Hello! New story for me to totally think about all the time but never actually write woohoo! Oh well, couldn't help myself. Thank you for reading! Just want to make a small note on canon compliance - all of season one and most of season two will be considered settled canon for this story. But from just before the sacrifice and beyond will be territory re-explored, with Caroline and Klaus as the main players. Hope you enjoy.


"Caroline…"

"Caroline?"

"Caroline!"

Caroline woke with a start, disorientated. She felt the phantom racing of her heart, even if only as a feeling of the past.

She took deep, calming breaths, attempting to centre herself after her abrupt rouse from slumber.

She was different, in the months since the sacrifice. It wasn't good different, or even bad different, necessarily. It was just different.

Of course, as Bonnie had said, Caroline's experience with the sacrifice was possibly unique.

"Caroline, you've died and come back in some form twice now," Bonnie said to her, months ago, just before the witch left for a summer away from the supernatural life in Mystic Falls. "You died your human death, then the vampire magic brought you back. Then when Klaus killed you in the sacrifice, you died a vampire's death, and my magic brought you back. There is no blueprint for what that kind of magic will do to a being."

Bonnie's words of course, rang true with Caroline. All actions had consequences, after all.

And, little by little, Caroline started to notice things. Different experiences that were inexplicable, but tangible.

The first instance had been quite innocuous, really. She was alone in the middle of the woods, and suddenly she felt a presence, like there was someone there, but just beyond her field of vision at every point.

This happened for a week or so, and from there, she began feeling… energies. It was similar to the first occurrence in the woods, except each presence emanated different vibes. Like the subtle differences in wine flavours. A chardonnay and a moscato were both white wines, but they still were very different.

She just began trying to distinguish different features of each energy, jotting down her experiences, but then then the dreams started.

A few times a week she would wake suddenly, after a fitful night of amber coloured, feral eyes, and someone whispering 'Caroline' intermittently over hours.

When the dreams began, she stopped feeling the energies. It was a relief of sorts; she didn't have to be on guard every waking hour. But after weeks of poor sleep, she thought she would readily trade her restless nights, with peculiar days.

It was all quite off putting, but she made the conscious decision to deal with it on her own for the time being. No one was getting hurt, and she was just a little uncomfortable from time to time. Also, she had no idea how to even broach the topic if she wanted to anyway.

Besides, there was so much else going on that rendered her discomfort quite the back burner issue in the goings on of Mystic Falls.

There was her friendship with Tyler, that was growing stronger by the day. There was Matt, who was still pointedly ignoring her at every chance she got. There was her mother who was just getting her head around her daughter the vampire, Caroline wasn't going to pile any more weird unknown supernatural things onto their relationship just yet.

Then there was the kicker.

Stefan was still missing.

In the crazy aftermath of the sacrifice, Caroline was still a little fuzzy on how it all played out. But she had been provided all important notes.

After Caroline was sacrificed, Klaus swiftly moved on to Elena. From there, his werewolf transformation began. This was where Bonnie came in, channelling the incredible power of the full moon, the sacrifices, and the ancestral witches, Bonnie brought Klaus to the brink of death. While Klaus fought against Bonnie's onslaught and for his life, as defenceless as he had ever been, Elijah delivered the final blow, ripping Klaus' heart from his chest.

Whenever Caroline thought about what transpired while she was dead, she couldn't help but feel terribly sad for Klaus. What a betrayal, and what a gruesome way to die. She knew she was supposed to hate Klaus, but she wouldn't have wished that death on anyone, not even Klaus.

Caroline was told it all happened very quickly after Klaus died. Bonnie, suddenly able to channel the power of the death of a Hybrid as well, turned her grief of losing her two best friends, to resurrecting them. Having already weaved a spell to protect Elena with John Gilbert, Bonnie let her magic flow completely into Caroline.

