It was so wonderful to read all your thoughts on this story.
On a side note, I am contemplating committing myself to a longer length story as a continuation of my most recent one-shot Sweet Dreams.
I'm intrigued by the collapse of the Other Side and how the departed can now interfere with the 'real world' so to speak. I make no promises as yet, but keep an eye out because that is very much a possibility right now.
Enough rambling. On with the story!
Happy reading :)
She was beautiful. Mad as a bloody hatter sometimes and most definitely neurotic, the cute kind of neurotic not the crazy bunny boiler type, although she did like to munch on the furry little fellows every now and then, so maybe bunny muncher was more appropriate. Yes, his girl was beautiful. Crazy and neurotic and just a little bit mad, but beautiful nonetheless.
Even now.
Enzo watched her from his perch at their windowsill. He sat with his back pressed flat against the window frame, one leg dangling precariously outside the window. He straddled the ledge carelessly, ignoring the disapproving looks of their landlady who lived in the next building. Her apartment overlooked their small two bedroom flat. He waved sarcastically at the old biddy, smirking at the disgruntled look on her face as she wrenched her curtains closed. He'd just compel her later. He always did.
Caroline was in a mood. He couldn't quite pinpoint what type it was yet. There was stress cleaning and then there was stress cleaning. He hoped it wasn't the latter. She'd been at it ever since she had come home from shopping with Elena. The apartment was spotless but still, Caroline continued to scrub and wash and polish nearly every surface she could lay her hands on. He'd tried talking to her, asking her how the hunt for 'the elusive dress' had gone. But all he'd gotten in response were a few short words mumbled under her breath.
Good was far too nondescript for a bride-to-be five weeks out from her wedding day, especially considering that she didn't have a dress or a venue organised, or a goddamn bloody cake. If the quarterback hadn't of done that online celebrants course, Enzo wondered if they'd even have that at this point. He was getting frustrated by her seeming lack of interest. It was her own wedding for Christ's sake and she couldn't even muster up enough enthusiasm to fake interest in the bloody thing!
Enzo knew that it was hard for her. He knew that she was hurting. Caroline was the type of woman that had dreamed of this day ever since she was a little girl. He knew that. He knew her. And he didn't want to sound harsh, he didn't want to shake her or push her, but the truth was that she wasn't the only girl in the world to walk down the aisle without her parents. It had been twelve years since Sheriff Forbes' death, nearly twenty-two since her father's. Enzo didn't want to sound unsympathetic but in his mind, Caroline had had twelve years to accept her mother's absence. That had to be long enough, didn't it?
But then what would he know of mothers? His had all but abandoned him when he was a young boy.
He could hardly say that he knew Liz Forbes well enough to mourn her death beyond the pain it caused her daughter. Hell, from what he'd heard she and Caroline had had a somewhat forced relationship ever since the sheriff and her husband had divorced. Enzo still had trouble believing the story behind that one. It took a certain kind of woman to remain upright and strong in the face of her husband leaving her for another man. It was that kind of inherent strength that had drawn him to Caroline.
They had been together for nine years now, two of which they'd been engaged for. He loved her, all of her, quirks and all, but she drove him bloody crazy with her indecisiveness. She always had.
A knock at the door drew his attention. Caroline didn't seem to notice as she continued to scrub away at the fireplace with a toothbrush. Enzo frowned at the slightly glazed look in her eyes. He wondered at the cause. He would call Elena later, much later, and try to get some sort of answer or explanation out of the brunette. Caroline's behaviour was worrying him.
There was another impatient rap at the front door.
He waited to see if Caroline would notice but when she didn't, he slid out from his seat at the windowsill and went to answer the door. If it was that bloody charity bloke again, the gangly redhead that persisted on trying to get him to save some endangered penguin or whatever the bloody hell it was, then he would actually eat him this time. It's not like his fiancée would notice. She was too busy cleaning to probably notice if a meteor fell from the sky and conveniently crushed their landlady.
Enzo blinked in surprise as he opened the door.
Definitely not the charity bloke then.
She was a petite little thing. Pretty in a sort of eclectic, earth child sort of way. Her mishmash of styles, the old school ripped jeans with the thigh high boots, the loose tie-dyed peasant shirt and frayed white scarf, was so singular that it took him by surprise. Nowadays it was all little black skirts and brightly coloured blazers that Enzo swore made his eyes bleed.
