Chapter 32

The next day after training and school, Cassie sat Alaric and Jeremy down with dinner.

"Ok so what's going on?" Jeremy asked

"What?" Cassie asked "cant I make dinner for my dad and little brother?"

"No" Alaric and Jeremy answered at the same time.

Cassie laughed, "Ok you got me" she said "I know that you guys have questions about headquarters and the super secret hunters club, so I figured that I could make dinner and you could ask them."

"Ok" Jeremy said and he started eating.

Alaric and Cassie watched Jeremy shovel the food into his mouth.

"That's gross Jer," she said.

Alaric laughed. "So headquarters?"

Cassie nodded "its where you can go to train yourself against the supernatural."

"Does it have a structure? Rules?" Alaric asked

"It has the council, its five elected hunters" Cassie said, "Elections are every three years."

"That's crazy" Jeremy said "there is no way its that organized"

Alaric laughed.

"Its true, we have rules and everything" Cassie said.

"Rules?" Jeremy asked, "Am I breaking the rules?"

"No" Cassie said, "You aren't officially apart of our hunter's society. So they can't punish you."

Jeremy nodded and kept eating.

"What are the rules?" Alaric asked.

"The usual, don't talk about the hunters club," Cassie said joking.

"Ha, ha" Alaric said.

"But seriously its just don't lead a vampire to where headquarters is. They understand that not all vampires are evil but they would rather not have any vampires in headquarters so if a vampire is found in there, its killed." Cassie said.

Alaric nodded and the three of them started to eat.

Klaus walked up to the boarding house and rang the bell.

Stefan opened the door. "Can I help you?" he asked confused seeing Klaus there.

"Actually you can't, but your brother can." Klaus said walking in.

"You rang the doorbell" Stefan asked confused.

"Well considering what I am about to do I figured showing some manners before hand would be appropriate." He said.

Damon walked down the steps seeing Klaus and Stefan.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Damon asked.

"Looking for you mate" Klaus said walking towards him. "You see I need the cure to make more hybrids, which means I need the mark complete, which means that I need you" he said sticking his hand into Damon. "To not hurt the person I have making sure my hunter stays safe"

Damon groaned.

Stefan took a step foreword.

"Do you understand?" Klaus growled.

Damon nodded.

Klaus smiled "good" he said and he pulled his hand out of Damon.

Damon dropped to the ground and Klaus turned to Stefan.

"Here" he said dropping something in Stefan's hands. "Your brother might want this back" and he blurred away.

Stefan looked down and saw Damon's spleen.

Katherine walked into the living room and saw Damon on the floor. She looked at Stefan who had his spleen.

"What happened?" Katherine said laughing.

"Klaus" Stefan said walking over to Damon and dropped his spleen next to him.

Katherine sat down on the couch, she was laughing so hard. "Why?"

"He somehow found out what Damon did to Cassie" Stefan said sitting next to Katherine.

Damon groaned as he put his spleen back into his body. "That's not funny," he groaned.

"Yes it is" Katherine said pulling out her phone "Cassie has to know about this"

"Why?" Stefan said.

"Why do you think Klaus came over here?" Katherine said.

"He said it was because he needs Cassie to help Jeremy and if she gets hurt she might leave" Stefan said.

"Oh sweetie tell me you aren't that naïve still," Katherine said standing up and walking out as Cassie picked up her phone.

Klaus walked in to the manor.

"Who did you kill this time?" Rebecca asked seeing the blood.

"I didn't kill anybody, I just reminded someone about the importance of manners." Klaus said.

"What did you do to Damon."? Kol asked.

Klaus didn't say anything and sat next to Rebecca.

"That was sweet" Rebecca said.

Klaus rolled his eyes. "Listen Becca we have been slowly putting the pieces of this family back together these past couple of months," he said looking at Kol who sat down, knowing where this was going.

"Yes" Rebecca said. "What's wrong?"

"well sister there are rumors that Mikael is back," Kol said.

"And we just thought they were rumors so I sent Kol and Elijah out to see if it was true." Klaus said.

"But then Faye was un-daggered" Kol said.

"So you guys think that Mikael is back?" Rebecca asked.

"At the very least someone is trying to make us think that he is back" Klaus said.

Rebecca put her face into her hands. "I thought we took care of this"

"I know" Klaus said really feeling bad for his sister. "But I have something that might help"

"What?" Rebecca asked.

The doorbell rang.

