Hoping, as always that this story finds you well. Just to clarify, I am writing this story to flex some writing muscles I haven't used in some time and with a passionate love of Klaus and Caroline that was woefully underserved in The Vampire Diaries. Also, as always, if I owned TVD, Kat Graham would have been treated better.

Chapter 5

Alla Sera (Ugo Foscolo)
Vagar mi fai co' miei pensier su l'orme
che vanno al nulla eterno; e intanto fugge
questo reo tempo, e van con lui le torme;

Klaus POV:

I walked through the half decorated home and considered all of the wall space I could fill with paintings. I looked forward to the day in which I could share that hobby with my darling Hope. She was already so bright, even just as a baby, I presumed that she would be an incredibly gifted artist as well. I checked my phone again, hoping for a message from Caroline. While she was certainly busy, I couldn't just show up again as I feared she would think I was following her. I had also spoken to Elijah earlier that day and, unfortunately, he had not heard of anything like what Caroline had told me about.

It felt ridiculous to sit in a house by myself in order to seem appealing to a young woman, who had only been a vampire for a few years. Upon this realization I grabbed the keys to my car before pausing, the best plan for me was likely to walk in order to have a better understanding of where the magical border met Mystic Falls. I had been vamping around the outskirts when I heard my phone begin to ring. I was surprised to see Caroline's name on my screen and answered, "Caroline, how are you this morning?" I was met with the sound of wind whipping around her, presumably in a car.

"I can't believe I'm about to ask you this, but what are you doing right now?" She sounded even more irritated than she had when I offered that I may have been of use to the lot of them last year.

"Getting a better understanding of the so-called magical border, why what did you need from me, love?"

"Can you meet me at my apartment? I have to go get someone and I might need the help of the original hybrid to keep me from killing him."

I noted that she had not even criticized my use of the word love and thought that this angrier Caroline might be here to stay. "Yes, I can meet you there. I must say I am looking forward to seeing Stefan." I guessed as I heard silence from Carolin on the other end.

"No," she started her voice clipped. "We're not going to get Stefan, I wouldn't let you stop me from killing him today."

"I'm driving." Caroline stated as she walked down the stairs of her building and unlocked her car. I held my hands up in surrender and walked towards the passenger door of her vehicle.

"Are you going to give me any further indication of who we're going to see on this little roadtrip of ours? Or where we're headed, perhaps?" I saw Caroline pause and think on my questions.

"We're going to Charlotte, not too far so long as I can drive quickly." She started and then we lapsed into a moment of silence. "I don't think you know the person we're going to see, but apparently he's been helping search for Bonnie and Damon."

"So you want to kill a man who is doing something you want? Your motivations become increasingly unclear by the day." I heard Caroline breath in quickly as if she was going to respond to me, but she stopped herself.

"I guess you could say I'm less mad at him and it's more that I don't trust him." She responded speeding past the Virginia forest. I nodded and went to touch the radio which she promptly grabbed my hand to stop me.

"I promise you, Caroline, my taste in music is superb after a thousand years of life." I quipped and saw her role her eyes.

"What do you listen to, just classical?"

"There is nothing 'just' about classical music, when done correctly there are lifetimes within those songs." I countered leaning my head on my right hand.

Again I could hear her falter, "Look, I'm sorry, okay? Every day things seem to get worse and I'm the only one trying to fix them apparently."

I wanted to remind her that I was also helping her, but stopped myself. "I understand, love. While my methods have been criticized, remember that I attempted to save my siblings at every turn since our creation."

Caroline nodded, "I know. I personally think the daggering was a bit much, but I understand what you mean." We fell back into silence, but there was a distinct look of thoughtfulness on Caroline's face so I gave her time to gather the words I knew she needed to say. "Alaric told me today that Stefan hasn't been looking for Bonnie and Damon." She finally admitted her shoulders relaxing slightly due to the necessity of those words. "I'm trying to fix this magic bubble problem because I thought Stefan was trying to get Bonnie and Damon back, but apparently he's been doing God knows what and hasn't looked into any of Alaric's latest leads."

I thought on what she said for a moment, I could see why this frustrated Caroline who, as she said yesterday, felt as though it was solely on her to keep everyone and everything together while also trying to fix all of the problems. "Hence why you would not allow me to stop you from killing Stefan I would presume."

"You would be right." She said rather quietly.

"I understand, Caroline. But who is to say if what Alaric said is true?" I said, hoping that my notion might give her a molecule of hope considering she was already unraveling at the thoughts going through her brain.

"Maybe," she started. "But, even if it isn't, I'm still not thrilled that he has refused to call me back for months. I'm sure losing his brother was tragic, but it's better to grieve together than alone. I mean look at Jeremy, Matt says he doesn't do anything, but get drunk and sleep with random girls. And he's been refusing to leave Mystic Falls so we can't even talk to him about it, it's hurting Elena and with her having lost Damon and Bonnie...I don't know how she can handle it to be honest."

"You're a good friend, Caroline." I offered looking at the marvelous woman in front of me.

She whipped her head towards me confused. "Yeah," she started turning her head back towards the road, her eyebrows still drawn together in confusion. "Being a dad has definitely made you nicer."

"Sounds like someone is having fun in there." I chuckled as we could hear some panting coming from the coat closet of a rather upscale hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina. Caroline glared at me and walked briskly across the lobby towards the door and opened it, her eyebrows raised at the person inside. She cleared her throat and it was clear she was expecting a response, I felt bad for the young man inside who had just lost his opportunity.

To my surprise the dark haired man chuckled and began to face us "Well, well, well. Now there's a blast from the past." Caroline had now crossed her arms over her chest and I felt a twinge of surprise. She had neglected to mention that the vampire we were going to see was quite handsome and had an accent that certainly was not from the backwoods of Virginia. I felt a worry in the back of my head that she was using me as a substitute for this nameless man. "Hello, gorgeous." he said to her and smirked, not yet noticing me behind her. I saw Caroline soften a bit and no longer felt bad that he wouldn't be able to bed this concierge.

I sighed causing the vampire to look in my direction for the first time. "Brought a friend, Caroline?" He asked, clearly trying to size me up. It was still incredible to me that people had not yet heard of the original hybrid.

"The Alpha, The Immortal Hybrid, Killer of Thousands, pick which suits your fancy. But, most call me Klaus." I shrugged and saw the vaguest recollection in his eye. I was happy he would be at least a little scared of me now.

"Ah, is this the first dangerous bloke with a stunning accent I'd heard about?" The vampire smirked grabbing a leather jacket off the floor. I saw Caroline tense back up again.

"I didn't realize there was another after me, love." I raised my eyebrows towards a fuming Caroline as she addressed the vampire again.

"Seriously, Enzo? Shut up and let's go talk outside." I could feel the stress radiating off Caroline as she turned towards the exit of the hotel. I followed her and could hear our friend following behind us after bidding a quick farewell to his witch informant. When we reached the hotel's doors she turned on her heels and faced Enzo again. "So, what have you learned?"

"No, 'Hello Enzo, it's so nice to see you, sorry for interrupting your shag?'" Enzo asked slipping the jacket over his shoulders.

Caroline sighed, "Hello Enzo, thank you for being the only useful person in the world and looking into the disappearance of Bonnie and Damon. Now, did your friend in there tell you something or not?"

Enzo smirked, "As it happens, I do have a lead I was about to follow up on, care to come along for the ride?" He glanced at both of us and I could see the questions forming in Caroline's head, but as she opened her mouth her phone rang. "Fine," she said walking towards her car. "But I'm driving."