Hey All! Apologies for the long wait on the chapter. Long story short, some stuff has been going on and my brain needed some time to just be nothing but mush. So instead of writing a lot, I was reading more in my free time. Also, if you follow me on tumblr, you'll see I've become super obsessed with Firefly so...yeah :)

Hope you enjoy this chapter! I hear your cries for more Klaroline progression and hopefully this answers some of your wishes!

"What are you doing here?" Alaric asked as he saw Klaus walk into the club.

"I heard the call on my scanner, came over right away," Klaus explained, sliding on a pair of latex gloves from his pockets.

The two men stood in the middle of the basement level of a large nightclub. The floor was still sticky from the weekend party, discarded glasses lining the table and stray bits of confetti mixed with the dirt on the black and white tile. In the center of the floor was a girl, laying out on her back wearing a clingy, short purple dress. She was dead.

"It wasn't a reported homicide," Alaric clarified.

"No, but obviously it is a homicide," Klaus argued. "I take it this wasn't where the body was found."

"Cleaning crew found her in one of the bathroom stalls," Alaric explained. "The club is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, so our best guess is she died sometime Sunday night, early Monday morning. Someone thought they were be helpful by bringing her out here."

Klaus grinded his teeth. "Fantastic," he muttered, beginning to examine the body, which had begun to turn a green-blue color, the skin puffed out slightly. It was oddly complementary to the pink shade of her dress. Alaric stood over him, hands on hips, supervising, while a few other detectives searched the area and questioned the employees who had discovered the dead girl.

"I know we already stated the obvious, but I usually only call you in on the stuff I can't figure out for myself."

"Second night club homicide in a week," Klaus commented, flipping over the girl's limp hands. "I'm offended you didn't call me sooner."

"Well I thought, you know, with all the..."Alaric lowered his voice, "rehabilitation stuff."

Klaus shot him a look, effectively silencing the captain. Of course, Caroline just had to go and mention that small detail about him. "I assure you, it's not something that will affect my work," he said carrying on with his examination. "Both of the bodies were positioned to look like overdoses."

"Uh, yeah," Alaric said clearing his throat. He squatted down next to Klaus and the body. "But the bruising on the previous victim suggested more of an altercation occured. The autopsy showed asphyxiation as cause of death."

Klaus moved to the victim's neck, examining. Just as he thought, there were bruises, thumbprint sized bruises on her throat. "I imagine the coroner will find much the same here," he replied. Klaus turned her head delicately in his hands. "You're looking for a male, around five foot nine."

"How do you know that?"

"The span of the grip," Klaus said, pointing to the bruising on opposite sides of her neck, where the murder's thumbs and fingers would have been placed.

One of the assisting officers came over to them, handing Alaric a pink, sequined clutch purse. Alaric took it and opened it, shuffling through the contents. "Cash, lip gloss, phone...ah! ID." He read the information. "Rachel Turner, born February 16th, 1988. The address is Indiana though. Not going to help us much."

"Check the text messages," Klaus suggested. "No doubt she was with friends the night of her murder. We'll question them, see who she was with, and find out if we can garner a lead. Possibly rule out a disgruntled boyfriend or date in the process."

"You really think this is another serial?" Alaric asked.

Klaus looked over the body once more, taking in every inch of detail, from the fabric of her dress, to the shade of polish on her toes. "I know it is."

He didn't voice his thought that it was connected to the Artist, or Silas. The captain didn't know that he was dealing with something that could be very, very big.

"Well for now we have to rule out the obvious," Alaric said, taking the bag and replacing its contents. He handed it off to another assisting officer to be placed into an evidence bag and catalogued. "I'll try to contact her family when we get back to the precinct, then crack open her phone and see if we can figure out who she was with this weekend." Klaus nodded, following Alaric out of the club. It was full evening when they stepped out. The sun was set and night had taken over the sky. Klaus pulled off the latex gloves and tossed them into the bin near the door.

"So, where is Caroline?" Klaus answered him with a dry look and Alaric began to backpedal. "I mean-er, you two are-uh, together. Always. She's supposed to be right? Ya know I thought you two were a couple when she first started hanging around. I was wondering cause I'd never seen you with a girl before so I thought-"

"Thought what?" Klaus's eyes narrowed.

