Hello!
Thank you all for the follows, favs, and reviews! I'm so happy that you guys all liked the first chapter! I was so nervous about posting my first real multichapter for this fandom and you guys were all so great :)
I'm apologizing in advance for the first half of this chapter. Ya'll may hate me, but its a necessary plot point that had to happen. However, in this chapter we have a little flashback to Klaroline's first meeting and we get a little insight on why Klaus acts the ways he does. AND SURPRISE GUEST STAR: ENZOOOOO!
Cover by Erika and beta'd by Gail :) *smooches*
Hope ya'll enjoy!
Caroline sighed as she rode the elevator up to her 10th floor apartment. After Klaus' blatant interference with the Gerard interview, she called Katherine to meet her for happy hour. A good buzz and two hours later, her desire to murder Klaus Mikaelson with her bare hands had subsided a little.
Now she'd rather just cut his balls off with a rusty meat cleaver.
Tyler had called her about a half hour ago to tell her that he would meet her for dinner at her apartment and that he had something he wanted to "discuss with her." Which with him, there was probably another lawyer-esque event they would have to attend. As much as she loved Tyler, she could really do without all the political/law firm events that they had to constantly attend. She did enough of that at work with the press conferences she always had to attend.
Caroline searched for her keys as she walked up to her apartment door. She lived alone, as Tyler had a penthouse apartment across town near his firm. They both agreed that it was just easier if they kept their own apartments near their respective workplaces. Plus, Caroline really enjoyed the fact that she had her own space and independence.
Turning the lock door, Caroline pushed it open to reveal a candlelit path to her living room.
Furrowing her brow in confusion, she hung her coat and kicked off her shoes in the tiny entry hall.
"Tyler?" she called, groping along the wall for the light switch. Was the power off or something?
"Care! Don't turn on the-"
She found the switch and flipped it up.
"Lights," Tyler finished lamely from the living room. Caroline frowned in confusion as she made her way into her living room.
Tyler was sitting on the edge of the couch, his shoulders tight with tension and his handsome face screwed with apprehension. Ignoring his obvious distress, she pressed a soft kiss to his cheek and flopped down on the couch next to him. He'd been under a lot of stress lately so she found that it was best to let him just stew in peace for a while so he wouldn't snap at her when she tried to comfort him.
"Why were the lights out? And why did you light candles?" she asked, letting out a sigh as she snuggled into the comfortable couch. "Did my building have another outage?"
"I had something I wanted to talk to you about?" Tyler said, his voice nearly cracking at the end. She raised her eyebrows suspiciously, but brushed it off.
"Well, don't ask me about my day," Caroline groaned. "All you'll hear is me whining about Klaus Mikaelson."
Tyler looked at her in interest. His firm represented most of Mikaelson Corp's clients, and the company itself in most legal cases. He'd met Klaus a few times, and it was simple to say that there was no love lost between the two.
"Care-"
"Lord knows tomorrow will be just as miserable. Jenna will yell at me again, Klaus will have the top story in Chicago, again. I'll be writing about toilet paper, again."
"Caro-"
"I mean, what gives him the right to be such an ass? I think the journalism world would be much better off if he was stuck behind a desk at Mikaelson Corp and making eyes at his brothers' assistants," Caroline ranted, her face flushing in annoyance.
Tyler rolled his eyes, accustomed to the mini Klaus rants she went on every few weeks or so.
"Chicago and America, as a whole, would be a brighter place if he moved to Timbuktu, or somewhere where he could get lost in the woods. Or even the desert in Nevada, maybe the lack of water would dry up the arrogance in his brain."
"CAROLINE!" Tyler nearly shouted. She snapped out of her rant and sent Tyler a frustrated look.
"What? I've had a really bad day and I really don't have the patience to sit and talk about some new boring lawyer event we have to attend," Caroline groaned, crossing her arms in annoyance.
"Would you count me proposing to you as boring?" Tyler asked, pulling out a black velvet ring box.
Caroline's jaw dropped and all the air flew out of her. Stunned, she watched as Tyler smiled slightly, taking her hand to pull her up off the couch. Her heart pounded erratically as he sunk down onto one knee, the visual bringing tears to her eyes.
It was everything she had ever wanted.
But, something didn't feel just right.
A tiny part of her was screaming at her to run away, but she pushed it down. She had thought of this moment a million times over the past five years, never thinking that it would happen and she'd be damned if a little panic ruined it.
"Caroline Forbes, I love you," Tyler began, her heart clenching at his words. "I've never been so happy before as when I'm with you. I never thought I'd feel this way about someone, but you caught me. Will you do me the honor of spending the rest of your life with me and be my wife?"
Caroline let out a shaky breath, surprised that she was so nervous about answering the one question she'd dreamt about for years. She opened her mouth but found that the words wouldn't come out. Tyler looked up to her expectantly and she continued to stare back at him, stunned.
