Hey everyone! Thanks so much for the reviews! I love the positivity :) Sorry that the story gets a little dark, or will get a little dark in places, but it will all be for the good of our major favourite characters ;) Just reiterating this is a Klaroline story all the way, I'm not aiming for serious character death because I don't see the writers of tvd actually doing that but who knows, so we'll see where it goes.

There is a drill, just loud enough to be annoying, it is the first thing she hears. Then she smells cheese, rubbery old cheese, overwhelmingly rubbery old cheese. It smells so awful she almost wants to eat it. Almost. She can feel sheets between her fingers, rough plasterboard sheets. And then she sees it, the inside of her hospital room. It all seems so human, and ordinary, and frankly cliché. And the walls are a horribly dull shade of white, she supposes it's no longer white if it's a shade - right? Why is she not more focussed? She can't seem to pinpoint a single fragment of the past few hours, or the time before she was here. Where ever here is. There are all sorts of human noises around and they're driving her mad, surely there is something more important...? And then it hits her. She jumps out of the bed and lunches towards the door, her legs still a little tender. There are a few nurses running around the place, but they all seem too distracted to notice her so she flashes from the room. She almost makes it to the elevator but she's caught in the firm grip of a vampire. She struggles, scanning the room around her where the nurses continue as if nothing is happening. Compelled? She looks back at the vampire in front of her.

"Listen, I need to get out of here, I-"

"That's not going to happen, I've been told to keep you here."

"Told by who?"

"Me." She hears a voice from inside the elevator, her heart jumps. He motions for the vampire to let go of her and leave as he steps out.

"Caroline." He smiles.

"Elijah." She'd normally be more warm and receptive, but there are only two men she wants to see alive and well before her right now, and Elijah is not one of them.

"Listen Elijah, I need to find Stefan, I need to know what's happening."

"Stefan is fine, Rebekah took him to Klaus."

She lets out the breath she didn't realise she'd been holding. "Then why am I here?"

"Klaus was very busy, Rebekah and I decided that you needed to recover, and that Klaus should deal with his problem before we threw another, er, complication, into the mix."

Caroline can't help laughing at this. "Right, I'm a complication. Firstly, and no offence, but I don't like being 'dealt with' and I'm not sure that Klaus will be all that keen on your little stunt either, but honestly I couldn't care less about anything other than seeing Stefan right now, so if I promise to leave Klaus alone completely while I'm here, can you take me to Stefan, right now?"

"Of course." He says reasonably, he looks her up and down. "Did you want to get changed first?"

She suddenly feels very self-conscious under her dazzling backless hospital gown. Thankfully she can feel she has some basic undergarments on so the humiliation is not completely unbearable, or at least that's what she tells herself.

It's close to nightfall and Caroline walks along the streets of New Orleans with one of the oldest men alive on the planet, well dead really but who's asking for specifics? She thinks he looks pretty good for a man who's been dead for over a thousand years. She'd prefer to be standing next to his brother right now, but she's not about to let anyone, or herself for that matter, know that she's aching for Klaus' skin beneath her fingertips... again.

"So Miss Forbes, I hear my brother took a trip up to Mystic Falls recently."

She nearly chokes at how close he is to her train of thought.

"Yes."

"And he paid you a visit I take it?"

"It was very brief." She says hoping he'll leave the topic alone.

"I'm just trying to understand if the werewolf bite on Stefan's neck was a result of my brother stirring up trouble?"

"Indirectly, I guess, I mean, I don't think he came back to cause trouble, trouble just seems to follow Klaus whether he indents it or not. I don't think that's really his fault." She doesn't know why she's defending Klaus of all people, after all, she has been the one telling him to get the hell out of her life, why can't she seem to do the same?

Elijah just nods to himself, maybe what she's saying resonates within him at some level, but she really just wants to see Stefan.

Elijah leaves her at the door to Stefan's room, she assumes the house belongs to the original family, but she doesn't really know. She's not sure how serious Elijah is about keeping her away from Klaus. She walks in to find Stefan sitting half out of bed talking on the phone, she listens for a second before hearing him refer to his brother and hang up.

"Hey, where have you been?"

"Oh, just in the vampire ward at the hospital, it's kind of creepy actually. The originals have compelled themselves a whole hospital ward." She smiles at him. "Are you okay now?"

"Yeah, thanks Caroline. I'm glad I have a friend like you to run me places." They both laugh.

"So, what do we do now?" She asks.

"Well, since we're down here a bit of sightseeing couldn't hurt, and I've heard about a few good places for soul searching."

"Right, who's soul needs searching? Because if it's mine those better places better be well equipped, you know, with Vodka."

Just incase you were all thinking 'wow, this writer updates so often!' it's the weekend and I'm feeling particularly inspired, trust me it will not last, so please review - they keep me going, and they help me avoid the dark hell of writers block in which ideas refuse to come and motivation reads -11 on a scale of 1 to 10. Am always keen on positive or constructive feedback, and any ideas you'd like added :) Happy reading!