AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello my lovelies, sorry that this part is a little late this week, if you follow me on Tumblr you know that the delay was due to the fact that my husband and I are dealing with the probability of putting our dog that we've had for over a decade to sleep.
I'm glad to see that the part through the twins' eyes was well accepted. Thinking like two 7 year olds, even as smart as these two are, was not an easy task.
Thanks to jomosfamilyjewels, klarolineepiclove, and Melanoradrood for their help with this part. Gottabeelove and Alys98 for listening to me ramble about how to do the part and CeceVolume for her continued help.
Also, I want to give you guys a quick apology. Earlier in the story, I said I would be getting the two of them some time around part 20 or so but you guys can see that didn't quite happen. This story has grown so much from when I first started writing it, some parts of the story are longer than I planned (Barbados was only supposed to be 2 parts) so I hope you don't think I've been leading you on, I will be getting them together.
Wow, that was a long note, onto the story.
Part 29
"And unless you have anything more Mindy, I am going to wrap up for the day." Klaus stated.
Mindy's eyebrows went up in surprise as her eyes flickered to the clock. Her boss didn't usually leave early unless there was a pending engagement and she kept his calendar and therefore knew there wasn't. "No, that's all. Um, did I miss something on your schedule? I thought Stefan's bachelor party was tomorrow night?"
"It is. Caroline asked me if I could come home a little earlier than normal due to some plans she has this evening." Klaus explained.
He gave Mindy some last minute instructions before he turned back to his desk and started gathering his stuff. Caroline had made her request to him just that morning over breakfast and he had agreed to it without inquiring as to what the plans were. That fact hadn't bothered him until he arrived at his office and had a similar request from Dean. He should have assumed that her plans were with him. He had almost denied the man on the sole reason that if he did, then it would derail their plans and sabotage their time together. In the end, although he was jealous of the thought of them together, he still gave Dean the time he requested. If he hadn't, it would have caused problems with Caroline.
Things had been going well over the past couple of weeks, since they had talked in the kitchen. While there were times when it became tense or uncomfortable between the two of them especially if they were alone, they had fallen back into something similar to how they were before the incident in the living room. Caroline no longer ran from him when he was at the house, instead spending some time with them on the evenings when she wasn't busy. Klaus found this both good and bad, because while he enjoyed her company, he found being with her a huge test to his resolve to not overstep the boundaries they had set.
After shrugging on his coat, Klaus headed out of his office and through the workrooms beyond. He nodded to several employees along the way, noticing one in particular was already absent before heading out to exit the building. When he reached the parking lot, he saw that Dean had not left yet, in fact he was still by his car. But what surprised Klaus was that the other man currently had his arms wrapped around a woman, one that wasn't Caroline.
He stood there for a moment, watching the two of them interact. They seemed very comfortable together and Klaus' was hit by a surge of anger. While he did not know if Dean and Caroline had agreed to date each other exclusively, the idea that Dean did not seem to appreciate the fact that he had her, instead choosing to date other women as well, infuriated him.
Klaus had met Dean a few years ago, when he had delivered some crates to Klaus' office, and he had noticed that the man staring at a few of the pieces that were being worked on. It wasn't just with normal curiosity but also interest and fascination. Klaus had started a conversation with him then and had found out that Dean had some instruction in art but had not completed his school due to an unfortunate incident that had landed him prison at the young age of eighteen, which was how he had come to work as a deliveryman. Once learning that his crime was not something dangerous, Klaus had decided to take Dean under his employment. He had become a mentor of sorts and Dean had fit in well with the staff he had acquired. He felt he knew him well and seeing him in this situation was perplexing.
As he headed towards them, Dean noticed him and smiled. "Hey boss. I want you to…"
"We need to talk." Klaus announced, cutting Dean off. He looked at the woman with him and smirked a little. "Excuse us for a minute."
He didn't give either of them a chance to argue before he grabbed Dean's arm and pulled him away. Once they were a decent distance away, Klaus turned and faced Dean. "You are going to call Caroline and call things off with her. From that moment on, you do not talk, text, or see Caroline again. Are we clear?"
"Whoa, boss what…."
"Are we clear?" Klaus asked again.
"Yes." Dean answered, knowing that his boss wasn't going to listen unless he gave him an answer.
"Good." Klaus nodded in acceptance.
"But you should know, Caroline already broke things off between us." Dean informed him.
"She did?" Klaus asked surprised.
Dean nodded. "The day after I took her out for dinner."
It clicked then what Dean was saying, the day after his date with Caroline she had broken things off with him. Before she had met with him and stated that she couldn't risk taking a chance on him. He noticed that Dean was staring at him oddly, as if he was studying him. "What?"
"You're him huh?"
"I don't follow."
"When Caroline called things off with me, she said she had only gone out with me because she was trying to forget someone else, someone she wasn't with. Now with you coming up and threatening me, it isn't hard for me to put two and two together." Dean explained. "The two of you…"
Klaus kept the surprise off his face at Dean's words as he shook his head. "You're mistaken. I simply don't' want my employees fraternizing, especially when I believed one was not being dedicated to the other one."
