Hey guys, I'm back! And so is this story. Now, a lot of you have asked why this is set as complete and the reason for that is that even though all these chapters and stories take place in the same universe, they're basically just a bunch of one-shots. However, lately I've been thinking about making this a bigger story, one that follows a chronological order. Tell me what you think about it, and I'll try to make it happen if that's something you'd all enjoy :)

- L

"Oh my god, this is so good!" Caroline was sitting across from Luke at one of the booths in his club that reminded her of what she figured a speak-easy might have looked like back in the day.

True to his word, he'd made a food-run to the diner down the street and grabbed her a burger, fries, onion rings and a large chocolate milkshake, exactly what she'd ordered. He'd also ordered something for himself while he was at it and now they were both digging into their food as they waited for Nik to arrive with her strawberry-milkshake.

She was pregnant alright, and her ultimate pregnancy-craving was milkshake, she could not get enough of it.

"Best burgers in the city," Luke informed her, before biting into his own bacon-cheese burger with extra bacon and curly-fries.

"What was it called again?" She asked and picked up a frie, chewing down on it and loving how it wasn't too greasy, exactly as salty as she liked it and it just seemed to melt in her mouth. It was quite literally the best fries she had ever tasted.

"Denny's Diner, it's a family-place. Has been around for decades, it doesn't look like much, but there's no place in the city with better food or service."

"I'll have to remember that," Caroline stated and was sipping her milkshake through the thick straw that came with the big paper cup, when the front door opened and a blonde woman who was the female version of Luke, except with lots and lots of big curls, walked in.

Obviously that had to be Luke's twin sister Liv, the people-finding expert, and Caroline couldn't help but admire her unique style. It was kind of goth, kind of rebel/anarchist, and it all came together weirdly awesome. She was like a rebelpunk-gothic barbie and Caroline loved her immediately.

"You must be Liv," She said chirpily as soon as the other blonde looked at her and came to a dead stop.

"Uh..." Liv's eyes moved to her brother before they shifted back to Caroline, "yeah, that's me."

"Liv," Luke spoke up and his sister looked back at him, "this is Caroline Mikaelson."

"I know who she is, everybody in this city knows who she is. What I don't know, is what she's doing here and why." Liv stated as she shrugged off her killer black leather-jacket and threw it over a random chair before she moved to slide into the booth next to her brother.

"And is that Denny's?" she went on before Luke had a chance to explain and Caroline smiled as her eyes shifted between them. They were a good looking pair, the family-resemblance was obvious and it was clear they were tight.

"Yes it's Denny's, and Caroline is here because the sirens decided to get payback for Mikael's death and kidnapped her. I came here and found them hiding out in the basement where they'd locked down Caroline, they told me what they'd done, their idiot-plan and I told them to start running before I told her husband who they were. They took off, Caroline called Klaus, she was hungry so I got us food and now we're waiting for Klaus to get here with Caroline's strawberry-milkshake." Luke explained and Caroline shrugged as Liv's eyes came to her.

"You already have a milkshake," Liv pointed out what Caroline already knew, seeing as it was almost empty and all, and she said, "Yes, but I'm pregnant, this was a chocolate-milkshake and when I talked too Nik on the phone I was craving the strawberry version. So, he'll get here with my milkshake, he won't skin you or your brother alive because I won't let him and as soon as you let him know where Ebony and Ivory is, I'll be out of your hair and well on my way home to prepare for my imminent baby-shower that's suppose to happen in just a few hours."

"And by the way," she went on and waved a frie in the air before popping it in her mouth, then chewed it down before she went on, "what is up with "the sirens", is that like their villain-name or something?"

Liv's lips twitched, she turned her face to her brother, arched a brow and he chuckled before he turned his attention to Caroline.

"We just call them that, they're sisters, Seline and Sybil. They used to work for this guy named Arcadius, they're hustlers, you know. From what I gather, Arcadius wasn't a really nice boss, but somewhere down the line, Mikael took down Arcadius, or Cade as he was called, and the sisters went to work for him. They are both nutjobs and not all that smart when it comes down to it, seeing as they proved that by kidnapping you and all."

Hmm, Caroline actually wanted to meet these sisters. They sounded fascinating, and this Cade guy must have been really bad if Mikael was the better option. She'd never actually met Mikael before the day she carved his heart out, but she'd heard Nik and his siblings talk about him and knew he was in no way a good anything really, which meant this Cade-type had to be like the devil incarnate or something.

"You say they're hustlers," Caroline prodded as her information-radar lit up like the fourth of july, "in what way exactly?"

It was Liv who answered her, grabbing one of her brothers curlyfries and leaning back in her seat, "They seduce guys. They both got two things going for them, they're gorgeous and they can sing, so they use that to lure guys in, powerful guys, then they pretty much wrap them around their little finger and have them dance to their tune. On the off-chance that some guy catches on to their ruse, most of the time they've already gathered enough intel about him to use it as leverage or they just clean them out. It all depends on whether the guy can be used in some way or he just have a lot of money somewhere on the Caymans."

