No. She must be dreaming. Elijah. Elijah is here. At her doorstep. She hadn't seen him since the night that she left.
He just stood there. Waiting to be invited in. Still the gentleman. She didn't know what he was there for though. Elijah may have been close to Caroline, but he had seen him with those who betrayed his family. He showed no mercy. So Caroline decided against inviting him in until she knew why he was here.
"What are you doing here?" Caroline asked. She was still trying to process if he was really there or not.
Elijah chuckled. He remembered Caroline being forever cautious about everything. Who she spoke to. Who she invited into her home. Still, he thought, she hasn't changed a bit.
"I heard you resided here. I thought maybe you'd like to talk," said Elijah. He hoped she would let him in. They had a lot to discuss.
"No why are you here, in Mystic Falls?" Caroline hoped to get straight to the point. No beating around the bush.
"If you would invite me in I'll gladly tell you everything," Elijah responded. Then he thought, maybe she was afraid. But Caroline was never afraid. Nervous, maybe, but never afraid. "I promise, no harm will come to you. I have no quarrel with you, Caroline."
Caroline looked deep into his eyes. Elijah had lied to her twice, in her entire lifetime. And she could tell both times when he was lying to her. She saw nothing but honesty in his eyes.
"Come in," she said. As soon as he stepped over the threshold, Caroline embraced him. Elijah was never one for affection, so the hug took him off guard. It took a couple of moments for him to return the embrace, as short lived as it was. "I've missed you so much, Elijah." Caroline said, beaming. It had been so long since she had seen someone from her 'family.'
"And I, you," Elijah said. He gave a small smile, and shrugged off his coat.
After Caroline had offered him a seat, she began to ask questions. Where had Elijah been. What had he done these past 5 centuries. And Elijah asked her the same questions.
After discussing the past 500 years of their life, Elijah said "I'll tell you why I'm here, Caroline." Caroline braced herself. She had forgotten to ask why he was here. After she invited him, she really didn't care. All she could think of was that he was here. And it was good to have her old friend back.
"Alright, tell me," Caroline said.
"One of the reasons I came was because I heard you were here. Someone in my inner circle told me, and I just had to see you." This made Caroline smile. He actually missed her. He cared about her. He would never say those words out loud, but Caroline knew without him saying it. That's how her and Elijah were. Content with no words, they just knew.
"But that's not the main reason." Wait. The MAIN reason? There's something else?
"One of my contacts told me of a Petrova that was here."
No. No no no no no no no no. Not again. Caroline thought. But she displayed a cool, calm face, even though her mind was going a million miles an hour.
"It that so?" was all she could think to say.
"Yes," Elijah replied, "and my contacts are never wrong." That was Elijah's way of saying, please don't play dumb and act like you don't know what I'm talking about.
He knew she knew. That's why he came here. Not to visit. To get information.
Caroline decided to play a little game of her own. "You're right. There is a Petrova here. In fact it's one that you and I know very, very well." Elijah looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face, then he realized. She was here.
"Katerina?" Elijah asked. "Yes, but she goes by Katherine now. Maybe that's who your contact was speaking of. Otherwise, there is no doppelganger here." Please buy it, please buy it, Caroline prayed to whatever higher Power that there was that Elijah would believe her. And apparently…he did.
"Where is she?" By now Elijah had gotten up from his seat and started pacing the floor.
"That's it, I sort of…lost her," Caroline explained. Elijah looked at her and said, with an edge to his voice, "you lost her?"
"Well, technically, it all depends on how you define 'lost.' She was here. I had her. I left. I took her daylight bracelet. And I returned and she was gone. But don't worry, there's only a couple more hours til sunrise and she'll be either burnt to a crisp, which personally I wouldn't mind, or she run for shelter and I'll find her," Caroline said.
"And you didn't compel her?" Elijah couldn't believe it. A thousand years on this earth, and Caroline hadn't changed. She hated free will being taken away. But in Katerina- Katherine's- case, she should've compelled her.
"Yeah, I decided against it, but when I came back and found this goodbye note she left me, I realized I should've followed instinct." Caroline said as she handed the note to Elijah.
He read the note and chucked.
Caroline stood there, gaping at Elijah, and snatched the note out of his hand saying, "What's so funny?"
Elijah looked at her and said, "Oh nothing, some things just never change."
Caroline and Elijah stood there staring at each other. She had missed him. His voice. Him being her moral compass. But sometimes, life has a way of throwing things at you. To where you have to leave even the people you care about most.
It was Elijah who broke the connection first. Caroline felt a loneliness when he did. Like a part of her that she had just gotten back, was being ripped away all over again.
"I'd best be off," Elijah said, gathering his coat.
"Please, come by any time. I'll be here for a while," Caroline told him. She didn't want him to leave, but knew that he had to. Elijah wasn't a very emotional person, and when he was, it poured out of him and didn't stop. So he chose to keep his emotions locked up inside. Caroline understood that about Elijah. She knew him better than anyone else, except Niklaus.
"I'll remember that," Elijah said, and with that he was gone.
A lonely tear fell down Caroline's cheek. A tear that said how happy she was to see him and how sad she was to see him go. So she went back to waiting on Katherine and remembering the night she had left. The night she said goodbye to Elijah, her home, her family, and him.
It had been a week since she had met Katerina, and Caroline hated her. She hated what she had done to Elijah. She was like the last Petrova. Sadistic and a user. A user of men and a divider of brothers.
And she had wronged Caroline also. Caroline could tell from the moment Katerina had met Niklaus, she was attracted to him. That's the way he was. Women flew to him like a moth to a flame. Except Caroline.
