"I don't tell anyone about the way you hold my hand. I don't tell anyone about the things that we have planned. I won't tell anybody... they wanna push me down, they wanna see you fall down," Ingrid Michaelson, Parachute
18
Parachute
Of course, Klaus insisted on driving which was fine with Caroline given she only had a vague idea of where Bonnie had described they were waiting. He'd also insisted on a car of Marcel's vampires, accompanied by Elijah, follow them. Caroline rolled her eyes but even begrudgingly agreed to this on the condition that they remain outside of the parking lot when they arrived.
Caroline still hadn't seen Elijah since they'd all got back to The Abattoir. When they'd arrived and she'd awoken to Klaus carrying her, the place had seen strangely empty. When they'd left to drive out of the city, it seemed empty still. It was a stark contrast to when the place had been flooded with vampires guarding her.
"Where is everyone?" she asked in the next time they got into the car to head out. She'd gotten dressed in jeans and a t-shirt with some sunglasses. It was even comforting to see her dressing normal again. She did look a nervous wreck, though, and it made Klaus want to pull over the car until he could convince her that she didn't have to do this and then kiss her until she didn't care anymore either way.
However, he sincerely doubted that would go over well. Caroline clearly had her mind made up on doing this and she just wanted to get it over with.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"At the compound," Caroline explained. "Where are the vampires… and your family?"
"They'll be back later tonight, perhaps even by the time we return home," Klaus said — assuming there were no obstacles to returning home — "I just asked that everyone leave for a few hours before we returned earlier this morning. I assumed being surrounded by a lot of people probably wouldn't have been exactly perfect to bombarded by when you first woke up."
"Thank you," she said, sincerely, looking up at him from her steadfast gaze out the window. She had so much on her mind at the moment that she'd spent the ride so far in steely silence but, it wasn't because she was at all upset with Klaus. "I'm sorry to have kept you from your family any longer than necessary. I'm glad they'll be back."
You're my family, Klaus wanted to fiercely explain to her but, they were finally pulling into the parking lot they had been directed to. At the far end, they could see Damon and Stefan pacing around the pavement as they waited.
"Christ, they brought the whole lot of them." Klaus began to complain as soon as he caught sight of Elena with the rest of them. "I thought you just said it would be Bonnie and Stefan?"
"Have you seriously learned nothing about us since you started returning to Mystic Falls?" Caroline asked with a quirked eyebrow. And it was so good to see her joking again that, for a split second, he almost forgot about the fact that the love of his life, very likely his eternal mate was about to have a conversation with a competing male.
Sparring him one last parting glance, filled with reservations, Caroline opened the car door and stepped out. Her friends, a few yards away, immediately stopped what they were doing to watch her approach.
"Care?" Bonnie asked first, as she walked up. They were all piled around the outside of the car, the map of New Orleans still spread out on the hood in front of them.
"Hi guys…" Caroline answered slowly, unsure even how to begin this interaction.
But, unbeknownst to her, they all — minus Damon — let out a collective sigh of relief. Caroline, when she had her emotions on, had an extremely emotive face. It was one of the things that Klaus had always found most appealing about her and it had all but disappeared after she'd shut it off. Now, her emotions were apparent on her features the moment she slipped off her sunglasses to look her friends in the eye. She was hurting, questioning, ashamed, but hopfull and something else… sure of herself.
"Caroline!" Elena exclaimed, almost disbelievingly, rushing forward to greet her friend with outstretched arms — despite Damon's obvious reservations. Much like Klaus, he was suspicious enough to believe that this all might be a ruse of Caroline's.
Caroline quickly proved otherwise, though, when she graciously accepted Elena's embrace, letting out a happy choked laugh-sob when Bonnie rushed to them next to fling herself on top of the group hug.
"You're back…" Bonnie said and Caroline was shocked at the genuine warmth she was receiving from her friends. Even after Elena had turned her emotions back on and resolved things with all of them, Caroline had felt the bitter sting of resentment against Elena longer than she'd care to admit. "Jo is going to be so pissed at you, you haven't been there to plan any of the wedding!"
"I'm sorry," Caroline said, simply and without being weepy. She was only going to say it once. It was all she had room for. She was also grateful for Elena's gesture. She was starting with a small transgression, acknowledging and forgiving it because Elena had once been in the same situation herself and she knew how difficult it was to look for forgiveness.
