I've always liked Original!Caroline stories, so this is mine. Hopefully, this will be different. This will be from Klaus' and Caroline's point of view. So read, please review, and I hope I don't need a disclaimer to tell you I don't own TVD.
-PhoenixCycle
"No."
"Caroline, you must-"
"No!"
"We owe Mikael a debt, there is nothing we can do," her mother pleads.
"I don't want to get married."
"You will marry that boy, Caroline. It is your duty to your family."
"I will not marry Finn, he is twelve years older than I am."
"Do you think Mikael would marry you to his firstborn?" Her mother says incredulously. "No, you will marry Niklaus, his third son. You are close enough in age."
"But I don't want-"
"There is no room for want in this world, Caroline."
So she does as she must.
Niklaus internally seethes.
"It's not fair," He says, pacing around the caves. The full moon is high in the sky, and he feels trapped in more ways than one.
"Don't you think you and Elijah been fighting for too long?" Rebekah asked, rolling her eyes. "Frankly, it was getting ridiculous."
Niklaus scowled. "I did not ask for your judgement, Bekah."
"But you need it," His younger sister tells him. "Tatia is just a girl, no matter how beautiful."
"And Mother and Father's brilliant solution for it is to marry me off? To a girl whose family owes us a debt?"
"Owes me a debt, boy." Mikael's voice echoes off the stone walls.
Instantly, both of his children's faces change, schooled into obedience. Niklaus tilts his head higher, trying to look like the proud warrior his father expects.
"I worked to get this land, and you are the one who wasting it. Do not forget that."
"Never, father." He says.
"You will marry that girl, Niklaus," Mikael says, looking down his nose at his meek son. "Forget that Tatia girl; you would have ended up raising a son that was not your own. That is a kind of humiliation I will never let my family endure."
Niklaus does not argue, but internalizes the resentment.
"Personally, I pity the poor girl you're marrying," Rebekah says lightly. "Who would want to get attached to you for the rest of their lives?"
"Bekah!"
Caroline and Niklaus get married with as much ceremony as their village can muster, and throughout the entire thing, Caroline watches Niklaus' eyes follow Tatia. Elijah's do the same.
She struggles to hold on to her dignity- after all, neither of them are being subtle- but finds herself with her head bowed, trying to avoid anyone's gaze.
"So, you're my new sister," Kol, another of her new in-laws, (gods she had so many) says to her.
"I think your brother prefers it to be otherwise," Caroline says bitterly.
"Ah, yes, Tatia. Their epic tale continues." The teenager looks mightily amused at the drama. "Honestly, you'd think they'd get over her."
"He loves her," Caroline says, looking up to meet Kol's eyes, something burning in hers. "I will spend the rest of my life tethered to this man-child as he moons over another woman. Raise children with him. Be forced to jump onto his funeral pyre."
"If it makes you feel any better, Tatia didn't jump on her husband's pyre either," Kol says. "Though she probably should have, saved us all the trouble."
Despite the ill-willed nature of the humor, Caroline laughs.
"You shouldn't laugh at death, you know," Kol tells her, but he, too, is laughing.
"Then why are you laughing?" she asked, still laughing.
"Because you are."
"Careful Kol, you do not want to get too close to my wife," Niklaus says, teasing as he comes close, carrying two cups of ale.
"Who else could keep me satisfied as you moon over that doe-eyed cow?" Caroline lashes out before she can stop herself. She bites her lip as the awkward subject comes up.
The two men look at her in surprise, but Niklaus neither confirms nor denies.
"Let's dance," Kol says, holding out his arm for her.
Caroline grabs a cup from Niklaus and downs as much ale as she possibly can in one gulp.
"I'm going to need that for the rest of the night," She says, sending a significant glare to Niklaus. Instead of offended, he looks slightly amused.
Kol laughs. "Yes brother, you'll need all the help you can get."
They all know she is referring to.
She dances with Kol because she can, and she will enjoy her wedding day, gods be damned, because it is hers, and she will not let her thoughts dwell on what waits for her in the night.
Niklaus watches on, glad that this girl is an entertaining one, at least. He knows she dreads tonight, but he does not think it will be so terrible.
That night they both do their duty, just as expected. Caroline has to bite back tears of pain and anger. He never looks at her face through the entire thing.
They come to a comfortable routine after a month, paying attention and ignoring each other in equal measure.
