"They did all this in just two days?" Elena asked flabbergasted, the house was practically finished.
"Yes, Klaus had a lot of workers around, most of them worked during the night and now that we have a ceiling we're working on the interiors like a professional team."
Elena smiled at her sister but didn't miss the easiness in Caroline's ways and that worried her. "This isn't Extreme Makeover, home edition you know? He doesn't have to compel anyone." she whispered the last words to her sister.
Caroline smiled at the workers, she knew them by name now since she had been here every day for the last week. "I know." she simply replied to Elena and pretended to be busy with the fan deck, though she still had to decide on the color of the walls.
"How can you be ok with this Caroline? So at ease?" Elena asked her trapping her long hair behind her ear.
"It's not my job to tell Klaus how he should handle the working crew." she said still avoiding her sister's eyes.
Elena shook her head in disapproval. "Have you even tried Caroline?"
Finally her sister looked at her. "He's Klaus, you can't talk to him when he's hell-bent on something."
Elena had the smallest sigh. "What are you really talking about, Caroline?"
The blonde smiled. "I want Rose Blush for the bedrooms and he wants Orchid."
Elena was confused and increasingly worried but she wasn't given the chance to confront her sister further about this because Damon just arrived in his Camaro. "I have to go... Damon and I have a big conversation waiting for us."
Caroline gave her a warm smile. "About the iffy Brit vampire maker?"
"Yes... things have been weird between Damon and I since Candles Night." Elena admitted vulnerably but still she was serious when she pointed her finger at Caroline. "But you and I will have a really important talk when I get back to the house as well."
Caroline looked at the fan deck in her hand. "Sun Fresh for the kitchen?"
Elena didn't answer, she just walked away headed to the blue car.
Now that she was alone Caroline allowed her gloom to peek in, it wasn't a talk that she was looking forward to.
"Miss Forbes, I'll be starting on the bedrooms." One of the painters addressed her. "Has Mr Mikaelson left instructions for the colors?"
She flashed her best smile. "Rose Blush."
Sage was yelling as the sun hit her back, she was trapped on a chair and wriggled trying to get rid of the iron chains around her.
Kol watched her unaffected, he played with her daylight ring in his hand and only reacted when Bonnie walked inside of the room.
On the instant she grimaced next to him. "I could smell the burning flesh from a mile away."
He closed the curtains behind Sage giving her breathing space, he crouched in front of her while moving her ring from palm to palm. "Just tell me what I want to know Sage so that you can go back to play houses with my idiotic brother."
Her tears mixed with the sweat on her face. "Go... to... hell Kol." she said clasping her lips tight afterwards, getting ready for another torture round.
However Klaus came inside of the room deviating the attention to himself. "What progress do we have?"
Kol stepped away from Sage and handed his brother the daylight ring. "She's out of vervain in her system." he told him.
Klaus smiled as he came closer to Sage. "It has been two days and the love of your life hasn't come forward with my stone... he is ruining my fantasy about true love." he taunted her with his dark smile.
"I don't care what you do with me, he will have his revenge anyway." she said desperately holding on to some shred of hope.
"I'm counting on it sweetheart." Klaus said eerily.
There was only panic in her features. "What are you planning Klaus?"
"This isn't that movie that will have the villain displaying his evil flawless plan before someone kills him. This is the movie that will have a fun twist at the end." he said smiling, playing with her emotions.
When he cupped her chin and widened his eyes she couldn't fight him or the unfolding of his sick twisted plan.
The woman was driving slowly when she saw the couple stranded on the road and immediately she stopped her car next to them. "Are you having car problems?" she asked with a smile.
Stefan smiled as well as he came closer to the open window on the passenger side. "Yes, the car just stopped working out of nowhere."
The woman nodded. "My husband is a mechanic and he keeps saying that it's the new electric stuff in these modern cars, that this didn't happen back in the day." she laughed a rich genuine laughter.
Stefan looked at the small cross hanging from the mirror and then at the woman. "I would know, when I was born cars hadn't been invented yet."
The woman suddenly lost her smile and was serious, she slowly turned to her wheel but before she could try to get away, Katherine shattered her window and pulled her outside and without delay she sank her fangs roughly into the woman's neck under a very satisfied smile from Stefan.
Finn tossed the last drawer on the ground, he had trashed Elijah's room completely while searching for the damn moonstone and his time was running out, Sage's time was running out and he was desperately losing it.
He glanced around all the things that he had broken, he had conducted a thorough search but the gemstone wasn't in here, he was going to have to explain this to Elijah later but for now he needed a plan, and a good one because Klaus was waiting for him and he couldn't afford to show up to the meeting empty-handed.
