from a tumblr prompt by purestheartslove: "Caroline is Silas!"
NOTE: I struggle with not wanting to promote myself, but the alternative is not to thank others for taking the time to nominate me for awards, so...I've been nominated for the Klaroline awards in a few categories, one of which is best short drabble from the 'cover hog' piece in this drabble collection. There are a lot of categories and a lot of new talent to discover, so regardless, please check out the awards and vote for your faves, and thank you to those of you who gave me a shout-out. It's quite touching to know I've made some sort of impact.
Caroline can't seem to forget the feel of his hand on the small of her back, the way his broad palm cradled the curve in her spine. It's funny what you tend to focus on when there's already so much else you're trying to avoid. Like his words, shoved in the back of her mind, 'however long it takes', and the warmth of his breath before his lips touched her cheek. Like the unwelcome pinprick of tears she felt at this confession, at his promise.
The crunch of gravel brings Caroline back to the present, Stefan turning on the road that circles the lake, Silas' body thudding dully in the trunk. Caroline glances up as Lexi's voice turns soft from the passenger seat. She has one of those expressive faces - her eyes narrow in concern even as the tail of her words curls up in hopeful question, and Caroline zones out again, trying to give them space. She's glad that Stefan gets to have a last hurrah with Lexi before the veil lifts, but she saw something in his eyes shift when they heard Elena's impassioned speech to Damon earlier, and she isn't about to let him be alone tonight.
She glances down at her phone, thumb sliding in the unlock pattern unconsciously as she checks for a response from Tyler. She's already making plans in her head. They'll attend homecoming and chase each other through the straw stacks, he'll get a single and she'll sneak past the R.A. for hot hybrid college sex, she'll major in Drama and practice her lines as he ghosts a kiss on her cheek with those full lips and -
Damn it. She's not supposed to keep thinking about Klaus, so of course her brain ignores her, flashing again to the pressure of his hand against the small of her back, and she sucks in a breath that has Lexi turning in her seat. Caroline shakes her head, giving a small smile and Lexi arches a brow before turning her attention back to Stefan. Turning to look out the window, Caroling tries to tune out the conversation but Lexi is there one minute, gone the next, and Stefan is suddenly without his best friend again.
She really expected more fanfare when the veil lifted, to be honest.
She cuts Stefan's weary sigh off by crawling up front, knee catching on the gear shift for an awkward moment and earning a startled "Caroline!" from Stefan. She turns Miss Mystic Falls on full-force, words streaming a mile a minute in time with the road - the power of distraction - and feels gratified when a small smile flits across the stone of Stefan's expression as he pulls up to the cliff.
The truck's engine cuts off and the murky stillness of the June night descends, Stefan hauling Silas' body from the back of the SUV before Caroline is even out of the cab. It's from a distance then that she hears the rough clatter of stone, an exhale of surprised breath, a cracking noise that sounds way too much like a neck snapping for comfort. She whips around the truck, fangs descending to face the threat until she notices who's standing there.
"Elena, seriously? Don't you think you've tortured Stefan enough today?" Caroline can't see Stefan, but doesn't blame him for running off.
"What, and waste one more good chance to rub it in?" Elena kneels on the ground, picking up and tossing a chunk of plaster in her hands like a baseball. "That would be no fun."
Caroline's eyes widen. "Silas?"
"Ah, brains in a blonde. I've heard that's a strange thing. Need to get caught up on modern humor, of course. A few millenia in a dessicated state and all of a sudden Philemon isn't with the comedic times anymore. Shame."
"Look, I don't have the cure, so whatever you're looking for, you're not going to get it from me." Caroline stalls for time, inching back towards the car. Silas-as-Elena shifts her stance, lights up like a devil in the shine of the tail lights.
"Oh, I know how you worry about never being the one, but in this case - " Elena's form blurs and Caroline finds herself staring at her own face - "it's actually you I want."
Caroline looks unimpressed. "Cute, but my hair looks way better."
"I don't think you get it, so I'll explain for the children in the room. When I was trapped by Qetsiyah's spell, nature had to find a balance. That's you, my doppleganger." Silas moves too quickly for Caroline to react and she feels the shock before the pain spreads. "Hello my shadow self," Silas quips, dragging the coffer out of the back of the SUV and tossing Caroline's limp form in.
