"Look at me." Klaus said calmly.

She was looking down, her gaze lost somewhere between the floor and the man in front of her. She was deliberately hiding her eyes. He was right before, when he said she was always hiding from something, no matter how brave she wanted to be or believed she became.

"I can't see your face," he said gently.

She didn't respond.

Her hair covered her face, as the useful shield it was. A pretty shield Klaus thought.

His hands were holding her firmly in her place, not letting her move but not hurting her either. For a moment she was lost in thought and then she realized how calmly he was watching her.

"Caroline," he said her name as if he was pleading.

He had to be real gentle with her, didn't he? She was so delicate. Always fierce but delicate nonetheless. This intrigued him more than anything else about her. She wanted to look fierce, to be strong but she was more delicate than life itself. Perhaps it amused him, as cruel as he could be, he also cherished her courage which in every opportunity she did her best to gather. This fragile girl—woman in front of him just refused to stay down and it seemed she had an almost mystical power of recovery, with the way she didn't lose her fire... that he admired more than anything.

"Yes," she said, finally responding to her name but still not meeting his gaze.

He smiled as if he was relieved to hear her voice.

"Tell me, what can I do, Caroline?"

"For what?" she asked.

"...I'm sorry," he said. "About the wolf."

Tyler. He was talking about Tyler. Another person she'd loved and lost.

She had to pretend that it didn't bother her all that much.

"You were fond of him, weren't you?" he asked searching her eyes.

"You could say that," she said, keeping still between Klaus and the wall behind her. She figured she would have probably collapsed by now if it weren't for him.

He gently pushed her hair from her face. She looked up as if she meant to steal a quick glance but of course his eyes met hers instantly. She was surprised to say the least when she found how human his eyes looked. She couldn't say they carried menace. Only compassion and playfulness were present for the time. As it had been for the last months they spent together. He looked and treated her like an old friend, simply kept her in her place as he gently fondled her hair.

"What. can. I. do. for. you?" he repeated, every word carrying its weight.

She knew he wasn't only curious, not only willing to help or dim her pain but he needed to do something for her. But what? What could she say that was good enough to satisfy him and herself? How could she know what worked best?

"Nothing." she said as she looked directly at him.

His hand stopped. He looked more dangerous now. But she felt no fear.

"I am sorry," she said matter of factly. "I don't think there is anything you can do."

She observed that he seemed deeply disturbed by that comment and even more saddened.

He let her go and walked towards the chair that was a few feet away and sat down. She had to stand on her own feet now and only then she realized just how firmly he had been holding her.

A few moments passed while he seemed to be considering his choices.

So she simply waited.

"If I let you go-" he began. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Will you be alright then?" he asked.

She waited a few seconds before replying, not to sound too eager.

"I guess I will," she said slowly.

"Afterall, it's not too late to go back to your loved ones," he said. She thought he was being sarcastic but she saw him look at her with his deadly serious, questioning eyes. She nodded.

"Good," he said. "I wouldn't want cause permanent damage," he smiled a split second before getting up and going to grab his coat from the hanger that stood alone in the middle of the hotel room.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

He stopped and smiled at her, standing a few feet away from her.

"I'm taking you home."

"You don't need to do that... I'm not even sure I-"

"What" he asked, his eyebrow rising.

She stopped herself from saying after everything that went down, she didn't even know is she really wanted to be back. But she had to go, didn't she? Before he changed his mind, at least.

"Nothing. Let's go."

"Or would you rather I didn't accompany you?"

"No. Why would you think that?" She sounded genuinely surprised. He chuckled and she froze for a second. It was too awkward.

Klaus hesitated. He was standing between the lines of cursing himself and searching Caroline's face for a sign of hope. The lightness he felt was so beautiful if only for the smallest amount of time he wondered if he needed to cover it up at all. But he didn't want to push it as she watched his face. And even though he waited for her to laugh, did he need her to realize it? Was it even a matter of taking risks anymore? It wasn't as if she hadn't already seen what he was hiding all along.

This was exactly why Caroline felt like she had to get away from him. At that moment she just remembered the conflict she struggled with inside, which was only lately overshadowed by the pain of losing Tyler. And now she feared that it was true. Even his death wasn't enough to hide it from herself and actually considering she had lost the man she was going to turn back to, now she stood all alone and even more vulnerable. But she had to hide all this from him, she had to. She had no choice but to run from him. If she let him know even for a moment that she saw what he was showing her... she would feel so defeated. How could she have let it happen in the first place? And "I'm only human," wasn't an excuse anymore.

