This fic is for my friend Tanya's (angellus08) birthday.

There was chaos everywhere. They had found one of Esther's hideouts. Shouts and yells filled the air as bodies clashed against one another as either side tried to seek dominance over the other.

But he had only one thought predominant in his mind – find her.

He tore through anyone who tried to stand in his way. Blood soaked his t-shirt and he left a trail of bloody footprints as he flashed from room to room trying to find her.

He came to a standstill in front of a thick iron door. His ears detected a faint breathing coming from the room.

This was it.

He flung the door open and stepped into the room. Hardly any sunlight streamed into the room. The only window that was present was covered with a cardboard board, refusing to let a peek of light in, with a chain attached to it.

His nose twitched at the mixed scents of rot, vervain and burnt flesh emanating from the room. It was quiet except for the sound of water dripping in the corner and haggard breathing.

Scanning the dark room, his eyes came to a stop at the body in the middle of it.

There was hardly a stitch on her body, except for two leather strips wrapped around her chest and her hips. She was strung up in the middle of the room with her hands tied to a single chain that was attached to the ceiling, her toes barely brushing the floor. Her torso was mutilated beyond belief. It was clear that her torturers took great pleasure, carving her. There was blood pooled underneath her and it was obvious that she was starved to the point where it as an effort for her body to heal itself.

"Caroline," Klaus breathed as he flashed forward. Touching the chains, he hissed as his hand came into contact with the vervain on it. With barely a thought he ripped them apart and caught her as her weak body fell into his arms.

She felt so light, barely as heavy as feather. A moan of pain escaped her lips as his arms grazed her open wounds. He shifted her so that she was more comfortably secured in his arms.

Stepping out of the room, he ran into Elijah who hardly looked like he was part of a skirmish. He took one look at the girl in Klaus' arms and stepped forward concerned.

"I have her." Klaus said, "Go find Mother."

Tearing his glance away from Caroline, Elijah looked up before he replied, "She isn't here. It seems as if she had left before we came. She seemed to have known that we would strike and left her minions as a diversion."

Klaus growled, "So we lost her again."

Klaus was standing in the study, nursing the low ball glass of scotch in his hand as he gazed unseeingly at the flickering flames of the fireplace.

His mind was a tumultuous of emotions and memories although his outward expression was calm. Calm as the still water before the storm.

The door to the study opened and Elijah walked in, an annoyed expression on his face, "Niklaus, we need to talk."

Spinning around to face him, a smirk lingering on his lips, Klaus said, "You better have come in here to tell me that you have found the location of Mummy dearest."

"That should be the least of your worries, Niklaus." Elijah said. "I want to know, why is it that you haven't you been spending time with her?"

"That's none of your business Elijah." Klaus moved towards the table, standing over it as his eyes scanned the array of maps laid out on it.

"It –" Elijah started.

"Don't Elijah!" Klaus growled as he glared at him.

"You can't keep running away from her."

"I am not running away." Klaus bit out, "She needs time to recover and I am giving her that. You should be happy. You always harped on about how I should show some damn compassion."

Elijah shook his head resignedly, "I would never have thought you would be such a coward brother."

He hardly blinked when he found his back roughly shoved against the wall, Klaus' vamped out face growling at him.

"Don't you dare call me a coward." Klaus' eyes flashed dangerously at him. "Unlike you I happen to have more important things to take care of other than hovering over her."

Letting Elijah go, Klaus turned his back to him, "Leave now. From now on, only speak to me about matters regarding Esther."

Elijah straightened his jacket lapels and looked as if he was about to say something, but instead shook his head and moved towards the door. Just before he shut the door, he looked at Klaus and said, "I hope you don't regret this."

As he walked away from the room, he heard the shattering of glass as it was flung against something. He could only hope that his brother would stop being so bull-headed.

Klaus paced impatiently as Bonnie worked on Caroline.

"This is not going to go any faster, the more you pace Klaus," the raven haired witch snapped.

"Leave and I will call you when she wakes."

"I am not going anywhere. Why can't you work your magic faster on her? My blood healed her. What more is there to heal?" Klaus countered as he came to a stop next to Bonnie, "What more is there to heal?"

