Chapter Four

Two days later, Elijah left to finish up his work for the trip he and Caroline would take at the end of the school year in three weeks. Caroline hated that he was leaving, but she decided not to make him feel bad about it since he would be back in the next month. She spent the next week avoiding her friends and crying herself to sleep. Elizabeth wanted to help, but she wasn't sure how, so she just tried to show her daughter that she was there if she needed her. The three weeks flew by, and before the two women knew it, Elijah was once again due to arrive very soon. Caroline spent the afternoon after school ended, packing her bags, her father had sent her a list of needs a week before since Caroline wasn't getting to know the destinations of their travels. It didn't take long for her to pack, she had set most of it aside the night before. She hadn't told anyone that she was leaving, and she doubted that her friends would notice. She was glad that she was going to get to spend three weeks with her dad, it had been over a year since their last trip, and she missed him more than ever. She was so grateful that she had him, she had realized as she got to know him that when he said that he loved her and that he would always be there for her, he wasn't lying. Her friends had said the same, but they hadn't shown up and held her while she cried for three hours. After she had packed her bags, she decided to go make dinner for her and her mom. Her dad would be arriving in the morning for them to fly out to their destination, so she wanted to spend some quality time with her mom before she left for three weeks. Her father was someone that she was grateful she had, it was insane to her that he had shown up like that even when he didn't have to. He had found her a family, someone to love her, and he still hadn't abandoned her. She was beyond lucky in her father, and that is what made her miss the opportunity of meeting her mother the most. With what she knows of her father, her mother must have been an amazing woman, and she only wished that she would have been able to know her.

It didn't take long for her to finish making dinner and set the table, as she finished laying the last plate, her mother walked in the door.

"Hey, Mom, dinner's ready."

"Thank you for making it, Caroline."

"You're welcome. How was work?"

"It was good, nothing really happened, which was refreshing."

"I'm glad."

"Are you packed?"

"Yeah, I finished packing just a bit ago."

"Are you excited about your trip?"

"Definitely. I mean, I'll miss Mystic Falls, but I want to go, I've missed my trips with dad."

"I know you have. I'm sure this one will be one for the memory books. Caroline, when is the last time you read any of the book he gave you? I mean, I rarely see it, but I know you haven't read most of it."

"I am trying to save most of the letters for when I need one, like when I have had a really hard day. I don't know why,, but I just feel like I need to save them. I read one about three weeks ago, though. The night the Gilbert's died." Caroline explained. She had no idea why she wanted to save them, because she wanted to read them so badly, but she just felt like she needed to save them.

"Which one did you read that night?"

"Page, 123. It was a letter from my biological mom. I know I never actually met her, but somehow, I miss her more than anyone I have even missed before." Caroline explained.

"I know, I wish you could meet her too. Honestly, I even wish that I could meet her. You are a lot like your dad, but there are times when you do stuff that seems more unlike him than anything I have ever known, and it makes me wonder for a moment if that might just be a little piece of her."

"I asked him about her, and he said that she was someone who always saw the best in people, that she never judged before she knew the story. I just wish I could have seen that in her."

"Caroline, if you look, you will see that. You will see it in you. You have always seen the best in people, you look past the outward flaws, and you see the best, and deep down all you want is for them to realize that there is someone else they could be. You have done that since you were little, and I doubt that you will cease to do so. If you look close enough, Caroline, you will see her right there in you." Elizabeth said, she had heard the same stories that Caroline had about her mother and she knew that while a good portion of Caroline was like her dad, she was also like her mother. Above all the stories and connections, though, she knew that Caroline was like her mother because she saw it in Elijah's eyes. There had been moments throughout the past few years that Elijah had looked at Caroline with a smile, and sad eyes. It was what Elizabeth had begun to call 'the look' because she knew it was when Caroline was acting like her mother. Elizabeth was beyond grateful that she got to raise Caroline, but it was in those moments that she wished she could see the family whole, Elijah, Regina, and Caroline. She would never want to lose Caroline, but getting to know Elijah had made her wonder what the family would have looked like, if it were never separated from one another.

