A/N: Hey guys

A lot of ideas from me at the moment, but this is a story I've been working on for a while, and it's a loong one. This is a one-shot that is basically the prologue for a story that will be much bigger, but let's see how you like this one first. It's loosely inspired by an episode on Criminal Minds where Emily Prentiss is faced with a demon from her past. Only Caroline is the agent facing her demon, and it's complicated.

I hope you guys like it, so please let me know in the comments!

When Caroline walked into the BAU's offices in Quantico, Virginia, she knew she was in for it.

They were all there; Elena and Katherine, Stefan and Damon, Bonnie and Alaric, heck even Valerie was there.

Sighing, she walked through the doors and headed for her desk, faigning ignorance as she felt seven pairs of eyes follow her.

She knew Elena and Stefan wouldn't bother her, probably not Bonnie either, and definitely not Alaric, but Damon and Katherine was a different story. Valerie... well, she was the newest addition to the team and was still trying to find her way, so Caroline wasn't really sure about her.

Settling down at her desk, she booted up her computer as she dropped her purse on the floor by her desk. And sure enough, two minutes later she felt a presence approach right before Katherine hoisted her ass onto the edge of Caroline's desk.

"Spill," the brunette demanded in the way only Katherine Pierce could, and Caroline swiveled her chair around as she tilted her head to catch her friend and colleague's eyes.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she answered innocently and Kat rolled her eyes.

"Pleaaaase, we all saw you leave the bar with Lockwood last night. That's juicy and you know it. Now spill, before I make you."

Caroline scowled and was about to reply when Damon made a snide comment from the side.

"I never thought I'd see it, Caroline Forbes speechless. I guess Lockwood got some moves."

Turning to face Damon, she gave him an arched look and a sweet smile.

"They're definitely better than yours."

Damon's smirk slid away as she heard Bonnie and Stefan laugh at her comment before she turned back to face Kat.

"If you must know, it was great. We had fun. That's it. He's wheels up this morning and we all know with the kind of job we have that workplace-romances don't work. So, it was a onetime thing, we both had fun and now it's over."

"Shame," Kat muttered, looking a little disappointed and Caroline rolled her eyes. She knew damn and well that Kat had been involved with Tyler's cousin, Mason, a few years back, and from what Caroline could tell, it had been almost serious. Obviously, after Mason found out Kat was hooking up with Damon on the side, the whole serious-thing kind of flew out the window. They were still friends though, believe it or not, and Caroline had a suspicion Kat was looking to rekindle the romance. And she wanted to use Caroline's non-existant relationship with Tyler to do it.

The truth was, she liked Tyler. He was a great guy, a good agent and she had no doubt he'd be a good boyfriend, but she'd tried dating a colleague before and it didn't turn out too good. Matt had transferred out of the BAU and was working Organized Crimes now. Things hadn't ended badly between them, but the feelings he had for her, she wasn't able to reciprocate and he found it too hard to work with her every day after their split. They were friends now, good friends, and she was trying to talk him into coming back to the BAU. Hell, he was married now, to a Detective in the Washington PD and she was pregnant with their first child. And Caroline believed herself to be fully responsible for his very happy ending.

"If you want another go with Mason, Kat, you gotta make the moves on your own. My life is crazy enough as it is, I don't need a relationship to complicate it even more."

It had been a slow day, and no new cases had dropped into their lap.

Bonnie, their public relations liaison and typical mediator with local authorities, was going through possible cases in her office and the rest of them were pretty much just writing up reports.

Caroline was looking into a case for a friend in the ERU, Emergency Response Unit, looking over all the evidence and information they'd been able to gather on the unsub and was trying to come up with a preliminary profile.

From what she could tell, the American tourists who'd disappeared in London three weeks ago was a young wealthy couple on their honeymoon. The leads the ERU and Scotland Yard had to go on were few, and the more time passed, the less chance they had of finding them... Dead or alive.

Chewing down on the pen she'd used to scribble with, she turned her eyes to her computerscreen and did a quick search in the FBI-database on the victims. With the woman, twenty-three year old Aurora De Martel - now Castle - there wasn't much. In fact, there wasn't anything at all.

Her husband, now that was a different story. Turns out he wasn't American at all. His name was Lucien Castle, he came from an old powerful family in the UK and there had been some... speculations, as to how his family came into their funds and managed to keep them. Caroline frowned as she read through the little information there was about him. Something about his name sounded so damn familiar, like she'd run into him before, that she knew him somehow. Still, she couldn't quite place her finger on it.