Niklaus just seems happy to be away from his father's house, which is not surprising. It is no secret how Mikael treats his least favorite son.
He at least makes an effort for her, which is more than she expected. And he listens to her, which is wildly unexpected in this world where women are the makers and keepers of children and nothing more.
He helps her avoid his parent's inquiries about a child. She plays the subservient wife everywhere but at home to stave off Mikael's derisive comments about not being able to control her.
They manage a household together, support each other, and sometimes tease each other. But his eyes still follow Tatia, and that makes a bitter taste appear in her mouth.
"Do you think we'll ever love each other?" She asks one night in their bed, facing each other.
"I don't know," He says honestly. "Maybe one day."
"At least we tolerate each other. You're stuck with me."
"Well, we can make it work," Niklaus says. "I think we work well with each other."
At the very least, they are colleagues.
They spend another five months in this kind of partnership, avoiding each other's parents, running their household. That is it.
Their parents remain their biggest problem. They are both subtle and not about the nature off their relationship. They have been trying, but certainly not as enthusiastic as their parents seem to want them to be.
Mikael is the least subtle of them all. Not that he has ever been.
Niklaus comes stumbling back home, blood spurting out of a wound through his shoulder.
Caroline drops whatever she was doing- something or another, it was irrelevant.
"What happened?" She asked, helping him to their bed.
"Father stabbed me with his sword," he says, gasping for breath.
"Lunatic," she mutters. "May I ask why?"
"I got into another fight with him," he says.
She reached to take off his shirt, but he catches her wrist.
"I can take care of myself," He says.
"With what? Your incredible ability to see your own back?" Caroline snorted. "Let me help you."
Niklaus attempts to get up, but with a pained groan, he falls back onto the bed.
"Told you," Caroline says.
"Don't," Niklaus warns, but fails to look threatening in any way.
She inspects the wound, begins to clean it.
"You know you can't beat Mikael," she tells him as he squirms and hisses.
"I can't help it," he says.
"You're impulsive," she says, getting bandages. "That's going to get you killed, you know."
"Not by Father," he says, shaking his head.
She marvels at the faith and the desperation he holds in regards to his father.
"He impaled you with a sword," Caroline says, shaking her head. "And here you are still defending him. If I were you, I'd have killed him in his sleep ages ago."
"Caroline Brandrsdottir*, you are a marvel," he says, shaking his head, hissing his pain.
"Probably why our parents keep urging us to procreate," she says lightly, getting him up to wrap the bandages.
"I am sorry about that," He says, "I know my parents are… intense."
"Seeing as one of them just stabbed you, I'm inclined to agree." She finishes tying the wrap. "Rest up, I'll get your mother for the rest of it." She gets up, but he grabs her by the waist.
"Thank you," he says, and they smile at each other.
At the very least, they are friends.
She feels a mix of emotions when her bleeding stops. That worry that comes with uncertainty. Relief that at least her parents will not nag incessantly about this any longer. A little bit of happiness. But still, that incredible fear that comes with being a potential mother.
Niklaus is absolutely terrified when his mother confirms that yes, Caroline is pregnant, aren't you happy?
His father impaled him with a sword. Was never pleased with him no matter what he did. He has no idea how anyone else would raise their child. Besides, the world is a dangerous place, and he does not think that he could handle losing any child.
He sees other parents with their children, sees Tatia with her daughter, sees his mother with Henrik. How can he be like that?
And the mother of his child…
While Caroline is like no other, he still is half in love with Tatia, and his heart still pangs whenever he sees Elijah with her. Though that feeling has slowly been disappearing.
Neither of them know what to do as her belly grows. She still talks to him, laughing, and he replies with equal mirth. They grow to love each other, and they are, in more ways than one, still clueless. But one thing is certain.
They are to be parents.
It is the worst pain she has ever felt. They tell her it gets easier with time; she screams that she wants to get Niklaus' sword and behead them all.
The sun has already set and she still feels no relief as waves of pain roll over her and she cries out.
Niklaus is banished from the hut where Caroline is giving birth. In a rare burst of fatherliness, Mikael assures him that he is not missing out.
Still, he can hear the screams, and he flinches every time.
"You know, women have been giving birth for thousands of years," Henrik says, unconcerned.
"Doesn't make it hurt any less," Rebekah says in annoyance.
"Yes, Henrik," Kol mocks, "never make light about childbirth. You will be clawed to death."
