Chapter 3: Dead End Street?

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When Klaus stopped feeling angry at Caroline's damn stubbornness, the first thing that popped into his head was how well Caroline could hold her alcohol. With the amount she'd been drinking, he'd half expected her to either pass out in his arms, in which case he could nobly bring her home, or give in to the obvious sexual tension in between them. But she'd been able to stand her ground. He chuckled as he turned his car into the driveway of the Mikaelson Manor and was still smiling he walked through the door and went to bed.

At around 1:30 in the morning, he was woken up by the absurdly loud vibrations of his cell phone. He swore quite loudly at it and considered banging the infernal device on the table to get it to shut up. As the vibrating got louder, he gave in and checked his messages. He had a message from Caroline:

If your offer still stands, i'll meet u 8 my mom's

He could have whooped for joy at that moment. What on earth had changed Caroline's mind? Maybe she'd been too drunk at the party to realise what she was saying or maybe she had thought over his offer carefully. In any case, he was bringing her to New Orleans, his favourite city in the world, and she was finally going to give him a chance. He smiled as his eyes closed and he went back to sleep.

On the other side of town, Caroline was restless. Just to think was to think about Klaus and New Orleans. Eventually, she decided to get up and pack for her trip. It was around two in the morning when she locked the front door of the Lockwood's and drove to her mother's house. She crept into her room, being careful not to wake mother. She began to pack. Clothes, jewellery, pictures, her whole life went into that bright blue duffel bag. When she was done, she crashed on the couch downstairs. She didn't think she could bear to stay in her room, surrounded by the relics of her childhood.

Punctually at 8:00, the doorbell woke her. Glancing at the clock, Caroline muttered a "Crap!" and rushed to the bathroom to sort out her bed hair. Three minutes later, she strutted out of the door and walked to the passenger door without even looking at Klaus. She didn't think she could stand the shame of having given into him. Klaus smirked and drove out of Mystic Falls.

Three hours later, Klaus was staring at Caroline dozing in the car. It was cute how she had her mouth open like that. Finally, Caroline jerked awake and looked alarmed at his eyes on her instead of on the road. Still smiling, he turned back to highway. She took out her phone and started scrolling through her messages. She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw that the only texts she had were from her classmates telling her what a great party it'd been. "Nobody knows yet," she explained.

He nodded and carried on driving. Caroline fished her iPod from her handbag and plugged it into the dock. Occasionally she'd start singing but it was never a song he knew. As a one thousand year old vampire, he'd abandoned listening to popular music in Mozart's day. Suddenly her phone rang and Caroline quickly picked up. "Hi, Tyler!"

Klaus almost groaned. Every single time he seemed to be making any progress with Caroline, Tyler always butted in. He still listened in though, even though he knew it was wrong and it would just hurt.

"How are you?" she was saying.

"I'm great. How are you, Care?" Tyler replied.

"Why are you just calling me out of the blue like that? You haven't called me in months."

"I just heard Klaus left Mystic Falls and I wanted to hear your voice without the threat of that ass threatening anyone. "

Caroline glanced at Klaus quickly, her forehead creasing with worry. Unfortunately for Tyler, that 'ass' was sitting right next to her. She knew that if Tyler said anything about his whereabouts, phone number, or any other piece of useful information Klaus could decode, his life could end within the week. She spoke very quietly into the phone. "Tyler it's really not the best time to call right now. Just be careful and don't do anything stupid."

"'Course not. But Care-"

"I love you," she breathed before hanging up the phone.

In a bed & breakfast in a small town near Mystic Falls, Tyler slammed down his phone onto the bed. What was wrong with Caroline? She would never hang up on him like that unless something was up. Then again, something was always up with Caroline, whether it was a committee or helping her friends get out of some vampire situation.

But she'd been calling him for weeks now. He hadn't seen her since prom. Maybe something had changed. Tyler's initial instinct that he should return home the instant Klaus left was heightened a thousand fold. Mystic Falls, here he comes! He jumped into his (stolen) car and drove down the highway.

He drove up in front of the Lockwood House. Only to find that neither Caroline nor Matt were anywhere nearby. After trying Matt's phone three times, Tyler decided to check Caroline's house. He knocked on the door loudly, startling Liz, who was reading something attentively. She pushed the letter under a magazine before going to open up the door.

"Caroline's not here," she said to Tyler.

Tyler's face visibly fell. "Do you know where she is?" he asked urgently. The Sheriff could tell he was worried about Caroline and her face softened.

"She's gone. She left this morning to go and stay with some family down south."

He was still in earnest. "Do you have an address or a phone number?"

"I'm sorry, Tyler but I don't think she would want you to risk attention from Klaus and you won't be helping her by joining her. She'll be fine. You need to focus on taking care of yourself," Liz said. She gently shut the door in his face. She winced as she heard him punch a tree and then went back to reading the two letters Caroline had left for her that morning.

Letter 1

Dear Mom,

I'm sorry that I left without telling you or without saying goodbye. I need you to know that I'm going to Georgia and staying with Steven (dad's BF) and his daughter for the summer. I promise I'll come back before I start the semester at Richmond. Don't worry, I'll be fine. Take care of yourself.

I love you,

Caroline

Letter 2

Dear Mom,

I'm not going to Georgia to stay with Steven and Lucy. That letter is for prying eyes while this one is for yours alone. I'm going to New Orleans with Klaus. I know you can't fathom why but I just have to get out of here and he's my ticket out.

