Caroline Forbes was in bed... naked... with Klaus Mikaelson... also naked. And... she'd had sex with him. There, she admitted it. She'd pulled a classic pre-vampire Caroline move, and jumped into bed with the hot bad boy, just like she'd done with Damon.

Granted, Klaus hadn't fed on her, terrified her and compelled her to be his willing plaything, but he was basically the biggest bad guy on the planet and she'd had one too many shots last night, and reverted straight back to that insecure high school girl who was all about getting attention.

She had to admit, the way Klaus watched her, spoiled her, doted on her, it was more that a little flattering, and for the first time in her very short life, she actually felt special. Back home, she always felt like she was competing with Elena. And it was always Elena. She was beautiful and smart, and she was nice and responsible, and everyone liked Elena.

Not Caroline though, she was the "mean girl". The shallow blonde with a superficial personality, snarky and catty, and no one really liked her. Nope, most of the kids in her school feared her, because they all knew if she wanted too, she could destroy their reputation forever. She wasn't proud of the person she'd been in her pre-vampiric days, and she was actually a much better version of herself now that she had to drink blood to survive, but even now she was still competing with Elena.

Except Klaus, the only interest he had in Elena was to use her as a sacrificial lamb, and she would admit that his initial intentions for Caroline had been the same, but she also knew that there had been nothing fake about the way he acted around her last night. Caroline Forbes had been a master manipulator since she was seven years old and taught herself to cry on command, and she knew fake from real, and last night had been real.

Now this... This was a problem, because she knew she shouldn't be thinking this about him, knew that the reasonable thing to do would have been to head back to Mystic Falls the second she found out the coast was clear. But, after spending three months with Katherine Pierce, Caroline had learned that sometimes being selfish wasn't always a bad thing. The truth was, when she heard she was free to go home, she'd been disappointed. And the reason she was disappointed was because she didn't want to go back, but with no psychotic massmurderer out to kill her anymore, that removed her reason for staying away and that sucked.

She loved her mom, and Bonnie and Elena, and she missed them. And she missed Matt and even Tyler, and Stefan had been her vampire-mentor and had become one of her best friends and she missed him too, though she wasn't all that excited about seeing Damon again. Of course she wanted to see them again, to tell them all about her time away and what it was like living with Elena's evil backstabbing doppleganger for three months, but she knew the second she went back home, something else would happen.

Some new big bad would come to their small town, and as usual, Elena would be smack in the middle of it. And frankly, she was getting real tired of the Stefan-Elena-Damon triangle, and how Bonnie always seemed to sacrifice more than any of them no matter what happened. Bonnie's grams died after she and Bonnie opened the tomb, only to realize it was all for nothing, and Caroline was worried that if she went back home, she'd get pulled into yet another supernatural drama and, was it so wrong that she just wanted to get away from it all?

At least for a little while?

No, she thought, adopting the selfish mentality of Katherine, it wasn't wrong at all. Caroline's life shouldn't always revolve around her friends, shouldn't always be determined by the decision that her friends made and that would eventually impact her in one way or another.

She'd been killed by Katherine because the vampress wanted to send a message to Stefan and Damon, and she'd been tortured by Jules and her psycho boyfriend because of what Damon did to Mason Lockwood. And she'd almost been killed in a damn sacrifice that was all about Elena.

And Caroline was done having her life be all about someone else.

The second she realized that, it felt like a ton of weight lifted off her shoulders. She felt free to be exactly who she was, who she'd always been beneath her neuroses and insecurities. And so, because of that, she refused to feel guilty about sleeping with the big bad hybrid, and she refused to feel bad about the fact that it was the best sex of her life.

Screw it, she was Caroline Forbes god damn it, and there was no one else like her.

"Really Nik, you couldn't compell us a better suite than this?"

Caroline opened her eyes, rolled to her side, and realized she was alone in bed. After having her epiphany and making the decision to live her life for herself, she'd gone back to sleep next to (at that point) still sleeping Klaus. Clearly he was up and about, and judging by that unfamiliar, and highly snarky female voice, they had company.

This, she figured, had to be Rebekah, the sister that Kol had been supposed to stop from massacring a city. Caroline had to admit, she was curious about the original sister. She didn't know anything about her aside from her name, and now what she sounded like, and she had to rectify that immediately.

"It's the presidential suite, Rebekah." She heard Klaus drawl and felt her lips twitch when Rebekah replied,

"Then perhaps you should have compelled us into The Savoy instead, Elijah informs me it's the best hotel in the city."

Grinning to herself, Caroline tucked the sheet to her body and rolled out of bed, gathering up her clothes from last night on her way to the en-suite bathroom. She didn't have her cosmetics, and she had nothing to wear but her clothes from last night, but she could at least get a shower and clean off the no-doubt smudged make-up that had to have her looking like a raccoon.

She didn't waist any time, was in and out of the shower in ten minutes (she had to wash her hair, with conditioner), and it took her five minutes to get dressed and make herself presentable before facing Klaus and his siblings.

