Caroline went straight home. She knew that Davina would be going to the cemetery, that Sophie would almost certainly have been called as well, but she had a feeling that her presence would not be required, nor would it be particularly welcome at that moment in time.

She found Klaus in the living room, Hope fast asleep in his arms.

"What happened?" Klaus asked in an urgent whisper. "Sophie took off like all of the hounds of Hell were chasing her."

"Esther's dead," Caroline said, almost mechanically, sinking into the seat next to him. "I stabbed her with a white oak stake."

"Well, that was … inspired," Kol said from the doorway. "Are you sure she's dead?"

"The other Harvest girls have collapsed," Caroline answered. "Davina's gone to the cemetery; I assume Sophie has as well."

"I suppose I had better go as well," Kol said. "Someone needs to keep an eye on things. Where's the stake now?"

"I hid it," Caroline said. "It's in the compound. I'm not telling you where. And I want one of you to compel me to forget where it is so no one else can take it from me either."

"Kol, do you mind?" Klaus asked, to Caroline's surprise.

Kol, however, did not seem startled at all, striding over to lean down to look into her eyes. "Are you on vervain?"

"Of course not," Caroline said with a sigh. "Why would I need to be? I trust all of you."

Kol hesitated. "Well … thank you; that actually means a lot. Now …" his pupils dilated and her breath caught. She didn't even hear what he said, but then she didn't really need to; the compulsion settled and her memory of hiding the stake vanished from her mind.

His hand rested on her shoulder and she jumped.

"Easy," Kol said soothingly. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Caroline said, her voice a little shaky. "I just … That hasn't happened since I was human and … I'd forgotten how crappy it feels."

Kol frowned and pressed a kiss to her temple the way he sometimes did when Rebekah when he was feeling particularly affectionate. "Okay, I'm going to the cemetery."

"Kol?" Klaus called after him. "If you can confirm that Esther is definitely gone from their heads, tell Sophie that Monique can stay here if she needs to."

Caroline's eyebrows shot up into her hairline. "What's happened? I go off on a killing spree and you're adopting people."

"I hardly count one person as a killing spree," Klaus said.

"Admittedly, you would have wiped out half the coven in the process," Caroline said. "I decided a tactful approach would be better. Come on, why are you really offering?"

Klaus shrugged. "Either Sophie is going to stay somewhere else with her niece, or her niece is coming here. And I'd rather have Sophie here with Hope."

Over the next month, everyone slowly began to believe that, this time, Esther was completely dead - not only had the ancestors confirmed she had crossed over, but the other Harvest girls had snapped out of the trance she had put them in.

Sure enough, Monique had taken the room adjoining Sophie's, although she spent almost every night shaking in her aunt's arms, trying to escape the nightmares and grieving for her mother.

Davina spent most of her time avoiding Monique, which is how she ended up one rainy afternoon curled up on the couch in Caroline's office with a book, even though Caroline wasn't there.

Three chapters in, the door swung open without warning.

"Caroline …"

"She's not here, Klaus," Davina said without looking up. "She took Hope over to Cami's for a change of scenery. Jeanette's with her," she added, before Klaus could protest.

"Actually," Klaus said, "I was going to ask her if she'd seen you. What are you doing hiding in here?"

"I'm not hiding," Davina said automatically. "Okay, I'm hiding," she conceded, when he just gave her an amused look (and when did she start being able to translate the Mikaelsons' facial expressions when most people just saw various shades of Resting Bitch Face?). "I feel a bit guilty being around Monique at the moment, given that, you know, I avoided the whole possession thing, my mother's still alive even though I'm not talking to her, and, oh yeah, I'm partially responsible for her mother's death. Wait, why were you looking for me?"

Klaus narrowed his eyes at her, as if he was going to go return to her self-conscious ramblings, but (mercifully) thought better of it. "I have concerns."

"There's a surprise," Davina said, dog-earing her page and setting her book down. "How can I help?"

"We don't know where Dahlia is," Klaus answered. "We don't know where Freya is. We have no idea if Mother can bring herself back."

"Okay, well, I'm not a psychic," Davina said slowly. "So what can I do?"

"Is there any way …" Klaus pulled a face, as though he was still following this train of thought and wasn't quite sure where it was going. "Could you spell a map of the city that would show family members on it, and then we would see when any new names showed up?"

"Like the Marauders Map?" Davina said brightly, but he just gave her a blank look. "Oh for … Read modern books, for the love of God. Do you have a map of the city?"

Klaus drew a tourism map from inside his jacket, and Davina carefully cleared Caroline's desk, setting the potted orchid on top of the book case like it was made of glass.

