A/N: LAST CHAPTER I know, I know XD I'm sad too. But this just seemed like a good stopping point for now. However don't despair, because there WILL be a second book! I know where I want the story to go after this, which is why I had to end it here if I didn't want to make this book be over 50 chapters lol

I have absolutely no idea when the second book is coming out but I did already start working on it. I just want to get a few chapters written and planned out before I publish anything so we don't have a Heart Of Darkness book 1 scenario, where I didn't publish chapter 2 for like a year.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this final chapter, and thank you sooooo much to everyone who's been reading this even with my crazy inconsistent update schedule! You're all amazing and I appreciate you so much #KlatherineShippersUnite

Lastly, just as a little side note: if you see any of the old earlier chapters (or even these newer ones) a little different if you ever go back and re-read, it's cause eventually I'm going to edit this book and fix up anything I don't like grammar wise or scene wise. However! The story will still remain the same and all the events will remain the same. But you know the saying, practice makes perfect. So I will be fixing some stuff in the future just to let you all know now on with the chapter!

—

Katherine didn't get two steps away from the mausoleum when the man she had been looking for suddenly appeared. With Hayley in his arms.

"Klaus." She breathed a small sigh of relief at the sight of Hayley as well. She looked fine, all things considered. "What happened?" She was hesitant, because what she was really asking was if he knew everything or if she would need to be the one to tell him Rebekah wasn't the only traitor.

"Tyler Lockwood had Hayley." He mumbled setting Hayley down carefully. "I know you must be angry, however I had no choice. I was not risking your life. Tyler was willing to kill Hayley knowing she was expecting. I had no idea what he might do to you. I needed to-"

She quickly shook her head, stopping him from saying whatever beautiful thing he had been about to tell her. She had made her choice before she entered New Orleans. But the knowledge that Elijah was willing to carelessly risk her life while Klaus wanted to protect her made her choice a thousand times easier. "I'm not mad." She assured him and stepped closer to him. "You were protecting me. You were thinking of me. I could never be mad at you for that." She murmured and leaned up a little, softly pressing her lips to his.

Klaus smiled against her lips, his hands moving to grip her waist gently as he tugged her closer to him. He would've gladly deepened the kiss between them, had it not been for the groan of displeasure from Hayley.

"Okay, I was just almost killed by a guy I thought was my friend and now my baby's father is making out with my apparent only friend. I'm not even going to ask how this happened, only that you stop." She grumbled making a face. "Have some sympathy on the pregnant girl that was almost killed."

Katherine chuckled softly as she slowly pulled away, despite the look of protest she was getting from Klaus. "Later." She assured him patting his chest lightly. "Besides. We have bigger problems." She mumbled gesturing towards the mausoleum. "Did you happen to run into Rebekah?"

She watched as his expression instantly hardened. "She is currently in the bayou with a werewolf bite."

Katherine gave him a small nod. She never did like the original sister, but even if she had, she couldn't say she didn't deserve to suffer after what she pulled. Or attempted to. "You might want to share that gift with Elijah." She finally said as a quiet sigh left her lips. She didn't want to tell him. She didn't want to be the one to tell him his siblings didn't believe in him. That they would rather lock him up instead of giving him a chance. That they were far too caught up in seeing a monster that they couldn't see the man. "He was in on it too. He was working with Marcel. Actually. It might've been his idea."

Her heart nearly shattered when she saw the fallen and absolutely defeated look in his eyes. It was there for less than a second before his cold exterior came back. But she had seen it.

He didn't even ask her if she was sure. Because deep down she knew this was something he had been expecting. All Elijah wanted was for him to change for the baby. To redeem himself. When he didn't see that was happening, he took matters into his own hands. "I am not biting him."

"What? Why? Don't you want him to pay?" She could hardly believe the words that were coming out of her own mouth. Just a few days ago she was gladly making out with Elijah in her room and kicking Klaus out. Now she wanted him to suffer.

"Of course I do. And he will. Because the very thing he wanted is the thing he is not going to get. Do you hear that Elijah?" He called out with a smirk plastered on his lips, despite the obvious pain in his eyes. "You are hereby banned from the house indefinitely. If I see you again I am plunging a dagger into your heart and you will never meet my child."

That seemed to strike a nerve in him because Elijah soon sped out of the mausoleum and stopped in front of Klaus.

"Is that your retaliation? Tear apart our family and drive us all away again? Threaten us with those fancy daggers of yours? Why am I not surprised?"

Klaus opened his mouth to speak but before he could get a single word out, Katherine rushed in.

"He should be daggering you right now. He should be tossing your body into the damn ocean so that you die with the knowledge that you'll never ever meet that unborn child. He should be torturing you and making you suffer, but he's not. And do you know why? Because contrary to what you believe, Klaus actually cares about his child. He isn't going to waste his time with you when he has Hayley to take care of. You-" She scoffed. "You couldn't have been more wrong even if you tried to be. That doesn't hurt yet, because you still believe you're right. But once you figure it out it's going to eat you up inside. And by then it'll be too late."

"Oh for goodness sake." Elijah rolled his eyes. "He doesn't care about the child, he only wants it because he wants to make more hybrids. At the moment he has you, but let's face it. You are going to die. Especially since you quite literally yelled at me for attempting to save you."

Klaus didn't give Katherine a chance to defend him or to tell Elijah he was wrong. He knew she would've, as he could already see the pure anger blazing in her eyes. But he wasn't in the mood to hear a defense. Because no matter what she said, Elijah would counter it, and would end up saying something far more hurtful than what he said now.

It was why he didn't hesitate before speeding up to him and snapping his neck. "Alright. Let's go." He said casually and sped away from the two without a single glance back.

"Rude." Hayley grumbled but began to walk towards the house anyway.

