Chapter Twelve
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
I groaned aloud and reached over to my left where the annoying sound was coming from, only to hit Elena in the head… repeatedly.
'Ow! Kim, stop it!' Elena shouted, grabbing my wrist to stop me from hitting her again.
'Turn it off!' I moaned pulling my pillow over my head as I tried to block out the noise, mercifully, the beeping finally stopped and I nuzzled deeper into the mattress as I attempted to go to sleep. I hadn't slept at all last night and I refused to believe that it was because Klaus wasn't here. I mean, all those times I couldn't sleep without Klaus being there over the summer were just a coincidence, right? Because if I actually needed Klaus to sleep then I was completely and utterly fucked seeing as he'd left town last night without a backwards glance. I sighed and pulled the pillow off my head, giving up on trying to get any shuteye, I looked over to Elena and saw that she was getting out of bed. I glanced at the clock and noticed the time- 5:15am.
'What in God's name are you getting up this early for? School doesn't start for another three hours!' My voice was absolutely horrified.
'I'm going to train with Ric. Though Stefan hasn't turned off his humanity yet, he is compelled to do as Klaus says and who knows how many times Klaus will have to ask before Stefan gives in?' Elena said, sleepily rubbing her eyes to wake herself up.
'Good point.' I muttered, throwing the covers off myself as I ran to get in the shower before her.
'Hey!' Elena shouted after me but I just laughed evilly in response.
I moaned when the hot water in the shower cascaded over my sore muscles and the bruises that Klaus had been nice enough to leave me with when he slammed me in the lockers. Honestly, the more I thought about last night the angrier I got. I had figured out why his hybrids were failing and as soon as he saw evidence for himself and realised that Elena's blood was the key ingredient he had knocked me out so that I couldn't protect my sister. He had then proceeded to take a dangerous amount of blood; he might have been actually planning to completely bleed her dry and kill her for all I knew. Though I knew logically him killing Elena wouldn't be the greatest idea if he ever planned on making more hybrids, I didn't care in that moment; it was easier to pretend that he had been planning on killing her, because that fuelled my anger even more. When he did come back to Mystic Falls he was in for a rude awakening, and the longer he was gone the angrier I was going to get.
I sighed as I thought back to last night; Elena had woken up not long after Damon had ran through his whole plan about Mikael, though he was careful not to mention specifics due to Stefan being compelled to do everything Klaus said. She hadn't said anything; she hadn't even looked in Stefan and Damon's direction as she asked to be taken home. I had done so immediately, well I had asked Damon to give us a ride home, seeing as I didn't actually have anything of my own to drive. The whole ride home had been silent and every time I tried to focus on what Elena was feeling, I came up blank; it was as if she was numb. When we pulled up in front of the house she opened the door and got out without a word, I'd thanked Damon and hastily followed her, finding her in her bedroom collapsed in her bed as she cried. I had held her until she stopped crying, sending comforting waves towards her and stroking her hair, trying to get her to calm down. Eventually she had, and we'd both drowsily changed in to our pyjamas before we went to bed. I'd decided to sleep in her room, just in case her tears remerged again.
Honestly, I didn't know what had made her break down like that, but with everything that had happened, and everything she had seen last night, I wouldn't have been surprised if it had all just built up to the point of becoming too much. I turned the water off and stepped out of the shower, looking at my naked reflection. From the front I didn't look that bad, making the bruises I had sustained from falling face first to the floor after I had hit the lockers weren't as dark as the ones on my back. Now they were bad, and they were pretty painful, but I had to get a handle on it; Elena needed me right now and I'm sure Jeremy would with all the crap he's been going through since I'd been gone; Damon had filled me in on Jeremy's ability to see ghosts in the car journey home last night. I dressed in some leggings after I pulled on a black thong and white sports bra. I wore a huge baggy sweatshirt over that seeing as it was bound to be freezing at this time of the morning and it hid the bruises; I didn't want Elena or Ric to freak out.
