[~Cloud Shadows Over Me~]

New York - Ten years ago

She had never been more embarrassed in her entire life!

Caroline realized that despite his laughter the man that had just stopped her from falling down the stairs was still holding on to her. His hand was wrapped around her waist and he kept her close despite her dreadful appearance.

When had she turned into such a klutz?

She awkwardly cleared her throat and sniffed. Her nostrils tingled and she hoped she wouldn't sneeze on him again.

She pushed back, he let her and she frowned when she realized that she was out of balance as she hopped from one leg to another. Right, her heel was broken. Stupid shoe, stupid day, stupid Caroline!

The man now regarded her with a furrowed brow.

"Are you hurt, love?"

Caroline stared back at him confused.

"Uh?"

"You are limping?" he pointed out, "Did you twist your-"

"Oh," Caroline realized and rushed to assure him, "no. My shoe broke. Not here though."

His eyebrows shot up.

"You tried to climb the stairs like that?"

"Well-" she started only for her eyes to go wide a second later when she realized what had happened, "Damn it! The files scattered everywhere!"

She tried to go down the stairs to clean her mess when the guy with the cute dimples stopped her.

Before she could take another step down the stairs he was gripping her elbow.

Caroline's eyes traveled from his face to his hold curiously but she didn't pull her arm back.

"Let me help love," the man offered and Caroline humfed, this time yanking her arm away.

"I am not 'love'! I am Caroline!"

The man in front of her laughed and then Caroline sighed, finally remembering her manners. He had helped her after all. It wasn't his fault that he was polite and she was a mess. She wiped her hand on her jeans and extended it to him.

"Caroline Forbes," she introduced herself and the lighthearted mood the man was in dissolved in front of her eyes at once.

"Bill's daughter?" he asked and Caroline nodded. Her father was Mikael's accountant so he was known here.

Caroline watched as the stranger in front of her had now turned skeptical, but she still waited for him to shake her hand.

"It is rude to leave me hanging like this you know," she grumbled which somehow seemed to work because whatever the man in front of her was thinking was pushed aside.

"Sorry love," he apologized and chuckled when he faced her glare, "right… Caroline," he amended and gave her his hand, "Klaus Mikaelson."

"Mikaelson?" Caroline exclaimed incredulously as she realized who was the man that had helped her and was now standing in front of her, "Oh shit!"

Klaus burst out laughing and Caroline felt her cheeks flaring up. She covered her mouth with her hand immediately hoping against hope that one day she would be able to find a filter to put between her mind and her tongue.

"I meant," she stammered before she deflated, I am sorry," and since she couldn't help herself she couldn't stop from adding, "Oh, this day couldn't get any worse!"

Klaus pressed his lips bemused and acted as if he took what she said personally.

"I am hurt, sweetheart."

Caroline glared at him again and Klaus gave her a mock offended look.

"What? I didn't call you 'love'!"

Caroline tried not to laugh at his gusto but then sighed. Here she was. Failing miserably at her first day at work and she really needed this job. With her father gambling most of his salary away every month she had to help her family somehow.

Standing like a moving trainwreck in front of her new boss' son after making such a mess wasn't a good start.

Granted, Klaus Mikaelson with his long hair pinned back with a leather cord in an unruly man bun and his leather jacket and ripped jeans didn't look at all like one of Mikael's sons but that didn't matter. He still was a Mikaelson and Caroline felt this was just the beginning of one of her migraines.

"This is my first day at work," she tried to explain and her shoulders slumped down, "This shouldn't be happening."

Klaus pressed his lips in at attempt to show sympathy.

"Let me help Caroline."

"You don't have to, I made this mess and I-"

"I insist."

"Fine," she shrugged and tried to go down the stairs and almost tripped down again.

For the second time, Klaus Mikaelson saved her from taking a plunge down the stairs.

"Oh, for crying out loud," she groused and Klaus smiled.

"Don't you dare laugh!" she warned him pointing a finger at him, "It's not me! It's the shoes!"

"Easy remedy then," Klaus shrugged and Caroline blinked when he slowly went down on one knee.

His eyes followed down every inch of her and Caroline gulped down feeling as if there was no air for her to inhale any longer.

When he ran his fingers over her calf she felt as if she was electricity flared inside her but she stilled. Klaus looked up at her from his kneeled position and without taking his eyes from her he lifted her foot.

Caroline hadn't realized that she had been so lost in that blue intense gaze that she had allowed Klaus Mikaelson to touch her and she had not been reacting at all. She was like a doll in his hands and she had been so transfixed that she hadn't realized what Klaus had been meaning to do.

Her eyes popped open when Klaus Mikaelson effortlessly broke her other heel making her yelp.

Caroline met his smirk with a gaping mouth and then stared at her shoes that were now leveled once more.

Well, she wouldn't be limping anymore.

That is if she would be able to walk again. For that, she would need Klaus Mikaelson to let go of her leg even though he didn't seem as if he was in any hurry to do so.

Virginia - Today

His blue eyes seemed to penetrate the dark and terror clawed at Caroline's throat.

