a/n: Before beginning another chapter just wanted to say thank you to the reviewers. Your comments were lovely and I've read them about a hundred times repeatedly. I also want to warn readers that this is a Caroline-centric fic. The hero of the story won't appear for a long time, and by that I mean a very long time, maybe the second last chapter, if he even appears at all. This fic is mainly Caroline on a journey, a journey about herself, towards herself, which from time to time becomes a journey she shares with others. I think in our current modern time we need to find ourselves before we find others, to finally find a home.
chapter two: I can see the flickers, over me the lanterns raised.
"Call me Kol." He says smugly, rocking on the heels of his feet, with his hands inside the pockets of his ridiculously paisley patterned silk jacket. There are many things about this Mikaelson which makes him incredibly "pretty" according to Caroline; his girlishly evil smile, the way he flips his head sideways to move hair out of his eyes, his fluid movements mirroring that of a ballerina. There is a small smile stretching tug at the corner of her lips at the thought of Kol with his hair in a tight bun. At this, Kol smiles even bigger. "Atta girl! You know Elijah was oh-so worried you wouldn't respond well to my services. But alas I see you've warmed up to us Mikaelsons." His smile stretches bigger and bigger, to a point of contagiousness. The boy is always smiling.
"What services?" She asks suspiciously, narrowing her eyes. This is the first time in sixty years she has seen the youngest male Mikaelson, her last memory of him virtually non-existent.
"Why, our family hybrids off course!" Kol gestures gleefully behind him, her eyes take in the accumulating group of buff men in dark hoodies and jackets. He introduces them like a circus ring master would a bike riding Elephant. He's probably practiced this show to perfection, knowing him.
Kol turns back to face her, she's still standing in the doorway, unintentionally bocking his entrance. A flash of empathy appears across his face as he realises what she doesn't know yet. What Elijah promised he would originally see to. Kol sighs softly and says the next few words with the utmost sensitivity.
"May I come in, Caroline?" There is no smile as he asks for permission. He watches as she gradually recognises the significance of this moment. With passing of one owner of the house, the rights are carried down to the next of kin. Even though she's a vampire and human rules did not apply to her anymore from now on and for ever onwards, it would always be Caroline's decision whom she invited into her home. No longer under the wings of her mother, no longer safe to trust the instincts of her guardian. Penultimately alone.
'How can I be sure my home won't be annihilated during my absence?'
'How can you be sure you will ever go back to that one pony town?' Kol cringes, clearly not impressed by the proposal of her eventual return.
They're on the Mikaelson jet as Caroline wants to absolutely make sure that her home isn't harmed.
'Mikaelson.'
'Elijah will take care of that, something about a witch, spell.' He mumbles and rolls his eyes and tries to change the subject with a wave of his hand. His eyes follow the cleavage of a soon to be fucked- and- forgotten brunette air hostess, she stops and bends forward too close to hand him a hot towel. With a subtle bite of the lips and dangerous sex eyes, the hot towel brunette walks away from them, deliberately swaying her hips. Kol bites back a groan. The air hostess is super-hot and he'll be damned if those incredible legs aren't wrapped around him within the next five minutes.
'Forbes, you can take care of yourself for a while. Yes?' He languidly wipes his fingers with the towel. Taking a few seconds off from eyeing the brunette to look at Caroline.
'I-, yes, why?'
'Entertainment.' He says in short before in a flash, he disappears. No signs of a Johnny Depp look alike, a là 21 Jump Street.
She should have worn shorts instead of the jeans, like Kol suggested. But it was his fault for not informing her that they were headed to Nassau. These originals had some serious communication issues. No doubt having found entertainment, Kol looks incredibly pleased with himself as they step off the family jet; he says nothing as they walk around in Nassau, along the beaches, next to the boutique stores. It's incredibly warm and the tourists crowd up the town like bees in a beehive.
'I made it very clear that I wanted to see Bonnie.'
'And where on earth do you think she lives?' He snaps, clearly not amused by her attitude.
'Bonnie lives here? In the Bahamas?'
'I should say so; my sources are never wrong. Now are you going to just stand there or shall we go visit the witch.'
They arrive in front of a small cottage facing the beach. The whole house is so ridiculously blue she wants to laugh. The windows and thin wooden pillars are lined in blinding white, the front yard is all sand and the doormat says 'Home Sweet Home'. Caroline has doubts as to whether this is Bonnie's home, as she was never so inviting or expressive with colours. Kol stands against the mailbox, no intention of entering. She turns around and knocks on the door, hoping it was Bonnie who was thudding towards the door.
There is a teenage girl who answers the door, for a minute Caroline thinks it is bonnie but then the confused look on her face says otherwise.
'Can I help you?' She says, holding a tub of Ben and Jerry's standing in her jean shorts and bikini top.
'Is this the Bennett residence? I'm an old friend of Bonnie.'
'You're an old friend of Bonnie's?' The girl repeats sceptically, with a raised eyebrow, she has opened the door wider, letting Caroline see the white clean interior.
