This story takes place about 2 weeks after 3x22, when Klaus is in Tyler's body.
It's going to be multi-part, totally Klaroline, just stick with it! My first posting, though I have been a lurker for a while and love everyone's work.
Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Diaries or any of it's characters!
The sun broke through the blinds and washed the room in light. Caroline lay and stared at the ceiling. She could hear her mother getting ready for work, the cars on the road outside, the mailman whistling blocks away. The clock ticking beside her bed counted the minutes of her loneliness.
Tyler was gone... dead. The awful fateful hours that night kept replaying in her head. The phone call that Klaus was dead, rushing to find Tyler, saying goodbye too quickly... She didn't even know what happened after she had left. Left him alone to die...
Sitting upright in bed she took a deep breath and heard his last words in her head... She had a life to live... and she would live it for him, or at least try. She heard her mother leave, and slinging her towel over her shoulder went to the bathroom. A shower would help. Standing under the hot water, steam rising she felt tension fall from her shoulders. Scanning her rows of body washes and scented shower gels she selected an orange blossom and neroli bottle. Squeezing it out, she lathered up. As soon as the scent hit the air, she realized her mistake, the smell brought her back to his arms. It reminded her of when they had first fallen in love, how exciting it was to be around him, to be near him. She had used this gel everyday then, and now the smell was like a time traveling device. She felt tears begin to fall again, mingling with the scalding water. Sinking to the floor of the shower, she wrapped her arms around her head and cried her heartbreak into the silence of her empty home.
A lifetime later she dragged herself out, shut the water off and climbed back into bed... the water soaked through her sheets and pooled on the floor. Staring again at the ceiling, she though at least she got out of bed today at all. As she lay she thought of Elena, the hard time she was going through... adjusting. Elena had been there for her... even though her world was upside down. She though about the common theme of most of their conversations.
"Caroline, I know you miss Tyler, but your life has to go on, you have to go on, he wouldn't want this for you." Elena's voice came through the line strong as ever.
"Of course you miss him, but this is too much. You're hurting yourself.."
"I'm O.K Elena, just, don't worry about me." Caroline's voice seemed to come from afar.
"I am worried" Elena said impatiently. "If you don't start eating, I'm sending Damon round, he'll make you"
"Don't, I'm fine I promise, I'm just so tired.I keep remembering seeing him, that last time. I was so lost, and he was so strong, he only cared about me... making sure I'd be OK. I ..." she broke off, a sob stuck in her throat.
"You what?" Elena said gently, waiting as Caroline swallowed the black sadness that waited inside.
"I didn't deserve it" Her whisper crept to Elena's newly super hearing. "Look, I have to go, I'll be fine, just concentrate on yourself." and with that Caroline had hung up without further ado.
A sudden gust of wind blew her curtain out, but didn't make Caroline break her fixed stare from the wall.
'Damon" she said, knowing it would be him.
"Caroline" he said walking forward to sit on the edge of her bed. The bed bent under his weight and drew her head around to him. Dressed in his signature black, his piercing eyes fixed her with a stare that might be interpreted as worry if she'd though he cared enough.
"You look awful" he said with a smirk, drawing his hand down her arm, feeling the bones close to the surface.
"Leave me alone" Caroline said turning to face the wall.
"I don't think so" Damon said, turning her back around, grabbing her chin in a tight grip he forced their eyes to meet.
"What's going on Blondie? This isn't like you. You're a bouncer, you always bounce back. Have you decided to martyr yourself to Tyler's memory... is that what this is? Like he would ever know... or care" Damon moved his face closer to hers and his eyes bored into her.
"Tell me what is really hurting you? What's this really about, you can tell me... I'm judgment free. Whatever is festering down there in the dark, stopping you from living, starving you, making you choke... tell me"
Tears welled up from her eyes, but she couldn't look away.
"I didn't deserve him. He died and I was the last person who saw him, held him and he loved me. He went through hell and back for me... and I..."she trailed off, afraid to finally utter those terrible words.
"You... didn't love him the same way." Damon supplied. At that a huge sob escaped Caroline's chest and she started to shake uncontrollably. Damon carefully wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his chest.
"Shhh, it's OK" stroking her hair he let her cry out all the guilt and remorse she had held inside. When her sobs finally quieted she leaned back, exhausted by the effort and weakened by starving and grief.
"Caroline, listen to me. There is no point torturing yourself. Tyler wasn't perfect, none of us are, you did the best you could with the time you had. We can't control our emotions, hell, if we could do you really think I'd be sticking around here to watch Elena and Stephan together... the heart is unknowable and a mystery to most of us. You cared for him, that's enough..."
"Why are you being so nice to me?"
