A/N Ok just to prepare you, you're going to hate me. You'll read this chapter and you'll think. I hate her, she's a very mean woman. Her and her fic are just the worst.

But, but but but, please remember that things have to hit bottom before they get better right, that's the joy of the angst.

*looks hopeful* please don't hate too hard

As always we praise the mighty garglyswoof for her editing, comments and support

Chapter 8

"Listen," she starts determinedly as they walk side-by-side towards the boarding house. "I know it could all be kinds of weird now, after, er, you know-" She clamps down hard on the urge to ramble and glances sideways at his impassive features. "But we have a major villain to defeat and I hope we can, you know, work together and…"

Part of her hates this silent version of him, but it certainly does make it easier to get this stuff out without his interruptions. "And I hope that you and I, that we're still friends, not that we were really friends before but… I guess I hope we are kinda still whatever we were."

She looks at him hopefully and he tips his head to the side and gives a definite nod. She smiles awkwardly at him and continues on her way with him padding along beside her with silent grace. She feels like something from a movie, some sort of queen of the forest with all nature's fierceness at her command. She snorts at her own foolish thoughts and he glances briefly at her before bounding ahead to stand at the Salvatores' door.

"Ok," she says as she grabs the handle. "Here goes!"

Stefan and Rebekah have gotten everyone together, as promised. Damon sits next to a bored-looking Elena and once again her heart breaks to see the shell of her friend. Bonnie looks pale and nervous but her expression also holds just a hint of that old resolve that always made her the strongest of all of them. Even Matt is here, seated next to Bonnie and glancing resentfully around the room.

She gives them all a tight smile; from behind her Klaus leaps forward into view with a sharp growl and comes to stand up on the high table behind the unoccupied couch just in front of Damon and Elena.

"Christ," Damon splutters and seems to climb backwards in his seat, his arms wrapping instinctively around Elena who watches without reaction. "What the fuck is that?"

If she's amused by Damon's panic - and she's not saying she is - then she doesn't let it show. She just steps up alongside Klaus and lays a hand against the coarse fur of his neck. "All clear?" she asks and the wolf looks around his deep growling making every occupant of the room draw back just a little .

Klaus turns his amber eyes on her and nods. She gives him a small smile and he hops off the table; the sound of cracking bones fills the room. She's never witnessed the change in reverse before. It seems to go a little easier than turning into a wolf, or perhaps Klaus is just practiced at the transition. The fur along his back melts away, exposing his pale skin as the spine lengthens and straightens and his bowed head returns to its human shape.

The room watches in a mixture of fascination and fear as the claws shorten and the limbs pull out smoothly and he comes to stand naked before them. He rolls his shoulders and his muscles move enticingly beneath alabaster skin. She fights the urge to swallow; she'd known this was coming and is determined to remain unaffected by his nakedness despite the vivid memories ricocheting about in her brain at the sight of him.

She's pretty pleased with the impassive expression she manages to maintain until she catches Damon's narrow-eyed gaze. In her determination not to react to him she realises she's actually ended up looking pretty suspicious. Bonnie and Matt are looking anywhere but at the naked hybrid with their faces curled into matching masks of disgust, while Elena watches him with clear appreciation and Stefan looks stoically at his face. The only people in the room unaffected by Klaus' nudity are his sister, because surely they come from a time when family nudity was common place and she's seen him like this many times before, and her. Damn it, she thinks, reading the suspicion in Damon's gaze and belatedly trying to manufacture an awkward expression.

Fortunately Elena draws the elder Salvatore's attention. "Wow," she says with a slight whistle. "Nice!"

Klaus turns dark eyes on the doppelganger but it's her that Elena addresses. "Very nice. You should really take that for a test drive Care," she suggests in a friendly mocking tone. "Or maybe I will."

"I'd rather chop it off love," Klaus retorts with a smirk. "No offence."

Elena's raised eyebrow and passive expression tells them all she's incapable of taking any, and the brunette just shrugs and starts playing with her phone.

She gathers her composure again and throws the duffle bag on her shoulder at Klaus who retrieves his jeans and slips them on. Briefly she registers the fact he's not wearing any underwear - he hadn't been earlier either, she thinks, and wonders if he ever does.

"Caroline?" Stefan's voice draws her attention and she gives herself a mental shake and a firm internal reprimand; not the time Caroline. "This might need some explaining."