Caroline remembered that bit, or at least, she remembered taking a sudden gasping breath after an oppressive nothingness. Immediately following Caroline's return, a new figure appeared on the seen, an irate and distraught blonde woman. They since discovered the woman was Rebekah Mikaelson, Klaus and Elijah's only sister. She knocked Elijah away from Klaus' desiccating body and the they began to fight him. It was a battle unlike Caroline had ever seen, two exceptionally powerful beings at total war with each other.

At some point or other, Rebekah noticed Stefan who was skirting around the furore, in a vain attempt to get to Elena's corpse. For some reason this caught Rebekah's attention, and before anyone could do anything else she snapped Elijah's neck, then Stefan's. And the she was off with the limp bodies of her two brothers, and with Stefan's.

And none of them had seen any of them since.

They had managed glean a vague idea of what Rebekah and Stefan were up to, thanks to Caroline and her mom using resources at the Sheriff's department to track their movements throughout the summer. Though, every lead that was passed onto Damon seemed to run cold.

Apparently, Rebekah was traipsing across the entire country, searching for something. They just hadn't figured out what yet. And for whatever reason, Stefan was with her, and he was staying with her, and they hadn't figured out why that was either.

As for Elijah, that was another thing they didn't know. They assumed Rebekah had a dagger of her own she made use of, though no one could know for sure. And because of this, Caroline felt slightly uneasy knowing he could be back at any minute.

So here Caroline was, an entire summer later, with things just settling down, she didn't want to put more supernatural drama onto anyone. She could deal with the spine tingles, fear, and few nights a week of restless sleep, if it meant her friends were better off.

Though as she lay in her bed that morning, Caroline resolved to talk to Bonnie if it got worse. That way there would actually be cause for concern.

Throwing off her bed covers, Caroline dressed with faux-excitement – fake it til you make it right? Because today was Elena's 18th birthday.

And no matter how mopey Elena had been over Stefan's disappearance, no matter how messed up everyone was feeling, tonight would be a party to remember if Caroline had anything to say about it.

xxx

"Hey!" Caroline beamed, as she sat beside Tyler at the Grill.

"Hey, Care," he replied. "How's it going?"

She was poised to answer, when that feeling of being watched tingled through her, and she heard a voice whisper her name.

She whipped around, attempting to find the owner of the voice. But there was no one. Plus, it sounded inexplicably like the same voice who whispered to her in her dreams.

Now this was a development. She had never heard that voice during the day before.

"You okay?" Tyler asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Caroline thought about confiding in Tyler. If anyone could handle it, surely it was him? But what would she say? Something happened to me when I died and came back for the second time, so now I feel enigmatic energies, have nightmares, oh and hear voices now too apparently.

"Yeah, I'm okay, I guess I didn't sleep well last night."

xxx

"You've outdone yourself, as usual Caroline!"

It was later that day, and the compliment came from Jenna, who was coming down the stairs with Ric, about an hour after the party began.

"Yeah, really Caroline, why anyone else tries to throw events, I have no idea," Ric added.

Caroline smiled at the two lovers. After all the bad stuff that happened to them over the past few months, it was nice having Jenna in the loop, and nice to see a bit of normalcy from the young couple.

"Don't have too much fun!" Caroline said. "You are the chaperones, remember."

As the two adults laughed and walked away, Caroline tried to pretend she was having a good time, tried beaming around at all her hard work paying off.

But she couldn't.

On top of all Caroline's other issues, Elena was still mopey, Matt was simultaneously drunk and high, and was still managing to ignore her as loudly as he could. And then there was Tyler.

Now, logically, Caroline knew she had little claim to Tyler. After their kiss months earlier, she turned him down, she said no.

But, boy, he was grinding all over slutty Sophie, and, god, it was grinding her gears.

How dare he. Seriously.

"Hey, great party, Caroline," Sophie said, as she and Tyler left the mosh pit.

"Thanks!" Caroline said, the word dripping with insincerity. "Now leave it."

Sophie obliged with a pleasant smile, and not a word. Of course she would, compulsion will do that to a person.

