Part three of 'Losing Your Memory'.

"Caroline has been dismissed from the hospital today," Rebekah says, a bit hesitantly, from her spot against the side of the open door of Klaus' bedroom.

"I don't care."

She sighs. "Nik–"

"I said—I don't care!" he repeats more forcefully, angrily, finally averting his attention from the dark painting that he's currently working on and turning around to look at his sister.

His hair is a mess, and he hasn't shaved in a while. Rebekah isn't even sure if he has been sleeping, lately, for there are two deep, dark bags under his obviously tired eyes. She knows that her brother has been through a lot during his whole life, but she has never before seen him look like this, this hopeless, this shattered, and it worries the hell out of her.

Lowering her eyes to the ground, Rebekah nods. She doesn't know what to say anymore, but she knows that she has to say something, because this can't possibly be it for her brother and Caroline—it would be the end of Klaus, she knows, and she refuses to accept it.

"It's not easy for her, either," she says in a small voice.

Klaus scoffs. "That's what everyone has been telling me," he mocks.

"And yet, here you are," she answers with a deep, almost angry frown, starting to get somewhat annoyed at her brother. "I understand that you're hurting, but, acting like this, you're basically just giving up on her."

Feeling his frustration grow, he grinds his teeth together.

"I didn't exactly had a choice. I've been trying–"

It's Rebekah's turn to scoff, now. "Uhm, yeah, for what—a week? You need to give her more time. She has been in an accident and she doesn't remember you, for God's sake! You can't blame her for that!"

"She doesn't even want to remember me. She has made it quite clear, believe me," he remarks with a tight voice, returning his focus on the canvas in front of him, unwilling to show any kind of emotion.

"Only because what she does remember of you is you being an arrogant, conceited ass!"

Klaus growls. "You're not helping your case, Rebekah."

"You know what I mean! And who knows what her little friends," she spats, the word full of hatred, "have been telling her about you, about us. The more time she spends with them and away from you, the more she will completely succumb to her old memories and refuse to remember the good ones."

Rebekah's voice softened during her speech, and she can see Klaus' shoulders tensing as he hears her out. He knows that she's right. He knows that if he doesn't try and remind Caroline why and how they have fallen in love in these past, few months now, then he might not have a chance to do so anymore later.

There's a long moment of silence, and then Klaus sighs.

"I don't know what to do," his voice breaks, and, with it, so does Rebekah's heart. Her brother has never been one to show or voice his feelings, to ask for anybody's help, so she knows how much in pain he has to be over this situation to be so openly vulnerable with her right now.

"Unfortunately, there is no certain solution to this, Nik. I just think that you need to show her again why she has fallen in love with you once before. All this past week, you've been bringing her flowers and trying to jog her memories—all in good faith, I know—but she probably felt too pressured about it, and you were so worried and hesitant around her that you weren't completely being yourself. And we both know that it's not through subtlety that you won her over the first time," she laughs.

Despite himself, Klaus lets out a low chuckle as well. "Yeah, probably not."

Rebekah smiles. "Just... just don't give up on her, okay? On yourself."

With a small nod, he slightly turns around towards Rebekah again. "Thank you," he says, genuinely.

Rebekah's smile widens, just before she moves to leave the room.

"What are sisters for?"

:

:

"Mom, I'm leaving!" Caroline yells from the hallway downstairs, grabbing her coat and hastily putting it on.

After a second, Liz appears at the top of the stairs, slowly coming down to meet her daughter with a worried look.

"The doctor said to rest and not stress yourself too much, sweetie."

Caroline rolls her eyes, sighing. "I've been resting for over a week now, mom. And I'm actually only going to keep on stressing myself even more if I don't do this," she bites down on her bottom lip, hesitancy dancing in her eyes.

Liz's features immediately soften in a small smile.

"You're talking about Klaus, aren't you?"

Closing her eyes, Caroline nods slightly. "Yes... I'm so confused," she admits, her voice trembling as she tries to fight back her tears—she has cried too much lately already, and, momentary memory loss or not, she knows that that's not like her.

"It's okay to be, sweetie. You don't remember him, after all."

"I know! And everyone seems to be happy about it!" she cries out. "Why?"

Putting a hand on her daughter's shoulder, Liz sighs.

"I can't tell you that," she shakes her head, ruefully. "I don't know why your friends don't like him, but what I do know is that you had your reasons for breaking up with Tyler when you did, and that Klaus has been nothing but a perfect gentleman to you the whole time. I have to be honest—at first, I didn't have the best opinion on him either, but, whenever I saw the two of you together, I knew that he loved you unconditionally, and that he would always treat you right," she smiles, caressing her daughter's cheek lovingly. "And I had never seen you happier than when you were with him."

Trying to process her mother's words, Caroline gulps, the guilt that she was feeling earlier now hitting her tenfold.

"I know," she nods. "I mean–I don't know, but I can feel it, somehow. I did something last week, I hurt him," she sniffs, quietly, "and I told him to stop coming to visit me, but I've been missing him so much," a few tears finally start running down her heated cheeks. "I don't even know why."

With a gentle smile, Liz takes Caroline's hat and scarf off the hanger, passing them to her. The girl accepts them with a grateful smile, putting them on as her mother opens the door for her.

