A/N: A huge — and not nearly effective enough — thank you to ZoeRoxburgh for helping with two important aspects of a key Riley/Klaus scene in this chapter. And for being an amazing sounding board and rant-reader. Seriously, thank you!

Have you ever wanted to do something, but were unsure of how to go about it?

That's where I have found myself lately. Ever since I've noticed how Rebekah is the only person around who refers to Klaus as Nik, I've been thinking about the differences between the two names. Especially when I compared myself to C, Tyler, and all their friends who ganged up on me at the end-of-school party last night, it felt odd calling him Klaus. I think I've been aware of this all along, but lately I've actually noticed that there are two distinct parts of him. There's Klaus, the Original hybrid who is evil, stubborn, mean, pushy, unforgiving, controlling, and relentless; he's an arrogant and smug, egotistical jerk. And then there's Nik, the guy I feel inexplicably comfortable around, who can calm me down without saying a word, who always knows exactly what I mean, which is incredible because I'm so inarticulate; this is the guy who puts me first, who jokes and makes me smile, and who sees me as something… more and important.

I certainly don't fall into the same category as those who call him Klaus, but am I close enough to him to call him Nik? Or will that bother him?

I don't know if I knew I shouldn't go home after fighting with C at the end-of-school party, but I knew I didn't want to. I wasn't ready to see her just yet.

After we left the party area, Klaus held my hand as we walked in silence towards town.

I broke the quiet. "I don't want to go home. Do you mind if I stay at your house tonight?"

"Of course, love; you're always welcome in my home."

"Thank you."

I called Aunt Liz once we arrived at the Mikaelson mansion. Luckily, I reached her voicemail. I'd much rather leave this information in a message than tell her directly.

"Hi, Aunt Liz. It's Riley. I'm not going to be home tonight; I'm staying over at Rebekah's." I stared pointedly at Klaus. "I'll be home tomorrow sometime. I'll see you when I see you. Bye."

I ended the call and put my phone back in my pocket.

"Staying at Rebekah's, are you?"

"Well I can't very likely tell her I'm staying with you; leaving your sister's name is much more appealing and tolerable to a guardian."

"That makes sense," Klaus said as he grabbed my hand and pulled me into the front living room. "Sit. You need a drink."

I sat down on the couch and a moment later, Klaus handed me a glass before sitting down next to me. I didn't even look at the contents before I took a sip. Whiskey.

"Thanks," I mumbled before taking another sip. I felt myself numbing, so the burn of the whiskey felt good. It felt like I could actually feel something.

I can't believe I fought with C. We've never fought before. Not like that. And why did it have to be in front of all her other friends. I keep telling myself that she was in the wrong — and I know she was — but it still sucks.

I was still nursing my drink when Klaus broke the silence. "It bothers me when you're so quiet, so pensive. What's on your mind, love?"

I hadn't meant to bring it up, not now, but the words seemed to come out of me more on their own volition than by choice. Perhaps because I had been thinking about this very concept lately. "No worries. I'm just thinking."

"About Caroline?"

"Sort of, but I'm not regretting my choice, if that's what you're thinking. She's the one in the wrong, here." I shook my head before continuing. "No, I was thinking about the differences between..." I wasn't sure how to explain this. Is it how Rebekah differs from C and her friends; is it the differences between Nik and Klaus; is it Nik vs. Klaus?

I should have kept my mouth shut when Klaus asked what I was thinking about.

"Go on, love. You should know by now that trailing off will not stop me from asking about something." He gave me a sly look and I knew I would have to answer his question anyway.

I set my glass down on the nearby table before I scoffed and rolled my eyes at the look he gave me. "You are impossible." I specifically enunciated every syllable. He didn't respond; he just kept giving me that look.

"Ugh, fine. Must you always get your way? I was just thinking about Nik versus Klaus."

"What do you mean?"

I sighed before explaining. "I've noticed that your enemies call you Klaus, as well as those who don't like you. And I don't fall into that category. But the only one who calls you Nik is Rebekah, so I can't really draw any accurate conclusions from that. I mean, it's only one… person…" I trailed off again. Now I was just rambling, trying to cover up my embarrassment.

"Do you want to call me Nik?"

I felt mortified. "You know what, just forget about it. Forget I mentioned it at all. I'm perfectly fine with calling you Klaus. I know I don't mean it the same way as everyone else." I hid my reddening face in my hands. "Oh gosh."