The captain cleared his throat. "Well I-I mean she's pretty. A couple of the guys asked about her..."

"Asked what?" His question was clipped, an intimidating edge to it.

"You know I am not...even...sure...what I'm saying anymore," Alaric replied. His finger shot out to an officer coming out the door, shrinking under Klaus's severe look. "I need to go-uh, check the...thing. Tell Caroline I said hi, or you know...don't."

"Okay, what's the matter?" Lexi asked Caroline the next day at lunch. Caroline had called her friend and invited her out, wanting a distraction.

"What do you mean?" she dodged, taking a bite of her salad.

"I can see you sitting over there, quietly seething," her friend observed. "What gives?"

Caroline considered for a moment before letting out a breath. "Okay, can we keep this between us?" Lexi nodded. "It's Klaus."

"What's the matter? Trouble with his sobriety?"

"No it's not that," Caroline said. If Klaus was getting anything right, it was sobriety. Other than the one incident when they visited Connor's trailer, Caroline hadn't been concerned about him doing drugs. He seemed to have a handle on his control and a true commitment to fighting his addiction. "We had a fight yesterday and said some things that we didn't mean and now he's giving me the silent treatment."

Klaus had come back from the crime scene last night, and allowed her to spit test him like she said she would, but that had been it. He hadn't spoken a single word to her, except to say that he would be going to the precinct again that day and that he would check in with her as needed.

"What did he say?" Lexi prodded.

"I was just stressed about something and lashed out and then he lashed back." Caroline didn't want to bring Damon's name into the mix. One reason being that Lexi was still good friends with Stefan, and she might bring it up to Stefan. It was clear that Damon didn't want Stefan involved.

"You know my bleeding heart baby brother," Damon had said to her when he had finally called her back that morning. "He'll want to be helpful and I think we need time to recover apart."

The Salvatore brothers cared about each other, but it was true that they were often the causes of each others' misery.

"He's just so frustrating," Caroline let out a huff. "It's like I try to reach out and there are moments when I can feel him open up and then other times he just completely turns himself off to anything. It's so confusing. I just don't know how I'm supposed to act."

Lexi chewed thoughtfully, taking a sip of her water before she spoke. "Can I give you an opinion without you getting upset?"

Caroline gave her an uneasy look. Those sentences never preceded anything good. "Okay."

"You've been working with Klaus for what, like four weeks now?" Caroline nodded. "But I've seen you more in these past weeks than I ever see you. You've dated. You've had a social life."

"You think I'm not doing a good job..."

"You don't treat Klaus like a typical client."

"So it's my fault?" Caroline asked, offended.

"No, you're obviously doing a great job otherwise. He's sober right? And reacclimating well," Lexi said. "But the way you're talking about him...you talk about him like a guy you're dating, not like a client."

"A boyfriend?" Caroline burst into laughter. Lexi had to be joking. Treating Klaus like a boyfriend. But her friend sat across from her, nodding her head in earnest. Caroline controlled her laughter. "How am I treating him like a boyfriend?"

"It's little things," Lexi attempted to explain. "Like the way you describe arguments with him or how you got mad when he went to question that Hayley girl without you-"

"She was a drug dealer, Lex! He shouldn't have gone to a drug dealer alone!"

"What about yesterday when you told me about the girl leaving his room? You seemed jealous."

"That was not jealousy," Caroline rolled her eyes. "That was disgust."

"There! Right there!" Lexi pointed.

"What?"

"That eye roll thing you did. I've only ever seen you do that about guys you like, when they're irritating you." Caroline pressed her lips together, fighting the urge to roll her eyes again. Lexi was being crazy! She did not treat Klaus like a boyfriend. He was a client. "Are you setting boundaries with him?"

"Of course," Caroline said. "Look we have to bond on some level. It's part of companionship. Sometimes it gets personal."

"Yeah but there are limits to that bond," Lexi reminded her. "Have you talked to him about your dad? Because you've never done that with clients."

