The rain is thick and heavy, it has rained non-stop since they arrived in town.

He takes another long draw from his cigarette, he fixes his black hat and watches his kid brother beat up some low-life into a pulp, he should tell him to stop but he really can't be bothered with that.

Klaus tugs the long coat closer to his bones, they feel cold, everything feels cold, even his heart and he moves around the alley a little as an attempt to warm his feet, he makes a big cloud of smoke while glancing over to the bloodied mess that Kol is causing.

Finally Kol steps away from the poor man and rests his bat against his shoulder smiling at Klaus, the message is loud and clear, no one will be stealing from them again, Klaus knows that the man won't survive the night but they all turn their backs on the poor fella and leave him behind coughing blood and probably his liver.

As he walks away Klaus is done with his cigarette, just like he is done with this town.

He returned to Chicago only a few hours ago and already he hates it, he hates the smell, he hates the people who look at him trying to remember who he is and he hates the memories that this dark town brings down on him.

It has been 10 very long years since the night he left Chicago and his hideous father and never once did he look back in regret.

Klaus moved to New Orleans where he started a new life, soon after his departure his brothers and sister followed his rebellious ways eager to escape their father's law, harder to endure than the Dry Law itself but Mikael was as bad managing a smuggling business as he was in parenthood and drank more alcohol than he managed to sell.

There is a laughter interrupting Klaus' pissy mood and he notices that it's Kol who is cheerfully talking and laughing with the new kid, the orphan Gilbert kid who they took under their wing back in New Orleans.

Klaus doesn't consider joining the conversation, he is too wrapped up in his misery and trying not to think of her, his blond demon with the red lips.

He doesn't feel like going back to Room 21 just now so his brother and the kid take the car while he walks down the empty dark street alone, the rain is now soaking him but it doesn't truly bother him just yet, he is too restless tonight, nurturing too many thoughts and unsettling memories.

Some fella waves at him, he slightly nods back unsure if it's the priest or the milkman that he is greeting but it's all the same for him regardless, neither of them are able to give him what he needs.

But maybe the Green Mill can help him with that so he crosses the street making his way through the slow traffic, the line outside of the Club is big but he knows the man at the door, his brother works for them.

"Good evening Klaus." he quickly opens the heavy door to let the important man inside.

The Club is packed but I swiftly make my way to the Bar, I drop my wet hat on the counter looking at the girl behind it, she has dark skin and green eyes, she's beautiful and exotic and I make an educated guess that I'm looking at the girl Kol has tried to tap since we got back.

"Hi, I'm Bonnie, what can I get you?"

She asks me with an enchanting smile and I know that I wasn't wrong, I also see why Kol is being persistent about this one, she's something else all right but Kol has his work cut out for him, a woman this beautiful will never settle for a goodfella.

"Gin, with no ice." I ask not bothering about my request, everyone inside this joint is drinking my alcohol anyway.

The girl pours me a generous dose of the beverage and I like her already.

"Are you new in town?" she asks me while heedlessly resting her elbows and her weight over the counter.

I watch her closely; the black hair neatly caught in waves, the bright green eyes sparkling with hope and joy, she's far too young to know anything about life.

"I'm making a return after spending a few years away." I simply reply.

She keeps her smile and it's contagious, I end up smiling as well but maybe she doesn't catch it because the lights go down in the place.

In that instant the Club seems to come alive and I understand why it's so crowded tonight, it has to be some pretty face that they arranged to entertain the poor bastards that can barely afford the fee at the door.

I don't look back at the stage; I hear the slow sound of the Jazz that it's coming, the two men playing the seductive trumpets just like I love and the piano in the background building up for the grand opening but I've seen too many to keep interest.

The crowd however goes wild, the girl is probably a knockout but it's still not enough to make me turn around, until she lets out her first singing note.

Her voice fills the joint and I stop my drink halfway to my mouth, I must be wrong.

Just that she proves me that I'm not.

