A/N:

Wow, that's the only thing I have to say! I've been overwhelmed with all of your responses to the first part of this story, and I don't want to disappoint you by letting it go too long between each update. As each part of this story is quite long, involving several characters, and the time is quickly progressing between each part, I just want to let you know that I'm thinking this story will consist of two more (possibly three) parts, after this one.

Again, I can not begin to tell you how much your feedback and reception on this piece mean to me. Hope you enjoy this part as much as you did the first one, and I'll try to post a new part at least once a week until the story is completed. I should also let you know that I already have the ending in my head, and a possible sequel-story planned, but we'll see how it goes!

Enjoy, and again, thank you!

Enzo looked around the empty cabin that once belonged to Bill Forbes and blew out a breath. Caroline's mother, Liz, was outside with Damon. The woman was shook up from her ordeal, but mostly she was furious that her daughter and grandson were gone.

When they arrived at the cabin an hour ago, he and Damon had found Liz passed out on the couch. When she came to, she claimed Caroline had given her mother a drink, likely spiked with a potent sedative that had Liz losing conciousness in a matter of minutes.

It was likely, Enzo thought, that they'd only missed Caroline by a few hours, getting there just too late. Upon examining the area immediately surrounding the woods, his suspicions had been confirmed when they discovered several sets of tire tracks, along with footprints. Somehow, Klaus Mikaelson and his family had discovered Caroline's whereabouts and they've leveraged her, possibly by threatening her mother's life, into coming with them voluntarily. It was what he would have done, and the only logical explanation for Caroline's actions.

Leaving Damon to deal with Liz, Enzo did a walk-through of the cabin, knowing that somewhere, Caroline would have left some sort of message. When they worked together in Interpol, it was too dangerous for Caroline to reach out to him when she was undercover, but every time they got close to the Mikaelson's, causing them to abandon ship and relocate to a new location, Caroline had found a way to leave messages for him. Sometimes there was only brief notes, assuring him she was alive and well and her cover remained intact, other times she'd leave him clues as to where they were heading next.

She'd been undercover for nearly two years when they finally rounded up Klaus Mikaelson, and Enzo had known back then that turning over the substantial amount of evidence she'd gathered on the man in the time of their liaison, had been one of the hardest things she had ever done. Caroline, breaking the key rule of any undercover operative, had gotten attached to the target, or in her case, she fell in love with him.

Enzo sometimes thought, that if it hadn't been because of her discovered pregnancy, she would have turned her back on the operation to be with him. The day after she learned she was pregnant with Klaus's child was the day she'd reached out to Enzo and asked for an extraction. She'd provided more than enough evidence to bring down him and his entire empire, including his family, but Klaus had struck a deal with the prosecution two days after his arrest. He'd confess to everything and give up some of his key associates in exchange for immunity for his family, and the woman he then knew as "Cora Fell".

Interpol had arranged for "Cora's" death two months later. She'd been "killed" in a gunsale gone wrong, perpetrators unknown. After that, Caroline had moved back to the states, took a leave of absence for the entirety of her pregnancy and joined the FBI six months after Nicholas was born. It was Enzo who was named as Nick's father on his birth certificate, a favor she'd asked him, and he'd obliged it, wanting to protect her in case their superiors ever got suspicious. Granted, co-worker relationships were strictly prohibited, but the punishment was far less than the scandal it would have been had Caroline's secret ever gotten out.

She would have lost all credibility, her reputation would have been tarnished, and it would likely have ended her career in law enforcement. Enzo hadn't cared if he got a slap on the wrist, and was exiled to desk duty for a few months. Caroline Forbes was a damned good agent, and in the end she'd made the right decision, and she shouldn't be punished for it.

He had no idea how Klaus had learned the truth about Caroline, or the fact that he was the father of her son, but he suspected it had something to do with the mole in Caroline's FBI unit, and Damon had enlisted a lad named Tyler to look into that particular problem.

