AN: Thank you to all of you that followed, favourited and especially reviewed. You're awesome!
I realised I messed up the timeline in chapter 10 a bit. It's already fixed. Just so we're clear, we're still on the same day as the driving test. Hope that doesn't confuse you. :)
This should be the longest chapter yet with a lot of things going on. Now, without further ado...
Caroline opened the door to her and Elena's apartment silently in case Elena was already asleep. And honestly she hoped to be able to just sneak into her room without having to explain the state of her dress. When she came into the living room she noticed it was decorated with several balloons. Elena was laying on the couch, wearing a party hat and slowly waking up.
"Hey" She greeted Caroline sleepily.
"Hey." She responded. So much for sneaking past her.
"What happened to you? Is that your bridesmaid dress?" Elena still sounded tired, but appernetly she wasn't tired enough to not notice the state she was in.
"Ehm, yeah. I had a little fight with a cur. But don't worry, I'll wash it first thing in the morning and it'll look like new…kind of." She mumbled the last part feeling guilty.
"Okay…if not you're going to change dresses with Katherine. At least then no one's able to say she looks better than me." Elena started to like that plan.
"I will…" Caroline agreed. "What's up with the hat? Are you going to wear that instead of your veil?"
"Oh, right, of course… this is your surprise party! For your driving license. I wanted to at least organise one party myself this week." Elena got up from the couch and went into the adjoining kitchen "I even baked a cake." She returned holding said cake in her hands.
In the mean time Caroline had sat down on the couch.
"Thank you 'Lena. That's so nice. Now I really wish I would have made it."
"You failed? I'm so sorry. How do you feel?" Caroline saw the guilt in Elena's face as her best friend realised she was probably rubbing salt into the wound.
"I don't know, surprisingly good." And nope that had nothing to do with a certain British man. Not at all.
"I was right, wasn't I? You're in love." Elena stated.
Caroline took a moment to think about it. She wasn't in love, no, but she was most certainly falling. Hard.
Elena understood Caroline's silence as an admission. "I knew it! But not your examinant?"
"What no way, he was a jerk. No, it's someone else."
"You have to introduce me" Elena was happy that Caroline had found someone. " …but not tomorrow." She added quickly in an after thought.
"Don't worry, I won't mess up your seating arrangement." Caroline had to stop herself from laughing.
"Good. I can't use more stress, I just want everything to get over smoothly."
"Don't worry, nothing will go wrong tomorrow. I'm just glad your father-in-law is not a terrorist." Uups, the last part wasn't supposed to come out loud.
„What?" Elena looked confused at Caroline, who had quickly put some cake into her mouth.
"What? … The cake is so delicious, thank you. So, are you ready for the holy bond of matrimony tomorrow?"
Next day, Salvatore mansion
Caroline was standing in front of the bathroom door, desperately trying to get Elena to leave it.
"No! No way! I changed my mind! I'm too young to bind myself for all eternity. I should go out, have dates and flirt." She was currently telling Caroline through the door.
"Are you kidding me? Elena you have the Jackpot why would you want scratch tickets? Look, you and Stefan belong together like…William and Kate or like….that wheelchair guy from Avatar and the blue cat woman." Caroline was quickly running out of comparisons.
"Sure, or like little Elena and the super Stefan…" Elena continued sarcastically.
"For Heaven's sake! So much drama behind one door." Caroline was really annoyed. She just hoped Elena would come back to her senses before somebody else noticed.
At the precinct Klaus currently had to endure another rant from Alaric Saltzman. As if the knowledge that he had screwed up big time wasn't enough.
"You are going to personally apologize to Atticus Shane. And if you bring me into a situation like this again, you'll never be able to leave the office again." With that he turned his back on Klaus and left.
"Cheer up!" Bonnie said. Klaus just rolled his eyes and decided to call Caroline to tell her about the failed house search. And that had nothing to do with his urge to hear her voice. Nope, absolutely not.
"And when I move in with Stefan, I'm never going to see you again." Elena kept going on.
"Bullshit. I'll always come by and go on your nerves. Pinky promise. I'll always be there for you." She was interrupted by her ringing phone. "Wait a sec, 'Lena, will you?" She looked at the caller ID. It was Klaus, hopefully he had some good news. She answered her phone.
"Klaus, everything alright? Have you locked Shane up?"
"No, we had nothing against him. They didn't find a corpse on the property, sweetheart. And Shane complained to the mayor about the house search. The case is closed, there is no prove."
What? No, that couldn't be. "But Maddox was there…Have they looked into the sarcophagus?"
"Are you sure that you have definitely seen a corpse?" Klaus asked carefully.
"Of course!"
"I'm just asking. I mean, it's just, it was dark and you panicked… maybe he was just unconscious." He carefully continued.
"You don't believe me." Caroline was hurt. She had thought he was different.
"It doesn't matter if I believe you. My boss doesn't believe you and he is the one who closed the case." Klaus was dodging the question, which was answer enough for her.
