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Chapter 14

An hour or better seemed to pass without notice. Elijah had finally grown tired and with Klaus there to watch over K, he was given the chance to not only sleep, but leave. He told his brother he'd be in a hotel and his phone would be on if Klaus needed anything. Klaus did little more than nod and listen while Elijah left. In truth, the eldest didn't want to remain behind. The scene between both Klaus and K was personal, intimate and not something to be spied on. He wanted to give them privacy. Besides, it made him miss Hayley more than he thought he would.

The sun began to rise high into the sky. It was nearing midday when Klaus finally felt K begin to shift and possibly rouse. Until then, she'd done little more than curl against his side, wrap her body around him and give him the chance to cradle her. They lay comfortably that way for hours. Klaus continued to stroke her hair and hold her while staring out into the room as his mind took account of everything that had happened in the passed week.

When he felt her begin to shift, his hand stopped moving and his eyes shifted to her. K took in a long, drawn out breath and her muscles flexed. She was waking and he felt it. Eventually, when she took another deep breath, K opened her eyes.

It took her a moment to focus on her surroundings. She recognized her room immediately and began to let her mind fill in what happened. She remembered the clinic, being sedated and Elijah appearing. She remembered him taking her home to feed her and then nothing. Considering she was lying in bed, K assumed she'd fallen asleep, but began to notice it wasn't a pillow beneath her head. Clenching the fist that held a shirt instead of a pillow, K was suddenly very aware there was a body beneath her.

Worried she might have been cuddling with Elijah, K slowly shifted enough she could look up. The blue eyes, blond hair and full lips of the man she was holding were in stark contrast to the one she'd thought would have been there. Her brows came together as she pushed herself up so she could sit and meet Klaus's eyes. He said nothing, but there was a smile on his lips.

Still confused, K looked around her apartment for any sign of the elder Mikaelson brother. Without him there, K began to wonder if she'd hallucinated what happened the night before or not. Hesitantly, she looked back to Klaus.

"Why are you here?" she asked. Her voice was heavy with sleep and sickness.

"You called me." He answered easily.

"Two days ago." She replied. K began to feel a bit of anger rise inside her. She couldn't help it. His sudden appearance didn't make her feel safe or happy. Instead it reminded her that he'd sent her away and that was the reason she was dying. And even when she called to ask for his help, he ignored her leaving her to die alone. "Where's Elijah?"

"Gone to get some rest."

She nodded mostly to herself. K's eyes continued to dart around to the room, focus on anything that wasn't Klaus. Eventually, she didn't even want to sit beside him in bed. As though trying to prove to him she was stronger than she felt, K scooted to the edge of the mattress.

"Well, thanks for coming, but I don't need your help." She replied before throwing her legs over the edge and attempting to stand. Immediately it felt as though the blood rushed from her head and her vision turned black.

Klaus was at her side before she hit the ground, looping his arms beneath her and lifting her into the air. He saw her eyes lose focus and knew she was still far too ill to move too much.

"You need your rest." He told her softly.

"Let go of me." K said, pushing at his chest and ignoring his statement entirely.

Klaus didn't release her until he was sure she wouldn't injure herself. He was hurt by her reaction to his helping her –especially after she clung to him in her sleep- but he didn't say anything about it. He wanted to avoid their inevitable fight for as long as possible. He remained silent as he set her down and she scooted further away from him, returning to her spot near the headboard.

"I'm sorry." He found himself saying. The words escaped entirely unprovoked and he didn't like it.

K had taken to holding her knees to her chest as she thought of a way out of her current situation when Klaus spoke. Her eyes gradually lifted to see him standing only a few feet away and looking as uncomfortable as she felt. Hesitantly he met her gaze.

"I never thought this would happen when I sent you away."

"I know." K muttered into her knees. She took a deep breath and sighed. K lowered her legs and simply crossed them. "I know you didn't."

She began to pick at her nails. It was a nervous habit and one she wished she could break, especially when it forced her to see the damage done by the poison. Growling to herself, K grabbed the cuffs of her shirt and pulled the fabric down over her hands, shielding them from sight.

