A/N: Not totally sure where most of the events in this chapter came from… They weren't in my outline, and just kind of happened. This is entirely the characters' fault—I bear no blame for their spontaneous actions!

Saying Goodbye

Terry came over early the next morning and forged Caroline a new daylight ring in the dawn sunlight. Caroline had been hoping Bonnie would do it, but the Bennett witch was off the radar, spending all of her time with Shane, and not answering her phone. So, she thanked Terry—who was really a very nice lady, as far as witches went—and walked out onto the window balcony to test the spell. She didn't catch fire, and stood out in the freezing early February air for several minutes, watching her misty breath make abstract patterns in front of her face.

Afterwards, Terry and Meredith gave her a full check-up. She was still weak, but other than her left hand, she was basically in good shape. Meredith said that by the end of next week, at her current rate of healing, she'd be completely back to normal. Terry dealt with her hand, weaving spells, applying ointments, and changing her veritable glove of bandages.

"That hand was touched by powerful magic," the witch explained as she finished. "It may never fully heal or look the same. But you will regain nearly a full range of movement, and soon it will not be so fragile. As for other side effects, and appearance, I can't yet say." Caroline nodded, gently flexing her fingers as far as she could.

Meredith left, since there wasn't anything else she could do with her scientific knowledge, and Caroline took the opportunity to talk to Terry briefly about what she'd heard during her coma.

"What do you think it means?" she asked after she'd given the witch the highlights. Since she didn't know Terry very well, it was easier to talk about this sort of thing with her—like talking to a professional, instead of admitting something to an individual. "I mean, what kind of magic could've made that happen—could've let me come back just because I was determined too?" Terry was already shaking her head.

"I heard your friends and family talking to you when I'd come to work on spells," she said. "And no known power could've saved you from what happened. However, nature possesses so many mysterious forms of magic—the magic held by the earth, the magic that blows in the wind, or burns in the sun, and no witch living can ever learn about all of them. And by far, the greatest and most mysterious among these is love."

Caroline's head spun a little at that, and her stomach flipped. She hadn't expected to hear it said in such a bald-faced way. "Love…" That wasn't all, thought, was it? Stuff like that only happened in kids' books and romance movies; real life was never so simple. Terry left soon afterwards, and the young vampire settled back onto her bed, logging on to Netflix, and preparing for what she hoped would be a wonderfully lazy, drama-free day.

Of course, that was when Matt turned up, looking shifty and awkward. He asked how she was feeling, how it was living in Casa de Mikaelson, and told her about some craziness going down between the cheer squad and the football team. Then he got to the point.

"They're holding a memorial to Jeremy tomorrow," he explained, and Caroline dropped her eyes to her knees, a small lump forming in her throat. Stefan had mentioned that—along with the fact that Elena had burned down her house with Jeremy's body inside it, which was why there wouldn't be an actual funeral…

"When I called Tyler to let him know Jer died, he…"

"He wants to come," Caroline finished for him as he floundered.

"I told him it was suicide," Matt sighed, scratching at the back of his head, "but he and Jer were pretty good friends, and he thought maybe you could… I mean, I told him I'd ask, so…" Caroline sighed. Klaus was out that morning, luckily, so they could speak normally.

"Tyler wants me to convince Klaus to let him back into town and not remove his head," she summarized.

"He said he'll only be here for the day, if he comes," Matt said, nodding in agreement with what she'd already surmised. "He and the pack are living in some rustic, backwater town in Middle-of-Nowhere, USA. I guess they're pretty comfy there too, although still pretty concerned about Klaus turning up one day and slaughtering them all. He just wants to say goodbye, y'know?"

"Well," Caroline responded, a little grouchily, "you can tell him from me that I already know what the answer will be, but I'll ask. And tell him he's a dick for not calling me himself, will you?"

"I'll tell him," Matt agreed. Then he looked at his watch. "Well, I gotta go to work. Hope you feel better soon, Care." He hugged her, and then left.

