Chapter Five

When Caroline woke up, they were landing, her father was already awake and had a book open in his lap.

"Good Morning, Caroline, welcome to Greece." Elijah spoke, not looking up from his book.

"Greece? I was wondering if you would ever bring me here, but I'm not exactly sure how this connects to the point of this trip."

"Your mother was born here?" Elijah explained.

"My blonde haired, blue-eyed mother was born in Greece?"

"Yes, her mother was from Ireland, if I remember correctly. Her father was a sailor for a time, and he ended up falling in love on one of his journeys, so he stopped sailing, and they came back here. Your mother was the youngest of three, her two sisters had dark hair, she was the only one who was born looking like her mother."

"What a story to tell the grandkids." Caroline remarked with a smile.

"Yes, it is, isn't it?"

"How did you meet a girl from Greece?"

"Once her mother died, her father decided to sail to the new world, while her older sisters were married she wasn't, so she decided to come with him. He died on the journey, but a couple on the boat with them took her in, and they ended up in our village, that is how I met a girl from Greece."

"What did her parents die from?" Caroline asked, the plane was still in the landing process, and she wanted more of the story.

"Her mother died of plague. Her father of a fever that was going around on the ship, we are not sure what it was."

"That sounds awful."

"I agree, but it kept her from sailing again, which meant that I got to marry her, so there was a silver lining around that storm cloud."

"Especially for you." Caroline added with a smile. As they finished their conversation, the plane came to a stop at the end of the runway, and they began to get off the plane. Caroline was in awe of the beauty of Greece, the sun was just rising over the mountains in the distance. The land was beautiful. Elijah then drove them to a resort with houses near the beach on the side of the hills that lined the white sand beaches. It was more beautiful than anything that Caroline had ever seen. They spent the next hour settling into their house. The rooms were painted a light blue with black and white accents, and paintings of the sea on the walls. There was a small kitchen and living room area that had a balcony that overlooked the hillside to the sea. The windows were cracked open, and an ocean breeze was blowing through, making the house smell like summer. The walls in the kitchen and living room were wallpaper with seashells on it, it was definitely outdated, but it felt somewhat homey to Caroline. Elijah settled into the room next to the front door of the little house, giving Caroline the one farther in. To Caroline, he was giving her the larger room, to Elijah he was placing himself as a buffer from anyone who might come in the house. He knew that his brother was still trying to find him, and while he hoped he had lost the trail before picking up Caroline, he knew that it was better to be prepared than unprepared. He was hopeful that his brother would not find out about Caroline or the doppelgänger in Mystic Falls for a while longer. He was prepared for anything though, which is why he had had the resort put this house under a human name so that they had to be invited in. He had flown over here a week ago to get invited in so that Caroline didn't worry, but he still had made sure that it was in place.

The next morning they travelled into the town that had been built in the place that her mother had been born in. Elijah explained the history and all the stories Regina had shared with him of her homeland. Then they spent the afternoon at the beach. They spent a week in Greece travelling to different historical sites including a trip into Athens at the end of the week to see the Acropolis. They would leave Athens for Rome, but Elijah had planned for them to spend one night in the city that had once been a great empire. Elijah told her of a trip he and his siblings had taken to Athens after they had been turned. It had been two thousand years prior that this place had been an empire, but the history combined with the modern day architecture allowed Elijah to give Caroline a glimpse into what it had been when he and his siblings had ended up here while running from their father. He showed Caroline where he and his siblings had been, some of the buildings that they had stood in were still standing in the historic city. It was a day filled with touristy places and important stories from her father, one of the most important being the one he told as they stood in the Parthenon.

