Only Stealing Time

Synopsis: After her ordeal, Cami dreams. When she wakes in the dark, it is Klaus' name she calls.

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After her ordeal, Cami dreams.

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"Don't you ever tire of it?" Lucien asks and suddenly Cami finds herself back in his penthouse. The furniture is as opulent as ever and she can still see the blood on the floor where Will Kinney nearly bled to death.

"Tire of what?"

His eyes are cold when they look at her. Cruel. She can't remember Klaus ever looking at her that way. "Being human." He steps closer. She tries to back away but suddenly finds herself against the wall. "Being weak."

She lifts her chin, meeting his eyes defiantly. She refuses to cower before him. "Humans aren't weak."

He takes another step forward, leans to her neck and breathes in deeply. She feels tears appearing in her eyes as she trembles, powerless to move away. He chuckles.

"Oh Cami," he whispers, pulling back to look at her, his eyes mocking. "I think we both know that's a lie."

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She wakes in the dark with her heart still racing. For a moment fear rushes through her as she doesn't know where she is.

"Klaus?" she calls.

"Camille."

His voice comes from close by and just like that her fear fades as she becomes aware of the soft blanket around her and remembers all the events of that night.

A warm light flickers on on her right and she blinks, her eyes adjusting.

Klaus is standing by the side table. He wears the same clothes he wore earlier, and she wonders how long she was asleep for. It can't have been long, she can still feel exhaustion weighing down on her. She can't tell if it's dark outside as the heavy curtains are drawn shut, but she thinks it must be late in the evening.

She closes her eyes and breathes out, trying to calm her racing heart. When she opens her eyes again Klaus has come to sit opposite her on the low coffee table. She blinks at him.

"Are you alright?" Klaus asks, concern clear in his voice.

She nods slowly. "Yeah, just... Tired."

"I could have another bedroom made up for you if you'd prefer to sleep in a proper bed."

The offer is tempting, but she's still blinking the sleep from her eyes and her limbs feel heavy as she's reclining on the couch.

"Maybe later," she says, finding herself reluctant to move even the short distance to a real bed. "Your couch is ridiculously comfortable."

"At least use this for your head," he says, offering her a pillow from the armchair. The red velvet looks soft. "I'd hate for you to hurt your neck sleeping here."

She nods again, yawning, and lifts herself off the end of couch so he can put the pillow against the side to support her head. As she lies down again she finds the pillow to be even softer than it looks. Her head sinks pleasantly into the fabric and Klaus is right, it does feel better for her neck. She relaxes and some of the earlier tension in her shoulders lessens. She sighs contently, her eyes already fluttering shut.

His hand lingers at the pillow for a moment longer and even with her eyes half-shut she can feel his presence as he sits on the coffee table. She knows he is looking at her. Instead of making her uncomfortable the knowledge fills her with a warm feeling that spreads over her and the soft smile that appears on her face has nothing to do with the comfortable pillow.

Then he gets up and she quickly reaches out to put her hand on his wrist. "Klaus?"

"Yes?" He pauses. His hand comes up to cover hers as he looks back at her. His eyes are so very blue. He may not be smiling, but there's something open about his expression all the same.

"Please don't leave."

For one long heartbeat, the room is quiet and then she feels him sit down again. "I'll be right here."

He's still holding her hand when she puts her head back on the pillow, his thumb rubbing small circles on the back of her hand. The touch is soothing and she focuses on it as her breathing evens out and sleep overtakes her again.

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Lucien hasn't noticed her yet, but he will soon. He's a vampire after all, and there are only so many places she can hide in his own penthouse. She judges the distance from the corner she's hiding in to the exit. Just a couple of quick steps and she would be safe.

Suddenly her view is blocked by an expensive black shirt and hazel eyes meet hers.

"Found you," he states smugly.

Her heart racing, she takes the beer bottle from behind her back and smashes it against his face. It cracks open upon impact and she can see it cut though the skin as his face is forced to the side. He hisses in pain.

When he turns back she almost freezes. He's glaring at her, the wounds on his face healing so rapidly it's like they never existed and his eyes filled with rage. She tries to take a breath but finds that she can't when his hand comes up to clasp tightly around her throat.

"Now that," he sneers, "was not very nice, Camille."

The stake that's suddenly in her hand already feels drenched in blood before she drives it into his heart. He screams once and then goes very quiet.

"That was for Kinney," she spits out.

His eyes are wide and then he's tilting backwards, her hands letting go of the stake. Lucien's body makes the most satisfying sound as it falls down on the floor. She stands over him, trembling, panting hard.

Catching her breath, she looks down at her hands. There is blood on her palms and her knuckles are bruised, just as they had been years ago before the cop had cuffed her.

At her feet, the body does not look like Lucien anymore. The face of her room-mate's abusive ex is all but unrecognisable after the assault. She breathes out slowly and lifts her hand to feel her throat. The cold feeling in her stomach might be many things, but it is not regret. She closes her eyes.