It was a little irritating, Caroline reflected when she was left alone, that Tyler would make an effort to come to town for Jeremy's service, but not once during the month when she was on her deathbed. He'd known about it—Stefan said Matt had called and told him pretty soon after everything went down—but unless the guys were omitting some key details, he hadn't ever suggested coming to see her. Of course he couldn't have done anything for her, had he come, but he could do even less for Jeremy, who was actually dead. He could have at least tried to say goodbye to her…

Realizing that she was just frustrating herself by thinking like this, she resolutely opened her laptop back up and found some documentary that one of her teachers had recommended via Stefan. She also grabbed a spiral and a pen to take notes, fully intending to distract herself for a good two hours.

By the time she finished her movie, Klaus had returned home, and Hazel was knocking on her door, asking where she planned to eat lunch. She'd almost grown accustomed to living there, and it was weird to realize that, now that she had a daylight ring, she could actually move back home. But the prospect of packing up all of her accumulated stuff—which various well-meaning individuals had been moving over all month, in case she should ever want it when she awoke—seemed like way too large a task, considering how exhausted she was these days. As she walked down the stairs, a small, selfish voice in the back of her mind whispered that if she just didn't say anything, then the others, who had been living in these circumstances for over a month now, wouldn't say notice anything either, and she could keep on enjoying the servants and silk sheets and Alphonse's cooking, and…

Her stomach did a backflip, and she silenced the little selfish voice. But, it didn't really need to say anything. Because the minute Klaus opened his mouth, with that damn sexy accent, she knew there was another reason she liked living with him.

'Shut up,' she told the voice as she sat down and Hazel brought in a bag of B+.

'I didn't say anything,' the voice responded smugly.

"So, I have a favor to ask," she said after she'd had a drink. No point in putting it off.

"What do you need?" he asked, taking a sip of his own glass of blood as Hazel and Vera brought in the actual food.

"It's not for me, actually," she admitted, swirling the blood in her glass. "You know the school is having a service for Jeremy tomorrow?" He nodded.

"He and Tyler were pretty good friends," she finished in a bit of a rush, looking down at the table. Then she raised her eyes and met his. His face said he didn't like where this was going. "Tyler wants to come. And he was hoping I could convince you not to kill him."

"He can't seriously think that even you could get me to forgive him," Klaus scoffed with an irritable laugh. "I'm sorry, love, but I do draw the line somewhere."

"I didn't say anything about forgiveness," Caroline backpedaled. "Just a graveside truce—one day."

"The boy betrayed me, turned my hybrids against me, and tried to bury me alive," Klaus snapped. "I will kill him on sight. If I don't drag it out, that will be mercy."

"You killed him for a magical experiment, took his freedom away, and made him try to murder his loved ones, including me," Caroline shot back without missing a beat, and then took another sip of blood. "Pretty sure you're about even."

Klaus was about to respond to that, but his mind supplied relevant memories so strong that they took his breath away, and he had to take another deep draught of blood to hide his pause.

"Please!" Tyler was red-faced and teary-eyed. After that horrid game of chicken with Ripper Stefan trying to drive Elena off of Wickery Bridge, Klaus had completely forgotten about his order to Tyler that morning. But seeing the boy's face reminded him—he'd told him to bite his girlfriend, that tall blonde vampire girl he'd glimpsed from time to time. He'd wanted to hurt Stefan by Caroline's death, but now he needed to make up with him, or at least pretend too.

But, Tyler had crossed him too, when he'd initially refused his order. He wasn't just going to do it for him out of kindness of his heart.

"I love her," Tyler pleaded brokenly. "I can't believe I hurt her… I was supposed to be the one to keep her safe. All of the people she loves have tried to kill her, her father tortured her, her previous boyfriends betrayed her, used her, fed on her…" he was crying. "Please! I'll do anything! Just don't make me kill her."

A little curiosity took root in his mind. Caroline Forbes hadn't seemed like the sort of person with a lot of hardship in her life. Rebekah had described her as perky and cheerful. Whenever he saw her, she was made up, hair curled, surrounded by other empty-headed girls… 'Her father tortured her…" that one phrase echoed through his thoughts. That was something they had in common…

Well, he reasoned as he walked up the stairs to her room, he did need to make peace with Stefan. Under that pretense, it couldn't hurt anything to speak with her—just once; find out if deep down they were as similar as he was beginning to suspect. He turned the corner, and stood at the threshold of her bedroom.

