First things first: I have missed you SOOOOO much!
How long has it been? Two months? More? Anyway, I have felt a void. My life has been absolutely crazy. College is insane. Bioengineering is a very demanding field. That's why I haven't gotten a chance to update.
I have to say I am kind of disappointed by the lack of reviews. I mean I was gone two months! And after the last chapter, I was expecting a bunch of review from Stelena and Kalijah stans... Guys, your time has finally come! And not a soul! So is it worth if for me to continue this story? Are you all still with me?
Enjoy the chapter and read my comments at the end!
"How could you?" Elijah asked in an awfully low voice that was no good news at all. "How could you dare do this to me?" He narrowed his eyes at Rebekah and shook his head slowly in disbelief.
Rebekah rolled her eyes and looked away, her arms crossed over her chest.
"You look at me when I talk to you, Rebekah." He raised her voice at her.
She slowly and reluctantly turned her head to face him.
"How could you?" He asked her again articulating his every word.
"I am protecting this family." She stated. "Something you should have done, but you are too blind to do it." She told him pointedly. "Nik! Say something." She summoned Klaus who until then had simply been witnessing the exchange between his two siblings without intervening.
Klaus shrugged as though asking her what he was supposed to say.
"How dare you!" Elijah rebuked her. "You're not even ashamed of yourself, are you?" He noted more than he asked.
"Hey!" Caroline said to everyone entering the room with her usual cheerfulness.
"What's going on in here?" Kol asked his siblings, right behind here, immediately sensing the tension in the room.
"Our sister just revealed to me that our brother has knowledge of Katerina's position." Klaus spoke up and Kol arched his eyebrows in response. "Geographic, of course." He specified earning an impressed look and sly smirk from his younger brother.
"What?!" Caroline exclaimed without really thinking about it. "Why would you do that?" She addressed Rebekah.
"Because you wouldn't do it!" The blonde Mikaelson snapped.
"You betrayed me, Rebekah!" Elijah brought back the focus on the real matter according to him. "Me! Your brother! Your family! Or is Niklaus the only one who holds that title in your heart?" Elijah lost his so legendary coolness.
"And you betrayed, Nik!" Rebekah raised her voice back at him. "You betrayed him back in 1500 and you betrayed him again now! You've been protecting that doppelganger hoe for God knows how long!" She accused him.
Klaus's gaze anxiously oscillated between his older brother and his little sister, and he noticed Elijah's jaw clench at his sister's assassin words. He swiftly moved towards Rebekah and got in front of her in a protective way. "She didn't mean it like that." He said to Elijah before the last lost the little control he still had on himself.
"You might want to stop." Klaus mumbled to Rebekah turning his head only partly to her.
"Am I the only one here who's confused?" Kol asked to Caroline.
"Yes." Rebekah answered pointedly in Caroline's place.
"Rebekah, why did you do this? Why would you do this to your brother?" Caroline asked the other blonde with a true will to understand, in complete and utter confusion.
"You stay out of this. You had your chance to prove where your loyalties stand when Elijah confided in you, and you did. This is family business." Rebekah snapped at Caroline leaving a stunned Kol and an even madder Elijah.
"Rebekah, don't you dare talk to Caroline this way!" Klaus defended before picking up on her words. "Wait." He realized. "What?!" He asked. He turned to Caroline. "You knew about this?" He asked her. "I thought Elijah…"
"He didn't!" Caroline answered before he finished his question. "I…" She started and let out a sigh. "I don't even know what to say right now." She said and directed her gaze towards Rebekah who held her gaze with the coldest expression on her face. It literally sent chills to Caroline. "I'll just… Rebekah is right. This really is none of my business. I'll be upstairs." She declared.
"Caroline, you don't have to leave." Klaus assured her.
"No, it's okay. I've got stuff to do anyway." She said and turned heading towards the stairs. She took them and disappeared from their sight, not without sending a look to Rebekah though.
