A/N: Hey, everyone! Here's a new story that I've been working on (because I clearly need more to do with my life). As with Linked, this story will have chapters of about 3-3.5k words each. If anyone is interested in making a new cover, I would be very grateful! :) I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it. :)
An admin is like a secretary or PA (but more politically correct).
Thank you to justanotherfiveminutes & CKhybrid for beta work.
Enjoy!
-Angie

"Thank you so much for agreeing to this," Rebekah said for what must have been the hundredth time.

"I didn't say I'd hire him, I said I'd interview him," Caroline replied irritably.

"He's qualified, I promise."

"He sounds overqualified to me. An MBA from Oxford for an admin?"

"Well, as I said, an MBA doesn't get you anywhere if you can't be pleasant."

"Yeah, well, you know how this works. Connections get your foot in the door, but it's your responsibility to stay in the room. If he can't be pleasant to people, then we're going to have a problem."

Rebekah nodded furiously. "You won't regret it, Care, I promise."

"Okay, okay. I gotta go. I have to do some more work before he shows up. I'll see you at the meeting this afternoon?"

"Yes, of course. Thanks again!" Rebekah repeated before Caroline hung up the Skype call.

She sighed irritably as soon as she was sure the call had ended and the camera was off.

Caroline was the Chief Marketing Officer for a large and relatively new cosmetics company, Bold, and she'd worked hard to get to where she was. At twenty-six, she was one of the youngest CMOs for a Forbes 100 company in history, and she had to prove that she deserved her title every day.

It was bad enough that Anna had to leave, but having to interview Rebekah's brother was going to be a pain. Rebekah had joined the company shortly after Caroline, working with product design, and they had become best friends very quickly. If it had been anyone else, Caroline wouldn't have considered the favor for a second. She'd looked him up (as she would have with any other candidate), and as Rebekah had insisted, her brother was (over) qualified.

She was just about to pull out her latest pile of paperwork from her inbox when Anna knocked on her door and stuck her head into the room.

"Miss Forbes?"

"Anna, how many times do I have to ask you to call me Caroline?"

Anna gave her a cheery smile at the inside joke. She'd been Caroline's admin for eight months, and Caroline told her to call her by her given name every day, and every day Anna ignored her.

"Until Friday," Anna joked, before continuing, "He's here. Are you willing to see him early?"

Caroline shrugged and nodded, making the snap decision to face the lesser of two evils in the competition between Rebekah's brother and paperwork.

"All right, I'll send him in right away."

The man who walked in moments later was dressed in a suit, and when she got up to shake his hand, his grip was firm, but not crushing, and he gave her a small smile. He looked exactly the way that he did on his LinkedIn account (and Rebekah's Instagram).

No one should be allowed to be that photogenic.

"Thank you for agreeing to see me," He said.

Polite and professional. Good signs so far, but from the conversation she'd had with Rebekah she found herself feeling a little bit suspicious.

"Take a seat."

He did so, not looking nervous at all, edging on arrogant. She wondered if he thought that he was guaranteed the job because of Rebekah. She hoped not, because that was most certainly not the case.

"So, tell me about yourself."

"I have an MBA from Oxford. I worked for my father's company in Britain before making the move to the United States two years ago, and I'm excited to have the opportunity to interview for this job."

He sounded anything but excited, and Caroline's lips twitched slightly.

"You have an MBA. Why are you looking for a job as an admin?"

"I'm looking for more experience in the work world, as the only long-term job I've had was for Mikaelson Corp. I have good organizational skills and I think that this would be a good fit for me to gain some work experience."

She nodded, knowing that he was lying his ass off, but respecting his capability to sell himself with complete bullshit. Rebekah had told her that Klaus was an insensitive asshole who'd been fired from three jobs so far because he couldn't be polite to save his life, at least, not to coworkers. Apparently he was perfectly capable of being charming and kind to clients.

"Why do you want to work for a cosmetics company of all places?"

"It's always good to try new experiences and learn new things, and I think that this company will help me do just that."

"It says on your resume that you've never had an admin job before. Do you know what's expected of you?"

"Organizing your appointments, taking phone calls, and filtering your e-mail in order of importance, as well as anything else you may ask of me," He promptly replied.

