A/N – So this is a special special birthday gift for Josh, one of my best friends on tumblr! Go visit his blog themikaelsluts on tumblr and wish him happy birthday and I will love you forever! This is set after 3x21 so disregard anything in 3x22.

Klaus/Caroline/Elijah

It was the last person he had ever expected to find here.

He would have thought it would be one of his siblings, Rebekah especially maybe even Kol. Under all the levels of arrogance and pride Kol cared just as much as the others.

To say Elijah was surprised was an understatement; to say he was shocked was closer to the truth. Still quite far away.

But it definitely was her, and she hadn't changed one bit since the last time he had seen her. Right here in this place as he, Rebekah and Kol stood huddled in the rain silently mourning; he had seen her off in the distance, trying to hide behind a tree but despite the rain he saw a small tear escape her eye.

And now here she was years later, resting on the small unmarked, unnamed blank stone embedded in the soil.

Niklaus's grave.

Or his make-shift grave, since they never really had his body to bury. But Rebekah insisted that she would not leave him like that, without even a goodbye. So they got a stone and planted it in the cemetery just outside Mystic Falls, saying their goodbyes.

He died a monster, but was buried as their brother.

She looked up at him from the effective cover of her hair as she stood up, her face a mix of emotions that perplexed him further.

"Caroline" Elijah breathed heavily as if saying her name was the confirmation for her existence here.

"What are you doing here?" he asked but got nothing in response as she crossed her arms over her chest, hugging herself tightly.

"I come here every year" she said in a hoarse voice, and he could see that the girl had lost the light his brother had talked about to no end.

"You do?" Elijah's usual control over everything was lost as he stumbled out the words, not believing what he was hearing.

"Yes I do" she whispered back.

"But I was hoping to see you here today" she added slowly looking up to fix his black stunned eyes with her glassy blue ones.

"Why did you think I would come here?"

She shrugged in response and continued on with her own agenda "You haven't found him"

Elijah neither missed nor appreciated the accusatory tone in her voice.

"Niklaus?" he questioned and continued when she nodded "We've tried, we're still trying but we can't find him"

"I know" she said, her voice breaking as she rested on the stone again "I couldn't either"

He was certain he had misheard her, certain that this was a dream, that this right now was not happening.

"You've been looking for Niklaus?" he asked in a calm tone surprising even himself

"Everywhere" she sighed "All the time"

"I begged, demanded, threatened and blackmailed them but they wouldn't tell me where they're keeping his body" she stammered softly turning to look at him, and his heart broke at the desperation and helplessness in the girls eyes.

She was so young.

"Bonnie warned me so I got away in time but Damon was going to kill me for it" she added in a whisper, her voice suddenly changing to bitterness.

"You left them, all of them" he said it like a statement, not a question. It wasn't a question, it was fact. She had spent years searching for their enemy, his brother – of course she had left them.

"Why did you want to meet me?" he asked suddenly and she skillfully evaded the question by burying her face behind her hair and looking down at her feet.

They sat there sat there for a while, side by side on Klaus's make-shift grave, enjoying the silence of each other's company.

"Do you think he will be angry with me?" she asked with trepidation looking up at him, her eyes wide and full of hope.

"For helping them, for being happy that he was gone... in the beginning" she croaked out still boring into his eyes for some relief, waiting for him to tell her that he would forgive all.

He knew his brother, and one thing Niklaus was not was forgiving. But what touched Elijah the most was that Caroline still believed that they were going to find and undagger Klaus. Somewhere below the years of loneliness and guilt; the innocent, bright girl his brother fell for still existed.

So Elijah lied.

"I think he will be very happy that you looked for him all these years" he said softly giving her shoulder an encouraging bump and she smiled, actually smiled teeth and all.

She got up then suddenly, turning around awkwardly and said a hasty goodbye as she started to walk away until she was stopped by his voice.

"Would you like to come with us?" Elijah said "Help us find him?"

She cried then for the 1st time that night, as a lone tear slipped her eyes and she quickly pushed it away, smiling at him as she nodded her head suddenly feeling more hopeful than she had in 10 years of searching for him.

He decided to search alone with Caroline, knowing that if he took her back to his family Rebekah would bite the poor girls head off instantly. He spoke to her friends again as Caroline cowered behind him timidly, eyeing Damon fearfully the entire time.

Those 10 years had broken her.

He could see how much it broke Elena's heart to see her friend like this, scared, nervous and helpless but she was looking out for her best interests. He knew they would never tell him where they hid his body and he could easily threaten them but he knew the witch would have something up her sleeve for exactly that situation, so he left dragging with him a yelling hissing Caroline.

They compelled divers to search for something anything in every nearby water body but to no avail. They had witches after witches try to do location spells but it always led to empty coffins and caves.

In a fit of frustration, anger and restlessness Caroline suggested compelling a whale to search the ocean and Elijah burst out laughing for the first time in 10 years.

He laughed like the world was coming to an end, like this was his only chance to laugh. He laughed until he felt the tears well up and then abruptly stopped; thinking wondering what would happen if they never found him.

