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IX

Klaus didn't understand why he acted the way he did towards Caroline.

He had been honest with her. He didn't respect a woman just because she was married. If a married person wanted to be respected, they had to show it. They rarely did though, especially in the showbiz. But he respected Caroline. First because she abided perfectly to his rule: she was respectful towards everyone and she seemed like the kind of girl that took her marriage seriously and respected her husband deeply. He couldn't see Caroline ever becoming a cheater. And maybe that was one of the things that made him act differently towards her. In Hollywood more than anywhere else, faithfulness was just a word in the dictionary… not their dictionary.

It bothered him slightly to know what her football – or was it baseball? – player of a husband told her on the phone. He didn't hear the words exactly, but from what Caroline answered back he had a clear picture of what the man was yelling at his wife. Caroline, of all people. Any other woman he would have understood and could even agree that Tyler had a point, but not with Caroline. He could say five minutes after talking to her that she wasn't just keeping up a good image for PR purposes. She was a good girl. She had high morals and good values. She was kind, nice, thoughtful and always had a smile to everyone around her. But even if he had known her only for four weeks now, he saw how the smile was slowly losing its genuineness and becoming more and more forced. And for some reason he couldn't fathom – or accept – he felt guiltier and guiltier knowing that his recklessness was contributing for her fading honest smile. He shouldn't feel bad about it, but for some reasons he did.

Klaus was yet to understand why he felt like it was his personal job to make sure Caroline indeed had fun last Saturday. But that wasn't all. Her face was starting to pop in his mind when he thought he should try to keep himself clean harder and do his best to make this project his best. He had been determined to make it work the moment he agreed with Stefan on having their writings turned into a script. Caroline wasn't his motivation to make it work, he wanted to give his siblings a break and he knew deep inside he wanted to patch up his ways. He decided to be an actor because he loved it, and it had been a long time since he took any pleasure in acting. He wanted that again, but he couldn't admit it even to himself because he wasn't sure he could deal with the failure. Again. People thought he was careless about his health and career and he let them think so because he was lying to himself as well. He didn't want anyone to know he tried hard to keep away from the pills, but failed miserably. He didn't want to admit to himself he was fighting because he knew that was a lost battle. He was condemned by his own actions to remain a failure and confirm his father's words.

But then her genuine smile showed up in his head, and instead of hitting the snooze in his phone, he got up. That was what happened the day before and that was the same that happened today. He wasn't hangover anymore, as it was already Tuesday, but he had been up until late vanishing the woman by his side. He loved New Orleans and how wild and free the girls there were and most days he found very willing girls to join his bed.

And the fact that he didn't want them to stop coming was a relief. When he was younger and healthier, Klaus didn't fall in love with anyone because his focus was somewhere else. First his career, he wanted to live up the expectations the industry had about him and for a few years he had been able too. And then he decided to take the wild side of fame. Looking back now he saw it wasn't as wild as he thought – and was far from his really wild days – but he decided to enjoy what life had to offer. Alcohol and girls were a constant, but he didn't let either get in the way to his work. He used to know how to balance both things perfectly, never drinking too much while shooting a movie and being more careful about his flings.

And then Henrik died and he wanted nothing to do with love. He didn't want yet another liability. While at first he didn't pursue love because it wasn't the right time for him to settle down, after his brother's death he avoided it like the plague and voted he would never love someone other than this family. Love brought a vulnerability that he learned from experience he didn't know how to deal with. He wasn't cut for that and at some point he wondered if Caroline was reaching out his heart in the wrong way. He felt physically attracted to her – it would be worrying if he didn't, as she was beautiful and sexy – but he wondered if that was all. But then he felt nothing when he kept bringing a different girl to his bed almost every night. If he was developing any romantic feelings for his blond costar he would feel guilty about the one night standards. But he never did – thankfully.

Still he had to figure out why every time he messed up with anything regarding the series, her fading smile flashed in his mind and he felt guilty. He hated it, but he didn't fight against it. He already had too many demons to face off and he wouldn't spend any more emotional energy trying to figure out why Caroline was special to him. He simply accepted she was and while he should try to stop how he felt, he also couldn't afford it. Trying to resist the urge to take his pills, to drunk into oblivion every night and to make his best to the series work drained him completely.

"There has been a change of plans," Alaric announced during their reading for episode three.

"As you may have heard Jessica Thompson died last week. She was Pretty Girl's star, and the network decided against recasting her and as a consequence The Originals will fill the void," he continued to explain and there as an almost collective gasp in the room.

