I'd trade all my tomorrows

For just one yesterday

"I want to help you defend her." Ansel said, stepping in and reaching out for his son's face. Klaus gripped his father's hand and stared in his eyes.

"I believe you." Klaus replied. "But love is what Esther twists." Klaus said, gnashing his teeth, and had to keep his mind thinking on this thought. "She will take the best of your intentions and she will use them, to get to my little girl." Klaus said, begging this man he wished he had more time with to understand what he was about to do. He gripped his father's hand and his father's fingers closed over Klaus's, looking at their hands clasped. Klaus continued to stare at him, to memorize how this man was. Ansel looked back up at his son, wondering what his son was planning to do. Klaus raised his chin high, to meet his father's eyes again.

"You waited too long, before you came to rescue me." Klaus said, his voice barely a whisper, until his resolve was firm. He let go of his father's hand and passed him, the man's face riddled with questions. Klaus walked off a few paces and kept staring out across the bayou. "I won't make the same mistake with Hope." Klaus said, looked down, and pulled the sword his father had been using out of the ground. Ansel quickly turned around, and Klaus looked at the man, seeing fear and confusion and love and sadness in the man's eyes. He would not deter him from the course he'd chosen.

"No."Ansel said. Klaus came towards his father, fighting the tears from forming in his eyes. "No, Klaus." Ansel said. He opened his mouth to speak again. "I know you. You are not capable of this." Ansel said. Klaus couldn't blink, as his adrenaline pumped.

"That's the first lie you've told me." Klaus replied, trying to keep his voice steady. He raised the sword and slashed at his father, cutting a deep wound across and over his father's chest. Ansel looked down at his wound, and Klaus did the same, hardly believing what he'd done.

He hurt his father.

He just mortally wounded his father.

Klaus dropped the sword and Ansel looked up at him, so hurt by what Klaus had just done. As he began to fall, Klaus rushed to him and caught him, soaking his shirt with his father's blood. He gripped the back of Ansel's head, not wanting to believe this was happening. He'd just found his father again, and despite every attempt to keep him away, Ansel kept coming back to his blood, to his son. This was how he was repaying him.

They fell to the ground on their knees, and Klaus held his father's head as he looked at him in his face, letting go. His only loving parent was dying. How could he do this to his father?! Ansel continued to look into his sons' eyes as Klaus rested his head on the ground, his fingers still laid on his father's face. Ansel tried to touch his son's face again, but Klaus looked away, beginning to lose all control of his emotions. Tears rolled down his face, he breathed hard, and felt his tears beginning to cease. The last of his tears fell, and Klaus's resolve became firm again. He had to do it. Hope wouldn't be safe if Ansel had still been alive.

"I spent the day with my father." Klaus said, keeping his eyes down. "My real father." Elijah looked down, sitting, wondering what that must've been like.

"Esther brought him back from the dead, believing he could convince me to renounce vampirism." Klaus held something as he approached Elijah, something he'd learned his father had possessed, when he was alive the first time. He couldn't get the sight of his dying father's face out of his head. "The thought of what I could be, had I been raised by him." Elijah looked up at him. "Had I been nurtured. This was his." Elijah looked down at it, and took what Klaus handed him. Klaus turned around before Elijah opened it, and took steps away.

Elijah took a surprised breath in as he held in his hand, a portrait of a younger Klaus, his blond hair straight, a mop over his forehead, and in his old clothes.

"He knew about Hope." Klaus added, his voice getting higher, his eyes clouding again. He could see his father's face again. "I want to help you defend her." He'd said. Elijah shut the notebook and rose to his feet. His shock was written all over his face, as he wondered why the man hadn't said anything before. If Esther truly wasn't controlling him. "I wanted to trust him more than anything in the world. I- I wanted to, but..." He shook his head and looked away again, trying to regain control of his tears. He's killed his only loving father. The father that could've helped his daughter, could've been an amazing addition to his family. He could've met Elijah, and Rebekah. And Caroline

"I couldn't be sure. And, I would never forgive myself if something happened to her, because of my selfish desire for a father. So, I killed him." He said in spite. he wasn't sure if the disdain behind his words was for Esther or himself. "Without hesitation. I killed him." Klaus added. He stared at Elijah, blinking away any notion of tears, as he waited for what his big brother would say. Elijah looked down at the notebook and then thought of the right words, that would help his brother. It was easy.

"You killed him for Hope." Elijah replied simply. Klaus continued to stare at him, questioning if he truly meant what he said. Elijah moved to him, still holding the notebook. "That more than anything, should be your consolation, brother." Elijah said. He gripped the back of Klaus's head, and Klaus tried to stop himself from crying again.

