To forgive is an act of compassion. It's not done because people deserve it. It's done because they need it.
Caroline was standing on her balcony waiting the next morning and didn't flinch, when Klaus suddenly stood behind her. She fought to hide her smile as she turned around to look at him. He was standing with his arms behind his backing, looking at her without saying a word.
"You really love doing that, don't you?" Caroline asked and tilted her head to the right, making her hair dance in the rising sun.
Klaus shot a quick glance at the ground before slowly lifting his eyes to meets hers. He had that awfully charming smile on his face and Caroline turned her back on him so he wouldn't see the smile that appeared on her face. She didn't want to smile but her reflexes had a life of their own and they were quite hard to fight.
"Did I scare you, love?" he asked with a teasing voice. He came to stand beside her, leaning his back against the railing while she looked down on the street.
"No. I've getting used to being surprised. Besides, there are things out there that are must scarier than you." Caroline said and looked at him without smiling. She didn't know whether Klaus knew about Silas but judging by his not surprised look, Elijah had probably filled him in.
"I see that you've found one of New Orleans hidden treasure." Klaus said, referring to Marie's hotel. Caroline gave him a quick glance before she accepted his change of topic. It seemed like he was avoiding to talk about Silas and it gave Caroline a bad feeling.
"I just thought it was beautiful and quiet. I needed that. And Marie is very… informed. She definitely knows who you are, and Elijah. She knows about me too." Caroline said and turned to face him. Marie had given Caroline a long lecture about how dangerous the Original family was the night before but to Caroline's surprise, she had also praised the family.
"I knew her grandmother back in the days. Back then, this hotel was filled with both humans and vampires and there were never a vacant room for more than a day. It was twice the size that it is today and Marie's grandmother ran it all singlehanded." Klaus told as he glanced into Caroline's room.
His voice was filled the nostalgia she had also heard at the decade dance as he had told her about the 1920´s. It was moments like these that reminded Caroline that Klaus was over a thousand years old and once again left her wondering how she could affect him in the way she apparently did.
"That's right… You're old." Caroline teased and smiled at him. He was suddenly standing very close to her and his eyes searched her face. He didn't smile.
"Does that bother you?" he asked with a serious voice and Caroline suddenly felt out of her depth. It was way too early in the day for this. It didn't bother her but she couldn't tell him that without making it sound like flirting. Caroline took her turn to change the topic and turned away from Klaus.
"You killed Elijah?" Caroline asked casually as she turned her gaze back to the people passing down under her. She could sense him staring at her for a moment before he answered with a voice that was just as casual. "I decided that it wasn't worth staining the carpet for."
"Yeah… It is so hard to explain the cleaner why there is a dead man lying on the floor." Caroline said and looked up in surprise when she heard Klaus laugh silently. For some reason the sound made her smile and it quickly turned into laughter. It was hard to believe that she was standing on a balcony in New Orleans, joking with Klaus Mikaelson, the big bad hybrid. It was… nice.
Their laughing stopped and they both went silent, still smiling. Caroline didn't want to spoil the moment but knew they couldn't keep putting it off. She had to ask him about Silas and whether they were going to help. Her heart began pounding faster as she turned to face Klaus and she could see on his face that he had noticed.
"Why are you so nervous, love?" he asked with a small smile on his lips. His amusement lit up his eyes and Caroline had to swallow before she spoke.
"You know why I'm here?" she said and the amusement left his eyes. Klaus was silent for so long that Caroline became unsure whether he was going to answer her at all.
"And is that the only reason?" he finally asked with a hoarse voice as he moved closer to her. She knew what he was asking and she felt her throat tightening for a second. Looking into his eyes, she realised that she couldn't answer truthfully.
Something deep inside her wanted to say no. She wanted to tell him that she had wanted to see him again ever since he went back to New Orleans after her graduation even though she hadn't admitted it to anyone, not even herself. But she couldn't. She wasn't ready. So she took a deep breath and nodded.
The only reaction she got was a creaking from the railing as Klaus' hand tightened its grip around it. He placed his arms behind his back once again and looked at her without smiling.
"So you screwed up and Silas is loose. And now you expect us to come running to help you? You really want help from such terrible persons?" Klaus said with a jovial voice, reminding of what she had said to him out in the forest before she had killed the twelve witches minutes later.
Caroline threw her hands up in the air and shook her head. For a moment she had trouble looking at him and a smile spread across her face before she could stop it. He hadn't changed a bit. She turned his back on him and squeezed the railing, making it creak the same way Klaus had.
"I don't expect anything from you, Klaus." She said with a low voice as if she was talking to herself, still with her back at him. Then she turned around and looked him straight in the eyes without smiling. She was tired of his bullshit and pride. If he wasn't going to help then she didn't want to stay one more minute.
She walked past him and towards her bedroom but Klaus grabbed her arm and stopped her. She looked at him with a challenging look but he didn't let her go.
"Where are you going?" he said with restrained anger in his voice. The grab on her arm was loose but still inescapable. The scene reminded her to much of her last encounter with Silas in the Lockwood cellar and Caroline had to look away for a moment. When she finally looked back at him, her eyes showed just as much anger as his.
