Hello lovely readers!

I'm so sorry for the long wait for this chapter (again). I was writing my gift for the last ever Klaroline gift exchange, which you can all check out now on Archive of Our Own if you're interested.

Then I was originally planning to update on Wednesday, but after I saw the spoilers for the finale on Sunday, I decided to postpone until Thursday, so that no matter what happened with the finale, we would have some happy Klaroline to look forward to afterwards. And then it took longer to write than I thought it would, which brings us to today.

And wow do we ever need some happy Klaroline after that finale! If anyone wants to talk to someone about what some fans are actually calling the worst series finale in television history, I'm here for you (:

In other news, thank you with all my heart to everyone who nominated Sanctuary in their Hearts for a Klaroline Award! I am so grateful, honored, and excited to be nominated, and I feel so fortunate to have such supportive readers! I'm thrilled that so many of you love reading this story as much as I love writing it, and that you love it enough to recommend it and nominate it for fandom awards! Again, thank you to everyone who nominated the story and everyone who has voted for it!

So this is the last chapter. I'm saving my long, sentimental thank you note for the epilogue (which is already shaping up to be very, very long and will be posted as soon as I finish writing it), so on this chapter, I will just say thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, favorited, and shared this story.

This chapter should answer most of your last lingering questions: we see Klaus's reaction to Caroline's pregnancy, as well as everyone else's, which a lot of you were very interested in seeing; the location spell hint; and even some character development by way of Disney princesses (yes, seriously). However, you won't find out the baby's name until the epilogue (sorry, Artemis!). But there is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it hint for the baby's middle name, as well as some discussion of names to hopefully hold you over until the name is revealed!

In response to some other questions, I'm still ignoring characterizations of the twins and Hope from The Originals as well as now Legacies. I have seen the trailer but I'm not planning to watch the show. I was going to, to see what the twins were like as teenagers, but the show's creator said in an interview that essentially Josie is Elijah and Lizzie is Kai, so I feel like my question was answered and I'm not happy with the answer, so I have no reason to watch. As for the twins on The Originals, I liked seeing them use their magic, but I didn't love that they were negotiating with Caroline over what they would get if they saved Hope's life. I get that they aren't friends, but if your mom tells you to do something, you just do it.

This also was brought up in a review, so I will let all of you know that I had planned to write a sequel, of sorts, to this story, but instead of being a linear story, it would be more like a collection of excerpts from the future of these characters' lives. You would be able to send me requests for moments you'd like me to write, and because of that they couldn't be in chronological order, so it could be that one update could be baby's first Christmas, and the next could be Hope's high school graduation. I'm really looking forward to writing about these girls as they get older; would that be something that you would be interested in reading? Please let me know in a review or a message, and if you'd like, you can start sending in your requests and I'll add them to my list of prompts!

The title from this chapter comes from Ed Sheeran's "Perfect," because I'm sentimental like that.

Happy reading!

Klaus fell to his knees in front of her.

Caroline felt her heart leap into her throat.

Was he scared? Angry? Worried? Did he not believe her?

But she needn't have worried.

He gently rested his hands on either side of her waist, looking up at her with love and adoration—reverence even, before kissing her stomach over her dress.

"Hello there, my littlest love," Klaus murmured.

Caroline burst into tears.

"What's wrong?" Klaus shot to his feet and took her hands in his.

"You aren't angry?" Caroline questioned.

"Of course I'm not angry," Klaus replied. "Why would I be angry? We talked about this. We wanted to have a child together if we could find a way. Well, this is a way."

"I know, but this wasn't planned," Caroline pointed out. "Esther literally created this child in order to manipulate you. She told me her plan. She was going to force you to choose between saving my life and saving Hope's, and the baby was supposed to be the incentive for you to choose me and leave Hope to die. She wanted to make you think that Hope's death was your fault, that you were the one who allowed her to die."

Klaus let go of one of Caroline's hands so that he could wipe her tears away.

"You don't need to worry about any of that," Klaus reassured her. "We defeated Esther. She's dead, her body's been burned, and we're separating her ashes into six parts to be disposed of all over the world. She can't come back from The Void, and she can't hurt you, or Hope, or the child you carry ever again."

Klaus gently tugged on Caroline's hand so that she fell into his arms.

"Now why are you so upset, my love? Were you worried that I wouldn't love this baby just because Esther is the reason he or she exists?" Klaus asked. "Because I promise you, this baby is ours, which means that they could not be any more perfect in my eyes, or any more loved. And neither could you."

"It's a girl," Caroline informed him. "Esther told me that the baby's a girl. And since she literally manufactured this pregnancy herself, I'm taking her word for it. Just thought you should know, so you don't have to keep saying 'he or she' or 'they.'"

Klaus's eyes widened.

"You're giving me another beautiful little princess?" he wondered incredulously.

Klaus dropped to his knees again.

"Hello again, my beautiful little princess," Klaus addressed Caroline's stomach again. "You're going to be just as beautiful and perfect as your mother, aren't you, my beautiful little angel? I already love you with all my heart, and I can't wait to meet you whenever you're ready to grace the world with your presence."

He kissed her stomach one more time before standing up and pressing a soft kiss to Caroline's lips.

"You're such a good father," Caroline praised. "But there's something else you need to know about this baby."

Klaus nodded.

