Welcome back ya'll! I just want to say a huge thank you to those of you that gave me a shout out during the Klaroline Appreciation Week a few months ago. I wasn't expecting any kind of recognition but now I have even BETTER news to report that my story got nominated for Best AU Fic on tumblr for the Klaroline Awards this year. It is literally the first fanfic I have ever written and it was nominated against other amazing writers. If you want to vote for this story (and all the others) there is a link pinned to the top of my twitter page ( _However_Long_) or there will be one added to my tumblr page (clhous3248 ).

Without further delays... I'll see you at the bottom.


"I promise." Klaus' voice was soft against her cheek and it was still clear that he was upset but his promise was enough for now. Forcing Klaus Mikealson to do anything never ended well and Caroline wanted to enjoy the silence while it lasted. This relationship ... this thing the two of them had. Caroline wasn't even sure what to call it but it was theirs. Even the thought of the Original Hybrid being in a relationship was laughable at best but there is a first for everything right? It was certainly a first for her since she was a human. Since Tyler Lockwood tried seducing her and the two of them deciding to just stay friends.

"Thirty years?" The number burned her mind and Caroline wanted to hide from her own pathetic love life. If not for Enzo she probably wouldn't have even spoken to a man for more than just a one night stand and then sent the guy packing the next morning. Green eyes slip closed, Klaus thumb lightly stroking her cheek and her mind wonder to why in all the vampires in existence Caroline had to form a connection with probably the worst candidate for a lover... Ever.

"Am I even capable of that?"

Caroline shook the thoughts from her head, along with her compulsive need to know every detail of what was going to happen. Soon enough there would be witches and hunters in abundance along with needing to form a voluntary hybrid army. Caroline scrunched her nose up at the word "army". Hybrid slaves were the last thing she wanted and the stories she heard about Klaus' failure left a bad taste in her mouth. But she was still Caroline and Caroline lived the wolves in Georgia for nearly a year, forming close connections with a few of them. There was still a glimmer of hope that they could pull this off using her perfectly detailed list of requirements.

The feeling of Klaus running his lips across her skin broke her musings. There was just enough distance between them, less than a foot, to look into each others eyes.

"And your fine with never speaking to Elena again? History doesn't erase itself."

"You know... I feel like I am. Or at least it will be." Caroline nodded her head with the tiniest of smiles on her face. "I feel like for once in my life I finally have closure, ya know?"

Klaus only hummed in agreement as he let her continue, simply enjoying the feeling of her fingers against his stomach as Caroline twisted them into his white Henley.

"It almost feels like a bad break up with an old boyfriend." Caroline ignored the amused smile on Klaus' face and kept going. "You love someone so much and would do anything for them but then you break up. You carry all this pain and resentment towards them around with you until one day you meet again. You see their face and at some point you realize that you just don't need them the way you thought you did."

"And you had this revelation this morning once you saw Elena?" Klaus urged her to finish as he ran his fingertips along the back of his shirt she still wore.

"The other night she told me exactly how she felt about me and certainly didn't hold back. I certainly told her exactly what I was feeling this morning."

"A good tongue lashing was the least she deserved." Klaus' smile slipped away to match his serious tone. "A torn out heart would have suited her better."

"Violence isn't always the answer to everything you know?" Caroline sighed deeply. "Sometimes words can fix things between people."

Klaus chuckled at how Caroline's optimism still showed after everything she has been through but moved on quickly, not wanting to broach this subject.

"The Ripper and the New Vampire are worth your forgiveness?"

Caroline rolled her eyes at his inability to use their proper names.

"Their not forgiven but I feel that there could be hope between them." Caroline let out a heavy breath. "Or it could be the worst mistake ever and I will live to regret it. Who knows."

"Well I'm sure you could conjure a guess what my opinion would be on the matter." Klaus tilted his head gently to the side. "What I've seen of the situation, they never appreciated the friendship they had with you. The loyalty and devotion you've shown them wasn't returned at the same strength."

Caroline cast her eyes down as she turned over Klaus' words in her mind, the truth of his words really showing through. But that isn't how forgiveness works.

