* * Chapter 10: a tiny error* *

WhatsApp, English Class

ELENA: what do u mean, compulsion?
BONNIE: ?
CAROLINE: i'm feeling like crap already, don't do the thing with your faces
CAROLINE: and also i had the worst weekend so could you not question me today?

TYLER: whats wrong?
CAROLINE: don't worry ;) thanks for looking out for me.
TYLER: anytime.

ELENA: caroline, this is sth BIG
BONNIE: yeah. when you tell us sth like this, obvsly we're going to have reaction
BONNIE: how r u feeling? why was the weekend bad? did you remember sth bad?
ELENA: yes, sry i didnt ask before, just surprised but: how ARE u?
CAROLINE: i'm fine now. well and the crap-headache, but that aside. it was just a lot to deal with. i might have punched klaus at one point. he didn't lift all of the compulsion, thank god.
BONNIE: i dont get why u'd let urself b compelled in the first place/not demand to b uncompelled asap
ELENA: are u sure he didnt compell u to think u want it or sth?
CAROLINE: ugh would you even trust that my answer now wasnt a result of that compulsion though? let it be, ok? i wanted the vampire prozac, and it's better than a lot of other coping mechanisms
ELENA: we know, caroline.. were just worried about u.
CAROLINE: i know. and i'm grateful for that but could you please try and be less.. you know?
ELENA: lovely?
BONNIE: charming?
BONNIE: bewitching?
ELENA: good friends?
CAROLINE: overwhelming and exhausting, actually, but yours work, too.

Caroline

We were at Bonnie's, her grandmother was eyeing me with the kind of friendly suspicion we had worked our way up to, and I asked for another round. Elena looked like she might throw up and cry soon. I'd told her to just leave, had offered Bonnie (and through her also her grandma) to stop, but they both stayed by my side. I still wasn't sure how casual texting had made it possible for us three to become friends like that, but here we were, with Bonnie and her grandma causing aneurisms in my brain and my fighting against the pain, while Elena witnessed the ordeal and actually offered me her blood three different times. Klaus would have had an aneurism without any magic had he known.

None of the Originals knew that this was what we were doing, and we intended to keep it that way. After having told Elena and Bonnie about my Compulsion, they'd actually had the idea of having me Compel Elena. Uncompellable Bonnie stood witness that I didn't do more than I was supposed to: Compel her to forget what we were doing and lie whenever someone who shouldn't know asked her about it.

For some reason, even though I trusted them with my life, I didn't want them to know about this. They all had their strengths and secrets. I was the weakest in a house full of crazy-strong immortals. I'd at least have to learn to build some defenses.. Or so I felt.

But it hurt so badly at times, and my progress was slow at best. Bonnie had taught me to deflect certain spells, and even mimicked vampire and werewolf attacks with her spells. Her grandma approved of Bonnie practicing her magic, and after two weeks of that routine, seemed to accept me, too. "What was done to you was an unforgivable crime. I won't burden you more," she'd said one afternoon. Of course, then she'd fired a vicious headache at me. Bennett witches seemed to all have a very similar humour.

Afterwards, she had come to us with a solution to one of the problems Stefan had mentioned as one of his "hard limits": Klaus would need an infinite supply of doppelgänger blood to raise his own pack. He'd come back, over and over, and disarray Elena's life in the process. That wouldn't do. Bonnie's grandma agreed. And her solution was easy enough: There was a spell, blood magic, funnily enough, (and no, "blood magic" means you need blood in order for the magic to work.. not that it was magic just for blood) that bonded a vial to a person and a being. For some reason, that made the blood in the vial never run out. Magic was too much for me.

But right then, I didn't have the power to think about their humour and hadn't known about her blood magic-y solution. My head hurt too badly. "Stop," Elena's voice said, and I'd never heard a more beautiful sound. "That was five minutes!" She came and hugged me. "You're doing so great, Caroline!" I looked from her to Bonnie and Mrs. Bennett. They both nodded.

"It doesn't feel like it, though."

"We're Channeling each other. That means if a normal witch attacks you, it won't feel as bad. And managing to stand for five minutes through this means you'll be able to flee or defend yourself if you're ever attacked," Bonnie said. "And that means you're doing better than anyone has before."

I fell into an armchair and smiled at her. Her slightly worried face suggested that my smile didn't look as I'd intended. "Damon usually just falls down and yells," Elena informed me. I grinned. "Deserves it, too."

When I got home that night, the Mikaelsons were obviously relieved. It was little signs I had learnt to read. Klaus' weird way of clinging. Rebekah and Elijah sighing with exasperation, Kol looking up from his phone and giving me a mock salute. Tyler was nowhere in sight, probably out with someone he'd met, and I realised that while I needed the distance, Klaus was suffering from it more than I'd expected. I wondered if it was a wolf thing, in which he'd adopted me into his make-shift family and now felt territorial about his charge. I wasn't sure what to think about that, but that was nothing new, and so I just filed it under things I'd have to deal with. I didn't want him hurting, but I also didn't want me to be hurting. There had to be a compromise that left us all with some sort of dignity and content.

"So Elena wanted to give me her blood today," I said. And then the Inquisition started.