She should have known better than to have feelings for someone who could only end up being her end.

Since he didn't catch what Caroline would call a sign of weakness and what he would call hope on her face, he simply walked before her and opened the door.

"After you," he said.

"Oh God," Caroline thought with bitterness, "Please don't open doors for me. That's the last thing that will ease my mind."

Klaus being a gentleman wasn't going to make her forget about how Tyler was ripped apart by his pack of hybrids four months ago (or as she called them "mutant werepires")

He did try to stop them. She knew that. She trusted that.

He was so sure that everything would go according to his plans and he was already proud of his soon to be hybrid army. But nothing had gone according to the plan.

She remembered that night.

The victims of Klaus' failed hybrid experiment were crying blood and running through the forest like wild animals. Klaus was so disappointed, so upset that she'd almost felt bad for him. Though when one of them attacked her, her feelings had instantly changed to hatred. Both for him and his crazy, evil, stupid-in-the- first-place plan. Yet he was really quick to save her. He grabbed that werepire freak and got her out of there fast before she could get bitten. And just in case, Caroline knew he had the remedy.

Of course what she and Klaus didn't know then was that Tyler was there to "save" her as well. From Klaus, that is. Apparently he'd tracked them down and she could only imagine how shocked he was when he came face to face with those hybrids. When she'd heard his scream, before she even knew she was begging Klaus to let her go, to let her find Tyler.

He probably had have been following them for some time, to get a chance to reach Caroline. Klaus was holding her still, trying to understand what was going on. She was crying, struggling in his arms and shouting at him the same time. "Please! They are hurting him! LET ME GO!"

"Who are you talking about?" he'd asked. "Who is here?"

"Tyler. It's Tyler! PLEASE DO SOMETHING!"

Her voice was so full of pain and urgency and he was absolutely shaken by the terror in her eyes.

"Stay here." He'd compelled her before he turned around and disappeared in to the forest, leaving her while she cried helplessly.

Caroline shivered now as she remembered the cold, dark despair that had surrounded her. Waiting there, as the stillness killed her soul by every moment that passed. And yet she couldn't move.

With the mad screams in the distance, as the echoes the wind had carried to her, she'd waited still. And maybe an hour later it was all over.

She'd seen a figure walking towards her.

The figure was limping.

"Tyler," she'd whispered. "Tyler!"

"Please, let it be him." she was whispering to herself. It had to be him. Surely Klaus would have helped him... he would have saved him.

Klaus repeated his question.

"Did you eat, dear?"

Caroline shook off the memory and looked at him as the shadow of the figure from the forest still lingered before her eyes.

Klaus just stared at her. He knew what she was thinking about. Of course. What did he think would happen? Would she forget about the wolf so soon? He knew this was only one of the reasons of her hatred.

"You have to let it go eventually," he said looking away.

"What?" she asked.

He regretted his words immediately.

"Shall we eat before our road trip?" he asked.

"No, I'm not hungry."

"You haven't eaten in two days."

"I'm fine."

"Well, I need to eat. Will you accompany me?"

"Can I wait for you in the car, or here? I don't want to witness any more innocent people die while I am just standing by."

Klaus didn't tell her they didn't need to kill or they could easily find a willing donor (by willing, he meant compelled). He knew very well how guilty she felt when she killed or even fed on someone. So he smiled his best smile and disappeared into thin air.

Caroline sighed.

She did need to eat or she was going to lose herself and just attack someone in the middle of the street. She breathed in the night air and tried to calm her senses, sat down on the bench next to the parking lot.

What was it he said before? "The beauty of the fight" ?

She remembered how Klaus had praised her for her courage after that night in the forest.

"You have so much life in you, Caroline. You keep fighting." He'd pushed her hair behind her ear and begun caressing her cheek. "You really were going to jump in between those werewolves to save your beloved wolf, weren't you? It's amazing how beautiful a woman looks when she is willing to get killed for her love. The beauty of the fight you have inside you... you do amaze me."

"Asshole," she shook her head trying to lose the memory of his attempt at consoling her later in the morning, after she knew he'd failed to save Tyler. He was just a bit too late... and "There were too many pieces of him to ever pick up and get back together."

He has so cruel to ever say such a thing to her...

She felt the tears welling up but she held her self together. Why was he coming with her in the first place?

