed to be her best friend!"

"Don't feel bad, love, doppelgangers are interchangeable; quite awful across the board."

If he were here Caroline would've glared at him.

"That's not funny."

Klaus chuckled and she let out another deep sigh, shutting her eyes.

"I'm a terrible friend. There has never been a friend as bad as me in all of history."

"I feel you may be overstating the situation somewhat," Klaus posited.

"She must have felt so smug lying in the bed right next to mine thinking about how she was fooling us all. And Elena's probably in there realising that none of us actually know her at all," Caroline growled out, balling her free hand into a fist.

Finally seeming to sober up, Klaus sighed. "You can't blame yourself, Caroline."

"Uh, is there anyone else to blame?"

"I could dredge up a few contestants," Klaus offered.

"Oh, I'd love to hear this."

"Well, Katerina for being her usual conniving self, of course. Me, for not killing her when I should have – "

"Granted," Caroline admitted laughingly.

"That lad, what was his name… ah, Trevor, for allowing her to escape. Elijah, for trusting Trevor – "

"Are we really going to go through five hundred years of people who let her live?" Caroline interrupted, giggling.

He was silent for a moment, relishing the sound that he had managed to elicit.

"No, I suppose not." He considered. "Let's skip to more recent events, shall we? Me for not having used her as the vampire in my ritual – "

"Yeah, instead of me or Jenna," she accused.

Klaus chuckled. "Grudges cause wrinkles, love."

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Just by the way, all I'm hearing is a whole lot of your fault."

"You're implying I should kill more people?" he confirmed jokingly. "I believe that's quite contrary to the issues currently standing between us, Caroline."

Her smile disappeared as she took in his words.

Then she sighed. "You know that's not why I wanted you to leave, Klaus."

"Really? Not even a factor?"

Had it been?

She couldn't be sure. On the one hand, yes, she didn't see herself going experiencing college by way of sharing an apartment with a serial killer as she wondered whom of her classmates he'd drained for the fun of it.

On the other…

I have plans and a future and things that I want and none of those things involve you, ok, none of them!

She'd spent hours, hours, analysing every single thing that had happened that day between the two of them, including her own words.

And the more she thought about it, the more she realised that she hadn't been completely honest with him. Not really surprising because duh, she was never completely honest with him, not before these phone calls, anyway. No, she always kept things away from him, hiding the attraction and the way he affected her.

Still, her discovery had been about something different. After all, that day she'd showed him exactly how much he attracted her. And as for his effect on her, well, that she'd left even less of to his imagination.

It was something else that kept nagging at her mind.

I intend to be your last. However long it takes.

She needed to do the whole 'normal' thing, she really did. It was something she'd always wanted and giving it up like that… it wouldn't have been right to give up on her childhood dreams for a guy. At least she thought it wouldn't have. Everything about Klaus scrambled up her mind a little, but the thing was… the thing was that what really stood between them were those words.

It didn't make much sense when you thought about it and that's why she would never tell him it, but those words were what whispered her off to sleep some nights.

Because she wanted him to be her big, epic love. She wanted him to be her last.

She just wasn't sure she was ready for her last just yet. She wanted more time and more experience before she could allow the hybrid to transform her world and make her discover depths of feeling she was just beginning to scratch the surface of with him.

Struggling for a reply, she went for a joke instead.

"Well clearly leaving people alive comes back to bite you in the ass," she laughed.

Klaus chuckled too then he breathed as he revised the rest of his list of names.

"I'll just go ahead and blame everyone who allowed Katerina to slip off to her death peacefully instead of simply helping her along with a neck snap, including you I might add, sweetheart."

Caroline rolled her eyes again but smiled in spite of herself.

"Something I would have been more than happy to help her with had I not been rather pleasantly distracted that day," he said suggestively.

Caroline blushed through her giggles.

"Hmmm," Klaus pretended to think. "On second thought, I think you may be to blame here after all, love," he said with the most serious tone he could muster.

