Chapter 10 – Act Like It

A/N: To everyone who has reviewed as a guest, thank you for your support! Sorry I can't reply back to you :( Enjoy the chapter and remember to review!

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"You know I must say Caroline, I was quite shocked when you called me." Klaus said with a smirk as he sat across from Caroline at a much too fancy restaurant overlooking the harbor on their first date.

Caroline chuckled as she took a drink of the expensive wine he had ordered, crinkling her nose a bit at the extremely rich taste that she had no prior experience with.

"Yeah well, I was pretty shocked at myself to be honest." She said bluntly as she leaned back in her seat. "Trust me, calling irritating British men and asking them out on dates isn't something I do every day."

Klaus grinned, drinking in the sight of the beauty in front of him. She was wearing a modest dark blue dress, her hair in loose waves and her makeup light. Not that she needed makeup to begin with. After she had called him while he was at Matt's bar he had immediately agreed to go on said date with her but insisted that he plan out the details himself. Now they were at a swanky restaurant dining in a private back room with much too expensive entrees that had hardly any food, sitting in awkwardly dark lighting with a bottle of wine between them that probably cost more than Caroline's monthly rent.

"So," Caroline said after an awkward beat, "Is this what you do for all the girls you date? Take them to fancy restaurants?"

"Not always." Klaus said honestly, never breaking eye contact. "But truth be told, I don't really date much."

"Ah, of course." Caroline said nodding her head. "The bachelor life is something I've always envied. I mean if a girl goes around sleeping with whoever she wants then she's dubbed a slut. If a man does it then he's praised like a god. I just don't get it." She laughed bitterly, taking another sip of the wine.

Klaus studied her curiously. Caroline seemed like the type of girl who had a very good intuition about the human condition. That is to say that most people want to be good, but very few people actually are.

"Well I don't know what you may think of me, but despite my bachelor status I don't go around sleeping with every woman I meet on the street." Klaus said with a smirk.

"Well," Caroline said, pausing for a moment and meeting his eyes, a small smile gracing her face, "I suppose that's a good thing."

Klaus grinned. He couldn't help but think that he had smiled more in the past hour and a half with Caroline than he had in the past month.

"But back to your question about dating," He said after a few moments of intense eye contact, "I must ask. For a first date, how did I do?"

He gestured around him to the private room and the ridiculously amazing view of the New York Harbor that it overlooked, the Statue of Liberty in plain sight. Caroline looked around as well before glancing back at Klaus' cocky facial expression.

"Honestly?" Caroline asked, biting her lip and looking conflicted. "Kind of awful."

Klaus' face fell and he looked at her in disbelief. "What?" He asked incredulously. "Awful? This is a five star restaurant!"

Caroline laughed then, leaning on the table and putting her face in her hands.

"Klaus! You can't just win over any girl's heart by taking them to a really expensive restaurant that intimidates the hell out of them!" She said, still laughing at the situation. "I mean for goodness sake they gave me three forks! Who needs three forks?!"

Klaus cocked his head to the side at her, utterly and completely confused. Isn't this what women wanted? To be doted on, lavished on?

"Look, when I called you and asked you out, I did it because I wanted to get to know you." Caroline said in a much softer tone of voice. "And even though we had good conversation, I still don't know a single thing about you and you don't anything about me either. This place is…stifling. And this wine is awful." She added on, making the corner of Klaus' mouth turn up.

"It is pretty bad, isn't it?" He asked in a disappointed tone.

"Yes! It is!" Caroline exclaimed, making him duck his head and chuckle. "Look, why don't we just get out of here? We can go walk around Central Park, you can offer me your coat because it's cold, it'll be really sweet and win you tons of points." That made Klaus laugh yet again. "And then we can go to a hot dog stand and get a bunch of really greasy, unhealthy food because that salad I ordered wouldn't have filled a rabbit."

Klaus looked at Caroline with a fond expression, studying her. This girl wasn't just anyone, she was special. She talked about important social issues, she knew what was going on in the political world, she had been salutatorian of her graduating class in high school. And yet expensive dates freaked her out, she would rather feed ducks at Central Park, or volunteer a local children's hospital, or rant about how Kanye loved Kim and no one could tell her otherwise.

She was an oddity that had utterly gripped his heart.

