A pre-epilogue if you will.

TWO WEEKS LATER

Caroline had never considered school to be particularly testing, but as of late it had become both a drag and an inconvenience. With the exception of her extracurriculars and AP classes, there wasn't really a point to senior spring. Even though she had taken a full week off in light of the Klaus-rut situation, she'd come back with next to no work to catch up on. That left Caroline with a serious case of the blues for a couple hours each day.

Of course, it didn't help that she was essentially friendless. Bonnie had rushed over to her house the night they returned and apologised with tearful eyes while Klaus gave them the guise of privacy by hiding in the next room and pretending not to listen.

"I just never thought…" Bonnie had trailed off, struggling to meet her eye.

"I know."

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Care. I didn't read the spell and I know that's my fault bu-"

"-I told you I didn't want to be unbonded, Bonnie."

"I know, I just… It's Klaus." And there it was. The vitriol in her tone, the judgement in her sneering of his name.

Caroline could understand it. She couldn't stand by it though. "Yeah, it's Klaus. So what?"

"So what? Caroline, he's a murderer."

"So is Stefan. And Damon. And so am I, in fact."

"It's different. How can you defend him?"

Caroline struggled to answer that. Because he's my friend wasn't entirely accurate, and she didn't want to risk the backlash when he was definitely listening in. But it wasn't because I'm in love with him either, not yet at least. But it was something.

"Because he's my mate," Caroline snapped, "and I'm sorry if you don't like that but it's not going to change."

Klaus just couldn't help himself. He couldn't possibly have controlled his wolf's joy, nor his own personal need to see what Caroline's face looked like when she defended their connection so boldly. When he stepped through the doorway and made himself known he only had eyes for his mate.

Caroline kind of enjoyed the look on Bonnie's face when she realised they'd been overheard. Betrayal.

Bonnie had made her excuses and left in haste. Caroline didn't try to stop her. She didn't try to stop the way Klaus pulled her against his chest and lavished praise with sweet words and flashing golden eyes.

She learned quickly just how deep his paranoia ran when he pulled out his phone and had one of his witches strengthen the boundary on her house. With the exception of her and Klaus, no other supernatural being would make it past the porch.

Then she'd taken his hand and sat him on her bed while Caroline raided through the wardrobe. The look of shock which coloured his face when she'd produced a white oak stake from a shoebox was something else.

"You hid the last remaining white oak stake in a shoebox in a wardrobe," he'd said flatly.

"Uh huh."

"Remarkable."

"You'll keep it safe?"

"There will be nothing better protected on this earth, sweetheart. Except you."

She didn't ask what he did with it and he didn't offer up the information either.

The next day at school, Bonnie was waiting for her by the entrance just like old times. Only it wasn't. The smile was a little forced and the recounting of their mornings was a little stunted. The conversation didn't flow easily, but they were trying. Caroline was hopeful that maybe they could fix their friendship with a little time.

On the other hand, Elena's apology came on Monday morning by her locker. It was the same jumble of "we didn't know," "I'm so sorry" and "but it's Klaus." Caroline just stuck on a smile and said that it was fine, even though it definitely wasn't, but then Elena kept going.

"Please, Care. You have to tell Klaus to let them go! I know he has them."

Caroline shut her locker tight, rage stirring inside. Of course a heartfelt apology was too much to ask from Elena, especially with her two favourite playthings MIA. "I can't tell Klaus anything. And I don't know where they are. If you think he has them, talk to him yourself."

"But he'll listen to you."

"I wonder why?! Could it be the very reason that you almost killed me?!"

Elena at least had the decency to flinch at that. "Care, I know Damon and you never really-"

"-Stop talking."

"No, hear me out! You need to get them out of that house! Think of what Klaus will do to them! They're supposed to be your friends."

"And you were supposed to be mine!" Caroline almost yelled, but measured her tone for the school hallway. There was so much she wanted to scream. About how Elena hadn't once asked her about what Damon did, or even cared when she dropped hints. How her supposed friends had sold her out to a strange witch they didn't know just to get back at Klaus even against her explicit wishes. How she'd just tried to apologise with a guilt trip tact on the end. There was so much, so many annoying, niggling frustrations from years of being Elena's friend, but Caroline didn't have time nor need for them.

When Elena frowned and turned away, Caroline didn't feel an ounce of guilt.

