The church was out in the country, just like Rebekah had always wanted. So they were going to need to pack and had a chauffeur to take them a couple of hours journey there.

Caroline and Nick sat on the the stairs, Caroline biggest piece of luggage resting by Nick's lone back bag he'd carried with him since the airport.

"When I told you I'd never done a wedding before, it's not because I hadn't been asked." He admitted. Caroline picked her head up and looked him in the eye.

"Why'd you say yes to me?"

He shook his head and shrugged.

"There was something in your voice on the phone that day."

She breathed a laugh and put her hair to the side. "Desperation?"

He held her eyes with a serious look. "I think it was hope."

Their ride honked at them from the street, and they hurried to get their luggage in.

They got to their hotel for the day after a few hours, and Caroline took a look at their room, and their bed. She looked at Nick.

"That's a big bed." She wowed. Then hurried to it and jumped onto the firm mattress, smiling at the picture-perfectness of it. Fluffy white sheets, lace on the pillows, and as comfortable as a haystack.

Nick smiled at her and walked to go join her, laying with his back on the bed too.

"You know what bothers me the most?" Caroline said. "I've been spilling my guts all weekend and I don't know a single thing about you."

"I'm allergic to fabric softener." Was the first thing he offered. She fought the urge to giggle. "I'm majoring in comparative literature at Brown. My full first name is Niklaus, I hate anchovies, and I think I'd miss you even if we never met." He gulped at his last confession, and went for her hand.

Caroline nearly pulled hers away.

"Can I call you Klaus then?" She asked. Nick considered her and nodded.

Marcel was barbecuing for the guests, and Elena, Arnold, Caroline and Marcel were playing cards. Nick and Caroline kept giving each other lingering looks.

"Has anyone seen my future wife? She'd kill me if I don't serve her first."

"Have you two ever had an honest-to-God fight, ever?" Caroline asked. Marcel laughed nervously.

"Yes, of course!"

"Yeah, right."

"Well apparently, makeup sex is the best kind! Not that I'm gonna find out."

Suddenly Caroline chased him, trying to take the food off his plate. Elena joined in.

Nick noticed that Arnold was considering him.

"You seem to have a way with women." He said. "Why don't you go and rustle up the bride? Get her to join the party."

Nick set off right away, looking all over the hotel first. Then he got a tip from someone that they'd seen her at the lake house, and directions to get there.

Nick was at the door when he heard shouting.

"Why are you bringing this up now? I love Marc! What do you want from me?!"

"I want you to tell me-" Stefan began to lose it before he caught Nick's surprised look, his hands clutched around Rebekah's.

"White or blue shirt, for the uh, rehearsal dinner." He passed it off with an embarrassed laugh, then quickly disappeared. Nick's face turned to stone, and he watched Rebekah's scared face.

"Sorry to interrupt." He apologized half genuinely.

"It was for the best, thank you."

"Your dad sent me." He said. Rebekah's eyebrow rose in reply.

"Why?"

"To make sure you're okay." Nick replied. His tone said everything, the honesty of before and the hurt and sarcasm he felt for Care after. He went to the wooden balcony overlooking a small lake. He crossed his arms. He had no idea. And he didn't know if he could tell her.

Stefan found Caroline quickly, the woman standing by her mother and watching the party.

"Care, could I have a word, it'll only take a moment." He greeted hurriedly. He had to tell her before the perfect-looking man that Elena had been drooling over all weekend got the chance.

"Let me think. You stole seven years of her life with your bullshit and your charm and now you'd like just a moment? Sure. Go right ahead." Liz said to Caroline's surprise, taking a small drink of her mimosa to accentuate her point. Stefan turned away without a word, waiting for Caroline to follow him.

"Thanks Mom, but maybe next time a little less information." She chided, then went to follow him.

Rebekah walked around the room of the lake house.

"Do you believe a place has memory?" She asked rhetorically. She picked up a pillow from a neighboring chair and held it to her like a child. Nick turned to her, wondering where she was going with this. "Even before Marcel and I started dating, we'd all come up here on the weekends in the summer." She looked around some more. "God, I hope it doesn't remember everything."

Caroline chewed on her straw and Stefan tried to shrink into himself in front of her.