'Come on, Kim! I need to get ready!' Elena shouted from the other side of the door, I unlocked it to let her in and she climbed into the shower while I finished brushing my teeth. When I was done I went down stairs and whipped up some pancakes; I made Elena and Jenna blueberry while Jeremy and myself had chocolate chip. I had just finished putting them on the plates when Elena walked in, grinning, the sight was so genuine that I couldn't help but smile back.
'Blueberry pancakes?' She said, genuinely excited, 'just like Mom used to make.' Her voice added softly, I gave her a small smile as I remembered the pancakes Mom used to make us every morning without fail; the woman was an angel.
'Not as good as Mom's though. I use the same recipe, but I swear they'll never taste the same.' I murmured as I wrapped up Jeremy and Jenna's plates and placed them in the microwave with a note stuck to the front so they'd know they were there waiting for him when they woke up for school and work later.
'They taste the same to me.' Elena disagreed as she hungrily shoved the pancakes in her mouth, I laughed at her eagerness as I ate mine. It didn't take us long and once I had loaded the dishes in the dishwasher, we were off to meet Ric.
'Ric? Come out, come out wherever you are!' I shouted, my arm linked through Elena's in an attempt to steal some of her body heat- I had been right it was freezing and I was severely regretting not wearing twenty layers under my jumper, not to mention the fact that my ass was freezing because I'd decided that wearing a thong was a good idea.
'Over here!' Ric shouted from my left, I pulled Elena in that direction only to be grabbed from behind. Without even thinking I released Elena's arm, bringing my elbow back to meet the person's ribs and throwing my head back to head but my attacker in the jaw. He released my throat and I spun around, about to kick him in the ribs, only to come to a stop when I realised it was Ric; he was on his knees groaning in pain.
'What the hell are you doing?' I shouted, demanding an explanation.
'It was a surprise attack. Obviously you know how to defend yourself.' Rick wheezed out, with a sigh I offered him my hand and helped him up, ignoring the fresh pain in my back from him roughly holding me against his chest.
I looked over to Elena when I felt her surprise and noticed that her jaw was hanging open, completely shocked.
'Impressed?' I asked, giving her a wink.
'Where did you learn to do that?' Elena asked.
'I took a few self-defence classes when I was… away. I don't think they'll come in handy against a vampire, though.' I said as I crossed my arms over my chest and gave Ric a hard stare.
'Probably not unassisted' Ric agreed before he kneeled down and started to root through a duffel bag on the floor, 'but with a few modifications, you'll have the same affect.' He handed me and Elena some kind of glove that fit over our hand and half way up our forearms. I was about to ask what this was supposed to do, when I noticed the small wooden stakes embedded in the material.
'How does it work?' I asked, clenching and unclenching my fist as I got used to it on my arm.
'The pressure of your punch ejects the stakes.' Alaric explained, before pulling one on to his arm before he turned to punch a dummy he had strung to a tree, the stake ejected into the dummy's abdomen.
'Sounds simple enough.' Elena muttered as she stepped forward and punched the dummy. I could feel her confusion and annoyance when nothing happened, after she had tried for the third time, with no result she turned to Ric.
'It must be jammed or something.' She said.
Alaric took the sleeve from her, put it on his own arm and punched the dummy, the stake ejected. Elena frowned, and I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing at the dumbstruck expression on her face.
'You should start lifting some weights, get some meat on those bones.' Alaric said to Elena, his expression sympathetic; he knew how much she wanted to be able to do this.
'Thanks for not sugar coating it.' Elena muttered sarcastically and I couldn't help the snort that escaped me at her tone, she turned to me and glared and I held up my hands defensively.
'Your turn.' Alaric said, gesturing for me to step forward, I complied eagerly.
'No problem, I'll just picture Klaus' face. That should do it.' I muttered, deadly serious; Elena and Alaric laughed though they both came to an abrupt stop when I punched the dummy three times successively; one stake had ejected in it's head, one in it's heart and one in the stomach.
'What?' I said, my tone innocent.
'How did you do that?' Elena asked, her voice incredulous.
'I told you, I pictured Klaus' face. When that bastard comes back to town he better watch his back.' I muttered, pulling off the glove and handing it to Ric. Neither of them laughed this time, they now heard the serious edge to my voice and I could feel that they were both glad that they weren't Klaus in that moment.
