Hey everyone! Another nice and long update for you! Hope you guy enjoy. Definitely let me know what you guys think! I also took a tip from one of the reviewers and let you guys know the reason why Klaus doesn't sleep that often. SEE! I read your reviews :)


Klaus lay back in bed waiting for Caroline to return. He rolled over and crushed one of her pillows into his face. It smelled of her perfume, like strawberries and honey. It was light and fun, just like she was. For the past few months away from her, he had been living in a constant state of rage and turmoil while searching for Rebekah and Stefan. The only time he had felt even slightly at ease was whenever he'd speak to Caroline. But their relationship via telephone had not done them justice, he realized. He needed her. He needed to be around her. Of course he would never become some puffy, teddy bear of a—boyfriend—but having Caroline in his life did make him a different man.

He rolled back over and stared up at the ceiling, a huge smile on his face as he thought of the night before. Caroline had been almost ravenous when they finally made it home.

"Shh!" She had whispered at him forcefully as they stumbled into the house, "my mom is sleeping."

However he wasn't the one who needed reminders about being quiet. He chuckled to himself at the memories and felt the blood rush in his veins. Every time was like the first time with her. He couldn't imagine ever getting enough; he was completely addicted to her touch, her smell, her taste. As soon as she came back, he would show her just how hungry he still was for her.

But where was she? Klaus realized that she had been gone for more than a few minutes. It shouldn't have taken her that long to retrieve her phone. He decided to go check on her. He could sneak around and evade her mother if need be. Klaus slid from the bed and pulled his jeans and shirt on quickly. He walked out of Caroline's room and down the hall. Her mother didn't seem to be around after all. Then he saw that the front door was still wide open. Right away, Klaus's nerves were on alert. Something was wrong. He listened hard, trying to detect anyone or anything that might be around as he made his way outside. The sunlight blinded him a little as he walked into the driveway. Caroline was nowhere to be found.

"Caroline?" Klaus called out. No answer. Then he noticed a small white object laying on the concrete. Klaus walked over to it and knelt down. It was Caroline's phone. He picked it off the ground and stood up, looking around in all directions. Something had happened. Caroline had been taken and he was willing to bet Rebekah was behind it.

Klaus squeezed the tiny phone in his hand and went back inside. He paced around, trying to calm himself down and figure out what to do. He wouldn't be any good to her if he were too angry to think of a plan. First he would have to figure out where Rebekah was hiding out. As he made a mental list of the places she might be he cursed the day he had decided to undagger his sister. Just then the phone began to chime. He didn't even realize he was still holding on to it, clinging to it as if it would lead him to his kidnapped love. He looked down at the caller ID and saw the doppelganger's name and photo pop up. He slid the answer button and put the phone to his ear.

"What?" Klaus answered harshly.

"Klaus," Elena muttered on the other end, "can I speak to Caroline?"

"No you can't."

"Well why not?"

"Because she isn't here."

"Where is she?" Elena retorted.

"I don't know," Klaus growled, "she's been…taken."

Klaus heard Elena's intake of breath at the news. Her voice sounded farther away. She must have turned from the phone to speak. A few moments later it was Damon Salvatore's voice on the other end.

"I take it you didn't just piss off Barbie so much that she simply ran away," the Salvatore quipped.

Klaus realized in that moment that to get Caroline back he was going to have to do something he really didn't want to do. He was going to have to team up once again with Damon Salvatore.


After speaking with Damon on the phone, Klaus hung up and rushed over to the boarding house. He walked inside, not bothering to knock on the front door. In the living room he could hear Damon and the doppelganger arguing.
"This is perfect, we'll blackmail him. We'll find out where Caroline is and then make him agree to leave you alone and let Stefan off the hook," Damon said.
"Damon no! I don't feel right about playing with Caroline's life like that," Elena said.
"Look, you know that if Barbie were here she would agree to this."

"God Damon, sometimes you can still be such an ass," Elena muttered.
"Yeah well I'm an ass who's kept you alive and all of us safe."

"Damon—"

At this Klaus walked in and cut them both off. "Or I could just make this easy and murder all of you until no one in Mystic Falls is left standing except for my sister and Caroline."

Elena and Damon both gave him looks at this comment. They knew it was half true, half not.

