Caroline set a bowl of salad down with the rest of the food and turned to see that Klaus had set Hope down on the ground and she was toddling towards her.

She smiled, crouching down to her height, and Hope smiled back, her steps speeding up until she almost toppled into her mother's arms. "Mama!"

"Good job, baby girl!" Caroline straightened up with her. "Would you like some pasta?"

"No."

"No thank you," Caroline said automatically, although she knew that Hope didn't have those words just yet. "What would you like?"

Hope grinned. "Cake!"

"How many words is that now?" Josh asked.

"Um … five I think," Caroline said. "Mama, Dada, no, cake and yes. Kol swears she can say his name too."

"She can," Kol said appearing beside her. "Can't you darling?"

"Uca!" Hope squealed, raising her hands.

"It's more likely to be just uncle," Caroline said, "rather than Uncle Kol. Watch. Hope, who's that?" She asked, pointing at Elijah.

"Uca!"

"Who's that?" Caroline asked, point at Matt.

"Uca!"

"And who's that?" Caroline asked, pointing at Josh.

"Uca!"

"See?" Caroline said, grinning.

Kol pulled a face. "Spoil my fun, why don't you?"

"KOL!"

The atmosphere chilled immediately, Caroline immediately turning, half to shield Hope and half to block her view, as Thierry came running in, holding Davina in his arms.

Kol was at his side in a second. "What the hell happened?"

"Madeleine found her," Thierry gasped out, laying Davina on the couch. "She's alive, but only just."

The movement caused her head to loll to one side, exposing a gaping wound on the side of her neck.

Kol fell to his knees beside, biting into his wrist and holding it to her mouth. "Come on, darling. Wake up for me. Just a little."

"What imbecile," Klaus growled, "thought it would be a good idea to attack one of us?"

"That's the thing," Thierry said grimly. "Maddi tried to heal her but couldn't. She came around just enough to tell us it wasn't a vampire that attacked them. It was Dahlia."

"Jeanette," Caroline said sharply.

"I'll secure the perimeter," Jeanette said, disappearing.

"Wait," Klaus said, frowning. "You said 'them'. Not her. Who else was attacked?"

Thierry swallowed hard and handed Caroline his phone. She glanced down and immediately closed her eyes, her worst fears confirmed by the words he had typed into an unsent text.

"Maddi stayed with him," Thierry said quietly. "Someone …"

"Show me," Elijah said.

"Make sure he's in one piece please," Caroline said tiredly. "Nik, we need to talk."

Kol had finally managed to get Davina to wake a little so he could coax her to drink some of his blood. "That's it, darling. You're alright. It's alright."

"Caroline," Josh said, "do you want me to take Hope upstairs?"

Caroline hesitated. "Thank you, Josh, but no. Matt, do you mind?"

"Yeah, of course," Matt said, taking Hope from her.

"Josh, I need you to stay calm," Caroline said softly. "The other victim … It's Aiden."

Josh turned white, staggering backwards into a chair. "No …"

"I'm so sorry," Caroline whispered.

"I'll go and get Jackson," Adrian said.

Caroline nodded, wrapping her arms around Josh, closing her eyes against her own tears when he buried his face in her neck, warm tears seeping into her skin.

"Just hang on," she murmured. "Hang on for me, okay?"

She felt him nod, his arms tightening around her, and she lifted her gaze to meet Klaus's eyes.

"Is he …?" Klaus began.

"I don't know," Caroline said. "If he is …"

Klaus nodded. "We talked about this, Caroline. I wasn't sure. But I am now."

When Elijah returned, he was carrying Aiden's dead body and Caroline directed him upstairs to a spare bedroom, before turning to deal with Jackson, who had just arrived with Adrian and Madeleine.

"You have ten seconds," he growled, "before I go and deal with this myself …"

"It was Dahlia," Caroline interrupted. "She's made it look like a vampire to garner this exact reaction."

Jackson seemed to relax. "How can you be so sure?"

"Because I saw her," Davina answered weakly, from where her head was cradled in Kol's lap.

"Thank God," Madeleine whispered, hurrying to her side. "Are you alright?"

"Been better," Davina answered. "It was Dahlia. I'm sure of it."

"Davina, could you describe the woman you saw?" Klaus asked.

Davina thought about it. "It was fairly dark, but I think so."

"It might be easier to do that," Klaus said, "and I will create a composite of her, rather than Kol try and get into her head and share it with everyone who needs to know."

"Good idea," Caroline said. "In the meantime, Josh, come with me."

Josh began shaking his head. "No, Caroline - I can't … I can't see him."

"You don't have to just yet," Caroline said gently. "I just need you to come upstairs. You three as well," she added to Thierry, Madeleine and Jackson. "There's something I need to talk to you about."

"Caroline …" Klaus began.

"I've got this," Caroline said, kissing his cheek. "You deal with Dahlia." She led the way upstairs, meeting Elijah on the landing.

"I've put him in one of the spare rooms," Elijah said quietly, his eyes finding Jackson. "You have our condolences."

Jackson gave a jerky nod. "Thanks."

"Okay, give me two seconds," Caroline said. "And I promise I'll explain." She slipped into the spare room Elijah had indicated.

For a second, she couldn't move, her heart breaking at the sight in front of her. Even though she knew she had become very fond of Aiden through his relationship with Josh, it was only now that she realised how much she'd come to care for him in his own right, and it only reinforced what she would do next.

That depended, however, on whether or not Aiden had time to carry out the plan they'd formulated to stop a war.

Trying not to look at his face, at the fear etched into his features even in death, Caroline began checking his pockets, her control lapsing with every one that was empty - of course there was a possibility that it was still lying in the alleyway, discarded in the struggle and dismissed as garbage.

