"Where are you taking me?" Caroline giggled widely as Klaus dragged her along.

They were walking through a forest and Klaus refused, refused, to tell her where he was taking her. "In time, Love, in time." Klaus' pace slowed. He let Caroline catch up to him and he held her hand just for the sake of it. They walked slowly, at a human's pace, and just looked around in silence. It wasn't by any means, a beautiful part of the forest, but it wasn't ugly either.

Klaus enjoyed this. This is what he wanted for the rest of his life, someone who, even though they knew the bad side of him, could except him and love him for himself. He realized that Caroline was by no means ready to except his love, but he hoped that one day in the future she would. As a thousand year old vampire, he'd learned the virtue of patience.

"Will you tell me where we are going?" Caroline interrupted the silence.

Her childishness made him smile. "Patience, Caroline, Patience."

Caroline ran in front of him and looked at him with wide, pleading, puppy dog eyes. "Please?"

This only made Klaus laugh more.

"Please, Klaus?"

Klaus shook his head, "It won't work on me."

Caroline dramatically huffed and puffed before returning to Klaus' side. He rolled his eyes at her. When Klaus grabbed Caroline's hands she took it away. She crossed her arms childishly around her chest. "Well, then." Klaus said. Instead, he pulled Caroline's waist towards him. She looked at him annoyed and then let a small smile out.

"I try and do something romantic," Klaus begins appalled, "And you refuse to even hold my hand. Weren't you taught manners as Ms. Mystic Falls?"

"Well, for all I know you could be kidnapping me!" Caroline said, "I wouldn't know because you won't tell me where we are going!"

Klaus looked at her, "Do you remember my proposal?"

"You mean about me moving in with you?" Caroline asked slightly confused.

Klaus nodded. They reached a layer of trees that concealed what was behind them. Klaus pushed through the trees and gestured towards the house that was built in the middle of a beautiful patch of the forest. With a small lake to the right of the house and trees all around, the place was beautiful. "I wanted to show you what I was offering." Klaus replied quietly.

"You live in the middle of the woods?" Caroline asked confused.

"No, I still live in my house with my family mainly, but I can only take them for so long. I do my hobbies here and I enjoy the scenery."

"What kind of hobbies?" Caroline asked genuinely interested.

Klaus gestured for her to follower her inside. The room that they entered in revealed a large gallery of art. Caroline stumbled upon what to say, "You…collect art?" Caroline guessed.

Klaus laughed openly at her, "No. I make art."

Caroline stood there dumbfounded. "You made this?" Klaus just nodded. "You're an artist?" Caroline said still confused. Klaus nodded again, laughing. Caroline wandered around the room, touching the wall next to the paintings, the drawings, the pictures. She looked at them in awe. She had no idea that the almighty Klaus was an artist. She loved all of the new things that she learned about him. "I love art." Caroline whispered. For some reason the art that she saw brought tears to Caroline's eyes. "You're an artist." Caroline shook her head in disbelief.

"Well you can consider this your first dose of beautiful art that I would like to show you," Klaus said happily. "You like it?"

Caroline turned around stunned. "How could I not? Klaus these are amazing. I had no idea that the Niklaus Mikaelson was an artist. You seem to have a soft side Mister; don't let it show too much. I might begin to think you're nice." Caroline smiled. She walked closer to Klaus.

Klaus wrapped his arms around Caroline, "There is no such side of me." Klaus smiled at her.

"Who also knew that Nik was a liar?" Caroline beamed at him. "Artist." She muttered, "Crazy."

Klaus was taken aback for the slightest of moments; she'd called him Nik. His family and loved ones called him Nik. He realized that it was suiting coming from her mouth.

"So, Caroline," Klaus whispered to her. This was the first time in Klaus' life where he feared rejection, "What do you say?"

Caroline turned in his arms and looked at the beautiful place. "I say that this place is amazing, but," Caroline smiled sadly. She leaned back against Klaus' back. "I'm eighteen and my mom is the only family I have left." She turned to look into his eyes, "I think I want to be with my mother as much as I possibly can. You'd understand that right? You carted your family around for centuries waiting to have a peaceful life with them. I just want to enjoy my mom as long as I can, and with the craziness of this town, I don't know how much longer I'll have."

Klaus nodded completely understand, yet still hurt.

"I will visit though, as much as you like." Caroline smiled.

Klaus smiled at her, "I can accept that," he looked down at her, "for now."

Caroline giggled softly. "Well, are you going to show me the rest of this wonderful place or what?" Caroline asked.

Klaus moved with her towards the next room.

As they were walking Caroline's phone buzzed in her pocket. "Oh, halt the tour for a brief moment." Caroline said as she pulled out her phone.

It was Elena. "What is it?" Klaus asked from in front of her.

"It's Elena, says she wants to talk to me. Joy," She said sarcastically, "She probably wants to lecture me some more, or yell at me or something."

"Do you need to leave? I can show you the place tomorrow if you'd like." Klaus said being oh so gentlemanly.

