Caroline Forbes knew the answer to the question she was about to ask before she ever uttered the words, but she just had to ask anyways. She had given up so much already today, she at least had to try;
yet even she could hear the resignation in her soft voice echoing in the dark woods.
"Can you promise me that my friends or me won´t get hurt in this? That I won´t have their blood on my hands one day? That I won't have to wonder if you just killed an innocent person when I am with you?"
For a moment Klaus looked like he was going to vehemently protest and part of her wanted him to - so badly - but in her heart she already knew that he wouldn't be able to do this one thing when he slowly dropped his hand from her arm.
Still, her unbeating hurt winced when he eventually lowered his blue gaze to the forest floor. Had the thought of Klaus, the big bad hybrid, looking dejected not been so foreign, she could have sworn he was.
She took the moment of him avoiding her eyes to study him. His blond hair was more ruffled than usual, like he had been running his fingers through it repeatedly. With a sudden pang she found herself wondering if that might be a nervous habit of his and regretting that she would never find out now...
His shoulders were a little slumped and for some readon she felt compelled to smooth out the frown on his face. Instead she just lightly touched his arm. His eyes shot up to hers and for a moment she was overwhelmed by the sincere regret and hurt, so much hurt, shining back at her.
Had she not been equipped with Vampire hearing, she might not even have picked up on the whisper that left his lips.
"I am sorry, Caroline, I am truly sorry that I cannot be better for you. But you have to believe me when I say that I tried, I really did. Never forget that you deserve the world, love, all of it."
Tears involuntarily filled her eyes. Maybe if things had just been a bit different... But they weren't and Caroline knew that while she was fairly certain that she was very much in love with Niklaus Mikaelson, there was no future for them. With piercing clarity she realized that this might very well be the last time she would ever see him. An eternity without those adorable dimples, without his drawings and without him telling her she was beautiful, strong and full of light. Something inside of her chest screamed in pain at the thought, but her lips just formed a sad smile.
"Goodbye, Niklaus. I hope you will find what you are looking for." With that she pressed a soft kiss to his cheek and then she vanished into the night to leave Mystic Falls behind for a very long time.
Long after she was gone, Klaus was still standing where she had left him, with his fingers on his cheek where her lips had been.
Only the trees heard his soft words to the night.
"One day, Caroline..."
Even after 50 years on this earth, Caroline still loved candy stores. The old fashioned kind where the walls are filled with boxes of the most delicious assortments of sweets imaginable and you just have to grab one of the handy little plastic bags lying around and start filling it with everything from gummy bear skeletons to little candy hearts.
This was how she ended up in a particularly alluring variety of said store in a small town somewhere in the Neatherlands, thanking the gods that vampires couldn't put on weight, while filling her third bag with saccharine goodness.
She was so engrossed in the task of fishing a particularly resistent purple gummy bear frog out if its container, that she didn't notice the blond man entering until a smooth voice spoke up right next to her shoulder.
"That little guy is smart - he knows that you are just going to devour him."
She yelped, pivoting around to face the unknown jerk and was just about to give the guy a proper scolding about giving poor innocent girls a major heart attack in Dutch, when something slowly registered in her brain. The intruder had addressed her in perfect English. In fact, she would be able to recognize that British accent anywhere, even after so many years. She knew whose face she was going to find before she had completely turned around, but the sight of his incredible blue eyes, the tousled dirty blonde hair and those damn dimples still froze her on the spot and took her breath away.
"Klaus..."
Times ceased to exist for a few seconds and for a moment she was back to that night in the woods of her home town when she had last seen the Original hybrid...
He still looked exactly the same as he had that night almost 50 years ago, yet something was very different about him. His smile that made the corners of his lips turn up slowly was more hesitant than it used to be, more careful; and there was something different about his eyes, too.
"I see you still love candy, no matter where in the world you are."
The faint amusement in his voice and the pointed look at her gigantic load of sweets lifted her stupor and she blushed a little.
