A/N : Hello I am back with a new chapter. I hope you enjoy. please leave a review if you like it to let me know if this story is appreciated.

Her hand sweeping across the cold bed sheets told her that he had long been awake. Rays of sunshine filtering through a slit in the curtains hailed the arrival of the dreaded day after a shared night of unacknowledged beautiful passion because neither was brave enough.

Loving him was no hardship, the cognizance of it left her rattled and uncertain. For a treacherous moment she buried her face in his pillow craving his warmth, needing him just as much in the day as she had at night.

"I'm leaving." His whispered voice rustled through the quiet of the room. A room which once had been a well decorated cage, now felt like the haven she had always wished for. Completely clad in all black from his jacket to his shoes he was in exact contrast to her nude form under the white covers just as their emotions, his hidden, close to his vest, hers barely concealed under a thin veil of resolve and pride.

She mutely nodded, hoping against hope for a sliver, a crumb of the affection he had shown her last night. Something unseen yet slowly becoming familiar to his eyes flickered in them. It was intense, regret or perhaps pity made his eyes soften and somehow his face betrayed nothing.

Awkwardness mixed with unwanted sympathy woke her enough to leave the room and head for the bath he had just exited, and the loud thud of the door announced his departure.

IIIIIIIIII

"What's the progress?" Ansel's gravelly voice echoed in his office. The smell of cigar nauseating him, affecting his less than perfect health.

Klaus moved to the window and opened it to lessen the suffocation he felt each time he was in his uncle's presence. Fear had little to do with what he felt, it had more to do with stoicismv and disdain even more.

"I think the sheriff won't be an inconvenience…."

A loud thump on his table did nothing to ease the exasperation Ansel felt. "You think? Her brother is like a dog with a bone. Your master plan to marry her won't keep him away from our affairs."

Klaus never tolerated his uncle's mercurial moods. A mere glare from his turned face had Ansel back down. "I merely meant to mention Stefan Salvatore is rather galvanised after you suddenly married his sister."

"Sheriff's off my back for now. I have more pressing matters than to listen to you panic. The American buyer shall wire the money in your Swiss account." Klaus did not enjoy his uncle's company; it was merely a necessary evil.

"And keep your wife confined to your room. I do not want a law enforcement agent's sister snooping around or I shall have to do what you failed to do the first time. Go to .." Ansel's rest of the words stuck in his throat as the pressure from Klaus's hands around his collar robbed him of his voice. One moment Ansel was accosting Klaus's retreating back and the next enraged eyes.

"Do not threaten my wife's life Ansel. You touch one hair on her head and you shall regret the day you even thought about it. " The fury that overtook him wasn't alien; it was the reason that was novel and unknown, Caroline's safety. Contemplating its meaning wasn't wise but when had he ever been rational?

"Am I clear?" A whispered threat never sounded so sinister perhaps because he had never been on the receiving end, Ansel nodded.

Klaus loosened his hold and Ansel righted his collar. "I don't trust Jason with the shipment that's due today, go to the docks before you head home."

Klaus nodded, still feeling disgusted with the whole ordeal.

IIIIIII

"You think. Her brother is like a dog with a bone. Your master plan to marry her won't keep him away from our affairs."

"And keep your wife confined to your room. I do not want a law enforcement agent's sister snooping around or I shall have to do what you failed to do the first time."

Ansel was not one for empty threats but Klaus had not been frightened before either until now. The thought of anything terrible befalling Caroline didn't sit well with him. The doctor was slowly seeping in, penetrating the walls like a vine that grew through the broken bricks and curled into a tight vise around the fractured concrete.

"or I shall have to do what you failed to do the first time."

He had failed. Lost a vital battle the time he was meant to take her life, instead he had made her a part of his, a rather essential one. Her innocent, naive eyes had been his undoing.

His breathing was shallow and his eyes rolled back into his head and then Klaus shook him back into the consciousness. "Elias!!! do not test me. Where is my package?"

Elias oscillated in and out of consciousness unable to comply. Frustrated Klaus remarked," He won't survive, Uncle. Maybe your pet Jason shouldn't have lost control."

"He has to. He has my death sentence in that package. Rob. Bring a doctor here. This son of a bitch can't die. Niklaus, bring me Doctor Hayley Marshall. Surely our hospital can spare a surgeon for a few hours." Klaus licked his teeth, watching Ansel squirm was pleasant but he acquiesced because Niklaus always paid his debts.

