Knocking on the Salvatore's front door hadn't been Klaus' plan. For one thing, Charlotte lived here so she didn't need permission and for another, he already had access to the home but when she'd used their joined hands to pull them to a stop he'd followed along with a teasing eye roll.

He could hear her heart racing beside him and his grip tightened, he knew she felt worried about what her brothers would say, it was the same fear that had raced through her the first time she'd kissed him and had to see Stefan the next day only this time she had a nice little hickey on her collarbone that she'd tried to hit him on the chest for. Well, she had more than the one hickey, but only one was partly visible, she'd tried to return the favour to him, frowning in frustration as each healed only moments after she made them.

He knew she was worried about her brothers reaction but it wasn't necessary, her brothers were so firmly wrapped around her little finger that Klaus knew however much they disapproved that they wouldn't hate her for it like she worried they would.

The door swung open and it was Damon who greeted them, "Huh," he said as his eyes flicked between Charlotte and Klaus' joined hands, "Stefan owes me twenty," he said to himself before his eyes flicked back up to his sister, "Charlie, you good?"

Charlotte nodded, her brows were still furrowed slightly with nerves and so as they stepped through the threshold Damon wrapped his arm around her shoulders as her hand dropped from Klaus'. While Klaus left for the cellar where Stefan and Alaric were, Charlotte and Damon stayed upstairs together.

"Are you okay?" Charlotte broke the silence, sliding out from underneath her brothers arm to try and look more properly at him. The last time she'd seen him he was covered in so much blood it seeped through her clothes and he couldn't even stand alone and though he seemed okay it was hard to wrap her head around his full recovery.

"Vampire Charlie-girl," Damon sung out cockily, "are you?"

"You know he's different with me, he wouldn't hurt me."

Damon used the tip of his finger to tug her collar down slightly, the pink of the hickey had been peeking out and by shifting Klaus' shirt that she wore he could see the mark.

His mouth turned up into a cocky smile as he examined his baby sister in front of her, "Depends what kind of hurt I guess," Damon teased with his eyebrows raised, "I'm glad it was you that stayed not me, not sure he's quite my type."

Charlotte shoved him away, "Do you- do you and Stef hate me? Because I don't hate him?"

"Jeez Charlie," Damon sighed, pulling her over to the couches so she could sit, "You're the only good thing left in our messed up family, we couldn't ever hate you."

Nodding thoughtfully she looked up, "I don't want you to kill him. Any of them, but especially Nik, please."

"We can't anyway he's collecting all the stakes we've got."

"Did you find all of them?" Charlotte asked.

She still hadn't brought up what Klaus had told her about forgiving her brothers actions if they relinquished their vendetta, she still worried a little that Damon wouldn't take it. Even knowing what she wanted, he held so much resentment towards Klaus still for what he did to her and Stefan and Elena, it was hard to let it all go.

"All but Ric's, Evil Ric hid it. We're waiting for him to take over again and then we can find out. I'm going on a little road trip with Elena and Stefan's staying back on torture brigade."

"Torture?" Charlotte asked a little shocked, "Is that why Nik wanted to come over?" Damon nodded as though it was obvious and Charlotte felt ill again, Stefan and Klaus together to torture someone, surprisingly like the summertime. She pushed it aside, not wanting to think about something so gruesome, "Where are you and Elena going?"

"Just up to visit Jeremy, he might be able to help us out with some stuff."

"What stuff?"

"Don't worry about it," Damon brushed her off, "Is your boy toy taking you back to your tower after this or are you gonna stay home with Stef."

Rolling her eyes Charlotte replied, "Damon the amount of women I've regretfully witnessed you with over the past century and a half really gives you little room to talk. But to answer your question, I'm not trapped, though I might sleep there tonight. I still want to talk to him and I doubt Stefan will be a fan of Nik staying over here."

Fortunately Damon didn't get a chance to reply with more than a grin at her snark as both a knock came to the door and Klaus began to return up the stairs. It was Elena waiting but Damon didn't invite her in, waving at Charlotte he pulled Elena away from the house trying to keep her as far away from Klaus as he could.

"Did you come here to torture Alaric?" Charlotte asked cooly as Klaus appeared by her side.

"Me?" Klaus replied, acting shocked though a mischievous smirk appeared on his face.

"Nik."

"Not to worry darling, I haven't tortured anyone in at least a month," Charlotte let out a sigh of relief at this. She didn't exactly expect Klaus to be a saint after six months together, but she also wasn't exactly a fan of sharing a bed with someone so fond of causing pain. Klaus spoke again and this time he caused Charlotte's face to fall into a frown, "I did snap his neck though, pesky little thing."

