It was nearly midnight by the time he felt like he could take a minute to relax – sipping on some bourbon and indulging in a cigarette on the back porch.
The sounds at night in Mystic Falls were much different than those in New York City. However, he revelled in the sound of the silence, save for the rustling of the late summer breeze and the crickets in the grass. It was a welcome change from the endless playful screams of children from earlier in the day.
Although Grayson's party had ended much earlier than the parties he was used to, they spent the several hours that followed cleaning up the mess that had resulted.
He stared down at the garbage bags he had collected; the smile-like creases in the bags appeared to taunt him.
Caroline had kept her distance from him for much of the evening as they all cleaned up – obviously still upset with him over the comments he had made about Matt earlier. Fortunately, they were all busy enough that no one seemed to notice her demeanour towards him – except for him.
The clang of a pan from inside the house startled him away from his thoughts and he looked back over his shoulder through the window to see Caroline in the kitchen, appearing to be unloading the dishwasher.
He turned back towards the darkness, taking another drag of his cigarette as he debated with his conscience about what to do. He knew he should apologize to her and that this was the perfect opportunity to do so, now that Bonnie and Kol had gone to bed, but his pride was holding him back.
Taking a long final sip from his glass, he put his cigarette out with the remainder of his drink and tossed it into one of the open garbage bags he had yet to tie.
His re-entry through the back door surprised Caroline, who was busily stacking plates in one of the cabinets with her back turned to him.
"I didn't mean to startle you," he apologized, setting his empty glass on the kitchen island as she glanced at him briefly before turning her attention back towards the cabinet.
"It's okay," she said quietly.
He approached the open dishwasher to help her, preferring to keep himself occupied as he tried to work up the courage and the words to apologize to her.
"You don't have to help me," she told him as he started to retrieve the glasses from the top rack of the dishwasher.
Instead of responding, he continued to collected and organize the glasses. He could hear her sigh under her breath, but she continued to put the dishes away alongside him.
Except for the occasional sound of the dishes complaining as they were stacked or stored, they were quiet. The tension was thick between them, although in the moments where they had to reach around or over one another to work, and their bodies would inadvertently make contact, the tension was anything but hostile.
He thought about the evenings they would spend doing this exact same chore together after one of them had put Grayson to bed. It often inevitably led to one of them pushed up against the counter, their hands and lips occupied by one another, and a dishwasher that was still half-full the next morning as a result of their distraction.
"You started smoking again?" Caroline observed, a judgmental tone apparent in her voice.
Of all the things she could choose to make conversation about, he thought. How had she even known? Perhaps she had spotted him outside through the window despite having his back turned towards her. He wasn't about to ask her how she had found out.
"On occasion," he admitted with a shrug, knowing he would only dig himself in deeper if he tried to deny it. "Things have been a little stressful lately," he explained, though he knew even that was not justification for the bad habit he'd resumed.
"Yeah," she seemed to acknowledge.
He frowned, disappointed with himself, knowing what Caroline's reaction would be about him resuming his old habit.
"I'm sorry for earlier," he piped up quickly before the conversation could take another bad turn, or before he lost his nerve.
Caroline was quiet, her back still turned to him as she continued to tidy up the kitchen. Of course, she wasn't going to make this easy for him.
"What I said about you and Matt Donovan," he continued. "I shouldn't have assumed. And you're right; your relationships are none of my business."
He paused, providing her with an opportunity to speak. She was quiet.
"I just…the idea of you moving on is difficult for me to accept right now," he admitted, the openness of his revelation to Caroline taking him a bit by surprise.
She nodded.
"I get it," she replied sympathetically. "It would be hard for me too," she agreed with him, her back still turned, preventing him from being able gauge her full reaction.
He stopped himself from reading too much in to her comment.
"Well, it doesn't matter anyways, because Matt plays for your team," she added quickly with a small laugh as she turned around to face him, clearly trying to divert their attention away from discussing her feelings.
