I don't own these characters, if I did there would obviously be more blood sharing. After all of the speculation about 4X16 about the fight between Caroline and Elena, I just had to write down what was happening in my head. This part is rated M for language.
Sick Sad Little World (part 1)
The world is a drought when out of love
Please come back to us you're all of the above
"I'm making a choice to be out of touch
Leave me be" he said
He said he said
"leave me here in my
Stark raving sick sad little world!" - Incubus
Klaus had been tracking Hayley for two days straight only resting to sleep and feed and then picking up right where he left off. He was making his way back out to the hillside about two miles outside of Mystic Falls to resume his search when a familiar scent invaded his wandering thoughts.
He could smell Caroline's light effervescent scent on the air as strong as if she were mere inches in front of him. It called to his wolf and he had to repress the urge to transform; to shred his clothes and let his claws sink into the soft earth. He shook off the notion and trained his hearing, tuning out the sounds of the forest and attempted to pick up the lilting notes of her voice.
Klaus could barely register the small sound on the air, but as soon as he heard it, he took off in the direction it was coming from. As he approached a clearing through the dense trees, Caroline's soft scent grew stronger and he could also smell the presence of another female. The Doppelgänger. Klaus rolled his eyes as he realized that Caroline and Elena were together. He hung back several yards after he spied them. Both girls were still clad in their red cheerleading uniforms, but his eyes were drawn to Caroline. Her blond hair was in a bouncy ponytail and her long creamy legs were bared for his appreciation. Klaus wanted nothing more than to trail his fingers along the silky skin of her legs. He surmised that this wasn't a hike for pleasure when he noticed Caroline's tense posture and the irritation lacing her words to Elena. He stepped back into the cover of the trees, never making his presence known, and listened in on their conversation.
Caroline was dragging Elena by her arm and stopped abruptly. "Seriously! You can't just go around draining people for sport or because they pissed you off, Elena."
Elena jerked her arm away. "Yes, I can, Caroline. I'm a vampire, it's what we do."
"It is not! You know that those girls had families. You know that Stefan and Damon are out burying their bodies right now!" Caroline was so exasperated with her.
Elena narrowed her eyes accusingly. "What is this? Are we back to the old days when I was your every obsession? Are you back to being jealous of me?"
Caroline shook her head in disbelief. "Get over yourself."
"You are, aren't you?" Elena laughed. "You're jealous that I turned it off. I bet you'd give anything to flip that switch, so you could get over Tyler leaving." Then she smiled torturously. "But truly, I bet you wish you could turn it off, so you can go fuck Klaus without feeling guilty."
Caroline looked scandalized at her unrecognizable best friend.
"If that's what you're worried about, I won't judge." Elena assured her mockingly. "I could give a damn about you wanting to fuck Klaus. By all means, have an orgasm for me. I'm sure it'll be grades above anything Tyler ever did for you."
"Shut up, Elena. You don't know anything about me and Tyler anymore." Caroline couldn't believe the audacity of her. She hadn't confided in Elena in months about Tyler.
"Please, you never shut up about him!" Elena scoffed. "I know every intimate detail about how you'd have to wait for Tyler to fall asleep after you had sex, before you went in the bathroom and finished yourself off."
The unfeeling brunette smiled again. "Well, that is until Klaus came along. Now you don't even talk about your sex life with Tyler anymore. I guess that's either because you guys weren't having it after he came home with Hayley or when you did have it, you just squeezed your legs really tight and pictured Klaus in your mind to get off." Elena laughed, putting her hand on her hip as if she was pleased with herself.
"So is that how you can stomach sleeping with Damon, you have to picture Stefan?" Caroline couldn't resist getting in a few digs of her own.
Elena rolled her eyes uncaringly. "No, but it is what I started doing with Stefan. I'd just lie there and think about Damon's face and his hands and his tongue doing any and everything I want."
Caroline was disgusted with the zombie wearing her best friend's face. "I'm sure with the sire bond in effect, Damon can just look at you and ask you to come and you do it on demand. Like a good little robot."
