'Matt we're coming for you!' Caroline called. She kept tromping through the dead leaves in the forest of her home, then looked straight ahead in shock. Klaus stood before her with a smile.
'Hello, Caroline.' Klaus greeted.
'Klaus.' She stated in surprise, looking him up and down. Klaus smiled. Caroline walked up to him with her signature glare.
'Sorry, Matt's buried alive no time to chat.' Caroline said. She sped away, leaving Klaus smiling. He sped after her and intersected her path.
'Are you not the least bit curious as to why I'm here?' Klaus asked skeptically, she spun around.
'I literally just whooshed at the sight of your face. So no.' Caroline replied, glad to have insulted him now. She stayed firm in her stance.
'Damon informed me that Katerina Petrova has taken a tragic turn,' He began
'So you're here to gloat over her corpse to-be.' Caroline assumed. Klaus looked down, about to reply, trying to shape his words in amusement. 'To delight in the closure of 500 years of revenge, great! Now I'm even less interested.' Caroline said. She sped away again. Klaus was left smiling at her absence again. He sped after her and stopped her from running him over, putting his hands up before him.
'Well then perhaps you'd be more interested in talking about Tyler.' Klaus suggested. It certainly got her attention as her wide eyes connected to his.
'Is he...did you...' Caroline began to ask fearfully
'Nah, I sent him off with little more than a bruised ego, he really does hate me, poor lad.' Klaus replied. 'Revenge, it eats at him. I heard you two broke up.' He added with a smug smirk. Caroline glared at him.
'Because I made him choose; me or his stupid revenge fantasy. He chose wrong. I suggest you learn from his mistakes and let Katherine die in peace. Dying sucks enough as it is, without having to rub anyone's nose in it.' She replied. She sped away again, leaving a shocked Klaus in her wake. Thoughts turned in his mind. Wait, did she just ask him to do the same as she'd done with Tyler, choosing her or choosing Katerina? She wondered if she meant to say that or if she was trying to get rid of him yet again. This was getting interesting.
Caroline kept calling for Matt and obviously couldn't hear anything. When Jossana caught sight of her again she brushed the hair back from her ears and closed her eyes, listening for anything.
'Would you give me the same choice?' Klaus asked from behind her. Caroline rolled her eyes and turned to him in annoyance.
'What?' She hissed
'If I were to abandon my revenge against Katerina, would you give me the same choice as Tyler?' He asked again. Klaus abandoning making someone quake in fear of him, over having the love of a woman. That was definitely a plus. Jossana never thought it possible, from remembering the way his face had looked when he slaughtered her grandmother, her mother, sisters. Brother. The look of smug joy on his face was something she would never scrub from her mind, but seeing this romance develop was better. Caroline's glare softened.
'I don't, know what you mean.' She managed, bowing her head. That was a good dodge, but the hybrid saw right through her lie. Klaus walked to her.
'Yes you do.' Klaus replied simply. Caroline's look of pretend confusion turned into a genuine smile which Jossana thought was beautiful. Caroline tore her eyes from Klaus' in frustrated bliss
'You can't do this to me! You can't just show up and distract me while my friend is in danger!' Caroline said with a grin. Seems the student has surpassed the master.
'You know while you've been vamping off in all the wrong directions I heard Matt's distant and desperate screams.' Klaus replied with a smile of his own.
'Where?' Caroline asked urgently.
'Don't worry love, I've got it covered. Rest-assured he'll be quite happy with his rescuer.' He said. Caroline considered him and let another smile escape. They walked off together and she took a wrong turn, finding them after a few seconds of conversation had begun.
'So you came all the way to Mystic Falls just to, back off when I ask you to.' Caroline wowed, lost in thought.
'No, I came all the way to Mystic Falls to gloat over a corpse to be as you so, poetically, put it...' Klaus replied, Caroline walked ahead of him, grinning. 'But I will, leave, minus the gloating, in return for one small thing.' He said in suspense, a happy smile already on his face
'And what is that?' Caroline asked
'I want your confession.' He replied, sounding as if he would get it whether she complied or not.
'My, confession.' Caroline repeated, she shrugged. 'I didn't do anything.' She shook her head in uncertainty with a humorless grin plastered on her face. Klaus's smile widened. 'confession about what?' She asked. Despite the hybrid seeming genuine in his request for something from her, Caroline seemed to think he was asking for something worse than he was letting on. What on earth could he possibly want from her but the obvious?
'Me.' He said dreamily. Caroline's expression turned from bliss to hiding her emotion. She hadn't hidden her feelings well after accidentally helping Klaus get free of Silas before, she'd certainly gotten practice. But they had become friends, and she was merely listening to a friend. Nothing sinister seemed to be going on between the pair of them.