From what he understood, there was no love lost between Damon Salvatore and Tyler Lockwood, but they were both close friends of Caroline, and Damon shared that he trusted Tyler to dig up the information because he had more reason than anyone to hate Klaus Mikaelson, seeing as he'd been the one responsible for Tyler's mother's murder.

Enzo hadn't gotten the details, but from what he understood, Mrs. Lockwood had been a political profile of high stature that had gotten in the way of Klaus and his business. Enzo didn't care really, all he cared about was finding the mole and getting Caroline and her son back safely.

Katherine felt the noose tightening and knew it was only a matter of time before the people closest to her learned the truth of what she'd been doing for the past ten years. She'd thought about reaching out to Elijah for assistance, and she'd debated coming clean to her team, but if she did the latter she'd likely be facing charges of corruption (if she was lucky), and treason (if she was really fucked), and either way she'd spend the rest of her life in prison, and Katherine Pierce didn't do prison.

Orange was really not her color, and not to mention, she didn't do well when she was caged. She figured when it came out, it was Elena who would take it the hardest. The two of them were cousins that looked like twins, and they'd never really gotten along, but they were family, and Elena was all about family.

Katherine rolled her eyes. She wondered about it a lot over the years, how the two of them who was practically the same person in a lot of ways, could be so different. Katherine was a bitch, plain and simple. She knew it, she owned it, and she wore it with pride. Elena could be a bitch if she was hurting, like she'd been after Jeremy, her little brother, died a while back. Kat's cousin had gone off the rails for a while there, but Elena being Elena, she eventually got a grip and was so sorry for all the shit she'd pulled when she was at her worst. Again, eye roll.

Truth be told, Katherine had liked Elena more when she acted like an emotionless bitch. She'd been a lot more fun, and Kat had finally seen how they could be related. So no, coming clean wasn't an option.

She gave the thought of reaching out to Elijah some merit, but bottom line, she didn't want to be indebted to him or anyone involved with that family. She'd messed up once, eleven years ago, and they'd used that mistake against her to leverage her into feeding them information where they were concerned. Okay, so they payed her the good bucks too, but she mostly did what she did because she didn't have any other choice.

Eleven years ago she'd been flat broke, her life was turning to shit, and somehow, that family had figured it out. It was Elijah who approached her, Elijah who made her the offer, and stupid as she was, she'd agreed, telling herself it was going to be just that once. God, she'd been so stupid. After that, they owned her, and they reminded her of that every single time she tried to back out. It came to a point where it was too late to turn back or come clean to the FBI, and now she was starting to feel more and more trapped. It seemed like whatever she did next, she was screwed either way.

She was left with only two choices; run from the Mikaelsons, or run from the FBI. All in all, there was only one thing she could do... run.

Caroline stared up at the ceiling in the bedroom of the private jet they'd borded just hours after leaving Mystic Falls. Her son was lying in the bed next to her, his head on her chest, her arm around his small body, and she was planning.

Klaus and his siblings were out there in the main space, and she could hear them talking, but she couldn't make out the words. She had no idea where they were going, but before they'd left the cabin, she'd heard Klaus and Elijah mentioned "fueling the jet", and she'd been able to sneak a message into the obscure horror novel The Augustine Vampire, Enzo's all time favorite book. He'd made her read it once, and she'd packed it from her own apartment without knowing why, but she was glad she did, because she knew that he'd find it. Enzo was really good at figuring out clues, and he was a master at finding people, so she had no doubt he'd find her sooner or later. The problem was, it was obvious that Klaus wasn't going to let them go without a fight, and she had no doubt he'd go so far as to kill Enzo if he proved too big a problem. She couldn't let that happen.

That's why, on their way to the private airstrip somewhere outside New Orleans, she'd come up with a plan. It wasn't a good one, in fact it was terrible, and seriously risky, but it was the only she could see working.