Caroline wills herself to heal faster but she's already trapped inside, the tumblers locking into place with finality before she can draw breath to move. She hears the skittering scrape of the metal over the rocky ground before her heart lurches and she's falling, falling, falling, body slamming against the floor and ribs cracking as the safe thwacks into the water.
New Orleans
Klaus closes his book, a collection of Greek comedies he had hoped would help slow the racing of his mind long enough to catch up with his own thoughts. He'd always expected his return to New Orleans to be triumphant; the son who had finally won his father's cruel race. Instead he's been tormented with that wolf girl, witches, and babies. He scoffs for the thousandth time tonight.
At least the city itself has welcomed him back with open arms, he thinks, half-drunk on blood steeped in the bottom of countless shot glasses. His mind retraces the curves of the intricate iron balustrades in the Quarter, the weathered wood of the French doors that splay open wide in the evenings welcoming the coolness of night. He pictures the tumble of ivy and the fat blooms of hibiscus and files them away as things to show Caroline when she's ready to accept his offer. Caroline, he stretches out her name in his mind, remembering the soft flutter of lashes, the smile that was more than just gratitude. He had meant what he said on that graduation stage, meant every word, and he had seen the promise of it reflected back in her eyes. If only the witches had known an ill-conceived voodoo child was no match for her.
He leans back against the bed's headrest and thinks of her scent, still fresh in his mind. He wonders if she thinks of him, and knows the answer deep within, for otherwise his words would never have escaped his hopeful heart.
He's told her they're the same, and he wonders when she'll realize he's right.
With her scent thick in his mind, he thinks of her laugh and those impossibly long legs beneath that graduation gown. He remembers that backless black dress she wore when distracting him at the Grill. He thinks of his ill-gotten kiss and how much he wants to repeat it, in his own body this time, and as his cock stirs against his leg he thinks to himself ahhh, much better than the Ancient Greeks.
"Just turn it off, " Damon says without sparing her a glance.
Caroline knows she's hallucinating, but she still feels her irritation flare at his almost bored tone. Wasn't it torture enough to die a hundred times today as the water soaked her lungs and her breath bubbled up in its last gasps?
"You won't care about the pain, won't drive yourself crazy with knowing you're out here and no one will even think to look." Damon continues, shading his eyes from the late-setting sun that colors this nightmare.
"Someone will find me," Caroline says. "Elena - or Bonnie, or Stefan; Matt, or Tyler. And if Silas stays in town, Tyler will know it's not me."
"You sure about that, Blondie?"
There's a long pause, filled with the weight of her insecurity, before Caroline answers in a small voice. "No."
Klaus only pays half a mind to Marcel's boasts, more focused on the growing sense of unease that started just after he returned from Mystic Falls. Darkness, he thinks, echoing darkness and cold dread. He couldn't tell you how he knows, but he's sure the feeling is connected to her and it's all he can do not to speed the 900-something miles back to that accursed town. He hears a question in Marcel's voice and has enough presence of mind to utter an idle reply that he just knows will dig under his once-protege's skin, choosing that moment to take his leave. He needs to focus more fully on the true problem at hand. Back at the Mikaelson's second home at the edges of the city, he pulls out his cell and taps her name.
"Why are you calling me?" Caroline asks.
"Caroline," Klaus breathes. There's an awkward pause as he holds back his question, something in him tensing in warning.
"Yep, that's me. So since you won't tell me why you're calling, how's tricks in New Orleans?"
"'Tricks', as you so eloquently put it, are fine, love. I wanted to see how you were doing post-graduation veil-lifting," Klaus says carefully. Something doesn't seem quite right.
"Oh you know, Stefan's brooding, Damon and Elena are off screwing like bunnies." She sounds distracted, and Klaus can make out the sound of a small crowd in the background. "Look, is there a point to this or are you just being creepy stalker Klaus per usual? Because I have things to do."
Klaus lets a note of hurt anger enter his voice, playing the part. "Fine, but you can't slide between the light and the dark forever, Caroline." He hangs up the phone before her response, not wanting to speak any longer to who he's quite certain isn't Caroline. And if it isn't Caroline, well there's just one supernatural being it could be. Which begs the question - if Silas is pretending to be Caroline, then where is the real one?
"Caroline."
Beneath it all she will never get tired of hearing him say her name. She stares at the painting in front of her, her eyes caught on the reflection of trees in the silvery water.
