AN: an update...IM tired of looking at this story... I want to finish it! lol Enjoy
First Date:
"On second thought, love, perhaps we should try a different place. I know a great burger joint in Richmond. Would you mind?" he asked her.
"No that's fine but what's wrong with the Grill?" she inquired.
"Nothing. I just have a particular craving" he smirks at her.
Slightly blushing, she relaxes in the front seat of his car. Sitting in the Carytown Burger and Fries, they ordered the signature dish of the Bacon Chedder Belt. Amazing conversation about Caroline's childhood, her mother and grandmother flowed between them.
Klaus spoke briefly of his siblings, especially his younger sister. "We fight as other siblings do but with more...force", he chuckled, "Yet, she is my baby sister and I'll love her always and forever".
"That's so sweet. I'm an only child but my grandmother was always around and..I don't know, we really enjoyed ourselves", her voice cracked a little at the end.
"She is a lovely woman. I know she will be in a better place when the time comes", Klaus whispers to her in an attempt to comfort her. He reaches out and lightly squeezes her hand. Caroline looks up at Klaus and sees genuine kindness in those eyes. She smiles weakly and quickly changes the subject. The hours escape them, running away too soon. He walks her to her front door a couple hours from sunrise.
"This is where I bid you good night", he chuckles. A sadness in his voice to have to say good night too soon.
"I think good morning is more appropriate", she laughs back.
They stand awkwardly on her porch for a moment not wanting the night to end. "I had an amazing time, Klaus. I've never just stayed up at a bar all night and talked...about everything", she blushes.
Smiling down at her, he caresses her cheek softly with his fingertips, feeling the electricity between them, "It was my pleasure. I'd spend a thousand nights talking with you, Caroline", he softly whispers. Caroline takes a tentative step forward. He follows her lead, like magnets. She leans up to him wanting to taste the lips that have distracted her throughout the night. As their lips start to lightly touch, Liz Forbes storms out the front door seeming to be in a rush to get to work. "Caroline!".
She yelps, surprised to see her on the porch. "Mom! Uuumm..Good Morning!", Caroline stumbles as Klaus quickly steps back, "a little early to be heading to work, isn't it?"
Liz gives her daughter a flat look, "We have had a couple of issues with animal attacks. There seems to have been another one. I'm heading there now. Besides, isn't it a little late for you?", she snaps. Liz looks over at the young man standing on her porch, "It's time for you to go".
He gives Liz Forbes a million dollar smile and looks down at Caroline, "Good Night, sweetheart". A small kiss on the cheek to end the night.
Fourth Date
"That movie was amazing!" exclaims Caroline. Smiling and holding hands, they make their way through the parking lot. Klaus is all smiles as he enjoys Caroline's fondness of the film.
"I was worried you wouldn't want to see a thriller", he says.
Caroline stops in her tracks and looks up at him, "Thought I couldn't handle it?", she challenges.
"A delicate lady like you? Certainly not", he teases.
"I can be a delicate. I can be a lady. But tonight, I don't feel like being either", she whispers to him and she pulls him to her, placing her hand on his cheek.
Not missing a beat, Klaus places his hands around her waist. Caroline lightly caresses his cheek, enjoying the feel of his skin. Biting her bottom lip, she leans up into his arms and places a light kiss on his lips. Smiling to himself, he adoringly looks down into her eyes. He's lost for a moment, looking through the windows of her soul. She understands him; seeing through his mask of being strong and distant.
How can she know him, for someone so young? How can his heart be pulled into this direction? Down a path he didn't want to know again? Yet looking into her eyes, he knows he's lost to her. She is his light, the reawakening of his heart. She is the muse once lost now found; the angel of inspiration he's been searching throughout time to find. Bringing his other hand to cup her face, he returns her kiss. Lingering on her lips to savor every taste and emotion, she closes her eyes and lets him lead her lips in their dance of passion and desire. She falls deeper into his embrace, lightly placing her hands on his forearms, holding on to him as if in fear of flying away. He ends the kiss, breathing slightly heavier. The flush in her cheeks shows how lost she was in his kiss.
