What happened and what's going on
"Caroline, he have a new student coming in. I think you want to be there for it." Alaric said, as he peeked in to her office in the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted, after knocking of course.
"Please, handle this on your own. I got like a zillion things to do today."
"Yeah, Care, I think you'll want to be there for this."
"What has got you so excited, it's not some mythological beast from another world, is it?" Caroline let out a little laugh at her own joke.
"Something like that."
Caroline just frowned at that. "Seriously, what is it, Rick? I don't have time for this."
"It's Hope Mikaelson," Alaric sighed.
Caroline's mouth fell open for a second in shock, "I thought Klaus wouldn't or couldn't let his daughter roll in this school?"
"I don't know all the details, but Hayley said she will explain everything as soon as they get here. And now they just got through the gate."
"But they are coming without Klaus?"
"That's what she told me on the phone, yes."
"Okay, maybe it just per our agreement that he isn't allowed to come to Mystic Falls…" Caroline was thinking out loud.
"When have you ever heard of Klaus Mikaelson doing as he's told?" Alaric asked her.
"When have you ever heard him break his promises? To me?"
"Whatever. Let's go, Caroline!"
The minute Caroline laid eyes on the littlest Mikaelson, she saw that she was the spitting image of her mother. But first conversation with her proved that she was through and through Klaus Mikaelson's daughter.
"Hayley, nice to see you back in Mystic Falls and welcome to the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted," Caroline greeted Hayley formally by shaking her hand.
"Caroline, nice to see you too after all this time." Hayley greeted her back and smiled at her.
"And what do we have here?" Caroline turned to Hope, smiling at here, sweet as ever.
"Caroline and Alaric, I want you to meet Hope Mikaelson, mine and Klaus' daughter. She hopes to become a student here. And we 'hope' that you agree to take her in?."
Caroline and Alaric exchanged looks. "You know Hayley, the offer I made to Klaus that day still stands, Hope is always welcome here. It's just her heritage could become a problem when the word gets out about her. It's bad enough that Klaus is secretly funding this school, but-"
"Yeah, yeah, I know, Alaric. That's why I want to roll her in as Hope Marshall."
Caroline and Alaric exchanged another look.
"And Klaus is okay with it?" Caroline said.
"He's fine with it."
"Wow, the rumours must be true that he has changed." Caroline said more to herself then to Hayley.
"More then you know… There's another thing you need to know about Hope. You will not be dealing with Klaus at all. Whenever you need to call somebody about Hope, please call me."
Caroline frowned, "What's this about, Hayley?"
So Hayley told them about how they finally contained the Hollow by putting it in Klaus and his immortal siblings. And how they can never be in the same room with Hope.
Caroline was too shocked to speak, so Alaric simply said, "Okay, then consider it done. We'll enroll Hope as a Marshall and no one will know who's her father is. Is that Okay with you Hope?"
"I guess. Do you teach magic tricks and stuff like that in here?"
Alaric laughed a little at that, "There's some of that. We're all about safe magic here. Remember our talk about studying things that don't want to hurt you?"
Hope just nodded.
"So I will take her on a tour and Caroline will give you some papers to sign"
"Okay," Hayley said, "Hope, go with Alaric now, I'll see you before I leave the campus?"
"Okay, mom," and of she went with Alaric.
While reading the contract, Hayley suddenly said to Caroline, "You now, Caroline, I know we weren't exactly best of friends the last time I was here, but I really would like to bury the hatchet. If not for any other reason than at least for Hope's sake."
Caroline smiled a little.
"You know, Klaus and I have a complicated history but at the end of the day I consider him to my friend. And I didn't appreciate the fact that he kept the truth about you and about hope when he visited me in Mystic Falls. Actually I was furious with him for a while, I guess you know how that is, but from everything that Stefan told me about his family, about your family, is that you are a big part of his family and that makes you a friend whether you like it or not." Caroline declared and they both let out a laugh in relief.
"You sure, I know your friends and Klaus' family hasn't exactly seen eye to eye with one another."
"Ancient history, really. But when you do see or talk to Klaus please tell him exactly that. That as you and I are turning on new leaf, I want to do the same with him. Tell him that no matter what, he's got one friend in Mystic Falls."
