This child of mine

Chapter 6: Rise from the ashes

Disclaimer: The characters and other things from The Vampire Diaries don't belong to me. Credit goes to the rightful owners

Klaus threw the keys across the room. He listened to them hit the window by the far wall and then the complete silence that followed. No little footsteps running to meet him. No giggling child hiding in the hall closet. No welcome hug from small arms, still too short to completely encircle him.

He closed his eyes and counted to ten, opening them with the hope that he'd wake up from this nightmare. Nothing.

Klaus took just one step forward before stopping again. He wanted to kill, bleed someone dry until there was nothing but a husk left. He wanted to be bad.

But in the three weeks, two days and five hours since his son was taken from him, he couldn't do it. Other than the fitting demise of Tyler Lockwood, the worst he did was shove someone out of his way.

Klaus looked at his reflection by the window. He didn't recognize himself anymore. He wasn't the boy who grew up with brothers and a sister who valued family above all. He wasn't the power hungry vampire starved for attention and love. He wasn't the hybrid who wanted to rule the world.

No. He had become a father who failed to protect his son. He had become a man who lost all hope in the person he believed to be the love of his immortal life. He didn't know how to be this man.

"Any news?" Rebekah called out, emerging from the kitchen. "I just called Sophie and she still has no leads. I'm going to call Stefan…maybe they have better luck over there finding Bonnie—"

"Rebekah," Klaus said tiredly, "Enough. I'd appreciate some silence…so, please. Do whatever you want to do…you need not detail it to me."

Rebekah slapped Niklaus hard on the face. "Fight, dammit! Are you even still there, Niklaus? Because the man I'm looking at right now isn't the brother I know, love and hate. Sam is out there somewhere and you need to get your act together right now."

Klaus lifted a hand to his face, where the sting of the hit lingered. For a split second, his eyes blazed with anger but then he simply ignored her, turned around and started to walk out the door.

"You just got home." Rebekah said shaking with frustration. "What in the world is happening to you, Nik? Will you at least talk to me?"

Klaus merely shut the door behind him in silence. He leaned against and listened until Rebekah had left, far away enough into the massive property that she wouldn't be able to hear him slide down to the floor and just sit there.

He sat there waiting for sunset, adding another day to his count of not having his son home. He was about to get up when his phone rang.

Unknown number.

Against his better judgment, he answered it.

"Hello?"

There was nothing but silence on the other end. He closed his eyes and focused, trying to discern the sounds. He wondered if it was Sam, somehow able to get through but not able to speak.

And then he heard a mouth open as if to speak, closing so quickly before it was followed by a very faint sigh.

"Caroline."

Still the caller would not speak.

Klaus blew out a long-drawn breath as he leaned his head back on the door behind him. He sat there for hours with the phone line open, with no words said through it. He waited until the call ended with a gentle click before he kept the phone in his pocket and he watched clouds cover the moon above, casting a shadow over his world.

Caroline's hand fell from her ear, phone still in hand. She had waited for the batter to run out, cutting the call she had no guts to end. Caroline didn't utter a single word but she was exhausted by the silence.

"Just go, Caroline." Stefan said as he walked into the room, hands in his pockets. "Forget all the social norms you grew up with. It doesn't matter if you mourn Tyler for weeks, months or years...at some point you need to move on before you lose more than you already have. But I don't think that's not why you're here looking like you have a broken heart."

Caroline turned around from where she stood by the fireplace. She wrapped her arms around herself. "I don't know how to move on."

Stefan smiled at Caroline and walked to stand in front of her. "From Tyler? Maybe you haven't noticed but you've been over him long before…what happened."

"What makes you say that?" Caroline asked softly.

"You could have looked for him." Stefan said crossing his arms on his chest. "And yet you found yourself in New Orleans. Yeah…I know you went there a few weeks after graduation. You saw a blonde girl hanging around him and you ran."

Caroline smiled despite the ache in her heart, "I should have stuck around for longer than five minutes…maybe I would have met Sam sooner." She sighed again and shook her head. "Why do you always realize how important someone is right after you lose them?"

She played with the ring on her hand and turned back to watching the flames dance around in the fireplace, "I…I've always had a plan. When I was human, I knew what college I'd get into, when I'd get married and have kids. When I turned into a vampire, I also had a plan—I was still going to finish off my human chapter by graduating from high school, I'd see the world and I'd spend eternity with Tyler. But someone came waltzing into my life, throwing it into chaos and just…made me realize how little I knew of my own self and what I really wanted. And I pretty much pushed him out the door and slammed the door in his face."

She sighed heavily and leaned against the fireplace, wishing it would be enough to hold her up when she fell apart. Caroline let out a deep breath and looked at Stefan directly. "I was a grade-A bitch, Stefan. I knew exactly the words that would cut the deepest and I said them all."

"You were hurt and confused. You lashed out." Stefan pointed out. "Are you afraid he won't forgive you or you can't forgive yourself?"

"Both." Caroline said picking up the pieces of paper she had placed on the coffee table—Sam's drawings. "He truly is his father's son. Sam, I mean. He's so young but you can't doubt that he's an artist. I still have the piece of parchment that Klaus drew me on. He's good with gifts, did you know? He always knew exactly what I wanted or needed…even if I didn't know it myself."

