A/N: I do not own anything.
Caroline had been living in New Orleans for a little over a month now. Living in the same house with Klaus and Hayley. Elijah was supposed to be here too but he had just up and disappeared. But she didn't actually believe he just disappeared, she thought Klaus might have had something to do with it. He did have that nasty habit of daggering his siblings.
But if he did in fact dagger Elijah she wondered why. They had seemed to be getting along fine from what she had seen but the relationships between Klaus and his family were confusing and complicated at best.
Then there was the fact that she and Hayley had been doing their best to avoid each other. She didn't know why Hayley avoided her but she knew why the hell she avoided Hayley. Being around her bothered her more than she likes to admit because then she would have to acknowledge why it bothered her so much to be around her. Sure there was the Tyler thing and how she betrayed him and the other hybrids and let's not forget the fact that she had snapped her neck that one time but no none of that was what really bothered her when it came to Hayley.
No every time she looked at her she couldn't help but be reminded that Klaus had slept with her and now..now Hayley was carrying his child. That was what bothered her. She knew it was irrational. She had still been with Tyler at the time but it didn't make knowing that Klaus had been with her easier. She was secretly glad that Hayley and Klaus only were together that one time. Not that she would ever tell Klaus that or anyone for that matter.
She had believed Klaus when he said that he only slept with Hayley once. He had never lie to her before and she didn't see why he'd start now. She knew he loved her honesty, he expected it and gave his own in return.
Things were still tense between them even more so with him practically keeping her locked up in this house, not wanting her to step one foot off the property. It was annoying as hell and grated on her last nerve. She was bored out of her mind most the time. She missed having something to do. She had started reading through the books in the extensive library just to keep her occupied.
She missed Mystic Falls and even though she talked to her mom on the phone every day it wasn't the same as seeing her. She missed her friends and her old life. Her life in New Orleans if you could even call it that was a far cry from what her life had been in Mystic Falls and she couldn't help but blame Klaus for it. If he hadn't been so infatuated with her or obsessed or whatever the hell you wanted to call it, if it weren't for him she wouldn't have even been on the witches of New Orleans radar.
And it might have been petty and childish but she was always being difficult with him on purpose and was sure to not be in the same room with him for longer than necessary at best and refused most of his attempts at talking to her even though she knew it bugged him and grated on his last nerve. And it didn't help that things were complicated and tense with them at best, it helped that he was mostly off getting Marcel or whatever the hell his name was to trust him. It allowed her to keep to herself mostly which she actually preferred currently.
Caroline looked up from the book she was reading in the library when she heard a car drive up to the property and the sound of someone getting out of it. She could hear Hayley moving throughout the house probably down the steps, she slid a bookmark into the page she was on before closing the book and setting it beside her just as a familiar voice sounded from just outside the house.
"Elijah, if not answering your phone is part of your clever plan to get me back to this godforsaken city, then well done. I'm here and I'm worried. Now pick up before I kick in your bloody door."
Rebekah. Caroline could hear her as she entered the house.
"Who the hell are you?" Hayley's voice sounded.
Caroline took a drink from her glass of blood before setting it on the table and got up from her seat, walking toward the door.
"Oh, you must be the maid. My bags are in the car - get them, will you?" Rebekah directed at Hayley.
"She's not the maid." Caroline stepped out of the library, looking at the female original. "That is Hayley."
Rebekah looked at her a flicker of surprise appearing on her features when she looked at her but was gone as quickly as it came, her eyes returning to Hayley with understanding. "Right. You're that werewolf girl my brother, Klaus knocked up." Her eyes flickered back to Caroline as if looking for a reaction from her from that statement.
Well if that what she was looking for she wasn't going to get one. She had come to terms with the knowledge that Hayley was carrying Klaus's child. Kinda hard not to when she could hear its heart beating from Hayley's womb. She could be wrong but she kinda thought it sounded like there was more than one heartbeat. Perhaps twins? But was it too early to tell? She didn't know. She wasn't expert on pregnancies let alone a miracle one. And how come no one else picked up on it?
Rebekah brought her gaze back to Hayley as she continued when she didn't see a reaction from Caroline. "I was expecting to see some kind of supernatural, miracle baby bump. Guess you're not showing yet." She didn't wait for Hayley to respond before turning back on Caroline. "I heard that you manage to get yourself on the New Orleans Witches radar. Being on my
brother's radar not working out for you, now is it, Caroline?"
