What Hurts the Most

Angst. Thanks to approvesomuch for letting me use her idea ;)

It was stupid, foolish, reckless. She shouldn't have done it. She didn't know... but that was a lie. She did know why she did it; all she had been able to think as the hunter raised his arm to plunge the stake into Klaus' chest was that she had to save him. There was no thought in her mind that it wasn't the white oak stake and therefore it could not hurt him. No, the only thought that propelled her to flash in between him and the hunter was that he could not be hurt. Caroline couldn't, wouldn't, let that happen. And then the stark reality of what she had just done hit her with the combination of Klaus' horror struck face, his hands reaching out for her, and the sharp pain of the stake tearing into her back.

She felt all her guilt, all her regret, crash over her in that moment. The things she should have done, the things she should have said, the places she wanted to go, and the things she had wanted to do. The things she had wanted to experience with Klaus. It hurt her that only now, when her death was assured- the stake pressing into her heart further and further before the pressure was ripped away, and the anguished screams, short lived as they were, of the hunter filled her ears- could she admit that she had feelings for him. They weren't love, not yet, but she knew in that moment that she was close to letting herself, and she wished she had had the chance to tell him... then the stake was ripped from her back and he cradled her in his arms, holding her against him. "I-I'm so so-rry." She stammered, continuing on even when he tried shushing her. "I shoul-d have told you how I felt about you. I shouldn't ha-ve told you that I hated you." Her breath was ragged in her throat, and she coughed up blood, spitting it out to the side, wondering why she wasn't healing. Why if she wasn't, it was taking so long for her to die.

"He pierced your heart." Klaus seemed to realize what was going on when he moved his hand to her back and felt the blood that continued to seep out of the wound. "I can't do anything if he pierced your heart-"

"Hey," She cut him off, grabbing his chin as best she could in her weakening state. "It's not your fault Klaus."

"Why did you do that?" He asked, searching her face, and she tried to smile at him reassuringly.

"I don't know."

"I would have survived Caroline."

"I know."

"Then why?" He growled, angry now that she wasn't giving him the answers he so desperately needed.

"I couldn't- I couldn't let you get hurt."

incredulousness painted his features. "What?"

"I care about you and I-I couldn't let you get hurt."

"But now you're hurt." And her heart broke a little when his voice broke.

"I did it for you though. And if I had the choice I would have done it again."

Caroline died with a smile on her mouth, finally in Klaus' arms as she had wanted to be for so long, but had never allowed herself to be. And that was how Stefan found them hours later; Caroline's smiling face, almost making him believe that she was not dead, and Klaus clutching her to him tightly, tears streaking down his face. It was a struggle to convince Klaus to leave the forest, and he ceased trying to pull her away from him when he ended up with a broken wrist after the first attempt. He eventually got his old friend to leave though, bringing her body to the mansion. Stefan tried to make a case for why she should be brought to her mother's, but a silent glare from Klaus ceased his arguments in his throat. He had never seen him like this, and Stefan was worried. Maybe, maybe now was the time to rekindle their friendship, he thought as he followed Klaus into his house, watching as he laid Caroline on his bed tenderly. They had both lost the girl that had meant a lot to them, though they cared in different ways Stefan realized.

"You loved her, didn't you?"

Klaus' shoulders tensed, and he did not turn around, but he nodded at his friend. "I loved her. And now she's gone."