Chapter 7

Caroline lay on the guest bed for the rest of the afternoon. Occasionally Klaus would come to check on her, but each time she would pretend to be asleep.

She did not want to talk about anything right now, or think about anything. She just wanted to be alone for once, but deep down she knew that pretty soon she would have to give Klaus more answers.

She slowly watched the sun go down and the stars come out.

"Better late than never." She said as she got out of bed to go find Klaus. She slowly opened her door and peered out to try and see and listen for him, but there was silence. The only thing she saw was a dim light coming from the hall from a bedroom. Caroline never did go on a tour of the mansion, so she had no idea whose, or what room that was. She slowly walked to the door to hear classical music playing loudly. She slowly rose her hand to gently knock on the door.

"Come in." She heard. Opening the door she found a shirtless Klaus painting one of his many pieces with his back to her. "Sorry, I'll come back." She said as she walked back out the door. "No, wait." He said while putting a paintbrush down and walking towards the record player and taking the needle off. "A record player? You know this isn't the 20s anymore, right? You can have a thing called an Ipod." She smiled at him which her returned. "I'm old at heart, love." He smiled and she shook her head thinking about the time when he saved her from Tyler's bite mark. "Yeah, aren't you a billion or something?" She told him for the second time making him laugh showing dimples she'd never noticed.

"What's got you up, love?" he asked her sitting down on a couch, patting the cushion beside him to signal her to sit by him to which she obliged. "I came to talk about everything, and then some." She replied quietly looking down at her hands. "Well, go on." He pushed. She rolled her eyes and looked at him. "I can't just start at random, Klaus. Ask me something and I'll go off of it." He laughed and looked at the lighted fire place thoughtfully. "Uhh, how long have you and Tyler been living together?" Caroline took a deep breath to get ready to tell a long story while Klaus sat back to get comfortable. Knowing how Caroline is, he knew she would go in full details and tell an animated story. He crossed his hands over his chest and watched her as she began.

"Not soon after graduation and the first-incident- happened, we moved in together. I'd say like a week or two after graduation." She looked away thoughtful. "Since he came back to town, and Matt was off rendezvousing with you lovely sister, he stayed back at the Lockwood mansion. I felt bad because someone had recently killed his mother-" she shot Klaus a look to which he smiled at which made her smile. "So I decided to move in with him and be there for him." She sighed. "Oh course, who knew where'd that get me." She moved her hands around the room lightly laughing.

"And what does the lovely Sherriff Forbes think of her daughter living alone with a boy? " Klaus asked raising his eye brows in a playful manner. "Well of course she is going to be hesitant. Not only is her a boy, but her can kill me. She knows what could happen if he accidently bites me."

Klaus watched as she put her hand over her neck where she had been bitten before. He closed his eyes and tensed his jaw. It made him feel awful to know that he was the one that caused it. A small part of him felt like all of this-even Caroline being beaten- was his fault. He shook his thoughts away and focused on Caroline's sweet voice going on and on about the small argument they had when she tried to change the color of the living room. "Of course he snapped my neck to make me shut up." She sighed again. "Am I that annoying?" She looked at Klaus with sad eyes. He could see the reflection of the fire in them as they became watery. "No, no, love." She moved her shoulders down at his words. "Don't get me wrong, you are annoying, love. But its nothing out of the ordinary." She laughed at what he was telling her and looked back down at her hands to hide her face. He put his hand over hers, making her look back up to him. "Just know that if I got to be with you like Tyler has, I would've given you heaven, not hell like he has. You deserve more than you know, Caroline. I just hope you day you see that." She smiled at him and stood up and walked towards the door, wiping tears that fell down her face. She did not want Klaus to know she was crying again.

Klaus stared at her waiting for her to turn around so she could see her face. She finally turned and looked at him and sweetly smiled. "I'm really tired Klaus, I think I am going to go to bed." He nodded his head at her and smiled back but more of a worried smile. He watched her walk out of his bedroom and waited until her heard her door shut before he let out a heavy sigh. He poured himself a drink and stood in front of the fire thinking about all the things Caroline has told him in the past day. He was interrupted whenever he heard a knock come from his door. Thinking it was Caroline, he called for them to come in, only to see Elijah walk in with a troubled face.

"Brother, it's Hayley."