"The reason that Esther knew the baby was a girl, is because she practically hand-selected the baby's DNA," Caroline started to explain. "She also told me that the baby is going to have curly golden-blonde hair, and silvery-grey eyes, and dimples, and my nose, and your mouth."

Klaus smiled at the thought.

"She studied the baby's DNA that closely because she wanted to find a particular gene that she didn't want her to have," Caroline continued, hoping that Klaus would figure it out on his own so that she wouldn't have to say it herself.

"My werewolf gene," Klaus concluded.

"Yes," Caroline nodded, taking a deep breath. "Klaus, Esther used a spell to remove your werewolf gene from the baby's DNA, as crazy as that sounds. She had me tied up with vervain ropes; I couldn't stop her. I'm sorry, but this baby can never become a werewolf, or a hybrid, or have the ability to create hybrids."

"What matters is that you're both healthy," Klaus declared. "Obviously, I would have preferred it if Esther hadn't changed our child's species for her own amusement, but as long as she is healthy, I'll be happy."

"Can we go home please? It's been such a long, crazy day, and I just want to go home, and check on the twins, and go to sleep. I'll tell everyone in the morning, I promise, I'm just too exhausted to explain everything again tonight," Caroline requested.

"Of course, whatever you want," Klaus agreed.

Klaus placed his hand on the small of Caroline's back and carefully led her outside, where Freya, Marcel, and Vincent were standing next to Klaus's car, waiting for them.

"Are you okay?" Marcel asked Caroline.

"I'm fine," Caroline answered hesitantly.

"I wasn't listening," Marcel added hastily, picking up on Caroline's discomfort. "Not that I thought you were hiding something, I just thought that you might want some privacy."

Caroline offered him a soft smile.

"Thanks, Marcel."

Klaus opened the passenger door for Caroline, while Freya, Vincent, and Marcel squeezed into the back seat.

Caroline looked out her window at the warehouse.

"If I ever have to see this place again it will be too soon," she said.

"You won't have to, I promise," Klaus replied, taking Caroline's hand. "Now let's get you home."

{ }

As they had been the last to leave, naturally they were the last to arrive.

Everyone else was standing in the courtyard, waiting for them.

Before Caroline even made it all the way through the gate, Lizzie and Josie were already barreling towards her, their little voices crying, "Mommy!" in harmony.

Caroline crouched down in time for the girls to run into her outstretched arms.

"Be careful with your mother," Klaus scolded gently.

The twins reluctantly stepped back out of Caroline's embrace.

Caroline looked them over, relieved to see that they didn't seem any worse for wear after the frightening and stressful evening they'd had. There was no evidence that they'd cried, or stuffed their faces with junk food, or stubbornly sat in the courtyard all night waiting for their family to return home.

Both girls were wearing pajamas—Josie's lemon and patterned with lollipops, Lizzie's lavender and patterned with cupcakes—with their hair in pigtail braids tied with matching bows.

"Were you two good for Eva and Aiden?" Caroline asked.

Both girls nodded fervently, not that Caroline expected them to answer any differently.

She looked to their babysitters for confirmation.

"They were great," Aiden said. "There were some tears and some scared questions, but they ate and got changed and watched a movie without giving us any trouble."

"They're just darling, Caroline," Eva echoed. "They didn't even fight over what movie they wanted to watch. We would have completely understood if they had acted out, given the circumstances, but they were very well behaved."

"Thank you so much for watching them," Caroline said.

"We were happy to help out," Eva replied.

"Like I told Klaus before, we had the easy job," Aiden added.

Lizzie and Josie, apparently bored with the conversation, scampered off to greet Hope, who Hayley had refused to let go of since they'd returned. When the twins approached, Hope clambered to be set free from Hayley's hold to join them. Hayley's agreement was obviously very reluctant, as she kept a tight grip on Hope's hand, while Jackson stood over them, standing guard.

Rebekah and Freya were the next to smother Caroline with hugs.

"Are you sure you're okay?" they both asked.

"I'm fine," Caroline answered.

"Let her breathe, sister," Klaus implored.

Rebekah shot him a dirty look, but obeyed, as did Freya.

Caroline looked at all of her loved ones assembled in the courtyard, finally somewhat relaxed after a day that had been filled start to finish with activity, tension, stress, and fear.

And she had to laugh.

"What is it?" Klaus asked.

"We are very fashionably challenged," Caroline answered.

Caroline and Hope were still wearing party dresses. Klaus, Elijah, Marcel, Vincent, Josh, and Aiden were wearing suits. Rebekah, Freya, Katherine, Davina, and Bonnie were wearing plain shirts and jeans, as were Kol and Finn. Lizzie and Josie were wearing pajamas. Eva was wearing a sweatshirt and leggings. Hayley and Jackson were wearing what almost looked like army uniforms.

"Are we going to a party? Are we going to sleep? Are we going to, I don't know, a street fight? Who knows?" Caroline mocked.

"We're going to sleep," Klaus answered firmly. "All of us have had a very long day, and we all need to get a good night's sleep to recuperate."

"You two aren't going to…" Katherine trailed off with a suggestive glance.

"No, of course not!" Caroline frantically shook her head.

Vincent and Eva were the first to leave, making promises to return the next morning to check on Caroline and Hope and to debrief after the night's mission over breakfast. Josh and Aiden followed after agreeing to the plans as well. Hayley and Jackson vehemently refused to let Hope out of their sight, and after Klaus invited them to stay, Marcel had decided to join them in spending the night.