"Yes, yes it does." She and Klaus share a look and he nods, giving her permission to lead. "Right, so I assume Stefan and Rebekah filled you all in on our fun run-in with Silas?"

The others nod and worry settles on the room like a sudden fog. "Yeah," she smiles ruefully. "Silas had us in knots, we very nearly all killed each other out there. His illusions are perfect, we can't possibly fight him when he can so easily have us all fighting each other."

She pauses and Damon cuts in impatiently. "Granted, Blondie," he says, his voice as sharp as his watchful eyes. "But it doesn't explain why your boyfriend's shedding on my Persian rug."

She resolutely ignores the goading in that question but Klaus' eyes flash to her when Damon calls him her boyfriend and she stiffens slightly under his gaze.

"Back off Damon, you need us here to make sure we're all who we say we are. We figured out that his wolf is immune to Silas' tricks. Klaus can see him, for real. We-"

"Lot's of 'we' and 'us' in there, Carebear. Don't tell me you've finally gone team Klaus?"

She feels the hybrid's eyes slide away from her as he throws himself with deliberate casualness onto the empty sofa. She wants to reach out to him, hates the distance she's felt between him since he pretty much ran away from her earlier, so she gives Damon a withering look and comes to sit beside him. Though she sits straight while he lounges and keeps a respectable distance between them, she's certain he won't miss the expression of solidarity.

"Hmm, well as Klaus is a thousand year old unkillable hybrid and the only person who can see what Silas really looks like, I'm gonna say yes. We'd all be idiots not to be team Klaus right now."

Damon's jaw ticks but its Rebekah, sounding typically impatient, who asks the obvious question. "So what does he look like?"

Klaus sits forwards, places his elbows on his knees and makes a small gesture towards Stefan with his hand. "Like that" he says simply and she feels herself frown. Back in his house before he'd turned he'd told her, stiffly and without looking away from his drink, that he'd been able to see Silas' true face and she'd just taken him at his word. Now he's telling them he only saw what they all saw? She thinks she's going to look like a total idiot for this in a moment.

"We all saw Stefan, Nik," Rebekah says but she's clearly asking a question rather than expressing a lack of faith. She imagines the youngest Mikaelson has plenty of reasons to trust Klaus when it comes to matters of war.

The hybrid shakes his head and purses his lips. "Not the facsimile he showed you lot." He sits up straight and looks hard at Stefan. "Hair a little longer," he makes a gesture with the flat of his hand just above his own shoulder then runs his fingers over his own cheek. "Scar just below the eye. Not a copy of Stefan, no, but undeniably that face."

They all stare at one another as the implications filter through each of their minds. "So that means-" Elena starts but Damon cuts her off, looking into the middle distance.

"Stefan's a doppelganger," he sounds shaken by the revelation.

"Silas' doppelganger to be precise," Klaus confirms. "And I'd be willing to bet that his precious Amara looks just- like- that-" he sounds out the final words deliberately as he points at Elena, and Damon's expression turns a little nauseous. Klaus gives a sly smile and clasps his hands together in a parody of concern. "Oh I wouldn't worry about it mate," he says sounding sincere and supportive and part of her laughs along with him as he taunts Damon. "It's only destiny."

"Well I don't bloody know," Klaus snaps, silencing the clamour for answer that builds in the wake of this revelation. What does it mean for them? they want to know. How can they use it to defeat Silas? "But you've got a Bennett witch and the dear departed Professor's considerable library on the subject so I suggest you all toddle off and put your minds to it."

He rises to go but Stefan stops him. "Klaus, Shane's books are at Bonnie's house." He doesn't say the rest, that its too dangerous right now for any of them to go, that the Originals are the only ones with any kind of chance against Silas, but Klaus seems to understand anyway and flashes his eyes up to the ceiling.

"Fine" he snarls and turns to go. "But keep an eye on each other, I don't fancy spending the whole night breaking bones every time you lot lose track of who's who." He glances briefly at her before he goes and she bites her lip and tries to ignore the urge to chase after him as he and his sister leave them to their work.

She escapes into the kitchen half an hour later despite Klaus' warning, craving a quiet moment to think, but the universe isn't about to grant her that and Damon slithers in behind her. "What?" she snaps as she spins to glare at him.

