She stayed. Klaus wasn't expecting that. He expected that she would retreat into her carefully constructed walls, the ones she used to conceal exactly how fragile she really was, the ones she used to hide the fact that she wasn't perfect. Part of him had been afraid to deny her, afraid that it would cause her to run, that she would take it as a rejection. He didn't expect her to be mature enough to take it as was it truly was, a compliment. She was irresistible, but he was willing to resist, so that one day he could give her what she needed rather than taking what he wanted.

They lay on his bed, facing on another, close, but not touching. He longed for a time when he could casually trail his hand up and down her arm, caress her beautiful face without the fear of her recoiling from his touch, but they were not there yet.

She stayed, because she was so incredibly lonely. He could see it now. Loneliness had a way of aging a soul. The world might look at her and see an eighteen year old girl, but she was so much more. She didn't want to go home, when her mother would be out working until some ungodly hour. She couldn't call her friends, because either they wouldn't answer or wouldn't come to relieve her loneliness. So she stayed with the one person who offered her the companionship she so desperately craved.

She started talking about her father, and from the way tears gathered in her eyes, he could see how deeply his loss wounded her.

"He chose to die rather than become like me." She confessed. She didn't look at him, her gaze fixated on her own hand that rolled the comforter between her fingertips.

"No," Klaus whispered, "he chose to die rather than become a vampire."

"I'm a vampire."

"You're an angel."

A delicate blush darkened her pale cheeks. Her watery blue gaze flicked to meet his eyes. She looked startled, like a wild animal confronted by a hunter.

"You're so horrible to everyone else." She said. "Why are you nice to me?"

"Even devils crave the light." He shrugged.

"You're not a devil." She fluffed her pillow and curled into a tighter ball. He could tell she was cold, but she wouldn't admit it.

She wouldn't be comfortable with the level of intimacy a tender touch or his arms around her would indicate, not with a monster like him, not yet. But he would change her mind. He wondered if she even recognized the intimacy of this moment between them, alone and honest. He wondered if she was old enough to know that intimacy was so much more than sex. If she didn't know yet, he looked forward to teaching her.

"Aren't I, though?" He sat up and pulled off his jacket, laying it over her like a blanket.

She pulled it close, stealing the lasting warmth it offered. She might have thought she could go to bed with him, but he knew better. She wasn't ready for that. And even if she'd gone through with it she would have wound up hating herself for it. He wouldn't have that. She deserved better. Though he might enjoy watching others bend and break, that was not what he wanted for her.

"No, you're not." She whispered.

"Is that so?" Klaus loosened his tie and threw it off the bed before relaxing back down.

"Devils are irredeemable." She said.

"You think you can save me?" Klaus smirked, amused by the audacity of the thought.

"No, but you could save yourself," she said, "if you wanted to."

He was startled by her words. He turned to look at her, to discover what answers her eyes could offer. Never before had he met someone would could so unsteady him with mere words. She was so intuitive, so much deeper and more intelligent than anyone gave her credit for.

"And why would I want to do that?" He asked.

"Why don't you compel the hybrids to be loyal?" She countered.

"The same reason I don't compel your affections." He said.

"And why is that?" She pressed.

"It would rather take the fun out of things, don't you think?" He shrugged, rolling onto his back and looking up at the dark ceiling, studying it intently, instead of studying her as he would like to.

"That's not why." Caroline said.

"Then why do you think?" He asked. He wanted to know her thoughts, wanted to understand how she saw him.

"Because then it wouldn't be real." She said. "You dagger your siblings when they let you down, because you can't bear to lose them, for them to really walk away from you. You won't force the loyalty of the hybrids, because then it wouldn't be loyalty. And you won't compel me, because then this thing wouldn't be real. And you want something that's real." She paused, staying silent until he turned and looked at her, "I think you care, Klaus, and if you care that means you can't be all bad."

"That's high praise, considering." Klaus mused.

"Considering you killed my best friend's aunt, broke my boyfriend's neck, and threatened everyone I know and love at least twice?" Caroline asked, she tried to look annoyed, but the hint of a smile slipped through.

"Ah, yes." Klaus smiled back. "Considering that. Hello Stefan."

"Klaus." Stefan said.