She studied the picture of the couple attached to the file, but it was an old one and again she got that feeling of having seen him before, she just couldn't remember where. She was about to pick up her phone and make a call to one of her old Interpol colleague's to make some inquires when she was interrupted by Alaric.

"Caroline, I need you in my office." She looked up at him, stopped chewing on her pen and dropped it on top of her desk before she got up and moved across the floor and up the short flight of stairs, walking into Ric's office.

"Close the door." She did as told and walked over to take a seat in the leather chair across from his desk. He was standing behind his chair, hands resting on the head-rest and she didn't like the look on his face.

Alaric was a serious guy most of the time, but he looked... worried.

"What's going on?" She asked and Ric blew out a breath.

"I'm not sure how to tell you this, but I figure it's easier just to get it over with."

She braced at his words. There were a number of things this could be about. She'd been a part of the BAU for three years, ever since she came back to the U.S after spending two years working for Interpol, and a lot had happened during those years.

"Just say it, Ric." She prompted quietly, wanting to get it over with.

"Right. Five minutes ago I got a call from an old friend of yours, Lorenzo St. John. You remember him?"

Enzo had been her partner in Interpol for two years. They'd become close friends during that time and she trusted him maybe more than she did her current colleagues. He'd saved her life more than once, and he'd helped her keep the biggest secret of her life and career.

"Yes, of course." She murmured, watching Ric closely.

"He didn't call with good news, Caroline."

Shit.

"Five weeks ago, one of your former targets in Interpol escaped custody. He didn't find out about it until yesterday and he called me as soon as he had the chance. He told me to tell you to watch your back because Niklaus Mikaelson is on the loose and he might be headed your way. He also told me to tell you "he knows"."

Oh no. Oh God. Oh Shit.

"You want to tell me what Mikaelson "knows"?"

Oh no. Oh God. Oh Shit.

"I wish I could, Ric. But I'm sorry, I can't. Look, I have to take the rest of the day off unless you need me for something pressing. I left Nick at home with April this morning and I want to make sure he's fine."

Ric studied her, then he sighed and leaned slightly forward, his voice lowering.

"Do what you need to do. Just know that the team is here if you need us, and starting today I'm putting in around the clock protection for you and your family, just in case Enzo's right and until we get information that condradicts his hunch."

Caroline nodded absently, already halfway to the door.

"Thanks Ric, I appreciate it." And she did, but the protection-detail was another complication.

She had to get out of town and do it fast. If Klaus knew the truth and he was coming for her, she didn't have a lot of time. Chances were he already knew where she was and had someone keeping an eye on her. Which was probably why Enzo had called Ric instead of her directly. Klaus had the money and the resources to hire the best hackers in the world, and something like an illegal wire-tap would be a peace of cake to any of them.

"Caroline." She stopped in the hall outside Ric's office and looked back at him.

"Be careful, watch your back and call if you need us." She forced a smile and nodded her consent.

"I will."

That was a lie, and it killed her to know she'd probably never see him or her team again, but she had one priority in life and no matter what he always came first.

Her son. Nicholas. Her three, almost four year old son. Named after his father.

Kol Mikaelson fished out his cell phone when he watched her pull up in front of the apartment building and get out of her car. She was in a hurry, constantly looking over her shoulder, scanning the streets as she jogged into the main lobby and headed straight for the elevators.

He pulled up his brother's number, pressed call and put the phone to his ear, listening to the line ringing for all of five seconds before Elijah's voice came at him.

"Yes?"

"She knows." He said shortly, still keeping his eyes on the front of the building he was watching. Searching for any sign of the woman who had been like a sister to them all, the woman who had been the love of his brother's life, the woman who was now the mother of his nephew.

"Stay with her," Elijah ordered, "I'll be in touch."

Kol tucked his phone back in his pocket and leaned back in the carseat, watching and waiting. That was all he could do right then. Watch her, wait for Elijah's call, and when it was time... act.

"Damn it!"

They were gone. No sign of either April or Nick, and April wasn't answering her phone. For a second the panic began to set in, the terror that somehow he'd gotten to them and he'd taken her son away, but she forced it to the back of her mind and focused on keeping her brain functioning.