He raises his hands, though he doesn't manage to look innocent. His eyes are too calculating by far. "Your honey said stay together."

She gives him a withering look and starts making coffee for the long night they have ahead of them. "Go away Damon."

"Hey, I just want to know where we all stand. See if you're finally letting resident evil sample the goods-"

"Jesus, Damon," she cuts in, running her hands through her hair. She could really do without Damon's unerring perception right now.

"Are you?"

"What?"

"Letting him sample?"

"God no of course not." She has no problem lying to Damon - it feels far more natural than telling the abusive doppelganger-obsessed prick the truth anyway. "Klaus and I are not a thing ok?"

"You sure about that Blondie?" Damon leans on the counter seeming unwilling to let his theory go so easily. "The two of you had something going on in there. And I make it my business to know anything that might potentially get me or my girl killed."

"I said we're not," she snaps. "Now go away."

Damon's eyes narrow, "Still Tyler's girl then?" he presses. "Still want him back?"

She grits her teeth and tries not to look away as she tells a lie she still wants so much to be the truth. "Of course, it's all I want."

She must sound convincing because Damon shrugs, seemingly satisfied, and wanders over to help her set a tray with cups and cream.

Klaus and Rebekah are back when they re-enter the living room and a large pile of Professor Creepy's research sits on the table along with a laptop and a box of dusty grimoires. She catches the hybrid's eyes as she sets the tray down and for a moment she thinks she sees pain hiding just beneath the surface before he looks awkwardly away. God they're being so obvious, she thinks, and deliberately turns her back on the Originals.

"Well, have fun," Klaus says suddenly in a falsely jovial tone. "I have some business to attend to, I trust you'll bring me answers soon. Until then, keep each other in sight, don't wander alone and don't trust me unless you actually see me turn into a wolf."

He leaves without catching her eye and she tells herself she's not bothered, but part of her can't just leave things so awkward and weird. Long after midnight she breaks and sends him a text, spending a good ten minutes writing and deleting it before she decides on simple and jokey.

"No progress on Silas," it reads. "Damon's freaking about the E/S destined lovers thing though. LOL"

Once she sends it she wishes earnestly she hadn't added the LOL- seriously what had she been thinking - the man's a thousand? He doesn't respond and the frequency with which she checks her phone draws not only Damon's but also his brother's attention. Stefan leans over, glances at the phone and asks in that frowning un-pushy way of his. "Everything ok?"

She hits him with a hundred mega watts of fake smile. "Sure!"

By morning her phone's still empty despite the "Hey, you ok?" she sent in the early hours and there's an insecure teenager just beneath the surface of the powerful vampire she's become that's wringing her hands and itching to blow up his phone until he responds. She doesn't get him, surely he'd want to talk about what happened, she knows she does. They need to clear the air and make sure they both know where they stand, he'd seemed pretty affected yesterday and now nothing?

Bonnie and Matt's human bodies give out before breakfast and she finds them both sleeping on couches in the parlour. Damon is arguing with Stefan and Elena is showering. She checks her phone one last time then grabs her bag and heads across town.

"Hey," she calls as she enters the Mikaelson mansion. "Klaus?"

He's shirtless as he strolls in and the morning light on his pale skin catches her attention, briefly making her lose track of her thoughts.

"Caroline," he greets neutrally. "Wandering alone?"

She shrugs and goes for a cheeky, winning smile that he returns with a small upturn of his lips. "I promise I'm not Silas."

He gives her a bored look and goes far enough into the transition that he's on all fours with elongated jaws and fur covered claws when he pulls out of it. She marvels for a moment at the exquisite control he has over his form then clears her head with a sharp shake and grins. "And nor are you, obviously."

He nods and pulls on a shirt looking disconcertingly indifferent. "What can I do for you?" he asks and she feels her smile falter.

"I thought we should talk."

He smiles now but it's as shallow as a puddle. "Of course, I'm a little busy at the moment but yes, we should talk soon."

"Right," she replies uncertainly. She'd prepared herself for a pretty intense encounter this morning and his relaxed attitude confuses her. "Do you wanna grab-"

"Yeah" he cuts in with a nod and another saccharine smile. "Sure. Sorry Caroline but I really am a bit tied up right now." He places a hand lightly in the middle of the back and turns her back towards the door. "I'll call you soon."

