The last few days had been, well, insane to put it simply. Kol had managed to get his emotions back and come back to himself just in time for all the crazy to hit. He had been quite possibly the most stressed he had ever been in his entire bloody existence. All right, maybe it was more stressful when he thought Mikael was going to kill them. But really. This had taken a lot out of him and he still wasn't sure what to make out of everything that had happened. Too much, such a short time...
Crowley's double-agent status had been finally outed to Lucifer. And try as he might to ignore it, that and what came right along with it bothered Kol more than he wanted to admit. He had promptly decided it was all Rebekah's fault and let her know as much, but somewhere beneath it all he wondered. But even that he hadn't had time to process.
The city was left in shambles after the explosions, two in separate locations. One at the complex where the majority of the displaced stayed and the other at Stark Tower. Media spurred and God only knew what they were saying about it all. The two blasts had left nearly all of them homeless, many injured and some dead. One of those deaths was Caroline Forbes.
Caroline's death had spurred drama of epic proportions. None of them even had time to deal with it because they were dealing with Nik. If he were being completely honest, Kol felt the pain of the loss himself. Nowhere near the level Nik did, of course, but he did. Try as he had to hate her, in the end he hadn't been able to. Not fully, not properly. She'd squeezed her way into all of their lives and she had truly become part of this family. And he had even admitted it, somewhere on the boards he'd told someone though who was fuzzy now. He owned up to and in the Mikaelson's world, that was more than anyone ever got.
But that hadn't been the end, had it? No, of course not. Nik's tantrum turned towards ruining everyone else's shred of happiness. A simple gesture of kindness from Stefan to Rebekah and the Salvatore was on his death bed quicker than anyone could bat an eye. Then it became a battle of a balancing act for Kol. Between trying to find out what happened, getting help from Elijah, finding a way to handle Nik to get the cure for Stefan, Kol was already overloaded and added to that pile had been something that, at a less frantic time, would have sent Kol into a complete panic. Bekah, so ready and willing to sign her soul over to a demon, to Lucifer himself just to save Stefan. To say he was stressed was the biggest damn understatement of the century.
Sitting in the house was making him claustrophobic and that was a feeling that was all too close to home for Kol, made him panic a little when that familiar "walls closing in" feeling came rustling about, so he stepped outside and stood for a moment, not really sure what to do at this point. For the sake of something, he stepped off the front porch and started to wind his way to the back, towards the stables. At least the horses didn't create crazy drama like everyone else. They were just horses.
He stopped short, just outside the stables and paused for a moment, frown creasing his forehead. He thought he heard something, but when he glanced inside, he didn't notice anything right off. If someone was here, he might just go off on them and not give a damn the consequences. No one should be on this property if not expressedly given the permission from its owners. And they damn sure shouldn't be in the stables with the horses. But as he stepped inside and started making his way down, he saw... blonde?
Kol stopped in front of the stall and stared down at the form slumped against the wall inside it. "Caroline?" his voice was full of confusion and disbelief, all equally painted across his face as he continued to just stare.