thevulnerability | ic contact for entranceway;

Yeah. Me too.

[She'd been helping someone else, the person that Elena had called to warn her about. She probably wanted Caroline to stay away, to not get hurt, but she'd had to try and help. For Klaus and his victims.

She saved some people that day, but not everyone.

She doesn't notice the change in Chloe's demeanor at the sight of her ring; she doesn't know her well enough for that. She does hear the change in her heartbeat, though.

She might already know what she is, she wouldn't be shocked since she's in their circle.
Caroline wouldn't blame her.]

She's been my best friend since we were super little. We grew up together.

Oh, right.

[ Childhood friends. That would explain why she was close to Elena. She is curious as to how Elena managed to collect vampires like some people coins. Or maybe vampires just beget other vampires, which doesn't exactly make Chloe feel great about being wrapped up in the lot of them.

But she is already part of it, already in over her head. The only thing she can do from now on is to be careful. ]

I didn't realize you've known her that long. She must really appreciate you being here. [ Chloe pauses, taking in another breath. No point in being coy about it. ] I'm sure you understand why I'm not rushing to let you in, though.

[Childhood friends in one of those small towns where everyone knew everyone.

Also, a small town that historically had a vampire problem.

Well, that clinches that. She definitely knows. Her expression turns sheepish as she rocks back on her heels once.]

No, yeah, I get it. I didn't know if you knew or not. [Her lips press together almost anxiously. It's something she usually keeps a secret.] Most people don't since there's...hunters around and stuff. Some of them don't care if you're drinking from a bag or a person. They just label you a monster and call it a day.

I've seen... enough to get the message. Freya filled me in after that.

[ Thankfully. It was nice to get some perspective, especially from someone who knew a lot more than Lucifer did. At least Chloe wasn't completely blind anymore, what with some background and a little vervain handy. ]

I know Damon. And I trust Elena. I'm not going to hurt you or rat you out, I can promise. [ Chloe glanced into her apartment, sighing. ] For now, you wanna go sit somewhere a little more... neutral, I guess? We can talk.

[She looks a little surprised at that. Maybe she shouldn't have been, though, considering who her friends are.]

Oh. [A beat.] I live with her, actually. Well, kind of. I live with her brother and they have a common area so, sort of?

[She realizes she's rambling. The people that she knows here from home are all interconnected a little too tightly, sometimes. She ends up shaking her head, grinning.] No, I didn't think you were going to do anything like that. [She hooks a thumb over her shoulder, eyebrows lifting.] We could go down to this floor's tea room, if that works?

That sounds great.

[ Already wearing her vervain, all Chloe had to do was grab her key and slip out the door. She tried to lower her guard a little, remembering that this was a friend of Elena's. If she were a danger, Chloe was sure Elena would have warned her.

Granted, no one had warned her about Klaus. But that was unexpected. Besides, at that point, Chloe would have never believed them. ]

I appreciate you coming by. After what happened, it's nice to talk to a... Well, people who can kind of help me understand what happened. [ She takes a breath, pausing before she offers Caroline an apologetic smile. ] You live with Klaus?

[She grins over at her as they start to walk down the hall.]

I wasn't sure you'd want me to, so I'm glad I did it anyway. And you can say the word, you know. It's not like I'm gonna be offended. I'm totally okay with answering questions, too.

[She spins her daylight ring idly with one finger as she looks away at the mention of his name. She knows what happened with that whole mess, even if she wasn't there. Enough to be glad that she isn't just hating her on principal.]

Um, yeah, only since right after the mirrors crossed over.

Wow, okay, thanks. I'm into the straight-forward thing, it's helpful.

[ Thankfully, almost everyone has been. Chloe was probably expecting a little more mystery, or maybe dancing around it a bit like Lucifer often did with his background. It is hard to ever get a straight answer out of him, and if Chloe had ever entertained the idea of vampires or werewolves before, she probably would have thought they'd be more secretive.

Granted, she has been thrown into the fray. She had no expectations for their loyalty but somehow has been pleasantly surprised. ]

I've talked to him too. He explained what happened. [ She notices Caroline's fidgeting. ] I don't blame him. Or Freya.

It's hard to know who to trust with that kind of stuff. I think you've already proven that it's safe to tell you.

[Answering questions often meant information involving their weaknesses. For as strong as they were, those were severe and debilitating.

Her lips press together and she nods, turning her head to give Chloe a small smile.]

See, that's what I mean. A lot of people would have.

Yeah, well. I saw a lot of really horrible things back home. [ She pauses thoughtfully. ] I'm a cop. I'm used to people doing horrible things for bad reasons, but this just... It doesn't sit the same with me. [ Another pause. ] Klaus is my friend.

