/|\ Tourist /|\
/|\
She is leaping off the back of the motorcycle before it has even slowed down. Her leg muscles push back, propelling her forward, and she lands in her own front yard crouching slightly, one hand pushing against the springy and dew-covered grass. Absently, she hears the sound of the motorcycle stutter and turn off, plunging the Mystic Falls neighborhood street into silence. It was night time, and she's sure everyone around is asleep.
She's already sprinting towards the front door using her unnatural speed.
"Caroline..." Klaus calls out to her, throwing one leg off of the seat and striding towards her.
The woman in question ignores him, almost slamming into the door. She's in a daze, clawing at the door frantically.
The bright neon yellow "CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS" mocks her in all capital letters, shouting at her mentally, and her fingers shred it quickly. With her haste, she almost tears the door knob off. Her hands are shaking, and her frustration grows as the door doesn't open for her.
Then a gentle hand rests against hers – warm against her cold but sweat slicked hand. She smells his heady and intoxicating scent, and she breathes it in, trying to draw in comfort. It works marginally, and she sighs. But the impatience is still growing, and so is her anxiety and fear. Klaus helps her turn the brass door knob, and the door clicks, swinging open slowly.
The room is dark, but her senses immediately flood with two unmistakable scents, almost like auras. Blood, and vampire. She nearly whimpers, her eyes searching the dark, and her hands grope the familiar wall to flick on the light switch.
The foyer is bathed in light, revealing a horrible chaos she can't comprehend.
Blood smears litter the walls, hand prints every couple of feet seeping into the yellow paint. The rug, also soaked in blood, is turned up and rumpled, as if someone was running so fast they pushed it aside. Several pictures lie on the ground, the glass shattered and scattered like a small mine field. The trail of havoc lead upstairs.
The noise that rips from her throat is caught in between a scream and a cry. Caroline caves in on herself in the doorway, half falling to the ground in shock as she whimpers. Her hands brace themselves on the hardwood floor, which was stained with a deep red.
She's barely aware of the person crouching next to her fallen and trembling form, rubbing their hands across her back and pulling her curly hair from her face, stroking her cheek, murmuring quietly at her. She thinks she hears her name fall from his lips, but all she can even take in was a high keening noise.
It takes her several moments (that feel more like a lifetime) for her to realize that the noise is coming from her.
Klaus is still holding her when she stops crying out, her voice growing hoarse. He watches her warily as her head begins to shake.
"No... no no no... no..." Is her quiet mantra, and she suddenly sits up, gripping the threshold of the door as if to ground her in this reality.
And then she releases a blood-curdling scream.
"Mommy!"
This startles even Klaus; when she had been hurt in Moscow, bleeding and half-dead in the alley, she had never made any kind of... sound remotely like this. This screech was almost animal – wild, desperate, and angry all wrapped into one haunting shriek. He knows that this sound will haunt him for the rest of his years.
Caroline is a blur as she flashes up the stairs, calling out "Mom!", "Mommy, please!" and "Mom, answer me, please!" desperately, and he hastens to catch up with her. He almost falls over her, where she is crouching at the top of the stairs, her fingers digging into the plush carpet.
There is the stereotypical chalk outline of a body nearby a closed bedroom. A large pool of blood stains the white carpet. They both know that with this amount of blood spilled, the victim is definitely dead. She's frozen, her eyes wide, and her hand reaches out, trembling, to gently brush against the stain. It's all that's left of her own mother.
But Klaus grabs that hand, pulling it towards him and squeezing it. His other hand touches her cheek to turn her towards him, and her eyes stare blankly at his face, the tears streaming down her face and land on his hand.
"Caroline," He whispers to her at last.
She pushes her hand into his cheek, her eyes closing. He knows this place is toxic for her, poisoning her body and mind, so he pulls her into his arms, carrying her down the stairs.
They're out the door in a heartbeat and sitting on the motorcycle the next, Caroline cradled in his lap. The roar that emits from the engine is loud, but hears her mumbled promise so out of character that almost sends a chill through his veins.
"Whoever did this," Her face is pressed into his jacket, but is clear, "I'm going to kill them."
He believes her, without a doubt.
