A/N Thank you everyone for the amazing reviews! They were really nice, suspiciously nice, who bribed you guys? And send their names, if they have spare money lying around, I want to know them. And thank you to everyone who pestered and bothered me to update, it helps a lot, I tend to procrastinate and your messages encourage me to carry on writing.

With regards to the reviews, almost all of you asked the same question, and I wanted to avoid talking about this but it seemed unfair to you so upon the subject of Tyler: I am in the minority of Klaroline fans who are also fans of Tyler but every story needs their villain and the Tyler has lovely fit into that role in my story and unlike the TVD writers I think that a good villain isn't that easy to get rid of. In this story, Caroline and Tyler have been together for four years which is like a million in dog years, they have gone through tough times together and yes, she does not know about his indiscretions, but according to her she loves him. Don't worry I'm not a closet Forwood shipper and everything will come right eventually…

Sorry for all spelling and grammatical errors, it is not beta-ed and I wrote it in the early hours of the morning, but here is chapter nine…

There are certain truths, which one chooses to ignore – we will get old, prices will rise, and there will come a time when we would have to live in a world without our parents. They become such a staple in our lives that we take it for granted that they will always be there. Fights last longer than they should, unnecessary words get thrown around; terms of endearment are brushed aside. But when they are taken from you, all of these moments with ceased to matter before begin to come to the surface. You wish you hadn't argued over that petty thing that doesn't matter anymore, you wish that you had made more time to spend with them, you wish that you had told them you loved them more.

Caroline looked across the waiting room at a father holding his daughter as she fell asleep, his son sleeping across the other three plastic chairs. Caroline wondered where their mother was, what they were waiting for, if they'll leave the hospital relieved or heavy-hearted like her.

She had barely sat down in the waiting room next to Steven when the doctor had come out of the operating room to say that they had lost her father on the operating table, his heart was simply too weak for it to be saved. Steven had broken down next to her before the doctor had finished explaining everything and as Caroline held him, she stared into the distance, not being able to comprehend that she now has to live in a world without the man who has always played the title role in her life.

A half an hour after they heard the news, Steven's sister arrived to take him home.

"Caroline, are you going to be alright?" He asked concerned. She gave him her best attempt at a smile and said, "Yes sure, you go along home. I will be fine."

"I called your mother, she said she's going to fly up as soon as she gets someone to cover her shifts but in the meantime you should call Tyler or Katherine, you shouldn't be alone at this time." She nodded as he turned around and walked out of the hospital.

She needed a moment to review her thoughts, to think about the fact that she could no longer run to her father when no one else understands her, they will no longer have their late night phone calls when they would discuss the latest episode of The Walking Dead and suggest books that the other one should read. She tried to phone Tyler and then Katherine but neither of them were answering their phones and so with one last glance at the two children asleep opposite her and saying a quick prayer that whoever they were waiting for would leave the hospital well, she made her way back home.

The trip back to her apartment building passed by with a blur and in her later years when she recalled that day it seemed almost as if she went straight from the hospital into the elevator in her building. She carried on phoning Tyler and Katherine over and over but to no avail. Once she had reached her bedroom she realized that there was no way she could avoid her feelings anymore and she broke down and cried. She cried for the loss of one of the most significant relationships she would ever have, she cried because her father would never be able to walk her down the aisle, she cried that her future children would never know what an amazing man their grandfather was, she cried for all the moments that they would not be able to experience together.

Everything in her apartment started to remind her of her father: the painting that he gave her when she graduated college, the Tupperware, which she borrowed from him on Christmas and was yet to return, the large Webster's dictionary he bought her when he complained that she used too many abbreviations in her texts, the chair he had sat on the last time he came to visit her. Every item seemingly making the pain feel that much worse every time her eyes fell upon something new which reminded her of him.

She needed to get out, to not have to be trapped in her own mind, where guilt and regrets kept resurfacing. She tried to contact Katherine and Tyler one last time before making up her mind what she should do.

She stared at the brass number 107 for a while before plucking up the courage to reach up and knock. The last time she was in the apartment a lot had transpired between them and she was worried that their relationship was strained, that things would now be awkward. She knocked again, louder in case he was still nursing a hangover from his activities from the previous night. She heard him scuffling as he opened the door, obviously shocked to find her on the other side, she launched herself at him, needing to feel some form of contact and comfort from someone who cared about her.

He moved his arms around her cautiously, embracing her and allowing her to cry, not wanting to question her or to prompt her to speak when she was not ready.

