I don't own any of the characters…just hoping I can portray them accurately =)

She lay in her bed staring at the ceiling above her. The light begging behind her curtains told her it was morning.

Super. She hadn't gotten a wink of sleep. It wasn't for the lack of trying. She just couldn't get those words out of her head.

Thank you for your honesty, Klaus

They toyed with her all night long. And as if it wasn't bad enough that she could hear his crisp English accent annunciate every syllable flawlessly, when she closed her eyes she could see his face. She could see the genuine sincerity in his eyes.

It almost made her sick. The way he could be so charming and alluring. How he could smile, joke, and laugh like it was the most natural thing in the world. She wanted to hate him because he was a psychotic killer whose mood could flip like a light switch. The person he'd just been all chatty with could wind up with their heart in his hand. She'd seen he'd killed Tyler and even if it was to turn him into a hybrid, Klaus wouldn't have cared if Tyler had died. She knew he'd turned and killed Aunt Jenna when it was completely unnecessary. How he'd tried to have Jeremy ran over, and stole Stephen's humanity. This monster had drained Elena dry until she was merely a limp shell. She knew all these things were true. No one, not even Klaus himself could deny them. For crying out loud, Klaus had her and Tyler chained up ready to be sacrificed to break the hybrid curse before Damon had rescued them. And if Damon hadn't rescued them, her first and last encounter with the hybrid would have been being sacrificed on an altar with her blood being poured over a silly rock. But that wasn't the case. If it had been it would be easy to hate him. Well, technically she would be dead and not have to worry about it, but that was beside the point. All the things she knew about Klaus up until this point had been attributed to this abstract being. Caroline had never seen Klaus this way. She'd never seen him basking in his villainous infamy. And that's what had kept her up all night. Trying over and over to place the Klaus she knew personally, a man that loved birthdays and dancing and gave inspiring speeches at someone's death bed, in those situations as the villain. She wanted so desperately to hate him, but this man that revealed his love for culture and his desire to share the world with somebody just didn't fill those shoes. She just couldn't wrap her mind around it and it was wearing her out. As if the sleep deprivation wasn't enough.

She closed her eyes. No one would miss her if she wasn't at school today. Her dad had just died. Not a soul would hold it against her. Maybe the comfort of the sun could chase away this confusing mess of thoughts that the moon had failed to.

She was just starting to relax when she sensed someone's presence. Her eyes flew open.

"Boo," the voice said in a hushed quick tone right in her ear.

Caroline quickly rolled to her left to face him, armed with a pillow she smacked him as hard as she could without sending feathers flying.

"Damon!" she shrieked, "Get out of my bed!"

"Why?" he replied defiantly with his coy little smile, "your mom's off to work." He always thought he was so clever. With his flirty eye thing and shrewd one-liners, he was irresistible to most women. He had been to her at one point in time. Now, when he wasn't saving her life and playing the hero, he was just annoying.

She let out a sigh of frustration.

"Damon, seriously," Caroline shot him a glare as she sat up in her bed and folded her arms, "I'm not in the mood to deal with you and your smart ass comments."

"Wow, Cinderella's a bit testy after the ball. Did you stay out past midnight?" Damon taunted.

She tried to smack him again with the pillow, but he dodged it and was now standing at the end of her bed mirroring her cross armed position as he stared down at her.

"No, I just didn't get much sleep last night," she stated. But after she said it she wished she'd just kept her mouth shut.

Damon's eyes got wide, "Did things go that well with the Dark prince last night?"

And as he moved his eyebrows up and down in a suggestive manner, Caroline wanted to strangle him. Even though she'd set herself up for it, she didn't care. That was completely uncalled for.

"Oh, just shut-up Damon," she let out another exasperated sigh, "you don't even know what the hell you're talking about." she knew there was no way that Klaus's shining towards her would stay under wraps for long, but leave it to the older Salvatore to stick his nose where it didn't belong and dig something up before there was even anything to be found.

"Nothing is going on between me and Klaus," Caroline added, and it was true, sort of.

"Klaus? Who said anything about Klaus?" Damon feigned ignorance, "I was talking about Elijah."

"Damn it Damon," Caroline had had enough, "you're not funny. Now please just say what you came to say and then get out."

"Well, for starters I don't like your tone," Damon began, " here I come over out of the goodness of my own heart to make sure your date last night didn't rip your heart out and you are trying to rip my head off." Damon always had a way of being able to make himself seem innocent and victimized. "and you sure are getting worked up about something that supposedly is nothing."

"He wasn't my date," Caroline responded indignantly, "I only went to that stupid ball because I'd seen Rebekah invite Matt, and I wanted to be there to keep an eye on him."

"That's creepy," Damon drawled, "and a lie."

"It is not a lie," Caroline retorted, but when he just stared at her with one eyebrow raised in disbelief she hollered to reaffirm the fact, "I'm not lying Damon!"