'As soon as we're done here, I'm gonna walk away. And I'm never coming back. You'll never again have to look me in the eye and cover our connection with hostility and revulsion. You'll never again have to loathe the darkest parts of yourself that care for me, in spite of all I've done. I will be gone. And you will be free. I just,' he sighed in frustration 'I want you to be honest with me.' He said. Caroline took a moment, and then her smile grew. Perhaps she was finally willing to relent. After all this time, Jossana didn't blame her for wanting to hide her feelings against the cruel reputation of the hybrid. But when love was a question, she wanted the process moved along. Guardedness was a minor irritation for her now.
'I'm in college' Caroline began with a laugh. 'I'm building a life for myself. I have, plans, and a future, and things that I want, and none of those things involve you, okay? None of them.' She said, a look of dubiousness hard on her face which she was not staring right into Klaus's face while saying, perhaps it wasn't true. Her future, after all, was indefinite.
'I see' Klaus replied in a low tone, guarding himself again from the things Caroline would soon say.
'No, you don't, because...yes, I cover our connection with hostility, because yes, I hate myself, for the truth.' She confessed. Jossana raised her hands in the air and had to fight the urge to dance again. It finally happened! This was no longer a secret which she had to wait for one of them to uncover, it was finally before them! 'So if you promise, to walk away; like you said and never come back then yes I will be honest with you. I will be honest with you...about what I want.' Caroline said, beginning to pant from her ranting. He merely stared at her for a moment and she let out another huff. Then he considered her offer and nodded, stepping closer to her.
'I will walk away. And I will never come back. I promise.' He said with a sly smile. Caroline's face softened to affection almost immediately. She let her eyes drop to his mouth as she neared him, Klaus's eyes wide on her face, searching her eyes. She leaned in and kissed him, her hand going to his face as she kissed him again. The thousand year old lovesick, mass-murdering, terrifying, unredeemable monster of a man who wore a suit to their first date, and turned around creating more and more chaos, kissed her back, and kissed her back. He didn't raise his hands to hold her. He merely stood there, and let her confess her feelings over and over. When Caroline pulled away with a low sigh, as if to control herself, their foreheads touched. Her hand stoked the side of his face softly, and the hybrid's look of surprised wonder turned into immense ecstatic joy. They shared a smile and he gripped her arms, guiding her backwards to a nearby tree, without hesitation their kisses began again, Klaus pinning Caroline against the tree, Caroline taking his jacket off, Klaus taking her jacket off, then ripping her shirt front open. As the buttons flew and scattered away, Jossana turned away. She left the happy couple to their business and grinned, punching through the air at her victory.
It was only when she came back to find Klaus Mikaelson that she discovered he'd been true to his word. He'd left her. Caroline faced ridicule by her jealous ex-boyfriend who refused to hear her out, and she seemed alright with her afternoon passion with the hybrid. But she never moved on from the moment, the days when Jossana was doubtful Caroline would come to Klaus in New Orleans she travelled to look in on the young vampire. Every time she did there were memories of that day flashing in Caroline's mind. When she conversed with the Salvatores, or the doppelganger. And when Jossana felt she was needed to make sure the hybrid didn't forget her, she saw she had no need of reminding him. The same memories flashed across his eyes. Some small smiles he kept to himself, whether in the company of his family or by himself, were intended for Caroline Forbes. Were because of their memories.
They would reunite again.
after two full years of waiting for that moment, and another five waiting for Caroline to find the hybrid, or the hybrid to break out of his prison, Jossana felt enough was enough. She would play the role of messenger, and bring the two together like they always should've been.
Elijah and Jossana opened their eyes together and stared at each other.
"That certainly determines what must happen." Elijah decided. Jossana nodded with a smile.
"What did she show you?" Hayley asked. Elijah looked at his love, then to his siblings who stared at him.
"Niklaus and miss Forbes, shared a moment before he returned to our home. He has been waiting for her to return to him since." Elijah replied. Hayley looked away in thought, and Jossana turned to the other Mikaelsons, who were also busy wrapping their head around the new information.
"Seven years." Rebekah wowed.
"Yes." Elijah replied. "Perhaps our dear brother is not a man who couldn't love after all." Elijah said. She eyed him. "Perhaps he is indeed redeemable." He said to himself in a murmur. Jossana caught his eye and asked a silent question.
"My brother, who at the beginning of our lives was kind and compassionate, became the monster you watched slaughter a village. I have been trying for centuries, to find a way to redeem him. I must take the blame for his pain, however. At the beginning before he had become Niklaus Mikaelson, a hushed whisper only passed by the ones in fear of him, to the point where he was merely a myth, he had had a love. Aurora De Martel, you might've seen her the times you followed Niklaus, I'm sure." Elijah said. Jossana bowed her head.
"I did, yes. And I apologize if doing so hinders your trust in me." She replied.