"Okay, we're shooting a reality show for which channel right now?" Kol asked everyone.
"You owe Caroline an apology, and you better present it to her!" Klaus warned his sister.
"I don't understand." Rebekah said. "She lied to you. Why aren't you mad at her? Why aren't you mad at Elijah?!" She lost her temper, completely confused by her brother's behavior. If there was one thing that Klaus didn't take lightly, it was betrayal. They had all learnt that with daggers through their heart.
"God help me, I am going to kill her." Elijah mumbled to himself.
"No, no, no." Kol objected getting between Elijah and Rebekah and making sure there was a reasonable amount of distance between his two siblings. "No one is killing no one." He said. "What if somebody explained to me what is going on here?" Kol suggested. "From the beginning."
"Our sister here…" Elijah started. "Well, Klaus' sister…" he corrected. "…decided to play spies for her dear brother. She eavesdropped on Caroline and me, found out valuable information and made a report to our brother." Elijah explained. "Although what she didn't know was that I already made Klaus aware."
"What?!" Rebekah exclaimed and turned to Klaus.
"That's right, sister. You didn't say anything to our brother that I hadn't said to him before. As a matter of fact, two days ago, Niklaus gave me his blessing…"
"Let's not exaggerate." Klaus intervened.
"…and promised to me that Katerina would be left unharmed."
"What?! Why would you do that?" She addressed Klaus.
"Last time I checked sister, I didn't have to account to you. I make my own decisions, and I could care less who they make unhappy." He insensitively responded.
"But you hate Katherine." Rebekah protested.
"That is true. That hasn't changed." Klaus replied.
"But you're still letting Elijah be with her?" Kol stepped in. Truth be told, he didn't understand much to the situation either. It seemed as though he had missed more than one episode.
"Yes." Klaus responded.
"This is insane." The blonde commented without anybody asking for her opinion. "Caroline put you up to this, didn't she?" She made assumptions.
"Don't drag her into this!" Elijah defended. "Why are you dragging her into this?" He got even madder than he already was.
"No, no. Don't switch places: she interjected herself. She got involved in this when it was really none of her business." Rebekah snapped.
"Okay, perhaps, we should put this discussion on pause to take a deep breath, and resume it later, huh. What do you think?" Kol suggested to his siblings.
"Finally, something sensible." Klaus said. "I agree."
"That won't be possible." Elijah opposed. "We need to settle this here and now." He decided.
"Listen, Elijah…" Kol started.
"We have to, alright? I'm leaving in a few hours." He announced cutting his brother off.
"What?" Rebekah asked and none of his siblings missed the change of emotion in her voice: it had gone from hostility to sadness within a second.
Elijah turned to her. "Yes. I was going to wait a few days to tell you all, but since you did the job for me and made everybody aware… I guess I have no reason to wait any longer." He explained. "I'll be gone by tonight." He declared.
Rebekah nodded. "I see." She said, and Klaus and Kol shared a knowing, slightly, but not too much, concerned look.
"Well, goodbye then. See you around." She said and flashed to the entry. Only her older brother was too fast for her and shut the door before she could fully open it and leave.
"We're not done." He declared and she turned around to face him, anger flaring in her eyes.
"You are lucky not to be inside a coffin right now, with a dagger through your chest. Like I said, I still have a few hours before me so I can remedy to that, or you can explain yourself and tell me what in the world is going on with you!" He said to her. "Either way is good for me." He assured her.
Klaus and Kol looked at each other and both silently agreed to make a quiet exit.
/
"So…" Caroline started and shifted slightly on the bed. "On a scale from one to ten, how mad at me are you?" She asked Klaus.
"Uh…" He summoned a thoughtful expression. "Zero?" He answered.
She huffed, though she was relieved. She really feared that he might be angry with her, and that was the last thing she wanted: yet another Mikaelson having a problem with her. "And then he mocks my mathematic skills." She said shaking her head. "Zero isn't included in one to ten, Mister." She told him jokingly.