As the days went by, Caroline stopped trying to intercept her path and give her an easy time to actually apologise. Instead, she noted the way that Bonnie had started to gravitate towards Elena. At lunch, she'd find the two of them sitting together even before they'd grabbed food. They'd walk together, hang out at each other's lockers, and then one day Bonnie had texted that she couldn't meet up before class. Caroline got the memo loud and clear.

It was fine, though. She quickly realised that there were plenty of other people at Mystic Falls High who were more than willing to exchange pleasantries with the head cheerleader. For the last few weeks of high school, it's the best she could hope for.

Of course, she received plenty of supernatural discussion after school. When Caroline was done with whatever extra-curricular was scheduled for the evening, there was Klaus. And Klaus was good.

He rarely left her alone. When he did, she knew that she was being followed. And the times when she wasn't within 20 feet of a bodyguard, Klaus was just there. Sometimes in the morning when she'd wake up curled into his chest, sometimes at night when he'd sneak into her bedroom while her mom was asleep. Sometimes he was more obvious, asking her to go for long drives, dinners in restaurants out of town or round to the mansion.

Her favourite was the time he'd invited her for a walk in the woods, when he'd stripped down and changed into his wolf. It hurt but was over far quicker than any transformation she'd ever seen Tyler go through. And then he was there, four legged, sandy blonde with dazzling golden eyes. She wondered if it was supposed to scare her. He was bigger than a normal wolf certainly, but Caroline didn't hesitate to reach out and run her hands through the thick fur. The nuzzle of a wet nose on her cheek, a long lick on her face followed by a playful yap had her squealing, and then she was playfighting with a werewolf on the forest floor.

It was so easy.

It was so easy to fall into a routine with him. So easy to be swept up in his charm and quick wit. So easy to enjoy the attention that being with Mystic Falls' most mysterious and attractive bachelor brought her. She found herself saying 'yes' a lot. Yes, I'll go to prom with you even though you are far too old for it. Yes, you can meet my mom on the condition that you leave out the part where we slept together. Yes, we can go somewhere to celebrate graduation, but it needs to be in the continental United States.

For all the conditions she placed, Caroline knew that they wouldn't last long. Not only because he had a charming way of dismantling them, but because as the days went on she couldn't rationalise them anymore. Why was she trying to stifle things he wanted, when he was so willing to give her everything?

It wasn't helped by the fact that she wanted him too. Her insatiable supernatural libido had been neglected for too long, and his rut had brought it roaring back with a vengeance. She thought he might feel the same way, if his frequently wandering hands were any indication. Caroline wasn't in love, but she loved being with him. How he'd give her everything she wanted in record time or else tease her until she lost all sense of dignity and begged. A millennium of practice never disappointed when it was focused solely on her.

Klaus was always willing, and Caroline couldn't pretend to dislike how that made her feel. Sexy. Feminine. Wanted. While she was used to the privacy of a house, he coaxed her into more adventurous locations. On the forest floor, bent over the bonnet of his car, on top of the bleachers of the gym hall when she was setting up for prom. He didn't care that they might get caught or overheard - compulsion would fix any mistakes that his sharp hearing couldn't catch. It was wild, risky, exhilarating and made Caroline feel alive.

But it wasn't just physical either. He was there in her chest too. She could sense his direction and frequently found herself feeling out his emotions when she was bored in class. Whether content or irked or in a rage, it was somewhat of a comfort. And it was so much better than before she wore his mark, because it didn't affect her emotions. She didn't feel his rage personally, even if she could feel it in him.

Klaus' turbulent moods didn't really bother her until that time exactly two weeks after they'd returned to Mystic Falls. Caroline was sitting in American History class when, just before the end of the school day, she felt his all consuming sadness for the first time. It made the breath catch in her throat at the suddenness of it, the strength when she hadn't even been meaning to feel for his emotion. The remaining minutes seemed to drag on and on and Caroline's anxiety grew by the second. He wasn't anxious though, just sad.

When the bell rang she leapt out of her seat and almost ran to her car. The drive to the mansion was made longer by the after-school traffic. When she got there, she didn't bother to knock.

Klaus met her in the foyer, ragged and shirtless but with a wealth of deep red blood streaked over his right side. It had splattered in his hair too, across his temple, smear on his cheekbone. None of it mattered though, now when he looked at her with such a seriousness.

"What's wrong?!" Caroline asked, the deep set of his frown worrying her.