Once she had a clear space, she spread the map out to examine it, running her fingers along the creases and murmuring to herself.

It was no secret at all that Klaus had little to no patience with witches, so it was a mark of the affection he'd come to have towards his brother's girlfriend that he waited nearly ten minutes before saying, "Well, can you?"

"Maybe," Davina said slowly. "In theory, I can do it. It's basically a location spell with a split-focus that's present all the time. I'd need to speak to Kol and Sophie, see what they think."

"Of course," Klaus agreed. "But you think you can?"

"Well, if I can," Davina said, "we'd have three options. The easiest thing to do is use your blood, and that would show all blood relatives. However, that won't work if Esther and Freya are now in different bodies, or if Esther brings herself back in another body."

"Fair point," Klaus agreed. "What's option two?"

"Option two is harder," Davina answered. "We use your magic to bind the spell."

"I don't have any magic," Klaus said with a frown.

"You do," Davina said. "You're the son of a witch. You always had magic. You might not have used it or practiced it, and you can't use it anymore because of the immortality spell. But you have it. That will then show anyone connected to you on a spiritual as well as a biological level, so if there is body-jumping involved, it'll still work, because the inherent magic will still be the same."

"So what's the downside?" Klaus asked.

"What makes you think there's a downside?" Davina said.

"If there wasn't, there wouldn't be a third option," Klaus responded. "What is it?"

Davina chewed on her bottom lip. "Mikael," she said finally. "If your mother brought him back somehow - unlikely but not impossible - he wouldn't show up, because you're not actually his son."

Klaus sighed. "So option three?"

"I use Kol's inherent magic instead," Davina answered.

"And what's wrong with that?" Klaus asked.

Davina smiled sadly. "Caroline. The only way to show Caroline on here - and don't pretend half the reason you want this is to know that everyone's safe - the only way to do that would be to bind her to you and if we do that, we have to use option two. So you have to decide what's more important: an early warning system for Mikael or keeping Caroline safe."

"I have a question."

"The last time you turned up with that kind of demeanour," Caroline said, waving Matt inside, "you asked me about immortality."

Matt grinned and held up a mug. "I come bearing gifts."

"Oh, alright then." Caroline closed her laptop and came to join Matt on her couch, taking the coffee from him. "Thank you. How can I help?"

It was hard to believe it had been two months since that conversation and since Esther had been taken out of the equation.

It was equally hard to believe that Hope was now four months old. She was starting to roll over and Caroline was sure she was about to start crawling soon.

Then again, Caroline was also sure she would start talking soon, but no one else heard anything other than random babbles of sound.

She knew though. She knew that when Hope reached for her, the noises she made had a different kind of urgency than they did when she was pointing at birds out the window.

"Are you and Klaus getting married?"

Caroline paused with the cup halfway to her lips. "Why? Because we have a daughter?"

"No, because you're nauseatingly in love with him," Matt answered. "Come on, Caroline, Vikki and I were kind of the poster kids for why 'marrying for the sake of the kids' was a bad idea; Dad was gone by the time I was two."

"Sorry," Caroline muttered. "It was just … out of the blue, that's all."

"So are you?" Matt asked.

"Matt, if Nik had popped the question," Caroline said, "first of all, you'd have heard the screaming. Second of all," she waved her left hand at him, "do you see a ring?"

"Fair enough," Matt said with a shrug.

"He did suggest a soul bonding," Caroline added. "You know, binding our souls together for the rest of time."

"What?" Matt asked blankly.

"Apparently, he's got this big idea about keeping everyone safe," Caroline said, "but it won't work for me unless that happens."

"What?!" Matt repeated.

Caroline giggled. "I refer you to our previous question as to how they could have lived a thousand years and still be so clueless - I still don't think he's actually realised what he was actually asking me."

"Unbelievable," Matt muttered.

"Right?" Caroline asked, then sighed. "If and when we get married, I want a proper proposal and I want to be able to plan a wedding afterwards, and have Hope as a flower girl, and try and figure out if I want it here or in Mystic Falls, and I can't do any of that until Hope's safe. And we haven't talked about it, but I think Nik's on the same page."

"Good," Matt said firmly.

"Good?" Caroline repeated. "Why good?"

"Well, first of all, I think you're right," Matt answered. "But second of all … I didn't want to step on your toes."

Caroline sucked in a breath. "You mean …?"

Matt nodded with a grin. "I have a small box I want your opinion on."

AN: I have no idea if I'll get anything else written and posted in the next week. So just in case I don't, I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season and wish you all the best for 2020.