"Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God." Caroline was pacing up and down Klaus' art studio after insisting that he remove her from the doppelgangers presence before she 'ripped her freaking throat out'.

"Caroline, calm down…"

"Calm down! Calm down! I have indirectly been cursed to turn into a turn into a god damn mummy in four freaking days and you are telling me to calm down?!"

"Caroline," Klaus stood up, placing his hands on her shoulders to stop her nervous pacing, "do you really think that I am going to allow anything to happen to you? Especially seeing as it is my fault that you are in this position?"

"How did you figure that one out?" the shock of his words finally pulling her out of her rant.

"You are only in this position to be used as leverage against me. This is my fault and I will not let anything happen to you. Once I have found a way to separate you from Katerina I can assure you she will long for the peace of desiccation." He said looking her directly in the eye.

Caroline took a deep breath to steady herself, closing her eyes. She leaned against a table that was strewn with art supplies as Klaus tracked her every movement.

"Ok" she said in a tone that was so even she was proud of herself. "For once this isn't on you, Katherine takes all the blame on this one but can we just focus on finding a way out of all this without getting distracted by revenge fantasies?" the mere thought of having a plan visibly calmed her and she tried to ignore the way that Klaus's eyes lit up at the word "we"

Looking down at herself she saw she was a total mess having been carted around by Katherine for god knows how long, not to mention that the bitch had ruined her favourite shirt. Clearly reading her expression Klaus let go of her shoulders offering to show her to her room so she could freshen up.

"My room" she said raising and eyebrow as she followed him down the corridor and up a flight of stairs. Klaus shrugged his shoulders in an embarrassed kind of way before pushing open the door and with only a little apprehension Caroline walked through it.

She had to admit it was a beautiful room. The walls were a pale green on which had been painted in the most painstaking detail birds reminiscent of those tattooed on across his chest. A huge four poster bed stood in the middle of the room, with a white comforter with gold and pink embroidered leaves cascading to the bottom and more throw pillows than even Caroline could have imagined. On the opposite side of the room there was a beautiful wooden vanity table next to a door which she would bet lead to a walk-in closet. Next to the door there was an incredibly detailed illustration of a map of the world. Her eyes cast around the room and found the beautiful widow seat surrounded by books and she couldn't help but smile at the more modern enhancements that had been made as she took in the flat screen television and I pod speakers.

She turned to Klaus "I'm trying to decide whether this is creepy or sweet."

He smirked "And …"

"I'm falling somewhere in between the two."

He shrugged "I'll take it." Causing her to laugh.

"No en-suite" she said in mock horror to which Klaus simply pointed to a door on the other side of the bed which she had not noticed.

"Oh well I'm going to shower. Am I to assume that the closet is full of clothes that just happen to be my size?"

"Actually no." he said surprising her "I assumed if you ever did come to me you would have bought clothes of your own and I would hate to be accused of buying your affection. But I can have someone go and fetch you something."

"Well, congratulations, you managed to knock a few of your creepy tally." she said "but you're right I'd much rather dress myself. My jeans are fine." she said inspecting her appearance, "does Rebekah have a top I can borrow? Not like I'm planning on going anywhere so I guess I can cope with your sister's fashion sense for one day."

"I'm sure you'll look beautiful in anything my sister owns." And she was glad to see his signature smirk on his face, it was a sign that he was becoming more level headed and level headed Klaus was the one she needed. Still she couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes at his predictable cheesiness.

"I'll make sure something suitable is left out for you" Klaus said.

"Right, thanks. Well I'll jump in the shower now then. I think of solutions to super natural problems much better when I don't smell like the trunk of car."

With Caroline safely settled in and one of his more competent minions given specific instructions to gather some essentials for her, Klaus went to join Elijah and the doppleganger in the study.

"Where is Miss Forbes? I assume she has retired for a while to come to terms with the situation." Was his brother's greeting as he entered the room. Klaus smirked, his brother should know better than to assume that any woman he cared for would be such a shrinking violet.

"Actually she's just taking a shower and then she is coming down to join us." He felt pleased as he saw begrudging respect appear in Elijah's eyes.

"Well, that sounds like a fabulous idea! Anywhere I could go to freshen up?" she aimed the question at Elijah but it was Klaus who answered.

"I don't think so Katerina, before you are allowed to move from that chair you are going to tell us exactly what you did to these witches and everything you know about them, the magic they practice and the curse they have placed on you. You will then," he said opening a cupboard and retrieving 2 glasses and a bottle of whisky, "give me the name of the witch that you managed to convince to link you with Caroline." He placed the glasses down, filling them both with generous amounts of amber liquid. "You will then confine yourself to a room of my choosing until this pesky little spell is over."

"Klaus, that seems a bit extreme" Elijah began

"On the contrary dear brother. You and I both know that Katerina's list of enemies is nearly as long as my own and in a city such as this, with a large supernatural community, someone or other will see her and try to exact their no doubt righteous revenge and I will not allow Caroline to suffer because your girlfriend finds her past catching up with her."

"We have a deal but just so we're clear I killed the witch who placed the spell on Blondie and I and she is the last of her line before you get any clever ideas." Elijah closed his eyes and Katherine saw his jaw clench.

"I'm sorry Elijah but we both know that if I didn't then he would have spent at least 3 days trying to break the connection rather than the curse and as I mentioned we have a particularly pressing time constraint."

"Oh don't apologise Katerina," said Klaus "It's who you are and I think it's good that my brother is reminded of who you truly are so as often as possible. Now has anyone called Freya?"

"She is on her way"

"Excellent"

Katherine smirked "Oh goodie, can't tell you how much I've been looking forward to meeting the new Original"

When she came out of the shower she found a surprisingly none trashy plain white top folded neatly on her bed. She quickly dried herself off and got dressed before sitting down at the vanity on which was sitting a cosmetics bag which had not been there before. Rolling her eyes she read the tag

"Not that you need it – Klaus" she opened it and smiled. There was a foundation, eye liner, mascara and various eyeshadows (all of which just so happened to perfectly compliment her skin tone, damn him and his artistic ways) all in a brand which Caroline had only dreamed of owning. She had to admit she was thankful, she had not relished the idea of facing the whole of the Original family and god knows who else looking like a 12 year old. She searched the draws until she came across a hair dryer and proceeded to blow her hair out and apply her make up.

Caroline quickly checked her reflection in the ornate full length mirror that was mounted on her wall to check that her appearance wasn't totally disastrous. She was Caroline Forbes and Caroline Forbes always presented herself well. Satisfied with what she saw she flipped her hair over her shoulder and headed out of the door. On the landing she could hear faint voices and concentrated her vampire hearing so she could locate the brothers and winced when she heard the sound of something, that sounded suspiciously like a vase being smashed again a wall.

'This is going to be a long night' , Caroline thought to herself before she headed towards to door from behind which the noise was coming.

Thank you so much for all the reviews they are so much appreciated. I know that this is yet another chapter of set up but next chapter the action will start to happen. Klaus's art show will be featured where Camille will see Klaus and Caroline together for the first time. So please stick with me. Again thank you so so much for the reviews and please review this chapter as it is so encouraging to know people actually want you to continue. xx