"Come on." Caroline pleaded, mistaking the expression on Klaus' face for an internal conflict. "Get to know me." She smirked then, tilting her chin down at him in challenge. "I dare you."

And well, Klaus never backs down from a dare. So they walked around Central Park, and he lent her his coat, and they ate hotdogs, and Caroline laughed when he got mustard on his shirt, and they each gave fifty dollars to a street dancer, and they had the best second half of a first date ever.

He learned that she loved horror movies, hated onions, resented her father for leaving when she was a kid, and was still proud of her three year streak as Miss Mystic Falls. She learned that he had four siblings total, hadn't spoken to his father in three years, missed Kol but wouldn't dare admit it to anyone else, and that Stefan was his best friend outside of his immediate family.

And when he walked her to the front door of her apartment she turned to him with the most genuine smile he had ever received.

"When will I see you again?" She asked with a hopeful expression that made his heart soar.

"Depends." He replied. "I know I would like to see you tomorrow. And the day after that. And the next day, and the next day…" He trailed off.

Caroline laughed, taking a step closer to him and not even realizing it.

"Oh yeah? And how long will that sentiment last, Mr. Terminal Bachelor?" She asked sarcastically.

"I don't know." Klaus said honestly, leaning in closer to her and making her heart skip a beat. "Hopefully forever."

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Klaus woke up slowly, feeling as if a fog was surrounding him. He groaned as he came to, confused as to where he was. He was laying on something soft – softer than he had laid on in months. Usually they slept in cars at night but this felt like…well it felt like a bed.

As his eyes started to flutter open, the light hurt more than he expected and he threw his arm over his face to block it out. With the movement came the soreness and he groaned yet again, but this time in pain. His head was pounding as if something was in there trying to get out, and his neck felt like someone had stabbed him.

Then it all came rushing back. Arriving at Whitmore. Seeing Caroline – oh God, he saw Caroline. He ran to her, he held her in his arms, it had all been real. But then his nose has started bleeding because the most terrifying thing had become his reality. He was Infected. Then Caroline had dragged him away rambling about how she knew what they had to do, and then there were those three strangers – those three men that were looking at his Caroline. And one of them was Dr. Maxfield – the bastard who started The Outbreak.

Klaus' rage started to intensify against his will as he thought about how he had punched the doctor over and over again, only to stop and see that other boy touching her. His heart rate started to pick up as anger took over every rational thought in his mind. He remembered hearing the door upstairs open just as the other man plunged a syringe into his neck and then seeing Caroline's terrified expression as everything went black.

The anger that Klaus had at that moment was like nothing he had ever felt before – and he was well aware of his temper problems. But this was something else entirely. It felt like a dense cloud of fog surrounding all rationality, suffocating his every thought. A fog that, no matter where he turned or ran to, he couldn't escape. A fog that made him want to kill anyone and everyone – starting with the bugger that had stabbed him.

And then he heard her.

"Klaus?" The small voice asked. The voice that had uttered his name hundreds of times in affection, in ecstasy, in fear, in joy. The voice that had the power to cut through the fog instantly.

Klaus sat up so quickly he got a head rush and he had to blink a few times to make out the blurry figure across the room. When he did though, it was as if he had tunnel vision, eyes only for her.

She was sitting in a dingy chair with her legs pulled up in a criss-cross in front of her. She had changed clothes since their reunion and was now wearing black pants and a white shirt that made her skin look more tanned than it actually was. The corner of his mouth turned upwards as he looked at her face, eyes glassy as she smiled at him. Granted, the smile was weak and forced, but he had dreamt of it over and over again the past several months all the same.

"Caroline." He whispered her name like a prayer, stumbling out of the cot and towards her. He was confused when she didn't reach out to him but then understood as he had to come to a stop about five feet away.

In confusion, Klaus reached out his hands and wrapped them around the steel bars keeping him from his love. As he looked away from Caroline the fog immediately started to make its return. He made a growl-like sound in the back of his throat as he pulled on the bars but to no avail.

"It's no use."

Klaus snapped his head up to the familiar but not long heard voice, seeing that there were three other people in the room. His siblings, to be more precise.

"You can bang on those bars all you want but you can't get out." Kol continued as he leaned on the opposite wall, one of his knees bent so he could prop his foot up against the dark brick. "It's the only way to keep you and everyone else safe."

