This piece is my attempt to fall back in love with writing. I've picked it up and set it down for three years and never posted anything that was written. I'm posting it now as a part of my journey.

This is a Caroline Forbes story first and foremost. All of the Originals are major characters, but she is what ties it together.

This is also a large piece of work. I've written and plotted this story out as seasons of Caroline's growth, with each season having several "episodes" with their own minor plots. If you've ever read the "Guardians of the Universe" Doctor Who FanFic series, I would say this has a similar structure. On a smaller scale.

Part 1 will be heavily connected to Season 3 in the beginning, but I make it my own story as fast as possible. These first few chapters are not the precedent for the rest of the story.

Along these same lines, not everything is going to be in line with the tv show. An example of this: Kol will be the youngest Mikaelson, not Rebekah. A minor change but a change all the same.

The closest thing to a summary remains this: Caroline's journey to find a home.

Season 1, Episode 1.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

"Mr. Forbes, did you see your attacker?" Elena boldly approached her father, who was breathing through his mouth.

Bill Forbes shook his head, his whole body poised and tensed. Caroline wondered if she was going to have to restrain him. "I didn't see anything. Tried to sneak out the back exit and someone came up from behind."

"Look, we'll figure this out." Caroline stepped in between her human friend and her transitioning father. "But in the meantime, we need to get you some blood." She gestured towards the door but her father stopped her.

"I'm not going to drink any blood."

Elena stepped in, spouting out the obvious. "You have to. You died with vampire blood in your system. If you don't feed and finish the transition into a vampire, you'll die."

Bill shook his head, and she recognized that Forbes stubbornness. "I understand how it works. And that's what I'm prepared to do." He stood from the hospital bed and marched to the door. "Now, get me out of this hospital, I smell blood everywhere."

Her father walked out. Caroline tried taking a deep breath to calm herself, restraining from hitting something while under the watchful stare of Elena Gilbert. But her dad was right. Her calming breath was only a nose full of blood.

"Someone killed my dad, knowing about Damon's blood in his system." It made her sick that it was Damon's blood that brought her dad back. A part of her raged that he still had so much power over her life, but the desire to find the culprit was louder this time.

Elena was weighing Caroline's stability and need for emotional help. Caroline appreciated Elena's attention, it was something she rarely received, but at the moment she only needed to use it.

"Do you mind driving him to my mom's? I'm going to grab some blood bags in case he changes his mind."

"Of course, whatever you need." Caroline managed a grateful nod before she flashed out of the room. She didn't stop at the blood bank. Forbes never changed their minds.

Someone had targeted her father, and the list of suspects was short. Not many people knew he was in town. Despite their relationship, her first thought went to Tyler. Her boyfriend was the one to call him and the one to put him in the hospital. And now he was missing.

Caroline didn't know what either male was thinking, forcing Tyler to shift with only a human there to help. It had been a new level of stupid pride for both of them.

"How badly do you want your freedom?" her dad had asked Tyler.

And he'd looked at her. She was only eighteen. If supernaturals hadn't uprooted her life their relationship would have had an expiration date synced with graduation. Now everything was heightened and Tyler was torturing himself so he couldn't be asked to poison her again.

Tyler was a lot of things but despite triggering the werewolf curse, he wasn't a murderer. No, there was only one murdering hybrid in this town. The one that had targeted her before needed to be checked off the suspect list.

Without a human landlord, Caroline flashed into the Mikaelson house without issue. Predictably, Klaus was in the living room, probably musing over diabolical plans. He was unprepared for Caroline's arrival.

Managing one surprise attack, Caroline struck Klaus in the chest, pushing him from his drawing board. Caroline tried to shove him again, but Klaus caught her hands, eyes narrowed but face remaining deceptively calm.

"Easy, Love, use your words."

"Oh, I have plenty to say to you." Caroline struggled against Klaus, but he didn't release her. "Which of your slaves did you send to do it, huh? Was it Tyler again? Do you get a sick satisfaction out of ordering him to hurt me?"

Klaus furrowed his eyebrow, letting go of her wrists and stepping back. "I haven't seen the Lockwood boy since I last saw you, Love. I've no idea what you are accusing me of."

Caroline glared at Klaus, until she recognized he was telling the truth and the earlier anger dissipated. Sighing, she stepped back and ran a hand through her blonde hair and explained the situation to Klaus.

"I can't fault you for suspecting me, typically that is a safe bet. However, there would be no reason to target your father when Elena still has a living father figure of her own."

Caroline blinked. He was right, targeting Alaric would make much more sense than Caroline's father. In fact, there was a long list of people that Klaus could target to threaten Stefan or Elena with that didn't include either of Caroline's parents.