He wrapped his fingers around my wrists and pulled my hands away from my face. His one hand slid from my wrist to wrap around my hand; he placed his other hand under my chin and raised it up so I was forced to meet his eyes. "The people who call me Nik are the ones I am closest with, and therefore are the ones I care the most about. And you are definitely on that short list, love. I would be pleased to have you call me Nik, if you wish. I am pleased just to have you call me anything at all."

"Really?" He nodded and I leaned in closer to him so I could rest my forehead against his. I bit my bottom lip and smiled at the same time before I captured his lips with my own.

His hand moved from my chin to the side of my neck as his thumb traced patterns lightly on my cheek.

I decided it was time. He needed to know.

I broke the kiss much too early for either of our liking.

"I need to tell you something." I let out a big sigh and waited for him to say something. He never spoke; he just watched me. "I've been keeping something from you for the past few days. And I think it's something kind of big. Well, sort of. But I've been afraid of how you would react." I shook my head. "I'm not making much sense, am I?"

"You're not as inarticulate as you believe, love. But tell me what you've been keeping from me."

"It's about Tyler. And Hayley, his lady werewolf friend, as you've referred to her. And the hybrids."

I paused, trying to think of what to say next. He wanted me to continue. "Yes?"

I couldn't look at him; I looked at my hands instead. "They're — They're uh — Tyler and Hayley are working with the hybrids, freeing them from their sire bonds to you."

I looked up to his face. His jaw was clenched and he was so still. Was he even breathing? I didn't say anything; I waited for him to speak. Or move. Or breathe. I just wanted for him to do something.

Finally, he spoke. "Tell me everything."

"I—" I paused. "I don't know very much. I found out a few days ago. Before our prom. Um — That time I skipped school to spend the day with you. I found out later than afternoon.

"C and Tyler had been fighting and were hardly ever seen together, but I came home that day and found them making out on the couch. It turns out that their 'fighting' was just a ruse. They were hoping to fool you."

"How so?"

"C was supposed to distract you. Again. You told me about your encounter with C after our prom."

"Distract me from what?"

"I think the purpose was to keep you away from your hybrids. They asked me to help. As if I would help them go against you. They wanted me to keep you distracted so you wouldn't notice when a hybrid was gone for a considerable length of time to turn into a wolf again and again." I scoffed. "But as if I would help them."

I waited, but when he didn't say anything, I spoke again. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. You should have known; you had a right to know. But I was afraid of what would happen. Telling you meant betraying C's trust. She's my cousin, I couldn't. And I was worried about how you would react. If you killed Tyler, C would hate me.

"But then they all ganged up against me, and they backed me into a corner and gave me an ultimatum. They don't trust me, so I don't owe them any kind of solidarity."

I paused to take a deep breath. "Plus, I wasn't really sure if it was even a note-worthy issue. They cannot break the sire bonds, so there really is no harm. But I suppose if the hybrids think they can, they could get amped up or something and maybe start rebelling. And that would be bad."

We sat in silence for a long time. He wasn't glaring. He didn't look angry. But he wasn't smiling either. He was contemplative.

"Thank you for telling me."

I was shocked at his reaction. "You're being unusually calm about all of this, Nik."

He flashed me a charming grin. "I'm known to have my moments."

He leaned forward slowly and grabbed my chin. His face was inches from mine. My heart fluttered, my stomach dropped — I tried to breath, but my lungs were not cooperating.

I think he meant just to touch his lips to mine, to give me a soft kiss — we weren't having a romantic or sexually stimulating conversation — but things changed when our skin met.

His mouth was abruptly hard and rough; his hands trapped my face to his while his lips moved against mine, urgently.

Our breathing sounded loudly; mine was wild and gasping while his was fierce, almost a growl.

My hand reached for his face, where I touched his cheek, and then to his hair, to wind my fingers in it.

Nik and I decided to go to the Grill for breakfast the next morning. Well, he wanted to go out for breakfast and the Grill was really our only option unless we left Mystic. And I wanted to stay in town. So we ended up at the Grill.

Inside, we saw C in a booth with Tyler, Elena, Bonnie, and Matt. They glared at Nik. He deliberately reached for my hand. They scoffed, and the glass in Tyler's hand looked as if it was in danger of cracking.

Once we were seated — in a booth on the opposite side of the restaurant — I tried to pull my hand free. Nik gripped it tighter.

"We shouldn't antagonize them," I muttered. I wasn't sure if they could hear me.