"I will," Hayley promised her.
Klaus and Hayley on the phone not few days later.
"So in another words, you got Hope enrolled without problems?" Klaus asked the mother of his child.
"With no problems whatsoever. Alaric and Caroline understand the situation."
"So you talked to Caroline?"
"I did. She said to tell you that you still have, no matter what, a friend in Mystic Falls."
"She did?" And Klaus could almost hear the grin on his face. "What else did you talk about?"
"Nothing personal about you. Just pure shop talk."
"Okay, greet her for me, the next time you talk to her, would you."
"Yeah, sure, but shouldn't you get together and talk things out yourself."
Klaus fell silent at that. The last time he saw her he had promised her two things that he would never return to Mystic Falls and that he would never talk about that day in the woods, when he finally got to make love to her. He didn't think things had changed for her concerning that.
Few years later a meeting in Rome.
It was Caroline's first time in Rome so she had decided to go sightseeing. It was a perfect spring afternoon when it wasn't too hot in Rome. She was currently visiting the Colosseum when suddenly she thought she heard a familiar voice with British accent.
"Hello, love."
She turned around to see Klaus Mikaelson standing before her.
"Klaus, what are you doing here?" She couldn't hide the smile that came on her face upon seeing him where she never expected to see her.
"Same as you, sightseeing," he mused.
"Right… Haven't you been to Rome like thousand times already?"
"20 or 30 times but I can never get enough of it. Especially when there are beautiful women like you walking around."
Caroline just shook her head in disbelief.
"What are you really doing here, Klaus. I'm not in the mood for games."
"Hayley told me that in passing you mentioned you would be in Rome this week so I was in Italy already and decided to come say hello."
"Well, you have done it, now you can go back to wherever you came from." And with that she turned her back on him and started taking photographs of this attraction.
"Did you know that The Romans didn't call it The Colosseum?" He asked her as he stood next to her.
Caroline was annoyed but decided to take the bite, "No, I can't say that I did. What did they call it then?"
"It was originally known as Flavian Amphitheater. It was named Colosseum during the Middle Ages"
"During which you were already like 500 years old?"
"Something like that," he smirked at her.
"Okay, thanks for the history lesson. Can you go now?" Caroline was getting impatient. She knew that she didn't want him to go but at the same time she hated how he made her feel.
Klaus was also getting annoyed so he grabbed her by the arms so he could look her straight in the eye. "I don't understand the hostility right now, Caroline. I thought we already dealt with that. And if you are so afraid of the feelings you have for me, then know that I am here as a friend. I wouldn't mind being something more but I am okay with being just friends for the time being."
Damn, he could read her so well, how did he do it, she thought. For the longest time she didn't say anything and contemplated what the say.
"Say something please," he whispered.
"What do you want me to say? That I want you so bad and I hate myself for it. Okay, then I want you so much I can't breath when you are near me. And then you appear out of nowhere and bring up all these memories I thought were long forgotten. And I can't do it. I can't be friends with you. Not because you are the Big Bad Wolf, but because I feel so much more then friendship for you and I hate myself that I can't just get you out of my head and out of my heart."
After that tirade he couldn't hold back and pulled her in for a kiss. He was so glad when she didn't just return it but wrapped her hands around his neck to do the same, to pull him closer. After kissing for a minute or two he remembered where they were and he thought she did the same as they broke apart simultaneously.
Then without thinking too much about it, he grabbed her hand in his and asked her to come with him. When he took her in front of a one of the most expensive 5 start hotels in city, she wasn't surprised at all. She wanted it. So much.
But he being ever the gentleman asked her before getting out of the car, "Only if you want to?"
Caroline felt a little paralyzed by that moment but as it felt so right, she just nodded and got out of the car with him.
Klaus of course stayed in the suite that was 10 times as big as her hotel room in a 4 star hotel that she was staying at.
"You are way too rich, has someone told you that?"
"Once or twice,"
"He jokes…" she amused.
"Of course, you are here." He said as he took a champagne bottle out, poured some in two glasses and gave her one.
"What's the occasion?"
"Pretty much you are. We are here together, in one of the greatest cities in the world, what's there not to celebrate."