'What about-.' Elena started but I cut her off, not wanting anyone else to know about the whole mate nonsense.
'We should get going, don't you have to go in early to meet the girls? The first day of senior year!' I said, making my voice excided as I nudged Elena gently in her side to get her spirits up too.
'Yeah… you're right.' Elena murmured as she looked at her watch, her tone severely lacking in enthusiasm.
'Look I know there's a lot of crap going on right now; Stefan's on the brink of turning off his humanity, Klaus is eventually going to come back to town to demand more of your blood, Jeremy's seeing the ghosts of his dead ex-girlfriends and I am extremely sleep deprived, but Elena.' I gently grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look at me, 'you're only going to have one senior year. So make it count.'
Elena stared into my eyes for a long moment, and I could feel the different stages of emotions as they carried through her; pain, fear, worry before she finally settled on determination, smiling brightly at me as she did. I returned her smile and hugged her, sending her as much comfort as I could possibly manage. She hugged me tightly, hard enough that I had to fight the wince that wanted to come forward.
Elena gave me a thankful smile when she pulled away before she walked back to her car, leaving me with Ric when I volunteered to help him clear up. I was carefully putting all of the weapons back in his duffel, secretly terrified that I was going to accidentally shoot a stake out at him or myself, when Ric broke the comfortable silence.
'You're a good sister.' He said, his voice genuine, I looked up to him surprised before I smiled at him in thanks.
'I do my best.' I murmured, hoping he would drop the topic soon; I didn't really handle compliments that well, and I was only doing the same thing that any other older sibling would do, as far as I was concerned.
'You put Jeremy and Elena first. It's admirable, but you should really consider putting yourself first a few times.' Ric said as he untied the rope that had the dummy strung to the tree.
I frowned at him, confused, 'what do you mean, exactly?' I asked.
'I mean, when was the last time you did something just for you, without putting Jeremy and Elena's needs first?'
'When I left town after our parents died. I knew they needed me, but I just couldn't stand to be in the house, it felt like I was suffocating with all of the memories around me.' I said honestly, 'so, not that long.'
'You feel guilty.' Ric said, it wasn't a question it was a statement of the fact, and he continued when I just shrugged in response, 'well, you shouldn't. You're their sister, sure, but you lost your parents too. You grieved in your own way and they grieved in theirs. They don't resent you for it, so you should let that guilt go.' Alaric's voice sounded so sincere that I honestly wanted to believe him, but the guilt in my gut wouldn't allow me to; it was there as a reminder of how I had failed my family. Ric seemed to notice and he sighed, sad that I refused to listen to him. We finished packing everything up and Ric gave me a lift home, when I got there I was happy to see Jenna and Jeremy were still there, sat at the table eating their pancakes. I walked in, grinning widely; I hadn't seen them since I had gotten back.
'Nice?' I asked them, laughing when both of their gazes snapped to my direction simultaneously, 'did I forget to mention… I'm back!'
Jenna jumped up from her chair and hugged me tightly, I was so happy to see her that I didn't even care about the pain that emitted from my back.
'It's so good to see you! When they told me about you going off with Klaus I was so worried about you. Though I knew you could handle yourself; you've always been tough.' Jenna said when she pulled away from me, grinning brightly as she placed her hands on my cheeks, much like grandparents did at every holiday as they commented on how much you'd grown.
'I'm sorry I just left like that, but Klaus wasn't gonna let me say goodbye. Plus I knew you wouldn't let me leave if I did, and I had to go.' I murmured, noting that Jeremy's sadness seemed to be growing by the second.
'Thank you for the pancakes, sweetie they were delicious,' She leaned forward to kiss my cheek, 'I have to get going but we'll catch up later, yes?' She made her way out of the door when I nodded to her question calling out a 'love you both!' over her shoulder. I went and sat by Jeremy, helping myself to Jenna's left over pancakes.