"They're going to glare anyway, love; I might as well give them something good to glare about."

I smirked at his logic. "In that case…" I trailed off as I slid out of the booth bench and sat down on the other side of the table, beside Nik. We were now both facing the direction of C and her friends.

I brought my hands to his face and brought my mouth to his. Heat radiated from our mouths and moved down and through to my toes as his hands reached under my arms and pressed gently on my back.

We kept it short; we may have been trying to stick it to the snobby glarers, but I still wasn't comfortable making out in the Grill.

I could hear several more scoffs and other disgusted sounds from across the room as our lips touched. I wasn't one for PDA, but Nik was right; if they were going to be angry, it might as well be over something better than the two of us merely being in their presence or holding hands.

After we ate breakfast, I went home. I figured "girls' night" would be cancelled, but I was hoping C would talk to me. She had left the Grill while Nik and I were still eating.

I arrived home to an empty house. That usually doesn't bother me, but I expected to find C here. I knew she'd be angry with me — I was angry with her — but I was hoping she'd be home so we could talk. Or at least be in the same room at the same time.

I grabbed a blood bag from the freezer and sat at the kitchen table to sip at it.

Just as I finished, Aunt Liz came in through the front door. I quickly tossed the empty blood bag in the trash. Aunt Liz is, in general, surprisingly fairly okay with C and I being vampires — as okay as someone can be when that someone was raised to hate and kill vampires — but she was still very uncomfortable with some aspects we now have to deal with, as vampires, such as drinking blood.

"Hey, Ri," Aunt Liz greeted me as she stepped into the kitchen. "How was last night? With Rebekah?" She emphasized the last word, but I knew she would have already seen through my 'staying at Rebekah's' story.

I just gave her a half-smiled. "It was fine."

"That wasn't a convincing 'fine,' Ri."

"It wasn't?"

She shook her head. "I'm a police officer, hun; I am very perceptive."

"Oh." I chuckled at that. "I just didn't want to come home last night."

"Why not?"

"I had a huge fight with C and her friends last night at that party." I shrugged. "I guess I just wasn't ready for round two to happen here last night. Or perhaps this morning."

"Wanna talk about it?"

I shook my head. "We'd better not. I wouldn't want you to get stuck in the middle of this."

Aunt Liz sat down at the kitchen table, across from me. "Does this have anything to do with Klaus?" I ducked my head to avoid her gaze and didn't respond. "You two have gotten closer, even I can see that. But I know how much Care hates him."

"I'm not asking her to like him, or to tolerate him, or to even spend time with him, but I strongly believe that it should be my choice if I want to I spend time with him. I don't like Tyler, but I've never told C that she needs to stop seeing him."

"Caroline told you to stop seeing Klaus?"

I bit my lip, having said too much.

"I cannot believe she would do that."

"She's doing what she thinks is best, I believe. She cannot imagine being wrong about him." Aunt Liz didn't comment. "Do you know where C is? I was sort of hoping she'd be home so we could speak. Or at least be in the same room and not yell at or ignore each other."

"I'm not sure. She told me yesterday that she planned to be home most of the day today, but that was before the party."

"Before we fought," I mumbled.

Just then, I felt my phone vibrate with a text alert. As I brought my phone out of my pocket, Aunt Liz's phone chimed. I opened the message and found a text from C:

I'm going to spend the next few days with Tyler. I'll see you later.
-Care

"Care is going to spend the next few days with Tyler," Aunt Liz informed me as she looked at her phone. Apparently she had received a similar, if not the exact same, text. "Maybe she doesn't want to argue with you anymore at the moment either."

"Maybe," I mused. Something about this situation did not seem right. "Don't you think it's odd that C texted you; she never texts you."

Aunt Liz gave a half shrug. "Maybe she's too busy to call."

"But C always calls to say she's going somewhere or when her plans change; she never texts that information because she wants auditory confirmation that you completely understand her plans." C was a micromanager even when she didn't need to be.

"Sometimes, Ri, you are too suspicious for your own good. You don't have to read so intently into everything. Care just graduated from high school; she's probably just celebrating too hard to come home to her police sheriff mother."

"Yea, maybe." I gave Aunt Liz the best horribly fake smile I could muster.

She could be right: maybe C and Tyler were going to spend some time alone, working out their issues. They haven't been as close since Hayley arrived in Mystic. And they've been arguing a lot.

But I just could not shake this bad feeling — this nagging suspicion — that something was up. Something felt weird.