"We faced off against our father here before he chased us out of Greece. He almost killed Kol before we were able to escape. My siblings had found happiness here, but when they faced off against our father, he threw it in their faces. When he looked at me though, he saw you in my arms, I had carried you with us on the run from city to city and continent to continent. He threw it up in my face that I was such a monster that I wasn't even able to raise my own daughter. Kol attacked him before I could even make a move, Kol almost died because of it, if my father hadn't missed his heart he would have. It was after that when Klaus decided that I needed to give you up, he decided that our siblings were more important than a human child, whether the child was mine or not. He had a long conversation with me that if I was to survive I needed to put my human life behind me, and to him that meant you. Klaus has always been harsh but above all else he keeps his word to family, and he had promised that he would protect his siblings, and you hadn't been included in that. It was the first time I stood up to him, the first time we fought. I beat him, but then all my other siblings but Kol agreed with him. Kol came up with the idea to hide you, so I took you to a safe place, a place where you would never be found or hurt. Kol and I checked on you often, and eventually I found a place for you. Caroline, know this, even if you forget everything else I have told you, you have to remember what I am about to say." Elijah turned to look at his daughter.

"Okay." Caroline responded, meeting her fathers eyes.

"Klaus has been trying to find me, I think I have lost him, but because he is looking again that means he isn't trying to hide anymore. If he finds you, if he finds me, if my family comes to Mystic Falls. If Klaus attacks me in his anger and something happens…"

"Dad, we are not talking about this." Caroline interrupted.

"Caroline, we have to. I need to know that you know what to do to stay safe."

"Okay." Caroline said, but Elijah could see the sadness in her eyes. They had known since the day that they met, and he explained Klaus to her that something could happen. Elijah was an Original, and they had had a thousand years to make enemies.

"If something happens, find the coffins, find Kol. Undagger him, or if he is undaggered just find him. Tell him everything, show him the book, tell him the truth about all of it. Then tell him that something has happened to me, or whatever is going on. He will know what to do. He is the only sibling of mine that you can fully trust."

"What if Klaus finds us, I mean isn't he the strongest, how will Kol survive."

"Kol and Klaus have been rivals since the beginning. Kol knows all of Klaus' secrets and weaknesses, he also knows his own power. Kol knows exactly how to defeat Klaus long enough to get you to safety." Elijah explained to his daughter. He hadn't wanted to have to tell her any of this, but he wasn't dumb, and he wasn't blind. Stephan Salvatore had come back to Mystic Falls, which meant Damon wouldn't be far behind. And wherever the Salvatore's were, so was Kathrine Pierce and his brother. He knew it was all coming, so he had been forced to tell his daughter.

"You think he is coming soon." It wasn't a question that came out of Caroline's mouth, but rather a statement. She had put the pieces together, Klaus was tailing him, and he was telling her a safety plan.

"I do."

"Why?"

"There has been some supernatural activity around Mystic Falls, it is pointing to some people that will draw the woman my brother is looking for to the town, which inevitably will draw him there as well."

"Is that why you took me away from there for three weeks?"

"No. I brought you on this trip because you need to find a way to accept the parts of yourself that cling to another time while also being of this time. Caroline, the parts of yourself that make you feel lonely are because of the spell, to freeze you in time the witch had to ingrain pieces of that time into you. She took those pieces from me. The acceptance of death, are because I have lost so many friends and family from the raids in those times. The annoying control freak tendencies are from when I was a teenager and so paranoid about not being ready to go to the caves that I wouldn't stop trying to be perfectly put together and prepared. The want for love, for your parents, for your mom, are because my parents didn't show love, they didn't really care about us unless we were strong warriors or strong in witchcraft. I longed for love as a teenager, and I only found it in your mother. Which is why you long for her so much. I know that those things are almost torture for you right now, but it was the only way to make sure that you didn't grow at all before I found a home for you. The other spells would just slow down your aging, and you would have grown up on the run and experienced the pain of what we went through. So this trip is to give you a glimpse of the time you long for, and of the person you long for. Hopefully it will allow you to create a way to accept those parts of you and grow from them rather than letting them shut you down." Elijah explained, finally giving his daughter the full truth of the spell he had placed on her as a child.

"You're telling me that there is more of a reason than, 'you were born in that time' for why I feel this way?"

"Yes, I am. Caroline I am sorry I haven't told you before, but I didn't know how much it would affect you until just recently. I am sorry that I even let it be done to you."