"Your memory might be a bit lost right now, Caroline, but that doesn't mean that your heart is."

:

:

"Where are you going?" Kol asks with a frown, surprised to see his brother for the first time in days.

Indeed, ever since the last visit to Caroline at the hospital, Klaus had remained closed inside his room the whole time, talking only to Rebekah every once in a while when the latter would bring him some food to eat.

"Out," is Klaus' monosyllabic, resolute answer.

Kol grins, quirking up one of his eyebrows, glad that his brother has finally decided to go and get Caroline already—it was not like Klaus to let a momentary memory loss stop him from being with the girl he loved. He had been miserable without her, and the whole family had been miserable as well, as a consequence.

Quickly opening the door, Klaus is however surprised by the sight that greets him on the other side.

"Caroline," he breathes out, almost reverently.

"Uhm, yeah. Hi," she says, hesitantly, bringing down the hand which was already fisted and ready to knock, hadn't Klaus opened the door just a moment before she could do so.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was sort of hoping that we could talk?" she suggests, tentatively.

Nodding his head, still in somewhat of a daze, Klaus gestures her in, closing the door behind them once she's inside.

Caroline looks around the spacious hall with big, amazed eyes, slowly taking off her coat, scarf and hat.

"Wow. I mean, I knew this house would really be something since it's, like, freaking humongous from the outside, but—wow."

Klaus chuckles, looking down at her with pure adoration swirling in his eyes.

"That's pretty much the same reaction you had the first time that you came over, as well."

Turning to look at him, she smiles, but doesn't say anything.

"Do you want us to go up to my room? To talk, I mean," he says awkwardly after a moment of silence.

"Sure."

To Klaus, the walk up the stairs and then towards his room feels way longer than usually—it feels infinite. His heart is beating frantically against his ribcage, his sweating hands clenching and unclenching nervously at his sides. He's incredibly happy to see Caroline again, for he has missed her like he had never missed anything or anyone in his life before, but he's also completely terrified of what she might have come here to tell him.

What if she just wants to apologize and then officially break up with him? Could he bear that?

No, he couldn't.

Finally, they reach his bedroom.

"Here we are," he sighs, letting her in before entering the room himself, closing the door behind them for some privacy.

Caroline lays her things down on his bed.

"You paint?" she asks, sounding surprised and impressed, a smile forming on her lips as she observes the unfinished canvas on the easel near the large window.

"Yeah. Yeah, I do."

"This looks... lonely," she murmurs, almost to herself, fingering the edge of the canvas almost mindlessly.

"Yeah, well, I haven't exactly been feeling my best lately," he remarks, more harshly than he intended.

Caroline's eyes immediately soften, turning towards him, and he can distinctly discern the guilt in them.

Here we go. This is it.

"I'm sorry," she says, and he wants to shake his head and interrupt her already, because he doesn't think he can actually possibly bear to hear her saying what he knows that she's about to say, but the words fall from her lips in a rush before he can as much as move a muscle or take a breath. "I shouldn't have let Tyler kiss me, I should have pushed him away. Hell, I shouldn't have even given him the chance to think that he could try to kiss me in the first place because, no matter the fact that I don't remember it, you're right, I'm still your girlfriend. Everything was so messed up and everyone was acting like forgetting all about you was the best thing that could have ever happened to me, and, I mean, I was like, who should I trust? The people I have known my whole life or someone who's just like a stranger to me? It seemed like such an easy choice, right? And I was sure that you would just give up on me eventually, because, yes, I wasn't even trying to get to know you and that was so stupid because I wanted to. And I know that it's my fault that you stopped coming, but I missed you so much and I didn't know what to–"

"Caroline!" he suddenly calls her name, rather loudly, effectively interrupting her rambling.

She gasps for breath, finally silent, her eyes, wide and red with unshed tears, snapping to his.

"What?"

"You missed me?" he asks, incredulously.

Immediately, Caroline's cheeks redden, and she lowers her gaze to her hands, fidgeting together in front of her.

"Uhm, yeah," she laughs nervously. "That's stupid, right? I mean, I don't even–"

Again, he interrupts her. But, this time, he does it a lot differently.

In an instant, he's right in front of her, his arms suddenly winding around her small frame, hugging her to him as tightly as he possibly can. He's so much taller than she is, so Caroline has to raise on her tiptoes to wrap her own arms around his neck, her face nuzzled into his chest just as his is nestled in the crook between her shoulder and her neck.

To Caroline, it feels weird—because it is new and unexpected, after all—but also, for some reason that she just can't quite explain right now, it feels completely right.

Despite herself, she can't help but start crying, her sobs muffled against his sweater.

"It's okay, love," he reassures her, slightly lifting his head to lovingly kiss her forehead and then her hair. "I missed you, too," he admits, smiling to himself and tightening his hold around her waist, willing himself to believe that this is really happening, and that she's really there with him.

"I'm sorry," she repeats, finally raising her eyes into his again.

"You have nothing to apologize for," he smiles, caressing down her cheek and again kissing her forehead, basking in the unique smell of her soft skin so near and in the perfect warmth of her small body pressed against his once again. "Now, would you like to stay for dinner?"

With a determined nod of her head, Caroline beams up at him. "I would love that."

Everything was going to be okay.