With a sudden bolt of clarity she realized exactly where they were. It was Tuesday, April always took Nick to the park for a playgroup on Tuesdays. Feeling the relief at her realization, she hurried to her son's bedroom and pulled out his mini-suitcase from under his bed. It was already packed with everything he might need, just like she had her own go-bag ready and hidden under her own bed. With both suitcases in hand, she left the apartment and took the stairs down to the parking cellar where she had a second car.

She was prepared for anything, including the very likely fact that Nik had found her location and had someone sitting outside her building, waiting for her to take off in a hurry. Smooth is steady, and smooth is fast, wasn't that the saying?

She couldn't afford to mess this up, couldn't afford to make mistakes that would lead him to them. This wasn't just her life on the line, but her son as well, and she refused to let him get dragged into the life, the world, that his father reigned in.

Caroline had been working undercover for Interpol when she crossed paths with Niklaus Mikaelson and his family. She'd played the part of Cora Fell, underworld broker and part-time money launderer, and she'd been really good at her job. She got tight with the entire Mikaelson-family fast, and she'd only been undercover for a few months when she got involved with Klaus, but the one thing she'd never planned on was how long the job would take, and how she'd had the misfortune of falling for her target. She'd managed to put her feelings aside to get the job done, but she'd been so close to botching it all. Until she found out she was pregnant.

The second she realized that she was having a baby, Nik's baby, it changed everything. She had to protect her child from that life, from that world. And even though it killed a part of her to do it, she handed over everything she had to her handler, Enzo, and it was more than enough for Interpol to take him down.

She always knew there was a chance he'd learn the truth. About her, about their baby, but it still shook her that it was no longer a possibility, but her new reality. She'd have to spend the rest of her life hiding, doing it while protecting her son and giving him as normal a childhood as possible, and it scared her shitless. But she'd do it, and she'd fight to protect her son with her dying breath. There was no other option.

Klaus Mikaelson walked down the steps of the private jet and tilted his head back to draw in the fresh air. It had been a long flight, and it had been a long four years in prison, thinking the woman he'd loved was dead, only to learn five weeks ago that she was alive and well, and a bloody FBI agent.

After escaping prison three days ago, he'd gotten his hands on all the information regarding the Interpol-operation that got him behind bars, and he'd also learned a lot of enlightening things about Cora Fell, or Caroline Forbes, as was her real name. The brutal betrayal he'd felt at learning her deceit had him itching for revenge, until he learned the one thing he knew she'd most wanted kept from him.

Caroline had a child, a boy. Nearly four years old, named Nicholas. A child he knew, after seeing one photo of the boy, was his.

He had no doubt word of his escape had reached Interpol, and likely Caroline at the FBI, so he knew he had his work cut out for him, chasing her down. But they didn't call him "the wolf" for nothing. He was a hunter, and once he'd caught the scent of his pray, he didn't stop until they were hunted down. It was only a matter of time before he found her, and when he did, they'd have a talk.

A long one.

~Three Days Later~

This wasn't the life Caroline wanted for her son.

On the run, constantly looking over their shoulder, always worried about what would come next. They'd been on the road for the past couple of days, spending their nights in shady motels where no one asked any questions and everything was paid by cash.

They were headed for her dad's cabin on the outskirts of the town where Caroline grew up. Normally, heading to Virginia and Mystic Falls would be a bad idea, but no one knew about her dad's cabin except for Caroline and her mother, and when he died he'd left her the keys.

There was no official record of Bill Forbes ever owning a cabin, this was because her dad was always careful and he'd had to disappear a few times himself. He died three years ago, working a job that went wrong, and two days later the keys to the cabin had showed up in her mailbox. Her parents were both in law-enforcement. Her mom, Liz, was the sheriff of Mystic Falls, had been for more than twenty years, and her dad had been part of a secret organisation that was privately funded, and he'd never admitted it, but she had a suspicion it was some sort of vigilante group. It didn't matter now though, all that mattered was that the cabin was a safe place for her and her baby.

They couldn't stay there forever, she'd have to come up with a plan, and she had to do it soon, but getting to safety was the number one priority.

She'd reached out to Enzo last night, using one of the many burner-phones she'd aquired over the years, and he'd told her the bad news. His contacts had reported that Nik was officially in the U.S and he, along with his entire family, was looking for her. He'd also informed her that the day in which she'd packed up everything and took off, Kol had been spotted sitting in a car outside her apartment building. The good news was, her car-changing tactics had worked. She knew when she was being followed and they were in the clear, at least for now.

