A/N- Thanks for the support!
Caroline had made it through a Mikaelson family lunch.
Now all that remained was to see if she developed PTSD.
Klaus' head was starting to throb with his afternoon hangover and he dropped down beside her on the couch, sighing with relief as the tension left his body.
Caroline throws him a smile and draws out her phone, tapping on the screen,
"I should head home." she murmurs, her tone reluctant but without the grief that had been present earlier.
"You're welcome to stay with me as long as you need," Klaus offers, caught between his own reluctance of heading back to his apartment and having to fill up the fridge and do laundry or being able to relax with nobody around to look after. "I really don't mind."
She sighs, "Thanks but…I have to start figuring out what I'm going to do next…I was meant to be heading to Hawaii for my honeymoon today but…" she chews her lip, "Well, at least I got miles for the plane tickets."
"You should still go," Klaus suggests, "Perhaps it'd be good for you?"
She smirks, "Your mom said the same thing but…I think I'd just spend the fortnight thinking about how I was meant to be there with Tyler, besides, I can go back to work and build up my vacation time."
She inhales, holds her breath and exhales before tapping the screen again and Klaus can hear the call connecting.
"Hey Hot Stuff," a sultry voice filters through the speaker, "Ready to be picked up?"
Caroline rolls her eyes, "Hey Katherine, listen, I'm in Richmond but I'm in the suburbs…"
"I know," Katherine interrupted, "I've taken Matt and his car, we're at Esther's favorite café only about fifteen minutes away."
Klaus frowns in concern, "How does she know where you are?" he asks and she shakes her head,
"It's better not to ask…" she whispers, "Okay, see you soon."
Esther sweeps through the hallway, "Caroline, darling, can I make you up a plate at least?"
"You want to take some food home?" Klaus translates when he sees the British slang lost on her,
"I'm going to make you up a plate," Esther announces before Caroline can even answer,
"One less thing to worry about."
"Smile and accept your fate," he tells her as she stares after his mother open-mouthed.
"You're lucky she hasn't half-drowned you in tea, yet."
She giggles and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, "She's really nice."
He grins and resists the urge to reach over and squeeze her hand.
She was beautiful, even when her eyes were drowning in sadness and he wanted to make her happy again.
He envies Kol for a moment, his little brother couldn't go a full minute without reducing everyone around him to fits of laughter.
Maybe Rebekah could come in and distract her with her rants about fashion?
He's about to tell a joke- which is like watching a car crash in action, because he's witty but not a joker- when he hears a screech of tires and the roar of an engine.
Both sounds somewhat out of place in the quiet leafy suburb, and Caroline sighs,
"Matt is such an idiot," she mutters, pushing herself up and heading to the front door, he follows in her footsteps and they reach the driveway just in time to see the car come to a screeching halt right in front of their nature strip.
A blonde guy falls out of the passenger seat and tumbles to the grass, burying his fingers into the soil and Klaus wonders whether he should shout for Elijah.
"Seriously?!" Caroline demands of the guy, sounding utterly unsympathetic,
"Why did you let Katherine drive?"
"Not my fault," he gasps, "She's on her eighth espresso since five am."
"Hi!"
A brunette model slipped from the car, perching on eight inch heels and whipping her hair over her shoulder, "Ready to go?"
Caroline raised an eyebrow, "I want to wait five minutes and see if I hear any police sirens."
Katherine rolled her eyes, "Please, as if I'd ever let them catch me."
She strides forward and throws her arms around Caroline, pulling her in for a hug,
"I'm sorry about Tyler turning out to be a massive dick, instead of having a massive dick."
Caroline looks over her friend's shoulder to make a face at Klaus and he raised his eyebrows in answer.
"Oh," Katherine releases her and smirks, "Hey, man-whore."
Klaus has a moment of confusion before he turns and sees Elijah standing behind him, obviously thrown for a loop but he recovers quickly,
"Hello, Ms. Pierce," he manages, "Forgive me, but if I recall, your chart said you weren't due to be discharged until this evening?"
Katherine shrugged, "I had stuff to do."
Caroline rolled her eyes again, "Seriously?!" she says and Klaus realizes that word is her fallback, "Bonnie could have picked me up."
"Nope," Katherine smirked, "Because she picked up the caterer instead."
"Marcel?" Caroline shrieked, "The hot guy?"
Katherine nodded, "Turns out, it wasn't this skank you had to worry about."
Caroline laughs and buries her face in her hands, "Well, who would have guessed Carol's demand to have him as caterer would have turned out okay?"
She sighs and rubs her temples and Klaus strides to his car, grabbing her duffel bag out of the back seat and handing it to her, "Call me if you need anything." He offers and then darts pass her to snatch the car keys from Katherine's fingers, earning a yelp of outrage as he tosses them over her head to Caroline.
"Thanks!" she says, climbing up to the driver's side of the truck, "See you later."
Klaus is grinning like an idiot as the three of them drive away and Elijah claps his hand on his shoulder, "At the risk of sounding like a 'nice guy'," he intones,
"I think you might just have a shot."
