Chapter 37

It took Rebekah a while to be on board with the truce with Katherine, but she eventually agreed after Elijah expressed how much it would mean to him.

The next few days went by without incident; Katherine and Elijah made themselves scarce around the mansion, hoping that some of the tension would dissipate. Klaus and Caroline continued with her training every day. She found that the exercise with the blindfold really had helped her to use all of her senses when she fought.

Klaus was extremely impressed when she managed to take him down Thursday afternoon. She had genuinely surprised him with her punch combination before sweeping his legs out from under him and pinning him to the ground. She grinned down at him in triumph for several seconds before he flipped them over so he was on top of her and crashed his lips to hers.

Caroline blushed at the memory of everything that they did after that kiss on the ground in the woods.

"Caroline!" Rebekah snapped in her direction. "Are you even listening to me?"

Caroline shook her head as she refocused on Rebekah, who stood in front of her holding two different dresses. "I'm sorry, Bekah. I just got lost in my thoughts."

"Yes, I can see by the red staining your cheeks exactly what kind of thoughts those were." Rebekah smirked back at her. "Can you stop fantasizing about my brother long enough to help me pick out an outfit for my date?"

Caroline rolled her eyes at her friend. "Sorry, Bekah. Where was he taking you again?"

"To dinner and then the movies." Rebekah sighed nervously. "He said we were going to see something about furious cars? I don't remember."

"Was it the new Fast and Furious movie?" Caroline asked.

"Yes, that was it." Rebekah nodded. "He asked what I wanted to see, and I told him that I would be happy with whatever he wanted. We're going to an Italian restaurant near the theater beforehand."

Caroline looked at the two dresses that Rebekah was holding up. One of them was a strapless black cocktail dress and the other was a navy blue halter dress.

"Bekah," Caroline started hesitantly. "I think both of those might be a little bit fancy for dinner and a movie…"

"Really?" Rebekah asked, looking between the two dresses and then flopping onto her bed. "Oh, Caroline! This is the first date I've been on in over a century, and I have no idea what I'm doing! The last formal date I went on was in the 1890s when men weren't even allowed to kiss women in public."

Caroline smiled at her friend. "You're going to be alright, Bekah, I promise. Come on, let's look for something that's cute, but also comfortable."

"Are you sure 'cute' is going to be enough to catch Matt's interest?"

"You already caught Matt's interest, Bekah. He wouldn't have asked you out if he wasn't interested in you. I promise, you're going to enjoy yourself a lot more if you're confident in your outfit."

She led the older girl over to her closet and started to go through the options. "Now, I would recommend jeans and a cute top. You don't need to dress too fancy otherwise you'll feel uncomfortable, and Matt probably will too. He's more on the simple side when it comes to dates."

Rebekah nodded, taking in all of the information as she pulled out a pair of jeans. "Well, these black jeans are some of my favorites. They're comfortable…"

Caroline smiled at her. "And cute. Those will be perfect. Now for a top…" She continued looking through the shirts. "How about this one?" Caroline held up a flowy red scoop neck tank that had a black camisole attached as a layer underneath it. "It's sexy, but in a subtle way."

Rebekah took the top from Caroline, smiling. "This will be perfect! I can wear my black boots with it."

"And your black suede jacket over the top in case the movie theater is drafty." Caroline smiled back as she left the closet so the Original could change.

"Can you pick out a necklace to go with this please?" Rebekah called out from the closet. "All of my jewelry is in the box on my dresser.

"Of course." Caroline replied, moving over to look. She was amazed at the amount of jewelry in the box. Making several mental notes of items that she wanted to ask to borrow, her gaze landed on a long silver necklace that had groupings of black beads along the chain. She picked it out of the box and laid it out on the dresser before finding earrings to match.

Rebekah exited the closet and came over to the dresser next to her. "Oh those will look perfect! Thank you so much, Care!"

"No problem." Caroline smiled. "Are you excited?"

Rebekah grimaced slightly as she put the earrings in. "I'm terrified. I really like him, Caroline, and I want him to like me too. I just don't want to screw anything up."

Caroline put her hands on the other girl's shoulders. "Rebekah, calm down. You'll be fine; you just need to be yourself. Don't put on a front or try to act differently. Matt likes you for you."

"Thank you." Rebekah whispered. They both jumped slightly as the doorbell rang. "Oh, God! I still need to put the finishing touches on my makeup! Can you go make sure that my brothers aren't idiots, please?"