Cassie, Alaric, and Jeremy were sitting at the table talking about school and work when Jeremy got called in for a shift at the grill.

Alaric turned to Cassie "I have to grade some papers, are you ok cleaning this up?" he gestured to the dinner mess.

Cassie laughed. "Go on, go grade the papers of America's future" and she stood up to start doing the dishes.

She just finished putting the last dish in the dishwasher when her phone rang.

"Hello?" She answered.

"You will not believe what just happened" Katherine said over the phone.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Klaus came over and literally ripped Damon's spleen out of his body for hurting you" Katherine said.

"What?" Cassie asked sitting down in a chair. "Why?"

"Well his excuse is that he needs you to help Jeremy out," Katherine said.

"And you don't believe that?" Cassie asked.

"No, he so likes you" Katherine squealed.

"Rin I am so not doing this right now, four days ago you were telling me Damon liked me so forgive me if I don't follow your advice this time" Cassie said.

"Ok, granted the thing with Damon didn't go as I planned. But…"

"Rin, you're my best friend and I love you for trying to make sure I am happy but I don't need a guy in my life right now."

"Cass you know that's not true, and I know that what happened between you and Damon hurt"

"Of course it hurt Rin! He left me for my sister. But I have to help Jeremy so I can get Elena's humanity back then, maybe I'll worry about finding a guy."

"Fine, but we should talk about who un-daggered Faye"

"I have a theory," Cassie told Katherine.

"Care to elaborate?"

"Not until I know I'm right," Cassie said shutting the dishwasher.

"Fine" she huffed,

"Bye Rin" she said and hung up, she grabbed her keys and left the house.

Cassie opened the door and ran straight into someone. She would have fallen had a pair of arms caught her and steadied her.

"Careful" Damon's voice said softly.

"Damon" Cassie said.

Damon groaned as he shoved his spleen back into his body. Elena had walked down the steps.

"Damon?" she asked seeing the mess. "What happened?"

"Klaus" he groaned and sat up.

"Here" she said offering him her help and the two of them sat on the couch.

The two of them sat together, it was nice but Damon couldn't shake the feeling that someone else fit together with him better.

"Why?" Damon asked.

"Why what?" Elena asked.

"Why now? I was trying with your sister or I was going to try, I can't really remember but I know you and Stefan were getting back together, so why?" Damon asked trying to voice his confusion over the sudden change in Elena's heart.

"Honestly I don't know, I wanted to make it work with Stefan but, all of the sudden it was you, I wanted you Damon so I decided to let you know." She said honestly. "But I'm surprised that you were ok with that."

"Why is that?" he asked again.

"I saw how you looked at her, and when you kissed me I could tell you didn't love me anymore but I guess I was wrong." Elena said.

Damon took in her answer in silence, he kept thinking there was something he should remember but he couldn't.

Damon stood up and left to go see if someone could fill in the blanks.

"What are you doing here?" Cassie asked noticing his arms were still around her.

"I'm sorry" Damon said.

Cassie scoffed and rolled her eyes; she stepped out of his grasp and started walking down the steps. "Save it Damon," she said.

Damon blurred in front of her. "Cassie I need your help"

"You have got to be kidding me," she said.

"No, and I know that this is a bad time."

"Your damn right this is a bad time, why don't you go talk to your girlfriend." She said and walked past him again.

But Damon blurred in front of her again. "I can't"

"You can't ask her for help" she laughed "no offense Damon but that is something you should of figured out before you decided to be with her." She moved to get into the car but Damon grabbed her arm and pushed her against the car.

"I can't remember the feeling of the night we were together, in fact I can't remember any feeling I felt towards you " Damon said.

"Is this your way of trying to get me to help you?" she asked.

Damon put his other arm on her other side effectively boxing her in. "I remember what we did and I remember getting jealous when you were dancing with that other guy, but I don't remember feeling jealous." He said.

"Still doesn't make me feel any better." Cassie retorted.

"Damn it Cassie I'm trying but you know I have a hard time getting to my point with you." Damon growled.

Cassie took a deep breath. Clearly Damon wasn't going to leave until he said his piece. "Ok, just say what you need to say and I'll save the commentary till after." She said.

"What did you feel when we slept together?" he asked.

Cassie sucked in a breath she really didn't want to go over this now. "seriously? Damon are you going to make me tell you" She asked.

"Please" he begged.

