"Caroline checks on Jeremy while he's living in Denver, and ends up in an intimate situation with Kol." –irisgoddess
"kol was killed just like on the show. Now he is Carolines 'guardian angel' if he is successful he gets his life back" –little miss michelle
"Ghost Kol could haunt Caroline for fun. I'm sure that would be an amusing story.
Ghost Kol comes back to haunt Nik's girl to see what is so special about the blond. He soon finds out she's fiesty and snarky and they end up bickering non stop. Maybe he has the ability to dream walk and gives her a nightmare or something. But as much as they have a hate relationship they soon care for eachother and theirs lots of sexual frustration. To bad he is a ghost!" – AngelinaGuerin
"Can you do like one of those Greek myths?" –Smoldering Blue Eyes
"Or maybe psyche?" –QueenVamp
"Caroline go to the other side for getting Kol back (after 4*12 TVD)" –butterflymm19
I don't even know what I did here...
This is the sequel to 'well this is torturous electricity'. Inspired by Calie15's Darling Pan fic, 'In my heart, that's where you belong'.
Merry Christmas!
Caroline has no idea where she is except unlike most of the time if such a time would happen instead of her panicking and trying to figure out where she is, she is calm as she realizes she's at a batting cage. She's never really been to one in person as Mystic Falls is more of a football town. Basketball during the season but baseball isn't a big sport there.
She has no idea how she ends up there but she keeps walking, passing by people with blurred or shadowed faces, their indiscernible chattering like the buzzing of bees along with the baseballs being shot out by the machines.
She stops to watch one of the people inside the cages, hitting the baseballs effortlessly with a bat. She eyes the back of one boy, his grey sweater stretching with every pitch of his wooden bat. She watches him, trying to understand why she is there when his bat breaks into two at a particularly hard blow.
He mutters something before finally turning to face her. Her heart skips one, two beats at the familiar face. Kol Mikaelson is grinning at her as he swaggers towards the cage's door, opening it effortlessly and she takes several steps back as the barrier between them is gone.
He takes it all in stride but doesn't come closer, still grinning at her but it was more of a smirk now. "Hello, sweetheart,"
She blinks at him for several seconds before realization hits her. "I'm dreaming."
He nods. "Yes."
She feels confused and the swimming, weightlessness in her head begins to throb into one giant headache. "W-What?"
He doesn't mind her and looks around. "This is a batting cage in Denver. Back when I was posing as Jeremy's friend. I quite liked this place."
"Wait," She's trying to get a grip on things. "Why are you in my dreams? And why would I even dream this place up? I've never even been to Denver."
"Yes, but I have." He replied like it made the most sense.
"Wait, are you controlling this dream?" A beat of horror and fear overcomes her when he inclines his head in affirmation. "But why?"
"As I said, I liked this place and I figured a more amorous area would make you panic."
Amorous? Why would he even think of putting them in an amorous situation?
"Okay, I'm confused." Caroline is about ready to wake up from this madness now. "Why are you even here? I never even knew you that well."
"But you were supposed to." He explains. "You and I were supposed to get to know each other very well."
She is getting annoyed with him being all cryptic. And she feels like grabbing a bat and shoving it into his head just to damage his infuriatingly handsome face. "And why would we have done that?"
He grins at her and waves it off with a flip of his hand. "That's for you to figure it out."
She lets out a growl. Why can't he just answer a question properly?
She lunges at him and he stops her easily by catching her wrists and keeping her pressed against him, his torso so solid against her. "Calm down, Forbes. If you want to be on top, it can be discussed."
She lets out another growl, angrier and struggles against him. He keeps her still with little to no effort like she was a toddler. Damn that Original strength!
"Why are you here? Why are you bothering me? Why can't you just go back to part of hell you were in?" She snaps at him.
He sighs in irritation before pulling her even closer if that is possible, making her go still in shock as he leaned his face so close to hers she can count his eyelashes. "Understand this, Caroline Forbes, I am here for you. Got that? Just you."
"But why?" She nearly wails and he pecks her cheeks so quickly it nearly gives her whiplash.
"Figure it out."
Caroline wakes up and is left staring into her ceiling, frustrated and tired.
Maybe it's just a dream. Caroline doesn't know much about the psychology behind dreams but maybe the stress of her upcoming entrance into college is manifesting itself by making her dream about the departed. Which in case, such theory is absolutely horrid. So many people have died in Mystic Falls in her last year of high school that she shudders to think about who she might dream of next.
Surely, these are just dreams. Nothing more.