"Trust me, Caroline," Elena said, pulling back from her friend, "If there's one issue I can feel true empathy for, it's this. I understand what you were going through. Stefan does too."
Caroline glanced, for the first time, behind the girls to where the Salvatore brothers were still waiting by the car. Damon lifted up his hand to waggle his fingers at her in sarcastic greeting. Stefan was watching her passively… maybe even almost hopefully? And when Klaus could see them making eye contact from the car he finally opened the door and got out.
Her head whipped around at the sound of him disturbing their reunion and she leveled an impressive glare at him. He held up his hands defensively, just standing to lean against the hood of the car with his arms and ankles crossed in front of him. He'd let her have her time, as he'd all but promised but, he'd be damned if he was just going to sit in the car to wait for her like some invisible chauffeur.
"Wait a minute," Damon began. "I thought this was a rescue mission? I thought you were being held captive? Balto over here looks just as whipped as ever."
Klaus's head snapped up to glare at him, letting loose a menacing growl. And Elena turned to Damon giving him a pissed off shush.
"You're one to talk," Caroline replied dryly. Apparently even the return of emotions didn't bring her any warmer feelings towards Damon.
"So, we can leave now," Bonnie suggested hopefully, "Now that you've turned it back on?"
"Actually…" Caroline began.
Elena was the first to catch her eye knowingly. She had seen the new Caroline step out of the car with Klaus. She wasn't just different because her emotions had returned. She was different because Klaus had turned out to be her trigger. Caroline didn't even have to say anything because Elena already knew.
It wasn't going to be so easy with Bonnie, though. she faced Caroline with defiant and hurt eyes.
"Actually what?" Bonnie asked.
"I'm staying here," Caroline answered softly. "I'm staying with Klaus."
Bonnie looked over Caroline's shoulder at Klaus with nothing but pure disgust on her face. Klaus simply grinned back cheekily. In all honesty, though, despite his display of self-assurance, finally hearing Caroline say to her friends that she was choosing to stay with him… He could barely believe it all wasn't a dream. If he'd still had a working heart, he thought it might have been beating out of his chest right about now.
"With Klaus?" Bonnie insisted incredulously.
"Come on," Elena said, trying to deviate any fights before they started, "Let's talk somewhere a little more private."
Somewhere turned out to be the far end of the parking lot, where the girls spent over an hour talking everything out. Stefan was giving them their privacy but, Caroline was aware this was in part because he intended to have his own talk with her. Damon had taken upon the duty of heckling Klaus while Caroline told her story which, at the very least, kept Klaus moderately distracted.
"So are we ever gonna get an invitation back into this place?" Damon asked. "I mean, we weren't exactly anxious to get compelled again today so we're all on vervain but, I dunno, maybe sometime in the future you could lift the compulsion?
Klaus offered him a side-eyed glare. "That remains to be seen," he told Damon while staring after Caroline. "Not to mention, NOLA isn't currently as desirable a place to visit as it once was. I'm aiming to change that."
"Yeah, so I've heard," Damon acknowledged, "And yet our little Barbie here wants to stay with you…?"
"She's not your little anything!" Klaus snapped not really feeling as angry as he was displaying. Caroline was staying with him and, truly, the thought of it was enough to make him feel about to burst. So potent was his happiness, it was almost terrifying.
Damon backed off. Heckling the Original Big Bad Wolf was fun but not fun enough to risk a bite over.
Talking everything over with Bonnie and Elena, Caroline had admitted that Klaus had ultimately been her trigger… how the further she strayed from him the more forcefully her emotions pushed at her. It was clear it was difficult for them to hear but, ultimately they had been surprisingly willing to part on happy terms. No one had any intention of inviting Klaus to their next dinner party but, they owed him their gratitude for bringing their friend back. Having Caroline back, even if she wanted to stay with Klaus, was better than losing her entirely.
Eventually they'd parted with hugs, making plans for Caroline to visit in Virginia soon. She still had a lot of packing to do both in Mystic Falls and in Whitmore. Not to mention she would always want to stop by frequently to visit her mother's grave. Lord, what would Liz Forbes make of you and Klaus Mikaelson? she thought to herself. She'd be glad you didn't have it shut off for good. That's for sure.
Bonnie had returned to the car to sit in the air conditioning while they all finished up and Elena went to round up Damon. It was only then that Stefan finally began to approach her; hands in his pockets while her arms were crossed almost defensively across her chest.