"Any guesses on where sister dearest is holding her hostage," Damon asked, moving away from Elena and putting himself between her and Klaus. Klaus would have been amused at the obvious protective gesture if he wasn't so on edge at the moment.
"I have hybrids out looking for her. Shouldn't take too long. Rebekah isn't very good at covering her tracks. Never has been," Klaus said.
"Yet she managed to evade you for months while you chased her around the country," Damon retorted. Klaus sneered at him angrily and fought the urge to punch him across the room. "No matter. We have a secret weapon of our own as usual."

As if on cue, Bonnie walked through the door, grimoire in hand. She took one look at Klaus, glaring at him as she passed. Clearly even though Caroline's friends were accepting of their relationship they still didn't like him. He could live with that though. He didn't need their approval.
"I can use a locator spell to find out where Rebekah has Caroline," Bonnie said sitting down on the couch, "it'll be way easier since I have a connection to her."
Bonnie opened up her spell book, while the rest of them gathered around and watched her work. Klaus was feeling suddenly grateful that he hadn't killed this witch after all. The witch's eyes closed as she began muttering under her breath in an unknown language, reciting words that had been spoken long before she was ever born. The crystal in her hand swung from side to side as she chanted. Then suddenly it stopped and Bonnie's eyes flashed open.
"Well? Where is she?" Damon said and the girl's head snapped up. Klaus was growing tired of all the dramatic pauses and looks. Every second wasted was a second that Caroline could be in pain or closer to death.
"Guys," Bonnie said, "she's outside."

Klaus gave her his own dramatic look just then. All of them exchanged confused glances with each other. Just as Elena was about to make a comment, Klaus darted from the room.

Bonnie was right. There was Caroline outside in the Salvatore's yard, unconscious, in the arms of Matt. Klaus flashed to where they stood. Matt was obviously faltering while trying to support her weight, his human strength not allowing him to hold her for so long. Klaus took her from him gently, cradling her in his arms as if she weighed no more than a feather.
"What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know," Matt said, "Rebekah showed up at my house with her this morning. Her and some witch guy. She was perfectly fine when they brought her over, just bruised up a little bit."

"Matt!" Elena said running outside. Damon and Bonnie followed her.
"The guy did some spells and stuff and then Caroline was unconscious. Then they just left. I-I don't know what they did," Matt was in agony, his confusion breaking through his voice.

"Let's get her inside," Elena said and Klaus walked back toward the house with carrying Caroline.

They took her upstairs to her "former room" and laid her out on the bed. Klaus did his best to keep it together. In spite of everything, he didn't want any of them to see his true worry over Caroline. He listened as Matt told the story of his morning. Apparently everything had happened very quickly, leaving the boy confused and anxious. Rebekah's witch had burst in and forced Matt to invite her in, which he quickly did once he saw they had Caroline. Rebekah and the witch had begun setting a few things up on Matt's kitchen table just as Caroline came to. But before they had a chance to talk, Rebekah knocked her out again.

"They said some spells and force fed her some red liquid, blood or something I don't know and then that was it. It all took about ten minutes," Matt said finishing his story.

"So she's in some sort of magical coma?" Damon asked.
"I guess so," Matt replied.

Elena put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "It's ok Matt. You did the right thing."

They all turned to Bonnie then, Klaus included.
"I can try to figure out what's going on here," Bonnie said, "but putting a vampire in a coma sounds like some serious power."

"Well you found enough power to use when you wanted to kill me," Klaus said in a low voice.
Bonnie glared at him. "Just so you know, I'm not doing this for you. Caroline's my friend and I'm not going to let her die over some stupid original sibling feud."

"I don't really care what your motives are as long as she wakes up," Klaus said. He bent forward and placed a kiss on top of Caroline's head and then stood back to let Bonnie get to work.


Hours later, Bonnie was still no closer to figuring out what kind of spell had been cast over Caroline. She had enlisted Matt to help her search for any words or anything he might remember hearing. Klaus was vacillating between being incredibly relieved to have Caroline back to incredibly worried for what Rebekah might have had done to her. He kept swearing to himself that he would rip her apart as soon as he found her. While he waited he found himself downstairs with Damon, busting through another bottle of alcohol.

"I can't help but think that this is all kind of…poetic," Damon said taking a sip of scotch, "finally its you who gets to worry about someone they care about."

Klaus smirked, taking a sip from his own glass. "I get it you know. You all hate me. And you hate the fact that Caroline loves me."

"Barbie never was a good judge of character. She did date me after all," Damon raised his glass in mock salute and Klaus frowned.

Yes he knew about Damon and Caroline's previous relationship. He added it to the list of reasons to hate the Salvatore. He didn't care to be reminded of it now.