This was fascinating, Caroline had heard about these kind of things, but she'd never actually met someone who made a living off of it. Maybe she could find some way to talk Nik out of killing them and instead put them to good use.

It was as she was trying to come up with a way to accomplish that seemingly impossible task, that the front door flew open, Nik walked in with about half-a-dozen guys following behind him and he wore a face like thunder.

Three of the men with him were Elijah, Stephan and Marcel, the rest were just three random guys she'd never dealt with much. She smiled happily at him and felt giddy as she saw the big milkshake he was clutching in his hand and she slid out of the booth.

"Hey honey, you remembered my milkshake." Walking right up to him, she pressed one hand to his chest, tipped her head up to press her lips to his rigid jaw and stepped back only to grab the milkshake and turn smiles to the stoney-faced men who had all positioned themselves strategically around the room.

Nik's arm slid around her waist and he pulled her close, his eyes roaming her body looking for any obvious injuries and she barely contained her eye-roll. He was so overprotective these days, she'd already told him she was fine and unharmed, but of course he wouldn't believe her until he saw it with his own eyes.

"They'll burn for taking you," he stated roughly and she leaned into him, grabbing the hand not holding her close she pressed it over her belly where the baby was being very active and felt his fingers spasm against the fabric of her maternity-dress.

"I'm fine," she said softly, pressed in even closer, "the baby is fine. It's all good, Nik. I'm none the worse for wear. I've been fed, made some new friends and learned a lot of valuable information, there's no need to burn anyone."

His eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to speak when she cut him off by gesturing with her hand in the direction of Liv and Luke who hadn't said a word or even moved a muscle since Nik and his goons entered the club.

"This is Liv and Luke Parker," (Luke had shared their last name with her before he went to buy the food), "my new friends. Aka. the wondertwins or my personal favorite, the magicians. I dabbled with the thought of wonderwitches for a while, but it's a little too mouthy, don't you think?" Nik stared at her as if she'd lost her mind, and it wasn't lost on her that had the same thing happened three years ago she would have been a wreck a that moment, but she was "the vengeful queen of the Mikaelson-empire" now, or her personal favorite, "the Queen of hearts", and she wouldn't let a small thing like a kidnapping get her down.

"The people who took you need to be punished, Caroline, I need to relay a message to anyone who might think to attempt something like this in the future." His voice was firm, his words non-negotiable and she smoothed her free hand over his chest in a calming manner.

"I understand that, Nik. Still, I don't think you should kill them. Their names are Seline and Sybil by the way, they're sisters and use their beauty and singing to lure men into their traps and make them dance to their tune, Liv's words. And even though I'm still pissed they kidnapped me and locked me in a smelly celler, I think you could benefit from having someone with their talents in your employ. Hunt them down, threaten to skin them alive or whatever, just you know... use them instead of killing them."

Again, he was looking at her like she'd lost her mind, and she knew she still had a lot of convincing to do to get him to see things her way.

"What do you mean, you cancelled the baby-shower?" she snapped staring at her husband who was leaning against the desk in his home-office. Caroline had her hands planted on her hips, eyes narrowed and was about three seconds away from flying across the room and ripping his head off.

"Caroline, you were kidnapped," he reminded her, speaking slowly and enunciating each word, which only made her that much more angry seeing as she was the one who'd been kidnapped and she hadn't forgotten.

"That does not mean you cancel the baby-shower without consulting me about it first!" She cried in outrage and saw him close his eyes, knew he was trying to maintain his calm by inwardly counting to ten and she was breathing through her nose, trying to do the same thing even though she'd already lost all cool and composure.

"Sweetheart, the last thing I needed to think about when you were taken was a bloody baby-shower, and there was no way for me to consult you about cancelling it because you were, for three hours, kidnapped and I had no way of communicating anything at all to you. Reschedule it, the baby isn't due for another two months, there is still plenty of time to host a shower on a day where you haven't been kidnapped."

She knew he was being reasonable, that he was speaking logically, but she was a pregnant, hormonal, unreasonable woman at the moment and didn't give the first damn about logic.

"I don't want to reschedule anything. I've been planning this thing for months, Elena and Bonnie came to the city specifically for the baby-shower and they both lead busy lives so I can't just ask them to come back another day. Besides, I'm fine, the baby is fine, we are all fine and I want my baby-shower." She ended her rant with a childish stomp of her foot and watched Nik take a deep breath through his nose, his chest rising as the oxygen filled his lungs.

"It's not happening, Caroline. I want the rest of the day and night to be completely stress-free for you and our child, which means relaxing and rest. You went through a great ordeal today, there is no telling what that did to the baby and I don't want anyone but family around you at the moment."