Klaus was determined to make her love him again, so she was going to let him. That was, she was going to let him think it was working. She'd play along. Let him charm her, seduce her, and she'd play hard to get for a while, so he wouldn't catch onto her ruse, but eventually she'd "give in".

Caroline was an excellent actor, her drama teacher in college had even told her she'd be a star on Broadway if she wanted to, so it shouldn't be that difficult to convince him. The problem was, if she wasn't careful, she might fall victim to her own plan, because no matter what she'd said to him at "the grill", she had a weakness where he was concerned. It was crucial he never figured that out though, because if he did... he'd use it against her, and she couldn't afford to let that happen.

Tyler Lockwood looked down on his mother's grave and thought about the day she'd died. Carol Lockwood had been running for governor of Virginia at the time of her death, and unfortunately for her, she had an opponent with ties to organized crime who didn't much like it when she was running ahead on the polls two days before election day.

The day before the election, she'd been found face down in a fountain, cause of death drowning. The coroner had ruled her death a murder due to the bruises on her neck that clearly showed someone had held her head under water, and it took Tyler and his team three months to bring down the scumbag who'd won the election in her place. The asshole hadn't done the deed himself, but after three days in a holding room, he'd shared that his organized crime buddies had done the job for him because one of his mother's main political platforms had been investing more resources into fighting organized crime. Now, they couldn't have that, could they?

The coroner had been able to determine that his mother had put up a fight, and they found skincells under her fingernails, but whoever they belonged to hadn't been in the system at the time. It was six years since his mother was murdered, and it was four years ago that a sudden match popped up in the system, belonging to one Niklaus Mikaelson.

His prints and DNA had been added to the system after his arrest in an Interpol operation, an arrest he'd learned twenty-four hours ago, had been made possible because of Caroline, and now the monster who killed his mother had taken her too.

Damon had called with the bad news ten minutes ago. Caroline was gone, evidence suggested she'd been taken by Klaus, and so had Caroline's son. It was with a promise to his dead mother and a need for vengeance coursing through his blood that Tyler pulled out his phone and looked up the number he'd saved in case of emergencies. He had a job to do, a mission, one to find the mole within Caroline's unit and get that person to reveal where Caroline was, and how to get to Klaus Mikaelson and his family. He couldn't do it alone, he needed backup, and he knew just who to call.

Rebekah Mikaelson had always been partial to the warmer European countries, and Italy was one of her absolute favorites. Personally, she preferred Tuscany or Venice, but Nik for some reason, had always enjoyed Sardinia.

Kol, naturally, had always felt more at ease in Sicily or Naples, figured. And Elijah, cultured as he was, enjoyed Rome the most. Rebekah had to admit, Milan was the best city for shopping, but as her brothers (all of them) had made quite clear on the journey there, to the Sardines, they weren't heading to Italy for a vacation. They had an FBI agent with them, an agent who was no doubt beeing looked for by every law enforcement agency in the world, and they were going to their family estate in the Sardines to stay low and keep out of the public eye.

It could have been worse, she supposed. Nik could have decided they were better off hiding in Antarctica or Sibir, and she truly detested cold and snow. Lying out in the sun all day, having all her whims and desires catered to by an army of staff, wasn't exactly terrible. Still, she was a little surprised that Nik hadn't demanded they all split up until things cooled down a bit, in case they were to get, the entire family wouldn't get dragged in. It didn't take her long to realize why he wanted them all together, not after meeting the little boy that was her nephew, and knowing how Nik felt about family.

They'd been there for nearly a week, and while Rebekah had seen her around the house or walking the grounds with little Nicholas, Rebekah had yet to speak to the woman they now all knew as Caroline Forbes. Speaking off...

Rebekah pushed up her shades as she watched Caroline walk up the polished stone steps leading down to the beach from the main house. She was wearing a thin blue summer dress with spaghetti straps, her hair was pulled up in a ponytail and her face looked as if she was deep in thought, miles away from there. Sitting up in her sun lounger, Rebekah put down the magazine she'd been reading, and for the first time in four years, she adressed what was once her closest friend.

