Hey guys!

So, I know the last chapter was kind of a cliffhanger, but it was one of the less dramatic ones, so . . . yeah. Thanks for all of your reviews, and please do let me know if you're interested in that other fic I'll be starting right after this one. I'm going to call it Stone Cold Silence. What do you think of the name, by the way?

Thanks to;

RippahGoneWolf, ILoveAllBooksTVDKlaroline-Kol, IrishBeauty294, SophieSheeran, justine, SwanQueen4055, Aaaammber, MarSalvatore, glevez25, BuChE GriiL 176, ApekshaStar, Grace5231973, LittleMissBrit, klaroline82911, Mystery Girl3, and PsychVamp.

There weren't really any questions asked last chapter, so that's alright. If you do have any questions though, make sure you review and mention them, and I'll be sure to answer to the best of my ability.

Can I just say, though . . . . THIS FIC HAS REACHED OVER 600 REVIEWS! Thank you so much guys, I can't . . . I don't even know what to say, but thank you!

Enjoy!

Megz

oxox

The next day, Klaus knocked on the door of Caroline's chambers. She'd been in there for four days now, and Tyler had assured him that, even for Caroline, that was long enough. Not seeing her, even though it had only been for a little while, had almost killed him. It had been torture, wondering what was going through her mind. And now, all that stood between them was the door to her only thing was . . . Klaus wasn't really sure what to expect. He knew that Caroline was mad at him, although he'd already explained most of the story, and the fact that he genuinely hadn't made the connection, but Tyler coming back . . . it changed things. He was her first love, and whether it had been just a teenage romance, or real love, it did change things.

But, he still had hope. Caroline loved him. She'd said so. And just last week, she'd told him that it was the truest thing she'd ever felt. Surely that had to mean more than whatever she'd had with Tyler? And who's to say her feelings for him would even still be there? In the short year that Klaus had known Tyler, he'd changed dramatically. When Klaus had first met him, Tyler had been a kind, polite, but scared little boy. Now, he was a sarcastic, stubborn, and confident man. Could Caroline still find it in herself to love him now? Klaus hoped not.

He heard Caroline sigh from behind the door, and get up to answer the door. He heard the familiar beat of her heart, a sound that he found oddly comforting, though he'd never realized it before. He heard her delicate hand unlock the door, and he breathed a small sigh of relief, because, for a moment, he'd honestly believed that she wasn't going to open the door. She opened the door just a crack, and he caught a glimpse of those beautiful blue-green eyes. She blinked at him curiously, and opened the door wider.

If he was being honest, he'd expected her to look a lot worse. He'd been expecting wild hair, tired eyes, and a tear-stained face. But that was not what he found. Instead, she stood in one of her finer dresses, with her hair pulled back from her face. Her eyes were bright, and sparkling, and her face was as smooth and flawless as ever. Even the room was in a better state than he'd imagined. The bed was perfectly made, and the floor clear. Even the curtains had been pulled as far back as possible, to let as much light in as they could.

"Yes?" she said simply, and Klaus was surprised once again. She sounded so . . . formal. She didn't sound sad, but then she didn't exactly sound happy either. She just sounded . . . indifferent. Like nothing that had happened a few days ago had affected her in the slightest. But he knew what she was doing. He'd done it plenty of times, over the years. She was building a wall. Pretending she couldn't feel, that things didn't hurt her, that she didn't care. She was building a wall, and somehow, he'd ended up thrown out in the cold.

"May I come in?" he asked, and Caroline nodded, stepping aside to let him in. As he passed her, he breathed in her familiar scent of lavender and fresh bread. Another thing about her that he found oddly comforting, her scent. He hadn't realized how much he needed these things before, how much he loved them. He crossed to the other side of the room, and sat on the edge of her bed, gesturing for her to join him. But instead of sitting next to him like she would have done a few days ago, she crawled over to sit at the top of the bed, crossing her legs, and placing her hands in her lap.

So, that was it. They were right back to the way they were before, all because Tyler Lockwood had decided to come for a visit.

"Caroline, let me explain," Klaus began, but Caroline interrupted him.

"There's nothing to explain." she said simply, moving her gaze to look out of the window. It was hard to believe that, just a few days ago, they'd been in love, and hopefully, soon to be married. Because, if anyone looked at them now, nobody would believe it.