Hayley and Jackson took Hope upstairs to get ready for bed, followed soon after by Kol leading Davina, who was worn out after all of the magic she had used that day, up to their room, then Finn quietly slipped upstairs after them.

"Come on little ones, time for bed," Caroline called out to the twins, who whined in response, as was typical of three-year-olds when confronted with bedtime.

"You grab one, I'll grab the other," Caroline directed Klaus.

Klaus nodded, corralling a squirming Josie and settling her on his hip.

Caroline collected Lizzie, said goodnight to everyone still lingering in the courtyard, and made her way upstairs to the twins' room.

Thirty minutes, two bedtime stories, and three lullabies later, the girls were finally asleep, allowing Klaus and Caroline to retreat into their own room.

Caroline sluggishly trudged through her nighttime routine, changing into pajamas, washing off her makeup, brushing her teeth.

She crawled into bed next to Klaus, who was lying on his back, serenely lost in thought.

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Caroline asked.

"I am more than okay with this, I am incredibly happy with this," Klaus answered. "And so will Rebekah when she finds out. And Freya, and Marcel, and Katerina, and Hope, and Lizzie, and Josie. This could be the best thing that has ever happened to this family."

"And don't know if I'd say that," Caroline demurred.

"No, you're right," Klaus agreed. "I think we'd all agree that you are the best thing to ever happen to this family. You have brought love, and light, and beauty into this house. What used to be a slaughterhouse is now a home filled with the sound of children's laughter. You are the reason there is happiness inside these walls. Yours and your daughters' presence here is the greatest gift this family has ever received."

"How can I ever be worthy of the pedestal you put me on?" Caroline asked rhetorically.

"I don't know, but you make it look easy," Klaus answered with a smile.

"I love you," Caroline told him, burrowing under the covers and resting her head on her pillow.

"I love you," Klaus replied, gently kissing her lips.

"I love you," he repeated, kissing her stomach.

{ }

The next morning, Caroline woke up when she felt Klaus moving underneath the blankets.

The movement was one that Caroline was used to, that she frequently woke up to.

But today it was different.

"Good morning," Klaus addressed her stomach.

"We aren't going to have a face-to-face conversation for the foreseeable future are we?" Caroline asked, yawning.

Klaus grinned sheepishly.

"Good morning, my love," he greeted, kissing her cheek.

"Good morning."

"Are you ready to make our announcement to everyone this morning?" Klaus asked. "Because I don't really think that keeping this a secret from the family is a viable option, but I understand if you want to keep this to yourself for a little while longer."

"No, I think they need to know," Caroline insisted.

As nervous as she was about their reactions, keeping her pregnancy a secret from her family had never occurred to Caroline. As Klaus had pointed out, it would be increasingly difficult to hide the growing baby from a house full of vampires, and she didn't want them to find out on their own and think that she didn't trust them enough to tell them herself.

She thought that Klaus had been correct in his assessment the night before: Rebekah would be thrilled to have another niece she could spoil, Freya would certainly adore the new baby, Kol would be overjoyed to have another little witch in the family. Even those whose exact reactions she couldn't predict, she knew they would be happy with the news.

Caroline pulled herself out of bed, quickly getting dressed. There was no physical evidence of her pregnancy yet, but she still decided to wear a loose-fitting blouse so that no one could look too closely at her stomach.

She turned around to look at Klaus, who offered her a smile, a silent show of support and strength. This man, who less than twenty-four hours earlier had brutally murdered his own mother, loved her beyond all reason and would go to the ends of the earth for their children. He was capable of incredible violence, and capable of all-consuming love.

"Is something wrong?" Klaus asked, taking her hands.

"No, I'm fine. I'm just having one of those moments where I can't really believe that you're real," Caroline answered.

"Why would you think I'm not real?" Klaus questioned, confused.

"It's not that I think you're imaginary, or something, it's just that when I first met you, you were supposed to be this villain, but you always took care to not treat me that way. Even when you were doing things like biting me and leaving me for dead, you always allowed me to see why you were lashing out the way you were, when you would have let anyone else think that you were just evil. And the more time I spent with you, the more I saw just how complex you are, and how you were just a flawed, complicated person just trying their best just like the rest of us. I loved you, long before I was willing to admit it, and the fact that the most powerful creature on earth loved me made me feel powerful, which is something that no one else has ever done. And I love that I haven't tamed you, or forced you to change into something that you aren't, because you're still the same impulsive, calculating, manipulative, determined person you've always been, but I see you with our girls, and how much you adore them, and how nothing is more important to you than their happiness, and I just think, how lucky am I to be loved by the thousand-year-old, seen-the-world-a-dozen-times-over, larger-than-life Klaus Mikaelson?"

Caroline felt the tears well up in her eyes as she spoke, but she let them fall, refusing to let go of him.

"It was not luck that brought me to you, my dearest Caroline," Klaus responded. "For a thousand years, I fought for you. Before I ever saw your face, I was working towards earning your attention, towards being worthy of your love. I became the most powerful creature on earth when I broke my curse, and the universe couldn't allow that sort of power to go unchecked. So they delivered you to me, and from that moment on, I was no longer the most powerful creature on earth: you were. If the price of your happiness was my absence, I would pay it. If the price of your safety was my life, I would pay it. There is nothing that I would not do for you. And this is our reward," Klaus rested their hands on Caroline's stomach. "This is the proof that I did become worthy of you, that my love for you is powerful enough to defy even the laws of nature. You are the love of my life, my everything, always and forever."

