A/N: *This has been re-posted due to the site bolding the entire thing, which is annoying and hard on the eyes. I apologize!*
So this is my attempt at a continuation of Give Me Love (which I suggest you read before reading this). I separated this from the first so that Give Me Lovecould be read as a standalone piece.
To refresh your memories, Give Me Lovetook place just after 3x15. This fic picks up in between 3x18 (the episode where Rebekah had Damon chained up) and 3x19 (Damon and Elena's trip to Denver). So please use your imaginations and pretend that the events in this fic went down in between these two episodes. I intend to interweave this story into the events that have taken place up to 3x22, and then use more of my imagination from there.
I currently have fifty pages written for this. I had intended to post it in its entirety as one chapter, but I decided to split it up and see what the response is like to the first part of it. I decided to shift the point of view for this one. It's still third-person limited, but this time from Caroline's perspective instead of Klaus's. That is how the fifty pages I have written are currently done. However, as/if I continue, this will alternate.
I'm kind of writing this as I go. I only have vague ideas. As usual, I apologize for any errors.
Please leave me your comments and suggestions. Let me know if I should continue.
Caroline sat anxiously at the table with Elena, Bonnie, Matt, Stefan, and Damon, as they talked casually. She knew where the conversation was about to go, and although she had held back her conflicting emotions before, it was becoming more difficult.
The fact that they were at the Mystic Grill didn't help. The last time she was here, she had been with him; talking, drinking, dancing, flirting. As she thought about it, the instinctive butterflies in her stomach followed.
No matter what she did she could not get that night out of her mind. He was relentless, even while in her thoughts.
She could almost smell his spicy cologne and feel his lips pressed to her neck. It made her shiver.
Grabbing her ice water, she sucked hard on the straw, trying to distract herself to no avail.
She knew it was best if she forgot about him. Tyler would be home soon, and it would probably only be a matter of time before the rest of the crew discovered a way to kill the original without the death triggering the death of all the vampires - and hybrids - that came after it. His death was best for everyone around her, particularly for Tyler and Elena.
Still, she was torn.
That night with him had left her with a flurry of mixed emotions that she could barely begin to decipher.
What was worse is that she had no one to talk to about it. The minute she decided to speak his name in anything but a murder plot to her friends, she would be ostracized. In fact, she wouldn't be surprised if her own name came up as the victim of a murder plot. She knew Damon and Stefan would stop at nothing to protect Elena; even if that meant killing one of Elena's best friends, particularly if she showed any signs of defection. Once she ceased being of any value, she would be disposable if she got in the way of any of their plans. Given both Elena and Bonnie's disgust for him, she was uncertain whether or not her two best friends would even come to her defence.
These concerns had forced her to keep her mouth shut and let the mixed thoughts about him ruminate inside her mind.
Thankfully she hadn't crossed paths with him since that night. He had been busy the past week, namely with threatening Bonnie and nearly killing Stefan and Damon. She had been busy too, helping Bonnie's mom and betraying him once more by participating in another failed plot to kill him.
By killing him she had hoped it would solve any conflicting emotions she had of him. He was her ultimate enemy by nature of her relationship to Tyler and Elena. She was loyal to them, and they needed him dead in order to be free and protected.
She had recited that argument over and over to herself a dozen times. However, that did not change the fact that he had been anything but her enemy that night they spent together.
With this she tried to convince herself that his sociable and flirtatious behaviour towards her was a front. It wasn't real. He was obviously trying to fool her for some larger purpose. Maybe he would try to blackmail her? Or maybe he had no ulterior motive and was simply acting out a masculine script to get into her pants? His sincerity had to be false.
When she had almost convinced herself of this - making herself angry enough to decide his death was justified - she would resort back to thoughts of that night with him. The way he looked at her, talked with her, held her...that type of sincerity was very difficult to fake.
However, she knew she had to be wary of his charms. She couldn't trust him. She barely knew him, and most of what she did know of him suggested that her thoughts of his deception were most likely.