Realisation hits her like a fist out of nowhere. She's played this scene before back when she was human; she'd never thought she'd be playing it again especially not with him. She stops and turns angrily on him.

"Wow, seriously? You'll call me?" she feels her eyes are wide and disbelieving.

"Of course." He doesn't drop his mask of sincerity but keeps moving them towards the exit. "It's just not a good time, you know with Silas. Once it's all blown over, we should definitely do something."

"Oh my god." She jerks away from his hand on her back and spins to face him, her hands running through her hair. "You dick."

"Sweetheart," he says placatingly and she wants very much to kick his insincere ass right now. "Calm down."

"No, Jesus, don't you tell me to calm down you freaking asshole." She shakes her head and presses her palms together. "You know, I thought you were a lot of things Klaus," she tells him with a disappointed shake of her head, "but I never thought you were this guy."

She storms out and he doesn't follow her. Not that she'd expected him to, but part of her had hoped he would, the same part that had kept texting Jack Sullivan for days when he'd blown her off after they'd hooked up behind the bleachers a few weeks before Elena's parents died.

But she's not that girl anymore and she won't be made a fool of again. She tells herself he's just another jerk and she doesn't care, but her eyes are stinging with humiliated tears and hurt are digging about in her chest as she walks away with her head held stiffly high. She had actually thought he loved her, that for the first time she was the entire focus of someone's world, that maybe this time she was the one. No! She crushes the thought, she is not that girl anymore and she was never his anyway.

By the time she gets back to the boarding house, with her absence having gone unnoticed of course, she thinks self-pityingly, Bonnie has finally found a way to use Stefan's doppelganger connection to Silas against the ancient.

Klaus arrives with Rebekah shortly after and she glares her hate at him as he strolls in with that entitled swagger of his that she used to think was sexy but today just makes her blood boil.

The plan is simple in a way; Silas' immortality is tied to the existence of his doppelgangers. Without them, there is an imbalance that nature cannot allow. So, in theory, if they can break that connection they can undo his immortality.

Bonnie's hands tremble over the grimoire on her lap as she explains the unlinking spell she found in one of Shane's ancient texts that she plans to cast using Stefan's blood. The only complication? They'll also need Silas' blood to complete the spell.

Stefan takes a deep breath and looks at Klaus. "None of us stand a chance," he says. "Silas will kill us before we get anywhere near his blood."

Klaus purses his lips and raises his eyebrows. "So, you're suggesting I take on Silas alone while you lot, what? Wait here in safety and in possession of the very spell you could use to unlink yourselves from my sire line, and allow you once again to plot my death?" He points dramatically around the room. "Perhaps you see this as an opportunity to rid yourselves of not one, but two immortal enemies."

She rolls her eyes at his dramatics and he notices and glares at her. "Am I wrong to expect betrayal from any one of them?"

"Maybe if you didn't treat people like shit you wouldn't have to worry about everyone betraying you," she spits. She should be more cautious; with Damon already suspicious and Elena smirking knowingly at them, she should contain her contempt.

She finds that she can't.

Klaus' jaw ticks and he looks like he's about to speak. She doesn't let him. "I'll go."

"Don't be ridiculous," Klaus' voice is clipped and his expression tight as he demands with his eyes that she let it go.

"No." She's aware she's being rash, allowing the hurt of rejection to make her act incredibly foolishly, but she can't seem to stop herself. "You wanted to share the risk? Fine, I'll come."

The hybrid stands and she takes a step forward and tips her chin challengingly.

"Oh for-" Rebekah comes to Klaus' side. "A baby vamp is worse than useless, Nik would just have to protect you. I'll go. Once we're rid of Silas maybe Elijah will hand over the bloody cure."

Klaus, who'd been staring her down tears his gaze away, turning suddenly towards his sister. "Honestly Rebekah, this ludicrous notion again? You'd be a miserable human and you know it."

"You're just being mean," Rebekah accuses brattishly. "You just don't want me to leave you."

"I don't want you to die, sister." Klaus says and the words ring with so much emotion and history the whole room seems to pause at the sound and hang on Rebekah's response.

The blonde reaches out carefully for her brother's hand.

"It's not your choice, Nik." The siblings look solemnly at one another for a long moment before Bonnie breaks the silence.

