A/N: "Jagged Pieces" now has 21 reviews, which is one of my favourite numbers. Thank you!

I went over to the Mikaelson mansion immediately after learning the truth about my death from Lewis. I should have gone home, but my feet led me there instead.

I didn't knock; I walked right in. I found Rebekah in the front living room with a glass of blood in her hand. I said a quick "Hi" as I took the glass from her.

"That's not—" I drank half the blood "—from a blood bag."

I handed the half-empty glass back to Rebekah. "I never thought it would be."

She set the glass down on the table next to her and looked up at me. Her eyes narrowed slightly. "What is going on?"

It was then that Klaus entered the front living room. He didn't say anything, so I answered Rebekah's question. "I've realized that I have been looking at this vampire-thing the entirely wrong way." I noticed I was pacing in front of the mantel, but I didn't bother to stop myself. "I shouldn't be concerned about who that blood came from or if that person is still alive. And I shouldn't be upset that I've killed people; it's part of my vampire instincts. I couldn't control myself. I don't have to kill people, but if it happens, I shouldn't cry about it."

"Who are you and what have you done with Riley?"

I made a face at Rebekah. "Funny…"

"Does this mean you're going to stop drinking from blood bags and start drinking from the vein?" Rebekah asked.

"No." I reconsidered. "Probably not. The way vampires feed is a rather intimate act and I don't like the idea of being that close to a stranger; I need my personal space."

Klaus crossed the room. I stopped pacing the moment he moved and never took my eyes off him. He stopped when he was standing next to me and lowered his head so we were almost eyelevel. When he spoke, his voice was low. "I give you time to think about us, and you reconsider your view of vampirism. Interesting."

"No," I whispered. His proximity made me feel as if I needed to whisper. "This — This came about just today, after a terrible conversation."

"With who?" Rebekah's question broke me out of my Klaus-and-Riley trance; I had forgotten Bekah was in the room.

My answer was simple: "Lewis."

Klaus put his hand on my upper arm — a comforting gesture — but I brushed him away with an "I gotta go" and I sped out of the house, probably not fast enough that he, an Original, couldn't see me, but I fled away as fast as I could.

I ran without direction, without purpose. I ran through the trees, as fast and as hard as I possibly could. It felt absolutely incredible to exercise and use my vampire abilities to their full potential.

I don't know how long I ran for, but eventually I realized I should circle back home. After a while, my run turned into a jog. I was jogging through the woods when the trees suddenly rescinded and I was in a clearing. I stopped when I realized that I recognized where I stood.

This was where Klaus's old village used to be.

I walked around the clearing. I was trying to imagine huts scattered around here, with fire pits nearby, when I heard a rustling behind me. I whirled around and saw Klaus standing at the edge of the clearing.

"Klaus, hi."

"Riley."

"What are you doing here?"

"I left the house shortly after you did. Leaving was the only way to stop Rebekah's incessant glaring and questioning after your abrupt departure."

"Sorry," I whispered.

He continued as if he hadn't heard me, though I knew he had. "I walked around aimlessly and wasn't aware that I was even heading in this direction until shortly before I saw the clearing. I might have left, had I not caught your scent."

"Do you not like being here?"

"Yes and no. This place is full of happy and terrible memories."

Right; I've been able to piece together the story of the Originals from what C has told me and what tidbits Klaus has revealed. And no matter how it started, Klaus's parents hated him to their very cores, in the end.

I know I don't have the ideal parentage, but at least I had my mom. Sure, she was fickle and more devoted and attached to her job than to me, but she at least occasionally made time for me. To have both of my parents hate me — actually hate me — is unimaginable. I don't know how Klaus does it. He had a father who hated him and then hunted him down for a thousand years; he had a mother who was ashamed of the fact that he was alive and who did everything she could to prevent him from existing at his full potential after she killed him. Klaus has been rejected all his life, making him grow cruel and bitter.

It's amazing that Klaus has any semblance of humanity left in him. But he does. No matter how much anyone denied it, Klaus still had human traits in him. But they hardly had a chance to show — often appearing only in glimpses and quick flashes — before he would quickly dismiss them. He had become such a master at shutting off his feelings. You have to really look for them, but they are there.

I know his faults — practically the entire town screams them at me; he's unremorseful, manipulative, and vicious. But I also know what he's like inside. And I know he's not what people think he is. He's not cold, or arrogant, or cruel. Not with me. Those are just the facades he puts up to hide behind.

"My father killed me." I hadn't intended on speaking; the words just sort of came out. "He actually killed me." I started laughing.

"What do you mean?"

"The accident, where I died. That was Lewis's doing. He killed me. He killed my mother. On purpose." I was laughing uncontrollably now; I'm not sure my words were even comprehensible.

