Klaus was the first to return and what he found broke his heart, Caroline was sitting by the fire sobbing clutching her knees to her chest still in her bathing clothes. He flashed over to her side to see what was wrong and she looked up at him her eyes red and swollen from the tears.
"He killed her." She sobbed collapsing into him he didn't know who had made her cry like this but he did know whoever had done it was going to die. He held her rubbing her back gently and kissing her head whispering that it would be okay.
"Who was killed by whom?" Elijah asked as he came in, Caroline looked up at him then sobbed harder. Elijah looked around and seemed to get more worried by what he didn't see.
"Caroline where is Charlotte?" He asked, Caroline wiped the tears from her eyes trying to speak.
"She, Mikael killed her, he tried to kill me too but I ran, he wanted you to know he was coming for you. There was nothing I could do, by the time I even knew he was there she was..." Caroline broke off in a sob, Elijah stumbled back a step then composed himself going over to Caroline and setting his hand on her head.
"I know you did everything you could, thank you." He said disappearing, Caroline clung to Klaus as Kol came in, he looked around concerned.
"What happened?" He asked, Klaus looked back at him and mouthed Mikael, Kol flashed away too and Klaus looked down at Caroline.
"I know it hurts love, but we have to go." Klaus told her, she looked up at him in fury.
"No we have to kill him!" She told him getting to her feet, he shook his head reaching out to her.
"We can't love." He told he honestly Caroline shook her head vehemently, Klaus sighed he didn't have time to convince her.
"Why not what about the white oak stakes and the desiccation spell?" She asked desperate to rid the world of the man who had killed her best friend here and tried to kill her.
"The what spell now love?" He asked they had no white oak but he had never heard of this spell she was talking about and he would give anything to be able to stop his father
"The desiccation spell, you guys used it to keep him locked up for centuries, and then Bonnie used it to try and stop Alaric. Um a witch bound you guys with blood and stopped a human heart while you had your hand over the persons heart and it would stop there's too." She told him, Lilandra came down from Kol's company having over heard what they were saying.
"It could work Niklaus, it's brilliant, I could have the spell ready by tonight." She offered, Klaus looked up at her weighing the risks against the benefits.
"What do you say brothers, shall we kill our father?" Klaus asked when they joined the witch on the stairs. Klaus looked to Elijah who was usually the level headed one of there little family, but this time his eyes were rimmed with red and his vampire visage had come forward.
"I want to watch him die at my feet!" Elijah spat Kol and Klaus looked at him in surprise for a second, Caroline flashed to his side hugging him, none of them would have ever thought to comfort him, but he collapsed into her, silent tears falling from his eyes.
"Then we kill him." Klaus said quietly watching the scene before him, love made them weak what better proof then this. He had to be wherry of this himself with Caroline around for the next few hundred years.
"He won't expect it, he'll come here expecting us to be gone, we wait set up a trap, keep him busy just long enough for the spell to work." Kol put in trying to ignore the fact that Elijah was still letting Caroline comfort him while she cried, if they didn't know better it would look like he was the one comforting her.
"Let's set it up brother, leave these three to get the spell together." Klaus told Kol leading him outside. It took the whole night of gathering vervaine, spell components, and rewording spells but they were mostly prepared.
"I'm so tired, but I feel like as soon as I close my eyes he's gonna show up." Caroline whispered while she sat on the couch near Klaus. Elijah had turned his attention to there planing and hadn't so much as talked to Caroline since the hug.
"I'll wake you if I hear anything love, you're safe with us." Klaus told her, she smiled letting her eyes drift closed, Klaus let a smile play across his features, it never ceased to amaze him how much she could trust him, even after he betrayed her trust.
He put his arm over the back of the couch just watching her and listening for any sign that Mikael was close, Kol and Elijah were keeping watch while Lilandra was safely away with her brother, Caroline had taught her CPR in hopes that know one would have to die.
