Don't hate me! I could come up with a million different excuses for my delayed update, but they'd all be lies. This chapter has been written for almost three weeks, and pure laziness is my only excuse for not having it up earlier. But I'm here now and I really hope you guys are still interested! Enjoy!

"It's not polite to stare, you know."

Klaus nearly fell out of his chair, not realizing anyone had been watching him. Caroline had come in almost an hour ago and for that entire hour, he had done nothing but watch her work. Klaus recognized the voice immediately and almost backhanded Kol for startling him.

"Although, if this were my view, I'd have a hard time not staring, too."

Klaus jumped up from his seat, backing Kol up against the opposing the wall. His little brother had twisted sense of humor, and while it normally never bothered him, when it came to Caroline, Kol wasn't allowed to express his opinions whatsoever.

"Say one more word and I'll tear out you liver," Klaus said menacingly.

Kol began laughing and said, "so touchy. You must really like her. With that temper, however, you might end up frightening her away."

Klaus hated to admit it, but Kol was right. If Caroline saw him like this, she might become even more reluctant than she already was.

He slowly moved away from his younger brother and looked behind him to make sure she hadn't seen any of their exchange. Thankfully, she was focused entirely on her computer.

Turning back to Kol's smug grin, Klaus asked, "what do you want anyway?"

"Other than annoying my big brother? I just got done talking to Finn and he asked me to tell you he needs to see you."

"Why?"

"Find out yourself." And with that he walked off.

Klaus rolled his eyes and began making his way towards Finn's office. Luckily, he had to pass by Caroline's desk to get there.

"What are you working on?" he asked, while taking a seat on the edge of her desk.

Without looking away from her computer screen, she answered, "Lauren C. from New Canton submitted an entry late last night and I want to get it done before the morning addition goes out."

"Well, I don't want to slow you down."

"I've had four cups of coffee in the last hour; nothing is going to slow me down."

Klaus felt a smile creep upon his face, admiring her determination. "Coffee is a vial invention and not exactly the healthiest decision."

"Tell that to the five bags of chips in my pantry and the two tubs of ice cream in my freezer. "

That remark earned her a laugh from Klaus and he was surprised that she hadn't brushed him off like she normally did. He decided to push his luck a little further.

"Well, if that's all you have to eat, sweet heart, I supposed I'll just have to take you out for a real dinner sometime," he said boldly, but quite nervous at the same time for her answer.

Caroline finished her article and began standing up to go the copy room. She grabbed her things and turned to him with a sly smirk. "I suppose you will," she said flirtatiously before walking away from him.

Klaus watched her walk away, completely blown away at her answer. Normally, Caroline would've stuttered out some excuse as to why she couldn't go out with him and quickly walked away. But she had done the exact opposite and met him head on. Something had gotten into her and he liked it.

Caroline's surprising behavior had made him completely forget that Finn still needed to see him. Tearing his eyes away from her retreating figure, he made his way to Finn's office.

He knocked on the door and slowly opened it. "You wanted to see me?"

"Niklaus, yes. Please come in and shut the door."

Klaus closed the door and took the seat across from his desk.

"I have a new assignment for you and I need it done by tomorrow morning."

"What is it?"

Finn handed him a manila folder and said, "everything you need to know is in that file. Do me a favor and try to keep this to yourself. The police don't want to cause a complete panic. They just want people to be aware and be careful. I know you have a lot of work to do, so I won't keep you. Make me proud, little brother."

Klaus nodded his head and walked out of his office. While walking back to his desk, he opened the file and began looking it over.

Thirty-eight year old male escaped from Eastern State Hospital in Washington. Second time put away, escaped four years ago. Unknown woman believed to be reason behind escape. Killed ten people in last eight years. Highly dangerous.

The file went on to show a picture of the guy, along with his name: Logan Fell. There was no picture of the woman he was supposedly after, stating her and her guardians opted to keeping her identity a secret for safety reasons.

"Whatcha got there?"

Klaus turned around and saw Rebekah looking over his shoulder at the file. He quickly closed it, earning a pout from his younger sister.

"New assignment from Finn. He said to keep it quiet until after it's published. Sorry, Bekah," Klaus said with fake sympathy.

Rebekah gave him a pointed glare and said "whatever" before walking off in the other direction.

Klaus smirked after she left, knowing Rebekah wasn't used to being told no. Glancing back at her, he saw Caroline slip into the break room. Running after her, he entered in after her.

"You know, some people might call this an addiction. "

Caroline looked back at him and let out a small giggle. "Well, those people can shove it because all I'm getting is water. I finished my article, but my caffeine buzz also came with a severe headache."

Klaus chuckled and moved to get his own cup of coffee. He detested to the drink, but it did have its benefits.

"Careful, Mikaleson or you might start your own addiction," Caroline said with a joking smile. "I thought you hated coffee."

Klaus felt a small shiver of happiness go through him as he realized she had actually been listening to him earlier. "I've got my own article to finish up before tomorrow morning, so I'll need all I can get."

"What's the article about?"

He knew he shouldn't tell her, but she finally seemed to be opening up to him and he didn't want to jeopardize that.

"A convict escaped a couple days ago. Says he's highly dangerous and could possibly be passing through."

Caroline raised her eyebrows. "Wow, big story. Now I see why you need the coffee."

Klaus nodded his head, whilst also taking a sip of from his cup.

"You know that's not exactly the healthiest decision," Caroline joked sarcastically, throwing his own words back at him.

Klaus looked at her with a smirk on his face. "You wanna talk about healthy? Talk to your chips and ice cream."