Caroline rubbed at her face and turned towards the door. "So, now I have no answers and have to figure out a way to get my dad to drink."

Before she reached the Entrance Hall, Klaus called her name.

"Just because Vampirism suits you, Love, does not mean it is for everyone."

When Caroline had woken up in the hospital in the middle of transition, she hadn't been given the choice of whether or not to drink. Because her lifelong friends hadn't trusted her, no one had told her what to expect. She'd fed and compelled the nurse to forget. Her first bite had been a controlled nibble. It had only been after she saw Damon that she'd attacked someone.

Her father knew what was happening, what his options were. Bill Forbes knew more about vampires than his vampire daughter did. Dying was preferable and he would not budge.

"God, how can you hate me so much!"

She was trying. No drinking from the vein, limited compulsion; she listened to her friends: the town's epitomes of morality. And every day, the mask she adorned pressed in tighter and tighter.

In his last words, his father assured her that she was still his daughter, even as a vampire. That he believed she was good. When he took his last breath, Caroline crushed his hand and prayed he was right.

Now, her father was dead, and Caroline couldn't show her mother the blood lust that rose in her heart. His killer was walking the streets of Mystic Falls, and Caroline wanted to drain his veins. Instead, all she was allowed to do was cry.

o0o0o0o0o

Tension in the Mikaelson Mansion was thick enough to bite. Within twelve hours, the empty house had welcomed all of the awoken Mikaelson children and their long dead mother. Finn, predictably, had followed their mother around like a puppy, mostly ignoring Klaus. The others, Kol, and Rebekah in particular, found it difficult not to be bitter towards their half-brother.

"No, he didn't kill Mother, he just daggered all of us for centuries." Rebekah had sneered in the middle of Esther's lecture to forgive and forget.

Eventually, the siblings found an uneasy truce on the same ground they'd always found after Klaus removed a dagger. Rebekah was still hurt by Klaus's recent actions, but Kol, who'd been daggered the second longest, decided to put the ordeal behind him and learn about this new time period.

"Hybrids? So, you did it then?"

Klaus was about to proudly reveal how he'd broken the sun and moon curse, when Rebekah snidely interjected. "Oh yes, he found another doppelgänger to drain so he could unleash the mutt inside him, but this one has two idiot brothers vying for her attention as well. Except they managed to save her, with Elijah's bleeding heart there to help. Good thing too since her blood is what keeps the Hybrids from dying."

"Yes, yes, the witches and their tricks are endlessly funny."

Kol and Klaus conversed until Finn and Esther had entered, and the tension returned. As well as a general sense of exasperation as their mother revealed her plans for reentering society.

"A ball?" Klaus curled his lip.

"Yes, this is our home, we must meet our new neighbors."

"But they're human," bemoaned Kol.

"Yes, and our last ones were werewolves, you will manage."

Arguing was futile. Their mother had determined they would reclaim their revered position in the neighborhood.

Klaus did what he could to agree with everything he could stomach. Time would heal as it always did, so Klaus sequestered himself in his art room. The only sibling to seek him out in the twelve hours of being together was his brother.

Elijah narrowed his eyes at Klaus, ignoring the art surrounding them. Klaus closed his mouth, shutting down the hope that had risen.

"Mother may have forgiven you, but that does not mean I do. You still killed her, and you still daggered my family." Klaus swallowed, closing the sketch book and bracing for the attack. Elijah narrowed his eyes but didn't approach. He knew his words could hurt Niklaus deeper than any wound. "You once said love is weakness, and we are not weak. I didn't realize that meant you were incapable."

o0o0o0o0o0o

A ball was just the thing to bury her grief with. If she managed to avoid the Salvatores and the male that invited her the night might actually be enjoyable. The room was still filled with the people she'd known her whole life, but there were pockets of strangers, too.

Maybe if she lingered by them she could imagine she was far away from Mystic Falls.

"Beautiful dress." A handsome man Caroline didn't recognize approached her. Though gifted by the male who had driven her boyfriend out of town, Caroline smiled at the compliment.

"Thank-"

The young male continued on, his teeth sparkling as he flashed them in a wide grin. "It looks just like Princess Catherine of Aragon's from England back in the fourteens that my brother and I stole as a prank."

"Your brother?" Caroline suspected she knew the answer. The young male offered his hand and introduced himself.

"Kol Mikaelson."

"Ah." Caroline ignored the offered hand. She looked around the room for any other person to speak with.

"And you are?" Kol leaned forward to take her withheld hand, but she sidestepped him.

"Leaving." Caroline walked out of the conversation with the Original. She already had one of the Mikaelsons plaguing her, she didn't need to add another.

