SO, I REALLY WISH THAT WE DIDN'T HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL MAR 15 FOR ANOTHER EPISODE BECAUSE I FEAR MY STORY IS IN DANGER OF TOTALLY GOING ROGUE NOW, BUT OH WELL.

MORE KLAUS/CAROLINE IN THE NEXT CHAPTER, BUT ENJOY THIS CHAPTER OF BONNIE/CAROLINE BONDING AND CAROLINE'S INNER STRUGGLE WITH HER PERCEPTION OF KLAUS. =)

If her heart was beating it would have been racing at the sight of the small box with the ivory ribbon. She indulged herself for a moment, feeling what she wanted before scolding herself. She snatched the box off the dresser at vampire speed and whirled around to face Bonnie.

"Um, I forgot to turn the coffee pot off," she blurted, "don't want to burn the house down," she added with a weak smile.

Bonnie just eyed her hesitantly, "It's only been a couple of minutes."

"Yeah, but it's one of my mom's hang ups," that actually was partially true. Her mother was very anal about turning the coffee pot off, but not quite to this extreme, "be right back."

And with that Caroline quickly excused herself. She found a chair in the corner of the living room, out of the direct line of sight from the bedroom in case Bonnie came looking for her.

She stared at the box for moment, tracing the ribbon with her finger before she took a deep breath and delicately untied the ribbon and opened the lid to the box. Inside there was a note rolled in an all too familiar fashion along with a mixture of herbs. She unrolled the note and read:

Caroline,

Thank you for your words tonight.

Please excuse my quick departure, but I thought it best to leave you with your friend. The herbs are for her mother. They will help deaden her emotions, making the transition easier.

Save me that cup of coffee.

Klaus

She held the note closely as she lifted the small box to her nose to smell whatever concoction of herbs Klaus had left. As soon as the scent hit her nostrils she coughed at the intensity. Yep, they were strong alright. She walked into the kitchen and set the box in front of her on the counter, placing a fresh cup of coffee next to it. She stood back and eyed the two objects trying to decide whether she should empty the contents of the box into the cup. Would Abby know? Would Bonnie know? Could she trust Klaus? He hadn't lied to her before. It didn't seem like this would be the time he would all of a sudden choose to begin. She paced back and forth in front of the cup and box and read the note again, and again, and again. She knew the words would not change, but she was trying to place Klaus in them. Klaus the evil hybrid, not the Klaus she'd become accustom too, but once again she found herself struggling to connect the dots between his two personas.

It wasn't fair. Why her? Why did he have to play these mind games with her? She knew that he wasn't intentionally toying with her head, he meant every word, but he was messing with her perception of truth. He was supposed to be the bad guy and do evil things. He was supposed to rip out Abby's heart just for kicks, not give her herbs to help her transition easier. What the hell was that? It was kind and thoughtful was what it was. And what made it worse is that she knew he didn't really give a damn about Abby, but he was doing it to make Caroline happy.

Suddenly she heard a gasp come from the bedroom, and then Bonnie called to her, "Caroline!"

Her choice was made. She grabbed the little box, dumped its contents into the cup, stirred it in haste, and headed for her bedroom, "Coming Bonnie!"

Caroline entered the room to find Abby sitting on the bed, holding her knees to her chest, looking frightened. Abby's eyes were wide and wild and Caroline could tell that she was feeling overwhelmed by her surging senses.

Bonnie reached out to touch her mother's arm, "It's going to be okay, everything is going to be fine." Bonnie's tone was soft and gentle and reassuring, but it wasn't doing anything to bring Abby any sense of relief.

"What, what happened," Abby rambled off with slight panic in her voice. She was struggling to keep control of her body and make sense of what had occurred all at the same time, "Where am I? Why, why do I feel so, so," her voice drifted off into a loud moan, "GAH! Everything is so bright and spinning and loud and…."

"Alive," Caroline chimed in. Abby's gaze immediately fixated on her, and Caroline continued, "Abby you are in transition. All of your senses are heightened. They are trying to push to feed and complete the process."

Abby's eyes filled with horror, "No, no, this can't be happening," she looked to her daughter, "Bonnie, this isn't true, is it?"

