Chapter 2

"Not you. You will die for this."

With one shift movement he broke her neck before she could say anything or do any more harm. He decided that as Caroline was suffering at the bottom of the ocean, Aurora shouldn't get a quick death either, so he did to her what he had done to her painting. He put her in his basement alive, had Freya do a binding spell for the hole he put her in and built a brick wall on it so she would desiccate in there for eternity. When he was ready with that, he thought that making her pay would ease his pain but it didn't.

He then decided to do the only thing he knew that would help. He went to his study and started drinking his days away. Everyone was worried about him, especially Elijah, but they were completely useless in helping him. Elijah knew how guilty he must have felt for killing the only chance they had to find Caroline.

On just another day where Klaus was drinking in his study, Elijah decided to try and talk to him.

"Niklaus, dear brother, I know how guilty you must feel for what happened to Caroline Forbes, but you can't beat yourself up over it forever. You haven't come out to see your daughter for weeks."

"Hope is better off without me and it isn't just guilt, Elijah," he yelled at his brother. "Caroline is suffering in her watery grave drowning constantly over and over again and there's nothing I can do to help her. I would change places with her in a heartbeat if that was possible."

And when Klaus finished, Elijah saw him do something he hasn't seen his brother do since he was still a human boy – he started crying like a baby. Elijah was so heartbroken for his brother but knew better than to offer any physical comfort. Suddenly he had an idea and he went his own study to make some calls. Before that, he told his brother, "This isn't over yet."

The next morning Elijah wanted to find his brother before he started the day with yet another vicious circle of drinking his day away. He needed him to be totally sober for that conversation, so he knocked on his bedroom door.

"Go away," he heard his hoarse voice say.

Elijah opened the door to his bedroom, went in and sat down on his bed where he was still feigning sleeping.

"Niklaus, I have some good news. There may be a way to get Caroline's location without Tristan."

"What other way? Have you found out that the bitch was lying about the coordinates?"

"No, but I looked into it. For that kind of a job they had to use the companies the Strix own. So I found out that they own two companies specialising in cargo jets. I looked into them and there were only five cargo flights leaving New Orleans the night Caroline was taken which flew over the latitude coordinate you plucked from Aurora's head."

"Five," Klaus sighed, "Five flights, seems like searching for a needle in a haystack."

"Niklaus, it's only five locations, and I have put things in motion already, the results from all these locations should come in within the day. Now get up and get yourself cleaned up, the minute we find out her location, you want to be on the helicopter to go to her."

So Klaus did as he was bid as Elijah woke something in him that he was sure to have gone for good – hope. He went and showered and shaved which he hadn't done in weeks. And when he was done, he just kept pacing the floor of his study where everyone (Klaus, Elijah, Freya and Hayley and Jackson with Hope) had gathered to wait for news.

They had heard from three different locations and none of them had panned out. Suddenly, Elijah's phone rang and all the people with vampire hearing could hear the other side of the conversation.

"Mr. Mikaelson, I think we found what you are looking for. A large box, like a casket at the bottom of the ocean. Do you want us to bring it up?"

Elijah smiled at his brother hearing that news who grinned at him in return.

"Yes, yes, please do that. The money we agreed upon will be wired to you shortly. And no one, I mean no one is to open the box until we get there. Is that clear?"

"They found her," Elijah declared and everyone sighed in relief. They didn't know Caroline, but whatever made Klaus happy, also made them happy. Everyone except Jackson who was just happy that a woman was saved from suffering an eternal torment.

"So, Elijah, you have everything ready, there is a chopper waiting for me at the airfield?"

"Yes, Niklaus-" Elijah could barely finish when Klaus flashed away.

As soon as the chopper landed on the ship, he could hear the sailors.

"Open it! This Mr. Mikaelson paid big money to have this dredged out of the water. What's ever in it has got to be worth a fortune. I say we renegotiate."

"I'm afraid that was his final offer," Klaus said as he rendered the sailors harmless. He knew Caroline wouldn't like him to kill them so he just beat them so they would lose consciousness and wouldn't be a problem anymore.

When he was done, he already heard her trying to get free from the box. She must have heard his voice, so she flashed over there and opened the box and as soon as she was free, she tried to stand up, but with starving this whole time, she did it with difficulty. So he helped her and as soon as she was up, she fell in his arms.

"Took you long enough." She sighed in his embrace.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, there were some complications in finding you."

"There always are. Do you have any blood? And why didn't you kill them?" She asked as she pointed at the sailors.

Klaus broke the hug to look her in the eye, "Are you alright? I thought you wouldn't want them dead, so I let them live."

"I do, I do want to save humans when possible. So do you have blood or I am suppose to drink from those sailors?"

"Yes, I have some blood bags. One is on me, the rest are on the chopper," he said as he gave her that one bad of blood and ushered her to join him on the chopper.

On the way back to New Orleans, Klaus thought that she was acting rather strange but put it on starvation and being tormented for months.

"So, did I miss Christmas or what?" Caroline asked him.

"No, it's actually the day after tomorrow," Klaus chuckled.

Back in New Orleans they celebrated Christmas and Caroline was more than happy to stay in down for a while, just calling her family and friends in Mystic Falls that she was alive and well. Klaus had informed them of the situation and he had found out that no one had been worried as Aurora had apparently sent a text from Caroline's phone informing Stefan that she had decided to stay in New Orleans with Klaus.

On the Christmas Eve, at night when the celebration was over, Klaus found Caroline a bit withdrawn on his balcony staring at the festivities still going on in the street.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"What's there to talk about? I was put in a box and drowned at the bottom of the ocean by your ex girlfriend and there I laid drowning all over again for a couple of months."

"I am so sorry, Caroline, I killed her brother who had information about you location in rage before I could get it out of him and then I spent weeks just being useless and drinking days away. It was actually my brother Elijah who found you."

"Then I'll be sure to thank him," she said as she turned to face him and suddenly, with out now warning whatsoever, she started kissing him.

Klaus was really surprised at that and thought that she had lost her mind after all the suffering but still kissed her back. Things progressed very quickly as she soon started to undress him. Klaus broke the kiss, grabbed her face with his hands to make her look at him and asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am sure and I'm able and I really want this," Caroline answered him and as he still seemed reluctant to continue, she said to him reassuringly, "Come on, it's not like it is the first time for us. Since when are you so proper?"

Without answering her he started to kiss her again and ripped the dress she was wearing apart as she did the same with his shirt.

The next morning when he woke up, she was gone and so was Aurora.

So what do you think, why was Caroline acting strangely and was she the one to break Aurora out and how did she manage to do it?