The memory of Kol's voice echoes in her head. "Understand this, Caroline Forbes, I am here for you. Got that? Just you."
What does that even mean? Her subconscious is so weird. But nonetheless, she goes to bed, expecting to see someone else other than Kol. Surely, he couldn't be there again.
"Hello, sweetheart."
She groans at the sight of the boy above her on her bed and pushes him off with enough force that he slams into her bedroom wall. He lets out a grunt but stands up quickly, righting himself. "Right. If you liked things rough, all you had to do is ask, darling."
She sits up and mutterings into her hands. "When am I waking up from this?"
"Not soon enough." He walks closer till he's at the foot of her bed. "And I assure you, no one is else will be coming into this dream. Not as long as I have something to say about it."
She peeks at him through her fingers. "Why am I dreaming of you?"
He takes a seat on the bed, just a few inches from her. "Haven't you figured it out yet?"
"No!" She is sick and tired of this. "I tried calling, Bonnie, but she's not answering and I thought maybe this was just a one-off kind of thing."
"I'm hurt." He faux-hisses in pain, a hand to his chest before taking one of her hands in a grip far too gentle for someone like him. "I'd never consider anything we have as one-off."
She grabs her hand back. "What are you doing?"
He grins at her, all boyish charm if he isn't such a demon. "I'm hanging out with you."
"But why?" She wants to pull her hair out, even if she is more than stunned at what he just revealed. "Why are you here?"
"Because you and me, my dear," He takes both her hands in his and tugs lightly. "We're meant to be."
She tries to shake him off but he grips harder and pulls until he has her wrists trapped against him and she's sprawled half on top of him. He grins up at her and makes no hiding of looking down at the view he has of her cleavage. "I bet you'd taste divine, darling."
This makes her leap from his touch and away from the bed, nearly pressed into her dresser. "What the hell?"
He rolls his eyes and sits up to stare her down from her bed. "Fight it as much as you like, my dear Caroline, but I assure you, I will have you."
She stares at him in total fear, realizing then how fucked up this situation is getting. "B-but why would you-"
"True love," He finally spells it out to her. "You are my one true love. Does it get any clearer than that, Caroline?"
"What?" She exclaims. "But you're dead!"
"And you think that stops fate from bringing us together?" He cocks his head to the side like she's a small child he has to explain something simple to. "That day in the cellar, do you remember what happened when I touched you?"
"You tried to strangle me." She glares at him, crossing her arms over her chest. "Kind of hard to forget."
"Yes and then you started glowing," He gestured to where his heart would be. "Right there."
Her hand immediately goes to where her heart is beating frantically in chest.
He smirks, all smug. "See? Your heart already recognizes what you so deny. The moment I touched you, it was sealed."
"Okay, this is crazy." She is near hysteria, pointing at him accusingly. "You are insane."
He shrugs. "I've been called worse."
"Or maybe I'm crazy," She starts pacing the length of her room. "This is all just happening inside my head. I'm hallucinating."
He follows her movement in the room. "Just because it's happening in your head, doesn't mean it's not real."
She stops to glare at him. "Don't you start quoting Dumbledore at me! You don't even know who he is!"
"You're right. I don't." He says flippantly. "When are you going to accept this and we can move on to nicer things?"
"Never." She spits out, pacing again.
"You'll change your mind." He counters with a bored look.
"No, I won't!"
"Yes, you will." He gives her that damnable smirks again. "Magic fights back, Caroline. You only got a little of time before it begins to tear at you."
She stops pacing and stalks toward him, hovering over him to snarl. "I'll take my chances."
He rises to his knees on the bed to be level with her. "Then sweet dreams then."
And he does the worst possible thing – he kisses her. And she can only gasp into his mouth before she's overcome with the...the rightness of it all. His lips are the softest she's ever felt and practically scorching as he kisses her as if he plans to never stop.
She wakes up, trying to catch her breath.
Caroline is sitting on her bed again with Kol fiddling with the things on her vanity. He opens and sniffs a perfume bottle and smiles. She snarls and hugs her legs tighter to herself at that.
He puts down the perfume bottle and stalks up to her. Stopping to stare at her like she's a tiny kitten by his feet. "You're adorable, you know."
She hisses like said kitten and he laughs. "You're so stubborn. It's funny really."
"I don't find anything funny." She grouses.
"I do remember Nik saying something about you being very hard to get." He muses and then plumps down on her bed to lie down, making her bounce and trying to get away from him. He keeps her against him with one arm, the other going to the back of his head. "Except I have an advantage my brother didn't have."
