Thank you so much for reading! Enjoy the epilogue!
As her eyes had finally fluttered shut, Caroline knew her bed would be empty in the morning. There words had had been whispers, but the resolutions had been loud. There was nothing stopping her propulsion through time and Klaus would forever remain frozen within its confines. They had held and spent all the days that had been allowed as the world spun wildly on into the next.
And now, that was over.
Even without vampire senses, his scent lingered on her pillow as she rolled over and buried her face in the warm cotton. Odd to her and somewhat bittersweet, she could no longer smell her husband any longer within the fabric. It felt fitting somehow; a renewed goodbye to the great loves of her life and a reminder of how things could shift and change in just a mere moment.
Wrapping her robe around her torso, she meandered her way down the stairs towards the kitchen. A strong cup of coffee was desperately calling to her, and she reveled in the first quiet morning she had experienced in years. Everything was just in its place as it had the night before- toys strewn across the living room rug, the tissues left mangled on the coffee table. The grandfather clock next to the fireplace subtly ticking through the silence of the house. It was the frame above her mantle that stole her breath away.
The frame was large; gold leafed with intricate details of vines and flowers to wrap around the perimeter. Caroline had eyed it more than once at her favorite antique store but never could quite commit to buying it. Her husband had teased her endlessly on her lack of commitment over something as silly as a picture frame but she had just smiled and explained how something as lovely as that deserved something special within it.
One weekend it was gone and she remembered the sinking feeling of missing out on such a special item. It was only after her wedding that Danny had presented her the frame as a gift- completely refinished and shining with a black and white photo of their wedding day. It had been Caroline's favorite one; a candid of him spinning her under a large magnolia tree. Her dress flew gracefully as she twirled, her eyes shining as she tumbled into his arms.
She inched closer, a lump forming in her throat. The photo was exactly the same. Their wedding had been a perfect imperfect day. The caterers had messed up the menu and the band had backed at the last minute. Their beautiful spring day was threatened with a downpour and the rain had held off until just right before the kiss. There was nothing about it she would have ever changed.
Her body betrayed her and as she lost her balance, she grasped for the chair next to her to sink into. Her breath came and left quickly, her thoughts whirling in a million directions. Nothing made sense about this and yet, as her eyes shifted to other photos she found more of the same. The photo of husband holding her newborn daughter and kissing her in the hospital. A photo of him asleep on the couch with an infant Gracie passed out in the crook of his arm. A selfie of her kissing his cheek in front of their Christmas tree.
It was then she noticed the back door open, Klaus's figure small in the distance. With legs not quite her own, she edged to the door slowly until she was within the frame. The dawn was gaining her strength over the horizon and the glow of the morning sun enclosed how still he was, watching the forest in front of him. She had resolved that she would never see him again after last night and now, not only was he still very much present, but seemingly had been present all along. Without a thought, she found herself storming out of the door, down the back steps, and across the lawn.
"What did you do?!"
Deliberately, and agonizing slow, he spun around to face her, unwavering as she gained upon him. He allowed her to shove his chest, his foot taking a calculated step back to maintain the illusion that she had somehow exerted strength over him. His jaw clenched and his eyes reflected a drowning emotion that was wholly unfamiliar to Caroline. She wavered for a just a moment before pushing him again.
"What did you do." She asked once more. Her voice was no longer raised, but the timbre was matched to her emotion.
"You think so little—"
"Yes." She hissed interrupting him immediately. "Yes, I don't put anything past you, Klaus. My mind may be human but my memory is long when it comes to you."
He gulped. A drowning man reflected in the features of his face. "I didn't architect this, Caroline. I've just been in touch with Leah and she's on her way to help sort this out. If it appeases you, I could also call Freya to help assuage any concerns you may have but Leah knows the whole of it."
It was only after she tasted the tears on her tongue that she realized she had been crying. She angrily wiped at her cheeks. "What are you talking about. Explain it to me now."
"I woke up with all the memories returned to me." His voice felt far away and foreign to her but he continued on. "I suspect yours will come with time. Although not as quickly as you would prefer, I'm afraid."
"Give him back to me." She choked on the words as they stumbled from her mouth. Even through the thick haze of her own emotions, she could see the wave of agony wash over him. Again. Not choosing him. "Please."
His shoulders slumped in the smallest of ways, the look of defeat such a foreign coat to be wearing. He was reaching, his fingertips just grazing the tops of her arms. "Love, you have to understand—"
"No!" she pushed back from him her hand held up in surrender. "Do you want me to say it? Do I have to spell it out for you? I choose him. If you want me to choose between my life and love with him, I choose Danny. Every day. You bring him back to me right now!"
"I can't!" he roared, his hands shoving through the thick of his curls. "I can't." he repeated, the words faltering to a whisper.
Caroline sniffled and clenched her jaw. They had always fought; over food or music or humanity. There had even been one particular loud and angry rumble about an ensuing war with a wolf faction. But all their battles had been superficial and on the surface. They never been about the fabric and the stitching of them a whole. Unable to find her next words, she pivoted on her heel, stomping back up to her house.
Their house.
The frame, gold leafed and chosen especially for their wedding photo held the moment Klaus danced with her on their wedding day.
X-x-X
Had he not been cursed, he wasn't sure he would have ever chosen this house.
Caroline had loved it of course, but it had required a lot of work. He enjoyed being on the edge of forest and knew, had memories of, turning often and allowing his wolf to roam free. She had guided him through the dilapidated shelter, painting him a vison of a life that could be all their own. There would be blueberry pancakes in their farmhouse kitchen, and candlelight dinners at their small breakfast nook. There would be earnest love making in front of the fireplace and a vegetable garden in the back to get her hands dirty.