You mustn't tell ANYONE, even Elena and Bonnie. Tell them that I had to get out of town but under no circumstances must you tell them where I'm going unless your life is in danger. If Tyler comes back, tell him to not come after me and that he'll put both of us in danger. Take care of yourself, Mom. I promise I'll call you every day.

Please forgive me,

Caroline, xoxo

It was 3:00 PM and Caroline was dreadfully bored. After she'd hung up on Tyler, she'd tried going back to sleep until noon, when they'd stopped in some town to eat. They'd talked a bit about his art and her exes (mostly Matt because Tyler was taboo and he didn't know about Damon). As they stepped back into the car, they'd almost instantly stopped talking, which led to two hours stuck in a car with nothing happening.

As Caroline reached to change the song on her iPod, as was her habit every five minutes or so, Klaus beat her to it and started scrolling through her songs. "How is it that music has been around for thousands of years and yet the oldest music you have is the 1950s?"

Caroline shrugged. "Maybe music only started getting interesting 50 years ago."

"I don't recognise any of this," he exclaimed. Suddenly he paused. "I know this one." He sounded surprised but not at all displeased. "Give Me Love by Ed Sheeran, it was the song we danced to at Mother's ball."

Caroline looked away, blushing. Then she grinned, saying, "You know Ed Sheeran isn't bad looking. He's actually kinda cute in that rugged, British way."

Klaus smiled back, the irony not lost on him. They didn't speak until Ed Sheeran had finished but it wasn't an awkward silence, like it had been earlier. It was peaceful, in a way. "So what's so special about New Orleans anyway?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"It's like nowhere on earth," Klaus said vaguely, searching for the right words to explain. "It's such a huge mix of cultures and there's music in every bar, all of whom serve the best liquor in the world, and so vibrant and full of life. You'll like it, I promise."

"I'm sure I will," she murmured distractedly, she was busy looking at the light that sparkled in Klaus' eye. "What do you do there, anyway? I mean, you don't exactly have the Mystic Falls gang to chase anymore."

He frowned slightly. "It's very complicated actually. You see, I'm not the top dog in New Orleans like I am in Mystic Falls. There's this vampire, Marcel, who I turned awhile back. He was my beta until Rebekah and I had to run from Mikael again. Now he's ruling New Orleans. But I'm working with the witches to put a stop to it."

Caroline laughed out loud. His serious face mixed with the speech about the new "king of New Orleans" seemed ridiculous to her. He glared at her. "I'm sorry!" she exclaimed. "It's just funny that the moment you leave Mystic Falls you pick a fight with someone else." Her face turned serious. "Don't you think you'd be happier if you avoided conflicts like this?"

"Maybe." He was pensive for a few moments. "Sometimes, it's just unavoidable, sweetheart."

"Oh? So you're saying you wouldn't be able to live with someone other than you being the alpha male?" she persisted.

"I'm saying there would be repercussions!" he barked. He knew he was moving dangerously close to the Hayley territory and it was definitely rubbing him the wrong way.

She stared at him expectantly. Caroline wasn't somebody who respected people with secrets, which had made it even harder for her to keep her own vampire secret quiet from the people who loved her. And Klaus' secrets were probably so much worse than hers. She wasn't going to stop digging until she got an answer from him.

Klaus pulled over on the side of the road. "A couple a months ago, I got drunk and I had...relations with a woman." Caroline had a shocked look on her face. She didn't seem mad or amused, just very surprised. He continued, "Then when I got to New Orleans, I found out that she was pregnant."

"Wait, what?!"Caroline gasped. "How the hell is that possible?"

"I'm a werewolf now. Apparently, when I became a hybrid, I became capable of procreating," he explained. "In any case, I have to kill Marcel or the witches will kill the mother and the child."

Caroline's face softened at the rare glimpse of Klaus' humanity. "I'm glad you're trying to protect your family. I'm happy for you!" Softly, she kissed him on the cheek.

Klaus thought that had gone rather well. He'd opened up to her and she'd responded with a kiss on the cheek, which seemed to be progress in his book. On the other hand, he was slightly disappointed that she hadn't been angrier at him, as if she cared for him as more than a friend. Of course, he hadn't yet told her that the woman carrying his child was Hayley.

Caroline wore her heart on her sleeve as a general rule. But after Klaus' confession, she started feeling sad in a way. She kept the subject light for the rest of the trip, trying to stay away from any personal topics. He told her more about New Orleans, particularly the French Quarter, which was apparently a kind of hub for the supernatural. It got so familiar that she'd expected to feel like driving into a place from her dreams. When they finally pulled up, she realised that she could never have imagined such a place. There were five times the amount of people she'd imagined and there were street musicians on every corner. It was the home of the undead and yet she'd never been to a more alive place in her life.

She started to get out but Klaus shut her door before she could. "Listen to me very closely," he said lowly. "The door to my building is the green one on the left. I want you to flash in there before anyone has a chance to see."

Curious as she was to find out the reason for his secretiveness, she followed his instructions. In the building, he acted as if nothing had happened and simply climbed the stairs to the loft, Caroline at his heel. As they got closer to the apartment, they heard voices, one male and two female. Klaus opened the door to see Rebekah, Elijah and Hayley standing around and arguing.

"Oh, good, you're back!" said Rebekah. Her face turned sour when she saw Caroline behind him. "And you brought Mystic Falls Barbie with you."

In general, Caroline would have responded with a quick retort but she was busy staring at Hayley. She could hear a thumping noise coming from her stomach.

"Klaus," she said slowly, "What is Hayley doing here?"

"Hayley is the mother of my unborn child."

CLIFFHANGER! How will Caroline feel? What will Klaus do? Find out next week!

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-Brianne