Caroline's POV

My tears ran down my cheeks as I sat with my back straight and rigid against the cold, uncomfortably wide hospital chair. I had long ago crossed my arms so that I would force myself to stop touching things in my mother's hospital room. They had quickly gotten oxygen on her and hooked her up to an IV machine to get fluids. Seeing her like this had made me fidgety, and it seemed like they were taking forever to complete the tests they were running on her.

I knew something had been wrong with her the first time she had gotten dizzy, but I didn't want to push her.

This was all my fault. I should have compelled her to get herself checked out even if she didn't want to. I should've tried harder.

"Why didn't I try harder?" I asked the question angrily out loud just as I unfolded my arms and started to untangle cords without really thinking about it.

"It wasn't your job to." My mother's weak voice made me stop shuffling around the machines and cords.

"Mom! Let me get your doctor. They're running tests—"

"No. They're not."

"What? I don't understand." I sat back down in the chair but this time I leaned over and held onto my mother's hand.

"Caroline, they already know what's wrong with me. Hell, I know what's wrong with me. I was just deciding when it would be a good time to tell you." My mom paused as tears starting to fall from her eyes, then she continued. "They told me it wouldn't progress this fast, though. They told me I had time."

"Time? Time for what? Please, just tell me what's going on." I was frantic now as I moved my fingers up and down my mom's forearm as she began to explain everything.

I used the sleeve on my jacket to roughly wipe the tears that wouldn't stop coming as my mom struck a match and lit my nightmares on fire: she was dying and there was nothing I could do.

Or was there?

..

Klaus's POV

"Apply this onto the sides of your head every night; right where the line of your hair begins. It will help with the headaches." Thomas lightly brushed the area he was speaking of as he repeated the instructions out loud.

"What the bloody hell is some mix of flowers and berries going to do exactly?" I could hear the tone in my voice and instantly regretted it even before Caroline gave me one of her killer looks. I immediately breathed out to calm myself down. I had to remember that Thomas was trying his best, and he had been the only witch thus far to even make things a bit more bearable for my love. Unfortunately, the spell he had cast a year or so ago was now withering away, and under it was everything he had been able to successfully slow down and mask.

Until now.

Caroline was much too sick to mask anything anymore. Thomas feared that if he even tried to put her mind and body under that stress again, she would die.

I watched as Caroline's eyes softened from the reprimanding stare and changed into sad, glassy ones that were filled with all the things she wanted to say but were also filled full of apologies because she'd knew she'd never get to say them.

I cleared my throat. "Thank you, Thomas. We appreciate this more than we could ever express to you. Take the next week off. We will regroup then and let you know how Caroline's headaches have been."

Thomas looked thankful as he bid us his good byes and took his leave.

Silence filled the room as Caroline trained her eyes onto the floor.

"Oh, would you just look at me, love?!" I could feel tears threatening to spill over as my voice seemed to echo throughout the room. I lightly took her hand as I moved down to sit in front of her on the floor; effectively blocking her view of it. She would have to look at me now. "Please."

She immediately looked up and away from me. "I can't."

I heard her voice tremble and immediately shut my eyes as tears fell down my own cheeks.

"I can't Niklaus. I can't look at you because I will be reminded of the choice I have made. I know how much it hurts you, but I can't do it. I can't become a vampire." A small sob escaped her before she uttered the last sentence. "I can't—I can't become like you."

..

I stood around the corner as I heard Caroline sobbing at her mother's side. My sister and I had just arrived, and the mossy smell coming from Sheriff Forbes's hospital room was almost too much to bear. It was like the air was filled with heavy, muddy water, and I was trying to wade my way through it. Again, the smell felt familiar to me.

I glanced into the direction of Caroline's friends as they were gathered in the waiting room. Could neither Stefan nor Damon smell it? They seemed perfectly at ease.

On the way here, I had asked Rebekah about the smell as well, but she said she hadn't smelled anything out of the ordinary. She had only heard Sheriff Forbes's heart almost go to a complete crawl when she fainted, and that's when she knew they had to get her to the hospital immediately.

Where had I smelled that smell before?

I had no time to dwell as I saw Bonnie Bennett walking up to her friends with tears in her eyes.

"How's Sheriff Forbes? Sorry I had to run something to Grams' house." Damon immediately moved over in his seat and motioned for Bonnie to sit. As she did so, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"She's stable. The doctors aren't telling us much, but Caroline is in there with her."

Just as Damon had finished talking, Elena Gilbert stood up and started to pace.

"Can't we just, I don't know, compel someone? We need to know what's going on!"

Before I could even think about what I was doing, I turned sharply on my feet and walked toward the group.

"Why not just respect Caroline's privacy at this time? If she wanted us all to know what was going on, I'm sure she would come out here and tell us." The venom in my voice left the brunette girl staring at me with her mouth slightly agape. I could tell she wasn't used to someone who didn't admire her and bow at her feet.

"Klaus is right." Stefan's calm voice seemed to slice through the tension in the air as everyone visibly relaxed. "We should all head home and regroup in the morning. I'm sure Caroline will call us if something develops."

..

Caroline's POV

I sat up in the stiff hospital chair and pulled out my phone. There were a few texts from my friends telling me to let them know what was up in the morning. The time read 2:19AM. I must have fallen asleep myself once my mother had started to lightly snore.