The memories they had made in that home caused a warmth to bloom through him. They had built it together, forging their bond into a permanence that he wasn't sure he would ever obtain or deserve. Taking a bath with her in the clawfoot tub they refinished, she had told him about her pregnancy, a miracle that was bestowed upon them when they weren't expecting it. His small study was converted to a nursey and then a toddler's room. The years missed out on Hope's childhood was suddenly a second possibility to correct.
Sinking into the armchair next to her fireplace, she buried her face in her hands. She knew what eternity could feel like, and yet it still felt an immeasurable amount of time before Klaus nestled into the armchair across from her. She couldn't know yet, but it was his favorite chair. A worn leather chair he read to their daughter in, had Caroline sitting in his lap kissing along his jaw as she told him about their son.
"How." The small word, through a strangled voice punctuated the air and settled heavy on them. "How is any of this possible?"
He chuckled sardonically. "You mean in a world of vampires and hybrid curses, doppelgangers, witches, and werewolves, this seems beyond the edge of possibility?"
"This is the curse Aurora placed on me?" she asked, her body seemingly entirely too small folded into the chair. "To not remember…us?"
"She placed it on both of us, love." He longed to wrap her in his arms, be a comfort that she so desperately needed. "I didn't remember us and you, well you experienced it entirely different. You remembered me differently."
"They were all you."
"Yes."
"And you remember everything?"
He settled further in the chair, adding even more distance between them. "I do now."
His plan had been to slip out once she was in a slumber, but the gravity of his decision and weight of her on his chest begged him into waiting. Taking the time, he took to count her steady heartbeats, the ticking clock of her inevitability. He catalogued the small lines of her face; the lines of laughter and joy, the worry of being a mother, the grief of losing a husband. It was with his decision sound and tangled in her arms that he too drifted off.
Except for a pesky witch from time to time, vampires didn't get migraines. It was a wholly unfamiliar pain that awoken him the next morning still in her embrace, in her bed. He winced, a barrage of memories filtering through his brain as if rapidly flipping through channels on a tv. Caroline on a wrap around porch as he planted rose bushes. Drinking dreadful coffee to not hurt her feelings. Hanging up the porch swing they built together. Taking the cure. Marrying her. Children…
It felt like a cruel twist to whatever curse had been placed upon them, but everything from the soft linen sheets to the art hanging on the wall and the clothes he could see in the closet was something he knew, to his core, to be life he had lived. Every small lifetime spent with her over the last 75 years played out in his head; sometimes just months at first that built into years together that always ended with him leaving and back to business as usual. The length of time between ebbed and changed, too, but the eventuality that he would always find his way back to her was sound.
"If I had to hazard a guess, love, I think our curse has been lifted."
"Isn't it still just a curse all the same?" she retorted, a bitterness hardening around the words. His lips fell apart, a new wave of anguish washing over his features. "None of them were real. All the grief, and pain, the longing I had for you was all for nothing. Klaus, I'm human! There is no going back from this. All of it," she gasped, her hands clutching at her chest. "all of it for nothing."
Klaus was up and sitting on the table in front of her in an impossible moment. Clutching the tops of her arms first to grab her attention, he slid them to cup her cheeks. His thumbs swiped away the tears rolling down and ghosted a kiss on her lips.
"My Caroline, not for nothing." He promised, kissing her lightly again. Scooping up her left hand, he kissed her palm and her fingers until he was thumbing over the vintage wedding ring he had proposed with. "We planted roots here, love. Made a family."
"I'm not sure you could really pull off a beard."
Caroline giggled, scooping up more bubbles from their shared bath, placing them on Klaus's face, neck, and head. He wore a scowl, but the slight indent of his left dimple gave him away to her antics. Caroline had been human for just under a year, and he didn't think he would ever get used to the flush pink under his skin as she laughed, or the warmth that radiated off of her, prickling his skin.
"You know though, if we got you the right fake beard, some padding, a red suit Santa Klaus would be a good look for you."
He rolled his eyes, playfully smacking the water at her. "Whatever gave you that bloody idea? Who would I be in charade as Santa for? You? You wish to see me in a Santa suit?"
A timid but radiant smile crossed her face. She plucked his hand and ducked it under the suds, resting it on the side of her tummy, her hand placing one finger over his lips. "You're not listening." Impossibility, she grinned wider as the blue in his eyes shinned at the realization, the tiny but distinct thrum of a second heartbeat.
"Are you…?"
She nodded enthusiastically, splashing the water he pulled her into his embrace. "You're gonna be a dad."
In the door jam leading to the back porch were various etchings into the wood to mark Gracie's growth. She had spit up more peas on him as an infant than he cared to admit from the highchair in their kitchen. As a clumsy 3-year-old, she had missed the last two threads of the stairs and broken her arm; he had drawn her a castle and a princess on the pink cast. Drop clothes and easels had been set up in the living room as they spent hours fingerpainting. He had tucked her into his arm at night, rubbing her hair, telling her adventures of wolves as Caroline rested her head in his lap.
Caroline had an at home water delivery with Leah holding her hand and a trusted midwife to guide the process. The baby had been late, Caroline had been miserable, but between the dramatics of both births they had previously been accustomed to, they welcome the banal normality of it all. Bonnie Grace slipped into the water and in his Klaus awaiting arms under a bright full moon. He held the squirming and howling infant to his bare chest, kissing Caroline on her forehead, a fullness that seemed too overwhelming to him at the time.