Klaus released Caroline's hands so that he could wipe away her tears.

"I know that you're trying to be romantic, and I appreciate it, but please don't say things like that," Caroline requested.

"Like what?"

"That you would die for me," Caroline answered. "You can't die, I won't allow it."

"Yes, my love," Klaus agreed with a smile.

"Now," he took her hands again. "Are you ready to change the Mikaelson family as we know it forever?"

Caroline grinned.

"I'm ready."

{ }

Klaus and Caroline weren't the last people to enter the dining room for their planned breakfast meeting, but they were far from the first.

Elijah, Rebekah, Freya, Katherine, Marcel, Bonnie, Finn, Josie, and Lizzie were sitting around the table, talking and laughing. The atmosphere in the room was light, miles away from what it had been for the last several weeks.

Everyone looked up when they entered the room.

And Rebekah laughed.

"What is so funny?" Caroline asked.

"You mean you didn't do it on purpose?" Katherine asked.

Caroline shook her head.

"Look down," Rebekah instructed.

Caroline did, not seeing what was so amusing about her rather ordinary maroon blouse and black jeans.

"Now look at Nik."

Caroline turned her head, not seeing what was so amusing about Klaus's rather ordinary maroon henley and black jeans.

"I don't get it," Caroline said.

"You're matching," Katherine told her.

Caroline laughed.

"I should never have said anything."

Within a few minutes, Vincent, Eva, Josh, and Aiden had arrived, and Kol, Davina, Hope, Hayley, and Jackson came downstairs.

There weren't enough seats at the table for everyone. Klaus had assumed his position at the head of the table, claiming the seats on either side of him for Caroline and Elijah, but everyone else was on their own. It seemed that the unspoken rule was that the later arrivals would have to stand, though some of the men were chivalrous enough to give up their seats so that all of the women could sit.

"Thank you all for coming," Klaus said. "I suppose our first order of business is to make sure that everyone is still in the physically and mentally unharmed state that they were in last night, that Esther isn't playing any more tricks on us from beyond the grave."

Not wanting to lie, Caroline didn't shake her head when everyone else confirmed that no, Esther had not done anything to them.

"And I assume that no one here is overcome with grief over Esther's death?" Klaus continued.

Again, everyone shook their heads.

"Then we just need to address how we're going to deal with Esther's ashes," Klaus declared. "I think that we should stagger our disposal of them. I don't want them in this house any longer than necessary, so perhaps Kol and Finn can leave today, Rebekah and Freya tomorrow, and Elijah and I the day after that?"

All of the Mikaelsons agreed.

"Remember, don't tell anyone where your share of the ashes are," Klaus reminded them. "So it's probably best not to dispose of them anywhere that has any significance to any of us individually or as a family. In fact," Klaus paused, drumming his fingers on the table.

Klaus picked up his box of ashes and handed them to Marcel.

"We should have nothing to do with this," Klaus decided. "Give your ashes to someone at this table that you trust, that way, none of Esther's children will know where any part of her remains are."

"Is all of this really necessary?" Bonnie asked.

"I'm not taking any chances," Klaus answered.

Elijah handed his box to Katherine, Kol handed his to Davina, Rebekah handed hers to Caroline at first, but Klaus insisted that he "didn't want her involved," so she gave them to Bonnie instead. Freya gave her box to Vincent, and Finn gave his to Josh.

"Davina and Josh can leave today, Katherine and Bonnie can leave tomorrow, and Marcel and Vincent can go the day after," Klaus proposed.

"Is that everything, then?" Kol asked.

"Not quite," Klaus replied. "Caroline, if you would please share the news? I just want to bring the girls over here, this affects them, too."

"Hope already knows, actually, but okay," Caroline agreed.

Klaus picked up each of the three girls in turn and moved them from their kids' table to the dining room table.

"So, yesterday, when I was being held hostage in that warehouse, Esther did a spell on me," Caroline began. "Well, technically she did more than one spell, but they're related, and she couldn't have done the second if she hadn't done the first, but she was clearly planning to the second before she did the first—"

"Caroline, you're babbling," Rebekah interrupted. "Just tell us what spells Esther did."

"A fertility spell," Caroline blurted out. "I'm pregnant."

Then, addressing Hope, Lizzie, and Josie, who she knew wouldn't understand any other explanation, Caroline said, "You three are getting a baby sister."

Everyone was talking at once.

The girls screamed and rushed towards Caroline, hugging her around her knees. Rebekah pulled Caroline into a hug as she started crying. Freya reached around Rebekah to take Caroline's hand. Katherine cheered and Davina clapped her hands excitedly. Kol and Marcel grinned broadly.

Caroline started tearing up again as she was surrounded by so much happiness in reaction to her announcement.

The Caroline who had first seen all of the Mikaelsons together at the ball, standing in an imposing line going up the staircase, would have never believed that those people who she had always feared, knowing that they could kill her as easily as they could blink, would be so excited at the prospect of welcoming her child into their family.

Then the questions broke through her happy shell.

"How could she do that, vampires can't have children!"

"When will the baby be born?"

"How do you know the baby's a girl?"

"Will this baby be a tribrid, too?"

"What was the second spell that Esther performed?"

Caroline gently broke free of Rebekah's embrace.