"One day," he found himself saying. It was damn hard to hate him while he was thinking about her… Perhaps he was losing his edge. "At midnight, it's open season," he warned as Caroline's face broke into a smile. He needed to get the threat part out before her happy expression cooled his inner fire. "If I see so much as a finger belonging to another hybrid, or he tries anything remotely suspicious, he will die by inches." Caroline was nodding.

"I'm sure it won't be a problem," she responded immediately. "I'll let him know. Thank you," she said seriously, looking into his eyes. Something about her expression told him that there was something else she wasn't saying—something deeper behind the words. But she didn't elaborate, and looked away again a moment later, leaving him hanging. Again.

-0-

Elena didn't come to the service. Caroline was both surprised and not surprised at the same time; her friend's humanity was off, so she'd both be emotionally capable of attending, and also have no reason to do so. People spoke about Jeremy; his favorite art teacher, some of the people he'd worked with at the Grill, Bonnie—who had emerged from whatever rock she'd crawled under after the island—Matt… Tyler sat with Matt and Bonnie during the service, and Caroline sat a little further back, with Stefan. She felt awkward, being around Tyler, and frankly, a funeral wasn't an ideal place to bring up their relationship woes.

She felt bad for Damon; he and Jeremy had become… well, sort of friends while they'd been in Chicago together. But, he'd agreed that it would be healthiest for Elena not to come and be reminded of why she'd turned her feelings off in the first place, so he was off with her, doing god-only-knew what, probably involving drunk college students and blood orgies. At the end of the service, everyone lit candles, and she noticed Stefan lighting two—one for himself, and one for his brother. Bonnie had also lit one on Elena's behalf, although she seemed remarkably calm. So, Shane was probably still filling her head with craziness about bringing Jeremy back. Caroline sighed as they filed out of the school gym and into the cloudy February day. Just what she needed—more drama. Bonnie gave Matt a quick hug and then vanished immediately, confirming Caroline's suspicions.

"Hey, Care," Tyler greeted her. The air between them was tense. Stefan and Matt looked at each other, and then Stefan said something about getting back to make sure Elena was okay, and Matt said something about calling to get his work schedule, and just like that, the two of them were alone. Caroline scuffed the pavement with the toe of her shoe.

"Hey," she greeted him back. "What've you been up too lately?"

"Oh, you know," he hedged. "Getting settled, running for my life… thanks, by the way. Matt told me you got Klaus to let me back into town for the service—I really appreciate it."

"Yeah," she nodded. "Of course. He was your friend."

"So… I think I could cut the tension with a butter knife right about now," Tyler admitted. They both laughed. "Take a walk with me?" he asked, gesturing towards his family's old property, which began at the edge of the parking lot.

"Sure," she agreed. It was a good idea to talk about things, she thought, as he led the way into the familiar woods. Closure was always important.

A thin layer of frost covered the skeletal trees, making them gleam and shimmer when little rays of sunlight penetrated the cloud cover above. Beneath the two immortals' feet lay a coating of dead brown leaves, which made familiar crunching sounds under their tread. Tyler talked animatedly about the little town where he and the pack had settled—although he omitted the exact "where" part, for the safety of everyone involved. Apparently Kim had mellowed out a lot after her brush with Klaus-death. Wes had a human girlfriend already—Natalie—and was making himself right at home. No one had seen so much as an eyelash of Hayley.

"Yeah, I'd hope she would be smarter than to show her face," Caroline laughed, stepping around a tree branch. They'd headed for the old cellar, sort of out of habit, she assumed. "Apparently she was working for that creepy professor Shane the whole time." Tyler shook his head in disgust as they came within sight of the cellar entrance. His footsteps slowed down.

"So…" he began, and then plunged right in. "Everyone is grateful to you for saving them from Klaus, so Kim and the others won't try to hurt you again."