Bonnie's eyes moistened as she squared her shoulders in a way that Caroline had grown accustomed to. It was the stance Bonnie always took whenever she had to keep herself strong to deliver unpleasant news, "I'm afraid so. Damon fed you his blood and then killed you in order to cut off Esther's ability to channel our family's powers."

"But, why? Why would he do something like that?" Abby insisted in desperation, "I thought they wanted Klaus and his family dead!"

"They do," Bonnie assured her, "but, Elijah became wise to the plan and kidnapped Elena. If they didn't stop Esther from completing the spell, Elena would have died."

"So instead," Abby paused, "I was the collateral damage."

Caroline and Bonnie just looked at Abby. They had both been there. In the exact same spot as Abby. They'd both at one time or another been considered "collateral damage" in some scheme involving Elena. Katherine had turned Caroline to send the Salvatores and Elena a warning message that she meant business. Bonnie had faked her own death in order to hoodwink Klaus and become the "secret weapon" to destroy him and save Elena. They knew what it felt like to have their lives considered second rate next to someone else's, and it sucked. There was no other way of saying it. Not that Bonnie or Caroline wouldn't do anything in their power to save their friend, but it was demeaning to be reminded over and over again that their lives didn't mean as much as hers. And Damon was the master at reminding everyone of this with both his words and his actions. Now, Abby had been taught this lesson first hand.

"I'm so sorry," Bonnie professed to her mother, "He'll pay for this."

"Woah," Caroline chimed in, as she took a step closer towards the bed, "Easy there warrior witch. Let's first focus on the issue at hand." Caroline reached out to Abby and gave her the coffee mug, "take this and drink it. It will help you feel better."

"Coffee?" Abby gave her a puzzled look, "I already feel like I've drank 50 cups of coffee."

"Trust me," Caroline reassured her, "just drink it."

Abby shrugged her shoulders and then took a big sip of the warm beverage. Caroline stared at her, eyes wide, waiting in anticipation. She didn't know exactly what she was expecting. Abby to fall over dead? She already sorta was. Abby to get high? That was a possibility. Abby to fall into a deep, comatose sleep? That would sorta certify her death if she wasn't able to feed. Abby to go rapid and attack Bonnie in her quest for blood? That wouldn't really be a "deadening" of the emotions exactly, unless if Klaus was referring to shutting off all human emotions when he had wrote "deaden". Oh crap! Caroline hadn't considered that option. She was hoping that it would treat Abby like a good aroma therapy massage. Hell, she would even welcome the high option, but she hadn't considered that the herbs could actually take Abby's choice away from her by making her instincts purely predatory. Oh shit, what had Caroline done? She'd acted on impulse, that's what she'd done. She'd wanted to temporarily fix the problem at hand, but underneath it all she wanted to trust Klaus. Because if he had somehow helped Bonnie's mom in her darkest hour, maybe there was hope for him. Caroline wanted to believe this.

But now, she just felt like a stupid idiot.

"Caroline," Bonnie reached out and touched her friend on the shoulder, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Caroline replied at a much higher decibel than she'd expected. She took a deep breath and calmed herself, "It's just a lot, you know?"

Bonnie just nodded sympathetically.

Caroline watched as Abby slowly released her knees, allowing her legs to straighten out and then leaned back against the headboard. She looked, relaxed. Like aroma therapy relaxed. Like, I just had a great massage relaxed. Like, maybe I had three glasses of wine instead of two, relaxed. Caroline allowed her own stiffened posture to soften. Abby was going to be okay. Caroline had gotten herself worked up over nothing. Go figure.

Caroline decided she should ask though, just for safe measure, "Abby, how are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling much better, Caroline," Abby calmly replied, "you were right. The coffee helped."

This made Caroline smile inside, but she didn't allow herself the luxury of showing this for she knew the seriousness of her next question, "have you made your decision Abby?"

Now, Bonnie tensed, and Caroline put her arm around her friend.

Abby captured eye contact with Bonnie and reached out to her daughter to grasp her hand, "If it's okay with you Caroline, I'd like a moment alone to talk to Bonnie about this," she solidly replied.

"Oh, yeah, of course," Caroline agreed. She gave Bonnie one more hug before she turned and left the room.

Caroline went back into the kitchen and took a seat at the table. She finally indulged in her cup of coffee which, due to the events of the evening, had been ignored up until this moment. She let the warm, bitter taste soothe her worries and dull her anxiety.