"The series will premiere in July," Damon added.

"What?" Caroline's shriek was louder than most of everyone's reactions.

"We'll replace Pretty Girl. They had seven out of their twelve episodes filmed, but without Jessica they would have to recast the protagonist and start shooting again,"

"Which is why they decided against it, and now The Originals will be their summer/fall primetime series and if the reception is good, they may order a second season promptly,"

"But we only wrapped episode two. You just said they had already shot seven episodes," Mason reasoned, and Damon sighed heavily.

"I know. Our schedule is going to be very tight, but that's not all,"

"We may have sixteen episodes instead of twelve," Stefan informed them, looking at Klaus who still kept an expressionless façade.

"Their plan is to use The Originals to cover the closest to the twenty-four weeks both series were supposed to fill. They'll see how the series first five episodes go, and then they'll decide if they're going to have a hiatus after episode eight or not. If the reception is good, there won't be any hiatuses, they'll keep the twelve episodes order and a second season will be discussed and will probably premiere during February sweeps. If the reception isn't good there will be a sixteen episodes order, with two two-week hiatuses to cover twenty weeks, one after episode eight and the other after episode twelve,"

"This is insane,"

"Impossible to do,"

"Crazy,"

"Guys!" Damon nearly yelled, silencing them all.

"So it's May seventeen now, we wrapped two episodes. We have eight weeks until the premiere. We have to try and have episode eight wrapped up by then, this way we'll have fourteen weeks to wrap another eight,"

"I can't see it working," Caroline offered, and she wasn't even considering the Klaus element.

"We'll try to win two weeks, and premiere in August," Alaric offered.

"Why not start in September then, like most networks?" Serena asked.

"Because they want the show to compete for the Golden Globes,"

"That makes no sense," she shook her head.

"Television doesn't always do, love," Klaus said for the first time, smirking.

"Good to know you've been listening, Klaus. We can't afford mishaps. The powers to be have been clear about their concern and they weren't short of threats about the consequences if we don't give them at least six episodes by the end of June. Your name had been mentioned a few times, and they weren't kidding," Damon said with a serious tone of voice and Caroline – as everyone else – was surprised to see Damon openly addressing Klaus' havocs.

"They should have thought that before, mate, even if I behave better than Caroline here, the schedule they're demanding is impossible. And unexpected things happen all the time," Klaus' tone matched the director's.

"I know it's challenging, all I'm saying is that I need your commitment more than ever,"

"And you know what you will get, Damon, it's fruitless to have this discussion and we both know it. So why don't you and Alaric present us the action plan I'm sure you have?"

There was a deafening silence in the room. They all knew how Damon handled Klaus and it seemed like they finally understood why confrontation wasn't a good path. Especially Caroline. But that wasn't what caught her attention. Klaus was serious about his words. He wasn't smirking; he wasn't trying to be funny, or even sarcastic. She would see in his eyes he was concerned about the project just like everyone else was and looking him closely, seeing how he avoided Damon's eyes when he challenged their director, she finally saw behind the mask – one she wasn't even aware existed. He didn't want to mess up, he just wasn't sure if he would be able to do it or not and in that moment realization hit her. In just a few seconds her perception of him changed yet again. She was looking at him with a renewed respect, in a new light. He wanted to make it work, he just didn't know if he could indeed make it work. Good for him she had many traits that weren't part of her resume.

Klaus was right and Damon and Alaric indeed had an action plan. And as expected it was a nearly impossible to achieve one, but everybody knew there was nothing they could do about it. Their only hope was that the network would indeed agree to give them two more weeks. They started shooting episode three that afternoon and overtime seemed like a constant from then on. Especially when Klaus was there. They had to try to make the best out of his presence.

"Miss Petrova," he greeted the young woman by the river, washing some clothes.

"Lord Lancaster," she offered a shy smile.

"Are you feeling any better?" he asked, keeping a respectful distance between them.

"About what?"

"Your ankle?"

"Oh, I'm much better; it's been a week already, Lord Lancaster. Thanks for asking,"

"It's getting late, Miss Petrova, I'm not sure if you remember about the full moon procedures,"

"Actually I completely forgot about that. I'm not sure if my mother and sisters will remember," she said looking panicked. The Petrovas didn't have to worry about that sort of thing in their old village and after everything they heard during the previous full moon in the new land, they were frightened.

"Noah is there with them. He's helping Mrs. Petrova and your sisters,"

"How much time do we have? I still have a few chores to do before coming back,"

"Not much, why don't you let me help you?"

