A/N: Here is the last chapter. Thank you to D, Wifey, and Sophie for beta work.
Caroline's tattoo is on the cover for the fic.
Enjoy!
-Angie
"It's nice to meet you," Caroline said to Esther, shaking her hand firmly.
"And you as well," the other woman responded, a stiff smile on her face.
Mikael stood beside her, still and silent, his beady eyes fixed on Klaus, who had his arm around Caroline's waist.
"Why don't you go and say hello to Kol and Elijah? It's been such a long time since you've spoken to them."
"Of course, Mother," Klaus said, apparently happy to get away as soon as possible.
They walked to the refreshment table towards a boy that looked around Rebekah's age, who was obviously trying to chat up a brunette, who clearly wasn't having it.
"Sorry to interrupt," Klaus said politely, and the girl didn't even wait for the excuse, simply murmuring that it was totally fine and then scampering away.
"Aww, Nik, you ruined it," Kol said, going in for a hug, which Klaus returned awkwardly, patting his brother on the back once and stepping away.
"She wasn't interested anyway," Caroline said, rolling her eyes.
"Oh, you must be Nik's new girl. Tasty little thing, aren't you?"
"And that is why she wasn't interested," Klaus said dryly, putting his arm around Caroline in a move of ridiculous territorialism that Caroline did not appreciate.
"My name is Caroline," she said. "Not 'Nik's new girl', and you must be Kol. I've heard quite a bit about you from Rebekah."
"You must think I'm a right prick, then," Kol said cheerfully.
Caroline didn't argue, simply shrugging in agreement.
"Well, don't worry, not everything Bekah tells you is true."
"Did you date three women at once?"
He winced. "Yes. But it was only one time, and two of them knew."
"Did you go to boarding school for three years and get suspended twice for having sex with your girlfriend in the school library?"
"No. One of them was technically in the student lounge next door."
"Did you spend half your trust fund on a car that you crashed three months later?"
Kol huffed. "It was the other person's fault, and I had insurance."
Caroline shrugged and gave him a rather pointed, 'point proven' look.
"I'm not as bad as she makes me sound," Kol insisted.
"I'm sure you're not," Caroline agreed. "Rebekah makes everyone sound like a demon."
"No lies detected," Kol said cheerfully. "So, how long will you two be around, then?"
Klaus shrugged. "Just for the week. We're both busy at the company."
"Ah, yes. The cosmetics company. How is that working out for you, Nik?"
"Well," Klaus said shortly. "Please excuse me, I have to introduce Caroline to Elijah."
"Of course. Well, pleasure to meet you, darling," Kol said, grabbing her hand and kissing it before flashing her a wink.
"You too," Caroline said politely, before allowing Klaus to steer her towards Elijah.
Once they'd been introduced, Caroline learned that Elijah was the exact opposite of Kol in every way, it seemed. He was polite and put together, and Caroline found herself growing bored at the dullness of the conversation. She excused herself to freshen up, and Klaus gave her a knowing look. She kissed him on he cheek and Elijah pointed her in the direction of the bathroom.
Caroline was accosted by Esther on the way, who gave her a small smile. "Hello again."
"Hello, Mrs. Mikaelson."
"Please, call me Esther."
Caroline nodded.
"You're the CMO for Bold, correct?" Esther said, clearly jumping right into the 'inquisition' phase of meeting the parents.
"Yes."
"Do you enjoy it?"
"Most of it."
Esther nodded. "I see. And you used to be Niklaus' boss, yes?"
"Yes, though we didn't start seeing each other until he was promoted," Caroline said, trying to keep her voice from growing cold.
"My son has had a hard life," Esther said abruptly.
Caroline fought down her initial response ("so I've heard"), instead remaining silent.
"He seems to like you."
"I should hope so," Caroline said lightly.
Esther laughed quietly. "I do hope we get to see more of each other in the future."
"Me too."
"It was lovely to meet you, Caroline. If you'll excuse me, I must ensure that Kol hasn't got himself into too much trouble. From the looks of it I may need to force feed him some water. Pray for daughters, my dear."
Caroline felt herself flush, and Esther just gave her a mischievous smile, patting her lightly on the shoulder. "It was nice to meet you too," Caroline said.
About five minutes later, Caroline capped her lipstick and walked back to the main room, snatching a crab puff off a nearby platter as she went, scanning the area for Klaus. When her eyes finally found him, she felt her stomach sink. Mikael had just walked up andstarted a conversation with him, and Caroline was positive he couldn't be saying anything good.
She made her way towards them, and felt her eye twitch involuntarily once she was close enough to hear what Mikael was saying.
"—pathetic enough to need his little sister to bribe her friend to get you a job. And of course, you couldn't stop there, you had to fuck your boss for a promotion like the power-hungry little mongrel you are. Although, to be fair, it couldn't have exactly been a chore. She's a hot piece of arse—"
"Say one more word about Caroline and—"
"And you'll what?" Mikael asked, invading Klaus's personal space. "What will you do, boy? Defend her until she runs off with a better catch? Like that little slut Tatia that you were so in love with?"
Klaus's hands curled into fists, and he looked like he'd very much like to punch Mikael in the nose, but was restraining himself admirably. Caroline, however, was not in the mood for restraint.
"Excuse me?" she asked coldly, coming up next to Klaus, leveling the incompetent-intern-glare-of-doom on Mikael. "What exactly are you implying, Mr. Mikaelson?"
"Simply that from the looks of it, you are coming up with the short end of the stick on this relationship, my dear."
"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean," she said, slipping her hand into Klaus's and squeezing it lightly.
"Well, you're a very successful woman, and rather pretty. You must have many more options than just Niklaus."
"I do, and Klaus is just the one I want," she said stiffly. "I don't like what you're implying, Mr. Mikaelson."