Caroline glared. "Really? What gave you that idea? Could it be that I'm here instead of home where I should be?" her voice dripped with sarcasm.
"Quite ironic, isn't it?" Rebekah smirked. "All the times you were used as bait for my brother and now you're a bargaining chip for the witches to use against him."
Hayley looked at the two, her brow furrowed, getting the feeling that there was some history between the two. "You have your brother's manners," Hayley commented when she felt the two blondes were glaring too long at one another for her liking.
Rebekah returned her gaze to Hayley. "And his temper, too, so watch it." Rebekah looked from Hayley to Caroline to Hayley again. "Where's Elijah?"
Caroline shook her head in answer. As if she knew. He was probably somewhere with a white ash dagger buried in his chest.
"Beats me. He's long gone." Hayley told Rebekah.
"What do you mean "long gone"?" Rebekah questioned.
"Well, one minute he was here making epic promises about protecting me in this predicament that a bottle of scotch and some bad decisions got me into - he was all poetic about how we're family - and then Klaus told me he bailed. Guess that's what I get for trusting a vampire."
Like Elijah's disappearance coming from Klaus wasn't suspicious. It was one of the reasons Caroline suspected that Klaus might have daggered his brother.
"Elijah is not just any vampire, and he doesn't break promises." Rebekah turned her eyes to Caroline expectantly as if she knew where Elijah had gone or what had really happened to him.
"Don't look at me I'm not your brother's keeper." Caroline crossed her arms over her chest.
"Well if he's not here it means Niklaus has done something dastardly and Klaus-like," Rebekah replied.
"Well then ask Klaus about it and not me." Caroline retorted.
Rebekah rolled her eyes at Caroline's words knowing that if Caroline really had bothered to ask Klaus would probably have told her, he usually gave Caroline whatever she wanted much to her annoyance. "Klaus! Get out here and tell me what you've done with our brother, you narcissistic, backstabbing wanker!"
Well, that was certainly one way of calling someone out and getting their attention. If not a little on the dramatic side.
A pair of doors were pulled open with Klaus emerging from them. "Enough with all the shouting. Little sister, I should have known. I assume the six dead vampires were your doing?"
"The ones in the Quarter?" Caroline wondered. Klaus often told her of his progress he was making with Marcel as a form of a peace offering, trying to ease the tension between them. She pretended not to care most the time but that didn't mean she didn't pay attention to what he told her.
"You know about that but you don't know about Elijah?" Rebekah demanded.
"I don't know about Elijah. I can't help it if Klaus tells me some things and not others." Retorted Caroline defensively.
"Maybe if you bothered asking." Snapped Rebekah in irritation.
"Alright, enough, can we get back to the dead vampires?" Interrupted Klaus.
"They were very rude." Answered Rebekah before going on to explain what had happened. "Trying to victimize a poor innocent girl just trying t find her way to the Quarter." She made a mock apologetic face. "So sorry, were they friends of yours? Oh, that's right, you don't have any friends."
"I do have friends. I have Marcel. You remember him, don't you?" He smirked, watching as emotion flickered across his sister's face. "Yes, of course, you do. He fancies himself the 'King of the Quarter' now and he has these rules about killing vampires. It'll be fun to see what sort of punishment he comes up with for you." At some point Klaus had taken a seat on a seating against the wall, relaxing back looking the picture of confidence and nonchalance.
"I don't care about Marcel or his rules," Rebekah stated dismissively. "Elijah doesn't welch on his deals. What did you do to him?"
"Perhaps he's on a holiday... or taking a long autumn nap upstairs," said Klaus not at all bothered by Rebekah being crossed with him. She was often crossed with him. "Well, go on. Take a look around. You remember this house as well as I."
Rebekah made to leave the room but turned back around. "I remember everything."
Caroline watched as Klaus and Rebekah seemed to be living a shared memory before Klaus said. "Well, he wasn't good enough for you."
"No one was ever good enough for me, Nik, you made sure of that." Said Rebekah, the past was proof enough of that. Not with Klaus around always to disapprove who she chose to be with. "Now where is Elijah?"
Klaus's phone started to buzz, he retrieved it, checking it before standing and moving to leave.
"Where are you going?" Rebekah demanded.
