The morning after

She could barely open her eyes the next morning. They felt so heavy and swollen, could eyes even feel swollen? But that was nothing in comparison to her mouth … She felt like she swallowed some battery acid, and it was now successfully burning a hole in her stomach. What the hell happened last night? She was hangover before, despite of what Klaus might think, she wasn't that much of a goody too shoes, but she has never in her life felt like this. Like life itself was drained out of her. Once more, what the hell happened last night? Even when she had the worst hangover in her life, that one time when she went to Mexico with Katherine and they were generously accepting tequila's the locals were buying them, she remembered some parts of the evening, bits and pieces, but last night … Blank … She took a deep breath and tried to think of at least something, but as she was taking a deep breath and trying to focus her mind something shifted next to her, and she had to bite her lip not to scream in surprise. She was, she was … not alone in her bed … She saw a man's thigh appear under the sheet, but everything else was pretty much covered. The sheet was pulled over his head. Had she slept with someone last night? She slowly looked under her sheet and yeah, realized she was naked, so … Yeah … Fuck … She slowly put herself back into horizontal position trying not to wake that someone lying next to her. She closed her eyes once more and tried to focus once more, but her head was throbbing and throwing imaginary daggers at her poor abused brain. She had to get up, she had to get out of there and get some clothes on for Pete's sake. She again as slowly and as quietly as possible wrapped the sheet around her and almost ran towards the bathroom. Luckily whoever was in her bed was still sleeping as a log. Who was in her bed? She closed the door of the bathroom, and sat on the edge of the jacuzzi clutching the sheet around her body. Like that could help her now …

" Think Caroline, think. What is the last thing you remember from last night?" she was mentally scolding herself.

She was in a bar drinking with Anna. Then Klaus appeared and dragged her to that party on the last floor. She was flirting with that cute football quarterback. Tom was it? Could that be him in her hotel room? Well he wasn't exactly her type, but she could have gone much worse. Well, at least now Tyler wasn't the last guy she'd ever slept with, even if she did not remember the action itself. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad … Maybe he'd wake up and apologise for the drunken night and ask her to go to breakfast with him. Maybe they'll realize they have much in common actually. And they'll start seeing each other on a regular basis. She'll go to his football games, and he'll go to her movie premiers. And soon people won't think of Caroline and Tyler, but Caroline and her new fiancée.

"No, stop it Caroline. That is not happening. But what is happening is you taking your stupid hangover ass out of the bathroom and facing the man in your bed." It just had to be done.

After some self reassuring she finally did it. She stepped outside and looked towards the bed. But there was nothing there, except a couple of ruffled sheets. I guess the Gods did love her today; he probably sneaked out of her room while she was hiding in the bathroom. Good boy, this was perfect. She almost did one of her happy dances but her head still hurt too much for that … But as it turned out she thanked the Gods just a little bit too early …

" Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa …" she screamed her lungs out when Klaus walked in from the improvised living room in her suite wearing nothing but a black, well it wasn't a thong, but they were a very revealing boxers. Revealing his morning pride and joy. She started hyperventilating: " What, whaat are you doing here?" she asked although she already knew the answer to that question. It wasn't Tom she hooked up with, it was, it was … him of all people …

"Could you reduce shouting to the minimum before the hotel security gets here? Jesus, I didn't even have my coffee yet." he seemed calm as ever.

And then she remembered the last detail that she actually did remember about last night, having drinks with Klaus. Having drinks with him that had a strange taste …

She took the pillow from the bed and threw at him as hard as she could, and since she was super pissed it was hard even for a girl like her.

He just brushed it off and said. "What was that for?"

"You drugged me!" he screamed at him finally putting some pieces of the puzzle together.

"Please, if I was to drug someone, why the hell would I want to drug you?" he said not hiding his disinterest in her.

" But you are right. We were drugged."

" We? Who would do that?"

" That blonde chick from the party that looked like Pamela Anderson."

" But …" Caroline was still confused.

" Why would she want to drug me?"

" She wasn't … She was trying to drug me and herself, but I took the drink from her hand and gave it to you …"

"You know what, I don't believe you. Why would she want to drug herself?"

"Don't live in such a bubble Caroline, some people get a kick out of it."

Oh yeah, Caroline had forgotten he was very much familiar with the world of drugs, or any other vice you could think of.

" If you knew those drinks were drugged why didn't you stop her?"

" I didn't know, not until we drank them, and I looked at you, and you didn't seem completely repulsive to me."

"Oh, gentleman as ever." She was about to say something else when she heard a knocking on the door that scared the shit out of her.

"Room service."

She quickly turned to him and said: " Go to the living room and stay there."