"Caroline," he repeats, tone colored with amusement.
"What is it, Klaus?" She welcomes the snap of anger for its absolution of her guilty thoughts. She clasps her hands in front of her, fingers sliding down her wrist when the slippery satin of the gloves makes it hard to catch a hold.
"Do you know when I first felt the stab in my chest of what you once so unerringly described as love?"
Caroline shakes her head slightly, rolling her eyes at his mannered speech, and one side of his face lifts up in a quick grin.
"I wondered at it, the feeling. Like reading a poet's words that thrum in your soul as some lost part of you shifts back into place, like hearing the Staatskapelle Dresden echoing Mozart off the walls of the concert hall; alike, but yet so…different." Klaus closes his eyes, hums softly for a moment - Caroline recognizes the tune with that sense of shock that comes from a lost childhood memory suddenly regained. Her father had played her this piece, once; a lazy Sunday drive with classical music a benediction soaring out the windows into the brisk fall air, and Caroline wonders how she could have ever forgotten that moment of peace.
Klaus opens his eyes, as if he knows she's distracted, and her gaze snaps back almost guiltily to meet his own.
"It is a feeling I kept from myself, through necessity, through the years of blood and hatred and my erstwhile father's dogged pursuit. It is not a feeling for you to lose. Stay with us, you have to stay with us. Stay with me."
Klaus' mood splits the air ahead of him like a ship's prow cleaving the sea, eyes flashing as he approaches the witch. Sophie, he thinks, the witch who dares entrap the hybrid with a baby of all things. He sneers and Sophie has the good grace to shudder at the wildness in his eyes.
"I need a spell to keep someone out of my mind. Do that, and I'll do as you ask."
Sophie scrunches her nose in confusion. "Witches don't really do much mind-control, Klaus. It's not natural to break a person's will."
Klaus stares at her dully and repeats in a snarl, "Give me the spell, and I'll make sure Marcel is removed as a threat, and Davina is returned to your coven."
"O-kaaay. Well, can you tell me more about what you need?" Sophie puts the bar between them and Klaus lets her keep the pretense of safety. He nods at her unspoken question and she pours a measure of scotch, sliding it across the smooth lacquer of the bar.
"I need a way to fool someone into thinking they can control my mind, when in actuality," Klaus raises his glass in a toast, "I'm still quite myself."
Sophie runs a rag along the bartop, deep in thought. "Hmm…like I said, messing with freedom of choice is against the natural order." Her eyes narrow at Klaus. "Just what kind of witch is this?"
Klaus clenches his jaw before making a great show of pretending to read an imaginary document he holds in the air like a royal decree. "Let me check the terms of our agreement. Oh see, there's nothing here about the need to explain myself. Funny that, since you seem to think the opposite." His eyes snap to hers. "I advise you to get to the point."
"OK, OK, so there's something we could try, kinda like the Harvest ritual actually, a way to pool things - in this case your thoughts - into a specific place in your mind. That way a piece of you could stay intact." Sophie snaps her fingers as an idea sparks. "And we can alter a secrecy spell, use sage in the ritual to hide that place so no one will even know it's there. "
Klaus measures her for a moment, ancient mind weighing her intentions, before giving a nod and downing the rest of his scotch. "We'll do the ritual tonight then," he announces, slamming the empty glass down and sauntering away confidently to the sound of Sophie's feeble protest.
Two hospitals now in the suburban Atlanta area are reporting blood thefts that have taken place under mysterious circumstances. The robberies both occurred during the transport of donated blood from blood drives to local blood banks, the drivers arriving at their destination with a truckload of suddenly empty blood bags. Atlanta's Police Chief, Richard Pennington, issued a statement earlier today and we have Tracy Flanagan on scene to report.
Thanks Russ. Police Chief Pennington's statement confirmed the crimes Atlantans are referring to as the "Vampire Robberies", and stated that while all leads are being pursued, there are currently no suspects. The chief was confident that a suspect would be identified soon, and asked for any witnesses to report via the Crime Stoppers hotline at 404-577-TIPS.
Liz tunes the rest of the news report out and glances at her daughter from the corner of her eye and stirring her coffee in an unconscious movement. "That's a little too close to home. Have you guys heard anything about a new vampire coven in the region?"
