So... an update! Meet Emest. I am as perusual worried what you guys think. So - as this chapter tells you, there´ll be a second part. Warning ahead: No Kol today. (bar a mentioning). Sorry. I hope the update came out Right. Thank you for all the support I have received so far.

As he arrived at that tiny airport somewhere in the Mexican middle-of-nowhere, mere hours before sunset, Klaus was wondering whom he would soon encounter. He had initially felt a more than strong to urge to have Emest Vasquez investigated. He could have had a complete binder on the man in a mere two hours, probably less, but a painful feeling in his gut told him, that any man Caroline Forbes would agree to marry, better be encountered with no preconceived notions. He hated feeling unprepared. As he collected his luggage, his eyes scanned the airport's lounge for someone, that might be looking for him. The small plane had only carried 3 passengers but him, not that it would have had been able to carry any more. A granny, whom he saw being picked up by a young, clean-shaven man, who eerily reminded him of a Hispanic Matt Donovan. A business woman, who had been giving him seductive glances once or twice during the flight. Glances he had been in no state of mine to encourage at the time. And a middle-aged man, who got picked up by a wive and two young children.

For a second he wondered if he had imagined it all. The call. The scarce details. The threat to Caroline's life, the flight. But, just as he had half convinced himself to leave this place and that country, his host appeared.

Emest Vasquez did not measure up to Klaus Mikaelson`s expectations. He had expected someone like Tyler Lockwood, Matt Donovan or Stefan Salvatore. Clean-shaven, safe-looking with boyish charm. Looking at Caroline`s husband though, it dawned on him that in the decade or so that had passed since his last meeting with her, he had never even come close to processing all the changes, growth and life experiences that had so strikingly altered her. The man facing him was attractive, but definitely a man. He must have been in his late twenties, but it was hard to pin-point as a a short, yet scruffy beard and a bald head were adding age to the street-smarts shining out of his eyes. His built was muscular. No, Emest did not even remotely resemble any of Caroline Forbes` previous love interest.

He did not get a greeting, only a contemplative nod, leaving Klaus no alternative but to follow the stranger into a small car. The silence continued for most of the two-hour ride, and Klaus bore it well, considering the circumstances. His mind was racing with questions. Most of which concerned the predicament Caroline was in, but some of them clearly aimed for Intel on her marriage.

"I don´t mean to pry, but so far you have left me quite in the dark about what I am supposed to be of service with, not to mention, that you have yet to provide me with any proof about actually being who you claim to be" Klaus drawled.

" I am not the right person to explain it all,", Emest replied in a deep, thick Mexican accent, "but what sort of proof are you thinking of?".

For a second Klaus Mikaelson was caught off-guard. Asking for pictures or information at first glance seemed like an easy thing to do, but as speaking the words was on the tip of his tongue, the idea of looking at pictures of their wedding felt like swallowing acid. In reality, he did not want to envision any of it.

"You´ll be seeing her soon, it´s unavoidable, it´s just a few more minutes to our house. But we will need to pick up two friends on hour way." the calms timbre of his voiced was a stark contrast to those big hands, that were clutching the steering wheel tightly. Klaus had no idea why Emest had called him, but despite the fairly civil conversation, he could tell that he was the last of the last resorts in Emest´s arsenal. The circumstances had to be dire enough for him to be called at all.

It bothered him that if things had panned out any other way, he might have never known that Caroline was ever in any real danger. The thought nagged at him.

He had barely time to respond, before the car came to a halt and two figures quickly got into the backseat. One a stranger, definitely of the witchy variety; the other a familiar face.

"Hallo Klaus", was all Thomas said. "It´s been a while."

"Klaus, this is Annamaria. She was there, when it happened." Emest introduced, ignoring the volume of yet-unspoken questions Klaus was itching to hurl at Thomas.

"Emest, this is a bad call. He has no business here." the witch screeched at Emest, not even bothering to hide her destain for Klaus.