He was lost in keeping himself sharp and ready when she curled up on his lap, he went stalk sill looking down at her in shock. She was asleep curled up with her head on his leg while her hand clutched his to her chest, he looked around making sure his brothers were no where in sight before he let himself relax.
He ran his fingers through her soft golden hair, it wasn't hard for him to imagine letting himself go with her. Letting himself fall for her, but he couldn't afford that, not him he had to be strong, had to protect his family and break his curse, love was a weakness that he wouldn't allow.
Or so he kept telling himself while he stroked her hair his head snapped up as he heard the sound of footsteps that were too fast to be human. He woke Caroline going to his place in the plan, Caroline blinked at the sudden absence of Klaus' warmth then realized why and flashed over to the shadows to watch him in the center of the room to be the bait.
"Niklaus, I never would have imagined you would have the guts to face me, have I finally killed something you care about you worthless retch?" He asked, Klaus just smiled as Kol dropped the powdered vervaine on him like acid dust and Klaus flashed forward pressing his hand over Mikael's chest and feeling the magic run through him.
It looked like it might actually work but the spell was taking too long and Mikael was recovering, Caroline flashed behind him to hold him still but even in the past Mikael was still so much stronger then her, he threw her over his head at Klaus caught her letting himself slam into the wall to break her fall. Elijah dug his hand into Mikael's chest slamming him into his own wall.
"Why father, she was human an innocent and you killed her!" Elijah screamed into his face while the magic worked through him.
"How many innocents have you killed Elijah!" Mikael yelled back throwing Elijah away from him, Kol slammed his fist across his face, and Mikael caught sight of Klaus helping Caroline to her feet looking worried and protective. Mikael was no fool he knew he was out matched in this moment, he needed to make them come to him, on his terms.
He flashed over to Klaus throwing him at Kol and snapping Caroline's neck before disappearing with her body. Klaus tried to chase them, but he lost them somehow, he growled going back to the house to find the trail.
"We lost him, where's Caroline?" Elijah asked when Klaus returned, Klaus looked up at him angrily what kind of stupid question as that where did he think she was.
"We're going after him, we have to kill him while we have the chance." Klaus told them sniffing out the trail, Kol and Elijah nodded stepping up to follow him.
Caroline woke up in searing pain, she was staked to a wall, hands, feet, and shoulders and she hung a few inches off the ground. An involuntary scream escaped her lips, why was she always the one getting captured and tortured, what had she done.
"Ah good you're awake, Klaus seems to care about you which is interesting so now you're bait. Though he won't come for you, he'll run like the coward he is, and I'll kill you slowly. I want you to know I take no pleasure in this, but you are a monster as I am, and you have to die." He told her, she shook her head at him tears in her eyes and defiance in her expression.
"You're not trying to rid the world of monsters, your punishing your children because your wife was a slut, and was sleeping with the locals. Well guess what, klaus is going to kill you to save me, because no matter what you think, Klaus is a good man." Caroline told him, he watched her with fascination.
"You really believe that, he must have compelled you." Mikael decided, Caroline laughed looking him in the eyes.
"He couldn't if he tried." She told him, his eyes dilated to compel her just to prove a point to himself.
"You will pull your hand off that stake and stick it through your own heart." He told her, she smirked pulling her hand slowly off the stake with a scream. He smirked turning away from her, she smiled even with the pain.
She wrapped her hand around the stake pulling it from the wall and she threw it through his chest and hurried to pull out the other. Mikael screamed more from shock then actual pain, he reached back ripping the stake out as Caroline fell to the floor her feet still staked to the wall.
"Wretched woman, how, how can you resist compulsion, you are just a pathetic newly turned vampire!?" He growled ripping her from the wall the stakes in her feet tearing though the space between her big toe and the next making her scream in pain. He threw her into the far wall then flashing over in time to pin her against it painfully.
"It doesn't matter, Klaus will not come for you, and if he does I'll let him watch as I rip your heart out before I drive this through his heart." He said holding up a pale wooden stake that must have been white oak.
