Klaus wasn't very happy when he woke up in the middle of the night, once again filled with dread, only to go downstairs to discover that Elijah had gotten rid of every last drop of alcohol in the place.
How was he expected to get rid of the images in his head if there wasn't any goddamn alcohol in the house?
He sat down on the couch in defeat and attempted to take his mind off of the memories… To make himself think about something else.
He managed to convince himself to think about Caroline instead and for a few brief seconds it seemed to work. It only became a problem when he began to think about how much he had screwed things up with her already… She had just been trying to help him and he had ended up sending her away angry.
But what was he supposed to do? He couldn't just tell her everything. And even if he could convince himself to, even if he was sure that she wouldn't want tell anyone else, how was it fair for him to unload his problems onto her? …Besides, he was more than a little afraid of what she would think if she knew what was really going on.
As he thought about it, his mind quickly switched from thinking about Caroline to thinking about the memories.
He sat there alone in the darkness of the living room with tears in his eyes as he tried to will himself not to cry and not to think about it.
The next morning when Rebekah walked downstairs on her way to school, she found her brother sitting on the couch. There were dark circles under his eyes and he appeared to have been sitting there for quite a while.
"Have you been here all night?" She asked him with a worried frown.
"Not all night," Klaus responded as he looked up at her. "Just most of it."
"Did you get any sleep?" Rebekah asked him.
"About half an hour of nightmares," He told her. "I've been awake since."
"Nik, you can't keep torturing yourself over this," Rebekah tried.
"That's a great idea, why didn't I think of that?" Klaus asked her sarcastically. "It's not that easy. Do you think that I'm having the nightmares on purpose? I wish that I could forget."
"That's not what I meant," She argued.
"You should go to school," He told her. "You wouldn't want to show up late and attract even more attention to yourself."
"Are you going to be okay if I go?" Rebekah asked him.
"No worse than I'd be with you here," Klaus responded.
Rebekah hesitated for a moment longer before heading towards the door.
"What the hell?" Kol demanded as he looked through the kitchen. "Who got rid of all of the liquor?"
"Who do you think?" Klaus asked him.
Kol groaned dramatically before walking out of the room.
"Elijah!" He called out loudly as he went looking for his older brother.
Elijah walked down the stairs, seeming undisturbed by the anger in his brother's tone as he casually sat down in a chair across from Klaus.
"Just because you don't want him drinking doesn't mean that you should torture me," Kol complained.
"You're nineteen, you shouldn't even be drinking," Elijah pointed out, causing Kol to roll his eyes. "And both of you need to get control of yourselves."
"I'm not the problem, he is," Kol defended himself.
"Thanks," Klaus said sarcastically as he got up to leave the room.
Elijah shot his youngest brother a glare as he got up to follow Klaus.
"Come on, he knows that I didn't mean it like that," Kol defended as Elijah left the room.
"That isn't what Kol meant," Elijah commented as he caught up with his brother.
"That's exactly what Kol meant and how all of you feel. He's just the only one that's willing to admit it," Klaus responded.
"We're concerned about you, but we don't think of you as a problem," Elijah told him calmly.
"I don't want to talk about this," Klaus replied. He knew that he was a problem and he wasn't interested in being lied to.
"Alright, then we'll talk about something else," Elijah agreed. "There was a blonde girl with Kol last night that seemed pretty worried about you."
A blonde girl that was with Kol? Wouldn't that mean Caroline?
"She isn't worried about me, she's mad at me," Klaus corrected.
"Then why was she asking if you're going to be alright?" Elijah asked him.
Klaus thought about it for a second. The one person in town that he really cared about, at least that he wasn't related to, finally cared about him enough to be worried and he was acting like a total jerk to her and pushing her away.
Caroline was at the Mystic Grill playing a round of pool on a team with Tyler against Matt and Elena. She just finished taking a shot when Klaus walked through the doors.
He had figured that the Grill was by far his best bet at finding her, and apparently he had thought right. He wasn't exactly thrilled about the fact that Rebekah had gone with him as a babysitter, but at least she didn't argue when he said that he'd be back and then walked away.
As he walked over to Caroline, he noticed that the friend who seemed to think that he was her boyfriend was glaring over at him.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" He asked Caroline quietly as a certain one of her friends continued to glare over at him.
"Yeah, sure," Caroline said as she thought to herself that he was giving off a strangely serious vibe. "Tyler, you're in charge of my turns."
Tyler, so that was the lapdog's name. Klaus took a mental note of that as he walked over to somewhere more private with Caroline.
"What do you want?" Caroline asked as she crossed her arms over her chest.
Clearly she was still upset with him, even if she was worried about him.
"I know that I've been acting weird and like a jerk for the last few days," Klaus began, suddenly wondering why he hadn't figured out how he was going to tell her beforehand. "And I want to explain why, but it's something that I don't really talk about to anyone."
Caroline could see the pain in his eyes, but it didn't stop her from asking, "So you came over to tell me that you aren't going to explain it to me, even though you want to?"
"No, I came over here to explain it to you because I want you to know. I just thought that you should know that I don't tell people about this," Klaus told her. "…You know how I said that I have four siblings?"
She nodded.
"Well I used to have five and really they're only half-siblings," He continued, for once seeming to be having a hard time maintaining eye contact with her. "I'm the result of my mother having an affair with one of our old neighbours."