"It´s the only call left. My wife is dying. She doesn´t have long and you are not any closer to saving her than you were the day this mess started." Emest yelled back, letting his anger out.

"She doesn´t want him here."

"Well, if you and your coven had not been so careless, he would not be." the husband roared. "You brought this onto her - onto us -, you did not mean to, I know, but you did. She´s dying, and he is leverage I cannot afford not to have."

At that Klaus scrutinized the young witch more closely, until she started to fidget under his cold gaze. "Care to elaborate on that, sweetheart?"

She sighed, looking anywhere but Klaus, knowing she was only post-poning the inevitable.

"When Emest and Caroline moved here, there was some … friction. Some members of my coven were not thrilled to have a vampire living in our mids. Caroline won most of us over, so we managed to establish a peace, however, for a few … she always was a vampire. Some people just were impossible to convince. Caroline really tried, she never attacked anyone, she rallied to keep the community beautiful,... but any peace she had with the witches was weak... and then, a couple of months ago, those other vampires came... and they tried taking over our town. They killed many people. Caroline fought against them, but we all knew that she could not hold them at bay forever..."

"So you want me to relieve your town of them?" Klaus guessed.

"No," the witch spat. "We took care of of them …. us and her together."

Thomas used this as a chance to chime in. "There was disagreement about the solution. Caroline offered to call in some of her reinforcements, other than me that is, but the witches and humans, most of them felt uneasy."

"So our elders suggested a spell to desiccated them all."

"That spell would have required a lot of hearts being stopped, depending on how many rampant vampires you were dealing with." Klaus continued, knowing that spell first-hand, as he had briefly endured it himself at one point.

"Indeed, so the witched and Caroline came up with a a way to circumvent that. It took days of planning, talking, negotiating but eventually our elders found a way..." The witch answered. "They required a power source, a full-moon and a lot of help from our anchestors, but it worked. We basically managed to use Caroline`s heart as the power source, so instead of stopping twenty human hearts, we only briefly needed to stop hers. That took a lot of energy, by the end of it I was almost dead... The spell was so rough that I … just didn´t notice."

"What did you not notice?" Klaus asked impatiently, no doubt already anticipating that he would not like the answer.

"The radical members of their coven had hijacked the spell, so while it enabled us to incapacitate our enemies and get rid off them, it also gave them the chance to poison her." Thomas finished with a tired voice.

"What type of poison?" Klaus asked with a calculating look in his eyes.

"Not wolf poison" Emest mumbled. "It´s draining her magic, bit by bit. So we first did not even realize the problem. She felt tired afterwards and took a lot of rest, and for a few days after that, she seemed fine, but then she said she noticed a weird taste when drinking blood and a day later she had trouble keeping it inside her body. Then she cut herself while cooking and that little, flimsy cut took two days to disappear. That was three months ago. We figured out what had been done by whom soon, but while most of the coven was not in on the plan, they refuse to get involved and the radicals won´t budge. They invested an incredibly high amount of magic in this, they sacrificed some of their own in secret, just to have the extra-boost to do this. My wife is losing more and more energy every day. A blood bag lasts her for about three hours and the process is speeding itself up. Tomorrow she might need one every two hours, and that is me being optimistic about her chances of not vomiting them out right after, which happens more and more frequently. She´s started to have these breathing attacks... " Emest elaborated, the worry clearly showing.

"We think they stem from how she was turned. Basically the spell is dissipating the magic keeping her undead. Once it´s all gone, she´ll be nothing but a girl, who died of asphyxiation." Thomas finished. "

"So I am here to … make these witches change their tune?" Klaus finished.

"Yes, and we´re running out of time, I overheard some people in my coven speculating that it could be only a few more days.". Annamaria added only to earn herself another, even more piercing Klaus-stare.

"Exactly why are you siding with the vampire of your own coven, witch?" Klaus interrogated her.

"Because she is my friend and trusted me. She let me stop her heart, I promised her it would all be fine. And now it is not fine. They made me a liar, I won´t let them make me a murderer, too." she replied bitingly.