"Hiding behind your girlfriend's skirt, then, boy?" Mikael asked, switching tactics.
Caroline opened her mouth, about to respond, when Klaus spoke, quietly but firmly. "I think that's enough, father. Caroline and I will be leaving momentarily."
"Scared of what your old man might say? Afraid I'll scare her off, are you?"
"No. You're just irritating and not worth our time," Klaus said simply. "Caroline wanted to come here to meet you and mother, hoping that you were decent people, and I think that you've sorely disappointed her. Now that you've proved what a repulsive human being you are, we won't have to spend another moment of our lives anywhere near you. I don't want or need your approval, and neither does Caroline. We'll see ourselves out, shall we, love?"
Caroline nodded, allowing Klaus to steer her towards the door. They paused for a few moments so that Klaus could kiss his mother on the cheek and reassure her that she was welcome so long as she didn't bring her husband, and they left.
"That was…" Caroline started, trailing off as they walked down the front path, her hand neatly slotted in the crook of his elbow.
"A disaster?"
She huffed. "I'm sorry that I didn't believe that it was as bad as you said it would be, but honestly I didn't know there were people in the world that could be so unpleasant to their own children."
"I'm not his child," Klaus pointed out gently.
Caroline shrugged. "I know, but he raised you, and whether you're his biological child or not you still deserve his respect, if not his love. What a dickweed."
Klaus snorted, and Caroline allowed herself a small smile.
"So, what's there to do right outside of London at ten o'clock at night?" Caroline asked, a small smile on her face.
"I'm glad you asked. Let me show you."
XXX
"I have a question for you," Klaus said, his front pressed against her back as they laid in their hotel bed, arms wrapped securely around her.
"Hmm?"
"Why a hummingbird?"
"My tattoo, you mean?"
"Yes."
"I like them," she said, shrugging. "I turned eighteen and felt like being rebellious, so I got one with Bonnie."
"Does she also have a hummingbird?"
"Nope. She got an anchor. She's much more into symbolism than I am."
He hummed to show he'd heard her, and she shifted to face him, running a hand down his bare chest. "What about yours?"
"The panther was for similar reasons. More of a 'fuck you' to my parents than anything. I regret it. It's a bit much. The triangle I got when I was at Oxford with my friend Marcel. He has the same tattoo, but on his other shoulder. We were drunk, and it seemed like a good idea at the time."
"And the birds?" she asked, tracing the tattoo with the tip of her finger.
"Freedom," he said simply.
She pressed a kiss to his shoulder. "I'm sorry about last night."
"It had to happen sooner or later," he said, kissing the hummingbird on her shoulder and then moving to kiss her neck. "The important thing was that we don't have to do it again," he said, his lips moving against her skin when he spoke.
She hummed her agreement, tipping her head to the side slightly, encouraging him to continue.
"I'm glad I have you in my life. You make me happy," he said, pulling back and tugging her to him so that she was laying her cheek against his chest.
She smirked. "I tend to have that effect on people."
She heard him scoff, his finger tracing up and down her spine.
"Just for the record, you make me happy too."
2 years later...
Caroline looked around at the flowers adorning the edges of the aisle, compulsively needing to double-check everything before the ceremony even though she knew the wedding planner had it handled.
"Jenna has it handled, Care. It'll be fine," Bonnie said, patting Caroline on the arm.
"I don't know how you can be so calm about this," Caroline said, her stomach welling up with nervousness.
"I don't know either, but it's probably that I trust my best friend to pick the best wedding planner possible," Bonnie said logically.
Caroline nodded slowly, taking a deep breath.
"If someone told me this was where we'd be five years ago, would you have believed them?"
"Probably not," Bonnie said, shrugging. "But it doesn't matter whether we expected it or not. I'm happy with where we are. You and Klaus are still annoyingly perfect, Rebekah has her white picket fence, Katherine's finally happy…"
"You're waiting for the other shoe to drop," Caroline assessed.
"I guess. Although probably not in the way you're thinking. I trust Kol, I just..."
"Cold feet?" Caroline asked, grinning.
Bonnie shrugged.
"It'll be fine," Caroline said, rubbing her friend's back.
"Easy for you to say, you and Klaus are...I don't even know. You guys make it seem easy."
"As flattered as I am, we have trouble like everyone else. Do you remember how much we fought about Henrik?"
"Of course."
"And it all worked out," Caroline said, shrugging. "We both kept our jobs, and he's totally fine."
"To be fair, it's only been about six months."
"Six months of the kid being totally fine," Caroline said teasingly. "Speaking of, I should go make sure Klaus hasn't gotten them into any trouble. He's a bit hopeless."
"Which you find endearing," Klaus said from behind her, making her jump.
"Most of the time," Caroline allowed, holding out her hands, wriggling her fingers for the coffee cup Klaus handed her.
"You are the best," she said between sips.
"Because I get you coffee?" he asked, amused.
"Among other reasons."
"Your parents are gross, aren't they, Henrik?" Bonnie asked, leaning down to tap Henrik on the nose, making the baby babble and wriggle in Klaus's arms.
Bonnie held out her arms and Klaus was about to hand her the baby, but turned when Caroline yelled a strangled, "No!"
"Everything all right, love?"
"He'll spit up on her wedding dress," Caroline said primly.
A/N: Thank you so much for reading! The wonderful feedback I've gotten on this story has been so encouraging and awesome, and I am so happy that you guys liked it so much. I'm curious about what you thought of the ending. Was it satisfying? Did it wrap up well?
This story was supposed to be a short piece, so that was the reason it moved so quickly, and I hope that wasn't too distracting.
I'm so excited to share more of my work with you, and if you haven't read my other stuff, you should totally check it out. :)
Hugs!
-Angie