Disclaimer: I own nothing but my words. If TVD belonged to me, Hayley would never exist. :)

He followed her inside the room. He couldn't decipher the emotions in her face when she found out. Was it jealous? Sadness? Disappointment? She left so fast that he couldn't tell. All he knew was that she wasn't happy.

"Caroline," he called, but she didn't look at him. "Caroline, let me explain."

"You don't owe me an explanation," she said angrily, still not looking at him, her fixed on the window. It was true, he didn't owe her anything, they weren't together, nor had they been when he slept with the werewolf slut. So, why was she so upset and her eyes were filling with tears? Why did she felt so betrayed and angry when she found out?

Apparently, Klaus was thinking the same thing. "Then why are you mad at me?"

"I'm not."

"I don't believe you." He took a step closer to where she stood, near a bed. "You left the room in a hurry and now you won't even look at me." He sighed. "You didn't even listen to what I had to say."

"So, it isn't true?" She turned to face him; the hope in her voice and eyes took them both by surprise.

"No, it is true."

She scoffed, turning away from him again.

"Just hear me out," he pleaded. Why was she making this so difficult for him?

"What could you possibly have to say to me?" She faced him again.

That was a good question. He didn't know what he wanted to say – or why he wanted to say it. All he knew was that he felt this need to explain his actions to her, which was crazy, because Klaus Mikaelson didn't explain his action to anyone. He always did what he had to do – and what he felt like doing – not caring about how it affected other people, but not with her; his actions had apparently hurt Caroline and he, desperately, wanted to make it better.

At his silence, she shook her head, a bitter laugh leaving her lips. "That's what I thought," she said, turning away. "Now, if you excuse me, this was a long day. I'm tired and I want to be alone."

"Fine," he said angrily, turning on his heels to leave the room. Before reaching the door, he stopped and looked at her from over his shoulders. "My job here is done. Goodbye, Caroline."

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and listed to his footsteps. He was leaving, going back to New Orleans – to Hayley.

"Are you in love with her?" The question was out before she could stop herself. If she was being honest, she feared his answer. What if he said yes? What if he was indeed in love with Hayley? Did that mean that everything between them hadn't been real, that it has been just a game for him? He said he would wait for her–

"I intend to be your last. However long it takes."

–she had almost believed that he would. She felt so stupid now.

He stopped on his tracks and turned around to study her, but she still had her back to him. She was asking if he was in love with Hayley. This was ridiculous; he could barely stay in the same room as the girl for more than thirty seconds and Caroline was asking if he loved her. He felt the urge to laugh, but stopped himself – laughing now would probably make things worse.

"No, I'm not in love with Hayley," he said slowly. Why did she care if he was in love with someone else, anyway? "I don't even like her; in fact, I might as well despise her."

"Then why did you sleep with her?" She turned around, tears in her eyes, but there was no way she would let them fall. No way.

"It was just sex, Caroline," he said calmly. "Have you never slept with someone you didn't have feeling for?"

She frowned. "Yes, but that's not the point, Klaus," she said angrily, shaking her head. "You could have any girl you wanted–"

"Not any girl," he cut her, she knew what he was talking about – who he was talking about.

She disregarded his comment; it wasn't worth to get into that now. "You could have any girl. You could've gone to a bar and picked up someone. Why did it have to be Hayley?" She spat the werewolf's name as if it was poison. "She was the one who came up with the whole plan to unsire your hybrids, you killed Tyler's mom and chased him out of town for that, he got a death sentence and all you gave Hayley was SEX?!" She was yelling now, she couldn't understand why Klaus did that, wasn't he the same guy that chased Katherine for five hundred years, daggered his own siblings, killed aunt Jenna, turned Stefan back into a ripper, killed Carol Lockwood and almost killed her? Then why did Hayley, the werewolf slut got a free pass? To say that Caroline was pissed was an understanding.

Klaus just stood there, looking at her. So, this was all about the Lockwood boy. Of course, it's always about Tyler.

"So, that's all it takes to get on your good side and be forgiven, easy sex? Or you were just that desperate to get some action?" She asked through clenched teeth.

He frowned and tilted his head to the side. "No, Caroline, that's not all it takes to get on my good side and no, I wasn't that desperate," he snapped, she was making assumptions again and wasn't even allowing him to talk. "You forget that even though Hayley plotted to unsire my hybrids, she still warned me, and she never tried to kill me, unlike your little boyfriend—"

"Ex-boyfriend," not that it actually mattered, it was just a reflex answer. "And that doesn't change anything; she still turned your precious hybrids against you!"