But then he was in front of her, tilting her head with hands cradled around her face. One was wet and when Caroline went to reprimand him for getting blood on her, the words caught in her throat when Klaus said, "I love you."

Clear as day, unashamed and with no hesitation. While Caroline froze, he leaned in and kissed her breathless until she could hardly tell if she'd imagined it. The little flecks of blood across his lips were mouth-watering, but Caroline pushed on his chest and great, now there's blood on her hands too.

"Klaus?"

He held her there, with hands so gentle it was as though she was made of glass. It took him a long while to speak, and she didn't rush him. The softness of his lips against her forehead, her hair, her cheek, the sigh he gave when she placed her hands on his waist.

"You are so precious, Caroline. It bothers me that anyone has ever hurt you."

Then he was kissing her again, deep and filthy.

"What are y-" she tried to reply, but was cut off as he mouthed at her neck in the way that made her knees weak, "-Kl-"

"-Let me make you feel good," he growled against her skin, flashing them to the couch before Caroline could think properly.

She didn't argue with his need, nor the flash of gold in his eyes. Though confusion coloured her thoughts, he soon made her forget all of them anyway. It was slow and gentle and broken only by soft sighs and muffled moans. He made love to her in the living room and Caroline realised that he might not have been her first, but it sure felt like it.

When she pulled him to the shower and let the hot water clean the blood smears from their skin, his silence concerned her. What he lacked in words he made up for in touches, not sexual or even sensual, but tender. Far more tender than hands which had caused so much pain had the right to be. He touched her as though she was sacred.

Later, when they lay skin to skin on his bedsheets, she tried again. "What's wrong?"

And again, it took him some time to respond. "I know what he did to you."

Caroline's heart stuttered in her chest. She sat up quickly, putting together the blood, his strange behaviour, the deep set sadness she could still feel. Damon.

She didn't feel embarrassed that Klaus knew, but she wasn't comfortable with it either. And how much could he even know anyway. Yes he might understand semantics, but he could never know how it felt.

Caroline knew it wasn't her fault, what had happened. Rationally she knew that Damon was the worst kind of monster imaginable, that there was nothing she could have done to change how things happened. But there was a niggling part of her brain which liked to punish her for it. Maybe if she hadn't been so self-obsessed, so neurotic, maybe if she hadn't been so insecure she'd have been able to see what he was from a mile away and run for the hills. Maybe he'd have chosen someone else. It was that guilt that bothered her, more than anything else.

"Is he dead?"

"Not yet," Klaus breathed, reaching his fingertips to linger on the bare skin of her back. "I was wondering if you'd want to…"

Caroline tensed under his touch, then chastised herself for tensing under his touch. It wasn't his fault that the idea of acknowledging what Damon had done to her made her feel sick. Being around her friends with supernatural plots and an endless string of threats on their lives, it had been buried for so long. No one asked, no one acknowledged. Certainly not either of the two of them, except in the sickening smirks he sometimes gave her. And now he was probably somewhere in the mansion, strung up and bloodied.

"No."

"Are you sure, sweetheart? I've made quite sure that he'll only die once and I'd hate for you to miss out on revenge if that's what you desire."

Caroline wrapped her arms around her knees. Did she need that? Did she need to make him feel the distress, the hopelessness and terror, never mind the physical pain. She lingered on it for a while, weighing up the pros and cons. She'd imagined hurting him before - that sometimes made her feel better - but faced with the opportunity, she hesitated.

Because she didn't need it. She'd proven over and over that she didn't, through her friends insistence that they co-exist. She'd been forced into stifling her rage, yes, but it didn't change the fact that Caroline had a life. A new life, one quite different from what she lived when Damon had come to town. She didn't need revenge to find her peace, but did she want it?

Did she really have anything to say to him? Was it worth the breath, knowing that it'd never make any difference? Could she hurt him? Would it feel good? There were so many questions which could have been answered, but Caroline kept coming back to one.

Did she want revenge or did she just want to move on?

Did she want to tear out his heart and watch him die, or did she just want to live her life free from the constant reminders of what he'd done to her? To live in the knowledge that he'd never, ever do it to anyone else.

Klaus had made the decision so easy for her - whatever she wanted.

Caroline was beginning to realise that with him it was always, always easy.

She leaned back into his embrace and pressed her lips to his shoulder, "I've already had my revenge."

Actual epilogue coming soon!