Returning to Mystic Falls had had its advantages as well as its numerous downsides. Part of him had been missing Caroline. Missing her was a rather unconventional yearning these days. While Klaus was longing for her to return to her normal, blissful, smiling self and dreading the guilt that he could scarcely hold at bay when confronted with her current state, he had started to accept her quietness. A part of him had found comfort in the fact that he could tell what she was thinking by a miniscule change in her features. A change that might even be so small, the average human eye would not be able to detect it. So while he had been busy digging up the hunter's sword in Italy, a part of him had been busy thinking about her face. Just as busy as he usually was with thinking about how to make her better, he was with thinking about how to start moving forward with her.

But alas, the first thing that had greeted him when he stepped off his plane, was a voice mail informing him of Dean's rather unsuccessful retrieval of the hunter. A hybrid down, the hunter gone and the hunt for the cure put to rest, he could feel his mood darken. So despite his original longing to see Caroline, who by the time he had returned would be soundly asleep and hopefully peaceful, he went to the Lockwood Mansion, glaring in the shadows at his left-over hybrid and that puzzling Hayley whilst they celebrated and mourned their fallen comrade. His glaring did little to sooth his anger and as he as of yet, was lacking the means of creating more hybrids, he opted to rest.

His stroll about the Mansion, which he took quietly and in the company of a bottle he stole from the late Richard Lockwood's office stash, led him to Tyler's old room. The boy's mother apparently hadn´t yet had the heart to clear it out. Part of him knew that Caroline would hate him being here. Most of him didn´t care at the moment. So he entered. It was a room typical for a boy of Tyler's era, but the first thing Klaus clearly made out was the fading scent of Caroline. He could tell by its weakness that i was fading, like a flower that had once been tended to and then was forced to fade away due to neglect, but nonetheless it was there. He caught a picture of the couple on his nightstand, showing them dancing at the 20´s dance. An old scarf of hers was draped across his desk chair. But the her scent was still most promising in Tyler's bed.

Maybe it was because he was jet-lagged, maybe it was because he was enraged by Dean's failure. Maybe it was because to this day he felt utterly confused at how the strong satisfaction he had felt at tearing out Tyler's heart had so quickly turned into guilt. But the only thing he considered himself capable of doing at this precise moment, was dropping himself on his former protégé's bed and engulf himself in the abyss created by the remains of Caroline's wonderful scent. As he drifted asleep he wondered what Tyler would have said to her when she was upset and in his arms. How the boy, who was inferior to him in all but one thing - loving Caroline Forbes - would have helped her. How being close to her, truly and intimately, would feel. He also wondered- if he was ever to experience the pleasure- if it would be the same as it would have been before he had killed the boy. The what if plagued him until he was asleep with exhaustion.

His hybrids were still drinking when he awoke just like his mood was still darkened. As he made his way to them, to question them and to intimidate them, he caught sight of Hayley, nursing a bottle of cheap vodka, tracing her fingers tenderly across an framed photograph of Tyler before slowly bringing up the bottle to her lips. Something about the sensual way she had of doing it, told him, she was having not so whole thoughts about the dead mutt, and, his deeper demons chuckled at her antics.

"Oh, don´t let me interrupt" he murmured darkly, challenging the lot to question his presence, challenging her to continue her not so subtle mourning for the traitor.

"I didn´t know you were here" Hayley said, rolling her eyes.

"Clearly" he hissed back, walking past her while taking a swig from his bottle. He didn´t need to see her annoyance to ignore it. "No... I just popped around to celebrate Dean's successful retrieval of the vampire hunter...yet.. " he gestured with his bottle while drawling out the rant he came to get off his chest before facing his own home. "I learned that not only was Dean unsuccessful but that Elena killed the hunter." His eyes challenged Hayley to justify that disappointment.

"Well maybe," she bit back, " if you had let Dean use force instead of sending him on a suicide mission..." Hayley had a hard time biting her anger down, not that he had cared to hear her out.

"Maybe you should mind your business, wolf girl."

"What do you care Connor's dead anyway?" said girl asked back, ignoring the obvious threat he had made.

