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

He takes another long draw from his cigarette and fixes his black hat while he 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 it.

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 attempting to warm up his feet.

He makes a small cloud of smoke while glancing over to the bloodied mess that Kol is causing, the smoke mixes up with the fog. His conscience with duty.

Finally, Kol steps away from the poor man and rests his bat against his shoulder smiling at Klaus. The message was loud and clear, no one will be stealing from them again.

Klaus knows that the man won't probably make it home, but they all turn their backs on the low-life and leave him behind, coughing up blood and probably a liver.

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

He just returned to Chicago and already he hates it.

He hates the smell, the people who look at him trying to remember who he is, and he hates the memories that this dark town is bringing back with every passing second.

It has been 10 very long years since the night he left Chicago and his hideous father behind. 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, which was harder to endure than the Dry Law itself,

But Mikael was as bad at managing a smuggling business as he was in parenthood and drank more alcohol than he ever did sell.

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

Klaus doesn't consider joining the conversation, he is too wrapped up in his own 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 really 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 is the Priestman or the milkman that he was greeting but it's all the same for him regardless, neither of them are able to give him what he needs.

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.

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

Klaus

The club is crowded 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 caramel 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 alright 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 unbothered 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 carelessly resting her elbows on 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 say.

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 joint.

In that instant the place seems to come alive, and I understand why it's so packed 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 while 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 interested.

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 to 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 over 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.

But 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 big 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. Where you belong."

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 territory here in Chicago, they are stealing merchandise from us and trying to take over our business." I explain as candidly as I have always spoken about the family business with her.

There have 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 of me..." I hurt her back by pointing at the heavy fur coat, the fine jewelry sparkling around 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 turns out 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 that you have another fan wooing you."

Doll, he calls her doll.

No man can be taken seriously, if he calls a woman a 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."

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 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 is his forte after all. While Kol is flawless with a bat, Elijah is one with the numbers.

He scolds Klaus with a shady look when he sees him going through the open box of liquor, fetching a bottle for himself. "That's your own money that you are stealing."

Klaus reacts to the stern admonishment 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 drops his soaking wet coat on the small couch, followed by the drenched hat that he drops on the table and over Elijah's precious ledger books.

"You seem upset, more than usual." Elijah says while he rescues his books from the flood.

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

"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.

"I think that we should be able to recover the majority of the loss our father inflicted on us." He points at the books. "It will take time and a strict hand, but we should be back on track soon enough."

Klaus doesn't bother with the ledger. He knows what was 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 while refilling his glass.

Elijah's smile tells him what he needs to know, and he simply nods before silence settles between them

Klaus's 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 ever seen.

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 tells him sweetly.

He gently moves his arm, resting it on top of the roof of the car, cutting her way out. "Who was that man in the alley tonight? You haven't said much since we left the club."

"No one that was important and I'm tired... It's been a long week."

She says in that sweet way of hers and he smiles leaning 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 one to break away from the kiss.

He sighs with a look 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 and grips it tighter while leaning over for another kiss, one that she ends hastily when he kisses her roughly.

"I have to go, Matt. It's getting really late." 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 in return. "Well, you're always free to find someone more eager to please you, Matt."

Matt doesn't fight her when she moves away from his arms. "I love you, Caroline." He reminds her of his feelings.

"I'm not going to do anything that I don't want to do, just because you hired me to sing at your club. I told you that when you first invited me out."

"And I've respected that, but things are heating up between us…" His smile takes a strange direction. "Or at least they should be."

"You hired me to sing, not to sleep with you and if you can't wait, then you're free to fire me."

"I would never let you go, not when you are the main attraction, Caroline Forbes."

A second passes between them, when Caroline knows that he will have his way one day and that she will have to give in but that's not happening tonight, and he also knows it.

"I'll see you tomorrow, doll." He smiles, like the tension was never there between them.

Caroline forces a smile of her own, sleeping with him will be a small price to pay. Or so she has been convincing herself for the past few months.

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 while facing his boss. "I think that was Klaus Mikaelson, but I can ask around to be sure, boss."

Matt opens his suit jacket while he looks at her house. "You do that, Alaric. Find everything there is to know about this fella that left her so shaky."

His trusted gun nods and then starts the car.

Caroline closes her front door and rests against it with trembling legs.

She closes her eyes trying to make sense of everything, how her world tumbled down without warning and without control again tonight.

"Hey, you're 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 take 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.

On the way, she also takes her open toe satin stilettos off and leaves them on the hallway.

Slowly, she opens the door and silently comes closer to the small bed.

She sits down, careful not to wake him up and strokes his long soft blond hair.

He makes a tiny sleeping sound, inadvertently reacting to her presence.

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

"Mommy?"

She smiles. "Pumpkin… you're supposed to be sleeping."

"I wanted to wait for you, awake…" He scoops closer to her.

"I ran a little late tonight, more than usual." She starts to stroke his hair.

"Was the club full again to see you, mommy?" He asks with shining eyes.

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

"But I've missed you so much." He pouts. "Can't I stay awake for a little longer?"

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.

Caroline sees the dimples that never allowed her to forget about his father.

"I'm going to my room now, so I suggest that you roll over and go back to sleep."

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

Some mothers read stories, she sings to her son, so she nods and sits against the headboard.

Dominic nests his head on her lap and quickly he drifts into sleep, listening to her sweet voice and 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's not ready for it.

Soundtrack:

Ain't no other man – Christina Aguilera

Dream a little dream of me – Doris Day