So excited about the holiday coming up – time off – and excited about TO next week. And Klaus' upcoming visit to TVD in a future episode. Things seem right in the world. Thanks so much for all the reviews guys, really, I love them. Thank you! SwanQueen4055, chibichibi98, PerfectlyGoodHeart, clashcityrocker083, PLL and Victorious RULE, karmen238, , katrain21, Teamvampirebarbie22, jessnicole, Iansarmy, lanibapt, Ellavm18, DevilJolie, intothesoul, Micky-D12, Hopelessromanticatheart26, Jana4All, MicaPineyro, Nikki707, lateVMlover, Desi44, Kaylabeth21, Jelsi4ever, nightingale243, willowaus, willowaus and all the wonderful guests – thank you! Thanks for the follows and favorites too.

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Elijah asked if we could all talk, even though it was just after two in the morning. I reached the living room first. Pressing a glass of wine laced with blood in my hand, Elijah smiled at me. He so wasn't making this easier. I really dreaded telling him and Rebekah about Hayley. At the moment he seemed very pleased about something.

"Rebekah was quite convinced that Niklaus was torturing you upstairs," he said. "I was happy to find that wasn't true. Although I do regret interrupting what appeared to be a… special moment."

I couldn't fight the grin that spread across my face at that. "It didn't start out so special," I assured him. "And good to know you'd intervene if that had been the case."

"Absolutely." Elijah took a seat in one of the arm chairs, motioning for me to take a seat on the couch next to him. "Not trying to pry, Caroline, but can you tell me what happened while I was away? And can you tell me where Haley is?"

I blew out a sigh. "I'm so sorry," I started.

A large, warm hand slid over my shoulder. Klaus stood behind the couch, leaning over me. Elijah's expression sobered as he looked to his brother above me.

"Tyler Lockwood was here as Kol predicted," Klaus explained. "Haley left with him."

I shook my head. I tried to ease people into bad news. Klaus just applied that news with all the subtlety of a sledge hammer.

"What?" Rebekah asked. She marched around the couch, looking more put together than she had when she'd come in earlier. "Hayley left with Tyler? Are you serious?"

Elijah's surprise registered on his face. "She left with him willingly?"

The eldest original was looking at me for confirmation. I nodded.

"Hayley just left with him?" Rebekah was in complete disbelief. "Did you do nothing to stop them, Nik?"

I felt tension in Klaus' hand as he curled his fingers into the fabric of my shirt. I was tired and not in the mood for another round of explosive Mikaelson family fighting.

"Yeah, he did but… it was my fault they got away," I explained, keeping my gaze on Elijah because I felt like Haley's exit would have the biggest impact on him. I couldn't help but believe he had feelings for the she-wolf. "Tyler tried to bite me when I tried to get Haley back in the house and Klaus saved me from him. Tyler had friends with him who took off with Haley the minute Klaus was distracted and… he got away too. I'm so sorry."

Elijah's expression was pained but he held up a hand to me. "Caroline, please," his tone was kind. "This wasn't your fault. I'm just glad you weren't hurt."

"That little bastard tried to bite you?" Rebekah was incredulous as she took a seat on the coffee table in front of me. "Is that an official break up then?"

I snorted. "As far as I'm concerned."

Everything he'd said to me, how he'd acted. It still stung. But it wasn't as bad as it could have been. A small part of me was even relieved it was over.

"So what happened?" Leaning forward with her elbows on her knees, Rebekah waited for the story.

Klaus came around to sprawl out next to me on the couch as I told them everything that happened. He never once said anything as I told his siblings what happened from the time I realized that Tyler and Haley were in the garden up to their escape.

Rebekah was clearly furious when I finished my tale. "We took care of that little –"

"Rebekah," Elijah cut her off.

"And Tyler. Who does he think he is?" she demanded.

"He thinks he will use my child to create hybrids of his own," Klaus said bitterly. "He believes himself to be some revolutionary leading an army of hybrids against the great oppressors of werewolves."

"Vampires," Rebekah said. "They'll come after the vampires."

"Yeah, but for Tyler it's more specific." I glanced in Klaus' direction. "He wants to destroy you."

Klaus' expression told me that he'd love to see Tyler try just that.

"We have to get Haley back immediately," Elijah said, his mind made up. "Tyler may have drawn Haley to himself under false pretenses."

"False pretenses?" Rebekah pinned her brother with her best "duh" look. "They were an item before. Tyler cheated on Caroline with her. She was probably just waiting for him to come for her all this time."

Elijah winced at those words, his dark eyes alone betraying the emotion behind his normal calm facade. "I'll find her and I'll learn the truth."

"The truth is that she betrayed us," Rebekah glared at him. "She betrayed you."

