A/N: Alright so I want to be clear on a few things. Klamille will not be a thing in my story. At all. Klaus and Hayley never slept together so there will be no baby plot. Hayley will be in the story but not as much as she was in the show.

Secondly, I'm thinking about bringing Katherine into the story.

The last person Caroline expected to walk through the doors was Klaus Mikaelson, she was sitting in the back of the club with a few of Marcel's female vampires when she felt a shift in the air, and her skin started humming. It was a sensation she hadn't felt in almost a century.

It was a sensation she only ever got when one man was near, her eyes scanned the bar and the sight of Niklaus Mikaelson had her doing a double take, her son's cover song of 'How Do You Like Me Now' fading into the background as she watched him, stroll closer to the stage, his steps predatory as he stared up at Marcel, his eyes hard and expression a mix of anger and impassiveness.

Her shoulders tensed, a rigidness setting in as she watched with bated breath. She saw the barely there double take that Marcel gave when he spotted Klaus but he finished up his song before jumping down from the stage. "Klaus."

Klaus glared at the man. "Marcel"

"Must be 100 years since that nasty business with your papa." Marcel mused.

"Has it been that long?" Klaus asked, acting as if that night had meant nothing. Was nothing but a footnote of his past.

"Way I recall it, he ran you out of town. Left a trail of dead vampires in his wake." Marcel continued impassively.

"And yet how fortunate you managed to survive." A spark of hope lit in his chest that if Marcel had somehow managed to survive maybe she did too. "My father, I'm afraid, I recently incinerated to dust."

"Well, if I'd known you were coming back in town, if I had a heads-up..."

"What, Marcel?" Klaus stepped directly in Marcel's personal space threateningly, voice like cool steel. "What would you have done?"

Marcel's guys instantly recognized the threat and moved to flank him.

"I'd have thrown you a damn parade." He grinned fully, throwing his arms around Klaus who matched his grin returning the familiar embrace.

Caroline had remained seated, watching the reunion with shrewd eyes but once she saw Klaus embracing her son, she stood up abruptly her chair scrapping roughly against the wood, weaving her way through the crowd and toward the door.

"Niklaus Mikaelson. My mentor, my savior, my sire. Let's get you a drink. It is good to see you." Marcel turned him toward the bar.

"It's good to be home." Klaus lied. It was good to see Marcel but New Orleans wasn't home. It never was. His home had always been Caroline. Her presence surrounding him had felt like home. "If you're here.." He trailed off, the question on the tip of his tongue. Caroline? Was she here? Did both Marcel and her survive Mikael's attack all those years ago? "Is sh-" he cut off abruptly catching a flash of blonde hair as the bar door swung closed.

His head whipped around to Marcel. "Caroline?"

And the look that crossed Marcel's face was all the answer he needed, he rushed out the door without a backward glance, chasing after the blonde.

Marcel gave a sigh, tapping his fist on the bar. "Get me a shot of bourbon." And downed the glass as soon as it was placed in front of him.

"What's going on, Marcel?" Diego, one of his more trusted guys questioned, looking toward the door in concern. "Does Caroline need back up?" He didn't even wait for Marcel to reply before taking a step away from the bar toward the door.

Marcel put out his arm blocking him. "Don't. This is between them."

Diego hesitated but reluctantly stepped back toward the bar though he kept shooting worried glances toward the exit.

"Caroline is more than capable of handling herself." Marcel had noticed his look of concern. "I know I don't need to remind you of that fact."

Diego knew that but it was an instinct grained in him to want to protect Caroline who was always so good to him and the rest of Marcel's inner circle. He took his seat back at the bar next to Marcel, grabbing his drink and shooting it back.


Klaus scanned the streets for the blonde, swearing that if he was still human his heart would be pounding against his ribcage right about now. He caught sight of the flash of blonde hair as she reached the corner street ahead and quickly flashed in front of her, his breath catching in his throat.

"Caroline?" His voice choked out, the emotion at seeing her when he long believed her to be dead, clogging his throat.

Caroline hadn't wanted to see him, face him. It was why she had left, just the thought of him had her stomach twisting into fiery knots. He had left her and Marcel for dead at the hands of Mikael without so much as looking back.

Caroline stared at him as he stared at her in wonder with a look of indifference, masking the anger churning inside her.