"It's good to see you back," was all Stefan said to her first.
"It's good to be back," she replied.
And, in that instant, they both realized how silly it was to be skittish around each other. They'd had an awkward episode before she turned it off. It had partly led to her turning it off. So what? She was back now and had new perspective and they were still best friends. He always would be her best friend.
Seemingly on the same train of thought, they both opened their arms to hug each at the same time. Caroline's face broke out into a smile and Stefan held her against him, happy that she was okay, even if she wouldn't be returning with them.
Across the parking lot, Klaus had to visibly hold himself back from speeding over to break them apart and break Stefan's jaw. Jealousy washed over him in a sickening hot wave and he saw red. Logically, he had trusted Caroline when she'd told him that she was staying. That still didn't ease the rage he felt at another man touching her. Particularly one who admitted to having feelings for her.
"Easy Klaus," Elena snapped in a huff. "She said she was staying with you. She said you were her trigger. But Stefan is her friend and she deserves to say goodbye."
She said I was her trigger? was all Klaus could think. The jealousy ebbed in an instant as he was flooded with disbelief over the revelation. They hadn't yet discussed what had caused her emotions to return. Klaus had figured she would tell him when the time was right.
Catching sight of his shocked face, Elena realized that she may have spoke too soon. She shot Damon a nervous glare and he mouthed out the word yikes before turning to Klaus and saying, "Well, it's been fun Klaus but… we're going to wait in the car now!"
Damon dashed off, pulling Elena with them but, before she hopped in the car she hissed at Klaus over her shoulder, "Don't tell her I said anything!"
Klaus gave her an untrustworthy smile and made the boy scout's honor hand gesture. Sure, he wouldn't confront Caroline with this knowledge while she was still hurting and recovering. But he knew Caroline was stubborn as hell about admitted her feelings for him and he was almost positive he'd be the one that needed to make the first move this time around.
Second move, really. She'd already decided to stay with him. That should have been clue enough that he'd had something to do with her return to humanity. But, with Elena's insight or not, he probably wouldn't truly believe it until he heard it from Caroline herself.
"It's been no picnic, of course," Caroline continued to Stefan at the far end of the parking lot. They'd broken their hug and were now standing next to each other looking out in the direction of the airport where a small Alaskan Airlines jet was still steadily rising in the sky. "The grief over my mother only seems to have tripled since I shut it off, not to mention…"
Caroline had to pause to collect herself. She was done with the tears; she wouldn't indulge herself in weepiness. But, every time she began to talk about the days without her humanity, she couldn't help but to become enraged with herself.
Stefan pressed her to him without thinking, looping an arm around her shoulders. He wouldn't push her to continue just yet.
Across the parking lot, Klaus audibly hissed and Elena flashed him another glare.
"Seriously, Klaus?" Bonnie demanded from the car. "She's waiting for you to trust her right now."
Knowing that Bonnie was right, unfortunately, Klaus cast one final disdainful look at the whole affair before settling back inside his own vehicle with an agitated and petulant look on his face.
"So, I gather that you're staying here," Stefan told Caroline, his arm still wrapped around her shoulder.
"I am," she admitted before softly looking to gaze into Stefan's eyes. "I'm in love with him."
Stefan closed his eyes and sighed. "You have been for awhile, haven't you?"
Caroline nodded, "Probably since well before I even shut my humanity off," she told him.
"And you're definitely going to stay? Here in NOLA?" he asked,
She nodded again. "I'll be visiting Virginia soon, I have a lot to pack up," Caroline said. "But I do want to stay with Klaus. No matter what. I love him."
"If I had told you my feelings earlier…" Stefan began, "Would things be different?"
Caroline 8 had to do her damnedest not to let out a noise of frustration. They'd already had this conversation when her humanity had been off.
"Of course they would," Caroline repeated from an earlier conversation. "Likely I never would have turned my humanity off at all. But, the fact of the matter is, I did turn my humanity off. And you weren't the person to get it back on. Klaus was. And now I would do anything to stay with him."
Stefan nodded resolutely before pressing a soft kiss to her temple, which made Caroline afraid to even glance back to Klaus but also sent a flurry of happiness to settle in her stomach. It wasn't a romantic connection, not anymore. Caroline was just relieved have her friends back and, more importantly, to be able to care about them again.