'Are you okay, Jer?' I asked him, my voice soft, 'I get that you're upset that I just left like that when I'd barely been back for five minutes, and I'm so sorr-,' I was cut off when Jeremy suddenly grabbed me and pulled me into a bear hug.
'Don't you dare apologise, I understand why you left, and while I didn't like it and I missed you like crazy I never blamed you for leaving.' Jeremy said, his voice ringing with sincerity.
'I'm glad you don't hate me.' I whispered into his chest as I pulled my baby brother tighter; I had missed him so much.
'I could never hate you.' Jeremy said honestly, and I gave him a small smile when he pulled back, 'thank you for the pancakes, but I really need to get going too- I don't want to be late on my first day of Junior year!' Jeremy said, his fake enthusiasm making me laugh.
'Go, have fun, make the most of it Jer, you deserve it' I said, hugging him once more before letting him go.
When the door closed behind him, I looked around the empty, very quiet house and took a deep breath. Since I had nothing to do, no job to rush off to, I decided to clean the house. It was a distraction that I welcomed with open arms, once I was done and the house was spotless, I noticed that it was now twelve in the afternoon. I decided to shower and make my way to the grill for some lunch, wanting a change of scenery. I dressed in a white flowy dress that was fitted down to my waist where it then puffed out. It wasn't actually mine, (it was Elena's) but I just didn't feel like wearing jeans or shorts, which didn't happen very often. I paired it with a black leather jacket (also Elena's) and my white high top Converse. When I got the grill I made my way to a booth without glancing around and picked up a menu, pretending to look it over even though I already knew what I was going to order.
'Well, fancy meeting you here.' I looked up to see Rebekah sliding into the seat across from me with a bright smile on her face, which dimmed when she noticed my glare.
'What are you doing here, Rebekah? I assumed you would have left town with your asshole of a brother.' I said to her after I'd given the waiter my order.
'The bastard left me behind. Can you believe it?' Rebekah said, clearly annoyed.
'Yes I can, your brothers a dick.' I said simply, trying not to laugh at the surprise in her expression, 'what can I help you with?'
'Why are you being mean? I thought we were friends.' She said, and I could sense that she was genuinely upset, I had to ignore the pang of guilt in my gut.
'Well, after you tried to attack my sister and then actually took a chunk out of me instead it's bound to create some issues in any friendship.' I muttered, picking up my diet Coke that had been placed in front of me.
'I'm sorry about that, I really am. I was just so upset about losing the necklace; I'd had it for as long as I could remember and then it just turned up out of the blue in a picture around the neck of the girl my ex-boyfriend is currently in love with. I was pissed okay?' Rebekah said, and I could tell she was being genuine, so after I stared at her for a little longer, making her sweat, I let my face turn up in a grin.
'Apology accepted, though your brother is still firmly on my shit list, at the very top.' I admitted, smiling again when she laughed.
'I don't blame you for that one, darling. I'm assuming that the stiff manner in which your walking around has something to do with the way my brother threw you into those lockers last night?' Rebekah asked, and honestly I wasn't surprised in the slightest that she had noticed.
'Yup. I'm bruised all over my back. Hurts like a bitch, but what are you gonna do?' I replied, sipping my drink, wondering why she was pursing her lips as if she was considering something.
'I can help you with that, if you like? I'm assuming you don't want anyone else to know because you don't like people worrying about you, so a gulp of blood and you'll be right as rain.' She offered.
'Are you sure? I mean I don't want you to think I'm using you, honestly it's not like it's a life threatening injury and I can live with the pain until they he-' Rebekah cut me off as she gently pulled me to my feet, in the direction of the bathroom, as soon as she had made sure it was empty the turned around and bit into her wrist, offering it to me.
'Take it and stop your incessant rambling, will you?' She muttered, making me laugh, but I leant forward and took a few gulps of her blood, relieved when I felt my back muscles relax as the pain eased. I hugged her gratefully before we made our way back to the bar. We chatted for a while, and I shared my lunch with her, slicing my cheeseburger in half and letting her have most of my fries. After the meal was gone she said that she needed to get back to school because her free period was almost over.
'High school? Why are you in high school?' I asked, confused.
