And to fruition
She's so nervous that she can barely breath, which obviously isn't a problem right now, but - she glances at the darkening sky - will hopefully be an issue before the night is out.
She's spent the last couple of days terrified that she'd pop out of existence only to re-emerge and realize she'd missed it: Missed the new-moon and along with it Bonnie's spell and the fall of the veil and her one chance to get out of this tedious hell.
She's been concentrating on Klaus, clinging with all her might to him. To how she hates him and fancies him and just how much she want's to thank him for all of this. She's certain he's doing the same for her, trying to hold her close by force of will, trying to blot out Mikael. All in all it's been working, she's been pretty much constantly at his side, not withstanding a brief spell at Tyler's when she'd dropped her focus, or Klaus had.
She'd been in such a panic, so unfairly angry with her boyfriend when she'd materialized in his bathroom. Seeing him in the shower his broad tan back slick with water and suds had made her growl in annoyance. "Shit" she'd shouted loudly and turned away. Whatever Tyler wanted with her in the shower, and she's not speculating at the moment because she can't decided if jerking off over your dead girlfriend is romantic or creepy, was really not important.
"Shit shit shit" she'd hissed and run her hands through her hair. Klaus, she'd thought, think about Klaus. She'd conjured images of him, all the sweet things she'd seen of him with his family, all the fierce loyalty she'd watched since she died, all the things she could like about him if there wasn't just so much to hate.
His sleeping face comes to her mind, she'd watched him for hours that night after he'd confessed his fear to his brother and she can't say that something hadn't shaken a little loose in her heart. With a rush she'd been back with him and she hasn't let him go since.
"Bonnie," the hybrid greets as they emerge into a clearing in the centre of the expression triangle, where Bonnie lays out a circle in salt.
"Klaus" Bonnie replies without looking up. "Everything ready?"
"Yes. Silas?"
"Not here yet"
"Well that's a little slack I must say," Klaus gripes. "You'd think after waiting a couple of millennia he'd be a bit more bloody keen"
Bonnie doesn't acknowledge the original as she retrieves a parchment from her bag and lays it alongside a small collection of creepy magical paraphernalia laid out on the earth.
Silas enters the clearing a few moments later and Klaus turns to him with elaborate bon hommie. "Silas" he greets almost jovially. "Nice face, I've always had a soft spot for the young Salvatore. Perhaps before we finally shuffle you off this mortal coil we'll get a glimpse of your real one."
Silas grins Stephan's broad rueful grin and she feels like she's in on a private joke with him when he says. "Perhaps."
"We're ready," Bonnie interjects, her dark shaky tone contrasting starkly with the affectations of the two immortals, each determined to show the other an un-troubled façade. "Lets get on with this"
"Excellent." Silas turns to Klaus. "The cure"
The hybrid pulls he small vial from his jacket and holds it out, snatching it away just before Silas can take it. "Double cross me Silas," he growls all fake good will evaporated. "And I will find a way to make you pay"
"Don't worry, you'll see your precious Caroline again very soon" Silas answers and holds his hand out for the cure. "I swear"
Klaus lays the vial in Silas' hand. The immortal takes it reverently and kneels besides Bonnie and, as the witch begins to chant, takes a dagger and cuts his own hand so his blood falls thick and scarlet into the flat pottery bowl.
"I bloody hate witches," Klaus grumbles to himself drawing Silas' irritated gaze. "No offence" Klaus smirks and while he distracts the immortal Bonnie quickly pours the contents of her own small vial into the bowl.
A few more minutes of chanting and she feels Bonnie's power and the tainted power of the expression triangle begin to shake the walls of the otherside. Feeling begins to return in flashes so intense she can barely breathe the few gulps of air she can snatch each time.
"Klaus" she calls when she feels the cool night air hit her skin again and he looks straight at her.
"Caroline"
The world falls away again and she sees his eyes grow wide with panic and his voice rises. "Caroline" he shouts, "Caroline"
Another second and she's back again, the world feels cold and harsh and exhilarating compared with the otherside and she laughs wildly. "Klaus, oh my God"
He grins and moves towards her just as the veil starts strobing her in and out of existence making her feel nauseous. And then she feels it, in every flash in which the veil holds, she feels the familiar tugging in her chest. "No" she screams and Klaus tries to reach for her just as she vanishes.
