Caroline looked at the cold metal wall she was facing with confusion. Where was she? There was an arm wrapped around her, the hand curving up to cup her breast. Nik, of course. She rested her hand on his for a second, relieved to be waking up with him.
Wait, Caroline, remember everything that happened the last few days? Get that stranger's hand off your boob! He's some psycho killer with a lunatic sister and he dragged you out to some remote jungle bomb shelter under the pretense of trying to protect you.
She pealed his hand away and felt him stir a little. His eyes were moving beneath his closed eyelids, probably in the middle of a dream.
He let out a strange whimper, as if someone had punched him in the gut, then he was saying something
No.. Stop..
Great, she thought, he's having a nightmare and I'm stuck here next to him. Go ahead and have your stupid nightmare, you're probably caused plenty of them.
Not her.. Let her go... I'll do anything.. Don't kill her..
She felt a little pang of guilt. He was having a nightmare about someone hurting his sister Rebecca. Even if everything else he ever told her was a lie, she believed that he really loved his sister and wanted to keep her safe. It was the one thing that kept her from worrying too much about her friends. They were with Rebecca, and if Nik or Klaus or whoever he was had anything to do about it, that would be the safest place on earth.
I'll kill you .. don't touch her.. please, don't..
She was starting to feel really uncomfortable watching him stir as something terrifying came after Rebecca in his dream. She considered pushing him awake, but wasn't there a saying about letting sleeping serial killers lie?
Caroline...
She shot up in the bed. Did he just say? No, it couldn't be.
Let her go... Let Caroline go, please, Not her...
She jumped over him, looking for something to poke him awake with. She couldn't just sit here and let it continue, it was freaking her out. She was running around the little room trying to find a broom or stick to nudge him awake with. He would probably break her arm if she just reached out and shook him, she needed to find something before she heard him say her name like that again.
He took in a sharp breath as he shot up, opening his eyes wide. His hand flew to the empty side of the bed, and his clothes stuck to him with sweat. The fear drained from his face as soon as he spotted her, awkwardly standing in the middle of the little room with her hands out like she was trying to reach for something.
She felt bad for him for a second. She used to have nightmares all the time when she was little, always being chased by scary vampires and werewolves in her dreams. Her mother would have to run into her room in the middle of the night to comfort her screaming daughter. She would make her mother check the closet and under the bed for the monsters, and keep the light on for the rest of the night. Her mom would take out her police badge and wave it around the room, telling Caroline that monsters were afraid of it, and it would scare them away. She always made her stay there with her until she fell back asleep. Caroline would lay on her stomach and her mom would rub her back, tracing the shape of a star along it. She would make up little stories about how it would keep the monsters from ever touching her.
The day Caroline decided to run away with Tyler, she stopped in a tattoo shop between leaving her mother's house and meeting him at the airport. She got a few tiny stars on her foot. At the time she thought she just wanted something that looked pretty, but later she remembered her mom waving the police badge, tracing the shape on her back to keep the monsters away. She wanted to feel like she would always be safe.
She thought about sitting next to him, tracing the star on his back to make whatever was in the nightmare go away. She couldn't do it though. This wasn't Nik. It was Klaus and she shouldn't feel bad for him. He had a stupid nightmare, no big deal. He's over it already.
Klaus was sitting in the bed, looking hesitantly at her. Shit. He probably looked so stupid jumping up like that. She was looking at him like she pitied him and was afraid of him at the same time. Although her moods ranged from angry to indifferent since she saw him for what he really was, she always had that underlying look of fear.
He wanted to get rid of it, the way she looked at him like that, but he didn't know how. People being afraid of him was always a good thing. He was good at rattling people with an unsettling smile or a looming glare. He knew how to get people to leave him alone or give him what he wanted by using his ability to make their skin crawl. He never needed to reverse it.
"You were having a nightmare" she said hesitantly.
"No I wasn't"
"Seriously? I was right here. You talk in your sleep."
"No I don't"
She rolled her eyes. "Fine. I guess you were just having a nice pleasant dream about someone trying to kill me."
He cringed. She shouldn't have heard that. It made him look weak, and that was the last thing he needed with all of this going on.
"What makes you think it was about you? According to you, I don't care about you at all."
"I heard my name. And I don't think you care about me. I'm probably worth some kind of leverage or ransom or something. I don't know."
He shrugged and got out of bed, walking over to plug in a laptop. If she was going to be this way, he didn't want to bother. He'd never groveled for a woman's attention before, and this wasn't the time to start. She had made it very clear she didn't appreciate him saving her from Mikael or killing her psychotic abusive ex-boyfriend. What more could he do?
She waited a few minutes for him to respond, or say anything at all, but he just checked messages and ignored her. She went to the microwave to heat up some water for tea and banged the cups and packages around loudly but he didn't even turn around. He didn't even try to convince her he actually liked her when she said that thing about her probably being leverage or something. It made her crazy. Why was he being like this?
The next few hours he scribbled notes, made a few quick calls to Emily, checked on his siblings, and walked around reorganizing his weapons. She kept stomping, dropping things, making loud noises, even shouting at him, but he pretended she wasn't there.
"You know, Nik wouldn't just brush me off like that."
"According to you Nik isn't real." he said, without bothering to look over at her. Seriously, Caroline, just leave me alone, he thought. I'm so close to figuring out a plan of attack.
"So this is how it's going to be? You're just going to hold me here hostage and ignore me?"