I would recognize that voice any time, any place, that sweet enchanting evil voice has whispered sweet nothings in my ear and the unwelcomed memory of her arms laced around me after a passionate night assaults me.

We are sitting on a messy bed and she's singing in my ear, stroking my bare chest with her head resting on my shoulder while she is glued to my back and my hands are caressing her naked legs.

And she's singing, singing sweetly and low to me in my memory, wearing nothing but my shirt.

"She's amazing isn't she?"

Bonnie asks excitedly in front of me but I don't answer her.

"She's our brightest and biggest Star. A lot of folks come from out of Chicago just to see and listen to her."

Slowly I turn around to face the blonde singing and dancing on that stage like she owns it, like she was meant to be there all along.

"She's my friend." Bonnie says again with pride.

I drop the glass harshly on the counter and pick up my hat to leave without looking back.

I don't go home just yet, instead I stay in the back alley and I'm on my third cigarette when the back door opens to let her out, she's laughing and the sound makes my blood come alive.

"Silly John, I won't take all those flowers home with me, just leave them in the dressing room and tomorrow I will sign all the thank you cards." she closes the door behind her, putting her white gloves on still with a smile.

"I see that you finally made it big, sweetheart." I say into the dark night without lifting my head much.

She freezes her motions and I can hear her gulping down from where I stand and then slowly my blond demon faces me and I am taken aback by her unique beauty.

I never thought that it was possible for Caroline to look more beautiful than when I left her but by God, she is a sight to my tired eyes.

When her big eyelashes close I can't see her eyes and I don't like it, I toss what's left of my cigarette on the ground and step on it, it takes me a long second to move because I know that her perfume will hit me like a shiv to the gut.

She feels me growing closer to her and opens her blue eyes to meet me, tonight they are blue, I love that some days they are green.

"When did you get back?"

She asks me with that little tell that always gives her away, a slight lowering of her voice to show how much she's unhappy to see me.

I didn't expect it any other way..

"Early last night." I simply answer and immediately my eyes are outlining every fine line of her delicate features, inevitably they land on the lips that I've missed kissing.

She grits her teeth together with a quiet rage and then she does it, she hits me so hard across the face that my hat almost dips out of place.

She's mad, furious at me for what I did but I'm mad as well, there is a reason why I left her behind and although I expect her to strike me again Caroline has always been unpredictable and turns her back on me, maybe she's fighting tears, I can't tell.

"Why did you come back?" she whispers without strength.

"My father finally died and we've decided to take care of business here in Chicago. Kol and the others arrived last week already." I say wishing that she would look at me.

"I saw them around but because I didn't see Bekah I figured that you stayed back in Louisiana with her."

Her words wound me, she's hurt. "I asked you to come with me Caroline." My words come to life and the way that they come out surprises even me, they are loaded with hurt as well.

She shakes her head. "I couldn't just leave everything, my family, my life for someone who..."

Caroline doesn't finish it but I don't need her to, my blond demon deserved a better life than to live constantly on the outskirts of the law.

"It seems someone has stepped into our turf here in Chicago, they are stealing merchandise from us and trying to take over our domain." I explain as candidly as I have always spoken about the family business with her.

There has never been any secrets between us and when she faces me again I can't see that anger spread across her face now, just concern.

Caroline shakes her short wavy hair with a motion of her head. "You shouldn't be here."

I frown. "Have you forgotten already that I don't do what's expected of me?"

She scorns my words with her smile. "The truth is that I have forgotten entirely about you Klaus."

She plunges that shiv in my chest, deep, because she calls me Klaus.

"I guess you don't have the time now to think about me..." I hurt her back by pointing at the heavy fur coat, the fine jewellery sparkling in her wrists and neck. "You aren't the small town simple girl who came to work for us anymore."

"But you are still the same mean bastard Klaus."

She toys, insisting on calling me by the name I hate to see on her lips.

"From cleaning floors straight to the main stage, now that's one huge leap." I want to ask the other words that burn on my tongue but I grow afraid of her answer.

