Love Again

This is actually evil. Timeline is different than what will be on either show.

Everything slowed to a stop. The hand thrusting a stake into her heart, his body as he ran toward her, his voice as he shouted no. The laughing lilt of Silas' voice as he turned toward him, the stake no longer in her body as she fell slowly, slowly to the ground. And then everything sped up, him pushing Silas away, far away, using every ounce of his strength so that he could fall down to the ground beside her. She was dying.

He watched as the light fled her skin, her eyes, and it wasn't supposed to be this way. The stake was out of her. Magic. It was always, always magic, and there was no way that he could fix this. No way that Silas would be willing to fix this, and he could not even kill Silas in retaliation. His hands lifted her up, off the ground, wanting to at least make her last moments comfortable as he sped them to his home, laying her in his bed for the first, and the last, time. He pushed her hair back from her face, rising, going to get blood for her, call her mother, anything, anything to make this better for her. He would call witches, there had to be someone... a hand grabbed his arm, and he turned to her impatiently, needing to at least try to heal her before he gave up, but she shook her head at him, tugging him back down beside her. And he stretched his body out beside her, cradling her to his side.

"I wish I could have told you I loved you." Klaus felt his heart clench at her words; he knew she didn't, knew without a doubt she didn't, but it still hurt to hear. "I could have. I could have fallen for you. You were supposed to be my epic love." She broke off with a sob, and he brought her closer to him.

"Shhh, love. It's alright. I loved you enough for the both of us." She laughed through the tears that he tried to wipe away, and she turned her head to look up at him.

"You aren't unlovable though. Remember, for me, that people can love you if you let them. Go, see the world again for me. Remember me, do things you would have thought I would have liked. And fall in love again Klaus. Don't close yourself off again. Not after you've come so far."

By now his own tears were falling silently down his face, but he still offered her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "For you Caroline. I would do anything for you."

She smiled softly at him, a mere shadow of her former self, and then her eyes slipped shut, and they never opened again.

3 Years Later

He found himself in New Orleans again. Caroline would have liked it here, he was sure. The music, the art, the culture, the night life. Yes, his girl, his girl would have liked it here.

Klaus had kept his promise to her, to a certain extent. He traveled everywhere, imagining how she would have reacted to the sites, the cities, the food, the cultures. He could almost picture it in his mind. And that hurt him; he felt a pang in his chest every time.

He had renewed his bonds with his siblings, for her, but for him and them as well. But he had never tried to fall in love again.

He didn't want to. He didn't want to disgrace her memory like that. But he also wanted to keep his promise to her. And maybe, just maybe here, he could find someone that he could try to care for a fraction as much as he still loved his Caroline.