Her sobbing eased as he moved her to his couch. Comforting someone was a new experience for Klaus. He was usually the cause of people's tears not part of their solution. As he rubbed her back, her head suddenly rose from his chest and her breathing evened out again.

"What happened, love?" He asked gently.

She sighed and answered, "It's my dad, he had a heart attack and he didn't make it." Another sob passed through her as Klaus pulled her close again, letting her cry out all the feelings that she was finding difficult to articulate.

"Do you want to talk about it or something?" Klaus asked her.

"No," she replied between sobs, "Can you just hold me a little longer? I just don't want to be alone."

Klaus nodded as he stretched her out on his couch and he lay down next to her, holding her close. The last time he remembered cuddling with someone was when he was dating Tatia and then it was out of duty more than enjoyment. With his later dalliances, cuddling was not necessary as he moved in super speed to get out or if they had spent the night at his place, he made sure boundaries were kept. This was the first time in his existence that he wanted to cuddle with and care for someone else, he wanted to help Caroline get through this difficult time and to be the one who made her smile again. These feelings both scared and intrigued him.

"You know in the back of my mind I always knew this day would come. When I would join the Dead Parents club,' she whispered quietly against him.

"What do you mean?" He answered.

"Well Tyler lost his dad, Katherine lost her mom, Damon and Stefan, both their mom and dad. I never realized how lucky I was to have both of parents. I never appreciated him when he was still around." She started crying softly again.

"Love, I'm sure he knew how important he was to you and how much you loved him," Klaus tried to appease her.

"You didn't know my dad, he stressed over everything. He blamed himself for everything. He was probably still worrying about why I left Christmas lunch early to meet Tyler instead of staying to watch It's A Wonderful Life with him, he probably thought it was because of something he said or something he'd done. I didn't tell him how perfect Christmas was, how perfect everything he planned was."

Klaus was silent for a moment before saying, "When my youngest brother, Hendrik passed on five years ago I was broken. I thought everything was my fault and I pulled away from my family and everyone that I cared about, focusing instead on need for power and control, things that won't hurt me."

"What did you do, to get better?" She asked, looking pleadingly at him.

"Someone told me that some things happen in life which we have no control, that life throws us curveballs, we make mistakes, tragedies happen and many times we are the consequences of other people's choices. It took a while for me to realize these things, I had to learn to accept that I can't control how things end up but I could carry on living, as my way of commemorating Hendrik."

Klaus took a deep breath, "Hendrik was the one who loved the most, he saw the good in us, when we couldn't see it in ourselves and I think he was the glue that kept us all together. After he passed I lived a predictable life, never getting too close to any person and letting my career become my prime focus but now that I am reunited with my family and I feel the loss of Hendrik more profoundly, I know that we could not expect him to be one to reconnect all of us, we had to do it on our own to see that the love we hold for each other goes deeper than just a simple family bond."

"And where are your parents?" Caroline asked him curiously as he gazed down upon her.

"My father, or my step-father, Mikael was a very cruel man who did not think much of his children, his pride was a more important feat but he thought even less of me, my mother's illegitimate child, proof of her preference for another man who mysteriously disappeared a few days after Mikael found about the affair. When the courts were taking too long to prosecute the drunk driver who was responsible for the accident that killed Hendrik, he took the law into his own hands. But he was not as careful as he was with my father's murder and the police caught him, he is now serving a life-sentence in prison. The stress of the death of my brother coupled with Mikael's incarceration was too much for my mother and she began to retreat into her self until her mind was the only thing keeping her company. Elijah stays with her with a help of some nurses and my aunt Ayanna. I didn't have a good relationship with my mother as well, she shunned me as I was the proof of her shame and she did nothing to stop the abuse that Mikael bestowed upon me. I didn't feel the loss of either of them."

Caroline ran her hand down his arm in a soothing motion and whispered, "I'm so sorry, Nik, I didn't know you had such a difficult life."

Klaus shrugged off her attempts to comfort him back, "It's okay, it's the only life I know. You should know that one day it will become easier and you'll learn to move on but for now you should be grateful that you had a father who loved and cared for you which I'm sure he did because it is impossible not to love you."

She stared him for a moment, speechless, and the air around them became thick as it often did when they were together. He knew he had to move away but he could tear his eyes away from hers. There was so much pain there, so much hurt but just like in the picture that was emblazoned on his mind he saw a flicker of hope and strength, she truly was the most remarkable woman that he had ever come across.

