Caroline came down the stairs finding it dreadful that the house was so quiet.
Elijah was probably in the library, reunited with his books and she could guess where Rebekah had spent her night, but she was worried about Kol's whereabouts.
She was going down to The Grill and look for him when he spared her the ride.
He wasn't even two steps into the house, and already she could smell the stench of alcohol, sex and blood coming from the front door.
Caroline never in a million years could have guessed that she would fall so easily into a motherly role, but that's what she was tackling now, and she pulled the sleeves of her cardigan up and strutted towards him.
When he finally distinguished her figure from a total blur, he saw her pointing at him.
"Outside, now." She ordered sternly.
He gave her a look from behind his sunglasses. "Are you finally evicting us from my brother's house?"
"Don't tempt me…" She tried to make him turn around, by taking his shoulders and guiding him outside.
"Easy on the touching, darling."
"Walk with me outside... please." She asked with a warm smile.
"I'm not in the mood, Caroline. I'm tired... the girls tonight were into some weird kinky stuff." He said with a tired sigh.
Caroline rolled her eyes. "Stop it."
"Strangely, that's not a safe word." He said with a smile.
It was surely meant to be sarcastic, but it came out sad instead.
"No, Kol... stop with the self-destruction." She asked him candidly.
Touched by her genuine concern, he agreed to have a walk with her in the garden.
They walked in silence for a bit, and he knew that she was just looking for the right way to start the conversation.
"I did have sex last night." He started.
"Do you have any idea how similar we are?"
He stopped with a shady look at her.
She smiled. "None of the good guys wanted me and the bad ones only wanted to use me. I was never the favorite friend, because that was Elena." She started collecting a few flowers. "She was the best friend, the best girlfriend, the best student, the best daughter..."
Kol didn't know if he was supposed to interrupt, so he listened in silence.
"I was never the friend everyone wanted at the party, the one who everyone rushed to tell the news or the one who was important." She then beamed at Kol. "And then the bunch of you showed up and I grew closer to Bonnie but drifted apart from Elena. I related to Bekah and to everyone else in this family, because everyone was damaged and screwed up as much as I was."
"Thank you for that insightful compliment." Kol grumbled.
Caroline giggled. "You're such a tool, Kol."
"This conversation is encouraging." He cocked his eyebrow.
"I know how you feel right now." Caroline said sweetly.
"You had a lot of rough mornings, after meaningless sex?"
"I know that you feel like if you died right now, no one would notice or care." She slowly saw him reacting to her words. "But you're wrong... I've been there, there was a time in my life when I felt like not a single person in this entire world cared about me."
"I never cared about any of that. Growing up the way that we did, made it easier to disconnect from everyone around us."
"You're the most screwed up family I could ever imagine and yet you would die for each other."
"Unless we are busy trying to kill each other."
"I know that Bonnie hurt you."
"Only because I allowed her to."
"I'm a terrible, awful friend. I once was a terrible, awful person but I realized that I mostly hated everything about me, and I didn't know how to deal with that. It took me a very long process to get here and one amazing man, but still... I'm a lousy friend." Caroline confessed with a sting inside of her chest.
"Why are you saying that?" Kol asked her quietly.
"Because there's a chance to have Elena with us again and I'm worried about Bekah. Still, Elena was my friend, and I didn't even properly mourn her because there was so much crazy stuff happening around me that I was terrified of what might happen to any of us, and then at the same time I was just so happy with Nik that it was like that perfect little world that we created was the only place where I wanted to live in. What you said back at the hospital was true, I had no clue of what was happening to Bonnie because I didn't spend enough time with my friend."
"You weren't the only one blind to it." He removed his sunglasses.
"We all lost control of what was happening inside of our own house."
"Bonnie made her choice to leave after she was turned, and there was nothing you and I could've done about that."
"I can be very proactive when I want to." Caroline handed a rose to Kol.