"No, she can wait." Caroline said somewhat annoyed. "I'm not in the mood to be lectured at. I'll talk to her at lunch."

Caroline quickly texted Elena back. "Shall we continue?" She asked smiling towards Klaus.

He nodded, and they went forward.

Caroline walked as slowly as she could manage as she entered the Grill. She was by no means looking forward to her lunch with Elena; in fact, she was dreading it. She said hello to Matt as she entered and waved to a couple of other people, taking her sweet, sweet, time.

Finally she reached Elena and smiled pathetically. "Hey." She said as cheerfully as possible, but even to her own ears it sounded pathetic.

"Hey." Elena said.

Caroline sat down to join her. She asked the waiter for a drink and then waited. She waited for Elena to make the first jab. She was the one that wanted to talk to her anyway.

Elena sighed, "We need to talk."

"I kind of figured as much." Caroline said. For some reason she couldn't keep her emotions hidden today. She was annoyed with Elena. Annoyed like Hell. She knew why; she just didn't want to admit it.

"What's going on with you?" Elena asked Caroline. That was Elena, cut and dry for you.

"What do you mean?"

Elena rolled her eyes, "You are hanging out with Klaus; you are ignoring me, and I hardly know who you are anymore."

"Have you ever thought that maybe the reason you don't know me anymore isn't because of me it's because of you."

"What does that mean?" Elena said irritated.

"Elena! For the past year all you've been worried about is Stefan and Damon. Stefan leaves you and you have to go chase after him. Damon sleeps with Rebekah you have to try and fix him. Stefan and Damon hate Klaus you have to try and kill him. What happened to the times when I was a part of all of your plans? You guys plotted against Klaus and I didn't even know. You told everyone, Bonnie was a part of it. You just somehow decided to leave me out. Don't feed me crap about keeping me safe because I know you. I know that there is nothing in the world you want to do more than keep Damon safe. Damon was a part of this. You see I'm changing, but you don't bother to get to know me again. You just continue obsessing over the Salvatore's."

"That's not true," Elena defended herself.

"Really? Then what happened at the ball last night?" Caroline questioned.

"I came with Damon and Stefan. I talked to Ester. She's a horrible person by the way. Damon got in a fight with Kol because something made Kol extremely mad."

"No, Elena, that's what happened to you at the ball last night. You didn't even see me at the ball after we talked for two seconds."

"I couldn't find you." Elena admitted.

"And you want to know why you couldn't find me?" Caroline questioned angrily.

Elena looked at her confused.

"Kol was angry because he had a failed attempt at trying to hurt Klaus. Trying to hurt Klaus by killing me." Elena's eyes burst wide open. "Yeah, didn't know that your so called best friend was almost killed last night did you? You didn't bother to call when you couldn't find me. I would be dead right now if it weren't for Klaus. Once again Klaus was there for me when everyone I loved wasn't. And this time I really do mean everyone. Matt wasn't there. My mom wasn't even there. But Klaus was. You still wonder why I'm changing? Maybe it's because I'm finally figuring out that I have the worst friends ever, if you can even call them friends."

Caroline rose from her seat not bother with the drink that the waiter had left. She fled from the bar. As she made her way outside she looked around, confused. What had happened to her life? She was falling apart. Her relationship with Elena was falling apart. She no longer had Tyler and she could barely hold onto Matt.

Caroline was alone. She was alone. She had no one but herself. Even her mother left her now.

Caroline's feet began to move. She ran like there was no tomorrow. She didn't know where she was going, but she hoped it was a place that would take away her pain. Surely there had to be something out there that was better for her. Something that could make her feel better. She realized she was running through a forest. Then she realized she was running in the forest that Klaus had just brought her to this morning. She came to the house and decided to go inside.

If anything Klaus's art could make her feel somewhat better. She remembered the awe that the art put inside of her. As she looked at the art she examined them more closely now. She looked at the lines and the colors. Klaus's art moved inside of her and released her emotions. She continued to twirl around the room, looking at the different pieces. She began crying. The more she twirled and the more she cried; she began to stumble. She stumbled in circles, but continued anyway. To an outsider she probably looked drunk. But in reality she was broken, not drunk. And no amount of alcohol could take away the brokenness that she felt. She eventually gave up on walking and just collapsed on the floor. She sobbed on the floor, not knowing how to make things feel better. She wondered that if she was a human if this would even be a big deal, was this just her heightened vampire emotions?

Caroline felt a pair of arms wrap around her. She felt Klaus's strong arms pick her up and carry her to his bedroom. He laid her on the bed and then proceeded to take her shoes off. He then lay next to her. He pushed Caroline's wet curls from her eyes examining her face.

"It will be alright, Love." He whispered, "I know, it will be alright."

Caroline shook her head and curled her body into Klaus's arms, seeking comfort. She sobbed and sobbed until she finally passed out because of tiredness. Klaus watched her sleep and wondered what would make such a strong woman become such a sad little girl.