"It is no matter at present, but if I might add; Aurora broke my brother's heart. He wanted her to come with him the time when our father found us again, and she came to me. My head was clouded in judgment of the girl and her brother, I did not give her a choice. It was the first time I learned we the first vampires could compel others we had created. I compelled her, to break Niklaus's heart, and refuse to leave with him. And so the monster he became was the fault of both Aurora de Martel, and my own." Elijah said. Jossana nodded.
"Caroline telling Klaus Mikaelson she believed he could be redeemed, because of his feelings for her. That was part of why he became a good man for her." Jossana said.
"Bloody hell." Rebekah said to herself. "That vampire Marcel had put into the Garden for killing a vampire, Thierry. Nik freed him for her." She realized. Jossana nodded with a smile.
"I must go and tell him." Elijah said, rushing from the room. Jossana smiled at the rest of the Mikaelsons and Elijah appeared at the doorway.
"I trust since you've told us all you know, you will cease following my brother?" He asked.
"Yes, I promise." She replied. He nodded. She turned back to the others.
"You believe me, right?" She asked.
"The only thing you've done with your stalker abilities was to bring hope to our family and love to our brother. That is not a cause for alarm, dear." Rebekah replied. Jossana looked at Kol.
"Things will certainly become more interesting around here once Nik's brought the baby vampire to us." He agreed. "And if he feels you deserve to die because of what you did, I'm sure Caroline will come to your rescue."
"We will guard you as well." Freya added to Kol's idea. Hayley nodded. Jossana smiled at them.
"Thank you. I do have to remind you, once Klaus Mikaelson and Caroline Forbes are joined, I might not be long for this world. The preservation spell we learned has only been done by me. I'm sure once the spell is broken it will revert me to my original age."
"Don't worry about that." Freya said, coming to Jossana's side. "If you wish to remain alive and live out the rest of your days, I will complete the spell so you have an added eighty years. Just say the word." She offered.
"No, I think I'll let my time run out." Jossana replied. "I have missed my family for sixty years. I stayed alive to make sure their memories were left in the peace they chose. I want to join them again." She said. Freya smiled at her and nodded.
"Well we'll have to wait and see if Klaus is going to be told of your presence. And if so, if he believes your word. We'll keep you hidden until then." Rebekah said. Jossana nodded and followed Rebekah into the room they'd come from.
The door being locked was little consequence to Elijah. He knocked on the door and upon receiving no reply, he kicked the door from its hinges, letting it drop open, still attached by a corner. Klaus turned toward his brother unbothered, sitting at the side of his bed as Elijah straightened his suit and walked from the partially blocked doorway.
"Klaus I don't know, what it is that's troubling you, and if as you continue to keep it from all of us, there may be something that interests you." Elijah began. Klaus blinked and turned to his brother warily. He hadn't shaven since he left the Garden, his hair was becoming long, his eyes going between bloodshot and bright red, he would assume from tears. The man hadn't even bathed for two weeks, not leaving his room for anything but blood. Although sometimes he decided to wreak havoc in an empty room, tearing every piece of furniture to shreds and yelling while doing so. This was one of the lowest points Elijah had ever seen him. Klaus didn't say a word. "Brother I've heard of Caroline Forbes, I've known her appearance from Rebekah's description. But I never knew what she meant to you." Klaus turned away. "And it wasn't until minutes ago, that I learned she was looking for you." Elijah said. Klaus stood up, his eyes wide on his brother. Klaus walked to him, and placed a hand on Elijah's shoulder, raised his other hand as well.
"This better not be a trick." Klaus replied, pointing an accusing finger at him. Elijah nearly let his brothers' first words in six months stun him into silence.
"I assure you, it's not." Elijah said. Klaus let go of Elijah's shoulder and turned away. "You must go to her, brother." He said as Klaus travelled to another room inside his bedroom. Klaus looked at him and Elijah was briefly reminded of an isolated hermit; long beard, scraggly hair and a mute voice.
"That I shall, brother." Klaus replied. "I just need to make myself presentable first." He said. Elijah grinned as Klaus disappeared into his bathroom, and when Elijah went back to his siblings the others were staring at him expectantly.
"He's going, I think." Elijah told them. Everyone shared silent smiles and waited for Klaus to appear from his bedroom. Within an hour he did. His hair was shaved down, his blonde curls gone. His facial hair around his mouth was almost non-existent. And he looked clean.
"So it takes a long-lost love to get you to shower, that's good to know." Rebekah noted.
"If you all could refrain from your comments, please." Klaus replied.
"Nik, it's us." Kol told him teasingly. He smiled at his little brother and began to walk away.
"Where're you going?" Freya asked. Klaus looked at her.
"I'm going to find Caroline." He said simply. With a grin he left in a flash, and Rebekah went to check on Jossana.
Things were starting to look up.