"It appears my night is not quite over, yet. I'm off for another drink with Marcel," he told her.
"Elijah told me about your plan to take apart Marcel's empire piece by piece. I don't remember it involving you two drinking New Orleans dry together." Rebekah stated, her eyes sliding to Caroline than back to her brother. "Or perhaps you're dragging this out cause you know once all this is done with, Caroline would be heading back to Mystic Falls with not so much as a goodbye."
"Ugh, don't bring me into your bickering." Caroline dropped her arms. "Just leave me out of it."
"I have no intention of keeping Caroline here against her will once this is done." Klaus glared at his sister. "She will be free to do as she wants." Though he fully intended to have convinced her to stay with him here in New Orleans by then.
Rebekah nearly scoffed. "For centuries you've tried to control everything and everyone around you, to bend them to your will but Caroline...Caroline's free to do whatever she wants."
Klaus sent her a condescending smirk. "I don't wish to control Caroline."
"Could you please leave me the hell out of this!" Caroline said exasperated, bringing all eyes to her. "And quit talking like I'm not standing right here."
"Certainly, Love," Klaus replied sending her a crooked smirk. A smirk that caused a tightening in Caroline's gut that she refused to acknowledge and instead sent him an annoyed look.
Rebekah rolled her eyes. She was sure she would never understand what it was her brother saw in Caroline.
"I know you don't have many friends, Rebekah, but what some friends do when they get together is they drink. And when they drink, they tell secrets." He told her, as close to condescending as one can get. "Marcel has somehow found a way to control the entirety of witches in the Quarter, and I aim to uncover the 'how' so I might take it for myself. Finding Elijah didn't make my to-do list today." Klaus turned walking to the door but paused, turning back. "Oh, and welcome home, little sister." The door shutting behind him a moment later.
Rebekah turned on the spot, contemplating what Klaus just said, she noticed Hayley sitting on a landing above, having moved there at some point. "You, wolf girl. I'm going to search this house inch by inch until I find what my evil brother has done to my good one. You're helping."
Caroline raised a brow when Hayley got up without complaint to do as Rebekah all but commanded. Usually, Hayley argued whenever anyone told her what to do. Caroline turned to head back to the library and return to her book when Rebekah's voice stopped her.
"That goes for you to Caroline."
Caroline turned back around. "And I would help why?"
"Don't you think this business with Marcel and the witches would go faster if Elijah was helping Klaus?" Asked Rebekah rhetorically.
"No, not really." Said Caroline. "From what I know from Elena about Elijah he likes to negotiate rather than do what needs to be done."
"Elena doesn't know Elijah. Not really." Said Rebekah. "And neither do you. I thought you wanted to go home?"
"I do," said Caroline. "The faster the better."
"Than help me find my brother," said Rebekah. "Besides you know it's the right thing to do."
Caroline scowled. "That's low. Manipulating my conscious." She heaved a sigh. "Fine. Where do we start?"
"The Governor had lots of secret rooms. I'll show you his favorite." Caroline walked down a spiral staircase with Hayley and Rebekah, listening as the latter told them about the house.
They arrived at a dusty, cobwebbed cellar room, filled with the coffins that Klaus kept his siblings daggered in.
"The Mikaelson coffins." Mused Caroline.
"The what?" Asked Hayley in confusion. "You guys think Klaus killed him."
Rebekah turned to Caroline. "Have you told her nothing about my family?"
"It's not my place to fill her in on your dysfunctional family." Caroline gave a shrug of her shoulder.
"Fill me in on what?" Asked Hayley looking between the two.
"We can't be killed, silly girl," Rebekah told her. "That doesn't stop Klaus from finding ways to torture us. He has a set of mystical silver daggers. One in the heart sends us into a deep slumber. Klaus gets his jollies from keeping us in a box until he decides to pull the dagger out. That must be what he's done to Elijah. This one's mine." she said, nodding her head at one of the coffins.
"He keeps your coffin on standby," Hayley asked incredulously.
"He likes to be prepared for when his family members inevitably disappoint him." Said Rebekah morbidly. "Elijah isn't here." She realized, not seeing his coffin. "He must've stashed him elsewhere."
"And here I was hoping our search was over." Stated Caroline.
"I feel sick." Said Hayley at the new information she was being told.
"Welcome to the family, love," Rebekah told her. "You should've run the second you realized Elijah was gone."
