"Are you kidding me?" Damon was so shocked and angry, "I think you must be kidding me." this was his reaction, well almost all of their reactions to the recollection Caroline and Klaus just told them all.
Everyone was in the large open living room at the Salvatore house. Bonnie was next to Jeremy, their relationship was on the outs since she got carried away with the whistling power stuff and basically stopped answering his calls. Plus she was dealing with indirectly killing 12 witches with Caroline and still couldn't get over the consequences she figured must be coming.
Elena and Matt seemed to be getting on famously again like earlier in high school and maybe they were standing a little too close. Stephen and Damon were still trying to woo Elena still but she seemed too preoccupied with being a good sister and human to hang around them too often.
Rebekah was lounging on the couch, she had heard all this news last night when Caroline and Klaus finally came back to the mansion after meeting Amel.
Last but not least, Liz was just standing near Klaus, looking defeated.
No one answered Damon, but they all sort of avoided looking towards Caroline and everyone felt the tension.
Liz went to the bar cart to her left, fixing herself a drink even though it was only noon and she was on duty. Her daughter was going to merge with some crazy bloodthirsty spirit thing, if there was any day to be damned with etiquette it was today, she thought.
Everyone noticed her mother's actions and she couldn't take the quiet.
"Okay, people!" Caroline clapped her hands together like she often did when she was rounding up the student council to put together school dances, "This is not a problem. Clearly, I have the upper hand, since Amel wants to merge with me, we just have to figure a way out of it."
Bonnie nodded in agreement, "I'll bring the grimoires!" she tugged on Jeremy's hand, trying to make an effort with him and he took the bait and offered to look in the stuff Alaric left him. Elena and Matt seemed more disheartened but offered to go with Jeremy and scope out the library and internet.
Stephen stepped forward, "We'll go through our library and reach out to the witches we know." offering for both him and Damon although, the latter seemed exceptionally annoyed to be a helping part of this fiasco.
"I'll make sure these two stick to their tasks," Rebekah offered pointedly at Damon the most.
"Thank you everyone!" she was grateful they'd help but her tone sounded more dismissal, falling back into her old pattern like at school and the teams shifted and talked amongst themselves of the plan but didn't leave.
She looked to Klaus, "And what will you be doing?"
He had been watching Liz, drinking alone, not looking at anyone, plopped in an armchair.
"I already reached out to Elijah. He's more friendly with the witches then me. He thinks the ones in New Orleans may know something." he looked to Caroline finally, "So right now, I'm gonna have a good ol' drink with your mum." He smiled at her with a hint of snarkiness and helped himself to a large glass of bourbon.
Caroline felt stunted, he was right they were actioning everything they could right now. But the planner in her was fidgeting, she couldn't just sit around drinking, she had to make arrangements and get on with it.
Everyone saw the interaction and watched Klaus settle in on the couch next to the chair Liz sat in. He didn't touch her, he just slid one of his long legs into her eye line and Liz looked over to him.
"No matter how this turns out, she'll be alright." She said to him, not caring that everyone was listening in, judging this interaction. She said it as a statement, it wasn't a question.
Klaus looked right back at her and air cheers his glass of bourbon to her, "She'll be alright." he hoped he could believe himself as he took a drag from the cup.
Liz nodded slowly and took a sip as well.
"Care, we haven't found anything yet," Elena broke the news to her frowning at it.
"Well, we did find out that Amel is certainly as old as he says he is, probably like 10,000 BC old. That's way older than Silas and Qetsiyah." Bonnie tried to lighten the tone with what they did know, "He certainly did horrible things to a lot of people in all that time, but there's also writings in some grimoires that he's been a friend to witches and shapeshifters, which I guess means werewolves. Even one long drawn out tale of the torture he inflicted on the men who caused the salem witch trials."
"Yeah, but Bonnie, he only did that because the witches had been feeding him blood somehow, he was just trying to protect his meal ticket" Jeremy piped up, another Gilbert bringing down her trying optimism to save her friend.
Caroline was sitting at her kitchen table, elbows up, hands clasped in front of her mouth. She felt nothing for this information. Much like right after she massacred those witches, her feelings were on mute.
Klaus stirred next to her, also sitting, but much more intent on what they had to say.
"Well then, we will just figure out how the witches ever fed him blood while he was still in spirit form. Then he won't need to merge with Caroline to get his rocks off." Klaus leaned back like it was as simple as that.
Bonnie opened her mouth about to say they haven't found anything remotely like that, but before she could bring down her own mood more, Caroline stood up.
"We can't just have Bonnie feeding this spirit for the rest of her life!" She half yelled at Klaus and he pouted at her, knowing she was right.
"I would though... if we find the spell." Bonnie whispered to her and the girls smiled sadly at each other, they both were willing to do whatever it took to keep each other protected. Klaus felt a pull towards the witch, she was such a good friend to Caroline and he appreciated her.
There was a knocking on the door that pulled all their eyes away from the moment between two best friends.
"It's Elijah." Klaus knew from the knock.
"Mom, would you invite him in?" Caroline tried to say softly and sweetly. Her mom was being a trooper in all this, but she could tell Liz wasn't saying much on purpose and she wanted to go easy on her.
