Hello everyone! This is just a fun little one-shot I came up with the other day, and I had too much fun with it not to post it. I would love to hear your thoughts on it, positive or negative. :) Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries. Obviously.

Everyday Heroes

A couple of everyday heroes are responsible for foiling a bank robbery this afternoon. The two suspects in the robbery arrived at the National Bank on 5th Street just after lunch time with loaded guns and demanded everything from the vault. When the situation began to escalate, these two bystanders – who are being referred to as heroes – took matters into their own hands. As the security footage shows, these thieves had no idea what they were getting themselves in to.

6 Hours Earlier…

"Are you sure we can't stay another day?" Caroline asked hopefully as she and Klaus walked across the busy New York City street. They had spent the last few years travelling the globe – visiting Rome, Paris, Tokyo, and more – and were finishing up their stay in New York just in time to head back to Mystic Falls for Caroline's Forbes family reunion. Usually Caroline invented an excuse to avoid attending, but this year her mother had used the "I don't have many years left" line to guilt her into making an appearance. Almost five years had passed since she had last seen most of her family, and she could tell they were starting to question why she never looked a day older. There were only so many times she could claim to have had plastic surgery before somebody – probably her cousin Gary – would start asking real questions.

"Afraid not, love," Klaus responded smoothly, taking her hand in his. She groaned and he smirked. Caroline was surprised that he had agreed to go with her to the reunion. He didn't normally like to engage in "trivial human festivities" as he put it, but when she had asked, he had readily complied. Of course, it probably helped that she had prefaced with a story about Cousin Gary's wandering eyes and hands.

"Fine," she sulked as she let him lead her down the sidewalk. It was a typical fall day in New York City. Mild temperature, partly cloudy, cool breeze. People rushed past them in all directions. One thing she had noticed since becoming a vampire was that she rarely felt the need to hurry. When you have a thousand more birthdays to look forward to, you hardly ever get the feeling that you need to rush.

Klaus smirked and squeezed her hand. "You don't sound thrilled to see your family," he observed. Of course he knew all about her worries, even the ones she had never told him about. He had gotten pretty good at reading her over the years.

"It's just so hard to pretend to be human!" Caroline whined. She had gotten used to being around only him and never having to hide her vampirism, and now hiding it was becoming more and more of a chore.

Klaus chuckled and leaned over to kiss her temple. "It's only for a few days," he promised, "then you'll be back to reaching your full potential."

"For someone who loves being an all powerful vampire hybrid, you seem to be taking this whole 'human family reunion' thing pretty well," Caroline mused teasingly.

"Yes, well, I've never been to a 'family reunion' without fights, spells, and daggers, so I suspect the event will be quite a new experience," he drawled.

They had to make a quick stop at a bank before going back to their suite. Klaus had a safety deposit box there that he wanted to access before leaving the city, and Caroline was happy to go along with him. It amazed her that he seemed to have something hidden away in almost every city they had visited. He claimed it was his paranoia that made him scatter his most prized possessions across continents, but she wondered if he really only did it to give himself an excuse to keep going back to the same places. From what she could tell, the only things he really kept in any of them were some of his old sketches and documents.

The bank was large and ornate, much different than the banks she had grown up around in Mystic Falls. It had marble floors and ceilings with large glass chandeliers hanging above and velvet ropes indicating a path towards the tellers. She noticed many cameras hanging from different sections of the large room, and signs posted along the counter warning patrons that they were being watched. Caroline assumed that this was the type of bank the well-to-do would prefer.

It was more crowded than the bank in Mystic Falls would have been on its busiest day. About twenty to thirty people were waiting in line to be assisted by one of the five or so tellers dressed in green suits. Klaus led her to the beginning of the line, and promptly compelled the man at the front to let them go ahead of him. When Caroline gave him a disapproving glare, he smiled at her innocently.

"I just don't want us to be late getting to the party, love," he defended himself easily.

"I can help whoever is next," a teller called from a few windows to their right. Her dark hair was pulled up into a bun, and her green jacket matched her eyes perfectly. Her name tag read 'Kelly'.

"Good afternoon, Kelly," Klaus said smoothly when he and Caroline were standing straight across the counter from her. "I need to access my safety deposit box."

"Ok, do you have the number?"

"I'm afraid not. Could you look it up and bring it to me?"