"I´ve had my reasons" he smiled sarcastically. "They´ve ceased to matter". With that he toasted to no one but his dark humor in particular before taking another sip from his bottle. "Cheers."

A strong knock suddenly interrupted the gloomy encounter, and in the absence of Mrs. Lockwood and with him not particularly caring for town business, Hayley took it upon himself to open the door for the intruder.

The intruder was a box. Or rather A box being carried by a quiet yet determined Caroline. Before Hayley could utter a confused version of a greeting said box was shoved into her arms, with Caroline meeting her with a challenging stare. Klaus could tell by the slight change in the scent, that that box contained some of Tyler's possession. It was the box he had only brought begrudgingly into his home. The box that only had made it upstairs to her new bedroom because he thought it would help her. The box contained a jersey, an old laptop, books and cds and a pair of boys shorts. It also used to contain a bracelet, which she had been caring on her wrist. Her wrist, however, was empty and unadorned now.

"Caroline... this isn´t a good time." Hayley mumbled uncomfortably. Her discomfort was answered with Caroline thrusting the box harder into her hands, which lead to her being thrust against the nearest wall along with it. As she was placing the offending card-box object onto the nearest table, Klaus quietly and quickly placed his bottle onto the couch table, his mind urging him to enter into this encounter.

"Caroline" he spoke gently. As her arms folded in front of her defensively, he knew he should scold her. She was not supposed to go here before he returned, he had made her promise even. But evidently her wordless promises no longer matched her spoken ones. Somehow, though the anger he was supposed to feel at that, was absent, making room for plenty of concern. Caroline wasn´t ready to face Tyler`s betrayal yet, and he didn´t want to fathom the downward-spiral the knowledge she seemed to have gathered in his absence would sent her into.

"I assume you´ve met Hayley." She avoided his eyes at that, a gesture that she only used when utterly embarrassed or frightened to death. A part of him felt hope at that. If teenage drama of that sort could invoke embarrassment, it could mean that the old Caroline was still somewhere in there, couldn´t it? But he genuinely only wanted to remove the current Caroline from this situation, from this fight that knew she was to weak for at the moment. The current Caroline needed to not break any further. That much he knew.

So he nodded at her, before speaking up again. "Alright, come on, let´s go. Your talents are needed elsewhere." He sighed, knowing he needed to cut his pity party show so she could have hers later.

"For what?" Hayley asked confusedly.

"Like I said, mind your business. Everybody, come on now." he commanded quietly.

"You too, love" he murmured before taking Caroline by her elbow and guiding her out of the house. The last place she needed to be at now was Tyler's.

He never saw the text she speed-typed quietly in the car without even taking her phone out of the pocket of her denim jacket.

Thanks for the heads-up that he was here. You think he bought it? - C.

Hell, I bought it. You´re a good liar. - H.

Neither of him nor her though, ever saw Hayley sneaking up to Tyler's room and snuggling into his pillows, biting her lips at the sight of the photograph of him and Caroline, smiling at each other.

The car ride with Caroline was silent, and he once more lead an internal debate with himself whether giving her a warning about his next course of action was a good or a bad idea. There was one stop he had meant to make before going the mansion, and with her now in tow, he would have to bring her along for the ride. Before he had been desperate to remove her from Hayley's presence, now he was slowly starting to wonder whether letting her stay there would have been the better course of action.

So when he stopped the car, he only answered the confusion in Caroline's eyes at the familiar neighborhood where her best friend lives, with a gentle stroke against the curl that had moved out of place, before motioning for her to join him outside the car while he made a call.

"I don´t want to talk about it." Stefan´s voice greeted him, as he firmly but protectively took hold of Caroline's hand. He tried to avoid the pedophile feeling of leading a child to kindergarten, when she meekly followed, so he decided to make this a brisk walk instead and rather dragged her along then leading her. Every time she retreated into herself like that, he felt sick, like being around her was tainting her, and he felt it was best to shake off that feeling, even it meant dragging her around rougher than he should.

"Why, I can´t imagine why, what? With you ruining all my plans for a hybrid-filled future."

"What wouldn't have happened if you hadn't sworn me to secrecy." Stefan's voice countered calmly.