Apparently Rebekah and I had similar thoughts on the subject of Elijah and Haley.

"The child she carries is part of this family," he pointed out. "We need to get her out of the hands of those who would use that child for ill whether it's against us or anyone else."

I nodded my agreement with him. As crazy as Tyler and Haley had both sounded tonight, the last thing anyone needed was for the two of them to be creating hybrids to unleash on the world. And using an innocent child? No.

"Fortunately, we've also had a bit of good news tonight," Elijah told us. "The witch I've been in contact with has been able to locate Kol's line of witches. The line remains perfectly intact."

Klaus sat up, the brooding look on his face transforming in an instant to one of great interest. "Where?"

"Virginia," Elijah announced. "Only a couple of hours away from Mystic Falls in fact."

That had my interest too. Close to Virginia? All the better for the possibility that they could bring back Bonnie.

"Was your witch able to give you any other details?" Klaus pushed. "Who they are? How many of them?"

Elijah smirked. "As a matter of fact, she was able to ascertain some other very useful bits of information. She gave us the name of the primary witch and the general location of she and her family."

Klaus' tilted his head in question. "Primary witch?"

"Yes, there are three of them. A mother and two young daughters," Elijah explained.

"Three." Klaus smiled, obviously getting some of his happy thoughts back. Three witches from that line meant they were super powerful. And the more powerful they were, the more Klaus would want them. "We need to pay this lady a visit as soon as possible."

I finished my wine, ready to help them in any way in this endeavor. Especially if the witches in question could get my friend back.

"Agreed," Elijah told him. "I had initially planned to go visit them myself but with tonight's turn of events…"

"I'd be glad to go talk to them," I offered, earning me a look from Klaus. "The witches, I mean."

"No," Klaus said flatly, his eyes narrowed at me.

"I'll stay here," Rebekah told them. "One of us should stay here and be seen so Marcel isn't alerted to our plans."

Rebekah had a reason for wanting to stay here in the city and I was going to get her to tell me who he was. Soon.

"You don't say," Klaus turned his gaze on her.

"You have a better idea, Nik?" she shot back at him.

"Klaus, I think it would be in our best interest if you remained here," Elijah told him. "Your absence would be most conspicuous."

Rebekah looked from one of her brothers to the other. "What's the plan then?"

"Klaus should remain here for Marcel's benefit," Elijah told us, rising from his chair. "I will pursue Haley and get her back. Rebekah, you and Caroline will travel to Virginia to meet with our new friends."

I thought it was a great plan.

"No," Klaus' lips pressed into a tight line as he regarded me, rising from the couch. "Caroline will remain here."

"What's wrong, Nik?" Rebekah smiled at him. "Afraid if Caroline goes to Virginia she won't come back?"

Klaus glared at her in a way that told me she'd hit very close to the truth. And she was going to ruin things for me if I didn't intervene. I wanted to go to see the witches they found, beg them if I had to for their help on Bonnie's behalf. If they could help. It was a slim chance, I realized. But I had to try.

"Let's talk about it in the morning," I suggested, producing a yawn for effect. It was a tactic that almost always worked on my Mom. If nothing else, it gave me more time to come up with compelling reasons why what I wanted made perfect sense. And what I wanted was to go to Virginia, in the hopes I'd be able to help Bonnie as she'd always been there for me. I was nothing if not motivated. "Everything will make more sense then. Okay?"

Rebekah's grin had a decidedly wicked quality about it as her gaze shifted from me to Klaus. Elijah's expression told me that he got what I was doing. I didn't expect to fool that particular Mikaelson anyway. Since my plans matched his, he allowed it.

"Good night," I told them, dropping my glass off in the kitchen before making my way to the stairs. In no particular hurry, I made my way to my room.

I never heard his approach. Before I could reach the door of my room, I felt his hand wrap around my upper arm. His expression was determined as he pulled me in the direction of his room for the second time tonight. He closed the door behind us, but didn't slam it.

Still, he wasn't happy. It was so obvious.

"We need to talk," Klaus told me.

"About what?" I asked, yawning for real as I made my way over to his bed and sat down at the edge of it. I was so tired.

"You know very well about what, sweetheart," he told me, following me to the bed and standing over me with his arms crossing his chest. "You're not going to Virginia with Rebekah."

"Why not?" I asked him, knowing what the answer was but curious to see what was going on in that diabolical brain of his. "Rebekah and I could do a bonding girl road trip. Besides, Rebekah, no offense, can come off a little scary at first. It would probably be best for me to go along, make sure things go smoothly."

"I know the real reason you want to go, Caroline," he told me, familiar suspicion clouding his face.