"That's not standard procedure…" She trailed off when he looked at her and raised his eyebrows. Caroline recognized that he was compelling her. "Of course," Kelly said happily. "I'll be right back with that."

Klaus grinned triumphantly at Caroline who was glaring at him again. "Why do you always do that?"

"Do what, sweetheart?"

"Compel people. Why can't you just do things the way they're supposed to be done? Like by following the rules?" They had had this argument before, and neither of them had really won.

"Why should I do that when doing it my way is so much easier?" he challenged good-naturedly. He didn't like to see her upset, but he enjoyed getting under her skin from time to time. She was stunning when she was angry. Well, she was always stunning really, but exceptionally so when she was angry.

"What if she gets fired for this? Or do you even care that you could have just ruined her life?" Caroline hissed.

"You're being dramatic, darling. But if it would make you feel better, I will find her manager and compel him as well."

"That's not the point."

Suddenly, a deafeningly loud BANG sounded behind them and Caroline jumped and grabbed hold of Klaus's arm in surprise. They both turned to see what had happened, and Caroline heard Klaus groan just as she noticed two masked figures with shiny black guns standing in the middle of the bank.

"This is going to make us late," Klaus muttered.

"I want everyone to line up along that wall!" one of the figures, a man, yelled loudly while pointing to the right hand wall of the building. The other man, carrying a large duffel bag, ran behind the counter and disappeared into the back room that Kelly, the bank teller, had just gone into. Most of the humans, cowering at the sight of the large gun, quickly obeyed.

"And if we don't?" Klaus challenged in a bored tone.

Before Caroline could elbow him for his comment, another BANG rang out through the room, making the crystals on the chandeliers shake. Caroline felt a piercing pain in her left ear and instinctively let out a cry and reached to cover it. It felt like part of her ear had been lit on fire and then ripped right off, but the pain quickly subsided as she healed at vampire speed.

Klaus was standing in front of her in an instant, removing her hand to assess the damage. A little dazed from the shock, she watched his face for a hint of how bad it was. He looked a little shocked too. When she removed her hand, his face changed from blank to livid, his jaw clenched and his eyes hard.

"Is it bad?" She was afraid of the answer.

"No. But I'm going to kill him."

"Do what I say or next time I won't miss!" the man in the mask warned.

Klaus growled and turned around, ready to tear the man apart, but Caroline grabbed his arm. She wouldn't let him do that in front of all these witnesses. Security cameras all around were recording every action of every customer, and who knows how many people were watching the security feeds live? If their secret was exposed they would have a lot more to worry about than meaningless threats from one little human.

"Klaus, don't," she warned, trying to tell him everything she was thinking.

He seemed to understand because, although he didn't relax, he begrudgingly stopped his advance.

"That's right. Listen to your girlfriend, Romeo," the man taunted. "Now move!"

Caroline took his hand and pulled him towards the wall where the other customers and employees had been watching in horror. Klaus glowered at the man in the mask. "Shoot at her again and I'll make you wish you were never born," he warned in a low voice as they walked past the man who had done all the talking.

"I'm so scared," the man responded sarcastically. Caroline could feel Klaus physically struggling to restrain himself from tearing the man's head off. She was relieved, and honestly a little surprised, that he had been able to contain himself so far. Klaus was not known for his self-control, especially when he was angry. But she had to make sure he didn't do anything that they would both regret – well, he probably wouldn't care if the world knew he was a vampire, but she certainly didn't want to have to face her family tomorrow with them all knowing what she was.

Caroline stood with the other bank patrons along the wall, trying to blend in with the humans. She glanced at Klaus, who was standing next to her looking less bored and more menacing.

"Are you all right?" an older woman standing next to her asked with concern. "I could have sworn I saw that bullet go straight through your ear!"

"I'm fine," Caroline assured with a whisper. "Just a little graze." She hoped her fast-healing wound corroborated her story. The woman nodded and turn back to look at the man with the gun. Caroline glanced at Klaus. "What do we do?" she whispered in a voice that only his supernatural ears would be able to hear.

"Well, we have three choices, love," he whispered back. She waited expectantly, keeping her eyes on the gunman while Klaus explained himself. "We can pretend to be human and wait him out."

"Next option," Caroline responded quickly. She was a vampire. She wasn't just going to sit back while some idiot threatened people with a gun that couldn't kill her.

"We could kill them."