Deep down though, there was a small part of her that wished her instincts were wrong.
"Hellooo vampire Barbie?" Damon's voice inquired, removing her from her thoughts.
"Hmm? What?" She recovered in a high spirited voice.
Both Damon and Matt looked at her suspiciously.
"Sorry...I was just kind of lost in my thoughts," she smiled.
Elena and Bonnie smiled back at her, seemingly more understanding than Damon.
"Well I hope your thoughts figured out a fail-proof way to kill Klaus," Damon groaned, before downing a shot of whisky.
She laughed lightly, going along with his comment.
"We should be looking for Alaric's stake first," Stefan jumped in.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"That's going to be like finding a needle in a haystack brother. Not to mention the fact that psycho Alaric may be all too happy to use the stake against us...literally," Damon reminded his brother.
Stefan shrugged.
"Finding the stake and turning it over to Klaus will buy us time to find a way to kill him without killing Tyler and possibly ourselves. If we don't find it, Klaus will kill us before we even have another chance to kill him," Stefan argued.
Damon seemed to realize that Stefan had a good point.
She was relieved that they were more concerned about the stake than killing him at this point. This would give her more time to think about her thoughts and feelings. Maybe by the time they found a way to kill him she would be able to convince herself completely that killing him was the best option.
"All we need now is a distraction for Klaus to buy us time to find the stake," Damon thought aloud.
Matt scoffed and made direct eye contact with her, making her instantly nervous.
"Why don't you just volunteer Caroline? She seems to enjoy spending time with him," Matt suggested.
Her stomach nearly jumped into her throat. What did he know? Had Klaus said something to him?
Everyone was staring at her now very seriously.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Caroline demanded defensively.
"Yeah, what are you talking about Matt?" Elena asked hesitantly.
Matt glared at her.
"I saw you here with him at the Grill the other night. You two looked pretty friendly," he informed her and the rest of the group.
She could barely breathe at this point. She had become so enthralled with Klaus that night she had completely forgot about Matt being there.
What she needed now was a good explanation to convince her friends that Matt had misinterpreted what he saw.
"It was nothing," she tried to assure her friends with a confident tone.
Matt did not look like he was ready to back down.
"It didn't look like nothing. I saw you two leave the Grill together," he revealed.
She wanted to shrivel up into a tiny ball at this point and disappear, but she knew she could still talk her way out of this. All hope was not lost.
"You left with Klaus?" Bonnie asked in a disapproving tone.
She could almost feel everyone's eyes digging into her skin.
"You guys are so quick to jump to conclusions," she chastised them. "Yes, I left with him, but nothing happened. He took me home," she lied. "As Damon pointed out the other day, Klaus is apparently 'obsessed' with me," she reminded them. "Since it worked so well the first time, I thought I could use that to our advantage," she admitted.
"How so?" Stefan asked intrigued.
"Yeah, how so vampire Barbie?" Damon seconded his brother's question.
Her nerves calmed a bit at the prospect of the group buying into her lie.
"Well, I thought if I could get to know Klaus a bit more, we might find out more about him...stuff about his past, his siblings, his other weaknesses, the sire bond, ways to kill him. I know it's a long shot, but I couldn't just sit around and do nothing," she explained.
She noticed Damon's eyes were beaming.
"Vampire secret agent Caroline, I like it," Damon remarked, amused.
She rolled her eyes at him.
"Caroline, Klaus will kill you if he finds out what you're up to," Elena warned.
"I know Elena, but we're running out of options. We need to find Alaric's stake, and we need to come up with a new plan to kill Klaus that somehow gets around the whole bloodline thing, and if Klaus's obsession with me can help us with either of those goals then why shouldn't we take advantage of it?" she reasoned.
"Exactly," Damon agreed. "For once you actually have some good ideas spinning around in that pretty little head of yours," Damon said in an effort to jokingly belittle her some more.
"Are you sure you want to put yourself at risk Caroline?" Stefan asked hesitantly.
She nodded reassuringly.