"No matter how certain someone is of their position of what they should and shouldn't do, they sometimes discover they weren't like they hoped to have been."

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

"I'm sorry!" He chuckled. "Look, I feel like I need to tell you something." Caroline looked over Stefan's shoulder and saw Nick hurrying along the crowd looking for her.

"You're not even listening!" Stefan protested.

"I'm sorry, I'll be back in a minute." She excused, then brushed past him to Nick. Nick took a few steps back, and Caroline got up the hill to him.

"Hey, is everything okay?" She asked worriedly, brushing a hand down his arm. He considered saying it right then.

"Yeah." He relented. It wasn't his secret to share. Even if Stefan and Rebekah weren't gonna bother to tell her. Who was he to make her sad and insecure all over again? He took her hand, and she watched him with a smile as he turned her palm up and kissed it.

Before everyone sat down to the rehearsal dinner, they had to set everything up. The people Arnold had hired for the occasion were hard at work. Men were in tuxs and black bowties. Nick ran into him again and Arnold offered him an anchovy off a plate of hors-d'oeuvres.

Nick took one to be polite.

"I remember when I first met Care." Arnold said. "It was in New York. I'd been seeing Liz for a few months, and she trusted me enough to meet her kid. So, I've over at her place, and in walks this...little monster." He smiled at Nick, who loved hearing the story. "That was it. I was a goner. That was the day I became a dad."

Klaus looked at his anchovies stuffed on a toothpick and his eyebrow twitched.

"You know Klaus, you think it's going to get easier as they get older. That you'll worry about them less...or you'll trust the world more." Klaus hid his anchovies behind something on the table they were sitting at. Arnold held his eyes seriously. Klaus dropped his.

"But that's just not how it happens." Then, Care's stepdad offered him another anchovy. Did he see him hide the one he'd already been offered?

Klaus looked at his little toothpick of food, half wondering if Arnold had bothered to give Stefan this talk. Or if Stefan had spouted bullshit about not ever wanting to hurt Caroline. Then he drifted back to Caroline's happy smile.

"This may not make much sense to you sir. But I would like to ask your permission to date your daughter."

Arnold stared him down.

"I thought you already were." Arnold smiled.

Klaus put the anchovies in his mouth and grimaced at the taste, but swallowed just the same.

Stefan was in a blue shirt. Bex was wearing red, and Caroline was in a killer black dress. Rebekah was laughing so hard she nearly fell into Marcel's lap. Stefan angrily guzzled cup after cup of wine. And Caroline and Klaus continued to give each other looks.

"I-I blame-I blame Matty pee-pants!" Liz called over the laughter.

"Mom, nooooo!" Caroline replied

"Oh come on, Care, let's hear it." Elena protested.

"No, no no no no, Mom!" Caroline said, only stopping when Klaus gave her a questioning look.

"I have to initiate Klaus into our family." Liz protested.

"Klaus?" Marcel asked.

"Yes, that's the other part of his name, apparently he wants to be called that now," Liz waved her hand at Klaus and Care's protests. "I blame Matty pee-pants for why my two girls just don't seem to be able to get along." Rebekah opened her mouth in protest.

Awkward silence overtook the table.

"Don't deny it, you barely tolerate each other!"

Bex and Care stole glances at each other.

"Come on, it's true. The only thing you've got in common if you're both secretly attracted to me." Elena replied. Laughter erupted.

"It started after we moved here." Liz began. "My two girls got into a fight over Matty pee-pants and have never made up since."

"Apparently, Care and I were inseparable." Rebekah added.

"If Bex ate a banana, Care threw it up!" Liz laughed.

"And if Care threw it up, Bex ate it." Elena replied.

Everyone groaned in disgust.

"So we were all eating and throwing up together, in harmony." Caroline leaned into Klaus and sidled closer to him. "Until, Matt walked me home from school one day." She nodded at him as he nodded back. "He was my first boyfriend."

"Matt started ignoring Care because he wanted to play with me." Rebekah added. Stefan downed another cup of wine. "Anyway, the point of the story is that Matt ended up with a chair in his face."

"To be fair, it was plastic, and child size. But I do recall some stitches involved." Liz added.

"Come on, Liz it was ten stitches." Elena protested

There was scattered laughter throughout the long table.