My laughter caused my knees to give out a little, and I sank down until I was kneeling on the ground. Klaus stood still, watching me intently.

"All of the guilt I've been feeling for months now over everyone who died in that accident while I lived was entirely misplaced. It wasn't my fault; I had no idea what was happening to me." I was laughing so hard now that I had tears streaming down my face. "That guilt belongs to Lewis, not me."

As I took in a ragged breath, I realized my tears were not laughter-related. I was crying. Klaus's arms were around me before I had fully exhaled.

"The guilt is gone, but…"

"But now there's room for other emotions to fill its place. Such as grief."

I shook my head. "I don't know — I don't know how to process what is going on, what I am going through."

"Talk to me, Riley. Tell me what's going through your head." His voice was pleading.

I couldn't — wouldn't — look into his eyes as I spoke. I leaned against his side, taking in the comfort that his arm around my shoulder brought me. "I should have died in that accident with my mother. It's not fair to me to still exist while she does not. I am afraid. I don't know how to live without her. It feels as though my mother was ripped away from me. She was killed. For no reason. And I lived because of a decision someone else made for me; a decision that I'm not sure I would have made for myself. And it's a decision I now have to live with forever. I can't forgive myself. I have this blissful and grateful but tormented and incomplete life of immortality to spend alone as punishment. I have this new life that someone unknown to me anymore has cursed me with. I feel lost."

"Maybe you need to close one part of your life — the human part — in order to accept and move on with the next part."

I leaned further into his side, wanting to curl up and get lost. "How do I do that? This doesn't feel right. I am living and dead at the same time; I'm forced to forever only be half of something and not ever completely whole."

"You should celebrate the fact that you're no longer bound by trivial, human conventions, Riley. You're free."

"It doesn't feel like it."

He grabbed my chin, forcing me to look up at him. As our eyes locked, his hand moved from my chin to my cheek, cupping it as his thumb moved slowly, soothingly, across my cheek. "You're still mourning the loss of your human life. But you will move on, Riley. You're blind to it now, but eventually you will see and realize the potential you have now that would have been closed to you, had you stayed human."

I leaned into his touch, though I felt guilty for doing so. There were too many emotions running through me in that very moment. My guilt could have been spared, had Lewis only come forward and helped me through the transition when he had the chance. Now he comes around, wanting to make up for lost time? Too little, way too late.

Without his interference, maybe I would have lived and died peacefully. I maybe could have grown up, gotten married, had children. I wasn't even sure I ever wanted any of that, but at least I had the options. I could have grown old.

Those options, those choices, had been violently ripped away from me. By my own father!

I stood and Klaus followed. He went from sitting with his arm around my shoulders to standing next to me with his hand on my arm.

My frustrations were growing and building upon themselves, the more I thought about how Lewis was responsible for the accident. "I've turned into a creature I thought only existed in stories. I'm still processing that, because now nothing makes sense. Everything has changed. And then you come along, and I just — I feel like I'm losing Riley."

"You need to calm down or you'll have a panic attack. Just breathe."

"Will you stop saying that! I can breathe just fine on my own. I don't need your help." I put my hand up to his chest, trying to push him away.

But Klaus being Klaus — an Original and the Hybrid and therefore much stronger than I am — wrapped his strong arms around me from behind as I tried to move away from him, holding me in place. I tried to fight against his hold, but he was relentless and his grip was iron tight. I gave up — I'd like to say I saw the stupidity and uselessness of fighting, but it's probably more honest to say that I gave up because I was exhausted. I gave up and I gave in. I sank to the ground again and he sank with me, simultaneously. I listened to the sound of his breaths.

I felt the grief consume me. I turned around and placed my hands on Klaus's chest, burying my head in his shoulder and letting my tears soak into his shirt.

Klaus responded, clutching me tighter and letting me cry.

I found myself not wanting him to let go.

At some point, Klaus broke the silence with a whisper. "My father killed me, too." I looked at him, but I couldn't speak. "He killed me and all of my siblings. After we drank the blood-laced wine the night we became vampires, he drove his sword through our hearts. Quite viciously. Though I'm sure with me, he may have even enjoyed it."

We sat like that, Klaus holding me against his chest, for I don't know how long. It was almost hypnotizing, listening to his breathing. (But maybe that was the point.)

If my life was a cartoon, I would be the person with the little devil on one shoulder and the little angel on the other.

One was reminding me of the Klaus I've been spending time with: the one who took me to the beach and held me in the woods when it felt like everything was crumbling down around me; the one who willingly receives glares and what-not from those around us when he walks with me to school or when he (reluctantly) hangs out with me at the Grill.