'Could you let Bonnie know, that she has a visitor?' Caroline asks nicely, not caring about the teenager's questions. The girl gives her a bored look.
'Don't tell me what to do.' She mumbles and walks away, leaving the door open. Caroline turns back to see Kol standing in the same spot he had when they arrived. He gives her a reassuring smile. The girl comes back into the room, the tub of ice cream nowhere in sight.
'Please, come in,' The teenage girl says, addressing her with a little more politeness this time. 'Grams is out in the back.'
Caroline heads into the house. It's spacious and airy, suiting the island temperatures. Pictures adorn the mantel piece above the never used fireplace. Pictures of Bonnie's family, her father, herself and her own grandmother, her cousins, many witches she had come across and befriended in her youth. There are people Caroline doesn't recognise, more so than she would like to admit. Bonnie, ages through the pictures, she and her husband, their first daughter, their second, then their third and finally a boy. They all grow together, generation after generation. Sixty years of family. Caroline sees Bonnie become a grandmother in front of her eyes.
The girl leads her through a hallway and out into the back, the ground is patches of white sand and brown soft grass, she walks barefoot. Onto their right is the beach, fenced lightly by low hanging palm trees. She eyes a small figure in the distance sitting on a bamboo seat.
It's Bonnie.
Her hair flows softly down her back, the black almost finished fading into grey, the breeze from the beach licks at the tips of her hair, falling and rising once every while.
'Is that you, Caroline?' a broken voice calls out. A whimper escapes Caroline's throat, she drops onto the ground, her face falling onto Bonnie's knees. She lowers her face to hide the tears.
'Caroline, look at me.' Bonnie's hand ungrasps hers and makes way to her wet face. 'Don't cry, please.' She says wiping away the tears. 'Some of us have the gift of ageing and we must accept it graciously.' She lifts her chin. And for the first time Caroline looks at Bonnie's eyes. The ones which used to be so beautifully green have been clouded by white; they stay still, looking out into the ocean behind Caroline.
'I've missed you so much.' She sobs into Bonnie's wrinkled hands.
'And I you, Caroline.' There are tears streaming down Bonnie's face, but she does nothing to stop them.
Even as dusk falls upon them, Caroline is still seated on the sand, her tired head resting on the softness of Bonnie's lap. Bonnie runs her hands through her blonde hair.
'You're so young.' She says nonchalantly,
And Beautiful, Strong, and full of light.
No envy, no surprise, just a statement.
'And you're so wise, Bon,' Bonnie laughs. 'So nothing's changed really.'
'Would you like to hear about my family Caroline?' Bonnie asks after a while.
Caroline looks up at her. Off course she would. She wants to hear of this idea called family and ageing and celebrating. She wants to hear about a life other than her own. She wants to know about her friends and their lives post Mystic Falls.
Caroline stays with Bonnie for a month; and in a month she tries her best to catch up on the last six decades.
Bonnie shares stories of her youth. The youth without Caroline, without Elena, definitely without the Salvatore brothers. She talks of the adventures of her gap year, travelling much of poverty stricken Asia; Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Laos. How that year changed her. She skilfully practiced witchcraft for years, living up to the expectations of her ancestry. How she and the spirits finally became one.
Bonnie talks highly of her days in Radcliffe College. That one time she finally learned pottery and joined the theatre club for fun. How she was high for much of the time during her sophomore year. How she rekindled her romance with Jaime during her junior year, while he studied at BU. She graduated at the top of her class, no regrets about not having her mother by her side.
She and Jaime have four children together. Their first daughter; Tessa, their second; Madison, adopted from Vietnam, their third daughter Josephine and their first and last son Evan. All exceptional witches and warlock. Bonnie recalls the most painful labour being Evan, even though he turned out to be the quietest and sensitive and loving, just like his father. She talks of Tessa becoming an advocate for human rights, never having gotten married, too busy with her fight for women's rights. However she does give Bonnie a grandchild somewhere in Berlin. The child turns out to be half Turkish, loathing his mother for never revealing his father's identity. However, he visits his grandparents more than he does his own mother.
Bonnie recounts Madison being dangerously intellectual, becoming smarter than her mother and father combined, but surprising them by never once questioning her adoption. She goes on to study at the London Business School. Declines offers from various firms and starts her own news station and fast becomes owner to one of the top fortune 500 companies in the world.
Josephine changes through the seasons, rebellious one month, mousy and quiet like her brother another. Her hair suffers these changes, from pink to orange during junior year, white during her wedding and back to her original black in time for her first child. Josephine coincidently marries Jeremy Gilbert's only son; John Gilbert II. Together with their two lovely children they travel the world, Josephine reports for her sister's news empire as a war zone correspondent.
Evan grows to become an early childhood teacher at a local school. He doesn't lack ambition; instead he opts for looking out for his ageing parents, never straying too far from them. He has a boy and a wife, with whom he lives a few streets away. His mother and sisters dote on him endlessly.
