"Mom." Caroline paled as she spun around to face her mother.
Liz Forbes looked disheveled and half asleep in flannel pajamas, but her eyes were wide and confused. Her gaze darted between her daughter and Klaus, who lounged on her daughter's bed.
"What's he doing here?" Distasted oozed from her words like venom.
"Discussing terms," Klaus said.
"What terms?" Liz asked, her voice low and dangerous.
Klaus smirked, he thought that if he were a mortal man, he would do well to fear Sheriff Forbes. But it had been far too long since he was human for any lingering fears to overcome him.
"Mom… It's not what you think." Caroline started.
"I think it sounds like you made some kind of deal with this psychopath." Liz said.
"Okay, maybe it is what you think." Caroline cowered under her mother's withering look.
"Why, Caroline?" Liz demanded. "Why would you do something like that?"
"Because," Caroline said, "it was the only thing I could do to protect the people I care about."
"Take it back." Liz said.
"I can't."
"You just said it yourself, he doesn't own you." Liz pointed out. "So you can take it back."
"Fine," Caroline said, Klaus flinched. "Maybe I can take it back, but I won't."
"Caroline, he's a monster." Liz said, "Don't you know that by now?"
"Of course I know that! But this is my choice." Caroline said, she reached out and grabbed her mother's arm. "Mom, this is what I can do to save people."
"If it makes you feel better," Klaus said, "this deal of hers has already prevented the death one of her friends. And that's just today."
"Thanks," Liz spat, "but it really doesn't."
Klaus shrugged, unperturbed by her hatred.
"I think it's time for you to go." Liz said to Klaus firmly.
"If I go, she goes." Klaus said, rising from the bed and straightening his tie before extending his hand to Caroline as though he were once again asking her to dance like he did the night of his mother's party. "Come, Caroline."
Caroline looked between him and her mother, looking cornered and afraid.
"Don't do this, Caroline." Liz said.
Caroline swallowed hard and slipped her cold fingers into his proffered hand, "If he goes, I go, Mom."
"He's going to be the death you, Caroline." Liz said. "I'm sorry, but if you're choosing this, I won't sit back and watch you get yourself killed, or worse become a real monster like him."
"Mom, please." Caroline begged
Liz held up her hand to silence her daughter. "Caroline, I think you'd better go."
"She kicked me out." Caroline said. She knew that wasn't exactly true, but it still felt like a blow to her stomach. She had been tortured by vampire slayers and werewolves, but this hurt worse. She had reached a sort of understanding with her mother after she became a vampire and things had been better between them since she died than they had ever been when she was a selfish and narcissistic teenage girl. But now they were broken again and Caroline was afraid that this time there wasn't anything she could do to fix it.
She needed her mother to stand beside her now more than ever. Couldn't she see that Caroline made this deal for the greater good? Maybe she had ulterior motives, motives she wasn't sure she even entirely understood yet, but mostly she was doing this for the greater good. Quid pro quo. Klaus had something she wanted, for him not to slaughter her friends and family, and she had something he wanted, her.
It made sense. It wasn't like her mom hadn't made the very same call when it came down to Caroline's life. She had made a deal with Klaus too. Who wouldn't, if it was the only way to save the people you loved?
"You can always come home with…"
"No." Caroline snapped before Klaus could finish his sentence. He smirked.
Caroline sat on the front steps of her home, holding the handle of her suitcase. So much had happened since she'd left the Miss Mystic Falls pageant with Klaus, she would need about a week to processes all of it. The last thing she needed to do was add moving into the Mikaelson Mansion to her already unbelievable list.
"You're going to have to eventually." Klaus pointed out.
"Thanks." She said sarcastically, "but I think I'll hold on to my soul for as long as possible."
"Do you really think that you are so easily corrupted?" Klaus asked.
"No, I just don't trust you." Caroline pressed her lips together and gave Klaus a disdainful look that probably would have been more convincing if she hadn't kissed him a few hours ago. "I'll just stay with Bonnie for a few days until my mom cools off."
"Ah, well that could present a problem."
"You killed Professor Creepy?" Caroline asked, her voice a shade off shrill.
"Yes."
Klaus couldn't help but smirk at her nickname for the suspicious and, as of tonight, rather dead Professor Shane as he drove the both of them back to his home, driving far slower than necessary. Since he'd managed to coax her into going home with him after all, he wasn't keen on rushing the journey. He expected once he stopped the car that she didn't intend to talk to him for quite some time after what he'd done. He hadn't broken the terms of their deal, but he had certainly toed the line.
She wouldn't be pleased.
"And you are holding my best friend hostage in your living room under the watch of your psycho little brother?"
"Yes."
"Oh my god!" She said, "And you wonder why I don't trust you!"
"Actually, I don't wonder." Klaus said.
She shot him a scathing look.
"I thought our deal meant something to you."
"It does." Klaus said. "Which is why Bonnie Bennett continues to breathe."
He parked in front of his spectacular place of residence and shut off the car. Caroline let out an exasperated sigh and got out of the car. She stormed into the house without waiting for Klaus.
"Kol?" Klaus heard her shout as the door swung shut behind her.
He grabbed her suitcase and followed her in.
By the time he reached the living room, Caroline was untying Bonnie as Kol stood in the doorway, watching.
"Excellent work, brother," Klaus drawled, "you do understand that the point of standing guard is to prevent exactly this from happening."
Kol shrugged, "What can I say? After a thousand years with Rebekah, I've developed a healthy respect of angry blondes."
"Are you okay?" Caroline asked Bonnie, pulling the gag out of her friend's mouth.
"They killed Shane." Bonnie sobbed. "And Hailey, I don't know what he," she shot Klaus a scathing look, "did to her."
"Hailey?" Caroline recoiled at the female werewolf's name. She glanced back at Klaus, who shrugged in feigned innocence. She rolled her eyes at Klaus as she pulled Bonnie into a hug, "It's going to be okay, Bon. I'm going to take care of everything. I'll take you home right now."
"Actually, you won't." Klaus said.
"What?" Caroline snapped.
"Like it out not, Bonnie has been privy to some rather sensitive information and I would rather she didn't pass it around to those who would get in my way."
"You can't keep her here."
Klaus couldn't help but find the way her eyes flash brightly with indignation incredibly attractive. She really was a lovely creature. He looked forward to exploring every faucet of her complicated, delicate ego.
"She will be kept exceptionally comfortable and will be released as soon as possible." He assured her, but judging by the way her lips pressed together in silent rage, she wasn't appeased. Eager to regain some of her favor, he threw her a bone, "As soon as I have the cure she will be free to go."
Caroline's eyes widened, "You know how to find the cure?"
Klaus's lips pressed into a self-satisfied smirk, "I know how to find the cure."
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