He was deadly serious and clearly still holding a grudge over the shooting incident from a few moments ago. Caroline scoffed. They weren't going to kill two people in front of a room full of hostages and who knows how many cameras with who knows how many people watching the screens.

Klaus's jaw tightened. He seemed irritated that she had shot down his suggestion, but not surprised. She knew she was right, and he did too. He just wasn't happy about it.

"Third option?" she whispered. The second gunman returned from the vault with a large duffel bag and sat it down on a table as the Kelly hustled over to join the rest of the hostages along the wall. The man who had just come back from the vault distracted himself by counting out the large bundles of green paper money.

"Compel them."

Of course! How could she have forgotten such a simple solution! She risked a glance over at Klaus and saw his mouth twitching as he fought a smile. What the hell could be funny about this situation? Then she remembered that compelling humans was what she had just scolded him about. If she consented to using compulsion now, she would never hear the end of it. But what other option was there?

"This is different!" she defended herself quietly, knowing exactly what he was thinking. Klaus smirked.

"Something funny?" the large man called out, training his gun directly at Klaus. Although she knew an average gun wouldn't hurt Klaus, she couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable when someone was threatening him like that. "Or do I need to remind you that I'm not fucking around?" The man rotated his gun so that it was directed at Caroline.

Klaus's smirk vanished and he stiffened in anger. Caroline knew he was moments away from speeding towards the man and yanking his head off, so she stepped forward.

"Stop," she demanded. The robber looked at her in surprise. Klaus glanced at her and then went back to glaring at the man. Caroline tried to swallow her nerves. If this man shot her, she would have a lot of explaining to do when she didn't die.

"I'm the one with the gun, sweetheart," the man mocked. The nickname sounded wrong coming from his lips, and she could sense Klaus's anger rise at the word. "I'll give the orders!"

Caroline held her ground. She looked him straight in the eye and widened her pupils in preparation for compelling him. "No. You're going to put your gun down, return the money, and then walk down to the police station and turn yourself in without hurting anyone here," she said in her melodic voice that had the power to hypnotize humans into doing whatever she told them to.

She waited expectantly for a second while the man stared at her with wide eyes. Then he spoke. "Why the fuck would I do that? Get back along the wall!"

Stunned, Caroline sucked in a breath. It hadn't worked. Klaus was at her side in an instant, realizing at the same time that something was wrong. Why hadn't her compulsion worked? Was this man on Vervain? Did he know about vampires? Did he know that she and Klaus were vampires?

"Now!" the man shouted again, pointing the gun at them. Caroline no longer had to pretend to be alarmed, that feeling was coming naturally. She felt her stomach constrict painfully in unease and her veins flood with adrenaline. Was it possible that this man was a vampire hunter? What were the chances that his gun was loaded with wooden bullets? Would she have known if a wooden bullet had hit her ear as opposed to a regular bullet?

As these questions raced through her mind, she noticed Klaus step in front of her, shielding her from the man's view. He must have been thinking the same thing as her. Wooden bullets, no matter where they hit, would not kill him. But they could do some real damage if they hit her.

"If you keep threatening her, I will kill you." The way he said it left no doubt that he meant it, and they sent a shiver down her spine. It had been a while since she heard Klaus use this deadly serious voice. Caroline placed a hand on his arm. Her mind was running a mile a minute imagining possible scenarios. Klaus being shot with a wooden bullet. Klaus healing automatically – in front of all the humans in the room and whoever was watching on the cameras. Klaus murdering the two gunmen and whoever else got in his way. None of the scenarios did anything to calm her sudden anxiety.

"You want to die?!" the man with the gun screamed violently, waving the gun around. "Because I will kill you and everyone else in this room if you don't shut up!"

"Where did you get that ring?" Klaus questioned suddenly. Caroline looked, and sure enough, there was a strange looking ring on the man's right hand. It was old and slightly tarnished, and it reminded Caroline of Rebekah's necklace that Stefan had given to Elena to keep her safe from compulsion all those years ago.

"None of your damn business!" the man roared. He was becoming unhinged, and the humans had noticed. Most of them were cowering, clinging to the wall as if it had the ability to hide them from the lunatic robbing the bank. Caroline noticed a few of them giving her and Klaus nasty looks. No doubt they thought it would be better to just give the man what he wanted and get him to leave. "But since you're so interested in jewelry, I want everyone to take theirs off! Any watches, necklaces, rings, take them off and hand them over."

