Chapter 2

As soon as she exits the house Caroline swooshes away as fast as she can. When she finds herself in her room, she flops down onto the bed and stares at the ceiling. Her eyes close and she thinks about the last time she was lying down. Could it really only have been hours ago?

His lips softly brushed the base of her neck and she arched towards him in her desire to be touched. A soft moan escaped her lips when he dutifully complied with her silent wishes. His eyes drew up towards her face as his hand slid lower on her body, passing over her ribs, her stomach and down to the tops of her jeans which he unsnapped and slid off of her long legs in a moment, giving her no time to protest. And for once, for just this once, she wouldn't. She would give into these desires that have been and will continue to plague her for centuries to come. So when he looked into her eyes asking for permission to continue, she reached up to his face and kissed him like she never wanted to stop.

UGH! Her mind screamed at her to stop reminiscing on time since passed. She was not going to dwell, she was going to move forward, like she always did. But moving forward right now seemed to need something extra, it needed an activity to distract her from her thoughts. She sat up and looked around her childhood room. It absolutely seems childish now, she thought, it seems dated, like a room not made for who she is today. She looked past her computer, her awards from various high school activities, all signs of her past accomplishments that seemed so far away. Her eyes fell upon her credit card sitting by the computer, and she jumped up. Shopping, that's something to do.

The mall was near empty due to the late hour of the night. The department store was still open for another hour but the managers were already closing registers, and letting people leave early. It was a quiet night; it gave Caroline her privacy. She walked slowly through the racks looking for something to catch her eye. It seemed that nothing was interesting, nothing looked good, and she didn't pick up one piece of clothing to try on. Her fingertips grazed the fabric as she walked through the aisles; she wasn't even really looking at anything, just thinking about Klaus.

She found no luck near the accessories either. No earrings screamed buy me. No scarves were worth wearing. She was adrift in a sea of consumerism with nothing to buy. After about twenty minutes of this wandering she gave up and walked towards the exit of the store, at a few turns something would catch her eye and she would pause to look for a minute, before finding some flaw in the design.

She didn't even realize where she was when she put hand out to feel the texture of ribbons. She looked down and saw that's exactly what she was feeling; it was headbands for infants, with little bows on the top. She smiled at the thought of herself wearing those almost eighteen years before. She walked through the baby clothes, smiling at the tiny shoes and socks, and looking at the beautiful christening gowns and Christmas dresses.

She paused for a minute at the onesies, the outfits for newborns, the really tiny stuff. She giggled at the inscriptions, cute little sayings and depictions from children's novels. She paused as she came across a pink so pale that it was almost white. A girl, Tyler said that it's a girl. She lifted the bodysuit from beneath the other folded options. This one was different, the last in stock. She unfolded the tiny article of clothing and saw the inscription embroidered onto the fabric. Daddy's Little Girl. She thought of Klaus, this horribly complicated man who is alone in the world. A father, he is going to be a father with…. not her. She felt a tear fall slowly down her cheek. She quickly brushed it away and brought the onesie to the checkout counter. The woman at the checkout smiled at her purchase.

"Is this for you?"

Caroline was startled at the question and paused. She hadn't even realize she was buying it.

"No, it's for a friend…. Actually can I have a box to go with that?"

She left the department store a bit dazed by her own purchase. When she got home she looked into shipping packages to New Orleans. She put the gift in the box and stared at it. She knew she wanted to send the item to him somehow, but it needed something else.

"Okay, Caroline", she prompted herself, "you can do this." And she put a pen to paper.

Dear Klaus,

Congratulations! Wow! I just wanted to send you…

No. That's terrible. Start over.

Dear Klaus,

heard about you and Hayley. Congratulations! This baby is a blessing….

Wow, this is hard. How can she both sound not jealous and incredulous at the same time? She gets up and gets a blood bag from her fridge. Hopefully this will be easier on a full stomach. She takes three long drags from her straw. And sits back down. Honesty might make this easier.

Klaus,

I am writing this, only hours after we parted ways in the woods. I want to begin by saying that this is not an invitation to renege on your promise; I still don't want you to come back to Mystic Falls. But our deal was that I give you my confession, and I have something else to say.

Admitting that I wanted you was not about finding the darkest parts of myself. I do not have to find the worst part of me in order to want you. It's easier when you are gone, when you are doing terrible things, for me to push down the desire I have for you. That same desire builds up when you smile only for me. When you draw me pictures of horses, when you dance with me, and save me from the evil of the world. In those moments it is almost impossible for me to deny my feelings for you, and in those moments neither of us are at our darkest.