"Yes, that is precisely how it is going to be. I'm going to sit here and figure out the best way to kill the people threatening your life, all the while providing food and shelter for you, not to mention your friends. You are going to sit there and be quiet so I can get some work done."
"You expect me to believe that you're saving my life? You're saving your own life. Mikael's men are probably way more interested in killing you than me."
"Yes, but unlike you, I can actually defend myself."
"I can defend myself."
"My experience says otherwise. I seriously doubt you would have been able to defend yourself from Tyler Lockwood if your precious Stefan hadn't walked in to save you."
"How many times do I have to tell you that Stefan and I aren't like that?"
"At least once more, excuse me for having trouble believing that someone like him could be friends with someone who looks like you and not want to do more."
"You've obviously never had a platonic friendship with a girl."
"I don't have friendships at all. They're pointless."
"Nik was starting to be friends with Stefan until you found out he was with your sister."
"Again with the weird little boundaries, I'd like to know where you think Nik ends and I begin."
"I'm not explaining it to you when you already know how it works. You're the one doing it."
"Fine. Back to the first subject you avoided, at least acknowledge that if it wasn't for me or Stefan, you'd probably be dead twice by now, so lets stop pretending you're some tough girl who could do a thing to protect herself from the people I'm trying to kill right now. People who know you were in the room when Mikael died."
"I would have figured something out. I can take care of myself."
"Whatever you say, love."
"No. You do not get to call me that."
"Why, because Nik used to call you that? And you seem to have trouble accepting that he and I are the same person?"
He walked over to where she was standing. She felt her heartbeat quicken with every step he took. Her breathing was more rapid and her stomach clenched. She took a few steps back but hit the wall.
"Don't call me that again." She hissed, trying to tilt her head back, away from him, he was only inches away.
"I remember you liking it when I called you that, especially when I was inside you."
"Stop."
"What's the matter, sweetheart? You've been stomping around all morning, trying to get my attention. Now you have it."
His hand reached out to play with a lock of her hair. She flinched and looked away. His other hand was at her chin, forcing her to look at him.
"You want to talk about something, so say it."
She just glared at him.
"Alright, then we'll just have to talk about what I want to talk about, if you're going to be stubborn about it."
She rolled her eyes.
"I want to talk about you. I want to talk about those delightful little noises you make when I kissed you here." his fingers brushed the side of her neck "Or when I touched you here" His hand slid down her chest. "Or when I ..."
"Stop. Klaus, stop it."
"Here's the thing, love. You stomp around here telling me you hate me and I'm a terrible person and a liar, making it seem like everything between us was all meaningless because I'm not the person you thought I was. That's not a very smart way to act when you're so isolated with a trained killer."
His thumb was running along the waistband of her pants, trailing from one hip to the other. She bit her lip as his hand grazed across her, not wanting him to see or hear anything that might indicate how much she was struggling to not pull him closer and have her way with him.
"Klaus, don't."
"Don't what?"
"Just stop. Don't touch me."
His hand slid up her shirt.
"You've called me a monster so many times over the last few days, maybe I'll just start to behave like one. I don't think a monster would stop just because you asked so nicely."
She tried to pull away from him, but he had her pinned against the wall. His hand was pushing aside the cup of her bra so he could feel the soft skin of her breast against his hand. Her nipple hardened instantly at his touch. She could feel him smirk as he kissed along her neck.
She let out a tiny whimper. His touch felt so good that for a moment she forgot everything else. She just wanted to be with him. She leaned into his touch and closed her eyes to concentrate on the feeling. She tried to shake herself out of it and push him away, but she couldn't. As much as she hated him, she didn't want him to stop.
"That's it, sweetheart" he whispered in her ear, continuing to roll his thumb across her nipple, feeling triumphant with every little noise that slipped through her lips. She was starting to give in. He grinned wickedly at the little noises. It wasn't enough for her to want him, not after all her pretending she wasn't interested anymore, he wanted to make her beg him for it. He was going to make this the sweetest torture she'd ever experienced, prolonging it and teasing her until she was pleading with him. He moved a hand across her stomach, trailing down her hips, just close enough that she pushed her hips towards him, already needing more.
"When I make you scream my name, darling, will you be calling me Nik or Klaus?"
She was fighting within herself, knowing she should push him away, but it felt so good. She swallowed hard, trying to compose herself. It was too late. She turned her head towards him, about to kiss him. This would be it, no turning back...
beepbeepbeep.
He froze, his lips just inches away from hers. That particular ring meant Emily. Emily had promised to call once she knew the location and number of Mikael's men. It was the only detail left that he needed in order to kill them.
beepbeepbeep.
He closed his eyes and tried to hold in all the rage that was boiling inside him. Not now, not when she was just about to...
beepbeepbeep.
He punched the wall, making Caroline flinch away. He darted across the room to pick up the phone.
"This had better be important."
Caroline could hear the muffled voice of a woman on the other line. He grunted in response to whatever she was saying, scribbling notes down and flicking the laptop back open to go to the page she was sending him. It was a surveillance video, four men sitting around on lawn chairs, laughing and cleaning their guns. He was jotting down names as soon as their faces became clear. He knew exactly who they were.
She realized the moment was long over, and didn't know how to feel. His full attention was on the video in front of him. She would have to sit here with him in this tiny room and deal with the aftermath of whatever that was that just happened between them. But that didn't mean she had to deal with it right now. Caroline slipped into the bathroom, the only place she could go to get away, and turned on the shower.