"Don't act like this isn't affecting you, love." he replied, turning to her, and getting closer. He reached over, and placed a finger under her chin, making her face him. It was an action that, a few weeks ago, would have resulted in her kissing him lightly, and laughing. Now, he was met with a blank, seemingly unseeing expression. "Please, just . . . tell me what I can do to fix this."

"You can't 'fix this'" her voice fell, and Klaus saw the wall deteriorating. She looked down at her hands in her lap, and Klaus could hear her heart beating loud and clear in the silence between them. "I just . . . I don't understand, how could you do that? You killed so many people, just because you wanted protection? So many people died, just so you could get what you wanted!"

"I know." Klaus replied, his voice falling too. He'd done some unthinkable things in his past, things he never wanted Caroline to find out about, and this was one of them. Forcing people into being like him, taking their choices away, putting their lives in the balance in the process. "I was . . . foolish. It's one of the many things I will never forgive myself for, and I don't expect you to either. I wanted power, I wanted to be feared. But I think, at the same time, I didn't want to be alone."

"Why Tyler?" she asked, looking him right in the eye, and Klaus could tell that she was deadly serious now. She wanted, no, needed answers.

"When I found him, wandering the woods . . . he was dying," he told her, catching the fear and curiosity in her eyes. "From what, I was never really sure, but, by making him into a hybrid, it saved him. I'm not entirely sure how that worked, but it did. That's why him."

"I need to see him," Caroline said, suddenly, jumping up from her sitting position. She lept from the bed, and Klaus just sat, watching, as she grabbed a dark cloak from her wardrobe. She fastened it at her neck carefully, and pulled the hood over her head. She looked so determined, Klaus didn't even know what to say. A few days ago, she would have sat with him for hours, deep in conversation. He would hold her, and she would rest her head on his chest, telling him stories of her village. But now, it was clear that things had changed.

Caroline and Tyler walked through the woods, laughing and catching up with each other. Caroline had pulled the hood of her cloak down, and her hair was flowing around her shoulders again. Unbeknownst to her, Tyler was currently watching the way the sunlight bounced off her blonde hair, highlighting it with strands of gold. He couldn't believe how being apart for just one year, could feel like a life-time. Although, it was becoming clear to him that Caroline was not the same girl he'd left behind in that village. She had become so much more independent so much stronger, so much more sure of herself.

While the Caroline he knew had been stubborn at times, and even a little tetchy, this Caroline was entirely different. The scared little girl she had once been had vanished, as had the neurotic control freak that he'd loved. She was now kind-hearted, still a little shy, but a trifle outspoken, and she just . . . glowed. It had taken a while for her to open up to him, and really be herself, but it was clear to him now. She just gave of this . . . brilliant light, and contagious joy, it was strangely comforting.

He wondered though, if that had anything to do with Klaus. After all, before he'd come along, they were pretty much engaged to be married. He didn't really think him coming back had changed that, but she hadn't seen Klaus in days, as far as he knew. If she loved him, she wouldn't be able to bear being apart from him. It was foolish to think that Caroline loved him, of course, but maybe, just maybe, there was still something there? He wouldn't push it though. It was up to her. She'd made a new life for herself here, just as he had elsewhere. He wasn't going to mess all that up for her, not this time.

"So where are you living now?" she asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Klaus got a house build for me, a few towns away from here," Tyler replied, looking straight ahead as he walked. While he found that Caroline was confident, she often looked down at the floor when talking to him, or blushed, tucking hair behind her ear. It seemed her shyness was one thing she had not overcome entirely. But while she was shy and quiet sometimes, not even looking him in the eye, Tyler looked straight ahead, chin held high, and shoulders squared. He gave off an unfamiliar air of confidence, and Caroline wondered whether he had gotten it from Klaus. What she didn't see, however, was the underlying tone of arrogance. She was too blinded by the fact that she had her best friend back.

"I say house, but it's actually quite a lot larger than what I'm used to . . ." he continued, "He even paid a few of his old servants to come and work for me. It's alright, but as I'm the only one living there, it gets quite lonely sometimes. But I don't mind. I like the quiet."

Caroline nodded, suddenly uninterested in his answer. She tried to think of other questions to ask him, something to keep the conversation going. It seemed that that's all she was doing now, just trying to keep the conversation going, rather than being genuinely interested in what he had to say. But Tyler beat her to it.

"What are you doing with him, Caroline?"