" Stop telling me what to do." Klaus was losing his patience.

" The tabloids have informants everywhere, so I'll ask you nicely one more time. Please go into the living room, you dick."

He finally did as he was told, and she put her robe on and opened the door, luckily it was only her complementary breakfast. After the service left she closed the door and leaned her head against it, she slept with him … Again … It didn't matter she didn't actually remember it, it obviously happened. She felt so bad, like she had betrayed her 16-year old self so badly. She stayed like that for a few second trying to forget everything, trying to pretend it didn't really happen. But he was still here … She kind of remembered that when she heard a familiar voice behind her.

" I can't find any condoms."

"What?" she turned so fast she bumped her knee on the food cart in front of her.

" Have you checked the trash?"

"The trash, the floor, the bathroom …"

She went into a frenzy checking the whole suite.

"You better tell me you'd been tested since you last slept with that scumbag ex-hubby of yours?"

She gave him a look she had never given to anyone before, a perfect mixture of hate and loathing and pure disgust. " Me? How dare you even say something like that to me. You, that banged every hooker, stripper and porn star on this continent. Maybe even a few pool boys.

"I already told you at Stefan's, I don't do pool boys."

"And I'm as clean as a whistle. But then I never slept with Tyler Lockwood and other boy- candy …"

"Just shut up, I'm not going to hear this from a guy that has passed a single digit before he was even old enough to drive a car. "

"I bet you never passed them …" that shut her up, not that she'd ever tell him but he was right, she'd slept with four men in her life, and he was one of them, since he was her first, it meant she wouldn't be bragging she reached number five after tonight.

"I'm clean. So you don't have to worry about catching any diseases you don't already have. Now get the hell out of my room." she said and pointed towards the door. But he only put the other robe on and went towards the food cart.

"What no liquor? Hate when that happens." And then he stopped again and looked at her dead serious. "You are on the pill, aren't you?"

" Oh God …" she said and looked away …

" Caroline …"

" I mean … What are the chances I could be pregnant?"

" You could be if you aren't on the pill." he screamed feeling like he was explaining a simple math task to a child. You know the one going, one plus one equals three, possibly.

"Well if it does happen … I'll, I'll give it away … I mean I know it won't be easy to find someone who would take a baby with horns and a tail but …"

He started laughing. "I must say, you're a better actress than they give you credit for."

" I know." she said, smiling smugly, glad she finally won in at least one of their arguments.

She put the tray at the table and sat down to pour herself some coffee. The thought of food made her disgusted but she was in a desperate need for coffee.

He sat next to her and poured himself one too, and she didn't have the strength to tell him to leave, he never listened to her anyways. She also didn't have the strength to ask him what happened last night. But she didn't even have to …

"You were an animal last night. Your nails digging through my flesh, begging me not to stop.

All those moans in my ear … All those things you begged me to do …" he looked at her seductively and although she knew he was just kidding it did make her react.

"And the things little Scooter begged me to do. I'll tell you; even I was embarrassed by some of them."

She leaned in close, so close she could almost feel his breath on her face. "You don't remember anything, do you?" she called his little bluff.

" Not much." he shrugged it off.

"But you did call me your wild stallion. I do remember that."

"I seriously doubt that."

And then she noticed him looking at the open collar of her robe.

"Want me to jog your memory?"

"Not in this lifetime." she got up and went to get dressed.

" It's a shame that's all … Now we will never know if we were any good."

" I was fabulous. And you were as selfish as always."

" I doubt that." he said in such confidence it did make her wonder, and made her sorry she didn't remember anything. But the sixteen year old girl inside of her told her it was for the best, she couldn't swallow another disappointment coming from him in that department.

"Just please take your things and leave." She said suddenly feeling so tiered. She was supposed to move forward and not backward, and this is exactly how it felt, like a huge step backward.

"As the lady pleases." he answered and went into the bedroom to pick up his things. She sat on the couch and looked outside. A new day has risen and she was none the wiser when it came to her life. What was her next move? She had no clue; she surely didn't plan this on happening. She didn't even know if she would share it with anyone, or if was going to be another one of those things locked at the bottom of her heart. She knew her friends wouldn't judge but … She was afraid they'd be disappointed in her, the way she was disappointed in herself. If it was a one night stand with anyone else they would be happy for her, Katherine would probably throw a party or something. But him … He was a complicated story … That was about to get even more complicated …

She was just about the get up and get dressed herself when a semi- dressed Klaus stormed into the living room of her hotel suite. The situation would have been funny, his pants unzipped his t-shirt semi buttoned, if there wasn't that crazed look on his face. She couldn't remember ever seeing him this upset. What must have happened? His drug supply ran out? His agent just called him to tell him he was cast in some Eddie Murphy movie? Or was he just bipolar?

