Be My Saviour

1

"Caroline?"

Upon hearing her name being drawn out softly the blonde thrashed her head around, pivoting to an assumed attacker. She had become rather paranoid lately, and she relaxed when she saw it was only Klaus.

Wait, what? I'm relaxing around Klaus, of all people? I'm supposed to be afraid of him, he's the bad guy.

All previous thoughts, however, vanished from her mind quickly as they had come, as Caroline took in sight of a bloody Klaus on his knees. His clothes were torn and shredded, claw marks streaked red ran across his chest. Scarlet red ran down his face in rivulets and he looked up at her with helpless eyes. He was a mess.

"Caroline," he groaned, and he toppled over, but not before she caught him.

"Oh my god!" she breathed, tipping his head back to get a better look at him and running her eyes over his injuries. "Who did this to you?"

"My hybrids." He tried to sound deceitful but it came out as a whisper; his strength was drained. "They were a loyal lot, weren't they." He sounded do forlorn, so sorrowful, that she let him lean against her. She gently lifted her arms around his head.

"Let's get you cleaned up, okay?" Caroline had been out hunting and from her vampiric senses she concluded his mansion was not too far away.

"I'm fine; I don't need your help," he said harshly, his voice strained but lashing out, as he tried to stand. He immediately fell but Caroline supported him. She looped an arm around his waist and helped him upright, hanging on to his forearm. With a few more stumbles and well-placed curses, they were on their way. As they passed through the dense foliage, Klaus murmured, "Under normal circumstances I would take advantage of this situation."

"No, you wouldn't." She hadn't meant for it to come out like that but it did.

"Having a change of heart, love?" He curved his lips in a lopsided, arrogant smirk at her.

Caroline exhaled, but then decided to tell him; he did look pretty beat up, and, as much as she would try to deny it, she felt sorry for him.

"People think you're the big bad hybrid, but maybe you're not. I mean, you saved me twice, didn't you?" she spluttered.

Klaus was silent for a moment, but he chose to let it slide, replacing it with his haughty remarks. "Looks like the doppelganger's rubbing off on you," he observed calmly.

"Oh, shut up," she shot back angrily. She had chosen to say something nice to him, and he had practically threw it back in her face.

Klaus, on the other hand, had no idea she would be so infuriated with him, so he hastily backtracked. "What makes you think that? How do you know I don't have ulterior motives?" he challenged.

"Because, there's...there's something about you that doesn't seem so bad. It's like..." She tried to spell out her conflicted emotions. He cocked an eyebrow at her but she ignored him. "It's like, when you do bad things, it's not because you wan't to hurt them, but because you want them to notice you." She looked over at him, but his face was staring ahead, and he stubbornly refused to accept her words, because they were the truth.

"Your words mean nothing."

She stared up at him in hatred. Caroline ripped her arms from his and slapped him across the face. It was a good slap, sharp and stinging. She could feel the prickling in her hand.

When Klaus looked back at her his eyes were full of hatred as well, and bloodlust. "You are lucky I am injured, love." He said with as much serenity as he could muster. He walked up to his mansion, half-dragging, half-limping with himself.

Her anger dissipated as she watched him in pity.

"Oh come, let me help you then," she hissed, helping him up the steps. This time he didn't protest.

Klaus lay upon his blood-stained mattress, the red soaking into the silk sheets. Caroline sat on a chair nearby, a bowl and washcloth near. She cleaned his wounds carefully, trying not to hurt him.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, as she dug her nails into his chest to retrieve a bullet laced with vervain. "Sorry, sorry, sorry!" She pulled it out swiftly, and sat back, exasperated.

He made no notion that his wounds were burning and his whole body was on fire. Instead he whispered, "Maybe you're right about what you said, maybe you're wrong. But I'll never admit it."

She threw up her hands in frustration. "Ugh! Why are you so stubborn?!"

"I'm not the only one." He turned his head so he could face her, his bed soaked in blood. "If you weren't so driven on saving me I would have already left this miserable wreck of a town."

He caught her off guard. "What?" she questioned, confusion written all over her face. "What do you mean?"

Klaus chuckled lowly. "Caroline, it's in your nature to do good. I can already see that you want to save me from myself. But I won't let you."

"Why not?" she said quietly.

"I am a 'big bad hybrid'. I kill people for my amusement, I toy with their minds. There is no good in there."

"But if you tried to change..." she trailed off, unsure of where this was leading to.

"...My actions would haunt me forever. Consider me an eternal crisis."

"But not if you tried to change."

"Not for me. I'll remember everything I was, and I'll only walk farther in the darkness."

"Then let me help you forget," she said desperately. Hell, she wanted to help him. She didn't even know why.

He looked at her, and she saw all his emotions in his eyes: anger, envy, hatred, fear, pride, strength. But also the courage, the hope, and the love of a forgotten man, buried somewhere deep in Klaus the hybrid.

Caroline knew, from experience, that once something happened you could never forget it. Once you became someone you could never go back.

So she would teach him to forgive.

And in return Klaus would help her to do the same, to somehow rekindle herself.

They would find themselves in each other, and become the people they both knew and loved.

She would be his saviour, and he would be hers.