Caroline looked at the ceiling, trying to keep the tears from falling, "God, I'm so stupid. I kept thinking that I was doing this because I was some sort of fixer who kept trying to save broken things that others didn't want to get near. But somehow, I don't know when or how it all turned upside down…and he's been the one saving me."

"Don't tell me." Stefan said smiling at her. "Tell him."

"You think he'd listen?" Caroline said in a small voice.

"Did that ever stop you before?" Stefan said with raised eyebrows, his face softening as he continued. "Caroline, if anything, he needs you right now. By some miracle, his son is probably still alive since we are all still walking around. At the very least, he needs someone to set him straight so he can focus on making the right moves to get Sam back."

"Set him straight?" Caroline said, her forehead creasing in worry. "What do you know? You talked to him?"

"Rebekah called asking how we're doing on trying to get to Bonnie. They're back in New Orleans and…" Stefan said slowly. "Just go, Caroline. You both need this."

Caroline reached over and gave him a quick hug. "When did you become so wise?"

"Losing the love of your life to your brother gives you perspective." Stefan said hugging her back. "I wouldn't wish that feeling on my worst enemy and definitely not on you."

"You think he's…" Caroline said trailing off.

"Would it hurt this much if he weren't?" Stefan asked pointedly.

Caroline merely smiled, the sadness slowly lifting from her. "No…no it wouldn't"

Klaus lay on the road, the cold cement bit through his clothes but it didn't bother him. He was numb. He watched the night move across the sky and he listened for the sound of any vehicle that would pass but there was nothing. He could feel Rebekah watching from the house, having already learned to keep her distance after days of trying to get him to stop whatever it was he was doing out there.

He closed his eyes when he heard footsteps, wondering if there would ever be a day when someone would be able to sneak up on him.

"It's true what they say…it is darkest just before dawn. It's as if the stars and the moon somehow know to step back because something brighter is coming." Klaus said with his hands calmly placed over his chest.

"How many nights out here did it take for you to determine that?" Caroline said standing next to Klaus.

"I lost count." Klaus said opening his eyes, not turning to her but merely staring up at the night. "I just know I have to wait for sunrise everyday because it's the only time I feel any kind of hope."

"Mind if I join you?" Caroline asked hesitantly, sounding unsure if he would agree.

But Klaus merely shrugged and pointed a finger to his side without lifting his hands from where they were. "Do whatever pleases you."

Caroline stretched out beside him, placing a little bit of space between them but still close enough to touch.

"I don't know where to start." Caroline said finally after a few minutes of just lying there next to him.

"I can't seem to be the big bad anymore and you appear to be at a loss for words." Klaus said with a bitter laugh. "My, my, my, how the world has changed."

Caroline wanted to take the bait and snap at him. But she couldn't. Her guilt drover her into silence again until it all became too much in her head that she blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Caroline asked rapidly.

Klaus laughed, the sound unaffected as it echoed around them. "As matter of fact, yes. I figured if I were gone then my mother would have no use for Sam. He's human so she could simply make him forget and stick him in some family to live out a mundane life. Getting run over by a truck or a car seems to take the least effort. I assume if pieces of me are scattered about that would count for very dead in my mother's book."

"You should have gone to the train tracks." Caroline said thoughtfully. "Cars won't damage you much. You'd be like some giant speed bump. You'll probably cause more damage to the car than the other way around."

"That's what Rebekah said." Klaus said. "I assume she told you to come. Probably to sort out her mentally unstable brother who thinks the best way to save his son is to give in to the demands of the witch equivalent of a terrorist."

"No, she told Stefan what a nutcase you're being but she didn't ask me to come." Caroline said. "I wanted to."

"Is that so?" Klaus said mockingly. "Have you come to avenge Tyler Lockwood? Or have you changed your mind about 'fixing' me? Which is it?"

A tear fell from Caroline's eye but she pushed on, staring up at the black sky as she spoke. "None of the above."

She took a deep breath before continuing, "I'm sorry, Klaus. And for whatever it's worth, you're right. You don't need me. You don't need fixing because somehow when you decided you needed to be a father, when you…when you loved me before…you became a better man. Imperfect but much better…and…and I…I was the one who needed saving. Whether it was actual death you pulled me from or making me face what truth it was about my life I needed to confront, you were the one who fixed me. I had it backwards and I threw it all in your face. Because of that I wasn't there for you when you needed a friend the most. And I am sorry. I'm just…I'm sorry."

Klaus turned his head to the side and watched the tears fall silently from her face as she stared intently upwards to the heavens.

"And if you'll let me," Caroline said slowly, her voice shaky, "I want to help you find Sam. Then if you decide you really can't stand me, I'll walk away after he's safe and sound."

When she didn't hear anything from him, Caroline closed her eyes, the action making more tears fall out. Just as she did, she felt his touch, the edge of his finger by his cheek, catching a tear as it fell.

"Loved. Past tense." Klaus said softly.

Caroline opened her eyes and faced him. "You'd be a fool to still love me."