He threw a paper at her.

"What is this? Another fan mail from your deranged fans telling you they want to have your babies?"

"Laugh all you want … You won't for long love."

" Or should I say my bride?"

Caroline looked at him like he was the one deranged here, but slowly unfolded the piece of paper he threw at her.

" Noooo, noooo, noooo … Tell me this is one of your sick little jokes …"

" Even I'm not that sick Carebear." he used that nickname on her purposely, trying to provoke her to take that knife from the card and stab him right in the heart or some other delicate places, and God she wasn't far. If this turned out to be true she'd do it anyway.

" We …" " We got married?" she finally uttered.

"But why … I mean … I … I hate you …"

" Well the feeling's mutual love, but I guess there was enough happy pills in our drinks to somehow help us overcome that little bump in the road."

" This can't be happening. It has to be a fake. I think I read somewhere they changed the law in Vegas. You have to have a licence to marry someone. So this is a …"

He came closer to her and took her hand in his. " Does this feel fake?" he ran her fingers across the official seal of state of Nevada.

" But it can't be … The licence …" she uttered weakly trying to hold on to something.

"We're celebrities Caroline. It would've the first time someone bend the rule for us."

She knew he was telling the truth, but her heart was still pounding a million an hour trying to find a logical explanation for this, although she knew there was none. It was just one of those things. A stupid, and even cruel, jokes of the universe. She needed something, she needed someone to unleash her anger on … And he was the obvious choice …

" This is all your fault!" she screamed at him.

" This was your idea. You're so desperate to find someone to support your lifestyle you probably planned this all along."

" You have serious mental problems, you know that? If that were true I'd rather marry a 70 year all grandma than your pompous little ass. You're the one who was desperate to find a husband after that loser Tyler left you."

"Not that desperate … I'd never be that desperate!"

"Don't knock it till you tried it."

"I'm calling my lawyer." She got up and went to find her phone.

"Not if I call mine first." he did the same thing.

" This will be the fastest annulment in the history of the world." she said and started dialling Mellisa's number, but then suddenly stopped. Annulment, she thought and swallowed that horrible acid that was still forming in her throat.

" Klaus …" she said barely being able to breathe.

" Can we just stop for a second …" it hurt her so much to ask something from him, but he did stop dialling, and was looking at her, waiting for her next move. The move she mostly certainly shouldn't take.

"The annulment will be in public records, rights? There is no way to keep it from the public. Within a few days the whole world will know about it." she was talking to him as much as she was explaining this messed up situation to herself.

"There will be such a media circus about it."

"You're used to it." He said still not sure where she was heading with this, to be honest neither did she.

" I can't go through it again. I can't get divorced twice in one year."

"Well it wouldn't be a divorce; technically it would be an annulment."

" It's the same for them …" she said a bit louder than she intended to, she needed to keep calm and think … Think, think, think …

" Well maybe you shouldn't have married that shit brain Tyler then."

" Would you just stop calling him that? Why do you hate him so much?"

" I hate him for you, since you don't have the common decency to hate him yourself. I'm getting out of here." Klaus was as always solving problems the Klaus way, running away from them.

"You're not going anywhere until we come up with a story."

"There's no story … We got drunk, you begged on your knees for me to marry you, and I was plastered enough to actually do it."

" You wouldn't actually say that …" Caroline's face turned green.

" Oh, grow a sense of humour. We'll just turn it into a joke, we'll say we had one too many drinks, we got nostalgic and it seemed like a good idea at the time. In the morning we realized our little funny time had gone too far and we parted as BFF's."

Caroline sat down, realizing she still had just the hotel robe on, while he was already tying his shoes. This little story of his wasn't bad; it would work out brilliantly for him, but for her …

For the rest of her life she'd be branded as the loser who can't keep a man by her side, or a loony that gets married in Vegas after too many drinks, the drugged drinks? No one would buy that, and even if they would, they would still wonder how was smarty pants Caroline Forbes dumb enough to fall for that.

And then it hit her, and before her brain connected with her mouth, it just flew right out of the cuckoo's nest: "We could stay married."

And the silence between them spread …

So now you finally know what happened the morning after, or do you? Things aren't exactly clearned all the way, are they? Where would be the fun in that :p ... But they will be, soon enough, all in its time :)

Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaank you soooo much for your reviews and kind words and support, I truly do adore you ... I wasn't sure if I should update this soon but since I know a lot of you like this story and that an update would make you happy, this is for you, hope I didn't disappoint, please do REVIEW AND TELL ME :)))