"Oh very funny." Klaus said ironically. "Very funny."
"Mmmhh." She nodded with a mocking smile on her face.
Klaus laughed softly. He loved seeing her happy and joyful. He would pick that over her being upset any day.
"Seriously, though." She broke the mood a little. "You're really not mad at me?" She asked him.
Klaus brought his face closer to hers until their noses were almost touching, and looked straight into her eyes before saying. "I'm really not mad at you." He assured her. "My sister on the other hand…"
"I know." Caroline said. "What is going on with her? Did I do something wrong?" She thought out loud. "Tell me! Did I do something wrong?" She turned her attention back to Klaus.
"You wouldn't do something wrong even if you tried." He said and leaned in for a kiss, but she moved her head away before he could close the gap between them.
"I'm serious, Klaus." She told him and he heaved an annoyed sigh. "Did she happen to say something to you before Elijah interrupted you?" She asked him in a serious ton with a matching expression.
"She didn't." He answered.
She turned her head back to look before her. "In that case, I really have no clue." She mused.
She looked at Klaus and frowned slightly as she examined his face.
He raised his brow at her. "What?"
"I'm quite clueless about you too." She said.
"How so?" He asked.
Caroline shrugged. "I'm kind of surprised that you're not mad at me at all right now." She told him.
"About the fact that you lied to me?" He asked turning his head to her.
"I didn't…" She tried to deny but he didn't let her.
"Yes, you did. But it was for the good cause, so I will let this one pass." He said. "But don't you lie to me again, Caroline." He said to her and she could tell by the underlying warning in his voice how deadly serious he was.
She quietly nodded.
"I didn't lie to you though. I didn't lie to you. I will say that." She insisted.
"You didn't?" He asked her skeptically.
"No, I didn't." She reaffirmed. "Elijah did not come to me, I assure you." She promised him emphatically. "He certainly didn't confide to me on his own volition. I had to beg, plead and coax for every bit of honesty I got from him." Caroline explained to Klaus. "You are definitely brothers." She commented thinking about difficult it was for Klaus to open up to her sometimes –most of the time actually –though he had definitely been making efforts about that.
"Let's just drop it alright?" Klaus suggested and she nodded. "But I do appreciate the fact that you care about my siblings so much." He confided to her.
That brought a smile on her face and therefore on his face as well.
"You do?"
"Mmmhh." He hummed. "Though a part of me would rather have you care only about me." He admitted.
"Awww... That's sweet." She said sweetly tilting her head, with a happy smile revealing all her teeth.
"I do care about your siblings a lot." She confirmed what really was more than obvious. "Even Kol." She added in a false serious tone making Klaus laugh.
"They feel the same way about you."
"Yeah… except for Rebekah." Caroline mused.
Klaus shook his head. That assumption was ridiculous. Truth was despite her earlier words, his little sister probably considered Caroline more as a family than any other one of his siblings. She just wasn't good at expressing it properly. That was a pure Mikaelson family trait.
"Don't say that. It's not true, and you know it. Bekah adores you." He told her.
"Yeah… nice way of showing it." She commented bitingly.
"She probably just feels like you've encroached upon her territory." Klaus said.
Caroline turned to him, her brows furrowed in confusion, waiting for him to elaborate.
"She's the only girl in a family of originally six children. She's very protective of us, and she's used to be taken of, to being the center of attention. So my guess is she wasn't very pleased when she overheard you and Elijah discussing his love life." Klaus said.
"You think that's why she's upset?" She asked him.
He shrugged. "The chances are yeah!"
/
Caroline and Klaus were in a rather playful mood: he was ticking her for continuously teasing him when Rebekah walked into his room, uninvited, and interrupted their banter.
They turned their heads to her. "Have you ever heard of knocking?!" Klaus groaned.
"Nik, I need to talk to Caroline please." She told him, implicitly asking him to leave them alone.
He turned to Caroline silently asking for her permission. She gave him a slight, almost imperceptible nod in agreement. He rolled off her and got off the bed.
