Chapter Twelve

New York was as grey and dismal as ever when Caroline returned from the Hamptons.

Typically, Elena had remained out there with Damon. She didn't have to rush back to work, and the beach was just too much of a lure for her. So, Caroline had stepped out of a cab alone, straight into a puddle, and found herself staring up at her apartment block as the rain poured down on her. With a sigh, she trudged inside, lugging her suitcase along with her.

As annoyed as she had been to have to take the coach back from the Hamptons alone, she was slightly glad that she would have the apartment to herself. Elena was full of beans whilst being with Damon, but she knew she would blow her top when she heard Caroline's story. Deep down, she was happy to have some time alone.

Without bothering to unpack her suitcase, she walked straight into her bedroom and threw herself face first onto her bed. The last few days in the Hamptons had been an awkward blur and the sooner she got back to work and back into a normal routine, the better.

She had woken up the night after the Charity Gala in her bed in the Hamptons – only she hadn't been alone. When she rolled over and stretched out, trying to ignore the headache that was coming on, Klaus was beside her. He was lying shirtless on his back, staring up blankly at the ceiling. If the pair of them had ever had a most uncomfortable moment, it was then.

The memories of the night before flooded back to Caroline immediately, and she didn't know what to think. As much as she willed herself to regret the incident, she just couldn't. What she had done with Klaus had felt…wrongly right.

Of course, she wasn't going to admit that to him. Even if what they had said – about whatever they said remaining in the Hamptons – was true, she couldn't admit it to herself.

So instead, they went for complete basic ignorance. Klaus climbed out of bed and dressed while Caroline pretended not to be paying attention, and then told her he had to rush back to let his mother know why he had left the Gala early. That was the last time she had seen him, and she'd been extremely confused. She half expected a joke out of him, or a comment about the previous night's events. But there was nothing from him but a lack of eye contact and an urge to get out of the house.

Caroline had originally planned to stay for the full week, but after that episode she only stayed in the Hamptons an extra day. She didn't see Klaus again, Kol never showed up, so she assumed that he was too busy partying, and Elena remained shacked up with Damon, returning only once to pick up some more underwear. Caroline expected that Lexi might pay her a visit, but there was nothing and no one.

She was left, lonely in the Hamptons. No visitors and nothing to do – except dwell on her indiscretion with Klaus. So she had no other choice but to get the first coach back to the city.


The next day Caroline was up bright and early, and was sat at her desk in the office with a Styrofoam cup of coffee beside her. Shutdown week meant that there was virtually no one around, no receptionist, no cleaners, just a handful of sparse skeleton staff. But even those weren't around.

Caroline had the whole office to herself. No Lexi distracting her with tales of her latest escapades; no Logan trying to pass odd jobs onto her that he couldn't be bothered to do; and especially no Klaus, making his cocky remarks and ensuring she got next to no work done. No one; just herself; her diaries and a coffee.

For the next few hours, she worked in peace. She weighed out Klaus's private and work planners for the next several weeks, and made notes in her own planner of all the messages left on Klaus and Elijah's answering machine. There were several requests for visits, which usually led to company meetings. She then moved onto Klaus's work email, and printed off everything that he would be interested in, with the intention of dropping them off at his apartment when she was on her way home.

After she had done all of that, she decided to try and help Elijah out. He had taken on Kol personally after the whole incident several weeks ago, but Kol had next to no organisation skills. Caroline found Elijah's log in information on his desk, so she logged into his computer and sifted through his emails. She was glad to discover that he was a little more organised than Klaus – Elijah had hardly any unread mails, which showed that he probably checked them out in his free time. Nevertheless, she went through and printed off anything important looking, and packaged them up into a large envelope, printing Elijah's name neatly on the front.

When she thought there was nothing more that she could possibly do, Caroline decided to pack up her things and set off. She switched off the lights and locked up at about three in the afternoon, and headed round to Klaus's apartment. As she knew the code to his penthouse, she was able to ride up in the lift and walk right in.

Every time she had visited Klaus's apartment it had been beautiful. The only issue was that every time she had been here previously; there had been some kind of consequential reason. The time was when she had been high with Kol, and cut her hand – after finding Klaus receiving oral from his friend Pearl. Then there had been the awkward few days where she was expected to work at the apartment with him, which had naturally resulted in a lot of negativity between them.

