For the first time since they arrived in Las Vegas, Caroline awoke to the gentle sounds of Klaus breathing. It was highly comforting for him to be the first thing she saw; she huddled closer into his chest. He subconsciously wrapped an arm around her, moving onto his side to embrace her.

She had forgotten how lovely it was to wake up with him. And after last night's affair, she was desperate to hold on to the good things, if they were to give her any clarity about the situation she found herself in. Her eyes flickered to the drawer in the bedside table, where a tiny, scrunched up post-it note lay. She had placed it there in the hope that she could ignore it, but it seemed unfair to Klaus and to Tyler. She realised that every day, she loved Tyler a little bit less. Maybe everyone was right; maybe she had been harsh, moving on too fast.

Klaus twitched in his sleep, grunting slightly. Caroline placed her hand over her mouth to keep from giggling. He did this every so often, and it reminded her of how puppies ran in their sleep.

"Stop laughing at me." he mumbled almost incoherently. "What time is it?"

"About ten." she placed a kiss on his cheek. "Morning, sleepy."

She made to get up, but he grabbed her, holding her close. "Ten more minutes." he muttered, clutching her to his chest. She sighed to herself. How could she pick either of them over the other? Sure, Tyler was fun and cheeky and he'd always been there for her, and Klaus was impulsive and insatiable and dangerous and protective...

She stopped listing in her mind, realising that she fell in love with Klaus because he wasn't Tyler. He was all the things Tyler wasn't, and that was what was so attractive about him, about spending an eternity with him. She expected to feel a gulp and a pit in her stomach at the thought of an eternity with anyone, but as she looked down at his half-asleep face, she felt nothing but the promise of happiness. She realised that she wanted someone who would allow her to experience life, then help her when she failed, rather than wrap her in bubblewrap and never let her live. Klaus had always trusted her to do her own thing. Tyler had insisted she stayed safe and tucked away. Tyler had helped her at a difficult time in her life, but Klaus was the one who could give her a life worth living.

How could she have been so stupid? It was Klaus. It was always Klaus. It had always been, and would always be Klaus

There was a harsh knocking at the door, making Caroline jump.

"I'll get it." she said, kissing him on the forehead. He mumbled something before rolling on his stomach and grunting loudly. Caroline laughed quietly, opening the door. There was no one there, only a silver trolley with a covered plate. She lifted the silver lid, and found a note on the plate, addressed to her.

Curiously, she unfolded it. When she read the words, she yelped, dropping the silver lid.

He will never be right for you

I will never stop fighting for you

I will never stop loving you

TL

Klaus dashed to her side. Placing an arm around her stomach defensively, he bared his werewolf side with yellow eyes and bared fangs.

Seeing no one there, he turned Caroline's face towards his own, eyes filled with concern. "What happened, love?"

She just gaped at him like a fish. "I, I... I think you need to see something."

"He did what?" Klaus raged upon reading Tyler's notes. Caroline shut her eyes, terrified. She had not seen him like this in so very long. The feeling of his hands clamping on her face forced her to open them. "Why didn't you tell me last night? I could have found him... I could have..."

"Killed him?" she finished his sentence for him. "I know, and I know you would have. I didn't tell you because I knew you would react like this. Klaus, you were so happy last night, I couldn't ruin that for you. I was going to tell you, I just wanted to wait until today."

He looked deep in to her eyes. "Then tell me, tell me honestly, me or him?"

Caroline was aghast. "You, of course! Always you."

He paused, licking his lips. "If I compelled you to tell the truth, would you still say that?"

She grabbed his hands and forced them off her face. "If you really have to ask me that, then it is not my emotions that should be getting called in to question." she said coldly.

He stood back a bit, looking at her. Shame written on his face, he apologised; "I'm sorry, Caroline." he said, staring at the floor. "It's just, you left him to come with me so I wouldn't kill him."

This time, she advanced, understanding, and took his hands in hers. "I left to save him, but I stayed to save you."

"Do you really mean that?"

She smiled. "I told you, I'm too smart to get seduced by you. Of course I mean it."