"Well, life's full of if's Stefan. Let's accentuate the positive, shall we?" he spoke, it felt utterly refreshing being able to simply get down to business for once instead of walking on egg-shells all the time. With Stefan he could do that, and he enjoyed the change of pace, however brief it would be. "The hunter was one of five. We´ll find another." He could feel Caroline's grip slacken a bit more at that. So he took a mental note of caging the next one somewhere else than his house. "It may take centuries, but we´ve got nothing but time right?"At that, he had to reaffirm his hold on her, as she softly and feebly tried to get out of his grip.

"You´re using your calm voice today?" Stefan noted on the other end. "Who´s getting killed?"

"Not you, if that´s what you´re worried about" he answered, telling Caroline that she would not have to worry about her mentor today, too. Because he knew that was one more thing she was definitely worried about.

"But I am concerned about your beloved. Have the hallucinations started yet?" he asked, causing Caroline to pick up her own pace at his last words.

"What do you know about them?" Stefan asked back suspisciously.

"I´ll tell you. Where are you?"

"I´m at her house."

"How convenient. So am I." he said, as they both arrived in front of the Gilbert house. Caroline looked up at him in fear. He could tell by now at the degree of her eyes popping open whether she was concerned for herself or others. This time it was decidedly concern for others. For a loved-one. But it was mixed with confusion, probably over the hallucinations he had mentioned.

"Relax love, I´ll fix it." he said, with a wink in her direction, before flashing towards the door to knock.

Stefan came out immediately, only stopping in his tracks when noticing Caroline.

"You know, this would all be a lot more civilized if I was just invited inside." Klaus commented, wanting to draw Stefan's attention back to himself. Caroline was regretfully here as a bystander, he was not about to let her become part of the show.

"Bad enough I'm out here talking to you" Stefan replied as they both walked down the porch steps. "What do you know?" he asked, without looking at Klaus, but scanning Caroline instead.

"I killed the Original five hunters, remember?" At that, Stefan slowly turned around. "When one kills a hunter, there´s a bit of a consequence."

"What kind of a consequence?" They both could feel Caroline's concerned eyes on them as she shyly stepped closer.

"The hunters were spelled by witches to kill vampires, if you prevent one from full-filling his destiny then he´ll take you down with him." Klaus explained slowly while carefully pulling Caroline to his side.

Stefan tried to absorb his words. "What do you mean? Connor's dead."

"I mean Connor's death won't prevent him from making Elena his final vampire kill. She´ll need to come with me now. I´ll lock her up, keep her away from any sharp, wooden objects." He anticipated both reactions: Caroline's quick wriggling out of his grip to side with Stefan and Stefan's confident declaration.

"She won´t go anywhere with you."

"And if we leave her alone she will take her own life before the day is out." he responded calmly, his eye's never leaving Stefan's. If he strayed to look at Caroline, his calm would fade. He knew, in the back of his mind, that at one point during the past days, if things had turned out a tad bit more differently than they had, it could have been Caroline who intervened by killing the hunter. He knew that the possibility had presented itself in his absence. Maybe not like a likeability, but if she had encountered Hayley, she must have been at the Lockwood Mansion during the hostage dilemma. She could have gone there. Inwardly, he was already berating herself for not following through on his original instinct of dragging her along to Italy. She would have hated it, she would have hated him, but she would have never been in that high a danger. So, in order to keep calm, he avoided looking at her for the moment.

"She´s stronger than that." Stefan countered.

"Is she? Believe me, it´s for her own good." he said. And, as if on cue, a very distressed and exhausted Elena came running out of her house, with Damon on her heels, providing him with the perfect opportunity to grab her, before the older Salvatore had even made it outside.

And this time, he didn´t need to look back. He knew Caroline would follow home willingly for once.

She was right on his heels, as he dragged Elena with her neck in a headlock inside her temporary room at his home.

"Let go off me" Elena huffed as he was about to release her.

"Certainly." he said, as both girls took in the room. Caroline, despite having lived in his mansion for weeks now, hadn´t really entered most of the rooms there, while Elena was an entirely new level of confused, so both girls didn´t really know what room this was. "I apologize for the lack of windows, it´s to preserve the art and of course to prevent you from taking off your daylight ring and burning yourself in the sun."