"You're pathetic, your son died forever ago and you flipped out and killed all the rest of your kids so nothing could ever take them from you and then you try and kill them your self. Don't you care about them at all anymore?" She asked trying not to let herself cry, she knew Klaus would come for her but she didn't know if he'd be able to save her.
"Do not speak of thing you know not of child." Mikael growled at her driving his hand into her chest and wrapping his hand around her heart. She could feel his fingers crushing the life from her, it would only take a slight twitch of his arm to end her right there, it wasn't the first time she'd felt this, but it had been only for a second last time.
"She's of no consequence to father, I'm here to give you exactly what you want why bother with her?" He asked, Mikael pulled his hand slowly from her chest with a smile on his lips mingled with shock.
"You actually came for this worthless girl?" Mikael asked, Klaus looked over at her with a look of uncertainty then back to Mikael.
"I came to kill you, nothing else." Klaus growled launching at him, Mikael readied his stake too fast for a normal person to see but Caroline saw.
"No!" She dug her nails into Mikaels arm pulling down as hard as she could drawing blood and she still only managed to move the stake inches. Klaus felt it as it scrapped the bottom of his heart, Kol grabbed Mikeal and Elijah dug his fingers into Mikaels chest but Caroline didn't watch.
She flashed over to Klaus pulling the stake out carefully and holding him on her lap tears falling freely as she checked to see if he was still alive.
"Klaus, Klaus please don't leave me." She pleaded holding his face trying to will him not to die, he put his hand over hers finally opening his eyes now that the pain was subsiding. She had saved his life, he was nearly unkillable and she had saved him from the one thing that would end him.
"Why, why did you do that?" He asked no manipulating endearments, or legitimate ones for that matter. His words were sober and serious he really had no idea why anyone would save him, Kol and Elijah were his blood, but they had been ready to let him die if it meant killing Mikael.
"Because I care about you you idiot." She told him he reached out taking up the white oak stake from the ground. He could feel the remnants of the holes in her hands, and smell her blood, Mikael had tortured her, and nearly killed him.
He got to his feet clutching the stake hard enough to turn his knuckles white as he pulled Elijah away from there father and drove the stake through his heart and watched him burn. Caroline watched him end his father, the man they had used against Klaus when he had tried to kill Elena again. She was really going to have to change things now.
Elijah and Kol were shocked that Klaus had actually killed there father, but neither one seemed to be bothered. Elijah looked back at Caroline who was still sitting on the floor since she still had her feet ripped apart, but before he could make a move to help her Klaus walked back to her.
He crouched down and scooped her up holding her bridal style while she wrapped her arms around his neck. She leaned into his shoulder just letting him hold her and enjoying the sensation of having him so close.
"See I told you you'd carry me home." She whispered in his ear, he chuckled only she could bother to prove a point while she's gravely injured. He took her back home while Elijah and Kol burned the body.
"Why did you come for me?" Caroline asked when he got to her door, he looked down at her unsure of how to answer that. He knew what he would tell her, but if he were honest he was starting to enjoy her company.
"I didn't sweetheart, I came to kill my father." He told her setting her gently on her bed, she laughed shaking her head.
"If you say so, you still saved me so thank you having your heart ripped out is really something you only want to do once." Caroline told him as she tried to climb under the covers, puffy dress be damned. Klaus laughed at her effort grabbing the blanket and tucking her in, Caroline just stared at him while he helped her.
"Get some sleep love." He told her turning to leave, she smiled to herself she was getting to him and that was something.
The next hundred and sixty some years went by while there relationship inched in the right direction, Elijah left not long after Charlotte's death, and thirty years or so latter Rebekah came back, she hated Caroline at first of coarse, but they actually became rather good friends, they weren't so different after all and she hadn't been too put out by the no killing rule. So they were all friends now, and Klaus even trusted her after she helped him dagger Kol for betraying them to a coven of witches that his current girlfriend belonged to that tried to take Klaus' power for themselves.