I glanced at her as I rubbed at my eyes, then decided to go outside to get some air. I needed to get out. I felt like I had been in this stuffy hospital room for days instead of hours.

As soon as I was out of the hospital's double doors, I could hear the whistle of the wind. For some reason, I longed to feel the chill of it too, but as a vampire, some things I had stopped feeling as soon as I had become conscious again.

I couldn't dwell on that now.

My body seemed to be working on its own accord as it sliced through the wind and slid into the driver's side of my car and brought the engine to life. I backed out of my parking spot and began my drive the one place I knew I needed to go.

..

Klaus's POV

I watched as the dark blue color drained from the bristles of my paint brush while I delicately twisted it back and forth in the cleaning solution. I would never admit it to anyone, but centuries ago, my Caroline would start to try to clean and organize things when she was nervous. Somehow, I had picked up that odd characteristic of hers. The only difference was that I was never really a nervous man.

Until now.

Since leaving the hospital, all I could think about was Caroline. Although, normally all I could think about was her, this time it was different. I was nervous for her. Anxious. My Caroline had lost her mother before I met her. What if the same fate surrounded this Caroline as well?

Like the one from my time, this Caroline was strong, beautiful, and full of light, but she also had a darkness to her that mine didn't have; a sadness about her that broke my heart every time I caught it flitting through her eyes when she thought no one was looking. I wanted to capture that darkness in my hands and destroy it, but I knew if I did, I may as well be destroying her.

At almost three in the morning, the sound of a light knocking on the front door sounded deafening to my sensitive hearing.

I quickly used my vampire speed to get to my foyer and pull the door open.

"I don't know what—"

I stopped mid-sentence as I looked into the moisture-filled eyes of Caroline Forbes. She was almost shaking as she had her arms crossed over her chest. It felt unnatural to see her looking this vulnerable.

"Caroline? Come in. Please." I rushed her in and directed her to our sofa. She took a seat and looked down at the floor. I visibly saw her take a deep breath as I sat down beside of her.

"So, what brings you here?" Even though she couldn't see my face, I let myself smile slightly and radiate a warm welcome so that Caroline was completely at ease and knew her surprise visit hasn't irritated me in any way.

"I—I'm sorry for dropping by so late, I just—" Caroline took a deep breath. Suddenly, she's looked into my eyes and her own eyes searched mine intently before the next question fell from her lips. "Why did you save me?"

"What?" Her question caught me off guard.

"The night Tyler bit me. Why did you save me? You could've simply went home and—"

"And what? Left you in the forest for dead?"

"Yes. Yes, you could have. But you didn't, and I want to know why. You're the loophole that shouldn't exist. If you hadn't saved me, no one would've known you even could have. Why did you?"

"You have friends here, a family, you're building a life for yourself. You have plans and a future and things that you want." As I spoke, tears began to run down Caroline's cheeks. "You deserve all of that, Caroline. I refuse to let someone take that away from you." I slowly brought my hands up to her face and used my thumbs to wipe away her tears. She only seemed to cry harder as she tried to speak.

"My friends don't care about me. I'm always the forgotten one in the group; the one they check on later. Elena's always been the star. I live every day thinking back to the night I was turned and I can't help but wish that I wasn't. Why couldn't Stefan have just left me in that cellar to die?" I removed one of my hands from Caroline's face as the other went to cradle her cheek. She was almost hysteric at this point, but the tears were slowing.

"You are worth saving, love. Even if you can't see that right now. Neither Stefan nor I was wrong in saving your life. Imagine how tore up your mom would have been if she discovered you had died?"

"Everything would probably have been better for her, honestly." Caroline's voice had turned quiet, and she began to look down again.

"What do you mean?"

"She's known for a while now and didn't tell me. She didn't tell anyone." Caroline's voice was weak as if she didn't want to really listen to her own words.

"Who, Caroline? Your mother?" My stomach dropped as I stopped breathing; waiting for her to say more. This couldn't be happening. There was no way this universe was such a dark humored fool.

Caroline moved away from my touch as she brought her elbows to her knees and pushed her blonde waves back with both of her hands. She didn't even look at me as she said her next statement:

"My mom's dying, Nik." She sharply looked at me. "And I have no idea what to do!"

I sat there with my mouth agape as the use of my nickname and her news of her mother floored me. I watched the young woman's body shake while she was racked with sobs. Without thinking, I wrapped my arms around her and she leaned into me with no hesitation. Caroline's voice was muffled against my chest.

"She's in one of the last stages of brain cancer. I should've saw the signs. I should've forced her to get help."

I froze. So, the universe was this dark humored. I swallowed hard as Caroline began to talk again.

"My mom's dying, my ex has tried to kill me twice, and lately it's like I've been living in an unending world of déjà vu and lost time." Caroline moved her head to look up at me; her eyes intensely searching mine again. "Is it me? Am I the reason my life is like this?"

I could feel my throat run dry as every moment from the last 1,000 years ran through my head. Becoming a hybrid, murdering my family, taking over villages and killing anyone who had ever even thought to cross me, meeting Caroline Goodwin, feeling human for the first time in my entire existence, loving Caroline, losing Caroline…

The scenes flashed in my mind as if I were watching them as someone else. In this moment, I refused to ever lose Caroline again; no matter what era of time we were in.

Instead of saying anything back, I wrapped my arms around her just as she started to sob again.

I couldn't help but wonder if I were the reason.