AN: Sorry for the long wait.

"Clever," Ray smiled.

"Right?" Caroline twirled, she was wearing a uniform straight from a petite Vietnam vet... or his compelled grandson. It seemed apt, seeing as she had been draughted into a war that had not much to do with her.

"Has his royal hotheadedness seen you?" the werewolf mumbled.

"Yeah, he thinks its hilarious," the blond rolled her eyes. Ray just mhh-ed in response. "To him it would be. My joke may be on him but his is on my friends. Also, Greta is dressing up as a hippy so he's getting a laugh out of us going as 'irony'."

"Want me to pin a note to his jacket that says 'Trojan Horse'," he laughed.

"Somehow I don't think he'd take that one very well," she smiled. They were standing in the hall, Ray leaning against the wall, Caroline in the doorway, looking in the mirror. She wore no make-up, just moisturised and put on some lip balm. Her hair was pulled back in a bun. If Caroline Forbes was capable of looking plain, she would. "Wanna troll for a get-up? Be my date?"

"There's no way he'll let me out of here," he told her easily, "I can't be compelled, he can't have his witch babysit me the entire time and I have nothing to lose. If I ever got out that door I would be gone."

"Or dead," Greta waltzed past Caroline, into the room to apply make-up.

"That's the final destination for us all," he sneered at the witch, "Sooner than you think."

"Is that a threat?" she threw back over her shoulder.

"It's a warning darling," Ray met her eyes in the mirror, "Get into bed with a snake and at some point you will get bitten."

"Be quiet Dog," she said with menace, "You don't know what you're talking about."

"The geek who does the quarterback's homework hoping he'll invite her to the prom?" he rolled his eyes,"It's called a cliché," he got out Greta unleashed her wrath.

"Stop it," Caroline supported Ray, "Please." Satisfied that everyone knew who was in charge, Greta went back to painting her face. "I'm sorry," the blond cradled her friend to her chest.

"It was worth it," he chuckled silently and wrapped his arms around her small waist. They stayed like that for a while, her running her fingers through his hair, him holding on tightly to her, breathing her in.

"Isn't this cosy?" Klaus shocked them out of their embrace. When you're in captivity you learn very soon the tones of your captor.

"Did your spell work 'cause I would love to test it," Caroline was practically snarling.

"Still pouting, are we?" the hybrid's attention went another way.

"You want to kill my friend," she pointed out, "I'll pout till I'm damn well satisfied."

"Fine," he shrugged, "Greta, let's get a move on."

"You can't rush perfection," she sang, "And you should probably go ahead. For those of us who never went to high school: teachers have to show up first to these things. I'll take Caroline, Maddox will handle Wolfman and Mata Hari. You go pretend to be worried with your students."

"Don't be late," Klaus warned and exited. Caroline and Ray sat in the hall. Katherine was in the kitchen, trying her best to go unnoticed. It wasn't hard with the other prisoners mouthing off as much as they did. After half an hour, the witch was done and the girls left.

The party was surreal, at least to Caroline. She used to enjoy these things, organise them, they defined who she was. Now, she really wanted nothing to do with any of it. Stefan came up and wrapped his arms around her, swaying to the music. "Is he here?" he asked.

"I can't say,"Caroline replied, "But I can tell you what a stupid question that is."

"Stupid because he is obviously here or stupid because he is obviously hazing us?" he asked.

"Herein lies our problem," she sighed, "You overthink things."

"Damon doesn't," he said quietly.

"I'd rather crawl through broken glass," she snipped.

"This is bigger than you and Damon," Stefan reminded her.

"Then get someone else," Caroline stopped the dance, "I am risking a lot more than you are here so you have to make some concessions. Ironically, immortality has made me realise just how short life is. I'm not going to spend it bending for other people. I've flexible enough." With that she pushed him back and went to drink some punch. She looked up to find Klaus smirking at her. She wanted to give him the finger but thought better of it. This was going to be a long enough night.

"Hey," Elena came up to Caroline.

"I like you a great deal more than Damon but you have always sucked at twenty questions," she smiled.

"That's not why I'm here," Elena put her arms around her friend. Caroline stood shocked for a moment. She couldn't remember the last time she was held in comfort. Hell she couldn't remember the last time she been held period. You know your life is truly sad when you don't know your life is sad, when it was becomes your normal.

