Notes at the end!

Caroline rolled over and hit someone next to her in bed, shoving them over so she could have more space to stretch out. A dull thud and a disgruntled "oof" came from the floor. Her eyes opened and she saw Elena rubbing her head and yawning.

"Ow Care," she said.

"Oops," Caroline said, "sorry."

After polishing off the champagne, movies, and junk food last night the three of them had decided to slumber it in Elena's bed like they had when they were teenagers. Hearing the noise, Bonnie began to stir on Caroline's other side.

"What time is it?" She asked sleepily.

"Nine," Elena said checking her phone.

"Too early," Caroline complained, her voice still thick with sleep. She was still on Klaus's rock star sleep schedule.

"I should get up," Bonnie replied, "told Jeremy I'd have breakfast with him."

"Yeah, Elijah has already texted me twice this morning."

Caroline laughed. "Didn't peg Elijah for the clingy boyfriend."

"He's not clingy," Elena protested standing up from the floor, "he just misses me and is very open with his feelings. We have a very mature relationship."

"Oh mature of course," Caroline teased, "come on tell the truth…he has this secret wild side right? All those quiet, stuffy suit wearing men do. I've read 50 Shades of Gray."

"Nice try Caroline, I am not dishing details about my sex life with Elijah."

"Oh come on Elena," Caroline said, "just between us girls?"

"Nope," Elena smiled grabbing the hairbrush from her vanity and running it through her messy curtain of hair, "no 50 Shades between me and Elijah."

"You're no fun," Caroline pouted, pulling her hair out of the bun she had wrapped it in the night before.

"Well I will say…knowing how to act has come in handy a few times."

Elena winked turning her attention back toward the mirror. Caroline and Bonnie exchanged shocked, open mouth glances before bursting into a fit of giggles.

Caroline reached over to the nightstand to look at her own phone, a little disappointed that she hadn't received any texts from Klaus over night. She shrugged it off though, thinking maybe he was just being a good boyfriend and giving her space.

As she got dressed, she started feeling more and more nervous about the conversation she needed to have with him that day.

After talking with her friends last night, she realized that being with Klaus was worth all the privacy invasion and crazy fan-girls and gossip and judgmental looks. Because she loved him. She wasn't a stranger to love, she had been in love with boyfriends before but for some reason this time it seemed different to her. With Klaus, it was more significant, more real, and more important. But that also made it more intimidating. It was like being an acrobat. She was used to walking the tightrope and had done it a million times, but now she was out there without the safety net.

She wasn't willing to give up her job opportunity in Chicago. Elena was right in saying that she couldn't just follow Klaus around and be nothing but his girlfriend. She had to be smart about the situation. Doing the long distance thing would suck, but she knew that she would rather have him long distance than not have him at all. She just hoped he felt the same way. They had made it work over the summer and they could make it work now. In fact, they had more reason than ever to make it work now, or so she hoped.

Did he love her too? That was the real kicker. Klaus had said he had been in love before. And if his history with women was anything to go by, he wasn't exactly the love type of guy. The more she thought about that, the more Caroline's old insecurities began to rear their ugly heads. She wondered what made her think that she would be the special one to change all of that for him. Why should he fall for her when he had yet to fall for anyone else?

But she had to know. She valued herself enough not to play games and not to get herself involved with someone who wouldn't love her the way she deserved. And she did deserve love. In spite of all her insecurities, that she one hundred percent believed.

Once she was dressed, she said goodbye to Bonnie and Elena, and headed over to Klaus's apartment. As she drove, she rehearsed in her head what she was going to say, debating on whether or not she should drop the "L" bomb on him. Of course, she didn't expect him to say it right back. That would be nice of course, but she knew Klaus, and knew that he was always great at articulating his feelings when put on the spot. But as long as she could see some sign or indication that he was considering the idea of being in love with her too-well that would be enough for her.

She reached his front door, knocking, and feeling kind of stupid. It wasn't like she didn't have a key and couldn't let herself in. She was flustered. Butterflies were bouncing around her stomach at warp speed. She knew this conversation had the potential to not end well and she was really, really hoping that things would work out.

The locked clicked and Klaus answered, pulling on a t-shirt.

"Morning," she greeted him with a bright smile, trying to act normal.

"Good morning," he replied.

They stood in the doorway for a moment, before Caroline broke the silence with a nervous laugh. "Are you going to let me in?"

"By all means love," Klaus let the door swing open and Caroline walked inside.

"So I need to talk to you," Caroline said turning to face Klaus as he shut the door.

"I'm assuming you're going to come clean about Chicago?"

Caroline bit her lip. "You already heard. How?"

"Oh Katherine already told me all about it," Klaus replied.

"Katherine? What did she say?"

"Did someone call my name?" Katherine appeared then, slinking out of Klaus's bedroom wearing nothing but one of his button-up shirts. Caroline's mouth fell open, her heart stopping as her eyes flicked between Katherine and Klaus. She registered Katherine's raised brow and Klaus's dark expression. His eyes stayed focus on the floor, his mouth set into a hard line. Katherine walked around to the living area. "Oh, here are my jeans. Guess I'll make myself scare and give you two some space." Katherine slipped on her pants and head toward the door.

"How kind of you," Caroline snapped keeping her eyes on Klaus. She glared at him in effort to fight back the tears that had begun to rise. The door swung open behind her as Katherine made her exit.