She looked at me for a moment, and I could tell that she was deciding whether or not she could trust me with the truth before she eventually settled on honesty.
'I've spent most of my immortal life running, so being able to do something normal for a change is… nice.' She admitted, looking down as if she was expecting me to judge her. I reached forward and squeezed her hand, giving her a soft smile when she looked up to meet my eyes.
'Well in that case, have fun. I hope you get the full experience.' I said to her, genuinely meaning it, she seemed to notice this and smiled brightly as she did.
'Thank you.' She squeezed my hand back before letting go and making her way out of the grill. I was sipping the little that remained of my drink as I looked around, wondering what I could do now, so far it had been a normal drama free day, and as if the universe heard my private thoughts, my phone rang. I checked the caller I.D. before I answered it.
'Hey Elena, what's up?' I asked.
'Stefan's turned his humanity off.' She replied, her voice curt, but I could tell by the croakiness of her voice that she had been crying.
'What? It's only been a day!' I responded, pissed.
'I know; Klaus called him this morning while we were in history, he answered and he must have told him to do it again, and this time Stefan did it. I literally saw the emotion fade from his face. Now he's been acting like a complete jackass all day.' Elena said, her voice echoing making me think she was in the girl's bathroom.
'Do you want me to come and get you?'
'No, I just wanted to tell you, encase you ran into him. The day's nearly over now. I'll be fine.' She said, her voice insistent.
'Okay, but call me if he does anything, okay?'
'I will, I promise. I love you.' She said, I said it back before I clicked off the phone, huffing in frustration. I went to put my phone down when I noticed that Klaus' name was in my favourites list making me frown; I had definitely not put it there. Even more annoyed I clicked ring, not thinking about what I was doing, when I got his voicemail I wondered if he was ignoring me or if he had genuinely missed my call.
'Listen here, buddy. You have seriously, pissed me off and are continuing to do so without even being here! Telling Stefan to turn of his humanity? Well done, it's a very good idea to have an unstable, emotionless vampire protecting Elena. So, yeah, I'm pissed off about that, not to mention the lovely bruises you left on my body when you went after my sister… again! When you come back to Mystic Falls, asshole, you are in for a rude awakening. Mark. My. Words.' I hung up the phone, glad that I had been able to get some of my anger out, even if it was to his voice mail.
I paid my tab and left the grill, but when I got outside I didn't know where I wanted to go. I felt completely helpless; Stefan had turned off his humanity, but what could I do? How could I protect Elena from that? Seeing him completely emotionless was going to destroy her, I just knew it. With him being ordered to protect Elena, he wouldn't hurt her physically but I was sure he wouldn't care about her emotional stability. She had already been without him all summer, hoping for him to come home and now that he finally was, it was going to be like he was a different person.
While I had been lost in my thoughts I had unconsciously made my way to the small park that was a five-minute walk from the grill. Since kids were still in school, I had the whole park to myself; I went over to one of the swings, lightly swinging myself back and forth. I felt… empty; it was like I had a whole where my heart was and it hurt. I felt the tears streaming down my face and I leant forward so that my hair cascaded over my expression, avoiding the curious stares of people who passed by. This wasn't the same as before; over the summer the hole that had been in my heart where my parents were hadn't been as painful, in fact I'd actually managed to grieve, accepting their deaths little by little until I was able to think about them without wanting to cry. But now I felt like I was missing my whole heart, and I was aware of how dramatic it sounded, and I hated it. I didn't know why, I didn't know what was wrong with me but I did know that I needed to pull myself together. Elena was going to need me, knowing her she was going to have a plan about how to fix Stefan and I needed to be focused. With that thought in mind, I wiped the tears from my face and took a deep breath, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in my chest. I didn't know why I was suddenly feeling this way, so I didn't know how to stop it and therefore I refused to focus on something I didn't know how to fix.
I eagerly looked to my phone when it vibrated in my jacket pocked and was greeted with a text from Elena.
Elena: We're going to try and lock Stefan up. Can you help?
Me: I don't know how, but anything I can do I'll try.
Elena: Great, we're all meeting at the school in the history classroom in thirty minutes.