As he watched a pouting and childish Caroline walk into the bathroom he realized that now he worried not for what would happen to him but of what would happen to Caroline if they never found Klaus.

One day he asked her

"How did you know I would come to his grave that night?"

She smiled knowingly as she forked her food and shook her head.

"He told me" she said simply.

In his head he imagined Caroline actually going crazy and imagining ghost Klaus talking to her, or visiting her in her dreams.

"Not like that" she laughed reading his expression perfectly "He told me how you would part ways over the years but you always always meet every decade. That you made you a pact to never go more than 10 years without seeing each other"

His undead heart felt the tinge of loss unexpectedly as he stared at her teary eyes.

"I think it's romantic" she teased and he rolled his eyes at her, knowing that she was fine.

That day he learned that Caroline did something for Klaus no one else did. She paid attention to him.

"Why do you want to find him?" she asked one day out of the blue as the sat in his posh car, on their way to New York where yet another witch had given them yet another location.

"He's my brother" Elijah replied stoically after taking a few minutes to consider the question.

She crinkled her nose in disapproval and tsked at him "And..." she urged

"And..." he looked at her raised brows incredulously "And I don't want him desiccating in chains forever"

"No"

"No" he repeated dazedly

"No that's not right" she declared "Say it Elijah" she added as a demand.

As he sighed and fulfilled her wishes he wondered when the baby vampire got so much control over him "And I love him"

"Yes, that is right" she approved with a smile and turned back to fiddling with the radio.

He decided to turn it around on her, coz he is Elijah Mikaelson and no one owns him like that.

"And do you love him?"

The cherry slushy flew right out of her mouth and all over the glass of his car as she spluttered and cursed at him.

"Drive" she ordered and turned to her side to pretend to sleep, adamant on ignoring Elijah's cheeky smile.

"It's never going to work" she screamed as she ripped apart everything within reach, taking out her disappointment on the empty cabin that once again had no sign of Klaus.

"We're never going to find him and I'm going to die of this guilt" she screeched as she pounded the wall with her tiny fists, making huge dents.

Elijah let her vent, let her scream and cry and break things. Venting out his own frustration by letting her do whatever she wanted.

"Is your guilt the only reason you're here?" he asked firmly, a while later when he sat holding her close to him.

She shifted in his arms and turned to look at him, her wet blue eyes devoid of any remaining light.

"No" she said feebly, shaking her head at him and he flicked a stray curl from her face.

"Then why do you want him back so badly Caroline?" he demanded of her.

He had waited a long time, seven months. He never once asked her nor did she offer any explanation. But now he needed to know. She was the closest thing to a friend he had ever had. She was his friend, his companion, his solace and his only light in this tumulus journey. She had become much more to him than he had expected for... or wanted.

"He made me feel like I mattered, like I meant something to someone. He gave me hope Elijah. He saved me and I tricked him" she cried "I cared for him, I just never admitted it"

He nodded absently as she cried against him; he had always thought that she did everything out of guilt. Guilt that he had saved her and she fed him to the Salvatore's. Surprisingly he had never thought that she might actually care for Klaus.

Even more surprisingly he never thought that accepting that she did would affect him so.

She recoiled from her fetal position and hugged him tightly, playfully whispering into his ear "And it didn't help that he was always so charming and handsome"

He didn't know when, how or why but he had been hoping that she only wanted to save Klaus out of her guilt and nothing more.

It was Rebekah who found him, as she tried to yelp and scream at him through the phone while Caroline hung onto his arm painfully demanding that she be told everything.

It was all Kol's brilliance really. He lost it one day, tired of watching Rebekah cry every day, tired of hearing Elijah hunt and hunt like a mad man, tired of having no one to annoy. So he ran back to the blessed town and ripped it apart until he held the now vampire doppelganger in one hand and a terrified Bonnie in another. He left no loopholes, bellowing at the brothers that he would kill their beloved Gilbert and snap the witches neck whom he had force fed his blood.

He knew they wanted Klaus away but he knew the witch would never give up her human life to protect three vampires.

And just as predicted Bonnie gave out, yelling and screaming that she would tell him everything, begging him not to kill her and effectively turn her into what she despised.

The witch took him right to his brother location, from where he called a baffled Rebekah whom he had left stranded in Chicago.

Rebekah told him to wait for Elijah to come. Elijah would know what to do.

"We found him" Caroline said through her tears as she ran her hand over Klaus's coffin.

Elijah merely nodded as he grasped her hand tightly and pulled out a dozen blood bags.

"We found him" she repeated again, turning to look at him with a teary eyed smile.

His heart broke at how beautiful she looked right then.

"I know. We found him" he said tangling his hand in her hair and looking into her elated eyes.

His tone wasn't happy or relieved, it was sad and confused and it made no sense to her. Until he moved ahead and rested his forehead against her, breathing into her face as she looked up at him wide perplexed eyes.

She knew everything in her life was about to turn upside down when he trailed his lips down her face to kiss her lightly by the corner of her mouth, her eyes closing and her body lighting up at the simple touch.