Caroline couldn't even bring herself to protest as she giggled uncontrollably.

Klaus reclined in his armchair, running a pensive thumb over his dark jeans as he revelled in the tinkle of her laughter. In a way these phone calls were the only things that kept him sane anymore; her voice his only refuge.

His house was dark and musty, everything Caroline wasn't.

It was empty, too, and he wondered where she was at the moment. In her dormitory, or had she not made the drive to the meaningless shared room the institution held for her?

Though it didn't matter, not really. Not when she wasn't here.

A minute later when Caroline had wiped away the tears that had gathered as she'd laughed, Klaus spoke again.

"Now that's something I much prefer hearing, love."

I hate that you're the only person who makes me happy anymore.

Caroline was silent for a moment as she considered. He'd clearly gone through all that just to make her laugh after the day she'd had. She wished she could be there for him the same way he was for her and she was about to ask him how his day had been when he took an audible breath.

"You're much too harsh on yourself, Caroline. Besides, I recall you pointing out to me just last night that Elena had been acting strangely."

Caroline frowned as she remembered telling him that – she'd completely forgotten about it. Then she shook her head.

"Thinking your best friend is acting strange is completely different from realising that she's been possessed by her evil twin."

"Well, I think that the fact you noticed anything at all is commendable considering everything you've been through."

Caroline scoffed. "Damon going off the deep end sucks but it isn't exactly traumatising."

"That wasn't what I was referring to, love," he reminded her gently.

Everyone hates me.

She opened her mouth to counter but he beat her to it.

"You've been on the defensive, desperately attempting to keep the peace with all your friends as they judged you, Caroline."

Caroline's eyes widened as she considered his words.

God, how did he manage to know exactly what was going on with her when he wasn't even here?

Arguing with him forgotten, Caroline let her eyes close, simply allowing him to continue comforting her.

"It should come as no surprise to anybody that you were willing to look past the cracks in Elena's character when everyone kept searching for the faults in yours."

Caroline opened her eyes, realising how right he was. Recently she'd been incredibly focused on the way she'd constantly perceived everyone to be silently judging her.

Fighting away the cloud of shame that all her friends had wanted to impose on her had been a battle in and of itself, never mind overanalysing everyone else's actions like she usually did.

Tyler's harsh attitude towards her today alone had momentarily made her want to crawl into a corner and just hate herself.

She wouldn't even tell Klaus about that, he'd just get mad.

"Thank you, Klaus," she said softly.

"There's no need for gratitude, Caroline," Klaus replied, sounding bewildered. "You're far better than any of them and I refuse to stand by idly listening to their attempts at suppressing your light."

Especially when I'm not there to keep reminding you of it.

He didn't even have to say the words; it was all there in his tone, in the careful and revering way he addressed her.

And she knew she should try and point out that there was nothing wrong with her friends nor was she any better than them in any way, but at the moment she was out of evidence to prove the former and she doubted anything she could say would make him believe the latter.

Instead she worked on softening the huge smile he'd managed to elicit, in case someone walked in and wondered why she looked so freaking content.

"I should go, we're probably going to have an early-morning pow-wow about how to find Katherine."

Klaus smirked. "Yes, well, good luck on that one, sweetheart. It took me five hundred years."

Caroline snorted. "Yeah I wouldn't admit to that out loud if I were you." Then she raised a determined brow. "Besides, you didn't have me in those five hundred years, now did you?"

Klaus sounded amused. "No, I certainly didn't."

Humbled the slightest bit by his reply, she laughed.

"Anyway, like I said, it's going to be a team effort."

"Don't sell yourself short, Caroline. I'm fairly certain it will be your impressive intellect to do away with Katerina Petrova once and for all."

She rolled her eyes even though she felt secretly flattered. "Don't sound so happy about it." Then she sighed lightly. "Night, Klaus."

"Goodnight, love. Happy doppelganger hunting."

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