"Sorry Boss but that's bullshit. I've worked for you for years and you've never opposed your employees dating as long as it didn't cause any issues." Dean declared, "Now you're a great boss, you've always been generous and committed to those who are loyal to you but the protectiveness of her tells me there's something else there."
Not wanting to clue Dean in on how right he was, Klaus brushed him off. "I've kept you from your lady friend, enjoy your evening."
"You too." Dean replied, knowing what his boss was doing but he let it slide. "And by the way, Kimberly the girl over there isn't my girlfriend, more like a sister."
Klaus nodded in acknowledgement as he watched Dean retreat back to his friend. While he was glad that Dean wasn't doing wrong by Caroline, he couldn't help but wonder who then was she going out with that night?
/
"Lexi! Did you pack your backpack up for tomorrow?"
"Yes!"
"Then why is it lying on the kitchen table with your homework next to it?" Caroline yelled back when she spotted said backpack from her spot in the foyer. She heard the clumping of feet behind her as Lexi came running down the stairs. Caroline couldn't help but smile a little at the noise; she wasn't sure how two small kids could sound so much like a herd of elephants.
Caroline glanced at her watch to check the time again while she sat on the bench by the front door. She wanted to be ready to head out the door as soon as Klaus came home. She reached down to pull on the boots she had left by the front door when she felt something wiggling inside the right one.
"Ah!" Caroline screamed, throwing the boot away. When it landed, she saw the source of the wiggling crawling out. "HENRY!"
Henry came running to the top of the stairs and looked down, his face lighting up in a smile. "Norbert! There you are!"
"Why is he out of his cage?"
"I got him out so I could clean his cage and so he could exercise like Dad told me to. He can't stay cooped up in his cage all of the time." Henry explained as he came down to retrieve the bewildered lizard while his sister giggled from the doorway.
"How did your dragon get down here?!" Caroline asked. "If you let him out, he should be in your room."
"Yeah, well…I might not have forgotten that I didn't shut the door before I got him out. I put him on the floor but when I turned back around he was gone." Henry explained.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Caroline demanded. Henry opened his mouth to answer but stopped when the door opened and his father entered.
Klaus was slightly surprised to find his twins and Caroline in the entryway; Lexi doubled over laughing, Henry holding his dragon, and Caroline standing nearby, her face slightly red. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he said, "Is there a particular reason why the three of you are loitering in the entryway?"
Caroline watched as Henry just shook his head before he rushed up the stairs with his dragon, hopefully to put him away in his cage, with Lexi trailing behind him still laughing. Caroline looked up at Klaus to explain. "It seems Norbert thought one of my boots was a good place to take a nap until my foot rudely woke him up."
When Klaus started to chuckle at her explanation, Caroline scowled at him. "It's not funny; it scared the crap out of me."
"Oh come on now love, it is at least a little bit funny." Klaus retorted.
Caroline just rolled her eyes before she got up to retrieve her boot. True, if it had happened to someone else, she probably would have laughed but with the memory of how it felt to have the dragon wiggling against her foot, all she could do was shudder. She sat back down on the bench and pulled on her boot, slowly. Norbert might be back upstairs but she was still being careful. "Well now that I've given you some entertainment for the evening, I'll just be heading out."
"Hold on for a moment." Klaus requested. "Why didn't you tell me that you had broken things off with Dean?"
Caroline was taken aback by the question but managed to answer. "I didn't know I was expected to inform you of my personal relationships or lack there of."
"Not expected, but it would have been nice of you to share that bit of information with me. Then perhaps I wouldn't have threatened Dean to stay away from you." Klaus explained. He watched as the slightly stunned expression in her eyes turned to one of anger.
"Why? Why would you do that?" Caroline snapped in irritation. Had he seriously threatened Dean to keep away from her? Was it some macho jealousy thing? Some kind of Alpha male thing? How dare he.
"When I was leaving, I saw Dean with a lady friend. The two of them looked to be quite cozy and since I believed that you and he were still seeing each other, I interceded on your behalf." Klaus explained. "I told him to stay away from you, that he was not to see or talk to you again. Imagine my surprise when he informed me that the two of you were no longer an item."
"You might have known that if you, I don't know, came and told me what you saw before you threatened him?" She demanded. "I could have told you that it wasn't necessary."
Klaus shrugged. "That might have been the logical thing to do but I wasn't exactly thinking rationally at that moment."
"Why?"
"Because I couldn't stand the idea of him hurting you." Klaus retorted.
Caroline closed and opened her mouth a few times, flabbergasted at his answer. She felt a surge of desire mixed with pleasure at the protectiveness he showed, both in the words and the way he said them. What could you say after hearing that? Not a lot, instead she felt herself melting and knew that wasn't a good thing. "I need to be going. Anna is waiting for me."
"Anna?" Klaus repeated.
