A/N: I wish I'd had this chapter done yesterday but I had a deadline to meet and I finished it just in time to watch TVD last night. Yeah, I cried but I won't say more in case you guys haven't see it yet. All of your reviews are blowing me away - Le26199, DevilJolie, lateVMlover, Cloeyhds, Teamvampirebarbie22, MelodiousVengeance, and all of our guest reviewers. Thank you SO much! Thanks too for the follows and favorites. I'm honored. This is a short chapter, you'll see why, hope to have the next one out tonight or tomorrow because it's a little bit of a cliffhanger. Thanks!

Slowly I was waking up, feeling solid warmth behind me. Pulling the covers up to my chest, I burrowed into the bed, pressing back into that warmth. A strong arm curled around me, pulling me back against him even tighter.

"Caroline," he whispered.

Still half asleep, I reached for his hand, lacing his warm fingers with mine. I pulled our hands up to rest at my heart, fully intending to get in another couple hours of sleep.

"Caroline," he whispered again, pressing a kiss into my hair.

I grunted at him. "Want to sleep," I mumbled. The back of his hand rested against the flesh between my breasts. With a knuckle, he gently began to rub small circles on my skin. I sighed, a happy sigh.

"So you missed me too?" he asked.

My eyes flew open. Granted, I was a heavy sleeper and always had been. But I remembered going to bed, alone, last night after my run in with Klaus on the stairs. Now he was here in my bed, snuggling with me?

I threw off his arm, sitting up.

"Do you understand what boundaries are?" I demanded, glaring at him.

"Good morning, love." Klaus was stretched out on his side, fully clothed, with that devilish grin on his face. His eyes were so blue.

Forget the cute smile and the eyes already. Boundaries!

"I actually haven't been here that long," he informed me, hooking a finger around the strap of my nightgown and pulling it over my shoulder.

Oh, he was up to something. I could tell.

"And you're not going to be here any longer," I told him, planting both of my palms on his chest. I felt quite a bit of satisfaction watching his eyes round in surprise when I pushed him off my bed. The thump he made when he hit the floor was satisfying too.

He rose from the floor gracefully, still grinning at me.

"Come now, Caroline," he teased me, "if you're not nice to me, I can't give you your present."

"Present?" I groaned, burying my face in my hands for a moment before looking up at him. "Is it another house I can move into?"

Playfully, he pressed a hand to his heart. "You wound me, love. Have we been such terrible hosts then?"

"No," I admitted.

"Then you're cross with me because you feel I neglected you yesterday?" he asked.

Don't look at his dimples.

"You know, actually? That was working out for me pretty well. You being gone." I grabbed the filmy peignoir from the foot of my bed and pulled it on. It didn't hide anything but it made me feel a little more covered up.

His expression was a little more sober when I climbed out of bed. "So this is still about Haley then?"

I was still dealing with that. I shrugged, trying to give the impression that it didn't matter to me either way. But I could tell by the way his gaze searched my face that he wasn't buying it. He looked a little uncertain of where to go from there.

"So, what's my present?" I asked, trying to help him out and because I preferred his playful side to his dark one.

Slowly, warily, the smile reemerged on his face. He turned and opened the door to my room, motioning to someone beyond it. A couple of young men, vampires I realized after a moment, carried familiar looking boxes in and set the down before the armoire.

"What?" I'd just unpacked those boxes a couple of days ago in my dorm room. "You've got my stuff?"

Klaus looked pleased with himself as his first set of helpers exited and another pair entered with more boxes and made their way out.

Part of me was excited to have my things with me. My clothes, my laptop, all of my beauty products.

Another part of me remembered it was Monday. Today would have been my first day of college. Oh, this could be bad.

"Uh, Klaus?"

"Yes?"

"Does this mean I lost my dorm room?" I'd fought really hard and all but compelled people to get that room. A nice corner room with more windows, more space. Extra outlets because you couldn't have enough of those.