"Is that when he peed his pants?" Klaus asked. People considered him and Caroline thought back.

"Well there was a lot of crying, but no, no peeing."

"So what's with the nickname?"

No one told him. Liz stared at him.

"I have absolutely no idea." She lied. Everyone gave Liz the laugh she'd been wanting since the beginning of the weekend.

Caroline got out of her chair.

"I'm gonna get some more wine." She excused. Stefan hurried along after her. If she didn't know yet, it was only a matter of time before she did. And he was gonna tell her.

Klaus watched him get up and decided he was going to go help. He cautiously walked inside the house, looking for places to put the empty wine bottles.

The cellar would be the best place, he reasoned. Maybe he actually got drunk today.

At the top of the stairs, he saw Care and Stefan's heads but they didn't see him. She had a wine bottle already but was staring at Stefan as he jumbled through his words.

"As you know, I thought you...shit, sorry." He laughed and Caroline dropped her eyes. "I had no idea this would be so difficult. I just feel I owe you an explanation."

"Relax." Caroline replied, putting a hand on his chest. He breathed hard. "It's fine. I promise." She went to another wall of wine.

"And I should probably admit, that..." She grinned at him. "I brought Klaus here to torture you. Slowly. For the entire weekend. But I don't know, something happened and..."

Klaus put the wine bottles down on an empty table.

"I hope this doesn't hurt your feelings but, I'm just sick of you and me-" Klaus smiled in awe at her. She really didn't think of him as the male prostitute his work made him out to be. She really had wanted to be with him. And he was right. She had the exact love life that she wanted. He disappeared out the door before they would see him.

"-our entire story." She was telling the truth, too. She didn't care about Stefan like she used to. He was an old friend now, and nothing more. They had good memories together; her, Rebekah, him and Marcel, and she wasn't going to sully them anymore.

"So let's just go upstairs and eat some tiramisu." She offered with a grin.

Stefan smiled after her.

"I slept with your sister." He finally blurted. Caroline's gait fell and she turned around. Just a wounded look on her face, but he didn't care.

"I'm sorry?" She demanded.

"I, fucked Rebekah. Two years ago, that's why I broke it off with you. And then after you left...damn it we went at it every moment we could. Until we obviously realized it was insane and morally wrong."

Caroline closed her eyes.

"And then that was it. Until Marcel proposed to Rebekah. Then I realized...I'd fallen in love with her." Caroline stared back at Stefan, her breathing becoming labored.

"Care, say something please."

She turned around slowly, and just walked out of the wine cellar.

Walking out onto the patio where the party was, Elena caught her eye.

"Care, what is it?" She asked.

"Stefan fucked Rebekah." Caroline muttered angrily. Elena gasped and held her, but Caroline ripped away from her. How would she have not known? The three of them looked to the happily engaged couple, and Rebekah turned to Caroline. From the look on her face, she knew.

Rebekah got up without a second glance to Marcel and went after Caroline.

Care just walked away, past the party.

"Care. Care, please. Please don't say anything." Rebekah hurried pleaded. She tried to take Caroline's arm to turn her around and Caroline pulled it away but she still turned.

Rebekah looked at Elena who stared back angrily, and Caroline saw Klaus coming to her, rushing in and crushing her in a hug. Caroline sighed in his arms, thankful she had someone there for her. The wine bottles were still in her damn hands. Rebekah turned to Klaus.

"I can't believe you told her." Rebekah accused. Klaus looked at her with his mouth open in surprise. Caroline pulled away slightly and looked in Klaus's eyes.

She pushed him away and he let her. She looked at Rebekah, whose eyes dropped.

Then Caroline started walking away down the hill, and began running, finally dropping the wine bottles.

Klaus gave chase.

It started to rain.

Caroline was walking herself back to the hotel, shivering from the cold. She still heard Klaus's footsteps behind her.

"Leave me alone! You knew!"

"Wait!"

"You knew and you didn't tell me!"

"Love, wait."

"I can't believe I trusted you."

"Come on, you have to stop running."

Caroline closed her eyes and stopped walking and spun around on him.

"How could you not have told me?"

"It wasn't my place to say."