This was the first time she had arrived at his apartment and been able to just revel in how tranquil the place was. Everything was glass and clean, but his apartment was still homely. She pulled out the two envelopes from her handbag, and wandered over to his desk in the far corner, and placed them neatly where they would be seen. She then removed the notes which had the answering machine messages scribbled on them, and spread them out alongside the envelopes.

Feeling quite happy with the work she had done, she turned around and headed back towards the lift, reaching her hand out to press the button that would open the doors. She recoiled back, however, as there was something wrong. The button, which normally glowed green when there was no one inside it, was glowing red – which meant that someone was in the lift, and on their way up to Klaus's apartment.

Without really thinking about it, Caroline did the first thing that seemed natural to her. She shook her hands in a brief panic and then decided to hide – choosing to duck behind one of the heavy curtains that were drawn across the wide window. She had barely managed to immerse herself behind the curtain, with her back flat against the glass, when she heard the lift doors sliding open.

Being unable to see, Caroline was listening intently. She didn't know who on earth it could be who wasn't still in the Hamptons. Klaus was in the Hamptons. Elijah and Kol were in the Hamptons. She wasn't sure who else would know the code to enter his apartment – of course; it was highly likely this could be one of his many female friends. It was possible he had just lost track of the amount of people he had handed his apartment code to.

She held her breath as footsteps sounded nearer, heading towards the desk. There was the rustling of papers, as whoever it was looked through the notes Caroline had left, and then he or she stalked over to the window – right next to where Caroline was hidden behind the curtain.

She saw the reflection in the window. When she realised who it was, her breath caught in her throat – and then the curtain was ripped back.

"I could see your feet the whole time," Klaus muttered, giving her a long look. Caroline glowed, and dropped her gaze from his face.

"Look, I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."

"Are we talking about right now, or in the Hamptons?"

Caroline ignored him. "I was just dropping off some emails and the notes from your machine. I was about leave – I didn't know who it was coming up. I panicked," she told him, smoothing out her jacket.

"Do you want some coffee?" Klaus asked, as if he hadn't heard her. She didn't want to if they were going to act so awkward, but they did need to clear the air. So she nodded slowly, and dropped her handbag, sitting down on the table. She watched Klaus in the kitchen, as he poured water and milk into the coffee machine, and brewed a large jug. He brought it out on a tray with two mugs, and sat down opposite her.

Caroline had a brief flashback to the Hamptons; to the fragmented moment where he had sat down opposite her with the whiskey decanter. But it was different this time – they were both sober, and there were absolutely no strange feelings in the air. Yet. There was silence as Klaus steadily poured coffee, and took a long sip. Caroline did the same.

"Why are you here?" she asked, suddenly. Klaus cocked an eyebrow.

"This is my apartment, Caroline. I should be asking you the same thing," his mouth turned up at the corners and his eyes glinted – he appeared to have gotten his sense of humour back.

"You know what I mean," she replied, rolling her eyes. "You're supposed to be still in the Hamptons."

"Not necessarily. Remember, I told you I was only going to the Gala. And that's all I did. The next day I came straight back here – I needed some time to myself; some time to think."

"Think about what?" Caroline asked tenderly.

He continued to stare at her carefully. "We're not in the Hamptons anymore, love. This isn't that drinking game. All that stuff stays in the Hamptons, remember."

"Well this isn't about the Hamptons, is it," snapped Caroline.

"What is it about, then?" Klaus responded, playfully. Caroline slammed her coffee mug on the table top with a lot of force, causing the dark liquid to splash out.

"Stop messing around!" she shouted. "This isn't a game! We had sex!"

"I know, and it was marvellous. Now calm down, love, you'll stain your lovely suit."

"You're acting like this is all just a joke. Don't you get it? We've overstepped the line. You're my boss. You're not my…boyfriend!"

The glimmer in Klaus's eye seemed to instantly vanish. "Caroline, I'm sorry. I'm trying to lighten the mood here – I know how seriously you take these things. Now can you just push aside your dramatic worries about our little Hamptons mishap, and hand me my personal planner." Caroline blinked at Klaus's sudden change in tone, but reached into her handbag anyway, withdrawing Klaus's smaller planner. She slid it across the table to him, and watched as he flipped through it. "I'm suggesting that we take our Amsterdam trip two weeks from now. Any objections?"