I wasn't going to lie about it. "You know why I want to go, Klaus. What if they could bring back Bonnie? And there are three of them, so they'll be super powerful, right? I have to try."

Sitting down next to me on the bed, he stared into my eyes. "Perhaps they can bring your witch friend back. Perhaps they can't. What happens then, Caroline?"

"Will I come back here?" I asked him. "That's the main thing you want to know, right?"

"Will you?" he asked.

There it was. That vulnerability that lurked in the shadows behind his eyes. And didn't I know that feeling all too well?

All three of them, Elijah, Rebekah, and most especially Klaus had one very strong common trait – loneliness. Even though they had each other, they all yearned for a different kind of love. Romantic love. And they'd had centuries to endure the lack of someone special in their lives. It drove them to act as they wouldn't normally. Elijah, the eldest and most deadly vampire in the world, was ready to go out looking for Haley himself. He could have someone do that for him. He had the excuse of her child as reason for his actions, but the truth was she'd made an exit from his life. She'd taken a certain amount of hope from him and he wanted it back.

Rebekah? I'd once told her that I didn't sleep with everyone who I made eye contact with but in truth, she wasn't so different from me. She just wanted someone to love her.

And Klaus…

I brought my hand up to touch his face, smoothing my palm along the stubble of his jaw. His eyes slid closed for a moment as he seemed to enjoy my touch.

"Klaus, if we're going to even try this," I began, "and I'm kind of freaking out just thinking about it, there has to be trust. You know?"

Capturing my hand in his and pulling it into his lap, he smirked at me. "Trust is earned, love. And there have been quite a few interactions with you where that trust wasn't exactly established."

Well, okay. He had a point there.

"Okay, so I'll have to show you that you can trust me, right?" I grinned at him.

"That's what you said of friendship, Caroline," he reminded me.

"Isn't friendship the foundation of any relationship really?"

"Perhaps," he answered. "But I plan to be much more than just your friend, Caroline."

And he meant it. He wasn't expressing a wish, he was stating his intention. It was scary and exciting all at the same time.

"Let me go with Rebekah to Virginia, Klaus. I will show you that you can trust me," I told him. "I'll come back."

He wasn't buying it. His gaze searched my face for a long moment before he spoke.

"And what reason would you have to return?" he asked me. "Your friends are there in Virginia, your mother. You'd have me believe that you'd simply return to me instead if I permit you to go with my sister."

"Yes," I said simply. "Look I know there is so much to think about here. Yeah, my family and friends are in Mystic Falls. I miss them, I miss being at home. I can't even begin to imagine what they'd think if I told them about all this…"

His hand tightened around mine. He listened with those blue eyes drinking me in.

"But there's no point in even thinking that far ahead if we can't trust each other," I told him. "Without trust, this just won't work. Let me go with Rebekah. I'll come back. I have reasons to come back. I want to help you stop Tyler. I want to see where this, me and you, is headed, I guess."

I still couldn't believe I was here, with Klaus, evil hybrid extraordinaire, saying what I was saying. Harder to believe still, I meant it.

But then it wasn't the original hybrid I was talking to. I was talking to the gentle man beneath it all who loved me. The man who just wanted to be loved in return.

After a moment, Klaus smirked at me. "You realize that if you should fail to return, I'll hunt you down."

I had to laugh at that. It sounded a bit less menacing than it would under different circumstances.

"I know," I told him.

"I'll allow you to go, Caroline. I'll trust you."

It wasn't lost on me the emphasis he put on the word trust.

"Thank you," I told him. Staring at our joined hands, I yawned. "So I guess we should get some sleep."

"Sleep here, with me," he said. "I've missed that."

My gaze cut to the huge flat screen TV that I never saw him watch. "Can I watch your TV?"

He smiled, flashing those dimples at me.

"Of course," he said after a moment.

It took me about ten minutes to go to my room and change into modest pajamas, do my nightly routine. I came back to find him sprawled across the bed on top of the bedding, shirtless but still wearing his jeans. He held out a remote control to me, smirking.

"I haven't gotten to watch a real TV in over a week," I told him happily. I crawled onto the bed with him, taking the remote and finding one of my favorite movies on one of the premium channels. He had every channel I'd ever heard of and a few I hadn't.

Sighing in contentment, I snuggled up to him, my head pillowed on his chest. His arms closed around me and he pressed a kiss into my hair.

"Goodnight, love," he whispered.

"Goodnight."

As the unique scent of him permeated my senses, I savored the strength and comfort of his arms. It felt so good to be there. So… right?

With all that we'd all been through in the last couple of years, special moments were few and far between. There were so many things to think about, not the least of which was the fact that I was falling in love with Klaus Mikaelson. But I pushed it out of my mind for the night, enjoying being held, being safe, until I fell asleep.