"Because Elena told me to" he smiled "and because... after everything we've been through, I figured I owe you. Now are you going to be a good girl and eat something?"
Caroline smiled thinly and nodded "I will I promise." As she was speaking Damon's phone began to ring. Pulling it open he listened for half a minute and said "I'm coming" tersely and snapped it closed.
Standing he gave her a lopsided smile "My heartbreak calls, promise me you're gonna eat something." Nodding Caroline watched Damon leave. Running off to help Elena with something, living with his constant pain, constant rejection, but his love for both of them, Elena and Stephan, was more important to him than himself. With these thoughts, a fresh surge of guilt took her over... she wasn't even as loyal as Damon?
Tiredness tugged at her again, she knew she really should eat, but she couldn't quite find the energy to get up right now. Closing her eyes she drifted...
Bonnie walked up the imposing steps in front of the mansion and rang the bell. She heard the gong echoing through the gigantic house, it had barely finished when the door swung open. A liveried servant stood before her, impassive stare.
"I'm here to see Klaus" Bonnie said, instantly wondering if she should have said Tyler.
"It's alright George, she's a friend" a mocking voice called from the murky depths of the house. The servant stepped aside as she walked through the door into the house. She saw him walking down the hallway towards her, loose limbed, dark, so familiar yet so different.
"This way love, let's be civilised and talk in the parlour." she went ahead of him into a bright room, beautifully furnished with different greys, black and slate colours, with dark wood and creamy fabrics making it comfortable. Hardly what she expected from a man like Klaus. Sitting at the long polished mahogany table she finally raised her eyes to meet her childhood friend's eyes, and confront the stranger watching her from behind them.
"Well, this is an unexpected surprise. I thought we agreed to keep out of each others hair until you found a way to rejuvenate my body. This one will suffice for now, but it doesn't quite suit me... I'm not really a jock." He smirked and leaned back in his chair.
"That's not why I'm here, though I am working on it. I need something to give me the power to rejuvenate you. You're body is intact, it just need to heal, which it can't do while you aren't in it." Bonnie watched him closely, she couldn't believe the strange contradiction she saw before her. She knew it wasn't Tyler, but it was him. Then the voice and gestures, it wasn't at the same time.
"Well, don't keep up the suspense" he prompted lounging back against the seat back, waiting.
"It's Caroline." Bonnie gasped as he suddenly sat forward, too quick to see.
"What about Caroline?" His eyes and voice intent. Bonnie took it all in and she realised again how much Klaus seemed to care for her friend. When he had first requested that she be spared knowing what was happening, Bonnie was suspicious. Surely this was an extra benefit if Klaus could take advantage of Caroline in Tyler's body. She didn't trust him with her friend. But he had almost looked offended when Bonnie had warned him about it.
"If you even try to take advantage of Caroline, I'll tell everyone and you'll be back in that dessicated body before you know it. If you touch one hair on her head."
"You really think so low of me? I might be a black-hearted villain love, but I would never want a woman I care about to whisper another man's name in my ear. That's a turn off."
"Oh, and you really care about her? I'm supposed to believe that? Believe that you're capable of caring for anyone but yourself?" Bonnie wrapped her arms around herself and looked down at him scornfully. Sitting on a rock in the tomb, he had stared down at his interlocked fingers and spoken quietly,
"I know it's hard to believe, I know I've not shown you anything but the darkest side of myself. But I was a man once, a good one. I worked hard, took care of my family and dreamt of meeting a girl who could shine light into all the dark places inside of me. I know it'll never happen with her. I know she hates me. And in those moments that she doesn't hate me... she hates herself. I know all this. But...I won't let anyone hurt her, especially myself. You have my word." Raising his eyes to Bonnie's, she read the truth in them and knew he had shared his real feelings for once.
"No, she's dying... she's starving herself, she's so upset about Tyler" Bonnie watched Klaus's reaction. His hands clenched for a second, muscles standing out and his chest rose as he breathed deep.
"Well... ain't love grand?" he asked sardonically, leaning back in his chair again. "What do you want me to do about it? I'm not allowed to go near her" His fingers were tapping. His eyes were intent now, staring back at her.
"I don't know what to do, I don't trust you to play Tyler well enough that nobody realises what I've done, but you won't go back to your body in this state. She is mourning the loss of someone who isn't even gone. And I did it, I took Tyler away from her. If she starves too long... what happens?" dropping her head into her hands she bit off her sentence. The silence stretched out.
"She looses all her strength, maybe forgets who she is, becomes violent with humans, survival instinct overtakes. But that's not going to happen."
"It's not?" Bonnie looked up at Klaus. "No, it's not" he said and smiled.