Chapter 9 – Nicest Bloke Around

######

"You know you're getting really good at that." Bonnie remarked to Caroline as the blonde threw her blade and hit her target for the third time in a row.

Caroline let out a deep breath and tried to muster a smile at Bonnie, who she had somewhat befriended in the last two months since The Outbreak. Well, nobody was really friends anymore since the apocalypse started, but there were close all the same.

"Thanks." She said weakly, walking over to the wooden board she had been throwing the knives at and retrieving them. They were currently holed up in an abandoned mechanic's shop, the Infected out and about since the sun was down.

This was the time that Caroline would train, trying to make herself stronger to survive The Outbreak for as long as she could. Alaric had shown her how to throw knives a few weeks ago, and she realized that she had quite the aptitude for it. Ever since then, she practiced every night if she could depending on where they decided to hide out. Three days ago though Bonnie had asked if she could join, which Caroline was fine with. It was actually nice to have someone up with her into the late hours of the night when the others were sleeping.

"Kol asked if he could help me with this stuff tonight." Bonnie said offhandedly, glancing at her boyfriend's sleeping form on the other side of the shop. "But I told him no because I kind of get the feeling that you don't like him."

Caroline chuckled nervously as she walked back to where Bonnie was, knives in hand.

"It's not that I don't like Kol." She said. "It's just that he…"

"Reminds you of him?" Bonnie finished for her, making Caroline inhale sharply. "You were dating Klaus before The Outbreak right? Kol's brother?"

Caroline grit her teeth and turned back to the target, flipping the knife in her hands a few times.

"Yeah." She said simply, flinging the blade at the target as hard as she could. It hit its mark flawlessly.

"I only ever heard Kol talk about his siblings a few times." Bonnie said quietly, pausing as Caroline threw her second knife. "But he did say once that he and Klaus were the most alike out of all five siblings." She chuckled quietly. "You know, cocky, arrogant, self-assured beyond reason, that kind of alike."

Caroline spun on her heel to face Bonnie head on after she threw the last knife.

"Look are you trying to accomplish something?" She asked harshly, keeping her voice low so she wouldn't wake up everyone else. "Because I'm trying to train, and that's what you said you wanted to do too. I know we're kind of friends and all now or whatever, but I really don't want to talk about boys with you."

"I'm just saying that I get it." Bonnie said quietly, not bothered in the slightest by Caroline's outburst. "I get loving someone that's wrong for you in all the right ways. Loving someone that has done so many awful things but is somehow never awful with you. I get it, trust me. Kol is the last guy on the planet I ever saw myself ending up with and now I can't imagine life without him, zombies or no zombies. And I just wanted to say that I'm sorry you and Klaus are separated and if you ever need to talk, I'm here."

Caroline was silent as Bonnie looked her right in the eye. She could tell that Bonnie was being sincere, and it was painful to constantly see the parallels between her and Kol's relationship in comparison to her own with Klaus. But knowing that Bonnie had an understanding of what she felt for Klaus did put things into perspective for her.

Caroline simply nodded, making Bonnie give her a slight smile. The darker skinned girl turned and picked up one of her own knives and held it out to Caroline.

"So tell me. I know you never talk about Klaus, but…what's the first thing you're going to do when you see him again? Because you will see him again."

Caroline took a deep breath and grabbed the knife out of Bonnie's hand.

"I don't know." She said in complete and total honesty, turning back to the target. "I really don't know."

An Infected roared outside at the same time the knife pierced into the middle of the wooden target.

######

"No." Caroline whispered, her voice filled with the pain she was feeling as she looked at the blood dripping from Klaus' nose. They were still knelt in the mud, rain pouring around them. "No, no, no, this can't be happening."

"What is it?" Klaus asked worriedly, reaching up a hand to touch her cheek, but Caroline flinched back involuntarily. "Caroline, it's me, I'm here." He tried to assure her.

Caroline's eyes were wide as could be, her lip quivering in heartbreak intermingled with terror.

"Y-Your nose." She stuttered out, rain drops mixing with the tears that were starting to fall down her face. "It's bleeding."

Klaus made a face, reaching a hand up to touch under his nose. He held it out to see and sure enough, red was dripping from his hand.

"Impossible." He breathed out, his anxiety shooting through the roof. "No, no, it can't be!" He shouted, scrambling to his feet and taking a hazardous step back, wiping at his nose furiously. Caroline stood up as well, still shell shocked that Klaus was even in front of her, but more dazed that he could be... Infected.