He narrowed his eyes at the white flower. "You're really sneaky…"
Caroline brought her shoulders together. "I'm looking out for my family."
"I need a bath." Kol grumbled as he turned away to leave.
"Take your time with it… there's a lot of cleansing to do." Caroline said with a singing voice.
"Whatever you say, mother." Kol replied in the same manner.
She smiled happily, because she definitely could get used to this motherly business.
Rebekah took her shoes off on her way up the staircase and extra-silently made her way to the bedroom, inaudibly, she closed the door and smiled happy that no one had seen her arrive to the house-
As she turned around, she squealed like a pathetic little damsel because she wasn't expecting to find Klaus standing in the middle of her room, looking anything but friendly.
She gulped down and gave him a forced smile. "Good morning, Nik..."
"Part of me wants to believe that you're intelligent enough not to be bedding Damon again, the other part of me is battling very hard, about killing him after I turn you so that I can dagger you for eternity."
Rebekah fretfully laughed. "Silly Nik…"
He remained motionless, with his arms crossed over his chest.
She tossed her shoes to the side. "Shall we go back in time for a bit?" She smiled at him and carried on before he snapped. "1920's. Great fashion, outstanding hairdos and a glorious city to share with you. I see a baby face and for the first time, I feel something other than the unhealthy love that I nurture for you." She dropped her voice with extra intent. "I meet Stefan Salvatore and we dance, and we kiss, and I have my first vampire on vampire sex. And also, the first of many three ways with another human girl, who would be drained at the end of the night."
Klaus closed his eyes, it wasn't something he enjoyed, knowing shameless details about his baby sister's sex life.
She smiled, knowing that she was making him queasy. "I'm in a great epoch that will be remembered forever in history and I'm loving every second of it until our dear father ruins everything, and you end up trapping me inside of a casket."
"Is there a point somewhere, down this particular memory lane, Bekah?" He asked her impatiently.
"Yes, there is." She responded calmly. "Fast-forward to present time, and Elijah visited the world of the dead, Kol is miserable because he finally fell in love and I'm human, while my big brother is married to a glorious sunshine. The point is that everything changed, Nik."
"It's still a Salvatore in your bed." He pointed out.
"With Stefan I never did any of the things I did last night with Damon." She pushed the envelope amused.
"Enough!" Klaus ended the show sternly. "I will not let Damon be the next Matt, and by that, I mean that your free choice is revoked."
She gave him a challenging look, but he didn't wait for a proper reaction, he left the room steadfast on taking the reins of her romantic life.
He wasn't too excited about this decision and even after he was already inside of the library, Kol still doubted his own good judgment.
Elijah was easily engrossed by his reading, but he was making an extra effort to remain focused in it.
"I'm going over to the town's Pub…" Kol said.
"Do you mean to say that you're going back to it?" Elijah changed pages on his book.
"Yes, and I was probably still intoxicated when I decided to talk to you." Kol turned away with a grumble.
"May I join you for a drink?" Elijah rested his book.
"Do whatever you want." Kol grumbled on his way out.
Caroline parked the car outside of Bonnie's house for her usual routine, every day she drove here and checked the mail before going inside, to keep the house neat for when Bonnie decided to return.
Today wasn't a different routine and she left the mail on the coffee table on her way to the kitchen.
She was exchanging a few messages with a snappy Klaus and reminding him that Rebekah was entitled to her own choices, when she heard the front door.
Caroline quickly came into the living room.
"Hey…" Bonnie said slowly. "I'm back." She smiled a bit.
Caroline covered her mouth emotionally but before that stopped her from thinking straight, she rushed over to Bonnie and wrapped her arms around her for a tight hug.
Bonnie closed her eyes hugging the other back, for once, she wasn't going to complain about Caroline's strength.
They had been sitting at the same table without crossing stares or words, and the uneasiness was escalating from awkward to unbearable.
"I usually find the silence soothing, but this isn't the case at all." Elijah started.
