Charlotte was bored, all cooped up in the Salvatore house. Considering the fact that she'd only entered the millennium a matter of months ago, aside from her brothers or their high school friends, she was fairly alone. During the day, if she wasn't with Damon or Stefan, she tended to have little to do until the afternoons.

Stefan was back, sort of. He'd unified with Damon at least and while he still didn't have his humanity on, he did have his free will back and he was a little less hostile to Charlotte and Damon. Stefan had made up with Damon after Klaus' recent 'demonstration of force', which resulted in Jeremy and Alaric nearly being killed.

Thankfully they'd both recovered fine and Damon had returned home to Charlotte to tell her that Stefan was less of a dick than he'd recently thought. Charlotte's suspicion, that Stefan had betrayed them for a reason had been true after all, Stefan had discovered that if Klaus died, Damon would too.

Stefan had saved Klaus for Damon.

Charlotte was glad her brothers were on the same team again, but they were now back on the revenge against Klaus train. Damon hadn't explicitly told her that, but she could tell by the way they were conspiring and talking to each other that Damon knew more about Klaus' stolen coffins now than he was letting on.

Today in the morning before school had begun, Stefan and Damon had left early to meet Bonnie. Charlotte was just getting up from a run when she caught them leaving, Damon waved at her and Stefan even smiled, a hint of her brother back. Charlotte was sure whatever her brothers and Bonnie were doing was something to do with Klaus' coffins however she was sticking out of the supernatural world as best she could.

She wished really, that they'd just let it go, that Stefan and Damon would give up the coffins and that Klaus would give up Elena, that they'd all call a truce and move on with their lives. While Charlotte certainly wasn't a fan of Klaus, she definitely didn't want him and her brothers getting into some tit for tat war where someone, likely them, would end up getting hurt. She'd so firmly embedded the idea that she wanted out of the supernatural drama that neither brother wanted to involve her but even staying out of it, she worried about the final outcome.

Charlotte returned for her run and showered only to realise that once she was back she had very little to do. She was reading a novel she'd stolen from Damons room when finally her phone rang and she nearly leapt on it in excitement. Life was fairly slow when you only knew a handful of people and couldn't work or go to school.

"Hey Matty blue eyes," Charlotte answered, walking in through the house lazily and depositing herself on a couch in the library

"God," Matt laughed, "you sound like Katherine. What are you doing?"

Charlotte dramatically sighed, "Matt everyone I know is in high school or a Salvatore and it's like noon."

"Good. Forget the Stefan-Damon-Klaus drama for a day. Come to Caroline's not birthday darty."

Charlotte spent longer than she wanted to admit trying to translate that sentence, "What on earth is a not birthday darty?"

"A darty!" Matt laughed, "day-time party! Well, afternoon/ night but it's starting in the day. . . in spirit. Steal some of Damons tequila, put some warm clothes on and we'll pick you up."

Charlotte didn't even get a chance to reply before Matt had hung up, they were close now and he knew that Charlotte would be in, even if she had had something else planned. Charlotte managed to find a bottle and a half of tequila and a jacket of Stefans to wear over her sweater, scribbling a note for her brothers before climbing into Matt's very full car.

"This is creepy. Even for us," Bonnie said as they pushed open the doors and walked into a crypt.

"No, Caroline was right. Technically, she's dead," said Elena, setting the light down in the room, "Sorry. But you don't need a birthday. You need a funeral. You need to say goodbye to your old life, so that you can move on with your new one."

Caroline looked touched as Elena talked and she smiled at Matt and Charlotte before talking, "Okay," she agreed, "here lies Caroline Forbes."

"Cheerleader," Elena cut in, "Miss Mystic Falls, third grade hopscotch champion," As she spoke she added candles into the cake she was holding, one for each year of Carolines life.

"Friend, daughter, over achiever," Bonnie said next.

"Mean girl," Matt added with a laugh, "sometimes, no offence."

Caroline laughed at that, "None taken."

"Fashion saviour," Charlotte added in, smiling and grabbing her hand to squeeze when Caroline bowed to her.