Elena listened to Damon's words but they still felt surreal to her. "She was your... first?"
He nodded waiting for the rest of her reaction.
She found it harder to endure it because he wasn't speaking with a silly attire, he was serious about it. "And she's here now... I don't know how to deal with your ex-everything being around us." she faced away from him.
Damon was resting against his car and remained there serene. "I can't make her disappear."
"Do you still feel anything for her?" she asked demanding a truth that she was scared to find.
"She's my maker Elena... it's a bond that doesn't go away."
"And by bond... you mean?" she constricted her eyebrows.
"Elena, I never lied to you, I'm not going to start now. I spent over 100 years with this woman, it's hard to ignore all that but I'm not jumping on that old wagon again." he said with a smile.
She eased up for the first time, Damon making jokes was something that she could handle specially when they were talking about another woman. "I'm sorry if this is messing a little with me, it's hard enough when I already have the constant threat of every other girl in Mystic Falls. I wasn't counting on visitors as well." she said sighing.
Damon neared her. "So you can relate to my pain, it's not easy to be the eternal stud and to keep fighting all of these women of me."
Elena rolled her eyes but didn't fight him when he pulled her closer for a kiss, she stroked his neck slowly when they paused. "There's something going on between my sister Caroline and Klaus."
"I know... and Klaus is on to my suspicious suspicion already." he said smiling.
Elena smiled but she was worried about this strange friendship and more important, about her sister.
Klaus smiled amused. "Do you come bearing gifts brother?" he asked Finn.
Finn looked at Klaus sternly. "Where is she?"
Klaus' smile was satisfied as he opened the door of the car and Sage stepped out of the back seat.
Finn licked his lips, at least she seemed in one piece and she wasn't gagged and tied up as he expected it.
"You've seen your girl, now it's time to be the hero and to hand me over the stone, then you can take her home." Klaus explained his terms.
"I don't have it." Finn said slowly.
Klaus clasped his lips. "I had a feeling that you would say precisely that so I made sure that there was some encouragement provided by who matters the most."
Finn frowned. "Whatever you are planning, don't. I don't have it but I know that Elijah has it, I just don't know where and that's why I need more time."
"That would be useful if I knew concretely what mother's next step will be. If you have that information don't be shy Finn and tell me all about it." he said mischievously smiling. "I need something." He opened his arms.
Finn pondered about his options, these were precious seconds that he was wasting already because Klaus was annoyed and losing patience quickly.
As certain as a sunset Klaus proved his brother right. "Sage love... if you please." he asked the compelled vampire.
Numbly she removed her ring.
Finn flashed to her but an enormous wall of fire appeared before him.
Bonnie came out of the woods with Kol, she had a bottle of water in her hand and as she dipped the water down on the ground the fire became bigger and stronger.
Finn could hear Sage's desperate screams but he couldn't get to her. "Niklaus!" he yelled desperate.
In contradiction Klaus was calm and composed. "Yes?"
"I'm begging you brother..." he fell to his knees in front of the wall of fire that separated him from Sage.
"She's getting rather tanned on this side Finn..." Klaus said looking down on the hurting vampire unable to feel anything.
"I'll tell you all that you want to know, everything that I've got on mother." Finn complied to the demands although suspecting that he was probably too late to save Sage.
Klaus nodded at Bonnie once and she closed her eyes focusing, the fire ended and Finn whooshed to Sage who was unconscious by now.
He rushed back to his black SUV with the dark windows and placed her carefully inside, he was on his way to cut his wrist when Klaus pinned him harshly against the car and his expression was confused as he faced the attacker.
"Mother's plans first." Klaus told him determined.
"Don't worry Niklaus, you've proven your point. I won't let anything happen to Sage again so you have my word that I will be an ally from now on." Finn drifted his eyes at Kol and Bonnie. "And you all need one."
Klaus smugly wanted to prevail as someone who didn't need help but he also wanted to be entirely part of the gang with a plan.
"Let me save the woman I love." Finn pleaded.
Uninterested Klaus released him from his hold and fretfully waved his hand. "If you must."
Finn gave him one last dooming look. "I would pray if I were you, that you don't ever fall in love Niklaus because then you will experience all the pain that you so briskly inflict on others."
Klaus easily smiled at Finn. "I forgot how to pray a long time ago." Aloof he walked away.
Lexi tried Katherine's number again upon realizing that she wasn't in her room and that her bed was untouched, she closed her eyes mad when it went straight to voicemail. "Where are you? Mom is going to do that thing where she freaks out and gives me hell because you decided to go to some party. Also, why haven't you invited me to go along with you?" She huffed and ended the call.
