Hey Guys! And wow...I updated so quickly.

Thank you Miranda, Becky and Alex for reading this beforehand. I love you girls!

Enjoy!

\-[0]-[0]-/

Caroline's eyes peek open and she gazes around the room. Her room, which is good - she apparently made it home last night, although she doesn't know exactly how. Her day old mascara feels like superglue as she forces her eyes to open all the way and pauses as the rest of her senses catch up with her.

She looks at the clock and cringes. A normal human being would be upset that they're waking up so early on their day off, but not Caroline. Miss Efficient cringes because it's now 11 AM and she feels that she's officially slept the day away.

She throws the blankets to the side and sits up in bed and smiles at her tiny tank top and sleeping shorts.

At least I had the good sense of putting my pajamas on.

She runs her hand through her hair and stands up to stretch as she throws the curtains open and squints at the evasive but warm sunshine. Her grumbles become more apparent when she realizes she hasn't just slept the morning away but slept a beautiful morning away.

She steps outside into her living room to make her way toward the kitchen and hears the shower running in the bathroom. In that moment, nothing sounds better than a nice warm shower of her own to wash off the night before, followed by about a gallon of coffee and a mile high stack of bacon. The grease and caffeine working simultaneously to cleanse her alcohol infused stomach. She smiles at the idea and thinks a trip to the cafe downtown is in her future, but the smile quickly fades when she realizes what she's hearing.

The shower.

Someone's in the shower.

Who's in the shower?

\-[0]-[0]-/

Okay, so it's only been a day and a half, but he misses her. He's realized that Sundays are his least favorite days because it's the one day a week that the lingerie shop isn't open. Every time the bell chimes at the front door he whips his head around to see her smiling and bright face walk in, but instead, he is constantly bombarded by pimply faced, greasy haired clientele looking for what's new in the comic book world.

"Klaus, do you have the new Limited Edition Spiderman?"

"Hmm?" he hears someone talking but is lost in his thoughts of Caroline again. He's been doing that a lot lately.

"I said, do you have the new Spiderman?"

Klaus looks up from the counter and pushes a finger to his glasses to center them and help focus on the familiar patron in front of him.

"Oh, yeah, sorry Mason...um, you can find it on the far wall. They're on the center shelf."

The late twenties-something saunters off, and Klaus laughs at how cliché he looks. Take the main guy in Revenge of the Nerds and that's pretty spot on to Mason's attire. Pants that are too short, held up by suspenders, a white button up short sleeved shirt and a pair of loafers with a pocket protector. Klaus is pretty sure that he's being ironic in his fashion choices because there's no way someone would choose that outfit because they think it looks good. Plus the guy's way too good looking and hygienic, not to mention he's seen him around town and he's always with some pretty girl.

Maybe geek is the new cool? he thinks to himself.

Klaus laughs at the thought but quickly stops when he sees Elijah and Katherine come into the shop. Katherine is dressed to the nines in a pair of tight jeans, a tank top and some sparkly shoes. Her hair and makeup are perfect and she holds on to Elijah's hand - their fingers are laced together and she strokes her thumb across his in a simple gesture. She steps up on her tiptoes and wraps a hand around his neck and kisses him sweetly before turning to wave at Klaus and saying goodbye. Klaus watches Elijah watch Katherine, and Klaus shakes his head in disbelief that Elijah was able to land such a beautiful woman. This of course reminds him of his own luck in finding such a beauty in Caroline. His eyes grow wide and he realizes what he just thought moments ago could possibly be true.

"Maybe geek is the new cool?" he says in astonishment - his childhood suddenly playing a different course in his mind had he grasped this concept at the age of twelve.

\-[0]-[0]-/

She strains to think of who it could be. Who brought her home and decided to stick around and use her shower in the morning? Possibly she made a late night booty call to Klaus? It would be a shame if this is the case and she has no recollection of their night together, or that he didn't wait so she could join him in the shower.

The idea of a little morning shower time with a naked Klaus causes a subtle tingle to settle between her legs. She peers in her bedroom and sees no articles of male clothing and the other side of the bed is still intact, so she decides it's probably not Klaus. Unless he woke up and decided to make his side of the bed.