Liz dutifully walked over and invited the elder Mikaelson vampire into her home. He thanked her graciously, as Elijah was used to doing, and walked with her into the kitchen where everyone was.
"Brother." They nodded at each other and Rebekah walked to stand by his side.
"What news do you have Elijah?" She asked putting her palm on his bicep as a greeting.
"There is a New Orleans coven coming to meet us here tomorrow. They seemed familiar with this Amel spirit and they think they may know of a way to help."
Klaus stood up to face him, "Are these witches to be trusted?" he said gravely.
"As far as us vampires can usually trust a witch." Elijah sighed knowing that's not what his brother wanted to hear.
Klaus got closer to his face, but Caroline swiftly stepped up and slid her hand into Klaus's to prevent him from doing anything threatening.
She smiled softly at the vampire brother, who hadn't seen the two of them together since all this began except the night of the ball. Elijah looked down to their hands, clasped, then looked back to her with a sad smile on his face. His brother had finally found someone to love.
"Thank you for your help. I really appreciate it." She said softly nodding and Elijah accepted her welcome, she looked to the others. "Tomorrow we will meet with these witches and see what they can offer. Bonnie, will you take the lead to see that they're being honest with us?"
Her best witch friend nodded, of course she'd be the best to get through to the other witches. They had to know that Caroline was worth saving from this and she would make them see that Caroline was not only the best vampire but also that she soothed Klaus down into much less of a threat.
"Great. Well thank you guys again, I would be so lost without you all by my side." She was still holding Klaus's hand and squeezed it, really believing her sentiment to them, especially him, but knew her voice sounded cold, "Let's call it a night."
Everyone nodded and said their quiet goodbyes to each other to leave.
Caroline slid back onto the kitchen chair she came from. Klaus told his siblings he'd return to the mansion later that night to discuss the witches more and he sat back down next to Caroline.
Liz was by the sink, wiping the same mug she had been for fifteen minutes. She knew that was their Forbes way of dealing with things, being neurotic over cleaning. Caroline herself had nearly scraped the paint off her bedroom walls she scrubbed them so harshly last night.
"Mom?"
She turned to her daughter slightly and sighed, "Is everyone gone?" it was the slightest whisper.
Caroline looked to Klaus sort of worried for a reason she couldn't pinpoint, "Klaus."
Liz turned around fully and walked towards the table they both sat at slowly, she looked down and took the seat at the head to the left of her daughter. She gulped and both vampires heard it, she was sure, so she took her time to take Caroline's hand and petted it with her thumb a second.
Caroline was scared, scared her mom was about to say something hurtful, like when she found out she was a vampire at first, but she looked to her mother's eyes and saw the tears whelm up but not fall.
"Isn't he family now?"
Liz's simple ask and admission hit Klaus and Caroline harder than they both expected, he definitely shifted in his seat.
Caroline shuddered, "Mom..." she was overcome with feelings of love and hope, it felt like yesterday when she told her everything she's been through as a vampire and now she was completely accepting her and this unexplainable connection with Klaus.
Liz looked down and one tear fell down her cheek, but she regained her composure quickly and looked back into her daughter's eyes, "You are strong. You're my greatest accomplishment."
The blonde vampire felt her own few tears fall softly, thankful she wasn't numb to everything since the killing of those witches and reached her other hand towards her mother's on the table.
"I never thought I'd be someone special, but when I had you," Liz took a beat as her tears were threatening to fall again, "I knew I had my purpose. I knew you'd be amazing. Outstanding."
Caroline and Liz were silently weeping, holding each other's hands and Klaus was feeling the incredible emotion as well. He'd never been present for such motherly love, not in all his thousand years.
Liz smiled as her tears fell, looking deep at Caroline, her most precious joy, "You can do this. I'm sure of it." she spoke of it as if they had no shot at defeating Amel, but it made sense to both vampires, a will, that no matter what happened Caroline would be safe.
She stood up and walked between the both of them. Caroline stood and turned into her mother as soon as she was close enough into a soft hug. Then Liz shifted to her right, Klaus wasn't sure of what to do, a rarity, and she held her hand out to him.
Klaus looked to the floor, making sure he felt like he should be here for this moment and stood up. Liz's arm wrapped around under his arm and up his shoulders. They turned in together and Caroline's arm wrapped around him from the other side.
He sighed into both of their blonde hair and hugged them tighter, just enough, knowing he couldn't be hurting Liz's delicate human body. She showed knowledge of many years more than she had in this small gesture of hers, he had to commend her for being so assenting to what could possibly happen to her daughter.
They pulled away after many moments, Liz looked up to Klaus, "She'll never want for anything?" repeating his words back at him questioning.
He blinked in consent, "Even if she won't recognize it." he softly smirked and Liz smiled back.
Caroline looked between them and knew they must have had something discussed between them that neither filled her in on, but was glad they got along. It wasn't everyday Liz opened her life up to someone new, especially never to a boyfriend of hers.
Although she did show some sympathy towards Tyler or was that just after his death? Caroline couldn't be sure anymore but realized now. She has to tell everyone, especially her mother, the truth about Tyler's death at her hands, before anything with Amel went any further.
Caroline bid Klaus a sweet and soft good night kiss, wanting to spend the night home, while he went to the mansion to see to Elijah and Rebekah. She needed this time with her mom and to think about her own situation.