This is part 3 of Born to Rule, which is the follow on series from Trials & Tribulations, so I seriously don't recommend reading this unless you've at least read Treachery and Transcendent, if not the stories before that.

Also, I throw canon out of the window, so you'll see bits and pieces from canon, but not how you're used to!

Previously, on Born to Rule:

Caroline turned to greet Jo's fiancé, only to freeze in her tracks, her arms automatically tightening around her daughter.

"… Ric?"

To be fair, Alaric seemed just as surprised to see her. "Caroline?"

Jo frowned. "Do you two already know each other?"

"Mama," Hope said, tilting her head curiously. "Wall."

"That's right, baby girl," Caroline said, her voice oddly calm. "He is on your wall."

"Caroline was Elena's best friend," Ric said hoarsely.

"Mama, wall," Hope said again, frowning. "Clouds"

"Yes, he is in the clouds, isn't he?" Caroline said, her eyes narrowed. "That's because he's like Auntie Freya, baby - Mama thought he'd gone to live with the angels and couldn't come back. Josh?"

Josh appeared at her side in a split-second, making Jo jump.

"Sorry," Caroline said. "Josh, do you mind taking Hope over to the playground please?"

"Yeah, of course," Josh said, frowning at Ric. "Do you need me to call …?"

"No," Caroline said hastily. "Everything's fine. Human heartbeat, which … shouldn't be right, but there you go. I just need to have a conversation that I don't want Hope to overhear."

"Right." Josh held his arms out. "Come on, honey."

"No," Hope said, pouting.

"Hope, you like playing with Uncle Josh," Caroline said.

Hope shook her head, still looking at Alaric - clearly she had cottoned on to the fact that the interesting bit was still to come.

"Hope, who do you think can push you higher on the swings?" Josh asked. "Me or Uncle Aiden?"

Hope's pout faltered.

"Because last time, we got you really, really high, didn't we?" Josh asked coaxingly. "Think we can beat it?"

Hope finally smiled, reaching her arms out.

"Atta girl," Josh said, taking her.

"We run please?" Hope asked.

"Only because you said please," Josh said, disappearing with her.

Caroline heaved a sigh and turned back to Alaric and his … fiancee. "Jo, I'm so sorry I wasn't completely honest with you just now."

"I'm a witch," Jo said, gentling rocking the stroller. "I wasn't honest with you either. Ric's told me all about Mystic Falls."

"Everything?" Caroline asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Everything," Ric confirmed. "I learned my lesson with Jenna."

"Jenna would have happened even if she knew everything," Caroline said gently. "But that's not the point. How are you not dead?"

"I don't know," Ric admitted. "February before last, I woke up in a storage unit, human. Stumbled out and ran straight into Jo - she knew what I was, that I'd somehow come back from the dead, and invited me to stay."

"Well, that was … brave of you," Caroline said.

Jo laughed. "Honestly, I'd had my own problems. We helped each other deal with those things and then … then the girls happened. Best accident of my life."

Caroline relaxed, chuckling. "Fair enough. Okay, so last February … that might actually make sense. I don't suppose you had some kind of turn last December, did you?"

Ric frowned. "I did actually - I passed out for a few hours. How did you know?"

"Esther Mikaelson came back from the dead," Caroline answered. "It's a very long story, which I will need to tell you at some point, but I killed her February before last. We had to bring her back last December before we put her down again, but she told me that was the first time she'd properly crossed over, so to speak. My guess is when she died properly, you came back. Why you came back human though, is beyond me. But that's not what's bothering me."

"You want to know why I didn't tell any of you," Alaric said heavily, taking a seat on the bench.

"I do," Caroline agreed, sitting beside him. "Hang on, let's scooch a bit, so the fiancee you didn't tell us about can sit down as well."

Jo chuckled and sat down on Ric's other side. "In my defence, Caroline, I have been telling him to call."

"She has," Ric said. "Honestly, the first thing I did, after convincing her I wasn't going to hurt her, was borrow her phone and call Elena, but the line was dead and I … I remembered."

"Remembered?" Caroline asked.

"I don't remember most of it," Ric said. "I know that I was forced to transition, although I don't remember actually being a vampire."

"Not surprised," Caroline said. "You won't be happy to know that it was Evil Ric that woke up."

Ric closed his eyes, his head falling back. "I thought I'd fixed that. I thought I was making him go away."

"You haven't had any episodes since you woke up?" Caroline asked.

"Nothing," Jo answered for him. "If he had, I would have noticed."

Caroline patted Alaric's arm. "So you remembered that you'd been a vampire?"

"And that Elena was the kill-switch," Ric whispered. "I knew that … I knew that for me to die, Elena must be dead as well, which explained why her phone was dead. I couldn't bring myself to come home, Caroline. I couldn't face Jeremy, or Damon, or any of you for that matter, knowing that it was my fault she was gone. Why did I get to come back, with everything I'd done, everyone I'd hurt, when Elena had barely had a chance to live?"

Jo rested her head on his shoulder. "It took me two weeks to figure out who Elena actually was - he just kept telling me his daughter was dead and it was his fault."