Tyler's smile began to falter at her lack of answer. "Care? Are you okay? An answer would be great...any time now."
Caroline shook her head, " I-I don't think I've ever been this speechless before."
Or this nervous to answer what used to be a simple no-brainer.
Tyler chuckled nervously. "My knee's starting to fall asleep, babe."
The slight grimace on his face mixed in with the nervous smile caused a funny image that reminded Caroline of the Tyler she fell in love with all those years ago. Handsome, boyish, and sweet all wrapped up in a fabulous package.
Caroline threw her head back and laughed, the joke releasing all the emotion out of the moment. Her shoulders relaxing, she looked down to see Tyler's expectant smile on his face.
"Of course I'll marry you," she replied, a thousand watt smile breaking across her face. "I love you."
Tyler let out a youthful whoop of joy as he clambered to his feet. Sliding the cool metal of the platinum diamond ring on her finger, Tyler bent Caroline backwards and kissed her deeply as she giggled.
"Thank you," she whispered happily into the crook of his neck. He squeezed her gently in response. She pulled back and bit her lip shyly as she looked into his eyes. There was a guarded glint in his eyes, but she chalked that up to stress from the proposal.
"I ruined your proposal!" Caroline lamented, smacking her forehead with the palm of her hand. Tyler laughed before pulling her closer.
"It's okay," he said. "We've never been normal."
Caroline smiled at that, but crinkled her forehead. On the contrary, their relationship had been the most normal, stable thing in her life.
"Come on," he tugged her towards the kitchen. "I ordered Chinese to celebrate, your favorite."
Caroline smiled weakly as she let herself be pulled into the kitchen. Italian was actually her favorite, but he had the rest of her life to figure that out.
Finally, she was going to be Mrs. Tyler Lockwood after five long patient years of waiting.
But...
Why does it not feel as good as she thought it would?
Why did it feel so… empty?
"Klaus Mikaelson."
Klaus looked up from his bourbon that he was nursing to see the smirking face of his friend, Enzo Augustine. Klaus' younger sister, Rebekah, had an on and off relationship with Enzo that had spanned the past couple of years. To her chagrin, he and Klaus had really hit it off and formed quite the odd friendship.
"Enzo," Klaus raised his glass towards him, smiling briefly as the dark-haired man sat down next to him.
He was out at his favorite bar, a few blocks away from the Chicago Star's news office. He and Marcel had enjoyed a few drinks earlier whilst Klaus interviewed him, and it hadn't taken him long to type up a good article to send to the Tribune.
While he was a star reporter at the Chicago Star, his real talent was in freelancing. The Star didn't mind as long as he managed to get them great articles that would bring in more readers. The newspaper was starting to go under anyways, so Klaus was already starting to look for more ways to make some extra cash.
"To what are we celebrating?" Enzo asked, signaling the bartender. Klaus took a gulp of his drink as he shrugged.
"Oh, you know, mate. New article published yesterday, new article will be published tomorrow, ruffling the proverbial feathers of one Caroline Forbes," he smirked into his glass.
Caroline Forbes was one intriguing woman. A brilliant reporter who was left to do scut work for Jenna Sommers at the Chicago Herald. As much as he enjoyed riling her up at every press conference they attended, Klaus knew how talented Caroline had the potential to be. To say he was intrigued by her when they first met would be an understatement.
Klaus was in a particularly foul mood. His brother, Kol, had recently returned from business school after getting kicked out for the third time, which in reaction caused their father, Mikael, to blow a proverbial gasket, the blame falling solely on Klaus. It was obviously Klaus' fault for throwing a birthday party for their brother, Elijah, in turn causing Kol to get arrested for streaking through downtown Chicago.
Yet again.
He was covering a press conference on the new Mayor of Chicago, his first for the Chicago Star. Klaus didn't particularly care for journalism, most of his interests falling in art. However, Mikael Mikaelson would never let anyone tied to his name work in a minimum wage job at the museum, while moonlighting as a street artist. The press would have a field day.
Klaus was looking through his notes whilst doodling little pictures on the margins, sipping his hot tea from Starbucks as he waited for the event to begin. A small shadow fell over his seat and he looked up, his annoyed comment caught in his throat.
A beautiful, blonde woman was looming over him. Her blue eyes sparkling brightly, curls perfectly coiffed on her shoulder, and her legs were a mile long. She was quite possibly the most beautiful person he'd ever met.
"Hi!" she began, her voice tinkling. "I'm Caroline Forbes from the Chicago Herald."
Klaus blinked at her, unable to find the words to say hello back. She looked at him amusedly, cocking her head to the side.