"If this can help protect Elena and Tyler...and the rest of us in any way, then I'm willing to do it. I couldn't live with myself if anything bad happened to any of you - even you Damon - knowing that I didn't take this chance to help stop Klaus," she acknowledged. "I can do this. Let me do this," she urged her friends. "I mean, snooping in other people's business was practically my job when I was a human teenager," she joked, trying to lighten the mood.
That comment received a few laughs. She had to be winning them over she hoped.
"Well I'm all for it," Damon said. "We need all the help we can get," he said bluntly.
Everyone at the table slowly began to nod in agreement.
"Thanks, Caroline," Elena said genuinely to her from across the table.
A huge surge of guilt hit her in that moment, but she smiled back at Elena and nodded nonetheless.
If she wanted to keep her real emotions for Klaus hidden, yet still able to express them, she would have to become 'vampire secret agent Caroline' as Damon had called her.
On the one hand she would be betraying her friends; on the other hand, she would be betraying Klaus.
She would be playing both sides, and because of that, she felt terrible, but she saw no other way.
"Speak of the devil," Bonnie whispered to the group, nodding her head towards the entrance.
Caroline looked up towards the entrance. He was dressed casually in jeans, a grey shirt and black collared jacket, and he was staring directly at her.
Although her heart was no longer beating, she could have sworn she felt it skip one beat.
Shivers ran down her arms and she placed her bare forearms under the table to hide her arousal from the rest of her friends.
Everyone fell into an awkward silence as he began to approach.
She reverted to chewing on her straw.
"Hello everyone," he greeted innocently as he approached the table. "Caroline," he added for emphasis.
She looked up at him once more, only to be met with another one of his piercing stares.
"Hi," she replied quietly as she noticed the rest of her friends intently paying attention to their interaction.
"I must have missed the lunch invitation," he commented, clearly knowing that he had never been sent one in the first place. "I guess that's no coincidence seeing as the whole original-hunting gang is present," he observed.
"You might be right," Stefan commented.
He acknowledged Stefan's comment with a sarcastic smile.
"Lovely afternoon isn't it?" he added, trying to annoy the table with small talk.
"It was..." Damon responded sarcastically.
"Well I didn't mean to interrupt, but I'm just curious...have you found the missing stake yet?" Klaus asked.
"Obviously not," Stefan answered.
Klaus smirked as if that was the answer he was looking for.
"That's too bad," he sighed, before leaning closer into the table. "Because if I don't have that stake in my hands by midnight, one of your hearts will be in my hands instead after I rip it from your chest," he informed them in a low intimidating voice.
Damon rolled his eyes and Stefan widened his at Damon in response as if to scold him.
Quickly and discreetly Klaus latched his hands around the collar of Damon's shirt and pushed him up against the booth.
"I'm quite serious," he growled under his breath.
Although his words had been for Damon, his eyes were strictly staring at her.
Again, she tried to hide the goose bumps that instantly rose on her forearms.
He let Damon go and backed away from their table before his threatening actions had a chance to make a scene in the restaurant.
"Have a nice lunch," Klaus mused, as he headed for an empty table.
She breathed a sigh of relief with his departure, as did the rest of her friends - but for different reasons than hers.
"Someone woke up on the wrong side of his coffin this morning," Damon scowled as she watched him straighten out the collar of his shirt.
"Well it looks like we need to put the search for the missing stake into high gear," Elena noted.
"Maybe we should skip lunch?" Bonnie suggested.
Everyone seemed to agree.
"I'm gonna head over to Alaric's," Damon decided.
"Do you want me to come with you?" Stefan asked.
Damon shook his head.
"I think I can handle him. Psycho vampire hunter Alaric is smart, he knows he has bigger fish to fry than me," Damon explained. "Go back to Elena's and search for the stake there," Damon urged his brother.
Both Elena and Stefan looked at each other awkwardly, but nodded nonetheless.
"What should I do?" Bonnie wondered.
Damon thought for a second as he stood up from the table.