"Please try not to break anything too expensive." He asked them with a pleading face.
He spotted his computer on his desk and picked it up before making his way to the door.
After he left them, Rebekah turned to Caroline but the latter plainly ignored her and grabbed the book on Klaus' nightstand.
Rebekah narrowed her eyes at the book. "I didn't know you could speak German." She commented mockingly.
Caroline only raised her gaze to throw the blonde a dirty look, and then reported her attention to the book on her lap. Rebekah tilted her head. She wasn't going to make this easy for her at all.
She sat on the bed and Caroline immediately shifted although she wasn't even touching her.
A sad expression covered Rebekah's features. "Caroline, please…" She called. Caroline's gaze didn't shift from the book. "Listen, I'm sorry." She apologized.
Caroline finally turned her head to face her though you could see by her expression she was still guarded. "What exactly are you sorry for?" She asked her.
"For talking to you the way I did." Rebekah responded. "For saying what I said."
"Did you mean it?" Caroline asked.
"No, of course I didn't mean it." Rebekah said.
"Then why did you say it?"
"I was upset! I was angry."
"At me?"
"No. Yes. I don't know." She spoke confusedly. "I was mad mostly with Elijah, but yeah, I guess I was little mad at you too."
"Because of my conversation with him you overheard?" Caroline asked and she nodded. "Rebekah, that conversation…" She tried to explain but the other blonde wouldn't let her.
"I know." Rebekah cut her off. "I just had this conversation with Elijah, and we settled things, and it's okay, now. I'm not mad at him anymore, he's not… too mad at me anymore." She said making a face causing Caroline to bite back a laugh. "And I just really don't want you to be mad at me." She declared sincerely.
Rebekah just had a long conversation with her brother indeed, probably the most honest one they had had in a long time. After a moment of faking oblivion and avoiding his gaze, Rebekah finally confessed to simply being jealous. She couldn't count the number of times she had tried to make Elijah confide in her about his feelings for Katherine, and he chose to let Caroline in. It hurt! It was offending! She was his sister after all, not Caroline.
Elijah's anger eased at that and he calmly explained to her that it was specifically because she was his sister that he couldn't talk to her about that kind of stuff. It was just weird, and it made him ill-at-ease. Besides, he had no idea that she wanted him to confide in her about that because every time she brought up the subject, it was always on a teasing, mocking way; it was never in a serious way… How was he supposed to know her questions were motivated by genuine interest and not inappropriate inquiring?
Caroline smiled faintly and reached out to put back in place a strand of Rebekah's hair. "I didn't mean to offend you, Rebekah. And I didn't mean to overstep my boundaries or anything." Caroline assured the girl she still considered her friend despite her earlier hurtful words. "I wasn't trying to take your brother from you or anything…, either one of them. I really wasn't…"
"Caroline, I know." Rebekah stopped them.
"And I'm sorry if I gave you that impression." She apologized.
Rebekah nodded. "I'll forgive you if you forgive me."
The corner of Caroline's lips quirked up into a smile and she nodded as well. "Then I guess we're both forgiven." She concluded and Rebekah smiled right back at her.
Caroline stared at Rebekah and had a brief moment of hesitation before she went ahead and said what she felt she had to say. "Look, Rebekah, I'm glad you and Elijah talked things out, but there's something very important that you don't seem to realize and it kind of worries me." She confided.
"What's that?"
"Rebekah, I wasn't trying to steal your brothers away from you."
"I realize that."
"But…" Caroline resumed clearly not appreciating the interruption. "Even if I had tried, I wouldn't have been able to. You do realize that, right?" She asked her and Rebekah remained silent simply staring at her.
"That's what I thought." She concluded. "Rebekah, do you have any idea what you mean to your brothers?" Caroline rhetorically asked. "You are at the center of their world. You mean everything to them, and I could never come between you guys. Not me… or Katherine, or Bonnie, or any other woman for that matter. You are their sister. There's nothing more important to them."