"I´m not gonna kill myself. I would never do that." Elena explained calmly.

"Oh, but you´ll want to." That caught both girls' attention. "I did. Problem is: I am immortal."

"You went through this?" Elena asked, and something inside of him warmed up at the concerned yet confused look Caroline gave him. Something about the memory Elena had jogged caused him to turn away as his past for once was so similar to Caroline's present life, he could not stomach it.

"Yes, I did. For 52 years, 4 months and 9 days. I was tormented in my dreams and every waking moment. Relentless, never-ending torture." He turned back towards them. "It was the only period in my life where I actually felt time."

"So you knew this would happen if Connor died. That´s why you got involved. Did Stefan know, too?"

"All he knew was that the hunter had to be kept alive. You should have listened to him when he said he had it covered, love." He explained, once more feeling the anger at the possibility that it might be Caroline he could be forced to lock away now instead of Elena. He strode up to the Doppelganger, not knowing what kept him calm at this moment.

"What else does Stefan know?"

"Well, that´s one of life's little mysteries, isn´t it?" he smiled wickedly, before grabbing Caroline and ushering her towards the door.

"How did you make it stop?" Elena called after him, and as he stopped in his tracks, Caroline bumped against his chest, her blue orbs showing him an endless pit of worry. His hands weaved through her curls and his forehead touched hers, like it had been her asking the decisive question instead of Elena. "I didn´t." he sighed, inhaling her scent. "Eventually, it just stopped." Yes, it could have been her, instead of Elena, for all he knew. He should have never left her alone, not with Kol and Elijah, who both were strangely absent at the moment. Not with the Salvatores and Elena ringing up her mother´s help to keep the situation quiet. Not with people supposedly looking after her that were not him.

In a fit of cruelty he turned back towards the Doppelganger. "The hallucinations tend to appear in strange forms." With that, he knocked at the iron door that separated them from the rest of the world. "Don´t say, I didn´t warn you." was all he left Elena with, before he dragged Caroline outside.

Caroline struggled in his arms all the way up to her room until he dropped her on her bed, bringing his face close to hers. " I know you want to help her, but her being locked into that room is the only thing keeping your little friend alive at the moment. Trust me on that one." His eyes begging her to trust him. In hindsight, that question probably prompted her to help Stefan, for the last time she had trusted him, she had lost a loved one, but at that moment, he simply was hoping she´d see reason over emotion.

He was still holding onto that hope after he had instructed his hybrids to keep Caroline and everyone else away from Elena and had gone to the Grill. He should have instructed them to keep Caroline inside the Mansion as well, he´d later think.

By the time Stefan's text had reached her, she was already back at the Lockwood Mansion. "He´s got Elena. I need the other hybrids away so I can get her out. I know I am probably asking the impossible but please, help me. -S."

"Actually, you´re not. Meet me at the Lockwood Mansion. - C."

At the Lockwood Mansion, Stefan met Haley, who calmly explained to him what would have Caroline taken hours in a few minutes. Caroline said her arms wrapped around her knees in an armchair, observing the conversation. He sadly noted that his friend had gone from happy organizer to meek middleman, and it pained him.

"I´m Hayley. I am the one that helped Tyler break the sire bond, I showed him what to do, how to help. I showed up here because I´ve been helping one of them, my friend Chris, and I came to help get the rest of them out from under Klaus."

It took Stefan a moment to understand. "So... are you telling me that Chris isn't sired anymore?"

Caroline just poured him a glass of tequila. That was exactly what they were telling him. And he noted that the old Caroline would be smiling now.

The new Caroline instead already was half-way back to the Mansion to change back into something more delectable and less innocent than her red dress and her denim jacket. By the time Stefan and Hayley had reached Chris she was already at the Grill.

When she entered she surveyed her surroundings, for the last thing she had heard, a hybrid had been blown to pieces there. She marveled at how neat it looked despite of recent events. Klaus sat in the bar, immediately noticing her entering, watching her, wondering about her presence here.

"Caroline" he drawled, as she sat down beside him, taking off her jacket, exposing more skin to him than he had seen her show in a long time. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" Despite his doubts about her presence, he was delighted to see her endeavor mundane activities such as outings at the grill, it was a stop towards normalcy, even if she only did it for whatever not-so-well-hidden motive she had come. It was a step, despite it all.