So much had gone on. In just two short days her perspective of the world had been challenged, her alliances tested, and her feelings questioned. Whatever the hell was going on Caroline didn't care. All she wanted to do was sit and enjoy her cup of coffee and not think about life and death, vampires or witches, betrayal or choices, and definitely not hybrids or the Original family. She just wanted to sip on her coffee and look at nail polish colors in the magazine that was sitting on the table. And so she did. Caroline just sat there in the kitchen, drinking her coffee, flipping through a magazine for almost an hour until Bonnie came in.

"Caroline," Bonnie said and that's all it took for Caroline's attention to be snatched away from her brainless task.

Caroline jumped out of her seat and addressed her friend, "Bonnie, what did she decide," her tone was sympathetic. She couldn't read Bonnies face. She couldn't tell if it was worry or sadness painted across her friends features.

"I need some blood," Bonnie finally added, "she's going to go through with it."

Caroline rushed to her friend's side as a very fragile Bonnie collapsed into Caroline's arms. Bonnie heaved sobs, "I'm happy Caroline. I really am, but I" her sobs choked off her voice, "it's just not fair she had to make this decision. No one should have to make the decision to cheat death. No one!"

"Shhh" Caroline tried to comfort her friend as she stroked her hair.

Bonnie looked up into Caroline's eyes with tears streaming down her cheeks, "Caroline, I know that you were alone. You didn't ever have the choice. You didn't know any better. But, people shouldn't cheat death, Caroline. It's not right. Look at what happened to Jeremy. It's just not supposed to happen."

"So, are you saying that you don't want her to transition?" Caroline questioned her friend. Confused by her exclamation earlier that Bonnie was happy.

"No, I want her to change Caroline. I don't want to lose her," Bonnie declared, "and that's why I'm so upset. I'm mad at myself for not wanting to let her go. I'm mad at myself for not being able to do the right thing and just say goodbye."

"Oh Bonnie," Caroline swept her into another hug, "You can't be mad at yourself for not wanting to lose your mother. You just got her back. I begged my father not to leave me. I gave him a heartfelt speech, and did everything I could but flash blood in front of his face." Caroline tried to comfort her friend with her words. "But in the end it was his decision, and I had to accept that. It's her decision Bonnie. You can't carry that burden on yourself. If she wants to change, it's her decision."

"Don't you understand Caroline," Bonnie pulled away to face Caroline again, "she's doing this for me. She told me she just got me back and she wasn't going to lose me again so soon. She told me that to leave me now when I needed her most would be like abandoning me all over again. So, as much as it's her calling the shots, I'm the reason for her decision and that makes me the guilty one."

"No Bonnie, it doesn't," Caroline reprimanded her friend. Now, Caroline was upset. Why did all of her friends have to be such martyrs and always blame themselves for other people's choices, "we are responsible for our own actions. And if you are so blessed to have someone love you so much that you are the motivation for a selfless act you should be grateful."

"Then why does this feel like a curse," Bonnie pleaded.

"Because love is not easy. It's the most unpredictable thing in the world. It's a burden and a treasure. You can't have one without the other," Caroline stated matter of fact.

Bonnie was smiling at Caroline now through the tears, which was making Caroline feel slightly uncomfortable.

"What is it?" Caroline probed.

"Caroline Forbes, you are amazing," Bonnie simply answered.

"Oh, I know," Caroline played with her, "but, may I inquire what part of my amazinginess you are complimenting presently?"

Bonnie nodded, "Your insight."

"My what?"

Bonnie continued, "it's just that you talk a lot, but buried amongst all your rambling are these gems of insight that you so flawlessly portray, and when it happens it makes me really proud I'm your friend."

"Aw, thank you Bonnie," Caroline replied, "that means a lot." And it did meant a lot to Caroline to hear Bonnie say those words. She was proud. "Now, not to totally change the subject and ruin our friendship bonding moment, but I think that your mom would probably really appreciate some blood right about now."

"Right!" Bonnie cried.

"And Bonnie," Caroline called to her friend as she walked to the freezer to grab a bag of blood,"if your mom is anything like you, she's going to do just fine as a vampire."

"Thanks, Caroline. I know she will," Bonnie replied and the two shared a smile before heading into Caroline's room to seal Abby's fate.