Silas stares back and lets out a drawling reply. "Nahh. Unless it affects Elena, I'm pretty sure no one will care."
Liz studies her daughter, eyes wandering across the planes of her face before catching and widening almost imperceptibly. Silas lets out a strangely pleased laugh, blond waves framing her face as she ducks her head with a grin. "Ahh so mother's intuition does count for something. Took you long enough to figure it out. Ah ah ah! Don't move." Silas wags a finger at Liz and the woman freezes with a hand halfway to her holster.
"Sorry about being so obvious with the whole blood stealing thing, but I've really been quite peckish, and I find myself impatient after 2000 years in the ground." Silas stands and starts arranging Liz's frozen limbs, settling on a pose with the sheriff's arms signaling a touchdown. "Better than a mass killing spree though, wouldn't you agree? That's all rather déclassé and personally, I'd like to set a better example. A villain with class and wit and," Silas smiles with Caroline's Miss Mystic Falls smile, frames her face with upturned palms, "beauty of course!
Anyways, I do ramble. It's pretty clear you know nothing about the cure, but it's equally crystal that the Salvatores do. So I need you to stay quiet about who I really am." Liz nods slowly in understanding as Silas heads to the door. "Oh! I almost forgot. I'm really craving snacks lately, so be sure to eat lots of iron-rich food. Toodles!"
Caroline jolts alive, a vampire reborn. The water is heavy in her lungs, the air is long gone from her breath, and she knows she has moments before the pain and suffocation set in. It's barely a conscious thought anymore, to go to that safe place in her mind, that place that takes her away from this harsh reality. Closing her eyes, she lets herself slip into the sweet relief.
"You know, you never told me your hopes and dreams, though I could venture to guess." The night has just fallen, and they sit across from each other on a familiar bench outside The Grill.
"Oh, so you think you have me pegged, do ya?" Caroline's voice is teasingly curious.
"Well, you've made it abundantly clear that you'll have the college experience, replete with mini fridge. Majoring in Drama, starring in the musicals, I'm sure, with that lovely voice of yours." He smiles at her and she blushes in pleased embarrassment. "But after? I think you'll travel the world, Caroline. I can see the wanderlust deep within emerging, I can see you starting to make itineraries with that analytic mind of yours."
"Oh don't get all cocky on me, Klaus. I've been interested in travel before you ever mentioned Rome, Paris or Tokyo."
"Good memory." Klaus smiles in triumph and Caroline internally facepalms, covering up her revelation with a question.
"So where would you travel, if you could go anywhere, no worries of vengeful witch covens or dopplegangers you've tormented," she asks, a bit of sullenness entering her tone. Even in dreams, Caroline's not going to let Klaus get away with everything.
He surprisingly doesn't take the bait, so focused on the question. The eyes that have been tracing her face now arrow to her own and she feels her undead pulse jump.
"Mont-Saint Michel. It's an abbey off the coast of Normandy, inaccessible until the tide lowers to reveal a path. I always think of the laborers, dragging stone across the causeway, fighting to beat the rising tide in the name of their God." Klaus pauses a moment, and there's something so fiercely wanting in his eyes that Caroline has to quell an instinct to raise a hand in comfort. "There is something there, in those that chose an austere life so completely cut off from the world until the water beckons. There is a magic in it that speaks of both simpler times and the truest devotion. Something in it calls to me," he finishes, face solemn.
Caroline lets his words stay for a moment, still caught up in the pictures they elicit. There is a moment of companionable silence before she lifts her head, brows knit together in thought. As she opens her mouth to ask the question that's just dawned, she starts to choke, water pouring out of her mouth in gouts, the sea come to reclaim its own once again.
"God, Damon, you're really a piece of work, aren't you? How'd you get everyone to ignore the fact that you've compelled two women to have sex with you?"
Damon hides his surprise with a slug of whiskey straight from the bottle. The Grill is dead tonight, just a few college kids playing pool in the corner, and Matt's way more inclined to break the rules when there aren't people around to witness. "I thought we'd been over this, Blondie. I'm sorry, and I'm not proud of what I did."
"Only because Elena isn't, but honestly, she didn't take much convincing to basically forget the whole thing. Anyways, this is just an outside observation. I mean look - I get the whole being in love thing - I've spent 2000 years of pining for my true love. I win!"
