England, September 1486,

Elena cradled her son, James, in her arms as Caroline waddled over to her.

"He's lovely, Elena." Caroline told her.

Elena smiled. "He has his father's eyes."

Caroline looked into the baby's ice-blue eyes. "Maybe King Niklaus's mother had the same color eyes."

Elena shook her head. "No, Caroline. I'm convinced now, more than ever, that my son is also Damon's. Bonnie also believes it to be true as well."

Caroline shook her head. "Just because she thinks she can see the future she-" Caroline stopped mid sentence.

"Are you all right?" Elena asked her.

"I think the baby is coming."

"I'll send for Meredith." Elena said quickly before laying her son down and running off.

"Oh, Caroline." Elena said sadly as soon as Meredith had the baby in her arms.

"What?" Caroline said panicked. "Is something wrong."

Elena shook her head slightly. "No, it's just.. you were right. It's a girl."

Caroline smiled as Meredith handed the baby over, but soon Caroline was sobbing.

"I don't want to leave her. I want to watch her grow. I'm not ready to go."

"The King," Meredith started, "If you remember is not here at the moment. He shouldn't be back until early tomorrow morning. At least you'll have a day to spend with her."

"Meredith," Elena finally spoke again. "Can you make sure that no one tells Niklaus of the birth?"

"I'll do my best." Meredith told her.

Caroline woke with a start and a hand clasped over her mouth. She struggled for a moment before realizing that the hand belonged to Sir Stefan and his finger was over his mouth telling her to be quiet.

Stefan led Caroline and her daughter out of the palace and into a carriage. Stefan slipped the driver a shiny coin then turned back to Caroline. "Matt here will take you away and into hiding."

"How did you know it was a girl?" Caroline asked.

"Elena found me when we got back this morning and told me. She knew I would do anything to protect you."

"And why is that?"

"You're the best friend of the woman my brother is in love with...and it's possible that I'm in love with you as well."

"What?"

"That's not important though, because this will all have been for nothing if we don't hurry. Have a good life, Caroline."

The next day, Stefan came into Elena's room with a somber look on his face.

"Sir Stefan." Elena's heart began to race, knowing something was wrong. "What has happened?"

"The King found out about the birth of his daughter, and that I had sent Caroline away." Stefan took a deep breath, choking back tears. "He has killed my brother."

Elena gasped and a hand flew to her mouth. "No! How could he- why would-" Elena began to sob uncontrollably. "I'm sorry." She was apologizing for making such a scene, but also because it was her fault that Damon was now dead.

Stefan placed a hand on her shoulder. "I just thought I should be the one to tell you. Also, I'm stepping down as the King's Advisor. I considered him a friend for a long time, but for him to do this is unforgivable."

"He probably thinks the same of you. Niklaus has never been one to care for others before himself."

Stefan nodded and was silent for a moment before whispering, "Take care, Elena."

"And you as well, Sir Stefan."

Stefan smiled sadly. "Just call me Stefan now." Elena nodded, then quickly threw her arms around his neck. In all the years they had known each other, this was the closest they had ever gotten. They only talked in passing or when one of them needed a favor from the other, but this was goodbye. It wasn't until this very moment, they either of them realized how good of friends they really were.

"Keep my nephew safe." Stefan told her as he pulled away.

Elena froze for a moment, then nodded.

"Thank you."

Matt knocked on the door of a house five days later. Caroline stood behind him with her daughter in her arms. When the door opened, her first instinct was to throw her arms around what looked like her best friend that she thought she'd never see again, but then common sense took a hold of her first.

"Katherine?" Caroline was surprised.

"Come inside. Hurry." She said quickly and ushered them both in.

"Forgive me," Caroline said once they were in. "But,why are you so willing to help us? When we worked together, you didn't seem to like me very much."

"I was a jealous teen. It was more that I didn't like my job than that I didn't like my fellow employees. After Sir Stefan was informed of my dismissal, he came after me, offering to do what he could to help me. The two of us stayed in contact at my sister's request. He was our go-between."

"I didn't realize Elena kept in contact with you." Caroline told her.

"Elena has always been compassionate, even when I have been terribly rude. She wrote letters and Sir Stefan delivered them. It wasn't until after the birth of my niece, Hannah that I began to respond to them. When she found out that she was to have Hannah, she was afraid of what Niklaus may do if she didn't bare him a son. Even though I was not yet talking to her, I was beginning to soften, and the three of us devised a plan, that should Niklaus try to have her killed, Stefan would get her away from there and she would come to live with me. When Hannah was born, but yet Niklaus did not punish her, I realized how close I was to losing my sister. That's when I began to write back. We had to keep our relationship a secret, even from you, Caroline-which drove Elena mad. She wanted you to know so much, but in order to keep her safe, Niklaus had to always believe that we still hated each other. Her and Stefan also had to keep communicating to a minimum. When Niklaus made this so-called 'game', we prepared, at worst, to have both of you here. After James was born, Elena was concerned that your intuition would be correct, but they chose not to tell you of our plan."

"That's why she told Meredith to make sure no one knew of the birth, so she could find Stefan and let him know."

Katherine nodded. "When I last spoke to him, he was not looking forward to saying goodbye to you. He had grown quite fond of you over the years." Caroline bowed her head as she soaked in all of the information Katherine had thrown at her. "What's her name?" Katherine asked.

"Ella."

"She's beautiful." Katherine told her.

A/N: Please don't throw things at me for killing Damon. That was always the plan. I've had this written for awhile and I haven't posted it, because it's a weird place to end it, so I think I'll do an epilogue; although the epilogue I have in mind could be another story in itself. I'll take suggestions: Should I mark this as complete and start a sequel or just wrap it up in the epilogue?