Rebekah nodded appreciatively, tears welled up in her eyes. She shook her head partly to blink back her tears. "I don't deserve to have a friend like you." She confessed in a small voice.
"I know." Caroline nodded. "But let's just pretend I don't, okay?"
Rebekah let out a soft half-hearted laugh at that. "Okay."
A rather peaceful silence settled between them and a few minutes passed before Caroline spoke again.
"Now that we're okay…" She started. "Maybe you want to talk to me about what's going on between you and Matt?"
/
Elijah finished loading his luggage in his SUV, then closed his truck and turned to his siblings and Caroline.
He put his hands in his pocket and stood before them, a blue expression on his face. Elijah had waited for this moment for so long…, for longer than he could remember her. But now that it was there, he found that he wasn't fully prepared for it. He had this twist of his heart at the thought of leaving his siblings right when they were starting to remember what being a family was. He had lived away from all of them more than he had actually lived with them, and he never had a real problem with that, but he could sense that this time it would be different.
Kol was the first one to walk to him. He smiled at his elder brother whole-heartedly and gave him a brotherly hug which lasted a little longer than it normally would have given it was a goodbye one.
"Take care." He told him pulling away. "And come back soon. I want to meet this Katerina woman, see if she lives to all they say about her." He said winking slyly and Elijah laughed once.
"We'll see if we can arrange something." He replied.
Kol nodded and walked backwards to his previous spot.
Caroline and Klaus were next to walk to Elijah hand in hand. Caroline released Klaus' hand and took another step towards Elijah. She tilted her head to the side and made a sad puppy face. She stared at him a couple of seconds before she rose on her toes and pulled him into a hug.
As he hugged her back, Caroline realized that she was going to miss this man much more than she had planned to. He was the one holding this family together: he was the one stepping in when an argument between his siblings took too much proportion; he was the one keeping Klaus' anger in check; he was the one Rebekah went to when her two other brothers would importune her, etc… He was the one keeping all of them from losing their sanity!
Caroline felt a slight tug at her heart as she held him tight one last time. "This family is going to fall apart without you." She whispered low enough for only him to hear before she pulled away.
Elijah released her and smiled at her.
That statement wasn't true. His family wasn't going to fall apart after he left… Because Caroline would be there. She had been the one to make them a family again, in a certain way. By changing Klaus, by making him a better man, she had done much more than that: she had changed their whole family dynamic, and he would never thank her enough for that.
"I'm counting on you to look after my family, Miss Forbes." He told her solemnly with an undeniably serious look. "I intend to find them all in one piece." He said taking a look at each of his siblings. "And out of a coffin." He added making Caroline laugh.
She nodded trying to summon a serious expression as well. "I can't guarantee I won't be the one to put them there." She replied half-jokingly making Elijah laugh at his turn. "But I promise to try." She vowed.
"I owe you a lot."
Caroline shook her head. "Be happy." She told him. "That's all I want."
Elijah smiled at her appreciatively, and Klaus watched the exchange passively from behind. It was close to a miracle what this woman had done to this family. She had had an impact on every single one of them, right to Elijah; and thanks to her, he would soon be reunited with the one woman he had always wanted. She was perfect, and she was a true blessing, and he was completely taken by her and everything that she was.
Caroline smiled back at him and returned to her spot next to Klaus. The latter gave her a cheeky smirk before advancing towards his big brother.
"Thank you, Niklaus." Elijah acknowledged her without elaborating further knowing his brother knew what he was thanking him for.
Klaus slightly shook his head and brushed him off with a wave of his hand. "It was long overdue." He said, and they just stood there for a moment, in a sort of daze, realizing they were about to part, possibly for yet another long period of time, but they both knew they would actually miss the other.
It was Elijah who made a step towards Klaus and passed his arm around his shoulder. The hybrid hugged him back awkwardly, clearly lacking experience. He closed his eyes though memorizing the instant and making it last as long as he could.