"Nik," Charlotte snapped out annoyed, her hand rose to hit him on the chest but he caught it with a smirk and used it to pull her towards him for a kiss. Charlotte was still annoyed and so as he pulled her towards him she turned her head so the kiss landed on her cheek. She frowned and shook her head,"Nuh uh."

"Would you rather I leave it to your baby brother to do the killing then?"

"Not the point!" she snapped back. Charlotte wasn't really angry at Klaus and he knew it, she was mostly annoyed that she was living in a world with so much death again. Charlotte sighed and her hand that was still in Klaus' fell against his chest, "Maybe I should go check on Stef."

"No," Klaus told her, "if you want him I'll get him but you don't need to go down there."

Charlotte nodded and after a little time Klaus fetched her brother for her. She did eventually go down there with him, Klaus had some things to attend to and so he left Charlotte at the Salvatore house and eventually she and Stefan went and sat in the cellar to wait for Alaric to wake up. She didn't go in the room that Alaric was laying dead in, Stefan too had thought it a bad idea and so instead they both sat talking outside.

Charlotte liked just sitting with her brother again, she'd missed him, after so long with only him and Klaus for company, coming back to Mystic Falls and really having neither of them had been harder on her than she'd realised. Damon was great, funny and more caring than he let on with others, but it was always Stefan who she was better at talking with, Stefan who she could confide in.

As children, Damon was who she and Stefan idolised, anything he said was gospel but as they grew up Stefan and Charlotte began to turn to each other for advice. Stefan had turned to Charlotte now and told her everything that'd begun with Elena. She felt so frustrated with everything that'd happened, she knew that Damon was only following his heart but she wished he could step back and see how it was hurting Stefan, it was a complicated situation that seemed to have no solution to please everyone.

Charlotte and Stefan had fallen into a pleasant rhythm of teasing and laughing when suddenly a great gasp came from the room behind them and Stefans face fell stony cold.

"Charlie go upstairs," Stefan told her turning away and walking to the door.

"But-"

"Go upstairs, don't come down," he repeated, there were two possibilities about what he'd find inside, he'd either find Alaric's evil alter ego or he wouldn't and he'd have to do something to make it come out. Neither were possibilities that he wanted Charlotte to be a part of no matter the will she seemed to now possess, "If you hear anything bad go to the Grill, Matt's working today."

"Stef it's fine-" Charlotte tried again, while she knew she wasn't exactly helpful she didn't want him to be left, she just wanted to sit on the bench outside.

"Charlie," Stefan snapped his heart unclenching in relief when he finally heard her feet begin to pad on the stairs.

Charlotte didn't know how to live in this world. For one, the way her brothers and Klaus seemed to treat things like death, murder, and torture, like tools in an arsenal terrified her, but she didn't know how to make them stop. It was foolish but she hated the supernatural realm, she wished they could just be normal like her and Matt. Well she technically wasn't normal, but she wasn't involved in death like they were, she skipped the parts of their world that caused so much pain.

She'd told Stefan about Klaus' vow to leave him and Damon alone if they gave up all the stakes and left him alone and while Stefan didn't exactly like the plan, he did agree to it. She needed to get Damon on board too but now she just had to wait for the final stake to be found.

Charlotte could hear grunts of pain coming from downstairs now and she knew that Evil Alaric hadn't woken up and that Stefan was beating it out of him. She knew really she should go to the Grill and see Matt but she didn't want to leave Stefan. This felt like during their summer and she didn't want him to be stuck doing this awful thing she knew he hated all alone. The groans of pain were pretty horrible though so instead she tugged a pillow over her head, fearing if she went upstairs they'd miss her when Klaus inevitably returned.

She was woken a little while later to Klaus and Rebekah talking with Stefan, she couldn't hear the groans of pain anymore and she pushed the pillow from her head with a groan. She hadn't planned on sleeping, she'd swiped Stefan's copy of Moby Dick and had that squished under the pillow with her but she couldn't quite get herself to care quite enough about the story to keep it up.

By the time that Charlotte had pushed herself up into a seated position Rebekah had disappeared and Klaus was pouring himself a drink, her eyes flitted between him and Stefan nervously. Stefan looked defeated and he had blood on his healed knuckles and a little on his shirt while Klaus looked surprisingly chipper. She stood up and was walking towards Stefan when suddenly Klaus had sped to her, pulling her behind him with an arm that wrapped quickly around her waist.

"Nik?" Charlotte asked, confused until Rebekah appeared in the room with a beaten and bloody Alaric by her side.