Caroline's good mood lasted a lot longer than she would have thought it would. She spent the ride being distracted by Katherine's innuendo about Klaus and Matt's over-exaggerated horror that Katherine knew half of the sexual acts that she was suggesting had taken place last night.
Her humor fades away as she reaches her townhouse and she lingers over parking the truck in her driveway, focusing on her breathing.
She had been so excited when Tyler had moved out of the Lockwood mansion in Mystic Falls and moved in with her.
Now, her heart was breaking at the memories of the times they'd shared there.
At least he was still at the hospital.
With a sigh, she clambers out of the truck and leads her friends up to the front door, reaching into her duffel bag and fumbling around for her house keys, they're a familiar, comforting weight in her hand and she slides the key into the lock as she had done a million times before.
But this time, the key doesn't turn.
Frowning, Caroline puts a bit of weight behind the push but nothing moves and she takes the key out, studying it to make sure she has the right one.
She does and tries again, huffing with frustration when nothing happens.
She must have a bigger hangover than she realized.
"Kat," she groans, "Can you open the door for me?"
Katherine saunters forward and takes the keys out of her hand, even though Caroline's pretty sure she has her own copy. She tries to open the door and bends down to examine the lock before staring at the key, "There's two different trademarks," she announces, straightening up,
"Didn't Damon install the locks for you?"
"Yeah," Caroline nods, looking at the lock and seeing the Salvatore brand is no longer there.
Instead it was a brand name she's never seen before.
For a crazy moment, she thinks she's at the wrong house, except the letter box at the front is the one she chose and the garden is neat but slightly overgrown because Tyler never mowed the lawn.
Which means…
"Someone's changed the locks," she whispered, panicking at the thought of not being able to get into her own house. All her papers, lease and everything were inside, along with her family heirlooms, all her possessions.
"What do I do?" she asks her friends who look as bewildered as she does.
"Call the cops?" Matt suggests, sticking his hands in his pockets, "Ask them what to do so you're covered?"
"I can break in?" Katherine volunteered, "Provided you don't mind a slightly damaged window."
Caroline holds her back when she starts moving to the side of the house, "No, call Damon and tell him it's an emergency."
Katherine's mouth twists but she gets out her phone as Caroline looks at her screen, realizes the battery is almost flat and grabs Matt's phone.
It's not a 9-1-1 call but she finds the number for the local police station and after three rings, it's picked up by a bored deputy who rattles off the information,
"Uh…hi," she clears her throat, "Um…I've had the locks changed on my house and need…"
"Do you rent or own the house?" the deputy interrupted,
"Rent but it wasn't my landlord," she answers, knowing the landlord was lazy and preferred for her to take care of any repairs necessary.
"It was my…" she swallows, "Ex-boyfriend…"
"Did your partner give you a reasonable period of notice to clear out your belongings?" he interrupted again and her stomach turns at the sound of him chewing gum.
"His name isn't on the lease," she tells him, "It's my house, he doesn't have any legal right to have changed the locks."
She assumes he doesn't have any legal right, honestly, it had never come up but Carol had insisted that Tyler not put his name on the lease because then he'd have obligations to both the house and Caroline.
At this information, the deputy stops sighing and asks for her details, tapping loudly on the other end of the phone and promising that a dispatch was on the way.
She hangs up and Katherine promises her that Damon is also on his way, though he'd be about two hours. In the meantime, Caroline walked back to the truck, sat in the bed and tried not to burst into tears.
Not even a full twenty-four hours after they were supposed to be married and Tyler had cheated on her and tried to kick her out of her own home?
What if he'd been successful? Did he really want her homeless?
Okay, she could have gone back to her mom's house in Mystic Falls but her work was here and that would have meant a four-hour daily commute.
He was such an asshole!
The police officer is a regular, slightly overweight man who seems sympathetic when they explain the situation,
"Okay," he pats her shoulder, "I can get an emergency locksmith but it will cost you a little bit, honey, are you sure you can't call your boyfriend for the keys? Maybe apologize for the fight?"
Caroline distinctly hears Katherine's seething behind her, "He cheated on me yesterday, getting a blowjob from some random girl twenty minutes before the wedding and changed the locks on the house that I signed the lease for," she recaps for him, "Katherine," she shouts over her shoulder,
"Break in for me."
Katherine disappears around the side of the house, they hear the scrape of a window and then a thump followed by rapid footsteps that pause for a moment before resuming. Caroline sees Katherine's dark hair through the opaque door window and she fumbles with the locks before opening the door.
But she doesn't have the triumphant look on her face that she usually does after committing petty crime, instead, she looks pissed,
"Care…" she chews her lip, "You might need to file a police report."
Caroline's eyes widen and she pushes past her friend, into her home, past the open plan living room before stopping and turning back.
Her flat screen TV was gone.
Like literally gone.
She made her way around the couch and saw that Tyler's X-Box was gone as well and she had left her laptop on the coffee table but it wasn't there.
She was beginning to shake as she made her way first to the kitchen and saw cupboard doors hanging open.
Her multicooker, juicer, and the coffee maker her dad had bought her had been taken.