"Well you gotta get something good out of being an undead 18 year old forever," she grumbled into her nonexistent beard and used his quick distraction to push past him to the cashier.
Her undead heart was racing. So were here thoughts. How had he found her? She hadn't talked to anyone from her old life in at least 10 years, probably more. What did he want with her? She had been sure that she would never see him again after that night - or had she? And yet here he was, and there was no way that it was a coincidence that they had walked into the same candy store at the same time in the same small town somewhere in the world.
Out of the corner of her eye, she kept watching him, leaning casually against some candy dispensers, but she wasn't fooled. The way his shoulders were squared told her exactly how tense he was and the smirk on his face was just a tad bit too forced. The realization that the almighty Klaus appeared to be nervous, a state she couldn't quite recall ever seeing him in, threw her so much that th cashier had to tap her arm to get her attention when she was finished ringing up Caroline's purchases.
Blushing, she quickly handed over the money with slightly shaky fingers.
She was going to grab the bags but Klaus was faster - smirking, he dangled the candy in front of her face - just to be out of the door a second later.
Caroline growled, feeling the familiar irritation at the Original's antics bubble up in her chest but her fury was short lived. She stomped out of the door, to find him sitting on a bench on the other side of the street, looking out over the water and absentmindedly munching on one of the glibbery skeletons.
She couldn't help but chuckle at the irony and remember their bantering from so many years ago, memories she hadn't allowed to surface in years.
A second later she was sitting next to him.
"Skeletons, really Klaus?"
She tried to sound stern but she knew he had picked up on the hint of amusement in her voice.
His smile reached all the way up to his blue eyes when he turned to look at her, still nibbling on a bright pink skeleton leg.
"Gotta make sure my reputation as the big bad hybrid stays intact after all."
A sad smile creeped onto her lips. Big bad hybrid, that's what she used to call him mockingly whenever he had thrown a tantrum.
With the memory came other, unbidden ones and she silently scolded herself for letting her guard down even for a second, letting herself indulge in the illusion. This was Klaus and for all she knew he might be here to kill her, she reminded herself. Although deep down she knew he never would.
He must have sensed how she stiffened next to him, because his smiley had bled from his face.
For a few minutes they just sat there in silence, her gazing out at the water, trying to ignore how his intense gaze examined her. It was him who broke the silence in the end.
"You are looking good, Caroline. How have you been?" His tone almost startled her. It was no longer playful, but soft, almost lost. Like he was afraid to say the wrong thing.
She couldn't look at him. She knew what she would find in his eyes and she just couldn't go there again. Instead she forced herself to stay as detached as possible.
"What do you want, Klaus?"
She more felt his shoulders slump than she really saw it, but it still made a pang of regret bloom in her chest. After all these years, he was still her greatest weakness. Her bravado deflated.
"I'm sorry." Her voice wavered. "I thought I'd never see you or any of the others again. I really thought I had put the past to rest. Clearly, I was wrong." She couldn´t help it that she sounded bitter.
She looked at him hesitantly and for a moment their eyes locked.
She couldn't remember him ever looking so vulnerable. Not even when... She quickly stopped that train of thought and instead concentrated on the present. As she held his searching gaze, she felt something she hadn't felt in almost half a century: warmth. His eyes warmed her from the inside out, made her feel more alive than even watching the sunrise from atop the statue of liberty. Her stomach was suddenly home to thousands of butterflies and her heart constrictedly painfully as she realized, that she was still lost. Still so much under his spell. Even after seeing the world, walking the streets of more cities than she could count, she was still Caroline from Mystic Falls. And she still missed him - terribly. And she still couldn´t have him – ever.
An unwanted tear slipped down her cheek, yet it didn't get far. A soft thumb caught it just above her lip and carefully stroked it away.
His voice was painfully soft and so raw it almost made her want to cry more.
"I'm so sorry, Caroline, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you, never. I just ... I just miss you."