"I can answer all of those questions," Caroline said. "No, vampires can't have children, hence the magical intervention. I've already proven that vampires can carry a child to term. Esther's fertility spell managed to revive my reproductive system long enough for a baby to be conceived. As for when the baby will be born, obviously the usual way of calculating my due date won't work, but approximately nine months from early October is early July? Depending on if she's early or late, I'm guessing she'll be born either the last week of June or the first week of July. The second spell that Esther performed answers the rest of your questions. She did a spell to extract the werewolf gene that the baby inherited from Klaus. Which means that she'll never be a tribrid like Hope. She'll just be a witch, and since we're all acting under the impression that Hope can be a witch and a vampire at the same time, I assume that she can be as well. Esther practically combed through the baby's DNA to find the gene, so she knows everything else about her, which is how I know she's a girl."

"A girl!" Rebekah sighed dreamily. "Our little princess! Oh, she's going to be beautiful, Caroline! I can't wait to dress her up in adorable little pink dresses! I'm going to buy so many pink clothes she'll never have to wear an outfit twice! This is so exciting!"

"Okay, so if anyone needs to find Rebekah for the next nine months, she's at the mall, shopping for baby clothes," Caroline joked.

"Not just the next nine months, Caroline," Rebekah corrected, insulted. "I am going to buy my niece the prettiest pink clothes I can find for her entire life! Please let me have this, Care," Rebekah pleaded. "I didn't meet Lizzie and Josie until years after they were born, and Hope was born in the middle of a war and I was so busy trying to keep her alive all by myself that I had no time to buy anything other than the bare necessities. This baby is going to be born to a happy, settled Mikaelson family, to two parents who will be just as head over heels in love with her as they are with each other. This could be the first Mikaelson in over a thousand years who gets to be happy from the moment they enter this world."

Though Rebekah's statement proved that she was a little fuzzy on the details of the process of child birth (namely, how traumatic it was for the child), what she said weighed heavily on Caroline's heart.

The Mikaelsons were a notoriously melancholy group. Even at their happiest, there was a weariness in their eyes that came from centuries of traipsing the globe. In contrast, Caroline was 'full of light.' She was relentlessly optimistic, persistently positive even in the face of peril. And she was also months away from giving birth to a little girl who might be the only Mikaelson to have a chance of being consistently, innately happy.

She wanted that for her daughter her whole life, and she wanted that for all of the Mikaelsons from then on.

"Okay, Rebekah," Caroline agreed. "You can buy the baby all the pretty pink dresses you can find, until she's old enough to pick out her own clothes, then you defer to whatever she chooses. Deal?"

Rebekah agreed.

"While Auntie Bekah can be in charge of making sure our niece is the best dressed little girl in New Orleans, it will be Auntie Freya's job to teach everything she needs to know about being a Mikaelson witch," Freya chimed in.

"Thank you, Freya," Caroline replied. "Remember that she won't be as powerful as you or Hope because she isn't a first-born."

"Wait, that explains the blood," Bonnie interrupted.

"What blood, is someone hurt?" Caroline panicked.

"No, everyone's fine," Bonnie reassured her. "Last night I did a locator spell to find Hope using Klaus's blood. The results of the spell made it look like there were three blood relatives in the room. We assumed that the last one was actually you, because you had Klaus's blood in your system. But I was right, there were three Mikaelsons in the room: Hope, Esther, and your baby, all three of whom are related, by blood, to Klaus."

"Speaking of my daughter, what did you mean when you said that Hope already knew about the baby?" Hayley asked.

Hayley had been quiet since Caroline had announced her pregnancy. Caroline's speculations as to why ranged from the well-intentioned (she didn't want to take any attention away from Caroline) to the bitter (she was jealous and resentful that Klaus and Caroline were having a child together, taking attention away from her and Hope).

"She was there, tied to the chair next to me, when Esther performed the spell," Caroline answered.

Hayley was quiet after that.

"If no one else has any other questions…" Klaus trailed off.

One by one, the Mikaelsons and their guests approached Klaus and Caroline to offer their congratulations. Marcel made a joke about the age difference between himself and his new youngest sister. Kol made a joke about Klaus being the only vampire to impregnate a woman, and then doing it again. Katherine made a joke about Caroline being the only vampire to get pregnant, and then doing it again.

But even as they made jokes, Caroline still knew that they were all genuinely happy for her, and that they would love and protect her baby.

{ }

That afternoon, Caroline's room almost seemed to have a revolving door.

The first person to visit her was Hayley.

She hesitantly sat down on the edge of Caroline's bed, noticeably uncomfortable.

"Can I help you?" Caroline asked, trying to ease the tension in the room.

"I didn't get a chance to thank you earlier, for protecting Hope," Hayley said finally. "I know that Esther only wanted her and that you were some sort of bait, so you could have thrown her under the bus to save yourself, but you didn't."

"I love Hope, and I would never want to see her hurt," Caroline insisted. "I can't believe you would think I would ever even consider sacrificing Hope's life to save mine."

"I didn't, really, which makes it worse," Hayley replied.

"How do you mean?"

"I would have deserved it," Hayley answered. "I've been awful to you, and you've always been the bigger person, and that just made me feel worse. I'm scared that your daughter is going to make me and mine irrelevant," Hayley blurted out.

