A.N: I'm sorry if anyone was put off or shocked by the previous chapter. I do aim to shock! I promise that there won't be any more incidents of Caroline taking hard drugs, but I can't promise that Kol won't! It's likely that there will be more shocking scenarios along the way - casual warning.

Chapter Four

Somehow, Klaus found himself sitting at the hospital waiting room with Caroline that evening, instead of engaging in his appointment with Rose, which he'd had to cancel. He also had taken the liberty to contact Lexi to tell her that Caroline wouldn't be making it for their arrangement, and made contact with her roommate to let her know where she was. He was, needless to say, extremely pissed off.

But while Caroline slept beside him, with her head on his shoulder and her hand in a bandage, he just couldn't be angry with her. Kol, on the other hand, he was furious with.

While Caroline was having her stitches, he had already contacted Elijah to tell him that he didn't want to see Kol in the office anymore. He was convinced that Kol had influenced Caroline to take the drugs and get out of control, because he didn't believe she would do it on her own back. He had watched Kol spiral for years, and take many other girls down with him. Life was just a party for Kol.

Elijah had asked if Klaus was going to consider firing Caroline, but Klaus didn't give him an answer. Deep down, he had already made up his mind – he wasn't going to sack Caroline. It was a mishap and it wasn't her fault. Also, she was so good at keeping both him and Elijah in check, he wasn't sure he would be able to cope if she were to leave. But then there was the real reason – he didn't see any point in going into work if Caroline wasn't going to be there. He'd gotten too used to being greeted by her smiling face, or watching the adorable way she would flush with embarrassment if he caught her trip over her feet or drop something.

He planned on having a serious chat with her, but he definitely wasn't going to fire her.

Even though she had her hand stitched up neatly now, the nurses had advised them to wait until the drugs were out of her system. Klaus had elaborated a story about how she had her drink spiked at a party, and they seemed to buy it – most of the nurses had been too starstruck by Klaus' presence to really pay much attention. But they were creeping towards one in the morning now, and Klaus didn't want to sit about any longer. So he hauled Caroline up in his arms, and signed her out.

Caroline awoke the next day feeling comfortable, but her head was throbbing. She sat up, cracked her eyes open, and held up her arm to shade her face. The sun was streaming through the wide window to her left, and when she looked around, she learned that she was in a large crimson-quilted bed; the biggest bed that she had ever seen in her life. Over by the window, sat in a matching red-covered loveseat, was Klaus, sipping tea and reading the New Yorker. He was dressed casually, in low-slung grey jeans and a black jumper.

She rubbed her forehead, feeling confused. A sudden thought passed over her, and she quickly looked under the covers. Her memories of the previous day were scattered, and she just needed to check that she wasn't naked - being naked in an unfamiliar bed was a guaranteed disaster. Luckily, she was dressed – but not in her own clothes. She was swathed in an oversized men's shirt and a pair of boxer shorts, so Klaus had clearly redressed her. She opened her mouth, ready to shoot something at him, but he spoke first.

"Before you start," he muttered before she could speak, not looking away from his magazine. "Yes, I had to undress you. You threw up all over yourself on the way home from the hospital, and it was too far to get you all the way back to the Bronx – and frankly, I didn't think you were capable of looking after yourself. You still had Class A drugs in your system, and I took it as a personal liberty – as your employer – to look after you."

Caroline flushed brightly. "You saw me naked?"

This got Klaus' attention. He looked up at her, but he wasn't wearing his usual trademark smirk – in fact he looked downright severe. "Yes, Caroline, I saw you naked. But I've seen plenty of women naked, many of them right where you're sitting now, so try not to feel special."

Caroline glowed angrily, and opened her mouth to respond. Memories were flooding back – the main ones including taking cocaine with Kol, kissing Kol in different parts of Manhattan, riding on the front of his stolen bicycle down the side of the Harlem – and of course, most prominently – coming back to Klaus' apartment with Kol, and finding him receiving oral sex from his little Chinese beauty. She threw back the covers, and stormed out of his bed, and straight into his en-suite. She slammed the door behind her, and leaned on the counter, staring at her reflection in the mirror.