"Caroline, I thought you were dead." Klaus cleared his throat, forcing the well of emotions he was feeling down for the moment. "I can't believe you're alive."

"No thanks to you." She spat acerbically.

It was then hearing her voice for the first time in over a century that wasn't in his dreams or nightmares, that he could hear the anger, the resentment in every syllable she spoke.

It was then that he really looked past the unbelievably welcome sight of his wife features that he had committed to memory, the same features he had been sketching for the last century off memory alone and really looked at her, at her beautiful face that used to be so open and expressive with joy, excitement and light but was now completely indifferent and closed off, guarded and her blue eyes that were bright and full of adoration and exasperated fondness now looked at him with anything but. Her eyes were cold, hard like steel and full of anger and resentment.

"I thought you were dead." He repeated, his hand reaching out to cup her jaw but she jerked back from him before his fingers could so much as graze her skin.

"Don't touch me." She ground out in an angry hiss. "Don't you fucking dare touch me."

"Caroline." His name left her lips like a plea and prayer all in one. A plea for her to understand. A prayer for her forgiveness. "Please.." He was never one to say please to ask for anything, to show weakness but for her he would.

"No." Caroline shook her head, her eyes raging like a storm, her tone livid. "I don't want to hear anything you have to say. I want you gone. Leave New Orleans and don't ever come back."

Klaus clenched his jaw anger hitting him suddenly. "If you think I'm going anywhere without you now that I know you're here you clearly don't remember me as well as you should have."

"Oh, I remember you perfectly. I remember a man who abandoned his wife, his son." She stepped forward into his space, hostility coming off her in waves. "I remember a man leaving two people he claimed to love, his family to be slaughtered at the hands of his psychotic father. I remember a coward who ran the second Mikael caught up to him."

"It wasn't like that and you know it! You know what he was like!"

"So did you and you still left me and Marcel to suffer at his hands like a coward, you abandoned your son. You abandoned me."

His hand snatched out, yanking her to him. "If I'm such a coward why is Mikael now dead at my hands?!" Klaus demanded.

Surprised filled Caroline but she quickly covered it. "Let go of me!" She wrenched herself from his grasp, putting distance between them. "So you finally killed Mikael. Congratulations." She spat sarcastically. "You want a reward for something you should have done from the very beginning."

Klaus shook his head unable to understand how his Caroline, his beautiful, kind, loving wife, who always looked for the best in people became this bitter, angry, full of resentment, spiteful version of her standing in front of him. "What happened to you?"

Caroline eyes flickered dangerously. "You. You happened to me. Just like you happened to everyone. You ruin everything you touch and if you stay here in New Orleans you'll ruin everyone and everything in it. I advise you to leave before that happens." She took several steps back from him.

For every step back she took he followed her. "I won't be leaving New Orleans without you. Not again."

"I have nothing to offer you." Caroline gave him a dismissive look. "New Orleans has nothing to offer you. Leave Klaus and never come back. Never step a foot back in New Orleans." She pushed past him then, her shoulder slamming into his as she continued down the sidewalk.

Klaus turned, keeping her in his sight. "As long as you're here, Caroline, I won't be leaving." He swore and it sounded like he was making a vow to himself and to her. "I won't leave you again."

Caroline stopped but didn't turn back around, jaw clenching. "There's nothing left for you here. Not anymore." And with that she disappeared uncaring of passerby's who might have seen her take off.

Klaus clenched his jaw, heart clenching in his chest before he whirled back around on his heels, striding back to the bar.


Marcel had barely felt the air shift before he found himself being turned around forcefully and was confronted with an angry Klaus. "What the hell happened to her?!"

"I'm not sure I know what you mean?" He shrugged Klaus's hand off of him.

"She's not the same."

"You couldn't have honestly thought she would be." Marcel lips twisted wryly. "It's been a century since you left without her and it change her."

Klaus took a step back his jaw tightening. "Clearly."

"Just give her sometime. She'll get over it. " Marcel said dismissively though he didn't really believed she would get over it. Nothing had ever hurt her more than when Klaus had abandoned her. But he didn't want Klaus hounding Caroline and thought it best to distract him instead. "You know how she gets when she's pissed. C'mon, I'll show you around my streets."


Marcel led the way outside and Klaus let him, anything to take his mind off his encounter with Caroline. Of all the ways he had imagine her being alive and reuniting with her it had not gone the way it had.