Bonnie sighed exasperatedly as she fixed an annoyed glance at him. "Your blood may have healed her body, but Esther has practiced some really dark magic on her to make her suffer. The sort of magic used on her, was not meant to physically torture her but to mentally torture her. Can you imagine being tortured inside your head? The one safe place you thought you had?"

A pained expression crossed Klaus' face as he looked at the unconscious girl that lay on the bed. It was his fault that this happened to her. Esther wouldn't have taken an interest in her if she was just another vampire.

He snarled as he resumed his pacing while, Bonnie continued to chant magic, healing Caroline.

All of a sudden, Caroline's eyes snapped open and she gasped.

"Caroline!" Bonnie cried out, hope evident in her voice.

Klaus flashed to Caroline's other side and took hold of her hand, "Love?" He was overcome with relief that she was alright.

Caroline moved her head to the left and looked at Bonnie, "Bonnie? Wh- what happened?"

Frowning Bonnie leaned forward, her hand caressing Caroline's hair, "Don't you remember anything? Esther kidnapping you? Or torturing you?"

Looking confused, Caroline shook her head, "No, I don't remember that. What are you talking about Bonnie?"

"I think you need to rest, Care. Everything will probably come back to you then." Bonnie smiled gently at her best friend, "You gave us quite a scare for a moment."

"Bonnie?" Caroline asked, looking troubled "I don't understand -"

"Love, you need to rest now. I will stay with you, so nothing can hurt you."

Caroline snapped her head to the right, taking in the hybrid that towered over her, concern etched in his every feature.

"Klaus!" She hissed before backing away from him. "Bonnie what is he doing here?"

"Caroline?" Bonnie looked from her angry expression to Klaus' surprised one. "Caroline, what's the last thing you remember?"

Caroline looked towards Bonnie, but not before giving Klaus a chilling glare, "Come on Bonnie. Why are you asking that? Of course the last thing I remember is what happened yesterday."

Turning she sent an accusatory glance to Klaus, her next words dripping with venom, "You know when he made Stefan bit Elena before turning Tyler into a hybrid."

Klaus was driving aimlessly.

He had to get away from her.

He knew what they were doing.

As much as he was avoiding her, Bonnie & Elijah were making sure that they would spend sometime together. Like the time they left the house to go on an 'errand' and told Klaus to keep an eye on Caroline.

It was the worst thing that could happen to him. He would be forced to look into her eyes and see nothing but the lingering hate she felt for him. None of the love that he had gotten so used to, just hate.

All the years they spent together, the memories they created, the moments they shared – they were all gone.

Sometimes he could feel her confusion, almost hear all those questions buzzing around in her head about them.

He had forbidden anyone from telling her about their history and knew that that was bothering her.

It was so hard to be so close to her, to almost touch her but not be able to do it.

It was a good thing she couldn't remember him. She was better off away from him. All she got whenever they were together was nothing but pain.

Esther did this purposely to get to him. To make him feel pain. To make him suffer.

His mother found out about Caroline's importance to him and had her captured during a mission, setting a trap to ensnare Caroline.

Every day Caroline was away, tortured Klaus. He knew exactly what his mother was capable of doing and the horrors she could inflict on Caroline. Not only physically but mentally.

It took them two months, two months, to find her. In those three months it was clear that Esther didn't back down from torturing her for information about his location.

Esther punished him in the worst possible way by erasing her memory of him with ancient, dark magic.

If it weren't for him, then Caroline wouldn't be in this position.

She was better off without him.

"Why should we help you stop Esther?" Damon asked, as he sprawled out lazily on the chair.

"Well because if you don't mate, I will just kill you myself." Klaus growled.

Elijah threw him an admonishing look before he spoke, "She is a threat to our entire race. I believe you enjoy living more than dying Damon. Also, not only would you die but your doppelganger who you seem to be hell-bent on protecting would be dead too."

Stefan who was leaning against the Salvatore's library wall said casually, "Don't bring her into this. What if we don't want to get involved in this?"

"Ah but you are involved in this." Elijah continued, "All of you. If you hadn't woken her up, we all would not be facing such a threat. Think about it."

Klaus was getting impatient with everyone in the room. He didn't know why he had to go along with Elijah's idea of recruiting the help of this poor excuse of a Scooby gang instead of doing it themselves.