"Well that's the funny thing about forgiveness Klaus. It doesn't work unless you actually forgive the person. For me to forgive, I have to first let go of my anger and resentment towards them. I have to actually forgive them and not shove their mistakes in their face six months from now when they start to annoy me. Two... " Caroline ticked the list off on her fingers" The persons, Bonnie and Stefan, have to show they are worth forgiving and that they intend to change their previous behaviors."

Klaus flitted his eyes between hers and it was uncanny how her words were so close to his own issues with Rebekah. It was as if Caroline was a silent participant to the daggering that occurred no less than an hour ago. Rebekah's final words filled his thoughts and Klaus want to scream that it just wasn't that simplistic. A hug and a I'm sorry just couldn't solve every problem. Where she had a few decades of betrayals to overcome, Klaus had a millennium. Today wasn't the day to start.

"Are you ready to leave or are there a few dozen suitcases left to fill?" Klaus gave a his best playful smirk which only made Caroline roll her eyes are his avoidance.

"My place in Georgia should have plenty of clothes as long as Katherine didn't burn them due to poor taste. " Caroline's fingers gave exaggerated air quotes. "I do need a quick shower because of last nights events and at least my own shirt. Twenty minutes... maybe."

Caroline smiled brightly as she bounced up the stairs to the room Klaus would only call theirs and within minutes he heard the squeaky knobs of the shower. A soft melody was barely audible as memories of wet skin and slender fingers from the last shower they had together filled his thoughts. The need to take Caroline was only overshadowed by the sounds he heard earlier of bending shoe leather and quiet breathing. Breathing that was slowed purposely over centuries of practice to avoid detection.

"I never thought you'd be one to hide away in the shadows, cowering at the sound of a blonde baby vampire." Klaus' eyes never left the empty stairs as he dropped a smirk that could have slapped his own brother in the face. "She'll be down soon enough so you might want to scurry off."

Kol wasn't perturbed by his brothers words, all to accustom to the mockery.

"As you stand there hiding secrets of your own." Kol pushed away from the sitting rooms doorway and stepped a few feet closer to Klaus. "I wonder how she will take it when she finds out that her bestie is disposed of in the bayou? I do hope the wolves don't get to his body yet."

"Probably as jubilant as you feeding her friend vampire blood and leaving Enzo to the wolves." Klaus cupped her hands behind his back, the insult was on the tip of Kol's tongue when water stopped and their attention was drawn upstairs.

"Sounds like that's my cue to leave. Good luck." Kol flash away leaving the front door swinging in his wake.


"So what exactly are we doing here?" Caroline questioned as Klaus pulled his car to a side road that lead to the witches cemetery. "It's starting to become creepy that your family comes here so much."

"I have something in the trunk to drop off before traveling to Georgia." Klaus widened his smile and stepped out side of the car, Caroline scrambling after him.

"Why do I not like the sound of that?" Caroline crossed her arms as she paused at the back of his black sedan, waiting for Klaus to wipe that smirk off his face. Which he never did. With the click of a key, the trunk popped open and Caroline took a step back in surprise.

"Oh my god Klaus!" Caroline didn't think the smug look on Klaus' face could get any bigger but apparently it was possible. "Did you carry his body with you last night before coming home? What if we got stopped by the police on the way over?"

Klaus rolled his own eyes this time at her irrational worry of the New Orleans police department, ignoring the fact that Caroline used the phrasing home instead of his home. Ignoring how one word could give him pleasure.

Marcel's ash covered body lay in a heap in the trunk, still dressed to the nines in his suit from the party. His face was covered with the black veins of death and his eyes were froze open as they stared off into nothing. His chest shown a gaping whole, his heart nowhere to be seen. If Caroline hadn't seen her share of dead bodies, she would had gagged from the smell alone. A dead body in the trunk of a car during early summer in New Orleans was not a pleasant experience.

"A traffic stop is the least of my concerns at the moment." Klaus slammed the lid down, slinging his former protege over his should like a sack of potatoes. "And Kol was the one to carry his body back. Gotta make the boy earn his freedom don't we?"