"Did we have a nice stroll?" Caroline's body gave a small jerk, as if she'd been entirely unaware of Rebekah's presence until she heard the sound of her voice, and her gray-blue eyes settled on Rebekah as she returned to the present from wherever her thoughts had brought her.

"It was fine," Caroline said distractedly, watching Rebekah carefully, and Rebekah hated that. It reminded her of how her brother's sometimes looked at her, as if they were trying to read her. Rebekah wasn't the type of woman who needed to be read. She was blunt, honest, at times brutally so, but she was the only girl in the family and she'd been forced to create weapons of her own, to compete with her brothers.

"I'm surprised you didn't attempt to escape," Rebekah remarked snidely and watched the shutters come down over Caroline's eyes.

"I admit I was tempted, but I won't leave my son." Well, Rebekah thought, pleasently surprised, at least she was honest. Nik had, surprisingly, allowed Caroline the freedom to come and go as she pleased. She wasn't confined to their property, could visit the local city and move about the island as she wished. He didn't even send any of his goons with her when she left on her excursions, but Rebekah understood right then that her brother needed none of those safeguards for the simple reason that Caroline would never abandon her son, and whenever she took little Nick with her, she was always accompanied by at least two of Nik's men.

"Speaking of Nicholas, I have a question for you," Caroline hesitated, then she moved Rebekah's way and settled down in the sun lounger next to the one Rebekah occupied. Tucking her feet into the seat, Rebekah turned to face the other blonde, and shared what had been on her mind since she learned her nephews name.

"You obviously named him after Niklaus, which tells me, at least at the time, you felt some affection for my brother. Why did you do it? Why did you turn us in?"

"It's complicated, Rebekah."

"Then uncomplicate it," Rebekah snapped, "your actions cost Nik his freedom for four years. I lost my brother that day, and my best friend, you owe me an explanation."

"The only one I have to give, is the same one I gave your brother. I didn't one my child raised in this life, like he was, like you were."

This, unfortunately, Rebekah could understand and respect. She wasn't quite ready to forgive the bonedeep betrayal she'd felt when she discovered the truth, but she understood. Rebekah wouldn't want a child of hers raised as she had been either, and she would have done anything to protect a potential son or daughter from growing up surrounded by the blood and violence that had been her life for as long as she could remember.

"Two years, Caroline. You spent two years with our family. You made Niklaus fall in love with you, Kol and Elijah viewed you as another sister, and you were my best friend. Was any of it real or was it all an act?"

Rebekah watched as sadness filtered into the other woman's eyes, and for some reason, she felt her heart clench and the utter pain she bewitnessed.

"The hardest thing I ever did was hand over that evidence. I was an only child growing up, I had no idea how wonderful it could be to have a big family, not until I met you and your siblings. And no matter what I did, and no matter what happens in the future, I need you to know that I only faked it with all of you for about a month. After that, it was all real. It's just, in the end, there was only thing that mattered, and that was Nicholas. As much as I cared about all of you, I just wanted him to have a normal childhood, one where he was safe and I never had to worry that he'd be used as a weapon against his father or your family."

Damn it all to hell, Rebekah believed her. She'd been determined to loath Caroline for the rest of eternity, but after that totally believable speech, she couldn't. Caroline had only done what Rebekah wished her own mother had done. She'd put her children, or child in Caroline's case, before everything else, and Rebekah couldn't hate her for that.

"Damn it, I wasn't counting on you having a worthy explanation for your betrayal. I was determined to hate you for eternity, and now I can't, for that would make me a terrible unfeeling person, and we both know I feel far too much."

At that, for the first time the entire week, Rebekah watched as Caroline smiled. It wasn't big, but it was there, and Rebekah just hoped her brother knew what he was doing because she had a sense that Caroline was planning something, she just didn't know what.