"You and Matt head over to the high school and search there to start. If that fails maybe you can find a stake locator spell in your grimoire," Damon told them.
"Good idea," Matt acknowledged.
Everyone now had somewhere to be and something to do except for her.
"What about me?" she asked.
Damon jerked his head to the left.
"Your job is sitting across the room Caroline," Damon said in a low voice, just in case Klaus had decided to try and listen in on their conversation.
She bit her lip and nodded, feeling anxious and excited to talk to him all at once.
Once all her friends left, she remained at her table for a few minutes, thinking about how to approach him.
She decided she would walk past him towards the bathrooms first, hoping that he might initiate a conversation so she wouldn't have to.
The last time they had been together they had been in a very intimate embrace. They hadn't spoken since, making her unsure about how to begin a conversation with him now.
Standing up from the table, she picked up her coat and purse and began to head his way. She transformed her look of uncertainty to one of confidence as she approached his table. His eyes met hers once more, but she never faltered. She continued to the washroom as planned.
The trip wasn't wasted anyways as she had to touch up her makeup and think further about what she was going to say to him.
She decided that it was best if she still approached her relationship with him (whatever it may be at this point) hesitantly. If she came off as too receptive to him that could arouse his suspicion about her intentions. Moreover, it might completely push him away.
If there was one thing she knew to be true about him was that he enjoyed a good chase as much as the actual catch.
When she exited the bathroom she was pleased to see him still seated at his table.
She approached his table once more with the fake intention of walking right passed him.
As she got closer her breathing quickened accordingly.
She was practically at his table now and he hadn't even noticed her. She panicked as she tried to think of something to say.
Before she could even consider her options, his familiar firm hand latched around her wrist and pulled her towards him so close that she had almost lost her balance and fell onto his lap.
He looked up at her from his seated position and flashed her one of his mesmerizing smirks.
"What the hell are you doing!" she hissed under her breath, in part out of genuine shock, and also as a way to disguise the fact that she was pleased he had physically prevented her from leaving.
"Caroline, I couldn't help but notice that your friends bailed on you for lunch," he mused.
"I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that you've threatened to kill one of us if you don't get the last stake by midnight," Caroline scoffed sarcastically.
He laughed out loud.
"Well I thought some motivation was in order. Who would willingly give up a weapon that could kill an enemy if there was nothing at stake for them? Pardon my pun," he grinned.
"Funny," she said flatly.
"Anyways, since your friends are no longer here, why don't you join me for lunch?" he proposed.
She kept her cold outward expression up, but inside she couldn't help but jump for joy. On one hand this was putting her one step closer to finding out more information about him for her friends, on the other it was providing her with the opportunity to indulge her curiosity about him.
"I'm not having lunch with you," she declared. "I was just leaving. There is a missing stake that I need to help my friends find," she reminded him.
He nodded.
"What harm can postponing your search a half-hour do? Besides, it's not wise to work on an empty stomach," he advised.
She rolled her eyes.
"A half hour could mean the difference between life and death for me or one of my friends," she said seriously.
"Love, you have nothing you worry about. I may be the first person on your hit list, but out of your friends, you're the last on mine, besides Elena of course," he informed her.
She couldn't believe he had said that to her. Coming from the most dangerous hybrid of all time, the fact that she was almost last on his hit list was almost a compliment. It intrigued her.
"I thought I already explained to you that I would do anything for my friends? I don't want to search for the missing stake for purely selfish reasons," she corrected him.
He pulled out his cell phone.
"Well if the main reason why you won't have lunch with me is your concern about wasting a half-hour not searching for the stake, then I will simply extend the deadline to twelve-thirty," he decided, as he quickly typed a message on his phone and hit send. "There, I sent Stefan a message. No more excuses, problem solved; you can join me now," he said simply. "Unless of course there is another reason why you'd prefer not to join me?" he asked innocently
He looked up at her with a smart look on his face that suggested he was making a slight reference to their night together.
"Maybe I just don't like you," she shot back.