"I honestly had no idea," he said with a chuckle, choosing to play along with her efforts to keep things lighthearted.
"Neither did I," she admitted, this time with a louder laugh, suggesting there was a bit of a story about how she had come to find out – though he wasn't about to pry.
She yawned, leaning back against the kitchen counter.
"I'm exhausted," she concluded. "Today was insane."
"It was a great first birthday party," he assured her. "You did an amazing job putting it together. I think Elijah and Elena would be pleased," he concluded.
It was the first time in a while that he could remember making Caroline genuinely smile.
"Well, I can't take all of the credit," Caroline admitted modestly. "I couldn't have done it without your help and everyone else."
He shrugged, knowing that in the bigger picture, he hadn't contributed much compared to all of the effort Caroline had put into the event.
"We will have to top this next year now," he realized, overwhelmed at the very thought.
Caroline's eyes went wide.
"I'm not going to even attempt topping this party," Caroline said simply. "Fortunately, Grayson's young enough that he won't remember this birthday party next year. That is, if we have him next year," she said, turning solemn as she thought about the possibility of Grayson not being with them next year.
He felt his own expression fall as his mind turned towards the latest developments in the court case his parents had initiated – the developments he had yet to tell Caroline about.
"This is the part where you reassure me that we will have Grayson next year…" Caroline urged, snapping him out of his thoughts.
Purposely avoiding eye contact with her, he contemplated how to tell Caroline about the summary judgment motion – something he hadn't planned on telling her tonight.
"Klaus?" Caroline said. "You're making me nervous."
He gave her a regretful look, not wanting to ruin the perfect day that she had created for Grayson's birthday, but he couldn't keep it from her.
So, he told her everything Stefan had told him upon his return to Mystic Falls – the summary judgment motion his parents were bringing and the content of the affidavit material they were planning to use as evidence. When he was finished, he held his breath, waiting for Caroline's angry reaction, waiting for her to blame him.
She stood there silently, seemingly trying to process what he had told her as she ran her hands through her hair anxiously.
"Look, I'm sorry for not telling you sooner. Stefan and I didn't want to stress you out before Grayson's birthday party, and nothing was going to change from then until now," he explained, hoping that she would understand.
Her hands fell slowly over her face as she peered out over her fingertips.
"It's probably better that you waited," she acknowledged blankly, taking him by surprise.
While she may have preferred that he waited to tell her until after Grayson's party, her tone suggested that she was still upset, nevertheless.
"I know what Tyler's affidavit will say about you, and I don't even want to know why you got in a fight with Damon at a strip club during Stefan's bachelor party," Caroline said disappointedly, shaking her head, her eyes becoming glassy. "I'm sure a judge will love to read all about that," she added sarcastically, obviously concerned about the negative impact that information would have on their case.
His face reddened, feeling embarrassed about the incident with how bluntly Caroline summarized it. He went to explain but Caroline cut him off, now more emotional, as tears began to run down her cheeks.
"You left me here Klaus, and not only that, you seemed to have made things even worse while doing so," she concluded bitterly.
Her suggestion made him feel defensive, and though he knew there was some truth to what she said, he couldn't help but react.
"I left you?" he countered resentfully. "I seem to recall you walking out on me in New York," he shot back, still hurt by her rejection.
She shook her head as she wiped her eyes, unimpressed by his response.
"What choice did I have?!" she questioned, the volume of her voice becoming louder as she grew more frustrated. "I…WE…have responsibilities here," she explained, her hands falling at her sides.
"You could have at least given it some consideration," he replied, feeling defeated, though not quite wary enough to throw in the towel. He knew they still had responsibilities in Mystic Falls to address, and he never expected Caroline to drop everything in Mystic Falls in an instant, what hurt him most was how quickly she dismissed his proposal for their future outright.
Caroline huffed in response to their deadlock, shaking her head as she wiped her eyes once more.
His chest tightened, scolding himself for the part he had played in taking their conversation down such a bitter road. It wasn't his intention to make her cry like this – to make things even worse – it was quite obvious both of them were still hurting.
