Dedicated to a friend of mine who is a huge Klaroline shipper, and also adores Stefan. Please leave reviews and comments, I'll love you all forever?


It took around thirty minutes for Caroline to wake up once Klaus had arrived, and he spent the majority of that time beside her, simply holding her hand and stroking her knuckles. His brows were tightened into a frown as his oceanic eyes followed Stefan's back-and-forth pacing. "You're making me dizzy," he smiled faintly.

"Sorry..." Stefan stopped at once, sympathising with the couple. Their child on life support, three months too early. He couldn't imagine the pain.
"No, it's okay." Caroline mumbled, her words still slurred. "Where's the baby?" she asked Klaus, lolling her head to the side.
"Erm..." Klaus began and her eyes widened, fearing the worst once again. Caroline had always been one for jumping to conclusions, and it was usually the negative ones.
"The baby is fine." Stefan reassured, taking a seat on the other side of Caroline's bed.
"Can I see her?" the blonde tried to sit up straight away, failing to do so. She slowly raised herself into a sitting position which hurt her stomach more than she intended, but there was no wound there, only an ache. Perks of having a vampire body that heals instantly, she supposed.
"Her?" Klaus grinned, his head canting to one side.
"Well...yeah, it's a her right?"
Just then, a doctor walked into the room with a clipboard in his hand. "Would you like to see your son?" his brow raised and Klaus rolled his eyes, though his smile didn't fade. "Though, there were some complications in the birth. Because he is only six months old, he is on a life support machine that filtrates oxygen through his lungs. However, if he shows signs of improvements then he should be off the ventilation by the end of the week."
End of the week!? Caroline thought. It's only Monday!
"Well, Miss. Forbes?" Klaus' brow raised. "Would you like to see our son? He's tiny."
"Two pounds, to be exact." the doctor interrupted. He had clearly been compelled to think that it was completely normal for Caroline to have no wounds. Klaus had taken care of that. "But like I said previously, there were complications."
"Complications?" Caroline questioned, shooting Klaus a nervous glance.
"You were having twins, Miss. Forbes," he dropped his head, averting his gaze. "And I'm afraid one of your twins wasn't strong enough, she wasn't breathing."
Tears immediately welled up in Caroline's eyes and she felt a painful pang in her heart, before she managed to choke out a sob. The sob represented all the pain, misery and upset she felt. Suddenly she felt empty, alone, and isolated. It was her fault, surely? Maybe if she had been less stressed, maybe her baby girl could have survived. She felt as though she was frozen for an endless amount of time, eternity, when it was really only a couple of seconds. Klaus brought her knuckles up to his lips and he pressed a kiss against them, not allowing tears to form in his own eyes. He had to stay strong for Caroline.
"I...I want to see our son..." Caroline whispered shakily, her chest rising and falling quickly.
Klaus' head nodded and he slowly raised to his feet, never letting go of Caroline's hand. She tenderly followed suit and climbed out of bed. Annoyingly, the back of her gown remained open, so Klaus - with a sigh - wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, keeping her back pressed against his chest so that nobody could see anything indecent. She was his and only his, he wasn't going to allow anybody else to lay their eyes on her.
"This way," the doctor announced, leading the way down the hallway and towards the incubation room.