Elena is on her knees sobbing with Stefan and Damon looking on helplessly when she materializes into a rapidly solidifying reality. "Oh god" Elena cries. "Caroline died, she died and I didn't even care."
She feels for her friend, she truly does but she can't help the curse that comes out of her mouth at the timing of this outpouring of regret. "Shit"
They all turn to look at her, mouths dropping open in shock. "Caroline?" Stefan asks with wonder and disbelief in his voice and she smiles briefly before she turns and vamps away as fast as she can.
In the forest she hears Klaus calling for her and heads towards the sound. In the distance she can hear Damon and Stefan shouting her name too but they don't matter, only Klaus and the salvation he represents matters.
"Klaus," she cries in relief when they come face to face. "Thank god!"
He takes a step towards her but then he stops and blood bubbles from his lips behind him Finn Mikaelson reaches a murderous hand into his brother's back to wrap around his heart.
"No" she cries.
"I'm sorry brother," Finn says with little regret.
"Finn," Klaus chokes.
"You won't be saving me today Niklaus, nor that miscreant; Kol. For once your intentions may be benign but if we trap you three here then all your evil ends tonight."
His grip tightens on Klaus' heart and they fall together to their knees Klaus eyes, filled with pain and anguish, find hers and she's suddenly snapped from her immobility. She vamp speeds past the pair and as she spins her hands take hold of either side of Finns head snapping his neck in a lightening fast move.
Klaus topples to the ground at here feet and she squats down to try and right him. "Come one Klaus," she barks. "Get up we gotta go"
"Run Caroline" he groans and drops on to all fours coughing roughly.
She curses under her breath at the gaping hole in his back, it looks sickeningly like Finn had the hybrid's heart halfway out of his body before she stopped him. The veil could come back up at any minute and they're not going to make it with him like this. "Klaus" she turns him to face her and proffers her wrist. "Quickly take my blood we really have to move"
"No Caroline," he turns his head away. "Just run. Rebekah can-"
"No! God I'm not leaving you." She growls. "Just drink already"
He shakes his head stubbornly. "I'm poison Caroline"
All of the anger wooshes from her body and that self-loathing utterance and she tips her head and moves so she can catch his eye. "Yes" she says softly and lifts his wrist to her lips allowing her fangs to show. "And you're the cure"
Her fangs gentle pierce the skin and his ancient blood spills over her tongue tasting like power and magic and eons of history. A second later she feels his fangs break through her veins and her blood passes her own magic back to him as they form a circle of poison and healing.
She breaks away before he does, she needs him strong to get them both out of here and when he looks up from her wrist into her eyes his are filled with bewildered gratitude. "Thank you" he murmurs.
"Niklaus," she rears away from the connection of their eyes as his darken at the sneering interruption. "I can't say I'm surprised to find the bastard groveling at the feet of a woman"
She stands as she turns and, gathering all her courage, hisses. "Leave us alone"
"She speaks for you Niklaus." Mikael sneers, hate rolling off him like a putrid breeze. "Will she fight your battles too boy?"
"Enough, father!" Klaus stands and comes to position himself slightly in front of her, his body placed protectively between her and his father. "Run Caroline, I'll kill the old fool again". His words are all bravado, she feels his fear like that of a cornered beast before her, lashing out with snarls and gnashing teeth, longing to flee.
"Pathetic," Mikael's voice is taunting and malicious. "How you fawn over this girl, a mere child who loathes you for the filth you are"
Klaus' eyes flash almost imperceptibly to the floor at his father's abuse and she feels a surge of something protective. "I'm not leaving you," she insists.
"She is brave Niklaus, perhaps if you had half her courage you'd stand a chance against me," Klaus growls but the elder original ignores it and continues to taunt him. "But you're weak Niklaus, you've always been weak. For women, for your precious siblings. Weak for those who know better than to love a cur like you"
She feels Klaus almost physically stutter at the verbal assault his body vibrates half with anger and half with something older, something frightened and small. She can't fight Mikael but he can, or at least he could if he can shake off that debilitating fear.