Caroline open her mouth to speak but snapped it shut and let her hands drop to her sides in defeat.

"I can't begin to understand this family."

"You understand better than most." Klaus shrugged and escorted her with his hand to her back towards the black iron gates, Marcel propped on his opposite shoulder away from her. The gates entrance was ajar but they were still restricted to the outside since the Hybrid was never invited inside. On closer inspection they saw Sophie Deveraux standing with her fingers together next to a crumbling stone tomb. Once she noticed the appearance of the two vampires, her back straightened and arms crossed defensively. Sophie stepped a few feet closer, the clipped greeting almost spoken, when the body across Klaus' shoulder caught her attention.

"We come barring gifts. A peace offering really." Klaus swung Marcel's body at hybrid speed and the pointed tips of the door sliced perfectly into his spine, the bar held his neck into an upright position so his head was look out into the cemetery. Even the weight of Marcel's body sent the gates door swinging open to give Klaus the exact dramatic reveal he was wanting. By the sound of the mostly disgusted gasp from the witch, it had worked.

"Marcel Gerard is finally dead? You killed him?" Sophie's eyes landed on Klaus and he tipped his head in agreement. "I can't believe he's dead already."

"It is a bit sooner than we had expected but Marcel was pushing my patience too far so I retaliated."

"So you've came to announce your title as King." The anger laced Sophie's voice. "I won't just be at your beck and call. I already had to deal with your brother's orders this morning to undo some spell that I probably shouldn't have undone and now I'm drug here again by you."

Klaus expression turned cold as spoke again. "Marcel's death is by no means the end of war in New Orleans. There is a new witch in town and it appears she has brought vampire hunters with her. Multiple hunters."

"Why would a new witch bring hunters to town? There is a city full of witches that would love to take down an Original." The glee evident her voice.

"That would be my fault." Caroline spoke up as she started to cross the threshold of the cemetery but stopped at Klaus' hand on her forearm. Her eyes immediately cast down to his firm grip, teetering on the edge of painful.

"I'm not allowed to enter Caroline. More importantly, I won't be able to kill the witch should she try anything against you." Klaus' gaze was fixated on the Deveraux witch while he spoke his last threats. Sophie's body noticeably tensed and she didn't dare move.

"Sophie could fry my brain in an instant no matter what side of the gate I'm on." Caroline stared back at Klaus, fingers not budging from her forearm. The gap was closed another foot, their faces within a few inches of one another so they could now stand face to face so her back was to the witch. Caroline spoke so softly only vampire hearing would catch it. "You don't have to worry."

But a secret part of her enjoyed the worry and the emotions it brought along. Enjoyed the intense stare as it pierced hers, the clenched jaw that show he wasn't convinced. Caroline's stance never wavered as she watched the wheels turn in Klaus' mind, already know what he was mulling over. Force her hand to keep her out of danger, obviously the most volatile option, or show restraint for the first time in centuries. Caroline had to restrain her own comments of how she wasn't some damsel to be rescued but an unkillable monster. But they had an audience with the witch just behind them and they needed to stay a united front, even if Sophie Devereaux was supposedly an ally.

After a moment of silent battle, Klaus was still unconvinced but loosened his fingers and traced a path down her skin as they moved away. Caroline gave a soft smile before turning just as the witch walked, only a foot away from both Klaus and Marcel's swinging body, Sophie appeared confused by the exchange but never voiced her opinion, instead letting her hands dangled at her sides so they gave no impression of attack.

"I mean Caroline no harm. She hasn't shown me any reason to doubt her intentions but you.." Sophie sent Klaus a stern look " I make no promises for you."

"We're here as allies Sophie and that can quickly change at any moment." The threat lingered between them.

"So there are hunters in town and they are here because of me." Caroline increased her voice slightly to draw the attention back to her, raising her eyebrows in the process as Klaus narrowed his. Sophie and Klaus were on opposite sides of her so Caroline had a plan view of both of their faces. Caroline began explaining to the witch a brief history of her experiences, highlighting the events of Mystic Falls and the death of her parents. It had been an exasperating week and Caroline just didn't have the energy to explain her abilities in detail, not with a laundry list of things to be completed, so Sophie received the cliff notes version of what she was capable of.