Caroline stopped mid bite, setting her fork down. "Like you said, I don't talk to my clients about my dad."

"That wasn't a no."

An uncomfortable silence settled over their lunch as the waitress stepped over to refill Caroline's water glass. Once she had left, Caroline took a large sip. "I'm just trying to look out for you, Caroline," Lexi said. "I know what Damon-"

"Don't," Caroline warned.

"I just don't want to see that happen again," Lexi finished.

Caroline knew that Lexi was just trying to look out for her and be a good friend. She had seen her relationship with Damon and the fall out after. Caroline knew that if their places were switched, she would be giving Lexi the same advice. "I'll be okay Lex, I promise. It's not going to be Damon all over again. It's not like that with me and Klaus."

After lunch, Caroline went back to 221B to finish up on the homework she had been neglecting for Shane's class. He hadn't been too upset with her missing classes, judging by the tone of his emails, but she still had a term paper draft to turn in on Friday. Studying always provided a good distraction. She was sitting on her bed, doing some research when she had heard Klaus come back from the station. Drug testing him had crossed her mind, but what was the point? He was so stubborn she was sure that by this point he would just stay sober to prove that he didn't need her.

Something about that thought stung.

She shook her shoulders, trying to clear out the niggling feeling in her bones and continued with her reading.

It was nearing six o'clock when she got up and went to the bathroom to freshen up and go meet Damon. She slipped out of her shorts and tank top into a more respectable blouse and skirt combo, and touched up her hair and makeup. Pearl wasn't going to be there to meet her and Damon, but she wanted to look presentable to the person that would be checking them in. When she was done, she went downstairs. Klaus was in the living room, pinning up pictures and news articles on his board.

"I'm going to meet Damon and get him checked in at the rehab facility," she told him. "I should be back in a couple hours."

Klaus didn't say anything. He didn't even turn toward her or acknowledge that he heard her at all. She rolled her eyes, and turned to leave, shutting the door just a little too hard on her way out.

Everything was perfect. Caroline stood overlooking the dancefloor of the bar, congratulating herself on a job well done. A proud smile spreading across her cheeks as she took in the good time everyone was having. All of Damon's friends had showed up-not that he had that many, but they had managed to fill the place up.

Lexi and Stefan were in the corner, enjoying a game of pool and some virgin cocktails. Caroline had talked the bartender into clearing out all of the alcohol and replacing everything with non-alcoholic beverages.

"I don't know how you did it," Stefan had said to her.

"I'm just that good," Caroline had told him with a giggle. He gave her an affectionate look and went to join Lexi by the pool tables.

Her self congratulating was put on hold when she saw her boyfriend, the man of the hour, sitting all alone staring blankly at the glass in his hand. Throwing back her shoulders, she walked over to him and slid her arm around his back.

"Hey," she said to him. "Are you having fun?"

"Oh yeah," he answered with a flick of his eyebrows. "I'm having a grand, sober time."

The small smile she had been holding onto fell from her face. "Damon..."

"Save it, Caroline," he paused to knock back the contents of his glass. "I don't need any of your self help, twelve steps bullshit tonight."

He slammed the glass down and slid off the stool, darting away from her. A familiar whiff of bitterness invaded her nostrils, and she picked up the glass, smelling the drops of liquid that still remained.

"Are you drunk?" Caroline questioned, storming into the hallway where he stood near the bathrooms.

"Oh no, mom's mad," Damon said, waving his hands in mock-horror.

"This is serious, Damon-"

"Oh, Caroline shut the fuck up, please! Everything is serious with you. You act more like my guardian than my girlfriend."

She flinched. "Damon, I wanted to make you happy on your birthday. I wanted you to have a good time with your friends and family-"

"You're an idiot Caroline. Inviting a bunch of addicts to a bar, really?"

"Don't call me an idiot-"

"You're nothing but an insecure, little bitch!"

"Damon, please-"

He turned from her then, heading for the back door. "I'm leaving."

He had been drinking and she didn't want him to head out and get into worse trouble. She followed him, her hands tugging at his leather jacket. "Come on, Damon please don't-"

He spun around, the back of his knuckles connecting with her cheek. Her hands flew to her face, her eye feeling like it was about to explode from the force of the hit. The ring, a family crest that Damon always wore, had hit her cheek bone and she felt a small trickle of blood slide down her face.

