Hello my lovely readers! It's been a while and I finally found some inspiration for this story. I apologise for the wait and I do hope you like the chapter.

Kol Mikaelson knew that it was the end. He had woken that morning with a sense of dread that he could not shake. It had taken root deep within him and had twisted its way into his soul. He had spoken truthfully with his sister about his feelings and epiphanies. He had not heard her voice in days. Their baby, and with it any false notion of them being a family, had died. In the blink of an eye, a woman who had never truly been his was now out of his reach forever. Indeed, for Kol Mikaelson, it was the end.

"Hayley?"

Klaus' confusion was real. He had barely seen the woman in weeks and her presence in his parents' home, though giving some way to explaining their anger, was perplexing to him.

"Get her out of this house!" Mikael raged; his eyes bulging wide in their sockets as his wife paced frantically.

"I'm not leaving until I know where Elijah is." Hayley shouted back over her shoulder; giving Klaus a wicked smile.

Returning her sentiment, Klaus shrugged off the ensuing mayhem and idly walked into the house. Tyler was close behind him and Hayley slammed the door shut just as Mikael stormed over and continued ranting; now turning his attention to his least favourite son.

"Get that woman out of here, Niklaus."

"This has nothing to do with me. I'm here to see Caroline."

"She's not here." He heard his mother address him as Ether appeared at the archway; her eyes red rimmed. "She left about an hour ago."

"Did she say where she was going?"

It did not escape Klaus' attention when his mother eyed Tyler with suspicion but if she had anything to say about his presence, she did not voice it. Instead, she kept her lips locked and shook her head gently before focusing on her bellowing husband. A movement in the corner and Klaus saw his sister and younger brother enter the room. Fury flared up inside of his chest when he locked eyes with Kol. They had yet to see one another since Klaus had discovered the truth about Lacey's relationship with his brother and her departure after her miscarriage. The pain was still fresh and he found it almost impossible to refrain from attacking Kol where he stood.

Turning away from the young man, Klaus focused on the continuing argument between Mikael and Hayley and came to the woman's defence.

"Leave the poor girl alone! Elijah can date whoever he wants and quite frankly, she's a massive step up from Katherine. Be grateful."

"This woman is nothing but a gold digger. She will be the ruin of Elijah and I won't have her here! She's no better than Katherine or that damn sister of hers."

His mouth forming a tight line, Klaus clenched his fists and spoke slowly with undeniable authority.

"Say another word about the woman I love and I'll strangle you."

"You need to remember who you're speaking to, boy." Mikael spat back, advancing upon his son.

Lowering his head, Klaus snorted before lunging at his father; Hayley stepping in and pushing him backwards before he could do any harm. Her hands pushing forcefully against his chest, she begged him to look at only her as she tried fruitlessly to calm him.

"Klaus, stop. He's not worth it. Lacy wouldn't want you to do this."

Finally meeting her brown eyes, the blonde-haired man reluctantly nodded and listened to his brother's girlfriend. He could see his father smirking back at him and the exhaustion that plastered his mother's face. For the first time he could remember, he pitied Esther and realised how unlucky she was to spend her life with a twisted, bitter, and egotistical man. Turning his back on his parents, he ignored the baiting comments that Mikael shouted after him.

"We're leaving." Klaus stated. "You too. You're too good for this place." He added to Hayley who agreed and followed him out.

Standing in the drive-way, the three visitors could still hear the booming cries of the various Mikaelson family members emanating from inside. Klaus fished his phone from his jacket pocket and immediately began dialling Caroline's number. As he did so, he heard Tyler and Hayley speak.

"Man, they're your parents?" Klaus hummed in response to Tyler's question. "Jesus, I thought my family was bad. Why would anyone want to be a part of that?"

"They're not all like that. Only Mikael and Esther." said Hayley.

"Still, you'd have to have a screw loose to want to have anything to do with that."

"Shut the hell up, yeah? Hayley snapped. "You have no idea what you're talking about. You don't know anything about that family."

"I know that my fiance thinks that they can give her something I can't."

"What are you talking about?"

"Caroline." Tyler sighed, exasperated and rubbing his temples.

"Klaus?"

His attention caught as he listened impatiently to the dialling tone whilst waiting for Caroline to answer her phone, Klaus scratched the itchy stubble on his cheek and rolled his eyes; as if the whole situation was just a mere inconvenience to him and not a life altering event.

"Hayley this is Tyler... Caroline's fiance and possible father of her baby."

Her eyes widened immediately and her mouth gaped open in shock. Looking from one man to another, Hayley took a moment to process the information before gracefully composing herself and quelling her fire of curiosity; opting only the ask the one question she believed was the most vital.

"Does Lacey know?"

"I haven't-"

His sentence unfinished, the young man's sole attention turned to Caroline when he heard her sweet, soft voice greet him on the other end of the phone.

"Where are you?" He asked, abruptly.

"I'm at the hospital waiting to see the doctor. I did tell you I had an appointment today."

"I forgot." Klaus admitted, knowing that when he heard her sigh that she knew just that. "I'm on my way. Stay there and wait for me."

Klaus ended the call and ordered Tyler to follow him. Calling out to him, Hayley pleaded with him.

"Klaus..."

"What, Hayley? I really need to see Caroline."

"I know. I just - Elijah went to go see Katherine last night and I haven't heard from him since. He's not answering any of my calls or messages. I'm worried. What if -"

Standing for a moment, Klaus put aside his own urgency for a minute and, placing one hand on Hayley's shoulder, he comforted his brother's lover as best as he could. Every word that he spoke, he spoke with confident truth.