Through her month long stay with Bonnie, Caroline watches the Bennett family move around her. She watches as Bonnie's grandchildren visit her unusually occasionally. She notes the strong notion of familial loyalty and the love they have with and for one another. It makes her happy that Bonnie finally has a family to call her own.
It makes Caroline wonder how her family would have turned out. If she had one.
She connects well with Josephine and her daughter, both a replica of Bonnie. Josephine takes time off her work for this quarter of the year to take care of Bonnie. Together she and her daughter show Caroline around the Bahamas. They exchange stories of Bonnie's life before Jaime passed. When they used to live in Honolulu. The first stages of Bonnie's loss of eyesight. They have stories of countless occasions. But are left almost clueless when asked about Tyler Lockwood, or Matt Donovan or even Elena Gilbert.
'Mama almost never talks of her high school days.' Says Josephine as they walk along a boulevard, the beach mere steps away.
'It's not that she hates to, I think, she thinks of it as a very sacred time.' Says Josephine's daughter, Jayne.
'And you never thought to ask Jeremy about it all?' Caroline wonders.
'He's just like Bonnie, won't say a word. Mom, Dad, Jeremy, they had this secret pact I guess. We've seen pictures off course. You and Tyler Lockwood. You and Matt Donovan. Elena and Matt Donovan, Elena and Stefan Salvatore.'
'Has Bonnie ever mentioned, as to why she left Mystic Falls?' Caroline treads carefully around these questions.
'We're a pretty big family, Caroline. After a while you learn to shrug off the mystery.' Josephine says casually.
She sees Kol on the other side of the road, sinfully devouring a paw paw. She scowls at him. He slowly winks at her and walks off into the crowd of shoppers.
Bonnie senses something wrong when Caroline is unusually quiet one day.
'You're leaving.' She states knowingly. Caroline lets out an audible sigh.
'Not even a year could make up for the lost time between you and me, Bonnie. But I need to find the others. I need to find Matt, Elena, and Tyler. I need them to know how sorry I am before time runs out.' She says exasperatedly. It's a whole mouthful, but albeit unnecessary as Bonnie is nodding her head and grinning widely.
'I know, I know. It's ok Caroline, I understand, I'm not exactly going anywhere'
'I'm really glad I came to see you first Bonnie. I'm…'
'I hope you find whatever it is you're looking for Caroline. I hope you find peace, and I hope that finally within your journey, you find love.'
Caroline makes her way up the stairs to her mother's room. She reaches into the jewellery box and smiles at the lack of ornaments. Elizabeth Forbes was nothing like her girly daughter. There, in a small compartment, isolated, sits the Lapis Lazuli. It doesn't sparkle, or shine, or twinkle, but it sure does a hell of a lot more than that. Even after twenty years the ring fits perfectly onto her finger. Moments spent with Bonnie and Stefan flash into her mind.
'I'm going to visit her you know, Bonnie; she's the first I want to visit.' The reflection in the mirror of Kol leaning against the doorway smiles at her, nodding in agreement.
She's almost claustrophobic in her own home as the hybrids zoom from one corner of the house to another. They willingly and skilfully pack objects into boxes, cover furniture with white sheets, lock the windows and spray pesticide everywhere. Like a gymnastic troupe they move around in sync, managing not to bump into each other, managing not to break the vases. She watches from the staircase as they prepare the house for the absence of maintenance, for the long awaited departure of Caroline.
Outside, two of the hybrids try to manage the garden. In the absence of her mother, and the presence of autumn, the plants stopped showing signs of growth. With ease the hybrids destroy everything. Gone are the strawberry patches, the tulips are ripped apart, the gardenias are crushed until they are bruised and brown.
Kol grabs her shoulder in effort to stop her from running to the garden.
'My mother-.'
'-Is not here anymore.'
'Are you trying to devoid this home of every form of life?!' She shouts, trying to pull her arm away from his firm grasp, offended by his lust for destruction.
'I am helping you let go. Which must happen in order for you to move forward into the world, to become independent,' Kol frowns. 'You are a vampire Caroline, you live forever, and you may have to live it alone.'
She knows he speaks from some sort of experience, this coming from the guy who spent a hundred years in a coffin.
Dressed immaculately for every decade, you're welcome.
'My mother and I spent every day in that garden, Kol,' Caroline looks back into the lawn, where the brutal demolition continues. Like the massacre Alexander caused in Persia, ruthless destruction of breathing, growing life forms. In some ways, the scene reminds her of him; his constant need for bloody, painful carnage. 'If I'm going to live forever, I want to live in my past for a little longer.'
Slowly she walks into her mother's backyard. In a matter of hours the plot of land had turned into masses of upturned soil and scattered green stems and leaves. She places herself in the middle of all this. The rain falls on her, gradually plastering her hair to her face, wrinkling the skin on her fingers. The world turns slow for her. She can see the fat drops of water falling on her nose, crashing onto the ground, turning earth into mud. She can see the muscles sharply clench and unclench on the hybrid's arm as he grabs the stem of a sunflower and flings it behind him carelessly. The rose petals fall in surrender, like the red blood dripping from his lips.