In the bathroom, her perfume and some of her every day make-up was missing.
She can somewhat hear the policeman being led through the house by Matt and Katherine, who were giving as best as they could, a list of the things they knew had been taken.
But the noise was almost drowned out by the ringing in her ears as she reached her bedroom.
Which had been ransacked.
Her clothes had been torn out of the wardrobe dropped on the floor, her shoes scattered everywhere and her lingerie was all over her bed.
Horror courses through her before her mind alights on the reason why and there are tears in her eyes before she even finds her jewelry box, lying upside down and broken in the corner.
Over the course of their relationship, Tyler had given her four pieces of jewelry.
One Tiffany necklace.
One gold bracelet.
And of course, her engagement and wedding rings.
Everything else in the box had belonged to her or her family.
And it had all been taken.
A gentle hand lands on her shoulder and she looks up to see Matt standing there awkwardly,
"Do you want me to go talk to him?" he offers, "Um…maybe get your stuff back?"
She sniffs and wipes at her eyes, "Tell him I don't care about the TV or the kitchen stuff, but I want my family heirlooms back,"
She holds up the box to his disbelieving gaze, "Tell him, I'll even trade him my engagement ring for them."
Matt clenches his fists but nods and turns on his heel, making it down the hallway before cursing under his breath and Caroline manages the tiniest smile as she talks to the police officer, 'accidentally' name-dropping her mom so he knows that she's a cop's daughter and will put in a little more effort for her.
When he's gone, along with a list of stolen goods that Caroline had separated into three categories 'Hers', 'Shared' and 'Tyler's'- and no prize for guessing which was the shortest- she was left wandering around her house, her arms wrapped around herself as her hangover throbbed at the edge of her mind and she fought her restlessness.
She was supposed to be sitting on a beach in Hawaii right now, she was supposed to be married and happy and definitely not pacing the ruins of her love life.
At least she wasn't alone.
Katherine was currently rummaging through her cupboards for something to eat and Caroline had cleaned out her fridge and done a deep clean of her house before she and Tyler had gone to the hotel but she has enough lying around to make Katherine some tea and vegetable soup.
Esther had given her three Tupperware boxes filled with leftovers but Caroline was going to save those for her dinner tonight.
Strangely enough, though she has Katherine sitting at the kitchen island, clearly ready to launch into a rant about how Tyler was the biggest dick in the world and that she could do so much better, Caroline finds herself feeling a little alone.
Because Katherine was a heartbreaker, she'd never loved a guy enough to have her heart broken over him and right now, she wanted someone who knew the feeling of having the rug ripped out from under you and finding yourself only able to stare blankly at the ruined pieces of your life.
She wanted to speak to Klaus.
She has her phone out and is about to text him when there's a knock on her open door.
"We're here blondie," an arrogant voice calls and Caroline rolls her eyes,
"Who's we?" she shouts back, "Don't tell me you finally found someone willing to put up with…hey, Enzo."
Damon is already looking at the lock on her front door but Enzo makes his way in,
"Hello, gorgeous," he kisses her cheek, "Sorry to hear about yesterday."
She smiles and bumps him with her shoulder, "Sorry you weren't invited, but Stefan was best man which means I had to invite…that."
She points at Damon who rolls his eyes, "Do I look like a teen girl?" he demands,
"I wasn't going to throw a hissy fit if you'd invited my ex."
"No," Enzo answers for her, "You were just going to drunk dial me, apologize for being you and aske me to give you another shot."
Caroline giggled, "He drunk dialed you?"
"Yes," Enzo answered, "At one in the afternoon."
Caroline covers her mouth with her hand and turns away to hide her laughter as Damon bitches them out under his breath,
"Okay, whoever changed these locks is a freaking amateur," he announces, "Because they damaged the hell out of the wood."
She comes back with a wince, "Is it going to be expensive to fix?" she asks and he shakes his head,
"Not for you," he looks up with a smirk, "I'm sending the bill to Lockwood."
Damon isn't usually that nice- though he was usually on his best behavior when he and Enzo were dating- but he'd always had an antagonistic relationship with Tyler, especially when he'd first come out of the closet at nineteen and Tyler had still been a bit too much of a jock to be accepting of gay guys- especially because his dad had always been an asshole about that.
Fortunately, Giuseppe had died- probably of shock- and the Salvatore building and logging company had been left to Stefan who'd promptly signed it over to Damon so he could go to medical school instead. And the Lockwood's couldn't afford to piss off the oldest and richest family in town.
Caroline feels a lump in her throat and swallows carefully, "Thanks."
He shrugs, "I don't particularly care for you, Barbie, but you've always been there for Stefan and that means something."
She nods and leads Enzo to the kitchen to make instant coffee for everyone while Damon makes a detailed inspection of the damage.
It's nice having people who care around to look after her, but still, after an hour or so, she escapes to the bathroom to text Klaus, catching him up on what had happened and waiting for his response.
She knew that he wouldn't be able to offer any help or advice that her other friends hadn't already given, but she still felt good telling him and having him be angry for her.