"And well-deserved, at that," Rebekah replies. "I guarantee you if you went inside that tent, you'd faint."
"How long is this going to take?" Niklaus growls.
"Mother says it can last for days," Henrik says helpfully, and Niklaus growls again.
"Oh, look at Nik being all worried." Kol teased. "How touching."
"Why don't you go and practice magic?" Niklaus says. "I'm sure that will keep you occupied."
The three youngest children of Mikael look at each other in panic.
"Yes, I know about that," he says, pacing. "None of you are as subtle as you think you are."
Kol is the first to recover. "Because you know so much about subtlety."
It is true, Niklaus seems to take after their father the most, especially in their shared bluntness.
They bicker and try to take their minds off the screams.
It is almost morning again when Caroline is able to push out the son she has been carrying, and she is so exhausted she feels as if she might faint. She probably did.
Niklaus comes charging in as soon as he is allowed to, smiling widely as he sees his wife and his son.
"Did you choose a name?" He asks, kneeling next to the bed where she lies, holding him.
"Alvis†," she says. Her voice, despite its hoarseness, is filled with indescribable love.
"Lofty name to live up to," he says. "May I…?"
"Sure," she says, handing him over.
"Alvis Niklausson," Niklaus says, and he shakes his head disbelievingly at how this mass of flesh and life has endeared himself to him so instantaneously. "May your name live in eternity."
Elijah and Niklaus' relationship, as Esther had hoped, improves drastically throughout the latter's marriage.
"Where are you going?" Caroline asks Henrik as he clambers to his feet, running after his sister.
"My brothers are fighting again," He calls over his shoulder.
"I'm assuming you don't mean Finn," she mutters, carrying Alvis carefully as she follows the youngest Mikaelson.
Elijah and Niklaus' swords flash as they fight each other, neither of them intending harm. They are both laughing, and Rebekah lets out a little shriek as the blades come close to either's skin.
Niklaus pulls a trick, feinting and then slashing, cutting off Elijah's belt. Rebekah laughs loudly, and the corner of Henrik's mouth lifts. Even Alvis lets out a gurgle, which she chooses to interpret as laughter.
"What is this waste of time?"
The change of mood is instantaneous as Mikael interrupts, smiles gone, heads lifted.
"Father, we were only having a bit of fun," Niklaus tries to explain.
"Fun? We fight to survive, and you find time for fun?" Mikael looks at Elijah expectantly, and with a look of surrender, Elijah hands over his sword.
"Teach me that trick," Mikael demands. "Come on! I want to learn how to have fun."
Hesitantly, Niklaus raises his sword.
"Don't be stupid, Niklaus," Caroline calls out. "It's not worth it."
Mikael's head whips around to her, enraged, and she is certain that the only thing saving her is the fact she is holding his grandson.
Niklaus takes the opportunity and rushes his father, and for several moments, it looks like he can hold his own, but Mikael takes him down with ease.
"Your impulse, Niklaus. That is what stops you."
Mikael gets off of him, and Niklaus gets to his feet clumsily, glaring at the ground.
"I told you before," Caroline says to him afterward as he sulks, watching Alvis. "You can't beat your father."
"I can't refuse a fight with him," he says. "That'll just make it worse. Besides, he would have told me to punish you for speaking to me that way."
"Show restraint next time," she says, sighing. "I'm going to bed. Tell me if Alvis needs anything."
"I will," he says, and spends another hour watching his son sleep, hate for his father growing in his belly. "I will never treat you the way Father treats me."
The caves are their place of refuge every time the full moon rises. It's a routine they are well used to.
This full moon, however, Niklaus and Henrik are missing. Caroline worries, but with her responsibility to her son, she can hardly go out there.
But she assures herself that they must be in a different cave. After all, they just go wherever they want to. Any way they can get away from the wolves, they do. Nothing to worry about.
They leave in the morning and clean up the mess that is their village, another routine.
"Mother! Mother!"
The voice is unmistakably Niklaus', distress tearing itself from his throat.
The entire family runs outside, terror running through them.
Niklaus is holding Henrik's body, and blood covers his clothes. He is crying, scared.
Esther rushes beside him as Henrik's body is lain on the ground.
"There must be a way to save him." She says. But it is obvious to everyone but the grieving mother that the child is dead.
Niklaus is blubbering about how they wanted to see the wolves, it's all his fault, he's sorry.