"Yeah, well, the witches have put some sort of hex on me." Said Hayley. "As long as I'm carrying this baby, I can't leave New Orleans. If I do, they kill me."
"Well, knowing Klaus, he's planning a box for you the second you give birth to whatever's cooking in your tum," Rebekah told her. "I'm leaving as soon as I find Elijah. Being daggered in a box for decades sucks, trust me. You'd be best to find a way to break that hex and run." She turned to Caroline. "And if you give him any inclination that you might return whatever it is Klaus feels for you. He'll never let you go. You'll become his prisoner until your undead life however long that may be comes to an end." Rebekah turned on her heel, going off to continue her search.
Caroline frowned. She didn't need to be told that. She had a feeling that Klaus was never going to truly let her go. He would always be there, lurking in the background, waiting. Waiting for that day when he believed she would show up on his doorstep, wanting him to show her the world. She would go home when this was over but she knew he would never completely let her go.
Hayley watched Rebekah's retreating back until she disappeared considering what she said. Hayley had thought she knew what she was getting into. She was sure she was willing to do whatever it took for her family. That's all she wanted. She wanted her family back. But now she wasn't so sure she was willing to do whatever she had to like she thought she was. This was her life hanging in the balance. She looked down at her stomach and then up at Caroline. That familiar feeling churning in her gut whenever she looked at the blonde, she quickly turned needing to not be in the same room as the blonde.
Caroline watched Hayley take off, shaking her head at Hayley's strange behavior around her, she left the room and turned down a different hall then the one she saw Rebekah go down, hoping if they split up they might have a better chance of finding Elijah faster. Well assuming Klaus was even keeping him somewhere in the house.
Sophie had more or less been feeling on edge since her deal with Klaus so when she was cleaning at Rousseau's wiping a table when she felt like something or someone was watching her, she was instantly on alert. She walked cautiously through the restaurant. "Hello? Seriously, Marcel? Trying to scare me? I had nothing to do with the attack on your guys last night!"
The pots hanging on the wall started moving behind Sophie as if a gust of wind had passed through them, she turned around, walking toward them slowly, grabbing a knife, she lifted her arm but before she could even throw it, a blonde appeared out of nowhere gripping her raised arm. "Sophie Devaraux. My brother, Elijah told me about you. Know who I am?"
"Yeah, I know." Sophie knew exactly who the blonde was.
"Then you know we need to talk."
Rebekah had left the werewolf girl and Caroline to their own devices once it was clear Klaus was not keeping Elijah's body somewhere else in the house. She had searched every secret room she could remember and came up with nothing. Her next move was seeking out Sophie, the witch Elijah had told her about. The witch and she had relocated to the cemetery, somewhere they could talk, without fear of being overheard by anyone who shouldn't be listening, they walked among the burial vaults of the cemetery.
"So, if I had to guess, knowing Klaus's history, Elijah has a dagger in his chest. It's a magical object, you're a witch. Do a locator spell, locate the dagger, locate Elijah." Rebekah didn't want to bother with pleasantries or fake pretenses she just wanted to get to her reasons for seeking out the witch.
"I can't use magic," Sophie said, basically telling her no. "It's punishable by death. Marcel's rules."
"Marcel?" Repeated Rebekah, her voice taking on a dangerous edge. Clearly, Sophie did not realize that in the moment she was the one the witch should be afraid of. "What do you think I'm going to do to you if you don't give me what I want?"
"Not much. I've been linked, so anything you do to me, you do to Hayley." Sophie was confident that Rebekah wouldn't risk it.
"Who?" Rebekah asked, her face scrunching up in confusion.
Sophie gave her a significant look, hoping Rebekah would get her meaning.
"Oh, right the mumzy," Rebekah said recalling the wolf girl she had met earlier. "Well, luckily for you, Elijah seems to care about her, otherwise I'd break your neck right here."
"I can't imagine that would go over too well with Klaus," Sophie said leadingly.
Rebekah scoffed. "If you think my brother cares what happens to Hayley you couldn't be more wrong."
"No, but he cares about what happens to Caroline," Sophie argued. "If you kill me, you kill Hayley, you kill the baby which equals a dead Caroline."
"What?" Rebekah turned to her confused. "What the bloody hell are you going on about?"
"I linked Caroline to the baby. Did Elijah not tell you that?"