"The optics of Damon's affidavit aren't good," he admitted, deciding to shift the conversation back to the topic of the Motion and the affidavit material. He knew how Damon's affidavit would read to any judge hearing the motion. Initiating a physical fight was bad enough – it taking place in a strip club during a bachelor party was even worse. "I shouldn't have reacted the way I did, but Damon was egging me on, making inappropriate comments about you, and I had been drinking. I know it's not an excuse, but I'm sure Damon's affidavit provides none of that context." he explained. "This is my fault," he acknowledged guiltily. "If my parents didn't have these affidavits from Tyler and Damon this probably wouldn't be happening."
It was obvious that Caroline blamed him, at least in part, though he could tell that she was trying to consider her words carefully to prevent herself from being too harsh.
"You're right," she agreed, confirming his suspicions. "But, based on what Stefan told you, I don't think I've helped much. Damon and Tyler mentioned me too. It sounds like your parents have painted me to be an irresponsible slut," she sighed. "I can't believe Carol Lockwood swore an affidavit for your parents, too," she added, the anger obvious in her voice over Carol Lockwood's apparent betrayal of their working relationship.
His parents, and everyone else who had sworn affidavit material about Caroline, couldn't be more wrong about her.
"How do we respond? Stefan and Meredith are out of the country," Caroline panicked.
"If Stefan can't get it adjourned on the day of the motion, he has a colleague working on our responding material while he's gone," he informed her. "If it proceeds, Stefan said we will argue against summary judgment, and if that doesn't work, he'll have to argue the case on its merits with our responding material," he explained.
Caroline stared down at the floor visibly stressed by the prospect of the motion.
"If only we had affidavits from the Lockwoods and other prominent people in Mystic Falls like your parents have," she sighed. "Affidavits from Elijah or Elena themselves would be ideal," she added jokingly, rubbing her hands over her eyes.
"We'll have some good material – Meredith, Camille, April, Grayson's teachers, Kol, Bonnie, Rebekah," he tried to reassure her, catching the pet name he had let slip.
"All of them, except for Grayson's teacher, have some sort of bias in favour of us; your father will point that out right away," Caroline countered cynically.
"The same could be said of my parents' affidavit material," he noted.
Caroline gave him a dismissive look, still concerned about the content and impact of their responding material.
"Maybe this is motion is a good thing," he suggested aloud, trying to reassure her.
"How is this motion a good thing?" Caroline wondered in disbelief.
He shrugged.
"Perhaps it will go in our favour and then we can move forward with obtaining custody of Grayson a lot sooner than we expected," he proposed optimistically.
Caroline did not look so convinced.
"I don't think it's going to be that easy," she said doubtfully.
It was often Caroline who was the optimistic and positive one out of the two of them. He was not used to the roles being reversed and he was finding it difficult to adapt.
"I know things have been strained between us," he started. His comment roused her attention and his eyes met with hers as she looked up at him. "And, I haven't helped matters between the Case Conference, the affidavits, and my reaction to Matt Donovan," he pointed out, "But, if we're going to have any shot at success against my parents and keeping Grayson with us, then we need to stand together in this, Caroline, like we always said that we would," he reminded her. "My parents are going to tear us apart if we let them…if they sense that we are weak. We can't let that happen," he emphasized seriously. "We can't let that happen for Grayson."
His words seem to resonate with her at his mentions of Grayson.
"Despite everything, Caroline, I need to know that you're still with me in this," he said seriously. "For Grayson," he repeated, reminding them both again why they were in this in the first place.
The brief delay in her response made him anxious.
"Because of everything, Klaus, I need to know that you're still in this with me," Caroline countered sternly, obviously reluctant after everything that had happened.
"I'm in this…with you," he assured her quickly, holding her eyes with his. "I promise you. I'm here," he added.
After a moment of thought, she nodded in acknowledgement.
"I'm still with you in this," she said in response.