Katherine had been acting weird, spending too much time in her room alone and avoiding her, and Lexi hated this more than anything, there had been a reason why she had given into Katherine's pleas to turn her, she couldn't imagine an eternity without her favorite sister, the one she related the most and the one she confided everything, from her first kiss to her first time with Matt Donovan in his old red pick-up truck.
Any other time and Lexi would think that Katherine had a new boyfriend and that she was just spending time with him but even if that was the case she would have sneaked into her room late at night and told her all the details, Lexi grimaced, she missed having her crazy sister falling asleep on her bed and trying to kick her out half-way through the night.
"What are you doing here?" Katherine asked as she arrived to her bedroom incredibly surprised to find Lexi here.
"Kat!" Lexi was beyond happy to see her. "I came in here looking for you."
Katherine pulled her long coat closer to her. "I just had a long night and I need to shower and sleep."
Lexi sat on her bed. "Ok, I'll wait here while you shower then I want all the juicy, sordid facts."
Katherine nervously shook her head clutching her long coat. "I'm tired Lexi, we'll talk tomorrow, ok?"
"What's with you?" Lexi asked frowning.
"Nothing, I just said that I'm tired, that's all." she snapped.
"Kat... I know you, what's wrong?" Lexi was getting worried now.
"Can you just leave my room?" Katherine asked opening her arms and releasing the tight grip around her coat.
Lexi jumped from the bed and flashed to her, she opened the coat staring at the bloody clothes that Katherine was wearing, her younger sister tried to close her coat but Lexi had seen enough. "What happened?"
Katherine shook her head upset. "Can you just leave me alone?"
"Kat... you are covered in blood. Were you hurt?"
"No..." Katherine said and looked away from the blonde. "It's not my blood."
Lexi felt panic come over her. "What did you do Katherine?"
"I killed someone." the brunette replied. "I killed someone..." she said again but with tears straining in her voice like she suddenly became self-conscious and embarrassed, she looked down on her shirt covered in dry blood, her tight jeans were smeared as well with vivid-red. "And I liked it..."
Lexi walked over to her, she sweetly took her into her arms and hugged her tightly as Katherine started to cry. "It's going to be ok." she said knowing how much of a liar she was being right now.
Caroline knocked on the Lockwood's front door with determination and she didn't stop until Tyler finally opened the door.
"What do you want?" he asked her dryly.
"Why haven't you answered any of my 200 calls and messages?" she asked him with an upset crossing of her arms.
"I had it on silence."
She clasped her lips. "Why are you being such a douche to me? This isn't us."
"I don't want to talk to anyone Caroline, that includes you." He didn't keep his eyes on hers.
"Why?" she asked truly lost to his rather harsh ways. "What did I do to you?"
"Nothing..." he briefly looked up.
"Tyler, you are my best friend..." she came closer to the threshold.
He took in a rather deep breath. "There's a lot of stuff happening in my family right now and we need to be alone to deal with it."
Caroline gulped down. "Ty..." she deduced that he found out about their parents' affair.
"Just leave us alone for a while, ok?" he turned away to leave.
"Wait..." she wanted to be there for him when he most needed her.
But Tyler had other intentions and he came back to tell her about his decision. "And don't worry about the full moon, I got stronger chains yesterday and I already asked Matt to help me when the time comes." He closed the door on her.
She was left there alone, cursing her father for driving her best friend away from her.
Klaus was not amused, the workers had finished the bedrooms and they all looked pink.
Bloody pink… everywhere he turned there was a pink wall looking back at him, he was infuriated by the idea of sleeping with pink surrounding him and he walked fast along the finished hallway that led to his bedroom.
At the end of the corridor he came to a halt staring at a post-it that was glued to the door.
They are not PINK, they are Rose Blush and I asked for your bedroom to be Orchid like you wanted.
Try not to kill anyone.
Care
Klaus detached the small yellow paper from his door and smiled although he should be furious that she went behind his back again and got her way with the walls as well.
Yet the silly girl who left him post-its was far from rising uncontrollable rage inside of him, she was making her way into something much worse, his humanity.
"It's for the best." Carol told Tyler who was brooding in the living room, staring at the naked wall.
He steered away from that with an infuriated look. "Don't talk to me. I can't even stand to be in the same room with you."
"Tyler, honey..." she tried to reach out to him.
Troubled he shook his head. "You disgust me so much. I'm ashamed to call you my mother." he threw mad at her.