Caroline laughed. "I'll do my best, but no promises."

Caroline left Rebekah's room and made her way downstairs. Sure enough, she found Elijah and Kol looking appraisingly at Matt in the foyer. Klaus was leaning against the doorway that connected the entryway to the living room looking entertained.

"Matt!" Caroline called out as she jumped down the last few steps. "You're right on time; Rebekah is just finishing up getting ready. She'll be down in a few minutes."

"Thanks, Care." Matt smiled over at her awkwardly.

"Why don't we go have a drink and talk, Matt?" Kol asked, with a mischievous smile on his face.

"I'm not actually old enough to drink." Matt said, sending Caroline a pleading look.

"Right!" She said loudly. "Matt and I are both 18 and not old enough because you have to be 21 to drink and we're not…" She trailed off as she tried to diffuse the awkwardness.

Klaus shot her an amused glance at her ramblings. She narrowed her eyes at him and tilted her head towards his brothers, silently asking him to help her. He merely shrugged as he continued leaning against the wall.

She huffed at him. "Elijah, Kol, did Rebekah tell you that Matt is the starting quarterback for our team and has a few scholarship offers to play in college?"

"She did not," Elijah continued to look over at Matt. "And what universities are you looking at attending Matthew?"

"Ugh… Matt's fine." Matt said, his eyes darting to her again. She nodded encouragingly. "I'm looking at Whitmore College and University of Virginia right now. Those are the two that have been sending scouts to my games and have mentioned scholarships to my coach."

"And what do your parents think of each school?" Elijah continued, eyeing the young human.

Matt tensed up at the question. He cleared his throat and looked straight at Elijah. "My dad left while my mom was still pregnant with me. Mom was in and out of the house up until about a year ago. I haven't seen her since."

Elijah looked startled. "Oh, I'm - I apologize for bringing up the subject."

Matt just nodded in response. The group stood for a few seconds in an awkward silence. To everyone's surprise, it was Kol who broke it.

"So, Matt, do you play any other sports besides football?" Kol asked, trying to move the conversation back into more pleasant territory.

"I don't play anything else, but I like watching baseball. Never got the hang of batting." Matt shrugged, the tension leaving his body at the subject change.

"Oh, mate, you don't know what you're missing out on! Baseball is the best!" Kol's face lit up. "We should go to the batting cages sometime."

Matt sent Kol a small smile. "Sure, that would be cool. I'm surprised you like baseball instead of cricket."

Kol, Caroline, and even Klaus laughed at that. "Now, you Americans might have one upped the Brits with baseball, I'll give you that." Klaus stepped forward towards the group. "But our football is infinitely better than yours. No offense, mate."

"I've never played soccer, so I actually couldn't say." Matt responded before his attention was drawn to the top of the stairs, where Rebekah had just appeared. He stepped forward to meet her at the bottom of the steps. "Hey," he said quietly. "You look great."

Rebekah blushed slightly. "Thank you." She quickly looked around at all of her brothers. "I hope you weren't waiting too long. I'm sorry."

Matt smiled at her. "Nah, everything was fine. We were just talking sports."

"Yes," Kol interjected, causing all eyes to go to him. "Your boyfriend and I have a date to go to the batting cages soon. Sorry, Bekah." He smirked at his sister.

Rebekah glared at him before looking back at Matt apologetically. "You don't need to hang out with him."

Matt chuckled. "No, it sounds fun. I've always wanted to get better at baseball."

"See, Bekah?" Kol chirped. "Your boyfriend likes me, he really, really likes me!"

"Enough, Kol." Klaus stepped forward, putting a hand on his younger brother's shoulder. "We don't want to make them late for their evening. Have fun, Sister, Matt."

Rebekah beamed at Klaus before talking Matt's hand and moving towards the door.

"It was nice meeting you again, Matt." Elijah stepped forward. "I hope to see more of you."

Everyone knew that Elijah was trying to make up for the awkward moment he had caused before.

Matt stepped towards him and held out his hand. "Thank you, Elijah, you too." Elijah looked relieved as he shook Matt's hand.

Kol bumped Elijah out of the way and shook Matt's hand vigorously. "I'll see you soon for our date!"

Matt laughed. "We can just call it 'hanging out,' Kol." He sent Klaus a nod before he and Rebekah left.

As soon as the door closed behind the pair, Kol smacked Elijah's arm. "Way to go, Elijah." He drew out his older brother's name scoldingly. "Now, Bekah's boyfriend hates all of us! If you mess up my hanging out date with him, I'll never forgive you."

