Klaus walks into the house at about eight in the morning. I look up from my spot on the couch and my magazine. The image that greets me, warms me from the tip of my head to the bottom of my toes.
Hope was holding his hands as she walked carefully, head tilted back, watching Hayley. Hayley stood behind Hope while Klaus stood in front of her. It looked like Hayley was only making sure Hope wouldn't fall back and bust her head open. Smart mom. Just as I was about to leave, Hope's eyes found mine and she made this adorable noise with a wide smile on her face as one little hand was outstretched toward me. I swallow and smile back at her, waving.
She makes a sound of happiness and runs from her father's hand and over to me in a speed that stunned me. "Holy crap, you are a fast little thing." The words flew out of my mouth in a shocked frenzy.
She giggles jumping up, clear off the ground and wrapping her arms and legs around me. Okay. I blink at Klaus and Hayley blinks at me. One of my arms was wrapped around Hope's back as I support her weight. Feeling a little awkward, I scratch the back of my neck as Klaus cocks his head to the side.
"Okay . . . um, sweetie." I say trying to push her away. When that didn't work, I turned and sat down setting her carefully down on the couch.
"Who you?" She asks with an innocence that only a two year old could accomplish.
"Caroline." I inform her watching as he lips pull down in a confused frown. Then her mouth starts moving.
"Car-o-lin." Kind of, but I wasn't going to be a bitch to a kid, so I nod.
"That works too." I inform her, before giving it one more try to help,
"Line." I drawl out the word, drawing out the syllables. She merely giggles, throwing her hands up in the air and shouting.
"Line!" She exclaims and I raise an eyebrow, figuring we were getting somewhere so, I tried again.
"Care-o-line." I drawl out my name carefully and she sucks her thumb,
"Car-o-line!" She tries.
I nod, close enough. "Sure." I encourage and she smiles giggling. Then she jumps down running to Klaus's legs.
"Dada!" She exclaims, okay, apparently even dead ovaries can go boom.
I glance up to see Camille walk in. I lean back and cross my legs as I continue to read my magazine. Hayley pulls Hope over to a chair and they start to read a book.
"Cami." Klaus greets and she smiles slightly at him. Our eyes connect briefly before we both look away swiftly. I roll my eyes at the absurdity of this entire exchange, he needed to grow back his Klaus balls and ask the girl out. I stretch and then start murmuring too low for her to hear.
"Ask. Her. Out!" My voice was an annoyed growl that only reached his and Hayley's ears. Klaus coughs out a laugh, before clearing his throat and shaking his head.
I flick through the magazine, giving Klaus a look over pure annoyance. "So, Camille I was just wondering." Klaus starts. Hayley and I share a glance of absolute mortification at the mundane start to the conversation. Cami blinks at him.
"Ex-lovers." I remind him in a sing-song voice, because he was in the room with a girl he had a child with and me, and I was Caroline. So yeah, not the place he should be having this conversation. Klaus growls in annoyed realization before grabbing Cami carefully by the arm and leading her away.
Hayley watches me carefully. "Stay away from Hope." She demands and I glance up, not in the least bit intimidated by this mama bear coming out in front of me.
"Don't have to tell me twice." I reassure her and crossed my legs.
"I'm not going to hurt her. Jesus, Hayley, have some fucking trust for me. I mean you have tried to steal Tyler from me in the past. Then you slept with Klaus, had his child, fell for his brother, and now you're married, jeez, you're almost as bad as Elena. No, actually, you're worse than Elena, she didn't have a kid. Anyways, Klaus trusts me, that's all you need to worry about." With that, I stand and leave the living room.
When I got outside, a voice brought me out of my distracted haze. "I choked." His voice confesses.
I look over at Klaus. "What's wrong with me?" He asks disbelievingly.
I raise an eyebrow, did he want me to answer that? Deciding with the teasing route, "Got a couple spare decades?" I ask and he chuckles sitting next to me on a large boulder that sat comfortable in front of the oak tree.
"Klaus, the only way you know how to woo a woman is to sweep her off her feet, with expensive diamonds and dresses from a different era. Look, just . . . be you. If you can't take her to some public place, make your own date." I suggest watching the air in front of us. When the silence stretches out for a longer period of time than I had expected, I turn and my eyes connected with his. Heat envelopes me, and I swallow against the fuzzy feeling.
"What?" I ask, shifting under the intensity of his gaze.
He shrugs. "Why are you helping me, Caroline? Convinced that if I'm with Camille, I'll just forget about you? Hope to have me out of your hair or something?" He snaps. The anger in his tone shocked me, because I'd never heard him with that type of emotion. Anger, I've heard on him more times than I can remember, but the hurt that laced his words, that was new.
I stared at him, feeling an intense need to soothe his hurt and clam his questions. So I leaned over, close to his face so that we were inches apart.
"A while back, you told me that although Tyler was my first love, you intended to be my last. You don't seem like the type to break your word and perhaps I've decided that I intend to be your last love. Nothing was said about the ones we'd find in the journey back to each other. Besides, do you truly think it's our time right now?" I ask, not believing that he could think that. Not with the drama surrounding me, this prophecy, and his daughter.
He stared at me, seemingly dumbfounded by my confession, then he spoke and the words warmed my heart, "You lost me at the fact that you intend to be my last love."
I laugh.