A/N: AN UPDATE! I promise I won't abandon this story, but reading your reviews makes it so much easier to find inspiration (and honestly kept me from abandoning this).

Also, little plug for my GG/TVD/TO crossover The Mikaelsons Take New York. If you like NYC, mischievous Kol, and a bitchy Blair, it may be for you.

11 November 2018

Paris, France

"Rebekah, do not tell me where to find Caroline," Klaus growled into the phone, clutching it tight in his fist as he stared out of the plane's window gazing into the cloudy sky.

"I'm only trying to help," Rebekah's voice countered through the speaker.

He couldn't help the snort that escaped at her words. "I think that you have helped enough, Rebekah," he replied sarcastically. "In fact, if you had helped a little less, I wouldn't be trying to find Caroline before the hunter does."

"Nik, I didn't know that this would happen-I only wanted what was best for you-as did Elijah-"

"DON'T SPEAK OF HIM," Klaus all but yelled into the phone his fingers denting the smooth casing. The pain from his brother's betrayal was still too much for him to even try to sort through in his mind.

"I-I don't-"

"Once I find Caroline, you better run as fast as you can dearest sister," Klaus whispered into the phone, "Because when I find you, I will not hesitate to shove a dagger straight through your heart for all that you've done." He pulled the phone from his ear and hung up, dropping it into his lap.

Caroline wandered through the Parisian streets wondering just what she was doing. Why had she come here? How was she going to find him? Did he not take her to Moscow for Christmas one year? What if he was there instead?

She sat down in an empty chair on a sidewalk at a café. She pulled out her cell phone, glancing at the blank screen. She shook her head and slipped it back into her pocket, as if Klaus would suddenly be calling her.

A waitress appeared next to her. "Bonjour ce qui peut je faire pour vous?" the waitress asked.

"Umm," Caroline bit her lip. She wasn't hungry she just needed to sit and sort out her thoughts for a moment. "Coffee?"

"Café? Oui," the girl replied and left Caroline alone at her table.

She pulled out her phone once again and turned it over absently in her hands. How was she going to find him?

She looked up and watched the people walk by as they carried on with their lives. They had no idea that she was trying to rediscover hers.

A man caught her eye, he was three blocks away from where she was sitting, but his eyes locked on hers and she froze. He began walking down the sidewalk, towards where she was.

She didn't know who he was, she didn't recognize his face but his eyes were cold. She quickly got up from her seat and walked in the opposite direction. She easily maneuvered around the people on the sidewalk, until she put a good couple of blocks between them. She stopped for a second and glanced backwards, only to see that he was gone.

Caroline kept walking around Paris, taking side streets and alleys, still incredibly freaked out by the person she saw earlier. She took note of the street she was on, it looked familiar. Then she saw it, the little bakery that she knew she loved. She walked up to the storefront, the window filled with petite pastel macaroons, but she couldn't walk in and bear to see the shopkeeper without him by her side, quietly correcting her French into the shell of her ear as they conversed. She crossed the road, placing some distance between her and her bakery and only managed to get halfway down the block when she felt it again, that same feeling of being watched, but it was different somehow, she wasn't afraid.

Stefan.

It had to be Stefan who tracked her down somehow. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and mentally prepared a list of the reasons why she was not going back with him to Nashville starting with "you betrayed me" and ending with "I love him."

She looked up and scanned the street and her body froze when her eyes met the ocean blue ones that had been starring in every moment of her newly regained memories.

It can't be him.

It cannot really be him.

He stood a hundred or so feet from her, letting the tourists and Parisians give him dirty looks as he simply stood unmoving on the sidewalk, eyes focused on her.

It can't be.

Of course, Caroline panicked and ran down the side street onto an even tinier street where she leaned her back against a building and covered her face with her hands as tears started to slide down her face.

There was a slight breeze and she could feel him in front of her. Her body wanted to move closer to him, like she remembered it doing in her memories, but she fought the feeling, willing her body to stay in place.

"Caroline?"

She spread her fingers so she could peek through the spaces…and there he was, standing right in front of her with a look of concern marring his face.

She dropped her hands from her face and placed one upon his chest. It was solid beneath her touch, his black shirt soft on her fingertips.

He's real. He found me.

She tilted her head up to look at him and a small smile broke out on her face, "Klaus."

He immediately responded by wrapping his arms around her and pulling her tight against his chest.

The tears only began to fall from her eyes faster as the almost-forgotten feeling of being safe washed over her.

All of a sudden, images began flashing in Caroline's mind.

Klaus surprising her by showing up at her high school graduation.

Klaus leading her back into the museum they had left early in London, but this time after-hours because he didn't want her to miss out on anything.

A vase of flowers sitting on her desk in her dorm room with no written note, but knowing they were from him.

Carrying a stein of beer in each hand at Oktoberfest as Klaus led her down the length of the tent to get a brezel, avoiding all the drunken humans.

Klaus letting her drag him to the local diner with her friends after crushing their rival, U of Tennessee, at the annual football game.

Trying to sneak into their house after a long day of shopping with Rebekah only to have Klaus waiting for her in their bedroom, insisting she model the new undergarments she bought.

Klaus watching her as she explained the latest Stefan-Elena-Damon drama and assuring her that she was doing all she could for them just by picking up the phone when they called.

