Gravity

Pawns and the Bishop

Caroline stirred the drink in her hand, she looked around The Grill and felt blessed that it was empty, she gulped down the strong scotch whiskey and poured herself another drink, she stubbornly tried to peel the label from the bottle while trying to think of something else rather than what consumed her.

She raised her eyes when a double set of heels walked inside of the Pub, Rebekah and Bonnie gave her a look and joined her in the secluded table in the back.

"Drinking alone at 9 in the morning and looking like that? All that is missing is the long cigarette." Rebekah said taking the seat next to Bonnie.

Bonnie gave Caroline a look as well. "What's wrong Care? This isn't typical you..."

"I'm miserable." she said with a huge pout and gave up on the ugly label that wouldn't come off.

"What did my idiot brother do this time?" Rebekah asked angry.

"Nothing..." she grumbled.

Her friends eyed her waiting for something more substantial.

"It's Tatia." she said with a really annoyed voice.

"You seemed really upset last night." Bonnie commented.

Caroline chuckled. "Upset... I was beyond upset. And now she has moved in with us which is just wonderful."

Rebekah watched as Caroline took the drink in one take, pouring another one at once. "Have you talked to Nik about this?"

"Your brother thinks like a soldier, he doesn't see what I see." she replied.

"And what do you see?" Rebekah insisted.

"I see a really hot woman who has her eyes set on him. I see the way that she was undressing him with her eyes... she was practically moaning his name in her mind by the time I left the room..." Caroline looked at the two smiling girls in front of her. "What?"

Bonnie looked at Rebekah and then rested her chin on her hand. "Care... Klaus doesn't even acknowledge the presence of other women, he won't start now. Tatia is just someone who showed up God only knows how and she is part of his very very far away past."

Caroline nodded. "I know all that. And I know that you think that I'm just being petty but it's more than that... when we were in Italy he flirted with the girl at the desk, she was more than willing to jump his bones right there and he still, oh so subtly, flirted with her, knowing that I was raging mad with jealousy just by the thought of him being with someone else..." she made this low sound that was close to a snarl. "But still I knew that he wouldn't do anything more than just be his stupid seductive self..." she took a deep breath and came totally clean with her friends. "I feel like I somehow took Klaus for granted. Like... he was always the one chasing after me, seducing me. And now this woman shows up and I got reminded all of a sudden that he does have a romantic life before me. There were other women that mattered to him and that were important and what if I took his love as something certain that would always be only mine? What if I made the huge mistake of taking his love for granted, so sure that he would always be there chasing after me?"

Bonnie reached out and took Caroline's hands into hers for comfort. "It's ok to feel like that, to be scared and uncertain Care, if you are that afraid of losing Klaus it only means that you love him that much."

"As the voice of the past here..." Rebekah pointed to herself. "Tatia wasn't remotely as important as you have become to my brother Caroline. You can ask any of my brothers, she was the girl he loved when he was human, she was his first real crush but she was never much more than that. You are the love of his life, human, vampire, hybrid life. I assure you that Tatia means nothing."