Shock freezes Damon the second it dawns on him that this is not Caroline, and Silas raises a hand in faux victory, slamming her palm on the smooth wood of the bar. "So yeah, I know what people will do for love. I'm thinking we should play a game. I'm not even going to control your mind - or am I?" Silas claps her hands together before spreading them, palms up.
"Here's what you're going to do. You're going to forget this conversation happened, but you're going to bring me back - Katherine, is it? You're going to let me drink Katherine dry, because if you don't, I'll take Elena with me to the Other Side when I return." Silas looks up to the ceiling in exaggerated thought. "Or maybe I'll just take her anyways - as vengeance for Caroline!" She gives a short bark of laughter. "Oh, who am I kidding, it would just be for fun and sport. I'd like to see someone else plot to save their truest love for a change." Silas shrugs delicate shoulders and rises, a bounce in her step as she heads out of The Grill.
Let it be said for Damon Salvatore, he wore nonchalance like a second skin even in the face of panic. Rising with only the slightest shake in his hands, he palms his phone and calls Jeremy.
Klaus probes at his own mind as if carefully prodding a toothache. He can feel the walls separating his mind from the tiny space where his true self is wound tight, the thoughts snarled around each other in a dark knot. It is a bizarre feeling, this separation, but he is glad he can feel it nonetheless, for it is tangible proof that the witch's spell has worked and he has a chance of defeating Silas' mind games.
Sophie has also cast a locator spell using the bracelet Klaus gave over with a small smile of remembrance, and it is that trail Klaus follows now, glancing at his phone as the miles fall away. The coordinates are as precise as he could get, Klaus having pushed the witch until she passed out, nose bloodied and burst capillaries tinting her left eye crimson. Elijah had pulled him back from the edge then with a hand on the shoulder and a whispered promise, "we'll find her," and Klaus had railed at the compassion he saw in his brother's gaze, for it was far too close to pity.
So he drives alone, and as the 'Welcome to Mystic Falls' sign brightens in the shine of his headlights he pushes his thoughts and his plans into that tiny space in his mind - separate, protected.
"How can you be so sure?" she asks, not meeting his eyes. The air is thick with the lemony smell of late-blossoming magnolias, and they're sitting on a bench…again. Perhaps that's their thing.
He tips her chin up to meet his eyes - he's not going to let her avoid these words. "I've lived a thousand years, Caroline." She waits for more, but it is his stare that continues to say everything she needs to know.
And it is this that she focuses on as the choked spasms herald her death once again, and she finds herself distracted by a new pain, a wanting ache in her heart.
The safe scrapes on the shale of the quarry lake's bottom. It had taken Klaus a few hours to find her, the sediment-muddied water making it difficult to spot Caroline's underwater tomb, but at last he's found it just as the sun's rays pierce the veil of the morning. He laughs at his thoughts' poetic license - how appropriate - pushing the safe up to the shore and pulling away fronds of aquatic ferns that have wrapped themselves around the safe. Staring at the box for a moment, he has half a mind to stab a rock through the safe's wall, but his worry for Caroline's safety has him planting an ear to the wet metal instead. He listens as the tumblers click into place and then the door opens and he takes her into his arms as she stirs, weakly choking on water still trapped in lungs, arms flailing about in panic.
Something in him breaks and he combs her hair back from her face, whispering fiercely. "Shhh shhh shhh, It's ok, it's ok, it's me. It's ok, you're safe."
He feels her calm for a moment in his arms before a spasm wracks her body, wrenching her out of his grip. She drops to her knees, water burning her ravaged throat as she retches. It's several long minutes before the tremors cease and he kneels down next to her, biting into a wrist and offering it up. She looks up at him, disoriented, and he can see the question form at her lips, quelling it with a shake of his head.
"I'll explain later. For now you need your strength. Drink from me, Caroline."
She must truly be weak, for she sinks her fangs into his wrist without further protest, the slow suction giving way to a deep pull that has an inappropriate groan catching in the back of his throat. She pulls away delicately, a forgotten hand still gripping his wrist as realization flashes across her features.
"Oh my god my mom, is she ok? What about Bonnie and Elena and Stefan and Matt and oh my god how long was I trapped and Silas she's me and - "
"Silas is after the cure in Katherine, not your friends. If they refrain from doing something stupid, they'll be fine. Which, well, come to think of it, you should fear for their lives." Klaus smiles at Caroline's affronted noise. "I came straight to you. I'll check on your mother soon, but for now we need to get you someplace safe."