Sophie's face changed to a mixture of emotions, predominantly understanding. The witches of New Orleans had suffered for years under Marcel's rule, the hint of pain in the young witches eyes was enough confirmation.

"My parents might not have been murdered but I can sympathize with loosing family members. My sister Monique feel victim to Marcel Gerard's charms and promises. A friend of hers finally spoke with me about why she would help someone like him. " Sophie's eyes burned into Marcel's dead skull before tearing her eyes away. "Monique was young and very impressionable. She knew that witches could not practice magic and for a young witch that just discovered her powers... that's a tragic thing to go through."

Sophie shook her head trying to push her own thoughts away, fists clinched at her sides.

"Marcel filled her head with promises of being among a select few witches that could practice magic without fear of death. When Monique served her purpose she was murdered and her body never returned to us."

"What a heartfelt story. Truly it was." Klaus' face held phony concern and Caroline's look was unimpressed. "I just thought I would remind you all we didn't come here to gossip. Perhaps we should talk about you returning your families prized weapon to The French Quarters new King."

Sophie's expression lost any ounce of kindness, instead turning cold.

"I've only heard terrible things about you and your sister has given me unfulfilled promises on your behalf. I don't trust you Hybrid and there isn't much to trust."

Klaus clenches his jaw at the mention of Rebekah.

"Yes... Rebekah is wonderful at putting words in my mouth. From what I gather, the witches of New Orleans want to live in peace. " A smile broke across his face, "With me."

"New Orleans is my home. I only leave it in death. If that means playing nice with the Original family then so be it."

"These niceties come with conditions." Klaus pressed his boots to the edge of the barrier, hands gripping the iron bars in the entrance of the cemetery. "No attempts are to be made against the Original family. Those that try will receive a immediate punishment. No questions asked."

"Death." Sophie crossed her arms as she awaited his confirmation.

"Well I was actually thinking something a bit more permanent... Eternal." Klaus' smirk flourished when he saw Sophie's stunned look and dropped jaw.

"You are not suggesting we all get turned into vampires."

"We can't have you being resurrected by your fellow witches now can we."

Klaus knew the other side had fallen decades ago but witches of New Orleans practiced ancestral magic. This meant that the witches could only practice magic inside of New Orleans and if they ever left then their magic would be useless. Every New Orleans witch that passed away was consecrated and their magic was absorbed by the ancestors to replenish their power. All consecrated New Orleans witches went to this ancestor plane. This same ancestor plane could be used to resurrect dead witches but only if they died as witches. Turning them into vampires gave the witches the added punishment knowing they could not find peace with their families.

"It isn't completely outrageous." Caroline spoke with tight lips, not wanting to give Klaus the satisfaction of being right. "Most witches despise vampires so the added punishment of being turned into one could be useful in keeping the peace. I would also like to add that the witches couldn't be allowed to attack any vampires not just the Original family."

Sophie scoffed, " Witches won't be left defenseless..."

"We're not asking you to be. If any witches get attack by vampires, defend yourself without hesitation. " Caroline spoke firmly so Sophie could feel the meaning behind her words. "It's the whole wiping vampires from all existence that really bugs us the most. Being a vampire that plans to stay in New Orleans after this is all over, I don't want to be killed."

From the corner of her eye, Klaus' head turned immediately at her confession. They haven't had much free time to discuss what was happening between them but Klaus had made it clear he wanted Caroline by his side. A Queen. Caroline could have spit at her own thought at such an out dated title but they were in mixed company. Klaus masked his shock instantly with his I'll kill you if you don't follow my orders tone.

"I want the white flower used to incapacitate my sister. This plant needs to stay in my possession."

"That flower belongs to my family and no one else can grow it." Sophie's voice rose with each word. A simple flower or carrying on your families name was part of a witches heritage. Most vampires could understand. "I can't just hand this over to you. Someone that could do unspeakable things with it."

Iron bars groaned under the strength of Klaus' hands.

"I won't allow such a powerful weapon to belong to anyone besides myself."