Her body went rigid at his confession, her eyes widening in disbelief. Seeing her body language, he almost scrambled back.
"This was a mistake. I should have known, I'm sorry Caroline, I won't bother you again."
He was already turning away, making a sudden wave of panic envelope Caroline. She scrambled to her feet and her hands latched onto his jacket on their own accord. She barely recognized her own voice.
"No, no, don't leave ...please."
He froze. Her labored breathing seemed to be the only noise in their own personal bubble of reality as she prayed he wouldn't go. She knew she wouldn't be able to stop him. After all, she was still just a baby vampire and he had a thousand years on her.
Seconds stretched to hours and she felt like her heart was going to burst out of her chest.
Suddenly, his arms were around her. Her cheek pressed against his solid chest and when she inhaled his familiar scent for the first time after almost 50 years, she wanted to weep. Her arms sneaked around his back, clutching him as close as possible, like she never wanted to let go again. It took a while until she became aware of the sweet nothings he was whispering into her hair, and his hands that were smoothing back her curls.
His soothing voice slowly calmed her racing thoughts and she began to return to reality. As incredible and safe and right it felt to be in his arms again, she remembered that the things that had stood between them 50 years ago were still very true today.
He must have felt her starting to push him away again, because he slowly put a little distance between their bodies so he could look at her.
"Will you just let me show you something, Caroline? Please?"
She didn't know what made her nod, maybe it was her traitorous heart that so desperately wanted to stop being lonely, or maybe it was the way his blue eyes seemed so serious and honest or maybe she was simply a sucker for a lost cause. It didn't matter anyways. All those possibilities lead to Klaus pulling her through throngs of people, his hurried steps speaking of a the pressing urgency he felt to get to wherever he was taking her.
Their mad rush through the city lead them to a beautiful, clearly newly renovated penthouse apartment in an old town house. Everything from the furniture to the floor to ceiling windows screamed elegance and poise. Just like his old home in Mystic Falls had.
For a moment she caught herself wondering what had happened to it, but then the owner of both places caught her attention again. Klaus had gone straight to an old mahagony desk that sat in one corner of the living room, facing the amazing view over the city.
He was now busy typing away on a slim, white Mac book, his hurried movements lacking their usual grace and elegance she had always associated with him.
At last, he seemed to have found what he had been looking for. He almost violently unplugged the laptop and human eyes wouldn't have been able to follow him as he sped across the room, putting the gadget down on her lap.
His face was all strained lines, and she could have sworn his hands were shaking lightly.
He simply pointed at the screen and said: "Look at those."
She looked at him for a moment, a questioning look in her eyes, but he turned away and started pacing.
Slowly, Caroline turned to whatever had Klaus, always in control Klaus, so agitated.
It was a file full of pictures Klaus had opened for her.
Caroline's eyes widened. Elena was staring back at her from the screen. A smiling Elena. Her hair was a little shorter than she remembered it and her features had sharpened slightly, but it was unmistakably her former best friend and doppelgänger. She seemed to have been in her twenties when the picture had been taken. Her eyes shot to the time stamp - and she froze. It had been taken only a few years ago. But how was that possible? Elena should be in her sixties by now, had she survived. The only way that she would still look like that would have been if... But Klaus would never have allowed her to be turned! Not when he needed her blood to create more hybrids!
Her eyes shot to Klaus, the question and disbelief evident in her eyes. Yet he just motioned her to continue.
With shaking fingers she accessed the next picture. Again, Elena smiled back at her, yet this time she wasn't alone. A man was lovingly embracing her and dropping a kiss atop of her head. A men she knew all to well. Elijah Mikaelson's bottomless green eyes were unmistakable, just like his ageless face. She felt her jaw dropping and suddenly she couldn't move on to the next picture fast enough. There were more pictures with Elena and Elijah, the picture of a couple hopelessly in love. More accurately, a vampire couple hopelessly in love.