His eyes passed over everyone in the room and came to a stop at the one creature who mattered to him. Caroline stood at the back, her arms folded across her chest, looking straight at him with an unreadable expression on her face. It felt as if she was looking into his soul and all he wanted to do was convince her to come with him so that he could at least keep her safe.

An hour later, after an intense discussion between Elijah, Damon and Stefan, a decision was reached. Stefan announced, "Fine we will help you but here are our terms."

The entire time, they hadn't taken their eyes off each other.

Caroline and Bonnie were walking in the massive, lush garden in front of the Mikaelson mansion.

It had been a week since she had woken up and they were taking her recovery slow. Bit by bit Bonnie would tell her about what happened over the years. About how they left Mystic Falls, to hunt down Esther, how they had some difficulty at the beginning being cohesive as a group but after a while it became easier, how Elena handled being a vampire, how Stefan, Elena, Damon, Kol, Bekah and Tyler went over to Europe to begin their hunt there and to delve deeper into the lore of killing the Original Witch and banishing her spirit away forever.

They came to a stop by a bush of star gazer lilies. Caroline smiled as she took them in; they were her favourite kind of flowers. She trailed her hand along the beautiful petal before turning her gaze to Bonnie.

"Bonnie?" She hesitated before continuing, "What's the deal with Klaus?"

Dark eyebrows rose as Bonnie's chocolate brown eyes registered surprise at her question, "I guess it's about time you asked that."

"He seems different from what I remember." Caroline frowned, "I can't explain it."

"Klaus has been in charge for a while now."

"In charge?" Shock registered on Caroline's face. "Who gave him the right to do that? How do we know he is not leading us to certain death?"

"A lot of things had happened Caroline. The past couple years had been hard on us. Leaving Mystic Falls was a big step for all of us. It was hard at first. But like I said we managed through it."

"That doesn't explain why Klaus is all of a sudden appointed leader."

"It was not like that at the beginning. We hardly trusted him or the rest of the Originals for that matter. Damon & he fought all the time but in the end, his experience and personal knowledge of his mother won. He always knew where she would be except she would always be one step ahead of us every time. You supported the decision."

"What? Why would I do that?"

"I don't know Caroline." Bonnie looked down. "You and Klaus were kinda friends, I guess at that point."

"Friends?" Caroline repeated incredulously. She looked away, racking her brain, willing her memories to come back. Why would she have been friends with him?

"Why was I friends with him?"

Bonnie looked at her, "You will have to ask him that."

"Does it have to do with why I didn't leave with Tyler?" Caroline expected to feel sad that she wasn't with Tyler in the same place but for some reason, she didn't mind it.

"I believe so." Bonnie started walking back to the house. "Come, I reckon we should get something to eat. I am starving."

"That's such a stupid plan Klaus." Caroline said as she entered the study. Klaus looked up from the sketch book he was lazily drawing in.

Flicking his eyes over her, he resumed sketching.

Caroline came to a stop in front the couch and stood with her arms crossed in front of him.

"Are you listening to me Klaus? That's a suicide mission." Caroline snapped, "You will be walking straight into a trap."

"I am stronger than any of you. Nothing can trap me."

"There is a difference between confidence and stupidity, Klaus." Caroline rolled her eyes. "You can't go on this mission alone."

She was beginning to get annoyed at the indifferent attitude Klaus adopted. She knew it pained him to think that his mother was after him and no matter how much he tried to tell him self, he won't be strong enough to take her alone especially with all that emotional baggage he had weighing him down. Does he not see that? That he can't just waltz in and kill his mother without feeling. He may have fooled himself into believing that but she knew better.

She snatched his sketch book out of his hand. "Listen to me Klaus! If you still want to go on this mission don't go alone!"

His eyes were filled with an unreadable expression. He stood up and walked towards her, coming to a stop barely a hair's breadth away from her.

Caroline knew he was trying to intimidate her but she wasn't going to be deterred. His breath fanned across her cheek as he leaned in, his cerulean eyes unreadable, "Tell me love, why do you care?"

"Klaus."

He was about to leave the house on a tip he got from one of his hybrids when he heard her voice.

Turning around, he saw her standing at the bottom of the staircase clad in shorts and a t-shirt that seemed to cling to her in all the right places.

"Caroline."

She continued staring at him, her bottom lip suffering between her teeth, as her forehead crinkled with worry.