"No. No. No!" Esther is hysterical, crying.
Caroline can only watch in open-mouthed horror as the Mikaelson family falls apart.
She holds Alvis so that he cannot see the carnage. She cannot help but wonder, if she lost him, was this how she would react? She cannot imagine this kind of loss.
Grief turns to anger, and Mikael beats Niklaus for the death. He does resent this beating like he does the others. And the rest of the family grieves in their own way.
They hold a funeral for Henrik, burning his body as their fathers' Viking custom says. They feast afterwards, a solemn affair. Grief is evident on all of the faces in the room.
Niklaus notices the wine tastes odd, metallic even, but he does not comment on it. Henrik's death weighs far too heavily on his mind, and he can hardly think of anything else, except perhaps his son. His determination not to make the same mistakes borders on obsessiveness.
They go home, and Caroline does not talk to him as they put Alvis to sleep and go to bed.
As soon as they achieve some semblance of rest- Niklaus has been getting nightmares and waking the both of them up- it all goes to Hel.
Mikael and Esther burst into their hut, startling them from sleep.
"What's going on?" Caroline asks groggily, until she sees Esther taking Alvis away and Mikael draws his sword.
"What are you doing?!" Caroline screams, rushing forward after Esther. Mikael catches her by the waist and runs his sword through her, blood flying everywhere.
"NO!" Niklaus roars, and he reaches for his sword. But Mikael has always been too fast for him, and now, somehow, he's even faster.
The sword cuts through his shirt and his flesh viciously, causing pain to shoot up and down his body. He swears he can see Father smile, and he asks, screams, "Why?"
It takes him a while to die, watching Caroline moan and bleed out, wondering why his mother would take his son. Groaning in pain as he dies.
They wake up in his family's hut, surrounded by the corpses of their family.
"What's going on?" Rebekah asked, getting up.
"What was Father doing?" Elijah asks.
Blood surrounds them.
"Alvis," Niklaus says. "Mother took him-"
"Your son is well, Niklaus," Mikael says, dragging a girl in. "Drink."
"Drink? You killed us, Father, and now there is no wound! What is this?" Kol demands.
At the mention of this, they look at their wounds, and find them gone, only slick blood.
"The ritual must be complete. Drink."
"What do you mean by drink?" Elijah asks, struggling to his feet.
Their father pushes the girl down in front of them, drawing a knife and cutting her wrist.
Their eyes darken and veins crawl down their faces, and they snarl in anticipation. But they recoil in horror at their actions.
But temptation takes them. Rebekah is the first to drink, and they all take a turn. And something is changing in them, filling them with strength and power.
They are monsters now.
The entire family is stuck in the house for days, unable to speak to anyone. They are unable to see their son. It is driving them mad.
Esther gives them daylight rings, and they can walk in the sunlight for the first time in two weeks. They can visit Alvis again, though they do not touch him, for fear of their new strength. Still, they are satisfied.
But their happiness is short-lived, for Kol is the first to kill, displaying their bloodlust.
And Niklaus is the next to kill, and that displays something far more sinister.
He screams as the bones in his body break and reshape themselves.
"Niklaus!" Caroline says, rushing forward again, but she is held back by Mikael.
"Stay back!"
"He's in pain! He's your son!" She yells, watching in horror.
"He's not my son!" Mikael roared. "Don't you see what he has been turning into?"
She realizes what he means. The werewolf traits are passed down from father to son, and Mikael is no werewolf.
"Father, it hurts, it hurts," Niklaus moans, rolling around on the ground, oblivious to this newfound hatred.
"No," Caroline says, unable to do anything.
"Run," Mikael says, pushing her.
She runs with her new speed to her home, sobbing. How had this happened? They had started to be truly happy. But they are monsters, unable to even touch their son. She has always had good self-control, but she cannot take any risks. Not with him. She cries over his cradle, holding her hand out, craving the contact.
They are monsters, him even more so. What will she do now?
As soon as he wakes up from his wolf form, Mikael grabs him and drags him.
"Father-" he starts.
"I am not your father," Mikael says brusquely.
Niklaus tries to fight him with his new hybrid strength, but Mikael has always been too strong for him. But what hurts the most is when Elijah begins to tie him up the cross in the middle of what he knows to be a spell.
"Please don't do this," he begs, trying to get Elijah to look at him. His brother pauses, and hope swells in him, but with a barked order from their mother- Mother, how could you?- he continues.