In the distance she can just hear the church bells ringing.

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She wakes to soft voices washing over her. The blanket is still warm around her and the pillow soft and she isn't quite awake enough to open her eyes.

"- to find where she might be."

Klaus' voice replies softly. "So it won't be much longer then."

He's closer than she expected, and her heart beats faster for a moment. She breathes out slowly and feels like her tiredness might just drag her under again. Only her right shoulder feels cold where the air brushes against it.

There is a pause as no one speaks, then: "How is she?"

"She woke earlier," Klaus says, his voice warm, "she doesn't seem to have a concussion, but she's exhausted."

"Understandable, after what she went through." The voice pauses. "I am going to bed now myself. Wake me if there's any news about Rebekah."

"Goodnight," Klaus replies. "I'll let you know when Elijah calls."

A set of footsteps on the hard wooden floor move away and the room grows quiet. She can hear the sound of her own breathing as it drowns out the soft crackling from the fire that's spreading warmth throughout the room. She can see the light through her closed eyelids.

Klaus moves around the room, doing something near the fire, before his nearly soundless footsteps pause next to her. His form casts a shadow over her and blocks the heat from the fire, but before she can grow cold he pulls up the blanket that had slipped from her shoulders. He moves it so that it covers her and then tucks it in around her form.

"Klaus?" she whispers. She opens her eyes a little.

He pauses. "I'm here. I'm sorry for waking you."

"'s okay," she replies, sleep slurring her speech. "Was that Freya?"

"She just wanted to know you were all right before going to bed herself."

"Oh," she breathes. Her eyes are falling closed again. "I think I'm going to sleep some more."

The last thing she remembers is the warm touch of his fingers brushing her hair back from her face.

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She's back in Lucien's penthouse, only this time it's different. The blood on the floor is gone, but she can still feel it, running down the side of her face. Her head throbs.

There is no one else in the room, but her heart beats fast in her ears as she hears people moving in the side rooms. Looking from one door to the other, she wonders if she can make a run for it. She takes a step towards the front door and immediately the noise from behind the bedroom door increases. She hears a soft chuckle coming from one of the other doors and twists her head around so fast it almost makes her dizzy.

It sounded like Aurora. She swallows, heart pounding.

When she takes another step, she hears the hard clicking of Aurora's heels on the floor coming closer and now she doesn't hesitate.

She runs to the exit, fiddling with the handle and all the while aware of the approaching footsteps. Any moment now they could open the doors and find her trying to escape.

The door opens in front of her and-

She finds herself staring at light blue eyes, and just like that she knows that she's safe.

Lucien's penthouse fades away as she takes in the man in a black jacket leaning against the doorway. She knows those eyes, those shoulders, those dimples.

She smiles.

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"Klaus?"

The room is dim, the only light coming from the fireplace where the coals still glow red.

"Camille?" He's getting up from the armchair by the fire she hadn't noticed before. He puts down a leather bound book on the coffee table as he goes to sit by her side.

"How do you feel?"

"Like someone took a sledge hammer to my head," she says, looking around for a clock. "What time is it?"

He leans forward, eyes intent, searching for further injuries perhaps.

"A little past six in the morning. You slept for much of the night, although you seemed restless earlier. Do you remember waking up?"

She frowns. Her memory of the past few days is a blur, a thousand different moments jumping out at her, and she knows some of them must have haunted her dreams as well. Had she woken up? Maybe she had, she has a vague recollection of Klaus offering her a pillow.

Unbidden, Lucien's face also drifts up from her memory. She frowns.

"I'm not sure," she admits, shaking her head. "It's all a bit of a blur."

His eyes turn sympathetic. "Did you have nightmares?"

All she remembers is a feeling of fear and her heart beating loud in her throat, every beat luring more monsters to hunt her down. But the nightmares had faded when a sense of safety overtook her.

She smiles at Klaus. "None that I can remember, at least."

He smiles back at her. It's a small curling of the lips, not like the smug smirks he wears sometimes, but almost... Kind.

She only realises she's been staring into his eyes for a while when a soft chime from the corner announces the time. He looks at the clock and makes as if to stand.

"Can I get you anything?"

She's about to thank him and refuse, but her throat does feel parched. "A glass of water would be great, actually."

"Of course," he says, getting up quickly. "I'll be right back."

As he walks off to fetch her drink she sits up straight on the couch. She pulls the blanket around her shoulders again, unwilling to let go of the comfortable warmth it provides. The coals in the fireplace still shimmer red with heat, but behind her the air is still cool. Her socks meet the lush carpet and she tries to remember where she'd left her shoes. The last time she remembers wearing them was in the church-slash-gym as Klaus had insisted on carrying her back to the compound.