"Well boys, what are we drinking," a female voice said entering the room.

Klaus's eyes flicked up as Rebekah sauntered in. He shot up from his seat on the brown leather couch, stalking toward her.

"You have some nerve, showing your face here," Klaus said coolly as he watched his sister grab the bottle and pour herself a drink.

"Calm down Nik, I come in peace," she replied.
"What did you do to Caroline?" Klaus was practically growling at his sister.
"I didn't do anything. But a witch friend of mine put a little spell on her."

Klaus snatched the glass of alcohol from her hand and threw it. The glass smashed into bits against the wall and the liquid splashing all around.

"Rebekah I swear—"

"Oh shut it Nik you aren't going to do anything. The worst thing you'll do is dagger me again for another century and since you don't have one on you at this moment I think I'm quite safe."

Klaus winced at her words. It was true. She saw right through him. No matter how much he threatened or entertained the idea of killing her, he never truly would. She was his sister after all. His only sister.

"Rebekah if you want to kill me then go ahead and try your hardest. But leave Caroline out of it."

"You know Nik I don't get to see you in love that often. It's made you quite noble," she tossed her hair and brushed past him, "I did want to kill you but I changed my mind about that. You know how it goes."

"So what is it that you want Rebekah? Other than to just make me miserable?"

"I want my family back. Mikael is dead now. There's no reason to keep waiting."

"I want that too, but there are…complications..."

"Like what?" She shouted cutting him off. "Because you have a little girlfriend now. Because you know how angry they'll be with you and she's the first person that they'll go after to get to you. Selfish bastard!"

"What about you?" Klaus said, his own voice getting louder, "why didn't you just go ahead and wake them? Or are you afraid too? Of Kol? Of how angry he will be with you?"

"That's enough!" Rebekah yelled. Klaus could see tears shining in her eyes. He knew he had hit the mark. She sniffed a bit, reaching into the pocket of her jeans and pulling out a small vile filled with red liquid. She held it up in the air between her thumb and forefinger.

"I want a truce. I want us to be a family."
Klaus regarded her cautiously. "And in return?"

"This is your cure. The witch who put the spell on Caroline made it. Feed her this and she'll wake up."

Klaus took two steps toward her, holding his hand out for the vile. It was all the acquiescence he would give her. Rebekah nodded and went to place it in his hand.

"Just so you know. If you wait too long, she won't ever wake up."

Klaus snatched the vile away before Rebekah had a chance to change her mind. Then she flashed out of the room, leaving him and Damon alone once again. Elena and Bonnie came downstairs at that moment.
"What just happened?" Elena asked, "I thought I heard Rebekah."

"Yeah she was here. Got to be a part of a nice and awkward family chat," Damon said.

"What'd she want?"

"To give us this cure for Caroline," Klaus said, flashing the vile.

Elena's brows furrowed. "A cure?"

"She came to make a bargain and I agreed."

"She went to all this trouble just to get you to bargain with her?" Elena said incredulously.

"My sister has an impulsive temper, as you know," Klaus said, "but she's not entirely unreasonable."

Klaus's eyes flicked to Damon. He knew the Salvatore wouldn't be thrilled about the prospect of Klaus waking the rest of his family. Damon looked back at him as if the vampire knew what he was thinking. But his face betrayed no opinion on the matter. Klaus wasn't even sure what he thought about it all. Rebekah would only wait so long for him to act on his word. But he would think about that later. Right now, only Caroline mattered.

"I don't think we should give that to her right away. You should let Bonnie figure out what it is first," Elena stepped forward to take the vile but Klaus snatched it away.

"Because your witch has been so helpful already," Klaus said.

"Bonnie's trying ok?"

Klaus stared down at the doppelganger. "Well she doesn't need to try anymore. We have our solution."

Elena met his stare head on. "I don't trust Rebekah. Or you. Just give her a couple hours and if it doesn't work, then we'll do things your way."

Klaus's jaw flexed, but he nodded in agreement. Elena had been right about one thing. She shouldn't trust him.


Klaus had followed Bonnie back upstairs to watch her while she tried to wake Caroline. He hoped his presence would inspire the witch to work a little faster. Caroline remained on the bed, dozing peacefully, just as she had been that morning. Klaus tried to calm himself. He knew she would be ok. He had the answer to their problems in his pocket. And now everything with Rebekah would be finished. All that was left would be to figure out what to do with the coffins and then he and Caroline could just exist for a while.

