An Ocean in the Way
Caroline raced to her house, throwing doors open and slamming them in her wake until she was in her room. Her phone clutched in her hand, the cruel notification telling her he had called. For what? What purpose did he possibly think that it would be a good idea to call? Did he want to tell her? To crush her himself? Well it was too late for that.
She couldn't even rationalize why she was so angry. He wasn't hers, she had no real claim on him, and still it hurt it burned her to know that he had been with someone else. That she wasn't it to him, and that she would never be it again. Because, as she had learned from Katherine, her cruel sire, who somehow seemed to see straight through to Caroline's heart, twisting the knife of the knowledge of Klaus' child with her callous smirk. She hadn't cared any more at that point. She hadn't cared about what Stefan or Damon or Katherine would read into her fleeing. All she knew was that she had to go, she had to leave, she couldn't be around them, and she couldn't breathe.
It didn't make sense, she was supposed to love Tyler, she wasn't supposed to be jealous over Hayley being with Klaus. But maybe that was the problem, that she felt she was supposed to love Tyler, that she was supposed to be with Tyler, that she wasn't supposed to want to be with Klaus, and she most certainly wasn'tsupposed to care about him impregnating random werewolves. But she did care. And it hurt, it hurt so much.
It was ludicrous really. He was dead, technically, same as her. How did something like this even happen? She couldn't wrap her mind around the idea, and desperate to have a feeling other than despair and loss, she unlocked her phone and dialed the voicemail. She expected him to tell her something like that he was never coming back, or to tell her about the baby and end things with her— not that they really had a deep thing, but the thought of their new friendship ending… well Caroline didn't want it to end. The message she got was worse though.
"Caroline. I'm standing in one of my favorite places in the world. Surrounded by food, music, art, culture. And I can only think of how I wanted to show you. Maybe one day you let me".
He still… he still wanted her? He was still going to wait for her?
She only realized that her phone had been thrown out of her hand when she heard the shattering as it hit her bedroom wall, leaving a good sized dent in the process. And then, the satisfaction of the destruction of her phone hitting her, she darted to her closet door, ripping them open and pulling the two dresses out. And holding them together, she ripped them to shreds in a matter of minutes. Her next target was her nightstand, the drawer ripped out, the drawing in her hand, her fingers poised ready to give the drawing the same treatment as the dresses. But she looked at it, really looked at it, the Thank you for your honesty catching her eye, and she couldn't. She couldn't destroy the last part of him she had. The only part that would ever be hers now.
Because she wouldn't go to him. Not like this, not with this in the way. And she wouldn't get in the way of Klaus and his child. There was so much preventing her from even wanting to see him ever again, because even though she knew it was illogical, he wasn't hers she had to remind herself over and over, she couldn't escape the torturing image of him with Hayley from her mind. A thought that hurt worse than the thought of Hayley with Tyler had hurt her. And that was how she knew, how she finally was able to accept that she felt something for Klaus. And she had decided that it was too late.