Elena was silent for a moment and then her eyes were cruel. "You remember what that's like, don't you? Damon told me he had to compel you to orgasm, you were so frigid."
Caroline had never felt the twisting fury inside of her chest like she did for Elena in that moment. "FUCK YOU, ELENA! He had to compel me, because all he wanted from me was access to you and you know that. You know how cruel he was to me, you know how terrified I was of him."
Elena just leaned her head back and scoffed some more. "Maybe he did compel you for information, afterwards, but the first time was all on you and we both know it." She leveled those hollow eyes at Caroline again and advanced on her. "You wanted Stefan, but he wanted me so you went after Damon. It's what you do."
Caroline felt like she could rip Elena's throat out and not feel any remorse. "I SAID. SHUT. UP!"
Elena got within an inch of her face and glared at her. "Make me." She whispered and then she pushed Caroline so hard that she flew several yards into the unforgiving trunk of a tree, falling face first in the dirt.
Before Caroline could get her bearings, Elena was on her once again winding her fist around Caroline's ponytail and pulling her head all the way back to bend over and look Caroline in the eyes.
"I'm tired of you talking shit about me." Elena announced coldly before turning Caroline's ponytail to the side and slamming the side of her face into a nearby rock.
Caroline was disoriented and her ear was ringing in excruciating pain. Not to mention the broken ribs she could feel scraping against her left lung.
Elena smirked at Caroline still bending over her before she let go of her hair, she raised up and put her foot against Caroline's throat. "You know, Damon taught me how pressure points work."
Elena changed the angle of her foot so that her heel was against Caroline's throat with the toe of her foot pointed at her chin. "If I pressed hard enough right here, I could put my foot right through your skull and take your head off." She gave Caroline another unfeeling smile before she began to press harder.
Caroline looked into the seemingly soulless eyes of her friend, a part of her wondered if she could somehow reach her. If she could connect with the person she knew Elena still was. She didn't have time to consider it though. Caroline didn't want to hurt Elena, but she knew she needed to disable her or she just might die out here in the forest at Elena's hands and then Elena would have to live with that too.
Caroline mustered her strength and grabbed Elena's foot against her throat and dislodged the pressure. Elena was momentarily surprised and before she could recover, Caroline twisted violently and snapped Elena's ankle.
Elena cried out in pain and fell to the side allowing Caroline to break free. Caroline took off and was sprinting away when she felt Elena grab her by the back of the throat and slam her into another tree, face first. The bark scraped at her skin and she felt a trickle of blood mix with her own tears at the corner of her eyes.
She rounded on Elena, pissed off and at her breaking point. "What the fuck is your problem, Elena?"
"You. You're my fucking problem, Caroline!" Elena yelled at her, her eyes were so dark she looked like a demon. "You think you know better. You think you can tell me what to do; how to live."
A gnawing sense at the back of Caroline's mind told her that she was in real trouble. "I'm just trying to help you, Elena." She appealed.
"I DON'T NEED YOUR FUCKING HELP!" Elena screamed, before she dug her fingers into the trunk of the tree ripping into the wood.
Caroline didn't have a chance to process what Elena was doing until her friend flashed in front of her and impaled her in the thigh with a large jagged piece of wood.
Caroline screamed in agony, the pain was so unbearable she could no longer stand and she sunk down onto the hard ground.
Elena stood over her once again, looking down at her with contempt and malice in her eyes. "I could have put that in your heart, you know. Now you'll have time to think about ever crossing me again." Her dark eyes drifted down to the blood seeping out of Caroline's leg and she smiled a little, satisfied with her work.
"I think I hear a hiker and after this little workout, I'm hungry again." Elena met Caroline's eyes once again and let the smile fade from her mouth. "I'll give you some time to think about our little chat." She said, before flashing off away from her.
Caroline sat there in shock, the situation closing in around her. She knew she needed to try to work the wood from her leg and catch up with Elena, but she was so tired. The fighting and the blood loss were doing a number on her and all she wanted to do was close her eyes and give into the exhaustion. She felt the angry tears sliding down her face and she closed her eyes to get her bearings for a moment. She inhaled deeply, taking deep breaths to calm herself and that's when she smelled him. It was Klaus. His smell was danger and temptation, a storm and a haven. Caroline was comforted and put even more on edge at the same time.