She wordlessly handed him a flashcard. "I want you to give Elena back" was all it said.

He had wondered if she´d ever think of it as having a fellow cell-mate instead of having to worry about a friend in bad-shape, but obviously such a selfish thought had not occurred to her, which was a relief, for he would never let Caroline get near her as long as she was under the influence of those pesky hallucinations.

He smiled, as he took the card. "He send you to sweet-talk me, pardon my choice of words. Well, good form, but I am afraid I can´t do it." he answered honestly, taking a mental note to reconsider her friends' access to her. She might be special, but playing the distraction card, even in her fragile state, was a risk she was taking every single time, and her friends seemed to forget that detail way too often. But for now, he wanted to enjoy her presence, no matter how quiet it was.

She just stared at him, not willing to back down.

"She needs my help." he told her, and it was true. "Look, I am not going to bury you with the gory details, we both know, you have enough on your plate already" That was all he was willing to say. He knew the hallucinations well, and if she were to learn more, she´d only worry more, and she already had too many things to worry about, half of which he has caused. He knew that all too well.

They just sat there for a while, her facing the bar, him observing her. The longer she held out on him, the more a vengeful kind of anger grew in him. Here she was, scared of him, hating him, all the while she was mourning Tyler, whose torrid little affair she had just given his last belongings to mere hours ago, and for all of his life, he could not grasp how she could not see the kindness he was trying to show her at this moment, by keeping her friend safe and the harshness of it all away from her ,when her friends were out there sending her on almost-suicide mission in her traumatized state and the man she was mourning had betrayed her. And yet, he couldn´t help but love her foolish loyalty, even it if was directed at poor choices. It quieted down his hardly containable rage to a determined whisper. But not enough for it to not get the better of him ,for he should know better than to discuss him with her, he should how now indefinitely better than that.

"Just so you know, if Tyler had remained sired to me back then, he would have never had hurt you. I would not have let him." He didn´t state the obvious though, if Tyler had remained sired, he´d still be alive today. As the first tear slid down her cheek, he knew it was unnecessary to point that out. She probably had already thought the same a thousand times these past weeks.

"Can I at least offer you a drink?" He asked concernedly, she only nodded weakly.

After that, they had sat in silence for a while. He knew, dragging Tyler into this one-sided conversation had hurt her, but he couldn´t help the easy smile that graced his lips at the fact that she was still there with him.

At one point though, reality came back, in the form of her vibrating cell phone. He watched her read her message. And then read a few more, before she frowned down on her phone, ran her hands through her hair worriedly and fixed her with a stare that reminded him of a lamb ready for the slaughter.

Then she started typing, biting her lip worriedly as she did so. He was surprised to have his own phone beeping a split-second after she had gathered the courage to hit send.

Here's the thing. I didn´t just come here to try and get you to release Elena. I came here to distract you, so that Stefan could go to your house and break her out, which he did, and, don´t get mad, but then he lost her. However, they did figure out how to stop the hallucinations.

Many thoughts ran through his head at her confession. Oddly, few of them had any connection to Elena. He had known that she hadn´t come out tonight for him , so it stung surprisingly little. He felt the irritated type of anger towards Stefan for his actions, and disappointment in her lack of trust, mostly disappointment. And a strong constriction in his chest when she referred to the mansion as his rather than their house. It was the last sentence only that stopped him from running out before he could lash out at her.

So instead, he pushed her up close to the bar, their chests barely touching and whispered. "Caroline, you´re so beautiful, but if you don´t explain within 1 minute I will kill you. Clock is ticking."

Caroline was shaking at his sudden change and typed as quickly as she could. "They need a new hunter to make his first kill. Jeremy's a new hunter. And Stefan needs a vampire for him to kill." This time she didn´t hit send, but simply handed him her phone.