Although she knew that had largely become a lie since their night together, she didn't want to appear to be eating out of his hand. There was still a part of her that hated him for what he was doing to her friends.
"Come on Caroline, we both know that's a lie. You could have easily taken the exit by the bathrooms if you were really leaving. Instead you walked this way. You wanted me to stop you," he stated.
She gasped under her breath. He was way more observant than she gave him credit for. She was stupid to have underestimated him. However, he had not questioned her motives for wanting him to stop her. He had automatically assumed it was because she had a crush on him. She gave a partial sigh of relief at this realization.
"You didn't seem to mind me the other night," he said for added emphasis.
Before she had time to respond a waitress had approached them with what appeared to be Klaus's drink order.
"Here's your Coke," the waitress announced as she set the drink down on the table in front of him.
The waitress then turned towards her.
"I noticed you over here and I wasn't sure if you were joining him or not, so I brought over an extra menu just in case," she informed them as she held up the menu in her hands.
Caroline sighed with fake displeasure.
"Thanks," Caroline said to the waitress as she took the menu.
Klaus grinned at Caroline as she sat down across from him.
"I'm only joining you because the waitress brought a menu over, and I didn't want her effort wasted. Plus, I'm starving," she stated as she opened the menu, holding it in front of her face so her amused expression was hidden from his view.
"What do you recommend?" he asked.
She put her menu down and looked at him from across the table.
As she took a moment to consider his question, she couldn't help but spend the moment considering him.
He was simply dressed in a long sleeve black shirt and jeans, with his hair strewn about atop his head. As she indirectly stared at him she drank in the rest of him; his pouty lips, intense gaze, cheek bones, and light stubble; these features somehow made up one of the sexiest faces she had ever seen.
When she realized she had been awkwardly staring at him, she promptly answered his question.
"The spinach dip is delicious. The French onion soup is probably the best in Mystic Falls...and you really can't go wrong with any of their burgers or sandwiches," she informed him.
"You come here a lot?" he asked.
"If you haven't noticed by now, this is one of the only decent hang-out spots and restaurants in this town," she reminded him.
"If not the only one," he added.
She laughed and nodded.
"Once you've eaten pasta in Italy and hung around the cafes in Paris, nothing compares," he informed her.
"I'm still not going with you," she protested, feeling the heat rise on her cheeks as she knew that his comments were made in an effort to reconsider his trip offer.
Truth be told, she had been reconsidering it since he had brought it up the first time.
He smiled, and she couldn't help but notice as he looked down at his menu that he seemed to be blushing.
"You'll come around," he told her.
She shrugged and shook her head.
As their conversation turned to awkward silence, her thoughts returned to their night together. It had been an awkward lingering fact woven into their most recent small talk, and now that the small talk had dropped off she felt pressure to bring it up and acknowledge it.
"So I'm surprised you never called me after the other night..." she posed boldly, not really surprised, but only curious about his response.
He seemed a little bewildered by her statement.
Before he had a chance to respond, the waitress made an awkward moment even more awkward by stopping to ask them for their food orders.
She had ordered a chicken caesar salad. She hadn't paid attention to his order since she had been so preoccupied with his impending answer to her earlier question.
"I'm surprised you wanted me to..." he replied as the waitress left their table.
She could feel her cheeks flush and she rolled her eyes.
"I never said I wanted you to," she retorted. "I simply said I'm surprised you didn't," she clarified.
He was smirking at her, and it made her uncomfortable. She felt like he could see completely through her.
"Why?" he asked.
"Well because you've been pursuing me like crazy since the night you saved me from Tyler's hybrid bite, and you initiated it all, so I-I just figured..." she started to stammer as she tried to explain herself, "I just figured..."
- "That I'd be back for more?" he mused, finishing her sentence.
She nodded apprehensively.
"If I recall correctly love, it was you who initiated the other night," he mused before smugly taking a drink of his coke.
If her face wasn't already red, it definitely was now.
"Besides, I don't tend to call back young women who sleep with me so easily. It only leads me to question her respectability..." he laughed, conveying the impression to her that he was joking.