Me: I'm on my way.
I put my phone away and walked back to my car, only then registering how dark it had gotten, I must have been sitting there for hours. But it made sense; whenever I needed to sort through my feelings I took my time, and hardly noticed time ticking by until I had come to a solution. This time I had decided to ignore the problem, which in all honesty probably wasn't the best solution that I had ever come up with, but in that moment I just didn't care.
I reached the High School twenty minutes later and had to force the memories of me being held prisoner there just the night before far away from the forefront of my mind. I made myself keep walking, past the lockers that Klaus had thrown me against, past Elena's locker where he had watched and waited for me to come back. When I finally reached the history classroom I had to bite back my sigh of relief as I noticed that everyone was already there- I needed the distraction.
'Are you ok?' Elena asked, bringing me out of my thoughts.
'Yeah I'm okay, why wouldn't I be?' I said, forcing a smile and I continued talking before she could answer my question, 'what's the plan?'
'I'm going to lure Stefan away from the bonfire, and when he's distracted, Alaric is going to shoot him. Then we're going to lock Stefan up in the old Forbs jail cell…' Elena trailed off as she looked over to Caroline for conformation.
'I'll make sure it's prepped and ready.' Caroline said, nodding for emphasis.
'We're forgetting a key player here, Rebekah? Wherever Stefan goes, the blonde ponytail seems to follow.' Damon muttered from his place leaning against a desk in the front row.
'That's why you're going to distract her.' Elena said.
'How? She's an Original and last I checked we were fresh out of daggers.' Damon muttered.
'Use your charm.' Elena's voice dripped with sarcasm.
Normally I would have laughed but, honestly I just felt numb, I was waiting for Elena to fill me in on my part of the plan, but everything seemed to be covered and I honestly didn't know what she was going to ask me to do.
'Kim could you be ready in Ric's car for when we bring Stefan over? We need to move fast, because with human blood in his system it won't take him long to bonce back from the injection of vervain.'
'Yeah sure, no problem.' I said, catching the keys that Ric threw in my direction. I passed Tyler on my way out; I didn't know what was going to happen but I had a bad feeling that this wasn't going to work but I refused to say anything. I could feel how badly Elena needed to try something because she couldn't face the idea of having to deal with no-humanity Stefan on a daily basis. Which I couldn't blame her for; from what I'd heard humanity-less Stefan was a dick. I opened the door to Ric's car and got into the drivers seat, adjusting it so that I could actually reach the pedals. Once I was satisfied I sat back with a sigh and turned the radio on to fill the silence. I was desperately trying to keep myself distracted, but I was running out of options. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, and I pulled it out, expecting it to be Elena, but the name I saw made my heart stop, before it picked up and started to beat twice as fast.
'Hello?'
'Hello, love.' Klaus said; I could hear the anger in his voice and for whatever reason that made me grin.
'Oh, you're mad at me. Well at least I answered the phone, I mean I could have let you go to voicemail…'
'Love, I can assure you I was indisposed when you called.' I could hear him smirking now.
'Well I'm still mad at you.' I muttered down the phone.
'I gathered that from your voicemail.' He said, his tone teasing.
'I'd be worried if you didn't, I was very detailed.' I muttered, smiling when I heard his chuckle.
'Yes, love you were. Now how did you put it…' he paused as if he was trying to remember, 'when you come back to Mystic Falls, asshole, you are in for a rude awakening. Mark. My. Words.'
'Yep, that sounds about right.' I replied.
Klaus laughed, 'that's it? Love, your voicemail gave me the impression that this call was going to result in me getting my ear chewed off.'
That made me pause… why wasn't I shouting at him? Why was it that as soon as I'd heard his voice the pain in my chest for the first time that day had quelled into almost nothing, and the fire that had burned up inside of me this afternoon when I'd made that call to him and extinguished? Then the tiny voice in the back of my mind spoke up and answered my question; you miss him. No. No I didn't, I couldn't- I was mad at him. I couldn't miss him.