Then there were other pictures that made her eyes grow wider. A thirty something Matt, his arm around Rebekah, almost unrecognizable without her usual frown and a pixie cut. Then there were the Salvatore brothers, sitting between Klaus and Elijah, both not looking entirely comfortable, but not exactly hostile either. More like they were getting used to a very new situation.
After them followed a caption of an elderly woman with a maybe five year old kid on her lap. Only when she looked very closely, she recognized her old friend. Bonnies green eyes still shone like they used to when they were kids and it made tears spill into Caroline's eyes. She had hoped so much that Bonnie would get her happy ending, but had never dared to believe in an outcome that would grant the witch the happiness she deserved. But here she was looking at proof that it did. With a smile she opened the next picture - and froze. Her own face was looking back at her. She quickly moved on, and there she was again. In Berlin, in Moscow, in New York, even one of her on a beach in Italy, totally engrossed in a book.
She went through them all and without looking at the time stamps, she knew, that they documented her quest to find what she had always failed to find over the past 50 years. The last two pictures were grave stones. The first carried the name Elisabeth Forbes. Her heart constricted, but when she read the dates of her birth and death she smiled through her tears. Her mum had lived a long life. She had always regretted most not knowing what had become of her mother, but she had said her goodbyes long ago.
The last picture was of a roughly hewn grave stone on a fresh grave. Although she could barely discern the runic inscription, she could make out the name Esther. The time stamp told her the picture was less than a year old.
She slowly leaned back into the couch, her mind still trying to process and make sense of what all this meant, although deep in her heart she already knew.
She slowly turned to face Klaus, who at some point had said down in the chair next to the table and who was now staring at her intently, suddenly completely calm again, like someone who had done everything he could and all that was left for him now was to wait for the verdict.
She wanted to ask him so many questions, but the words that softly escaped her lips weren't even a question.
"I don't understand..."
He closed his eyes for a second, as if he needed to brave himself for a fight, then his eyes caught hers again and his familiar voice filled the room.
"About 40 years ago, me and Elijah made a deal: I would get rid of all my hybrids and let him turn Elena without her having a child and in turn he would make sure you were safe and help me kill our mother for good. They currently reside in London and as far as I can tell they are delusionally happy. Matt asked Rebekah to turn him maybe 30 years ago after his mother had died. I don't even want to know what they are up to, but last I saw him they were almost more nauseating than my older brother and the doppelgänger." A mildly disgusted look crossed his features that made Caroline smile involuntarily.
"I don't know what the Salvatores have been up to lately but there haven't been any ripper relatedly mass murders recently, so I believe they are doing ok. Although Damon is still an annoying jackass, even though that girl he was with last time I saw him seemed to have mastered his temper at least a little. Bonnie, well, Bonnie helped us severe the bond between me and my siblings and after that she moved away. Cosie up with that little Gilbert an popped out a few kids I think. I visited her once and offered them both to turn them but I guess vampirism was never what she wanted. Your mum stayed in Mystic Falls. We had tea a few times over the years and she always asked me about you and I always told her you were safe and seeing the world. I think that made her very happy."
For a moment she thought he wanted to add something else, but he stayed silent, not meeting her eyes as she processed what she had heard.
It all seemed so surreal, but obviously it was. She just couldn't wrap her head around the why.
Why was he telling her this now? He had apparently given up almost everything he had wanted 50 years ago. She just didn't understand WHY.
"Why? And why now?" her whisper was barely audible to human ears, but when he sighed she knew he had heard her.
"So many reasons. My big brother was in live with the doppelgänger and I just couldn't watch him lose what he loved at my hands again. Because you brought back a piece of my humanity. Because I hadn't seen my little sister that happy in a thousand years. Because I had to keep you safe and I couldn't do it myself because my mother was hunting me. But those are all just excuses. I did what I did because you were always right: I wouldn't find what I was looking for with anything I was doing because I had already found it. You. And you were also right when you left: we would never be together if I would go on as I had for a thousand years, and it tore me apart. Why I waited this long? I couldn't risk putting you in harms way while my mother was still out there, trying to kill me. Me and Elijah just got to her a few months ago and after that I needed some time alone and then some time to find you. But I'm here now, Caroline."