Elena came over that same day, just after noon. I crossed my arms when I opened the door and saw her standing on the other side.

"Have you come to yell at me some more for spending time with Klaus? Because if so, I'll save you the time and just shut the door in your face now."

"I'm not here to yell at you. I just wanted to talk to Care."

"She's not here." It was only then that I saw what Elena was wearing. It was a warm early-summers day in Virginia, and Elena now stood on our front porch wearing jeans and a sweater. "Elena, what are you wearing?" I tried to make the question sound not too mean, despite what had happened last night at the party.

She shrugged and looked down at her outfit. "What do you mean?"

"It's warm out; you should be wearing short sleeves and capris, at most."

"I don't feel the heat."

"Well, no, I know you don't, but you should still wear summer clothes. It helps you to fit in. Just like you should wear a coat and scarf in the winter. It might feel odd, but it won't affect how warm or cold actually you are."

"You're right, Ri. I'll have to keep that in mind." I nodded. "I don't always remember to act human, now that I'm not." She gave a nervous chuckle.

"I know. It's not easy to pretend all the time." I suddenly remembered what Elena had said. "You're here to see C?"

"Yea. She's not here? She said she was going home when she left the Grill earlier."

"Are you sure?"

Elena put her hands on her hips. "Of course I'm sure, Ri."

Okay, now I'm officially worried. Where the hell is C?

Elena left when she realized I had stopped talking to her. I was too busy being worried about C. Was she really with Tyler? Something felt… wrong.

I called C's cell. It went straight to voicemail. I groaned in frustration as I listened to her voicemail greeting. I left her a message:

"C, hey. It's Riley. I know you're pissed at me, but I'm worried about you. Can you please call me back so I can hear your voice and know you're okay? Please. Please call me back, C."

I then texted her with essentially the same information. When I didn't receive a reply in either call or text format, I decided to take another approach.

I ran to the Lockwood mansion. I had only been there once— for the Founder's Dance, which seemed like such a long time ago — but I easily found my way back there. The last place I wanted to be was at Tyler's house, but I was desperate to make sure C was okay.

I'm such a worrier.

I rang the doorbell several times and knocked repeatedly on the front door. No one answered. I called C's cell again. It went straight to voicemail again.

Urgh! Now what?

I decided to go ask the person who seems to know a little bit about everything: Klaus. Plus, Tyler is one of his hybrids, so he might know something. Klaus had been keeping his hybrids extra-close lately.

Before I could think of a reason not to, I ran across town to the Mikaelson mansion. When I arrived, I barged right in through the front door. "Nik!"

He met me at the base of the staircase. The smiled that had begun to grow on his face at hearing my voice was wiped away when he saw the expression on my face.

"What's wrong, love?"

"Do you know where Tyler is?"

He gave me a confused look. It was understandable. Everyone knows I don't get along with Tyler; it seems incredibly unlikely that I would actively seek him out. And I wouldn't — under normal circumstances. But desperate measures and all.

"You're looking for Tyler?"

"Not exactly. I'm looking for C and apparently she's with him."

"She's not."

I gaped. "No?"

"I've placed Tyler under house arrest here. The vampire hunter has already targeted him twice and I cannot afford to lose a hybrid, not even a terribly annoying one, now that I cannot make any more. So I made sure I always know where he is. And I assure you, love: Caroline is not here."

I felt an overwhelming wave of panic hit me as I processed this information.

"What's wrong love? You've gone pale."

"C is missing. She told everyone when she left the Grill this morning that she was going home, but she never made it. Then Aunt Liz and I received a text from C saying she was spending a few days with Tyler, which is strange because C never texts her mom, and now I'm rambling, and I'm sorry about that, but I'm super worried about her."

"Caroline is missing?" I nodded, suddenly unable to respond. He stepped closer and pulled me into his arms. I rested my head against his chest. "Have you asked her friends?"

I nodded. "Sort of. Elena came by the house, looking for C."

I felt my phone vibrate and I immediately pulled away to fish it out of my pocket.

"It's from C!"

As I read the message, I realized it wasn't from C, but it had been sent from her phone:

Your cousin is safe. For now. You can come see her anytime you wish. You know where.
But come alone.
See you soon, sweetheart.
Lewis

Nik obviously noticed how my expression changed from one of relief to one of anxiety. "What's wrong, love?"

I handed my phone to him. "It's not from C."

He read the message. "Lewis has her."