"I can see it sometimes, in his eyes, he tries to hide it, but dad will look at me, and he looks so sad. I know he doesn't mean for me to see it, but I know he misses her. I would hate to be in his place, to lose your wife and still have to live forever without her. No way of escape. I mean, I know that the white oak can kill them, but still he is immortal, and the only person that has a way of killing him is his own father. It's just messed up, and it hurts to see him so sad." Caroline finally responded to her mother after a few minutes.

"Caroline, no matter how much he misses your mother, he vowed not to leave you, he doesn't want a way out, he wants a life with you in it. He wants to spend his forever with his daughter. Yes, it will sometimes remind him of Regina, and yes sometimes it will be bittersweet, but he loves you Caroline and I promise that is all that is on his mind when he looks at you that way. All he thinks about is how much you are like her and how he can see her in you and how much he loves you and is thankful that he has his daughter back." After Elizabeth finished speaking, they fell into silence and finished their meanings. Then they decided to do the dishes together, so they turned on music and messed around the kitchen cleaning up from dinner. Then they watched a movie, staying up way later than they should have before going to bed.

Caroline woke to the doorbell the next morning, and quickly realized she had forgotten to set an alarm. She quickly got up and ran to the door, her father was standing on the other side, perfectly put together and in a suit, while Caroline stood with messy hair still in her pajamas.

"Good Morning, Caroline, did I wake you?" Elijah said with a smile.

"I may have forgotten to set an alarm, I'll be ready in five minutes." Caroline explained before running back to her bedroom to get ready, leaving Elijah alone at the door.

"I'll show myself in." Elijah said to the empty space with a laugh. He wasn't surprised that she hadn't woken up on time, Elizabeth Forbes had texted him to let him know they had gotten to bed late and that Caroline was still not awake when she had left for work. It took Ten minutes before Caroline came back into the living room, with a backpack on her bag and a larger bag in her hand.

"Are you ready?" Elijah asked while grabbing the larger bag from her hands.

"Yup, I'm excited, where to first?" Caroline asked, following her dad out to the car, where he opened her door for her, before placing her bag in the trunk. He had made a plan on where they were going that hopefully would be beneficial for her. They would start in the clearing outside of Mystic Falls where she had been born. Then they would head to Greece, where Regina had been born, before heading to Rome, and then finally ending back in the northern part of Virginia where he had buried Regina. He thought that maybe it would give her a glimpse of the family that she had been longing for. He also hoped that going to Rome would give her a taste of the time she had been born in. In all the places that Elijah had visited, Rome was the one that had made him feel the most at home, it was the most historic place he had ever been. Once they were both settled in the car and Elijah had started the drive out to the clearing in the woods, he decided to explain just a bit of the trip to Caroline.

"So, this trip is going to be a little different from the ones in the past."

"How so?" Caroline asked, intrigued by the fact that he was actually about to tell her information about the trip.

"My hope for this trip is that it will give you a better connection to your actual family and an understanding of the time you were actually born in. While some would say that babies are babies, and they adapt to their surroundings as they grow, I have seen the difference between children that were born then and children that are born now even as they are young. I believe that it has to do with the signals they pick up from their mothers before they are born. While children who are born in this time typically get signals of excitement, love, happiness, and safety. Children that were born when you were, were born into a lot of fear, worry, and danger. Parents became the sole comfort of children that were born in my time, and children were typically able to sense the danger that surrounded them. This gave them a different way of dealing with life than the children of today. I am hoping that learning more about that time, and about your family, will give you a better understanding of why you respond to certain things differently than your friends."

"Do you have an example of one of the situations that you think it affects?"

"I think it affected your response to Elena's parents' deaths."

"What do you mean?" Caroline asked, confused by what her father was saying.

"You were born into a time when death was typical. It wasn't out there, it was normal. Children grew up with only one parent or without either parent a lot. While you were only a baby, there were many times when your mother and I experienced death when she was carrying you. You even experienced death as a newborn. You responded to the situation as someone who wasn't totally in shock. Your friends Bonnie and Matt responded as ones who haven't seen death on display. I'm not saying that this is exactly why you responded differently, but I am saying it might be. Two weeks before you were born my brother, Henrik, was killed. It destroyed my family, and it wasn't something that any of us got over easily. Your mother was also really close to my brother, I believe that it has been proven that if a mother experiences a traumatic event while pregnant the child knows, and it affects how they handle life in the future. On top of that, your mother died before you were ever able to know her, I know that has an effect."