Elijah looked guilty. "I didn't know that the boy had gone through anything like that with his parents." He turned to Caroline. "Do you think I offended him?"

Caroline shook her head as they all started walking towards the sitting room. "No, Matt isn't really the type of person to get offended easily. That's just a bit of a touchy subject for him."

Elijah joined Katherine on one of the couches as Caroline sat down across from him on the other. Kol was about to throw himself onto the sofa next to Caroline before Klaus pushed him in the direction of one of the armchairs as he sank down next to her.

"So Matt is just on his own then?" Elijah looked aghast.

"Yeah," Caroline nodded seriously. "I never met his dad; he hasn't been back to town since he took off 18 years ago. Kelly, his mom… She's a piece of work. She wasn't around much when Matt and his sister, Vicki, were growing up. She was back and forth between their house and whichever guy she was sleeping with at the time. I didn't really interact with her much until Matt and I started dating. She was pretty terrible to me. Everything kind of came to a head when Matt found Kelly and Tyler making out…"

They all looked surprised. Kol couldn't contain himself. "Your ex boyfriend made out with your other ex boyfriend's mom?"

Caroline shot him a dirty look before choosing to ignore him. "After that, Matt couldn't really deal with her anymore. He's been on his own since."

"What happened to his sister?" Elijah asked.

"Damon turned her because he was bored. Stefan ended up staking her because she was trying to attack Elena." Caroline replied.

Elijah sat in silence for a few seconds. "I had no idea that he had such a rough past."

"You couldn't have known, Elijah." Caroline said. "Like I said, I don't think he's upset or offended. It's just not a topic he enjoys talking about."

Elijah nodded, still looking slightly guilty. "Well, I most definitely will not be giving the boy a hard time anymore or question him further. It seems that everything he has gone through has only made him a better young man."

Kol rolled his eyes at his older brother. "Don't treat him like a lost puppy, Elijah. That would be just as bad. Treat him like a normal person. You are definitely not invited on my boy date."

Caroline laughed at that. "You are going to be the one that freaks Matt out if you keep calling it that."

Kol simply smirked at that. "I'll have you know, STBSIL, that Matt and I have a connection. We're going to be great friends."

"STBSIL?" Katherine spoke for the first time, looking over at Kol.

Kol rolled his eyes at the brunette as though the acronym should have been obvious. "Soon-To-Be-Sister-In-Law, duh."

"Wow." Katherine shook her head. She looked over at Caroline, seeming to be debating something with herself. She sighed before speaking again. "Caroline, do you think you and I could have a chat?" Her eyes darted to the three brothers. "Privately." She added pointedly.

"Sure." Caroline responded at the same moment Klaus spat, "Not a chance in hell."

Caroline looked at Klaus and raised her eyebrow. "Seriously? I'll be fine."

"I'm not willing to take that chance, Love." Klaus replied, glaring at the Doppelganger.

Caroline rolled her eyes standing up. "Come on," she gestured to Katherine. "We can talk in Nik's room. It's spelled so that no one can hear into it." Katherine got up to follow her, but Klaus stood in the doorway blocking their exit with his arms folded across his chest. Caroline tilted her head at him. "And if we're not back in ten minutes, Klaus can come breaking down the door."

"Five minutes." Klaus countered.

"Seven," Caroline said in a tone of finality. "Let's go." She turned sideways to slip through the doorway past him. She looked back to see Katherine flicking her eyes between her and Klaus hesitantly. "Nik." Caroline spoke behind him.

Klaus grumbled as he stepped aside to let Katherine through. "Fine, but I'm waiting right outside the door, and your seven minutes starts now."

Caroline rolled her eyes again as she and Katherine headed up the stairs. As they were walking, they heard Kol down in the sitting room. "Seven minutes in a closed room together? I've seen sitcoms about this type of thing, Nik, it usually ends in kissing. Can I barge in with you?"

Caroline heard the sound of a smack resonating and Kol's grunt of pain before Klaus appeared behind them on the stairs.

She led Katherine down the hall to Klaus' room and opened the door letting the brunette through first. She met Klaus' eyes as she closed the door and he mouthed "Six minutes, 23 seconds."

Caroline turned to face Katherine, who had her hands on her hips. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

Katherine eyed her. "What do you want?"

Caroline furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "You're the one that wanted to talk to me… I don't want anything."