"It's a little gratuitous, don't you think Stefan?" Klaus was looking at Rebekah and Alaric as he spoke cooly but his hand had tucked behind his back slipping into Charlotte's and he gave it a soft squeeze. She knew why he'd sped in front of her now as she looked at Alaric and could see the kind smile he often wore when looking at her was gone and he looked furious. Klaus continued, raising his drink up in a casual manner as he spoke, "I would've been more gentle."

"I'm gonna take him to the caves," Rebekah told them before turning and addressing Alaric in her grip, "You're gonna go in and fetch me the stake. And if you think you can hide, you're wrong."

"And then there were three," Klaus said loudly, stepping to the side so Charlotte was no longer separated from the conversation, "I know about your brother's little mission to Denver. He failed. Not that that's news anymore."

"What did he fail at?" Charlotte asked wearily, "They were just visiting Elena's brother."

Klaus' face lit up into a grin as he looked to Stefan, "Would you like to tell her or should I?"

Stefan sighed, catching Charlotte's eyes with a guilty expression before turning back to Klaus, "So, what're you gonna do now, Klaus? You gonna kill me?"

"I haven't actually decided yet," Klaus replied slowly, tasting each word on his lips.

"You promised," Charlotte growled out.

"I promised you a deal, but Damon has spent the day off finding out who they're sired by so they know which of my siblings they can't kill. Doesn't sound like they're dropping a vendetta against my family to me, does it sound that way to you, my darling?"

Charlotte felt torn, she was by her brothers side to the end but she'd talked to both Stefan and Damon and neither of them had told her their plan to find the origin of the sire line. She thought they'd let it go when she'd asked and she didn't know whether to feel hurt they hadn't or concerned that Klaus wasn't telling her the full story.

She didn't reply and Stefan let out a breath of laughter, "Oh sure you've decided Klaus. See, you've had every chance and every excuse imaginable to do it. But yet you haven't. You know no matter the reasoning if you killed me that you'd lose my sister for good. You haven't killed me because you don't want to and you know you can't."

"You know something, you're right," Klaus replied cooly, he didn't address Charlotte thrown into the mix, although that wasn't the only reason it certainly was an element and he didn't want to lose her again, "See, I'm still waiting for my old friend to come back. By the looks of it, he's just beneath the surface. Waiting to come out and play," here Klaus let out a soft chuckle, "Isn't that right, Ripper?"

Charlotte scoffed now and moved away from the two boys. She hated cruel Klaus and she hated listening when he spoke like this, she knew it was him lashing out from Stefan and Damon's actions but she still felt uncomfortable as she moved away towards the fireplace.

"I've been fighting that part of myself thinking that if I repressed it it might go away," Stefan was pacing slowly towards Klaus as he replied, his voice low and steady and threatening, he didn't take kindly to the way Klaus felt he could threaten him constantly and he felt done with it all, "but it won't. And now that I've accepted it, it can't control me. And neither can you. So, unless you're gonna stake me why don't you get the hell out of my house."

Without waiting for a response, Stefan gave one final glance at Charlotte before turning and heading up the stairs. Charlotte sunk back to the couch she'd been laying on earlier, she let out a sigh and squeezed her eyes shut with her arms crossed over her face.

"Why must you threaten him?"

"He started it," Klaus retorted softly, he was such a child sometimes for someone so old, "I only want my old friend back."

"Nik," Charlotte sighed, forcing her eyelids over to give him a disappointed stare, "God how am I the youngest one here."

Klaus' face twitched into a smirk, realising she wasn't fighting with him anymore, "So I heard you telling your brother that you don't think that I'm particularly welcome to stay in your bed. Would you like to stay in mine?"

Charlotte's face matched Klaus' in a reluctant smirk, pulling the pillow beside her up she threw it at Klaus' face with as much force as she could muster, "Stop eavesdropping you creep."

"Not my fault you spend so much time gossiping with the girls about me."

"God you're so annoying," she told him, her eyes narrowing as she stood to her feet before him.

"You know I'd rather you called-"

With a laugh Charlotte shoved Klaus in the chest with all her weight, "That joke wasn't funny the first time you said it it's not funny the third."

Klaus' hands had wrapped around her wrists when she'd pushed against him and he used his grip to pull her falling against his body, dropping her hands to wrap around her waist. She was pulled close to him and her hands had mirrored his, wrapping around as her head fell on his chest.

Charlotte melted and then froze in his grip as she felt him lean down towards her, his lips brushing against her ear as he murmured softly, "I'm hilarious. Why don't we go home and change your mind. I can be very persuasive, my darling."