No one becomes this well in life overnight and most certainly not a woman and I dread her answer, the thought of another man touching her has haunted me every night for the past 10 years.

"I did what I had to do to survive, after you left that is." she says salting my wound.

I don't say a word of what's fueling inside of me.

A black car stops next to the sidewalk and she looks in that direction, there is a blond broad fella who steps out of the car and I can already tell that I won't like him.

He smiles once he's near her. "Hey Doll, I see you have another fan wooing you."

Doll, he calls her doll.

No man can be taken serious if he calls a woman doll and I can't understand why Caroline seems comfortable with it, for some reason it makes me want to pull out my gun and shoot them both.

"Yes... he was just saying how much he loved the show tonight."

When she speaks I sense fear in her voice and I spot a slight twitch in her eye when the man stretches out his hand in my direction.

"I'm Matt Donovan."

I lift my eyes to his face, his other hand is resting over Caroline's lower back as a lion showing possession and I can feel my jaw clenching in wrath. "And I'm not interested." I manage to say.

She's with the young Donovan now, my family's rival.

Caroline is involved with a typical Chicago wannabe Gangster and I want to slap her around for being so stupid, of all the men left in Chicago she goes for this excuse of a man who believes wearing a suit will make others respect him.

I have to keep in mind that killing them would bring attention that I don't want and don't need.

I leave the two of them looking after me as I walk away, I reach inside of my pocket for another cigarette ignoring the itch in my hand to grab the gun instead.

I curse the rain that starts falling again and bury the hat deeper in my head, even when I pull the coat collar up to cover my neck, I still feel the rain hitting my sore bones relentlessly and cold.

I expected it to be hard meeting her again, I didn't expect to be walking away with a bleeding heart.

Elijah is sitting at the desk doing the accounts, it's his forte after all, while Kol is flawless with a bat Elijah is one with the numbers.

He gives Klaus a shady look because he is going through the open box of liquor to get a bottle for himself. "That's money that you are stealing."

Klaus reacts to the stern admonish with one of his best smiles, then he walks over to the desk, it belonged to their grandfather, the dim light from the candle still allows Klaus to see the judging look on Elijah's face as he takes his soaking wet coat and drops it on the couch followed by the drenched hat that he drops on the table over Elijah's precious books.

"You seem upset, more than usual." Elijah notices.

"Why didn't any of you tell me that Caroline was with that Donovan kid?" Klaus gets a glass for Elijah as well.

"He's not a kid anymore, he took over his father's place in the business and he owns the Green Mill... besides, it's been all these years, Caroline is entitled to move on from you."

Klaus knows that he is right, he should know that he is.

But Elijah is the noble and wise one out of them all and quickly changes the subject. "I think that we should be able to recover the majority of the loss our father inflicted on us." he says while showing the books.

Klaus doesn't look down, he knows what's in them, the inability of their father.

He died as he lived his life, alone and a failure.

"Do we have the good coppers on our side?" Klaus asks refilling his glass.

Elijah's smile tells him what he wants to know, he simply nods and they keep to themselves in silence.

Klaus' mind drifts without warning to the blonde in the white heels and the white sparkling dress back at the Club, she is still the most beautiful girl he has encountered in his life.

And he hates her, he hates her with passion.

While Matt holds the door for her, Caroline smiles and steps down from the fancy car.

"Goodnight Matt." she says warmly.

He gently moves his arm resting it on the roof of the car and cuts her way out. "Who was that man in the alley tonight? You have been very silent since we left the Club." he asks eager for answers.

Answers that she can't give him. "No one important Matt and I'm tired... it's been a long week." she says in that sweet way of hers.

He smiles and leans over for a kiss, like always she only answers his kiss when she realizes that he is lingering on her lips and wants more but she is also the first to break away from the kiss.

He sighs and looks down on the ground, he loves Caroline but his patience towards her resistance to let him have her, is slowly testing him, Matt has his hand on her arm now and gently grips it leaning over for another kiss, one that she ends hastily.