Betrayal cuts deep into him as Mother begins chanting, fire blossoming at the torches around the circle.
He feels like something is being ripped from him, like strength being torn from his body.
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Caroline protesting, being crippled by Mother's magic. He lets out a weak groan of protest, but screams as the pain reaches the very core of his being.
He feels like he is being torn apart.
He hears his siblings hunting the werewolf pack, and his wolf side weeps for his could-be family, but that side is fading, bound by magic.
By the time he wakes up, it is gone completely.
He is weak from the hybrid ritual, but Caroline helps him up so that they may go back.
"Alvis-"
"With Rebekah," she says. "Let us go home, Niklaus."
"You will go home with the bastard son of a werewolf?"
"Who is dead," Caroline reminded him.
Niklaus is quiet as they walk home through the woods, no longer afraid of anything it contains. But that sullenness quickly turns to panic as they find Rebekah on the floor of their hut, neck broken at an unnatural angle.
"Bekah!"
She wakes up suddenly. "Alvis! They took him, gods, gods, gods no."
That is enough for the two parents to go speeding off, cold pits sinking in their stomachs even as they move like blurs.
It does not take long for them to find their son.
"Kill the demon child!" The villagers chant, holding up their son, and the world becomes still for a moment.
Then the knife comes down, stabbing into the infant's body, sending his blood flying. The baby does not even cry. Both parents can only look on as their child dies in the arms of a crowd that wants to rip them apart.
Is this what Esther felt like? Caroline thinks, when she saw his corpse, did she feel that kind of anger, that kind of desperation?
Caroline's world turns red as she rips into the villagers, no longer caring about the sanctity or the purity of human life, for how can something pure do something like this, kill her son? Her son, a child, who they called a demon, though he was as human as the rest of them? Now they are just dead.
Niklaus- no, he is Klaus now- is robbed of his wolf, but he still feels anger more keenly than anyone else in his family, and he is not angry. He is beyond furious, beyond livid, the indescribable pain of losing a child and the vicious satisfaction of having the killers in front of you, weaker than you.
They are two blurs, ripping off heads and biting into necks, reveling in blood flow the way only vampires can, for that is what they are.
So this is how Esther finds them.
The huts are all burned down, the people are strewn everywhere, drained of blood, and the two of them holding their dead son. Blood is painted over every surface of their former home.
"Niklaus," she breathes in shock. She is now surer than ever of her conviction that they must be erased.
"You!" Her son speeds over to her, but she barely flinches. This is her son; he wouldn't hurt her.
"You took my wolf side, you made me weak! And now my son is dead."
"He is dead because you were monsters." she says calmly.
"My son is dead because you turned me into one." But Niklaus makes no move towards her, no indication of a threat.
"I did no such thing. I gave you power, but-"
She can no longer speak, for Caroline has a hand through her back, squeezing her heart and pulling it from her body.
Klaus watches in shock as his mother's body drops to the ground in front of him, his wife holding her heart.
She drops the organ in disgust, wiping away at her hands.
Klaus wants to laugh hysterically at the poetry of it. Three generations of his family, dead. His mother, his brother, his son. By a vampire, by a wolf, by humans.
But poetry cannot fill the hole in his chest where his brother and son were. His mother is nothing, worthless to him.
And his siblings find them like that, surrounded by death. Their son is still just a dead baby they are crying over, and their mother is still just a heartless dead woman.
"Mother!" Rebekah cries, and Kol just stares at the corpse in open shock.
"Who did this?" asks Finn with shaking anger.
Caroline suddenly feels all too aware of her bloodstained hand. But all of them are covered in blood. But would they notice.
Niklaus thinks quickly, lying through his teeth. "Father. He says she broke his heart, so he'd rip out hers."
Their collective hatred of Mikael grows as they bury their mother and the child, promising to stay together "Always and forever." The vow takes new meaning now that it is literal.
They burn down the ash tree together, watching it with cold eyes.
They begin their long journey, running for a thousand years. Their son is never far from their minds. The secrets, the lies, the betrayal. Caroline stays by his side through it all. They keep nothing from each other, they are partners in this world.
*Names on this show bother me- they chose Hebrew names for Nordic characters. So for this situation, I changed Caroline's father's name.
†I hate writing birth scenes because they always get things wrong, so I decided to skip that
‡Alvis= "all-wise"