Alone in the room, she finds herself looking at it with different eyes. She's never stayed over at this house before. Sure, she's come in in the middle of the night and been here working on whatever supernatural disaster was happening that night, but it had never seemed so much like a home then.

Now, waking up in the early hours of morning when the never ending partying in New Orleans has died down as much as it ever would, she once again remembers this was Klaus' family home. From what Klaus had told her, they'd lived in this house for decades. Marcel had grown up in these very rooms. Klaus had said he would have a room made up for her too, hadn't he? She thinks she remembers him telling her that.

The first rays of daylight peek around the heavy curtains and her heart grows heavy as she realises she'll have to get back to her life soon. She's missed her shift at Rousseau's, though Lucien might have arranged an excuse for that. Vincent would be surprised to hear what had happened to her too, with the way the vampire had been texting him on her behalf. Did he still have her phone?

Oh God and she'd been arrested again. Where is Detective Kinney now? Lucien compelled him to leave and then cruelly twisted his mind, who knows what happened with him since. She remembers those terrifying weeks when she herself was under compulsion, when she felt off all the time. Like she was forgetting something important, like she was losing her mind. Will Kinney doesn't deserve to go through that too, no one does. She resolves to at least check up on the detective soon. There might even be a way to break Lucien's compulsion. It had been possible for her, after all.

Maybe it is due to the time they spent together as Lucien's prisoners, or maybe due to the many similarities between him and her own experiences with compulsion, but she can't just let the detective go through this alone. There has to be something she can do to help. Perhaps they can even get a witch's help with the compulsion.

Before long Klaus returns with a long glass of water.

She smiles. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," he replies quietly.

She takes the glass from him, eagerly gulping down a few mouthfuls until her throat feels cool, before slowing down.

"Where's Freya?" she asks. "I think I remember hearing her, but that might have been a dream."

Klaus sits down on the coffee table again, watching her sip her water. He tilts his head as if listening to something, then focuses on her again. "She's still sleeping."

Cami raises her eyebrows. "Okay, that super-hearing thing is still a little creepy."

Klaus smirks and shrugs. As always she feels a flutter of something warm in her stomach seeing his dimples appear. That crooked smile will be the death of her.

"We still respect each other's privacy, love. For the most part," he says before returning to her question. "And it wasn't a dream. Freya was up late with Elijah to work out Rebekah's coordinates. She came by after he left to arrange her retrieval."

Cami sits up straight, her water all but forgotten. "They found Rebekah?" That is great news for sure.

"Not yet, but they have determined where her body is located." The smile on Klaus' face is entirely genuine. "We should be able to bring our sister home in just a few days."

She smiles back at him. She's never really been as close to the Original sister, but it's obvious how much she means to Klaus and Elijah, and she's happy Rebekah's safe. Klaus has talked of Rebekah during his so-called 'little chats' with her, not as much as he spoke of Elijah perhaps, but Cami has no doubt his sister still means the world to him, despite any arguments they might have had and the physical distance between them.

If Rebekah had been lost forever... She can't imagine what it would have done to Klaus and his siblings. She feels a pang of grief thinking of Sean. She hasn't visited her twin brother's grave in over a month. The pain of losing her sibling never quite fades, but over time she has learned to live with it.

Detective Kinney has a sibling too, she suddenly remembers. A sister, he'd said. Like Sean had had her. If something bad happens to Will Kinney, would his sister suspect something too? Would she know deep in her heart that her brother's deterioration wasn't born of natural causes? The last thing she wants is for his sister to go through the grief of losing a sibling as well.

Cami sighs. She knows she should go out and inform people that she's safe, find a way to contact Vincent or arrange for some sick days and ask for someone else to take over her shift, but all the same she really doesn't want to talk about what happened. Lucien, Aurora, she wishes they could all be just another nightmare she'd woken up from.

"Camille?"

She looks up to find Klaus watching her.

"I imagine you will probably want to go back to your life, but if it's all the same to you..."

He trails off. She smiles. Normally she probably would want exactly that, but right now the prospect of answering questions is not at all appealing. His lips curl a bit to mirror hers, and her smile seems to encourage him to continue.

"Will you stay for a while longer?" he asks. His smile fades, his eyes serious and steady. "I'd feel better if you were here, at least at night, so I – or Freya or Elijah – could keep an eye out."

She can't help but be reminded of the time she herself once asked him that question. When the thought of having to deal with her uncle's death by herself was almost enough to make her fall apart. He'd stayed then. He'd been kind.

She remembers again the terror back in the church the previous night. And the way her fears had all but melted away as he pulled her up to hug her. It's kind of reassuring to have the biggest baddest vampire looking out for her.

It'd be nice to feel safe for a little while longer.

"Yes," she agrees. "Of course."

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A/N: Comments/reviews would be much appreciated. There might be some kind of sequel since there were some more scenes I thought of, but for now it'll stand on its own.