"Good," Caroline said, nodding.

"So, I want you to come with me when I leave," Tyler finished. Caroline blinked. That wasn't what she'd expected.

"The only reason I couldn't take you with before was that I wasn't sure it was safe, you know, with the others," he explained. "Hybrids against a vampire can't possibly end well. But things are different now. You were willing to do it before," he reminded her.

"I… I know I was," Caroline started, floundering. "By Tyler, I mean… That was a matter of life and death. Y'know, I'm still in high school—I have to graduate yet… I…" Words failed her, and she glanced down at her shoes. Tyler was making patterns in the leaves with the toe of his boot.

"But you're in danger here," he pushed. "All the time—this town is one big melting pot of the supernatural."

"Yeah," she agreed, "and a lot of those dangerous supernaturals are my friends, Tyler. I can't just pack up and leave them!"

"It's not like they're stuck in this town, Care," he continued, gesturing widely at the open space around him. "They're choosing to stay on a sinking ship—I'm asking you to let me get you out before things get worse and you get hurt!"

"What things?" Caroline asked quickly. "Do you know something?"

"I know that the crazy-ass immortal Silas is on the loose," Tyler admitted. "If a quarter of the legends I've been hearing about the guy are true, I don't want you anywhere near him!" Caroline was already shaking her head.

"I can't abandon everyone, Tyler," she insisted. "What about my mom, huh? I mean, yeah, I could look Elena and Stefan up a century from now and we can all go out and get drinks, and maybe Bonnie will to an aging spell or something, but my mom and Matt are as human as they come. I don't get second chances with them. I'm sorry." She knew he was just trying to keep her safe, but it was really starting to get under her skin that he'd walked off the face of the earth for a month without trying to contact her, and now all he wanted to do was convince her to elope with him, instead of having a rational discussion of the relationship problems that had got them here in the first place.

"So, you're staying for your mom and Matt," Tyler clarified, still digging around with his foot.

"Yeah, and the fact that this is my home," she snapped.

"And that's the only reason?" Tyler demanded quietly, looking up at her. Her eyes became steely.

"Yes, actually," she hissed. He bent over and grabbed a handful of leaves, started running them through his fingers and dropping them one by one. "Why? Are you implying that I would need another reason, besides my home and my family?"

His eyes met hers, and they were burning with suppressed rage. Her jaw was set, her gaze steady. She was determined not to go there with him. Even she didn't know how she felt about Klaus. All things being equal, she certainly wouldn't leave Tyler over him, but at the same time, he was slowly becoming someone important to her. Beyond that, she really, honestly didn't have a clue.

"I'm gonna kill him," Tyler announced softly, dropping the last of the leaves to the ground, and rolling a little piece of twig between his fingers.

"Great," Caroline sighed, not even bothering to waste time asking who he meant. "More genocide. First you ask me to elope with you, then you tell me you're going to kill my entire sire line, including myself. You're not making sense."

"I met a witch named Massak recently who wants Klaus dead as much as I do," Tyler explained. "He said if we could find an object with a little bit of magic similar to Klaus's own personal power, we could bond the sire line to the object instead. Then we could kill him with impunity."

"And what mystery object do you think you're going to find?" Caroline demanded skeptically. Then her eyes focused in on his hand.

He was holding a fang.

A vampire fang.

A vampire fang that had been knocked out by an elbow-strike to the mouth in this very spot over a month ago, one cold winter's night.

"Oh my god," she breathed.

"He told me where and how to find it," Tyler said quietly. "After the spell, we can encase it in concrete and put all kinds of protective magic on it. Everyone will be safe, he will be dead, and everything will go back to the way it's supposed to be. We can be together."

"And you used me to get into town to find it," Caroline whispered in horror.

"I couldn't call you and explain," Tyler protested. "He might have been listening! Matt says… Matt says you've been living at his house." The words were clearly a struggle. He looked up at her after a second.

"That's… complicated," she said lamely. This was all so messed up—she didn't know what to think. Tyler's face hardened.