An idea strikes her and she steps forward so her shoulder is next to his. "Well as touching as this family reunion is we're going to be going now. Enjoy the rest of eternity rotting here"
"Very brave or very foolish" Mikael snarls.
She shrugs. "Neither, just confident." Mikael looks momentarily confused. "Its easy to be brave when the most powerful creature on the planet has your back." She states and feels Klaus straighten fractionally beside her. Hhe needs this, she thinks, needs someone to stand up for him against his father, someone to remind him of what Mikael's mere presence seems to have made him forget. That he is the one with the power.
"The bastard?" Mikael laughs cruelly. "He's nothing but a sniveling beast that deserves to be put down"
"Your wrong" she insists forcing herself to be calm, to project complete conviction. "He's going to beat you Mikael. Because he's fighting for something other than hate. He's literally moving heaven and earth for me and for his brothers. He's not just stronger than you Mikael" she pauses and lifts her head haughtily. "He's better than you"
Mikael's face contorts with anger and he launches himself straight at her giving her a second to regret being so impulsive as he raises a stake. And then he's flying away from her and Klaus glances at her with burning yellow eyes before hurling himself unarmed at his father, fangs bared and a savage growl in his throat.
The fight is a blur of vampire speed and wolf savagery, Klaus wraps himself around the larger man and tears at his throat with his fangs. Werewolf venom, and boy she remembers how toxic it is, immediately working to weaken the vampire. Mikael thrusts his stake through Klaus' chest but it isn't white oak and Klaus merely grins as he pulls it out and hurls it at his father penetrating his shoulder and spinning him round.
Eventually Klaus uses his speed against the weakening vampire and gets behind his father snapping his neck with a satisfying crunch. Klaus stands over the lifeless body looking shaken and slightly bewildered, as though he isn't' clear on how he got there.
"Klaus," she grabs his hand and starts running them full vamp speed back to the clearing, and Bonnie, and the salt circle that's their ticket home.
From inside its safety she can survey the scene. Esther lies on the ground with her throat ruined and scarlet, around her witches that she recognises as the coven Silas sacrificed lie with their heads and limbs at odd angles.
Silas is lying on the ground at Bonnie's feet a few meters outside the circle bleeding out his brief mortal life while her friend watches him with ice-cold eyes.
Beside her Rebekah holds a disorientated looking Jeremy tight against her body and Kol and Elijah clasp each other's forearms. They're all bloodied and battered and she realises that she and Klaus actually got off lightly.
Silas dies and the veil begins to whirl around them in violent gusts, like a spinning tornado trying to lift them away. Klaus grabs her other hand so they're facing each other as Bonnie cries out in agony and the otherside anchors itself to her. She screams too, and so does Jeremy and Kol grunts in pain as the wild swirling of the otherside becomes more and more violent. She feels like she's being torn in two, Klaus on one side and all the magic of the otherside on the other.
"Hold on" she hears the hybrid shout over the rushing wind. "Hold them"
His grip tightens on her hands even as she feels hers on him weaken. "Please" she screams. Please don't let go, she thinks.
He doesn't and after what feels like hours but is probably less than a minute the rushing wind and the agonising pain subside.
Silence falls on the woods like a crisp billowing sheet falling gently over a bed and they all stand and look at one another, eventually it's Kol that shatter's the crystal calm. "We're back darlings" he says with a grin and just like that it's real.
It's suddenly wonderfully real and laughter bubbles like joy out of her throat as she watches Bonnie throw herself into Jeremy's arms and he buries his face in her hair and they breathe each other in in joyful desperate gasps.
"Kol!" Rebekah grabs her brother and Elijah too pulling the three of them into an awkward embrace.
The whole strange scene, the chill air on her skin, and the hot hands clasped in her own, all this wonderful, living, sensation makes her giddy. She turns back to Klaus to find him watching his siblings and breathing hard.
"We did it," Rebekah gushes excitedly and Klaus grins at his sister and turns back to face her, expression immediately turning soft and serious.
"You did it" she echoes in a whisper, her voice surprising her with its hoarseness, and throws herself without reserve into the connection of their eyes so that they're just standing there looking at each other then he grins and her face splits in response.