She really looked a sight. Her hair was stuck up in a number of different places, and she had pink lipstick smeared across her cheek. She groaned, and buried her face into the sink, scrubbing her face the best she could with the use of only one hand. When she was make-up free, and she had combed out her hair with her fingers, she stepped back into Klaus' bedroom, trying to make a more dignified entrance. He was still looking at his New Yorker, but when she returned he placed it on the seat beside him.

"If you're going to fire me, just hurry up and do it," Caroline murmured. She couldn't bear it to be drawn out – she needed to get it over and done with. Klaus raised an eyebrow.

"Don't be ridiculous, Caroline. I'm not going to fire you – we're just going to have a nice, long chat. Can I offer you some breakfast?" he jumped to his feet, and left the bedroom. Tentatively, Caroline followed, feeling confused.

"I'm not really hungry," she replied as she closed the bedroom door behind her. Klaus was already standing by the door, using the telephone that was hanging there by a cord. He clicked his fingers at her impatiently.

"Not interested in excuses," he told her. "I'll order you pancakes and fruit," he relayed an order into the telephone, and then put the phone down. "I love living in a city where you can order breakfast on delivery. Such fun." He wandered over to the kitchen table, and opened a chair, motioning for Caroline to sit. Once she did so, he pushed her in, and then sat down opposite her. She tried not to glare at him – she was getting fed up of him treating her like a child. "Firstly, I'll establish this – you're unfit to work for the next three working days."

Caroline blinked at him. "What – no, I can't miss work!" she gasped. "I can't afford unpaid days off, Klaus."

Klaus held up his hand. "If you'll let me finish. You're unfit to work because you won't be able to remove that bandage on your hand for another three days. However, I'm not giving up on you that easily, and frankly I don't think I will be able to manage without your assistance – even for just a few days," Caroline felt her pride swelling. "So, you're going to stay here with me. It's Thursday, so you will spend today here, tomorrow and Monday. I expect you to remain here throughout the weekend – you can call it your punishment for your behaviour yesterday."

"I…" Caroline wanted to argue the weekend work, but she knew she couldn't fight it. He was being generous enough by not sacking her. "…So, I'll leave here every night and come back in the morning?"

Klaus smirked, for the first time since she had seen him that morning, and she felt warmth spreading through her chest. He wasn't angry with her. "If you like," he replied, but his voice dropped to a sneer. "You're welcome to spend the night."

Caroline wanted to throw the vase in the centre of the table at his head, but she gave him a forced smile. "No, thank you."

"Suit yourself. I will take you home every night and collect you in the morning," before Caroline could protest, he was talking again. "I'm not going to go into too much detail about the events of yesterday, because I don't want to cause an argument. We are going to do what my brother Elijah calls a 'repair'. You can tell me what annoyed you yesterday, and I'll talk about what annoyed me. We'll take it in turns. Me first," Klaus took a breath, and leant back in his chair with his fingertips pressed together. "I didn't like that you used the free day Elijah so kindly gave you to go rampant around the city with Kol."

Caroline raised an eyebrow, and wrapped her arms around herself. "Are you annoyed with the fact I was taking drugs with Kol, or just being with Kol in general?"

Klaus' eyes glimmered dangerously.

"Whatever. Okay, I didn't like that you just randomly took a day off from work without telling me, leaving me to dump your two meetings on Elijah and have to cancel that important seminar – and then I came here to find you doing that with your girlfriend."

"Are you annoyed at the fact I took a day off without alerting you, or that I was having a blowjob from a friend?"

Now it was Caroline's turn to glare at him, only she wasn't smirking.