Twelfth Date
"How's your Grandmother?", he asked her stroking her hair. Her head laid lazily on his shoulder after a several moments of intimacy.
Pushing herself up, she faces him and runs her hand through her golden hair forgetting to use his bed sheet to cover her naked form. "She has her good days and bad. I feel like she has more bad days, though". Sadness spreads across her face thinking of the inevitable end coming fast.
Klaus reaches up and softly caresses her arms in comfort, "She may have more bad days these days but she has you to make them better. She loves you and she knows you love her. What more can she ask for as her days come to an end?"
Her lower lip trembling, she uses her hair to shield her crying face from Klaus. Her shoulders slightly shaking as pent up grief explodes out of her. "Hey Hey...don't hide from me , Caroline." Sitting up to embrace her, Klaus hugs her tightly and allows her to lose herself within her sadness. After a few moments, she shrugs out of his arms, "Please...", biting her lower lip trying to stop its trembling, "distract me". She runs her hands up the base of his neck into his messy curls, pulling him closer.
"As you wish my lady". He hugs her by the waist and lays her back onto the bed beneath her. He kisses her slowly, caresses her face, lowering his hands to gently brush his fingertips against her sensitive skin. Her nipples harden. Her breathing deepens as her body responds in lust. Kissing her with intense passion, he positions himself between her creamy thighs, feeling her heated lust against his hardness. "...Yes..Please...", she begs breathlessly against his lips.
They are lost within each other once again.
"My grandmother passed away last night," she whispers. Her hair is a disarray, her eyes dark and streaking with splotched makeup and running mascara. A sight no one has ever seen, a neurotic control freak looking completely and hopelessly out of control. Klaus and Caroline stand tensely apart. Her eyes fearful yet hurt. Her bottom lip trembling as tears escape.
He says nothing, having been there with Liv during her final moments.
"Hello, Liv". Olivia opens her eyes and looks up at a man she hasn't seen in over forty years.
"Klaus?" she asks. Squinting her eyes, she sees those familiar eyes and that kind smile.
"Yes, my love. It's me". He smiles at her, lightly holding her hand as to not bruise her. "
How can this be?" she whispers, "You're exactly as I remember you".
He leans forward and plants a light kiss on her forehead. " Just know that I have come here to spend a few precious moments alone with you and to confess to you the truth about why I left".
She smiles at him and looks into those sea blue eyes expectantly.
"Please know that I loved you with all my heart. You opened my heart again to those beautiful feelings. You have a warmth and understanding that I had never encountered in all my years on this earth...until recently", he gently whispers to her.
Her heart is full and she cries silently. "As I have loved you," she whispers back.
He smiles and wipes her tear away. "I left you that day on the beach for your protection. I was running from my father, who has been hunting me for a better part of my adult life" he pauses waiting for the words to sink in.
She looks at him and something clicks for her. "...that's a long time to run. I think you let something slip about that. Saying that he would find you guys if you stayed for too long. You were arguing with someone on the phone…" she responds.
He chuckles to himself, "Yes, I remember that night. Elijah heard my father nearing our town and called to warn me. Doesn't...any of this...alarm you?"
She takes a deep breath and says simply, "You were the epic love of my life. Vampire, god or devil...I was willing to ride into that darkness with you. I have loved you beyond words".
He lets himself go for a moment and allows a tear or two to escape. "Know that I never forgot about you. Know that you are epic to me too", he whispers and kisses her tenderly on her wrinkled lips.
She smiles at him. She lies back on her pillow facing the ceiling. Looking up, she exhales. Stress, pain, fear...her soul finally gone to be free. The machines start to beep and he stares down at her, "Good night, my love...my beautiful hummingbird." Nurses rush in to find her dead and a strong breeze coming through the window.