Suddenly she's struck by the urge to throw herself exuberantly into his arms, her muscles coil in readiness just as Stefan's anxious shout hits her ears. "Caroline?"
She stops like she's hit a brick wall.
"Care?" Elena's voice echoes Stefan. "Care are you there?"
She gives him an awkward rueful smile that he returns as she steps away feeling like a bitch for needing to put distance between them before her friends get there.
"Care," Elena bursts into view. "Oh my god Jeremy?"
Then suddenly arms are around her, strong and as familiar as the smell of his gaudy cologne. "Oh God Care, oh my god is this real?" Tyler's voice is cracking with emotion and she can tell without seeing his face that he's crying and then she's crying too and she clings to him with all her returning strength and looks over his shoulder to find Klaus gone. The originals have melted away like ghosts in the night and she's left holding her boyfriend and staring out into the darkness with a thank you lost behind her lips.
They all go to the boarding house, it's a blur, everyone is shocked and overjoyed but kinda crazy too and the questions are coming thick and fast, making her head spin and her mouth dry.
Liz comes and her mother's arms around her are the best thing she's ever felt. "It's ok Mom," she says firmly because Liz just can't stop crying. "I'm back and I'm ok, I promise"
"How?" her mother asks and its time for the explanations she's dreading.
Bonnie tells the story, spins it so that the originals were all about Kol and Finn and that she herself bargained for Caroline and Jeremy. She's grateful to Bonnie but a creeping sense of disloyalty accompanies the witch's account, because she didn't thank him.
He saved her, she can touch and feel and be bombarded by this world because he took a chance, he risked literally everything to save her and she didn't thank him. She didn't wrap her arms around him and cling to him and thank you thank you thank you.
Her friends' voices jar inside her head, the warmth of the fire scorches painfully against her skin. Being alive again is a sort of torture, painful and giddy and wonderful and she didn't thank him, can't even speak up for him now and say. "He saved me", how weak she feels.
"Bonnie working with Klaus was something to watch. They bickered constantly," Jeremy says, his name drawing her out of the rising shrillness of her own thoughts. "It was like kindergarten"
"Hey," Bonnie punches him playfully, they're all wired and manic and exhilarated right now. "That is the crack team that brought you both back from the dead so don't criticise"
Jeremy throws his arm around Bonnie and it's incredibly to see her friend look so happy after all the pain she's been through.
Beside Elena, who is leaning against his side and smiling, actually smiling, Damon snorts and raises his glass sardonically. "Team Bonnie and Klaus then" he toasts making everyone giggle.
She laughs too and lifts her glass with a grin. "Bonnie and Klaus," she echoes brightly glad to say his name, credit where it's due she thinks and Klaus should be getting all the credit for this. She feels Tyler tense beside her at the sound of the hybrids name and keeps her eyes off him as the conversation moves on.
Before midnight fatigue settles on her like a heavy blanket and she yawns noisily. "Tired?" Tyler asks and she nods.
"Surprisingly yes considering I've done nothing for weeks." She glances between him and her mother, "Ty," she says softly. "Do you mind if I just go home with my mom tonight"
Tyler looks surprised and a bit hurt but he nods understandingly. "Of course not babe."
"Thanks," she kisses him gratefully, pours all her love for him into it. "I love you"
"I love you too"
"Breakfast tomorrow?" she offers with a sweet smile. "Your place, first thing?"
He smiles back. "Definitely and I promise it will be epic"
"Oooh pancakes?"
"The works" he assures her.
Her mother makes her coco and sits on her bed just like when she was a little girl. They've both stopped crying but Liz's eyes are still wet when she takes the empty cup and kisses her goodnight.
By two am she still hasn't slept a wink despite the exhaustion that seems to have penetrated every square inch of her body. The dark shapes of her room feel strangely alien and the night presses down against her lungs making her feel claustrophobic.
She's happy, can't say how happy, to be alive but the world is full of sensations she's been living without for months, full of grating sounds and assaulting smells. Everything is somehow new and strange and she longs for something familiar.