Her heart was threatening to burst out of her chest again as he slid out of his chair, grasped her hands in his and kneeled on down on the floor in front of her. There was only honesty and something she wasn't ready to name in his eyes when he addressed her again.
"Ask me again, Caroline, please ask me again."
She knew exactly what she meant and her voice was trembling when she repeated the words she had asked him so long ago.
"Can you honestly tell me that you are not currently following some scheme that will directly or indirectly hurt me or the people I care about and with which being with me would help? Can you promise me that you truly don't have an ulterior motive? That I won't have to wonder if you just killed an innocent person when I am with you?"
His answer came without hesitation, without blinking, without ever leaving her gaze, and his voice was steady, like he had waited for a very long time to say this.
"Yes, Caroline Forbes, yes, I can."
The world didn't stop turning, but for Caroline, it did, for a second the world halted in her never ending journey and as her heart filled with joy and she realized that she had finally found what she was looking for. She sent a silent thank you up to the heavens, telling her mum that she was ok now. That she would always be ok now.
Then she returned to reality and launched herself into his arms. Crying into his chest for the second time in as many hours but for entirely different reasons.
His arms encircled her in their safe haven and his voice whispered into her hair.
"Please tell me that means you will give us a chance, sweetheart, because I don't think I can go on if it doesn't."
She pulled back a little so she could take his face into her hands and look him in the eyes.
"Yes, a thousand times yes!"
For a few seconds he just looked at her reverently like he was trying to commit every detail of this moment to memory, then his lips crushed hers.
They were soft, and warm and so perfect, Caroline thought she would implode with joy right then and there. Their lips dances with each other as all the desire and yearning that had been their steady companion for so many years was fulfilled at last.
His lips slowly found their way down her pale throat, tasting the skin he had wondered about for so long, making her moan and claw at his back.
She was perfectly ready to rip his clothes off, but as she started to pull up his shirt, he pulled away, smiling wider than she had ever seen him, and he chuckled when she growled at the loss of contact.
"Patience, love, I have waited 50 years to do this and you deserve so much better than a frantic tumble on some couch."
Apparently her narrowed eyes and extended fangs conveyed her sentiment that she currently didn't give a shit about the circumstances, because his smile widened even more and he kissed her briefly before pulling back again.
"Please, Caroline, indulge me, let me give you everything you deserve and more. Let me do this right. I promise I will make it worth your while."
The wink he have her almost made her rip his shirt after all, but then she realized, that noone had ever bothered to wait for her, to work for it. Her fangs retracted as a warm, fluffy feeling filled her tummy. They have eternity after all.
"You better, Mr Mikaelson!" She smiled at him.
His laughter filled the room and the missing piece in her heart.
He took her to Paris and sneaked them into the louvre at night and swapped the Mona Lisa for a beautiful sketch of her and told her he loved her. She kissed him with tears of happiness in her eyes and dragged him to New York, where they watched the sunrise together from the top of the statue of liberty and she tells him she loves him too. When his eyes light up and he crushes her against his solid frame, kissing every inch of bare skin he can reach, tears are sparkling in his eyes, although he quickly brushes them away.
In a beautiful lodge in the Swiss alps that has apparently been in the family for a few decades he makes love to her for the first time, and when she comes apart in his arms and he breathlessly asks her to never leave him, she thinks she will never be this happy again.
They travel the world together for ten years. They stop at Matt and Rebekah's wedding in Venice. Caroline is nervous to meet his family and her old friends again, but when Elena crushes her in a true vampire hug and Matt follows suit, whispering to her how happy he is for her, she cries a few happy tears. Rebekah is nothing like the hurt, mean girl from back in the day. She seizes Caroline up for a few tense seconds, but then she gives her a sisterly hug and her "You better not break his heart or I'll personally break yours" sounds more like a thread made out of habit than out of real ill will. Not that Caroline is planning on ever finding out how serious exactly she was.