"Oh Klaus," Katherine called to him before she left, "I guess we're even."

The door clicked shut and Klaus spoke.

"Caroline I—"

"No!" She shouted. "You do not even get to try to explain this."

"I didn't sleep with her, she's just trying to make you think I did, to get back at me."

His voice was passive, detached; like it wasn't a big deal at all that Katherine had stayed overnight doing whatever the hell they had been doing and Caroline was ridiculous for reacting the way that she did.

"Oh just like you didn't sleep with that redhead in Paris, Klaus? This seems to happen to you a lot. How convenient."

Klaus squared his jaw. "Well if we're throwing out accusations, when were you planning on telling me about Chicago?"

"Today," Caroline replied, "just now."

"How convenient," Klaus said, throwing her words back at her.

"Well what about you? When were you going to tell me about Portland?"

"I wasn't."

Caroline opened her mouth, ready with her next retort, but then stopped. Those weren't the words that she had been expecting. "You weren't?"

"No," Klaus said, "I didn't see the point."

"You didn't see the point?" Caroline took a closer look at him then, noticing the stiffness of his expression; the way his mouth held still, and his eyes remained passive. It was his poker face. She had seen it a few times over the months that she had known him. It had been a while since he had thrown up these walls toward her but she knew it meant he was doing it to cover something else up. It wasn't sleeping with Katherine. That was just a distraction from the real issue that he was trying not to bring up. "Klaus if this is about Chicago—"

"Doesn't that make it easier sweetheart?" Klaus said, "You'll go you're way and I'll go mine."

"So you just wanted to end this?"

Her voice was small and vulnerable. She knew this conversation had the potential to go badly, but she hadn't thought it would be like this.

"Yes," Klaus said. "Where was it going really? We were just dragging it out. Now we can both avoid the backlash. It was only supposed to be a bit of fun. " Klaus turned away from her then, heading toward his room, a clear sign of dismissal. "Don't worry. Elijah will come up with some explanation. You'll be off the hook."

"No." Caroline said, holding her ground.

He glanced back over his shoulder. "No?"

Just took a deep breath, steeling her nerves. "I know you didn't sleep with Katherine. There is something else going on here."

"How do you know I didn't?" Klaus challenged.

She shook her head at him. "Okay first you deny it and now you're trying to convince me you did? Obviously I'm right in thinking that for some reason you want me to think you did so you have an easy way to get out of this. Why are you pushing me away?"

Klaus schooled his features into a cocky smirk before turning to face her. "This is pathetic you know," he said with a laugh, "I've seen a lot of women beg me not to leave them, but this is just absurd."

"Klaus…don't—"

"You think you're more important than the others?" He asked stalking toward her. "You all think you can fix me. That you'll be different? That you'll be the one to show the bad boy what he's missing out on?" He was standing over her now, his face inches from hers. "I'm not your little project Caroline."

"I never treated you like a project Klaus," she hugged her arms around her chest," That was Elena. And Elijah. Not me. You're the one who pursued me first."

"And why wouldn't I?" Klaus's eyes raked over her. "But we've had our fun sweetheart. I'm no longer in the mood to pretend to be something I'm not for your sake."

He loomed over her and Caroline flinched at the coldness of his stare. She had never thought of Klaus as an asshole. Anytime that Elena had made mention of Klaus being cruel and unfeeling Caroline had denied it. He was a cocky jerk perhaps, a bit selfish and impulsive, but never someone who was truly, heartlessly mean. But now she saw it. She saw the awful man that Elena saw.

Dropping her arms, she turned from him then and headed for the door. Her hand touched the knob, but before she turned it she faced him again, wanting to get off her chest what she had originally come there to say. No matter what.

"You know, I came here to tell you that I love you. That I was going to Chicago and knew you were going to Portland, but that I still wanted to make it work. That I don't care about all of the fame or any of the crap that comes with it because I think you're worth it. Because I love you."

Klaus was staring at the floor, but he looked up at her then. For a moment she saw him falter and something akin to shock cross his features. But it only lasted a second before his eyes glazed over again, piercing her with intensity and indifference. "But there's one problem sweetheart, I don't love you."

Caroline shuddered, swallowing down the thickness in her throat. Biting back the urge to cry she turned the knob and gave him one final look. "Thanks," she said unable to completely keep the edge of tears from her voice, "that's all I needed to know."

Okay, get the feelings out...I'll wait...

Good?

So the last chapter was basically building to this chapter, in which everything exploded. I basically wanted there to be a bit of jumping around with the two of them over why they were mad/upset with one another. The entire idea was to have a car crash of a fight and leave it with a feeling of 'wait...what the hell just happened?'

Just to clarify in case anyone is confused, Klaus did NOT sleep with Katherine (more on that in next chap). Caroline knows him well enough to know that he was trying to recognize he was using it as an escape hatch when his story started to change (she's smart like that). Klaus in the last chapter basically had poor foresight with Caroline. Where most people see relationships evolving and becoming more serious (leading to love, commitment and happily ever after) Klaus never thinks that far ahead. He's basically getting in his own way when it comes to her.

Just a couple chapters left. Still working out the kinks at the end so your thoughts and feedback could definitely effect those outcomes. Leave me some love (or tough love) in reviews!

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