Chapter 4.

"Hi, Care" Stefan greeted Caroline and pulled her in for a tight hug. "Klaus…"

And the two former enemies reluctantly shook hands.

"How did you find me? Does he know I'm here?" Caroline started to panic.

"Calm down, Caroline. Everything's okay. He doesn't know and he's not going to find out. I made sure that I wasn't followed. And I just guessed that you would run straight to him." Stefan gave Klaus a pointed look.

"Who the bloody hell are you two talking about? Who is after Caroline?"

With that both Stefan and Caroline looked at Klaus and neither of them said a word.

"Damon." Stefan finally answered Klaus' question with a sigh.

"What has he done now?" Klaus hissed.

"He has turned off his humanity and-" Stefan started to explain when Caroline stopped him.

"Stop it, Stefan, Klaus doesn't need to know the details. I already explained the situation to him."

"Not very thoroughly, did you, love!?"

"Now I am all ears, if anybody wants to tell me the truth!" The last part of the sentence was yelled at them by Klaus.

"Okay, um, so back in Mystic Falls, after taking the cure and becoming a human, Elena broke up with Damon. She discovered she wanted to be with Stefan again. And although Stefan is with me now, Damon, he was so mad that he turned off his humanity and blamed Stefan for everything. Since then they have been fighting. But Stefan is no match for humanity-less Damon, so I had to run away." Caroline explained.

"Why do I have a feeling that you are leaving something out?" Klaus asked, "Spit it out, Caroline!"

"He, um, to get back at Stefan, he tried to rape me."

"HE DID WHAT?"

"And maybe even kill me, I don't know."

"That's bloody terrific isn't it. On top of everything he did to you when you were still human, he now tries to…" Klaus trailed off, clearly seething in rage.

"And you, what the bloody hell have you done to stop your moron of a brother?" Klaus turned to Stefan.

"Everything in my power. I locked him in our basement but he got out…"

"And don't tell me, now you don't know where he is or what his plans are. Am I right Stefan?"

Stefan just nodded.

"Idiots." And Klaus stormed off in to the house where Caroline and Stefan followed him.

"Did he just call us Idiots, Stefan?" Caroline mused, trying to bring a little laughter in an otherwise terrible situation.

"Not you, love" was all they heard before Klaus disappeared into the building.

Stefan and Caroline sat in the living room. Stefan wanted to hold her hands and kiss her but Caroline stopped him.

"Please don't, Stefan. Klaus is out of his mind right now and we are at his home and I don't want to disrespect him. You know how he feels about me."

Stefan just nodded and sighed in frustration.

"Stefan, this is my sister Freya and she will do a locator spell but she needs you blood to do that. Would you be so kind?" Klaus suddenly appeared with Freya.

"Sure."

"Wait. Klaus, what are you going to do once you have located Damon?" Caroline asked nicely.

"Well, I'll do what needs to be done. I'm going to torture and then kill him, obviously."

"Klaus!" Stefan and Caroline both screamed his name as a warning.

"What? Any other suggestions?"

"Klaus, we could try imprisoning him again and you can compel him to turn it on."

"And then he can turn it off again the minute you land in Mystic Falls. No, he needs to be dealt with, permanently."

"You know that I won't let you hurt my brother, Klaus" Stefan warned Klaus.

"But it's okay that he hurts your girlfriend? Huh, Stefan?" Klaus asked Stefan. "You Salvatores are one of a kind. I have seen you almost kill each other for dear Elena, but when it's somebody else's life on the line then you'll do nothing, Stefan. As always, I have to be the one to protect her." Klaus referred to Caroline who was standing there with tears in her eyes.

While this was going on, Freya had done a locator spell but didn't get a better read than that Damon was somewhere in New Orleans.

"That's just terrific." Klaus laughed humourlessly. "That's it, Caroline, you are staying here, in the compound, and If you try my patience, Freya will do a boundary spell to keep you in here."

"But you, find a hotel for yourself." He turned to Stefan.

"Klaus, are you serious?" Caroline asked.

"I'm very serious. I'm not doing it out of spite, Caroline. It's smart stragedy. When Damon finds Stefan, he can't find you. Stefan can take care of himself and Damon would never kill him but the things he could do to you are much worse than what you went though the last time you saw him. I'm sure Stefan would agree?"

Stefan just nodded and went to plant a kiss on her cheek and then left the compound.

Now that Klaus and Caroline were alone, Klaus poured himself another drink and sat down, deep in thought. For a while they were like that. Klaus sitting and looking somewhere aimlessly and Caroline walking back and forth, neither of them saying a word until it was Klaus who looked up to her, like he had just noticed her presence in the room.

"I have an idea that would save your life but you are not going to like it."

"Well, I'm listening." And she sat down.

"You need to break up with your boyfriend."

"What? You are kidding right?"

"No. That's the best way for Damon to loose interest in you. You know I'm right."

"No, I won't do that." Caroline said, shaking her head.

"Okay, okay, it's just a suggestion."

"Is it ok, If I'm gonna go to my room and rest a little while."

"Yes, of course. I just wanted to tell you the same thing." He smiled at her and she smiled back before leaving him to ponder alone.

When she was gone, he took his phone and dialled a number.

"Klaus, is everything okay?" Stefan asked

"Yes, everything is great, so far. Listen I have an idea that could pull Caroline out of Damon's orbit at least temporarily but I need your help for that."