The other figure on my shoulder sounded like C sometimes, and Matt other times, and Jeremy yet other times. This figure doesn't remind me of anything — because it can't; everything it knows happened before I arrived in Mystic — but it constantly whispers into my ear words like "murderer," "psycho," "deranged," "volatile," and "evil"; it tells me that I'm only a pawn, and it sneers at me for being so gullible and naïve.

My biggest problem is that I don't know which voice comes from the angel figure and which one comes from the devil figure. Which one is right? Or more importantly, which one is wrong?

Trying to answer either of those questions makes my head spin.

The sky was dark and the sliver of a moon was high in the sky when I realized Klaus's grip around my waist had lessened.

I was feeling too overwhelmed for even him to help. So I did what I do best.

I ran away.

I ran from Klaus. I ran from my feelings.

I ran.

This time, I did run home.

I paced across the width of my room — where I went directly upon arriving at home — for maybe ten minutes before I heard a knock at the front door. C was home; I knew she'd answer. I resumed pacing, not paying attention to anything else, when C knocked on my bedroom door and stuck her head into the room.

"Klaus is at the door."

"Oh." His presence should not have been a surprise. I walked past C and watched my feet as I walked, not looking up at Klaus until I was standing in front of him. I felt C hovering in the hallway nearby, but it didn't matter. "Hi."

"I came over to make sure you got home safely."

I nodded. "I did." I wrung my hands together, fiddling. "Thanks. For earlier."

"Of course."

Why is this so awkward?!

"I'm tired, so I'll probably have an early night. We'll talk later."

Klaus seemed dejected as he said, "Goodnight, Riley." I nodded at him, gave a small smile, and walked back into my bedroom, where I would most likely continue pacing.

Klaus watched Riley walk into her bedroom and close the door. He wanted to say something — do something — to help her, but he knew he couldn't. She needed time. And he had promised to give her time. Even if it was agonizing and almost unbearable for him.

He looked to Caroline, who had lingered in the hallway after announcing his arrival to Riley, and gave her a small nod. He turned to leave, but was stopped when he heard Caroline speak.

"Look, I'm just going to state upfront that I'm saying this because of Riley, okay, not to help you." When Klaus didn't respond, Caroline continued.

"I don't like you. I'm sure that's not a surprise. I don't like you and I really hate the fact that my cousin seems to enjoy spending all her time with you. Despite what I tell her."

Caroline made it sound like Riley never listened to her. Klaus needed to set the blonde vampire straight. "She's not naïve, Caroline. She's far from it. She listens to every word you say. She doesn't think of me as some philanthropic humanitarian who happens to be a vampire. She knows what I've done. But that isn't what she deems important. I'm not saying that I deserve to have her in my life — I know I could not be more undeserving; I'm merely stating the facts about Riley. She sees beyond past actions to the actual person. And that is only one of the aspects that make her amazing."

"She is amazing," Caroline said with a nod of agreement. "And she's incredibly perceptive, which is why I'm sometimes tempted to actually believe her when she counters every negative thing I say about you. But I'm not a dumb blond — I may not have Ri's powers of perception, but I see the way you look at her. I never expected you to have the ability to care for someone, but you obviously care very deeply for her."

Klaus took a step closer to Caroline, wanting to make sure she would see the honesty in his eyes as he spoke. "I know it doesn't mean much to you, but I give you my word: Riley is the most important person in my world."

Caroline nodded. "And after you rescued her from the hunter, I saw how you cared for her. It was shockingly incredible."

Klaus was tired and frustrated; he raked a hand across his face. "If we're just going to stand here and chat about my emotional depth, Caroline, then I think I'll bid you a good night."

"Wait." Caroline sighed before speaking. "She hasn't told me anything about whatever's going on between you two. But I'm getting better at reading my cousin. And she seems overwhelmed by something. And to Ri, being overwhelmed is the scariest feeling. She won't know how to deal with what she's feeling. She might even shut you and everyone out."

"What can I do?"

"The way I see it, you have two options. You either give her enough space and time to figure this out on her own and hope that she does figure it out or you be the person she keeps telling me you can be and you help her. You be the gentleman who can show her the world and who cares more about her than himself. And you help her process whatever it is that is making her feel overwhelmed."

Klaus nodded. "Caroline, thank you."

She crossed her arms and shook her head. "I'm not doing this for you."

"I know. That's also why I owe you thanks." Klaus stepped back, away from the doorway, in preparation of leaving, when he thought of something else. "Caroline, will you give a message to Riley? Please tell her to 'just breathe.' "

Caroline nodded and shut the door as Klaus walked down the walkway.

Of course, I overheard every word.