"You don't want him dead," Tyler accused. Caroline looked down. It would be a lie to deny it, and he knew her too well to buy what she sold. Tyler laughed, and it was a short, bitter, heartbreaking laugh. "What had he done to you?" he snapped. "What's he given you, to get you on his side like this?"

"You think I'm being bribed? Or threatened?" Caroline snarled, offended. She took an aggressive step forward. "Maybe I'm tired of murder," she suggested.

"He kills people every day!" Tyler shouted. "The lunatic you're protecting is a monster, Caroline! He doesn't deserve to live!"

"You don't think I know that?" she shrieked. "I fought him too, remember? In this very spot! And let's not forget that he's tried to have me killed! I know what he's done, okay?"

"THEN WHY ARE YOU DEFENDING HIM?" he bellowed.

"I DON'T KNOW, OKAY?" she retorted furiously.

"You have feelings for him," Tyler stated flatly. "Don't you." Caroline swallowed. Why did everyone and their dog want to know that all of a sudden?

"I—" she started, but Tyler cut her off.

"Don't lie to me!" he snarled in her face, flashing close and grabbing her shoulders.

Caroline could only stand there, wide-eyed with fear, unable to speak. Tyler's eyes were deep, angry gold.

"I can't have you getting in my way," he breathed.

"What?" she whispered, but then his fangs were sinking into her neck. She screamed, more from shock than from actual pain. She bunched her arms to fling him off of her, but his hands locked around her head, there was a snap, and she knew no more.

-0-

"So," Massak commented as the hybrid boy climbed in the passenger seat of the car, face stoic, hands clenched. "Why did you feel the need to kill your girlfriend? I thought you wanted to make sure she was protected from Klaus." The islander witch had transformed himself impressively by cutting his hair, washing off the distinctive face-paint, and putting on ordinary 21st Century clothes, but he still had an air of wildness and ancient magic about him.

"That's exactly what I did," Tyler explained, voice quiet and tight. "I proved with certainty that she had nothing to do with the plan, and was an innocent victim. She'll wake back up after we've had a head start, and then Klaus will heal her from the venom. She's safer this way, until the spell is done and Klaus is dead."

Massak just shook his head as he put the car in gear and drove away. The strange things people came up with to defend the people they loved…

In the back seat, another man sat, cloaked from the hybrid's sight, smiling in Massak's rearview mirror. Such pitiful creatures walked the earth in this age… so easily manipulated. Of course, he would have preferred if the hybrid had actually killed the girl; according to what he'd seen in Bonnie's mind, she had a habit of preventing mass-death. But, it was deeply against Tyler's nature to harm her, and he didn't really want to expend too much effort on her. Bonnie's opinion was probably exaggerated.

Now all he had to do was ditch the hybrid, give the fang to Bonnie, and teach her how to channel a murder weapon using expression. She'd need a boost if she was going to kill twelve witches for him. He decided not to kill Tyler; he'd have had a hell of a time finding something so small himself, after all.

-0-

When Caroline awoke, the forest was as dark as fresh tar. She groaned and tried to stretch out the aches from lying at an awkward angle across a tree root, and then gasped in pain. Her neck was on fire.

Tyler… she realized with horror. He'd bitten her and left her for dead. But why? What could have upset him that much? Tears welled up in her eyes, both from physical pain and emotional agony. Well, that was one way to break up with a girl pretty definitively.

She wanted to curl up and sob, right there on the forest floor, but then she'd be dead by morning from the hybrid venom racing through her veins. For a minute, she even considered letting it kill her. Her best friends were a sociopath and a brainwashed psycho, and her boyfriend had just dumped her by trying to kill her. Despair was a cold feeling, and she shivered. Maybe it was just the bite messing with her nervous system.

The trees were squirming and writhing around her. Some of them stood up and moved, their roots like many-branched legs supporting the trunk's weight against the frozen ground. An owl flew overhead, smashing right into one of the moving trees and shattering into hundreds of feathers, which gathered into groups of two and flew away on their own. A tiny, sane part of her brain told Caroline that she was hallucinating, and she tried to breathe deeply to clear her mind, but the air stank of blood and ozone and truck exhaust. Was she lying on the highway?