"So you want to show me things about the time I should have grown up in, in an attempt to make it easier for me to realize why I respond differently?"

"Exactly." Elijah responded.

"So, where to go first?"

"A clearing about three miles from here, it is where I grew up. It is where I married your mother, and it is where you were born and spent your first three months as a child." The location led to silence as Caroline took in what her father had planned and what they were going to do. She wasn't exactly sure how, but it was almost as if he had read her mind. The past three weeks had been horrible for Caroline, she had felt more out of place than ever before. She felt more alone than she had in years, but each day her father had sent her a text, and every night he had called her to make sure she was okay and knew that she was loved. She wasn't sure how he knew that she needed it, but he had, and it had made her willing to fight for friends that were hurting her. Elijah spent the silence hoping that this would help his daughter, he knew she had a long way to go before she felt like she belonged, it had taken him almost a century to figure it out, but he was hoping that this trip would bring her a little closer to being okay with the way she was. He wanted her to realize that she was worth love, even if she was a little different. It was a large task, though, especially for someone who had only known her for three years. It took another ten minutes to get to the end of the dirt road that led to the clearing, besides the road there was no proof that the clearing was ever something more than just that.

"We're here." Elijah said before stepping out of the car, Caroline followed, she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, but she was hoping that he would explain it. Once she followed him out of the car, she got her wish as after a moment he began to speak.

"Straight ahead is where my parents' house was. Klaus, Rebekah, Kol, and Finn all still lived there. Finn had found a wife at one point, but she was killed in a raid, so he moved back in with my parents. To the right of that was your mine and your mother's house. The location of my parents house was where the head of the village would be, while our village didn't really have a head my father was the strongest warrior and my mother the strongest witch, so we were given the position. Our house was in the position of the minister, I was the minister of Mythology and Witchcraft having been trained by my mother, and your mother was the chosen head of the few who still believed in a God. To the left of my parents house was where Finn's house was at one point, but Finn eventually burned it, so it was left as an opening to the woods. Where we are standing is where the center of the village was, to your left was the Bennet witches house, to the right was a line of other houses of other villagers. Where we are standing was the gathering area, or where the fire pit was for when we had celebrations. If you were to walk towards my parents house and then beyond it, you would find the entrance to the caves we hid in on full moons." Elijah explained the layout of the village, hoping his daughter would get an idea of everything before he offered to enter her mind and show her.

"Wow. It's kinda hard to picture, but it sounds like it was a beautiful place to live."

"Caroline, if you would like me to, I can enter your mind and show you what it was like." Elijah offered. He had explained the practice of entering others' minds on the last trip he and Caroline had taken.

"Please?" Caroline asked. She had let him in her mind once before, it was during that time that he had explained it all to her. While he would be able to see her thoughts, he would also be able to show her his.

"Very well." Elijah softly placed his hands on either side of Caroline's head before showing her what he was seeing.

The buildings were exactly as he had described, but as she looked around, she could see people walking around. Some of the women carried buckets of water, some of the men carried food. She saw people she recognized as her uncles and even her aunt. There was someone who looked a bit like Bonnie. After a second she heard a door open, and looking she saw that it was the house her dad had said was his. The door opened to reveal a woman with blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, she wore a green dress and her hair was tied back in braids. She was pregnant, from what Caroline could tell, she looked to be pretty close to giving birth, and she was smiling. It was the prettiest smile Caroline had ever seen, it seemed to light up the entire clearing. Her uncles smiled and waved at the woman, and her aunt ran up to her with a smile before whispering something that sent them both into laughter. After a moment another boy joined in on the conversation her uncles were having, and she guessed it was her uncle Henrik. The people in the village were full of laughter, but if you looked close enough you could see the sunken shoulders, the dark circles under the men's eyes, and the sadness and hurt that their eyes carried. You could see a burial ground off to the left behind the Witch's house. There were fresh flowers on many of the graves. You could see swords laying beside the doors of each of the houses and every man in the village wore a weapon even if they were just talking to someone. There were small bags of food and water packed at each house, and sticks ready to be used as torches stacked ready by the fire. You could see that even with the happiness and laughter these people were living a hard life, they were all prepared for something, but Caroline couldn't remember what. She knew that it wasn't the werewolves because they would know exactly when that would be, she didn't take long trying to figure it out as she decided she would just ask her dad once he stopped showing her his memories. After she had finished looking around, her eyes landed back on the woman. She knew it was her mother, she looked just like the painting in the book her father had given her, but as she looked closer she noticed a necklace hanging around the woman's neck. A single jewel, it was the necklace that she was currently wearing, the one she had had since she was a baby. Her father had never told her that it had been her mothers. Instinctively she reached up towards her neck and as she touched the necklace the vision faded.