"Caroline is quite the interesting little thing, she's all fun and games and then she gets all serious and remarkably right on point..." Kol pulled the bottle closer to him.
Elijah smiled. "I've learned just how insightful she can be."
"She made me remember that family comes first." Kol had his drink with a brief look at Elijah.
He didn't have the chance to say what was on his mind, because Klaus arrived at the pub and sat right next to him with a huff.
"I'm going to kill Damon, who wants to help me with that?" He took Elijah's glass without asking.
"I could use the entertainment." Kol offered his assistance.
The two of them looked at Elijah.
"I don't enjoy staining my suit with blood." Elijah retrieved his drink.
"Why are we killing Damon?" Kol asked.
"Bekah had sex with him." Klaus answered miffed.
"I needed something more substantial to make me move." Kol waved the empty bottle at the bartender for a replacement.
"I can't be the only one bothered by this." Klaus dropped his phone on the table, even Caroline wasn't answering his messages at the moment.
"I thought that Damon wasn't a foe anymore." Kol lined up the glasses.
"I don't want her involved with a Salvatore." Klaus was not ready to budge although he sort of enjoyed Damon's company.
"She's a big girl, all on her own." Kol distributed the alcohol along the line of glasses.
Klaus looked at Elijah for his opinion.
"We should inquire the authenticity of his feelings." He delivered.
That sat well with all of them, and they all reached for a glass with a big mischievous smile on their lips.
"Where have you been, Bonnie?" Caroline sat on the sofa with her.
"There was a lot happening with my mind and with my body, and I needed time to figure things out. I'm different, and that takes time to get used to." Bonnie was truly apologetic about the hasty departure.
Caroline folded her leg and got comfortable on the sofa. "We could have helped you, Bonnie. You didn't have to run away."
"I know that I hurt a lot of people..." She stopped to lightly bite her lower lip. "How is he?"
"He's not well." Caroline honestly answered.
"It's better if he doesn't know that I came back, he already hates me, and I don't want to make things harder for him."
Caroline knew Bonnie and she could see all the sadness in her eyes. "What's really going on?"
"I love him." She looked down at her hands. "But then again…"
"Klaus mentioned the confession you've made to Elijah."
"I knew that Elijah would tell him and that it would end up on your radar." She looked up at Caroline with a smile. "Klaus can't keep anything to himself, since he got married."
Caroline motioned her hand into a little throw. "He's been like that since we shared a bench in the town square."
"I sort of have that with Elijah." Bonnie trapped her long fringe behind her ear. "While with Kol everything was more passionate than organic."
"You're not making sense to me." Caroline admitted. "You and Kol were inseparable, and I know love when I see it."
"When I was human, my magic around him was powerful and explosive, I mean… we brought you back with just a kiss. Then, we made love and the lights imploded and everything was really intense…"
"Was that a bad thing?" Caroline softly asked.
"After that first time, I learned how to control myself, but I was still draining Kol, every time that we were together. I was taking so much energy from him that if he was human, I would have killed him during sex."
"I had no idea." Caroline could only imagine how Bonnie felt, hurting someone she loved was Caroline's biggest nightmare.
"I learned how not to hurt him and most of the time he didn't care if I did, because he wanted to be with me."
Caroline smiled with an understanding crossing her face. "But you weren't comfortable."
"It's hard to enjoy such an intimate moment with someone when in the back of your mind is the recurrent thought that you can't let go or you're going to hurt them badly."
"Bon…" Caroline had to give her a big hug now.
And Bonnie really liked that.
"Just…" Caroline pulled away softly. "You're a vampire now and that means that you're stronger, so maybe you would be able to control it better…"
"Like I've controlled my seemingly nonexistent feelings for Elijah?"
Caroline clasped her lips, that was the downside of having such amplified senses.
"All of a sudden, what I felt for Elijah was pure and what I felt for Kol was as blurry as the dark magic in me."