He looked so relieved as he drew her into his arms. "I was going to suggest we make this our last night in Las Vegas, and tomorrow, we can head home. If you wanted, of course."

"I miss home, Las Vegas is beautiful, but it isn't Mystic Falls."

"One more night on the town?" he smiled. She nodded, wrapping her arms around him tighter, feeling his heart beat.

"One more." She leant up and and kissed him lingeringly.

He walked over to the cooler beside the bed, and pulled out two blood bags. He threw her one, then tore open his own with his teeth.

As they both drank in silence, Caroline realised they were both in their underwear. She laughed to herself at how comfortable they were with each other. When they had both finished, they discarded their bags on the floor.

"So, what shall we do today?" she asked.

"Well, we could watch TV," he said lazily as he brushed one bra strap off her shoulder. "or we could go shopping," He brushed the second off. "or we could even go grab a bite to eat." he said, unclasping it and allowing it to fall to the floor. He brought up a hand to massage her exposed breast, and Caroline felt the familiar electricity run through her body at his touch.

"I thought you were too smart to get seduced by me?" he teased her a little.

"Well," she said breathlessly. "then I don't want to be smart."

They tumbled on to the bed together quickly removed what little remained of their clothing and they were soon grinding up against each other in a series of moans and thrusts.

Night fell so quickly that night, as if the sun had rushed behind the horizon and pushed the moon into the sky.

Caroline savoured her reflection; this was her own dress she had been saving. A stunning gold fabric, it was cut out at the sides, and revealed a startling amount of her leg. As she slipped on her favourite black heels, she felt dangerously exposed. But it was thrilling.

It was worth it to see his face. He resembled a startled cartoon character, as their jaw physically hits the floor.

He didn't say a word as they got into a cab, for his eyes did all the speaking. She was silently very proud of herself for managing to pull this off.

They arrived at a night club called Star, a generic, traditional bar filled with drunk people and cheap drinks; it was ideal.

Caroline wasted no time once inside. She headed out to the dance floor to dance, Klaus following keenly.

"What's got you in such a good mood then?" he whispered in her ear.

"The sun's down, vodka and coke is half price and I get to spend one more night in Vegas with you," she smiled. "What have I to be in a bad mood for?"

He threw back his head laughing, twirling her around. She landed in his arms, still smiling ear-to-ear.

Then she saw her. She was young, maybe early twenties, with soft light brown lengths of hair that fell in waves down the side of her face. She looked bored, by herself. She was ideal.

Caroline beckoned Klaus to follow her over to this mystery girl. Gently touching her arm, Caroline compelled her to follow them.

The three of them found a back exit into an alleyway.

Klaus seemed confused, but when Caroline compelled the girl to not scream, he caught on. She caught the look of shock in his eye when she bit into the girl's neck. So long since she had tasted blood like this, too long. She drank, then broke away, gently licking the blood that trickled out the fresh wound.

Klaus was speechless at the bold display of vampire-ness from her. Invigorated herself, Caroline grabbed Klaus, kissing him hard. She was aware of the taste of blood mixing in their mouths, and she saw a flicker of blood lust in his eyes. She guided him over to the girl, to where he promptly fixed his mouth on the other side of her neck. Caroline resumed on her side.

"What the..." an angry voice disrupted them. Caroline stopped in blind fear, but the use of her name made her realise what had happened. "Caroline, are you hunting?"

She wiped the blood from her mouth and turned to face Tyler. He looked enraged.

"I can't believe you're hunting... with him." he pointed angrily to Klaus.

"Tyler, stop it." she snapped.

"No, you've changed." he snapped back at her. "You're hunting now? Running away with a killer? Does your mum even know where you are?"

Klaus appeared at her side. "I don't believe it's your business how she feeds, who she runs away with or when she calls home, Tyler."

"Yeah? Well thank God for that, because if Liz could see you now, she'd hang herself." he spat. Caroline reeled back, aghast.

"You little..." Klaus snarled, but Tyler was already gone. A glance between Klaus and Caroline spoke enough, and they clasped hands and ran after him together.

They found him on a roof – Caroline didn't care which one – shaking his head at her.