"Thank you, brother." Klaus replied. "Now if you will excuse me, I think I need to be alone." He added, tears forming again. He gripped the back of Elijah's neck as well, and they touched foreheads for a minute, before Klaus let go and left the room. Elijah watched him, and then went in search of his phone. When he found it, he went through his contacts, until he found the name. He brought it to his ear, looking to the door still. It picked up.

"Yes, hello, I need you to come here, now." He said. The other voice replied. "Good. I'll help you find him when you arrive."

Klaus put another layer of brown on the hair. Ansel's appearance was starting to come together. He'd gotten halfway through, a sunset would be painted in behind him.

Then a different heartbeat from Elijah's, or Rebekah's, or Hayley's came to the door, along with a soft knock. He turned around slowly, gripping his paintbrush. Had the grief of losing his father turned him mad so fast? Or was she truly here? His eyes laid on hers, and his heartbeat became inconsolable. She looked back at him in sympathy. As if she knew what had happened to him just hours ago. A million questions went through his mind. How was she here, now? What had happened in her life that made her look this strong, or was it something else? Was she here to stay?

She walked into the room, without saying a word, her eyes sparkling in love for seeing his face and yet sad, for seeing his own sadness. Damn it all, if she was just a symptom of his grief, he didn't care. He held onto her as she wrapped her arms around him. He buried his face in her hair and felt the happiness he hadn't known since Hope had been born, since he saw Caroline last. At this, he felt his chest contract, and his sobs begin to make sound. Caroline closed her eyes, and rocked the hybrid back and forth as he cried into her hair, hoping she wouldn't have to take a shower to wash out the snot before leaving. Klaus gripped her tighter, and cried even harder.

He killed him. He killed him. He killed him. It was for Hope, it was to protect Hope but he killed him. Oh God, he killed him.

"How did you come here so fast?" He asked. Caroline thought about the answer, and smiled.

"I was already on my way." She replied. He smiled at the words and pulled away a little.

"Did Elijah tell you of my father's passing over the phone?" He asked. Caroline shook her head.

"No, when we were searching for you, he told me. When you needed me before, you called me. Even though it was fifteen million messages." Caroline replied. Klaus looked down.

"Yes, if it weren't for your giving your number to me after our date, Elijah wouldn't know it either." Klaus replied, smiling. Caroline smiled as well.

"We're getting off-topic, Klaus." She scolded and he looked away. "What was your father like?" She asked. "Your birth father?" Klaus looked into her eyes.

"He was a good man. Honorable. Fiercely loyal." Klaus started walking and so did she. "A great leader." He added. "He could strike your heart with love or make one wonder if they had what it took to defeat him."

"So you are like him then." Caroline replied. Klaus smiled at her and stopped walking.

"Esther had forbade him from seeking me out. But he did anyway, in his wolf form. He knew I would need him when I became a wolf." He said. She nodded and caressed his shoulder. He let her do so for a minute, looking down.

"What was your last good memory of him?" She asked. Klaus looked back up at her and she tried to read his face.

"Right before I killed him, Caroline." He replied. She pulled him to her and hugged him again. "He told me he knew my daughter was still alive."

"Your daughter's still alive?" She asked. Klaus stared at her as they let go, nodding. "How is she?" She asked softly

"She's in hiding. With Rebekah." Klaus replied.

"How did your father know you daughter was alive?"

"Well that's the thing about wolves, love. We know our own blood." Klaus said, guiding Caroline into another room. "And he told me when he changed again, he was being drawn to her, away from New Orleans." He said.

"Is that why you had to kill him?" Caroline asked. He continued to stare at her and nodded. She nodded as well in understanding. "I get it then." She said.

"You do?" He asked. She stared at him.

"It was for your daughter, Klaus. Killing a man you learned to live without, verses your baby daughter getting killed for some, whacked out reason...you picked the lesser of two evils." She explained. Klaus smiled at her and she took his face in her hands. "You should finish your dad's portrait, and show it to her when she's older, tell her stories of her grandfather. Everything you can remember." Klaus nodded and she took her hands from his face, and kissed his cheek.

"Can you stay?" He asked. Caroline gave him a look.

"No." She admitted reluctantly. He looked down. "But I'll come back." She added, he immediately looked back up at her. "Maybe next time, for good."

He leaned in and kissed her cheek gently. When he pulled back, Caroline was staring at him again.

"Safe travels, Caroline." He said. She smiled at him and left the room, leaving him alone with his thoughts. Caroline had a good idea, telling Hope about Ansel. Just because she'd never meet her real grandfather doesn't mean she couldn't know him.

It was a start, to filling the hole Ansel's death had left in his heart.