"Like hell it wasn't!" She yelled back. "You let me make a fool outta myself!" She breathed hard and glared at him. "You lied to me. But I guess that shouldn't surprise me because what you do. That's who you are. You're a liar."

Klaus's sympathetic face fell.

"You're judging me? Oh that's a good one. You're going to point the finger at me. A guy you paid to pretend to be your boyfriend!"

"You're right. I was so desperate to make everyone believe I was happy that I paid $6000 for a lie. And I was the only one that ended up falling for it. I wish I could say it was worth it." She seethed. Klaus scoffed and shook his head.

"Go ahead love, hate me. I know you're running out of steam on this whole Stefan thing anyways. Maybe you could hold onto this long enough to ruin your next relationship."

Klaus turned around, and walked back to the hotel.

He packed up, and asked for a cab to take him back to town.

When he'd gotten out the front door, Marcel ran after him.

"Klaus!"

"I'm just checking into a hotel." Klaus stopped and turned to him.

"Don't be ridiculous, it's late." The man considered him. "Take the car." He offered the keys, to which Klaus nodded and took them. He rounded Marcel's car.

Marcel had to find a way to stall him a bit longer. "Actually, you know the lake house is empty." He threw him another set of keys, Klaus caught them just in time.

"I don't know what's going on with you two but I'm sure you'll work it out." Marcel said. Klaus looked away, and nodded again. "You two couldn't be more perfect if she'd...picked you out of a catalog!"

Klaus winced inwardly.

"Thanks, Marc." He got into the right side of the car, and started the engine.

Caroline had just gotten in after having a good cry, and was beginning to towel her hair. She saw Klaus had taken his things and left, and she'd settled for the fact she wouldn't see him again. Or that he'd only be there for the wedding or something. He had made friends, she saw him talking to Marcel and Arnold. And maybe he'd stay just a little longer.

Everything she'd spat at him she'd said in anger, and now she wanted to track him back down and apologize. But he probably had her number blocked by now. She didn't feel like she could judge Katherine so harshly anymore.

The door opened, and she saw Rebekah popped in.

"Hey." Bex greeted.

Caroline turned back around. "Hey." She wiped another tear from her face.

"I just wanted to thank you for not telling Marcel. I want to be the one to tell him." Rebekah said. "Just not the night before our wedding. They say that timing is everything."

Caroline nodded slowly and smiled sardonically. She turned to her little sister.

"You're right." Caroline said. Rebekah smiled. "You should really time it right." The younger sister walked towards her, practically screaming with her body language for a hug. "So that when he hears that you repeatedly screwed his best friend," Bex's smile dropped and she stared back with sad eyes "He won't feel like the world is collapsing around him and there's no escape, because you tricked him into marrying you." Caroline smiled. Rebekah's chin trembled.

She turned back around and put her towel in her hair.

"Care-"

"Oh don't worry. Your wedding will be perfect. Tomorrow, I will smile and say all the right things, and you can deal with Marcel when you're ready. But tonight? I'm not pretending it's okay. You have taken...everything, from me. You even tried to take Klaus. Right now, you're not going to get away with it."

Rebekah tried to smile in understanding but she sobbed instead, and quietly sniffled out of the room.

Caroline didn't feel sorry. She'd been doing this all day, and her sister had let her be a nervous wreck for YEARS. She wasn't her whole sister anymore. If anything, Rebekah was a quarter of her sister.

Klaus sat on the bed in the lake house. Talking to the English airport, still in a suit and not even bothering to start readying for bed. He was too wound up to try to sleep. Too angry, too sad, too disappointed. This was the first time he'd ever gotten too close to a client. And now he had to take a sabbatical from work, maybe throw himself into his Masters. Maybe that would get Caroline off his mind.

He was ready now. He had the money for a plane ticket outside of Caroline's, and he was already all packed. All he had to do was wait. But the damn plane wouldn't be leaving until ten the next day. The wedding was at eight.

Caroline pulled the sheets closer to her, replaying her words and Klaus's hurt expressions. How as soon as he saw she was struggling not to cry in front of her family and friends, he just came in and hugged her. Now she'd officially drove him off. Literally, Marcel had come to inform her he had given Klaus the keys to his car and the lake house in case they wanted to meet up and make up.

Neither of them got any sleep.