"Stay low, and keep safe, gorgeous. I'm working on arranging a get-away package for you and your boy, but it might take a few days. I can't go through the official channels, because we all know he's got spies everywhere, but I'm working my connections. I'll have new identities and safe passage arranged in a day or two."

That was Enzo. They hadn't talked in years, but he always had her back and he'd never know how grateful she was. It was getting dark, and she was getting tired, but she couldn't afford to pull over and rest. They were only a few miles from their final destination, and the sooner they got there, the better. Nick was asleep in the backseat, thinking they were going on an adventure, and she was relieved he was too young to understand what was going on. She couldn't imagine how hard it would be to explain things to him if he'd been older, and she hoped she never had too.

It took another hour before she pulled up in front of the log cabin where she'd only been a couple of times before. The first time her dad showed her the place had been right after she returned to the U.S after the Interpol-gig, and she had no idea how, but she suspected that her dad had knowledge of the op she'd been involved in. Maybe he'd known, even back then, that it would come a time where she'd need a place to lay low, and she wished she could see him again, to thank him for being there for her in her biggest moment of need. He'd died soon after showing it to her, and so being back there, it made the loss seem fresh.

Getting out of the car, she opened the back door and gently picked her son up and steadied him in her arms as she carried him up the stairs and managed to unlock the door and get him inside without waking him. She had supplies in the trunk that she needed to go back out to get, but she put him down on the couch and tucked a blanket around him. Making sure he was actually out, she then hurried out to the car and grabbed the groceries from the trunk, constantly aware of her surroundings and any unfamiliar and misplaced noises.

Nik was a man with many talents, and one of them was finding people who didn't want to be found. As off the grid as it was, she knew that she couldn't stay at the cabin for long, a few weeks, tops. Hopefully less, if Enzo came through for her.

Safe back inside, she double-checked that she'd locked the front door and that all the windows were closed. She squared away the groceries in the kitchen, lit up the fire-place, and left Nick on the couch as she walked to the bedroom closest to the main room to make the bed and get all ready for the night.

As she crawled into bed that night, Nick tucked safely in her arms, and sleep beckoned, Caroline couldn't help but feel like something was off. She just couldn't put her finger on what.

Bonnie looked up as she heard footsteps approaching and saw Kat coming into the room, phone to her ear and an expression on her face that Bonnie didn't like all that much.

"Right, thank's Matt, call if you can think of something." The brunette hung up the phone and stuffed it in her pocket, blowing out an angry breath.

Bonnie and Katherine had been sent to check up on Caroline after she failed to report to work that morning, and they'd realized something was wrong the second they'd seen her car parked outside but no one answered the door when they rang the bell, and she wasn't picking up her phone. Flashing their badges, they'd gotten Caroline's landlord to let them into her apartment, and it didn't take them long to see that she'd left in a hurry. After making a few calls to the rest of the team, Ric had spilled the beans on his conversation with Caroline's friend the day before, and they'd all come to the conclusion that Caroline's past had come back to haunt her and she'd gone underground. As her teammembers, and her friends, it was their job to find her and help put an end to whatever threat it was that had her running.

"Matt didn't know anything?" Bonnie asked her partner and Katherine shook her head.

"Nope, he hasn't heard from her and he has no clue where she could have gone. Elena and Stefan are looking into getting access to her old field reports from Interpol, and Damon is reaching out to her mom. Ric is trying to get in touch with Caroline's friend, the one who called him that made Caroline leave in a hurry, but so far, no luck."

Bonnie pressed her lips together. She didn't like this, not at all. After finding Caroline gone, she and Kat had gone to talk to April, Caroline's babysitter, and the teen had told them that Caroline had showed up at the park where she'd taken Nick for a playgroup and she'd given April a hundred bucks before she took Nick and rushed off. After that they'd gone back to her apartment to look for anything that might give them a clue as to where she was going or what had her running scared, but so far they were coming up empty on all accounts.

"I don't like this, Kat."

"None of us do, Bonnie. This isn't like Caroline. What I can't figure out is, if she's in trouble, why the hell didn't she come to us for help?"

Well, Bonnie knew the answer to that.