"Caroline needs help, and I can´t do what you can do. If I had the power to terrify them the way you could, they´d be at my house, fixing my wife right now. But I am just human, Annamaria is just a young witch and Thomas is just one vampire. We don´t scare them, we hope you will." Emest said, his eyes conveying. "Make them wish they were dead if need be, I don´t care. I only want her to live."

Annamaria swallowed, knowing that Klaus Mikaelson could well kill off her entire coven, including her family, but she had made that choice the second she realized what had been done to spell. Caroline had always been kind to her and Caroline had offered up herself for this spell without second-guessing any of the witches, not even the disdainful bunch that got her into this mess. And she had given Caroline her word. The coven always prided itself on its honor code. Where was all of that now? Years of learning the words and the rules, of being taught to never make false promises, a handful of fanatics had taken over, and now the coven was a mess. And her friend about to become its biggest casualty.

"I suppose, if you want me to save your wife, you best hit the brakes, mate." Klaus finally said.

"Gracias." Emest said, and moved to turn the key in the car`s ignition, only to halt mid-movement. "One more thing, when we get to the house, you might want to let me walk in on my own first. I still have to … tell her." he mumbled.

"What?" Annamarie squeaked and even Thomas was lost for a poker face.

"You did not tell her you called Klaus? She is going to kill you." he uttered, a slight Irish lilt in his voice.

"Well, that´s her right as my wife. She has a right to my every limb, just as I, as her husband, have the right to make a deal with the devil himself in order to save her." Emest said with a finality, that left no room for argument.

They drove the last minutes to the small adobe home in silence. From the outside the house looked like a traditional Mexican home, not different from any other seen in movies, it was the colorfully buildings added onto it, that reeked of artistry. In recent years the house seemingly had been expanded to accommodate two separate art studios. Klaus could smell the paints from a distance. This was a painter´s home.

Emest was the first to get out of the vehicle. As he strode to the door, he turned to Annamaria.

"You did as I asked?"

"Yes, I cast the spell while she was asleep, so no I did not tip her off." the witch grumbled.

"What spell" Klaus asked, suspicion returning once again.

"Once I invite you in, you will only be able to enter the hallway. Any other room remains off limits." Emest said. "You might be the one to save my wife, but I know what you did to her. I understand what you are to her, and I will not let you nearer to her than you need to be."

"And if I decide to walk away now?" Klaus challenged, not willing to have his chance at meeting her diminished by distance; not willing to concede that claim a part of him still lay to Caroline after all this time.

At that, Emest seemed to falter. When he looked back up though, his eyes were brown steel. "You know which way the airport is, Mr. Mikaelson."

"You made me come all this way. You are not going to let me walk away over Caroline not being willing to give a tour of this lovely house." Klaus smirked.

"Calling you means toeing a fine line between saving my life and dishonoring her. She would rather die than than accepting your help, I am already disrespecting her enough, I will not taint more of her life than I already have." Emest roared

For a while, the mortal and the immortal just engaged in a silent assessment of one another. Klaus was reminded of hummingbirds as he heard Emest´s heart beat rapidly. He never wanted to be human more than in this moment. To be human and to have the right to be consumed by Caroline Forbes, it seemed like an enviable existence. But he was neither human nor in any position to voice his claim to her. His claim was not based on any right, and certainly not on any hopes. It was not even enough of a claim to allow for him to have any real fantasies. It was a yearning, that had survived even the days, during which he had hated her more than anything else. A yearning that has been surviving his shame, guilt and anguish. A yearning he was not entitled to. The human had a claim to her, symbolized in a modest ring, worn proudly. A claim that enabled him to defy her stubborness and to still allow himself the hope that once this nightmare was over, she would forgive him for calling Klaus Mikaelson. A claim making Emest Vasquez just brave enough to accept the risk that she might leave him for this. His heart was not beating in fear, it was beating in conviction. And to that, Klaus had no meaningful response. So he faltered.

