Last chapter before the epilogue. Mentions of Damon's abuse of Caroline in this chapter. Thank you to Sophie for beta work.

Klaus pulled up a few blocks away from the boarding house, Caroline beside him staring out of the window, her fingers twisting in her lap.

"All right, love?"

"Yeah," she said quietly, not meeting his eyes. "I think so."

Caroline had asked her friends to meet her at the boarding house, and she was going to tell them about the bond. The Bennett witch was coming for emotional support, or some such nonsense, and had been sitting silently in the back seat of the car for the whole drive.

Klaus knew that Bonnie hated him, but she seemed to have Caroline's best interests at heart, which was all that was required to be relatively civil, really.

He wasn't sure what to say to make Caroline feel better about the upcoming conversation, since his honest thoughts were along the lines of "they're all idiots and their corpses would make excellent mulch for our garden", but he felt that that sentiment would be received poorly.

She unbuckled her seatbelt, and he proceeded to do the same, ignoring her exasperated glare.

"You can't come in with us," Caroline said firmly.

"Why not?"

"It'll make it worse," Bonnie said, and Caroline gave her friend a sharp look before turning back to him.

"She's right. They won't react well with you standing there giving them all murder-eyes."

He pressed his lips together. "What if they try to hurt you?"

She rolled her eyes. "They're my friends. They won't."

"And if they do, I'm, you know, magical," Bonnie said, wriggling her fingers, and Klaus had to restrain a snort of derision.

He, quite honestly, did not share their confidence, either in Bonnie's powers or her friends' rationality. However, he could see the set to Caroline's jaw that indicated she'd only dig her heels in further if he disagreed.

"All right, but I will be right outside, able to hear all of it. If I believe that you're in even the smallest amount of trouble, I will come in."

"Fine," Caroline agreed. "As long as they don't know you're there."

"Done," he said, nodding, and she kissed him softly (ignoring Bonnie's sound of disgust) before pulling away and walking up the driveway.

He sped silently to the side of the house, holding perfectly still, knowing they wouldn't hear him as long as he was careful, waiting for the small talk to be over and the conversation to start.

He could hear the waver in Caroline's voice as she explained the situation, could hear every hitch of her breath as she paused between sentences. It made him want to kill all of her so-called friends before whisking her as far away as possible.

He didn't, though. He lingered silently as her friends fought to talk over each other to contribute their thoughts, feelings, and opinions about Caroline's personal life, as though they had a right to tell his mate who she had permission to give her heart to.

He closed his eyes as Caroline snapped for everyone to be quiet, telling them to all go one at a time, as though a great tragedy had occurred and they needed a healing circle.

He listened to the ripper prattle on about personal choice and inner darkness and how Caroline was a victim, and it honestly made him sick. Stefan seemed to be making Caroline's bond about him, about how Stefan was so disappointed, and how he knew what she was going through, how he'd been Klaus's victim too...As though Caroline could simply shrug off the bond like an inconvenient temporary chore and move on if only she knew how awful he was.

The doppelganger only managed a sentence or two about how Caroline had kept things from her and how her feelings were hurt, and Caroline cut in to say they'd talk while they got ready for the decade dance.

The elder Salvatore made a lewd comment about a wolf fetish, but his yell of pain and Bonnie's completely unapologetic-sounding apology indicated an aneurism was given. The quarterback's opinion was irrelevant, as usual.

"Did this happen...Did you know this when we were together?" he heard Tyler ask, his voice tinged with fury, and Klaus tried to resist the urge to rip the mutt's heart out of his chest.

He could imagine Caroline's face, its mix of guilt and stubbornness familiar to him, and he wasn't surprised at her answer.

"I thought I could stop it," she said quietly. "I couldn't though, and I broke up with you once I realized it was a lost cause."

"Oh, well thanks Caroline. Thanks for doing me that favor," Tyler snarled, and he heard Caroline's breath hitch.

"I'm sorry that you feel betrayed," Caroline said slowly. "But I'm not sorry for wanting what's best for me. Wanting him."

Klaus smirked to himself as he heard the door slam and watched his first hybrid race away through the trees.

It felt good to be chosen.

XXX

Caroline, Elena, and Bonnie had agreed to get ready for the 20s dance together that night. Caroline was nervous about Elena's reaction once they were in a more private space. In an (admittedly slightly cowardly) effort to put off the inevitable serious conversation, Caroline had offered to invite Rebekah along, but the other girl had pointed out that it might be best to mend her current friendships before tossing her in the snake pit with her, and Caroline saw her point.

They'd been making awkward small talk for almost an hour by the time Caroline had decided she'd had enough, and she interrupted Elena mid-sentence.

"This really isn't my fault."

Elena paused, her brown eyes wide, before she swallowed and nodded. "I know. I just...it's a lot."

"Yeah, it was a lot for me too at first," Caroline said. "Unfortunately, if Klaus isn't in my life, we both go insane. Since you are my friend, I'm going to assume that you would prefer me sane, so we need to find a way to deal with this where you're able to cope with Klaus being in my life. We're now a package deal, Elena, and if you can't handle that, you should tell me now."