"Anything, I'll do anything to keep her safe."

The next morning, Caroline woke up when her phone was ringing non-stop. It was Stefan. His voice was different the second he started talking and Caroline had a bad feeling.

"Caroline, we need to talk. I'm sorry that I have to do this over the phone but I'm leaving."

"You are leaving? Where are you going?"

"It's better that you don't know."

"Okay, then I'm coming with you."

"NO. I'm not just leaving New Orleans. I'm leaving you. We are over, Caroline."

"What?" Caroline started to cry. "You don't mean that. Did Klaus put you up to this?"

"It's not about Klaus or Damon for that matter. It's about me. I'll always love you but I bring only misery to your life and I don't want that for you."

"Stefan, please, don't do that. I'm begging you."

"I'm sorry Caroline. You won't hear from me again and in time you'll feel better."

Then Caroline heard him disconnect and she just stared at the phone, crying.

Klaus was painting in his studio when suddenly the double doors to his studio flew open and Klaus was faced with a furious Caroline.

"You bastard. You put him up to it. You told Stefan to break up with me, didn't you?"

"I did." Klaus stood up and Caroline walked closer to him until she was close enough to touch him. So she started banging him on his chest while he tried to hug her.

"Then undo what you have done. Please, Klaus, I can't loose him. I love him."

Klaus tried to ignore the pain that he felt by her words.

"It's done. It's the best way to protect you. You know that."

Caroline tried to fight him off, but wasn't strong enough so she let him hug her while she sobbed in his arms.

"I'll never forgive you."

"We'll see about that, won't we."

Next few days were difficult in the compound. Caroline locked herself in her room while Klaus tried his best to remain calm and deal with his family problems. While he still couldn't do anything about the prophecy, he and his siblings were successful in dealing with the witches who threatened his child. They killed the main threats and subdued the others.

"Now, it's time to bring her home, Klaus." Hayley told the father of her child.

"Yes, it is," Klaus smiled at her and took out his cell phone. "Let's go and get our daughter, Hayley. I'll call Rebekah on the way."

When they got back from the safe house, Rebekah wasn't with them, she had decided to travel the world.

"Hayley, I would really much like to introduce Caroline to Hope. Could you wait in my study with Hope?"

"Yeah, sure."

Klaus knocked on her door and when there was no answer, he went in and found her on the balcony.

"Caroline, love, would you join us in the study. I want you to meet someone"

Caroline turned to look at him and found him smiling at her. "I'm really not in the mood to meet your friends."

"What about family?"

Caroline looked at him all confused. "What are you talking about? Did you find another long lost sibling?" She asked while walking past him to head for the study.

"Not quite."

When they got there, they found Hayley in the room with a baby. She couldn't have been more than a few months old.

"Is that who I think it is`?" Caroline turned to ask Klaus in shock.

"Caroline, I want you to meet our daughter, Hope."

"I thought- Tyler told me-. "

"To protect her, we had to make the world believe that she was dead."

"Oh, my god." And Klaus watched as the look on her face turned from shock to a broad smile.

Caroline hugged him and said, "I'm so happy for you. Really, Klaus"

"I know."

And then Caroline turned and stepped closer to Hope smiling at her.

Caroline put her arms out and asked Hayley, "Can I hold her?"

"Yes, of course." Hayley answered and gave her daughter to Caroline to hold.

Hayley and Klaus both smiled as they watched Caroline with the baby. Klaus was happy that he could make her smile after making her cry for days.

After spending a little while with the baby, Caroline gave the child back to her mother and Hayley left them alone.

"Wow, Klaus, I don't know what to say. That's quite a secret you have been keeping. But I'm not mad. I understand. I would have been a liability, had I known about Hope. But the danger to her is over?"

"The immediate danger had been dealt with but there are always enemies who could exploit my love for Hope as a weakness to get to me."

"You really are quite paranoid, aren't you?" She laughed

"I prefer to see it as being realistic."

"Anyhow, She is lovely and whenever you need my help protecting her or you just need a babysitter, I'm here to help."

"That's very sweet of you, Caroline. Thank you."

"Oh, don't mention it" And they smiled at each other for the longest time before Caroline changed the subject, before it became awkward, "Any news about Damon. Is he still here in New Orleans or has he followed Stefan wherever he went from here?"

"I honestly haven't heard anything."

"Okay, then I'm going to go back to my room."

"Caroline? What will happen when we know that Damon isn't a threat anymore?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, will you go back to Mystic Falls?"

"Well I can't stay here indefinitely."

"Why not?"

"Klaus-" she started but couldn't finish as he closed the distance between them and cradled her face.

"Caroline, I love you. I'm still very much in love with you. That hasn't changed as have a lot of things. I won't ask you the same but all I ask is a chance. One chance to show you how good life can be. With me."

When he finished, she didn't have time to react as he leaned in and kissed her on the lips. The kiss was slow and Caroline thought that it was really good to kiss him. To kiss the big bad wolf. But could that be enough to spend an eternity with someone who you will disagree with daily, who does countless atrocities in the name of protecting his family and sometimes even just because he's losing his temper. Who has done so many evil things to her and her friends in the past.

The moral compass inside her head screamed "NO!", so she broke the kiss.

"I can't…" And with these parting words she left the room.