" Good, wait outside" was all Emest said, before he turned to enter his home, knowing that two of the three people waiting, would be able to hear everything that was going to be said next.

The hallway was gloomy, as the evening sun did not reach it. He found his wife of 18 months on their sofa, cuddled into a blanket. To him, she would always be the most splendid woman ever created by the God that he deep inside still believed in, despite having learned about vampires and witches. However, he could see that she was growing pale, that her posture was slacking, that she was losing hope.

"Corazon?"he called from the doorway, giving her a soft smile.

"Hey," she smiled back just as softly.

"How was your day?" he asked, moving a step closer.

"It was fine, Annamaria came by, though I think I slept a lot through that. I read a little and sketched a little, and slept some more. I was being very lazy and not very house-wifey." she tried to joke, though she knew that if she had somehow had gotten the energy to get up and cook dinner, they would have had a big row about him wanting her to rest instead. And none of her great cooking would have gotten her out of that fight.

Emest sat on the Sofa, pulling her against his chest, wrapping the comforter about both of them. "I missed you, corazon." He kissed her hand.

"But I definitely missed you way more." she pouted, turning to him.

"I know." he smiled, kissing her nose. He looked over her peaceful face, remembering that all of that softness was hidden beneath an artfully crafted mask, when they had first met. He had nearly missed it, that one glance onto her true self, and every day he was thanking his lucky stars, that he had been wise enough to see it.

"Do you want to watch a movie? We could heat up some left-overs, and just cuddle all night..." Just like they did before.

Emest knew that he would have to tell her now. "I think tonight is not a good night, corazon."

"Why?" she asked in confusion, and then she looked at him more closely. She saw the well-hidden signs of nervousness, similar to the ones he displayed before proposing to her, but with less joy in his eyes. "Ok, what did you do?" she asked.

"I called for help". Emest said evenly.

"I know, Thomas has been fback here for a week -"

"No! I am not talking about Thomas. I called someone else." he stalled, not ready to destroy their homely bliss.

"Who?" she asked. He thought about giving his excuses first, but her eyes – at least the subtle dread in them – told him, that she was half-way there to figuring it out on her own. He owed it to her to say it first.

"Klaus. I called Klaus." he sighed, waiting for the explosion to come.

There was no explosion.

"No." she said calmly, trying to work through her husbands reveal. "No. You are Emest Vasquez. My husband. And the man I married knows, he KNOWS. You would not … "she looked at him helplessly.

"I am sorry, corazon, this was the only way.", hanging his head in defeat as his wife jumped off the couch landing on wobbly legs.

"Are you crazy?! He is dangerous. Him just knowing that you exist, is dangerous. And you call him here? He could kill you. Even if he doesn´t, even if … he comes here and we get out of this with none of us dead, he leaves nothing but misery behind. He is going to destroy everything." she berated him, as her voice went from yelling to choking up.

"He won´t. I swear. I won´t let him".

"You think I let him then?" she asked. "I asked you not to do this, and you...How could you?"

"I see you dying, I act. I call the devil himself if need be. And you are dying, corazon." He yelled.

"So are you!", she countered.

"Yes, but … I am not being murdered.. You are."

"I am not letting that man into our home." she faultered at her husband´s desperation.

"He will need to see you, and you can´t leave the house at the moment,..."

"So what? We`re going to put him in the guest room?!" she yelled, only to nearly tumble to the floor as she started coughing up blood. "Great. Nothing but Klaus Mikaelson to jump up my puking urges."

Emest swiftly took her hand and gently led her back to the couch, giving her a few seconds to collect herself.

"He´ll stay at a hotel. I already had Annamaria spell the house so he can only enter the hallway. He won´t enter this room, or any other. I swear." he tried to console her while rubbing her back.

"This is my home. A piece of my life I took great pains to make sure he never gets a glimpse of, just him being here... I am not sure I can let him have that." she uttered, and he saw tears forming in her eyes.