Eventually she slips silently out of bed, pulls a baggy school sweatshirt on over her tank top and shoves her feet into the battered old pair of uggs that live under her bed.
Most of the windows of the mansion are dark when she arrives, excepting a couple on the ground floor and a soft light from the French doors of his studio. One effortless leap and she lands with cat like stealth on the small Juliet balcony before the slightly open doors.
The darkness of his room feels safe and comfortingly familiar as she steps through the door. He's lying on his front, bare back pale in the moonlight that falls across his bed, one arm under his head the other flung languidly across the space beside him.
God, she think's, what is she doing here, in his bedroom like a stalker? She'd felt in the unrealness of the quietest part of the night that it was a good idea to come. To thank him for saving her and to find solace in this place where she's spent so much of her time on the otherside. But seriously what was she thinking, what the hell did she think she'd say?
She turns to leave and as she does her sleeve brushes lightly against the door frame giving off a barely audible rustle and the hybrid, in one fluid and devastatingly fast motion, leans over, grasps a stake from his bedside table and hurls it at her.
She moves just in time, jerks just enough to her left so that the wood buries itself in the plaster. "Jesus" she breathes hard and fast as he sits up and focuses on her with confused expression.
"Caroline?"
"Yes jees," her fright makes her snap. "God you're uptight"
"Well what the bloody hell do you expect if you ambush me in my bedroom" he's in front of her in a flash hands hovering inches over her body as if he wants to check for damage. Eventually he cups her face roughly. "I could have killed you," he snarls. "With no way this time to restore you, what idiocy could possibly motivate you to-"
"Sneak up on a paranoid sleeping hybrid?" she cuts in voice laden with black humour.
"Precisely!" He barks and she can see the fear in his eyes that drives this anger, fear for her.
He hasn't released her face so she brings her hands up to hold his wrists gently, her thumb skating briefly over the backs of his hands. "I'm sorry ok," she smiles a conciliatory smile. "I'll be sure to knock loudly next time"
He relaxes and smirks eyes sparkling, almost blackly in the low light. "Next time you visit my bedroom in the middle of the night?"
She rolls her eyes but she can't keep a small smile from tugging at her lips.
"What are you doing here love?" he asks as he releases his gentle hold on her face. "Not that you're not welcome"
"I wanted to thank you," she replies and from his skeptical look she can tell that half-truth won't satisfy him.
"And this gratitude couldn't wait until morning?" he asks, his eyebrow tilting questioningly.
"Couldn't sleep, being back is great and all but also majorly weird." She shrugs, she's here she may as well be honest. "I guess I was looking for somewhere familiar and since I've spent most of my death here because the otherside is freaky and decided I should be pretty much your puppet"
"My apologies Caroline it was not my intention to-"
"I know," she assures him sincerely, then a yawn burst noisily from her mouth. "God I'm so tired and I couldn't settle so I thought..." she glances over at the bed and trails off feeling presumptuous and stupid.
"Of course, sweetheart, whatever you need." He takes her elbow and leads her to his bed, drawing back the cover so she can slip inside. He squats down beside the bed and looks into her eyes, "Sleep well Caroline"
When he moves to stand she grasps his hand and with her eyes begs him to understand, to accept, to accommodate and not to question. She knows he's capable of all of that, at least he is with her and she can't explain any of this.
He doesn't disappoint he slips in behind her and, impulsively, she reaches behind her and finds his arm, pulling it over her waist. "God you stink" she grumbles when his breath hits her nostrils.
"Sorry love," he mumbles. "Kol's idea of a welcome home involved drinking enough to inebriate and the entire population on Mystic Falls"
"You smell like it. Just don't breathe on me ok." She demands as she snuggles deeper into the expensive cotton. Its so comfy and she feels so safe and warm with the weight of his arm on her waist and tickle of his chuckling breath on the back of her neck.
"Yes my queen"
"Klaus," she says tentatively after a moment's silence. "Will you be a gentleman and pretend not to hear me sneak out in the morning?"
He sighs almost inaudibly and she feels like a bitch for using him like this but then his arm tightens fractionally around her and his lips press one chaste kiss into her hair. "Whatever you want love" and she sleeps.