"Elijah and Katherine are ancient history. I know my brother and he loves you. You have nothing to worry about. He'll be back."

Not entirely convinced, as jealously continued to gnaw at her insides, Hayley gave a slight smile and thanked Klaus. She watched him walk back to the car and open the door. Half inside, she saw him stop and turn to her again.

"Why did Elijah go to see Katherine?" he questioned, a light bulb going off inside of his head as he realised how out of character the action would be for his older brother.

"She called him up. Said she needed help with Lacey. That's all I know."

"Wait, Lacey is with Katherine?" Hope making him raise his voice.

"Yeah, I thought you knew."

Grinning uncontrollably, Klaus banged the roof of his car in relief but his smile faded when he caught Tyler's gaze and realised that, even in spite of his immense yearning to drive away and search for his lost love, he had a more pressing matter in town that needed to be dealt with. Thanking Hayley, he sped away from the Mikaelson manor and made the short journey to the hospital in record time.

It was already beginning to approach early evening but time seemed meaningless as the two opposing men stalked the halls of the hospital in search of Caroline. When they finally located her, they saw her expression darken and her face drain all of colour when she witnessed them standing together. What scared her more than anything, though, was the contempt on Klaus' face. Struggling to her feet, she surged forward and hissed for them to be quiet so afraid she was that they would attract unwanted attention.

"You have some explaining to do." sneered Klaus, towering over the vulnerable woman.

"Hey, man. Back off. She's pregnant." Tyler argued, coming to Caroline's defence.

"She cheated on you and lied to you about the baby, and you're going to stand there and defend her?"

"I'm just as pissed as you are -"

"I doubt that." interrupted Klaus.

"-but she's still pregnant and shouting at her could harm the baby."

"Your concern is touching but because of Caroline and her lies I almost lost the woman I love."

"Yeah, and because of you I did lose the woman I love... when you stole her away, remember?" replied Tyler, squaring up to Klaus as his anger began to get the better of him.

"Well things seemed to have worked out pretty well for you regardless. You proposed to the damn girl!"

"Will you two just shut up?!" cried Caroline, throwing a shady look at a pair of woman across the room when she caught them staring. "I know I have some things to explain and I'm sorry if I caused any trouble-"

"Why did you lie to me?" Klaus asked, so furious and shocked that she would do such a thing.

"I never lied, Klaus. The baby is yours." She reaffirmed, avoiding the hurt on her fiance's face. "When you decided you didn't want me, I was hurt. You humiliated me and I realised what a massive mistake I made leaving Tyler for you. I went back to him and it was weeks before I found out I was pregnant."

Disbelief written all over his face, Klaus scoffed. "Why now? Why wait so long to tell both of us the truth?"

Tears welled in her eyes. "I was scared shitless! I hoped the baby was Tyler's but when I had my first scan it just showed me how wrong I was. I didn't want to lose him but I felt guilty! I know how badly you wanted a normal family and I couldn't let our baby grow up without knowing its father."

The three of them stood in silence, each focused on their own predicament. Finally, Caroline put an end to the quiet and turned to Tyler. Her face showed every ounce of remorse so unable to hide her feelings she was. Inside of her belly, tiny feet kicked at her ribs and she began to cry as her juxtaposing emotions overwhelmed her; for how could she ever regret hurting the man she loved when doing so had given her a child she loved for than anything in the living universe.

"I never should have lied to you, Tyler. I don't deserve you. That's why I left." Her voice cracked. "I love you so much but my baby needs a father. It needs its real father."

Tyler stood stoic. "I forgave you for cheating on me. I'm pissed that you lied to me about the baby but you shouldn't have left without telling me where you were going."

"I know." Caroline whispered, hanging her head in shame.

"I've been going out of my mind with worry! You can't just pull this kind of shit and expect it not to effect me. How can you think that this place is a stable environment for the baby? Have you seen that family?"

"Watch it." Klaus interjected, the warning in his voice putting Tyler in his place.

"If I didn't want you, Caroline, then I wouldn't be here."

Before another word was said by the troubled couple, Klaus interrupted. "As touching as this whole thing is, I have something important I need to do."

"Wait, Klaus, the appointment-"

"Caroline, if you had just told me the truth months ago I could have avoided a whole load of trouble. Right now, I need to go fix things with Lacey and hope that neither you nor me screwed it up so badly that she doesn't take me back."

He stormed away with purpose and as soon as he was clear of the hospital doors, he had his phone in hand and was desperately calling Lacey's number once more. With each ring of the dialling tone, his anxiety grew but he would not be deterred. Voicemail. Again.

"Lacey..."

The words were stuck in his throat and so he cleared it. He closed his eyes and was hyper aware of the seconds ticking by but all he could think about was how the last time he had laid eyes on her, touched her, heard her declare her love for him, couldn't possibly be the last time. They were meant to be forever in the face of any adversary that came their way and yet, somehow, through tragic circumstance they had been torn apart. So he spoke the only words he had left inside of him.

"You're forgiven. Always and completely forgiven. So I'm bringing you home."

Cutting off the call once satisfied with his message, Klaus slammed the door of his car tight shut and started the engine. Foot on the gas pedal, he veered off into the road; joining the traffic that led the way to his chance at true happiness and the family he yearned for.

Let me know what you think! :) Elijah will be back in the next chapter and there will be a show down between Klaus and Kol pretty soon. What do you guys think will happen with Elijah/Hayley/Katherine and Kol/Lacey/Klaus. I love hearing what you wonderful people think. Much love xx