IIIIIIIIIII

"Rob." Robert turned when Klaus called out from the back of the ambulance. A nod was all the communication he needed with Rob.

IIIIIIIIIIIII

"Caroline. Caroline." Hayley's voice punctured her thoughts as she worried about the major robotic surgery she was to do with one of the esteemed surgeons of the city, in a few months. Life had never been kind and Caroline had stopped being credulous about any of it. The seminar was a success but she had been cautious and had worked hard and long.

"Hayley." The brown eyed woman regarded her with a smile. "I have a trauma patient in OR 3, would you cover for me in the ER?"

"Of course." A pat on her arm and then Hayley rushed to the OR yelling "Thank you.", .

//IiIIIIIII

"There's an injured man. Help please. Dr Hayley Marshall." He yelled and Caroline hurried.

"I am cov..… Where's the patient?" Not wanting to delay and get into the specifics she stuffed her stethoscope in her pocket. She shouted for the trauma nurse for, back up.

"In the ambulance. I mean we have to take you to the site." His black eyes raked her with worry but her instincts were warning her. Something queasy rolled in her stomach but the need to help overpowered the inner voice.

//IIIIIIIIIIIII

"Where are we going?" The ambulance zoomed through the traffic. Unsteady, about to fall she grabbed the railing. The man sitting in front of her was wearing a paramedic jacket and a detached expression on his face. From his curly blonde hair to his lightening blue eyes nothing should have seemed strange but the goosebumps on her arms said differently. Something menacing and hidden, sizzled under the surface.

He didn't spare her a glance.

Eery in an exciting manner such was his disposition.

"To the site." His British accent caught her off guard.

"Are you a paramedic? What site?" She searched for more than answers, perhaps any emotion that might make her feel,... easy.

"Yes. The site." He pointed and they entered a secluded farm. A vast property, green gardens and farms for a few miles before she saw the mansion.

//

Astounded and not in a good way Caroline asked,"What? Who is he?" He was badly bruised, pulse weak and respiration shallow. A bleeding leg and an injured finger cut off at the middle joint, the old man was lying on a makeshift stretcher. A drip hanging on one side with a monitor attached on his other side and a few medical supplies scattered in the room.

She sensed danger and the illicit environs didn't help either.

"Fix him." He warned.

"Wait." When he was about to retreat, "Wait. I can not help him here. He needs a hospital. I'll need oxygen and anaesthesia, a whole lot of things you don't have here, not to mention sterilisation." Caroline pleaded on his behalf.

"You'll get what you need. I said, fix him." Klaus had little patience, especially for a panicstricken doctor.

"I can not. Not here." Instinctively she grasped his arm. His angered gaze told her it was unwelcome.

Caroline's fingers coiled into her palm. "Please. This is not right. I can't do this. Take me back." He kept staring, intrigued about her next move. She was pacing, flustered. She rummaged for her cell phone. A flash of a moment, he twisted it out her hand, dispassionate eyes roamed over her face. A cracking noise and he broke it under his feet.

"You don't do anything I don't tell you to, Doctor. Now fix him or…" She pushed him against her better judgement, her temper flared. "Who the hell are you, to order me around? This man needs a hospital …"

His men entered, their guns pointed at her. "What is all this? Who are you people? Why are you doing this? Please I want to go back. TAKE ME BACK! Take me back. I am leaving."

She felt she was talking to a wall, repeating unintelligible words, falling on deaf ears. So she ran out of the room. Running away from the peril, running for her life, paranoia struck deep. She couldn't go far when he caught up with her. His men circled her. Life had never felt so transient before.

One man took a few steps closer, his irate command halted him. "Rob!"

//IIIIIIIIIII

He didn't use physical force, but she didn't think he was above it. "Doctor. You do not want to do anything you might regret."

"Or what?" She challenged.

He brought out his gun pointing it at her. "Do you want me to say what I can do?"

"Please don't do this." Helplessness gripped her, her heart beat thudded in her ears. His eyes, dangerous and enraged, told her she was trapped and at his mercy. She wanted to wake up from this nightmare, tears leaking. Run far away and never look back. "Please…" Her words muffled as the cold metal of the gun touched her forehead. He watched the vein pulsating at her throat, telling him she was afraid.

"Patch him up. Hurry!" He shouted.

"Okay. Okay. Please just don't kill me." Her voice quivered as the tears kept falling. She was right he wasn't above brute force.

//

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