"Stop," her voice quivered and her eyes gloss over with tears.

"Caroline," her best friend kept holding her, rubbing her back.

"Let go of me," the blond said dejectedly, "If you don't I will cry and if I cry I... I can't cry."

"Okay," Elena stepped back. She wanted to tell her friend she loved her, that she missed her, that she was sorry this happened. Stefan kept telling her that it wasn't her fault, maybe he was right. It was just hard to believe when she was the cause.

"Sweet Caroline," Greta came up singing.

"I hate that song," Caroline snarled. Grateful for the annoyance that warded off her tears.

"I hate it too," the witch smiled, "It lacks class," she looked her up and down.

"I would be insulted- if I cared at all what you thought," she threw a derisive glance over her shoulder and started to walk away. The Martin witch put a restraining hand on her shoulder. "You have a task to carry out."

"The night's still young, go smoke some pot," the vampire shooed.

"Klaus says now," Greta folded her arms.

"I'm going," Caroline put up her hands in submission, "You must be a hermaphrodite because only people with testicles need to assert their dominance this much."

Greta's eyes turned into slits. If she had anything to say about it that pretty blond head would be exploding for that comment but this was Klaus's party and she didn't want to ruin it. She watched as Caroline made her way across the room. "So," Caroline walked up to Bonnie, "You have very little to say to me these days."

"There's not much you and I can say to each other," her friend responded sadly, "You've been compelled to tell us nothing and we can't tell you anything."

"Do you know the single most used word in conversations about you?" the blond asked her friend, "Judgemental. I am in the exact same situation with Elena and she's making an effort."

"She's dating a vampire," Bonnie hissed, like it was something so obvious Caroline should have gotten it by now.

"And you're a witch! You really think you're in any position to look down your nose here?" the blond replied.

"Don't make this seem like I'm being snotty about a kid from the wrong side of the tracks," Bonnie shook her head, "Vampires kill people."

"So do witches," Caroline pointed out, "People make choices Bonnie, even people like us, and for you to lump them together because of the actions of the three you've met is... it's fucking racist," she turned and started to march away.

"You're pulling the race card?" her friend pursued her.

"I'm finally in a position to do so," Miss Forbes shrugged, "Who would have thought you'd turn out to be pro apartheid."

"Oh it is not the same thing," Bonnie threw up her hands.

"How is it different?" Caroline genuinely wanted to know.

"Name one vampire who hasn't killed someone," the Bennett witch challenged.

"I don't know that many vampires," she pointed out.

"How many lives have you ended?" Bonnie stopped at a quiet hall. Caroline looked at the floor in guilt.

"Now, now Bonnie," Klaus tutted, "That's no way to comfort a friend."

"Alaric," she looked to him, "What are you doing here? Have you managed to track Klaus down."

"Yes," he smiled, "So have you."

"What?" she looked back and forth between the two. Caroline pulled a chair from a nearby classroom and jammed the doors shut with its leg.

"You, Miss Bennett, are posing a bit of a problem for me," Klaus slunk closer and reached into inside his jacket, "Fortunately witches don't have immortality so this shouldn't be too hard," he pulled out a knife, "You should go," he said to Caroline.

"I'm sorry," she said tearfully to her friend then she entered a classroom and closed the door. Bonnie centred her power and propelled Klaus twenty feet into a trophy case.

"I know a witch too," he taunted as he got up.

Earlier that day

"What are we doing here?" Damon was the first to ask. Caroline Forbes and Bonnie Bennett were in his house, his brother was there too. This couldn't possibly be good. Caroline turned and took off her jacket. She never really talked to him.

"Um, what are we doing here?" Bonnie asked. The blond just looked down at her t-shirt, it had an ad for some bank. "How can we help you?" she read.

"You're here to help us," Stefan realised.

"With a game of twenty questions?" Damon's brow scrunched up.

"You can leave," Caroline gestured to the door.

"It's my house," he pointed out.

"You can still leave," she folded her arms.

"Damon," Stefan and Bonnie warned at the same time, as he was about to respond. "Let's all try to get along."

"Fine," Damon surrendered, "Let's play twenty questions."

Of all the ways they'd tried to kill an Original so far, this seemed like the most ridiculous.

AN: Tell me what you'd like to see and I'll see if anything sparks. Writer's block is kicking my ass.