/|\
It saddens him to say that he doesn't know where else to take her – the only last living relative of hers is dead – so he shows up at the Salvatore Boarding house around midnight. He's still holding her in one hand, and knocking on the door with the other.
"Jesus Christ!" He hears Damon spit from somewhere upstairs, and he is almost surprised when he hears a womanly sigh, as if they were saddened by the interruption – Elena, perhaps? – and the ruffle of clothes being hastily thrown on. Damon begins stomping down the stairs, grunting, "Why the hell does Barbie and her pet monster think they can just knock on my door when I'm trying to – "
Klaus never finds out what Damon was trying to do (he smirks inwardly, though, because he has a fairly good idea what he was doing before he knocked) because Damon himself rips the door open, about to scathingly insult whoever was interrupting him, and he pauses and looks at the girl in his arm, and then at Klaus.
"So, you did come," Damon states after a moment or two, and gestures for them to come in. "Early, if I do say so myself."
"Well, you called," Klaus nods, and flashes over to the couch, placing Caroline on the cushions and pushing her princess barrel curls away from her face. She breathed deeply, eyes closed, but the low light reflects off of her teardrops.
"She's had quite the shock." He says, still stroking her hair, half to himself and half to the eldest Salvatore brother.
"As I would expect," Damon replies. There is the clinking of glasses, and he sees a glass of bourbon offered to him. He grabs it, and then downs it in one gulp. After years of drinking, it barely stings anymore.
Klaus hands him back the glass, and Damon accepts it wordlessly.
"You never did tell me what exactly happened," Klaus tells him quietly, sitting down on the couch next to the sleeping form of Caroline.
Damon shrugs, squeezing a blood bag into a fancy glass. "Thought it would be better to tell you in person."
"She forced me to go to her house first," He sighs. Damon looks up, surprised. "It was a total bloodbath. The front hall destroyed, blood dripping up the stairs... I've seen what Stefan was able to do when he was a ripper, but this... what the hell happened, Damon?"
Damon almost winces at the mention of his baby brother, but then sighs and sits across from Klaus in a plush chair. He swirls the blood around in his glass, stalling for time, before he finally asks, "Last time you were in town, Liz told you of the rogue vampire attacks, right?"
"This town is constantly plagued with rogue vampires," Klaus drawls, giving him a dry look. "It's almost comical."
He looks as if he is about to protest, but shrugs again. "Point taken. Anyway, apparently, this one was unaware that you knew the doppelganger was here. He had a whole plan and everything, but didn't know how to contact you."
Klaus feels anger boiling in his chest. "So he killed a few locals and just bides his time,"
Damon lifts his glass in a sort of mock salute and acknowledgment. "Liz found out too much about him. We had this whole plan to take him out, but..." He trails off knowingly.
"He killed her before you could strike," Klaus adds darkly, finishing the others statement.
"And then poof! No more sheriff."
Klaus growls, and Damon half winces. "Sorry. I guess it's just too soon to joke, then."
"Obviously," He pauses as Caroline rolls over in her sleep next to him, her back facing the rest of the living room. He watches her for several moments, before turning back to Damon and continuing. "What was this vampire's name?"
"Jackson DuBois. Turned roughly 1890's in France. He was some fancy schmancy aristocrat. The dick left town before we could even stake him," Damon recites, and looks disgruntled.
Klaus leans forward. "Why were you so intent to destroy this Jackson?"
"I'd be damned if I let anything happen to Elena," He answers bluntly, his eyes hardening.
Klaus doesn't respond, knowing he feels the same way about Caroline.
After a moment of companionable silence, he finally asks, "Surely, you must have an idea where this Jackson has gone?"
Damon nods, standing up and crossing the room and picking up a stack of papers stuffed into a folder. "I got his address in Seattle, Washington. Idiot left a trail of massacres across the entire country." He chuckles. "He should be squatting in some abandoned apartments in the warehouse district."
The only sound for a while is the crackling of the fire. Damon rolls his shoulders, and stands up. "Well, I got a lady waiting upstairs. As you can imagine, she's just a tad impatient." His eyebrows lift several times, smugly. "Take the guest room, if you wish."