"We can find a way to break the bond," Elena said immediately. "Esther said she could, right?"

"I don't want to break it," Caroline said. "If something goes wrong, it would be a huge disaster."

And I'm almost on the way to falling in love with him.

Elena was clearly about to argue, but Bonnie interrupted before the other girl could get the words out.

"Elena, shut up."

"What?"

"Shut up. What Caroline does is her choice. You don't get a say in what she does with her body or her soul or whatever. She's had to deal with Damon being around for a year, and other than pointing out what an ass he is, and he is an ass, she's never complained, despite the fact that she would have a complete right to. If you expect her to support your dumb life choices, which includes making excuses for Damon, you should be able to cope with hers," Bonnie said firmly, and Caroline swallowed, suddenly feeling incredibly uncomfortable.

Bonnie had agreed not to say anything the first time Caroline had called her at two in the morning, begging her to come over. There had been months of nightmares of cold blue eyes and sharp fangs, times when Caroline woke up half-convinced she wouldn't be able to control her own limbs.

The other girl had never complained about the occasional all-nighters when she'd had a bad dream, or when Caroline asked her to come over when her mom had a night shift.

They'd had a few conversations about Damon, both as Elena's potential boyfriend and as Caroline's abuser, and it hadn't taken long for Bonnie to start hinting that Caroline should talk to Elena about it.

Clearly, Bonnie had had enough of Caroline's reluctance to stand up for herself, and Caroline wasn't sure she could complain as Bonnie stared Elena down.

Elena deflated, clearly realizing what Bonnie was implying, and shot Caroline a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry. I guess I just didn't think about it like that."

"It's fine," Caroline bit out, not wanting to spoil the olive branch Elena had offered.

Of course Elena hadn't 'thought of it like that'.

"No, it's not," Bonnie said, shooting Caroline a look that essentially told her to be quiet while she ripped into Elena. "We've both been terrible to you about it, and you didn't deserve it. So, from now on, I think we should be a bit more understanding, especially since you've been supportive of both of us. Right Elena?"

"Right," Elena said, nodding. "Sorry."

Caroline shrugged, not wanting to tease out all of her emotions about what had happened with Damon or how Elena had treated her just then. She knew they'd talk about it eventually, but she felt like right before the dance wasn't a great time. She didn't want to go into the dance angry, because Klaus would ask what was wrong, and then Damon would be dead, and while it would be nice in theory, Caroline also didn't really want to deal with the consequences of it. She might change her mind at some point, especially if Elena managed to get her act together and choose Stefan (or just anyone who wasn't Damon).

For now though, she could wait.

XXX

"This is quite the dance," Klaus said quietly, his hand splayed on her hip as he swayed back and forth with her to the music. "I especially enjoy the theme."

Caroline scoffed. "Well, your sister was very persuasive about changing it, unfortunately. She let me borrow one of her dresses though, so I guess I can't complain that much."

"You look radiant," he said, his eyes locked on hers.

"Thanks."

They swayed together, Caroline trying to ignore Tyler's burning glare digging into her back.

"You would have loved the twenties, Caroline. The girls were reckless, sexy, fun...They literally used to dance until they dropped."

"Do you think I could keep up with them?" she asked teasingly, fighting down a smile as he spun her around, catching her again as she fell against his chest.

"More than."

She rolled her eyes at his charming words, the way the compliment rolled off his tongue so easily, and he grinned, teeth gleaming in the gym's fluorescent light.

"I still kind of can't believe you've lived through stuff like that," she said quietly. "You must have so many cool stories."

He nodded, but didn't answer, and they danced for another few moments in silence before he spoke again. "Do you want to leave?"

"Leave where?"

"Mystic Falls," he said quietly. "There's a whole world out there. Art, music, culture...I want to show it to you. Will you come with me?"

She bit her lip, debating. "Would you stay here if I wanted to?"

"I'd rather not, but we have eternity to see the world, and if you'd like to stay in this one-pony town for a while longer...I'm not going to drag you kicking and screaming."

"I'll make you a deal."

"I'm listening."

"We'll stay until I graduate in a few months, and after that, you take me on the best world exploration vacation ever."

"It would be a pleasure."

Caroline smiled.

She had known from the moment she woke up in the hospital bed that nothing would be normal again. The past few months had been her acclimating to her new circumstances, accepting that she was a monster, and that she liked it. She'd abstractly thought about what it would be like to live forever, but she'd never quite let the reality of it sink in.

She'd had a dark voice in the back of her mind insist that she'd probably be dead for good within the next few years if she stayed in Mystic Falls.

After the past few weeks, though, she'd realized that forever wasn't such an abstract idea. Her vampirism had opened up the world to her, had given her possibilities she'd never dreamed of, but with Klaus she felt like those possibilities could be a reality.

He did not define her, but for the first time, she truly felt that she could define herself. Make her own choices. Change her life.

She had that power within her grasp. All she had to do was reach out and take it.

Thank you so much for your support of this story. I really really appreciate it, and I'm happy you all seem to be enjoying it so much. :)

The next chapter is the epilogue, and then hopefully I'll get back to working on some of my bigger projects ;)

Hugs!
-Angie