Cassie closed her eyes. "It felt right" she whispered "I felt safe and especially after what you had told me before we slept together."

Damon groaned and put his forehead on hers. "Why can't I remember? What did I tell you?"

"Do you really not remember?" Cassie asked.

"No" he said looking her in the eyes begging her to see that he was telling the truth.

Cassie looked into his eyes. "Damon, you told me that you loved me." She whispered.

Damon took a step back, "something is wrong. I say a lot of things Cassie but believe me, I don't say I love unless I mean it," he said.

Hurt flashed through Cassie's eyes. "I don't know what to believe anymore Damon, but worrying about your feelings is my sister's job now not mine. So excuse me," she said cutting him off and getting into her car and driving off.

Thoughts were running through Cassie's head, she thought it was weird that Damon came to her and that he kept saying he remembered what happened, just not feeling what happened. "We were drunk," she said softly to herself. "That's what happened, we were drunk."

She pulled into the long driveway of the manor and parked her car. Cassie took a deep breath, ran her hands through her hair and got out of the car and walked to the front door and rang the bell.

Klaus opened the door and saw Cassie standing there. She was standing in front of him but he could see in her eyes, she was miles away. He smiled, Anita used to get that look when she was thinking. It amazed him how she could be so different from her and yet almost the exact person with other things.

"Come in" he said.

His soft voice snapped Cassie backed to reality and she gave him a soft smile.

"I'm sorry for coming over here all of the sudden."

Klaus gave her a soft chuckle. "Cassie you will never have to apologize for coming over here, your welcomed all of the time."

She smiled "thanks" she said. "I wanted to talk about who you think un-daggered Faye, if you guys are up for it."

Klaus held out his arm "we were waiting for you"

Cassie rolled her eyes and took his arm. He led her to the living room where Kol and Rebecca were.

Cassie looked at Rebecca and saw that the poor girl as close to tears.

She looked up at Klaus she knows was the question in her eyes. Klaus nodded his head and Cassie let go of his arm and sat next to Rebecca.

"Becca" she said putting an arm around the girl.

Rebecca looked up at her and smiled. She hugged Cassie and pulled back. "Now's not the time for tears" she said pulling herself together. "Now is the time to plan."

Kol laughed. "Lets do this"

Cassie and Rebecca giggled as Klaus sat down in a chair across from Cassie.

"So Faye was hidden, pretty well and they only people who knew where she was, is Katherine and I." Cassie began.

"But with a witch they could of found her." Kol said.

Cassie nodded. "But it would of have to been at least two powerful witches, we had a few of our own put a spell on it to be un-detectable."

"I still cant believe you guys daggered Faye," Klaus said.

Rebecca glared at Klaus while Cassie looked up at him, her expression unreadable.

"I mean that Faye is just about as ruthless as me" Klaus said "and you guys got her twice."

Cassie nodded her head. "The first time we almost failed, she nearly killed me and Katherine."

"But I was there this time, and don't get me wrong it was a great plan that you and your mates came up with but it was almost to easy." Kol said.

"I agree, there is no way that Katerina should have been to hold her as long as she did." Rebecca said.

"It was to easy," Cassie said. "But what would she get out of being daggered again?"

"Who knows what Faye has planned?" Kol said.

The four of them settled into silence while they thought.

Cassie chewed on her lip and stared into the fireplace.

Klaus watched Cassie. He could almost imagine the wheels of her brain working. He smiled as he saw the fire danced in her eyes.

Flashback

"Nic please" Anita begged him.

"Come on Anita, it will be fun" Klaus joked

"Please just stay here" Anita kept begging "its not worth the risk"

Klaus walked over to her and cupped her face in his hands. "I'll be fine," he said kissing her lips softly.

"Your not indestructible Nic no matter if you think you are, just stay in the caves with me tonight" she said.

Klaus looked in her eyes and saw concern for him. "Do you worry about me?" he asked just as softly, their voices barely above a whisper.

"You know I do" she replied.

Klaus leaned down and kiss her again, only this time it was deeper then the last.

When they came back for breath Anita was still staring into Klaus's eyes waiting to hear his answer.

"Yes" he said, "I'll stay with you"

Anita smiled and stood on her tiptoes to give him a chaste kiss "thank you" she said.

"Nic" a voice rang from the village. Anita and Klaus quickly stepped apart.

"There you are" Tatia said, "I have been looking all over for you"

"I've been here" he replied.

"Are you going to out to see the beats transform?" she asked.