She felt as if she couldn't breathe. Her apartment was invaded. Her life was invaded. She would be left in ruins as would the life Felicity Martin had built.

Felicity Martin that had disappeared into thin air as if she had never existed. All her carefully created persona got dismantled in his presence. She had created a new life, a new name, illegal documents that crafted a new identity. She had claimed her freedom. All of it gone.

Her eyes adjusted in the darkness.

Klaus Mikaelson was sitting on the old couch, his hands resting on the armrests, legs casually crossed. A king sitting on his throne waiting on passing judgment.

He was in his element observing her silently.

His presence screamed danger and Caroline shivered as the old sensation burned through her. He had changed. Long gone were the long hair and the ripped jeans. His hair was now cut short. He had a stubble. The recklessness was replaced by cruelty. But the old sensation still remained. Klaus Mikaelson always tasted like danger and she used to be addicted in that taste, in that sense, in that feeling.

Now she was horrified by it.

She should have trusted her instincts. She should have run. Now there would be nowhere to run.

Her mind screamed at her but she couldn't move. She counted the seconds that ticked loudly in her head.

Fight, flight or freeze. That was the dilemma in the face of absolute terror and eventually Caroline's instinct, unconsciously, demanded the second.

She stepped back but Klaus didn't move an inch.

"I wouldn't do that, love," he advised her and the sound of his voice, a sound she hadn't heard for so long, so soft and so cruel and so beautifully accented wrapped in temptation and darkness, took her breath away.

She jumped up when she realized that someone was behind her.

She turned around, panic in her veins, only to realize that Lucien Castle, one of Klaus' men was blocking her exit.

He was grinning, like a predator that was playing with his prey, but soon enough his grin vanished and turned stoic. He simply gave a nod to Klaus, an answer to a silent command Klaus gave him from behind her back and then Lucien got out of her apartment closing the door behind him trapping her in with Klaus Mikaelson. She knew he would stand guard outside the door.

She was trapped. She had nowhere to go.

It was foolish to even try.

Only she knew that whatever threat Lucien posed was nothing compared to Klaus' monster that was now crawling outside its cage ready to tear her apart.

A ghost of touch lingered against the nape of her neck underneath her braid and Caroline jerked away. Klaus had that uncanny ability to move like a shadow.

She turned around and he was inches away from her. It made her heart stop. It was terror, it was dread. It was…familiar.

Caroline couldn't look away. His face had angelic features but she knew she was damned to hell. Klaus would kill her. But she couldn't move. She was caught underneath his spell.

The whole world vanished. The small apartment became smaller and suffocating. Klaus didn't belong here. In this small room. In this small life. Yet he was still in his element. Even here. He owned his surroundings. And her.

She wanted to flee but she had nowhere to go. She had no option than to face her demise head-on.

She lifted her chin up and swallowed down the tears that threatened to run down her eyes. She had run from him in the past but she was not a coward. She wouldn't give him that satisfaction and from the looks of it, this seemed to excite him because he smiled at her.

Her heart ached. She used to love that smile.

"Caroline."

Her name in his lips. Spoken so effortlessly and yet with something resembling longing and nostalgia.

She closed her eyes. She hadn't heard that name for so long.

She tensed when she felt Klaus' hands on her shoulders, slowly trailing upward.

When they rested on her neck she clenched her eyes shut trying to stop the scream that rose in her throat from coming out. Klaus could wrap his fingers around her neck, squeeze and she would be gone. She had seen him kill a man with his bare hands before. He could do it to her too.

Only he didn't.

Instead, his hands turned to a soft caress. He felt the erratic beat of her pulse on the base of her neck and pulled her closer. He smelled her hair and she stood there terrified.

"You need those?" he asked her softly and Caroline's eyes fluttered open slowly.

Klaus' fingers gently tapped the frame of her glasses and she said nothing.

The glasses were part of her cover-up. She didn't need them. Felicity Martin wore them but Caroline Forbes could see without them even if she had been blind enough in the past to not see what had been in front of her eyes.

Klaus smirked. He could tell that this was nothing but a disguise and that she didn't need the eyeglasses.

Klaus took away the glasses from her eyes, sliding them off her face slowly. Sensually even and Caroline felt bare without them for some reason. They were big and ugly and covered half of her face and she had gotten used to wearing them constantly. Hiding behind them.

Klaus threw them down and his smile grew wider.

"There she is," he drawled, his eyes gleaming, "Hello sweetheart."

Caroline shook her head stumbling back but Klaus' palms cupped her face not letting her escape him.

He invaded her personal space stepping on her glasses on the floor that broke underneath his heel and with them so did her armor.

Caroline cringed and tensed. It felt like a physical blow.

A tear fell down her cheek. One that Klaus didn't let go to waste. He leaned in and kissed it. She shivered but he was being tender.

He kissed her cheeks, her eyes. His lips were soft, seducing her.

She shuddered.

His lips hovered over her lips, his next words luring her in.

"Come back to me."