"What happened?" he asked. The letter had only gone into some detail and Elijah gave him nothing. He had to know.

"Assassins. Mercenaries. Hunters." She said. Her voice had turned weak in the short span of time. "Whatever you want to call them. They ambushed me outside a hospital. Their bullets were laced with some kind of poison. I would've been fine, but I had too much of it in my system."

Klaus felt his gut twist. "Automatic weapons."

K scoffed, but nodded. Klaus's jaw tensed. Sometimes he hated modern weaponry. With the right kind of ammunition, it could be deadly even to them.

Slowly, he took a seat on the edge of the bed about a foot from her. They sat in silence. One thought of everything that had happened the passed few days, the death and her own mortality while the other dwelled on the fact he no longer wanted to be alone. In that they agreed. Neither wanted to be alone, but neither were brave enough to speak it out loud.

"What's happening in New Orleans?" K finally asked after minutes of silence passed.

Klaus took a heavy breath and sighed. He didn't bother lying to her. There was no need.

"The Guerra clan are taking back the Quarter." He replied thickly. "They're killing or threatening every vampire within its borders. The witches have joined them. The compound's been all but abandoned save a few day walkers who've chosen to remain behind and Genevieve decided to link the twelve stones to me."

"Link?" she asked. Klaus shook his head heavily. He still kept his gaze out on the room instead of looking at her which she was partially grateful for.

"In using my blood in the spell, she's ensured the stones draw my strength during the full moon."

K sighed to herself. She fought the urge to say I told you so when it came to the dead redhead. She's warned Klaus that he wanted his wolf army too badly and others knew it, but he hadn't listened and now seemed to be suffering for it.

"Once a month, my strength is divided between twelve rings."

"Twel… but I took two of them off the wolves' bodies."

"Lost in the confusion." He replied under his breath. She could hear the agitation he still felt at the thought of having two stones in his grip and losing them.

"And everything else?"

Klaus slowly turned to look at her. He didn't have to answer and she hadn't really expected him to. His normally vibrant blue eyes were clouded. They weren't black like she'd seen them before whenever he was in a rage, but they were cloudy gray. They were the color of sadness and desperation. The loss of his daughter was so fresh it might as well have happened an hour prior. As sad as it was to think, it reminded K that Klaus was 'human'. The fact he cared about something other than himself was a sign he wasn't the complete monster he wanted others to believe him to be.

Klaus suddenly took another deep breath and sighed as he pushed himself up. He glanced around the apartment before turning to K and offering her his hand. She hesitated to move until she knew the purpose of it.

"How soon can you be packed?" he asked with his hand still extended.

"Excuse me?"

"You're coming home with us." He explained. Klaus lowered his hand when she didn't take it. He wasn't going to leave it there and look foolish.

K slowly raised a single brow. She wondered if he thought the way he was phrasing the command sounded friendly in his mind than when it came out.

"No," she replied finally. "I'm not."

Klaus's expression dropped slightly. That hadn't been the answer he was expecting.

"Yes," he answered in the same tone. "You are."

"No I'm not." She said strongly.

"You can't stay here."

"Why?" she shot back. They were on the verge of arguing.

"Because clearly you can't protect yourself."

Klaus knew he'd phrased his sentence wrong the moment it escaped his lips. He hadn't meant for it to sound so callous. What he'd meant to tell her was she clearly was in danger, but somehow it came out as an insult.

Horror and anger was written across her features.

"You need to leave." She said.

K even went so far as to point towards the door. When Klaus didn't move, she stood and began pushing at his chest, but her actions held nearly no strength and again she stood too quickly. She only managed to shove him twice before her skin turned sickly white and pasty. When she began to waver, Klaus again swooped in and held her to keep her from falling.

He took her to the bed again and gently laid her down so she could rest comfortably before sitting next to her. Klaus reached forward and touched her skin. She was clammy and sweating from nothing more than standing up.

"You're still too weak." He said softly given his proximity. Klaus's eyes instinctively fell to her throat. "You have to feed."