She glared at him in an effort to convey her lack of amusement.
"You weren't so judgemental when you were following me out the doors of the Grill," she shot back.
"I'm only joking Caroline," he said as the waitress put a huge plate of spinach dip and pita bread on their table.
"Thanks," he said politely, smiling quickly at the waitress before returning his attention to back to her.
"I didn't call you because I was busy and I didn't have your cell number," he informed her.
"Like the all-powerful Klaus couldn't track down a stupid phone number," she scoffed as she rolled her eyes.
He held up his hands in defense.
"Even if I had your number I probably wouldn't have called anyways," he stated as he piled some dip onto a pita.
"And why is that?" she asked.
He bit into the pita and chewed a few times before responding.
"Because a man can only take so much rejection Caroline," he admitted. "You run hot and cold. It's confusing. One minute you're talking to me like I'm the scum of the earth or completely ignoring me altogether, and then the next minute you're moaning my name, begging for more," he said, adding a seductive tone to his voice to emphasize the last part.
She shrugged nervously, unsure of what to say to him. Her hot and cold demeanor towards him only reflected her own internal confusion.
"Can you really blame me?" she asked as she took the liberty of helping herself to his platter of pitas and spinach dip.
"What do you mean, love?" he asked her.
She groaned.
"Please don't call me that," she told him. "And I mean can you really blame me for reacting to you so ambiguously? What happened the other night came out of nowhere. We were both drunk. It doesn't erase all the horrible things you have done and plan to do to me and my friends," she admitted.
He sat back against his chair with a pensive look on his face, taking into consideration her point.
"You can't just expect that things between us are going to be rainbows and sunshine. I can't forget the kind of person you have shown yourself to be," she clarified. "I'm trying to reconcile the horrible person you are with the different person you are when we're together and that's confusing for me. And then there's Tyler," she argued.
He was unable to respond further to her comments as the waitress interrupted them with their main dishes.
She was relieved for the arrival of their food. It would give her time to think to herself without the obligation to speak to him.
"Can I ask what you see in him?" he asked after taking a first bite of his burger.
She swallowed her salad hard and nearly choked in response to his question.
"Who?" she asked confused.
"Tyler; what do you see in him?" he clarified.
"That's sort of personal..." she hesitated.
He smirked.
"I think you should be able to explain why you like or don't like another person," he argued, obviously trying to back her into a corner so that she was forced to answer his question.
Chewing through another bite of her salad allowed her the chance to consider is question.
"Well, I see a lot of things. Tyler and I...we grew up together and we also transitioned together in a way. He was getting used to being a werewolf as I was getting used to becoming a vampire. We helped each other a lot. He knows what normal Mystic Falls life used to be like, but he also knows what I'm going through now. We understand each other," she revealed, satisfied with her answer.
"Do you really?" he countered, his eyebrow arched in a way that signalled his disbelief.
"Yeah I think we do," she said hesitantly, expecting him to challenge her.
They returned their attention to their food for a few minutes, before he leaned forward as if to create some makeshift closeness between them. She tensed instantly.
"Do you really know anything about Tyler, Caroline? Do you know his likes, dislikes, his hopes for the future? More importantly, does he know anything about you? Your aspirations? Your fears?" he questioned.
She stammered a bit, dumbfounded by his questions.
He had stumbled upon the weakness of her relationship with Tyler and she knew he was not about to let it slide.
"Hmm?" he pushed.
"Well it's a new relationship," she argued.
"Has he even tried to discover who you are Caroline?" he asked.
She sighed, knowing he had brought up a good point. For most of their young relationship Tyler had been gone, concentrating on himself, and although she knew it was what was best, she couldn't help but feel neglected.
"You may have an eternity, but why bother wasting your time on something so shallow?" he thought, before taking another bite of his burger.
She decided she had enough of his one-sided attack; it was her turn to challenge him.
"I thought shallow relationships were your thing? So why do you care?" she pointed out.