Caroline thought it would be more like a horrible crawl through the years, but time actually went be at an acceptable rate to her. She was more then a little frustrated that Klaus still refused to admit that he had feelings for even though she knew he did at this point. He had only been with one other woman in the last century and Caroline had beaten her nearly to death when she'd found ou she was only using Klaus to become a vampire.
Caroline wasn't the jealous type, it hurt to see him with another woman, but she knew he'd come around, she had forever after all. Rebekah on the other hand had refused to speak to him for a decade for what he had done to hurt Caroline, which was funny. So now they were on there way to Mystic falls in an elegant carriage avoiding most of the civil war drama, though Caroline insisted on helping any black person she saw.
Rebekah found the concept almost as amusing as when Caroline had told them they couldn't interfere with the Indian/settler fighting unless they were endangering innocents. She thought it was hysterical that her big bad brother had let himself be leashed by little ol' Caroline.
"So how are we going about this love?" Klaus asked as they stopped in the town over, Caroline shook herself from her thoughts to answer him, he looked dashing in the crisp suites of the age.
"Well you two are staying here, if Kathrine gets wind that your in town she'll bolt so I'll go figure out where we stand and bring you guys in when I'm ready." She told them, Klaus and Rebekah sighed in unison.
"But we want to come too, why do you get to have all the fun?" Rebekah pouted so Klaus didn't have to Caroline laughed looking at the two of them you'd think they were twelve not hundreds of years old.
"Oh don't pout, you two can have fun here, I hear this place has the best shops." Caroline told her, Klaus grimaced but Rebekah looked sated for the most part.
"Don't leave me with this woman, I have no desire to watch her shop until my ears bleed." Klaus pleaded, Caroline laughed waving as she walked backwards away from them. Klaus Sighed slumping back in his chair to watch her go, not that he'd ever admit to it but it hurt him to be without her.
If he were honest he was madly in love with her, but he would not admit it she was with him and he would not give into her so long as she stayed by him. He feared her betrayal even though he had no reason to and it kept him at arms length, no she would have to come to him it was the only way to maintain some semblance of power in the relationship where she already had him whipped.
Caroline was in the plain dress of a common woman so she wouldn't stand out as she neared the Salvatore estate, it wasn't a boarding house yet. What she saw made her smile, Damon in a union uniform was tossing a foot ball with Stefan and they were laughing. She wished there was some way she could keep this from falling apart over Kathrine.
Almost as if summoned by the thought Kathrine came out in her pretty expensive dress and joined the game turning it into a competition between the brothers. Caroline sighed, eventually Stefan decided it wasn't worth it and left Damon and Kathrine to there games.
Caroline listened to the noise of the house and eventually heard what she wanted to hear, Stefan going to speak to his father about Kathrine, Caroline knew it wouldn't be long now before Stefan was dosed with vervaine and used as bait for Kathrine and the other vampires.
She'd have to be very careful not to be spotted by the compass, not that vervaine effected her any more she'd been taking it for over a hundred years. She didn't think Klaus would compel her at this point, but why take that risk. She stayed there for hours before she heard them taking Kathrine away to the carriage while the Salvatore brothers planned to save her.
Caroline used her witchy pendant to signal Klaus, she'd made them get one because she missed cell phones and followed the caravan of Vampire death staying far enough away to avoid the compass, she was glad they hadn't missed this, it seemed almost too perfect of timing. Maybe the spirits wanted her to change everything.
Seeing Kathrine brought back memories of Elena, most of them were good, but near the end she had been pretty bitchy, she'd even stolen her prom dress, but she didn't have time to get distracted by that. She wanted to help Kathrine, not because she liked her, but because she thought she could make Stefan and Damon's lives easier if she could.
"That where they got her love?" Klaus asked as Stefan and Damon tried to open the carriage so they could save Kathrine. Klaus was right behind her his hand on the small of her back as if he hadn't even realized he was touching her, and Rebekah was there on her other side looking at the scene unfolding before them.
