Hi guys! I'm so sorry, I know it's been a long while. College. Don't do it (I kid - just maybe don't triple major). Thank you to the Anon who came into my Tumblr Ask box and gave me a bit of a kick in the butt - definitely inspired me to finish off that pesky third chapter - as well as to all you lovely reviewers.
As I have a test tomorrow, I really should be studying. But I really wanted to get this out to you guys before a new hectic week got started. Thus this chapter got the most shallow of edits so please do forgive any outstanding errors.
Lastly, enjoy, and let me know what you think :)
She sat on the bed, cleaned up and dressed.
And crying.
She hadn't been able to stop since Klaus had left the room.
Each time she thought she was done, another emotion would rush intently to the surface – guilt, emptiness, despair, regret.
Her mind had finally cleared of the dream enough so that she felt deeply ashamed of so many things. The dream itself, yes, but moreover the way she'd acted after it.
There really wasn't any way she could've prevented the dream, and maybe she couldn't have prevented herself from kissing him, not when he'd touched her while she'd been so hyper-sensitive.
But telling him that him and Niklaus were the same person hadn't been right – definitely not after he'd confessed his fear to her last night that she was beginning to see them as the same person.
She kept trying to plan a way to explain herself to him but couldn't.
No excuse seemed to work and somehow she couldn't imagine "I had a sex dream about two yous" going down well either.
There was a light tap on the bedroom door along with a female's accented voice.
"May I come in?"
She wiped her tears away before calling back.
"Sure, Rebekah."
She'd never had much talent at reading the Original sister so she didn't know how to interpret Rebekah's expression and body language as she entered the room.
If she had to guess, though, she'd go with uncomfortable.
"Good morning," she greeted good-naturedly.
"Good morning," Caroline forced a little smile.
"Are you feeling well?"
Caroline was confused at first then realised that she'd cited not feeling well to get out of breakfast earlier.
"Uh, yeah. Thanks."
"Wonderful," Rebekah smiled, a little hesitantly, as she came further into the room. "With all the men gone I wondered if you would perhaps accompany me to the well?"
Surprised, Caroline frowned.
She wasn't sure she wanted to spend more time with Rebekah than was absolutely necessary – but she found herself agreeing anyway. It wasn't like she could just sit here and stew in her shame all day.
"Um, yeah, sure."
Rebekah's smile widened but she still didn't look particularly comfortable.
After a moment of hesitation she sat down beside Caroline.
It took another moment for the source of her unrest to be revealed.
"I overheard your quarrel with William this morning."
Crap.
Klaus had shouted really loudly but she hadn't actually considered that anyone else might have heard. She hoped Rebekah had been the only one to, simply because she'd already been on her way to Caroline's room to deliver her message.
"Oh, um, yeah," she said, at a loss for anything else.
Rebekah glanced at her from the corner of her eye.
"Are you alright?"
With her uncomfortable stature and stilted questions Caroline got the idea that Rebekah was here more for someone else than herself.
For her own sanity, though, she deliberately kept her thoughts from Past Klaus.
"William sounded furious."
Still having no way to explain anything, Caroline continued to stay silent.
Eventually Rebekah spoke again.
"My interactions with him have been limited; however, my impression of William is that he is rather… troubled."
Caroline sighed. "I guess he is."
"I suppose I am wondering why it is you stay with him when he speaks to you the way he did this morning."
At this Rebekah finally angled her body toward Caroline, pointedly waiting for an answer.
Caroline had never been more speechless.
How could she possibly explain her and Klaus, even without the added restriction of being unable to admit that they weren't actually even together?
After a second she found the only thing she could think to say.
"Are you asking this because of Niklaus?"
Rebekah looked impressed by Caroline having sussed this out, but pursed her lips.
"I would be, if he knew." She watched Caroline for a few seconds before continuing: "My brother cares deeply for you."
"William is your brother," Caroline pointed out.
Rebekah hummed noncommittally.
"William unsettles me."
Caroline frowned questioningly and Rebekah explained.
"He looks so much like Niklaus and yet he is so different. There is something so guarded behind his eyes."
"Maybe you're just used to Niklaus opening up to you."
"Indeed. Nevertheless, there is something disconcerting about the way William speaks and smiles; the way he seems incapable of providing a true answer, as if always hiding something." She thought for a moment. "It is eerie: he looks at me as if he considers me trustworthy and yet provides nothing to support that theory. The fury he is capable of expressing at a moment's notice from perceived calm is frankly terrifying."
For the first time it occurred to Caroline that, in this situation, her and Rebekah had precisely opposing views.
Coming here she'd known her Klaus, and it had taken her a while to adjust to the weirdness of Past Klaus; the strange differences in attitude and behaviour; aura.
Rebekah was having the exact same experience, only in reverse.
"Well, he's the man I've chosen to marry."
She didn't know where the words and defensive tone had come from, but it had escaped her lips so fast that she hadn't even been able to convert it into in period-appropriate English.
Rebekah stared back at her for a long while before smiling a smile that reminded Caroline of Mikael.
"Yes, which brings us back to my confusion."
Caroline, for the umpteenth time in this conversation, had no idea what to say.
She wasn't used to discussing her relationship with or her feelings for Klaus with anyone.
Drawing a breath, she decided to say just that.
"I'm sorry, I am not in the habit of discussing him with anyone."
"Your family does not approve?"
Caroline pulled a face.
Understatement of the year.
"Not really, no."
There was a tiny deceptively innocent smile on Rebekah's face as she looked away.
"Perhaps they would take to Niklaus more easily."
Caroline had to stop herself from laughing at the Original's implications.
She was clearly trying to sell her brother as a viable option here and Caroline couldn't help finding the whole thing hilarious considering the Rebekah she knew in her present hated her and would likely set Caroline up with a trash can before recommending Klaus to her.
"What about you?" the younger blonde asked, to change the subject.
Rebekah turned back to her with a raised brow. "What about me?"
"Is there not anyone special in your life?"
Rebekah rolled her eyes.
"If only. Unfortunately, the men in the village have begun treating me as if I were the plague."
Caroline frowned. "Overprotective brothers?"
"No. Oppressive father."
"I don't understand."
Rebekah heaved a sigh. "I am what is known as a tease." She paused for a second then continued. "I assume on your tour my brother told you of the wolf-men?"
He hadn't, but considering Caroline already knew about the werewolves, she nodded.
"Well, my father considers their blood to be sullied. He does not trust even the humans – he believes they may have some dormant wolf blood in them, passed through their ancestors. And so he refuses for us to be betrothed to any of the men here."
"So you will never get married?"
"He expects followers from the Old World – where my parents originally came from. Once they arrive I will be allowed to choose a suitor, I believe."
"You have never been engaged?"
"A few times, secretly. Hence the title of being a tease." She sighed again. "The less you try to please my father, the more times you have been engaged. Naturally Kol has been engaged eight times."
"But never married?"
"No, my father always discovers and puts a prompt stop to it."
"That's awful," Caroline breathed.
Not for the first time since they'd been here, she found herself really missing her own dad.
"Yes, well," Rebekah seemed to escape reverie, standing. "We should be off."
Caroline nodded and stood too, looking around the room to avoid meeting Rebekah's eyes, scared she would see the thoughts behind them.
That, according to her, Niklaus really liked Caroline.
And Caroline had no sullying werewolf in her blood.