"You're making assumptions," he retorted. "I know they aren't your thing. I know that you want something more. You want intimacy; something that is clearly lacking in your relationship with Tyler. I just want you to see that," he explained to her.
She stopped eating and leaned back against her chair with her arms crossed.
"And I suppose you think you can give that to me?" she wondered.
He laughed as he took another drink.
"Only something different," he offered.
His simple and blunt statement interested her. As much as she was attached to Tyler, the idea of different appealed to her. Klaus seemed to encapsulate that different for her.
"What makes you any different than Tyler?" she interrogated.
He pushed his plate to the side, staring at the leftovers with a small smirk on his face as he took her question into consideration.
"Well, we share similarities and differences. We have our commonality as vampires, but we also have our unique experiences that we can challenge each other with. I can show you what it's really like to be a vampire. And fresh from your humanity, perhaps you can indulge me..." he suggested, the last, more vulnerable part, said in a low timid tone as he returned to his food.
She gave a small half smile from the urge to burst out into laughter, but she stopped herself. His comments had seemed like another lie to take advantage of her, but he also seemed like he was being sincere and open with her.
"I want to know who you are Caroline, you interest me," he explained. "Plus, I'm obviously more attractive than Tyler," he said with a smug grin.
She sneered at his joke.
"That's entirely subjective," Caroline retorted with an eye roll.
"Well I take the other night as affirmation of your attraction towards me," he stated.
As their conversation turned back to that night, she couldn't help but blush.
"There's no need to be embarrassed Caroline," he assured her.
"I'm not embarrassed. I just feel guilty," she admitted to him apprehensively.
He shrugged and looked at her questioningly
"Why should you feel guilty about anything?" he asked.
Her eyes widened at him in disbelief.
"Why should I not?" she gasped. "All of my friends are trying to kill you, and the last they knew so was I...and Tyler and I may not technically be together any more, but I'm sure me pursuing the man who was responsible for the end of our relationship wouldn't sit well with him," she explained. "I would be betraying them."
"True," he acknowledged. "But you need to ask yourself whether betraying your heart is preferable to betraying your friends..." he suggested.
She paused, realizing that he had just clearly laid out the moral dilemma that had plagued her since she had been with him last.
"One of the drawbacks of being a vampire is that you live with the burden of your regrets for eternity," he informed her.
He was right. Either she would live with the regret of betraying her friends, or she would live with the regret of not exploring the feelings he stirred inside of her.
Her phone sounding interrupted their conversation, giving her a much needed break from his persistent challenges.
She glanced down at the screen, to find a received text from Damon.
'Damon: will b sending u an excuse to stay w/ Klaus'
Seconds later she received another text.
'Damon: found the stake, on our way to get it now'
She looked up at Klaus who had been watching her with her phone intently.
"Bad news, love?" he asked.
"Good news for you. They found the stake. Looks like you'll have it by twelve-thirty," she informed him as disappointedly as she could.
He appeared stunned by her information.
"You seem surprised," she noted, handing him her phone, desperately hoping he wouldn't check her other texts.
He took the phone from her, their hands touching slightly in the exchange.
His unsure expression soon turned into a slight grin as he handed her back her phone.
"It looks like your plans for the afternoon just fell through," he observed.
She fought hard to contain the delight she felt as a result of the fact that she was actually succeeding at her task. Personally, she knew her success was not the only cause of her delight.
"Any new plans?" he asked her.
Shaking her head no, she started to collect her things.
"I should go," she said, hoping her attempt to leave wouldn't backfire on her.
He removed his wallet from his coat pocket and took out two twenty dollar bills and laid them on the table.
"I can pay for my own lunch," she offered, opening her purse.
"Don't be silly Caroline, I invited you," he countered.
Her cheeks went red again, but she nodded despite feeling a little uneasy about letting him pay for her lunch. She hated feeling like she owed anybody anything.
"You never answered my question from before," he pushed.
"No, I don't have any plans," she finally admitted.
"Perfect, I have something to show you," he said cryptically.