Despite the jumble of emotions going through her mind at that point, Caroline did what she did best and stepped forward to comfort Klaus, grabbing his hand and forcing him to look at her, bringing her other hand up to his cheek.

"Hey, hey, relax." She said with a fake smile he saw right through. "It's going to be fine, you're going to be fine I promise. We're going to –"

"Caroline love, what's with all the commotion out here? Are your –"

Caroline and Klaus both turned their heads to see Enzo stepping out from the building that housed Wes' lab. Enzo's eyes widened as he looked from Caroline touching Klaus' face where his nose was bleeding, and then over to where the rest of the town was obliviously watching the reunion between her other friends. It took all of five seconds for him to deduce what was going on.

"Oh my." He said slowly. "You certainly are in a pickle. Come on then, the antidote is this way. And I would suggest you hurry, we are in a bit of a timeframe here."

Enzo then turned on his heel and strode back into the building calm as could be.

"Of course." Caroline breathed out, her back to Klaus but still holding his hand. "The antidote. The antidote! Hurry, come with me!"

Klaus was caught between telling her that of course he would follow her anywhere after being separated for eight months, and asking her why the hell that man had called her love and if it would be acceptable for him to tear out the stranger's throat with his bare hands. And what frustrated Klaus even further was that he couldn't stop his mind from having those two separate trains of thought no matter how much he tried.

Caroline squeezed Klaus' hand and started pulling him towards the building, glancing left and right worriedly, making sure nobody saw them. Or more importantly, saw Klaus' bleeding nose. She was already freaking out, she didn't need people to get in a panic and making a patrol shoot him in the head thinking that he was an Infected that somehow made it behind the walls and was about to murder everyone.

She opened the door hurriedly, pulling Klaus down the narrow set of stairs as quickly as she could, reminding herself that now was not the time to cry about Klaus and the rest of her friends being here, that she could do that as soon as Wes administered the antidote.

"Wes!" She shouted as she reached the bottom of the steps, "Wes, he needs the antidote, right now." She gasped out, coming to a stop in the lab.

Klaus looked around with a dazed expression at the room he was in now, water mixed with blood still dripping from his nose. There were three men in the room and he pulled Caroline closer to him. Being separated from her for so long had done nothing but intensify his instinctive and slightly obsessive need to keep her away from men who could hurt her.

"I'm working on it." Klaus heard one of the men say, his back to them as he filled up a syringe with an amber colored liquid. "Now this antidote is mixed with a sedative so he'll be out cold as soon as it's administered." The man continued as he turned to face them, syringe in hand.

Klaus began to question why the bloody hell he needed a sedative and for somebody to explain what was going on before he began bashing their heads into the wall, but he froze when he saw who the doctor with the needle was.

"You." He said venomously, immediately recognizing the man who had created the Infection, having seen his face on tons of news stations and talk shows before The Outbreak.

"Klaus no!" Caroline shouted as he dropped her hand and was in front of Wes in just a single stride, connecting his fist to Wes' already bruised face much harder than Caroline had punched him the day before.

Klaus didn't stop there though. As Wes fell to the ground he jumped on top of the doctor and continued pummeling him. Enzo yelled at him to stop, running over and trying to pull Klaus off of the man who was trying to help him. Klaus didn't even notice though, he had complete and total tunnel vision. The only thought running through his mind at that moment was 'kill the bastard that started The Outbreak.'

"Klaus stop, he's trying to help you!" Caroline screamed, but to no avail, and as she stepped towards the fight Klaus knocked Enzo backwards right into her. She started to fall and Tyler ran behind her and grabbed her around the waist, helping her back up before she could hit the hard floor.

"Caroline are you okay?" Tyler asked worriedly, his hands not leaving her waist as he made sure she wasn't hurt.

At the sound of the boy saying Caroline's name, Klaus' head cleared for a few brief seconds, giving him a momentary window of sanity. He looked over his shoulder, bloody fist still raised to punch Wes. Upon seeing someone he didn't recognize with his hands around Caroline's waist, resting them on her hips as he stood with his chest pressed to her back, her clothes soaked through and not leaving much to the imagination, everything turned red yet again.

"Get away from her!" Klaus roared, standing up from the ground to walk over there and turn his rage on the stranger touching his Caroline.

Caroline was just in the middle of reaching for Klaus to try and calm him down when Enzo reached down and grabbed the syringe from Wes' hand and plunged it into Klaus' neck all within seconds.