"Although please tell me the current state of bourbon street is not your doing." Klaus had took notice of all the damn tourist attractions.

"Ha ha ha ha! Something's gotta draw in the out-of-towners; otherwise, we'd all go hungry." Marcel chuckled in amusement.

"I see your friends are day walkers." Klaus commented, eyeing a few of Marcel's vampires.

"Yeah, yeah, I shared the secret of your daylight ring with a few buddies. Just the inner circle, though. The family."

"Tell me. How did you find a witch willing to make daylight rings?" Klaus had to question. It was no secret witches hated vampires.

"I got the witches here wrapped around my finger."

"Is that so? I'm looking for a witch by the name of Jane-Anne Deveraux. Has some business with me."

"Looking for Jane-Anne?" A smirk filtered across Marcel's face. "Then you probably ought to come with me. Ha ha! Showtime!"

Marcel had led him to where a crowd was gathering. "How's the family?" Marcel wondered.

"Those who live hate me more than ever." Though now it seem Caroline now had that in common with them.

"Forget them." Marcel dismissed. "If your blood relations let you down, you make your own, huh?." The family that mattered to Marcel weren't even his blood family. "You taught me that. And what's mine is yours, as always. Even my nightwalkers, the riff-raff."

Klaus watched as Marcel's aforementioned nightwalkers, drop from buildings onto the streets below, some leaping from building to building. "They're hardly subtle, are they?"

"It's the Quarter." Marcel turned showcasing a large smile. "Ain't no such thing as subtle, baby."

A woman, caught in the grasp of several nightwalkers was brought forth before the crowd of rowdy vampires surrounding her as she was kept in restraints.

"Jane-Anne Deveraux. Give it up for Jane-Anne. Come on." Marcel focused on the witch. "Jane-Anne Deveraux, you have been accused of the practice of witchcraft beyond the bounds of the rules set forth and enforced by me. How do you plead?" He turned back to Klaus with a showman smile. "Oh. Was that convincing? I studied law back in the fifties. It's all I know. Caroline found it all very amusing." He turned back to the witch. "Seriously, J, tick tock. You know the drill. How do you plead?"

"I want to speak with Caroline!" She demanded, scanning the crowds of vampires.

"You think Caroline's going to help you?" Marcel shook his head. "I'm afraid you're going to be sorely disappointed." His eyes sliding a few feet away watching as Caroline emerged from the crowd as they parted, making a wide berth for her.

"Caroline, please." Jane-Anne pleaded when Caroline came to stand beside Marcel. "I didn't do anything."

"Forgive me if I don't believe you Jane." Caroline said, knowing for a fact that she was lying and even if she didn't know she would be hard pressed to believe Jane.

"Caroline, I was only doing what I had to." Jane defended. "We were friends, ally's once you have to know that everything I have done was for a reason." She looked at Caroline for understanding but found none as Caroline looked at her in derision.

Caroline laughed sardonically. "Everything you've done has been for power. And the thing is Deveraux I could never align myself with anyone who has done what you have." The very thought that a mother could sacrifice her own child for power was disgusting and yet Jane had done it. In Caroline's eyes she was worse than any vampire in the Quarter.

Klaus had barely paid attention to what was happening from the moment Caroline had appeared, absorbed in watching her every move, listening to every word she spoke while drowning everything and everyone else out. He stared at her intensely urging her to just look at him but she was ignoring him completely as if he wasn't standing just a few feet away.

"But I didn't do anything!" Jane-Anne protested looking at Caroline in betrayal.

"That's a lie. You know it, I know it, and you hate that I know it." Marcel declared. "It drives you witches crazy that I'm aware of your every move. That you can't do magic in this town without getting caught. So, why don't we just cut to the chase, huh? You tell me what magic you're brewing. Tell me. I'll grant you leniency. Hey, I am, after all, a merciful man." Caroline had raised him to be a good man after all. He could still remember her mantra to him since he was a boy.

Be better than we are.

She had always told him to be better than their family. She still said it from time to time whenever she felt she needed to remind him of the good in him.

"Rot in hell, monster." Jane-Anne spat at him with hate, her eyes slid to Caroline. "And you can join him your just as much of a monster as he is."

Marcel hand snatched out swiping a blade across her throat, slicing it wide open, blood gushing as she choked and hit the streets dead, still bleeding out.