"Klaus, lets make one thing clear," she said, as she walked to the balcony where he instantly followed her, "Me coming here doesn't mean that we'll start some kind of a relationship. I have my kids and I need to return to them and you and I… we just can't-"
"Shh, I know what you are trying to say and I understand. I know where we stand." He cut her off as they stared each other, their faces only inches apart.
"Good," she said, as she inched closed to him until their lips met again and this time neither of them held back as they started undressing each other.
"You are not allowed to ruin any of my clothing items this time," she murmured between kissing him.
"Duly noted." He murmured back.
His hands trailed her neckline until they came in to contact with the necklace around her neck that carried a wedding ring on it.
He broke apart the kissing for a moment, "Please take that off for tonight."
And slowly she removed the necklace from her neck and put it on the table and they continued where they left off.
** The next morning when he woke up, he was afraid that she had already left as she wasn't in the bed with her. But he quickly scanned the suite to find her on the balcony watching over the city with a sheet wrapped around her body. So he got out of bed, put on his briefs and walked over to the balcony, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind.
They stood there for a minute before she broke the silence, "You know, Hayley has told me some things about your past in New Orleans."
"Hmm… really, so what did Hayley had to say about that? How I murdered entire neighborhoods to save Hope and the rest of my family."
"Yes, about Camille O'connor. What happened to her," Caroline said warily, as she turned around to look at him, "I'm so sorry, Klaus, that that happened to you. Just as you found love in your life it was taken from you."
Klaus fell silent for a minute and Caroline thought that maybe he would get angry with her for bringing this up now. But he said, " I guess you know that how that is."
"We have a lot more in common then you realize, " he continued, stroking her hair and adjusting then to his liking, "We both love being supernatural creatures, we both have had significant losses in the past and we both now have children who mean the most to us."
"And luckily our daughters' have one more parent that are better at it then us," she joked.
"You don't really mean that? That Alaric's the better parent of the two."
"I do, he's the best father the twins could ever want. I mean he's home with them while I'm here with you."
"First of all, I agree about Hayley, but not about you and second of all, Hayley said that you travel a lot. Why are you travelling so much, Caroline?"
"It's a long story and I don't want to get into that now. But I do have to go, so I'll see you when I'll see you again."
"Okay, but one kiss before you go and escape from my life again for god only knows how long."
Caroline gave him the sweetest smiles, before leaning in and giving him a long and a slow kiss before going to the bathroom to change her clothes. When she got out of the bathroom, he had already left.
The Phone call after Chambre de Chasse.
Caroline was in her office, working, when suddenly her focus shifted and she started thinking about what Hope and Klaus must be going through with Hayley's death. When she woke up that day, everything had already happened and although she had briefly talked to Klaus, she didn't know how he really felt about Hayley's death. And poor Hope had been so devastated when she found about her mother from that new aunt of hers.
Her train of thought was interrupted by a phone call and when she saw Klaus' name on the display, she knew that a difficult conversation must me ahead.
"Hey, Klaus."
"Hello, Caroline." Just as she thought, his voice sounded like he had been crying.
"Klaus, how are you?"
"Not good. First because I just spent excruciating hours with my family in chambre de chasse. It's a magical mental prison-"
"Yeah, I know what it is. Bonnie has talked about it."
"Okay, and secondly, cause I just opened all the letters Hayley has sent me over the years about Hope, which I sent back to her and never read any of them. And I just remembered what a good person she was. At first she was a total bitch, I know, but in the end I think she grew as a person the most all of us Mikaelsons."
"I agree, I got to spend quite some time with Hayley in the last seven years and she was a wonderful mother and quite the person."
"It's good to hear that. Now that I've got that off my chest, I feel a lot better. I guess you knew me so well that I would need you when you offered to talk on the phone."
"I guess I did. But you and Hope are better now?"
"Yeah, everything looks as it's going to be better from now on. What about you, love? How are you and your family."
"Oh, you know, we have spoiled the twins to rotten, so now we reap what we have sowed."
Caroline thought that she heard him laugh at that.
"Look, I didn't want to disturb you. Thank you for listening to me."
"Anytime, Klaus."
"Thank you" and with that he disconnected the call and so did she.