I Know You Love Me Chapter 49: Bye Bye Blackbird, a vampire diaries fanfic

Dedicated to niksbitch on tumblr because she convinced me to write this (very easily I might add), and I'm sorry it took so long!

Based loosely off of Public Enemies (because honestly, the Originals could have been gangsters). Character Deaths. You have been warned. Also smut-ish.

AU/AH

Rated: M

"Why did you come here? To see how you've broken me?"

"I came here because he asked me to. I was the first person there when he went down, and I put my ear next to his mouth in time to hear him say something. He said, tell Caroline for me, bye bye blackbird."

Bye Bye Blackbird. She was surprised he had remembered, although she supposed she shouldn't have been. Their song, the song that had been playing the night they met, the first song they had ever danced to together. She had been on a date that night with Tyler Lockwood, but Nik still stole her away from him, twirling her out onto the dance floor, smirking down at her as they swayed back and forth to the song. She had thought he was rude that night, as he swept her into his arms, pressing his body against hers, all hard muscle and masculinity, thought him rude again when he tugged her arm, leading her out of the club. And then he swept his jacket off, onto her, when she shivered with cold, and her heart melted a little for him.

He took her to one of the fanciest restaurants in Chicago, one she had only ever dreamed of being able to go to, ordering them champagne as she tried to ignore the stares of strangers that told her she didn't belong in her three dollar dress. He asked about her, her life, and then as she answered his questions she realized that though she had given him her name, he had never given her his.

"I'm Niklaus Mikaelson. I rob banks."

She had gasped softly at his admission, coming so calmly from his mouth in his smooth accent; of course she knew he robbed banks, he was America's Most Wanted, his name would have been more than enough. "Why would you tell me that? You could have made something up."

"I want you to get to know me."

"You're moving awfully fast, for just having just met me. I'm not going to fall in your bed, just so we're clear."

"I know." He said, smiling at her, and she couldn't help but smile back. "That's why I like you."

Fear, not because of who he was, though that was a factor, made her run that night. Fear because she was attracted to him in all his glory, even with the knowledge that he was a dangerous criminal. She was determined to live her life, and live it without him.

What she hadn't counted on was his persistence. He had found her at her job as a coat girl, punching the man who had been yelling at her. "I don't know anything about you!" She whispered furiously, throwing glances around, when Nik tried to get her to leave with him.

"My mother died when I was fifteen, the man I thought to be my father wasn't, and he beat me for it since I was five years old. I have five siblings. I like drawing, horses, and you. What else do you need to know?" And he had held out her coat for her, and that was it, she was lost. His for good.

He took her to his place, a den of criminals, faces that she recognized from mug shots posted around the city. And he trusted her to not spill her new knowledge. His siblings, he introduced her to his siblings; Finn, Elijah, Kol, Rebekah, Henrik, all looking dapper and beautiful in their expensive clothing bought with stolen money. No, she would never betray this group of people, not looking at the haunted expression in Henrik's eyes. An expression that spoke of a depth of pain she understood.

Nik led her to his bedroom, and he told her. Told her how Mikael's anger had not just been for him, but for all his siblings. How none of his siblings had mourned Mikael's death when he was shot to death. How out of necessity, they had started robbing banks; Nik had a criminal record already, and the other brothers had a hard time getting jobs in the city.

Then they weren't talking anymore. They were kissing, softly at first, passion building, but for all his passion, he was still so gentle with her. For all his strength, all the power he exuded, he still moved slow, as though he was afraid of scaring her. He growled when, upon the removal of her dress, the scars on her body were revealed. "My father." She explained, leaving it there, glad when he didn't press, but she wanted to open up to him as he had opened up to her. "He was a drunk. I went out one night, and didn't come home until after he wanted me to. He threw his bottle at me when I walked in the door."

"I won't let anyone hurt you again." Oh he kissed her then, searingly, as though he could erase the memory of the pain she had endured. And he could, of course he could, his hands and mouth making her forget what they had been talking about. Hands moving down over her body, touching her sensitive bundle of nerves, squeezing, rolling it between his fingers, each movement causing shivers of pleasure, anticipation to race up her spine. He traced kisses over her chest, and she blushed at the attentions. She had been with men before, though they appeared to be mere boys compared to Nik, and they had only sought their own pleasure, doing nothing for her own body.