Unlikely.

She then decides that it must be Katherine, because she's the only person who has a key and would make herself at home.

The ringing of her phone breaks her concentration and she heads back to her room and stretches across the bed to grab it off the nightstand.

"Kat" is displayed big and brightly as it buzzes in her hand. She quickly slides her thumb across it and answers.

"You wouldn't happen to be calling me from my bathroom, would you?"

"What?" she laughs. "No...I'm not in your bathroom. Is there someone in your bathroom?"

"Yes, and I have no idea who it is. Did I call Klaus last night?" she hopes.

"I don't think so," Katherine says and a long pause follows before she finally says, "Oh, I think it's..." She trails off and Caroline waits for Kat to give her some insight as to who it might be.

"Kat?" Caroline says. She hears the water shut off and the shower curtain skid across the pole. "Who's in my bathroom?" she says in a hushed whisper and walks back out to her living room.

"Well, I was going to take you home, but after Bekah and Bonnie left the bar last night I got a phone call from Elijah..."

"Aaand?"

"And so, I went to his house, and oh man Care, I'm sorry...I shouldn't have left you alone with him. I didn't think he would stick around."

"Matt," Caroline finishes Kat's thoughts just as the door opens and the blonde model is standing before her in the flesh.

Pretty much all of his flesh. His abtastic flesh...

One of Caroline's hot pink towels is wrapped lowly around his waist and he's drying his hair off with a matching hand towel.

"Morning, Care."

"Matt, what- what are you doing here?"

Caroline is in panic mode. Why on earth is he here? Why on earth didn't he just drop her off and leave?

She loves Klaus, that's what she decided last night. She only wants him. So what would possess her to invite Matt into her home and have him stay the night?

Bits and pieces of last night start falling into place. After many more rounds of tequila, some dancing and a terrible display of darts, her memory gets hazy. She remembers reminiscing with Matt and watching Rebekah fall all over him. She vaguely remembers Bonnie taking Bekah home and her commenting on Bekah not doing anything she'll regret in the morning.

"Care?" she hears Kat say through the phone.

"I gotta go," she quickly says and hangs up.

Matt looks at her and smiles as he watches Caroline put the pieces together. He can't help but laugh out loud when she puts her hands over her face and sits at the end of the couch and starts berating herself.

"No-no-no-no," she says and shakes her head but snaps back at him when she hears his giggles. "Why are you laughing?!" Her angry tone quickly shutting him up.

"Caroline..."

"What-? I can't believe this happened! Why are you here? What the hell happened? Why would you think this is okay?" A slew of other accusatory questions come flooding out of her mouth and Matt just stands there wide eyed and sheepish.

"Listen...Caroline..."

"Listen to what? Listen to you tell me that it's no big deal? That I didn't make a mistake?" She stands to her feet and paces the floor, "I love Klaus, Matthew! Klaus?! This is horrible!"

He takes a deep breath and continues to dry his hair. "Wow, you really have no idea what happened last night," he tells her nonchalantly.

"NO! I DON'T!" she screams at him.

"Well, let me just ease your mind by saying...nothing."

"What?"

"Nothing happened. After an hour or so of listening to you continue to talk about Klaus, and how much he means to you, I got the point. Even if I wanted something to happen between us, which I'm not saying I did, it's clear that your heart belongs to someone else."

A mix of emotions rattle through her as she tries to process what he just said, relief being number one.

"Nothing...nothing happened?" she says in a much calmer voice.

"No, nothing happened. As you can see, I slept on the couch last night."

"Oh." Caroline finally notices the makeshift bed that has been set up on the couch and berates herself for not figuring that out sooner before she accused Matt of doing anything ungentlemanly.

"I brought you home and you went into your room to go to bed, but not before telling me I could sleep on the couch for the night."

"Well, that does sound like me."

Even in her drunkest of states she is never too drunk to forget her manners.

"I'm sorry about the shower, I just have somewhere I need to be this morning, and I knew I wouldn't have time to go home to change. Plus the paparazzi found me last night and after snapping a thousand photos of all of us at the bar, I jumped in your car and drove us here."