He scanned over her hasty summary for a few minutes. He knew what Stefan wanted was one of his hybrids to be sacrificed in order to awaken Jeremy's inner hunter. One of his last hybrids for Elena's life. He also knew that he himself stood more to gain if Elena was still among the living. But mostly his thoughts wandered back over the previous day. How he had gone to the Lockwood Mansion to relieve his anger instead of exposing Caroline to it, how he had timidly hid the alcohol bottle when she arrived so unexpectedly, how he had leniently not even commented on her breach of his rules regarding her previous visits in his absence. How he had tried removing her from Hayley in order to save her heartache. How he had been trying to protect Elena, not just to safe his army but also to save her friend. He had even overlooked her obvious attempt to distract him, but something inside of him, arrived at the obvious conclusion he´d been arriving at over and over again these past weeks: He needed to stop wrapping her in cotton-candy. This was still a warzone, after all.

So he leaned in closer, as he softly placed her phone back into her shaking palm. "I´ll give you one of my hybrids, but you owe me something in return. You understand?" he asked, ordering her to communicate with him.

She nodded at him, trembling under his closeness.

"A date. Nothing more, nothing less." He needed her to move on, even if he had to move her the first steps of the way himself. So that was what she´d have to give in order for him to make one more concession for her today.

She nodded, but only after another tear had gone down her cheek.

The cotton-candy was completely gone by the time he had dragged her back to the Lockwood Mansion, Stefan and Jeremy in tow.

Haley was about to say good-by to Chris, she knew he needed to disappear now, she only wasn´t aware yet of it being too late for that.

"You´re doing a good thing Chris." she said.

"Yeah, let´s see how good a good thing can get me out of town." the hybrid has answered. Hayley hugged her friend once more. "Call me when you´re safe, okay?"

"Yeah", he said and grabbed his bag, as he opened the door however, he was greeted by a sinisterly smiling Klaus, causing him to retreat back into the house. Caroline followed him sadly, her eyes cast towards the ground.

"Going somewhere?" Klaus asked, before pushing his hybrid up against the railing of the staircase. "When I said, don´t let her out of your sight, what did you think I meant?" he inquired darkly, as his hold was choking his hybrid.

"It´s not his fault, it´s mine." Hayley yelled at him. "I distracted him, it´s my fault she got away."

Klaus didn´t even turn. "Well, then, maybe you should be the one to die for him." he said, his eyes fixed on Chris. Too bad, Haley was only a werewolf. He would have gladly sacrificed her instead.

"No one has to die" she suddenly yelled, causing him to flash towards her, roaring in her face. "Did I not say mind your business?" His peripheral vision caught Caroline obviously flinching at that.

"I am the one that let her go, you want someone dead, kill me." she moved in closer to him. "I´d rather die anyway then end up as one of your sired little bitches." And then she moved even closer, and her whisper became even quieter. "Or be a pet, like Caroline here."

He only did not tear out her throat, because he knew what was going to happen next. His smile remained sinister as he answered. "Don´t tempt me, little wolf." Instead he turned back towards a very frightened and regretful Chris. He spoke slowly and calmly, for he knew those would be the last words the hybrid would ever hear.

"Your existence is to serve me. To please ME. You understand?"

"I`m sorry, look, I won´t fail you again."

"No, you won´t. Get out of here" he calmly concluded before stepping out of the way.

Stefan had a stake in Chris' stomach before the hybrid had even touched the threshold, while Klaus held Caroline back, who for a split second seemed to consider stopping the execution she had sold part of herself for. Klaus intuitively knew where her panic came from. He may have explained what a hybrid's existence was to him, but if they were to serve and please him, then she could only shudder at the thought of what her existence was for now.

"What the hell man?" Hayley yelled at Stefan and Jeremy, as they were moving to kill Chris, while Klaus held on to Caroline while bemusedly watching the exchange.

Stefan said he was sorry before he nodded at Jeremy. Hayley yelled as she watched her friend getting slaughtered. Caroline only cried quietly.

Okay... there you have it. Jeremy is a hunter, Klaus scored his date. I am honestly quite worried about this one. I guess, while writing I realized Klaus got confused about how to handle Caroline long-term (with her current state of quietness)... so hence the back-and-forth between caring and not-caring... but please don´t hate me too much for this chapter, it´s quite a mess, but then I think lots of things in TVD-land are a mess most of the time.

It´s quite a challenge to write a mute Caroline... I hope I managed.