I found out about Hayley, and the baby. It's shocking news for me to hear, so I am sure that you are dealing with your own kind of wonderment right now. Do you ever do anything simply, Klaus? You really are one of a kind.

I don't know how you feel about it, but I know that parenthood is something vampires give up on. We trade the opportunity of procreation for an eternity of youth. It's my one regret, about vampirism, that in the next ten or twenty years I will not experience motherhood. You were right about me, I like being ageless; fearless. I like being a vampire but, when I heard about your child, there was a part of me that wished for humanity. A part of me dreamed that I could have that kind of potential. It hurt more, I think, because Hayley is the mother of your child. She is… tricky. I don't particularly like her, but I am happy you're standing by her during her pregnancy. Many men wouldn't.

You have a chance here Klaus. A chance to have what no other vampire in history can have. A Child. A perfect combination of you. I have said some terrible things about you in the past but I don't think the devil would ever be granted a gift like that.

I definitely don't know everything about you, or parenthood, but let me try to give you some advice for things you might need help with. 1. Give Hayley, and eventually your daughter, space. Women do not like to be lorded over, and you are the King of pushing boundaries. Protect them. Don't smother them. 2. Loving someone, especially your child, is not a weakness. It is strength. Other people will find out about your child and want to use that against you. The only way to protect yourself is to find people you trust and lean on them. Stop daggering your siblings! They are your biggest assets. Originals are formidable. You are stronger as a team. 3. Learn to forgive. This one will take a while, but you can get there. It takes a long time to trust and give loyalties but people will be more willing to give you their trust if they know that mistakes will not be met with the death penalty. If you are having trouble gaining trust, try giving up a little of yourself first, it is easier to get people to trust you if you trust them.

This gift caught my eye at the store and I knew it would apply to your daughter. I hope your baby girl will have you wrapped around her finger. In a few short months you will be drowning in baby gifts. I wanted mine to get there first.

Ever Yours,

Caroline

Over 800 miles away, and a few days later, Niklaus Mikaelson arrived home to see a package waiting for him in the front room. He warily approached the box and saw the return address: Mystic Falls. He wondered for a moment if this was some type of bomb, or a request for assistance from the ever-plagued tenants of the Salvatore Boarding house, but then another thought occurred to him. The thought had blonde hair that flowed down perfect shoulders. He reached out and brought the box into his study.

He set the box on the bar and poured himself a drink. His peeled a layer of packaging tape off and opened it to see a letter atop a second box, this one was from a department store. He wondered what could possibly be in it. Propriety yielded to curiosity and he opened the gift before reading the card. He shouldn't have. Caroline's letter would have revealed to him slowly that she knew about the baby, in words it would not have been so detrimental. He was struck by her gift. As every emotion there has ever been crashed over his body, he settled on something akin to desperate longing and confusion. Longing for what, he didn't know, but it was something powerful. Perhaps she would give the answers in her letter.

Several hours later Klaus was still in his study nursing a glass of ancient scotch. He had a small piece of fabric sitting on his right leg. He could not stop staring at it. He had set the letter down after his first hour and a half of silent contemplation. The letter said a lot of things; things Caroline wanted or needed to say, but the gift was something else. It warranted a response; he could not imagine what it took Caroline to do this, or if she at all understood what she had done when she sent that tiny article of clothing. She was giving him her blessing. He didn't expect to be graced with the moments they shared in the woods, and that was a special, perfect moment, but this is more. She was accepting him in a way no one had ever done before. With all of the facts, she hadn't turned away, she hadn't come running either, but this was a start. He set down his glass and picked up his phone.

Caroline, Thank you. This gift means more to me than you know. My offer still stands, as does my promise. I will not return to Mystic Falls, but perhaps one day you'll join me.

She was asleep when her phone softly vibrated next to her. She opened the text without looking for who sent it. Her eyes barely opened as she read the four simple sentences. A small smile crossed her lips and she drifted off to dream of wolves.

A/N: I've never done this before so I want to say thank you to all of my followers. It's really heartening to see everyone who is responding to my story. I have four + chapters written so far. I will be updating, as of right now, every few days. This chapter and the next are chapters that I needed to transition Caroline into going to New Orleans. She will get there I promise.