K nodded. She pressed her palm to her forehead to try and ebb the headache that throbbed between her temples. She didn't even have the strength to fight anymore or protest because she was too proud to feed from the hybrid. She only wanted to sickness to end.

Lacing his arms around her, Klaus lifted K up. She moved with him, but had to admit to herself she relied more on his guidance than she would have liked. He brought her to his chest and held her lightly. K didn't bother asking or waiting for permission before rearing back and sinking her teeth into his throat. Klaus bit back the reflexive groan that wanted to escape and simply cradled her to him. He let her feed without inhibition.

K fed from Klaus for awhile. Neither were sure how long had passed before she finally felt full and released him. Klaus was amazed he was lightheaded when she was finished. Never had he ever felt that way when feeding anyone his blood. Her appetite seemed to know no bounds.

K, on the other hand, felt nothing but better. Her stomach was full as though she'd drained an elephant and because of it she fell uselessly back onto the bed. Klaus eyed her. His blood stained her lips and a bit of her chin but didn't make it passed there. Of the pints she drank, it appeared K hadn't wasted a drop. He smiled to himself at the thought, but soon diverted his attention to the gray of her skin.

He reached forward and gently took the loose collar of the men's shirt she was still wearing and pulled it open. Despite having seen her in her entirety before, Klaus kept it decent and only examined the necrotic skin. He watched –amazed and relieved- as the gray visibly began to diminish. It sank further and further down her body until disappearing beneath the fabric. He wasn't going to pull it down any more than he had already because it would quickly turn indecent. He smiled to himself. While Elijah's blood had healed her inches, his seemed to have done nearly five times as much.

K slipped into another blood-induced coma. She didn't notice she was being examined or feel Klaus lift her arm to inspect it. The appendage was still gray, but the veins had vanished. Again, Klaus felt nothing but glad for it. The reaction should have been expected though.

Elijah was an Original Vampire. He was immune to nearly everything that plagued the rest of his race, including toxins. He could heal from anything, so naturally his blood was a type of cure. Klaus, on the other hand, was the Original Hybrid. He not only had the healing strength of the vampires, but the werewolves as well. He was over millennia old and truly immune to everything. Elijah was the glass of orange juice you drank while sick. Klaus was the shot of penicillin.

Klaus set her arm back at her side and stood. He reached for the edge of the comforter and pulled it over the sleeping young woman before stepping away. As he walked into the living room, he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and selected a specific number. If his brother had gone to sleep, Klaus wasn't going to wake him. Instead he elected to text.

"You're free to return to New Orleans." He wrote. "I'll take care of Kalli."

And sent the message. Klaus returned to phone to his pocket and thought about what he might do the few hours that were going to pass while K slept.

~!~

Pink, purple and blue saturated her bedroom by the time K roused from another blood-coma. Like before it took her a moment to remember she was in her room. She wasn't sure why she had trouble remembering she was at home, but K figured that it was perhaps because she was so used to things suddenly changing around her. Sometimes, she had indeed woken up somewhere else than where she'd gone to sleep.

Stepping out of bed, it took K a few steps before she realized she wasn't lightheaded. She felt better, not complete, but a great deal better than before and it was amazing. A smile began to tug at her lips when she noticed something interesting. Klaus was asleep on her couch. He was sitting in the corner with an elbow propped on the arm and his head resting in his hand. It looked a bit uncomfortable.

"Klaus,"

He woke quickly at nothing more than her saying his name. She hadn't even said it loudly. His eyes darted around before landing on the young woman standing a few feet from him. Klaus relaxed, yawned and stretched before standing.

"Feeling better?"

K nodded. "Is that why you're still here? To make sure I didn't die in my sleep?"

"Something like that." He replied with an edge to his words. He didn't like that she spoke so freely about dying. "Now then, you should change before we leave?"

K cocked a brow. "Excuse me?"

Klaus's eyes drifted and focused on something near the door. K followed his line of sight and noticed suitcases resting by her front door.

"You packed my bags?" she asked in shock.

"You're coming home with me, back to New Orleans."

"No, I'm not."