"Do you have any cake flour?" Caroline shot up and asked, her voice breaking the trance.

"Wha-at?" Klaus asked confused.

"Cake flour? Do you have any? Baking always helps me when I'm feeling sad and it was something my dad used to do with me when my mom would work late. Then again now that I think about my mom should have picked up on the signs of him being gay ages ago," she said thoughtfully.

Klaus chuckled as he climbed off the couch, "Coming to think of it, you're lucky, Rebekah baked Kol a birthday cake here yesterday and seeing as she always buys everything in excess, there should be ingredients leftover."

"Goody!" Caroline exclaimed enthusiastically, "I can probably make vanilla cupcakes, you don't need much for that."

"Yes goody," Klaus said as he followed her into the kitchen.

She turned around and narrowed her eyes at him, "Are you making fun of me, Mr. Mikaelson?"

"And what if I am, Miss Forbes?"

"Well then you just won't get a cupcake!" She said as she put her nose and turned on a heel to continue her quest to the kitchen.

"I'm fine with that, I'm not such a fan of cupcakes anyhow. I think they are a tad overrated," he called after her.

"How can you not like cupcakes?" she asked him shocked as he entered the kitchen, "That's like not like kittens."

"More of a dog man myself," he said with a smirk.

"It's because you haven't tasted cupcakes made by me, they're in a league of their own," she said as she searched in the fridge for the milk and eggs.

"I'm already a fan of your cupcakes," Klaus muttered to himself as he sat on a barstool.

"So where are the millions of other Mikaelson's today? I thought your place might be crawling with them."

"Well Elijah and Rebekah are staying at a hotel and I haven't heard from either of them whole day and Kol never came home last night he probably went home with Hayley, I saw the two of them looking very cozy."

"Hayley was the girl with the dark hair?" Caroline fished for information.

Klaus looked at her sadly, knowing that there was so much about Tyler and Hayley, which she should know, which she deserved to know but she had just lost her father. How much pain would she be able to take? It would be unfair to let her whole life be destroyed in one day. Regardless of how he felt about Tyler, even how he felt about her, this was not the moment to tell her that the person who she has promised her life to wasn't who she thinks he was.

"Yes, the tall one with the long dark hair. She works with me at Saltzman and Associates, in the legal department. She was seeing a terrible guy who was juggling her and another girl but she seemed to take a liking to Kol last night even though Kol isn't the relationship type he is usually an honest guy. Girls know what they're getting into when they get involved with him."

"And her friend? The blonde one? You looked pretty cozy with her until you became embarrassingly drunk," Caroline asked with an arched brow as she sifted the dry ingredients.

"Oh Jules, I just met her last night but I was too intoxicated to make any judgments but I probably acted so shamefully she wouldn't want to see me again."

Caroline snorted as she cracked the eggs, "Probably."

He wanted to bring up his drunken confession, still fresh his mind. He wanted to bring up the fact that he wanted her more than he had ever wanted anyone else in his life. That the entire day all he could think was her, her lips under his, the way her body felt against his, the way they fitted together almost as if their bodies were molded to complement each other. For the first time in his life he had a glimpse of what it felt like to be complete. But he knew deep within his heart that he would not bring up what had transpired between them before she did, before she was comfortable but for now she was avoiding the subject, preferring to pretend that it never happened. At that moment he knew that he would wait for her until the time was right, even if he had to wait until his dying breath.

She smiled at him as she beat the ingredients, seemingly deep in thought as well. "So how long do these take to bake?" he asked as he dipped a finger in the batter and then brought it up to his lips as she smacked his hand for daring to reach in her bowl.

"About fifteen minutes maximum," she replied as she began to pour the batter into the muffin tray.

"Are you sure about that?" he teased, "It seems like you're just making this up as you go along and wasting my ingredients as well."

She threw a handful of flour at him and said indignantly, "Excuse me, I've been baking since before you were born."

"Which is kind of impossible seeing as you are two years younger than me, unless you were baking as a sperm cell?" he replied whilst retaliating with his own handful of flour.

"Oh Mr. Architect is showing his smarts, we'll see how smart you are when you're covered in flour," she giggled as she shoved two handfuls of flours and covered his torso with the white powder.

"That's it Missy!" He said as he grabbed the entire bag of flour, "No more Mr. Nice Architect" and he emptied the bag over her head, covering her from head to toe in flour.