She opened her eyes and he was walking toward her with a look on his face so full of concern that she felt like she'd pass out from the intensity of it.
Klaus bent down in front of Caroline and she watched as his gray henley stretched tight across his broad shoulders and his black jeans stood out in contrast to the green of the grass. She could tell by how carefully he approached her that she must look exactly the way she felt. Like a doll that had been tossed from a moving car and left exposed to the elements to be run over again and again. When he opened his mouth to speak, her body began to shake violently and she had to close her eyes again.
He should have come out sooner, Klaus admonished himself. He never should have let that fight go on as long as it did, but Caroline was capable of taking care of herself and he needed her to realize that.
"You we're going easy on her, because you're older and you don't want to hurt her." Klaus spoke softly to Caroline and she opened her eyes. "But she's flipped that little switch and that means she isn't above fighting dirty." He narrowed his eyes at her before gently cupping her face in his hands. His thumbs grazed across her cheeks tenderly and Caroline felt like she could forget everything that had happened with Elena from that simple touch alone.
But then she made herself remember who she was dealing with. "Oh and your outrage is because you've never stabbed me. I guess in your mind, only you're allowed to do that." She rasped out between clenched teeth.
"I was grieving my brother whose body you were standing over as you baited me." He explained. "I wasn't..." He stopped suddenly and dropped her gaze.
Caroline grabbed his hands, keeping them on her face. "What? You weren't yourself?" Her voice demanded he look at her again. "Well, I know that Klaus and neither is Elena right now."
Caroline shook her head as her eyes filled with tears again. "She lost her brother and then she watched his body burn the same way you did with Kol." The tears spilled over and slid hotly across his fingers, branding his skin with the pain she felt for her friend. "Elena was so distraught that Damon had to use the sire bond to make her turn off her humanity."
Klaus looked into the agony ridden depths of Caroline's eyes and his gut twisted for her. "And I can see it in your eyes, you've already forgiven her for this..." He looked down at her bleeding thigh, this time inspecting the wound. He figured out that Elena had stabbed through to her femoral artery into the bone. He looked back to her face. "And yet those same lovely eyes of yours still scorn me."
Caroline held his pensive gaze. She could see everything he felt for her in that moment. He was enraged about finding her in the woods stabbed by Elena. He was astonished at her forgiveness for her friend and yet she could see how hurt he was because he thought that she didn't feel any forgiveness for him. "Klaus..."
"It's no matter." Klaus clenched his jaw and dropped his hands from her face. He grabbed her around the waist and halted her up painfully before resting her against a tree.
"You have something to take care of, love. I can hear the uncoordinated rumblings of Elena coming back through the forest to make sure you learned your lesson." Klaus let go of her waist with one hand and brushed the loose strands of her hair away from her face. "But that's never going to happen, Caroline."
He smiled with a determined look in his eyes. "You're going back out there and you're going to break her neck, because if you don't, I'm going rip it from her shoulders for doing this to you."
Caroline gasped at him. She could barely move without the wood tearing the flesh of her leg and he wanted her to break Elena's neck.
He simply looked at her squarely. "When you get some age on you, and I will make sure that you're around long enough to understand, after a while turning off your humanity is no longer an option. That little switch is only a temporary fix to allow vampires the chance to survive, to thrive."
Klaus furrowed his brow for a moment before he continued. "If one had to feel the pain of every kill before learning how to control the bloodlust, there'd be a lot less of us running around."
He moved his hand to the back her neck, his fingers stroked her soothingly, and he sighed. "As you get older you have to feel everything anyway, especially the regrets." He moved closer to her and leaned his forehead against hers. "They weigh on your conscious and you're left to consider the ramifications of your actions, forever."
Klaus closed his eyes then. "I'll never be able to articulate how sorry I am that I hurt you." He opened his eyes again and it seemed like the blue of his irises began to swirl like a violent sea. The emotion in their depths provoked Caroline and she gripped his shoulders to keep herself upright. "I am sorry, Caroline. I never wanted to touch you in the heat of anger and I never will again." He declared. "But that doesn't mean I'll allow anyone else to either and that includes your Doppelgänger best friend."