Caroline pressed her lips together, slightly impressed that he seemed to have done his research, and considering her options. The only other applicant who was even close to qualified so far was a part-time graduate student named Liv, but she'd gotten a bad vibe from the girl. Unlike Klaus, who just felt like he could be an arrogant asshole, her conversation with Liv made her feel like the girl was genuinely malicious and catty, which she really didn't have time for. In addition, she did only have a few days until Anna left and she had so much on her plate already that she didn't want to have to conduct more interviews before Friday, especially since Anna would need to train whoever she hired.

She asked a few more questions, to which he gave satisfactory answers.

"Do you have any questions?" She asked, feeling like she had enough information.

"None at all."

"As a favor to Rebekah I'll give you a chance," Caroline said slowly, "When can you start?"

"Any time," Klaus said promptly.

"Be here tomorrow at eight. Anna will train you. Thanks for coming," Caroline said briskly, turning back to her work, a clear dismissal.

She heard him get up and leave, and Anna knocked on her door a moment later.

"He's cute," She said, grinning, "If I didn't have Jeremy…"

Caroline snorted. "I have no opinion on the subject."

Yes, he was cute, but she didn't want to develop a crush on her admin of all people.

That was a recipe for disaster, if there ever was one.

"You're his boss, not blind."

She gave Anna a sharp look, and her admin grinned unrepentantly.

"Well, he'll be here tomorrow at eight. Be ready to train him."

Anna nodded solemnly. "Yep. Do you have anything you need me to do before he starts? I checked and I don't see anything on your schedule that's possible to screw up royally on, but I just thought I'd ask."

Caroline shook her head. "No, I don't think so. That reminds me, though. Is there anything hugely pressing between lunch and the meeting this afternoon?"

"I don't think so. Why, do you want me to clear it?"

Caroline rubbed her temples. "I just need to touch base with Kat before the meeting. Can you check her schedule?"

"Yep."

"All right, I have things to do. This press release about the problematic ad in Vogue won't write itself. Honestly, I don't know what Bree was thinking when she let them put this out."

"Obviously she wasn't," Anna said, smiling slightly.

"Clearly," Caroline mumbled.

XXX

"The Bold woman is a confident risk-taker. We need to craft this campaign accordingly," Caroline said, clicking the remote so that the picture on the plasma screen changed from a picture of three of their best Spring ad spreads of previous years to a bulleted agenda before continuing, "The goal of today's team meeting is to conceptualize our Spring ad campaign. When people see our logo, we want them to immediately think of the Bold woman. Rebekah Mikaelson from our product design department is here to talk about what's new this Spring and the themes in our new set of liquid liners, and then we're going to try to put together a plan for the campaign."

Caroline sank into her seat after handing the slide remote to Rebekah. She had spoken to Rebekah earlier and had started to jot down some ideas already.

As Rebekah stood in front of Caroline's marketing team spewing out a huge amount of bullshit about being "inspired by the grace of hummingbirds" (in other words, metallic colors were "in" this Spring), Caroline started a fresh list of words they might use for the product name.

She glanced up every now and then to see where Rebekah was in her talk, and by the time her friend had finished talking she was ready to start.

"Thank you, Rebekah," Caroline said, turning off the screen, "I need you to work with your teams to come up with a pitch for a line of print ads. It's a spring ad, so think bright. The theme is hummingbirds, obviously. We'll meet back up next Friday to revisit this. Thank you."

XXX

Klaus walked in at 7:55 to see Anna already sitting at her desk typing furiously. She looked up and smiled at him.

"Good morning."

"Hello."

She motioned for him to sit beside her. "All right. So, I'm leaving on Friday, which means we have to get you up to speed by then."

He nodded, and then let Anna prattle on for quite awhile, only half listening and trying very hard to keep his eyes from glazing over.

From what information he gathered when he managed to actually pay attention, there was more to this than organizing appointments and taking phone calls. He had to make sure that whoever was trying to get Caroline's time or attention was actually worth it, which meant that before he scheduled anything he would have to make sure that it couldn't be taken care of by one of her employees (Anna called them 'minions', and he wasn't quite sure whether he was supposed to laugh or not). He also had to make sure that she ate every day, that she got an adequate amount of warning before she had to do things and had the materials to do them... The list seemed to go on for hours, though it had probably been only minutes, and he felt himself zoning out (most of what she said he felt that he could figure out on his own).