And then he's gone, only a blur as he rushes back upstairs. Klaus lets out a drawn out sighs, and leans back against the sofa, glancing at Caroline again, before he closes his eyes.
Caroline stares at the red fabric of the couch silently, in shock. Her mind whirs as she processes information. And then it clicks.
She had heard everything. And she knows what she has to do.
/|\
They stay in the boarding house for almost a week. She sighs because everyone is too wrapped up in their own supernatural drama to bake any sympathy casseroles or lasagnas like she did when their loved ones died. There are many times when either Damon, Elena, Stefan, or Klaus come into the boarding house's kitchen to find baskets of muffins, brownies, cookies, and tons of pans of casseroles on every available surface.
"I made all of these," Caroline would growl at them, her curls tossed everywhere and apron stained with flour. Occasionally she would have smears of tomato sauce on her cheek. "And all of you are going to eat them and like it."
They ate them all with enthusiastically.
She also that time to bond with Elena and Bonnie. The latter of the two decided to have an attitude towards her, however.
"I don't understand how you can be with that monster, Caroline."
Caroline frowns at the logic and topic, seeing as they had gone over it a hundred times before, and begins to protest. "Elena forgave Damon, and they're in love! I mean, every time I visit the boarding house, those two are either having sex or so into their foreplay they barely notice I'm there."
Bonnie stands her ground. "You know Damon hasn't done what Klaus has, Care..."
"Don't talk to me about what he has done when you're sneaking around with his brother Kol," Caroline snarks back, suddenly growing vicious.
Bonnie turns red, but doesn't pursue the subject matter much longer.
At the end of the week, Caroline returned to her house, taking in its overgrown lawn, and her mom's police cruiser, which was still sitting in the driveway. Sighing, she climbs into her own car, and starts it.
She's on a deserted road when a figure appears in front of her. She gasps, and using her speed, slams her foot on the brakes. The car careens to a stop, tires squealing against the pavement, and she growls at who is in front of her.
"Dammit, Klaus!"
The man in question hops into the passenger seat with a grin, scooping up the folders that were previously occupying his seat.
"Stealing some information, love?"
Caroline pouts and slumps back into her seat.
Klaus continues, his tone slightly condescending. "You can't do this alone, love."
She outwardly bristles, turning towards him. "Yes I can!" she almost shouts indignantly.
He stares at her, his gaze level, and he's looking at her so intensely if she were alive she would be blushing a beet red. Finally, after several minutes, he lets out sigh.
"I'm coming with you."
"Don't be ridiculous," Caroline grumbles. "This doesn't involve you."
"Anything involving you automatically involves me," He shoots back, an eyebrow raising. "Always. No matter what."
She knows for a fact she's ready to kill him, but instead she grips the steering wheel, her knuckles turning white with the strain. Her jaw clenches, and she finally turns and growls at him, just the barest hint that veins are popping under her eyes.
"You don't interfere, got it?"
He wants to smile, because she's so different than her usual self and the demands are slightly out of character, but the entire situation doesn't call for it. "Only if you're hurt." He promises her, and she begins to look doubtful.
"I promise," He assures her.
She nods, her fingers pulling the gear shift out of parked, and slams her foot on the gas. The tires screech, and they are off, their surroundings a blur of green and brown, the road rolling under them.
/|\
They eventually do reach Seattle. It's cloudy and rainy, of course, and Klaus wants her to sight see first, but she snaps at him several times.
"After I'm finished," She would hiss after his several attempts. He would only blink in response, and then pull her closer, his chin resting on the top of her golden curls. She would stiffen, her arms almost shaking, and then relax at his familiar touch. Her breath lets loose, billowing into his shirt and warming his skin.
At night, her car screeches to a halt in the warehouse district, rain pouring down and soaking into her as she leaps out of the dark. Klaus follows her, slamming the silver car's door. They stare at each other wordlessly, and her head jerks to the even darker shadows. Klaus blinks; he understands what her silent command is: stay to the shadows.
"Keep your promise," Caroline whispers to him, the words floating in between them, hanging in the night air. "I'll... snap if I need you." He nods once in response, and he disappears in a blink. But she knows he is there, always, and that thought is comforting.