Ah yes, he knew about her. She worked for Jenna Sommers, the most annoying and self-indulgent editor in Chicago. Jenna spent more time sleeping her way to the top than she did in her college classes. He'd researched Caroline before when he was applying for jobs, intrigued by the opinion pieces she had written for the Herald.
She was a brilliant writer, a real talent. Her best articles from college were in hard-hitting journalism and political stories, not writing about stuffed animals and peaceful protests. However, she was shoehorned into the opinion section by Jenna. A feat that Klaus noted when he decided to not apply for a position at the Herald.
She deserved better than what she was doing at the Herald.
"Cat got your tongue?" she teased, smirking at him. "You would think a journalist would have more to say than just staring like a fish out of water."
She giggled at him, the sound reverberating through his chest. She was captivating.
And he looked like an idiot.
Klaus stood up, folding his arms across his chest as he turned to the one thing he could always fall back on.
His ego.
"No, just wondering if the Herald knew their secretary was missing," he smirked, enjoying the way her eyes seemed to flash in anger.
"Excuse me?" she shrieked, crossing her arms to match his pose. "I'm the opinion editor of the Chicago Herald, thank you very much."
"Yes," he continued dryly, "I've heard your piece on the new protest about Build a Bear in the zoo was a real zinger."
Her gazed hardened, and his grin grew.
"Dinner later?" he drawled. "I'd love to get to know you. In many ways."
She gaped at him, her face flushed with anger. He raised his eyebrows, inwardly kicking himself for already pissing her off. Ah, oh well. She'd give in to him eventually.
"You have a lot of nerve," she snapped.
"We're inevitable, love," he shrugged and that just seemed to piss her off even more.
Good.
He knew she was a better writer than him, and she obviously took a lot of pride into her work. Maybe if he pushed her enough, she'd realize what a great writer she actually was and would leave Jenna's clutches and join him in freelancing.
What he lacked in passion about writing, she made up for it.
"How dare you make assumptions about me," she placed her hands on her hips. "You don't even know me."
Wrong.
He knew too much about her. Damn investigative tendencies.
"On the contrary, love. I know plenty," he grinnedarrogantly. "Now run along so I can prepare for the conference. That's if you aren't planning on joining me for dinner later."
Caroline's face flushed a deeper red and she reached over and smacked his hot tea cup, spilling it down the front of his pants.
"Shit," he hissed, flicking the cup off his pants. He looked up, his eyes glowering at her.
She smiled derisively back at him. "Oops."
With that, she stalked off, missing the small tug of his lips that crawled across his face.
She was enchanting.
"Caroline Forbes, eh? That gorgeous blonde reporter?" Enzo mused. "I'm surprised you haven't shagged that yet."
Klaus shot him a dirty look and downed the rest of his drink.
"She's not exactly someone you just 'shag'," Klaus remarked, motioning to the bartender for another bourbon. "Plus, that's a can of worms that should never be opened."
Enzo chuckled in his glass as he sipped at it.
"Afraid you'll catch feelings?"
Klaus rolled his eyes. "No. That's the least of my worries."
"Then why the fascination with her?" Enzo asked, raising his eyebrow at Klaus' annoyed expression. "I seem to recall multiple clashes between you two over the past couple of years."
Klaus shrugged, pressing his lips together on contemplation.
"She's got a lot of potential to be a great writer. I hate to see talent wane behind the clutches of Jenna Sommers, the worst editor the Herald has ever had."
Enzo shot him a disbelieving look. "Is that all that there is?"
Klaus scoffed. "Your subtlety is worse than Rebekah's, mate."
Enzo grinned back at him.
"Well, she has rubbed off on me during the past few years," he implied with a crude grin. Klaus narrowed his eyes in disgust.
"Don't make me rip your throat out," he threatened, sipping his drink. Enzo's grin widened at the empty threat.
They both sat quietly for a few minutes, nursing their drinks in comfortable solitude.
"She needs to be pushed," Klaus said, staring at his glass with a hard look. "She can hate me all she wants, but me pushing her buttons makes her more determined and a better journalist at that."
"Caroline," Klaus clarified at Enzo's confused hum. "She's brilliant. But she needs motivation to be the best that she can."
He swirled his drink in his glass, his thoughts lost on the blonde spitfire reporter.
Enzo nodded slowly before draining his glass.
"Are you sure that's the only reason you care?"
Klaus didn't reply, pressing his lips in a hard line.
Enzo smirked at Klaus' silence before reaching into his wallet for his credit card.
"How about this next round's on me, mate?"
Klaus looked up at him before catching a shiny flash of red hair behind Enzo's shoulder. The hair belonged to a beautiful woman sitting across the bar, her heated gaze trained on him.
Klaus felt a smirk crawl across his face, the lustful gaze from the red-headed woman reverberating through him. Enzo looked over his shoulder at Klaus' distraction before chuckling.