The strange woman was tiny but she certainly wasn't timid as she slowly looked him over, obvious in her perusal. Enzo raised an eyebrow in surprise. Not that he didn't mind being checked out by some random hippie chick at his front door, but he'd rather she do it when his fiancée wasn't in the next room cleaning away like the neurotic bunny muncher that she was.
Neurotic bunny muncher; Enzo grimaced. He really couldn't call her that. Caroline would quite literally kill him.
"I'm looking for a Caroline Forbes," the woman said, her accent a strangely broken mix of British and American. Her eyes were sharp as she tilted her head to look around his shoulder. Caroline was scrubbing furiously, oblivious to her audience. "If I could just speak with her a moment –"
"Sorry love," Enzo interrupted. "But as you can see, Caroline is a little preoccupied at the moment so ah – no earth child, or whoever the bloody hell you are, I don't really care to be honest, you can't talk to her."
Earth child simply stared at him, eerily calm. Normally when he sassed people, as Damon liked to call it, he got some sort of response. Sometimes anger and outrage, other times embarrassment but this chick had the best poker face he had ever seen. And it unnerved him.
She smiled sweetly, dimples showing. "Tell her it's Eva. I'm sure –"
"Eva?" Caroline was behind him in a second, the high-pitched break in her voice, the mild panic in her eyes, startling Enzo.
He looked at his fiancée, took in the startled reindeer look on her face, and then turned to eye the woman at the door. Who was she? And why did she seem to have such a profound impact on Caroline?
Enzo was decidedly unnerved and suspicious and just a little bit on edge, if he was being honest, at this woman's sudden appearance. There was something... off about this girl, this Eva. He couldn't quite figure out what she was. All his senses drew were a blank. She was nothing and everything all at once.
The two women seemed oblivious to his presence as they stared at one and other. Caroline seemed disbelieving and confused, scared even, while the other blonde held only a bright smile and, dare he say it, joy in her eyes.
Enzo opened his mouth to say something when Caroline cut him off, her eyes fixed on this Eva.
"Do you think you could give us a moment, Enzo?" she looked at him almost blankly, like she was moving on autopilot.
Enzo frowned. "A moment?"
Since when had Caroline needed a moment? They'd been together for nine years. Nothing was private between them. They had no secrets. Or at least, that's what he'd thought.
"I just want to speak with Eva privately for a moment. You don't mind, do you?"
Yeah. He did mind.
His instincts were screaming at him to slam the door in Eva's face, regardless of his fiancée's wrath. There was a gnawing sensation in his gut that told him this woman's presence would only cause trouble, that he had to get rid of her and get her as far away from Caroline as possible.
Instead, he acquiesced with a sharp nod at his fiancée and a glare at the other blonde before pushing his way through the door. He would leave and save himself an argument. But Caroline's idea of private and his idea didn't exactly have to mean the same thing.
Using his vampire speed, Enzo ran across to the next building and knocked impatiently on his landlady's apartment door. The moment the weathered old woman opened the door his eyes dilated.
"You are calm. You aren't scared. Go sit in the corner and... knit – or something. Just, don't make a sound. Okay?"
The woman nodded, her eyes blank and mind pliable. She went and did as he asked, picking up a set of knitting needles. She went through the motions, her hands moving methodically without any wool. Enzo rolled his eyes before quickly moving to the window that overlooked his and Caroline's apartment and discreetly pulled aside the curtains.
Caroline was still standing awkwardly at the door, wringing her hands nervously in front of her. Enzo used his vampire hearing to focus on their voices.
"I – um," Caroline stumbled over her words. "Did you, maybe, want to come in?"
Enzo frowned at the unusual amount of insecurity in Caroline's voice and body language. It was like she was preparing herself for rejection. Which was strange in and of itself.
Eva smiled and nodded, moving into the house. Caroline seemed to flounder awkwardly as she closed the front door, moving into the living room, eyes darting anywhere, everywhere, except for the smiling blonde's patient face.