He extricated himself from Elijah's embrace and said to him. "Pay attention to your heart."
Elijah chuckled before he looked back up to him. "Pay attention to yours." He said back.
Klaus walked back to Caroline. He pressed a loving kiss upon her temple and passed his arm around her waist as they joined Kol and Rebekah.
The blonde Mikaelson was the last to say goodbye to her brother. Everything in her demeanor indicated her distress: the way she held herself, how her shoulders drooped, the way she moved, her usually bright but at the moment tired features…
Elijah tilted his head to the side ever so slightly. Rebekah always exuded so much confidence and independence, and she was always so full of sass that sometimes Elijah got caught in the whole act and forgot she was just faking it. Deep down, she was actually very insensitive and she got emotional in less time than there was to say it. He tended to forget that. They all did. Klaus, Kol and himself, they all tended to forget that deep down she was still a seventeen-year-old girl, whose world was her brothers, and who sought nothing but their approval and affection.
Elijah was the one to make the final step towards her and pulled Rebekah into a tight hug. He offered her a warm embrace, and felt a wave of sadness and melancholy hit him at the thought that this was the last embrace he would give to his sister in a long time.
Rebekah tightened her grip on her brother and sniffed as she tried to hold her tears within her. She opened her mouth slightly to say something but found that the tears stuck in her throat made it impossible for her to speak. As if reading her mind, he whispered into her ear low enough for only her to hear as though confiding a secret to her.
"I will call you soon. I promise." He vowed. "And I'll be back before you even miss me." He told her.
She slid out of his embrace and his arms slid to her elbows. "If you say so." She replied more than skeptical.
"I promise."
"I miss you already."
She summoned a pouting air and pulled her arms away from Elijah's touch crossing them over her chest. "Who's going to defend me when those two decide to taunt now?" She asked turning to nod at her two other brothers and gave them a dirty look.
Klaus laughed once. "We promise to take it easy." He said walking along with Caroline and Kol closer to Elijah and Rebekah.
Kol huffed. "Speak for you." He intervened. "I have no intention to stop bugging her. I'm her big brother. It's what I do." He opposed and Caroline nudged him in the stomach to keep him from talking.
Caroline hugged her girl friend from behind wrapping her arms around her shoulder, and Rebekah reacted by bringing her hands to Caroline's forearms. "I'll keep an eye on her."
"I'm counting on you."
She nodded in response.
And then suddenly, a heavy silence filled the air as they all contemplated what to do or say next. This was it. This was goodbye.
Klaus was the one to break the tension. "Call us." He said.
"I will." Elijah promised.
"No, not the Elijah style –one phone call every decade." Rebekah interfered. "Really… call us."
"I will." Elijah said solemnly.
He smiled one last time at them and turned to enter his car. He closed the door and buckled up with an unexpected knot in his stomach. He wasn't expecting the wave of sadness that suddenly hit him. He knew leaving his siblings wouldn't be easy, but he didn't actually think it'd be hard, which it was.
He didn't have any regrets though. He had spent most of his life taking care of his family and making sure they were happy, often forgetting about himself… It was time for him to ensure his own happiness. He deserved it after all. He was going to meet Katerina, and she better be waiting for him. Five hundred years his heart's sole desire was to be with that one woman, even when he wouldn't admit it to himself. And now, he was going to have her, openly. She would be all his. Finally.
Elijah fixed his rear-view mirror. Sparing his family a last glance, he drove off the mansion's entrance and out of their sight.
Like I said, I have had little to no time to right lately, but it's Thanksgiving so I had to come up with something.
I hope you liked the chapter. I realized recently that This Time has been a part of my life for more than a year, and so have you guys. I am so so grateful for you my lovelies. You make everything better. You make this journey that I've engaged on worth every second! We, Klaroliners, have been treated like dirt for a long while now, but we survive because we stick together. We are a family. I love you all.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING. MUCH BLESSINGS TO EVERY SOUL.
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