He was often regretful with most things involving Hope. She was his first daughter, his first foray into being a father. But with Gracie, it felt like his first time at being a dad. Magic had made him immortal, gave him Hope. Klaus always secretly always thought it was his love for Caroline, their entwined hearts that had found natures loophole, above all magic and gave them Gracie.
"It's different now."
"What's that?"
"The sun on my skin."
She was resting on her stomach, an old and tattered quilt spread beneath them. She tucked her arms under head, turning to face him. Klaus lay next her on his back, his fingers webbed together at the base of his head, his sunglasses perched on his nose. Spring had arrived with a flourish of sunny weather and perfect breezes and they found themselves often on some stretch of land basking in the afternoon sun.
"Before, with the daylight rings, you feel almost the pressure of the heat, but never the warmth."
Small freckles clustered along the ridge of her nose and pin pricks of white sun spots dotted her arms.
He hummed as he kissed his way from her shoulder to her elbow. "You certainly feel warm, love."
There was an underlying fear with her so vulnerable now, but it thrilled him to discover over and over all the small intricacies of Caroline as a human. He found a profound joy listening to her heart speed up when she looked at him, or the heat of her breath when he touched her in certain places. He enjoyed the challenge of restraint as they made love, the reverence he gave her when she encouraged his inner monster.
Caroline rolled on her side, propping up her head with her hand and her elbow as Klaus gathered himself on both knees. Slipping his hand into his pocket he pulled out the small crushed velvet bag he had kept safe there for weeks.
"What are you doing." Caroline shuffled quickly to her feet, her sundress swishing at her knees, Klaus still at her feet. Her eyes widened at the realization and she quickly hit her knees in front of him. "Seriously. Klaus. What are you doing?"
"Your impatience is maddening." He rolled his eyes, but still beamed her favorite dimpled grin. He tugged the strings of the tiny bag as Caroline stilled his movements.
"Wait." A wave of concern washed over his face; his brow crinkled with worry in the center. She shook her head and kissed him swiftly. "No, no. You don't understand. I just want a moment for my dull human brain to remember this." She smiled, running her fingers through his curls, down the plane of his face.
"Your brain is far from dull, my love." He promised, finally opening the velvet and dumping the contents into his palm. He had rehearsed this speech for weeks; practiced in the mirror, even going so far as seeking consul from both his brothers. But now, with everything bright about her in front of him, caused him to momentarily to forget his senses.
"Do you want me to do it?"
She interrupted his rampant thoughts.
"Do—" he sputtered indignantly, shooting an admonishing glance. "Are you actually attempting to hijack my proposal?"
Eyes shining with anticipation, she shrugged her shoulders. "Depends. Are you ever going to ask?"
"Your bullheadedness is as impressive as it baffling at this moment."
"Was that the proposal?"
"Oh bullocks!" he muttered in frustration before hauling her lips to his. He kissed her to quell her teasing, to stake claim, to vow everything he was intending. The ring ironed into the curve of her neck as he pressed into her with a fervor. She melted into him, her fist finding the crest of his shirt to wrench him closer to her. Breath spent, he relinquished her lips, resting his forehead against hers. "I love you. It's a simple, as tender, as hard as that. I find you…exceptional. I am yours, always. Will you be mine?"
"I am already yours." She vowed, kissing him as he slipped the ring on her finger.
The ring twirled lightly around her finger now as she continued to absorb the information presented to her. Klaus could remember in perfect detail everything about their many lives together; ached with a gratitude that despite the curse placed upon them and the possibility of never remembering being together again that they had a small and wonderful life. He felt powerless now in his inability to comfort her or make anything make sense.
Warily she removed his hands from her face. "This all so much. How much more could magic possibility take from us?"
"Shhh." Caroline murmured as Klaus slipped into the nursery. "She's working on going back to sleep."
Klaus ran a head over the crown of Caroline's head, kissing her forehead and then Gracie's before settling into the loveseat next to their rocker. "Do you think I could compel her to sleep through the night?"
Caroline snickered, her head lolling back against the rocker. "This is a no compulsion household, Dad."
"Noted." He watched her flutter her eyes shut, humbled to be part of such human simplicity of feeding a newborn. Caroline had been a force as a mother; as tired as he knew her to be, she was always diligent with feeding and changing. She took great joy in seeing his many fumbles as a new father once more, deftly guiding him in their shared journey.
After a few minutes, the quiet suckling stopped from the baby feeding, and Caroline covered herself and delicately shuffled over to the loveseat to settle in next to Klaus. The baby was effortlessly plucked from her arms into his, Gracie never even shifting from the movement. He stayed in awe of everything miraculous that were nested in his arms now.
Caroline rested in the crook of his arm; her ear pressed against his chest. She rubbed the bottom of Gracie's small feet with the pad of her thumb. "All the magic we've seen, and now we have her and I think, this is what real magic is."
"This was a terrible curse placed upon us." Klaus nodded, capturing her chin, and imposing her to look at him. "But magic made us. It brought me to you and intersected and tangled our lives forever. I know this feels dreadful now but you have to trust me. I cradled our daughter, I held you and you told me we made magic. Whatever this curse was, we beat it. Through all the impossible, we found each other over and over again and we made something. Please, love…"
She ripped her face away from his grasp. Standing up, she swooped beside him pacing in front of the fireplace. "You're telling me that all these lives, all this grief wasn't real. What happens to them? Do I seriously forget about them? Or worse, do I remember every detail of them when I inevitably remember you too?"