Caroline began to laugh; a sound Klaus realized he could listen to for days.

When she finished, Caroline looked up and noticed Klaus staring at her with an awestruck expression. Looking at the floor and feeling her face turning red, she asked "what?"

Klaus set his coffee cup on the counter and went to lean on the table across from her. "You're different. You're not running away or yelling at me anymore."

Caroline looked down at the floor in embarrassment, remembering their last encounter together. "I'm sorry about that. Yelling at you. My day had sucked and I took it out on you."

Klaus waved his hand, saying dismissively, "all is forgiven. I've lost count of how many times I've lashed out at someone who didn't deserve it. But you did hate me last time we talked, so what happened?"

Caroline's head shot up at his statement. "I never hated you. I just…." She sighed not knowing how to phrase it.

Klaus stood up from the table and went to stand in front of her. "You just what?"

She sighed again and threw her cup in the trash so she was free to hold his hands. As soon as she did, she felt a sense of warmth she hadn't felt in a long time go through her body.

"I can't tell you everything right now. It's complicated and I'm just not ready for you to know yet. I can't guarantee you that this is going to be easy or that I'm not gonna freak out sometimes." She let out a shaky sigh, feeling slightly overwhelmed. If she told him all this, there was no going back. But surprisingly, she didn't want to go back. "I am tired of letting my past control who I am and who I am becoming. Eight years of my life I'll never get back and I've let those years define me. That ends today. If you can promise me that we can take things slow….I'd like to give us a shot."

Klaus took in a deep breath, not believing what he was hearing right now. He wanted nothing more than to scoop her up in his arms and tell her that everything would be okay. He wanted to grab her by those golden locks and kiss her until they both drunk off each other. But he knew she wanted and she needed to take things slow.

"There are never any guarantees about anything, Caroline. You've got a past, who doesn't? This isn't going to be easy, by any means, but anything worth fighting for never is. As long as you're fighting, I'm staying."

Caroline broke into one of the biggest smiles she's ever experienced. This was all she wanted: someone to fight for her. But there was one question she needed to ask.

"Why?"

"Because right here, right now, all I want is you."

Caroline blushed slightly, but couldn't stop the smile from breaking across her face.

"So, this whole 'taking things slow' idea is a little new to me, so help me out: would a lunch date tomorrow be too fast?"

Caroline grimaced and sucked in a breath. "Not so much the lunch date, but just being alone with you would be too fast, not to mention a little dangerous."

"Well, then what do you propose?" he asked, while also smirking at her comment about them being alone.

Caroline thought for a moment and quickly came up with the perfect idea. "The gala. You don't have to pay for my dinner and there will be plenty of people around. Plus, I get to show you up on the dance floor."

"I highly doubt that, sweetheart. I am British, remember? Dancing is second nature," he said with a smirk.

Caroline rolled her eyes. "We'll see."

Klaus smiled at her, loving their playful banter. This is the Caroline he wanted all along.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Finding the body of the gas station owner had slowed Alaric and Jeremy down considerably on their way to Chicago. It was possible that Logan was already there, depending on if he had run into anymore obstacles. They were about two hours from the state line when Jeremy spoke up.

"We should call Caroline. Fell could be looking through her bedroom window right now and she has no idea."

Alaric shook his head, quickly shooting down his idea. "If we call and tell her, we'll completely undo all the progress she's made. Plus, we'll cause a panic that's not necessary."

"Last time you said that, he ended up killing eight people."

Alaric's hands tightened on the steering wheel and his face turned a dark red. Jeremy was right and it killed Alaric to have to admit it. If he had gotten Caroline out of that hotel as soon as he got there, no one would've died that night. He wasn't about to relive that.

"Call Elena. She's staying with Caroline right now and she's one of the only people that understands how dangerous Fell is. Tell her to not tell Caroline, just to take the necessary precautions to keep them both safe."

Jeremy pulled out his phone and began dialing her number.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hello?"

"Hey, Elena."

"Jeremy! This is a nice surprise. How are you doing?"

Good, good. How are you?"

"Doing good. Is everything okay? You sound nervous."

"Yeah, everything's fine. Um, are you with Caroline right now?"

"Uh, no. She's at the gym. Why?"

"Okay, Elena. I have something I need to tell you, but before I do, you have to promise not to tell Caroline."

"Jer, what are you-"

"Promise me, Elena."

"Okay, okay, I promise. Now what's going on?"

"…..Logan Fell has escaped."

Elena completely froze. She vaguely heard Jeremy saying her name, trying to regain her attention. This could not be happening, not again.

"Elena!"

She finally broke out of her daze and asked, "when?"

"About a week and a half ago."

"What?! And you're just now telling me?! What the hell, Jeremy!"

"Listen, we didn't want to cause a panic. Caroline doesn't need to know about this right now."

"Are you crazy?! Of course she needs to know! He could be in the city at this very moment."

"And we know that, which is why we're telling you. You're the only person to have ever survived an attack from Logan, besides Caroline. Plus, you're the only person from her past she has left. You can protect her until we get there and figure out a plan to catch him. But if you tell Caroline, she'll completely shut down. Just keep her close to you when you can. Tell one of her coworkers to keep a watch on her while she's working, but don't tell them why. No one else needs to know about him. Can you do this, Elena?"

"Of course. But she's smart and she's going to start to question why everyone keeps following and watching her every move."

"Give her some bogus excuse. We'll be there as soon as we can."

"Okay, Jeremy. Love you."

"Love you, too. See you soon."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Let me know what you think in the reviews! And again, I'm sorry for the long wait! xoxo