"And what is that?" She struggled to be free of him but he just grinned at her efforts.
He leaned in close to her face to mouth against her cheek. "You can't escape me. I'm in your head."
She hit him in the stomach, hard and he grunted, letting her go. "You are such a creep. Why can't you leave me alone?"
He recovers from her aggression and lies back on the headboard. "You know why."
"Cause of true love?" She mocks. "Puh-lease, this isn't some cheap Hollywood rom-com."
"I don't know what that is."
"Exhibit A why this will never work," She says. "The age difference is monumental."
"You seemed fine with it when my brother was courting you." He points out.
"He wasn't courting me." She denies. "And he wasn't in a box for the past century so he actually knows what a rom-com is."
"So I'm a bit behind in the times, so what? It's not my fault. And does knowing about a 'rom-com' really your basis for a long lasting relationship? Cause it does explain a few things."
She crosses her arms over her chest. "And what is that supposed to mean?"
"Just looking back at your past relationships..."
"How do you even know who I've dated?"
"I did my research." A dark look overcomes his face. "And it wasn't a pleasure knowing who you did let into your bed, believe me."
She grimaced. "Eww!"
"My sentiments exactly." He scowled. "If I wasn't dead, I'd hunt them all down before touching you."
She rolled her eyes. He was so demented. "What is wrong with you? Why do you even care who did or didn't touch me?"
"Because, Caroline," He intones slowly. "You are mine."
She scowls back. "I'm not yours!"
Caroline awakens into her dream with Kol on top of her, except this time he's mouth is on her neck and his hand is sneaking into her tank top, caressing the quaking muscles of her belly. His mouth is hot, so hot as he nuzzles the column of her neck and she gasps, trying to get air into her lungs as he moves from her neck and down to her collarbone.
She hisses when he bites lightly and soothes the sting with his clever tongue. He travels even lower to the cleavage exposed by her tank top kissing the top of her breasts. His eyes look up to meet hers before he finally kisses her, drugging her thoughts out of her head. His hand moves upward to cup one breast and swipe a thumb over a hardening peak, making her moan into his mouth.
"Caroline," He groans and she realizes what's happening and who is on top of her.
"Kol, get- get off!" She pushes at him and he rolls off her and to her side, sighing into a pillow.
He turns his head to look at her, eyes still so dark from desire. "It was just getting good there."
"Yeah, for you." She gets up and tries to cool herself down. She tries to conjure a bucket of water or something but again, nothing happened like she wants in her dreams. It's so unfair.
"Are you going to overanalyze everything again?" He asks her as she starts pacing, trying to regain control of herself. "You could just come back and continue what we were doing."
"No!" She growls at him. "That is never happening again."
He turns over and so he's on his back. "Wanna bet?"
She scowls at him. "No."
Bonnie is still not answering her calls and messages. She tries to ask Elena about it but the other girl is lost in Damon Land and it makes Caroline's stomach turn every time she has to see them suck face or be all lovey-dovey in general. She's been giving Stefan space but she's tempted to call him at this point. Matt is off gallivanting in Europe with Rebekah so she feels like she has no one to help her.
She's getting desperate with her dreams for the past few days been nothing but Kol trying to get under her skin (and under her clothes to be honest) and she feels herself slipping. She contemplates calling Klaus in New Orleans since surely the Original would know about this situation and at least know how to keep his own brother at bay.
But Kol dissuades it with a laugh, "He's a bit busy with a miracle baby on the way and trying to take back a city to be much help, Forbes."
"What do you mean by that?" She asks, confused.
They're not in her bedroom anymore (thank heavens!) as her past few dreams have been. They're in the Eiffel tower, overlooking all of Paris (which might actually be worse) but control of the dreams seem to belong solely to Kol so there's nothing she can really do.
"He impregnated some werewolf named -Hayley, was it?" She blanches. "Oh yes, that's it. Anyway, he knocked her up and now he's trying to protect the spawn and regain control of New Orleans from that street rat he took in, Marcel."
"Okay, rewind and freeze." Caroline can feel herself ready to faint, dreaming or not. "He got Hayley pregnant? But he's half-vampire! How can he get someone pregnant?"
"I don't understand it either," Kol replies. "It's causing quite a stir on the Other Side too."
She chews her lip as she wants to ask but he rolls his eyes at her hesitance. "I'm in your head, Forbes. I know what you want to ask. Go ahead."
"What's it like on the Other Side?" She's been wondering about it. Jeremy had said a thing or two about it since he'd returned but she still doesn't know a lot about the place beyond the Veil.