"She was 17 and she had a really good life. So rest in peace so that you can move forward," Elena finished putting all the candles in and brought the cake towards them, "It's what you really need. It's what we all really need. Amen, or cheers, or whatever," Elena stumbled as she spoke and laughed before turning to Bonnie and holding the cake up, "Bonnie?"

"Nice," Charlotte laughed as the candles all flickered to life in unison.

"Make a wish," Elena said with a grin, holding the cake out to Caroline.

There wasn't any animosity between them as they ate the cake although it was coming.

Charlotte knew what Elena and Damon had done recently, sending Jeremy out of town without a choice and she expected by now Bonnie would too. She felt too awkward to get involved in their business when she didn't have a stake in it but she knew it sucked to be compelled and wasn't a fan of Elena taking her brothers choice away.

No one had actually brought any of it up, keeping the peace mostly however when Charlotte leant over to pass the bottle of tequila to Matt to swig, Elena tugged it from his hands.

"Uh- uh," she called out, "I need it more than you do. Trust me," Charlotte and Matt exchanged a glance but neither said anything. Caroline was in the corner of the crypt, texting and Elena caught her, "Caroline, what are you doing?" she asked sternly.

"Huh?" Caroline quickly dropped her phone from view, holding her hands demurely in her lap as she replied, "Nothing."

"Huh?" Elena repeated.

"Hmm."

"Okay, you're a bad sober liar," Elena confronted her, "you're an even worse drunk liar."

"I might've texted Tyler," Caroline replied, blush rising to her cheeks.

"Caroline!" Elena scolded.

"What? I'm delicate."

Charlotte stood to her feet to stand by Caroline, she didn't think it was fair to get angry at Caroline, she was barely more than a kid and she was drunk texting her ex. She knew what it was like to have feelings of some kind for someone she shouldn't and Tyler hadn't done half the things Klaus had.

"You know what, give her a break," Bonnie snapped at Elena, "You can't control what everyone does all the time."

"Ouch Bon," Matt said, breaking the silence between them.

"I'm sorry," Bonnie apologised, "I know it's Carolines birthday, funeral or whatever but I just feel it's really wrong you compelled Jeremy to leave town."

"I'm doing it to protect him, Bonnie. I want to give him a chance at a halfway normal life."

"He should be able to choose how he wants to live," Bonnie stood by her argument, "You're taking his choices away."

Although Charlotte felt like what Bonnie was saying was fair, she didn't think this was the time to talk about it, not here when they were celebrating Caroline. That being said, Elena did control things, whether intentionally or not. She knew that in Elena's mind she made the decisions she did for everyone best interest and she knew she wasn't trying to hurt people, but that didn't meant that she didn't.

Charlotte knew first hand how it was for Jeremy. She was put in danger because of her brothers and she, as the human, had lost her free will through compulsion. Yes her and Jeremy were different, but they were similar too, Charlotte knew that if she had the choice to be compelled away into a new city to start over, leaving her family and friends, or to stay and do it all over again, she'd stay no matter what she was risking.

"Bonnie," Elena looked worried as she begged, "you can't tell him."

"Why? You gonna compel me not to?"

"You know, you guys are ruining a perfectly good funeral," Matt broke the tension, Caroline and Charlotte looking to him relieved. They were both leaning against each other as they'd watched the argument snap back and forth and Charlotte had begun to tap her fingers nervously against her side, hating listening to them fight.

"I'm sorry. I'm just gonna go sleep it off or something," Bonnie apologised and got to her feet, gripping her bag she turned to Caroline before she left, "Happy birthday."

"Thanks," Caroline muttered out, Charlotte grabbed her free hand squeezing it and passing her the tequila.

After Bonnie left things got a little easier. Charlotte had told an embarrassing story about her and Matt at the Grill the first time she'd tried to play pool and had hit the white ball so hard it flew from the table and smashed a glass on the table beside them, and the tequila had been passed around the circle several more times.

"Sorry," a voice broke into the group as the door swung open and their laughter faltered, "I didn't mean to crash the party."