She stared at him, thinking smoke was about to come out of her ears, when she finally caught it somewhere deep inside his eyes. This wasn't about the baby-shower and this wasn't about him wanting her to rest, well it partly was that too, but it was mostly about the fact that for three hours that day he'd lived the nightmare of not knowing where she was and if she was even still alive and he needed time to get over that.

Sighing, she dropped her arms to her sides and crossed the room to him, stepped between his spread legs, wrapped her arms around his middle and hugged him close.

"Fine," she muttered, not happy about it, but knowing it was what he needed, "we'll reschedule." His arms closed around her, she felt his lips at the crown of her head and she closed her eyes and listened to the steady beat of his heart as he just held her. She knew what it felt like to be on the brink of devastation, had felt the sting of despair when she'd almost lost him six and a half months ago and when they had all lost Rebekah, understood that he needed some time to work through whatever it was he needed to work through.

His arms gave her a soft squeeze, she pulled back an inch to tip her head back to meet his eyes and they were soft on her face.

"Head upstairs, love. Get some rest, I'll join you in a short while."

"Okay," she said without arguement, kissed him when he tipped down his chin and then she lifted her hand to cup his jaw.

"I love you," she murmured quietly, "I'm sorry you had to go through that today, and I'm sorry for being difficult. I blame it mostly on the pregnancy, but we both know it's how I am. So, I'm sorry." He smiled, kissed her again, lifted up to kiss her forehead and said, "I love you too, and I'll have someone prepare a milkshake for you and have it brought upstairs. What flavor are you craving now?"

Oh yeah, he totally loved her.

"Oreo," she answered on a gentle smile that he returned. Then he dropped his arms, she untangled hers from his middle and went upstairs to get some rest, just like her man needed her to do.

"Oh god!" She could feel another contraction coming, felt Nik's hand holding her own where she lay in her own god damned bed in her own god damned bed, Liv and Luke's doctor sister Jo between her feet about to deliver her baby.

The pain was excruciating, like nothing she'd never felt before and she couldn't understand how anyone would willingly put themselves through that kind of pain. It was Caroline who had insisted on a home-birth, she didn't want all the hassle of going to a hospital and all the drama that would come with it, and Nik hadn't had much choice but to agree, seeing as she'd made up her mind about that when her water broke and it all went pretty fast from there.

By the time Jo had made it to the mansion, Caroline was already close to fully dialated and she had insisted on a natural birth and no pain-subduing medication, a decision she was poorly regretting. If she ever got pregnant again, she was so having an epidural, maybe she'd just opt for a c-section so she wouldn't have to feel the pain of a human being coming out of her vagina.

"That's it, love, you're doing great." Nik encouraged supportively and she turned her head to glare at him.

"Don't be encouraging, in fact, don't say anything at all. This is all your fault and right now, I hate you." She snapped, right before another even stronger and longer contraction came on and she cried out in pain. Her nightgown was soaked through with sweat, her hair was matted to her sticky skin and every single contraction was worse than the next.

"Okay," Jo spoke up from her position at the edge of the bed and both Caroline and Klaus turned to look at her, "I can see the head, when the next contraction comes, I need you to push, Caroline." She did not want to push, she did not feel like pushing, it was two weeks before her due-date and she wanted to close her legs and pretend like none of it was happening. Except, she could not do that seeing as she was in labour, her baby was determined to enter the world and she didn't think closing her legs would stop him.

"Alright, here it comes. Push, Caroline, push!" She pushed, her groan of pain sounding through her clenched teeth and she squeezed Nik's hand so hard she thought she might break it. Serves him right, some delirious foreign part of her thought and she kept pushing through the next contraction and the next until the bedroom was filled by the most beautiful sound Caroline had ever heard.

The beautiful sound of her baby's angry crying.

Her grip on Nik's hand loosened, her legs slumped down on the bed, the tension in her body evaporating between one second and the next and she looked down the bed to see Jo cradling the baby, wiping blood and goo of the tiny little human being and then she wrapped him in a blanket and her eyes met Caroline's.

"Congratulations, it's a beautiful, healthy, baby boy." Caroline felt tears fall down her cheeks before she turned her eyes to her husband and found him watching her with a look of intense pride and love.

"Our baby boy," she whispered and he leaned over her to press his lips to her sticky forehead.

"Our son," he murmured in a voice that was nothing but love and then Jo was there, laying their son in Caroline's outstretched arms and she tucked the tiny baby to her chest and looked into his red, angry little face with the piercing blue eyes of his father.

"He's perfect," she said softly and touched a finger to his little cheek, felt Nik move closer and watched him grab the flailing hand of their newborn son and that's when Caroline looked at her husband, smiled at the single most happy moment of her life and declared, "We are not naming him Kol."