"Are you going to choose Elijah over Kol?"
Bonnie shook her head. "For now, I'm choosing myself because I'm still a witch and I wasn't expecting that."
"I always knew that you were special." Caroline beamed with a pull of her shoulders together.
Bonnie laughed. "You're always looking for the positive side in everything."
"I'm just really happy that you're back." Caroline sweetly said.
Bonnie smiled at ease as well. "So, how's everything around here, did I miss anything big?"
"I have so much to tell you!" Caroline excitedly straightened up.
She had a world of events to report but she couldn't be long because she was meeting Liz in a few.
It was hard being concise when she had so much news to tell Bonnie, so Caroline arrived at The Grill a bit late.
"Hey mom, have you been waiting for a long time?" She sat down with her best smile.
Liz chuckled. "I'm just happy that you showed up."
"I'm here and I'm all yours." She grinned.
"At least until the crowd in the back steals your attention."
Caroline moved her head for a peek, Klaus was here with his brothers.
"They're all sitting together." She was surprised by that. "It's been a rough time lately for the Mikaelson sibling line." She explained.
"Mhm…" Liz sipped on her mug of coffee.
"But I'm here for you." Caroline found her main focus back.
"At least Kol stopped narrowing down the female numbers in town."
"He's just sleeping with them now." Caroline huffed.
"Damon isn't much of a competition lately." Liz had only seen him with Rebekah lately.
"And he better stay that way, if he wants to stay alive." Caroline commented with her eyes on the menu.
Her mother couldn't hear it, but right now there was a plot between brothers to shove Damon against the wall and put the fear of God in him.
Rebekah came out of her car grimacing a little, when she recognized the cars in the parking lot, everyone was here and for a moment she wondered if it was just better to get back inside of the car and drive over to Damon's, but her plans were put on hold because someone was watching her.
Either he wasn't too good at this, or he wasn't making an effort and she waited for him to approach her.
It wasn't hard to guess that he was one of Vicki's newborns sired to kill her, but she wasn't in the mood for any of this, she was cranky, and she took it out on the foolish vampire by making his head hurt so much that he was bleeding when she released her control over him.
"Having fun without me, Bex?" Damon asked, as he pulled over next to her car.
Rebekah smiled, happy to see him. "Sorry..."
Damon came out of his blue car with a smile for her as well, the newborn was agonizing on the ground, so he wasn't going anywhere and for now he wanted to kiss Rebekah.
"If I knew that you would be here soon, I would've waited for you." Rebekah told him as he grew near her.
"It's never too late to have fun together." He pulled her closer to him by tugging the sides of her leather jacket.
Rebekah gladly melted against him. "Or too soon."
He smirked, enjoying the direction of the conversation. "I knew that I shouldn't have let you go home this morning."
She searched for his lips with that in mind and slowly they sealed the first meeting after a big night with a long kiss.
When Bonnie slowly opened her door, she didn't know who to expect but it surely wasn't the duo wearing dark suits.
"Can I help you?" She asked the two strangers.
One of them smiled and handed her a card.
"My Master wishes to have a meeting with you."
Bonnie took the card with suspicion, she looked at the imprinted wolf image and then back at the tall man with a foreign accent, it sounded like he was from the Middle East.
"Am I allowed to refuse?"
He nodded. "You are…" He accepted something that was wrapped in a cloth from the other man. "… but he insists on it."
As he unfolded the ancient fabric around the item in his hand, Bonnie recognized the witch venom that he was holding inside of a small glass bottle.
"I'm going to grab a coat." She eyed them both fearless.
Kol had migrated to the bar, although things were easier with Elijah, it still hurt to look at him and to think that he was part of the reason he lost Bonnie.
Klaus joined him at the counter with a mindful expression.
Kol chuckled. "If you're here for an emotional intervention, Caroline already beat you to it."
"I could only choose one, Kol."