Anna's phone started ringing and she abruptly stopped what she was saying to pick it up.

"Hello, you've reached the office of Caroline Forbes….Mmmhm….Is that really necessary?" Anna was asking, balancing the phone on her shoulder and clicking through Caroline's calendar, "Well, I don't think she's available then. How's Monday at nine?"

She frowned, apparently annoyed by what the person on the other line was saying, "Yes…No, Marcus, I'm very aware that there is a time difference…Well, if he wants to meet with her so badly he'll have to wake up at six for it…Of course, I'll write him in. Thank you," Anna said, her cheery tone of voice a complete contrast to the look of irritability on her face.

She placed the phone on the cradle a bit more roughly than necessary. She sighed and then gave him an apologetic smile. "Sorry. Where was I?"

"Food at meetings," He said, giving himself a mental shake.

"Right," Anna said brightly, bouncing back to cheerfulness much too quickly for him to adapt to, "So, if a meeting is in the morning before about nine, then you should make sure that there are enough bagels for everyone plus three, and one cardboard tank of coffee for every seven people, plus an extra. If it's in season, so now, get a fruit plate as well. If there's a lunch meeting, a sandwich buffet should be fine, or if you're really motivated you can do something a little bit more complicated, like a salad bar. Everything good so far?"

He nodded.

"Great! So, she'll be here in around ten minutes—eight thirty is usually when she gets here, but you should be here at eight just in case she's here early. I already wrote down everything you need to know about food on here," Anna said, brandishing a large index card on which was printed a list of take-out restaurants, their phone numbers, and what he should order.

It also listed how she took her regular coffee, what to get her if they were out of anything required for a non-fat-sugar-free-caramel-latte-with-an-extra-shot when he did go to Starbucks, and, in case of emergency (there wasn't anything open/available on the list), what individual foods she disliked.

"I also have three extra outfits for her in here," Anna continued, pointing at a small wooden set of drawers, "One's casual, one's formal, and one's for business meetings. If she ever ends up needing one, she'll most likely send you back to her apartment to pick up a replacement outfit. You are capable of matching clothes, yes?"

He debated asking her if he looked colorblind to her, but ultimately decided it might be best not to antagonize her and nodded instead.

"Excellent!" She said happily before returning to her desk, "You'll also need to stay stocked on office supplies and other necessities. I have a binder where I record when I last ordered things. I know it seems really annoying, but if you keep it up-to-date it can save a lot of time," She said, dropping a two-inch three ring binder crammed full of papers on the desk in front of him.

The phone rang again, and Anna immediately picked up. "Hello, you've reached the office of Caroline Forbes…No, I'm sorry, she's not in at the moment…Yes, of course, I'll let her know…Monday at five?...all right, well, I'll see what I can do," Anna was saying, scrolling down Caroline's calendar, "Yeah, she has a meeting at four-thirty, which might end up running long," Klaus frowned as he looked over Anna's shoulder. There was absolutely nothing on either calendar, "Yes, of course, have a good day," She said, hanging up.

"Why did you say she was busy? There's no meeting," Klaus asked.

Anna nodded. "I know. That was Tyler Lockwood, Caroline's ex-boyfriend. They're still 'friends'," she said, making air-quotes, "But I usually let Caroline know before I schedule anything with him, just in case. Oh, that reminds me," She said quickly, pulling out another index card, "This is a list of her friends and family that know her work number. I've written their level of urgency next to their names."

This woman seemed to really like lists. He hoped that not everyone at this stupid company was a list person. He hated making lists. Why do that when you could just keep track of it in your head?

"Like, if her Mom calls and wants to schedule something, you should generally always schedule it unless she has something important going on. Same thing if it's Stefan, Elena, or Bonnie. If Tyler calls, make something up that's vague, I usually just say that she has a meeting, and then double check with her. If it's a personal calendar thing, always let her know as soon as possible after you schedule it, just in case she needs something to come up. That happens often enough that people won't question it."