"Kol." Klaus said in disbelief, staring at the brother he hadn't seen in over two years. To be the youngest brother he looked much older. His jawline was strong, his body lean with muscle. Eyes that used to hold mischief and trouble were now heavy laden with concern.

But as he continued to stare at Kol, Klaus' mind forced him to remember everything bad his brother had ever done to him. Which was a long list.

"Long time no see, brother." Klaus hissed, eyes widening with the rage that was his body was demanding of him. "I'm surprised you're alive. I figured you would have just given up trying to survive the bloody apocalypse like we all know you give up on everything else, including your family."

Kol tried to keep his expression unwavering, but a flash of hurt crossed his strong features.

"Nik." Rebekah spoke, making Klaus snap his head to where she was standing beside Kol. "Everything's alright, you just need to calm down." She said kindly, smiling at her brother despite how absolutely awful she was feeling.

"Calm down?" He asked incredulously, gripping the bars even tighter. "Calm down?! You've trapped me in a bloody cell! You brought me to a safe haven only to stuff me in a prison so no Bekah, I will not calm down!"

"You're Infected." Caroline suddenly spoke in a strong voice, the tears that were in her eyes now gone. She uncrossed her legs and stood up slowly as Klaus turned to stare at her as if she weren't even really there. "But we managed to stop it before it fully manifested thanks to Wes. I know that you're angry." She said slowly and firmly, taking a tiny calculated step towards the bars. "But that's just the Infection that's still inside you. You have to fight it."

"Caroline." He basically whimpered, now leaning onto the bars for support as his lip trembled. "Caroline I've missed you so much love, I was…I was so scared you were dead."

Caroline quirked her lips up at him, taking another step forward without thinking. Klaus extended his hand out to her through the bars and just as Caroline was about to take it, Elijah reached out and grabbed her forearm, gently pulling her back.

"Don't touch her!" Klaus roared loudly, not even realizing that he was screaming until he had already done it. Everyone in the room except Elijah jumped, and Rebekah burst into tears and turned to bury her face into Kol's chest.

"Klaus it's okay." Caroline said slowly, looking at Klaus to try and force eye contact with him. He seemed to calm down every time he looked at her specifically. "It's just Elijah, okay? You know he would never hurt me."

Klaus blinked a few times and looked down at the ground shaking his head.

"Of course, of course. Elijah would…never…"

He seemed confused, like he didn't even know why he was so angry at the prospect of his married older brother touching his girlfriend innocently. As he looked back up, a pain ripped through his chest as he saw Elijah staring at him intensely with a hand resting on the handle of his cutlass.

"How…how long have I been here?" Klaus finally asked, eyes on Caroline because she made the fog go away.

"Two days." Caroline answered, the only person in the room not looking at him like he was a monster. Rebekah was still crying softly against Kol. "The sedative that Wes – Dr. Maxfield – gave you was a lot stronger than we anticipated."

Klaus nodded his head slowly, trying to absorb the information and keep the rage at bay.

"And did I…hurt anyone else?"

"Besides Wes, no." Caroline assured him. "Everyone else is safe. The town leaders know what's going on and so does Stefan, Damon, Elena, Lexi and basically everyone else from both of our groups. They all just want you to get better."

"Get better, that's rich." Klaus scoffed sarcastically, feeling the fog start to come back in, but he grit his teeth and pushed it back away, shaking his head. He put a finger to his temple and breathed in deeply, the room silent with tension. "How um…how did this happen?"

"There was an open wound on your wrist." Caroline said. "Rebekah said that an Infected touched you there, so its Infected skin cells went directly into your bloodstream which is why the nose bleed happened much earlier than usual."

Klaus took deep breaths in and out, resting his forehead against the bars and trying to make his brain just think the way it was supposed to. It was an endless cycle of being angry for no good reason then realizing that it was ridiculous to be so angry and getting frustrated about it which just led to even more anger.

"And I can't…I can't leave here?" He finally asked softly, looking up at Caroline from under his eyelashes.

Caroline's mouth opened but no words came out. She closed it shut and looked up and away from him to blink away the tears she refused to let him see.

"Not…not yet." She said, trying to put on a positive tone. "But Wes is working on the cure, and he's getting closer every day."