Klaus pushed himself back from Caroline and bent down in front her. Once again, he inspected the wood embedded in her bare thigh. He couldn't pull it out, not here. He rubbed his hand across his face and growled low in his throat at the state of her mangled flesh. He stood up once again only to be met by the terrified look on Caroline's face.
He was going to have to make her understand that she she had to do this. She needed to do this, for herself as well as her friend. "Caroline, you can do this."
"I can't." She said immediately.
"You have to, Caroline." He told her simply. "I told you that I won't let her hurt you again. Now she's about a hundred yards away from this clearing and she's coming for you. Either you snap or neck or I will." He looked sympathetic. "It's your choice."
"Caroline..." Caroline could hear Elena call her name tauntingly and she and Klaus both looked in her direction.
"I'll do it." Caroline spoke and then corrected herself. "I can do it."
Klaus nodded and then backed away from Caroline just as Elena flashed back to the spot where she left her.
"Well, lunch was great. It's a shame you had to miss it." Elena announced as she walked toward her. "I see you're back on your feet. Does that mean we can resume our... conversation?"
Caroline squared her shoulders and put the slightest pressure on her right leg. She had to clench her jaw to keep from wincing in pain, but she refused to let Elena see it. Caroline strategized quickly. She'd allow Elena to come closer before she pushed off with her damaged leg and flashed behind her friend.
Elena continued to trek confidently closer unaware that either she was going to get her neck snapped by Caroline or have her head ripped off by Klaus.
Klaus stood back surveying Caroline's options. He figured she needed to allow Elena to get closer before she pushed off on her injured leg to flash behind Elena and corner her. He smelled the older Salvatore walking up behind him before he sensed his presence and Klaus didn't hesitate to flash behind Damon and pin him to a tree with his hand wrapped around his throat. "No need for haste, Caroline's got it under control now."
"She's going to hurt Elena." Damon hissed.
"Oh yes, she is. And Elena deserves it, now doesn't she? After all, you did leave Caroline to babysit your little sired monster, now didn't you?" Klaus tightened his hand around Damon's throat all the while keeping his eye on Elena stalking ever closer to Caroline.
"And what are you doing here?" Damon struggled. "Following your favorite blonde?" Klaus only smiled as Damon's trachea began to crush under his fingers.
Just when Klaus was about to answer Damon, Caroline made her move and flashed behind Elena. He watched with enamored satisfaction as she kicked Elena in the back with her left leg and the Doppelgänger hit the forest floor with a thump. Caroline was on her in seconds. With her knees holding down the brunettes shoulders, she grabbed her forehead and chin and then twisted skillfully breaking Elena's neck.
Caroline had used all of her remaining energy to take out Elena and now she felt a blackness creeping into her vision. She pushed herself off of Elena and leaned against the tree once more, feeling as if she would pass out.
Klaus leveled his eyes back at Damon, now turning red from the pain of Klaus' fingers digging into his throat. "If I had the time, I'd rip it out for what you did to Caroline. What was that advice you gave me? Ah yes, "be bad with a purpose." Well let me put it like this, Damon. If you ever use Caroline again, you will have served your purpose." Klaus pulled Damon a little closer by his throat. "Are we clear?"
Damon pulled at the fingers around his jugular and they loosened slightly before he was able to speak, "Crystal."
Klaus removed his hand from Damon's throat and Damon slumped against the tree before pushing off to go find Elena. Klaus was right behind him and flashed in front of Caroline moments before Damon bent down over her friend.
Caroline felt Klaus' warm hand on her cold cheek and she leaned into him. She could barely keep her eyes open, she was so worn out. "You did a good job, Caroline." She thought she heard him say, before she was being lifted into his arms.
"Oh, and you might want to find the body of that hiker Elena had for lunch, after she stabbed Caroline in the thigh and left her to bleed out." Klaus informed Damon before he secured Caroline's body against him and flashed off.