"Well, either you are lying," Damon started but paused as he picked up the sketch from Klaus that had been sitting on her dresser. Damn it. She knew she should have put it away.

"or, Rebekah was lying," he finished his thought, "and with this as evidence," he held up the sketch, "I'm gonna go with my gut instinct and say that you're being the untruthful one."

"well, believe what you want, but I wasn't his date. All he did was ask me to save him a dance on the back of the invitation from his WHOLE family," Caroline put an unnecessary amount of emphasis on the word whole.

"Mhmm" was all Damon had to say in response.

"And since when did you start hanging out with the she devil?" Caroline insisted. Wanting to shift the uncomfortable subject matter from her to him, and to her surprise it worked. Damon physically tensed at the confrontation, but only for a fraction of a second. In fact anyone with more inept senses may have missed it entirely.

He was back to his suave, cocky, composed self before he spoke again, "We're," he paused to think, "friendly."

Caroline got the feeling that his choice of word implied more than just your coffee at Starbucks type of friend, but before she could question him further he spoke up again.

"But, I'm not here to talk about my relations with the original family. I'm here to talk about yours," he firmly stated, "Rebekah told me that Klaus had been showering you with presents and trying to enchant you with his charms. Is that true?"

"No," Caroline immediately blurted in her defense. But, if there was one thing Caroline was not it was subtle. Damon eyed her suspiciously as he held up the sketch wiggling it back and forth for dramatic effect.

She rolled her eyes. As if she couldn't see it right there in front of her face.

"I mean, maybe a little," Caroline admitted guiltily, "I mean to say he's been showering me with gifts is a complete exaggeration. All he did was give me a diamond bracelet for my birthday and a ballgown to where to the party." After she said it she realized just how elaborate those gifts were, "I gave the bracelet back though," she quickly added.

"You gave it back?" Damon inquired with a dumbfounded, shocked expression, "And, you're still alive to tell me about it?"

"Yeah," Caroline responded, "I actually sorta threw it at him. It was probably a little rude"

Again Damon just stared at her.

She didn't know if she should tell him the rest, but the words started spilling out of her before she could control them. She really had to work on that.

"Well, he really ticked me off. I sort of brought up the hybrids and how wrong it was to keep Tyler sired to him, and then he was all like, 'I think it's time for you to go'. But, I wasn't ready to go yet. Not before he got a piece of my mind. So I told him that he had deep routed father issues which made it so he didn't think anyone would ever care about him so he had to force people's loyalty. But, the real reason no one cared about him is because he didn't even attempt to connect with them."

Damon looked, well, he looked both shocked and proud, "Look at you going all Badass Barbie."

She sighed and rolled her eyes again as she realized she'd never paused for a breath during her little rant.

"Well, two things are for sure," Damon said confidently, "You've got guts and Klaus must really like you because you should be dead after that little episode."

"I thought I was dead," Caroline quickly quipped.

"Touché," Damon replied, "Just be careful. Klaus is dangerous and manipulative. Not such a hot combination. You can't trust him."

Caroline nodded, but what for she was not exactly sure…agreement, acknowledgement, just to get him off the subject. But, she at least knew how to get him to stop, "Careful Damon, I might actually think you care."

"Hey," he replied, "my list is small." And he gave her a playful smile in an attempt to hide just how much she knew he did care.

And then, unexpectedly his face become stoned and serious, his tone firm, "We are going to kill him Caroline. Even if it means we all go in the process. Klaus is going to die."

Once again Caroline found herself nodding without knowing exactly why other than it was the appropriate gesture to make.

"I just don't want you to forget that. He's been the bad guy since the start and no one is going to just roll over and forgive him because he's decided he likes one of the locals and is going to be on his best behavior." Damon stated point blank, "He's wreaked havoc on this town since the moment he arrived. He has to die."

"Okay," Caroline responded sharply.

"You sure? That wasn't very convincing." Damon interrogated.

"I said okay, okay," she stated with spite, her tone elevated, "Now are we done here. I have to get ready for school."

"Yeah, I'm done." Damon stated as he made his way to the bedroom door, and mockingly added on his way out the door, "have fun at school."

Caroline chucked a pillow at him, but he averted it as he zoomed out of the house at top speed.

She quickly went over to the dresser and picked up the sketch, storing it in a book for safe keeping. Not that everyone wasn't going to find out about it anyway but it just felt like something that should be kept in a private place whether everyone knew or not.

Her back slid down the dresser as she found her way to the floor. She sat there letting the warm sunlight shine on her face. As if this mess wasn't complicated enough Damon had to go all older brother on her. Not that it wasn't nice to know that he cared, she was just already confused about her own feelings so to have him come in here and basically tell her how she had to feel, well that was just bogus. He was so controlling sometimes. And what the hell was that holier-than thou speech about bad guys and forgiveness. In the quietness of her room, Caroline whispered almost inaudibly the thing that was eating at her more than anything else, and what she hadn't been brave enough to say to Damon's face.

"We forgave you."