"But you said he stopped the Infection." Klaus countered quickly with a pleading gaze. "If he stopped the Infection you don't have to lock me up like this."

"Klaus you're sick." Caroline said painfully. "You know I want nothing more than to be holding you in my arms, but we just can't until you're better."

"Caroline," He laughed bitterly, "Do you honestly think I could ever hurt you? Or my brothers or sisters or friends?"

"I don't think you would ever hurt me Klaus." She said quickly and honestly, stepping close to him but then stopping and eyeing the bars carefully, a flash of fear on her face that cut Klaus to the very core. "We don't think you would hurt any of us, we're just taking precautions." She added firmly.

"I'm not a monster." Klaus said quietly, eyes manic.

"Of course you're not a monster –"

"THEN WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME LIKE ONE?" He cut her off with a roar, a vein popping out in his forehead as he shoved against the bars with all of his might, his face getting redder by the second.

Caroline jumped away from the cell in terror as she watched Klaus transform into someone else entirely in a matter of seconds. Kol moved to step in front of Rebekah and block her from the sight of their brother and Elijah grabbed the handle of his cutlass fully and pulled Caroline back yet again.

"Niklaus!" Elijah boomed in his trademark authoritative voice, stepping up to Klaus just far enough away that his brother couldn't reach out and grab him. "Control yourself!"

Klaus stopped screaming and thrashing as he stared at his brother with his jaw clenched shut so tight it hurt. His face was twitching of its own accord and as he looked past Elijah and saw the other three people in the room that he knew he cared about with terrified expressions on their faces, he let out a shaky breath.

"Oh God." He said in a trembling voice, stumbling away from the bars and further back into the cell. "I'm Infected, I'm…I'm sorry I…"

"It's okay Nik." Rebekah said to him, stepping from behind Kol so he could see her fully. She looked healthier than she had in months yet something was still…off about his little sister that he couldn't quite put a finger on. "You're going to get better. I promise."

Klaus stared at her with wide eyes and gulped, not saying anything for a few moments.

"You need to leave." He addressed everyone in the room.

"We're not going anywhere." Kol said immediately. "You're our brother Nik, we're going to –"

"Leave!" Klaus interrupted his brother with a shout, silencing him. "I have absolutely no control over anything I say or do so just get out before I say every vile thing I'm thinking about all of you!"

Everyone was quiet, the air so thick it was stifling.

"Klaus." Caroline suddenly spoke, making him snap his gaze to hers.

Seeing the fear hidden behind her deep blue eyes almost broke him right then and there. In all the time they had been together, despite every awful thing he had told her about himself, she had never once looked at him with fear. And now he had become the thing he feared the most: capable of hurting her.

"Leave, Caroline." He whispered. "Leave before I hurt you."

"No, I won't –"

"Please!" He screamed, breathing heavily and on the verge of a complete and total panic attack. "Just leave." He added in a quieter, more defeated tone.

Nobody moved at first, but eventually Kol wrapped an arm around Rebekah's shoulders and pulled her away as she sniffled and tried to blink away tears to no avail. Elijah also encouraged Caroline to leave but made sure not to touch her out of fear that Klaus would scream at him again. Klaus and Caroline were still locked in an intense stare, neither of them knowing what words to say.

"Caroline." Elijah said softly. "We should do as Niklaus asks."

She gulped, taking in a deep shaky breath as she looked over her shoulder at him and nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be right out." She said. At Elijah's pointed look she added, "I'll be fine, he would never hurt me, Infection or not. Just give me a few minutes."

He sighed and gave Klaus one last look before nodding and stepping out of the room. As soon as it was shut behind him Caroline looked back to the man she loved with all of her heart.

Nothing was said for about a full minute.

"Are there others?" Klaus finally asked, looking up at her sadly. "Others like me?"

"Yes." She said quietly, crossing her arms at kicking at the floor aimlessly. "Two others. Enzo's girlfriend and Dr. Maxfield's son."

"Enzo?"

"The um, the guy that came out and led us into the lab." She clarified. "The British one. He tried to pull you off of Wes when you were, uh…"

"Oh." Klaus said cynically. "The one that called you 'love' how could I forget?"

"He's just a friend." Caroline said sternly, making Klaus give her a bitter laugh, the darker, more Infected side of him reemerging. "If even that, he's the one that brought us to Whitmore."