Carol felt immersed in a quiet pain and shame as well. "It was a mistake."
"A mistake you wanted to repeat at the Pageant, hadn't Caroline walked in on you both." he gritted his teeth angry.
"I'm sorry Tyler." she quietly said.
He laughed bitterly. "Sorry? Sorry for ruining my life? For damaging me beyond?" he yelled.
"Tyler please..." she tried to calm him down.
"I love her!" there was nothing but conflict and angst in his voice.
Carol kept her posture. "It's normal to have feelings for her."
He scornfully laughed, lost in his despair. "Feelings? I love her, I wanted to... have a life with her." he raised his hands to grab his head.
Carol couldn't keep her natural posture like before, her son was breaking down in front of her and she moved to touch his arm, she was going to try to keep him under control but he grabbed her arms instead and she was scared of him.
"I have lusted after my own sister." He hissed at her, everything was her fault.
Carol looked down from his eyes, she didn't know what to tell him, no words would erase what she told him earlier, that Bill was his real father.
Caroline sighed in her sleep, she was having another good dream and he wanted to know what she was dreaming about, who lived in her dreams and thoughts but that was not why he was here again, like all the other nights before this one, it was impossible for him to stay away at night, when she was sleeping soundly and peacefully, when her heart was resting and beating almost normally.
He traced her face, and her golden locks tickled his fingers when he left the little black box with the white ribbon next to her pillow.
Before he turned away to leave his long fingers lightly trailed her cheek, then forcing himself to pull away he faced away from her.
"Klaus?" sleepy she blinked and called him back to her.
He gulped down, this was unplanned and slowly he waited for her harsh reaction to the creep who was watching her sleep.
But Caroline sat up on her bed and looked at him with a smile. "Have you come here to kill me in my sleep and then changed your mind at the last second?"
Klaus returned the smile. "Yes, because now my house has red floors and pink walls. Thank you for turning my new home into a brothel."
Caroline burst into a bubbly laughter.
He chuckled easily coming closer to her and with a warning looming he pointed his finger at her. "It's the last time that I'm leaving you alone with the workers."
She still laughed. "What are you even implying? I have awesome taste." she said bringing her knees up and closer to her chest.
"That's a very strong word to be used on your taste, love." he easily sat on her bed.
"I had to make a decision since you weren't around." she said shrugging but with a strange feeling inside, she was sad that he had been away all day.
"I was busy with other affairs today." he said picking up on her cue, it was mutual and he had missed her as well.
"So what did you do all day?" she asked him carefree.
"For the most part of it I tortured my brother's girl and then threatened to kill her in front of him." his answer was equally breezy.
She nodded. "My best friend is mad at me because my dad has a thing with his mom."
"He's not very smart then." Klaus said smiling.
"He's my only friend." she replied serious but sad.
"I refuse to believe that..." he said lowering his chin still looking at her.
She rolled her eyes on him. "I have a lot of people in my life that I know, mostly from school, then there's my family but Tyler is my only true friend. The one I trust and who doesn't treat me like I'm a ticking bomb ready to go off at any minute."
"I understand." he said nodding.
It was Caroline's turn to tilt her head. "Why did you go after that woman?"
Klaus showed his dimples. "Shouldn't you be begging me to leave your room and your life because I'm sadistic and ill?"
Caroline chewed on the inside of her bottom lip for a second. "I'm not going to change you Klaus. I'm not even going to try." She added sure of herself.
Her honesty left him shaken. "Everything that you have ever heard about me is true and probably even scarce on veracity because people tend to soften things up when they are too cruel to keep in memory but there is goodness in you Caroline, you care about your family, your friend and this town, yet you won't try to change my ways, to make me see the light and get in touch with my good soul?"
"No one can change you Klaus, no one ever will but maybe that's what's meant to be. In a few weeks I will be gone and you will carry on with your life, just like you did before our deal. I won't make a difference and you'll forget all about me." she said in low voice.
"You don't know that. You don't know anything about life Caroline, you are young and there is so much that you haven't seen or felt."
She smiled. "Yes, I am young but I had a good life, I was happy Klaus. I love my family and they all loved me back. That's more than a few have."
Klaus licked his lips looking down. "And this is enough for you?"
"Yes." she answered not averting her eyes from his.
"I don't understand..." he was truly lost here, he never felt any of these things that she implied to feel.
"I know that there's another world out there beyond my obsessive need to control everything, my constant planning of events and futile things that keep me busy but that exciting world is not for me. I'm a small town girl bound to die as one." she was still smiling.
He wasn't. "You are wrong Caroline. There's a world filled with possibility and you could have it all. All you have to do is ask."