"Thank you, Lord Lancaster,"

"Please, call me Niklaus, Lord Lancaster is my father," he offered softly, and being unable to deny him, she simply nodded her head slightly, as he helped her collect the wet clothes.

"Cut," Damon shouted from the background, happy with how productive the day turned out to be.

Tatia and Niklaus just stepped inside the village when Zackary intercepted them.

"Where were you boy?" the elder asked with anger in his voice.

"I was helping Miss Petrova to end her chores, and come back, it's full moon,"

"You irresponsible nothing! You should be here helping your brothers to move everything we need to the caves," he took Niklaus by his arm, forcing him to drop the wet clothes he was carrying, dirtying them in the process.

"And you, Miss Petrova, should leave those activities for another day," he turned to the blond, that was about to answer him, but Niklaus beat her to it.

"Miss Petrova isn't used to the calendar issue yet, father,"

"Nobody is talking to you, boy," Zackary answered with hate in his voice, punching Niklaus right in the jaw, leading the young man to fall on his behind.

"Niklaus!" Tatia screamed scared, walking towards him to help him, but before she could reach him, Zackary was already on his son again.

"Stop it! It's not his fault," she protested as she watched the older man kicking Niklaus.

"Someone help," she yelled, but the villagers pretended not to see what was going on, and feeling her blood boil at their cowardice she was about to take matters in her hands, reaching for a log, when Ayanna, one of the villagers, shook her head at her, before raising one of her hands discreetly.

And then Zackary was on his knees, his hands in his head, as he yelled in pain.

"Go get August and Noah, they're in your hut, they'll help move Niklaus to the caves, I'll take my herbs with me," the older woman instructed Tatia, that forgetting about her family's clothes, ran towards her house in the village.

"I told you not to do it to him under my watch, Zackary, don't challenge me," she stood in front of the man that was still on his knees.

"You should take care of your own business, Ayanna. You don't want to get in my bad side," he threatened the witch.

"You know between the two of us who has the advantage. Touch the boy like that again and I won't be as merciful next time," she said as both Noah and August approached them, immediately tending to Niklaus – who was unconscious. Tatia came just behind them, with both Rosemary and Catherine following.

"Girls, go help your mothers. His brothers will take Niklaus to the caves, I'll go quickly collect some herbs, he'll be okay," the witch instructed, and they nodded, Rosemary and Catherine leaving immediately, Tatia though couldn't help but watch as August tried to move Niklaus to Noah's shoulder.

Zackary was feeling no more pain, and scoffing at his sons he walked the opposite direction, cursing under his breath.

"It's my fault, I'm so sorry, I forgot about the full moon," Tatia said with tears in her eyes. Niklaus was very beaten up and she wasn't certain he would make it. In the two months she had lived in the village, the unconscious man had been nothing but kind to her. They didn't interact many times, but all of them, the blue-eyed boy was kind and gentle towards her.

"Don't blame yourself, Miss Petrova. Father and Niklaus don't see eye to eye," August offered, while she felt the tears finally dropping from her eyes.

"He was just helping me bring the clothes from the pond," she added.

"I'm sorry you'll have to wash your clothes again, here, let me help you take them to your hut, and then we should immediately leave to the caves," August offered, while her eyes were fixed on Niklaus as Noah walked away slowly, careful around his brother's injured body.

Tatia didn't pay much attention to the moves of her hands, as she tried to collected the dirtied clothes with her eyes fixed in the two retreating men.

"Cut," Damon yelled, and Caroline sighed tiredly. They had shot that scene alone four times, and she was exhausted.

Mason helped Klaus to get off of him, as they all look expectantly to Damon, who was re-watching the take.

"Good job, guys. We'll resume the daylight scenes tomorrow. You're released to dinner and we'll resume shooting at eight," the director instructed and they all showed their relief welcoming the break.

The small group quickly broke, each going their way, when Caroline saw it as the perfect opportunity to start her new plan.

"Hey! Klaus!" she called as the actor walked away, leading him to stop and turn around.

"What can I do for you, sweetheart?" he asked as she reached him.

"We have a couple of hours until we have to come back, and I know you normally eat really fast. What do you think about we rehearse the cave scenes before we shoot them? Maybe we won't have to shoot each of them ten times," she offered with a soft smile.

"I was planning on taking a nap, actually," he answered honestly. He was pretty tired from the past two intense days on set and he knew staying awake only made it more tempting for him to reach for the pills he had in his possession, although he would probably need help to sleep in the first place.