Klaus nodded. He was about to sarcastically ask whether she had a list of plausible excuses to avoid a phone call in addition to all of her other lists when he heard the door open, and turned around to see Caroline coming in, looking harassed. Anna immediately took Caroline's coffee cup out of some contraption that he assumed kept it warm and handed it to her.

"Thanks so much, Anna," She said, sipping from it.

"Of course. Okay, so schedule for today," Anna started, rattling off about five different meetings, before saying, "And Tyler Lockwood called this morning to ask whether you were free at five on Monday for drinks with a few friends."

"Did you ask him who was going?"

"Not directly, but he said that Stefan would be there. If you'd like I can give him a call…?"

"That would be great Anna, thanks. So, first meeting at…"

"Nine," Anna replied promptly, "With Rebekah about the proposals due Friday."

Caroline nodded. "Okay," She said, sighing, before turning to Klaus. "Good morning."

"Good morning."

They were both completely silent for a few moments before Anna spoke, "Should I send her in when she gets here?"

"Yeah. Yeah, sure. That's fine," Caroline said, taking another sip of coffee, "Just not before eight forty-five, okay?"

"Yep," Anna said cheerfully.

Caroline left to her office, closing the door quietly behind her. Anna turned to Klaus again. "Sorry, she's not really awake until she's finished a cup of coffee. Anyway, this work phone forwards to my work cell phone, so that when I'm out running errands for her I can answer it. When I leave on Friday I'll give you that cell phone. Your personal one should be completely separate."

"All right."

"So, let me show you how the calendars work…"

About twenty minutes later, there was a soft knock on the door and Rebekah entered, her smile twisting into a slightly evil smirk when she saw her brother sitting at the desk next to Anna.

"I knew you'd get it," She crowed happily. "Now, I'd like some coffee please."

He snorted. "Are you suddenly unable to lift a coffee pot, Bekah?"

"No, but it's your job now, Nik. Just because I'm your sister doesn't mean you don't have to get me coffee."

He shot Anna a quick look, who raised her eyebrows at him and jerked her head towards the coffee pot before returning to her typing.

"One cream and one—"

"Yes, yes, Bekah, I know how you take your coffee," He interrupted, rolling his eyes as he prepared her coffee and pushed it into her hands.

"Now now, Nik, don't be rude," She said, smirking and taking a sip.

"You can go in, Rebekah," Anna said, looking faintly amused by the interaction.

Rebekah nodded and thanked her before knocking on Caroline's door and stepping in, shutting it behind her.

The day passed mostly uneventfully, though Klaus was glad that he'd have another two days to get used to the speed of things. It wasn't that he couldn't keep up, but there were just lots of things that he'd never considered about how busy Caroline's life was and how complicated it was to schedule everything.

After Caroline left around six, which according to Anna was incredibly early for her, Klaus turned to her and tried to figure out how to word his question.

Caroline seemed to be a rather pleasant person, not at all the way he'd expected, as Bekah's friends tended to be as entitled and rude as she was, and Klaus wanted to know whether the day was an outlier.

"What's it like, working for Caroline?"

Anna smiled. "Caroline is the best boss I've ever had, and I'm not just saying that. She takes everything she does really seriously, and she's really nice. She's kind of scary when she's irritated or when people don't do what they're supposed to do, but if you do your job, she's really great to work for."

He nodded slowly. "All right."

"There are a few things that she's super rigid about though. Always be on time for everything. If she asks you to take care of something, follow her instructions exactly. There's nothing she hates more than people who can't follow simple directions. Also, I know I said that she's really nice, and she is, but flattery will lose you points. She likes honesty. If she asks you for your opinion, you give it, no matter how much you think she won't want to hear it."

"All right," He said again, glad that he most likely wouldn't have to be on his best behavior all day every day (there was nothing more exhausting than being nice to idiots).

Anna smiled at him, clearly mistaking his looking out for his own self-interest for anxiety. "You'll do fine, I'm sure. I'll show you how to get everything organized when you leave, and then I'll see you tomorrow."

A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it :D
What do we think about Klaus's attitude towards his new job? Do we like the Rebekoline friendship? Are we excited to see Klaus and Caroline interact alone? Review and let me know what you think! I won't know if you don't tell me ;)
Hugs!
-Angie

Copyright 2015, Angelikah