"What the hell?" Tyler said, indignantly.

Caroline just rolled her eyes, and brushed past him.

As she melted into the crowd, she stopped dead in her tracks.

Mixed in amongst the faces of her drunk class mates was a face that couldn't be there.

It was lit with a smug smirk, and there was a calculating glint in his eye.

"Klaus?" Caroline said, weakly.

He flicked his eyebrows at her, but at that moment, one of her class mates bumped her, breaking her concentration, and when her head shot back to where Klaus was standing, he was gone.

Rattled, she decided she needed a real drink. Surely some O+ would settle her nerves.

xxx

"What's your problem? You pissed that I brought someone?"

It was half an hour later, when Caroline made it down the stairs after her blood-bag pit stop, and Tyler was already in her face.

Could she not catch a break today?

"Why would I be pissed?" she answered, petulantly. "You brought a date, you're dating! That's awesome."

She stalked away from him, she had bigger fish to fry that evening, like getting so wasted she could forget she was seeing faces in crowds.

It was useless, however, as Tyler just followed her and said, "should I not be dating?"

"Hey, you're horny all the time, right?" she shot back. "I mean a guy has needs!"

"He sure does, sweetheart."

"What did you say?" she snapped, as for the second time that day she spun around, trying and failing to find the face of someone whispering in her ear.

Caroline's skin was crawling. She knewit wasn't Tyler who said it, and she knew the voice didn't come from one of her class mates. But she shuddered to think that maybe the voice from her dreams, and the voice that had been following her all day, belonged to the same dead man who mysteriously appeared in a crowd of drunk teenagers only thirty minutes earlier.

"I didn't say anything," Tyler pouted, sulking at Caroline's harsh tone. "What's the matter with you?"

Caroline scrambled to find the best way to dodge his question.

And, maybe it was because she was drunk, or maybe she just wanted to shut him up, or maybe she was just so on edge about her rapidly deteriorating grip on reality, but she grabbed Tyler by the lapels and kissed him.

They kissed ferociously for a few moments before Tyler pulled away.

"Let's get out of here?" he asked, panting his way through the words.

"Uh uh."

xxx

Much much later, Caroline found herself tiptoeing as quietly as possible out of the Lockwood Mansion.

Sex may have been great, and an excellent distraction, and she may truly have some sort of feelings for Tyler – maybe. But that still didn't make up for the fact that when she drifted off for some post-coital sleep she fell straight back into her nightmare.

A voice, endlessly calling to her, reeling her in. And the eyes, those amber eyes, suddenly had a face to go with them.

His face.

Klaus.

So, when Caroline woke with a start, as was inevitable, she silently donned her dress, and slipped from the room.

There was nothing else for it, she would have to talk to Bonnie. If Klaus was somehow haunting her, or whatever, having a well-informed witch on her side would be only an advantage.

Caroline was just about to reach the front door, when none other than Carol Lockwood appeared, looking ever so judgemental. Curse her bad luck!

"Mrs Lockwood! Hi," Caroline said, as innocently as possible.

"Leaving so soon?" the older woman asked, pointedly.

"Ah, I didn't mean to be so… I mean, we were just…." Caroline floundered, her ears still ringing with Klaus' whispers. "I'm gonna get my purse."

She reached for her little silver bag, and as she touched it her hand began to burn. Before she could turn around, pain exploded through her back, quickly permeating her body, as Carol shot her full of vervain.

Caroline quickly lost consciousness, and she saw Carol's concerned but determined face loom over her – and in Caroline's last moments before the darkness claimed her, she was sure she saw the grinning face of Klaus waving at her over Carol's shoulder.


Thank you so much for reading, I would be really appreciative of feedback on this lil story. I'm not usually one for canon AU ideas, but this universe has really captured my attention. I like note that this doesn't exactly have a robust plan, just a few ideas of where it might go. But basically throw canon out the window - especially because I can't really remember what canon is!
Much love to you all.