What did he hope to accomplish by sharing another road trip with her?

But as long as he was letting her go, she was going to play by his rules. It didn't even bother her as much as it used to, or as it still should.

She feared that if they stayed together a little bit longer she would become number to the pain she felt, the pain she'd already been neglecting so far.

Every moment she spent with him, she felt like she was betraying herself, if not Tyler's memory. Or Jenna's, Stefan's and all the others who'd suffered by Klaus' doings one way or another.

How could he cause such a conflict in her?

She thought of her relationships. She'd come too far after Matt, hadn't she? She realized she was comparing Klaus to Matt. Something had definitely gone wrong with this part of her life.

She remembered Damon, who wasn't any better than Klaus, was he? Klaus hadn't hurt her anywhere near as much as Damon.

She shook her head and started to talk to herself. "I'm not doing this. I am not comparing my psychotic, abusive ex to my werepire kidnapper/surprisingly gentle murderer/deadly romantic interest. Tyler died four months ago. Because of me – NO - because Klaus kidnapped me! So it's all because of Klaus. My loving, trustworthy werewolf boyfriend was torn apart by his mutants and I am having feelings for this psycho freak? I don't think so. This is all because you've been very very confused and you are just upset, Caroline...okay? You just need to get yourself together and lose the Stockholm syndrome right about now!"

"Who are you talking to?" Klaus asked, standing in front of her.

She jumped.

Klaus eyed her suspiciously. "Or should I say yelling at."

"Nothing. No one. Why? What did you hear?" Caroline asked with wide eyes.

"Not much. Just something about a certain syndrome, really." He smiled curiously.

"Oh." Caroline said.

Klaus smiled. "Who is it then?"

"Who is what?"

"Who has the syndrome?" he asked smiling as he sat beside her.

"No one I know," she said. "You heard me wrong."

Klaus nodded. "Maybe." After a moment he dropped the blood bag on her lap and commanded. "Feed."

Caroline stood still.

He looked at her. "Please?"

She sighed. "Why are you- why do you want to come with me?"

"I think it would only be kind to pay a visit to old friends and also make sure you arrive safely."

"You mean the people whose lives you've ruined..." she said as she began to suck on the blood bag.

"You could say it like that. Why? Did you change your mind? Don't you want to go?"

It'd been almost a year since she'd last seen them. "I'm not sure," she admitted.

Klaus watched her beautiful porcelain face show her genuine, painful hesitation.

"Why not?" he asked.

"I don't think I can face them. After everything you've put me through... at least. I'm not the same person I used to be."

Normally he would laugh and say that wasn't such a bad thing but she had spoken in such a soft, truthful manner that he felt bitter.

Then he saw little blood drops smeared all over her lips and he laughed.

"Oh, it's funny is it? You are the proud ruiner of lives," she said.

It was amusing to him when she thought she was insulting him but in fact just spoke in this adorable sarcastic tone which could get annoying after a while but now, it just made him laugh a heartily. He was about to explain why he was really laughing but she continued.

"You did the same with Stefan. Now he is god knows where. And the others of course. I really doubt they would be back at Mystic Falls after everything."

"He was my friend," Klaus said without realizing how those words left his mouth. Yes, indeed he had a different understanding of relationships in general... Making people love him, stay with him, become his "friends". And he'd failed. Many times. He wasn't really proud of that either.

"You have blood all over your mouth," he said coldly, instead of all the other things on his mind. She was taken aback by his tone and the amount of regret his voice carried when he spoke of Stefan.

She regretted her words without really knowing why. She was sharing his feelings. She had begun to understand how much he cared about Stefan, his family, all those dead bodies in the forest... his hopes, destroyed forever. The more she saw his pain over the things he lost, the people he "loved", the more she understood how he cared, the more she began to see him in a way she'd rather forget. She was going to try and hide how he surprised her and how much she really wanted to comfort him. She felt like her heart grew in these silent moments, his love was really pure in a way, really special. It wasn't that she wanted to feel it herself or wanted anything to do with him at all, really. As she kept repeating to herself. "It was just different."

"I should be hating him," she thought. "I am hating him."

She kept repeating that to herself in her mind as she closed her eyes.

"What are you doing?" Klaus asked curiously.

"Hating you," Caroline blurted out.

He laughed. "Alright. Do you think you can do that while we are driving?"

"Sure." Caroline jumped up and shoved the empty blood bag to his chest. "Let's go."