"I don't believe that's any of your business," Caroline replied, shocked that Tyler would even ask such a question. "You left me for a year, Tyler. And while you did give me a reason, you could have at least sent me a letter, or something. Something to show me that you were alive, or that you even cared. And don't you dare say you didn't get a chance, because you live by yourself, for God's sake! You probably have all the time in the world! So, in the end, it either comes down to you forgetting me, wanting me to move on, or not caring enough to even write. And to be honest, if you did forget about me, then that just shows that you don't care.

But if you wanted me to move on, that's what I'm doing with him! It took a year, but I finally moved on, and I love him! I love him Tyler, and then you had to come along, and mess it all up. Because now, I don't know what I feel for you, or if it even matters, compared to what I feel for him. But what I do know is that now you're back, I can't marry him, until I figure out my own feelings. So thank you, Tyler, for once again, unravelling my life in the palm of your hand, without even trying!"

And then, the clouds began to form in the sky, and thunder began to rumble in the distance. It was oddly fitted to the situation, that the Sun would disappear back behind the clouds, and then the drops of rain began to fall. Caroline pulled her hood back up, and ran back towards the castle, not looking back.

Caroline ran into the castle through a stone, arched doorway that she'd discovered at the side. She threw her hood back to reveal her perfectly dry hair. She unclasped her cloak from around her neck, and folded it over her arm, realizing just how wet it had gotten. She smoothed it lightly with her hand, attempting to dry it, if only a little. She shivered, and walked down the hallway, getting warmer with each step. As she passed through another archway, a voice from behind made her stop in her tracks.

"Back so soon, love?"

She turned to see Klaus, leaning against one side of the archway, which was why she hadn't seen him before. He smiled at her, and she couldn't help but smile back. But still, her smile was different, it was more . . . it was more like she was holding back. Like it didn't quite mean the same thing it used to.

"Yes well, I heard everything I needed to hear," she replied simply, as he took a few steps closer.

"And . . . ?" he asked expectantly, and she knew what he was asking, she could tell even without looking at the heartbreakingly hopeful expression on his face. And she wished she didn't have to disappoint him. She wished she could tell him what she knew he wanted to hear; that she didn't have any feelings for Tyler any more, whatsoever, and him being there didn't change anything. That she could still marry him. But she couldn't. She had to be honest with him, that was one thing they'd always had from the beginning, honesty.

"I'm sorry, Niklaus," she spoke softly, as if trying to soften the blow somehow. As stupid as it was, she really didn't want to hurt him, not because of how he'd react, but she just didn't like the idea of him being in pain. And the idea of not being with him, at least for a while, hurt her too. More than she could bear. But if she was going to be with him, she wanted to be absolutely sure it was what she wanted. She didn't want to ever change her mind, because she wanted to be with him for the rest of her life more than anything. "But I can't marry you, at least not yet. I have to be sure that I don't have feelings for Tyler any more. He's changed, and I need the chance to get to know him again, before I can be sure."

"I understand," he muttered, looking down at the floor, and then composing himself, his eyes flitting back to hers. "I can give you until two days before my coronation. That's ten days, will that be enough?"

Caroline nodded, and in a blink, he was gone.

Somewhere on the outskirts of an unknown village.

Atticus Shane rode his horse round the dirt paths, trying to follow a route he could barely even remember. Emily had told him once, of a house not that far from the castle. She told him she had lived there for many years, and had even taken him there one day, as they gathered her spellbooks. She'd told him, once she'd been dragged to live in the castle, that she dreamed of going back there one day. If there was anywhere she would be, it would be there.

Because the thing was, while he knew Emily was alive, he didn't actually know where she was. She'd told him of her plan to fake her death from the start, saying it was the only way to ensure her safety after performing the spell for Klaus. She knew he had a habit of killing people once he was done with them, and Shane knew she was right. So that was exactly what she'd done, but on the day that she 'died', Shane had never gotten a chance to ask where she was going to go, and the house was his best bet. Because if she wasn't there, he was in trouble.

Suddenly, he caught sight of a woman, stood in the middle of the road, clutching a basket in her fists. She wore a dark grey dress and apron that billowed in the wind, and had a white bonnet or cap pulled low over her face. But he could still recognize her caramel skin, her dark, teasing brown eyes, and the curve of her thick, red lips. Like he could forget that face so fast.

He hopped off his horse, tying it to a nearby tree, and ran towards the woman, running a hand through his tangled hair. She pulled the cap off, knowing she'd been recognized, and let her thick, black hair fall around her shoulders.

Emily.

Well? I know, it really wasn't my best, but please . . . REVIEW!