"Just...give him a minute. Both of his siblings did just betray him." Katherine said softly. She could only imagine what he was feeling right now. The pain. The anger. The desire to leave everything behind but not being able to. It must be killing him.

"And my friend from Mystic Falls tried to kill me. Looks like we're both having bad days." Hayley rolled her eyes.

Katherine chuckled a little. "Hey count me in that list too. My now ex boyfriend carelessly risked my life trying to ambush his brother. If that's not the definition of a bad day I don't know what is."

"Does that mean Klaus is your new boyfriend? Because if so, we need to talk about some ground rules. Like how you two are leaving the house if you're going to do it."

She snorted at Hayley's words and shook her head. "There's no need to label it. Something just...clicked when we were in Colorado. We've been, trying things out I guess but it's not like he's made a move or tried to talk about it."

"Right. Because I forgot this is the eighteenth century and girls can't make the first move."

Katherine gave her a look but before she could respond, she noticed they were approaching the mansion. The last thing she wanted was Klaus to overhear her debating whether or not to make a move on him.

As she stepped inside, she looked around the mansion. When she didn't see Klaus drinking she guessed he was upstairs painting. However she didn't want to leave Hayley. Especially considering everything she just went through.

"Go." Hayley said giving her a slight push when she noticed the hesitation in her friend's eyes. "I'm going to take a shower and possibly a nap anyway. We can talk later."

She gave her a small grateful nod and quickly headed up the stairs in search for Klaus. Upon opening the door to his art studio, she frowned. He was in fact in here but he wasn't painting. He was merely standing in front of his easel. He wasn't even holding a paintbrush.

"Close the door love." He spoke without looking at her, or moving much at all.

Katherine slowly closed the door behind her and took a few steps closer to him. "I..." She inhaled softly. "I'm not going to ask you something stupid like 'are you okay'. But, I am letting you know that, I'm not going anywhere. Whatever you feel right now is okay. Whatever you want or need to do in order to get through it, is also okay. If you want to go get drunk, we can do that. If you want to go rip someone's heart out, hey I'll even point out who you should kill." She gave him a small smile. "I'm not leaving you. No matter what you say, what you do, you are not alone. Not anymore. I will never leave. I-"

She didn't get to tell him she was choosing him when suddenly his lips were on hers. He was kissing her fiercely and with a deep passion she hadn't felt in a very long time. Suddenly she didn't feel the need to talk or tell him anything else. Right now what she said seemed to be enough.

Her arms slid around his neck as she eagerly returned his kiss, letting him speed her up to the wall of his art studio. There was nothing on her mind except Klaus and his excellent kissing skills.

That was of course, until he suddenly pulled away and sped out of the room, leaving her standing there with no given explanation.

She exhaled softly, catching her breath a little and then slowly walked out of his art room. "Klaus?" She called out confused. "Klaus?" As she walked down the stairs, she suddenly realized why he left. "Elijah." She crossed her arms over her chest and joined Klaus' side. "What are you doing here?"

Elijah scoffed at the sight before him. Both of them standing there, no doubt feeling all powerful, trying to kick him out. "I came to pick up my things. Surely you don't mind do you Niklaus?"

Klaus silently stepped aside. It was bad enough he had to see him. He didn't want to be forced to talk to him as well.

Katherine easily noticed his tense posture and reached for his hand, holding it firmly in her own. She could feel him squeezing her hand back as the two watched Elijah head upstairs to pack. "Hey. It's five minutes at most. I mean all he has to do is pack up his huge collection of ten thousand dollar suits." She felt satisfied seeing the way the corner of his lips twitch upwards a little. "After that, it'll just be you and me, and Hayley. You'll never have to see them again if you don't want to."

He wanted to tell her that was the part that was killing him. That he did want to see them. Both of them. But he couldn't allow himself to. Because forgiveness wasn't something he could give them, not yet and perhaps not ever. They took his trust, his heart, and they carelessly shattered it in the name of what? Revenge? Justice? A noble quest? Whatever the reason or reasons, he didn't care. He only wanted the pain of their betrayal to stop. And with Katerina next to him, the noise seemed to drown out just a little.

He squeezed her hand tighter and then slowly intertwined their fingers together.

Elijah soon walked down the stairs with a bag over his shoulder. His gaze dropped to the intertwined hands of his brother and who he believed to be the love of his life. The disapproval was in the slight shake of his head as he made his way out the front door.

"Katerina...come with me." He whispered turning to look at her and only her. "I can forgive you. I can ignore all of this. Just, do not stay here with him."

Katherine scoffed softly. "You made your bed Elijah. Now you get to lie in it. Maybe if you chose to trust Klaus, if you hadn't convinced yourself for centuries that all he is, is a monster..." She shook her head. "Just go."

She stood there with Klaus, holding his hand and looking directly out the door until Elijah was out of sight.

Once she could no longer see him, she moved to close the door but Klaus stopped her. He gently tugged her close to him, looking into her captivating brown eyes. "Thank you."

His whispered words had been just that. A whisper. Barely audible to a vampire let alone her, but she had heard it. And she knew he meant it.

As he kissed her deeply, he blindly reached for the front door, letting it shut before focusing his full attention back to the woman in his arms.

While he sped her up to his bedroom, and carefully lowered them onto his bed, it was easy for them both to confuse this as the thing that everyone else always talked about. The happy ending. The couple who endured and survived the hardships, only to be rewarded in the end with their blissful, never ending happiness.

But even when he slowly kissed her neck and trailed his lips lower along her body, both of them knew deep down in the back of their minds that this wasn't that. This wasn't their salvation. It couldn't be. Because people like them didn't get happy endings.

This was their end, it had to be, even if they didn't know how yet.