Caroline sneezes as soon as they get inside. The mansion is musty with disuse and the furniture looms in its dusty white sheets like a crowd of old-fashioned ghosts. She looks up to stare at the familiar curve of the double stairway.
"God, I think the last time I was in here was for the ball your psycho mother held."
He glances at her with an unreadable expression then turns back, motioning them towards the living room with a cock of his head. His voice drifts back to her. "I remember it well, Caroline."
He hands her a glass of scotch the moment she sits down on the leather sofa. "So a few things, and I need you to not fight with me on this, Caroline." He raises a hand to stop her protest. "Please." She nods more out of surprise at the word please coming from Klaus Mikaelson's lips than anything else, but her mind is a whirl of feelings right now regardless. She's trying to reconcile this Klaus with the one that kept her sane while she died a hundred deaths. She's not finding many differences.
"Wait - what's the date? How long have I been out?"
"Assuming Silas put you in the safe the same night I left, it's been six days," Klaus answers.
Caroline nods her head absently, then gives a brief shudder. Klaus flashes in front her instantly, face concerned. "What is it?"
"I just…it's going to be a long time before I can go near the water again. Which sucks because I just bought the cutest bathing suit ever." She looks up at Klaus who grins at her before moving back to the doorway. "Oh. We were gonna check on my mom and my friends, right? Let's go." She starts to push herself off the couch, feeling the weakness in her movements.
"No, Caroline. We can't let Silas know you're alive. I'm enspelled so that Silas can't see inside my mind, but the jig is up as soon as he sees you out of that safe. You have to trust me. I will not let Silas harm your family or friends." His tone isn't pleading, simply matter of fact, and Caroline finds that she does trust him. And she always has, she realizes.
When he returns, Caroline's curled up in an armchair, reading. He sees evidence of her activities; the curtains ruffling in the afternoon breeze, a few empty blood bags sitting on top of the cooler he had dragged in earlier.
"Your friends are safe, although Bonnie is not in Mystic Falls. Your mom…is not in grave danger."
"Why did you pause? What's wrong with my mom?" Caroline's poised to rise, hands planted on the chair.
"Silas is living with her in the guise of being you. I'm not sure if she's under his control, but it would be safe to assume that's the case."
Caroline processes his words, and her eyes skitter away from his when she asks the next question. "So Elena didn't seem worried? And where is Bonnie? Did you check on Stefan and Matt too?"
"They had no way of knowing you were trapped in the quarry, Caroline. Silas has them all fooled."
She relaxes at this, and her eyes swing to his. "But how did you know?"
Klaus takes a moment to answer, idly tracing the condensation on his scotch glass as he considers. "There was a weight in the air, like something precious was lost. And I could think of -" he pauses, turns away. "All I could think of was you, and this sense of danger that dragged at my limbs."
Caroline stares a moment before nodding sharply as if making a decision. "So how do we do this, then?" She makes a disparaging noise. "Or rather how do you defeat Silas by yourself while I sit here and read -" She flips the book in her lap over - "Philemon's Androphanos? Seriously, no wonder you guys left this book behind. It's horrible."
Klaus' smile turns strangely wicked at her mention of Greek comedies and she puts the book back down, face flushing. "What?"
"Oh nothing, just a particularly good memory. But as for the plan, you will very much play a part. We have to wait until Silas drinks the cure from Katherine before killing her. Your appearance will serve as the perfect distraction to give me a chance to kill Silas' then-mortal form. Although…" He pauses, glancing up at her in concern. "Are you ok with that role, Caroline? I don't want to presume."
Her heart lurches in its confines and she smiles at him, a smile so soft that Klaus finds himself itching to capture it in graphite. "Of course, I want to help. I kinda helped bring Silas to life, what with the twelve dead witches and all."
They're doing so well that Klaus hurries to speak, not wanting her mind to linger on that night and remember his cutting words in the woods. "Yes, well, the one problem is Katherine. Having chased her for close to five hundred years, I know how cunning she can be."
Caroline slugs back a measure of scotch, refilling her glass and lifting the bottle in a question to Klaus. He nods and she reaches over, pouring. "Yeah, well she's human this time. And I bet you anything she went straight to Damon and Stefan to try and sweet talk them into helping her."