The rain is pouring harder, soaking her hair and rolling down in droplets on her jacket. She begins walking, passing homeless people hunching over fires. Eventually, people become scarce, and she feels the hair on the back of her arms and neck rise. Now or never, she thinks grimly.
The only light around is from two stories up, in an abandoned factory corner – almost all windows. She sighs, rolling her foot, before she kicks the door open. It slams off its hinges, the loud noise resounding around the seemingly empty room.
"Jackson DuBois," She calls out, her voice hard and mocking. She slowly prowls towards the center of the room, her head tilting to the right, hair spilling across her shoulder. She repeats the vampire's name again, almost in a sing-song tone of voice. The room echoes. She hears footsteps, and then a voice chiming in from behind her.
"What does a pretty thing like you need from me?"
Caroline wants to whip around at the sudden intruder, but she wills herself to be calm. She turns around, pivoting on her heel, and she smiles falsely – almost too sweet – at the stranger in front of her.
"I take it you are Jackson DuBois?" She keep she expression friendly, but closed off.
He extends his arms, full of bravado as he smirks. On Klaus, the smirk looks open and real and genuine. On this vampire, it looks deadly. "That is moi. And who are you, sweetheart?"
Caroline internally flinches at the nickname that sounds so wrong coming from his lips. "A friend of Klaus'."
Jackson eyes widen, and he runs towards her with vampire speed, stopping several inches away from her. He's relatively handsome, with brown eyes and black rumpled hair. He looks shocked, but then the fake bravado and confidence is back.
"Ah," He grins. "So we finally get in touch. I have some news I think will be... beneficial for him."
She feigns interest. "We have to touch base on a few things before you can... grace him with your presence."
DuBois shrugs, his mouth splitting into another grin that reminisces a shark. "Sorry, mon chéri, but what I got is only for Klaus' ears."
Caroline forces herself to look disappointed, and she thinks she is just a bit too theatrical. "Well, no information, no meeting Klaus." Her eyebrows furrow, and she smirks at him, "See how this whole thing works? Reciprocity, and what not."
It's a taunt, they both know it, and she thinks she may have gone to far and the silence stretches on. The only sound is the pounding rain, but thankfully Jackson's shoulders drop slightly. "It's concerning the doppelganger." He admits finally, his slight French accent tripping on the pronunciation of the last word.
She's all ready to kill him, but the charade isn't up yet. "Klaus doesn't like false leads, DuBois, you should know this."
He holds up his hands. "Hey, I saw her myself. Even made sure she wasn't that little runaway bitch from Bulgaria."
Caroline likes how he sums up Katherine's entire character in five words so accurately. Her blue eyes appraise him, and she can practically feel his nervousness pulsing through her. She wants to kill him now, but if she did, he would never know why.
Oh, and she wants him to know. She wants to see the recognition light up his eyes, see his expression crawl with fear and she wants to see the light finally disappear from him completely. Her hand slides behind her back, and she snaps her fingers quietly. It's quiet for several seconds, and her smirk that is aimed at the filth standing in front of her deepens, the silence lengthening in time, and then -
"You called, love?"
Jackson DuBois jumps about a foot in the air, cursing under his breath, and he genuinely looks fearful and surprised. "Is this – Klaus? I – I have news for you."
"Please, do go on," Klaus drawls from behind her, stepping forward so he's just barely next to her. His normally curly and coarse hair clings to the back of his neck from the rain. "I'm extremely interested to hear."
DuBois has the common sense to look nervous. "I have found the doppelganger."
"Really," He perks slightly. "And tell me, where did you find her?"
"Small town in Virginia. Mystic Falls, I think the name was."
There's a tense silence, and DuBois' eyes flick from Klaus' form to hers. The former was relaxed, while the latter was pacing like a graceful lioness, waiting for her right moment to strike.
"Tell me, are there any other supernatural beings in the town?" He questions, a pleasant smile forming on his face.
DuBois blinks, looking dazed. "Er, yes. Just two. The Salvatore brothers. One seems to be involved romantically with the doppelganger."
"And you did not attempt to kill the brothers?" Klaus seems to have perfected the art of seeming interested and polite.