"Dad, it is the lesser of two evils. It allowed me to grow up with a loving family without ever knowing what it was like to run from my own grandfather and see my aunt and uncles daggered on and off for a thousand years. I'm not saying it's easy, but I know that you did what is best for me, because you always have." Caroline responded to her father. She wasn't mad at him, she was actually glad that she had an actual reason for what was happening to her.

"I was told by the witch that giving you glimpses of the time when I grew up would allow you to connect to it and lessen the gap you are feeling. So I thought this trip would benefit you. I also wanted to be able to tell you more about your family."

"You also wanted to get me away from the friends that were hurting me without knowing it." Caroline added. She knew her dad well after years of spending time with him, and she had figured out that he had asked her on the trip to get her away from Elena and Bonnie and the way they were hurting her, even though they didn't mean to.

"Well, it can be hard, Caroline, to deal with people who do not know your heart or what you have been through, especially when they are going through something. They never mean to hurt you, but they don't know you well enough to know that they are. Sometimes the best thing to do is remove yourself from the situation."

"So, the land with the village being built, is that so that I can get a better glimpse of it?"

"It is so that you can imagine the vision I showed you in an easier way, you can also feel at home. That village was home for me for years, and that passed to you in the spell. I want you to be able to escape to the place that feels like home."

"Thank you." With that, she gave her dad a hug before dragging him off to a restaurant for dinner.

In the next days they travelled to Rome and toured around the city, Elijah shared more stories, and they had more fun than any trip before. Both of them laughed, and on one of the days Elijah even wore the outfit she had chosen for him when she was thirteen, which made her laugh more than she had in weeks. The outfit was definitely outside of Elijah's comfort zone, but the sound of Caroline's laugh made it all worth it. The days in Rome were filled with adventure as they travelled across Italy. Caroline decided that this trip, above all the others, was the one she would treasure the most. Elijah showed her visions of memories he had of visiting different places, and it made the trip extra special to see it through the view of another time. More than anything though, the trip satisfied something in Caroline that she had been missing, she now knew what it was, and she also knew how to make it lessen. They flew back to northern Virginia at the end of three weeks, over the weeks they had talked through some of the ways that Caroline could remember this trip to help her not feel as alone anymore. When they landed three hours from home though, Caroline was confused, her dad had only told her that they were going to Greece and Rome, he hadn't mentioned another stop back in the states.

"Where are we going?" Caroline asked, trying to get information out of her unusually silent father.

"You will see when we get there." After that, he didn't say another word as he led her through a graveyard all the way back to the beginning of the woods that lined the back of the local graveyard. Elijah still didn't say a word as he walked into the woods, his daughter following close behind. After she began to look, Caroline could see other graves in between the trees, it was as if they had planted trees over the graves to cover them. The stones of the graves between the trees were old and broken, most of them laid in rubble. It only took a minute before they hit another clearing, that was when she finally looked beyond her father and found that there was a new looking stone that stood in the middle of the clearing. It was larger than any of the others she had seen, even the ones in the new part of the cemetery. She moved to stand beside her father and that is when she began to read it,

Regina Mikaelson

Beloved Wife, Mother, and Friend

Someone with faith to move the mountains

981AD-1001AD

Loved Always and Forever

Even After Forever Ends

Caroline almost immediately began to cry, Elijah stood for a moment in silence before he began to speak,

"I buried her here a few days after she died, I brought her up here so that my siblings wouldn't find out. It took a day to get here and a day to get back, but it was a good place, there was another village here back then, they let me bury her thinking I was a traveler who hadn't settled. I have continued to look after the grave, I recently replaced the stone because it was beginning to break." Elijah explained to his daughter. He visited this place more often than he used to, it was one of the few ways he allowed himself to remember and mourn her after a thousand years. He had tried to move on throughout his life, but he never had done so successfully. They stayed at the grave until dark before beginning the drive back to Mystic Falls, once Caroline was settled back at home, Elijah headed back towards New York. Neither of them knew what would happen with the beginning of school four weeks later, and neither of them worried about what lay ahead.