"She was being Caroline, trying to keep the people she cares about safe." That had always been Caroline's biggest fault. She was so busy worrying about everyone else, that she often forgot to worry about herself, or even recognize that each and every one of them would take a bullett for her if necessary. Hell, Caroline had saved Bonnie's life more than once, and she was such an integral part of the team. She couldn't picture a world where Caroline wasn't part of the team, and she knew everyone else felt the same way. He would never admit it, but the person who was having the most trouble accepting Caroline's disappearance was Damon.

The two had hated each other in the begin, and then they'd had a drunken one-night stand that had changed the dynamic of their relationship, and they weren't exactly the traditional definition of friends, but they both cared about each other, a lot. This, Bonnie figured, was because Caroline had been the one to pull Damon through it after he and Katherine broke up. He'd been in love with her, she'd only viewed him as a nice distraction, and she'd broken his heart and bruised his ego when she dumped him. Caroline had pulled him out of the funk and made him see that even though he had his faults, he deserved to be with someone who treated him better than that. After that, even though they gave each other shit all the time, it was clear he'd started to see Caroline almost like a sister. So yeah, Damon wasn't handling her disappearing too well.

"Well, she should know better. It's not like she doesn't know that we'd come looking for her when she disappeared."

This was also true. But Bonnie didn't have all the answers, she just hoped they'd get some and find Caroline before whatever it was she was running from, caught up to her.

Elijah Mikaelson watched with a smile as his newly escaped brother reunited with the rest of their siblings. Rebekah, who had always been favorable to Niklaus, was overjoyed with his return, and had been impatient for him to arrive since she learned of his escape five weeks ago.

Niklaus, for reasons of his own, had remained in Great Britain for more than a month before joining them, but Elijah was happy to have him back with the family at long last. Kol was more subdued when he greeted Niklaus, and Elijah suspected this had to do with the fact his brother had lost Caroline's trail two days ago. It didn't matter though, they had everyone in their employ out looking for her, every contact they owned in law-enforcement, and every ally they had was scouring the planet looking for Caroline Forbes and her child. It was only a matter of time before she was found.

His phone rang on that thought and he quietly left the room, glancing at the screen before he put the phone to his ear.

"Anything?" He asked the caller, and listened to several moments of silence, before she spoke up.

"Nothing. She's gone, Elijah. No trace of her or Nicholas. She hasn't talked to anyone for the last three days, and there's no activity on any of her credit cards, her phone, nothing. Her mom doesn't know where she is, neither does her ex-boyfriend, and those two are tight. I'm running out of leads here."

She was his source on the inside, had been working for the family for years, and their relation had at one point been intimate. She was a reliable source, a master at playing the role of double-agent, and it was because of her that they now knew the true identity of "Cora Fell".

"Don't draw attention to yourself, but keep looking and call if you find something."

"Sure, I'll do that." She muttered before she rang off and he drew in a deep breath. After discovering "Cora's" true identity, he had done a lot of digging into Caroline Forbes, and he knew finding her would be no easy task. She was an experienced agent with years of field experience, and she'd been raised by parents who'd tought her to be cautious. She'd done an excellent job, portraying the woman who had gotten so close to the family, who had snaked her way into his brother's heart, and who had sold him out in the end. However, Elijah realized that things were not as black and white as everyone wanted it to be. He truly believed that Caroline had loved his brother, very much so, but a woman like her who had grown up as she had, would never allow a child of hers to be raised by a father who frequently ordered the murder of others and sold guns to men and women who intended to use them for harm.

Elijah respected that, admired it even, for he had been a child raised by such a man, and his mother had been too weak, too subdued by their father, to protect them from his tyranny. When he re-entered the family room moments later, he couldn't help but worry about what would come next, for he feared that this was a situation with no happy ending for either parties.

Caroline was getting worried. They'd been at the cabin for four days, and she still hadn't heard anything from Enzo. She'd also had a lot of time to think during those four days, and what she'd thought about was how Nik had learned the truth.

She knew he had spies and she knew he had people in every agency, likely across the entire globe, but that operations had been so secret, so buried, that there was no way in hell he'd gotten his hands on the casefiles. The only logical explanation was that someone had sold her out, and she knew it was no one in her team in Interpol, so it had to be someone in the FBI.

She couldn't imagine it was Ric, he was an old friend of her mom's and she just knew no matter what, he'd never be that guy. It was definitely not Stefan, no way, no how, and she didn't even begin to consider Bonnie.

Elena wouldn't do it, of that she had no doubt, so... or Valerie maybe?