His look of anger morphed into one of shock. Damon looked down at his hand, as if it was some other creature separate from him, with a mind of its own. He stepped toward her but Caroline moved back.

"Caroline-"

"You," she said to him, with a firm coldness in her voice. "Will not touch me ever again. Leave."

"Miss are you sure I can't get you anything? Water?"

The memory melted into the present as Caroline looked over at the receptionist speaking to her from behind the desk. She was sitting on one of the plush benches of the reception area of the rehab facility, and the woman at the desk was looking back at her expectantly.

"No, thank you," Caroline replied. She glanced at the time, sighing at her own foolishness. "Ten more minutes," she murmured to herself.

"I saw it all happen," Stefan said. "I saw him hit her and Caroline swore that it had never happened before. She saw him one more time after that. He bottomed out a few days later and Caroline, being Caroline, didn't abandon him. She convinced my father to front the bill for rehab, but he only stayed there a few weeks. He disappeared and Caroline moved on."

Klaus had been sitting across from Stefan for almost thirty minutes now listening to the man talk. After Caroline had gone, he had called Stefan to meet at the diner they had originally met in. A lull in his current murder case caused his brain to turn back to Caroline and Damon and his curiosity had gotten the better of him. Like any good detective he knew the best place to get information wasn't always from the victims, but the witnesses.

Stefan was an open book it seemed. It wasn't hard to get him to explain the entire saga of Caroline's relationship with Damon; from when Lexi introduced the two of them, to the night of Damon's birthday when the ill-fated relationship had come to a peak.

Klaus saw it all in his head. Caroline, trying to make someone who didn't deserve it happy. Someone who wasn't happy to begin with, and then suffering for her trouble. A fresh wave of hate for Damon Salvatore swept through him.

"You don't talk to you brother anymore?"

"He'll call," Stefan said. "I haven't heard from him in a while. Our father, in spite of being the world's biggest asshole, keeps track of us. Damon told me he was in LA but he's really in New York. He's run into some trouble and owes some debts and made the mistake of going to our father for help. But the man's charity stops there."

Klaus's gaze narrowed. He remembered Damon's story about jail time, and how he hadn't wanted Stefan to know about it.

Something clicked in Klaus's head. He looked at his phone. It was almost eight o'clock. He got up from the table, telling Stefan that he had somewhere to be, throwing a bill down. He walked out of the diner, catching a cab and hoping that he was wrong.

He stopped at the rehab center, the one he had overheard Caroline mention on the phone. Rushing into the front lobby, he addressed the woman at the desk.

"I'm look for Caroline Forbes," he said.

"Blonde girl?" the woman asked. "She sat right over there in that seat for about an hour and a half. Left twenty minutes ago."

So Damon Salvatore hadn't shown up. Klaus had been right. It was the first time in a very long time that he was sorry he was right. He got back into the cab and relayed another address to the driver. It was easy enough to break into Caroline's apartment building. He punched in the same code he had seen her use at the gate, and yanked on the door hard enough that it opened, the lock a mere decoration on the glass door.

Klaus ran up the three flights of stairs and down the hall to her apartment. He saw the door cracked open, a flash of worry hitting him hard. He pushed it open and saw her perfect apartment in shambles. Everything was turned on end. Her bed was ripped apart, books and DVDs scattered everywhere. The TV was shattered.

"Caroline?" he called out.

"Klaus?"

She stepped into the room from the kitchen, and a wave of relief flooded over him. She was unharmed. He didn't know what he'd expected, but just seeing her there, whole and unhurt was almost enough to make him smile.

"You were right," Caroline said. "He didn't show." Klaus didn't say anything. The tone in her voice told him it wasn't the time to gloat, even jokingly. "And as an added bonus..." Her hand gestured around the mess and destruction.

Klaus stepped further inside and shut the door. His foot hit a picture frame, and he winced at the crack.