Lost in his thoughts, he's bought back to reality by Caroline's crying voice. "I walked home from the hospital. I had just left when they called me..." she sobs. Her body was shaking with her grief weighing heavily on her chest. Crying openly, Caroline covers her mouth as if it'll stop the small whimpers from escaping. She felt the cracks in her broken-heart widen. It bleeds as her eyes tear. "I ran back to find her cold and stiff. Those beautiful eyes... lifeless..." weeping a little harder. Barely speaking above a strained whisper. Thinking back, she sees her beloved grandma, limp staring at the ceiling as if deep in thought. Like at any moment she's going to wake up and tell her a quick quip.
"Caroline, please let me take you home", Klaus steps towards her trying desperately to calm her.
"Don't touch me! Stay away from me!", she cries. She is afraid of him. Her eyes are wide, her heart rate is high, thumbing loudly in her chest and his ears. Her face flush with emotion. Her breathing is heavy, chest rising and falling in a hypnotic rhythm.
Thump thump, thump thump
Faster and faster the heart beats, pumping her blood. He's lost in that deadly melody for a moment.
Closing his eyes, he takes a cleansing breath. "All right. All right", he puts his hands up in surrender, "I'm sorry. But you were the one who called me here, remember? I'm here because you asked me to be here", he angrily responds.
"They handed me a box of her belongings. Mostly pictures."She fumbles through her tote bag, hands trembling as she looks for a photo. "And I found this one. A picture I had never seen before", she aggressively passes him the photo.
Confused, Klaus looks at the photo and is stunned into silence. It's a picture of a young Olivia. She's smiling warmly up at the gentlemen who has his arm around her shoulders in an intimate embrace. He's smiling back at her; a smile only she has seen. He takes his fingertips and lightly touches her face in this stolen moment on paper. His mouth slack, disbelieving, he looks at this photo; a photo he never thought in a thousand years she would have kept. With tears in his eyes, he stares at the picture going back to that day. She had never been happier. He had never felt so at ease and blissfully happy. Liv had never been so beautiful. A single tear escapes and he remembers the conversation he was forced to have with her only two days after the picture was taken.
He quickly wipes away the tear as Caroline's voice interrupts his trip down memory lane, "Turn it around and read it", she demanded between hiccups.
"There is no need, love. I all ready know what it says. 'Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks. Within his bending sickle's compass come. Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.", he whispers. "KM and OF June 1965".
"How is this possible?", she quietly asked. Klaus shakes his head, not sure what to say. "This is you! In this picture, hugging my grandmother! How is this possible?! You haven't aged at all!", she shakes her head yelling at him in anger and confusion."What the hell is happening?!".
Klaus, still looking at this moment in time, is momentarily lost to a time when he was utterly in love. An emotion he promised himself he would never subject himself to again. A promise he's broken plenty of times over the centuries. Looking up at Caroline, he sees its a promise he's broken once again. Lightly kissing the photo, he puts it in his back pocket; keeping his hands inside those pockets.
"There are things that you don't know about this world, Caroline", he tried to explain. "Things from centuries past...things that are considered fantasies and legends were once truth". He speaks calmly and rationally to her.
She shakes her head, "You aren't making any sense. What are you talking about?, she demanded.
"You would never believe me. Just know that I didn't chose this life. I was forced to be this way. Forever young, forever wandering this earth; forever running..." he whispers, eyes vacant thinking of things she could never imagine.
Narrowing her eyes, Caroline steps closer to him. "Who are you? Really. What are you?"
Klaus takes a deep breathe and looks Caroline straight in the eye. "My name is Niklaus Mikaelson. I am a vampire"
Klaus walks into his hotel room in Richmond. He didn't want people to know he was in town. Never in the thousand years that he has roamed this earth did he think he would return here. A land he once called home is now a place of horrible memories: the death of Henrik; the death of his beloved Tatia; the beautiful Olivia Forbes come here to die at home. This beautiful young woman has cast her spell and he can't think of anything besides her beautiful blonde hair and gorgeous blue eyes. Stunning this young woman is and yet she is much too young to make the decision she would need to make should he stay in her life. A human life, no matter how precious, is temporary. A short-lived time in this world. He can not stay here, forever moving, forever running. Even after a few dates with her in Richmond, she was able to captivate him in ways very few others have been capable. Her questions...her confusion...their final conversation replays in his mind:
"Who are you? Really. What are you?"