[ Once they get to the diner, Chloe waits to say anything else until they are seated in a booth in the back. Chloe clears her throat and leans in, keeping her voice low enough so that anyone else around wouldn't be able to overhear their conversation. ]

I don't blame you for not trusting most people. It's a... Well, it's a pretty big... Thing. Being a... You know. Uh, if you and Elena grew up together, how long have you been...?

I used to hate him. [She looks simultaneously amused and bothered by that fact. It's complicated in more ways than she can say.] Things change.

[But she's glad he still has a friend in her. Klaus needs friends in a way that most don't. He needs them to stick around when things get tough, to not give up on him.]

A vampire. [She says it again, hoping it will help her get used to the term.] Not very long. Less than a year.

[ Chloe smirked, thinking about how exasperated she had felt around Lucifer when she first met him. She could barely stand the guy. Now? She couldn't imagine her life without him. These days, she really didn't want to. ]

Yeah, they do. Klaus is a good guy. I think he can use the support, especially now.

[ Chloe smiles, blushing a little at Caroline's clarification. It's still hard for her to wrap her mind around, even after her talk with Freya. ] That's not very long. [ She presses her lips together thoughtfully. ] What's it like? I mean, if you don't mind me asking.

[Caroline isn't sure what to say about that. Klaus isn't what anyone would necessarily call a 'good' guy. It had taken her a long time to come to terms with the fact that she cared about him anyway, that she didn't want to condemn him when he was trying to be better.

Not everyone would call her a good guy either.]

It's...an adjustment. [Understatement. Chloe seems genuinely curious, though, so she goes on.] Take everything you know about being human and dial it to eleven. Your senses, your emotions, all of it. It's like that.

So it's basically puberty with dietary restrictions.

[ Chloe smirks, hoping Caroline doesn't mind her making light of it. All of this has been so insane for her, so traumatizing. Chloe doesn't really know what to do with the information about what Klaus is, or what Freya's mirror did to Elena, or how she's supposed to factor into any of it herself. If Chloe can't find a way to stay out of her own head, she's worried it will just consume her. ]

I can't even imagine what being a... a vampire is like. [ She heaves a sigh, her eyes widening when she realizes she could finally say it. ] Did you want to become one?

Well, I was seventeen when I died, so probably worse. I'd only just escaped the whole puberty thing, and now I'm technically a minor forever. I'm pretty sure it doesn't get worse than that.

[But she's moved on from that for the most part, at least.]

I'm not sure there are a whole lot of vampires who set out to become one in my experience. [She purses her lips.] I mean, I can tell you how it happened, I don't mind, but it's not a very happy story.

If I had to choose an age to be stuck at forever, I'm not sure I would choose seventeen, either.

[ Being a teenager was already an impossible task, and having the cards stacked against you by becoming a vampire makes it almost seem worse. Chloe was happy when she finally breached adulthood, only to find it fall apart when she lost her father. She had things in her life to be thankful for, but no life ever went by without hurt. ]

I'm used to pretty unhappy stories. [ She sees them every day, or at least she used to when she was investigating the murders of innocent people. ] But I'd like to hear it. Only if you're sure.

I'm kind of an over-sharer anyway. You're just lucky I gave you the choice.

[A small attempt at humor before she gets into it. It's complicated and simple at the same time, but there's context that she needs to explain.]

In order to become a vampire where I'm from, there are a couple of steps you have to follow. You have to consume a vampire's blood, die while it's in your system, and then feed once you come back.

[She waits a moment for questions before she goes on.]

So, I was in my friend's car. There was this crazy device that went off in our town; he was a werewolf and it was meant to disable supernatural creatures, so we crashed. My friend was okay, but I had internal bleeding, and I passed out. I would have needed surgery and stuff, but Damon gave me his blood while I was in the hospital, and it healed me.

[Which seems confusing, but it's not the car accident that killed her.]

They didn't release me right away, and during the night, this woman came in. I thought she was Elena, but it wasn't her. Damon and his brother were both turned by a woman that looks exactly like her, a woman named Katherine, and she's basically the biggest bitch you'll ever meet in your life. She smothered me with a pillow to send a message to them.

[As far as she knew, Katherine was still in Wonderland, but she kept to herself. Caroline was pretty sure she knew she was brutally outnumbered.]

[ Chloe doesn't have any questions at first. She suspected by Caroline's outgoing and bubbly personality that she wasn't the type to hold back, and the information is useful. The more Chloe knows about what she was up against, the better equipped she will be to, well, run in the other direction as fast as she possibly could.

Caroline's story devolves into a horror drama as fast as possible though, and Chloe just sits, frozen and silent and now she really needs to crack open that bottle of wine.