Anita opened her mouth to reply for him when Tatia cut her off. "It would be very brave of you," she said putting her hand on his arm.

"It would be very foolish" Anita quipped back to her younger sister.

But Klaus wasn't paying any attention to her anymore, he was to entranced with Tatia, "of course I am," he replied.

"Fantastic" Tatia said with a smile, " I knew you were braver then your brother."

She grabbed his hand and the two of them left, leaving Anita by herself.

Her heart broke, and it was then she realized that she would always be second best to her younger sister. She took a deep breath when she felt a small hand grab her own. "He is a fool" Rebecca said, "he doesn't realize how much he loves you yet."

Anita squeezed her hand "thanks, Becca but know is not the time to cry, now is the time to prepare the caves for tonight."

End Flashback.

Rebecca was staring at her brother, watching the emotions play through his eyes, he kept them off of his face like Cassie did but just like her his eyes gave away everything.

Kol was on his phone, he got the text from Elijah that he had put Faye and Robert in a safe place.

Cassie's head snapped up and she looked straight into Klaus's eyes.

"She gets near her brother." Cassie said.

"What?" Rebecca asked.

"Faye knew that when you daggered her you would give her to us" Klaus said.

"And that I would give you Robert too" Cassie said.

"Putting them both together" Kol finished.

"So whoever un-daggered Faye could grab Robert as well." Cassie said.

"We can lay a trap," Klaus said. "Leave Elijah and we can send Kol and wait for whoever comes to get her."

"Hey!" Kol whined, "I don't want to go with stuffy Elijah I want to stay, its fun here"

Cassie and Rebecca giggled while Klaus rolled his eyes.

"Come on Kol" Cassie said "you get to play super secret spy with your big brother."

"Fine" Kol huffed and he blurred up the stairs to get his bag.

"How did you do that?" Klaus asked.

"Have you ever tried to get Jeremy to school?" Cassie asked

Rebecca looked between her brother and Cassie. "Well as fun as this is I have

a history project. Cassie tomorrow you are mine and we can eat ice cream and you can whine about how Damon broke your heart." She said and stood up and blurred up the stairs.

"Rebecca" Cassie said although it didn't matter, she was gone. Her cheeks grew red as she stared down at her shoes.

Klaus's gaze never left her.

"We have to talk about what you did," she said.

"I know," he said.

She looked at him "Damon hurt my feelings that's a given, but I wasn't with him or anything, I shouldn't be hurt" she rambled. "But regardless of what happened or didn't happen between us, it's between me and him."

"I know," he repeated, his eyes never leaving hers.

"I don't need some big protector, I can take care of myself." She said.

"I know," he said again.

"Good" she replied.

Cassie stood up and Klaus did as well. She walked to the door and Klaus followed her.

She stopped and turned back to face Klaus. "Thank you" she said and kissed his cheek.

She turned to leave but Klaus grabbed her hand. "I know you don't need someone to protect you," he said. "But if I can do anything to make sure you are treated right then I'm going to do it"

She smiled. "You know it's been a rough couple of days in this department so thank you, it's nice to hear that."

Klaus kept her hand in his, "if you want to talk," he said, "I over heard what you and your father were talking about in the grill, I know it's none of my business." He trailed off.

"Its hard to talk about it" she whispered. "To anybody, today was the first time I talked about it since the therapist"

She didn't noticed that Klaus had walked her back to the living room. They were sitting on the couch facing each other.

"Why is it so hard?" he asked.

"I don't like to look back, I've had a hard life and I don't like the memories because the tears come to easily, and then I break the promise I made myself." She said softly.

"What promise?" he asked.

"To not dwell in the past," she said whispering. "Because if I do then I remember its all my fault, and then all of the constant hours of therapy comes back and I have two different sides waging a war in my head. And because it's a constant battle, between remembering and forgetting."

"Love," Klaus said, "I'm not going to try and say it's not your fault because that's going to go in one ear and out the other. But I am going to say it's going to get easier. The pain of your loss."

"How do you know?" she whispered a tear trailing her cheek.

"Because I know from experience, you still remember, but the pain it fades." He said.

"I feel so broken" Cassie said "and the pieces that are missing can't ever be put back"

"No, your not ever going to be the same person you were" he said.

"I liked her, she was put together had her life planned out, and never cried" she said wiping her face.

"She sounds boring," Klaus said.