"I don't know." His voice fell with his head in his hands. It gutted him that armed with the knowledge that despite everything, they had been together the whole time she still refused to revel in that small grace. "I understand that your perspective of things is vastly different and that you haven't been granted the time or the reprieve to adjust. But this grief you feel now, it's just the love you had with no place to go. But Caroline, you have a place with me."
"Because we had a life together?"
He stood; his shoulders heavy. He had known this would be a difficult, but wasn't prepared this. A sad smile, a tweak of his lips ghosted his face. "We shared many lives together, but I'm particularly fond of this last one."
"But Danny was kind."
Wrapping her head around all the others had been difficult, but she could accept that despite her memories those men had been Klaus the whole time. The more she reflected on it, the more she could see various features and traits that were distinctly Klaus. At the time she thought maybe she was searching for him in other people. She was always quick to adapt; to vampirism, to motherhood, to loss, to being human. She knew she would adjust to this new reality too.
She stopped short when thinking of Danny. Her husband had been selfless and patient. He repaired the kitchen sink when it leaked and tilled her vegetable garden. He sang old show tunes in the shower and fed the stray cats that lived under the deck. And while she knew Klaus was different with her, had always been appropriately rough and tender, and have loved her with an unwavering dedication. It was the only comparison she could draw between the two; they had loved her.
Before her, Klaus stood the same gutted man at the jaggedness of her words, his lips parted as he searched for his own.
"You know, all this darkness in me, and the only life that breaks though is what has shone for you." His broken words, his voice hoarse, he settled into the chair previously occupied by Caroline. "Years together, real lives with you and it settled something within me. You remember now that Danny was kind, but you'll remember me too. Singing to you, and picking up your favorite flowers, reading you Italian poetry. You'll remember my hands massaging your feet when you were swollen with pregnancy and washing your hair as we showered together. You'll never forget my monster; I don't expect you to. But you'll remember the man that you pulled out from within that monster. And it won't be Danny, it will be me."
Her reaction was visceral; after just a beat she screamed, swiping the frames, the mementos, everything off the thick wood mantle. Klaus flinched infinitesimally; his own rage quelled deep within in. He understood her response, would have joined in the messy gusto of it all had he not been so utterly content with the live he remembered living with her.
"While I'm loathe to admit it, you have to give it time." He murmured quietly has she was left in the wreckage of her mess, her chest heaving.
"I don't have any time to give you!"
"Oh sod off already with this self-deprecating macabre of expression!" Klaus exploded, his fist hitting the coffee table in front of him, the wood splinting down the middle. Caroline recoiled at the debris flying but within moments her jaw was set and her shoulders squared. "Your memories will bloody return. And yes, there is a loss you are once again experiencing and I can make accommodations for that. But is there no small joy at the knowledge of what we've been gifted?" exhaling deeply from his nose, Klaus ran a hand through his unruly hair. "Is there no inkling of happiness at the sound proof that we not only found one another despite everything but we made something incredible out it? Where is the grief you had for me…for us, just a mere day ago?"
"Yes ok!" Caroline retorted, blowing out her breath and swallowing thickly. "I get it Klaus. Days ago, you were ripped from my existence. AFTER!...After staying away from you for 75 years. Then you show up to my door armed to the hilt with a bittersweet goodbyes, and now I've had an hour, one stupid hour, to grapple with an entire new reality. Give me a break here.
Kicking at the mess of glass and broken frames on the floor in front of her, she reached down shaking off the broken pieces and ran her fingers over the picture inside of it. Her perception of the memory was wrong she understood, but she wouldn't deny herself the joy of seeing Klaus helping blow out the candles on their daughters second birthday. Studying the man in front of her, the same drowning man masked behind a wall of anger, she realized she couldn't deny him that knowledge either.
"You want to hear me say how much it moves me to see you cradle our daughter in these photos. You want me to tell you how, even with how full our lives were when we were together, this is something I was missing. That this is something I could only dream of before. That somehow, inexplicably, there is a world where I get everything I want."
"The only way this stays a curse on us, is if we keep it that way."
Her hand snaked up the base of her neck, as the tears she had kept at bay were released. "You promised to be my last love; I just, this isn't what I pictured it would be."
Klaus let out a strangled and short gasp at her implication, sniffling and wiping his face with the back of his shirt sleeve. "Caroline—"
"Just—"she held up her hand and sighed. "You're right. I need some time. I'm going to lie back down." Just as he opened his mouth to protest, she closed the small but vast berth between them, wrapping her arms around neck. "Not forever, just a breath."
X-x-X
Leah was 13 when her mother told her about the Bennett witches. Bonnie had taken her on a picnic, a mischievous glint in her eye, a smirk, and a large wrapped package under her arm. Even before she knew her mom was a witch; these was something magical about her mother. In the way that her bed time stories seemed to come to life in her head, or how she could sooth out Leah's fears with just a touch, or how she could watch her father melt just being near here.
"This is for you." Bonnie placed the package in front of crisscrossed legs. "I was a little older when I got it, but I think it's time you knew everything."
Leah had hesitantly pulled the twine and unwrapped the brown paper from the book.
"It's my grimoire." Bonnie explained with a wide grin. "Well, technically, it's our grimoire."
Leah eyes widen as her mother chanted foreign words, the fall leaves swirling in a vortex of oranges and reds. As the leaves settled around them, she had listened to Bonnie explain their ancestors and the power that was stirring within in. It explained so much of what had been happening with Leah; small premonitions and actions to her thoughts without consciousness.
She mapped out the spells in the grimoire, the family recipes, the herbs for healing. She recounted the legends of vampires and werewolves and where they, as witches fit into the story. Finally, she told Leah about her own father, her aunt Caroline, Klaus. She finished with a burden; the curse placed on Caroline and Klaus. A curse her mother didn't fully understand, a curse she couldn't break.