"Well I guess I should thank him then." Klaus remarked sarcastically, holding out his arms. "He helped reunite me with my girlfriend and then flirted with her too. Going above and beyond the call of duty, that one."

"Stop it." Caroline said quickly and firmly, making Klaus lower his arms slowly. She took a small step closer to him but was still a safe distance away from the bars. "I will not let you be beaten by this Infection." She said, more assertive than he had ever seen her. "I will not sit back and watch you be destroyed by the very cells in your body after I have survived hell and back a hundred times over to see you again." She took yet another step forward, getting close to the danger zone. "And I absolutely refuse to lose you ever again." She finally added, voice much softer.

Klaus stared at her in awe, the fog lifting and being replaced by the utter love and devotion she obviously held for him. He started to step towards her but then cringed at the thought of hurting her and forced himself to stay back.

"You're different." He finally said, making her cock her head at him in confusion. "You're…stronger."

She looked down and shook her head with a light laugh, and Klaus hoped and prayed that one day he would be given the privilege to hear her actual laugh again. The laugh where she throws her head back and her blonde waves tumble behind her and her eyes squint shut and she covers up her mouth as she starts to squeak, embarrassed at the sounds she makes even though he always thought were adorable.

This laugh though, it was a forced, weak, exhausted laugh.

"Stronger." Caroline repeated, turning the word over in her head. "I guess you could put it that way." She looked back up at him. "The past eight months has tested me in ways I never even imagined. I've been almost killed more times than I can count, and I don't even want to think about how many times I've been the one doing the killing." He visibly flinched at that mental image but she continued on. "The first month or so I was so completely dependent on everyone else to survive it was pathetic. Then I realized…I was like that even before The Outbreak. I constantly needed other people around me to reassure me, to convince me I wasn't doing anything wrong, to tell me I was a good person so I would believe it. But The Outbreak was good for one thing and one thing only and that was teaching me how to survive on my own."

Klaus looked down at his feet in shame, though he wasn't sure what for. It was almost as if Caroline was saying she didn't really need him at all.

"So I trained." Caroline continued. "I learned how to defend myself and take care of my friends so that I could survive for one reason and one reason only. And that reason…" She paused, "Was you."

It was completely silent as the two lovers looked at one another with more emotion than they had even given or received in their lives.

"And now that I have you back," Caroline continued with an unwavering voice, "I won't let you go. And neither will Elijah, or Rebekah, or Kol. It's your turn now."

She stepped forward without abandon then, leaning against the bars and making Klaus look away and step back in fear of what he might do to her no matter how bad he wanted to rush at her and kiss her senseless.

"It's your turn to learn how to survive." She continued resolutely. "To learn how to beat this. You're the strongest man I know Klaus. So you better act like it."

Klaus' jaw clenched tightly and his eyes glassed over as the fog started to crowd in around his view of Caroline. She wasn't the one going through this, how dare she tell him how to fight it? How dare she order him around like this the first time they've seen each other in months? The fog started to get denser and his hands balled up into fists, his jaw clenching.

"Because I love you." Caroline said as she saw him gradually losing control once again. His stature immediately softened, his hands loosening by his sides and his jaw unclenching. "And I need you to be okay. If you won't fight for yourself or for your siblings, then fight for me. Because The Outbreak has already proven that I can't live without you. I can survive, sure. But I can't truly live unless I have you by my side."

It was quiet once again and Caroline smiled at him weakly before taking a few steps back towards the door. Klaus immediately responded by taking matching steps forward, desperate for her to stay and keep the fog at bay.

"So right now your only job is to fight the Infection." She said as she walked backwards, never breaking eye contact with him. "And my job is going to be finding the cure. Because I love you." She emphasized those last three words and Klaus smiled so genuinely neither of them could believe it. "I love you, Klaus. No matter what. Just keep remembering that."

With that being said, she stepped out of the door and finally let the tears fall where he couldn't see them.

And Klaus managed to keep the fog at bay for about thirty seconds before it overcame him and he started screaming.

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A/N: Pretty long and painful chapter with some one-on-one Klaroline for you guys :) The next major plot point will be announced in the next chapter so that's super exciting. Please review! You guys are awesome! xoxo