Chapter Text
CHAPTER 1: A Sudden Departure
Caroline needed to be anywhere but here, in her house where she grew up with her mother who was taken away by a monster called cancer. She shed all the tears that needed to be shed today, including some tears of pain because of Stefan’s rejection at the funeral.
As she took off her shoes slowly, Elena strolled in through the kitchen with a warm mug of tea in her hands, ruining Caroline’s plan and irritating her as a result.
“What are you doing here Elena? I thought I told you that I’m fine,” Caroline said, who attempted to keep her voice smooth and calm.
“I don’t believe you Care.” All that Caroline could think of at that moment was how annoying Elena was and all she wanted was for her to go away, so she changed her strategy.
“I lost my mom Elena,” she said, allowing her tears to fall “and it hurts. It hurts so much that I can’t breathe.” At that instant, Elena extended her arms to embrace Caroline.
But it wasn’t comforting in the slightest and not even remotely as comforting as her mother’s embrace that she already missed so much. Caroline was so fed up with it all, tired of feeling this wounding pain so she used that opportunity to snap Elena’s neck, go up to pack her necessary stuff and she left her house with her humanity in it.
One year. That was more than enough time for her to not feel guilty, not feel anything. That was all she needed. With that in mind, she set off to New York, her phone turned off to avoid all the hounding messages and phone calls she was sure she’d be receiving from the crew of Mystic Falls.
Stefan entered Caroline’s house quickly, having noticed the door being left wide open.
“Caroline? Where-“
“She’s not here,” Elena said, rubbing her now sore neck. Stefan shot her a questioning look until she reiterated what she previously said.
“She’s gone.” The silence spoke volumes as Stefan realized that Elena meant more than just her physical presence. She meant her humanity.
“Call Damon. Bonnie. Matt, whatever but we need to figure out a plan before it’s too late.” With that, Stefan started to conjure failed plans within his mind as Elena called the gang, the word “ripper” hovering in the air around them.
Once they had all arrived and talked about the preceding events, there was a lot of noisy bickering and yelling as they struggled to formulate a decent enough plan. That was until Matt said,
“Do you think we should call Klaus?”
All their heads swiveled around to look at him, a frown appeared on Damon’s face while Elena’s face was plastered with shock. Stefan and Bonnie took a few moments to consider this while there was an uncomfortable silence around the room.
”Why would we call him? How is he supposed to know where she is?” Elena chided, baffled by the suggestion.
“That’s not a bad plan, Donovan,” Damon remarked as he reached out to drink his quality bourbon. Elena still looked as though she was having a mental battle in her head about the whole situation while Stefan chimed in.
“Do you think she could have gone to New Orleans? If she did then I’m going there. After what happened today with us, I should go and find her…and apologise.” Damon quirked an eyebrow at him, while Bonnie questioned him.
”What, pray tell, did you do to upset her?”
“Didn’t you hear? Blondie said she liked him and Stefan didn’t say it back,” Damon smirked, but it was quickly knocked off his face by an uncalled for jab in the arm by Elena.
“Apologies later. Finding her is the priority,” Matt contributed.
“Look guys, we don’t know that she’s in New Orleans for sure. But I think that calling Klaus is a good place to start because we all know he, in his own twisted way, cares about her and besides, I want my best friend back so we’ve got to try anything.”
“Yes, I know he likes her but still, he’s dangerous, for all we know-”
Elena was interrupted when Stefan said “I’ll call him,” as he pulled out his phone.
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Being King of New Orleans wasn’t an easy job by far. There would be enemies lurking behind the shadows of the streets, waiting to attack. But Klaus knew the city all too well. Besides, no one would dare mess with him and his family which now included Hayley and his precious daughter Hope. Not after he just defeated Marcel and his army of vampires for the second and hopefully the last time. But he still had many up and downs with his family, daggering them when he was particularly frustrated. And then there was Camille, his “therapist” that he would have to compel each time after their sessions together. He somehow started to develop feelings for her, perhaps because she was kind, innocent and beautiful. But she somehow reminded him of another blond that was fierce, defiant and full of light. Caroline. He did always wonder how she was doing since their last encounter in the woods, which he would certainly not forget.
As he stood outside on the balcony of his family home, trying to calm himself after the tiring events of his day, his phone started ringing incessantly.
“What now?” he huffed, letting a sigh escape from his mouth. His anger began to build up as he walked towards the constantly vibrating phone until he glanced down at who was calling non-stop. Stefan. He couldn’t help but question why his old friend kept bothering him, especially since they haven’t spoken in a while. Klaus finally picked the phone up to answer with a curious yet cocky Klaus-like greeting.
“Hello old friend, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Stefan coughed awkwardly as he gathered up his words.
“Hey Klaus, how are you?”
“Get to it old friend, I don’t have all day.” He huffed impatiently as the last thing he wants to deal with is Stefan and the doppelganger.
“Caroline’s mom died and she turned her humanity off. To summarise it, she bolted and we can’t find her.”
Klaus’s attitude instantly changed from impatient and annoyed to determined and worried from the moment that he heard Caroline’s name, unsure of what to think.
“Don’t fret. I will find her.” Then he hung up. All his memories of them flashed by in his mind as determination replaced his anger, a streak of his yellow hybrid glow flashing in his eyes. He would find her if it’s the last thing he would do.
Caroline compelled the hotel manager to let her take the best suite of the 5-star hotel, without paying a dime. It was certainly a luxury hotel, with luxury suites as her room spanned half of a floor. With her most innocent smile, she proceeded to her home for the next couple of weeks and unpacked in an orderly manner. Even if she didn’t have her humanity, she was still Caroline after all.
After settling down, she decided to finally reactivate her phone only to roll her eyes at the 200 new messages from her friends, 50 missed calls between Elena and Bonnie, including some voicemails from the others and a full collection of those from Stefan. What an annoying parting gift for me, she thought. He was a coward now, but anyway it didn’t matter because she didn’t care, which is why she,without a single doubt, deleted all of it and let herself fall asleep in peace, surrounded by few champagne bottles she had ordered and a selection of sweets.
The next afternoon, after putting on makeup and curling her hair, she decided to go see all that New York has to offer, including the famous sites and markets and other places worth going to see. The brief thought of Klaus and his words of music, art and culture flooded her mind at some points throughout the day , but she was quick to push it out of her mind and she allowed herself to drown in shopping on 5th Avenue, living her best life, paying for what she felt like paying and compelling the brands to give her the dresses for free when it was least obvious to others, as to not draw attention to herself.
When she finally spent a sufficient number of hours being outside in the winter cold, she returned home with the maximum number of shopping bags possible for her to hold. After she finally reached the hotel, she commanded ‘the help’ to carry her bags and strode off to her room, unaware of the blonde-haired, elegantly composed girl standing in the corner with a chocolate skinned person at her side.