Standing in airport-security, Katherine handed over her Bulgarian passport and smiled as the TSA-guard inspected her passport. Katherine's father was Bulgarian, and she'd been born with a dual citizenship, something that came in handy when she needed to make a run for it. The name on her birthcirtificate was Katerina Petrova, but after her father died and her mother moved them to the U.S to be closer to her family, she'd changed her name to Katherine and took her mother's maiden name. Her father had been no great loss, he'd been a heartless man, but at least he was able to give her something, even if it was just his name and nationality.

"Thanks. Have a safe trip miss Petrova."

"Blagodarya ti" she murmured, thanking the man in Bulgarian.

She knew it wasn't the smartest move, heading to Bulgaria with her own easily traceable passport, but she wouldn't be there for long. She had a contact waiting for her in Sofia with everything she'd need to make a clean get away. She hadn't decided where she would go after that, but earth was a big planet and there were plenty of places for her to disappear to.

She was Katherine Pierce after all, and the world was her playground. Always had been.

Tyler looked at Virginia St. John, the current head of the underground organization calling themselves "The Armory", and then he let his eyes skim over Rayna Cruz. He'd had a few run-ins with Virginia in the past. She was cold, she was determined, and she never let anything get in the way of a mission. According to Virginia, the best person for the job he was looking to get done, was Rayna Cruz.

"One person, that's all you got for me?" He asked Virginia incrediously, and the woman's lips curved into a small smile.
"She may not look like much, Tyler, but Rayna's the only person you'll need. Trust me,"

Tyler didn't trust easily, but it didn't seem like he had much of a choice. Sighing, he turned to the other woman who had seemed entirely disinterested in the conversation up until that point.

"Alright, where do we start?"

"We, don't do anything." Rayna declared with barely concealed patience, "I work alone. It shouldn't take long to get you what you need, I'll be in touch when I have it."

Before he had a chance to object or say a word at all, the petite brunette had turned and walked out of the room. Tyler stared as the door closed behind her and slowly he turned his eyes to Virginia who was studying him carefully.

"I know she's a hard pill to swallow," Virginia said quietly, "but she's the best at what she does and she gets results. Just have a little patience Tyler, you'll get what you want. Once you do, let's continue our conversation from earlier. If you need anything else before then, you know how to reach me."

Sighing again, Tyler walked away from Virginia without a goodbye and once he was in his car and driving away, he called Damon to give him the update. All he could do at that point was take Virginia's advice. Sit back, let Rayna do her job, and be fucking patient.

Elijah had watched over the past two weeks as his brother got to know his son, Elijah's nephew, and he'd also watched Caroline as she supervised this. He found it curious that she had seemingly no issue with leaving the little boy alone with any of his uncles or his aunt, but where Niklaus was concerned, she was always present whenever he spent time with young Nicholas.

It surprised him how easily his brother had adapted to fatherhood. He was still the same Niklaus he had always been in every other aspect, but with his son he was almost like an entirely different person. Before Caroline had entered their lives four years ago, Elijah knew his brother had never even entertained the thought of children, had even spoken nearly the same words to Elijah that Caroline had told his brother.

"Our world is no place to raise a child Elijah." Even so, as reasonable as his words had been, Elijah knew that at the heart of Niklaus's decision to never start a family of his own, lay a fear that he'd turn into their father. Mikael had been a poor excuse for a father, and an even lesser human being, and it was Niklaus who had taken the brunt of their father's lack of affection for his children.

They had learned much later, well into their adult lives, that the reason for Mikael's focused abuse towards Niklaus had been because their mother had once had an affair with a different man, Niklaus being the product of that affair. It had hurt them all to learn that truth, but none more so than Niklaus who had been overcome with rage and misplaced shame.

If someone had asked him two weeks ago how he imagined Niklaus as a father, he was ashamed to say, he would have pictured him a lot like Mikael. However, as he watched Niklaus intermittently play with his son and court Caroline, Elijah realized there was hope for his family after all. He doubted they would ever turn over a new leaf, become lawabiding citizens, but perhaps there was a smidge of redemption in the future, for all of them.