"Irrelevant? Hayley, Hope is Klaus's daughter, and you are Hope's mother, nothing can change that," Caroline reassured her. "Klaus will always love and take care of Hope, he isn't going to cast her off to the side because he'll have another child to love and take care of as well. And Hope could never be irrelevant. She's the only tribrid to ever exist. She's the future Queen of the Werewolves. She's the most powerful witch alive. You are the Queen of the Werewolves, and the mother of the only tribrid to ever live and the most powerful witch alive. You could never be irrelevant either."

Hayley looked at Caroline like she was a puzzle she couldn't quite solve.

"I don't want our daughters to have the same ugliness between them that we did," Hayley said.

"Then we both need to forgive and forget," Caroline answered. "We are the mothers of sisters, and as far as I'm concerned, nothing that happened before yesterday matters. I am unconditionally, unequivocally forgiving you for everything, and I'll never mention any of it again. I meant what I said to Klaus when I negotiated your custody agreement: I think you've been punished enough. Now that Esther is gone, you're no longer on the hook. You're free. Starting this week, you can take Hope home to your wolf kingdom for the weekend. You can start living your new normal life."

"A clean slate sounds perfect," Hayley agreed, then she stood and held out her right hand. Caroline, assuming that Hayley meant to seal their deal with a handshake, extended her own hand, but then Hayley started speaking again.

"Hi, I'm Hayley Marshall-Kenner," Hayley said. "I'm Hope's mother, and Jackson's wife, and the Alpha of the Crescent Wolf Pack, or, as my friends affectionately call me, the Queen of the Werewolves."

Caroline smiled, placing her hand in Hayley's.

"Caroline Forbes," she replied. "I'm Lizzie and Josie's mother, and I'm expecting another daughter early next summer, and I serve as the human representative on the supernatural council of New Orleans.

"It sounds like you have a great life," Hayley commented.

"I could say the same about you," Caroline smiled.

As Hayley turned to leave, Caroline called out, "I choose to believe that you would have done the same. But you're welcome."

Hayley just smiled.

A few hours later, Katherine walked in to Caroline's room, holding a small gift bag, which she handed to Caroline.

"Klaus asked me to go get yours and Hope's amulets repaired, since I know the witches that spelled them, and I don't think he's planning on leaving you alone for the next nine months," Katherine rolled her eyes good-naturedly.

"He only very reluctantly agreed to be as far away as his art studio," Caroline told her. "He was inspired to paint something for the baby's room. He wanted to work in here until I told him that I couldn't be around paint because it's bad for the baby."

"Is that even true?" Katherine asked.

"Yes! I wouldn't lie to him about the safety of our child," Caroline insisted.

"That's kind of crazy, isn't it? That you and Klaus are having a baby?" Katherine wondered aloud. "It's like if this was one of the girls' princess movies, this would be the happy ending."

"That was beautiful, Kat," Caroline cried.

"Okay, note to self, she's already hormonal," Katherine remarked. "I came bearing gifts, remember?" she pointed to the bag.

Caroline opened the bag, pulling out her bracelet and clasping it around her wrist. Then she retrieved Hope's necklace and set it aside to return later.

"There's one more thing in there," Katherine said.

Caroline reached into the bag again, finding a necklace that looked just like the amulets Katherine had had made for Hope and the twins, except this one had a sparkling black stone above the gold locket.

"It's for the baby," Katherine explained needlessly. "The other girls have already exhausted Mardi Gras colors, but black seems like a good New Orleans color. And it will match all of her outfits."

"You heard Rebekah, I don't think she'll wear an outfit that isn't entirely pink until she moves out of this house," Caroline retorted. "Thank you for this, Katherine."

"You're welcome," Katherine said.

A little while later, Lizzie came in the room holding her Sleeping Beauty doll and costume.

She placed them down in front of Caroline.

"For Baby," the little girl said quietly.

Caroline immediately burst into tears.

"No, sweetie, those are yours," Caroline told her. "Klaus is going to buy the baby all of the things she needs, you don't need to give up your own."

"But Auntie Bekah says they're going to dress Baby in all pink, and Aurora wears all pink, and so they would match," Lizzie insisted with all the logic of a small child.

"And you can still wear all pink, too, if that's what you want. You can both have the same favorite color," Caroline said.

Lizzie shook her head.

"Baby's turn," she said.

"Do you not like pink anymore? Because I can tell Rebekah to stop buying you all pink clothes if you want. You're old enough to choose your own favorite colors, unlike the baby, who won't be able to tell Rebekah whether or not she really likes pink for quite a while," Caroline said.

Lizzie clutched her necklace, running her finger over the purple stone.

"I think I like Rapunzel more," Lizzie admitted. "Sleeping Beauty just sleeps a lot. Like a baby!" Lizzie's face lit up as she made the connection. "Rapunzel gets to have adventures, and her dress is pink and purple."

Caroline made a mental note to ask Rebekah to start mixing some lavender in with pink clothes she bought Lizzie, and to stop by the Disney store herself the next day to buy Lizzie a Rapunzel costume and doll to replace the ones she was donating to her baby sister.

"Well, I'm sure the baby will appreciate her first gift from her big sister," Caroline said, picking up the dress and the doll.

Lizzie's eyes followed the dress and the doll in Caroline's hands.

"Mommy," Lizzie gasped with all the urgency of a toddler making what they thought was an earth-shattering discovery. "Can we name the baby Aurora?"

Caroline loved the idea of the girls suggesting names for their baby sister, but she wasn't so sure about that name in particular.