He tried very hard to not go over to her and wipe those worry lines away.

"Is there something you wanted Caroline?" He asked brusquely.

The unsure expression on her face was replaced with a defensive expression. "It's been almost a month since I 'woke up' and I have spoken to everyone, including Elena and Stefan. I have come to understand everything. Except one thing."

She walked closer to him, her bare feet padding softly on the cold, granite tiles of the lobby.

Klaus frowned, knowing where this conversation was heading, "And you think I can help you with it, love?"

"Yes!" She snapped at him, annoyed. "Because it's you that I don't understand. You and I".

"What's there to understand love?" Klaus smirked casually. "I am the big, bad hybrid and you are the baby vampire who came to her own in the last couple of years. Done. That's it. There is nothing more to it."

"Don't lie Klaus. Everyone has stepped around the subject of you and I. Even Bonnie who is always open with me, evaded it." Caroline wrung her hands together. "I know there had to have been something."

"Love, your imagination making you assume there was more than meets the eye. Trust me when I say there was nothing."

"That's not what Bonnie said." Caroline continued adamantly. "We were friends apparently. I supported you. Why?"

"What can I say, love? You were probably the only intelligent one in the group."

"I would never have done that if I didn't trust you. I know that much about myself Klaus. So stop saying there was nothing. I trusted you. Just please tell me why."

Klaus scoffed, his tone harsh and cold, "Caroline stop making it out to be something more. I saved your life and the lives of your friends countless times. Maybe that's why you trusted me. But believe me when I say we were not friends."

With that, he turned and walked, leaving her standing alone in the lobby.

It had taken all his strength to not pull her into his arms and show her what exactly they were, what sort of relationship they shared. But he had pulled himself together and backed away.

He told himself, he was just keeping her safe.

Klaus was fuming.

Nope, fuming could barely scratch the surface of what he was feeling. He was almost frothing at the mouth.

His eyes slid over to the couple that was entwined on the dance floor.

They were at a club celebrating because Bekah deemed it appropriate. They had just taken down a powerful witch whose lineage Esther was tapping into for power.

Drinks were freely consumed, the loud music helping lower everyone's inhibitions. Everyone was on the dance floor and he was here by the bar drinking alone.

Staring at them.

Some random guy had his hands all over his Caroline's waist. Her back was to his front and they were – what was the term – grinding to the music being played.

She looked glorious in that short black dress that barely ended below her butt and those long legs encased in red heels. Fire engine red lipstick graced her lips and all he could think of was how he wanted to take her then and there in the middle of the dance floor without a care for the world.

But no she was busy flirting, rubbing herself on some mere mortal boy who looked like he hit the jackpot. Klaus was pretty sure the boy hardly knew how to treat a woman of her caliber.

He could feel the wolf in him growling at the fact that someone dare touch his woman. Any ugly emotion rose in him.

The glimpses he got of her from the strobbing lights made it seem like he was catching a glimpse of a goddess.

All of a sudden her eyes snapped to him.

Smirking at him, she raised her hands to her hair, pushing her fingers through it seductively. Her bottom lip was caught between her teeth and with a teasing glint in her eyes she winked at him.

That was all he needed.

He got off the stool and strode towards her purposely.

He brushed past the bodies gyrating together underneath the flashing lights. There was only one body he was interested in.

Reaching her, he grabbed the boy's hands that were around her waist and pushed him away. One look from him was enough to send the human scrambling away.

Setting his hands on her waist, he pulled her forward until she was flush against his body.

One hand traveled up her back to settle at the back of her neck, caressing the soft skin there. His body moved against hers keeping rhythm to the music.

Her hands locked around his neck and she breathed, "Klaus."

That was all it took.

He mouth crashed on her lips. Moving against her mouth urgently, he felt as if he was a thirty man wandering the desert and had finally found water.

His tongue sought entrance and was granted. She tasted of alcohol with a hint of strawberries. Their tongues battled each other for dominance as she pushed her fingers in his curly hair and pulled him further towards her.

The whole dance floor melted away and at that moment it was only the both of them.

His hands ran over her curves, wanting to feel the skin underneath.

Pulling back from him, she was breathing heavily. She looked up at him with lust filled eyes, "Let's leave."

This is more of a two-shot! I will be uploading the second part soon. =)

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