"So..." Caroline drew the word out, her mouth puckered in a duckish expression. If Enzo wasn't so concerned he might have found it funny, adorable even. "I don't quite know why you're here or how you even know about me but –"
"How could I not know about you?" the woman interrupted with a light laugh, her dimpled smile bright and incredulous. Caroline was at a loss for words as Enzo watched her swallow thickly. "I grew up knowing your face. You are all he ever drew."
Enzo's eyes narrowed as Caroline coughed uncomfortably at the woman's words.
Who, exactly, drew her?
"That still doesn't explain why you're here, Eva."
"I wanted to meet you," the young blonde replied simply.
Caroline laughed harshly, wiping a hand over her face. "You wanted to meet me?" she asked incredulous. "Why?!"
For the first time, the other blonde looked uncertain. She seemed to struggle to find the right words to Caroline's question. "Is it wrong for me to want to know you, to actually meet you and talk to you, the woman that my father has been in love with my whole life?"
Wait. What?
Enzo blinked in confusion, eyebrows raised.
What the bloody hell was going on? Who was this woman?
Eva continued. "I grew up seeing your face in all of my father's drawings. I never really understood who you were, only that you were beautiful and you were important to him. When I was little I thought that maybe you were some princess from a far away exotic land that he'd once met, a long time ago. Maybe it was because I watched too many Disney movies about princesses and their knights in shining armour, but I'd actually created this fantasy in my head about the two of you. It was only when I was older that I actually saw the pain in my father's work, not some silly fairytale."
"If he's put you up to this –" Caroline started, swallowing thickly as a stray tear rolled down her cheek.
"He doesn't even know I'm here," the young blonde interrupted hurriedly. "I tricked my stepfather into thinking that I wanted to go to an art exhibition here in Atlanta. He kind of owed me, so..."
Enzo watched Caroline frown. "Jackson?"
"Yeah. It's kind of a long story that spans my entire twenty years of life. He and my mum are kind of...complicated," Eva laughed, shaking her head. "Who am I kidding? My whole family's complicated. We're the bloody Adam's Family meets the Brady Bunch. Just add in a few psychotic thousand year-old originals and you've probably got yourself a hit reality show in the making."
Caroline's laugh made his blood run cold.
Originals.
He should have known.
Enzo felt hollow as all the dots finally connected. Vampires couldn't procreate but then again, he supposed the slimy bastard wasn't exactly a vampire to begin with. Besides, who else could she possibly be talking about? Eva made sense now; she was everything and nothing all at once because she truly was unique, the only one born of her kind.
Klaus Mikaelson and Caroline Forbes.
Now that was a story of tentative love and heartbreak if there ever was one, Enzo thought bitterly. He'd never asked her why she'd left New Orleans. In hindsight, maybe he should have.
As Enzo continued to watch the two women talk, he felt a growing sense of loss. He loved Caroline. He wanted to marry her and spend the rest of existence with her, even if she was a bit of a mad hatter at times. But looking at her now, watching the way that she unconsciously smiled at the word 'father' and the young blonde's eager explanation, Enzo had to wonder if he had ever truly had a chance.
It was impossible to compete with the ghost of a memory, especially when that ghost was very much alive and almost certainly the love of your fiancée's undead life. Even if Caroline never admitted it, he knew how she felt about the hybrid.
He always had.
Maybe it was foolish to think that he would never pop up or become an issue in their life. Enzo had always assumed that the bastard had broken her heart by knocking around with another woman, or just simply buggering it up with the whole sadistic big bad routine Enzo had heard so much about. But now, looking at Eva, Enzo finally understood why Caroline had left.
He'd had a child. Caroline was nineteen when she'd run off to New Orleans on a whim. No one could begrudge her for not wanting to setup house and play stepmother to another woman's child.
"Eva," Caroline smiled lightly, moving to grab the younger woman's hands in her own. "I appreciate you coming here to see me. It's truly sweet of you but I – I guess I don't exactly understand what you want from me."
Eva frowned, wetting her lips nervously with a swipe of her tongue. She looked at Caroline so earnestly then. Enzo felt his gut clench in trepidation. He knew what she was going to say before she even said it.
"What I want from you? Isn't it obvious?" when Caroline didn't respond, the young blonde continued with a renewed fervour. "I want you to come back with me. To New Orleans. To my father."