"I see you already have plans," he clapped his hand on Klaus' back. The curly haired Brit flashed him a sly smile, drained his glass, and stood up.
"Don't wait for me," Klaus murmured and Enzo rolled his eyes good-naturedly.
"Be careful, mate. She looks bewitching."
Klaus winked before making his way over to the beautiful red-head, his thoughts on Caroline Forbes completely forgotten from his head.
"Oh my God, Care, he did fabulous!" Katherine crowed, her eyes trained on Caroline's new engagement ring. Caroline beamed back at her best friend. Katherine had immediately cornered her that morning in her office before she even had a chance to drink her coffee.
"I just could not believe he finally asked me," Caroline admitted, blinking down at her ring. "I've waited five years for this."
"Well, the ring was well worth the wait. What is it, like three carats?" Katherine asked, squinting at the diamond. Caroline giggled, pulling her hand away from her.
There was a soft knock at her office door before Jenna stuck her head in. Caroline's heart immediately sank. She had been so caught up in Tyler's proposal and the excitement last night that she had completely forgotten about the botched Marcel Gerard interview and article.
"You two, my office. Now."
With that, Jenna spun around and left Caroline's door hanging wide open. Caroline shot a curious look to Katherine, surprised to see slight apprehension cross her face.
"What was that all about?" Katherine asked, biting her lip. "She looked pissed."
Caroline sighed. "I should probably start packing up my office. I screwed up with the commissioner article last night. Well, Klaus did."
"Shocker," Katherine deadpanned. "The ass strikes again. I swear you just need to fuck him once and he'll be in your clutches for years to come."
"Hello?" Caroline protested, waving her left hand in front of Katherine. "I'm engaged now!"
"That just makes the situation even more dangerous and a whole lot hotter," Katherine said flippantly.
Caroline squinted at her, cocking her head to the side. "I worry about your morals sometimes."
Katherine just winked at her.
"Let's go meet my doom," Caroline sighed, motioning towards Jenna's office. She tugged Katherine across the office, each step heavier than the next.
Opening the door, her heart rate raced at the cross look on Jenna's face.
"Sorry about the Gerard article, Jenna. Kla-"
"I don't care," her boss interrupted, gesturing with her hand towards the chairs in front of her desk. Exchanging a confused look with Katherine, Caroline slipped into the seat.
"What I do care about is this file," Jenna continued, dropping a manila folder on her desk and pushed it towards the blonde.
"What's this?" Caroline asked, reaching for it.
"Everything that I need to know about Klaus Mikaelson," Jenna remarked. Caroline wrinkled her nose in disgust and dropped the file back on the desk.
Gross. It was probably covered in diseases.
"I'm confused," Katherine interrupted. "Why would anyone want to know anything about that douche bag?"
"I do," Jenna waved her hand flippantly. "It's the one thing that we can use to get under his skin, to get under the Mikaelson Corporation. We can use this information to write an expose."
"Wait," Caroline began slowly. "You want me to do research on Klaus for you to write an expose on him, or the company?"
Jenna shrugged. "It doesn't matter who we bring down first. There is a reason why he is the only Mikaelson kid who doesn't work for them. And I'm not writing it, you are."
Caroline shook her head frantically. "What? No. This sounds like tabloid trash."
Jenna sighed and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Listen kid, this isn't about him or you. It's about the paper. I don't like this any more than you do, but we're running low on cash here at the Herald. People don't read newspapers like they used to. We need this kicker more than ever now, or else we won't have a paper in a few months."
Caroline sucked in a low breath. She knew that the paper had made some cuts as of recently, but she didn't know exactly how bad it had gotten.
"Listen, you don't have to let me know right away. Just think about it, and let me know tomorrow morning by 8 am," Jenna stated, leaning back in her chair. Caroline looked numbly down at the file on her desk before gingerly lifting it up.
She hated Klaus as much as the next person, but was it worth compromising every single moral she had as a reporter to garner some type of tabloid article?
Was it worth saving her job? This could push her up to a bigger position at the paper, and maybe one day editor in chief.
But at what cost?
"I'll do it," Caroline swallowed, ignoring the surprised gasp that spilled out of Katherine's mouth.
"Where do I start first?"
Jenna smiled and leaned forward, placing her elbows on her desk.
"I knew you'd see it my way."
Thoughts? What do you think about the Forwood engagement? The flashback? How do we feel about Klaus' intentions and his ulterior motive for why he pushes Caroline's buttons? The article? Let me know what you think! Reviews really help me understand where you guys are at as a reader and the things you hope to happen in the next chapter!
Thanks for reading!
Also, since I'm friends with those working on the KC awards, remember to get you nominations in! They end the 10th I believe, so don't forget to nominate your favorite blogs, graphic/gif set creaters, twitters, writers, and videos!
Until Next Time
Kaitlyn