Now, decades later, the curse had been broken and the aftermath she had been so unsure of was in front of her. Stepping out of her car, Klaus came from the house and down the drive way to greet her. The years leading up to her mother's death, they had shared the knowledge together, but for the better part of six decades, it was her secret alone. Klaus and Caroline both had raised her, and only she carried the memory of their relationship.
"My Leah." Klaus enveloped her in a deep hug as he reached her. She was only 15 when she had come to live with them, and they had developed a quick and deep bond. Other than his appreciation for a Bennett witch, he had cared for Bonnie, and so much of her spirit lived on through Leah. He taught her hunting skills, gathered witches to help hone her magic, snuck ice cream with her in the middle of the night. Now, she was gray and weathered, another painful reminder of the thief that time was. "Thank you for coming."
"You believe the cure to really be broken?" she asked as Klaus helped her amble to the front door. He had sat dully in the living room once Caroline had left him, the overwhelming knowledge of what they would have to live with now nearly too much. "What changed?"
"Come now, tell me what you know about his and let's set to sort this out together."
Leah followed Klaus up the steps into their home. It wasn't the home they had helped raise her in, but it was the one that felt most like home while the two of them were there. Leah had never married or had children of her own, but she never wanted for a family when she had Klaus and Caroline. Gingerly and with Klaus hand holding onto hers, they tiptoed through the debris on the floor and settled into the kitchen.
"Not as bad that Christmas one of the barn cats got inside the house and tore through the Christmas tree." Leah commented surveying the damage. "I take it she's not doing well."
"You would assume correctly." Klaus nodded, pulling out two mugs and setting the kettle on the stove. Yesterday he had only remembered being in this kitchen twice, and now he could remember unpacking it Caroline, placing these very mugs in the cabinet after washing them. "She's lying down now."
"I don't feel the same energy." Leah announced stopping Klaus, from his work in the kitchen. "I mean, there was always a force around you, locking you into whatever this stupid curse was but I don't feel it there anymore. We're going to have to explain everything to her. She's going to demand answers. Deserves them. Especially about the cure."
"I know." He acknowledged, turning his attention to the screaming kettle and pouring the water into their cups. He walked both of their teas over to the kitchen nook, setting one in front of Leah and scooting the canister of sugar in her direction.
"We thought you were dead." Leah scooped the sugar, slowly stirring it in the steaming liquid. "You had me fooled; that's not an easy thing to do."
Klaus chuckled without a trace of humor. "I have quite the penchant of disappearing when I need to. Despite our feuding tendencies, there was a particular warlock that owed me a favor."
Leah quirked a half smile. "How can I help now? You seemingly have done all the work for me, though. 75 years worked to break this spell, and you swoop in and dismantle it in just a night. What happened?"
"I'm still not quite certain." He shrugged indifferently, but his face was still pensive. "I let her go, and seemingly she's come back to me all in one swoop. I woke up with all the memories of the last 75 years at once, but she has no recollection of them just yet. I'm confident they will return. I'm less confident that we will return to who we were a year ago when I was still here and we were a family."
"How could you even think that's a possibility with how much Caroline loves you?"
"Because even if our love can't be undone, neither can time."
X-x-X
Caroline rolled over, releasing the pillow that still distinctly smelt of Klaus. She could feel the twinges of a headache at her temples, as small flashes of memory invaded her mind. It seemed at first like a kaleidoscope; just shape and colors, glimpses of her life with Paul. Burying her face into the pillows, the images became shaper, clearer. The harder she tried to picture Paul's face, his crooked nose, the more she only saw Klaus.
It had been him all along.
Even without vampire hearing, she could hear the conversation flowing from her-no their downstairs kitchen nook. Afternoon sunshine was settling around the house, and she could smell the embers burning in the hearth down below. Blowing the air from her nose, she pushed the covers down from her body and wrapped her robe around her torso. Pulling the terry cloth up to her face, she took a deep inhale of the memory of Danny as he gifted her this still as clear as ever.
"Caroline." Leah greeted, padding across the kitchen to greet her as Caroline descended the stairs. Leah hesitated just a moment before hugging Caroline around her shoulders. Klaus swallowed the thickness in his throat; a caress of a memory playing out. A sullen and heartbroken Leah trudging down the stairs, a devastated but determined Caroline pulling the teenager into her arms.
He wasn't sure eternity was long enough to feel the depths of their lost years.
"What do we know?" Caroline sank into a chair opposite Klaus, gratefully accepting his cup of warm tea that he slid over to her. An ache of something familiar stirred as their fingertips brushed along each other. Ever the planner, Caroline needed some kind of structure to hold on to. "Is this a part of the curse or did something change? Did it have to do with us being together?"
Klaus cleared his throat. "I—" he glanced at Leah, "We think it has something more to do with our resolution to farewell."
Caroline's eyebrows kinked in confusion, her palms wrapping around the tea cup.
"Let me start from the beginning, honey." Leah gently coiled her hand around Caroline's wrist.
Caroline listened to Leah explain what she had gathered. Klaus, who had already pieced together most of it with Leah, watched for Caroline's reactions. Bonnie had recognized the curse for what it had been, had been unaffected to it's magic by proxy of being a witch. That same protection had been passed to Leah. Their lives had carried on, but at some point, Klaus would always leave and the memories would be replaced with a false recollection of another lover, and the grief that he had died.
Bonnie had tried often at first to tell Caroline, warn Klaus, but the caution never stuck, the curse overpowering all reason. She had searched endlessly for a way out of it, had journals full of notes on how to break it or move past it, anything to restore the balance in their lives.