"Yep, but you have to keep your pants on something has to happen first." She told him, he sighed waiting for her to give him leave to act, it made him seethe knowing she had him so whipped, but he had tried to strike out against it, killing or dating women he didn't care for and it had hurt her as intended, but that had hurt him more then he had expected, he didn't know what it was about her that made him smile when he was furious, and crushed him when she cried.
"Why are we waiting, I could have the moonstone by now if you didn't keep holding me back!" He ground the words out in that low deadly voice she had come to recognize as his cover for vulnerabilities like fear, anger, and sadness.
"Trust me you wouldn't, if you want to break this curse and still have a family and people you can trust with you when you do it you'll cool it." She told him, he wanted to snap, to be mad and lash out, but she had never steered him wrong and it may be his down fall, but he trusted her.
"Fine, but I assure you if I lose the moonstone there will be consequences." He offered the futile threat knowing it wasn't strictly true. Were it any one else he would lash out with his whole being maybe even kill them if they lost him the moonstone, but not her and it scared him which had him pushing her away while trying to keep her to himself.
"I'm aware, calm down." She told him, Rebekah laughed at them, but her good humor was cut off by the sound of two gun shots ringing out through the din. Caroline flashed forward taking Kathrine while the two of them tried to shake the shock of what they'd seen. Not that they cared that the two of them had been killed, but it had just been so unexpected.
They shook out of it and followed Caroline to somewhere safer, Klaus moved to take Kathrine from her, but Caroline put her hand on his chest gently and it was all it too to still him. He looked at her curiously but allowed her to stop him.
"I know you hate Kathrine, but you have to trust me, I'm gonna get you everything you really want if you trust me." She told him as they waited for Kathrine to wake up from the vervaine poisoning.
"And what is it that you think I want love?" He asked feeling rather confidant that she would get it wrong even though she knew him better then anyone else ever had.
"Love, loyalty, power, family, how am I doing so far?" She asked, he had no response to that, but Rebekah laughed.
"She does know you brother." His biting retort was cut off by Kathrine waking up with a groan of displeasure. All there attention shifted to her, Kathrine was shifty and none of them wanted to lose her.
"Hello, Katarina it's been ages." Klaus' voice was drawn out with the deadly undercurrent of amusement brought on by having her in his grasp after wishing so much punishment on her for taking away his chance at breaking the curse.
"Klaus, I..." Kathrine started, Caroline rolled her eyes stepping forward to cut off her desprate pleas.
"Stop, trust me he knows, look you have the moonstone and Klaus wants it back bring it to us and he'll stop chasing you." Caroline offered, Kathrine looked over at Caroline with sudden interest. She seemed to doubt that Caroline had any pull over Klaus.
"I'll what?" Klaus hissed, Caroline turned to him with a sigh while Rebekah watched Kathrine, she put her hands on his shoulders placatingly.
"Look I'm not saying you can't kill her if she comes up and says hi, I'm just saying you won't chase her, it's the best way to get the moonstone. So suck it up and get out of your own way for like two seconds, please." Caroline told him letting her hands drop down to his hands where she held them for a moment until he nodded.
"Good so we've got that cleared up now you're gonna take Rebekah and fetch the moonstone and then you're gonna leave, everybody wins." Caroline said with a smile, Kathrine was in shock by what she had just seen, Caroline had just changed Klaus' mind with a smile and a slight touch. No one could do that to him, to Niklaus the hybrid original.
"Who are you, how can I be sure you'll keep your word?" Kathrine asked in disbelief, Caroline scowled unshure as to why Kathrine was sticking around to ask any questions.
"Hello, I'm giving you an out here, Klaus give her your word you'll stop hunting her." Caroline told him, Klaus chuckled taking a step forward.
"You have my word Kathrine that once I have the moonstone I will not seek you out to kill you." Klaus promised, Kathrine gaped at him for a moment.
"You have a deal." Kathrine said flashing away, Rebekah followed her and Klaus turned back to Caroline.