He sat there, biding his time, watching the witch work. It didn't seem like she was doing much of anything. Matt left to go to his shift at The Grill and Damon and Elena disappeared to do whatever it is that they do. Finally he was alone with the witch.

"Any progress?" Klaus asked her as she flipped through more pages of spells.
"Well I'm one hundred percent sure that the vile is full of blood. I've been trying to read more about blood magic. It's darker. Not something that I know a lot about."

"My mother used to dabble in blood magic a bit," Klaus commented, "it was part of what led her to creating vampires."

Bonnie nodded at him, but that was as far as the conversation went. Klaus went back to running his fingers through Caroline's hair. The more he sat there, the more he thought about Elena's words. She was right and part of him knew it. This was all just too easy. Why had Rebekah just handed over the cure? She had seemed so angry and spiteful before. After all these months, why would she just give in and make a simple bargain with him? Something didn't make sense. But he was anxious. Rebekah had said that if they didn't give her the cure soon, she wouldn't ever wake up. She never said what the exact time limit was. It could be any second. It could have already passed.

Klaus glanced over at the witch as she ran her finger down the page. He listened out for any sign of Damon or Elena being nearby. Then he flashed across the room, grabbing Bonnie by the throat, and squeezing just in the right place. She fell to the ground, unconscious, not dead.

He walked back over to Caroline and sat on the bed next to her, pulling the vile of blood out of his pocket. He gathered her into his arms, propping her head up in his lap. He unstoppered the vile with his teeth, spitting the cork on onto the floor and squeezed Caroline's jaw open with one hand. The liquid poured from the vile and into her opened mouth. Some of the red dripping down the corners of her mouth.
"Come on, Caroline," he whispered as the last of the liquid left the tube. He held his breath and willed her to open her eyes. What if he had been too late in feeding her the cure? What if she never woke up?

Then Caroline began coughing, her eyes fluttering open. The relief washed over Klaus like a fresh rain. She was ok, she was going to be ok. Caroline's eyes opened fully, searching around the room, trying to orient herself. They landed on Klaus and widened for a moment. Then her arms were around him, squeezing tightly.

"Klaus! What? I don't know-"

"Shh love. It's all right. You're safe," Klaus said squeezing her back.


Caroline hadn't been too happy with him once she was fully awake and noticed her unconscious friend on the floor.
"I'm sorry love. It just couldn't be avoided," was his only excuse. Caroline gave him a sour look. So to appease her, he lifted the witch off the floor and laid her out on one of the beds in another room.

He then stopped by Damon's stash of blood bags and grabbed a couple. Caroline would need to drink so that she could heal properly. Back inside the room, he sat with her in his arms, while she sipped her blood.

"How long was I out?" Caroline asked him.
"Only a day," Klaus replied.
"What even happened?"

Klaus filled in the blanks for her, reiterating Matt's story of the morning, with the details of Bonnie's efforts, and his disagreements with Elena and Damon.
"Since I'm awake I guess you won the blood cure argument," Caroline commented.
"Everyone was simply unavailable for consultation when I decided to revisit the issue," Klaus said. She rolled her eyes at his response.
"What are you going to do about your family? I thought Stefan had them."

"No Rebekah has them. She wouldn't have left them in Stefan's hands. She cares about them too much. Like me."

Caroline nodded thoughtfully. "So what are you going to do? Wake them up?"

Klaus sighed heavily. "It's complicated with my family. It is what I wanted. But I have other things to consider now."

She nodded at his response, feeling a little guilty that she was relived. Klaus had been terrible when he first came to Mystic Falls and that was putting it lightly. He still was sometimes and she couldn't imagine that his other siblings were that different. Especially judging by Rebekah. She finished off the blood bag and Klaus took it from her laying it on the bedside table.

"I brought another one if you'd like."

"No, I think I'm ok for now," she replied with a stretch of her arms.

"Sleep?"

Caroline turned over quickly then, instantly straddling his lap, a mischievous look in her eye. Klaus smiled at the turn this night was now taking, thankful that he had put the witch to bed.

"Sleep is the last thing I want to do Niklaus," she said dipping her head down and gave him a long sensuous kiss.

"Niklaus?" He said, "Where did that come from? You've never called me Niklaus."

Caroline shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know."

She went back to kissing him and Klaus forgot about it. Maybe he didn't so much mind the sound of his given name on her lips. Her hands travelled down to strip the shirt from his body, nails scrapping lighting against his skin. Once they were both naked he wrapped his arms around her tightly and let himself get lost in the feel of her body against his.