Klaus had been traveling at top speed for a mile when he felt Caroline stir against him and he slowed down to walk normally. Her eyes opened briefly and he could tell that she was relieved that it was him carrying her, but then a panic set in and she began to squirm in his hold.
"What is it, sweetheart?" He asked.
"Elena?" She asked tiredly.
"Don't worry, I left her in one peace. Damon has her." Klaus quieted her and her eyes drifted closed once again.
As soon as she settled back down against him, Klaus picked up his speed and didn't stop until he was approaching the back of his house. When he walked up to the back entrance he looked down at Caroline in his arms. Her face was pained but still so beautiful, her graceful neck was leaning against him and her fingers were grasping his shirt subconsciously. He'd never been allowed to hold her for so long and he feared he'd never be allowed to again. He sighed heavily before leaning against the door and turning the knob.
Klaus made his way through his house with Caroline in his arms. He was grateful to realize that he'd left his bedroom door open because he wouldn't need to jostle her again to go inside. He walked past his bed, foregoing putting her down there, and into his bathroom. He carefully placed Caroline on his sink and as soon as her wounded leg changed positions, she opened her eyes.
"Ow..." Caroline hissed from the pain. Her hands still gripping his shirt.
"I'm sorry, but that stake is all the way through the bone. This is the only way I'll get it out." Klaus explained patiently.
Caroline tensed at first, but then she took a deep breath and nodded her head to him. "OK."
Klaus rested his hands on the tops of Caroline's thighs. The right one still wept with her blood and the left one flinched under his soft pressure. "I'm going to pull it out on three, OK."
She wasn't ready, but she wanted to get it over with anyway. "OK."
"One..." Klaus started the countdown and met her eyes. Just as she anticipated him saying 'two,' he braced his hand on her uninjured thigh and ripped the stake from her leg leaving a piece still embedded in the back of her thigh.
"Damn it Klaus, you lied!" She screamed at him, slapping him across the chest as he dropped the wood that had impaled her to his bathroom floor.
"I know, I didn't want you to anticipate it." He smirked a little at the color that returned briefly to her cheeks. "The hardest part is knowing when someone is going to hurt you and thinking about the pain."
She didn't speak for a second, merely studied him with a dazed expression. It dawned on her then that he'd carried her all the way to his house, never putting her down, not even to open the door. And the longer she watched him, the look on his face turned from slight amusement to concern so genuine, it stole her breath.
The golden curls of his hair were tousled and her fingers flexed for a moment as she thought about running them through it. His stubble caressed his full lips that were plump and firm-looking. Which made her think of kissing him and wondering what it would feel like. Would the beard tickle or scratch her chin and face? What would it feel like in other places?
He couldn't help but feel like she was looking into him as well as at him. He couldn't hold her eyes with his any longer and looked back down at her wounded thigh. One hand grabbed her waist and the other went to the back of her leg.
Caroline gasped out loud when his palm came in contact with the remaining shard of wood still embedded in the back of her thigh, down to the bone. She bit her bottom lip hard and squeezed her eyes tightly.
Klaus looked back up at her face and felt his heart clench in shared agony of what he'd have to do. He made up his mind that he needed to distract her.
"Caroline, I have to turn you around. Do you think you can stand?" He asked hesitantly.
She sighed heavily and winced. Her chin quivering in anticipation. "Yeah."
He cupped the back of her head and looked her in the eyes again, bringing their faces close together. "It'll be OK, sweetheart. I promise."
The security in his voice calmed her just as much as his touch and she nodded her head in agreement. Caroline felt Klaus's hands on her waist again as he picked her up slightly from the counter to put her on her feet. Once she was standing, he turned her around and positioned her with her stomach against the sink, the cold porcelain shocking her skin bared between her skirt and her top.
Klaus spread her feet apart and bent her forward a little. He kneeled behind her to inspect the angle of the stake and came face to face with the back of her thighs. With her body bent over the sink and her feet apart, he had an unobstructed view of the crotch of her tiny red shorts underneath her cheerleading skirt. Klaus was immediately taken by how much she was on display for him and quickly raised up behind her.