"I think the wires have definitely gotten crossed," she responded. "Whatever you might think, I'm not interested in you, and I don't care what you choose to do in your spare time or who you do it with – I just think you should have a reasonable excuse to take unplanned days off work."

"Some might think you were my boss, Caroline."

"You wanted to do this."

"I think we've established how we feel. Okay Caroline, I promise that should I ever take a day of absence, I will alert you immediately," Caroline nodded. "And in return, I'd like you to promise not to see Kol out of the office again."

Caroline stiffened up. She was a little irritated with Kol for leading her astray, if truth be told – but she was a grown woman. She had made her own decisions yesterday, none of which were made by Kol. Even though she deeply regretted falling prey to peer pressure, and was confident that she wasn't ever going to do anything so reckless again – she didn't want to lose a friend in Kol.

"Are you going to stop seeing the lovely Pearl?" she asked in a low voice. His left eyebrow rose higher as his blue eyes burned into her.

"This isn't about getting even, Caroline. I don't want you to see him."

She threw herself back in her chair. "What, so you can run around New York with whoever the hell you like, but I'm not allowed to hang out with a friend?"

"I don't do hard drugs with my friends, Caroline," he replied breezily.

"Well I don't sleep with all of mine," she shot back.

"Oh, I don't know. You and Klaus were pretty comfortable together yesterday, what I can gather by the bruises all over your neck and the lipstick that was around your mouth. I'm sure after one or two more hits he would have convinced you to climb into bed with him," Caroline couldn't miss the jealous undertone in his voice and she felt utterly confused.

Yes, there had been a couple of incidents where they had almost kissed. Caroline never missed Klaus' flirtatious comments and the way his eyes undressed her when she sauntered into the office, and she knew he acted differently with her than the other women. She knew that he didn't give as much attention to the women he went on multiple dinner dates with and brought back to his lavish apartment as he did to her – but she still never thought Klaus actually liked her in that way. If that was the case, why did he continue to see all these women and not spare her a thought? Or, why didn't he just make it clear that he didn't want to pursue anything with her, and stop flirting with her at work?

And on the other hand, Caroline knew that she felt something for Klaus. While hanging out with Kol had been fun, and he always made her smile – and she didn't mind it when he flirted with her – she couldn't deny that there was something with Klaus, something much more deep-rooted. There was something about him that made her insides melt.

So what on earth were they doing? They spent several minutes glaring at each other across the kitchen table, until the sound of the callbox buzzing caused Caroline to flinch. Klaus climbed to his feet, and answered the door. It was the breakfast that Klaus had previously ordered, which they ate in silence.

After their awkward conversation in the morning, Caroline and Klaus spent the rest of the day working. As much as Caroline didn't want to talk to him, it was a bit difficult without the use of one of her hands. She had to explain most things out loud to him, things she would normally put in an email.

At seven, Klaus finally checked his watch and asked Caroline if she wanted to go home. She had nodded, beginning to feel extremely uncomfortable sitting around his apartment in his shirt and pants. All she wanted to do was climb in the shower and then crawl under her covers, and forget about this embarrassing day.

She half expected Klaus to just walk her to the car, and let his driver take her home, but he climbed in beside her as he did the night before. They remained in silence for the entire journey, with Caroline staring out of the window, and Klaus mindlessly scrolling through his iPhone. When they pulled up, it was pouring rain, the kind of awful, dense grey rain that soaked you through to the skin. Caroline made to jump out of the car as soon as the car pulled to a stop, but Klaus climbed out too, and walked her to the door.

"Right, well. See you tomorrow," Caroline muttered, pulling her keys out of her handbag. The rain was hammering down, plastering her hair to her head.

"Caroline," Klaus stated. She looked up at him, and blinked. "Look, I'm sorry if today has been…uncomfortable. But you should know – I really, really don't want you to hang around with Kol anymore."

Caroline sighed, and turned back to the door without answering him.