Suddenly Klaus was awake. He noticed right away that something was wrong. His arms were empty.

"Good morning brother," Rebekah was standing there at the foot of the bed holding Caroline still. Her eyes were filled with fear as she struggled feebly against his sister's grasp.

But there was someone else there. Someone next to them. The woman wore a long green dress and her wavy golden hair hung down past her waist. She looked exactly as she had a thousand years ago the day he had killed her.

"Mother," Klaus said, trying to gulp down his fear. He should have known better than to trust Rebekah.

"You have committed terrible sins Niklaus. You must be punished," Esther said. She nodded to Rebekah, who smiled evilly. Then the girl thrust her hand into Caroline's chest and extracted her heart.

He heard himself yell and tried to move forward to stop Rebekah, but it was useless. The deed was done. Caroline's eyes went wide and she dropped to her knees. Klaus felt the blood drain from his body as he saw her skin grey over and watch the light leave her face. Her head tilted toward him, her eyes filled with tears, and she opened her mouth and—

Klaus awoke again. It had been a dream. A nightmare. He glanced down quickly and saw Caroline slumbering peacefully in his arms. He put his hand to his head, feeling the immense relief. Seeing her die at the hands of his mother and Rebekah had been so real. Too real. It was the exact reason why he didn't like to sleep and never did on purpose. He always had nightmares.

But he knew he was awake now for real and the nightmare was over. He finally noticed that the sunlight was streaming through the windows. It was morning. The house would be waking up soon and they would probably come to check on Caroline. He squeezed her tight once more, reassuring himself that she was perfectly fine and not really dead, and then slipped away into the bathroom.

Klaus turned on the tap and let the water run, gathering it into his hands, and splashing some on his face. He looked at himself in the mirror. He needed to get a grip. Worrying over Caroline was making him mental. Clearly everything was going to be fine. It was just that he had never cared about someone this much in his entire existence. Not in this way. It was difficult to handle. His emotions were getting the better of him. He still believed that love was a vampire's greatest weakness, especially now more than ever. But that didn't mean he would be giving Caroline up. His existence would now be meaningless without her.

"Calm down mate," he said to his reflection, "it was only a dream."

Klaus shut the water off and dressed himself before returning to the bedroom. Caroline was awake, sitting up in bed. She had already put her clothes back on. She smiled warmly at Klaus as he climbed back into bed next to her.

"Morning love," he said giving her a kiss on the forehead.

"Good morning," she returned, "everything all right? You look worried."

"Just a nightmare," he shrugged.

Caroline nodded and smiled again. Klaus watched her as she slipped off the bed and walked over the vanity, grabbing a brush from the drawer. She paced around the room as she combed through her tangled locks.

"You know that was really all too easy," Caroline said.

"You mean everything with Rebekah?"

"No, Niklaus, I mean getting into your head just now."

Klaus cocked his head at her. It was the second time she had called him by that name. "What are you talking about?"

"The nightmare. Rebekah killing Caroline. It was easy to find the heart of your greatest fear and exploit it."

Caroline set the brush down calmly and turned to face him. Her posture was different and the way she held her hands, folded in front of her, seemed odd. Then there was the way she had just referred to herself in the third person. Klaus sat forward on the bed, his eyes squinting, trying to figure out what was wrong. She opened her mouth and continued to speak.

"I would have expected someone like you to be much more guarded. But then again, you never lived up to expectations my son."

Klaus's eyes widen as he heard the words. My son. The cadence of her speech. The posture. He recognized it all. This wasn't Caroline he was speaking to. This was someone else entirely.
"Esther."

A smile spread across her face. "Hello Niklaus. It has been quite some time."


So Esther is back! What's gonna happen? Stay tuned!

This chapter was narrated mostly by Klaus, cause we got to hear a lot from Caroline in the previous chapter. Also if the relationship between Rebekah and Klaus seems confusing...it's because it is lol...but don't worry there will be more explanation on her motives and how it will effect both of them as the story continues.

Let me know what you think!

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{{{EDIT}}}: Ok, had to come back and add this note. NO! Esther/Klaus did not have sex. Yes Esther was starting to manifest in Caroline the night before when she slipped and called him "Niklaus" but Caroline was still very much Caroline and she was the one around for the sex. Not Esther! Esther hadn't fully arrived until the next morning when she gave Klaus the dream.

Don't worry, it will make more sense in the next chapter! :)