"You are the devil incarnate!" She shouted at him at she launched herself on to him wiping some of the flour off on him.

"And you, love, look like Frosty the Snowman gone wrong."

Caroline opened her mouth to retaliate but all that came out was a hearty laugh. A laugh that seemed to shake her entire being, it felt has if she had not laughed like that in the longest time.

"So Satan's spawn, can I borrow something to change into while we're waiting for the cupcakes to bake?"

Klaus, who was laughing along with her, clutched his stomach and said, "Yes, I'm sure you can find a T-shirt and sweatpants in the third drawer in my bedroom."

Caroline realized it was the first time she was in Nik' bedroom; it looked much the same as the rest of the house with the dark colors and wooden surfaces. She walked past his large four-poster bed and she couldn't help but think that the gothic theme of the room suited him.

She washed her face and tried to remove as much flour out of her hair as possible in his en-suite bathroom. Somehow in the midst of talking to and teasing Nik, she had forgotten her sadness and pain. She was nowhere near better or content but she knew that she would be okay, perhaps not in a week, or in a month, but someday she will see happiness again.

Whenever she thought about her future with Tyler, she always saw them standing together hosting a party, or him reciting a heartfelt speech whilst she stood next to him, supporting him. But that day for the first time, she saw a different future for herself, she could see herself and Nik sitting in that same place twenty years from now as she baked and he teased her, making her smile, her heart flutter. For the first time she took into consideration what he had confessed to her the previous night, that she had an option, she had a chance to take a different route, an unpredictable route but perhaps that route led to her complete self, her true happiness.

She made her way back into his bedroom to get some replacement clothes from his drawer, strangely excited that she would wearing clothes that were owned by him, that smelt like him. She pulled out a grey long-sleeved T-shirt and black sweatpants, thinking to herself that he was rather neat for a male, when she saw the edge of a photograph peek out from under his clothes, a very familiar photograph. She lifted up the remainder of his T-shirts and saw the image of her eighteen-year-old self in her cheerleading uniform staring back at her and next to it, a penmanship she all too recognized. She opened the letter to see the note she had written to her father all those years ago, to appease him to help him with the guilt he felt because of Steven's accident. Suddenly she was struck with anger as she made her way to the kitchen where Nik was taking the cupcakes out of the oven.

"Really now, love, what would you do without me? Another minute –" he fell silent when he saw the look on her face.

She marched right up to him and hissed, "What is this?" Thrusting the letter and picture under his nose.

His eyes widened in realization, "It's not what it looks like?"

"Where did you get this?"

"I found it."

"Yeah right! Did you steal this from him?"

"No, I promise. I found it at the hospital five years ago, someone had left it in a book."

"And you didn't think to return it or at least tell me about it. Or wait have you been watching me all this time? All this being nice and getting under my skin was this all some sick obsession with me?"

"No Caroline, I promise – "

"I can't! I really thought you were different. I can't even look at you," She said as the tears started falling down her cheeks again and she made her way to the door.

Nik ran after her saying, "Caroline, please don't leave. I didn't know who you were until you moved in. Everything was real!"

"I'm sorry I need to get out of here, this is just too much for me to deal with today," she commented as she walked out of his apartment and closed the door behind her.

When she got home, she returned to her bedroom and cried again, for her father who she would never see again, for the fact that she knew she could never trust Nik again and because she knew she would have to move on with her life without these two men.

After an hour had passed she heard a knock on a door, not bothering to ask who was on the other side, she opened up to see Tyler looking at her. He reached out and pulled her into his chest. "I'm so sorry, Care, I just heard about your dad. I'm sorry I didn't answer my phone. I should've known you needed me."

Not wanting to talk, Caroline let him console her as they made their way back into her apartment and sat down on the couch. Tyler smoothed her hair away from her face, not asking about the amount of flour on her clothes and said, "I was thinking on the way here, this puts everything into perspective. Especially since both our fathers have died, I think that we should set a date and get married sooner?"

Caroline thought of Nik and all the 'could have been's' before turning to Tyler and saying, "Yes, I agree."


A/N: This chapter was difficult to write probably because I knew you would hate me after this and I wanted to live in the world of good reviews for just a little bit longer. But please review let me know what you think!

The next chapter will jump a bit into the future. Keep pestering me on Tumblr, Twitter, in the reviews etc. I'll try and answer most questions as well.

Oh and the chapter title comes from the Christina Perri song.

And Happy Valentine's Day/Klarontine's Day!