Elijah walked around the room in a daze as guests congratulated him on his engagement and wished him good luck. He politely thanked them and shook their hands, moving from one to the next. After what seemed like hours, Elijah finally made eye contact with his intended and the time that had felt like a weight on his chest seemed to slip away from him. He excused himself from his present conversation and began to move across the room.
Katherine was still shaken from her conversation with Elena. Could it be? Could she finally be getting everything she had ever wanted? A chance to be happy, with a husband who loved her and a child of her own?Just when she was allowing herself to be happy it occurred to her that it was too good to be true. Klaus had arranged this whole thing and this was his way of accepting her proposal…a way of putting her someplace he would always have access to her.
She had to get to the bottom of this.
Caroline felt like the bell of the ball. None of the events she had ever been to in Mystic Falls had ever been this grand or elegant. Of course, she was peeved to have to be in Klaus's presence, but since her best friend had used her as leverage to get Klaus to agree to keep Katherine alive, there was no getting away from him.
Truth be told, she didn't want to get away from him. He had been giving her space all night, catching her glance at just the right moments; when she was in awe over something new and magical like the classical southern architecture of his ball room that reminded her of Gone With Wind and made her feel like Scarlet O'Hara. Being around Klaus made her feel like the woman she always wanted to be. That's what annoyed her.
Where was Tyler? He was supposed to be the great love of her life; star crossed lovers that would somehow manage to beat all the odds and be together forever.
But he had left her to find a way to get rid of Klaus so that he could never come between them again. The thing was, Klaus had left. He had given them the space they needed to have a chance at something normal for once and Tyler had to pull this on her. Now he wasn't even answering her calls or texts, and here she was with the man who had proclaimed that he was going to wait for her. And what was he doing? Staying away from her when she finally sort have, kind of, wanted him around.
Stupid boys.
Turning, she bumped into the last person she thought she'd ever have to see again.
"What are you doing here," she all but screeched. Hayley ran a protective hand over her abdomen, drawing Caroline's gaze down to her pregnant belly. "And what the hell is that?"
Klaus appeared alongside Hayley and placed a hand on her back. "Well, if it isn't my two favorite ladies. Love," Klaus directed to Hayley and causing Caroline to glare at him, "why don't you go attend to your guests. I see Jackson over there and I'm sure he wouldn't mind the company of his betrothed."
Hayley nodded, and made her way to the bar where Jackson was with Oliver and other members of their pack. Caroline looked from Hayley and Klaus before she had an aha moment. "Oh, my god. It's yours! You got that she-wolf pregnant," she all but hissed. Before he could answer, the blonde swiveled on her heel and absconded; gone so fast Klaus had no idea what direction she had sped off in.
Damon made his way over to one of the ice buckets and served himself another glass of champagne; not caring to wait for one of the servers to fill his cup.
Interesting things had been happening since their arrival and Damon was doing his best to keep his ear to the ground; figure out why. So far he had learned that the Originals had built this city –one of his favorites—from the ground up before fleeing. Marcel, the recently usurped leader of the French Quarter, was Klaus's protégé and from the looks he was sending Rebecca's way, Damon could easily guess why Klaus and Marcel were no longer on the best of terms.
Still, the most interesting piece of information was the engagement of the Original Bitch to the Original Snoozefest. He overheard Elena's little speech, wishing Katherine the happiness she had been chasing for five hundred years, but he wasn't that nice. Or naïve.
A marriage agreement made by Klaus's hands had to fulfill some sort of need and all he had to do was figure out how it benefitted Klaus. Noticing a past acquaintance that might know the answers, Damon followed down an empty corridor.
He found her there, in his studio admiring one of his portraits; her long fingers delicately grazing the brush strokes of her very image. "Do you like it?"
Caroline's back stiffened and she dropped her hand. "I think it's hideous, actually." Turning, she saw his amused expression and wanted to slap the smug smirk off his face. "I think it's hideous how you claim to love someone so much you'll wait forever for them, only to screw anything that howls at you."
"I said I'd wait forever, love. I didn't say I'd live like a monk. For all I knew it'd be five hundred years before you admitted your feelings for me; maybe never. Well, I might be a sadist, love, but I'm no masochist."
She threw back her head and laughed maniacally as she clenched her hands in frustration. "Don't," she poked him in the chest with each word, "call me love. Not after you called that—"
"Watch what you say, love," he warned her. "I know how you feel about Hayley, but it doesn't change the fact that she's the mother of my child."
"And how does that even happen? You're dead; you don't get to procreate."
"Loophole. When I unleashed my werewolf nature," Klaus spoke. "And for the second time in my long life, I finally love someone more than myself. I already adore my child so I would appreciate it if you don't say anything that might change the way I feel about you, either. Because you're the first; the first person I ever truly loved, and the one who made it possible for me to want to be a good man; not just a powerful beast. And I don't want to lose that."
Caroline sobbed and turned away. "This is so not fair! I lost that opportunity, largely because of you, and now here I am; in love with the person who single handedly destroyed mine and all of my friends' lives, and he fathers a child with the girl who destroyed what I thought was this great love; this fairytale, I had with Tyler."
Caroline moved to the other side of the room and threw herself down in a chair. In an instant Klaus was kneeling before her, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "You're in love with me?" Klaus asked, utterly in awe and totally perplexed.
She stared at him, looking directly in his eyes before cupping his cheek. He pressed his face against her palm and reveled in her touch. "I am. But I can't do this. You're ready for this; you've had a thousand years to see the world and pursue your wants. I haven't."
"We can see the world together."
"No, we can't. You're going to have a child. You're going to want to be there for every moment; the first time she calls you daddy, or her first day of school; her first date. And that's wonderful. But you'll be sharing those moments with Hayley," Caroline cried. "Not me. And who knows, maybe you'll want more. A kid needs siblings so they never feel alone, and I can't do that for you."
"There will be more children, I know that for a fact," Klaus said. "And because I know that someday, when you're ready, we're going to have our time, I will be honest with you now so that it doesn't come back to bite me in the ass."
He paused, trying to find the words and Caroline couldn't help herself. "Just tell me, please. No more secrets."
"It's about Katherine. And her bloodline."