Once in the other room, Caroline sat down on the chair that Klaus had previously occupied, her eyes falling upon the small baby who lay in the plastic box, attached to wires that seemed to coat the boy's body. Tears trickled down her cheeks and she looked up to Klaus, "C-can't you give him a bit of blood?" she nibbled on her lower lip. "It'd heal him, wouldn't it?"
Klaus shook his head. How was he supposed to tell the mother of his son that he couldn't help their baby. "Blood only heals injuries, baby," he explained, "It wouldn't help him develop."
Stefan cleared his throat lightly, before raising a brow in question of whether or not he could go in.
Caroline glanced up at him stood in the doorway, giving a timid nod of her head. "Come in." she whispered, a hollow shiver of a whisper. "Can I touch him?" she questioned with watery eyes, and the doctor nodded his head.
"Only for a short moment at a time, his nerves are very over-sensitive right now. You'll have to be gentle." he explained, and Klaus glared towards the nurse who had previously denied him the chance to touch his son.
"O-okay," she stuttered, reaching out a hand to tentatively slip it into one of the holes in the side of the incubator. Her hand gently glided across the tender skin of the baby's hand, fingertips dancing against his delicate flesh. A smile burst onto her features before she quickly retracted her hand away, not wanting to hurt her son. "We have to think of a name, Klaus!" she said hastily.
Klaus paused and reached forward his hand, pushing it through the hole prior to repeating Caroline's actions, stroking the tiny knuckles of their child. Caroline's father, his name was Bill, but they couldn't name the baby 'Bill'. William, perhaps? He nodded to himself before pulling his hand away. "William?"
A quiet gasp of joy passed the girl's lips and she nodded her head, grinning. "Like my dad!" she exclaimed.
"Exactly," Klaus' head nodded, his eyes falling on Stefan, who remained lingering in the back of the room, clearly not wanting to interrupt the couple. "William Stefan Mikaelson." he grinned, and so did Stefan.
"I love it." Stefan laughed beneath his breath just as Caroline flung her arms around Klaus' waist.

Three hours later and Caroline was discharged from the hospital, though she remained to be beside her son, who was in a constant battle for his life. The doctors had told her that his liver, lungs and kidneys were underdeveloped, and that he could have serious learning difficulties when he's older. But none of this information deterred her, or made her love him any less.
Meanwhile, Klaus had been making trips back and forth between the hospital, the shop, and their three-bedroom, semi-detached house. Caroline had written him and Stefan a list of things to buy for little William: clothes, dummies, bottles, toys, teddies, steriliser kit, milk powder, blankets, socks, more clothes, car-seat, nappies, changing mats, and more clothes. "Does he really need so many clothes?" Klaus scowled irritably, tired of moving back and forth between the shop because he 'hadn't got enough clothes' or he'd 'bought the wrong size'.
"Yes, he does." Stefan explained, shaking his head in pure amusement. It was funny, seeing Klaus run around after Caroline like a headless chicken, and now even more funny seeing as though he had to run around after William as well. "Babies grow fast,"
"I don't care if they grow fast, they're too small."
"Oh shut up." Stefan's eyes rolled and he adjusted himself comfortably in the passenger seat of the car.
"You won't be saying that when you have to clean up his sick, Stefan." Klaus retorted truthfully.
Stefan's grin returned and he canted his head to one side. "Who says I'll be cleaning up any sick?"
"Pssht," Klaus scoffed, "Try and avoid it, Caroline will have your head."
"I'm not going to lie, I'll help out an' all, but I'm not doing loads of stuff. He's your kid." Stefan, for once, spoke selfishly. "I need to focus on my own life, brother." he had taken to calling Klaus 'brother', seeing as though he acted like a better one than Damon ever had. Choosing Elena over Stefan? That was it for what was left of their tattered and brotherly bond, he had made his decision.
A sigh parted Klaus' lips and he pulled into the driveway of the house. "I know, I just-" he paused for a breather. "-I'm worried about him. And I'm worried about Caroline."
Stefan hadn't wanted to bring it up, but he knew that if he didn't, nobody would. "Are you... I mean," his brows furrowed together. "When are you going to have a funeral for your daughter..?"
Klaus' head turned to one side and he wrinkled up his nose, still refusing to cry. "She's called Amelia-Rose." he began, biting the inside of his cheek. "And we don't know yet, as soon as possible." he choked and rested his head against the window. Suddenly anger rose up inside him. It wasn't fair, that he had to bury his daughter. "Do you know how small a baby's coffin is?! Especially when that baby is three months early anyway!" he scowled, climbing out of the car and slamming the door behind him. He stormed into the house and into his art studio, shoving his fist through the nearest painted canvas out of pure rage, upset and torment. He was tired and ashamed. Ashamed of what he had caused; it was him that had upset Caroline, him that had made her stressed. If he'd have been nicer then both of their children would be at the hospital, alive.

And he hated himself for it.