Here for You

Request: drabble based on some of the 4x18 stills.

This is headcanon. Fluff.

Caroline walked into his mansion, expecting him to be a little hurt from the phone call Stefan had sent her, but not this badly. Oh, she expected a physical wound, and that was very evident from his exposed back, making her flinch slightly at the sight, but it was the yelling she was unprepared for. He was yelling at some phantom she couldn't see, some inner demon that was tormenting him, threatening whatever it was he saw. "Klaus!" He turned wildly, backing up against the fireplace, fear evident for the first time since she had known him in his eyes, a thin sheen of sweat coating his body.

"Caroline." Klaus choked out, as though unsure whether she was real or not, a wary tone to his voice, before his eyes cleared and he stumbled forward before he fell to his knees in front of her. She stood still for a moment, so confused by the situation, before she rushed forward, gripping his arms and pulling him up to his feet before releasing him quickly.

"What's going on? I thought SIlas just staked you." Stefan hadn't mentioned any crazy hallucinations when he called her, and she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do in this situation. It complicated things; she was supposed to go in, check his wound, maybe get him some blood and make sure he healed before going on her merry way. She couldn't leave him like this though; she wasn't nearly angry enough with him to do that.

"I don't know," he ground out, his fists clenched as he turned away from her, walking the length of the room before turning back to her. "I don't know what he's capable of. All I know is I keep hearing these voices in my head, seeing figures, almost like the hunter's curse, and they're saying... things I don't want to hear."

She marked the hesitance he had taken before finishing his statement, wondering what he had been about to say, wondering what they could possibly be saying to him to affect him so, but her thoughts were cut off when he started yelling for whoever was plaguing him to just shut up and leave him alone, to go away and not come back. It was scaring her; not him necessarily, but that he seemed so helpless, so lost and confused, and she felt helpless in return. But no, she wouldn't be that girl anymore, she was going to help him.

In a split second decision, Caroline flashed to him, hoping that she was blocking his sight from whatever he was experiencing, cupping his face in her hands making him stop his angry tirade against the forces she couldn't see. "Hey, I'm here. I'm real, no one else."

He nodded slowly, leaning into her one hand, bringing his own up to rest on the crook of her elbow. "I'm going to stay here with you Klaus, alright? I won't leave you alone. As long as I'm here, I'll tell you what's real and what's not."