"No, he didn't." Said Rebekah, taking in what she just heard. Killing Caroline would be a way to spite Klaus, perhaps teach him a lesson but she knew if she did that she would find herself with a dagger being embedded in her chest and her body rotting away in a box even longer than Finn had been. It was tempting but the consequences made it not worth it. "No, wonder the werewolf is still breathing or you for that matter. I've come to learn that Klaus puts Caroline even before me, his own family."
"Then I guess I made the perfect choice for a bargaining chip."
"No, you didn't, when you're no longer linked, you'll be lucky to even breathe your next breath." Rebekah shook her head and Sophie tried not to let her words get to her. "How did Marcel get so bloody powerful, anyway? He wasn't like this when I left a hundred years ago."
"Marcel has a way to tell whenever there's magic done in the Quarter. The 'how; isn't relevant." Sophie had no intention of telling her how that was even possible. She rather keep her cards close to her chest for as long as possible.
"I'll tell you what's not bloody relevant - a coven of witches who can't do magic. Here's an idea; move away." It was a pretty obvious solution to Rebekah.
"We practice ancestral magic. This cemetery is filled with the remains of our witch ancestors. Without access to them, we're powerless. If we run, we're leaving our legacy behind - our home, our family." Sophie tried to explain.
"Well, family's overrated. Look at me. I'm back in a city that's given me nothing but heartache, looking for a brother who's hell-bent on protecting a baby I don't care about." Rebekah stated, if it wasn't for Elijah she wouldn't be here now, dealing with crap she didn't want to be bothered with. She wanted to curse Elijah for caring so damn much about what he believed to be Klaus's chances at somehow redeeming himself. Which he couldn't be more wrong about. It was impossible for Klaus to redeem himself after a thousand years of showing nothing but hate and cruelty.
"I find that hard to believe," Sophie said doubtfully because the fact that Rebekah was there spoke for itself. "You're here, aren't you?"
"I'm here for Elijah. The instant I find him, I'm gone." Rebekah claimed, she had no intention of sticking around. "He was the one who idiotically believes this baby and Caroline would be Niklaus's redemption. And now he's missing, probably at the hands of Klaus himself. And you were foolish enough to believe that Elijah could convince Klaus to go against Marcel when everyone knows they have a history."
"Klaus sired Marcel," Sophie stated in a matter of fact tone. "I'm aware."
"You don't understand. Marcel is not just some guy that Klaus turned into a vampire. Klaus loved him like a son." Rebekah went on to tell her about the day Klaus met Marcel. "Klaus saw himself in the boy. He remembered how our father used to beat him. He, too, was the bastard child of a man who saw him as nothing but a beast. And that is why your plan will fail. All you've done is bring back together two long-lost souls. Without Elijah between them, who knows what they'll do." Rebekah was done here and made to leave she only got a few steps before Sophie's voice was calling out to her.
"Maybe but with Caroline's life on the line I don't believe there's nothing he won't do to save her."
Rebekah paused glancing back at her. "I think the question you should be asking yourself is what exactly he's going to do to you once her life is no longer tied to the baby."
Klaus entered the bar that Marcel had taken to frequenting since he himself had returned to New Orleans, spotting Marcel sitting at a table, having a drink. He sat across from him. "Well, this is a far cry from last night's party." He noticed Marcel was distracted by something, or someone, looking toward the bar and saw a vaguely familiar blonde sitting at the bar, writing. "Ah, in pursuit of the bartender from Rousseau's, I see."
"She's a work in progress," Marcel claimed.
"And yet here you are pining over her when you should be eating her for lunch. Oh, she must be special." However, Klaus much preferred his own blonde distraction.
Klaus knew a thing or two about pining over a woman. And Caroline was certainly a work in progress. He understood what Marcel was dealing with but to a stronger degree.
Things hadn't been the same between him and Caroline ever since she found out about his one night with Hayley that resulted in a mystical pregnancy. He was trying to change that, get them back to where they were but that was hard to do when Caroline barely said more than a handful of sentences to him. He often felt like they were back where they started with her denying any sort of interaction with him.
But he wasn't giving up, he was determined. These last few weeks had shown him just how much he had enjoyed their previous friendship when she would talk openly with him, come to him for real help and not just because she needed a dress for some stupid school dance that she deemed important to her.