'It's been a long day, Klaus. This is all I've got, I'll leave you an angry voicemail tomorrow.' I murmured, feeling the day catch up with me; no sleep last night plus an emotionally draining day meant I was exhausted.
'How are you, love?' Klaus asked, sounding like he genuinely wanted to know.
'I've been better,' I admitted, 'what about you?'
'I've been better.' He replied, making me smile.
'I am still mad at you, you know.' I reminded him encase he had forgotten from when I had last told him thirty seconds ago.
'Oh, love I know.' He replied and I could feel him smirking again.
I opened my mouth to reply but stopped when I saw Elena and Ric dragging Stefan in my direction, 'I'm gonna have to go, Elena needs something. I'll talk to you soon.'
'I'll hold you to that, love.' Klaus responded before he hung up, when I heard the dial tone the aching in my chest made itself known again and I cursed silently to myself as I flung open the passenger side door for Elena. I didn't feel whole because Klaus wasn't here. There, I had admitted it to myself. It was ridiculous and stupid and impossible. But it was true. I missed him.
I was pulled out of my thoughts when the car suddenly went up in flames.
'What the-?' I broke off, I tried to open my door but it wouldn't budge. I looked over to see that Elena was in the passenger seat and Ric was in the back with and unconscious Stefan.
'The door won't open!' I shouted, I reached around looking for something to try and break the windows; I found a stake but as many times as I tried to smash the glass it wouldn't work.
'Try and wake up Stefan, we need his supernatural strength right now.' I shouted back to Ric as I lifted Elena's shirt and made her breathe through the fabric.
It all happened so fast; one minute I was wondering if we actually were going to make it out of this alive, even though I knew we weren't going to die, and the next Stefan woke up and kicked open the trunk, allowing us all to climb out to safety before the whole car exploded in flames. Elena, Stefan and Ric got a ride from Damon; they went to the boarding house to get some treatment for the minor burns they had gained, and seeing as I somehow made it away burn free, I drove my car home, showered, changed into my pyjamas and got into bed. I was lying there for a few hours, not falling asleep despite my exhaustion and it was because the aching in my chest was becoming more known than ever, it wouldn't stop and I was starting to get annoyed. I needed to sleep. My mind drifted back to how the aching had stopped when I was on the phone to Klaus and I briefly considered calling him and asking him to talk to me until I fell asleep but I dismissed that idea almost as soon as I'd had it; I would never live it down. But I did have another idea; I threw the covers off me and made my way to the unpacked duffel from over the summer. Klaus had asked me to store a few of his shirts in my duffel bag after the one him and Stefan had been sharing had become overloaded when they had first tried to fit all that his minions had gathered for him and Stefan into one bag. I hadn't minded and had happily volunteered seeing as I didn't have to share my duffel with anyone at the time. Eventually it just became habit for him to hand over his worn shirts to me sometimes and I would store them away until they would have to be laundered. I unzipped the side compartment that I usually put his shirts into and was relieved when I was greeted with two shirts he had already worn, meaning they still smelt like him. I pulled one out and brought it to my face, inhaling and I immediately felt a sense of calm wash over me as well as the pain in my chest lessening to a bearable level. Trying to ignore the fact that I my actions might be perceived as creepy or odd by Klaus himself, I got into bed, placing his shirt by my head. I was so happy to feel the familiar darkness consume me that I could feel the smile on my face as I dove into unconsciousness… finally.
There's chapter twelve for you! I liked writing this chapter and also hated it. I liked writing it because you get to see for the first time how much Kim cares for Klaus, despite her best efforts. I hated it because I'm also missing Klaus and will be for the next few chapters… I might just have to add in a phone call here and there ;) Let me know what you think!
Would like to say a huge thank you to Ishtar97 and lili316 for either following or choosing to favourite my story- it means a lot!
XxSunnaxX: OMG! Already a new chapter XD Brilliant! I love this chapter! Huge Kim/Klaus Fan, can't wait for more :D Have a nice day!xxx Thank you so much for your support, I really appreciate it and I'm SO happy that your loving the story as well as Kim and Klaus together! I hope you enjoyed this chapter too, and I hope you also have a nice day! :)