Stefan stared at the scene before him. He didn't know what he'd been expecting, but it wasn't this. Both Klaus and Caroline were fully dressed and just talking. Caroline didn't seem in distress. In fact she seemed perfectly at ease, until she realized they were being observed and then she sat up and hurriedly pushed Klaus's jacket off of her.

"Stefan." She said.

Klaus had obviously been aware of Stefan's presence for some time, Caroline, on the other hand, was caught entirely unaware. Stefan saw a pained look cross the Original's face at Caroline's reaction. Stefan didn't know what he'd expected. Wasn't it enough that she was willingly in the same room as him? He couldn't really expect that she would like him, not after everything he had done. He wasn't a fool.

But love had a way of make even the smartest people into fools. Stefan knew that well enough. How much longer had he clung to Elena than he should have? Even as it became steadily clearer that he was no longer the one she loved.

He couldn't fault Klaus for hoping. Caroline was incredible, she was so much more than he'd originally thought. When he met her, he saw a vapid cheerleader who would throw herself at anything male and attractive. He shot her down brutally back then. Now he could see that she was so much more than he had thought, and she was just beginning to become all that she could be.

He didn't have feelings for her, not like that, but objectively, as a friend, he could see why Klaus would be drawn to the young vampire. She was kind, generous, forgiving. She was everything the Original was not.

"What brings you over so late, friend?" Klaus asked.

The Original's smirk made it clear that he already knew perfectly well why Stefan had come. And the way as he stood he situated himself between Stefan and Caroline made it perfectly clear that, while Caroline might not be a prisoner, Stefan didn't think she was exactly free to leave, and he definitely wasn't allowed to go anywhere near her. If Caroline was going to leave, it would not be with him.

"Jeremy." Stefan said.

"Is he okay?" Caroline asked, an edge of panic crept into her voice as she scrambled across the bed.

"He's fine." Stefan said. "Matt's keeping an eye on him. But he tried to kill Elena."

Caroline's mouth gaped open with horror.

"He triggered the hunter's instincts." Klaus said. "What did you expect?"

"Isn't there something we can do about it?" Stefan asked.

"Get the cure." Klaus said. "Perhaps when he's completed his purpose the urges will subside. At the very least, the doppelgänger will no longer be a vampire, and therefore, safe."

"From Jeremy." Caroline muttered, giving Klaus a pointed look that seemed to amuse the Original.

"So we need to find the cure." Stefan said.

"We don't need to do anything." Klaus smirked. "You need to find the cure. I couldn't care less."

"But you want Elena's blood." Caroline said. She stepped in front of Klaus to see if he was kidding. He wasn't.

Stefan considered, for a split second, grabbing Caroline and speeding off, but given the look Klaus gave him when their gaze met for a moment, doing so would likely be the last thing he ever did. The Hybrid would rip his heart out before they reached the door.

"Her blood became utterly worthless to me the moment your boyfriend proved how easily the sire bond can be broken." Klaus said.

"Ex-boyfriend." Caroline corrected.

Klaus seemed to appreciate the correction, considering the way his lips pressed into a smile.

"Ex-boyfriend." He agreed. "Besides, I'm rather beginning to appreciate the idea of being one of a kind."

"You said you wouldn't kill them." Caroline whispered, taking a step back.

"No, I said I'd rather spend time with you." Klaus said. "I never said I couldn't do both."

"You can't." Caroline said. "Because if you hurt them, I'll never forgive you."

"Never is a very long time, sweetheart."

Caroline glanced back at Stefan. She looked scared, but he recognized something else about her expression. It was the look she had when she steeled herself to face Klaus, to put herself in jeopardy for the sake of her friends. It was her martyr look.

"Caroline." Stefan warned.

"Fine." Caroline said. "If you promise not to hurt the hybrids, if you spare my friends and my mom, and you help us get the cure." She hesitated. "If you promise, then I promise never to leave you."

"Deal." The look in Klaus's eye unnerved Stefan. "But once your precious Elena takes the cure, the cure is mine. I will not allow it fall into the hands of my enemies." He paused, looking at Stefan instead of Caroline, a satisfied smirk twisting his lips. "Because I intend to ensure that never remains a very long time."