Katherine rolled her eyes. "Don't play dumb, Goldielocks. You made Klaus give me my freedom and made sure that he didn't kill or torture me. Katherine Pierce always repays her debts, so what do you want?"

"You think I did that because I want something from you?"

"Obviously. No one just does stuff like that out of the goodness of their heart. Especially not vampires."

Caroline let out a chuckle as she shook her head at the older vampire. "God, your life must suck."

"Excuse me?" Katherine bit out in surprise.

"You don't think people do things just to be nice? You obviously don't meet that many good people…" Caroline replied. "I don't want anything from you Katherine, except for you to live up to your side of the truce. Don't turn on us or hurt us, especially not Elijah. He's obviously in love with you, and it seems like he has been for a while."

Katherine eyed her suspiciously before she seemed to deflate and sat down on Klaus' sofa. "I know he does."

Caroline didn't really know what to do. She hadn't ever seen Katherine like this. She moved closer to the couch and sat on the opposite side of it. "Um, do you want to talk about it…?"

Katherine looked at her for a few seconds before her eyes darted to the door. "Is this room really spelled so no one can hear us?" Caroline nodded, and Katherine sighed deeply. "I love him too, but I've hurt him and betrayed him so many times, I don't know if he'll ever truly be able to forgive or trust me again. I want to be with him; I just never thought I would get the chance, what with Klaus' vow of revenge."

"Well you have the chance now." Caroline said. "Klaus gave you your freedom and accepted the truce with you."

"I know." Katherine grumbled. "I just don't know how to make Elijah believe me that it's for real this time."

"I think the only thing that you can do is live up to your word, Katherine." Caroline suggested. "It's probably going to take a while. Trust isn't something that happens overnight; you're going to have to show him everyday that you mean what you say."

Katherine nodded. "Yeah, I just wish there was a faster way. I've already lost so much time that I could have spent with him lying and scheming that I don't want to wait anymore."

"Just take it one day at a time. Even if it doesn't happen as fast as you want it to, you still get to spend time with him while you build that trust." Caroline reasoned.

Katherine looked at her in confusion. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

"You seem like you need it." Caroline said honestly. "Plus we do have the truce now. There's not going to be any progress if we don't at least try. So, this is me trying."

Katherine stared at her for a few more seconds before mumbling quietly. "Thanks, Forbes. And I'm sorry for killing you, I guess."

Caroline nodded. "I don't really know if that was a very good apology, but it's a step in the right direction. I kind of forgive you? You were kind of right about me liking being a vampire. I'm a much better vampire than I was a human. You still have a long way to go to earn my trust too, but this was a start I think."

Katherine seemed to perk up a bit at that. "You're not too terrible to talk with, Caroline."

"Thanks, I think."

"Soo…" Katherine's eyes turned mischievous. "You and Klaus Mikaelson… I can't say that I saw that coming. Tell me, how is he in the sack? As much as he pretended to court me back when I was human, we never got to that step. If he's anything like Elijah… it must be mind blowing."

Caroline blushed deeply. "Yeah, Katherine, we're not quite there yet…" She gestured between the two of them.

"That's fair." Katherine shrugged. "I'm surprised he let you come talk with me."

Caroline smiled. "He's probably pacing outside the door right now actually." They both listened and laughed a little when they heard him doing just that.

"Well, I suppose we should go back out there before our clock runs out. You know, a sign of good faith that I'm living up to the truce and all that." Katherine sighed as she stood up. "I really am going to stick to it this time."

"I look forward to it." Caroline smiled as the two of them went over to the bedroom door. She opened it, and they both saw Klaus right outside waiting for them.

"22 seconds to spare…" His eyes darted between the two of them.

"See? I'm being good." Katherine said cheekily as she sauntered past him toward the stairs.

Klaus let out a low growl as she walked away from them. Caroline took his hand in hers. "She's just trying to bother you, you know that, right?"

"I'm aware," Klaus responded, his eyes still on the spot that Katherine had just been at before she turned the corner.

"Nik," Caroline said, turning his face to look at her. "I'm fine. Everything is fine. We actually had a decent talk. She wants to be better too."

"Hmm," Klaus hummed noncommittally. "I'll believe that when I see it."

They rejoined the other three back in the living room.

Kol spoke as soon as she and Klaus settled back onto the couch. "Was there kissing, Nik?"

Klaus opened his mouth to respond, but Katherine beat him to it. "You'll never know, Kol." She said, smirking at him.