Klaus takes a deep breathe and looks Caroline straight in the eye. "My name is Niklaus Mikaelson. I am a vampire".
The silence is deafening. "Like Bram Stoker vampire?", she stupidly asks. She's in a state of shock. Unsure of how to react, a vampire is forever ageless, immortal, stuck in the physical state from when they were created. It would explain why the Niklaus Mikaelson of her grandmother's memories would be the same man standing before her.
"Not so dramatic but yes", he quietly responds. She's stuck for a moment taking a step back. Klaus is directly in front of her, staring deeply into her eyes, "Do not run. Do not scream. Allow me to explain".
Caroline instantly forgets her plans to run..run away screaming. "I won't run, I won't scream".
Releasing a deep breath, Klaus suggests to speak somewhere privately. They make their way to Caroline's car and drive to the town square, deserted at this hour.
"So, you are a vampire?", she asks. "Yes. I've been a vampire for over a thousand years", Klaus explains. He can hear her heart racing with this piece of information.
Shaking her head, her voice cracks with the fear coursing through her body, "How is this possible?".
Klaus looks over at this frightened young woman. "My father killed me after forcing me to drink an enchanted glass of wine laced with blood. He stuck a sword through my heart. Needless to say, he wasn't gentle about it", he sneered.
"This is impossible. You're lying", she accuses.
Klaus stiffens for a moment looking very intently at her. Caroline holds his eyes. He smiles opening his smile wide exposing his fangs. Stepping clearly into the moonlight, she sees his eye blacken darker than the night; sees his veins become pronounce shedding his once handsome face and exposing the true monster within. Everything in her body wanted to scream out. The adrenaline spreading like a wild fire through her body. The need to run consumed her mind for only a moment. Then she remembered, she shouldn't run, shouldn't scream.
She should listen. "Is this the real reason you left my grandmother?", she asks, trying to keep calm but the adrenaline causing her to shake.
"I left her because I loved her too much to see her get hurt. I left because my father was hunting me and would have used her as leverage to find me. I could not let that happen", he explains with a heat in his voice. "Mikael has done terrible things all in the sake of 'righting the wrong'", he sneers. "Although in the end, I left because if I had stayed...I would have turned her. I would have stripped her of her humanity and turned her into what I am", he tells her softly. Caroline gasps.
"Like I said, I loved her too much. I couldn't take from her the one thing that made her all the more precious. Being human, feeling her emotions so strongly. Falling in love and making love to her...I couldn't take that from her. So I left her with a broken heart yet the opportunity to make a life for herself outside of the eternity running and hiding all over the world", he explains. So much emotion in his voice, in his eyes. When he loves, he loves wholly and passionately. Love is truly forever.
Caroline feels the lump in her throat making its escape. She sobs softly feeling her emotions so strongly. She is sad for him and the sacrifice he made for her grandmother's sake. Tears betraying her, Caroline heart breaks along with his and Liv's.
"I tried to make it as painless for her as possible. In the end, however, we both suffered. As is with this life, Caroline, we fall in love with people in every generation. We are forever living, surviving through hundreds of life times", he explains to her walking closer to her putting his hands on her face, wiping her tears away with his thumb.
"In this life time, I have fallen for a courageous young lady, with beautiful blonde hair and eyes that I will never tire of gazing into for as long as I walk this earth. Whose lips are as a rose and tastes like my favorite pastry. Whose heart understands my own. I have fallen for a woman..." his voice breaks closing his eyes momentarily bringing his forehead to hers. He takes a deep breath and looks into her eyes, crying listening to his words. No longer for her fear, she sheds her tears for the heartbreak in his voice; in his eyes that scream volumes of love gained and lost. "I have fallen for a woman to whom I have to say good-bye".