It was a little after eight in the evening and Caroline was curled up on the couch in Elijah's library, and it was definitely Elijah's library, just like Nik had his art studio, Kol had his Baseball museum and Rebekah had her fashion mecca. Nicky was lying down her side, his head on her chest, his little arm resting on her stomach, and he'd fallen asleep as she read to him.

She'd watched for most of the day as her son spent time with his father, and each moment she'd witnessed them sharing had made her heart break that much more, her resolve begin to crumble. Nik had been careful for the past two weeks, never saying anything to Nicky about being his father, instead introducing himself as "mommy's friend". She was positive he thought that Nicky had no idea who he really was, but that wasn't strictly true. The only reason her son hadn't said anything was probably because he wasn't much of a talker, and he was too young to really understand what was going on anyway.

"You should probably get him in bed, love."

She turned her head and saw Klaus standing in the open library door, watching her and his son with a look so tender that she had to build a mental wall to block it from having any impact on her.

"If I move, he'll wake up," she whispered the truth, and held her breath as he walked into the room, keeping him in her sights as he came to the couch, carefully slid his arms beneath Nicky's sleeping body and gently lifted him off the couch. Nicholas didn't stir even a little, and she released the breath she'd been holding as she got up and then silently the three of them headed out into the hall, up the stairs to the second floor and down the long hallway all the way at the end, where the room she was currently sharing with her son was located.

The Mikaelson's owned a number of villas and mansions all around the world, they even owned a freaking Swizz castle, and Caroline had been to several of them, but she had to admit she was really starting to fall in love with the Sardinian mansion. Like every other estate they owned, it was basically a palace, but this one was slightly less of one. It didn't have a ballroom for one, and it was clear it was supposed to be a vacation home of sorts.

She stood in the door and watched as Klaus gently put their son down on the bed and tucked the covers around him, and she remembered a time when she was undercover where they'd discussed having a family. She'd been undercover for more than a year at that point, and it had been the night of their "anniversary", and at the time it had been a natural topic of conversation. He'd made it clear he was in it for the long haul with her, and by that time she was already in love with him, so she'd been curious.

"With the way I grew up, love, having children of my own has never been a desire of mine. But I never thought I'd meet a woman like you, who can make even the darkest of times seem as bright as the sun. If children is what you want, then I'll give them to you, when the time is right. For both of us."

She'd wanted that, to have kids with him, a family, but she'd also known it was an impossibility. At least as long as he was who he was, and she'd known back then, like she knew now, that there would never be a time where he would walk away from his family, from his business. And the worst part was, she didn't want him to. Not from his family, and business and family went hand in hand for the Mikaelsons. She'd always known that.

She remained standing in the door as Klaus moved in her direction, and she tilted her head up to hold his eyes as he stopped just a few inches away from her.

"Have dinner with me tonight, we should talk." He was right, they should, she just wasn't sure she was ready.

A lot had happened in the past two weeks, she'd had a lot of time to think and there was a lot she needed to tell him. He no doubt had questions, and crazy as it was, he was entitled to her answers. She had a lot of questions herself, questions only he could answer, and she couldn't play the chicken game forever. Her mother had taught her that procrastination was never the way to find the answers to anything, so she needed to suck it up and get it over with. The sooner, the better.

"Okay, but Nicky is a light sleeper, he has a tendency to wake up during the nights. I don't want to be too far away in case he wakes up."

"I'll have Miranda make us something here, we can have dinner in the garden. Perhaps a walk on the beach first, to get the conversation started?"

Caroline nodded, glanced over at her son, their son, and hoped that she was making the right decision, sticking to her course, abiding by her plan. All she wanted was to do right by him, even if it meant repeating mistakes from her past.

Like falling in love with his father all over again.