"I think that's a great name, Lizzie," Caroline replied, trying not to hurt the little girl's feelings. "We have to ask Klaus what he thinks before we decide anything. There are a lot of names, and we have to make sure that we're choosing the right one for the baby."

Caroline was certain that Klaus would never agree. She remembered Vincent angrily complaining about a vampire named Aurora who had been an enemy of the Mikaelson family and was now, ironically, under a sleeping spell. She couldn't imagine Klaus ever wanting to give his child the same name as one of his enemies.

Lizzie nodded earnestly, seeming to accept Caroline's terms.

"Bye, Baby," Lizzie said, waving in the general direction of Caroline's stomach, then skipping out of the room.

Caroline smiled. Actually, she thought, she would go to the store now.

{ }

Lizzie spun in circles, watching with a smile on her face as her skirt, made of pink and purple tulle covered in gold glitter, flew up around her as she twirled.

Caroline (and Klaus, who had insisted on coming along, since the last time she'd gone out on her own she'd gotten kidnapped) had just returned from the mall and given Lizzie her new costume and doll, and the little girl had immediately changed into her new princess dress.

By the time Caroline was ready to leave for the store, Lizzie had managed to assemble a pile of things to give to the baby. She'd included all of her clothes in the lightest, girliest shades of pink, from cotton candy to bubblegum, including the pink lace dress she'd just worn to Caroline's birthday party; her pink comforter printed with Sleeping Beauty's castle; and her Marie stuffed animal.

Caroline found it somewhat amusing that Lizzie was taking this opportunity to reinvent herself, as she'd clearly figured out that if she got rid of something she didn't want any more under the guise of saving it for the baby, she'd get a new one of whatever she was giving away.

Caroline had anticipated that the idea of a new younger sibling would be the hardest adjustment for Lizzie, of the three girls. Hope was Klaus's firstborn, arguably the most special person in the supernatural world, adored by her father and his family, and her mother and her wolf pack. Josie was happier when she wasn't the center of attention, and as unfortunate and unfair as it was, she'd adapted to that reality, choosing to spend time with Finn, Kol, and Davina, rather than fighting her sister for Rebekah's or even Klaus's attention.

Caroline now realized that she had been wrong to never intervene in Rebekah's treatment of Lizzie, and not just because hers and some of her siblings' favoritism had negatively impacted Josie, though she hadn't said anything. When they'd first arrived in New Orleans, Caroline had just been so relieved that the Mikaelsons seemed to like the twins that she hadn't wanted to complain, but Lizzie had grown used to wearing the pink dresses that they bought for her and letting them dress her up as their little princess Barbie doll, and now Lizzie was being rather unceremoniously replaced in that role, without warning, by her new baby sister. Lizzie had the opportunity to free herself from the feedback loop that rewarded her for choosing pink as her favorite color and wearing the pink dresses Rebekah picked out for her, and start to figure out what she really liked without outside factors influencing her choices, but that hadn't been Lizzie's choice. Caroline worried that Lizzie associated the love and attention that the Mikaelsons gave her with her willingness to wear what they wanted her to wear and act how they wanted her to act, and that she didn't feel confident that they would love her no matter what.

Although, their shopping spree that afternoon should at least start to reassure Lizzie that her family would love and accept her no matter what she liked or wore.

Caroline had planned to only get Lizzie a new doll and costume, but Klaus was both touched by Lizzie's actions and completely wrapped around her little finger, so he decided to buy her several new shirts, sweatshirts, and pajamas, inundating Lizzie's wardrobe with Rapunzel's signature shade of light purple, as well as a new comforter in the same color, patterned with suns, and a new stuffed animal friend: Maximus, the horse from Tangled, leading to Klaus making comments about Lizzie inheriting Caroline's love for horses.

Not wanting to leave the other girls out, they'd also gotten costumes and dolls for Hope and Josie.

Caroline knew that after Belle, Josie's favorite 'princess' was Elsa, and so the little girl was now chasing after her twin wearing a bright blue dress decorated with blue glitter snowflakes.

For Hope, Klaus had selected the costume of the only other red-headed princess, Merida from Brave. He read the description of the movie, and found that he much preferred the idea of his daughter emulating a courageous girl who fought for her own destiny, to her current favorite character, who willfully defied her father and traded her voice—and in many respects, her agency—for a chance to satisfy her child-like curiosity and pursue a boy who had caught her eye. He bought her the teal-green dress, a matching doll, and even the little archery set, which Hope had been delighted by and hadn't set down since Klaus had handed it to her.

Klaus had also bought the baby a slightly smaller version of the stuffed Marie that he had bought Lizzie months ago, except since they had updated the stuffed animals since then, the cat's pink bow was now shimmery pink.

After storing the stuffed animal in the empty room that would eventually become the baby's nursery, Klaus and Caroline returned to the courtyard to supervise the girls while they played.

"Klaus," Lizzie skipped up to them. "Can we name the baby Aurora? Like the princess? Because Auntie Bekah called her a princess, and she said that she'll wear pink all the time, and Aurora is a princess that wears pink all the time, too."

Klaus looked caught off guard by the suggestion.

"I don't know about that, but I'd love to hear all of the ideas you have," he replied.

Lizzie pouted, running off without saying anything in reply.

"Sorry, I tried to tell her earlier, but I didn't want to hurt her feelings," Caroline said. "And I didn't think she'd understand if I told her that you wouldn't want to give the baby the same name as one of your former enemies."

Klaus somehow managed to look even more uncomfortable.