He looks down at himself and realizes this conversation would probably go better if he were dressed.

"I'm just going to put some clothes on and then we'll talk some more, okay?"

"That's probably for the best," she agrees. "I'm gonna go put some coffee on."

Caroline swiftly walks toward the kitchen, but not before opening up her phone to text the one person she really wants to see.

\-[0]-[0]-/

The morning breezes by, and the shop stays consistently busy. Sundays are typically busy because it's when they put out their new inventory. All the regulars stop by at least one time, to trade, browse and buy.

Bonnie finally makes it in around eleven o'clock, a pair of sunglasses adorn her face. Rebekah is with her, looking just as haggard as her friend.

Friend?

Girlfriend?

Lover?

Before he could stop himself from thinking the word "lover" his gag reflexes shoot up. A shiver runs through him - the same shiver that goes through him anytime he is in the presence of his baby sister being intimate with anyone. The two girls hug goodbye and Klaus is silently grateful that they left it at that.

Bonnie makes it quite clear that she'd like to hide in the office and start on the end of the month stuff for Klaus. He typically likes to do it himself, but trained Bonnie in case he wasn't around. He makes an exception since the girl looks as though she is about to hurl and he prefers she do it in the bathroom rather than on a customer.

Lunch is quickly approaching and he thinks it might be nice to have it with Caroline. He's put off calling her in the morning, due to knowing she had a late night, but thinks it wouldn't hurt to try her now. He picks up his phone and notices a text message from the woman in question.

Caroline: Hi. I miss you. Can you sneak away for a little while and have some lunch?

Before he can respond, his little brother races through the door holding a small box and squealing his and Elijah's names.

"You guys, look at what I found!"

\-[0]-[0]-/

After finishing the rest of her morning with coffee and Matt's company, the two of them drive to the bar where Caroline drops off Matt. He is planning on staying in town for a few more days and promises to try and see her one more time before he heads back to New York.

She reaches across the console of her car and gives him a tight hug and says, "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For taking care of me last night."

"Anything for you, Care Bear." He gives her a winning smile and a peck on the cheek before stepping out of the car and going on his way.

Ten minutes later she's parked in front of the comic book shop and on her way in to see Klaus.

It's only been a day, but her heart is full from her declaration of love last night, and she can't wait to see him. Even more so since the debacle with Matt this morning. Although it was innocent, she had felt sick that she could've possibly done something to ruin a relationship that was going better than any she had ever had.

Thank God drunk Caroline had as much admiration and respect for the man that she now loved.

When she enters the shop, she hears raised voices and a plethora of swear words, mostly from Kol, coming from the counter. They're so involved in their conversation that Klaus doesn't even notice that she's walked in.

"I found it! It's mine!"

"Yes, but how did you pay for it?"

"Doesn't matter, I made an executive decision because I thought you would support me in this!"

"I do," Klaus tries to reason with his little brother, "But you used the company credit card to pay for it. I thought you needed it for rent or something, not to buy this!" He gestures with both hands at the small box in front of him.

"Come on, man, how could I pass this up? It's the original."

"And it was nice of you to buy it for me," Klaus smirks at his little brother, which sends Kol over the edge.

"You are being completely irrational!"

"Am I?"

"Who cares if I used the money for rent or for this, a loan is a loan."

A not so raised voice pipes up next.

"Klaus, if Kol bought it with company money, then I think it's only fair that you keep it until he is able to pay it back."

"Fine, that's fine," Kol agrees. "I'll pay you back at the end of the month when we divide out our share."

"Or, we could fall to reason," Elijah continues. "and reason says that I am the oldest, and main proprietor of this business, therefore it should belong to me."

"That's a bunch of crock!"

"Noooo," Kol whines, sounding like a three year old about to make a scene in the supermarket. "That makes no sense."

"Yeah Elijah, you can't just throw the older brother card on the table, that's fucking stupid."

"Well then we're at an impasse," Elijah states.

Kol starts racking his mind for an answer, anyway to prove that he deserves the trinket more than his brothers. The scene is not going the way he had planned.

"Ooor, we could play for it."