It was her turn to look away into the darkness lingering inside of her room. "It wouldn't be me anymore Klaus. I wouldn't feel my heart skip all these beats or race when it's not supposed to. I wouldn't blush or feel hot and cold. I wouldn't grow old or have children, all the little things that make me would be gone. And my hopes and dreams would be gone along with my human death."
"But in return you would have a brand new world to discover and to fully indulge in. And I would be right there with you, by your side, helping you adjust and come to terms with your true potential." he said in a deep voice.
Although it was seriously making her dizzy, she still smiled warmly. "Just give up Nik... I'm not going to fall in love with you."
And just like that she gave herself away, she was crystal clear to Klaus and he saw right through her and her schemes. "Caroline..." he locked his eyes with hers and leaned over a little. "Stop trying to make me fall in love with you."
They stared at each other for a while and then she showed him a glimpse of the truly powerful woman she could become one day, if she chose so, she answered him without averting her eyes from his stare.
"That will never happen Nik, I will die and you will maybe miss me or feel strange for the first days but then you will close your dead cold heart to the world again and you won't let anyone in for the first years. And some nights you will remember me and this talk and all the ones we've shared so far and you will smile because it warms your cold heart, driven by that you will come to Mystic Falls every 10 years and leave colorful flowers on my grave because they would make me happy and you will talk to the white marble with my name on it like you were talking to me. And then after 30, 40 years maybe you will stop coming here and you will slowly replace me with some other challenge and some other memory that will erase little by little my face until you will need a picture to remember me by."
"Why are you so sure of this?" he asked her in a whisper almost.
"I know that I'm nothing but a challenge to you but I'm ok with it, all I ask is that you stop tormenting me with a chance of something that is not meant for me." she answered in the same quiet low way as he has before her.
This time Klaus was silent, away in his storm of emotions.
"I'm not asking for something that hasn't crossed your mind yet."
Thoughtful he reached out and touched her cheek.
Right then her skin began to burn where he was touching.
"I can't do that Caroline..." he looked at her intensely.
Slightly she parted her lips, he had to.
"I enjoy how easily we are able to speak to each other without any vile devices behind it and if you have me pinned against a wall for a confession… I enjoy you." she was in danger of ceasing to be a mere challenge to him, of being someone he had to have, she was dangerously crawling under his skin, and his will and power to resist her was crumbling.
For the first time Klaus wasn't in control, he leaned over and he listened to her heart race so fast that it was making his blood rush faster as well, it was as if his heart was beating along with hers.
"You have to let me go." She uttered the words barely audible.
He looked down on her lips. "Do you mean now or overall?" He rested his palm against her cheek.
Caroline closed her eyes struggling for clearance. "Don't do this Klaus."
He inched his face near her neck, he barely rested his nose against her skin but her natural scent invaded him completely, his senses were more awake than ever and he wanted to kiss Caroline more than anything he ever wanted in his existence before, in a slow pace he moved so that he could stare at her lips.
Caroline's cheeks became warm with a heat that brought a beautiful blush to her skin and her eyes were two pleading pools, she deserved a fair chance to fight him but her heart was beating out of her chest and the dizziness was about to bring along with it a sharp pain in her chest.
Klaus eased on his touch and softly pulled away from her, the intensity was gone, beautifully replaced by a caring touch. "Take longer breaths sweetheart…" He soothed her with a soft caress of her cheek, his thumb was trying to set a rhythm for her. "I'm not going to kiss you so you can relax now."
She glared at him while regaining her steady breath and bringing her heart down to a calm pace.
He chuckled endeared, he could listen to the erratic beating of her heart returning to normal, as usual it only faltered every two beats, unless she was sleeping. "Are you feeling better?"
She nodded with a tiny smile.
"I left you something, it's a small token for your help with the house." he said while he was already standing up from the bed.
Caroline grabbed his hand at the last-minute. "You almost caused me a heart attack and now you're leaving just like that?"
He brushed her chin with his knuckles and smiled. "You are right sweetheart, I shouldn't taunt you with something that you clearly don't want and I should move on while it's time."
She nodded visibly affected. "You can't do this again."
"Our due date is approaching sweetheart and we should focus on that." He wasn't going to insist anymore.
It took Caroline a micro-second to let his strong hand go and another 10 minutes after he was gone to realize that she had just dismissed the only man she ever wanted not as a friend but as a man.
She smiled through her first tears when she saw the beautiful diamond bracelet inside of the box.
Soundtrack:
Time is running out - Muse
If I die young – The Band Perry