Enzo waited, breath caught in his throat. Vampires didn't need to breathe. The action was redundant considering their bodies were, in fact, dead. And yet, most vampires continued to breathe as if they were human. It was a normalcy they indulged in to make them feel more human than they were, a subconscious action they instinctively carried out every day. Enzo couldn't breathe. He didn't need to. But the lack of oxygen in his chest felt like a heavy weight, a burning sensation of regret and anxiety as he waited for Caroline's response.
She stood there for the longest of times. He'd give anything to know what was running through that pretty little head of hers right about now.
Caroline swallowed hard, pulling her hands away the other blonde's. She took a step back. "I don't quite know what to say to that."
"Yes," Eva urged with a smile. "Say yes."
"I..." Caroline shook her head, an evident struggle in her eyes as she tried to find the right words. "I have a life here. I have people that I care about here and commitments that I cannot – that I will not break. It is sweet of you to come here Eva but I cannot go back there. I'm a different person now and –"
"That was the whole point though, wasn't it?" Eva interrupted, a decidedly determined pout on her lips. "You left so that you could both change and become better people."
"He told you about that?"
Eva nodded, moving to grab one of Caroline's hands. "I have lived my entire life knowing who and what my father is. I have heard the stories. Hell, I've seen the way people look at him, the way that they fear him. I've never understood it. My father has always simply been my father. He's my dad and yeah, he's temperamental but so am I and he's never, not once, been the monster that they all make him out to be."
"Eva –"
"No, let me finish. Please," the young woman sighed, eyes desperate. "You told him once that you would both destroy each other, that the both of you needed to change, to become better people if you had any chance of making it work. I love my father and all I want is his happiness. You are his happiness. Uncle Elijah showed me how he was when he was with you and –"
"You can't put that kind of pressure on me. I have a life here. I'm getting married in five weeks!" Caroline argued.
"Do you love him? Your fiancé?" Eva persisted.
Caroline's answer was immediate and defensive. "Of course I do."
Enzo smiled.
"And my father? Do you love him?"
His smile slowly faded as Caroline hesitated, the answer seemingly caught in her throat. "A part of me will always love Klaus."
Her admission made his stomach lurch.
"Can you truly marry one man when your heart still belongs to another?" Eva's question was beseechingly soft.
The truth behind her words, the simple honesty of the young woman's question made Enzo swallow thickly against the lump in his throat. It was such a simple yet loaded question. He didn't think he could be mad, not truly, at Caroline for loving the other man. A part of him would always, always love Maggie.
Maggie was lost to him but Klaus – he was not lost to Caroline.
"Klaus is lucky to have you for daughter," his fiancée admitted, her voice scratchy and broken. Enzo could see the struggle in her face, the barely suppressed pain in her eyes. "But I cannot come with you. I'm sorry."
Klaus' daughter nodded in disappointment, eyes hardening slightly. She licked her lips and let go of Caroline's hand. "Well, if you change your mind Jackson and I will be at the airport in the morning. Our flight leaves at nine. There's a ticket with your name on it, if you want it."
"Thank you but no."
The young blonde sniffed, eyes darting about the room. "Jackson and I will wait. Just in case."
"It was lovely meeting you Eva, but I really think –"
"Don't worry. I'll be out of your hair in a minute. I just want to say one more thing," Caroline nodded and patiently waited for the young woman to continue. "My father does not love easily. He's magnificent at letting his own insecurities and personal demons ruin his belief and trust in other people. He believes in you though. He trusts you, trusts that you will come back to him like you promised. Please don't make him wait another twenty or forty years just because you're afraid. You both deserve to be happy. Together. "
Enzo moved away from the window. He didn't quite know what to think. His mind was a mess of words and expressions, truths that he had buried deep down for such a long time.
He'd always known that she wasn't his.
Caroline could never be his.
Not truly.
The only clear thought running through his head as he moved silently toward the knitting woman in the corner was one painfully ridiculous line from a play he'd read once.
Love hath made thee a tame snake.
Some of you have expressed an interest in knowing how I envision Eva. I have a link on my profile page for any of you that would like to know what she looks like (in my head, at least).
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Let me know what you think!
Till next time :)