Klaus makes a connection, eyes flashing. "I think you're right, Caroline. Elena was on the phone with Jeremy when I checked in, saying something about an old campground."
"Oh right, I went camping with the Gilberts once. Once was enough, give me a hotel room any day. But yeah, I know exactly where it is. Shall we lead Silas to it?"
Jeremy lies crumpled at the bottom of the hill, his leg bent at an unnatural angle, and Caroline winces in sympathy before moving on through the woods. She can hear his heart beating strong and knows he'll be ok, and right now time is truly of the essence.
A high shriek - Katherine's voice if she's not mistaken - cuts through the stillness of the woods and Caroline follows it, crashing through the brush, uncaring of the noise. They only had one chance at surprising Silas. She's close enough now to smell the blood, rich and thick and mingling with the smell of damp earth. She slows her movements, wanting to be sure that Silas consumes the cure before she surprises him.
In a few minutes, she comes across a fire ring smoldering, a thin wisp of smoke rising from the embers, and Caroline turns to a small cabin where the scent of blood is the strongest. She takes a deep breath, eyes searching for Klaus. He is nowhere to be seen, but she knows he's there, the consummate predator poised to strike. She opens the cabin door and Silas is on the floor, Katherine pooled in his lap, head lolling to the side. It's so strange to see Katherine in such a vulnerable position that Caroline almost gives up the element of surprise in her own distraction.
"Hello, my shadow self," Caroline says, watching as Silas' head whips up, flesh tearing away from Katherine's neck with the swiftness of the move. "Wow, you're certainly not a neat eater. Surprised to see me?" She's terrified that she's come in too early, that Silas may still harbor his extraordinary powers of mind control, and she braces herself. But the veins underneath her mirrored face fade to porcelain, and the fangs recede to human teeth once again.
But Silas is still a witch, and the ringing pain that blossoms in Caroline's head is proof. "So who got you out of that safe, hmm?" Silas circles her doppleganger, eyeing her slowly up and down. "I would think it Bonnie, were she not dead." At Caroline's shocked gasp, Silas laughs, "Oh you didn't know, that's right. I forgot to rub that in when I locked you in the safe. Which was clearly a missed opportunity." Silas holds one hand up. "Duly noted."
Caroline tries to think through the numbing pain. Klaus was certainly taking his time. "What do you plan on accomplishing, Silas?"
"I have a simple plan if you idiots would just stop getting in the way. I will reunite with my love, feed her the cure that now runs in my veins, and kill us both in a beautifully tragic double suicide. Like Romeo and Juliet, but with less misunderstanding and more gayness."
"But why kill everyone, why torture my mom?"
Silas shrugs, and Caroline rages internally, strangely focused on the fact that Silas was wearing her favorite patterned blouse. She'll have to burn it in effigy once all this is done. Caroline is on her knees now, wailing with hands pressed to her temples, the pain worse than any she's experienced. She wonders if her brain will melt, or explode, or implode, then suddenly it's gone as quickly as it appeared and Klaus stands with a heart pulsing in his fist, Silas spinning away from his grasp in a macabre dance before falling dead to the ground.
It's over. It's over and her mother is safe and she wonders at Bonnie's fate and her chest rises and falls with the weight of this moment where she's worked with a hybrid she once spurned with such righteous fury. His eyes flicker with something unnameable, as if he sees her conflict, and he turns to go, stopping only when she calls out to him.
"Klaus -" He turns to her and waits, and her voice holds a tremor when she speaks again, but she is head cheerleader, she is Miss Mystic Falls, she is Caroline Forbes and she will not shy away from the truth that's been staring at her in the face since she was left for dead in the bottom of a quarry bed.
"I dreamed of you, you know. In the lake, I almost turned my humanity off, but every time I thought to let go of the pain you were there, telling me not to. Not Elena, not Stefan, not Bonnie, not Tyler. You." She rises from the floor and stands in front of him, cups his face with a shaking hand. He stands completely still, banked movement held under tension, and watches as she draws close. Her lips are inches away when she pauses and a frisson of fear shoots through him, as if she's about to turn away with a sour word and a cutting glare.
But she doesn't. Her thumb swipes across his full lower lip and her eyes stare into his own.
"You," she says again, wonderingly, and then her head tilts and his mouth opens in a sigh to meet her own.