"What do you go with now?" Caroline asked. "Ex-girlfriend's niece, ex-wife's daughter, or legal charge?"

"I still go with daughter," Jo said with a smile. "Family shouldn't be defined by biological relations."

"Well, mine isn't," Caroline agreed. "But honestly, Ric, if I didn't know that you didn't meet Isobel until college, I'd swear you were her father; you're both as bad as each other when it comes to blaming yourself for things that aren't your fault."

"How is her death not my fault?" Ric asked. "She died to kill me - is that not right?"

"It is," Caroline conceded. "But it's not your fault what happened. We could blame Matt and Jeremy, because they'd conspired to get her out of town, so they were the reason she was on Wickery Bridge. We could blame Rebekah, because she was the one that forced her and Matt off the road. We could blame Stefan, because he saved Matt over Elena because she begged him to. But we don't blame you."

"Who do you blame?" Jo asked, clinging to Ric's hand.

Caroline smiled. "Well, probably unfairly, I blame Meredith Fell."

"What …" Ric asked hoarsely. He cleared his throat. "How does Meredith fit into what you just said?"

"She doesn't really," Caroline admitted. "She had nothing to do with Elena's death. But she did give her vampire blood without telling anyone."

Jo caught on before Ric did. "You said he and Elena are as bad as each other. She's a vampire, isn't she?"

"She is," Caroline said, squeezing Ric's other hand. "She's fine, Ric. She's absolutely brilliant. Look." She pulled out her phone and pulled up her photo albums, finding Elena's wedding.

She talked Ric and Jo through them, telling them about each picture. The first photo of Elena in her dress made Jo gasp and tear up a little, as though she had known her fiancee's adopted daughter her entire life, rather than just through Ric's stories.

Eventually, Caroline had to break the news. "We formed a truce with the Originals," she said, as she flicked to a picture of Elena with her bridesmaids.

"Probably a good idea," Ric said with a sigh. "Although I'm not sure what I'm more surprised by - Rebekah as a bridesmaid or Katherine as a bridesmaid."

Caroline sighed, putting her phone away. "Well, let me start from the beginning. It started when Elena turned …"

The story of the last few years took almost an hour and thankfully her audience did not interrupt (with the exception of Lizzie deciding that she wanted a snack).

Finally she fell silent, watching Hope on the swings, well out of earshot.

"So you're telling me," Ric said, "that the adorable little girl who just got bribed with going really high on the swings is Klaus Mikaelson's daughter."

Caroline laughed. "I know; hard to believe, isn't it?"

"Is he a good father?" Ric asked.

"He is actually," Caroline said. "They're all wonderful with her. It's like Katherine - once they were safe from their father, or Nik in her case, they could relax a bit. Don't get me wrong, it's not easy. Sometimes I have to deal with five toddlers instead of just one." She grinned. "But I'm not alone. And New Orleans is so much more peaceful than it was when I arrived."

"Head's up, Caroline," Josh said. "She's getting tired."

Caroline checked her watch. "Uh oh. We're getting close to nap-time; someone's probably due a meltdown." She grabbed her notebook and scribbled down a few numbers, tearing the page out to hand it to Jo. "That's my number at the top, and the second one's Elena's new number. Make sure he calls her."

"Don't worry," Jo said. "We're going to go for a visit."

"Jo …" Ric began.

"We're going," Jo said, rising to give Caroline a hug. "I might call you for advice at some point."

"Please do," Caroline said. "When you get back, I'll give you that tour."

"Caroline," Josh called.

"And that's my cue," Caroline said, giving Ric a hug. "I'll see you both soon. Alright, Hope," she called. "Mama's coming!"

Up in Mystic Falls, the start of summer had brought in the tourist season. Mystic Falls was far from the most popular tourist destination, but it got its fair share of small-town tourists, which kept Jeremy more than busy at the Mystic Grill.

After one particularly busy shift, he arrived home to find a welcome sight - Alaric standing on the sidewalk just outside.

Checking that no one was looking, Jeremy folded his arms. "Well, you took your time! Where the hell have you been? For God's sake, Ric, you can't just take off like that. You're dead; where the hell can you even go?"

Ric faltered and Jeremy realised a bit too late that a woman with a stroller was approaching them - and he'd just been yelling at thin air.

Before he could think of a reasonable excuse, Ric spoke. "I'm sorry, Jeremy." He reached out and grasped his shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

Jeremy froze, Ric's hand warm and real on his shoulder. "How … What … Ric?" His voice cracked in a way that should have embarrassed him.

"I'm here, Jer. I'm real and I'm okay."

Jeremy stepped forwards, throwing his arms around his guardian, burying his face in his shoulder, shaking with suppressed tears.

Alaric's arms closed around him, comforting and familiar.

Another hand touched his shoulder, a soft female voice asking if he was okay.

"He's okay," Ric said. "Jeremy? Can we go inside?"

Jeremy pulled back, wiping at his eyes. "Depends - do you need an invitation? I kind of promised Elena that I'd keep it vampire free."

Ric smiled proudly. "Good boy. But I came back human, Jer. And Jo's a witch."