"Lonely." She doesn't expect him to stay that. "We don't really go anywhere. We're still there where you are you just can't see or hear us. It's like there's an invisible wall keeping you from us, like a Veil."
She feels her heart stutter in her chest and tries to keep the sympathy at bay but he looks so sad, so lost and his expression the softest she's ever seen on him. No more arrogance, no more cruelty. And this unexpected change makes her want to smash one of the windows of the tower and jump down into the Parisian streets.
"I watch you." He continues. "Just you going about your day. How lonely you feel because your friends are off doing their own pursuits so you're stuck dreaming about college and all the things you'll do when you get there.
"I watch how sad you are at night, right before you go to sleep. How sometimes you'll cry about your father who you'll never see again, never be there to watch you go through more milestones in your life. Or sometimes about that Lockwood bastard and how you're afraid you'll never see him again because there's always something that makes him leave. And you fear the most that it's not something else, it's just you."
"Stop!" She doesn't want to hear anymore and walks away several feet as he continues to speak.
"I watch how you look in the mirror and wonder if it's ever going to change the slightest bit when you know it won't. How you try to count how many times you have to relive being seventeen. How many times you pick up to phone to call my brother because you want to escape all of this so badly-"
"Stop!" She turns around, tears ready to fall down her face. She feels bare before him, as he just laid out to her everything about her she's been hiding so hard from everybody or no one has bothered to notice. But he did, Kol did. He sees all of her and it makes her want to hate him so badly."You're not allowed to this."
"Do what, Caroline?" He walks to her, steps even but slow. "What am I doing?"
"Make me vulnerable." She swallows her sobs. "You're not allowed to have me because you know how to break me."
"But I don't want to break you," He says and stops until there's a foot between them and it's still too little a space for she wants to run away and never see him look at he that way again. He stares at her like she's something special, wonderful. "Cause you're perfect, Forbes. I haven't known or...watched you that long but I need you to know that you are all those impossibly lovely things you don't think you are."
She wraps her arms around herself like a shield and looks down, wanting for the floor to disintegrate so she can be freefalling into nothing, where he won't be. But he would be there, to catch her and keep saying those things that destroy every defence she has. Maybe if all her friends haven't left her along that summer, she would be more able to resist him but the point is – she is alone and saying no to him is impossible.
"What do you want from me?" She asks quietly, just the barest of whispers but he hears her all the same.
"I want you." He tilts her chin up with two fingers and she's forced into those soft, dark eyes again. "I told you I would have you and you have to know, Caroline, I am selfish and I don't like to share."
"But...why?' She has to keep on asking, prodding. "Why me?"
"Why not you?" He counters. "When you're perfect for me in every way."
"You're just saying that-"
"Why?" He caresses her cheek with the gentlest touch. "Why would I? You know I'm not lying to you, Caroline. You can feel it."
"Why is this happening?" She feels herself grasping unto the last threads of herself that is telling her that Kol is wrong for her and that this is all just a lie designed to hurt her because no one is supposed to look at her like he does and claim he wants nothing else but her. "Why you and me? Why now?"
"True love doesn't make sense. It rarely does." He explains with a sheepish smile. "And I know you think this is very 'rom-com' and I think it's kind of cheesy too but you're my soul mate and I'm yours."
"Soul mates?" She echoes and he nods.
He leans down to touch his forehead to hers and all she can see are his eyes, ink drowning in melted chocolate. "My soul mate."
She kisses him first. Leaning up to touch her lips against his and he reacts quickly, making her heady as his kisses were so great at. He returns everything she gives with heat and tenderness she never expects to get. She even whimpers when he pulls away.
She tries to get her head to process thought again. There's something she needed to ask him. "Um, how...how is this going to work? You're dead. Am I just going to see you in my dreams forever?"
His thumb traces her lips before he tells her, "There's a way to bring me back but it's dangerous."
"How dangerous?" She tries to concentrate on what he's saying and not his lips on her temple, his fingers in her hair. "What do I need to do?"
He murmurs into her hair. "You have to go to the Other Side."
That brings her back to clarity and she pulls away from him, eyes wide. "That means dying!"
He shakes his head, wincing. "Not exactly."
She waits for him to explain and he does. "Do you know the myth of Psyche and Eros?"
"Yeah, we studied it briefly in class."
"In the myth, Psyche had to travel to the Underworld as one of the tasks Aphrodite gave her." He explains. "She went through a cave where the river led to the Underworld."