The same argument from before was about to begin again and both of them knew it, but did nothing to stop it.

"You don't belong here." He told her simply. "You need to come home."

"I can't leave, not yet."

Klaus hesitated to keep arguing. Not yet was something she hadn't said before.

"I have a few things I need to do first." She continued. "A few things I need to figure out."

Klaus's eyes narrowed slightly. It wasn't annoyance, but confusion that caused him to pause.

"What do you mean you have things to figure out?" he asked hesitantly.

K didn't immediately offer an answer. Instead, her eyes fell to the floor and she thought of a way to try and phrase what was running through her mind. She wanted her revenge first, but that was a sentiment Klaus would gladly stand behind. He was –if anything- the King of Vengeance. But there was something else, something more that she had trouble putting into words.

"After I kill the four who tried to kill me, I need a break." She admitted.

"From what?" he asked before he could stop himself.

K's eyes traveled to his and he knew he wouldn't like the answer.

"From everything." She replied. Klaus's jaw tensed. "I'm a little lost, Klaus. Everything is just so…" she hesitated to find the right word. "Chaotic. It's all a little too chaotic right now."

"What are you telling me?"

Klaus didn't ask because he wasn't sure. He asked because he feared he knew, but was growing impatient while she danced around it. If there was one thing Klaus admired and expected in others, it was directness. He had no time for people sidestepping the point. If anything it annoyed him.

"I can't go back to New Orleans just yet. I thought I was stronger than I am." She said. "I nearly died."

"That has nothing to do with strength."

"I've grown complacent." She snapped.

K didn't mean to turn angry, but she had trouble avoiding it. She was angry with herself, mad that she no longer had the instincts she thought she did or the ruthless nature she once had. Most of the Bennetts let her be the monster she was because it was needed for the time. They needed her to be like that as the vampire population grew, wars raged and famine stretched across every country they called home. They needed her to be the killer, the hunter, but after Emily… When Emily died, it became nothing more than decades of K placating the Bennetts, trying to win back their approval because she was too weak to be alone. She had never been alone before and it scared her. She became weak, insecure and damn near human which were dangerous traits for a vampire. She didn't have a home anymore, a place or role in her own life. She was simply following everyone else's, caught up in the wake of those around her and she hated it. Being forced to confront her mortality made K realize just how far she'd slipped.

K sighed after she'd yelled at Klaus unprovoked. She ran her fingers through her hair, but stopped at the bun. It barely served a purpose anymore, so she didn't hesitate to yank the hair tie out and let her locks free. She briefly scratched the back of her head as she thought about what to say.

"I've become damn near human," she finally said when she met his gaze. "And I don't like it."

"There's nothing wrong with what you are." He muttered. He wasn't sure why he offered that as an answer, but he had. To him, it sounded like K was beginning to loathe who she was and he didn't like it. Her humanity kept his gruesome nature in check and he was wise enough to know it was necessary.

"What I am is a monster." She corrected. "And I've forgotten that."

Klaus didn't immediately speak. He simply stared at K and noticed determination begin to swell within her. He knew it was pointless to try and talk her out of whatever she had planned because she was too thick headed to listen. It was a trait he both loved and hated in her.

"Well then," he said after a lengthy silence. Klaus didn't bother telling her he wanted her to come home with him again. He didn't tell her he needed her to steady his ever shattering world or that her leaving again meant he was completely alone. He told her what she needed to hear. "I'll remain here until you're healed, then return home. You're welcome to return too, whenever you're finished finding yourself." He didn't spare the sarcasm. Klaus felt he was entitled to be at least a little offended by her choice.

K didn't remark on the tone. She didn't want a fight, not really, and decided instead to move passed it.

Against his better judgment, Klaus did as he said he would. He remained behind so K could feed one final time. That feeding was enough to give her immune system the boost it needed to fight off the rest of the disease. The pair marveled at the sheer amount of his blood she'd ingested. They each silently agreed his blood outweighed her own within her body.

By the following morning, Klaus was gone along with Elijah leaving K to do whatever it was she thought she needed to.