"We just want you to be happy, Care," he said. "Everyone deserves to be happy but especially you."
"Thanks Stefan," Caroline replied with a smile as they parted from their hug.
"But rumors of what goes on in this city travel quickly in the vampire community," Stefan said. "There's talk of unrest in the city. Promise me that if anything happens you'll call us and find some way to get us back in this city?"
"I'll call you,:" Caroline agreed. "But I'm not having you drain yourself just to get the vervain out of your system so Klaus can end his compulsion."
"Ah, so you are determined to keep us out of your new empire for good then?" he asked her jokingly.
"Empire? Hardly. It's one of my biggest regrets that I had Klaus compel you out of the city… who knows when we'll be able to visit again?" Caroline asked, her voice forelorn.
"Well… you do still have a lot of loose ends in Virginia. Saying goodbye, dropping out of Whitmore…" he let the sentence hang not wanting to bring up finishing up her mother's affairs and deciding what to do with the house.
"What are you suggesting?" she asked.
"Let's say that if you were to come back up to get started on your big move in, I don't know, say a week… I don't think anyone would be hard pressed to stay off vervain that long so Klaus could end the compulsion when we saw you next," he said. "Things are decidedly low-key in Mystic Falls right now."
Caroline smiled, "You'd really do that? You think everyone would agree to it?"
"Well, Damon might take some bribing but-"
Caroline interrupted him to wrap herself around him in one final bear hug.
"See you in a week," she whispered into his ear.
Klaus wanted to be counting his blessings - Caroline was, after all, still here in the car with him and going back to his house. But, when they'd left earlier that morning she had still been the picture of forlorn. Now, after meeting with her friends, Caroline looked much more like her former self. He was, of course, ecstatic to see her even marginally happy again but, he couldn't help but feel it all had something to do with that bloody Salvatore.
They were driving back into the city now, up Decatur street to get back to The Abattoir. Caroline had her sunglasses on with her head practically leaning out the window to soak up some of the sunshine. She had a quiet smile playing at her lips. Klaus didn't want to interrupt her moment but he finally couldn't wait any longer. He needed to tactfully demand some answers.
"So I gather that went well?" he asked her.
She looked back over to him in the driver's seat, popping up her sunglasses to make eye contact, "They forgave me," she said with a grin that suggested she still didn't quite yet grasp it. "We're still friends."
"No offense, love," Klaus said, "But I don't think you were ever in as much danger of losing their friendship as you thought. Stefan and Elena have both been in your position before. Damon has done worse things with his humanity on. And Bonnie Bennett had always possessed an incredible empathy, anyone can see that."
Caroline's eyes crinkled as she smiled even wider. She took the hand Klaus had resting on the car's clutch in her own and she heard his breath catch briefly in his throat as his eyes met hers in the rear-view mirror. The truth was, Caroline was touched by how well he seemed to understand her friends and thus, her life. Klaus had always been a scarily observant man but, she couldn't help but feel, the fact that he'd picked up on Bonnie's empathy had more to do with him genuinely wanting to get to know the people close to her than keep tabs on them.
Then, she had to stifle a laugh. She was being ridiculous if she couldn't acknowledge that Klaus would also always be keeping tabs on everyone. But, suddenly, such aspects of his personality didn't bother her in the slightest. She was now finding that almost every discovery she made about Klaus simply served to endear him to her more.
"You look so much happier," he said and Caroline could tell there was a minute amount of hurt lacing the relief in his words.
"I have my friends back," she said first. "And they're all happy that I'm happy. I literally couldn't have imagined a more perfect outcome."
"And Stefan?" Klaus asked.
Caroline gripped his hand a little tighter in her own. So there it was. The concern.
"He's happy for me," Caroline answered. "He knows things could have been different between us but… now they never can be. Stefan is a good guy. He's happy to stay my best friend."
She noticed Klaus's hand grip her own considerably tighter and she rolled her eyes.
"And that's something you're just going to have to get used to," she replied smartly. "He's my best friend Klaus; he's always going to be a part of my life."
"I'm aware of that, love and, after everything you've been through, I'm not anxious to take away anything that makes you happy," Klaus told her softly. "But if there's something you're just going to have to get used to, it's that I'm an extremely jealous man by nature."
Caroline rolled her eyes but couldn't help the little shiver of desire that spread through her body. If she was really being honest with herself, one of the main reasons she'd ultimately fallen for Klaus - even before she'd turned it off - was because of his desire for her. Caroline had never been wanted (needed?) so deeply before.