"So don't," Matt snapped at Tyler, standing to his feet defensively.

"Matt," Charlotte sighed softly, grabbing his hand and tugging him back down. She knew Matt felt protective over his friends and didn't want them getting hurt but she also knew Caroline wouldn't have texted him if she didn't at least a little bit want to see him.

"No, its uh," Caroline jumped to her feet, "it's okay. Hi."

"Can I talk to you for a sec," Tyler asked, "It's kind of important," Caroline glanced between the three remaining in the crypt nervously before nodding and following Tyler.

"Are you okay?" Elena asked Matt when they were alone.

"Yeah. I want her to be happy, you know?" Matt replied, gratefully taking the bottle of tequila passed to him and swigging before continuing, "It's what I want for all of you guys, in the middle of this crazy life you got stuck living."

"Is that how you see it?" Elena asked, "that we're stuck?"

Matt was slow to reply, knowing Elena wouldn't like to hear it but Charlotte was glad he was saying what was on his mind. Matt and she often talked about the supernatural and how deeply embedded his friends were in the world while he and Charlotte had one foot in and one out. She knew how much it terrified him that he would lose more people, their lives seemed constantly at risk and he hated that others got caught in the crossfire too.

"I'd say its attached itself to you all pretty tight, yeah"

"Bonnie's right, you know?" said Elena, "I have no business messing in Jeremy's head. I just didn't know what else to do. He's in danger here. I can't lose anyone else that I love."

"Elena, I know he's your brother but I'm in the same boat as him," Charlotte explained, "I got taken because of what Damon and Stefan did. I'm in danger because of my brothers, but I still want the choice to stay. It just sucks to loose your free will. If we could go back to before the sacrifice happened," here Charlotte paused, knowing the night of the sacrifice would be a tender moment for Elena, "if we could go back to that night and Damon or Stefan could compel me away, I wouldn't do it. Even if I might be happier and would certainly be safer, I'd rather have the choice."

Elena nodded in understanding, stewing for a while in her thoughts and Charlotte passed her the tequila to chug. Charlotte and Matt started teasing each other to distract themselves and soon Elena was smiling and laughing along with them, the argument forgotten.

"Is it just me or has Caroline been gone a while?" Matt asked causing both Charlotte and Elena to furrow their brows as they tried to remember how long it'd been.

"Let's go look," Elena proposed, tugging Charlotte to her feet with a giggle as they both stumbled, tipsier than they'd predicted now they had to stand and support themselves.

"Caroline," Matt called, holding the flashlight as Elena and Charlotte followed.

"Great, we've been abandoned," Elena said, "Okay, we're going on a search party. I don't trust that she won't get back together with him."

"Come on Caroline," Charlotte called, "we don't have any more drinks," No one replied and Charlotte turned to Matt with a cheeky grin, "Matty's being haunted by the Fell ghosts," Elena caught on and grabbed Matt's shoulder suddenly causing him to jump while both Elena and Charlotte descended into giggles.

Suddenly a figure appeared behind them, "Sorry Charlie," the voice called out before hands were on her and Matt's heads, smashing them together causing both of them to fall unconscious and collapse to the ground.

Charlotte didn't know how long she was out but she slowly began to stir as she felt someone shaking her shoulder.

"Charlotte, Charlie wake up," the voice said.

Charlotte painstakingly pulled her eyes open to realise she was laying on the ground outside the crypt.

"Matt?" she asked, her head was pounding and even opening her eyes made the throbbing worse. She made contact with Matt who started pulling her to her feet, the look on his face causing Charlotte to sober up immediately, "What happened?"

"I don't know," he replied, his voice frantic, "Elena's gone and Tyler bit Caroline."

Charlotte was well awake now, "Tyler bit Caroline?" she understood his panic now, "Oh god. We'll find Elena but first we have to get Caroline home. Klaus can cure her. He owes me. Klaus will cure her."

Matt nodded numbly, pulling Charlotte to the clearing where Caroline lay.