No, Valerie was too new to the team, she'd only been there for a few days, so it wasn't her. And that only left... Katherine.

She knew it was stupid, she knew she might ruin everything with what she was about to do next, but she had to know.

Fishing out another unused burner, she dialed Kat's number and waited for her "friend" to pick up. It only took a few seconds.

"Who is this?"

"How long have you been on their payroll?" she asked bluntly, and dead silence was her only answer for long moments.

"Caroline,"

"Answer the question Katherine." Another few seconds of silence followed before she got her answer.

"It's closing in on a decade now." Caroline closed her eyes at the admission, and dropped her head back against the couch.

"When did you find out about me?"

"He was planning his escape before he knew about your role in his arrest, Caroline. Elijah reached out, they were activating all their assets to find the people who killed a woman named "Cora Fell". Ring a bell?"

"The question still stands." Caroline snapped, pissed and sad, and feeling a whole lot of things, none of which were good.

"Elijah sent a picture of "Cora" with a man, supposedly the last man she was seen with alive. Imagine my surprise when I was staring at a photo of my partner. My partner who was still alive."

"So you sold me out." She declared.

"It wasn't personal, Caroline. Only business." Right, of course.

"I'm guessing, seeing as your on a first-name basis and all, you know how to get in touch with him, so give Elijah a message for me. Tell him I'm willing to talk, but I'll die before I let them take my son from me."

Silence, then- "How do they reach you?"

"You can give him this number, he has twenty-four hours to reach out. After that, I'm vapor, and so is Nicholas."

Caroline didn't bother with goodbye, just hung up the phone and dropped it on the coffee table. In the next twenty-four hours two things could happen. Either Enzo got in touch, and she could disappear for good, reneging on her offer. Or... well, she'd cross that bridge when she got there.

Enzo St. John slipped into the passenger seat of the unmarked car that waited for him at the airport. The car's driver was an old mate, and who happened to be a friend of Caroline's.

"Heya, mate."

Damon Salvatore was in no mood for niceties, he was on a mission and at that point it had been a week since Caroline disappeared off the grid.

"Talk." He barked and Enzo sighed.

"You drive, I'll talk. We don't have a lot of time." Damon immediately put the car in gear and headed out of the parkinglot. As they headed towards the city, Enzo filled his old mate in on everything. It hadn't taken him long to figure out there was a snake among Caroline's colleagues, and Damon was the only one he trusted. They had a long history that hadn't always been the best, but it tied them together, and they were friends.

"So what you're saying is, during her time in Interpol, while working undercover, Caroline hooked up with the bad guy, got herself knocked up and then orchestrated his arrest. You lot faked her death, shipped her back to America, and now he's out and he knows the truth, so he's looking for her possibly to get revenge, but definitely wanting to get his hands on her kid. And we have a rat in our midst."

"Yeah, mate, that's what I'm saying." What followed was a very heavy silence that lasted all of five minutes before Damon exploded.

"God Damn it! Why the hell didn't she say anything?" The yank slammed his hands on the steering wheel and Enzo studied him closely, thinking he'd clearly missed something about Damon and Caroline's relationship. That much emotion spoke of more than just feeling the loss of a missing colleague, it was like Damon was personally offended that she hadn't shared her secrets with him.

"She couldn't mate. Classified information, and all that."

"When's the last time you talked to her?" Damon demanded, glancing at him, and Enzo sighed.

"It's been five days. It took a lot longer than I wanted to get everything set up, but it's all arranged now. New identities for her and her boy, a jumping-off point, and protection. But I need your help, Damon. My sources tell me the Mikaelson's are closing in on her location, and we need to find her before they do. I've tried every bloody burner-phone she has before I boarded the plane, and I haven't been able to reach her, and I'm worried that if we don't find her soon, it'll be too late."

"You work on that," Damon said coldly, "I'll sniff out the rat. It's time to call in reinforcements."

God, it was strange being back there, but the place hadn't changed at all. The "Mystic Grill" was still exactly the same place as it had been when she was a kid. There were some faces she didn't recognize, but the place... it was the same.

She'd been able to get a message to her mom, so Liz was at the cabin, watching Nick, and Caroline was taking care of business. She ordered herself a drink and took it with her to a corner table in the back that was secluded enough no one would pick up any conversation, but it afforded her a vantage spot of the entire place. She was pretty sure at least four of the people in the grill at that moment were Klaus's people, no doubt working as both spotters and security guards.