"Tell him I'm waiting outside" he said softly as he walked out but she saw the lingering tears in his coal eyes.

She was doomed.

It was like a staring contest.

Blue against blue-green. Well only when Caroline dared enough to look him in the eye.

"My siblings may hate me most of the time, but I knew they would try to save me" he finally spoke callously causing her to jump in surprise.

"But why were you trying to find me?" he demanded in his typical hoarse voice that set her heart racing.

She remained silent and only looked down to admire her shoes.

"Elijah said you were looking for me for 11 years" Klaus stated, his voice losing the sternness from before and becoming a lot more emotional "Why?"

She still remained silent and bent her head further down, not knowing how to frame her words. How could she when she herself didn't know how or what she felt, and after her little encounter with Elijah she was even more confused.

"Why?" he demanded and she gasped looking up at him right in front of her, barely an inch between them.

"I don't know" she said softly fighting the urge to touch his face.

For 11 years she had dreamt of touching him just one more time.

"Not good enough" he snarled and she huffed at his controlling behavior. Two hours after being back from the dead he was back to being the annoying, all controlling sadistic Klaus.

"Well that's all you get" she hissed back trying to get up but he grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her closer.

"You paid me no heed Caroline" he growled and she had missed the way he used to say her name "You swatted me away like an annoying fly and then you spent the entire time searching for me. Do not play with me love, I deserve an explanation"

"I don't know" she cried desperately "I really don't know, all I know is that I couldn't live knowing that you were rotting away somewhere. I just couldn't, you made your mark on me alright. One day I was rejoicing in your death and the next I was crying myself to sleep... I just had to find you, that's all I could think of"

He looked at her with such intensity it sent shivers down her spine, reminding her of how he had looked at her when he had saved her from Alaric.

"What matters Klaus" she said and he had missed how she said his name "Is that I am here now, and I don't plan on leaving"

He didn't say anything as he considered her declaration, fighting his natural instinct to doubt anyone and everyone who seemed to care for him. She knew he wasn't angry or doubtful of her when he bought her closer to him, enveloping her in a hug and kissed the back of her head.

She smiled victoriously as she melted into his familiar feel. Isn't this what she had wanted for all these years? And yet she couldn't help but think of Elijah.

"She had lost that light you spoke so highly of in your absence brother" Elijah quipped in his best attempt at a chirpy voice as he slapped his brother on his back.

"I suppose" Klaus said drearily as he stared out into the open night, deep in thought.

"She cares for you a great deal Niklaus. Don't ruin it. Don't ruin her" Elijah said

Neither did Klaus miss the warning tone in his brother's voice nor did Elijah mean to cover it up.

It was meant as a warning.

"She reeks of you" Klaus commented in a half-accusatory tone as he turned to appraise his brother.

Elijah tried to wave it away with a nervous laugh "Well we did spend every day of the past year together"

Klaus made a 'hmm' noise as he studied Elijah's face, analyzing every emotion on his brother's face for any indication of what he feared the most. Slowly he moved forward grasping Elijah's hand in his and looking at him with an almost desperate expression on his face.

"We are not doing this again Elijah" Klaus declared, but it sounded more like a plea than an order.

"I don't know what you mean Niklaus" Elijah said reassuringly but he could tell Klaus didn't believe him.

"Good" Klaus chided as he thumped him on the back and walked back inside to Caroline.

"Klaus says you're leaving"

He looked up from his bag to see Caroline standing by his bedroom door, resting against the doorframe with a fake smile plastered on her face.

"Yes" was the only explanation he offered.

"Why are you leaving Elijah?" she asked bravely moving forward

He didn't say anything as he laughed softly and shook his head, wondering just as her how they landed in this predicament.

She looked down at her feet sadly at his non response. She had spent every waking minute of last year with him, and now he was leaving just like that without any explanation or reason.

How, when or why she didn't know but a part of her felt as if he was leaving her and it hurt, it hurt so much.

She wondered if she should tell him, that whatever he felt for her she felt for him too.

Would she be betraying Klaus by admitting that she felt for Elijah? Would she be betraying Elijah by not admitting how she felt for him?

She was helpless, just like the 1st time he had found her.

"Don't... don't say anything Caroline" he warned as he moved forward in one stride and took her face in his hands, she cursed how easily her body yielded to his and leaned into him.

"I already know" he whispered softly.

Of course, silly Caroline. Elijah knows everything.

"Do you have to leave?" she asked as she tried to keep her tears at bay.

"You'll be fine" he said deflecting the question and she made to leave when he pulled her back resting his forehead by hers, just like the day they undaggered Klaus. The day everything exploded in her.

"Maybe in a year or century you'll try to find me" he breathed on her face as she closed her eyes "When you need me you'll always find me"

With a parting kiss on her forehead he left.

Caroline Forbes didn't know many things, but one thing she knew for sure was that she was doomed.

Doomed to love both and never have either.

A/N- Let me know how it was? And go wish him happy bday!