"It took me a long time, even after Momma's death to decipher what the curse even was. I'm still not sure, honestly. In simple terms, I think it's a glamour spell. A cloak that twists what you actually see into something totally different. I had a hunch, but I never got close to what you could actually break the spell with. I'm sure it's out there somewhere; in some ruined city, or some ancient text in a forgotten language but there was never any certainty."
Caroline's expression was passive as she took in the information.
"And you?" she directed her question to Klaus. "You just forgot me?"
He winced, a delicate countenance filling his features. "I could never forget you, love." She bit her lip, and nodded. "But I did not recall our time together. I seemingly didn't recall the large portions of time missing either. If my siblings ever mentioned it, I'm sure I was compelled into not remembering that as well."
"Your hunch? Leah, what was that?"
"At first, your time together was short, and sporadic. The time in between would be long. I had a theory that whenever Klaus started to get a feeling of what was happening, that was when he would be pulled away. I think the idea of the curse was to keep you apart, but you kept finding your way back to each other." She looked between the two fondly. "Eventually, your time together was longer, and the time between was shorter. I think Klaus was settling in, feeling content, stopped questioning so much."
"I thought the curse was weakening. I'm still unsure how it was so strong, other than Aurora was able to get some of Klaus's blood." Leah licked her lips, pulling both of Caroline's hands into her own and pivoting her body to face her. "Caroline, do you remember me giving you the cure?"
"After Taylor."
She snuck a swift peek at Klaus, accepting his small nod. "I asked Klaus to convince you to take the cure."
"You won't remember this just yet, but you fought me pretty vehemently when I suggested you do just that."
"Can I ask you something?"
She looked up at he settled a small quilt over her shoulders and sank down next to her on the steps of their back deck. With a practiced ease, she took the mug from his hands, taking a timid sip of his hot tea. At this point, they had been together for several years, a quiet life as they spent their days tending to their vegetable garden and reading in front of the fire. In a rush of his quest for eternity, the vast expanse of a never-ending infinity stretched before him, he had never felt as established or gratified has he was with her now. No threat of war, or bloodshed; no enemies on the horizon.
Just the dawn of new beginnings, the sunsets of absolute days.
"Would you do something for me?"
She quirked a flirty eyebrow, dropped her chin in her hand propped up on her knee. "Hmm…"
"Would you take the cure for me?"
The cup slipped from her fingertips, the ceramic shattering on the wooden steps.
"You're serious." She narrowed her eyes, studying the stoicism of his face. He was always serious, but this commitment to his statement was something had never seen. He gathered her hands around hers.
"I want a life with you—"
"We have a life!"
"No, my sweetheart, we have a lifetime. A multitude of lifetimes." There was pull, a plucking of some invisible thread that had been weighting on him for some time. The vast infinite of life stretched before them. "We could do that. Start over every couple of years; a new city, a fresh beginning. Until it never means anything because it never ends. We won't even remember what it feels like to find one another again. After decades, after minutes apart. All we'll have is a series of beginnings. We started something here, I know you feel the weight of that. It's the only beginning we've ever had that feels like there could be an ending. I don't ever want to part from you again, my love.
"I think I finally understand what it is that I've been searching for all these centuries. It wasn't loyalty or power." He tucked her hair behind her ear, giving her a tight smile. She settled into the palm of his hand. "I love you. I was searching for you, to have an ending that meant something. We could make this mean something."
"How are we supposed to be us, how are we supposed to have an ending if I'm human and you're not?"
He kissed her then, tempestuous and then tender as he slowed down to savor. He wrapped his arms around her neck and pulled her to his chest, his lips whispering in the shell of her ear.
"I'll follow you."
"We agreed that you would take the cure, and I would stay a hybrid to make sure you were safe from my enemies." Klaus explained as Caroline looked on astonished. "Then Gracie came along and it felt pertinent that I stay a hybrid to protect you both."
"But you still died." She gritted out through clenched teeth, shaking her head, a few rogue tears slipping down her cheek. "I mean you left. Danny died."
"The cure weakened the curse, but didn't diminish it." Leah clarified. "But I think that's why he came back so quickly and why you recognized him for the first time as Klaus. From what Klaus told me last night, I believe the resolution to your goodbye is what lifted the curse from you both."
"Is the curse coming back?"
Her question floored Klaus. He had never even considered the possibility.
"I won't allow it." He vowed, his shoulder straightening.
"How could you possibly promise that?" she barked, sniffling and wiping her nose with the sleeve of her robe. "You didn't even know what this was until this morning. And for it to be you, of all people, who made me take the cure?"
Klaus grimaced, the accusation heavy in her timbre. "There's hardly anything in 200 years I've been able to make you do, love."
"Don't get glib with me." She snapped. His face hardened. "In a week, or a couple of days I'm going to remember this life we built and all the good that came with it. Only I'll still be human and you'll still be a hybrid and we no longer have time together." Her next words came softly. "No wonder you weren't as angry with me as I thought you would be. You've got your ending Klaus. We have no more beginnings."
She pushed herself back from the table, leaning over and scooping up Leah in a fierce hug. Her sweet Leah, burdened with the knowledge and helpless to overcome for over 75 years. A very heavy weight was strangling the air around them, and Caroline knew there were things she would have to resolve with Klaus.
"I love you. Thank you for coming." She squeezed Leah's shoulders, kissed her forehead. "I think Klaus and I need some time now though, to sort this through. How are Liam and Gracie?"