Or maybe Dahlia had surprised him and he hadn't had time.

She paused in her search to examine the wound in his chest. Elijah had replaced his heart, but the skin seemed to be knitting together around it, as though it had never been removed.

A spark of hope lighting in her heart, Caroline's eyes fell on Aiden's hand, clenched tightly into a fist. Gently uncurling his fingers, she found what she was looking for: a small glass vial, bloodstained - but empty.

"Good boy," Caroline whispered with a smile, ignoring the fact that Aiden was a good five or six years older than her. "Okay," she said a little louder. "You can come in. It's okay, Josh. He's going to be okay."

The door opened with a blur, and Josh appeared at her side, his eyes wide. "How?! How in hell is he going to be okay?! The bitch ripped his heart out."

"I'd like to know the answer to that question myself," Thierry answered.

Caroline waved the vial at him. "He and I had a chat months ago. We agreed that he was kind of a prime target. I gave him some of Klaus's blood, in case the worst should happen."

Jackson sighed. "But, Caroline, he still can't transition, right? So what was the point?"

"Well, first of all, he could tell us what happened," Caroline answered. "Second of all, he could say goodbye. Or …" she glanced at Josh "… make a different call."

Josh tore his gaze away from Aiden to stare at her. "But …"

"Caroline," Madeleine said gently, "there isn't a different call to make. Hybrid's have to transition on human Petrova doppelgänger blood, don't they? And werewolves can't become vampires."

"No," Caroline agreed. "If they could, Oliver would have ended up in transition. But doppelgänger blood isn't the only way."

"You said it was," Thierry and Jackson said, almost in unison.

"I did," Caroline said. "And when I said that, it was true. But something's different now."

Understanding dawned in Maddi's eyes. "Hope. Hope's blood works, doesn't it?"

Caroline nodded. "Please understand that we are not keeping this a secret for the hell of it."

"We know," Jackson said. "It's just a bit … You're saying Aiden's going to be okay?"

Caroline nodded. "If he chooses to transition. My gut tells me he will."

"Caroline …" Josh whispered. "You told me once that Hope wouldn't bleed for anyone."

Caroline smiled sadly at him. "I know. But Aiden isn't just 'anyone'. He's family."

Hope was asleep, a dead weight in Caroline's arms, but she didn't want to put her down. Since the attack, she was rarely happy to have Hope out of her sight.

Now that Aiden had stabilised, and Josh and Jeanette had taken him out to the plantation house to help him with the transition, a family meeting at been called to discuss how to protect Hope.

Various ideas were being thrown around the room, each as unlikely as the last.

Finally, Caroline cleared her throat, and everyone fell silent. "I think we know what the answer is."

"We do?" Matt asked.

"We still don't know how to stop Dahlia," Caroline said, her voice trembling. "We know from Freya that it's not as easy as just killing her, and we don't know what to do. We need time and we don't have it."

"So we buy time," Kol said. "How do you propose we do that?"

But Davina had already caught on. "We send Hope away."

"No!" Several people protested.

"It's the only way," Caroline said, rocking her daughter gently as she stirred. "If Sophie and Davina can make it look like she's still here, we can up the protections around the compound, and buy ourselves time. Dahlia wastes hers trying to get in, and when she does, Hope's not here."

"Caroline …" Klaus began.

"Tell me I'm wrong," Caroline said. "Please. Tell me I'm wrong and you have another answer."

When Klaus didn't respond, Rebekah touched his hand gently. "Matt and I can take her. We can take her far away and …"

"That won't work," Sophie interrupted. "Sorry, Rebekah. I know that your instinct will be to have one of you with her, and I get that. But if Dahlia figures out that Hope's not here and one of you is missing, it's going to be kind of obvious where she is."

Matt squeezed his wife's hand. "She's right. But by that logic, everyone we know is going to be a problem. If she figures it out and none of us are missing - she'll go to Mystic Falls, right? And if one of them is missing, we'll be in the same position."

"We're going to cloak them though," Davina said. "So even if Dahlia knows who she's with, she'd still have to find them."

"But if she knows who she's with, that task gets easier," Sophie pointed out.

"What about Elena?" Caroline suggested. "Katherine could pretend to be her every now and then - an onlooker could be fooled into thinking they were both there."

"No, that's no good either," Sophie said with a sigh. "No witch looking at a vampire as old as Katherine is going to believe she's only a few years old."

Caroline deflated. "Never mind then."

Hope stirred a little, letting out a little sigh against her neck, and Caroline tightened her arms, closing her eyes against the tears that threatened her composure.

It was comforting to know that everyone in the room was desperate to protect Hope and that they would all understand her grief at the very thought of sending her daughter away.

But none of them would understand completely. Not even Klaus, who she knew adored Hope as much as she did, could possibly understand the bond formed through thirty-eight weeks of pregnancy and the wrenching pain she felt even now, before anything had happened, like part of her soul was being ripped away.

Her eyes flew open, a sudden idea dawning. "What about the other way round?"

"Sorry?" Sophie asked, startled.

"Katherine couldn't fool a witch into thinking that her aura belonged to a three-year-old vampire," Caroline said. "But surely some vampires have weaker auras, right? Could Elena fool a witch into thinking she was actually a lot older?"

"Yes," Sophie said slowly. "That's possible."

Caroline turned to Klaus, who shook his head. "No. Absolutely not."

"Nik," Caroline said softly. "It won't be for long. And it's the only way."

You didn't really think I'd kill Aiden off, did you? I'm still mad at Julie for that one.