"There are like a billion different herbs that a witch could use to harm vampires. Maybe consider letting her family keep it."

Caroline's voice was hopeful but not for long. A low growl left Klaus' chest while his eye blazed with anger and if it had been anyone else standing there besides Caroline, it would have been a blood bath. Even if his siblings had made the suggestion, Klaus would have snapped the witches neck and taken the plant by force, just for spite. If this arrangement with the supernatural creatures in New Orleans was going to work the word compromise needed to be added to his dictionary.

"This decision to live peacefully isn't only up to me and my family. There are several covens of witches in The Quarter and most of them still want you dead... Understandably." Sophie forced a smile at the end of her sentence.

"Looks like you better run along then witch. You have a busy day of deal making ahead of you, as do we." Klaus' anger was simmering, at best, as he pushed himself off the gate and stepped aside to let Caroline exit the cemetery. After a few moments of walking, Caroline found the car again, jumping to sit on the trunks closed lid, hands ran wildly in her loose curls. She needed a moment to relax before setting off for a seven hour car ride to Georgia.

"It's exhausting being the mediator to your death threats."

"You and Elijah have that much more in common now."

Klaus moved closer to the back of the car, placing his hands on either side of Caroline's hips and leaned into her personal space.

"The way you tried to handle me back there, I can't allow it to happen again. The witches need to know that I am in power now and to follow orders."

"You mean the way I tried to voice my opinion and stop you from murdering the only witch we have left that might actually help us?" Caroline tossed back a challenging look.

"I don't bend to anyone's demands Caroline. I don't listen to anyone else's opinion except my own and I most certainly don't do as I am told." Klaus' eyes had Caroline locked in place. "And then there's you, Caroline. "

The silence stretched on for a moment, both locked in each others stare. Klaus' provided the much needed tension break.

"So you plan to stay in New Orleans after the war is over." Klaus' voice was even, giving the illusion of calm but the ways his eyes scanned her face for the invisible answer stated otherwise.

"That was all you took away from this meeting?" Caroline raised her eyebrows. "I didn't say I was staying permanently. I want to see this war out completely and insure that no one will be hurt. I want to have a safe place for my friends to call home."

A soft hum left his throat as Klaus shift closer, hands sliding over the silk material of her dress and staying on her hips. Caroline gulped slightly, ignoring the growing heat between them. Ignoring the fact that Klaus now stood between her legs and her skirt had shifted dangerously higher to reveal more skin of her thighs. Ignoring how her hands wanted to move along every inch of what she knew was underneath those clothes.

"That's all I need." Klaus spoke confidently and lowered his lips to meet Caroline's. Fingers twisted into her blonde hair, holding her captive as his tongue parted her lips. Tan thighs tightened around his lean torso and trapped Klaus against her. The sound of leather breaking under Caroline's fingers, drawing him closer and Klaus' own fingers slid up her inner thigh.

It was a kiss that said there was no way your leaving this city.


A sharp stabbing noise repeated over and over again. A blunt object breaking through dirt and coming to land lightly on his chest. There were birds chirping in harmony and a disgruntled male voice in the background broke through the quiet. His neck ached from the distinct feeling of being snapped repeatedly. Distant memories of daylight flashed before the darkness overtook again. Being held against his will was Enzo's life for fifty years so whats another day of torture.

This time Enzo had no strength to open his eyes so there was nothing to signal his capturer that he was back from the dead. There was no stopping it, the pain was too dominate to ignore. Enzo's neck was still twisted at an odd angle so he had to adjust position but his hands were met with resistance. Enzo's eyes shot open at the familiar sting of vervain against bare skin.

"Welcome back to the land of the living." A cheerful voice shined from above.


Author's Note:

I would love to hear what you thought on this chapter. I unintentionally made this full of Klaroline but I'm sure there will be no complaints there.

I want to say welcome to all the new readers and thank you to my regulars that have stuck by me in my absence. I literally wrote this chapter with pen and paper while I was at work. I spent the past three weeks without internet, besides on my phone. Also, don't forget to vote for the Klaroline Awards on Tumblr (info above).

Cassondra :)