The corners of his lips turned up slightly, the familiar smirk returning to his face. "Clean slate…for both of us. I accept your help but until the day Sam walks through that front door, we don't talk or think about the things that keep pulling us apart."

Caroline started to nod but Klaus held her face in one hand. "But you don't walk away. We will talk. We will argue. Whatever it takes for us to forgive everything in between."

Caroline nodded tearfully, laughing out with relief when Klaus smiled. "I know I've called you many things but today is the first time I'll say this—you're amazing, you know?"

"Finally!"

The voice made them get up and be on the defensive mode.

Hayley.

"Bonnie!' Caroline said, exchanging a look with Klaus.

"What?" Hayley said confused. "I'm Hayley."

"I know that." Caroline said fishing around in her pocket for her phone. "But if we can see you then that means the veil is down and somewhere in this universe, someone can talk to Bonnie Bennett, aka super witch."

Hayley knocked the phone out of her hand and put it deftly in her own pocket. "We don't have time. Esther is near her endgame and this is the first lucky break I've come across so I'm not wasting it on some phone call. Trust me, the witch will show up when her turn is up."

"What lucky break are you talking about, Hayley?" Klaus asked. "And is there anything you know about Sam's whereabouts?"

"This. You two." Hayley said pointing to both of them. "God, I thought you'd never make up. Esther's plan hinged on keeping the two of you apart. Well, most of it is still on Sam but you two were a close second."

"Slow down, Hayley." Klaus said. "I need you to tell us exactly what you mean by that."

Hayley ignored him and turned to Caroline. "The drawings. Hurry."

Caroline turned to Klaus confused but she pulled out sheets of paper from the inside pocket of her jacket. "Sam drew those but what do they have to do with anything?"

Hayley snatched them away and looked through them, shifting around their order until she was satisfied.

"See this mark?" Hayley said pointing to the drawing. "I have the same marking on my body. I was torn from my family because of this. My werewolf bloodline was something unique—we were also seers. Esther had them killed because they knew of the prophecy, that a child would come from their family with the power to end the reviled hybrid abomination…but that child could also end the other side and send the dark witches, the other dark creatures to a place where nothing can leave, nothing can follow. That's where you two come in—the original hybrid and the vampire witch."

"I'm sorry what did you call me?" Caroline asked. "Did you call me 'bitch', bitch?"

"Witch!" Hayley said. "Focus. Remember the twelve witches that Silas suckered you into killing years back? Well, apparently that was some sort of destiny thing because it set you up perfectly for this moment. You just did magic, Caroline. You brought the veil down."

"But I didn't chant or anything like that…" Caroline said turning to Klaus expectantly, waiting for him to interrupt.

"That was twelve witches, honey." Hayley said. "You just need to think. The key thing is motivation and desire. Look, scrutinize the specifics later but we need to move."

Caroline placed a hand on Hayley's shoulder forcing her back. "What do you mean keeping us apart was always the plan?"

"Tyler." Hayley said with an exasperated sigh. "I found him trying to break his sire bond. I helped him through but I never knew that he cheated and got help from a witch. It changed him. Became this crazed maniac out to get Klaus—at any cost. The man who returned to Mystic Falls was just playing a part for your benefit…for our benefit. I never even realized that I was pulled into your world so I would meet Klaus but well it backfired on them because it paved the way for Sam…You know the boy we need to rescue?"

Hayley showed them the sketches one by one, finally realizing a normal three year old could not have drawn such images.

Klaus with Sam walking hand in hand.

Klaus watching Caroline pick up Sam from her front porch.

The intruder in Caroline's house watching as they ran away.

Sam and Esther watching Klaus and Caroline argue.

Caroline shielding Klaus with her body, a stunned look on his face as she did so.

Sam holding Klaus' and Caroline's hands.

"Where's the last one, Caroline?" Hayley said with her hand outstretched.

Reluctantly, Caroline pulled the last one from her other pocket.

It was a picture of her and Klaus behind a glass window, seemingly watching someone outside, a bittersweet smile on each of their faces.

"Sam isn't in this last one." Klaus said through clenched teeth.

"That's what we need to change." Hayley said walking quickly, leading them down a familiar path. "We need the Deveraux witch."

"Now what did I say about practicing magic in my town?" Marcel called out from the dark, the shadows falling away as he walked out to meet them.

"Seriously? This guy? Are you kidding me?" Caroline said turning to Klaus. "May I?"

Klaus gestured towards Marcel, "By all means, love."

Caroline moved on pure instinct, letting the vampire take over her body, putting to shame the vampire that has lived more than a hundred years, snapping his neck without a thought.

Klaus clapped theatrically, tipping an imaginary hat towards Caroline before turning to Hayley.

"Now let's go get my son back."

A/N: I hope you enjoyed reading that :) I loved reading your reactions on the last one and I agree with most of you…Caroline crossed a line and then some... but hopefully this one explained why she needed to somehow hit rock bottom and just lose it… be stripped down to the core so she'd realize and acknowledge exactly what Klaus had become in her life without her even realizing it. Til the next installment…hope you keep following the story!