Cassie laughed. "Its true though, I never used to cry, I think I've cried more times since I got back then I had in high school."

"I like this person" Klaus said. "She is strong and beautiful."

Cassie scoffed at that.

"It's true and I'm not talking about how pretty are you on the outside because that's a given, but the most beautiful people I've known are the ones who have known loss or suffering." He told her.

"Why?" she asked.

"You have an understanding of life and this passion and gentleness inside of you and its beautiful," he said.

They sat in silence listening to the fire crackling. Cassie was thinking about the words Klaus had said to her.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" she asked.

"I'm telling you the truth sweetheart," Klaus said.

"Then why don't you let people see this side of you?" she asked.

"That's complicated love" he replied.

Cassie shook his head "no, its not. You can be this sweet guy, and I know how much you care for your siblings. And I get daggering them, you wanted them to be safe, in a weird twisted way but, I don't know how to put this without sounding cold, but what about the way you treat everyone else?"

"Oh love, its, its" he ran his hand through his hair. "Would you believe me if I said I didn't know how?" he said.

"Is that the truth?" she asked back.

Klaus didn't say anything for a while. Cassie knew that this answer was going to be hard so she gave him time.

"It is" he said, "believe it or not even when I was human the only friend I had was Anita,"

"What was she like?" she asked.

Klaus smiled, "she was a lot like you, she didn't like anyone fighting her battles and knew what was right and wrong and didn't mind telling someone that"

Cassie smiled.

"But you guys are different, so I don't want you to think for a second that is why I am being nice to you." He said trying to explain.

"Klaus calm down, I know that I'm not a replacement for her." She said.

Klaus took a deep breath. "But I did some stupid things to her."

Cassie tilted her head.

"Her sister was Tatia," he said.

"Oh" Cassie said.

"But, Anita was the one who could talk me down from doing something stupid or calm me down when I was angry. When we turned all of our feelings were heightened its true, but it also strips away all the confusing parts. I realized that I loved her, it was always her." He said.

"But why did you go after Tatia?" she asked.

"Elijah wanted her." Klaus said. "And she showed interest in me, bringing the total to two people who I knew cared about me because they wanted to not because they were family."

Cassie frowned "you didn't have anybody?" she asked quietly.

"I had my siblings, believe it or not Rebecca and I were close." He said.

"You two still are," she said. "Klaus, she loves you"

"She cant" he said, "not after everything I have done to her"

Cassie grabbed his hand. "Even after everything, because that's what families do. They forgive you, no matter what"

"Did you forgive Elena" Klaus asked.

Cassie retracted her hand. "I did," she said.

Klaus looked at her "your lying" he said.

Cassie shook her head "I'm not, after everything I did to her, if she felt that she needed to do this to me and she is truly happy with Damon, then I'll forgive her, eventually" she said.

"I'm sorry, that was a low blow," Klaus said.

"Don't be" Cassie said. "I understand your concern."

"You do?" Klaus asked.

"Ya" Cassie said standing up "it wouldn't be very productive to have me kill your doppelganger. You need her and all of that big bad hybrid threats you just gave Damon would go to waste."

She headed back to the door.

Klaus frowned and stood up and started to follow her.

"Thanks for tonight" Cassie said "those words, I needed them" and she left.

Klaus stood there, and looked at where she was standing.

"What the bloody hell happened?" Rebecca said as she came down the steps.

"I don't know" Klaus said. "We were talking and then I mention Elena"

"You talked about her sister" Rebecca asked.

"It, I, what I don't understand is that she wasn't mad, her heart beat and everything was as calm as if we were talking about the weather." Klaus said.

"I'll talk to her tomorrow and see what happened" Rebecca said. "But I overheard the two of you Nic,"

Klaus looked at his sister maybe she knew what he said.

"And she is right" Rebecca said walking over to him and grabbing his hand

"Kol and I wouldn't be here if we didn't forgive you or wanted to be a family again."

Klaus smiled. "Becca, I'm sorry," he said soundly sober, "I just wanted to"

"I know" she interrupted him "we all do"

"What has this girl done to us sister?" Klaus said.

"I don't know but its bringing back something in us that we haven't had for a while." Rebecca replied.

"our humanity" Klaus said.

AN: I am so sorry for the long break between chapters but, unfortunatly i have this thing called school...

so this chapter we find a little bit more about the super secret hunters club. =)

and we have a klaus/cassie moment!

As usual Read, Review and i hope you you enjoyed!