Caroline nodded. "I've been helping her over the last few weeks with the end of season things at the gym so she wanted to go out to dinner tonight as a thank you."
"So that is who you've been meeting. I believed it to be Dean until earlier." Klaus stated before stepping in front of her to block her.
"What are you doing?" Caroline asked getting irritated at him again.
"Anna can wait a few more minutes." He professed. "We aren't done."
"We can talk about whatever else later." She announced before trying to step around him again but he only moved to match her steps and impede her course.
"You admitted to Dean that you went out with him to forget about someone else, and considering what went on between us the night before, I'm inclined to believe it was me that you were trying to forget. Am I correct?"
"Possibly." Caroline muttered.
Klaus smiled a little at her answer before he went on. "So I find myself very confused that. If you were so determined to not give us a try, why not continue dating Dean as a way to continue to distract yourself."
"Because it wasn't fair to him, to use him like that just to get over my feelings for you." Caroline answered but knew she had said too much. Things had been good between them over the past few weeks, a little strained on occasion whenever one of them brushed against the other, or they caught each other staring a little too long, but nothing about what had happened between them was brought up. Now she knew by mentioning what she felt for him, she had reopened that can of worms.
"But you have no problem disregarding those feelings." Klaus said as he took a step closer to her. "How is ignoring our feelings fair to you or I?"
"I'm not ignoring them." Caroline argued.
"Yet you're not taking a chance on us." He reminded, as he reached forward to play with the end of one of her curls.
"We talked about this." She stammered. "We agreed to just be friends."
"Yes, we did." Klaus replied. "I also said I wouldn't forget what I feel."
"If you have such strong feelings for me, why did you sleep with that woman I saw you with?" Caroline snapped.
Klaus reared back a little bit at her words, not expecting them. She had not said a word about what she had seen the night they had stumbled upon each other so he had assumed that either she didn't care or had blocked it considering what else had occurred that night. "What happened between Sophie and I was my way of dealing with seeing you with Dean. I was upset and bitter and she was a warm body to lose myself in. I didn't know at the time that my affections for you were returned."
Hearing his answer gave her mixed feelings, she liked that he had been jealous but didn't want to hear about him enjoying the other woman's body. "How do I know that you haven't been 'distracting' yourself with her while you wait for me to get over my 'pessimism?"
"I haven't seen Sophie since that night. I haven't wanted to." He countered as he moved to invade her space again, causing her to move backwards but he followed her. He saw the panicked look in her eyes but it didn't stop her. "There's only one woman that I want."
"Don't do this; things have been going so well." Caroline argued; feeling frustrated and trapped by where the conversation was going as much as his body in front of her. "No matter what I feel for you, I have to be smart about this so that I don't lose everything."
Klaus couldn't help but smirk a little. "And there is that pessimism of yours again. I'm curious sweetheart, why are you so sure that if we were together that we would end? I mean I know better than anyone how a relationship can fall apart but why are you so damned sure that we will?"
"I just know it will, we can't work." Caroline faltered.
"That's not a good enough answer Caroline. You have a specific reason or you wouldn't be so adamant about it. What is it? Why are you so damn sure?" Klaus demanded.
"Because I can't have children!" Caroline blurted out. As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she felt tears coming to her eyes and her body sagged slightly. "My accident, it left me with more than just scars."
Of all of the reasons she could have told him, that was not one that had even remotely entered Klaus' mind. When Caroline had told him about her accident, he had just assumed that after she had been released from the hospital, she had no lasting issues aside from her scars. But he was very wrong. Caroline couldn't have children. He remembered from their previous discussion that she had said she'd love to have them and she couldn' saw the tears in her eyes and he suddenly felt horrible for pressing her. "I'm sorry."
Caroline saw the shock on his face as well as the sadness. "So you see why I think it couldn't work for us. You're a great dad who I don't doubt wants more kids and I can't give that to you."
"I'm sorry Caroline, so sorry." Klaus apologized. He wasn't sure if he was apologizing for pushing her or the situation but he couldn't think of anything else to say. She didn't want to pursue a relationship with him beyond friendship because she thought that he wouldn't want her knowing this information. He wasn't sure what to think about all of this, what she thought and what she had told him. It was a huge confession.
"Being a nanny, it's how I deal with not being able to have any of my own. I want to be with you but with knowing how it would end, I just can't risk it. It's not just a career to me and I can't lose it too." Caroline explained. She watched him for a minute before slipping out of his hold and heading towards the door. This time Klaus didn't stop her.
Klaus watched as she slipped away from him and walked out the door.
Okay, are you still alive? I was told this part was bad for the heart. But at least you know now why Caroline is so intent on not losing her career and why she thinks that her and Klaus wouldn't work in the end.
On a funnier note, the whole part with Henry's dragon and Caroline actually happened to me, thankfully it was only a small lizard and not something bigger. And yes, his dragon's name comes from Harry Potter, my eight year old is currently reading the 3rd HP book and I figured Henry would have the same fascination as him.