"No," The vampire shakes his head. "Regretfully, they are older than me. Engaging them in combat would've resulted with my death, and the location of the doppelganger would have been lost. Perhaps even forever."
Klaus pauses, and says his next words with a level voice. "Did you kill any humans in the town?"
At that, Jackson DuBois grins. "Just a couple here and there. A vampires gotta eat, y'know?" He laughs, and it is the first real response she has heard from him. Caroline's fists clench with barely suppressed rage.
"I killed the sheriff, too. She knew to much. She wouldn't tell me what she knew, so I drained her and maybe messed around with her a little. I think her screams woke the entire tiny town. I barely got out of there before more of her police squad showed up."
"How unfortunate for you," Caroline spits finally, nails digging into her palm, venom dripping from her voice. "They separated you and your plaything."
Jackson's eyebrow lifts as he glances from her to Klaus. "She's a feisty little thing, no?" He steps towards her suddenly, his hand outreached to stroke her face. Klaus freezes, his own eyes narrowing. "I wonder what else she can do, hmm?"
Caroline snarls. "She can also bite."
He chuckles, but puts his hand down. "Ah, I get the hint. Anyway," He turns to Klaus. "How much do I get for locating the doppelganger?"
Klaus smiles amiably, but his blue eyes are like ice. "Considering I've acquired the doppelganger's position already..." He trails off, and she can hear Jackson's sudden intake of breath. "Nothing."
Jackson's jaw drops. "But I – then... then why are you here?"
This time Caroline steps forward. "You killed my mother. You remember the sheriff you 'messed around' with, right?"
And then she sees the recognition flash in his eyes. But instead of fear, Jackson leers at her. "I could always do the same thing to you, mon chéri," She sees red as he continues boldly, "All you have to do is ask."
And then she lunges with her vampiric speed, hands like claws, but Jackson is ready for her. She's on top of him in a second, veins and teeth exposed to the world, and her fingernails dig into his chest, teeth snapping.
He hisses back, kicking her into a cold stone wall. It cracks under the pressure, and she is slightly dazed but on her feet within seconds. Klaus is in the shadows, his blue eyes glowing, but filled with pain. She turns back to her victim, and she crouches, read to pounce. Jackson mimics her stance, and taunts her.
"She screamed for help, you know," He laughs. They circle each other slowly. "Kept calling for someone named Caroline. I'm guessing you are that Caroline. Nice to meet you sweetheart." His head cocks to the left. "First, I bit her, then chased her around a bit. Oh, she knew about vampires, but she's so slow with her human senses, it was easy to just let each bone crack and snap-"
And then Caroline's hand plunges in between his ribs, squeezing his heart. Jackson gasps, his hands clawing at his chest as she squeezes and squeezes, teeth bared. She lifts him into the air by his heart alone, and he starts screaming otherwordly, legs flailing in pain.
Lightning flashes behind her from the wall of windows, and from the shadows Klaus watches in slight fear and awe.
"Please," Jackson whispers, his voice choked, eyes filled with desperation.
If it's possible, Caroline's hold becomes tighter. She wrenches her hand back, blood spilling out of his chest, and the squashed remains of DuBois' heart is dripping in her hands, flattened and grotesquely shaped. The vampire flops to the floor, turning gray and shriveling in on himself. She's panting, letting the heart slip from her grip and dropping to the cement ground.
Klaus likens her to Boadicea, the Amazon warrior queen, fearsome and brave and strong. She is everything to me, he thinks in the back of his mind, stepping forward towards her tentatively. She begins wiping her bloody hand on her jeans, rounds her shoulders back, standing straight and tall.
Everything, he thinks again.
Caroline is quiet for a moment, before she offers him her hand and smiles. "You said you wanted to sight see, right?"
He takes it and squeezes, smiling back.
/|\
Um, did I just kill Sheriff Forbes? *runs and hides* I think I just did. Sorry this was late, by the way! I was extremely ill and this chapter was sitting around half-finished. This is the longest chapter yet, I think, a bit darker. And yes, you did detect hints of Damon/Elena and Kol/Bonnie, another one of my crack!ships. Hope you guys liked the chapter.
Please leave a review!