"Caroline, Aurora and I… had a history," Klaus started.

"Are you saying that you slept with her?" Caroline asked. "Like the situation with Genevieve?"

Klaus sighed.

"It wasn't exactly like that," he answered reluctantly.

"Did you love her?" Caroline asked uncertainly.

Klaus looked down at the ground as he spoke.

"I told her that I did," Klaus confessed. "And I thought that I did. If I did love her, it was only ever in the broken, twisted, destructive way that I was able at the time, and that's the same way that she loved me. We were drawn to each other out of self-loathing over the pain and damage that we had caused ourselves and others. I was still coming to terms with what I was and the devastation that the revelation that I was a hybrid caused my family, and Aurora suffered from mental illness in a time when that sort of thing wasn't talked about or treated. But you must know that I have never, and could never, love anyone as much as I love you. You are the love of my life, Caroline, and no one in my past could ever dream of competing with that."

It was Caroline's turn to sigh.

"I suppose it was silly of me to assume that in a thousand years, you'd never fallen in love with anyone before me," Caroline conceded with a half-hearted chuckle.

"So, you aren't angry?" Klaus confirmed.

"I'm not thrilled that you hadn't told me about this person that you loved until now, but I'm pregnant with your child, so you're kind of stuck with me at this point," Caroline shrugged. "If you were to find a way to wake her up from her curse and left us for her, then I would be angry. I have to keep my blood pressure down for the baby's sake, so I can't really afford to get upset about your romantic history, starting nine hundred years before I was born."

Klaus kissed her hand gently.

"I don't deserve you," he said softly.

"I think if you polled everyone living in this house, you'd find that many of them agree with that statement," Caroline remarked. "Now please go tell Lizzie that her suggestion was wonderful and inspired and we're adding it to the list."

"We don't have a list," Klaus seemed puzzled.

"Lizzie doesn't know that," Caroline told him.

Klaus chuckled and placed his hands on Caroline's stomach.

"You know, this one's a Mikaelson; she'll be harder to fool," he commented.

"We'll deal with that when the time comes," Caroline replied.

Klaus jogged over to where Lizzie stood, scooping her up in his arms, making her giggle as he spun her around.

Footsteps approached from behind Caroline.

Rebekah, Katherine, and Freya joined the girls, while Elijah stood next to Caroline.

"All I've ever wanted for my brother was for him to realize that he is worthy of unconditional love," he told her. "I thought that it would be Hope who accomplished it, but it was you, and it's been you all along, hasn't it? This child proves it. I'm not sure I've ever seen him happier than when he looked at you a moment ago."

"That's a lot to live up to," Caroline said.

"I know, and I was wrong to expect Hope to be Niklaus's savior, his redemption, the only hope for this family, and now she cannot escape the responsibilities I forced upon her with the name I gave her," Elijah responded. "So, I promise you, I may not spoil her the way Rebekah will, or teach her the way Freya will, or make her laugh the way Kol will, but I promise you that there will be no child in the world more eternally loved or fiercely protected than yours. Hope is a fighter, she has been since before she was born. I pray that your daughter never has to fight a day in her life."

"Thank you, Elijah," Caroline said.

Klaus chose that moment to walk back over to Caroline.

"What did my brother have to say for himself?" Klaus asked.

Caroline had inferred that what Elijah had told her was not meant for Klaus to hear, so she decided to keep it to herself.

"He was just saying that he's happy for us," Caroline told him. "I hope she doesn't inherit your paranoia."

"This child is a Mikaelson, Caroline, the poor thing never had a chance: we're born paranoid," Elijah stated. "And with that, I will excuse myself."

He turned around and went back inside the house.

As Caroline watched the girls play with their aunts, she felt an all-encompassing sense of peace wash over her. They had defeated the evil witch, and there was nothing standing in the way of their happiness. She was standing next to the love of her life, watching their children play, as he wrapped his arms around her gently like she was the most precious thing in the world to him, his hands covering her stomach where their baby grew.

Katherine was right: this was the fairy-tale ending she'd always wished for, and their immortality meant it never had to end.

"Thank you," Caroline said quietly to Klaus.

"For what?" Klaus asked.

"For this life."

All that's left is the epilogue...

Aurora would have been such a great name for the baby if not for the TO character… Fun fact, my first choice name for a Klaroline baby girl would have been Lucie, after a main character of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, the novel which this story's name comes from. The name means 'full of light' and the character herself is the epitome of light, goodness, and perfection, and since Klaus mentioned that Caroline would have liked Dickens on the show, I thought it would be a nice reference. Alas, Lucie is too close to Lizzie, so I can't use it. Aurora would have been my second choice, because it's the name of the Roman goddess of the dawn (hence, light, and new beginnings), thus keeping with the naming pattern Klaus started with Marcel's name, and I love the idea of the girls suggesting names for their baby sister, and wanting to name her after a Disney princess. But I can't use the name because of the TO character (also, in the movie, Aurora's father's name is... Stefan. Seriously, I couldn't make that up). So, the name I ended up choosing is actually my third choice name.

Sorry, I just really love names and could talk about name meanings all day.

Again, the epilogue will be posted as soon as possible.

Please let me know what you think of my idea for the sequel to this story, and you can start sending in requests now if you have them!

As always, I would love to know what you thought of this chapter and/or the story as a whole, so please leave me a review; I love reading them!

Thank you very much for reading!

love,

charlotte