When she walked out of the bedroom, she found - a seemingly empty - huge main room that was elegantly furnished with what looked like antique furniture, seriously expensive art on the walls, and a huge sitting area with a wide-screen TV. She hadn't taken in much of the hotel suite the night before, but she was impressed. It wasn't like she and Katherine had been slumming it during their time on the run, but they'd never compelled themselves into a suite so lavish, and it made her wonder about Rebekah's objections to the room.

Then again, Caroline wasn't a thousand years old and she hadn't just spent however-many years dessiccating in a coffin, so she was no one to judge.

"Patience Bekah, we'll leave for Paris soon enough. Elijah is tending to business and he'll be joining us soon, as for now-" Klaus stopped talking abruptly and she turned to see him walk into the room from another part of the suite, Kol was casually strolling behind him, and behind him stomped a stunning statuesque blonde with an obvious air of superiority.

When the blonde caught sight of Caroline, she stopped dead. Her eyes then quickly shot to Klaus before they came back to her, and then she smirked.

"Well, hello there. Who might you be?" Before Caroline had a chance to answer, Rebekah aimed her next words at her brother.

"Really Nik, it's unlike you to finish your dinner. What, are you saving her for leftovers, and if so, can I have a taste?"

Caroline snorted, and the female original's eyes shot back to her.

"Sorry to disappoint you Vampire Barbie, but I'm no one's dinner. Though, I'm pretty sure you're brother can confirm that I'm quite tasty."

Kol, who'd been sipping on a drink during this exchange, choked at her words and all eyes shifted to him as he coughed to clear his throat, his eyes shining with mirth.

"Morning love," Klaus said belatedly, and Caroline looked to him, shifted her eyes over the other vampires in the room, with a now narrow-eyed Rebekah, and then she sent him a smile.

"I need to get back to my flat." She informed him, thinking that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to hang around the original family. Seriously, if her friends were magnets for supernatural trouble, then what the hell was she looking at if she got entangled with vampires (and a hybrid) who'd been on earth for a thousand years.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible, love." Planting her hands on her hips, she narrowed her eyes at his response.

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It means, that while you and Nik were out partying last night, Elijah and I took care of moving all your things from your flat to one of the rooms here. The nice couple living across the hall from you got a little nudge to take the flat of your hands with further ado, and you should have a nice little sum in your bank account by the end of the week."

Slowly, Caroline turned her head to Kol, trying to process his words, but more... trying to figure out why they'd done any of that. Seeing as she couldn't come up with a plausible reason, she asked him.

"Why would you do that?"

"Haven't my brother told you? He fancies you, love. In fact, he's been quite obsessed with you since you spoiled his little ritual three months ago. Good on you, Caroline. You're likely the only person on the planet who could get away with enraging Nik to the point of homicidal fury, and live to see another day. Isn't that right, big brother?"

"If you enjoy the ability to speak, I advice you to stop talking little brother." Klaus bit back and now Caroline was staring at him.

"That still doesn't answer my question," she pointed out rationally, deciding to ignore most of what came out of Kol's mouth and process that for another day.

"Yes," Rebekah spoke up, looking between her two brothers, "why would you do that? Honestly Nik, she's a baby vampire, she can't be that special." Well, ouch.

"Caroline, love, your things are in the bedroom next to mine. Why don't you make sure my brothers got everything, and give me a few moments to speak with my siblings?" He was sending her away? She dit not think so.

"Uh, no. I want an answer Klaus, and I'm not going anywhere until you give me what I want."

"I'll explain everything in due time," he promised and she narrowed her eyes again, because seriously! What the hell was going on?!

"Fine," she snapped, not liking it one bit, "but as soon as I get back out here, I expect some damn answers." Glaring at all three of them, she turned on her heel and stomped to the door next to the one she'd come out of ten minutes earlier. And the only thing she could think about was that she'd been wrong, very wrong. She totally regretted sleeping with Klaus. Totally.

Klaus studied his siblings and wondered how much to tell them. Normally, he wouldn't say anything, but three months ago, things had changed. On the night of the sacrifice, after Caroline had killed the witch and he'd had his hand on her heart, ready to tear it from her chest, he had looked into her eyes and as he did, for a brief moment, they'd flashed a mesmerizing ice blue. And at the time, he had no way of knowing for sure, but he'd suspected that the reason for that flash was because Caroline Forbes had the werewolf gene somewhere in her bloodline, and at killing the witch she had inadvertantly activated the curse.

Over the past three months, as he made her moronic friends believe that he intended to hunt her down and torture her for eternity for what she did, he'd had a stable of witches researching everything there was about Caroline Forbes. He'd also lured her friends into admitting that before that night, Caroline had never taken a life before, which would have made poor Gretha her first kill, and the key to activating the curse. She was, in fact, like him. Exactly like him. A vampire unaware of her werewolf lineage, and a vampire who was in fact both.

Caroline Forbes... was a hybrid.