"I didn't give up on you," he said sadly. "I thought that you'd come back to me, I thought you'd come back where you should be, but what... this is who you are now?"

"I'm not really all that different." she laughed. "I'm just out dancing, having a drink."

"You used to get your drinks from bags, not tourists." he said incredulously. "You're no better than him, you're just a blood-sick little slut."

He spat the last word with such venom that Caroline launched herself at him in rage. She caught him by surprise, knocking him flat on his back, before she delivered punch after punch to his face. She hesitated, and he threw her backwards against an air duct. Her head collided with force, sending ringing through her skull.

Her vision was hazy, but she saw him produce something from the inside of his jacket; a stake. She scrambled upright, suddenly desperate to get away from him, terrified. But as her eyes refocused, she saw it was the white oak stake.

Suddenly, she was filled with a different kind of terror. Her eyes darted towards Klaus, who himself looked shocked still. It was uncertain as to whom Tyler was walking towards, who he intended to kill.

"Where did you get that?" Klaus fumed.

"You left your house so poorly guarded while you and Caroline were on your honeymoon, it was so easy to just sneak in and take what I wanted." he said simply. Caroline saw the pure rage contort Klaus's face at this. She gulped.

Tyler was making for Klaus. He couldn't kill him... could he? Even with the stake, he'd never overpower him. But he seemed unrelenting. Caroline slumped in front of Klaus defensively.

Tyler was only a few steps in front of them when he stopped. He looked at her like she was a pathetic child, and with a unnervingly quick movement, grabbed her by the hair and swung her away from Klaus.

The force of which he did this slammed her in to another air duct, but something was wrong. She left out a silent gasp, as she looked down and found an unsealed pipe sticking out from her abdomen.

Klaus let out a roar , but Tyler made the most of this distraction,wrestling him to the floor. The stake was pointed directly at his heart now, and Caroline desperately tried to free her self. It hurt like fire on raw flesh to pull the jagged metal from her body, each indentation and imperfection scraping on the wound like a thousand hot knives. Panting in terror, she allowed herself a glimpse at Klaus; the stake was touching his chest now, he was too preoccupied with Caroline. She cried out for him to fight back, but he was trying to escape from under Tyler to get to Caroline.

"Argh!" Caroline screamed as she finally removed herself from the pipe. Klaus was straining against Tyler now, but Tyler was fuelled with rage and anger and anguish and loss and all of the other hideous rainbow of human emotions that could torment a man.

Caroline staggered towards them, unsure of what she even intended to do. But Klaus let out a heart-crushing wail as the stake pierced his skin. Caroline's skin went cold as he thrashed about, finally kicking Tyler of himself.

But he still had the stake; Tyler threw himself like a madman at Klaus, who was exhausted from the contact with the stake.

Tyler stopped dead. Klaus was braced to feel the force of his hybrid on top of him, and held his breath in confusion as Tyler didn't move forward.

The lifeless body of her first love fell onto the floor in a mangled heap, Caroline stood behind him, his heart clutched in a bloodied hand.

Klaus stared speechlessly at her. She felt the blood she had ingested not long before crawling up her oesophagus, making her gag. She dropped the heart, throwing up blood. She clutched at her stomach, shutting her eyes tightly.

She wasn't sure when, but Klaus's arm was around her shoulder, and it was guiding her away from the scene that she had caused. Together, they slumped on the floor together, leaning against the wall.

After a very long moment, Klaus looked at her. "I'm sorry... you shouldn't have had to do that... I should have been there..."

Caroline shook her head. She didn't want or need to hear an apology, or in fact anything that might have made it seem like she had not done the right thing. She desperately needed to believe what she had done was not worth an apology, just a thanks.

"No, but... for you to do that... for me..." Klaus trailed off. He seemed lost for words.

She turned her head to slowly look at him. "I told you. Always you."

He shuffled closer to her, putting arm around her shoulder. She leant against him, suddenly very tired; she felt fatigue pulling her eyelids down.

"Always you." she mumbled, the slightest of smiles creeping across her face despite herself as she clutched at his shirt tightly, getting as close as she could to him. "Forever."