"I have a feeling there's going to be a lot more than just that to get used to," she laughed and turned to look out the window again.
But before she did, they caught each others eyes in the rear view mirror a final time. Klaus something in her eyes: The lust was unmistakable.
Caroline all but broke down the doors to The Abattoir herself, latching onto him the moment they'd both stepped out of the car and pressing his back forcefully into the locked doors.
Klaus wrapped his arms tightly around Caroline's back, trying to regain some control of the kiss. She'd sprung it on him out of nowhere the second they were both out of his car. Yes, he had noticed the passion in her eyes while they were driving but he'd honestly convinced himself that she still wouldn't be ready for intimacy quite yet. She'd just gotten her emotions back, for God's sake, he was happy enough to know that she wanted to be with him. He didn't need to rush her into anything else while all of her feelings were still settling and going haywire.
But then she'd pounced on him after he parked the car. The moment he'd closed his door and locked it behind him, she'd sped in front of him, first pushing him dominantly onto the hood of his car - almost hard enough to dent it, he was sure. Her soft lips were tugging at his insistently, silently begging him to open his mouth and, when he did she quickly slipped her own in. It elicited a quick and surprised groan from him, forcing him to part from her just briefly enough to begin a sentence:
"Caroline, sweetheart, are you sure-"
She silenced him by pressing her lips to his own again and promptly pushing his hands down from her back to grab her ass. The decisiveness of the move had him hard in under a second and, before he realized what he was doing, he'd flipped them so he was the one pressing her into the hood of the car.
Caroline looked up at him to catch the yellow coming out in his eyes, signalling his wolf side was now present. It didn't intimidate her in the slightest. Instead, Caroline found herself so aroused that she was able to localize her strength enough to forcefully push him off of her and back into the closed front doors where they proceeded to make out for a good five minutes while Klaus devised every conceivable trick he could think of to get Caroline off of him just long enough to unlock the doors and get them inside! She was not to be deterred though and, every time he'd release her waist or his grip on her ass long enough to fumble for the keys, she'd reposition his hands to touch another part of her.
"Caroline, please, we at least need to get inside," Klaus told her.
As soon as the admission left his lips, the front door opened behind them, sending them both stumbling backwards. Elijah was there to meet them.
"Caroline, my dear," Elijah began, "It is lovely to see you back. Unfortunately, some terrible events have transpired and everyone seems to be blaming them on you."
Klaus couldn't hold back his growl, yet again.
"What are you talking about brother?" Klaus demanded.
"A wolf from the crescent pack has been murdered in cold blood," Elijah explained. "Aiden."
"And how is this our problem?" Klaus insisted.
"Because everyone thinks Caroline is responsible," Elijah replied.
So, long author's notes ahead but I have some important announcements. First of all, welcome to all the new readers! Happy to have you here and hear your thoughts!
Guys, a million apologies again for the delay; it was due to your kind words reminding me that you were waiting that I pushed this through today. I promise I haven't been ignoring or forgotten about this fic, the past couple of chapters have just been very difficult for me to write and I take my time until I'm sure every scene is playing out the way I want it to.
Those of you who follow me across multiple stories and platforms are getting sick of hearing this but, the Klaroline Awards have officially moved from the nominations phase to the voting phase and THANK YOU ALL: I am proud to announce that I have been nominated for three Klaroline Awards on Tumblr! In the Fiction section Demeter's Daughter is up for Best Romance (!) and Inferno is up for Best Action / Adventure. In the Author's section of the awards I have been nominated for Best Caroline Author which I am so so so honored about. I really am sorry to be repeating it all over the place but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pumped as fuck and I won't rest until everyone who nominated me knows my gratitude is unending! Congrats to my fellow nominees; I was very happy to see some familiar names also recognized! ;) I really can't express my gratitude enough to all my readers, this has totally made my week… month? Whatever.
Finally, the awesome Klaroline tumblr community has been SO inspiring that I've finally bit the bullet and got myself a tumblr. My username there is the same (AmericanWordsmith) and, in addition to regular bloggy things, I will be posting Klaroline-y goodness, sneak peeks, drabbles, one-shots and taking requests. Not everything published over there will end up over here and, last night, I posted a sneak peek of this very chapter. Check it out and lets be tumblr friends! ;)