"I'm sorry but it's not yours either, Rebekah," the witch says, wringing her hands in her lap. "For this to work we need a human doppelganger. Stefan has to take the cure."

Silence sweeps through the room as everyone processes the implications - who will lose and who will gain. Klaus, who keeps his beloved sister and loses a chance for hybrids, speaks first. "I'll call Elijah," he says and moves to leave. Before he does he places his hands on Rebekah's shoulders and looks gently into her devastated face, "I am sorry, little sister."

Stefan resists of course, he wants the cure for Elena so much, wants to turn her back into the girl that loved him. They're arguing about it when Klaus walks back in.

"I'll make you a deal," he says leaning against the doorframe. "Get your pretty doppelganger off the vervain and I'll compel her to turn it back on. All I ask is you hand over the spell that can unlink me from my sire line. I do rather enjoy the sense of safety that comes from knowing my enemies can't kill me without dying themselves."

Stefan sits heavily and buries his face in his hands. Poor Stefan, backed into a corner; save them all from Silas and lose his Elena, although part of her suspects that even the cure would not have brought her back to him. "Ok," he mumbles into his palms, and for a moment Klaus looks genuinely sympathetic.

"I shall retrieve Silas' blood," he says, his voice almost gentle. He leans down and firmly grasps Stefan's shoulder. "It may not feel like it now Stefan, but your happy ending starts today, old friend."

She stands and he rounds on her. "You will stay here, where it is safe," he commands and strides out, leaving her fuming.

She can't resist going after him, because if there's one thing you can rely on from Caroline Forbes it's that she will call you on your shit.

"Wow, so now suddenly you care?" She sounds bitchy even to herself.

"Caroline," his tone is full of warning but she doesn't heed it, never has when it comes to him.

"No really, I'm curious, do you give a shit or not?" Her hands find her hips and she knows she's all petulance and bitterness right now. "It'd be nice to know if this Silas stuff gets ugly."

Klaus sighs tiredly. "Caroline, you don't understand."

"No I don't," she shoots back warming up to the argument. "Because one minute you're promising to do right by me and the next you're blowing me off like the morning-after douchebag from hell. Which in case you didn't know is the opposite of doing right by someone. Now you care if I'm safe, so-"

"Caroline!" he cuts her off and takes her face in his hands, his gaze firm and commanding her to be silent. "I need to get the blood of the world's first immortal, I haven't time to talk about this. But don't worry." He gives a small rueful smile and holds her gaze with eyes so immeasurably sad that she can almost believe she's looking right through his irises and into the vast loneliness of his long life. One hand leaves her hair and his fingertips trail gently, so close to lovingly across her cheekbone that she has to swallow down the thick feeling in her throat. "All your questions will be moot soon enough."

He returns as a wolf hours later, fur matted with his own blood and mouth full of Silas'. Once it's in Bonnie's possession he turns back, exhaustedly tugs on his jeans and collapses on the Salvatores' couch. She's still mad as all hell with him sure, but she's also a soft-hearted creature and he looks so vulnerable and his wounds heal so slowly that she reluctantly fetches him a few blood bags. He skates his thumb over her knuckles as he takes them.

The others go to prepare the spell but she lingers, too confused to simply let it go. She perches on the couch and tries to think of something to say. "Elijah brought the cure, Stefan's human."

He nods slowly. "Good" he says. "Stefan may not believe it, but few deserve nor need this chance as much as he."

Yeah, she's angry with him and she doesn't understand anything at the moment but he's right about that and she thinks that he cares about Stefan, he truly does. In spite of everything he still considers Stefan a friend and Klaus has a sort of twisted loyalty, she supposes, to those he cares for.

Does he care for her? she thinks and her mind turns in on itself like a coiling snake, slithering around the question she thought she'd figured out until he decided to sleep with her then treat her like a leper. Their conversation from earlier chips away at her flint-hard resentment and she asks abruptly, "What did you mean moot?"

"Sweetheart," he tries to sit up then seems to reconsider and flops back, throwing one arm over his eyes. "Give a bloke a minute to recover won't you?"

"No."

She sees his lips twitch into a smile and she's reminded of the reason she ended up in his bed in the first place. In all the drama she'd forgotten about that shared humour and mutual understanding that makes him such damn good company, that makes them fit so well despite all the reasons they should never be together.