He took his phone out of his pocket, opening his emails to his most recent one.

"Corazon, don´t cry. Look at this, please."

It took her a minute to process the information. "You ordered tools, material and heavy machinery?"

"Yes, the second I made that call, I knew him being here... it would change things for you. I don´t completely understand, and I never will, not completely, but I do know how you will feel. So Klaus will come here, and once he leaves... I´ll tear down this entire house and built you a new one, a better one. Misery-free. And no Mikaelson will ever enter that house. I promise."

A lot of times, none of them knew, who started a kiss, but whenever that happened Emest knew they were on the right page. This time he knew, she would forgive him. Eventually.

Caroline broke away first: "What about the time between his coming and going?"

"The hallway, nothing more." he replied earnestly.

"I don´t like this. I can´t protect you."

"You won´t have to."

"How do you know this? He could snap your neck just for being not timely enough when picking him up from the airport, no scratch that, you´re not picking him up. We tell him to rent a car or call an uber or … you´re not getting a moment alone with him. I love you to much to lose you to him."

"He won´t hurt me, corazon."

"Again, how do you know this?" She asked desperately trying not to cry again.

"Because he is tied to you. Your survival is in his best interest. That´s why he´ll come. I know you don´t like to discuss him, but you know … he won´t wish to hurt you. And hurting me would hurt you." Emest said. There were many things he was tiptoeing around, not just for her sake but for his own. He had spoken to Thomas, and he had spoken to Kol … Klaus Mikaelson was his wife`s monster, but he was connected to her in ways, she would never admit. Klaus Mikaelson would not harm a hair on his beard, not if it meant hurting her.

"Please, we´ll let him into the hallway, you guys chat, we come up with a plan or let him do his thing... and he leaves. It´ll be this quick." he implored.

"I am not fine with this." she sighed, feeling dizzy.

"I know.".

"I am also still mad at you."

"Yup."

"That new house better be kick-ass".

He smiled, kissing the topf of her head. He would built her a castle, if she wanted one. He only needed her to be alive to bring life to it.

The lay silently cuddled against one another on the couch. He felt her suppressing a sob or two, and he knew his choice had hurt her. A part of him knew that he would never really shake the guilt, despite his bravado. Would he do it again? In a heartbeat if it meant saving her. Did he feel good about it? No.

He was shaking out of his thoughts by her reaching for his hand.

"Fine. When will he be here?" she asked. "We need to make a safe plan to get him from the airport to here..."

Mentally bracing himself for their fight to continue "Actually, we don´t..."

"Why? I told you, you will not be picking him up..."

"He´s outside. Don´t be mad." he admitted.

She stared at him and paced around the room uneasily for quite a while after that. And for the first time, he found her questioning his trustworthiness. Emest Vasquez had known all along that calling Klaus Mikaelson would shaker her faith in him, but until this moment, he had not been prepared for it. It was an ugly feeling. In that moment, he hated Klaus Mikaelson as well. A house he could rebuilt, this marriage he could not.

It took her about three minutes to reign in her panic-ridden thoughts. Three minutes of staring, pacing, staring, groaning, biting back many a hurtful sentence and nearly pulling her hair out. Her brain felt like the wreckage of disaster zone. This was not a particularly Mikaelson-based reaction per se. She had started to get racing thoughts ever since she burnt down the asylum. Sometimes her mind goes so fast, she can barely grasp what she´s thinking and all she can do is wait out the rush, until one clear and usually utterly unpredictable thought emerged.

When her head cleared, she usually followed this thought, no matter where it lead. This time, it drove her to just hug her husband. He loves you. That´s all this is.

So Caroline Forbes chose to hang on to her sole clear thought of the moment.

"Just so we´re clear, you´re in the dog house." It was an earnest statement, no joke, just somber eyes.

He nodded.

"Well... invite him in already." she said, internally groaning. She was not going to like this. At all.