Now Jeremy focused on the woman, suddenly realising that she wasn't just a concerned passer-by, but someone that Ric knew and - by the looks of it - loved. "Ric? Something else you want to tell me?"

She held out her hand. "Josette Laughlin. It's really nice to meet you, Jeremy. I've heard a lot about you."

Jeremy shook her hand, glancing at the stroller. "Ric, if they're yours, you've got some explaining to do."

"They are and I do," Ric said. "Any chance you can call Elena?"

"Yeah, of course," Jeremy said, leading the way up the path. "Are you okay with the stroller? These houses were not built to be child-friendly."

"Clearly not," Jo said, eyeing the front door. "I'm going to suggest we just get the girls out and just carry them in. I should have driven from the hotel."

"You're not honestly staying in a hotel," Jeremy said. "Ric, you know I've got room here."

"Well, I wasn't sure you'd want me around," Rick said.

"Oh for …" Jeremy unlocked the front door and pulled it open. "Get in there; I'll call Elena and then order pizza."

"Still can't cook?" Ric asked, picking up one of the girls.

"I can just about cope," Jeremy said. "Damon taught me enough to look after myself; not sure it's particularly up to company though."

"Well, you're in luck," Ric said. "Jo likes pineapple on hers."

"That makes two of us," Jeremy said, grinning at her.

"Yeah, you're both weird," Ric grumbled, collapsing the stroller with one hand.

"Are you sure you don't need a hand?" Jeremy asked.

"No, I've got it," Ric said. "I think."

Jeremy rolled his eyes and came back out to pick the stroller up. "Weren't you the one who told me it wasn't a crime to ask for help?"

"He's embracing fatherly stoicism," Jo said tiredly.

Jeremy set the stroller down in the hallway, leaning it against the wall. "Coffee?"

"I'd love some," Jo said. "Do you happen to have any decaf?"

"You're in luck," Jeremy said. "Elena's trying to get me to switch, so I've got it coming out of my ears. How do you take it?"

"Cream and three sugars please," Jo said.

Jeremy nodded. "Ric, still take yours as undrinkable?"

"As it comes," Alaric said, rolling his eyes.

Jeremy ducked into the kitchen, dialling Elena's number. "Elena? Can you bring the others over for pizza? You won't believe who's here."

Elena clearly didn't bother driving. Within a few minutes of Jeremy's call, the door opened and closed. "Jeremy?"

Ric stood, passing Lizzie over to Jeremy. "Here, hold her, would you?"

"Er, okay," Jeremy said, a little startled.

Elena appeared in the living room door, her eyes locking with Ric's. "Oh my God …" she faltered, her breath catching. "Are you … How? When?"

"Esther died apparently," Jeremy said, pulling faces at the baby in his arms.

"That was over a year ago," Elena whispered.

"I thought you were dead," Ric said hoarsely. "I couldn't face them."

"Oh …" Elena stumbled forwards, throwing her arms around him. "I'm so sorry."

"He talks about you two like you're his kids," Jo said quietly.

"I guess we were," Jeremy said. "He and Isobel never had children, even though I think Ric wanted them. When Jenna died, he stepped up, and moved in here to look after us, even though it was really more a case of the three of us looking after each other. And you probably know by now that Ric can't cook either."

Jo laughed. "I swear he can burn water. You said you can't either; I assume Elena …?"

"No, Elena can't cook at all," Jeremy said. "Damon used to turn up and make dinner for us and stock the freezer, claiming he was bored. And that's his car."

The engine cut outside the house and Elena released Ric so he could greet Damon and Stefan.

"I'd hit you," Damon said, releasing his best friend, "but there appear to be babies in the room."

Ric smiled. "This is Jo, my fiancee."

"We're getting married in April," Jo said, with an almost shy smile. "It's so lovely to meet you all; I've heard so much about you all."

Elena broke into a smile. "I'm so glad he's found someone. I was worried he was going to mope for the rest of his life."

"Meredith," Ric reminded her.

Elena rolled her eyes. "Meredith was a distraction and you know it. And who are these two?"

"Our little surprises," Jo said, getting to her feet. "Jeremy's holding Lizzie - Elizabeth Jenna."

Elena sucked in a little breath of surprise as she bent to see the baby in her brother's arms. "Please tell me he told you who Jenna was before he named her."

Jo smiled. "He did. And I named her. I know it sounds odd, but … It was grieving the people we've lost that brought us together. The people I was mourning were still alive, so … it just felt right. I hope you don't mind."

"No, of course not," Elena said. "She'd be so happy for you, she really would."

"And this," Jo said, placing her second daughter in Elena's arms, "is Josie - Josette Elena."

"That was a joint effort," Ric added.

Elena blinked rapidly. "You're going to make me cry again. Hi sweetheart. I'm … Are we going with auntie or sister?"

"Sister," Jo and Ric said together.

"I'm your big sister," Elena said softly, smiling when Josie's eyes blinked open. "Hi baby girl. Jeremy, you're not the youngest anymore."

"I know," Jeremy said with a grin, reluctantly relinquishing Lizzie to Damon. "It's great, isn't it?"