Klaus didn't have a comeback for that. Truth be told, he wasn't really thinking straight when he let Hayley go, he was just blind by rage at his hybrid's betrayal and wanted to punish them and Tyler for messing with him. Later, she had managed to distract him from his original mission with her words and games of seduction – quite clever, the little wolf – she had touched wounds that were still fresh. He had let his emotions get the best of him and he desperately regretted that. If he hadn't slept with Hayley, he wouldn't be in such a giant mess now. That's why emotions were so dangerous, that's why he shouldn't allow himself to feel – bad things happen when he does.

At his silence, Caroline left out a bitter laugh and turned away from him, looking at the window again. But Klaus wouldn't have that anymore, she would listen to what he has to say; he didn't want to admit, but her opinion matters to him, he doesn't want her hate not anymore, not after things were going so good between them.

He flashed to stand in front of her. "Do you want to know why I slept with her?" He asked, angrily. "Because she was available, she was right there, offering herself to me and challenging me to take it, so I did! I was tired of chasing after someone who would never like me! I was drunk and tired; I wanted a distraction and seemed like a good one. It was supposed to be a onetime thing; I wasn't supposed to ever see her again. Hayley was just a body that warmed my bed, but now I'm stuck with her."

"Then did you lie to me?" Her eyes filled with tears again.

"I didn't lie to you."

"You didn't tell me, which is lying by omission. I had to find out through Tyler!" Tyler didn't like how "friendly" Caroline and Klaus had acted all day, so the moment he got Caroline alone, he'd spilled out everything he knew about the older hybrid's "relationship" with Hayley. After listening to it incredulously, Caroline had barged into the Salvatore Boarding House demanding the truth from Klaus.

"And how, pray tell, does Tyler knows?"

"Katherine told him." Katherine's been hiding on Tyler's mansion since she heard that Klaus was coming to town, since she knew he didn't have permission to enter it.

"Ah! How is the oldest doppelganger? I was hoping I would pay her a visit, but your little friends decided to protect her from me."

"Don't change the subject!"

"I wasn't aware that I had to tell everything that happens in my life, Caroline. We weren't together then, we're not together now. You were in love with Tyler and made that very clear," he said through clenched teeth. He didn't understand why it was so important to tell her about the… baby.

She said many times before that she didn't want anything to do with him besides the occasional favors she asked him and that he – so pathetically – did for her in a heartbeat, like getting her a prom dress, just so she could dance with her beloved Tyler later, or saving Damon from a werewolf bite or, the most recent, flying to Mystic Falls to help out with the Silas situation. And, although, he said he would wait for her, he wasn't sure she'd ever give him a chance, he just liked to be hopeful and didn't want to show her even more weaknesses that he already had.

What he said caught her by surprise, he was right, they weren't together, he didn't owe her any explanations for his acts–

she said that herself, twice: to him, just a few moments ago, and to Silas, when he showed up to her wearing Klaus' face, right after he left town without saying goodbye

–she knew that, but it still hurts, she though she meant something to him and the fact that he hadn't told her about something so important that happened in his life was a hard pill to swallow. "Well, it's courtesy to tell the girl you've chased after for almost a year that a werewolf slut and a baby are now part of the package!"

"The last time I saw you, I had just found out; I was in denial and telling you would make everything real. I wasn't ready for that," he said, sitting on the bed and sighing. "I am not ready for that."

Caroline stood in front of the bed, arms crossed, studying him. He looked tired, as if he's been thinking about this a lot lately.

"It wasn't supposed to be possible, you know," he said after a few moments of silence, snapping her out of her gaze. "My father killed me, a thousand years ago, when he turned me and my family into vampires, he drove a sword through my heart. It wasn't supposed to be possible."

She understood what he was saying, vampires can't procreate, because they were dead, and dead people don't have kids. And yet, here he was, about to become a father.

"The witch said it was one a loophole, since I'm half werewolf, it was the way nature found to make it possible for me to give the species continuity," he scoffed, shaking his head.

They were both silent for few moments, neither of the moving.

"I had come to terms with the fact that I'd never have a family of my own centuries ago." He broke the silence.

"Did you ever want a family?"

"A long time ago, yes, I did, but not anymore."

She frowned. "Why?"

"Look at me, Caroline; do I look like a father figure to you?" A bitter laugh left his lips.

Caroline tilted her head to the side and observed him for a few moments before giggling.

Klaus looked up, frowning; it was a genuine laugh, the kind of laugh that he had heard from her only once: when he teased her about her Miss Mystic application, on their date. Her laugh was infectious and he couldn't stop himself from letting out a soft chuckle in response.

"No," she said while shaking her head and uncrossing her arms. "You really don't." She moved from where she was standing to sit on the bed next to him.

Klaus smiled and shook his head.

They both set there in comfortable silence, each lost in their own thoughts.

Good? Bad? OOC? Tell me what you think?

A/N: follow me on Tumblr: klaussmagicalequipment :D