"We could make a test, maybe it helps and we'll reshoot less and we'll go home earlier," she insisted, and he wondered what her strategy was. She had pretty much given up on him before, probably finally realizing the lost cause he was. Or maybe she was being honest, and something also changed for her since the weekend.

He found himself having a harder time to say no to her, and wondering if maybe she was right and he could take advantage of her plan.

"Very well then, sweetheart. Meet me in my trailer in thirty minutes," he agreed, and she nodded, thanking him before walking away.

Caroline was a very demanding person. She always put her heart in her job, no matter how shallow and repetitive her characters were. She was neurotic and a perfectionist and people didn't give her enough credit for all her hard work. She had always worked well with her costars, never having a problem with any of them because she never demanded perfectionism from them. She was easygoing and normally she didn't give her cast mates a hard time. But that had changed when she started working with Klaus Mikaelson and while she knew she had her reasons, she realized she wasn't being fair to him.

For the first time in four weeks she finally saw the man behind the mask and she felt horrible about her previous actions. Yes, he was a troublemaker that would probably jeopardize the project now that they had a nearly impossible schedule to work with. But he didn't mess up because he wanted. She had seen earlier in his eyes and words that he wanted to make things right, but maybe that was beyond his powers. He had been in rehab so many times for a reason. He had an ongoing problem that probably wasn't only in his hands to fix. She finally realized what a bitch she had been, thinking that he was being difficult simply because he wanted. He was sick – sort of – and he needed help. She finally realized people weren't enabling him as she first thought, but they were understanding and she felt even worse about herself for her behavior.

Caroline Forbes was first and foremost a fixer. She fixed people and she felt good doing it. Maybe the pressure of being in such a production, with such high expectations, the jittery from finally having her dream role, the growing problems in her marriage and her constant anxiety probably took over revealing the bitchy side she was proud to have, but that she now realized that wasn't appropriate or just. She had amends to take and regardless if Klaus wanted her help or not, she was going to do things differently from then on. She almost felt the need to apologize to everyone she complained about Klaus, especially Damon and Stefan, but she felt embarrassed for her actions.

She may be too proud to retract herself to the others, but she would do her best to do it with Klaus, and knocking on his door, just having finished her dinner in her trailer, she hoped he was still up to rehearsing.

"It's open," she heard from inside, and turning the knob she opened the door, seeing him lying in the couch, one of his arms covering his eyes.

"Hey," she said holding her script in her hand, not knowing if she should close the door behind her or not. The trailers were rather spacious, and there was even more space in his living room area than in hers.

"Make yourself comfortable, sweetheart," he offered without moving from his position.

"I'm ready when you are," she offered in a sweet tone that actually made him move his arm from his eyes and look at her suspiciously.

"I'm trying to understand what your angle here is, but I think I might need your help to enlighten me," he said, moving to sit.

"What do you mean?" she tried to stay composed, when she knew he was trying to rile her up, as usual. While it worked when they needed to play Tatia in present time, the scenes she was going to share with him tonight were completely different.

"The sudden change. You can't stand me, you know chances are I'm going to mess it up and probably get the project canceled before it even airs, so what exactly do you have in mind with those rehearsals?"

"I think that schedule is impossible to do without any backsets, so while Damon and Alaric have their action plans to try to make it attainable, I thought we could use of one as well,"

"So you think this will actually help?"

"Maybe. It's worth a shot. There are some Klaus/Tatia heavy episodes coming according to Stefan and we are the lead actors. The better the chemistry and the fluency between us, the faster we can make those scenes. For example, we re-shot the river scenes three times today, and the village scene four times. If we rehearse before we can take pointers and try to reduce the reshooting,"

"And how are we going to measure that? There had been plenty of scenes we shot twice only because Damon wanted to be sure the first time was really the best he would get. How will we know that if weren't rehearsing we wouldn't have the same result?"

"Rehearsal is never wasted time, Klaus,"

"But maybe I need my beauty sleep more than I need rehearsal, Caroline," he said, and she knew he was serious the moment he chose to use her name instead of her the endearments he normally used.

"So I let you be the judge of it. We have three sequences of scenes in the cave, we could rehearse one of them, and see if we reshoot it less than the other,"

"As you said there are three, why should we test one and compare to another one? What about the third?'

"Actually I don't think we should rehearse the first, as your character isn't awake during that one,"

"But I could help you with the scene the same way, love," he offered with his characteristic smirk.

