She groaned and turned to her side as the alarm kept blasting out that awful tune. She was sure its purpose wasn't to wake her up every morning but to make her deaf for the rest of the day. If she could sleep for five more minutes she would live happily ever after, at least until tomorrow morning when she would repeat this routine again. She slowly opened her eyes adjusting to the bright light and looked at the watch on her bedside table.

seven-fifteen a.m

She better get up now or Henrik would be late for school and she would be late for work and upset her boss once again. Being late for work had been a habit of hers for years now. Somedays her boss would understand because she had children herself. She knew mornings where the toughest time during the day but she wasn't a single mom like Caroline.

Caroline loved being a mom. Henrik was the best thing that had ever happened to her. But she had to admit, sometimes it would be nice to just stay in bed all day and catch up on her sleep. She couldn't do that though, not just because of Henrik but because of her work.

She got up and jumped in the shower before she got dressed and went to the kitchen to get breakfast ready. It was Friday which meant pancakes and scrambled eggs. She began with the pancakes as she heard Henrik walking out of his room. "Good morning, sweetie," She said with a tired smile when he walked up to the kitchen table fully dressed to gather all his books that laid on the tabletop.

"Morning, mom," he said as he put all his books in his school bag.

"You have a math test today, right?" She asked him and when she saw the scowl on his face she couldn't help but smile even more. "Come on you're going to do great. You have been practicing all week!" She cheered at him.

The scowl eased a little. "Yes I know but i'm nervous."

Now she couldn't help but feel sorry for him. She had looked over his homework once and she didn't understand anything of it. She was a well-educated woman who didn't understand her 11-year-old son's math homework. Had she chose the right school or was she just dumb?One thing she did know was multiplication.

"Like I said, kid. You're going to do great. I will help you practice some more." The pancakes was ready and the eggs only needed some spices.

"Mom. The test is today."

"I know. Doesn't mean you can spend the time you have left to prepare yourself, it sometimes helps the nervousness, you know," She smiled at him as she handed him his plate of food. "So tell me, what is seven times eight?"

"56."

"nine times three?"

"27."

"See? you got this!"

"Learn a lot and good luck on that test," She bent down so she was eye level with her son. "I will finish work a little earlier today, I was thinking we could eat out?" Henrik's eyes brightened.

"Okay but only if I get to choose the restaurant, I really didn't like that weird fish and rice food we ate the last time," He pretended to barf at that.

"Do you mean sushi?" She giggled softly. "I thought you said you liked it?"

"I lied." he said coyly with a smile forming on his lips.

"What have I told you about lying, you little smug bastard?" Caroline said jokingly.

He looked so happy with his smile and that made her happy. She would do anything for him, as any mother would. He was the light of her life and to see him smile meant everything to her. She smiled back at him. "Could we go for some ice cream afterwards?"

"Yes. Of course," She bent towards him to place a kiss on his cheek.

"MOM!" He shrieked.

"Right. Sorry. Can't let those girls see that the school's coolest kid have a soft spot for his mother." She beamed at him.

"I'm not cool, I'm just smart." He said with confident.

With that he ran across the schoolyard in the direction of the entrance. He turned around to wave at his mom before he entered the school. She waved back before she looked down at her watch.

eight-fifty p.m

That meant she had ten minutes to get to work before she might or might not get a lecture from her boss, depending if she had a rough morning with her own kids or not.

Lucky for Caroline her job wasn't that far away from Henrik's school and if she hurried she would be there on time.

She silently prayed to some almighty god that she will.

"You never told me how the test went?" She said while chewing her lasagna. God bless Henrik for picking italian for dinner. If there was something she almost loved as much as her son it was italian food.

Henrik didn't answer. All she could hear was the sound of her fork against her plate and other guests at the restaurant. A waitress was taking an order from a family not far away from their table. Caroline looked up at Henrik.

He wasn't paying any attention to his mozzarella and pepperoni pizza nor his mother. Instead he was watching the family who had just gotten their orders. It was a woman, probably the mother. She wasn't very much older than herself. She had dark brown locks hanging around her shoulders with a black top on. She was trying to make one of her children sit still at the table. She had three of them, still in their kindergarden-age. She remembered when Henrik was around that age. He couldn't sit still to save his life. Always on his feet and wanting to touch everything he could see. I guess that is what it's like, when you recently have learned how to walk and use your arms and hands.

She then noticed the man sitting across from the mother. She figured that must be the father. He was talking with one of the kids, a boy that looked to be the oldest of the three. It looked like the father was telling him a story, he used hand gestures to demonstrate something that made the boy laugh with him.

She looked back at her own son. "Henrik?"

He didn't hear her. He was too caught up with the other family, especially the father.

That was when it hit her. Henrik wanted that. He wanted someone that could tell him stories just like that man did to his son. He needed someone he could look up to, not just his mother but a father.

It had always been the two of them. Henrik and Caroline. They were their own little family. It was supposed to be just them. Sure, there were other people in their life that they considered family. Like her own mother, though she didn't visit often because of her work. But there was Stefan, Elena and Bonnie. They were really close and Henrik loved them just as much as Caroline always had. Stefan was a great role model for him and they had a lot of common interests, like the fascination of classic cars, history and art.

Art was something Henrik had a huge passion for. He always wanted to visit one of the city's museum to explore their new exhibition or he wanted to be outside to take photographs or paint. Art was also something Henrik had in common with his father. But he didn't know that himself. She never spoke of his father. He didn't even know his name. Caroline was afraid all those memories she had tried to forget over the years would come back to her if she spoke of his name. She knew she was being selfish, despite the fact that his father had been a liar and left her all on her own he was still Henrik's father.

"Henrik?"

He finally looked at her. "Sorry, mom," He said with half a smile.

He then told her how the test had went and what else he had done during his day at school but he kept trowing glances at the other family.

"Here you go." Caroline handed him a cone of his favorite chocolate and strawberry ice cream. In her other hand she held her vanilla ice cream as she paid. They sat down at a park bench to eat. It was late but it was Friday and New York so people were still out. They sat there in silent for a while. Caroline looked down at her son who was focused on eating his ice cream before it could melt over his fingers.

"Mom?" He said suddenly.

"Yeah, kid?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

She already knew what was coming. He had never directly asked the question to her but she knew he had been wondering about it a lot during the years. She had seen him looking with longing at his friends' families and strangers they would see on the streets. Once, a couple of years ago he had come home from school with a homework assignment. He had to fill out a family tree and write one sentence about each family member that would describe them. She had talked about her mother who lived back in Mystic Falls still working most of her time as the town's sheriff. She had spoken greatly about her daddy who she loved very deeply and cherished until the day he had died. She also talked about her friends who she insisted should have a spot on the tree, at least on the side because they were so close to their little family that they were considered family members. But then they had gotten to the part where he had to fill out his father's side of the tree.

That was when it got silent. She didn't know what to say, mostly because she didn't know much about his father's family. She did know he had siblings. Three brothers, or was it four? And a younger sister. She had only met the oldest brother and his sister for a brief moment many years ago. He had never spoken about his parents, only mentioned them from time to time when she would ask. So there wasn't much to say about his side of the family, much to Henrik's disappointment.

So how would she react to what was coming her way? She guessed she had herself to blame, she could at least have mentioned him once in a while instead of choosing to completely ignore the subject! But she was trying to protect him from all that she had been through once. She was afraid of what would happened if she told him about his father, would he want to meet him? She didn't know where he was and she definitely wasn't ready to find out about it yet to speak about him. But she had to. For Henrik, she had kept it away for too long and to be able to move on she had to let go, right?

She looked down at Henrik and nodded.

"Where is my dad?"