Klaus stilled, a strangled sound coming from his throat. His eyes met Caroline's as he fell to his knees, trying to fight the sedative but to no avail.

Caroline would never forget that moment for the rest of her life. She watched the man she had given her heart to a long time ago fall to the ground, trails of blood falling from his nose and down his mouth and chin, his dirty white shirt clinging to his chest from the rain, pupils blown wide as he stared at her with eyes full of pain, confusion, terror. But most of all anger.

It had been eight months of pure torture being separated from him, not knowing if she would make it through the night, not knowing if he was alive or dead or a monster. She hadn't seen the man she loved with all her heart in eight whole months, and then the second she got him back he was being ripped away from her again.

And as Klaus' eyes finally slipped shut and he fell face first to the floor, Caroline knew that she would certainly never forget that awful moment.

Her choked sobs overwhelmed her and she fell to the floor, Tyler trying to hold her up as Katherine, Elijah, Rebekah, and Kol all ran down the stairs of the lab. They had seen Caroline dragging Klaus inside the building and had started to hurry when they heard screaming and fighting. Luckily none of the other townspeople had noticed and the others in their group were too busy reunited with their friends and family.

"Nik!" Rebekah screamed, rushing down the stairs. Just as she did though Enzo stepped in front of her and stopped her with his hands held up.

"Woah, woah, easy there gorgeous." He said in a serious tone. "He's down for the count at the moment and I don't know when he'll wake up again so you need to stay back."

"Oh bugger off you twit, that's my brother!" Rebekah sassed back at him, shoving the stranger to the side and running over to her brother. "Nik?" She asked, not even bothering with Caroline who was on the ground in a heap sobbing uncontrollably. Rebekah turned her brother over slowly, Elijah and Kol approaching them from behind.

"No." Elijah breathed out upon seeing the state his brother was in, blood on his face which only meant one thing.

"You let him get Infected?" Kol shouted, rounding on Elijah. Rebekah was still sitting beside Klaus with a shocked expression, not saying a word. "How could you let this happen?" Kol screamed in Elijah's face, grabbing him by the front of his shirt with both of his hands.

"Hey, hey, get off of him!" Katherine yelled, ripping Kol's hands from her husband and standing in front of him.

"What's wrong with him?" Rebekah finally asked in regards to Klaus, turning to look up at everyone. "Why is he unconscious?"

"Because I administered a sedative." Wes choked out, pushing himself up from the ground and holding his broken nose with his hand. The newcomers all turned to look at him, not even having noticed the doctor before then. "And before any of you recognizes me and decides to try and kill me, I'm the only person that can save your brother so just…don't."

"You created the cure." Rebekah breathed out in shock as she realized. "The cancer cure that turned into the Infection."

"Yes." Wes said simply, shoving his nose back into place with a pained grunt, leaning against one of the tables and breathing heavily. "And I've created an antidote that stops the spreading of the Infection. I just gave it to who I assume is your brother right after he tried to kill me."

"You can save him?" Elijah asked hopefully, stepping towards the doctor from behind his wife.

"Well technically – "

"No." Caroline interrupted him in a weak voice, staring at Klaus' unconscious form from her place on the ground. Tyler was kneeled next to her looking on worriedly. "He can't save him, only stop him from getting worse. His Infection will stay where it's at now." She sniffed, trying to hold back more tears.

"We have two more people in similar conditions." Tyler added on, looking up at the people he didn't know around him. "We'll put him in a cell where he can't hurt anyone until Wes figures out a cure."

"But until then," Enzo said dramatically, looking down at Klaus with an eyebrow raised, "I can tell you for certain that your brother isn't exactly going to be the nicest bloke around."

Everyone looked at each other and then down at Klaus, nobody knowing what to say. Caroline was finally reunited with her love, Kol, Elijah, and Klaus were finally back together as siblings, only for the reveal that Klaus was Infected to make their circumstances bleak once again. And Kol hadn't even gotten to speak to Klaus before this happened.

"Well." Enzo said loudly, clapping his hands together and breaking the horribly stifling tension. When everyone turned to look at him he gave them all a crooked and impish smile. "Welcome to Whitmore."

######

A/N: Soooo I've got the next four or five chapters all planned out and can I just say that I'm SUPER EXCITED ABOUT WHERE THIS STORY IS GOING IT'S GOING TO BE SO PAINFUL I LOVE IT.

Make sure to review and let me know what you think! xoxo