"Of course. Liam is perfect." Leah confirmed. "I left him with a very trusted, very capable witch to watch over him." She stood up then, Klaus followed suit, also pulling her into a hug. The scene was so completely foreign to Caroline. She knew he could be warm and gentle with her, but had never seen the display so cavalier with any other person. Leah thumbed his cheek deftly. "Just wait until you meet him. Has the same devastating dimples." She turned her attention to Caroline, but squeezed Klaus hand in reassurance. "Gracie remembers Klaus as her father; I called the camp on the way over. She has no recollection of any death. Grief hasn't touched her."
Relief flooded through Klaus as he enveloped Leah once more. "Thank you."
"I'll leave you two now."
"Come, I'll walk you out."
x-X-x
"You should eat something, love."
Klaus set a plate in Caroline's hands, setting down on the back porch steps. They had spent so many evenings nestled on these very steps held together with rusting nails he had hammered himself when fixing the deck so many years ago. The house backed up to an open field facing west with the perfect backdrop to watch the sun settle behind the mountains. Idly, she picked at the sandwich he made her, uncertain where to place the feeling of gratitude and thoughtfulness from the gesture.
Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her phone, swiping through some photos before handing the device over to Klaus. He took it hesitantly, his shoulders relaxing and a breath releasing as he looked at the photo of his sleeping and smiling son. Leah was right; he was full of his curls and his dimples, but a light within him that was all Caroline.
"I'm sorry I wasn't here for his birth." He swallowed, swiping through more of the photos. He found a video of Liam sitting on the floor, picking up blocks and giggling. Klaus let out a strangled chuckle. His heart constricted suddenly overwhelmed to confront the possibility that he could have missed out on the life of his son. "Did you know Henrik's middle name was William?"
Caroline looked up suddenly at his revelation, biting her lip. "Seems pretty silly now that I didn't see you in him this whole time."
"Do you remember anything yet?"
"You mean have I forgotten them?" she sighed, resolved to start over. "I don't remember Paul anymore." She confessed as he slipped her phone back into her hand. "I keep trying to picture his face, his crooked nose except all I see anymore is your face, your sweet dimples." She closed her eyes. "I don't grieve him. I just have a memory of missing you. Always missing you."
There had been a different kind of grief that had settled in her when she made the decision to stay away from Klaus after Paris. The ghost of his memory, the endless possibility with him that would never be.
"I remember my wedding being big. But—"
Klaus kinked up an eyebrow.
"Doesn't seem like us. Our wedding we would never…" she trailed off, the small flames of a memory burning the edge of her mind. A floral dress, a wildflower bouquet, a white linen shirt. "We would have never."
His rough hands entwined with hers in her lap, the softness of his palms caressed around them. He half smiled, a sheen glimmering in his eyes. He pointed to the far edge of the yard. "We didn't. Just me and you. Leah held your flowers when I held your hands; you harangued that poor officiant."
She laughed despite herself, swiping at her tears. Staring at their hands, she huffed getting up from the stairs and pacing in front of him. There were so many emotions swelling inside of her; for the first time since becoming human she could hear the pounding of own heart beating relentlessly in her ears. It was a steady reminder of everything time would take from her.
"I'm so angry at you and I don't know why." She admitted, licking her lips, the salt of her tears bitter on her tongue. "This happened to you, too. I know that and I know you didn't choose this; you would have done anything to stop it."
"I was furious but I realize now it wasn't at you, not really." He stood too, matching her stance. "I couldn't place it because there was something unsettling about it. I think at the root of it I was angry I wasn't living the life I was supposed to. I belonged to you. I belong to you." He corrected, taking a step closer to her. "I was supposed to be with you; I could feel that all the way to my bones and yet, everything that presented itself to me showed me it wasn't mean to be."
"But you can't be human."
His own words burned into his memory, spoken as a whisper stopped him dead in his tracks. He looked away, running a frustrated hand through his hair. Hadn't some version of himself denied her any kind of ending just last night? His own selfish needs and wants had been scored into his very being for so long that when presented with the choice of a finite her and an eternity without, he had chosen the latter. Now, equipped with knowledge and perspective, he didn't know if the choice was still present. Didn't know what he would choose.
"You left. You said goodbye."
"As did you!" he snarled, pointing at her. His arms twisted in front of him. "Caroline at the core of everything I stand for, my loyalty to you, my unwavering dedication to your happiness is all that has mattered to me. I would lay the white oak stake at your feet if it meant I could make you happy. I would never begrudge you that. What would make you happy now?"
"I couldn't bear it." She confessed, her arms clutching her torso. "If I asked you to stay, for me, and you didn't choose me again."
"You know, daddy took the cure." Leah spun to face him, as Klaus opened her car door. "And it wasn't because he didn't have a choice, it was because he did. He chose my mom."
"Things aren't so simple, sweetheart. And your father wasn't as old as I am."
"Or powerful." Leah pointed out; her eyebrow quirked. "You're not afraid of losing your immortality or even your power, you're afraid of showing your humanity. But you already have. Its everything that you have lived with Caroline already. It's the husband and father you are. Surely you realize that your love for her, and your children and the future you give them, the legacy they carry on, that's what really gives you real immortality and power.
"You made a choice last night to leave her, because that choice felt like the best one with the information you had. Now you have the miracle of a second choice." She wrapped him in a hug, pressing something small into the palm of his hand. "Choose wisely."
"My love," his voice broke, and he took the two short strides to close the distance between. Leah's words earlier, as well as his own vows given to her on their wedding day wrapped around his mind and at once the decision was made; had been made long before he realized now. Without a hesitance, and with an earnest familiarity he captured her lips in his. "I choose you, always."