Caroline watched in awe and disgust as the humans all did exactly what they were told, some of them crying as they walked forward to drop their valuables into the duffel bag. She'd be damned if she let this bastard steal from her; but then again, she was already dead so she didn't have quite so much to lose.

"Your turn, Romeo!" the man called to her. Klaus narrowed his eyes and seemed to be debating something. Caroline knew him well enough to know that he was debating whether or not to rip his hand off and then compel him. Or maybe just rip out his heart instead. She whispered "don't" to him, just to push him towards the right decision. He growled lowly, and then stepped forward to hand the man his watch, glaring menacingly the whole time.

This bank robber was incredibly lucky that there were witnesses here, or Caroline knew he would be suffering a fate worse than death right now. Not many people had stolen from Niklaus Mikaelson and lived to tell the tale.

"Looks like we only have one option left, love," Klaus whispered seriously. Caroline ignored him. There had to be a way out of this situation that didn't end in bloodshed.

"Forgetting something?"

Klaus turned back to the man with raised eyebrows, looking bored again.

"Your ring," he prompted. Caroline froze, and so did Klaus.

Their rings. The ones that allowed them to walk in the sunlight without frying like eggs in a skillet. Fuck. Of course losing his daylight ring wouldn't hurt him (one of the perks of being a hybrid), but what about her? She looked around at all the natural lighting pouring in from the windows and skylights that she hadn't even noticed before. She felt the warmth of sunlight hitting her skin and realized that if she removed her ring, she would visibly burn in front of all these people.

"Just give it to him!" one of the customers from further down the wall prompted, his voice breaking in fear.

"No," Klaus said firmly. He knew what it would mean for Caroline to take off her ring. He wasn't too concerned about his secret being exposed to the world – after all, he was invincible – be he knew that was the last thing Caroline would want. The only reason he hadn't ripped the heads off of both of these imbeciles was that Caroline still had living human family members who would certainly be upset if they saw her on the news in cooperation with a murderer. Plus, the thought of spending the rest of eternity with overconfident humans following them around was not very appealing. After doing what these insignificant boys wanted for the last few minutes, Klaus wasn't going to let the whole cover be blown because they wanted the damn rings.

Klaus was so lost in his own simmering rage that he hadn't seen Caroline's face light up as a plan finally formed in her mind. He didn't notice the twinkle in her eye until she spoke to him directly.

"It's ok, he can have it," Caroline said soothingly, placing a hand on Klaus's arm to calm him down. She tried to communicate with him when their eyes locked and to tell him to follow her lead. She knew he would let her take charge, but she also knew she had a small window to act before he ripped off the man's limbs.

"Caroline," he warned lowly.

"Trust me."

Klaus growled as the masked man grabbed Caroline's hand and yanked her towards him. He watched, on edge, as Caroline let the man take her hand and examine the ring that was still on it. But instead of making a move to remove the ring, the man turned Caroline's hand palm up and slowly began tracing a pattern up her arm, looking right at Klaus while he did it.

Fuck it. There was only so much restraint she could expect out of him.

His vampire senses were hyper aware of his surroundings as he took a step forward quickly and time slowed down. He saw Caroline, his beautiful, brilliant Caroline, reach forward and easily twist the man into a headlock, knee him in the abdomen, and grab his gun as he fell to the floor. He heard the cries of fear and excitement from the humans along the wall, and noticed the other masked man scrambling for the gun he had laid on the table as he arranged his stolen money.

Caroline smiled happily when she saw Klaus giving her an awed look. It had been so long since he was human, of course he hadn't seen the option where they disabled the men with supernatural powers while pretending to only be brave humans.

She saw him take a few steps so that he was directly in front of the other man, who was pointing the gun straight at Klaus's chest. Klaus's reflexes proved too fast, and he easily snatched the gun from the man's hand before any of the humans even had time to blink.

Caroline reached Klaus's side just as he opened the gun and let the cartridge (full of normal, metal bullets, she noted) fall to the ground. The man stood in front of them with wide eyes and trembled slightly. Caroline realized that he obviously hadn't been the orchestrator of the operation. Klaus realized the same thing, but didn't much care. Caroline had gotten one, so he got the other.

"Klaus. Humanity," she reminded him quietly when she noticed the familiar calculating glint in his eye.