He uncurls himself and leans forward, his bare, blood-covered, chest suddenly unnervingly close, but when he reaches for her she doesn't retreat. His filthy hands skate up her arms to grasp her shoulders and the look on his face makes her think that he might want to kiss her.

Doubt and confusion are difficult and tiring, but anger is easy, so she sets her jaw and prepares the cutting barb she'll throw at him when she turns her head away from the kiss. But he doesn't try to kiss her, instead he lays his forehead against hers, turns his thumb over her collar bone in that way she's unable to associate with anything other than affection, and whispers, "Goodnight Caroline," with so much exhausted sadness that all she can do is watch mutely as he drags his body off the couch and makes for the door.

"Trouble in paradise?" Elena asks snidely when she joins the others.

"Shut up."

"Aww-" Elena looks vindictive and she wonders if that isn't an emotion of sorts. "Did the nasty hybrid dump you?"

She shakes her head and ignores her old friend but Elena isn't done making trouble just yet and something malicious and knowing glints in the brunette's eyes. "Poor Care, another guy running out on you. Do you think it's because you're so clingy or just a terrible lay?"

Sharp, worried glances ping pong about the room, bouncing off each of her friends until they're all looking at her. "Care, you didn't?" Bonnie asks in exactly the same tone she put the same question to Elena not so long ago when the doppelganger confessed to sleeping with Damon. The recycled accusation peeves her, even their judgement is Elena's seconds, she thinks.

"Really Blondie? You're actually putting out for that psycho?" Damon sneers his hypocritical condemnation and she can't resist an eyeroll and a huff, but she can't think of anything to say. She wants to defend herself somehow but what the hell can she say? After all, not a person in the room hasn't suffered at Klaus' hands.

"Caroline," Matt says next, as if they all want to take a turn bashing her with a sound bite of judgement. "Are you out of your mind?"

"Please guys, can we not do this now? We have bigger things to worry about." She can't think of a way to excuse her actions, so she opts for distraction. It doesn't work, if the stony faces around her are anything to go by.

"Bigger than you screwing the guy who ran Tyler out of town?" Matt's kind face twists sourly, all the hatred of the supernatural that's been building in him since Vicky died finding an outlet in her and she feels his contempt like a physical blow.

"He killed Jenna." Bonnie seems to think she's forgotten his misdeeds and sets about listing them. "And Carol, and Elena. Why the hell would you do that?"

"I know, guys I know ok, I'm sorry." Her stomach churns and tension builds nauseatingly inside her making her skin feel tight and uncomfortable and just on the edge of snapping. "It just happened, ok and it was just one time."

"That doesn't make it ok, Caroline." Matt looks disgusted with her and she could cry seeing the first man she opened her heart to so full of revulsion but somewhere inside she feels something like strength building too.

Or perhaps her patience is just running out.

"Care?" Stefan, who doesn't look any different, she thinks distractedly, looks up worriedly as if finally stirred from his introspection by her transgression. "That's-"

"No," she snaps. She will not listen to Stefan condemn her - he has meant too much to her for too long. They've understood each other, been there for each other since she first faced life as a vampire, and his is one voice she refuses to hear accuse her. He's also the person in the world she trusts the most so it's him she turns to. "No, just no."

"Caroline" Stefan's voice is calm. "We just-"

"No Stefan. Seriously, look around." She waves a hand around the room. "I love you guys, all of you, but look around."

They do, slightly comically. "Ok yes I slept with Klaus, who is, yes, pretty much the worst, but you were on a ripper binge not so long ago. Bonnie's been planning massacres for Silas, Elena is Katherine 2.0 and Damon is Damon all the time. So if the worst I've done is slept with the wrong guy then none of you get to judge me ok? None of you."

She's almost panting when she finishes her outburst but they do look slightly chagrined and for a brief, bright moment it feels like she's made her point when a voice from the door makes her body go stiff and her heart plummet. "What about me Care?" That oh-so-familiar voice asks with anger and pain knotting around it like a poisonous vine. "Do I get to judge you?"

She screws up her face and closes her eyes against the hard, horrible reality and doesn't turn to face him as she says his name in a whisper, "Tyler."

A/N dun dun dun Tyler's back gasp!

Ok on a scale of 'not so much' to 'die b*tch die' how much did you all hate this chapter?