"Ok but you can't laugh!"
"Caroline!" Klaus groaned and rolled onto his back spreading his arms out across their bed. "If you don't get out here and into this blasted bed, I will break down the bloody door! It's our wedding night, love." He fingered the titanium band securely on his left hand. "You can't get rid of me now, even if you tried."
The door to their bathroom slowly creaked open. Caroline sauntered out; her robe tucked securely around her torso. Klaus laughed at her melodramatics, turning on his side and propping his head up with his hand and elbow. Caroline rolled her eyes at his dimpled grin before allowing the robe to open just slightly to reveal the lingerie beneath.
She shook her finger at him playfully admonishing him. "You promised!"
"I recall no such vows this afternoon." He tried to purse his lips together to stop his smirk and his snicker but failed miserably. Caroline made a move to cover herself back up, but in a flash, he was in front of her, gingerly tugging each side to the opening to her robe and pulling her back to the bed. Once she was crawling on the bed with him, he pushed the offending garment off of one of her shoulders, kissing the crook of her collarbone. "Now, if you would take off this dreadful thing and allow me to properly savor my wife, I'll confess my real vows."
She huffed, but smiled anyway, allowing the rest of the robe to pool around her as she settled onto her knees. "Real vows?"
Sucking in his breath at the sight of her, he kissed the hollow of her neck, along the lines of her jaw, and finally her lips. "Yes, my love. My vows to you are yours and ours alone; I didn't want to share them with anyone but you."
Caroline eyed him suspiciously. "Well then, let's hear it. And make it snappy; I'd really like to make love to my very hot husband tonight." She tossed her arms lazily over his shoulders. "You haven't seen him around have you?"
Klaus had her tucked in his arms and gently tossing her back on the bed in a fraction of a second with Caroline barely getting a squeal out. She laughed as he straddled her, his arms locking her into place on either side of her head. "You think you're so clever." She nodded enthusiastically biting her lower lip impishly. With a practiced reverence, he affectionately moved the hair from her face. "I'm such a wretched man; really such an abysmal creature. I don't believe in God, and yet, sometimes I think you were created just for me.
Twirling on of curls around his finger, he continued. "In finding you, I found myself. An eternity of people who worshipped me, or who hated me and fighting for all that power and loyalty. I know now, I wanted everything because I didn't want anything enough. And now that I have you, that we have this wrapped cocoon of this wonderful life around us, all I desire is that. This life with you, whatever future that may bring. But I understand it now; I want you enough. You are enough for me. You are everything to me."
Furrowing her brow at the softness of his words, she cupped his face, and kissed him. "This boring and quiet human life is enough for you?"
"More than enough. More than I deserve. Especially with you. I know you believe this to be some sacrifice or some choice I had to make. But I love you. The simple truth is that once I decided that your existence was integral to my being and my heart, there was only one choice. And that will always be you."
"You'll have to forgive me for being so daft before." A glistening sheen settled over his eyes as he finally tore himself away from her. He gulped down the lump in his throat and after a beat, fished out the small vessel Leah had tucked in his palm earlier. Caroline gasped, covering her mouth with both of her hands as he revealed the contents to her. "Tell me that you choose me, that I don't have to spend eternity without you. I promised to follow you."
Hesitantly she placed one palm over his, over the small vial that contained the cure, securing her hand around his. Gone was the drowning man from this morning and before her stood the commanding and resolute hybrid she had fallen for all those years ago. She couldn't recall all there time together yet, but the possibility of feeling his warmth beside her, winkles settling in next to his dimples, and grey hair forming at his temples brought a flood of yearning she wasn't prepared for.
They would be able to move through time in tandem together, watching their children grow and grow with them. Being human crafted a world with endless possibilities; mistakes and regrets, time worth spending forgiving and learning. Gazing at him intently, she didn't have to question his intentions. Klaus was a man of his word, and if this was what he was offering, he meant it with every fiber of his being.
She moved their conjoined hands to his chest, just above his heart, the decision made. "Were you with me when I took the cure?"
The breath of relief he released was palpable as he shook his head and drew her into his arms. "I was always with you, love."
When this fic first came to life, I envisioned it as a one shot with a dramatic cliffhanger. But there I started to flesh out in my head what events brought them to this point in their story. Ultimately, I knew that at the end of it with the knowledge at hand, Klaus would not choose to take the cure; it didn't feel authentic to who he was despite how he felt for Caroline.
But I didn't love it. I knew it was right, but I hated that it was. So I tried to figure out a way to have them together after all. Someone mentioned time travel on the 3rd chapter or so and I thought that was a good angle but hadn't set up the story to frame around it. I also considered a prison world, but couldn't bear the thought of their marriage and their children not being real. Breaking the curse was the only solution, and I figure if TVD diaries can bend magic around to fit their canon, I could make it fit mine too.
This is by far the longest chapter I've ever written for a story. I wanted to complete their arc, but give you glimpses of this sweet life they had together. I'm very proud of this fic, and especially this last chapter.
Three quotes of this story was borrowed/reimaged words: Klaus speech to Caroline about giving them an ending was essentially a quote in the 12 monkeys series finale (An excellent show btw). It fit so well with what I wanted to convey that I didn't trust myself to give any other words the right justice. The other line, "I think maybe god made you for me" was paraphrasing from Sally Rooney's normal people. Finally, "I wanted everything because I didnt want anything enough" is from the amazing poet Lang Leav. I just want to ensure that I cite those works correctly since I borrowed them.
I hope you let me know what you think and thank you so much for everyone who already left a comment or a kudo.