"Of course it matters if you believe me or not." How could he not realize that?
"Caroline, love, I…" Apparently he didn't knew how to continue the sentence.
Caroline hung up without another word. Jerk.
"Elena, I've had enough, I'm coming in and dragging you out and then you are going to marry the only decent guy in this freaking city." Elena wasn't answering. " Elena!"
She burst through the door, surprised that it wasn't locked. She looked around the room, but the bride was nowhere to be seen. Caroline noticed the open window, the bathroom was on earth level so it would have been no problem at all for Elena to flee through the window.
Great, just great.
Klaus was mad at himself. He could understand that Caroline was annoyed with him, but still. It was his work after all.
He stared at the blue notebook he had bought as an replacement for Caroline's lost one. He sighed.
"That was meant for her." He answered Bonnie's questioning glance.
"It's going to be alright." Bonnie came around the desk and touched his shoulder. " Are you coming to the shooting range with me?" She asked him as a distraction.
"Yes." Klaus said after a moment. "But later. First I have to clear something up for myself."
He stood up and quickly walked out of the precinct.
"Klaus?... Hey, wait for me." Bonnie ran after him.
Klaus and Bonnie were sitting at a dining room table in front of them Maddox' sister, Greta.
"When was the last time you've seen your brother?" Klaus asked the young woman.
"Yesterday evening, he went to see this Tyler guy, to bring him the USB device " She got up and poured coffee in three cups "Sugar, milk?" She asked.
"No, thanks." Bonnie and Klaus replied and Greta handed them their cups. She put milk in hers and sat down again.
"But didn't Tyler already had the USB yesterday?" Bonnie asked curiously.
"No…" Greta looked guilty. "I had switched the devices. Maddox had told me about his order to steal the USB stick, and I really don't want terrorists to get their hands on a formula as dangerous as this one. So I secretly switched the device. Instead I put the formula for hydrogen peroxide twenty times on it. And yesterday Maddox had met up with Tyler and he threatened him. I mean, he obviously noticed that the wrong formula was on it. I ended up confessing everything to my brother and handed him the correct stick over. He immediately went to Tyler with it. I haven't seen him since. At first I thought he's mad at me, but… I start to believe that…Tyler did something to him….That's all my fault."
Greta started crying. Bonnie handed her a tissue. "Thank you."
"We'll do everything in our power to find him. I swear." Bonnie reassured her. Klaus was just silently watching. "Is there anything else that you can remember that might be of importance to us?" Bonnie asked.
"Dunno, if it's important, but, Maddox should hand over the stick yesterday at all costs, because Tyler said it's going to be sent away today." Greta said with a weak smile.
"And that's why Hayley returned to the sarcophagus and caught us…" Klaus said, deep in thought.
"Yeah, it could very well be that the secret compartment isn't empty anymore." Bonnie concluded his train of thought.
"I have to go to that wedding." Klaus stated.
"Elena? Elena?" Caroline was hurriedly scanning the mansion for the missing bride, when she ran into Stefan. Just great. Why did everything have to go wrong?
"Are you looking for Elena?" He asked her, the worry obvious.
"Ehm, nope. Have you seen her?" She wasn't sure which would be the better answer.
"Is she missing?" Yep, he was definitely worried.
"No, no." Caroline tried to calm him down. "We just wanted to make sure that you don't see her, because that would be bad luck and all…So you haven't seen her?" Stefan shook his head. "Not even in the back part of the house?"
"No." Stefan answered. He was probably questioning her sanity right now.
"Damn…good. Damn good. Well, I'll go back to her now."
Good job Forbes, acting like a mental case, she internally groaned. She had to find Elena and fast.
About that time Elena was in the basement of the mansion in one of the storage rooms, crying, while sitting on a big, long box. That was all just too much for her, she was afraid to go back up.
Suddenly she heard someone coming down the stairs. She figured it would probably be better to hide. Maybe whoever it was would go away. She hurriedly hid behind another box that was large enough to cover her even in her wedding gown.
A man with curly sandy blonde hair entered the room and started opening the box that she had just been sitting on. Elena was under the impression that he was nervous, which probably meant that he wasn't allowed to do whatever it was he was doing.
She came out of her hiding place and attacked him, dragging him down to the floor and twisting his right arm back.
"No wrong move. My roommate taught me self-defence." She said with a steady voice. She was proud of herself.
The man groaned "Great, you have to be Elena."
"And you're not on my guest list. Who are you?" She had to admit his accent was nice.
The guy turned his face and looked at her. She was seeing his face for the first time and it seemed familiar. "I'm Klaus. I'm a friend of Caroline's. "
"You're the sarcophagus cutie." She stated astonished.
"Sarcophagus cutie?!" He sounded offended.
"What are you doing here?" Elena wanted to know.
"Well, getting to the sarcophagus. And you? Shouldn't you be saying yes, I do right about now?"