Caroline had been about to take a drink from her mug when he said this, and she almost threw the mug over him. "Amsterdam?" she spluttered. She had pretty much forgotten about the whole Date Auction after she had sex with Klaus. As far as she was concerned, it was never going to happen. "I told you I'm not going to Amsterdam, I have a job to do."

She wasn't really bothered about work. It was the whole idea of going on a random holiday, solely with Klaus, that was making her uncomfortable. They had no idea where they were going with their friendship, and they had just not long ago had a drunken one night stand, and now he was expecting to take her to Amsterdam – a sex crazed European city. Indiscretions were bound to happen, left, right and centre.

"Caroline love, your job is to work for me, and do what I tell you. And now, I'm telling you that we're going to Amsterdam. I have placed fifty thousand dollars into an unknown charity of my mother's choice, so we're going to Amsterdam," he paused, looking up from his planner. "Have I made myself clear, love?"

Caroline rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. "Crystal."

He snapped his planner shut, and then smirked over at her. "Well, I hope that you haven't unpacked your things, sweetheart. We're going out to Amsterdam in two days."


Elena arrived home a day later, in the middle of the night. She had tried to sneak in with the intention of not waking Caroline, but the latter was already up, hastily running around and making sure she hadn't forgotten anything. Klaus was picking her up at four in the morning to take them both to the airport, and she was anything but excited.

Elena blinked at her friend groggily when she spotted Caroline in the living room, fully dressed with her suitcase by the door. "Caroline?" she blinked from her to the suitcase and a scenario seemed to piece together in her head. "Are you leaving?"

Caroline was looking out of the window, waiting for the sign of a car, but she gave Elena a mocking look. "What? No! Are you serious?" she stepped closer to Elena, and took a good, long look at her.

Elena was a complete state. Her hair was mussed, there were dark circles under her eyes, and she was dressed in the same t-shirt and shorts combination that she seemed to have worn all the time she was in the Hamptons. There was a litter of lovebites across her neck and collarbone, and she was scratching the back of her head.

"But now that you mention it," Caroline muttered, giving her friend a dirty look. "Where have you been?"

"What? Caroline, I've been out in the Hamptons, you know that."

"No, I mean in general!" Caroline shouted. "In the Hamptons, you vanished off with Damon for days! You don't even know what happened to me! That was supposed to be a holiday for us, and you picked a boy over your girlfriend? Did you even notice that I had come home?"

Elena chewed on her lip. "Caroline," she mumbled, her long brown hair falling into her face. "I—"

"—you know, maybe I should leave," Caroline yelled. "Because it won't be long before scumbag Damon wants to move up in here, and then where will I be? Because seriously, I won't be here while you're boning all the time!"

"Caroline, what the hell is your problem?" Elena suddenly shouted. "So I spent a few days with a boy, what's the big deal?"

"Don't pull that on me! Everyone always feels sorry for you, Elena. If this was the other way around…argh!" Caroline turned back to the window, flipping her hair back angrily.

"What the hell happened?" Elena screeched.

"I had sex with Klaus!" screamed Caroline, just as a horn sounded outside. Elena froze, her eyes wide, but Caroline just pushed past her. "I have to go," she muttered, grabbing her suitcase by the handle and heading for the door.

"Caroline, where are you going?" Elena called, as Caroline began dragging her case down the stairs. "Caroline!"

"See, you don't know that, either!" Caroline replied, as she reached the bottom of the stairs. Klaus had come to the door, waiting to help her with her bag, but Caroline ignored him. "You vanished with Damon after he bought you both a date at the Gala – you didn't even wait to see who I got landed with!" she unlocked the door, and threw herself outside, slamming it behind her.

As she climbed in Klaus's car, she glowered up at her apartment building. Yes, she was annoyed with Elena, but she hadn't been prior to her arriving there. The truth was, Caroline was just angry – angry at the world. She was angry for losing her job with Rebekah and getting involved with Klaus, she was angry for getting so dragged into Klaus's charm, she was angry for having sex with him. She was angry that she now had to go to Amsterdam with him and probably make many more mistakes, and she was angry at how confused she was about her feelings. Elena had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. As Klaus started driving away, tactfully staying quiet about the argument he had just witnessed, Caroline promised herself that she would call Elena and resolve their fight, as soon as they landed in Amsterdam.