"I going to pack my things and take the first flight home. So if you could let me go, that would be great." Caroline said with a cheerful voice and a smile on her lips. As soon as he let her go, Caroline's smile disappeared and without a second look at him, she walked into her room and grabbed her empty suitcase on top of the closet.
She started throwing her clothes in it carelessly while she ignored Klaus, who were looking at her from the balcony. Caroline could feel how the anger build up inside her and she had to control herself so she wouldn't punch a hole through the wall… or Klaus.
"Don't be a child, love." Klaus said calmly from the doorframe he was leaning against. Caroline stopped and dropped the clothes in her hands on the floor without thought. She took a step towards him and struggled to keep her voice down while she spoke.
"I am a child? Really? So I am the immature one in this room? I flew thousands of miles to come here and ask for your help, well-knowing that you had no reason to say yes. But I came anyway because I trusted you, Klaus. I trusted you to be my friend! I know you're not exactly familiar with the concept but friends help each other! Not to pay some due or to gain something but because that's what friends do! I don't even know why I am explaining this to you because you never gonna get, are you?!"
Klaus stood in front of her in a flash but she looked at him without flinching. She could see every aspect of anger in his eyes and felt how it radiated from him but she stood her ground. They didn't say anything and slowly, the tension build up between them. She could feel the animal inside of her waking up and for a long moment she wanted nothing more than to fling herself at him.
Caroline came back to her senses and broke the connection by stepping back. She picked up the clothes she had dropped on the floor and started packing again, this time more calmly. Klaus didn't move from his spot in the middle of the room but Caroline felt how his anger slowly disappeared.
She stopped packing and stepped in front of him once more. She needed to explain this as calmly as possible. He had to understand why she had come and why she now was leaving again.
"Klaus, you need to know that I forgive you." Caroline's words made his eyes jumped from the floor to her face and his mouth opened slightly. His looked at her with confused eyes and Caroline knew that he would listen to what she had to say.
"All the horrible things you've done, is exactly that; done. We cannot rewind time, especially because we probably would do the exact same things we already regret, once more. But I forgive you. Not because you deserve it, but because you need it. And know I need to go home. I came here because I have nothing left to lose. And now I'm going home for the exact same reason. If you don't want to help then I need to go home to my friends. Because I can't let them die alone. I can't let anymore die alone or because of me. Bonnie is dead… she died alone, Klaus. And Stefan. He's alone somewhere out there too. And my mom… I have nothing left to lose and I need to get home now."
Caroline tried to hold back her tears but she couldn't stop her throat from tightening or the tears running down her cheeks. She placed her hand in front of her mouth to silence her sobbing but the sound escaped her and suddenly she couldn't stop.
Klaus was looking at her with watered eyes and slowly he placed a hand on her arm. She shook it off immediately and took a step backwards. Klaus followed and this time he pulled her all the way into his arms. Caroline fought back tried to push away, hit him on his chest but nothing worked. At last she gave up and with the tears still running down her face, she relaxed.
"I'm sorry. I am so sorry, Caroline." Klaus whispered down in her hair before he placed another kiss on her forehead. Amidst all crying, Caroline couldn't help to think about how different this felt. She had never cried in front of him, expect from the time he was in Tyler's body, or been so close to him in this way.
For a minute Caroline was afraid that if she didn't leave now, she never would and she pushed away from him slowly. She went back to her closet and took another pile of her clothes in her hands. As she turned around, she almost walked into Klaus, who was standing right behind her. He took the clothes out of her hands and laid it back into the closet.
"I need to go home, Klaus." Caroline protested with a small voice. Klaus placed his hands on either side of her cheeks like he had done the night before and looked at her with worried eyes. He dried her tears away with his thumbs without looking away from her eyes. It was as if he was looking for something inside them and Caroline was about to look away when she realised that she couldn't.
At last he released her from his gaze and let go of her face. Caroline felt confused by what had just happened and forgot all about packing her things. Klaus walked back to the balcony and Caroline followed. He was leaning his elbows against the railing and had his back against her. For a second, Caroline returned to the day where she had found him without his shirt on, begging for her help. Another weird day, just like this.
"Tell me what happened." Klaus said, still with his back turned on her.
"You know that Bonnie turned him into stone. She also brought the veil down but when she was about to close it, she used too much of her power in order to resurrect Jeremy and… she died. She was a ghost on our graduation day. I saw her receive her diploma from her father but she was dead, and nobody knew. Because she died, her spell broke and Silas was released." Caroline told him as she tried to hold back her tears.
Every time she thought of Bonnie, that day was in her mind. She remembered how her best friend had cried and Caroline had told her that there was no need. Bonnie had thanked her father for everything on the stage and received her diploma, knowing that that was all she was ever going to achieve. And then she had left without saying goodbye, just so her friends could enjoy their summer.
Caroline had sat down on the small step between her room and the balcony. Klaus turned around to look at her with a determined look on his face. He reached for her hand and she took his, unsure of what he was thinking. He pulled her lightly to her feet and before she could do anything, he dragged her with him and they both disappeared from the balcony.