Having a surprise lunch in the park that Klaus had arranged, complete with blanket, picnic basket, wine, cheese, and baguettes.

Her head felt like it exploding, sending unbearable waves of pain throughout her body.

It was too much.

She squeezed her eyes shut and felt her legs give out beneath her.

Before she could fall to the ground Klaus gripped her waist and swung her body into his arms, cradling her close to his chest. "Caroline? What's wrong? What's happening?"

Caroline didn't respond and cold terror took overtook any happiness that he had been feeling. He glanced around making sure no one was in sight then sped to his hotel room, only stopping when he placed her unresponsive body on the bed. He swept a few stray pieces of hair out of her face, but she still did not move.

His hands shook slightly as he pulled out his phone and dialed Rebekah's number.

"Nik?"

"You need to find Bonnie," he commanded, skipping the pleasantries.

"What? Did you find her?" Rebekah asked.

"Yes, but something's wrong. She passed out," Klaus told her. "You need to find Bonnie, ask her what spell she did, and how she can stop it."

"What do you mean 'find Bonnie'? She's in Georgia with-"

"No, a hunter, one of the five, has her."

"What?" Rebekah gasped and Klaus did his best to control his temper that was flaring at his sister's interruption.

"Listen Rebekah," Klaus hissed. "Find Bonnie, ask her how the spell reverses. Caroline just passed out-"

"What?" Rebekah yelled from the other side of the phone.

"Rebekah," Klaus growled. "Find Bonnie."

"Find Bonnie," Rebekah repeated. "Okay, I've got it."

"Good," Klaus said and hung up the phone, dropping it to the bedside table.

He sat down on the bed next to Caroline's form and brushed the curls back from her face and pressed a kiss to her forehead. He returned to his sitting position and sat patiently waiting for a sign, each minute stretching out longer than he had ever felt it before.

After a while of watching her with no sign, her pale eyelids began to flutter awake and moved closer to her, "Caroline?"

She opened her eyes and pushed herself up on the bed, "Klaus?"

"Caroline," he said as he pulled her into his chest and wrapped his arms around her.

"I remember, I remember everything," Caroline said with a gasp as she placed her palms against his chest and pushed herself out of his embrace. "I remember how you broke Chase's hand because he got a little drunk at homecoming. You compelled Mackenzie to put me in the front of the routines even though I was only a freshman and the rest of the squad always talked shit about me because of it." Caroline pushed herself up off the bed and stared Klaus straight in the eye, "I remember how you killed Holly."

"Caroline," he sighed. He had already dealt with these issues once and had been forgiven for them, now they had to be brought up again?

"Holly was my best friend, and you killed her in front of me," Caroline cried as the tears started trailing down her face. "You were friends with her."

Klaus shook his head, "I endured her because you liked her. But don't pretend you were that close with her Caroline, you wouldn't compel Elena to get you food and snack on her during your late night study sessions, would you?"

"Oh my god," Caroline whispered as she leaned back against the wall of the room and slid down, sinking into the carpet. Monster, the voice in her head whispered and the guilt in the pit of her stomach was sickening. "How could I do that to Holly? How could I forget that I did that? To Holly? She was so nice."

"It's alright love," he whispered, sitting next to her on the floor. He pulled her into his arms and she didn't resist.

"You killed her though."

Klaus could make out her words perfectly though her voice was muffled by his chest. "I know, I'm sorry," he replied. "I apologize for all of this. I should have known Elijah was up to something." He pulled her tighter against his chest, the memory of that night and the torture he endured afterward enough to never want to let her leave his arms. "I am to blame for all of this."

She shook her head as best she could with his arms around her as soon as the admission left his lips. "No, it's not your fault. You didn't do anything wrong," Caroline reassured him.

"I let them take you," Klaus admitted. "That night in the woods, I thought you had died and before I could do anything Stefan took you away. I let Elijah pull me away. It is my fault."

"It wasn't your fault," she repeated, her fingers tracing soothing lines down his neck as she pressed her face against the side of his. "You found me when you knew. I know, it's fine, we're alright."

"We're not fine. You passed out earlier. We need to find Bonnie and see if she can reverse whatever she did to you."

"Bonnie?" Caroline asked. Klaus nodded, and another tear escaped from her eye.

"Yes, Rebekah's finding her now."

"What do you mean? She's in Atlanta," Caroline said, eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

Klaus didn't reply for a moment, he didn't want to tell her but knew he had to, "Bonnie has been taken by one of the five."

"What?" Caroline gasped. "We have to help her! She could be hurt!" Caroline scrambled out of Klaus' lap and stood up,

"Rebekah is already searching for her," Klaus told her. "We can assist her, but there's one thing I would like to do first," he said as he stood before her.

"What?"

Klaus closed the gap between them and covered her lips with his. He cradled her face in his hands and tilted her head backwards, exposing the column of her neck. He started at her jawline and planted kisses down her neck making her sigh with pleasure, "Klaus." She wrapped her arms around his neck and it was all the incentive he needed.

Klaus captured her mouth with his, devouring her like a starved man as he placed one hand on her hip and guided her backwards to the bed. She fell onto it gracefully, pulling him down with her, their lips never leaving each other's.

He pulled back for a moment to see Caroline beneath him: eyes bright, mouth parted in anticipation, and fully alive. "I missed you," he whispered as he cupped her cheek in his palms.

"I won't leave you again," she promised with a kiss.