He was determined to get that back, where she would allow him to treat her to dinner, where they had deep talks ranging from their likes, music, history, art, what she wanted out of life, her dreams. Or to how she didn't care when he stood close to her or pull away from a casual touch. He was confident if he could do that then eventually she would come to return his affections. And he would do what he had to to make that happen. Preferably before this baby business was over because he wanted her to choose to stay in New Orleans of her own accord and not because she was being forced to do so by witches keeping her here. He wanted her to want to be by his side. To willingly stand beside him as his Queen.
"Business first." Marcel's voice brought him out of his Caroline filled thoughts. "The corner called. He's got my number in case any dead tourists show up."
"Let me guess - dead tourists with a stamp on the hand and vampire blood in their veins?"
"It happens," Marcel replied. "Someone takes a drunken tumble off a balcony or into the Mississipi... And today I got two of them to deal with."
Klaus was mostly paying attention to what Marcel was saying but when he also heard, Cami, the bartender gathering her things to leave he rose from his seat as she passed by their table, stopping her. "Excuse me, love. What's that you're studying?"
"Abnormal psychology." She answered, pausing beside their table.
"Abnormal psychology, well. Perhaps you could help me diagnose my friend over here." he motioned to Marcel while laying on the charm. "He's been a bit depressed, can't keep his mind off a girl. He tells me she's a queen, fit for a king. I think he should cut his losses and move on. What's your professional opinion?"
When she answered she spoke directly to Marcel. "Be a nice guy and maybe the opportunity will present itself some day."
Klaus wasn't sure that was correct. He'd been trying that with Caroline and nothing. But he remained silent not refuting her answer.
"How about tonight, nine o'clock?" Marcel flashed her a smile full of charm. "I'll meet you right here?"
"I'll take it under consideration." She told him before leaving.
"Mm, harsh," Marcel said at her practically brushing him off.
"I daresay I've lost my touch. Or you've lost yours." Klaus said with a laugh.
Marcel smiled at him despite the dig as they sipped at their drinks.
This part, the laughing and just being old friends came easily to Klaus. The act as natural as breathing for him. It was only a matter of time until Marcel would slip up and tell him what he wanted to know.
Hayley was a little surprised that she managed to get out of the house without too many questions from Caroline. When Caroline had spotted her leaving and asked where she thought she was going, she had lied not needing her to know what she was up to. Caroline had seemed to believe her or she was just that stupid or just didn't care what she got up to but either way, it worked out for her as she had made her way easily to the French Quarter.
She stopped in front of her destination, she glanced around making sure no one was paying her any attention and slipped into the shop but it looked like the shopkeeper was getting ready to leave.
"Hey, hey!" Hayley protested. If she was going to do this, this might be her only chance.
"We're getting ready to close, sorry." The girl told her.
"I just need one teeny, tiny little herb. Please." Hayley put on her best pleading expression.
"Which herb?" The girl questioned.
"Crushed aconite flower," Hayley answered.
"Wolfsbane?" the girl brow furrowed. "That's a poison. You're gonna kill a wolf?"
"Just a little one," Hayley said, pushing away the thought she was going to kill a baby. She knew she wouldn't only be killing the baby but Caroline as well but she didn't see any other way out of this. She had to think about herself.
"Give me a minute." Katie moved to the back of the shop reappearing a few minutes late, holding a vial in her hand. "Cut it with jimson weed. A few drops of some hot tea - that should do it."
"Here." Hayley handed her the money for the herb but the shopkeeper refused it.
"It's an ugly town for wolves. You're doing the right thing."
Hayley took what she came there for, turning on her heel, however when she exited the shop she nearly dropped the vial in surprise. "Caroline!"
She tightened her hand on the vial and she didn't have to ask to know that Caroline had heard everything in the shop.
Caroline was looking at her with the largest amount of disgust that anyone has ever looked at her with, a black glare darkening her face that surprisingly sent a chill up Hayley's spine.
Hayley had no clue how she was going to lie her way out of this one and if Caroline told Klaus of her intentions she didn't even want to think about what he would do to her. She was really beginning to hate the decisions she had made recently and ever meeting the Deveraux witches.
A/N: I hope you like the chapter. In all honesty, I'm nervous about posting the next chapter. I've gotten a few bad reviews on it before on AO3. So fair warning if you don't like the idea of Caroline being harsh to Hayley than you should skip the next chapter.