Caroline laughed and Elijah tried to hide his smile. Kol looked back and forth between Caroline and Katherine. "You can't just tease me like that, Darling."

Klaus glared at his younger brother for joking with Katherine. Caroline elbowed him and gave him a pointed look before mouthing "Be nice." He rolled his eyes at her before extending his arm across the back of the couch and pulling her closer to him.

She settled back against him as she watched Katherine and Kol bicker back and forth.

"No, Kol." Katherine smirked. "What happened in Klaus' bedroom is between Caroline and I."

Kol turned to Caroline desperately. "STBSIL, you'll be nice to me and tell me, won't you?"

Caroline darted her eyes to Katherine before smiling at Kol. "A lady never kisses and tells, Kol…"

Kol made a slight choking sound as he looked back and forth between the two women. Elijah laughed at his brother, and even Klaus had a smile on his face.

"Fine, then I'm not going to tell you two anything about my date with Bonnie yesterday." He crossed his arms across his chest and turned away from them petulantly.

"You're dating the Bennett witch?" Katherine raised an eyebrow in intrigue.

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not." Kol said, still pointedly looking away from the others.

"It wasn't a date." Caroline rolled her eyes at him. "You two were working on that spell again."

Kol's head snapped in her direction, and his jaw dropped. "I can't believe you just sold me out like that. I expected better from you, STBSIL!"

"I didn't sell you out." Caroline laughed. "She would have found out eventually, and you and Bonnie didn't go on an official date yet. I mean, Bonnie is coming over tomorrow for the movies…"

"What?!" Kol asked in surprise.

Klaus let out a long sigh next to her. "I hadn't exactly told him about that yet, Sweetheart. I was hoping that he would embarrass himself in front of Bonnie somehow. Her and Matt are coming over at 8 tomorrow morning, and Kol doesn't roll out of bed until 10 at the earliest. He's been known to walk around with his hair all disheveled for an hour or two in the mornings."

"I do not!" Kol yelled.

"You do." Elijah said with a smile. Katherine and Caroline burst into laughter clutching their sides.

"Sorry to ruin your fun, Nik." Caroline managed to say in between giggles. "See, Kol? I did you a favor. You're welcome."

Kol narrowed his eyes at Klaus. "I'll get you back for this."

Klaus held up his hands in a gesture of innocence that fooled no one. "I didn't do anything."

"Yes, but you tried to orchestrate a catastrophe!" Kol accused.

"Just how bad does your hair look in the mornings?" Katherine asked curiously.

"You'll never get to find out, Katerina." Kol responded, drawing her Bulgarian name out mockingly.

"Don't call me that." Katherine narrowed her eyes at him.

"Elijah gets to." Kol retorted.

"He gets to because it's sexy when he says it. It most definitely is not when you do." Katherine hissed back.

Kol's eyes glinted at that. "Watch out, STBSIL, Nik calls her Katerina too."

"Thanks for the heads up, Kol." Caroline replied sarcastically as she watched both Klaus and Katherine grimace at the thought.

"Regardless," Kol replied, his eyes fixed on Katherine. "Elijah doesn't know how to be sexy. You must be confused with me."

Katherine looked over Kol's body pointedly. "Nope. Definitely Elijah."

Caroline cut in then before Kol could respond. She looked to Klaus and spoke loudly, being sure to draw Kol's attention. "Do you think I should tell Bonnie that he's flirting with Katherine? I mean, I am her best friend, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't."

Klaus looked back at her, his eyes full of mirth, but a serious expression on his face. "I think you have to, Love. It just wouldn't be fair to Bonnie if she didn't know what he's doing behind her back."

"What?" Kol shot out of his chair and moved to stand in front of Caroline. "I wasn't flirting with her!"

"You weren't flirting very well," Katherine chimed in. "But you were definitely flirting. You kept trying to get me to tell you about my makeout session with Caroline too."

Caroline watched as a million thoughts flew through Kol's mind. He was clearly torn between asking if Katherine was telling the truth and contradicting her about flirting. He took a deep breath before focusing on Caroline. "I swear, STBSIL, I was not flirting with Katherine, at least not intentionally. I would never do that to Bonnie."

Caroline pretended to consider him for several seconds. "Alright, Kol. I'll believe you this one time, but just know that I'm watching you."

Kol nodded seriously. "I will not let you or Bonnie down." He moved back to his chair and fell into it, sighing in relief. "My animal magnetism is even stronger than I thought." He muttered to himself.