But humans could break necks, right? As if reading his mind, Caroline elbowed him quickly in the side. He sighed, then settled for connecting his fist with the man's face so hard that he fell to the floor unconscious. That was usually how humans solved problems, right?

Caroline noticed the flash of blue and red lights in her peripheral vision and turned to see police arriving on the scene through the windows.

"Shall we get going?" Klaus asked from beside her. Caroline nodded and grabbed his hand, allowing him to lead her towards a back exit of the building.

Hours later, Caroline sat on the edge of the bed in their hotel room riveted to the television. They needed to leave to catch their flight in about an hour, but she couldn't stop staring long enough to gather her things. The national news had opened with the story of two 'everyday heroes' who foiled a bank robbery in New York City. The anchor woman introduced the story and then, much to Caroline's horror, two pixelated images of her and Klaus flashed across the screen. She froze with her mouth agape, and barely registered the sound of the shower clicking off in the adjacent bathroom.

"Klaus!" she cried in panic, when the story cut to interviews with some of the human hostages.

Klaus was standing in front of her in a flash, a towel fixed around his waist and droplets of water still dripping off his curly hair and running down his bare torso. "What is it?" His face showed concern, and all she could do was stare at the TV behind him and point. Klaus turned around just in time to see a blurry video image of him and Caroline standing along the wall in the bank.

He groaned. "That's it? I thought someone had died by the way you screamed," he chided lightly as he sat down next to her and let himself fall back on the bed, his arm coming to rest over his forehead.

"What do you mean 'that's it'?" Caroline yelled hysterically. "We're on the freaking national news!"

Klaus grinned. "I've always told you that you look good in front of the camera," he said playfully. "Oh this is my favorite part," he added just as the television showed the sequence of Caroline taking out the first perpetrator on her own.

"Oh my God!" Caroline groaned before covering her face with her hands. Klaus grinned wider and snatched the remote to turn the volume up.

Officials say the suspects have been involved in home invasions as recently as a week ago, taking mostly family heirlooms like old jewelry. Today, they obviously decided on a bigger target, the anchor was saying dramatically.

"At least we know they weren't vampire hunters," Klaus said lightly, unable to keep the smile out of his voice. Caroline scoffed and hit his shoulder, which only made him laugh. He was getting far too much amusement out of this for her liking.

"What am I going to tell my family? I'm sure they will have seen this!" she wailed, falling back on the bed next to him.

Klaus rolled onto his side and draped his arm over her. "They'll be proud of you, love. Just like I was."

Caroline turned her head and their eyes connected. She relaxed and smiled. Maybe no one could recognize them. The picture was pretty blurry, after all. "Think how embarrassing it would have been if you had killed those guys and my mom had to arrest you tomorrow."

"Yes, but it would have been a much more satisfying outcome." Her smile grew. She loved it when he was in a playful mood like this. He leaned forward a few inches and pressed his lips softly to hers. "Although, you did look pretty damn sexy kicking that man's ass."

Caroline laughed and rolled over so her body was facing him. "Oh yeah?"

"Watching you take him down was almost enough to make up for the fact that I wasn't able to rip out his heart."

Caroline rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless. "I hope whatever was in that safety deposit box can wait."

"It can," Klaus assured her. "We have centuries ahead of us, sweetheart. Plenty of time to return." He leaned in to kiss her again, smoothing the hair away from her face as their lips mingled together in the way that was so familiar to both of them.

Witnesses claim the young couple left the bank just after disabling the suspects. Somehow they managed to evade the perimeter the police had set up around the outside, and their identities remain unknown. But if these two heroes, who are being affectionately termed "Bonnie and Clyde" by media outlets, happen to be watching tonight, the city of New York extends its gratitude for your acts of bravery. We will all feel safer knowing there are people like you two out there somewhere.

Klaus pulled away from her just long enough to grin. "It's unfortunate that none of them will be able to appreciate the irony in that statement."

Just as she was pulling him back towards her, Caroline's phone buzzed in her pocket and she sat up with Klaus following suit. She hastily pulled it out and saw a new text message from her mother.

Is that u on the news?!

Caroline groaned before falling back on the bed and trying to fight her smile when she heard Klaus laughing loudly.

Did you like? Dislike? For the record, I am considering writing a sequel about Caroline's family reunion (because really, how funny would that be?), but I don't want to make any promises just in case! If that's something you would be interested in reading, feel free to let me know. :)