"I just...oh my gosh!" Her eyes bulged as something occurred to her, and she spun around, heading into the kitchen. She pushed one of the kitchen chairs over to the edge of the room, climbing up and reaching her hands above the cabinets. In her haste, she almost fell and Klaus darted forward to catch her, but she regained her balance. She pulled a small tin case down and opened it up, her face dropping as soon as she saw what was inside.

"That son of a bitch!" Caroline yelled, climbing off the chair. Her look of anger melted into one of heartbreak as she looked up at Klaus. "I had a pocket watch that belonged to my dad. It was an antique. A Forbes family heirloom. I hid it up here in case anyone ever broke in. I can't believe he took it."

What else had he taken?

Caroline inventoried her apartment. She noticed a pair of diamond earrings missing, some christmas money she had left burning a hole in a card on top of her bookcase, and an old iPod she had stashed away.

"I bet he'll pawn it all for..." Drugs. Caroline let the thought hang. Klaus wasn't so sure, Stefan's earlier comments about Damon being in trouble with some thugs and owing them money coming to the forefront of his mind.

He walked into the living room, where he found her, adjusting the mattress on her bed and sitting down, exhausted. In his hand was a fresh cup of tea he had prepared for her while she had been searching for missing items. She accepted it, smiling up at him as he took a seat next to her.

"Damon and I-"

"I know," Klaus said cutting her off. "Stefan told me."

She looked half relieved, as if she was glad someone else had told the story so she didn't have to. Then she laughed. "You're just a couple of gossiping old ladies aren't you?" She took a sip of the tea, the steam brushing over her face. "I'm not that girl you know, the girl who constantly goes back to a guy after...When he hit me, I was done being his girlfriend. I would help him, but only as a friend. I guess this is what I get."

He studied her face in a way he hadn't before, noticing a small, star shaped scar at the top of her cheek. It was translucent white, nearly invisible-a tiny blemish in the natural pink blush of her face no doubt caused by the Salvatore family crest. It was odd that he hadn't seen it before considering that he always noticed everything about everything. An intense feeling of anger toward Damon Salvatore flooded through him at that moment.

"No," he said. "you can't think you deserve this."

"I guess it is pretty cynical," she mused, giving him a nudge with her shoulder. "Aren't you supposed to be the cynical one and I'm the hopeless optimistic?"

Klaus chuckled. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves."

She returned his laugh. "I can't even begin to think about cleaning up this place," she sighed.

"Well lucky for you, I have the means to hire someone to do that for you."

"You don't have to-" But Klaus held up his hand to cut her protest short.

"Consider it a thank you," he said. "You've done more than your lion's share of work over the past few weeks. I'd say you earned the extra reward."

She couldn't help but straightening a few things as she left, feeling a bit better after the tea and Klaus's offer. Still, she was sad her father's watch was gone. Out of everything, she was most hurt to lose that.

They left the apartment, taking a cab back home.

"You know I'm glad you're hanging out with Stefan and getting to know each other," Caroline mentioned as they walked through the front door. "It makes me feel better."

"About what?" Klaus asked.

"Leaving in a week and a half. I'm glad you'll have someone you feel comfortable trusting." The friendly mood that had been restored between them shifted. Caroline pulled at her hands, her teeth tugging at her lip. "I actually already took another job. Lexi recommended it to me today. I start just a couple days after we finish up."

"Of course," Klaus said, feeling something drop inside his chest.

Caroline's phone rang, breaking the sudden tension in the room. She looked at the caller ID and answered. "Tyler? Wait, what? Slow down...what's the matter?" Klaus couldn't hear the boy on the other end, but he watched Caroline's eyes go wide with shock before she uttered a promise that "they would be right there". "That was Tyler," she said addressing Klaus now. "We have to go over to Baskerville Hall. Hayley's dead."

So the Damon/Caroline flashback is a little callback to the scene between them in season one. Some of you guys may notice the parallels :)

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! In the next chapter Caroline and Klaus will be on the crime scene together and it looks like Caroline has been learning a thing or three from Klaus...and he'll be pretty impressed ;)

Thanks to the Best Damn Beta Team, Kady (klausykins) and Becky (a-little-blonde-distraction). Go give their fics some love too!

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