Caroline was listening intently, but wasn't quite sure how all of this linked together.
"My biological father was less than happy with my mother for trying to keep the affair a secret and passing me off as her husband's," Klaus told her. "And for a long time he didn't do much about it. He was always angry, and at that point we didn't know why, but one day I guess that he just snapped."
He stopped for a second as he looked down at his feet before he looked back up at her sheepishly.
"The other sibling, the fifth one," Klaus continued, seeming to be having a hard time getting the words out. "His name was Henrik… He was only six and I was supposed to be watching him."
Caroline could see the sheer pain and vulnerability in his eyes as he appeared to be trying to hold tears back.
"We were outside in the front yard when my biological father… He came out of nowhere in his car," Klaus said, forcing the words out against his will. "He drove straight into our yard… He was aiming for me… I should have grabbed Henrik or pushed him out of the way."
She placed a hand on his arm in an attempt to help comfort him.
"I didn't think fast enough though… One second I saw the car, the next second I was lying on the ground next to it watching my brother get run over," He told her. "Afterwards the man who I had thought was my real father, my step-father, found out whose child I really was… He and Finn already blamed me for it before that, but when they found out that I was related to the driver…"
He trailed off for a moment to try to get a hold of his emotions before continuing.
"My step-father tried to kick me out of the house, but my mother and Elijah managed to talk him down… But that never stopped him from hating and beating me," Klaus looked away from her. "I got out of there as soon as I could and I didn't look back… But the anniversary of Henrik's death is tomorrow and every year it brings days of nightmares and things that I don't want to remember… Every time I close my eyes I see it again and I hear his cries."
Klaus cut himself off, finally done explaining after what had felt like an eternity to him. He timidly looked up at her to try to see how she was reacting to the information.
Before he had any chance to look at her facial expression, she had her arms wrapped around him in a tight embrace.
Klaus didn't say anything as he stood still, letting her try to comfort him.
"It wasn't your fault," She told him.
"Maybe not entirely," Klaus replied. "But it at least partially was."
Caroline let go of him and took a step back to look him in the eyes.
"You like me because I'm honest with you, right?" She asked him. "Well I'm telling you that it wasn't your fault because it's the truth."
Klaus nodded weakly although secretly he thought that it may honestly be what she thought, but that it wasn't true. She wasn't there, she couldn't possibly know.
"Thank you for telling me," She told him. "And letting me past the walls."
Klaus wasn't sure how to reply to that, so he just said, "You should probably get back to your friends."
"Are you sure?" She asked him.
"Yeah, Rebekah's waiting for me anyways," Klaus replied.
"What was that about?" Elena asked with an arched eyebrow when her friend returned. The look in her eyes showed that she had seen the hug and she wanted Caroline to know that.
"He just wanted to explain why he's been acting weird," Caroline replied casually. "It's no big deal."
But it was a big deal and something that Caroline wasn't going to tell to anyone about.
She looked down at the pool table and then complained, "I never should have left you alone, Lockwood. How did you suck that much while I was gone?"
Tyler didn't provide her with an answer, but the main reason that he had missed so many shots was because he had been too distracted by watching her and Klaus to play decently.
"You told her, didn't you?" Rebekah asked in a fascinated tone as her brother joined her at her table.
"Yeah," Klaus admitted.
"You must really like her then," Rebekah commented.
Klaus hated letting himself be vulnerable in any situation and he never told anybody about Henrik. The only people who really knew was their family and maybe a few other people who remembered the incident from the time.
"I do," He replied as he looked over to where Caroline was eagerly high-fiving Tyler after making a difficult shot. "…I think I'm falling in love with her."
A/N: Please read and review! Okay, so I've heard mixed feelings in the reviews for what pairings you want... Elejah, Kolena, Kennett, Beremy, Delena... Please VOTE FOR WHO YOU WANT ELENA AND BONNIE TO END UP WITH IN A REVIEW. Your votes will help me to make my decision. I hope that you guys enjoyed the chapter and thanks for reading! :)
And if anyone wants me to write a drabble for them, I have a new account on tumblr where I write requests. The url is tvddrabbles and then you just have to add .tumblr and .com
Another extra special thanks goes out to all of the lovely reviewers of the last chapter: layaboo, arielmermaid, Mystery Girl3, Wholock's Worlock, Rucky, foureyedgirl01, DrawingMyHeartOut, souzap, EmmaRedVelvet, ferrylis, Draco-Harry-Lover-1, MyloveforKlaroline, jessnicole, and Doctor Sexy
REVIEW ANSWERS:
layaboo: The original plan was to have Kennett, but no there seems to be people wanting all kinds of different ships. So tell me who you want Elena and Bonnie to end up with in a review if you want to vote ;)
Rucky: I'm still not sure who I'm putting Elena and Bonnie with, so feel free to vote in a review. :)
foureyedgirl01: Haha, that's not just you. There was a little Kolena tension because I wanted Kol to be drunk and hitting on pretty much anyone. I may be changing my mind from Kennett for this story though depending on how the voting goes...
Draco-Harry-Lover-1: Possibly... I'm having a vote to see who everyone else wants Elena and Bonnie to get together with...
Doctor Sexy: Was this chapter angsty enough yet? :P