"It's not because I'm…jealous…or whatever else you might think," Klaus added. "You see, Kol has been out of control his entire life. I know he's fun and he knows how to throw a great party and whatever else it is he does these days – but he's off the rails, and he always has been."

Caroline waited for him to continue.

"I just don't want to see him drag you down the wrong path."

Caroline slammed her hand against the door. "Why do you even care?" she demanded to know.

Klaus raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean? Of course I care, Caroline. He's my demented little brother and you're my employee."

"Do you run about after Lexi when she's hanging out with Kol? Because I know she does. Do you?"

"No, of course not Caro—"

"—I just want to know," Caroline interrupted. "Because things are getting a little bit confusing. You walk around treating me like…like I'm your girlfriend or something, all this looking out for me and giving me rides home and telling me I can't be friends with your brother! I know you don't treat the other girls at work like this, so what is it?"

"Caroline," Klaus started. "Just calm down."

"No, I'm not going to calm down!" Caroline shouted over the sound of the rain. She was releasing the frustration that had been building up inside her all day. "You can't act like that, Klaus – it's just…it's just…" she didn't really know where she was going with that. All she knew was that she was horribly confused about her feelings, and about his feelings, and she just needed to go to bed. She turned away from him and fumbled with her keys again, but her hands were wet and they slipped out of her hands, she staggered to her knees. Klaus suddenly knelt down too, to help her find them, and she looked up. At the same time, he also looked at her, and they locked eyes on one another whilst they were knelt down on the doorstep in the rain.

Klaus grabbed the keys, and pulled Caroline to her feet, holding her by her shoulders. As they stood in front of the door, Caroline began to feel those electric sensations that had transferred between them only twice before – during the first time she met him on the balcony at the Mikaelson Mansion, and inside his car just a few weeks ago. They were stood in the rain, connected by Klaus' hands on Caroline's upper arms, staring at each other intensely.

There wasn't really anything else to say – and even if either of them wanted to, they wouldn't have. Instead, they suddenly crashed into each other – Caroline's arms wound their way around his arms, and Klaus' hands tangled into her wet blonde hair. Their lips collided, as they finally poured weeks of tension into each other. Klaus pushed Caroline up against the door roughly – his kiss was possessive and demanding, and he removed one hand from her hair to grab her waist and pull her hips into his. She whimpered into his mouth, and he bit down on her bottom lip softly.

Suddenly, the door was pulled open, and they were forced to tear away from one another, as Caroline went tumbling through the (now open) door. Klaus reached out and grabbed her, hauling her back to her feet, and they both spun to look at who was at the door. It was Elena, and she was standing with her eyebrows raised.

Caroline glowed in embarrassment, but Klaus looked completely composed. He shot his trademark, lazy smirk in Elena's direction, and stuck out his hand. "You must be the friend who I spoke to last night. As you can see, I've brought Caroline back, safe and sound."

Elena shook his hand delicately, but didn't take her eyes off Caroline. Caroline knew she desperately wanted to drag her into the apartment and question her, but instead she backed off. "Well. I just came down because I heard a bang…but I'll leave you to it!" Elena forced a smile, and then made to close the door, but Caroline stuck her foot in the entryway.

"No! I'm coming inside now," Caroline said quickly, and stepped into the doorway. She forced herself to make eye contact with Klaus. "I'll see you tomorrow," she told him, and he nodded.

When she had closed the door behind her, Klaus stood on the doorstep for a few moments. He overhead Elena hissing at Caroline, demanding to know what had happened. He smirked, and made his way back down to the car. Once he slid into the back seat, he opened up the contacts menu on his iPhone.

"Drop me by Pearl's house, mate," he called to the driver. When the driver gave Klaus a raised eyebrow through the rear-view mirror, he simply scoffed back.

He had been hoping that Caroline would stay at his apartment, but instead she had chosen to return home. So, he was going to find company in someone else - he really, really didn't want to have to return to that empty house alone.