"Caroline…"

She found herself laughing hysterically at the thought that she might be lying on the highway, pulling Damon's favorite trick.

"Caroline."

Damon emerged from the gloom, and stood over her, smiling toothily and offering her a hand. But she didn't really want to go kill people with him—she'd much rather hang out with Stefan. Although she couldn't kill people if she was with him… there was some reason why that was a problem, but she couldn't recall what.

"Caroline! Listen to me!"

An unfamiliar voice was calling her, and she covered her ears, moaning. It was too loud.

"If you can hear me, then you're on the edge of death. You have to call him," the voice insisted. "You have to call Niklaus, right now, and tell him what happened."

She didn't want to call Klaus, although she wasn't sure why. Maybe she felt guilty that she only ever talked to him when she needed something. Yeah, that was it. They should go out and get lunch some time, just to say they'd done it…

"If you die," the voice reminded her, "it will hurt him, terribly. Do you want to do that?"

Of course she didn't want to hurt him—he was the Big Bad Wolf and it was his job to hunt her, not the other way around. The world would turn upside down and shake everyone off into space if she hurt him.

"Caroline!" the voice screamed, and she felt pressure in her injured left hand, like someone was squeezing it with all of their strength.

The trees were still and silent, rooted to the ground, and although Caroline's mind was still blurry, she was able to dig her phone out of her pocket and find his number.

"Klaus?" she croaked as he answered. "Help… me…"

A/N: Oh dear… Klaus ain't gonna be happy with Tyler over this one. But it wasn't his fault, really. Again. Poor Tyler. I have nothing against you… Okay, no, that's a lie, Season Six you is really annoying me.

Klaus: You threw him to the wolves.

Beth: No, that's your job.

On another note, a discrepancy about Doppelgangers has been brought to my attention; thank you, Moka-girl, for bringing this up. How can more doppelgangers be born if Elena didn't have children before she turned? Great question, thanks for asking it!

In TVD lore, there are two different explanations for the existence of doppelgangers. The first, explained by Katherine when she was talking about the hybrid curse, was that the doppelgangers were created as a way to break the curse, because every spell must have a loophole. This would mean that Tatia was the progenitor of the doppelganger line.

However, the second explanation is that doppelgangers, male and female, are the killable versions of Silas and Amara that nature created in order to provide balance when those two became immortal. This would mean that Tatia herself was simply another doppelganger.

Since Stefan didn't father any children while human either, and yet Tom exists, and as far as we can tell, neither Silas nor Amara had any offspring themselves, and yet all of the doppelgangers exist, I'm inclined to think that the whole "doppelgangers go down in their ancestors' bloodlines" thing is simply a plot-hole. However, a more gracious explanation would be that Katherine was simply mistaken on a few points when she initially explained it. Since we know Stefan keeps up with his extended family (he lived with Zach, he visited with Zach's predecessors, he provided for Sarah etc…) if Tom was in his bloodline, he would have already known that he existed prior to Season 5.

As far as Red Queen is concerned, Doppelgangers are created by nature, typically in the same bloodline because it's simply the most natural way the DNA will go to create physically identical people. If the bloodline is made unavailable, life will still find a way, as it did back then, and the doppelgangers will be born into the next most similar bloodline.

Incidentally, in my head-canon when I started writing this, I had assumed that Nadia Petrova was married and had two sons before her husband was killed by a vampire, involving her suddenly and violently in the world of magic and mayhem. This event is what got her started asking questions she shouldn't have asked, and eventually led to her learning that she was adopted, and going to search for her birth mother, during which quest she was turned into a vampire, and then couldn't return to her own children for fear of harming them. They were raised by her husband's sister, and lived healthy human lives before dying of natural causes. But, back to the point, Elena is descended from the younger son, but the older son had a family as well, so technically speaking the next female doppelganger could be born from his bloodline—or if Isobel had a sibling, they could have had kids, or… you get the idea. But as long as Silas and Amara exist, every few hundred years, nature WILL create a balance, by any means necessary.