A/N: Thank you all for your continued support for this story. I am back after a long wave of depression and life in general not being the best. Took me a long time to realize how much I missed writing. So, yes, in response to Secile's review, This update is much sooner. Enjoy. Sorry for being depressed I guess? Lol

Klaus's POV

"What the Hell happened to her?" Elena Gilbert's shrill voice broke through my primal conscience as I viciously spit out a question regarding where an unoccupied bed was located within the Salvatore boarding house.

"Top of the stairs. First door on the right." Stefan quickly spoke as he used vampire speed to take the stairs to the second floor and open the door for me. I could feel Caroline growing colder in my arms even as I used my own vampire speed to get her into bed and under the covers as quickly as possible.

I could now hear the worried voices of Alaric and Damon as Elena tried to explain Caroline's situation to them. All three of them quickly started to make their way upstairs as well. As soon as Alaric rounded the corner, he froze in place.

"How long?" Only two words dared to leave his mouth.

"Is that a—" Damon's question was cut off as Caroline started to cough uncontrollably. Blood seemed to drip from her lips as she finally settled back down into the pillow. I couldn't stop the harsh memories from hitting me at full force.

I sighed as I noticed Caroline trying to hide her blood-spotted handkerchief in between the mattress and wooden frame of our bed. She quickly sat back up and crossed her arms over her frail body.

"Hello." She smiled slightly as she knew she had been caught.

"I'll have Nurse Lucy come around and collect them as I do every morning during your bath, my love."

Caroline opened her mouth to speak, but quickly closed it as I walked over and joined her in bed. She weakly shifted so that her head was on my chest, and my arm twisted around her shoulders lightly. I felt my entire body warm up as she used her two hands to grip my hand and bring it to her own chest. She knew I loved to feel her heartbeat.

"And here I thought I was getting away with it." Caroline snuggled further into me and let out a content sigh.

"Maybe next time, love." I heard her start to lightly snore as her heart slowed down. "Maybe next time."

"Klaus! What do we do?" Stefan's panicked voice seemed to stick out the most among all the other voices in the room. The noise and chaos of everything going on around me was almost too much. I needed to focus. I needed to make sure Caroline would be okay.

I felt my face contort as I let the adrenaline take over my body.

"Everyone out! Now." I snarled through the teeth of my beast and everyone immediately went silent. "I said get out!"

The entire room seemed to jump back at me as I yelled. I could tell my eyes were glowing wildly and my breathing was heavy and uncontrolled, but finally everyone in the room began to retreat as they each shared a dark look toward each other.

For the first time in almost five centuries, I got to finally take her in without any distractions. Her pale blonde hair, although starting to get moistened with sweat, was the exact same texture I remembered. Her skin still felt like the smooth, warm, milky truffle I remembered running my hands over repeatedly, and her tiny, light brown moles all seemed to be in the same exact spots that they had been in the 1500s.

It was like I had never lost her. It was like we had never parted ways.

"Niklaus?" Caroline's weak voice made me sit up straighter. It sounded odd. Almost as if there was a familiarity behind it.

Before I could answer her, she spoke again.

"Can you please have Lucy get a towel for me, Nik?"

I couldn't keep the tears from springing to my eyes. It couldn't be this easy, could it?

"What did you say, Caroline?" I asked clearly. I was met with nothing but the ragged breaths of the woman next to me. I would have to heal her soon, but I had to be sure first. I had to be sure my mind was not playing tricks on me. "Caroline, what about Lucy?"

My voice was hysterical, even to my own ears, but I was met with nothing more than silence.

"Caroline?" My voice was a soft whisper as I tried to keep it from trembling. I held my breath as I waited to see if she would respond.

"Klaus?" She now sounded more like herself. "What's going on? Where is everyone? Where's Tyler?"

The fleeting sadness almost completely dissipated as I took in the panicked look in Caroline's eyes. I had to calm her down.

"It's alright, sweetheart. You're safe. It's okay." Her hand immediately went up to the open wound on her neck.

"What is this?" She asked. She was confused as she let her hand trail lightly over the wound.

"A werewolf bite. It's toxic to vampires. Destroys them from the inside out." I spoke clinically.

"Nik, am I dying?" Her use of my nickname almost made me lose focus. My vision blurred with unshed tears.

"Not tonight, love. I can cure you. All you have to do is ask." I never wanted to take the choice from Caroline ever again, and even as she lay here on her death bed, I wanted to make sure I was doing what she wanted.

Caroline used a bit of her strength to sit up.

"What if I said no to the cure? Would it really be that bad?" My heart lurched at her question. She took my silence as a sign to go on.

"I mean, don't get me wrong. I love being a vampire, but my life was so much simpler as a human. I was a normal teen girl who had so much ahead of her. Prom, graduation, college, a family. When I was turned, all that was taken away. Sure, I can graduate and go to college but how many times will I do that before I get tired of it? How long will it be before I go through a stage of crippling depression because I can't start my own family? A few decades? A few centuries? Some things in life are impossible for me to achieve now, so why should I even keep going? And then there's Tyler…" Caroline trailed off.

"Caroline, my love, one thing you'll soon learn about being a vampire is that time is only what you make it. You can make one minute feel like 100 years, or you can simply live in the moment and appreciate the extra time you have that others don't. Sure, you may experience many graduations and colleges, or there may be some things you won't experience at all, but the point is…" I tried to hold in the tears that threatened to fall as I thought about everything my Caroline had lost. I couldn't help but feel guilty for ruining what human life my Caroline had left to live. I could only wonder if her thoughts mirrored the woman's who was currently laying beside of me right now.

"The point is that there's a whole world out there waiting for you, and if you choose to not be cured tonight, how satisfied would you be with never seeing it? Caroline, there is so much more to this world besides the borders of Mystic Falls. You deserve to see past that. You deserve to see the world and everything beautiful that it holds."

I noticed tears falling from Caroline's tired eyes as she looked down; trying her best to avoid eye contact.

"The choice is yours. It always will be."