While Matt drove frantically back to the Forbes house Charlotte rang Klaus' phone a dozen times, sure he could hear her whimpers though the phone. Caroline was awake in the car but she was distraught, curled into a ball she was sobbing and hallucinating as they drove.

Matt had rushed Caroline inside when they arrived, explaining frantically to her mother, Sheriff Forbes, while Charlotte continued to dial Klaus' phone number repeatedly.

"Klaus," Charlotte's voice shook as she paced back and forth out the front of the house, leaving him yet another voicemail, "Are- are you getting these? You said if I needed anything I could call. I need something. Please come, Caroline's been bitten by Tyler. I need your help, please-"

"For the record darling," Klaus called out to Charlotte cutting her off, "one voice mail works as well as fifteen."

"Klaus," Charlotte sighed out in relief, her phone falling to her side as she stared desperately at him, "please-"

Her body sagged with relief at his presence. When he hadn't called her back she felt gripped with terror that he wouldn't come and it would somehow be her fault. She couldn't take her eyes off him, standing there as cool as could be, hands in his pocket watching her stand and shake on the porch.

Klaus fought to keep his hands from grabbing her and pulling her towards him when he saw her, the terror and sadness on her face made his heart clench in a way it shouldn't. Even now, with him here, her hands were still shaking, her fingers tapping nervously on her phone as she tried to steady herself, tried to hold the sobs in that he could see were waiting to break forth.

Klaus nodded and walked to the door and Charlotte curled into a ball on the porch, relieved their friend wouldn't die tonight.

Matt was at the door waiting, he didn't want to let Klaus in. He hated him for everything he'd done, to Caroline, to Charlotte, to Elena, to Tyler. He was the root of all evil and he knew as well as Charlotte did that he didn't do good deeds without a catch, something would be required as payment for the cure.

"You made Tyler do this to her," Matt spat out, "he would've never done something like this to her."

"I am here to help, Matt," Klaus replied, "Charlotte called me asking for help and here I am. Please, ask the sheriff to invite me inside."

"I know how this game works," Caroline's mother came out to the doorway, "you want something in return."

"Just your support."

"Come in," Sheriff Forbes conceded.

Matt was inside with the Sheriff while Charlotte waited outside, she couldn't bear to be in there right now. She could hear Klaus and Caroline talking through the window and Charlotte pulled her phone out again, finally replying to Damons text telling her that he'd gotten Elena back and asking if she was alright.

Charlotte heard footsteps approaching and she climbed to her feet knowing it was Klaus, "Is she alright?"

Klaus nodded, "you're bleeding," he noted, pushing her hair from her face where blood had pooled, where her head hit Matt's she presumed.

"I'm fine Klaus," Charlotte stepped away, "thank you for healing Caroline."

"And you?" he offered, smiling when she shook her head, "Are you alright darling? You look tired."

As much as Charlotte's body wanted to lean into him she couldn't, she had to remind herself what he'd done and who he was. She was sure to some extent, this whole evening was instigated by him, Tyler biting Caroline and Elena being taken for whatever reason it was. However much she missed him as he stood before her, she knew she needed to stop her falling into him like her body wanted. She needed to do what was right for her.

"Don't do this," Charlotte turned away from him, "we're not there anymore. Good night, thank you."

Klaus turned to leave before looking back, "Charlotte you might notice that despite you and your brothers betrayal you remain unharmed."

"Is that a threat?" she asked, stepping back towards the house in shock.

Charlotte didn't know why but his words rocked her. She didn't know if he was talking like this to remind her he could do whatever he liked, in the way he used to when they first met, or if he was saying this as an attempt at remedying their relationship.

"No darling it's not. It's a reminder that I let you leave even after you and your brother lied to me and that despite the fact that taking you would force your brothers hand, you remain at home. Charlotte you are the key to the hearts of everyone I seek to destroy and yet I would tear to pieces the heart from anyone who even thought to hurt you."

Charlotte's heart was racing but she didn't reply and soon Klaus was gone and Matt was at the doorway offering a lift home.