The older brothers turn to their younger and ponder his suggestion. If there's something to be said of all three Mikaelsons it's that they are inherently competitive. Once the three of them played a game of Monopoly with their father for an entire week. The only way that Klaus won was because Mikael landed in jail long enough for Klaus to take his brothers out of the equation and go head to head with Mikael once he got out.

"What did you have in mind?" Klaus asks, the idea sounding better and better the longer he thought about it.

"It needs to be even playing grounds, something that is pure strategy and no luck."

"I agree," Klaus says and looks to Elijah.

Elijah nods and begins to remove his jacket. He clears his throat and very stoically says, "I propose that we pull out Guitar Hero and see who can get the highest score."

"No way, you'll totally kick our asses!" Klaus interjects. "You have that at home."

"Fine then what do you suggest?"

"I know!" They hear a small voice say from behind them.

Bonnie steps out from the office and walks across the store to the limited video game collection that they carry. She browses through the games before removing a bright pink one from the shelf. She tosses it to Kol who reads the title and rolls his eyes.

"No way!" He sets it on the counter and crosses his arms.

"Actually," Elijah says, "I think this is a superb idea. None of us play this game, and it puts us all at a fair advantage. Thank you, Bonnie."

"Sure. Plus it'd be a total riot to watch the three of you try and play it."

Klaus picks it up and snickers, "Just Dance 4?"

Once again Caroline has walked into something she has no clue about. "What's going on?" she asks the boys after some time of listening to their bickering.

Klaus stumbles back and adjusts his glasses. "Caroline, hey, I didn't hear you come in."

"I can tell," she giggles. "So, it looks like you're sort of in the middle of something here. Maybe we can postpone lunch and make it dinner?" She bats her eyelashes and pouts her lips, hoping that her little tricks would help Klaus make the right decision and leave with her now.

Klaus is suddenly at an impasse himself. Does he stay and dominate his brothers in this ridiculous dual, or does he leave it be and accompany Caroline to lunch? He looks at the priceless trinket in the box and back at his brothers and then to Caroline, the wheels in his head making so much racket that it's confusing him even more.

"Ummm," he says still pondering his options. "Would it...would it be terrible if I postponed until later tonight? It's just that this is really rare and I'd like to try and win it."

Caroline looks at the small gold ring in the box. She goes to pick it up but turns to the boys and asks, "May I?" before she does so.

They all nod and she picks up the small treasure to examine it closer. It looks simple enough but when she looks closely she sees a small inscription on the side.

"One Ring to Rule Them All."

Huh, she thinks. What in the world...

She has no idea but she isn't about to let a silly ring get in the way of her showing Klaus how much more beneficial his time would be if spent with her.

"That's fine," she tells him.

"Really?" he asks her again, "'cause I really want to be with you but it's just..."

"Klaus, it's fine." She waves her hand casually. "It's no big deal...really."

"Okay great. You can stick around and watch if you want," he says but quickly regrets the offer. The last thing he wants is Caroline watching him dance.

She slides her purse back over her shoulder and shrugs. "No, I've got lots to do this afternoon anyway. I got a new shipment of lingerie and I was going to try them on to see if they looked okay...but I don't need your help for that." She starts to back up toward the door, and watches as Klaus' mouth drops open and she sees him swallow hard. When she turns her back to him she smirks - all too proud of her manipulation skills.

Klaus looks back at the ring and at his brothers. Elijah awaits his decision patiently, while Kol lifts his eyebrows and smiles, understanding the predicament that Klaus is in. He turns back to the door and watches the leggy blonde exit the shop and his mind is flooded with images of that pretty body wrapped tightly in the lacy contraptions from next door.

"I'm out!" he says and without a single glance back at Elijah and Kol, he drops Just Dance onto the counter and briskly follows the blonde out the door.

Did I scare you? Did you think Matt was going to be more trouble than he is?

Muahahaha.

Also...I know you want it, so I promise PROMISE PROMISE! that the next chapter is going to have some hot and steamy smut! She's trying on lingerie for goodness sake.

Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter! We're nearing the end of this little fic, so if you haven't yet...let me know what you think in a review. Also, don't forget to follow me on Tumblr at jomosfamilyjewels.

Ta-Ta!