He shook his head. "It's all yours for the academic year, should you return."

"Should you return," I mimicked him. "Of course, I'll return. I just hope this all gets settled soon so I don't have much to catch up on."

"It's not a problem either way, love," he explained. "The folks in the registrar's office have been informed that you have an urgent family situation to deal with and that it's unclear when you'll be returning."

"Who'd you have to compel to pull all of this off?" I asked. Then I put up a hand to stop him from saying anything. "No. Never mind. I don't want to know. Wow. I was supposed to start class today."

His enjoyment faded that. "I'm sorry, Caroline. I know how important all the human rituals are to you. But if you'd gone with your friends –"

"I know," I cut him off. "I still wouldn't be able to go to class because of Silas and everything." It was true.

Klaus watched me warily, waiting for my reaction. He never failed to surprise me. In the time I'd known the original hybrid, he had killed and tortured and created havoc that would make lesser villains stop in awe. He was hated and feared among most of our kind and those who said they didn't fear him were lying.

Yet, here he was, having collected all of my belongings from my college dorm room, and we weren't talking about a small collection here, and arranged to have them brought to me. Now he stood waiting to see how I'd react, that hint of vulnerability there in his eyes. I realized as I stared him that somewhere deep inside, I admired him. It was a different form of strength. No matter how I'd rebuffed him or rejected him in the past, he kept opening himself up to me, giving me the power to hurt him. Or…

The power to make him happy?

"Any chance you have wireless internet?" I asked.

Relief flashed in his eyes so quickly it had me grinning with him.

"Of course, Rebekah insisted."

I blew out an exhale. Well, on the bright side, I had my stuff. I had a change of clothes, my own pajamas. All my curling and flattening irons. My hair hadn't been properly done in days. Internet access. It was something. A pretty big something.

"I don't know how you pulled this off," I told him, "and I don't want to know honestly."

I walked up to him, kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you," I told him and meant it.

"You're welcome," he whispered.

"Okay, now shoo! I'm going to get dressed really fast and help them with those boxes because there are a lot of them and some of my stuff is fragile," I told him.

He bowed in an old-fashioned way, the triumph on his face was unmistakable. "As you wish."

I made it to the bathroom and changed into my jeans and funky shirt in record time, happy in the knowledge that I'd have some normal back within the hour. I'd have clean clothes, my clothes, and I could do my hair, my nails… And I'd have access to the web. I'd see if I could get an email to Elena and my Mom, maybe one to Tyler. I could let them know I'm okay and see what's going on back home.

I tied my hair up in a ponytail until I could get back and get shower, reconsidering the emails to my friends. If I contacted them or tried to, could I make things worse? I'd ask about it and get the general consensus of everyone. Particularly Elijah. He seemed really proud of me for handling the phone call from Silas yesterday. I didn't want to let him down.

I fairly skipped down the hall, down the stairs, passing the four helpers on my way, more excited by the second to have my stuff. I passed Rebekah, who smiled and bid me good morning, before I dashed out the door and headed for the moving van sitting in the drive with the back doors open.

There were still so many boxes left to bring in. Elijah smiled at me as he joined me there at the back of the van.

"Good morning," he said with a smile, picking up a box.

"Yes, it is," I told him, giggling. I grabbed a box and started to follow him, but the box I had lifted was open and one of the corners was ripped and threatening to give way. Setting it back down, I lifted it another way so as to secure that one corner against my body until I could get it to my room.

"There's the bitch!" someone yelled.

Before I could turn around, my back exploded in pain. I felt as if I'd been shot with at least a hundred tiny arrows, ripping into my skin. Then there was searing pain as my flesh burned. I was pretty sure I was screaming as the box slid from my hands and hit the ground.

The pain was excruciating and brought me to my knees. When the next wave of pain hit, it took my breath. I tried to crawl away to safety on my hands and knees before the world went black.