They eventually get off the floor, Caroline doesn't apologize because she isn't sorry that she tackled her best friend. She tells her everything, even what she saw in Klaus's head. It was a bunch of misty, hard to see things, and then he shifted them into a memory. It was beautiful, Caroline admits. He told her she was more beautiful than any painting could ever hope to capture, and she had replied that maybe he could, he just needed practice. She looks nervously at Elena, pulling back to look at her.
She sighs, and Caroline's worried that she's disappointed. Elena is about to speak and then waves her hand. Caroline finds herself on something familiar. Elena's bed. She admits, that she had a lot of time in her own head to think. Klaus isn't the absolute worst person for Caroline. She hasn't quite forgiven him for the hell he put her through, but-if he makes Caroline happy-she isn't going to judge. Caroline is happy at the news. Elena reminds her that if Klaus ever hurts her, Bonnie and she will make his life hell on Earth. It's their promise, when any of them was interested in someone, before the person with a crush went further, they said that. It's a blessing to go seek out love if they believed they had found it. It's approval, and a reminder that they were always there to listen, a promise to be there if needed, with ice cream and threats if something went wrong. It's a reminder that they want each other to be happy.
By Caroline's face, she hasn't gotten it from Bonnie yet. She just holds her friend close as she begins to cry, life throws hard curveballs at them. She doesn't want to lose Bonnie because of butterflies that never really go away when she's near Klaus. She doesn't want to, she wants a safe love that's guaranteed, like one of her romance movies. She wants someone to be perfect with. Someone to compliment her. She had always wanted that. The fact that she has to revise it, anyone she wants to date now can't be human. The idea that Klaus fits bits and pieces of her ideal but somehow makes sense to her heart is confusing, and she's kept this to herself for so long that it comes out like a wave. She needed Elena.
Elena just holds her best friend as she spills secrets in a steady river.