WhatsApp, That Evening

CAROLINE: i have earnt the respect of a strange people
ELENA: r u high?
CAROLINE: the old ones hold me in high esteem and are already ordering marble
ELENA: ?
CAROLINE: to have someone carve a statue of my magnificent being
BONNIE: did one of my spells cause this?
CAROLINE: oh young ones, i have come to impart terrible news on you
BONNIE: caroline, tell us whats up RIGHT NOW
CAROLINE: so you know how you offered me your blood, elena?
ELENA: no please dont say what i think ur going to say
CAROLINE: yeah so i kinda wanted to lift the mood and went 'so guise, i almost drank some of the mysterious gilbert blood' like just that
CAROLINE: and then they kinda went 'whoaa' and 'how do you think she'd taste' and 'acquire me the blood' and also 'why did you need the blood'
ELENA: disgusting who wanted to know how my blood tastes? its BLOOD and shit, are you busted?
CAROLINE: yeah no, not busted. but there was some disappointment that you didn't really give me your blood in like a super special bottle for the magic thing and then klaus had a temper tantrum and i might have thrown a vase against the wall and owe them a few thousands now
BONNIE: why do they even have vases like that?
CAROLINE: i know, right? but tell kol that. so yeah then i said some choice words about things and plans and now klaus pretends to be afraid and respectful of me
CAROLINE: and i KNOW it's just an act, but let me still just enjoy the moments of peace and mockrespect
BONNIE: should we be worried about your safety?
ELENA: we should always be worried about that bon, also stefan says hi
CAROLINE: say hi back, and no, you shouldn't be worried about my safety- or yours. the whole blood magic thing wouldn't work without a bennett witch, either. it's hilarious. and you can't be forced. i'm honestly so delirius right now, i can't find the words.
BONNIE: i don't get it, tho. why are you happy about that? and did you tell them abt the spell?
CAROLINE: yes, and mostly it's amused denial.. i mean, i want klaus to be happy and them to be safe and all that, but they can be so ignorant and disregarding of human issues and now they're all forced to play nice and it's the ultimate, supernatural time-out-chair, so it's glorious.
ELENA: i'm sorry i'm putting you in that position, care.
CAROLINE: why should you? it's your blood and it's your decision. yeah it'd be easier if everyone just got along, but what the heck did they expect? the only problem is that klaus is seriously miserable. so if you could maybe make that decision a bit sooner, i really wouldn't mind.
ELENA: i would, care. but stefan says something about it all doesn't make sense and i owe him. only two weeks more, and if he doesn't find anything, you can actually get an honest-respect marble statue made for you
CAROLINE: [poop emoji]

Klaus

Klaus was pacing. He knew what some people thought of pacing, and the thought that his father found it a display of lacking control was most likely the main reason why he'd picked up the habit. He also knew he was once again being irrational. He wanted to break out of it, but he just couldn't. It was all so incredibly close, he could almost taste it. He could picture it. The power. The safety. The freedom, to be who he was. He'd been told dozens of times that wherever you went, you carried your problems close with you, but this wasn't a question of location or running. It was the remedy.

If he had pack, he'd have control again.

"But why is it getting so much worse lately?" Rebekah asked him. "I don't know."

"It doesn't make sense. You held it in for years and years, why would it ,you, fall apart like that?"

"I don't know."

"Is it because of Caroline?"

"I. Don't. Know. For God's sake, Bekah, stop it. I haven't a clue why it's so bad. And if it was Caroline, what should I do? And if it wasn't, what then? It just is."

She was quiet for a second, then sat down beside him. The sofa was awful. It didn't match the hardwood. The hardwood was awful, too. Why did he think that colour would match a living room? "I'm sorry, Nik. I'm just worried about you. Hundreds of years, and still, we're cursed and followed and stuck."

"Really? I wouldn't have noticed without that remark," but his own voice had lost its strength. It was resignation. There was nothing to do but wait, and none of them were very patient at the moment. Rebekah sighed beside him, her head falling on his shoulder. And so they sat.

"Something has changed with Caroline," Rebekah mused. "It was before the Compulsion."

He nodded. "She's had time to adapt. To think about everything."

"Would you let her go if she decided this wasn't what she wanted?" He knew what Rebekah wanted to hear. But he didn't know if he'd manage, if he had the strength to let go of her, so instead he said, "I don't think that's what she's planning. She wants to help."

"She likes us, but at one point, she'll want to see her mother, lift the Compulsion, find a place in this world. She'll think about what she's lost, what it means, and-"

"And that's the reason why she is different now. Because if she focusses on us now, she'll focus her anger on us then, too. And she knows that, and so she's amused at everything," was all Klaus said before getting up. Rebekah's hand on his arm stopped him. He looked down, found her face blank, but her voice held emotion enough for him to understand that she meant him and Caroline when she said, "I hope you find happiness."

He hoped so, too. But his own nature might stand in the way of that, if he couldn't find his control again.

* * Notes * *

Sidenote: There is actually no "real world" date where this story starts or ends, mainly so that the characters are free to reference things. (For example, if I said this story started in 2010, but mention a specific song that was released this year, then it just wouldn't FIT or make sense, and I'm not P.C. Cast.)

This and the former chapter were the beginning of the "second" arc. There are three to four, but they vary in length. :) Chapter title is from "Who You Are," (I love the Ed Sheeran cover tbh) because it's okay not to be okay.

Let me know what you think about this chapter, and a very amazing week to all of you!