She was about to fall over the edge, she could feel it building in her, but his mouth and hands pulled away from her, causing her to whimper in protest before he thrust into her, moving his hips against hers, slowly, so slowly, and she wondered at his patience. He did not seem the type of man to readily show it, and yet here he was moving slowly, gently, lovingly with her.

They fell together, a growl falling from his lips as she moaned his name in pleasure. That was the night, the night she fell in love with him.

It was all flashes from there, pictures of the time they spent together. Running from the FBI to Virginia, living the highlife there, together. She had threatened to leave him then, scared that he would get caught, that they would kill him, but he wasn't going to let her go. She knew it, and he knew she wouldn't really leave him no matter how much she threatened to.

Holding each in the bathtub of their hotel room that night. Connor Jordan barging in and taking Nik into custody, finally having caught him. Caroline returned to Chicago after that, and she was put on watch. The lover of the number one criminal in the US had to be; they feared that she would plan something, do something, to aid his escape. That was his reputation after all; no matter how many times he was caught, he always, always, managed to escape.

Escape he did, though she tried to hide her joy about it. And when the phone rang, his voice on the other end, it broke her heart to tell him not to come back, knowing that her wires had been tapped. He ignored her protest though, telling her that he had sworn to protect her, and protect her he would. No matter the cost to himself.

Stefan, one of Nik's men, arriving, delivering a note telling her where to meet him. Dressing in his clothes, finding his car, finally, finally, feeling his lips against her once more, feeling his hair between her fingers, the blue of his eyes, the sound of his voice. She was home again.

Making love to him, one last time.

She was captured after that, entering a hotel that had been set up for them to find Galen Vaughn and Logan Fell there, waiting for her. Caroline prayed, for the first time since she was a child, that Nik wouldn't try to save her, begging him with her eyes when he stepped out of his car, the officials not noticing him.

Logan tortured her, interrogated her, slapped and hit her, and through it all she gave them nothing. She wouldn't be ashamed of the love she had for Nik. Vaughn finally came to her rescue, though for a moment she had imagined it to be her Nik, stilling Logan's hand, punching him in the jaw, lifting her up and carrying her to the bathroom.

Charged with harboring a fugitive, sentenced to five years jail time. It was there, in her cell, that she learnt of the deaths of Finn, Elijah and Kol during a robbery, brutally shot down, hearing how when they found them bullets riddled their whole bodies, how Nik had grown sloppier after that, killing cops where before he had only taken the money. She understood though, family was everything to him. It was there she worried over him, hoped desperately that he would leave the country, forget about her, because she could survive five years in jail.

She wasn't sure she could survive losing him.

Then it came, the horrible news to her that was cause for celebration among the guards. Nik had been shot, killed, escorting his sister to the movies. And he was gone. So suddenly. But she couldn't let herself cry; if she cried she would break.

Vaughn came then, requesting to see her, and she thought about denying him, but he had been there when Nik was killed, and he was the only connection she still had to him, her jewelry, her clothes, everything he had gifted her with still at her home and unattainable for her.

"Why did you come here? To see how you've broken me?"

Then, then she cried. She didn't care anymore, didn't care who she was in front of, didn't care if he saw. Nik was gone and he wasn't coming back.

She was escorted out of the prison five years later, a mere shell of herself, to find the recognizable Rebekah, unchanged though there was a deeper sadness in her gaze now than there had been before, and a very grown up Henrik, leaning against Nik's old car.

"You came for me?"

The two figures rushed forward them, tears prickling all their eyes. "You're family Caroline. And it's what he would have wanted."

Caroline Mikaelson, having changed her name soon after her release from prison, became well known in Chicago for her donations to charity. She lived with Rebekah and Henrik Mikaelson until her death forty years later. She was never with another man, always turning them down, saying that her man wouldn't appreciate it. She died peacefully in her sleep, clasping the only picture of Nik that she had left.