"I have to go Matt..." she says quietly avoiding his eyes.

"Why don't you invite me inside tonight doll?"

He asks low and with a smile that she wants to believe is innocent.

She looks up meeting his eyes. "You promised me Matt... I need more time."

"We've been together for a year now and I'm growing very tired of waiting for something more than just a kiss that I have to force out of you." he snaps.

Caroline gives him a stern look. "You are free to find someone more eager to please you then Matt."

Matt doesn't fight her when she moves away from his embrace. "I love you Caroline." he says it as if that gave him the right to finally have her entirely.

She looks down again. "I'm not going to do anything that I don't want to just because you hired me to sing at your Club."

He smiles knowing that she is claiming her own. "I would never let you go, not when you are the main attraction doll." he says with a kind smile this time.

Caroline forces a smile of her own, she knows that she has to give in to him one day but she is doing what she loves, what she has dreamed of doing since she was a little girl which is sing.

It is a small price to pay, so she has been convincing herself for the past few months.

"Goodnight Matt." she says a second time and leaves for good.

Matt gets inside of his car upset, he looks at his driver and bodyguard. "Do you know who that man was? The one talking to Caroline tonight..."

The man turns around, one hand on the wheel and his other arm on the seat facing his boss. "I think that that was Klaus Mikaelson but I can ask around boss."

Matt opens his suit jacket and looks at her house. "You do that Alaric, find everything there is to know about this fella."

His trusted gun nods and then starts the car, Matt knows that Caroline is lying to him, he just doesn't know why.

Caroline closes her front door and rests against it, she closes her eyes trying to make sense of everything.

"Hey, you are home..."

Caroline opens her eyes to find her mother smiling and carrying a heavy load of fresh towels in her hands. "Yes, I had dinner with Matt which turned out to be longer than I wanted. Did I miss him awake?"

Liz nods. "He wanted to wait but his eyelids took the best of him."

Caroline sighs and moves away from the door, she drops the heavy fur coat on the table and goes upstairs to the bedrooms, she takes her open toe satin stilettos off on the way and laves them on the hallway.

Slowly she opens the door and silently comes closer to the small bed, she smiles and sits carefully not to wake him up, she strokes his long soft blond hair and he makes a tiny sleeping sound, inadvertently reacting to her presence.

Caroline bends down and kisses his smooth forehead and then moves to stand up but his sleepy voice stops her.

"Mommy?"

Caroline smiles and looks at him. "Pumpkin... you are awake."

"I waited for you but I guess I fell asleep." he says turning on his side so that he can look at her better.

"I was a little late tonight..." she starts to stroke his hair.

"Was the Club full again to see you mommy?" he asks with shining eyes.

"Yes pumpkin it was." she answers and pokes his nose. "But I'll tell you all about it tomorrow, now it's time to sleep."

The boy pouts. "But I've missed you."

Caroline gives him a look, only 10 years old and he is already able to use smooth words to get what he wants.

Just like his father.

"Dominic, bed." she strictly demands.

"I'm already in bed mommy." he mischievously smiles.

In it Caroline sees the dimples that never allows her to forget about Dominic's father. "I'm leaving to my room now Dominic so I suggest that you roll over and go back to sleep."

"Will you sing to me before you go? So I can fall asleep again?" he asks using his best sweet smile.

Caroline gives in, not because of what he is asking, some mothers read stories, she sings to her son, what makes her break down is how much she sees him in every little expression and smile of her young son.

She nods and sits against the headboard, Dominic nests his head on her lap and smiles when she starts singing slowly to him, quickly he drifts into sleep listening to her sweet voice knowing the lyrics by heart now.

Caroline doesn't move, she spends the night with her son in his bed, watching him sleep and lost in thought.

Nik is back in town and she can't stop worrying about how much everything is in danger of changing.

Soundtrack:

Ain't no other man – Christina Aguilera

Dream a little dream of me – Doris Day