Which she does, immediately, pouring them each a serving into the coffee mugs that were preset on the table in front of them. ]

That's so messed up. [ Chloe has a thousand questions now, not the least of them involving an evil version of Elena. Caroline was outright murdered and that doesn't sit well in Chloe's stomach. Sure, she barely knows her, but that's never stopped her from grieving for the victims of the murders she investigates, and it certainly won't stop her now. ]

Damon gave Lucifer his blood after he was attacked. I saw what it did, it didn't totally heal him but it did help. [ She sighs, taking a sip of the wine she poured to give her a minute to collect her thoughts. ] There's someone who looks like Elena? Is that like, I don't know, like the Mirrors here?

Tell me something I don't know.

[She's just going to conveniently leave out the additional fact that she was turned as a sort of gift; Klaus needed a vampire sacrifice for the ritual that would remove his curse, and Katherine didn't want him using her so she'd kindly provided one in the form of Caroline Forbes.

It hadn't turned out that way, but still.]

I mean, it works on other supernatural people back home, but they're all at least part human, so maybe that's why? [Lucifer was something else entirely, after all.] Um, sort of? She's like 500 years old or something. You'll have to talk to Elena about that one, though. It's not really my place to talk about it.

[Elena hadn't spilled about her being a vampire, after all, but Chloe deserved to know that Elena had an evil twin that wasn't a mirror.]

[ If Chloe knew many of the things Klaus had done, she would have a harder time siding with him. But she doesn't, and she's far too forgiving for her own good most of the time. The dark parts of Caroline's world are ones she knows better than to poke too hard into, lest she uncover something truly unforgivable.

Chloe is good at many things, after all, and one of those is she is great at seeing only what she wants to see. ]

I'll ask her. [ Chloe doesn't want to push Caroline too hard, but Elena has already been pretty open with her and they were friends. Chloe suspects if there is someone here that will put her in danger, Elena will be willing to tell her.

And while she doesn't know if Katherine in a vampire, Caroline has made it more than clear to Chloe that she's not human. ]

Well, Lucifer is... something else, that's for sure. [ Chloe isn't surprised Caroline knows; after all, Lucifer can't shut up about it. But she is still constantly surprised at how many people here believe him. Granted, coming from a world with ancient vampires and witches and werewolves, knowing the Devil is probably par for the course. ] It must be really hard for you, having to keep so many secrets.

[Caroline is pretty sure Elena will tell her, but Caroline didn't think it was the best idea to drop the doppelganger bomb herself.]

I mean, there was always the chance that he was just dramatic, but I've been around enough crazy by this point that it's just better to assume that it's all real and be pleasantly surprised if it isn't.

[She didn't know, not really. It's not like she talked to Lucifer, like, ever. But Elena believed him and that was enough for her.]

The whole vampire thing is about the only secret I'm good at. I'm terrible at keeping my mouth shut.

[ Chloe shakes her head, smiling mostly to herself. ]

His is dramatic, but he's also not a liar. So there's that. [ Chloe doesn't feel like she needs to protect Lucifer by denying to people what he is; after all, he tells everyone anyway. What she won't be mentioning is what her presence done to Lucifer. Klaus, Elena and Damon might know, but it's not Chloe's secret to spill.

One of many secrets Chloe has been keeping. There's a lot of reasons why Caroline has been a little bit of fresh air. ]

At least you're honest. That's more than can be said for a lot of people. Especially here.

Believe me, I'd rather have brutal honesty than shadiness any day.

[Caroline isn't interested in hurting anyone, anyway. It's other people she worries about. It's the mirrors and the events.

Funny, then, how much things could change in a short time.]

I know all of this is probably overwhelming and pretty scary. I didn't even know vampires were real until I was one, so I know what that feels like.

[More like she didn't remember that they were a thing until she was one, since that's when she remembered all the things Damon compelled her to forget. Details, details.]

[ For as in over her head as Chloe feels in all of this, she definitely feels less threatened by the vampires she's met than anyone else. That's a thought she would have never, ever believed would cross her mind but, well, Lucifer actually being the Devil hadn't been one, either.

Her greatest allies were the things of nightmares. Chloe feels like she should be surprised but... It seems appropriate enough for the kind of life she has lived.
]

Scary is... a word, yeah. [ At least she is an adult. She has some kind of reference, losing her dad. That's the kind of terror that no one is able to grasp truly until it actualizes, and she's not sure if anything will ever be as horrific as that event. Even in this place. ] Talking to people like you and Freya are making it easier, though. And honestly, it's not like I suddenly woke up and was a vampire. I'm pretty sure when it comes down to scary experiences, you win in that department.

[She'll learn these things, when she goes home. She hasn't seen anything yet.

It's a shame that she has to so soon.]

I don't know how I managed to get out of that hospital without killing someone. I found a blood bag first, that's how I finished my transition. So when I ran into the nurse...

...I wasn't as hungry as I could have been. I don't know if you've met him, but Stefan was really there for me then. He taught me how to stay in control, how to keep it from taking over.

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