AUAH: Klaus gets injured and Caroline tries to save him with basic first-aid skills. "Are you sure you're qualified to do this?" "Excuse you, I happen to be a certified babysitter, and I've seen Grey's Anatomy."

"Oh my god." She lets out, as Klaus walks through the door, covered in blood.

Rebekah is tripping along behind her brother, a concerned but exasperated look on her face.

"He's not healing properly." Rebekah supplies, even as Klaus takes off his shirt and drops it onto the floor, his chest a tapestry of cuts and gashes. "It's nothing too serious I don't think."

"Kol is disembowelling the witch who cast the curse on me as we speak." Klaus calls over his shoulders, leaving bloody hand prints on the wooden banister as he hauls himself up the stairs. "Hopefully that will be enough to reverse whatever the hell she did."

She drops her book and vamp speeds after him, catching him around the waist just as he falls through the doorway to their shared room.

Klaus' skin is ashen, and he looks kind of pale, something she hadn't noticed before through all of his bravado. She eases him down to sit on the bed, taking in his faintly amused smile as she pulls off his boots and heads to their bathroom for first aid supplies. It wouldn't be the first time that she's washed the blood off of him.

Klaus always had been insatiable after a spate of violence.

She doesn't come up with much. Given that they're supernatural, blood sucking creatures of the night it's not like they have much need for bandages and plasters. She should have thought of this scenario.

She reaches for a few washers and manages to find a bowl of water so she can wash his cuts and grazes, or at least try to stem the bleeding.

She sets the bowl on the covers beside him, perching on his knee as he lets out a relieved sigh. She knows that he worries sometimes, that something like this would be enough to drive her away.

He'd promised her forever, and she's long forgiven him for his sins.

She wets the cloth and presses it against his heated skin, wiping away the dried blood and watching as the cut slowly heals over. Klaus rests his forehead against her cheek, breathing out as she breathes in, concentrating on the task at hand.

"Are you even qualified to do this sweetheart?" Klaus asks bemusedly, totally ruining her moment.

She draws back to look at him, askance.

"I will have you know that I have seen every episode of Grey's Anatomy at least twice. And I'm a certified babysitter." She replies immediately, wincing at how amateurish she actually sounds.

"You probably should have led with the second statement first." Klaus points out in that infuriatingly smug tone of his, dipping his hands into the bowl of water, turning the water pink as he scrubs the blood off his hands.

She realises why he's done it seconds later, when his hands creep under the Henley of his that she'd taken to wearing around the house.

"Stop it." She swats his hands away with a scowl. "I'm trying to do first aid here."

"I'm not dying Caroline." Klaus remarks patiently, amusement still colouring his tone.

"But you're not healing properly either." She replies quickly, ducking her head so she doesn't have to look him in the eyes.

He seems to pick up on her distress though damn him, cupping her cheek gently as he forces her to look at him.

"I'm not going anywhere Caroline." It's probably supposed to be reassuring, but all it reminds her of is just how many people are out to get him.

She drops the cloth onto the floor with a wet slap, twining her arms around his neck and burying her head in his shoulder, not even caring that she's probably going to get blood all over his Henley. Klaus returns her embrace, hand stroking through her hair gently even as he presses a soft kiss to her temple.

"You should have some blood. It might help with the healing." She says a little shakily, even as Klaus nods in agreement, looking around for where she keeps her blood bags stocked.

His eyes dart towards hers uncertainly when she offers him her wrist. They'd blood shared before, and she'd never realised what a truly intimate experience it was until they'd done it during sex.

It wasn't an everyday sort of thing, and this would be the first time they've done it fully clothed, without any intention to even have any sort of sex.

"Sweetheart… are you sure?" Klaus asks hesitantly, gripping her wrist with elegant fingers, tapping against her pulse point in time with her heartbeat.

"I want you to do it." She whispers, still perched in his lap.

Klaus smiles apologetically as his fangs spring out from his gums, the sharp piercing of skin as his venom floods into her system.

But after that it's always pleasure.

Her eyes meet his as he takes his fill from her, an intimate moment in every sense of the world. Truthfully she loves feeling connected to him like this, loves the feeling of the most powerful being in the world being brought to his knees all because of her.

And of course, she loves him.

Klaus bares his neck towards her, the ultimate sign of trust.

She doesn't hesitate to take his blood in return.