As the witch had begun to speak to Caroline with insults Klaus had focused back into what was happening and had watched as Marcel killed the witch without warning. "What was that?" He demanded.

Marcel's eyes slid to Caroline as he answered. "No one speaks to Caroline like that in my presence." He could never allow anyone to talk down to his mother. Sometimes it was hard to find the good in the world with what he was, what they were but Caroline was definitely one of the good things left this world still had to offer.

Klaus despite being able to relate to not allowing anyone to speak down to his wife still felt anger for Marcel's action. How the bloody hell was he supposed to find out what the witches were plotting against him now?

"Besides witches aren't allowed to do magic here. She broke the rules." Marcel said dismissively. "C'mon, walk with me." He turned Klaus down the road.

"I told you I wanted to talk to her." Klaus insisted not moving.

"What business do you have with a New Orleans witch? Is that why you're back?" Caroline asked leveling him with a suspicious look.

"If I had known you were here I would have come back a long time ago."

Caroline gave a scoff turning on her heel and disappearing into the crowd.

"Caroline, wait." He moved to follow after her but was stopped by an arm gripping his shoulder.

"Give her some time." Marcel told him, Klaus glared shrugging off his arm. "Walk with me." He insisted. "Hey, I'm sorry. I got caught up in the show and I let my anger get the better of me when she insulted Caroline. Those witches, they think that they still have power in this town. I have to show them that they don't. I never waste an opportunity for a show of force. Another lesson that I learned from you. And besides, anything that you could've gotten out of her, I can find out for you, and I will. I promise."

Klaus said nothing but didn't move away from him this time.

"Good. Then let's eat, because all that spilled blood makes me hungry." Marcel declared.

Klaus lagged behind as Marcel was leaving, catching one of Marcel's guys. "Hey. Thierry, isn't it? Any more Deveraux witches where she came from?"


Caroline moved through the crowd with ease, finding Marcel back at the compound that they called home, holding court with his men.

"I'd like a word with Marcel." She looked to his followers.

Marcel nodded and they excused themselves giving them the room. "Is everything alright?"

"Is everything alright?" Caroline repeated, crossing her arms. "You tell me. You're the one welcoming Klaus back with open arms."

"I thought that that might be what this is about." Marcel gave a nod. "It's better to play along and keep peace with him then it is to make unnecessary enemies. If Klaus is back after a 100 years its for a reason and we need to find out why."

"I doubt he's going to come out and tell you." Caroline muttered. "That would be too easy. So what? You're going to buddy up to him in hopes of finding out what he wants? What he's doing here?"

"What's the saying you used to say? 'You'll catch more bees with honey than with vinegar."

Caroline sighed irritably. "I won't pretend like everything is okay. I don't give a fuck why he's here. I just want him gone. He left us for dead. He can't be trusted."

"I'm not saying we trust him. I say we keep him close." Marcel argued.

"I don't want to be around him." Caroline spat waving her arms angrily. "I wish he'd fall off the face of the earth, the bastard!" Just thinking of him brought fresh waves of anger to the surface and made her want to lash out, tear something, anything apart with her bare hands. Maybe she could have him hexed with that stupid hunter cursed he had long ago. The very thought had a feeling of twisted pleasure wash over her for just a moment.

Marcel clapped a hand onto her shoulder in an attempt to calm her. "And I'm not asking you to. You don't even have to speak with him if you don't want to. I'll deal with him. You shouldn't have to." Marcel knew how hurt, how devastated Caroline had been when they were first left behind. She had been a shell of the person, the mother he knew.

But slowly in time she had come back to herself a bit jaded and little more concerned and more guarded with her heart than he ever knew her to be, now only allowing a select few close to her. He could count on one hand the amount of people she had allowed herself to let her guards down with.

Caroline heaved a large sigh. Sometimes she hated when Marcel was so damn reasonable. Sometimes she wanted him to just rage and let free everything he was feeling regardless of everything else. "I want him followed."

"Done." Marcel assured her. "C'mon," he tugged her into his side. "Let's get something to eat and forget all about Niklaus Mikaelson."

"If only that were possible." Caroline replied darkly.

If that were at all possible she would have done it the moment she realized he had left her behind, discarded her for the sake of saving his own skin, like all the years they had spent together meant absolutely nothing to him.

Well if that was case then he got exactly what he wanted. Because anything that had ever been between them meant nothing to her. Nothing at all.

A/N: Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.