Once again, Caroline was in the clearing with her father, no buildings, no laughter, no people, just a clearing in the woods. Caroline had begun to cry as she was in the vision, and the tears had kept flowing as she came out of the village that had felt like home. Now she knew what her father had meant, she was supposed to have grown up there, not here. After a moment, she spoke,

"What were they all prepared for?" She asked, wondering why they had all been so on edge even as they laughed and played.

"A raid. We never knew when someone would attack our village, so the women stayed ready to go to the caves with the witches and the men stayed ready to fight so that the women could survive the trip to the caves. It was a hard time of uncertainty." Elijah explained to his daughter. He had been seeing what she was as he gave her a view of one of his favorite memories. They stayed in the clearing until sunset as Elijah told her endless stories of what life had been like in the clearing. He then handed her a piece of paper,

"What's this?"

"You're not dumb, Caroline, I am sure you have wondered why the town hasn't developed this area."

"I mean, it crossed my mind, but I didn't think too much about it."

"I own this land, I bought it so that they wouldn't change it, so that they wouldn't build on it. That paper is the deed to this land in your name. I have arranged for builders to come and rebuild the village how it was, you can live here, or it can just be a place to escape. It will all be cabins as it was then. You are also allowed to invite friends to move here if you would like. Whatever you decide to do with it is fine. The builders will be here while we are gone, and they should be done by the end of the summer. This is your home, this is where you should have grown up, so now it's yours."

"You're building me a village?" Caroline asked shocked.

"I'm building you a home. I know that you love Mystic Falls, you love your mother, you love your friends, but you and I both know that there is a longing for a different time, for a different home, for a different family. It doesn't erase the fact that you love where you are now, but it does make life lonely sometimes. I want you to be able to come here, when you feel like an outcast, when you feel alone, I want you to come here and think of what I showed you, you can read the book, or you can just sit here. I want you to have a home from then, too." Elijah explained to his daughter, wrapping her in a hug before leading her back to the car to head to the airport. The ride to the airport was silent, as was the boarding of the private plane. Once they were on board, they talked about random things before Caroline decided to get some sleep. Elijah was left in silence to his thoughts. He had been trying his best to be the dad that Caroline needed him to be. It was hard to raise a daughter that was stuck in a time that she wasn't supposed to be in. His family had gotten used to the change of time, they had gotten used to adjusting. It had become normal to them with all that had changed in a thousand years. But as he spent more time with Caroline, he realized that the little differences came from the changes that a thousand years had brought. So he had researched the effect of parents' experiences with growing children, and he had found that the trauma of a child's life never goes away even if they were not old enough to remember it. There were children who had anxiety and depression because of things that had happened to their mother before they were born. All he could remember was the first day his siblings had been let outside, they had gotten their daylight rings. It was the day he had planned to take Caroline to Ayana that day. He had underestimated the bloodlust, as had all of his siblings. It had become a bloodbath, and Elijah had lost it. He had killed a man right in front of her, then he had had to fight his siblings off of her. She had been covered in blood by the time he had gotten to the witch's house. Ayana had told him that it was okay, and that he had done well, not hurting her. She had told him that if anyone was to blame that it was his mother for cursing him and his siblings, but the image of his baby daughter covered in blood was permanent in his mind. He just hoped that he hadn't messed her up too badly by what he had had to do to protect her. The spell that linked her to the other time was something that he hoped she would be able to get through, it had been to protect her, and it had worked, but it had cemented everything she knew about a thousand years ago in her mind. He hated that it had to be this way, and he hated that he couldn't undo the spell, but he would help his daughter get through this stage and figure this out, he wouldn't leave her hurting in the limbo."