When Caroline met his eyes in the mirror, the look on his face was all-consuming lust. She felt her body react willfully and she had to break the eye contact and look down at the sink. She felt Klaus' arm go around her waist and pull her body against his chest. She gripped the sides of his sink with both of her hands in anticipation of him removing the other piece of wood, but the pain didn't register. Instead she felt his lips graze across the nape of her neck and the pleasure from the simple kiss caused her to shudder against him.
Klaus tightened his hold on her and pressed her closer to him. He couldn't control the erection that began when she squirmed and whimpered the second time he placed his lips against the back of her neck. And so he kissed her there again, this time opening his mouth against her and tasting her skin.
The soft kisses that Klaus pressed to the back of her neck were such a surprise and so sensual that Caroline couldn't focus on anything anymore. When he opened his mouth and she felt his tongue trail across her skin she concluded that Klaus was skilled in torture of a different sort. She expected to feel his lips again. She could even admit to herself that she was hoping for it, pleading with her body pressed against his, but the next thing she felt was Klaus swiftly pulling the last shard of wood from her leg. She collapsed against him in pain and grabbed his arm, still around her waist, for support.
Klaus dropped the last piece of the wood on the floor and put his other arm around her body cradling her to him. He gave in and pressed one last lingering kiss to the nape of her neck, before turning her in his arms. Her arms went immediately around him and he closed his eyes against her, pressing his lips to the side of her hair. Klaus held Caroline like that contentedly for a long moment, until she began to slump against him in exhaustion.
Klaus leaned her back against the sink away from him and her eyes fluttered open once again. "You need to feed, Caroline." He informed her. "You'll feel better once you've healed."
All Caroline could do was nod her head in agreement. She wasn't in a position to dispute him, she knew she needed to get her strength back.
"I'm all out of blood bags at the moment, but I'll go out and get some for you." He declared just before he turned her against the sink again and met her eyes in the mirror. "In the meantime..." He pushed up the sleeve of his shirt and bared his wrist for her.
Caroline didn't think twice before taking what he offered. She felt the veins around her eyes appear, her fangs elongated and she pressed her lips to his wrist biting into it longingly. Klaus' body was pressed against her back, his arm tightened around her waist, he watched her take his blood and his head pressed against hers. His blood was as heated as his eyes that watched her in the mirror and as sweet as the finest aged wine. It slid welcomingly down her throat providing her with much needed nourishment. As she fed from him, she felt her thigh begin to heal. Muscle and bone and tissue stitched itself back together. Her ribs mended into place and the small cuts on her face disappeared. When Caroline felt her hips move against Klaus and his body moved in answer, she couldn't keep the moan from escaping her throat.
Klaus had to remove his arm from Caroline's waist and restrain her hips or he wouldn't be able to stop himself from ripping those little red shorts from her body and burying himself inside of her right over the sink. He began to take deep breaths to control himself, but he inhaled a lung full of her scent mixed with arousal and growled deep in his throat.
Caroline had felt a connection with him while feeding from him before, but this was different and she couldn't pinpoint why. He met her eyes again in the mirror and the look on his face was pure unadulterated desire and she thought she could explode from that look alone.
She stopped and retracted her fangs from his flesh for fear that she'd embarrass herself. Caroline was still holding his wrist when she made herself turn around to face him. She noticed that he had to take a step back from her and that he was breathing rapidly.
"Thank You." She said softly.
Klaus couldn't help himself. He pushed her back against the sink, his hands lower on her hips. He leaned down so that his lips were level with hers and he felt her strain against him in an attempt to get closer and his fingers gripped her skirt tightly. "Anytime, love."
He leaned back slowly before he trailed his finger across her bottom lip and she chased the pad of his thumb automatically with her tongue.
"Make yourself at home, Caroline. I'm going to go get you some blood." Klaus instructed, before he leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead.
Caroline nodded her head and watched him leave her alone in his bathroom. She would need the time to think about what could have happened between them.
There will be a part 2 to this story. So if you're interested, leave me a comment and tell me what you thought about part 1 ;)