She knew he was baiting her again, but she also knew he was very good when he was focused. He might have some nice pointers to give her if he took it seriously. And it wouldn't hurt if she surprised him once again. He seemed completely shocked about her demeanor change and she liked the feeling to be one step ahead of him when it seemed like he was always one step of her.

"Fine, so why don't we start with that one? We skip the second and rehearse the last one?" she suggested with a small smile.

He looked at her carefully, not really understanding what her angle was, but he had basically agreed with this and he wouldn't back down now. He had already skipped dinner to make sure he had time for her, he was going to make the best out of their time.

"Very well. I'll resume my previous position then," he said lying down in the couch again, though he left his eyes uncovered this time.

Caroline took a deep breath, trying to focus her attention in the scene she was about to rehearse. Taking a last read in the script, she moved it to the side table, before kneeling in front of him, as her character was supposed to do, except Niklaus would be lying on the floor, instead of something as high as a couch.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" she put her best concerned voice, repeating what she would be telling Rosemary.

She waited a while, what would be Serena's line, before she looked softly to Klaus.

"I feel terrible. He was only trying to help me," she moved her hand to touch him, but retracted it back at the last moment.

Viktoria then was supposed to call her daughter, leaving Caroline and Niklaus alone for a moment.

"I hope you can forgive me," Caroline said, showing Tatia's struggle not to touch him.

"Maybe you could use a cloth and clean one of his wounds,"

"I'm supposed to do it in the second scene when Ayanna gives me instructions about it,"

"But your character is clearly conflicted about touching him now. She feels guilty, she wants to make him feel better, she wants to take amends for something she blames herself for. Also I wouldn't say it's a stretch for Tatia to start being attracted to him at this point,"

"You should know that, you wrote the original material,"

"I never focused in the early stages of their relationship, that was all Stefan,"

"But that's what you feel? Do you think with even the limited screen time they had alone she would be able to develop feelings for him already?"

"He's been fascinated about her beauty from the moment he set eyes on her," he said looking intensely in her eyes, leading Caroline to almost feel uncomfortable. She was still getting used to Klaus and he could be intense at times.

"Men are visual, there's no surprise there. Women need more gestures, words, actions,"

"He helped her a few times, rescued her when she sprained her ankle and he had just been beaten to a pulp because he was being a gentleman to her yet again, I don't think it's that farfetched,"

"Okay, do you have a cloth I can use?"

He raised his eyebrows at her, not believing she really wanted a cloth just for an informal rehearsal.

"Amuse me,"

"There's a Henley over my bed, be my guest, I'm not leaving the couch unless I really have to," he offered his trademark smirk while she rolled her eyes, albeit smiling, and went to retrieve his shirt.

She was back before he blinked and resuming her position, she restarted the rehearsal.

"I hope you can forgive me… Niklaus," Caroline said, deciding to use his name as he requested for the first time, although it wasn't in the script. She reached for the Henley and softly pressed it against his jaw where he was supposed to have been hit by Zackary.

"He's a coward for doing that to you, but I promise you, I won't let him touch you like that again," she said mysteriously, stopping her movements, letting the cloth in her hand rest against his skin.

"Nice touch, sweetheart. I think we won't need to reshoot that one many times,"

"Arse," she said under her breath, rolling her eyes.

"Now that's more like the Caroline we all know and love," he smirked, gaining a slap on his arm from the blond kneeled in front of him. But the small smile in her face showed she wasn't mad at him, and he just laughed lightly. Somehow her company was more revigorating than any sleep – even induced by pills – could be.

AN: The parallels in ~real life and their characters in the rehearsal scene are NOT a coincidence ;)

I hope you guys enjoyed this update. While this change of heart in Caroline was already outlined one of my readers opened my eyes to something that nearly made me want to kill myself: my Caroline was starting to sound like Elena-Miss-perfect. Maybe I indeed took it too farther with her attitude towards Klaus. Good thing her change of heart had always been supposed to happen now. also as this story progresses we'll see a ~darker Caroline. Not dark like in the show, but the kind of dark this story affords.

Reviews are love, so do share ;) Thanks a lot for those who reviewed, and forgive me for my grammar mistakes. I'm still beta-less.

Now responding some of my anonymous reviewers:

1) I plan to do them a romantic pair, not only a friendship pair.

2) So yes, it will evolve like it did in my other story

3) They're not kissing any time soon - but maybe in a scene it'll be soon? People who read my other stories know I'm a slow burn kind of writer.

Have a nice week!

xx

Babi