Chapter 11

Mystic Falls, VA

-992-

Caroline was panicking. She was only a few hours away from becoming a Mikaelson. This terrified her for many reasons. First of all, when she had first met the originals, as vampires, they were all intimidating, and she didn't really like any of them. Second of all, she was scared of what her friends and family in the future would think. That is, if she ever made it home. Before she could think about it further, someone burst into the room.

"Caroline, what are you doing?! You should be dressed by now!" Said Rebekah, pushing Caroline down into a chair to start on her hair.

"Rebekah, the wedding isn't for three hours!" Said Caroline, clearly exasperated.

Rebekah gave her best 'are you kidding me?' look, and continued with Caroline's hair. Deciding that Rebekah probably knew better than her, she shut-up and let her continue.

Niklaus had been waiting for months for this day. He absolutely could not wait to be married to Caroline, but there was just one problem: he had never felt so nervous in his life. He knew it was not anything to be worried about, and he knew that seeing Caroline coming towards him would put his troubled thoughts at ease, but he still had hours before that happened. He had tried his best to calm himself, with drawing and a failed attempt at reading, but to no avail. He had resigned himself to an afternoon of pacing when Elijah interrupted him.

"Brother. How are you?" Asked Elijah, even-tempered as always. Something about that irked Niklaus.

"How am I?! Do you realize that I am supposed to be getting married in less than three hours?!" He asked, turning Elijah's poker face to shock.

"Yes, but you obviously love Caroline, and she obviously loves you, so what could possibly be wrong?" Asked Elijah, legitimately failing to understand his brother's problems. Before Klaus could scream at him, Kol came in.

"Woah, Elijah, I think it would be best if you stopped talking before you end up with a chair to the head," said Kol, smirking after having heard one of his brother's rare outbursts. Elijah looked confused, and after reconsidering patting Nik on the arm, he left silently.

"What seems to be the problem, Nik?" asked Kol, knowing that his brother needed to talk.

He sighed and sat on his bed, putting his head in his hands. "I do not know. I know that I love her, and that she loves me, but something makes my chest tighten every time I think about it."

Kol grinned. "Brother, I think that is excitement. But I understand why you are feeling nervous. Everything is about to change for you. You are moving from a life where your only companions were your annoying siblings to a life with a wife. It will be different, but it will be better, and you deserve it. More than anyone I have ever met," he finished, as Nik looked up from his hands, astonishment on his face after Kol's rare moment of maturity and kindness.

"Thank you, Kol," he said, standing up to hug his brother. Kol nodded and walked out of the room to leave his brother to his hopefully less troubled thoughts.

The time was finally here, and Caroline had never been more nervous. Her nerves were calmed, however, when she turned the corner and saw Nik. She smiled sweetly at her soon-to-be husband, eliciting a dimpled grin from him. He looked dashing in his tunic, which was dark blue, his sword hanging at his waist. She could not wait to reach him.

As he stood in front of his family and friends, Nik felt all of his nerves come back to the surface. But as Caroline approached him, he was calm. She wore a light blue dress that hugged her torso and fell to the ground. Her braided hair, no doubt courtesy of Rebekah, was woven with flowers. She smiled at him as she passed his family members and took his hands.

For both Klaus and Caroline, the ceremony was a bit of a blur. Before either of them knew what was happening, they were exchanging rings and sharing one short but loving kiss as the Mikaelson's cheered. Following the ceremony was a feast and dancing. Caroline and Nik danced together at first, but after being asked ever so politely by Henrik, she decided to let him have a turn.

The festivities following the wedding went late into the night, as did most parties in this time, Caroline decided, but a good time was had by all. When the end of the night finally came, the newlyweds were exhausted, but exhilarated as they waited for his parents' permission to retire for the night. They hadn't been able to keep their eyes or their minds off of each other since the ceremony, and at Mikael's nod, Niklaus took Caroline's hand and they ran towards the guest house. As they reached the door, Caroline squealed as her legs were knocked out from under her, as Nik carried her into their new house.

As they lit the candles and the fireplace, it became obvious that someone had decorated for them. There were flower petals leading the way to the bedroom, and fur rugs lined what had once been a barren floor.