She was getting it now. "So you're saying there's a cave that leads to the Other Side?"
He nods. "Yes, but it's not going to be easy."
"You mean because I have to travel to Greece?"
"No, these entry points are like hot spots. There's a few all over the world. Greece is just one of them." He says. "There's one right here in Mystic Falls."
"Well, I could just go there then and-"
"Caroline," He grasped her arms, forcing her to look at him in alarm. "Listen to me. Those caves, once you go in there...there's going to be a price for bringing me back."
She nearly trembles in his arms. "What is it?"
She wakes up to a dawn.
Caroline finds the hot spot to be deep in the forest, it's morning but the dark opening of the cave like the mouth of a monster terrifies her and makes he want to flee. But on the Other Side is where Kol is and she has to bring him back, there is no other way. She did think of asking Bonnie to bring Kol back but she still isn't answering her calls so Caroline is forced to go down the dark cave.
She tries to keep her balance on the smooth black rocks before she finds her feet in water, her jeans getting soaked to the knee the deeper she goes into the cave. She takes out the flashlight in her backpack, even her vampire eyesight is no match for pitch black.
She nearly jumps into the air when she sees Bonnie. "Bonnie! You scared me there. What are you doing here-" She tries to go closer to her friend but the other girl stops her.
"Don't!" Bonnie tells her. "Don't come any closer!"
"Why not?" Caroline stares at her friend in confusion. "What's going on?"
"I know why you're here." Bonnie replies. "And you should go back."
Caroline is confused. She hasn't seen her friend all summer and all of a sudden, she's here at some cave. What is going on? "Bonnie, how do you even know why I'm here?"
"Because I'm dead, Caroline," Bonnie explains forcefully. "I died bringing Jeremy back from the Other Side and now I'm here. That's why I've been gone all summer."
Caroline is still in shock, not able to process this. Dead? How is this possible? This can't be possible! "No! I- that's not true! You were there in graduation! We're supposed to go to college together!"
"Jeremy's been covering for me. That's why you didn't know." Bonnie enlightens. "And Kol didn't tell you because he wants you to do as he says and bring him back."
"But no..." She doesn't know what to say. None of this could be happening. Bonnie is dead and Kol didn't tell her about it. How could he and why would he? "Kol...Kol said there would be price if I go here, what is it?"
"Memories." Bonnie told her. "You have to lose all your memories about someone you love. Me."
Caroline's heart felt like it's about to explode. Lose all memories of Bonnie? But she'd known Bonnie since they were little. Every memory she has had Bonnie in it, to lose her memories of Bonnie when it's the only thing she has left of her would be too cruel. It would be- "Unfair."
"Magic isn't fair, Caroline." Bonnie tells her. "It wants something precious in return."
Caroline's head is aching.
"Caroline." She looks up and Kol is there, just a few feet farther from Bonnie. "I'm sorry but you have to choose. I'm so sorry."
"No, you're not." She wants to cry and feels herself aching. "You're not sorry that you lied to me and I have to do this. You just want to come back again."
He says nothing but looks at her with those soft, brown eyes and she wants to scream.
"You don't even really love me, do you?" She asks, afraid of the answer.
And he shakes his head vehemently. "No! No! I love you! I swear to anything real, you are the only thing I have ever loved, living or alive."
"More than yourself even?" Caroline countered. "Would you let me choose myself? To keep my memories of Bonnie? Do you love me that much?"
He goes quiet, staring at the ground before he swallows. "Yes." He looks up at her again, certainty in his eyes. "If you choose her, I won't be angry. I love you that much."
Caroline can feel her heart breaking into tiny, irredeemable pieces and looks at the girl who has been her best friend since as far as she could remember. "Bonnie?"
"You'll remember me again someday." Bonnie smiles weakly. "Can't say I support who fate chose for you but...I want you to be happy so choose him. It's okay with me."
Caroline closes her eyes and covers her face with her hands, her heart bleeding with the pain of losing one of two people she loved. She lets it consume her and spit her out before she opens her eyes and looks at Bonnie and Kol both standing there expectantly.
She makes her choice.
Caroline and Kol climb out of the cave, Kol pulling her up effortlessly into the bright sunlight. Kol keeps his arm around her and pulls her close as he can feel her, gloriously all of her and he smiles as she embraces him tightly.
"I feel like I lost something important." Caroline looks up at him. "What was it?"
He shakes his head and caresses her cheek. "I am sorry. That's all you need to know."
She stares at him with doubt for a moment before it melts away and she takes his hand into hers and leads him far away from the cave and out of the forest.