She had to admit it had crossed her mind, taking him out and being done with it, but despite everything, she didn't want that. She didn't want him dead, she just didn't want his dirty life of crime to taint their son. And what good would it do her son, to find out that his mother had killed his father. No, she wasn't that person, and she never had been.

It only took a few minutes after she got situated before the front door opened and there he was. And she was not prepared. Not prepared for the pain of seeing him again, for the emotions she thought was long gone to explode inside her chest like a bullett, making her heart ache and her mouth go dry.

He looked the same, moved the same way, watched her with the same intensity that he always had, and she was worried she'd just made a terrible mistake.

She forced herself to remember why she was there as he came closer, her mother's parting words working as a mantra inside her head.

"Remember sweetie, this isn't just about you. It's about you and your son. Do what it takes to get you both safe."

Caroline hadn't always had the best relationship with her mom, but Liz Forbes had always been wise, and Caroline had learned that far too late.

"Hello love,"

She'd forgotten the sound of his voice, the cadence of it, the rich accent, and she'd forgotten how muched she'd missed it after he was gone from her life.

"Klaus," she said shortly, slamming up a mental wall to keep herself from doing something stupid.

He tsked at her as he settled into the seat across from her, leaving his back to the room, though she was entirely sure he wasn't even a little bit threatened by her. Klaus Mikaelson felt threatened by no one.

"Nik, sweetheart, you've always called me Nik." It was true, she had. One of the very few people he'd allowed it from.

"This isn't a reunion, Nik. We're here to talk deal, and I'm about to make you a one-time offer, a take-it or leave-it kind of deal."

He leaned back, stretched his arms out along the booth and watched her closely.

"I'm listening." And he was, absolutely, he was firmly focused on her.

"I won't let my son be raised the same way you and your siblings were, surrounded by death and violence. There is no scenario here, where that will happen, unless it's over my dead body. But I'll give you a chance to meet him, once. And when he's old enough to know the truth, I'll tell him about you and your family, and if he wants to meet you then, that's his decision. All I want, is for you to give your son the chance of having a normal childhood. Like you should have had. If you agree, I won't say a word about you or your family to anyone. I'll go back to my life, say I decided to take Nick for a visit with his grandma, and I forgot to report in. That's it, that's what I want."

"I'm not missing my son's childhood, Caroline." He stated firmly, right off the bat, and Caroline sucked in a breath. She'd suspected as much.

"Then we're done here." She declared and moved to get up. He was out of his seat before her, suddenly way up in her space, he wasn't touching her, but they were so close barely an inch separated them.

"Step back, Nik." She warned, her hand automatically moving to settle on her houlster, but he didn't heed her warning.

"How about I make you a counteroffer, and I'm sure it's one that will be very hard to refuse." She glared up at him, fear and anger warring for space, but she kept her silence and he continued talking.

"You walk out of here, with me, right now, and you'll get to raise our son, with me. It also has the added benefit of ensuring your mother lives. You made it hard love, but my people are good. It's a nice little cabin your father willed you."

No.

She felt the color drain from her face as she collapsed back into the seat she'd just vacated, and watched as he slowly folded himself back into his own seat.

"What makes you think I won't just kill you right now?" She asked quietly, sorely tempted to follow up on her threat.

"Elijah and Kol are with a group of our best soldiers outside your cabin as we speak. They have orders to wait for my go-ahead before making a move, but if they don't hear from me in the next twenty minutes, make no mistake, Caroline... Your mother will die, and you will never see your son again."

"This," she stated firmly, pointing at him angrily, "this is exactly what I'm trying to protect him from. I don't want my son to turn into you!" she hissed the last part, so furious she could barely see straight.

"I was raised by a weak mother and a monster for a father, this is what they made me. You have a choice Caroline, to give our son a strong mother and, perhaps, a monster for a father, but I will never do to him what my father did to me."

"I don't have a choice at all. I'm not walking away from my son, Nik. You're forcing me into the only available option, which is the one you want me to make."

"I made you fall in love with me once, Caroline. I can do it again."

"No," she said, her voice going quiet, and it was the absolute truth, "you just used my son, your son, as a weapon against me. There is no forgiving that, Klaus. But have it your way. I'll fall in line with your plan. I'll be at your side and raise our son, but you and me? We're done, Klaus. What is your family's motto again, always and forever? We're done."