The wedding is beautiful and despite all the 'stupid romantic crap' grumbling Klaus had indulged in before the wedding, he holds her hand throughout the entire ceremony and later that night when they are alone he will tell her how happy he is for his sister.
When the bride and the groom say we do, Caroline catches a glimpse of Elijah who has his arm wrapped around Elena and is looking at her intensely, and she thinks that Elena has melted the ice prince's heart and there might soon be another vampire wedding on their hands.
They spent a few more days with Caroline's old friends and she gets the chance to catch up and has some long overdue conversations.
When they leave, it is with promises to keep in touch.
Klaus takes her to London and she falls in love. for the first time in years, they settle down. When Klaus grows a little restless after a year or so, she tells him to do something with his amazing talent. He looks at her curiously and aks her if she seriously wants him to work as an assassin. She doubles over on laughter, but when she realizes that he is serious and just as insecure as she is, she takes his hand and pulls him over to his scrapbook that never leaves his side and turns over the pages one by one.
When a smile blooms on his face she is satisfied. And the next day, she catches him painting.
A few months later, Caroline turns out to be right: Elijah proposes to Elena and Elena's happiness is palpable when she calls Caroline to tell her. Yet before they can find themselves another wedding, an ominous black letter arrives.
Caroline knows it's bad news the second she finds it in their mail box. Klaus finds her clutching the letter to her chest, silently crying, and drops the bags of groceries on the spot.
"What is it, love, are you hurt? Is anyone else hurt?"
She just hands him the letter.
He hurriedly unfolds the letter and reads.
Notice of Death for Mrs Bonnie Bennett
He doesn't need to know more, just enfolds Caroline in his arms and lets her mourn her friend.
She doesn't say anything until much later, when they are lying in bed, his arm protectively around her waist.
"You what is the worst thing? I never got to say goodbye."
He doesn't tell that it will be ok, and she is glad he doesn't. He just squeezes her hand - and the next morning he checks the letter for the date of the funeral survive, makes some calls and books a plane ticket. She has never loved him more.
They stay in the back during the service, knowing that they don't belong here anymore.
When the mourners have all left, Klaus drops a kiss on her head and leaves her to say goodbye to her friend.
Klaus has never understood why vampires would bend to a trivial human convention such as marriage, but as he watches Caroline kneel next to Bonnie and Jeremy's grave he suddenly thinks that he might understand. They might be immortal, but death has cheated him too many times. And he would never be able to forgive himself if he lost her, knowing there was something else he could have done to show her how much he loves her.
They are back home two days later, Caroline sad, but content, and Klaus with a decision made.
He tracks down Stefan because he remembers Caroline telling him that he was the one saving her after her transformation and since her parents are long dead, he seems to be the only person he might ask for their blessing.
It takes him almost a year, but in the end he finds him and instead of laughing in his face, which Klaus had kind of expected, he just looks at him in silence for a few minutes before he answers him.
"I think I forfeit the right to give you my blessing on this a long time ago, but the fact alone that you made the effort to track me down to ask me should speak for itself. I know you love her and from what I heard she loves you too. Any blessing I may be able to give, you have."
With that, he turns back to the bar. Klaus closes his eyes for a second, than he turns to leave to. He still catches the "Just make her happy, Nik" Stefan sends after him and he swears to himself he will.
He proposes to her in a gondola of the London Eye, 135 metres above the beautiful city that they've called their home for almost a decade now. She is speechless when on the very top, he gets down on one knee, tells her she is the only one for him for all eternity and asks her if she will do him the honor of becoming his wife.
She can only whisper a thousand times yes back to him, but that's enough. That night, Klaus thanks all the gods he has ever known for everything that brought him to Mystic Falls almost a century ago.