Caroline knew who he was, and she loved him for it. Yes, she loved him and not in the 'sisterly' way either. She loved him through everything, the pain his father inflicted on him, turning into Vampires, him turning into what he was. She loved him for what and who he was. No change. She never understood why, but love doesn't have to be understood, it's the most beautiful and painful thing in the world, that's all that needed to be understood.
Caroline wasn't stupid. She knew what Katerina and Niklaus were doing at night. When the darkness came and everyone slept. She heard everything. And pain worse than any stake pierced through her heart. The pain saying that it wasn't her. Caroline had been second choice to everyone. Her mother, her family, and now to the man she loved.
There was one person who hadn't put her second, and that was her father. The man who put her life above his own, and in doing that, she had lost him. Sometimes she would lay awake at night and remember her father. The songs he used to sing to her, the way he told her she was special. And those memories reminded her of her humanity.
The night of the full moon was upon them. Elijah had been unsuccessful in persuading Niklaus to change his mind. Somehow, Caroline knew that Elijah would not be successful, that's why she wasn't surprised when he had come to her to let her know.
Caroline knocked on his bedroom door. Niklaus was preparing for the sacrifice and asked not to be disturbed, but he always bent his own rule from Caroline.
"Tonight is the night," he said. He had been waiting for this for 500 years. He could finally be what he was destined to be: a true hybrid.
"Yes, it is," Caroline replied. She wasn't excited about tonight. Three people would lose their lives ,though one of them Caroline had convinced herself she could do without. Her thoughts were broken by guards yelling and Niklaus' bedroom door being banged on.
Niklaus opened the door and asked, "what's going on?" The guard replied, afraid for his life, "the doppelganger, my Lord, she's escaped. And she's stolen the moonstone"
Caroline watched in horror as Niklaus ripped the guards heart out. His anger overtaking him, he rushed at Caroline and had her pinned to the wall. His hand gripping her throat. "What have you done?!" he screamed in her face. His grip getting tighter and tighter.
"Niklaus," Caroline croaked out," you're hurting me." And suddenly she saw his eyes soften and he loosened his grip on her. He still had her pinned to the wall, and before anything else could be said, Elijah came in pulling Niklaus off Caroline.
Elijah, after asking Caroline if she was alright, was next pinned to the wall. Caroline heard Niklaus threatening Elijah if he did not find Katerina. Elijah left them alone then.
Niklaus started pacing the room. He started getting frantic. Caroline grabbed him by his shoulders and shook him slightly.
"Niklaus! Listen, we will find her and then you can have this curse lifted off of you," Caroline said, hoping to sooth him.
He pushed her away, shouting "Then I can finally be rid of you! And Elijah and everyone else. I'll build my army so big that no one will ever stand against me!"
Caroline was frightened. This was not the man she loved. This man was a monster. But maybe she can help him.
"Do you really mean that? Do you think that you would've made it this far in life without me or Elijah? On your own? Can you honestly say that there is no place in your heart for your family? No place for me?"
It was then Caroline realized she was crying. Crying out her emotional turmoil. Her love for him poured down her cheeks, and he watched it happen.
"I believe I'd have managed just fine," Niklaus said with spite.
Caroline couldn't believe it. She was stupid to think that maybe, just maybe, he could feel something for her. " I can't do this anymore. I've stayed with you all these years. I've loved you through everything and you don't even care."
She started walking toward the door and was grabbed by Niklaus. His face was inches away from hers.
"If you leave now, you'll become my enemy," he said. He tried frightening her into staying. He didn't want her to go. The thought of her leaving put a pang into his dead heart. But she stood her ground.
"I think that's all we are destined to be. Choose your hybrids over your family, over me. May your spite be the death of you, see if I care."
He let her go. She stopped and turned around, searing this moment into her memory. The only moment she saw Niklaus confused and broken since he was human.
"May you be happy in the life you've chosen, Klaus."
And that night she was gone. Not saying goodbye to anyone. Just leaving. And she cried tears of agony as her heart shattered.
When Caroline's mind broke back into the present it was dawn. She hadn't noticed she had been crying. Memories. Bloody memories.
After wiping off her face and having some blood she set out to find Katherine, and this time, there would be compelling.
Elijah watched as Caroline left her house that morning. He hadn't bought her Katherine story for one second. He knew there was a doppelganger here. A human one. And he was going to find her. One way or another.
SO here is chapter 11! I know, lots of emotions, and it's longer than most of my chapters. over 2000 words! I put some Klaroline and Carolijah (friendship COMPLETELY) in here. So consider this my New Years gift to YOU! Thank you everyone for following and reviewing. You all are amazing!
I know you're wondering why Caroline called Niklaus "KLAUS" at the end. NIklaus is a term of endearment for Caroline. When she called him Klaus, she saw nothing endearing, she saw someone she didn't even know.
AND I used "Rebekah" quotes from the actual SHOW. Those all are owned by Julie Plec and her group of minions who won't give us the Klaroline we CRAVE!
Also, Caroline may appear vulnerable to some in this chapter. I did that on purpose. If you remember in the show Caroline (the REAL one) wasn't strong until she became a vampire. I wanted to depict a "vulnerable Caroline" in this chapter. In my story she doesn't become strong STRONG until she is on her own. In previous chapters you see her remembering who she used to be. Someone who didn't care. Basically a female "Ripper Stefan" without the "Ripper" part. Instead of having a "Lexi" Caroline had herself. So she built up from there. SO I wanted to erase any confusion or thoughts that say "Caroline is weak and vulnerable" from your minds! I want to show what MAKES her strong. How she becomes strong and overcomes her weaknesses. That will be displayed in later chapters.
AND I wanted to show how close ELijah and Caroline were. I depict them as the brother/sister/best friends type. I hope you liked the part where Elijah can see right through Caroline. ;)
OKAY done! Love you all! follow and review! Thank you my lovelies ;)