"Feisty." Kol kept pace with her, his shoes matching her heels click for click. "Not typically Nik's choice. Though, I suppose they never lasted longer than it took to drain them."

"Fascinating," deadpanned Caroline.

"Intimately so." Kol's jesting tone dropped, as did his pace beside her.

Caroline glanced back at the youngest Mikaelson brother. He watched her walk away with dangerous interest. He was an Original, the knowledge flashed warning signs in her head, he could compel her. Memories once forgotten ghosted through her mind. Across the room, the star of her nightmares was disguised in a suit and talking to her best friend.

She fisted her sweaty palms. Caroline wasn't that girl anymore. With narrowed eyes and shaky knees, Caroline turned her back on Kol Mikaelson.

His low laughter followed her into the next room.

Shaken, Caroline searched for a comforting face and found Klaus observing her with a half-smile. He approached before she could find a distraction.

"Good evening." The Original Hybrid seemed far less grandiose standing there smirking at her in his suit and tie. He almost appeared charming.

Caroline looked around. "Either your Hybrids are bad waiters, or your compulsion is weak on the servants." Turning back to Klaus with a raised eyebrow, she saw how amused her comment made him. "What?"

"Shall I get you a drink?"

"I can get it myself."

Music started up from the neighboring room, preventing Caroline's retreat. They both heard it before the humans in the room and Klaus had her hand in his before she saw him move. With an accepted invitation and a beautiful dress adorned, Caroline let him guide her to the dance floor with no more fuss than a huff.

The Hybrid was a good dancer, and she was thankful for her lessons. She could feel the eyes of each of her friends judging her for being in this male's arms.

"I'm glad you came." Klaus drew her attention back to him. His blue eyes were focused solely on her and were easy to find distraction in.

"Well, I owed you after running in here to accuse you of-"

She cut herself off, the wound too raw to bring up with others watching. Klaus tightened his hold on her hand.

"You owe me nothing, Caroline." She swallowed and didn't reply. "I'm sorry about your father."

The chasm of grief inside her yawned open, ready to pull her back in.

Klaus's thumb swept along the back of her hand. She managed to whisper, "thank you."

Klaus relaxed his grip, and they continued dancing. Caroline warmed under Klaus' heated stare. She was about to snap at him for it when he smiled.

"Have I mentioned you look ravishing, Love."

Caroline looked down at the dress and knew she must not compare to the royal he'd last seen in it. "I didn't have time to go shopping," she deflected.

"And the bracelet I got you, what is your excuse for wearing it?"

Caroline glanced at the beautiful diamond bracelet, remembering the thrill she'd gotten when she found it the morning after her birthday. No one could fault her for loving beautiful things.

"I don't have one. You have good taste." She blushed at his proud grin.

The dance required that they separate, everyone switching partners. Caroline found herself in the familiar arms of Matt. Falling out of the stupor Klaus had put her in, Caroline's mask slipped back into place.

"What are you doing?" She hissed. "Why are you here with Rebekah?" Caroline didn't have an issue with the other blonde, save for her vendetta against Elena, but pretenses had to be kept.

"What was I supposed to say? No? And why the hell are you here with Klaus, what about Tyler?"

What about Tyler.

"He saved my life." Caroline hedged, aware of supernatural hearing. "This seemed like an easy enough way to pay him back."

0o0o0o0o

Kol leaned against the wall, idly watching the dance floor.

"Sulking in the corner, Kol? You could have always compelled someone to accompany you." Rebekah appeared next to him. Her tone and posture suggested someone had insulted her and she was ready to sic a brother on the poor sod.

Kol crossed his ankles and chuckled. "The sidelines fit me fine, sister. Perfect place to meet our neighbors and my siblings' dates. Such as Nik's."

"Caroline Forbes?" Rebekah scrunched up her nose, but the jealous gleam was as obvious as her pouting tone. Typical Bekah.

"She's intriguing."

"She's unimportant," retorted Rebekah. Kol hummed but did not agree.

Esther had wanted her little girl to take after her, but it was Kol that had an aptitude for magic. After Mikael killed him and his siblings, he'd awoken to find his magic had been ripped away. He'd spent ten centuries filling the hole with blood and chaos.

Nature took her time accommodating to his mother's creations. A new balance had to be established. It took centuries, but one day Kol woke up and felt the brush of magic again. It was faint, and he'd never be able to bend it to his will again, but he felt it. He appreciated every gentle caress in the air.

And Caroline Forbes had magic swirling around her with every twirl of that stolen dress.

None of his siblings seemed to notice it, and he hadn't decided if it was noteworthy yet. So, he turned to his spiteful sister with a mischievous grin. "What of your date?"