"Yeah, but not yet. I don't even have my PhD" Elena felt guilty, deep down she knew she was making excuses.
"If you think so… it's your wedding." Klaus said dismissively.
"Well, it doesn't feel like it. I never wanted my wedding to take place in a mansion with 150 guests." Elena defended herself.
"Do you love the guy?" Klaus asked, while getting back at opening the box.
"Yes, sure." She answered.
"Then it's easy. If you really love him, then that should be the only thing that matters. No matter if you're afraid of the big always and forever or if you don't like the wedding cake. Because love hits you out of nowhere. You can't choose it. Even if it's a stubborn civilian that brought me twice into the hospital." He was surprised by what he ended up saying in the end. Did he really love her? He wasn't sure, though he knew he definitely felt something. Okay, he was falling. Hard. He admitted to himself.
"What are you talking about?" Elena was confused.
"Can you give me a hand?" Klaus said after a moment of silence, deliberately dodging her question. He motioned to the heavy top that he had to lift of the box.
"You want to get in it again? Are you living in the thing?" Elena smirked.
Though she helped him lift it. The sarcophagus cover was tied to the top, so when they opened the box they got a great view into the sarcophagus. And, well, Klaus had been right, it wasn't empty. Maddox was laying in it. The shot wound on his forehead visible.
"Already occupied." Klaus stated dryly. He would never doubt Caroline again.
Elena was bagging away, hands covered over her mouth to muffle her screams. The poor girl was shocked.
Both stilled in shock when they heard someone talking behind them.
"I'm pretty sure the girl will still fit in." Tyler said, gun pointed at them. He must have silently sneaked up. "Put your gun on the floor and kick it away. " He told Klaus. Realising he didn't have another option without endangering Caroline's best friend, he did as Tyler told him. "Get in there" He motioned for Elena to get into the Sarcophagus.
Elena, who was still under shock, slowly got in the sarcophagus. If she had to choose between dying and laying on top of a dead man, she' choose latter.
When Tyler closed the box again she started screaming.
"No, no, no. Get me out of here! Help!"
"Hush." Tyler just said and ignored her pleas. "Well, we're going to take the bride with us as a precaution. A police officer on the other hand is useless to us." A said directed to Klaus, an evil smirk playing on his lips.
"Police officer?" Klaus throat went dry.
Tyler just looked at him, as if to say Seriously?!
"I'm an art restorer" Klaus tried though deep down he knew it was pointless.
"Pff, please." Tyler replied, rolling his eyes.
Klaus took the chance to run and grab his gun, but Tyler was faster. He took the gun and but it in his waistband.
"No need to keep up the pretences. I know you're an officer. And a pretty bad one I might add. Otherwise you would have already realised that Shane is innocent and Hayley and I are using his art deliveries for smuggling."
Okay, he may have been a little slow, but he had figured it out in the end.
"Why exactly are you telling me that?" It couldn't mean anything good, of that he was sure.
"Because you won't be able to tell anyone."Tyler said, unlocking the gun.
The sound of a gun shot being fired echoed through the room, Klaus felt a pain in his chest, which made him black out while falling down on the floor.
Caroline had decided to check the upper level for Elena. She was coming up the staircase when she run into Hayley.
"Miss Forbes." The brunette greeted her.
"Mrs Shane." She replied politely.
"I didn't know you knew the bride." Hayley eyed her from head to toe. Caroline felt uncomfortable.
"She's a friend of a friend. I'm one of the bridesmaids. Have you seen Elena somewhere?" Since they were already talking, why not ask?
"Yes" Hayley answered to her surprise "Follow me."
Hayley let her into a room at the end of the hall.
"Is she in there? What kind of room is this?" Caroline asked.
"It's one of the guest rooms. Mr Salvatore was so kind to give it to me and my husband for the course of the wedding." Caroline kept awkwardly staying in the middle of the room, while Hayley went into an adjoining room.
"Aha, and where is your husband?" Caroline started to get a bad feeling that she couldn't quite place.
"He'll join us later. He just wouldn't get up this morning" Hayley replied.
Caroline cleared her throat. What the hell was Hayley doing in that room? "I thought you wanted to show me to Elena?"
"Yes, one moment please. She's in the garden. I'm just going to put on a jacket." Why the hell would she go into the garden, well, Elena's judgement clearly was clouded.
Caroline looked around the room and saw an open bag on the bed. In the middle of some clothes lay a notebook that had the same colour as her own.
"Mmh, that's funny. You have the same notebook as I" Caroline picked it up. Shit, that was her notebook.
"Have you read it?" She asked Hayley uncomfortably. She already knew the answer. When she turned around she saw Hayley standing in the door pointing a gun at her.
"What do you think?"
AN: Wow, so much drama ;)
Please share your thoughts :) you're reviews are what keeps me going ;)
Just a fair warning I got exams coming up, so that'd be the reason if i don't post around the weekend as usual.