Kol looked at him puzzled.
"We had to outrun and constantly hide from Mikael, and I could only protect one of you, if we were ever to have a fair chance at surviving. So, when the time came to run, I chose Rebekah." Klaus faced his brother regretfully, for not telling him sooner that it hadn't been an easy choice.
"If I had to choose as you did, I would've chosen our baby girl as well."
Klaus showed his dimples with a smile. "If she dreams that we've called her this, she will carve our hearts out just to make us take it all back."
Kol laughed. "Shall we abduct Damon and torture him now?"
Klaus turned around to lean against the counter, Rebekah was here with him, and she was laughing, she also seemed happy for a change.
"It's a deed that can wait for a few hours."
"Tomorrow then." Kol decided.
They made a toast with their shot glasses and smiled at each other.
As the moment warmly settled in, a girl joined them at the bar, she had a really seductive smile and a flirtatious look for them while she asked for a drink.
"May I pay for that drink?" Kol easily asked her.
"I wouldn't mind if he bought me one." She looked straight at Klaus.
"I'm not interested, sweetheart." Klaus chuckled.
She moved to stand between him and Kol and straightforwardly guided her fingers to the rim of his Henley sleeve. "Are you sure?" She asked him enticingly.
Kol was terribly amused by the gutsy move and looked at the scene just waiting for the girl's doom, it arrived swiftly, as Caroline joined the gathering.
"Excuse me... Hayley, is it?" Caroline narrowed her eyes at the brunette.
Hayley interrupted her measurement of Klaus's muscles and faced Caroline, annoyed. "What do you want?"
"Right now, it would be awesome if you took your werewolf paws off my husband." She warned the other with an attitude.
Instantly, Hayley frowned. "Husband?"
Klaus nodded. "That happens to be my extremely sweltering wife."
"You can't be serious." Hayley muttered.
Caroline poked her shoulder with a finger. "My husband and my own man to seduce, so get lost."
Hayley glared at Caroline, before she decided to walk away.
Klaus had a small, entertained chuckle. "Took you long enough, sweetheart. I was starting to worry that you would feed me to the wolves."
She held a finger in front of his face. "It's not the time to be funny, Klaus."
He circled his arms around her waist. "Hello, wife…"
She tilted her head. "Hello, moron of a husband, who gets turned on by young girls aiming at his attention."
Klaus inched his face to hers. "I get fired up, whenever you call me husband."
Kol laughed from his stool. "You get on point by just mentioning Caroline's name."
She laughed as well. "See? He knows you as well as I do."
"You missed... that?" He moved his chin in Kol's direction.
Caroline started playing with the beads of his necklace. "I did."
"Are you two hiding something death-threatening from us?" Kol asked naturally.
Caroline and Klaus looked at him confused.
"You are very emotional today and handing out loving words, so..."
"Seriously, Kol?" Caroline asked him with a look.
"I'm used to a blade instead of a hug." He turned to his drink.
Rebekah walked over with Elijah by her side. "We're leaving."
"I'm going with you. I had a really long day after a really long useless night." Kol stood up looking at the couple.
"My beautiful wife chooses." Klaus left the continuation of their night, up to Caroline.
"Let's all go home together." She decided.
They all left the pub in a good mood.
Kol was teasing Rebekah about Damon, while Klaus was walking hand in hand with Caroline.
Elijah was in the front and immediately halted as he encountered Eric waiting for them with a small group.
"Can we be of help?" Elijah asked him coldly.
"My Master wishes to have a word with Niklaus." He said, resolute of his intentions.
"Again, with this?" Klaus was weary of all the insistence.
"I apologize for the persistence."
A deep voice echoed from behind the wall of men.
They parted ways for him to come forward, and once it happened, Caroline felt something strange, his features were somewhat familiar.
"Who are you?" Klaus asked with his eyes steady on the man as well.
"My name is Ansel, and I'm your real father, Niklaus."