As Caroline took everything in, she felt Nik pull her close, kissing her softly before leaning his forehead against her own. "Welcome home, Lady Mikaelson." He said, as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "I love you," she said, before he grabbed her hand and pulled her to the bedroom.

-2012-

Kol was ecstatic, which is an emotion rarely felt by any Mikaelson, let alone one of the boys, but it was the truth. He had just received the memories leading up to and going into Nik and Caroline's wedding, and it felt like he was seeing them for the first time. Well, probably because he was, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that because of Caroline and this wedding, Kol had been able to give Nik some brotherly advice, even just for a minute that would hopefully help him understand that he really was loved. He didn't know how much longer Caroline was destined to stay in the past, but if her being there was going to produce more moments like that, Kol thought she should stay forever. Kol's relationship with his brother was one of the things that he had regretted most after they were turned into vampires. For centuries following their family had never been the same, and Nik's tendency to push everyone close to him away had resulted in a lack of sibling bonding. He only hoped that Nik was as happy as he was to have finally started building a brotherly relationship.

Rebekah was furious. Why did Kol get to remember everything before she did? She was supposed to be Caroline's best friend, not him. And she and Nik definitely had a closer bond than Kol and Nik! Even though she wanted to remember her brother's wedding, she had mixed emotions. Sure, she was happy for them. In fact, she was one of the main reasons that they got together in the first place, however, she also felt like she deserved some self-pity. Nik had found in one year what she had been looking for, for over a thousand. She had found many people to love her over the centuries, but it was never anyone who she wanted to spend eternity with, not like Nik and Caroline. At least she could console herself in the fact that Elijah remembered after her.

As was common knowledge, Elijah didn't show much emotion, however when it came to the happiness of his brother, it was a different story. The world had thrown a lot of trouble at Niklaus ever since he was a human. Most memorably, being conceived as a result of one of their mother's affairs, and then despised and hunted for centuries by the man who he called his father. Although Elijah and his other siblings were upset with Nik for using daggers to run away from his problems, they all, for the most part, understood that he was trying to protect them so that they could be a family, always and forever. That was all Elijah wanted as well, so as long as Caroline being in the past wouldn't change everything that they had all worked so hard for, he wished them all the happiness in the world.

As Klaus sat in bed that night, four days after Caroline had gone missing, he couldn't help but smile to himself. Soon he would be able to relive the memory of his wedding, and honeymoon, with Caroline Forbes. He knew that there was a possibility that she wouldn't want him when she returned, being that he had one thousand years to torture, maim, and kill his way to the top, but that didn't extinguish his happiness. As he lay there wondering about what the future would hold, his thoughts were interrupted by the worst memory-pain (as he liked to call it) that he had experienced so far. It was so excruciating that he felt himself screaming at the top of his lungs for what felt like hours.

Finally, the pain subsided, and Klaus remembered. Unfortunately, not the honeymoon yet, but the wedding ceremony and the festivities following. Caroline had looked so beautiful, as usual, but there was something different about her, and him as well. They were happy, and for the first time since the witches sent Caroline back to him, he finally felt like he deserved it.

So that was the wedding, I hope it was at least mildly satisfactory. The reason that there aren't many details is because I received a review questioning my research about the Vikings having books and buttons on clothing (while they didn't have books, they did have picture stones, but I didn't find that to be a terribly important aspect of the story, and they DID have buttons on clothing, while it was rare, but I like to think that the Mikaelson's would have had just about anything that was available to them).

After this review, I decided to actually research Viking weddings, and holy crap are there a lot of details… Between sacrificing boars, exchanging rings from the hilts of swords, and washing away their purity, I just decided to leave it up to the reader's imagination. Also, I know that Viking men did not wear anything special for weddings, and couldn't find much for women, so I just created what I thought Caroline would wear.

I am working on the honeymoon scene, which is exceedingly difficult for someone who has never written a scene like that before, but I am trying my best and the final product will hopefully suffice.

Sorry this chapter is so short, but I will try and get the next one up tomorrow.

Until next time~