I'll Get Around It

So Part II to An Ocean in the Way. Title reference's for both are from Over the Love by Florence + the Machine. Smut towards the end.

"Caroline." He breathed as the door swung open, and for a moment Caroline could pretend. She could pretend that... that none of the craziness had happened. That this... she couldn't even think about it, still couldn't get her head around it. And yet here she was, on his doorstep, nine months after the news had found its way to her ears.

She clenched her teeth. Undoubtedly he thought she was there to take him up on his offer. She wasn't. "Rebekah called. I'm sorry for what happened with Hay-"

His face had hardened as she spoke, and he was gripping the door tightly in his hand before he interrupted her. "Don't Caroline. You know I didn't care for her."

"She was the mother of your child Klaus!" She whispered furiously, looking around the street. When Rebekah had called, she had told Caroline of the dangers of coming to New Orleans. That they were in a war. But none of them, not Rebekah, not Elijah, and most certainly not Klaus, knew how to take care of the child.

"And now she's dead. Why are you here?" He ground out, eyes flashing yellow momentarily, but she scoffed pushing past him and into the house when she spotted Rebekah.

Rebekah. Caroline's unlikely friend. She didn't understand how or when really, maybe in between planning for graduation and helping the original with Matt, but they had become close over the past nine months. Caroline would send Rebekah updates on how Matt was doing, when he asked about her, and Rebekah knew enough to steer clear on the topic of Klaus. Until a panicked phone call the day before; Hayley had died in childbirth and none of them were really prepared to deal with a baby; and Klaus, according to Rebekah, wouldn't even look at his child. So Caroline had, against her better judgement, gotten on a plane and went down to New Orleans.

It wasn't the baby's fault now was it? And someone had to show them how to properly care for him. Then she could leave, never see Klaus again. Because seeing him there, at the door, feeling his eyes on her as she walked toward Rebekah, stirred feelings in her that she had spent the last nine months trying to push down. And she didn't want to feel them anymore. "Where is he?" She asked Rebekah quietly, the girl taking the bag from Caroline's hand, leading her down the hall and to a nursery before leaving her alone in the room.

She approached the crib warily; she had made no secret that she didn't care for Hayley. She had come in, convinced her then boyfriend to do something that almost resulted in his death, had snapped her neck, and... and she had... she had been with the man that Caroline could have... did- did she still?- loved. She hadn't realized that of course until it was too late. It had been, feeling love for Klaus had been different than Matt and Tyler. She knew immediately that she loved them when she felt it; she didn't try to fight her feelings. She accepted them. With Klaus, it crept on her, and she hadn't known, hadn't realized that she had let herself fall for him. And yet somehow, it was a deeper love than any she had felt before in that a much as she tried she couldn't shake him. Which was a problem; she just couldn't, she couldn't let herself forget that he had a child. A child that should mean more to him than anything else regardless of his parentage. But she was afraid as he would look like his mother, and that she would not be able to care for him- in the same way that Rebekah told her that Klaus couldn't care for him.

And she let out a small sigh of relief when she found what she imagined Klaus must have looked like as a baby. Downy soft, curly blond hair adorned a face that could have been Klaus' in miniature. He was.. he was perfect. And even though he wasn't hers, she loved him. How could she not?

Klaus wanted nothing to do with his son though, and that was Caroline's main obstacle. Elijah and Rebekah were willing to learn from her, to spend time with her and the baby. And Caroline spent nearly all of her time in the Mikaelson's mansion with the boy, which meant that she almost never saw Klaus.

"Klaus!" She called down the hall, hurrying after him.

He turned quickly, anger and exhaustion etched into his face. "What Caroline? I'm a little busy."

"He needs a name. We can't just keep calling him the baby."

"Then pick something out with my sister and my brother. I'm sure between the three of you-"

"Do not give me that Klaus. He is your son, and you will do this at least." She didn't care if he wanted to spend time with his child or not, not in the grand scheme of things, but later, when he was grown, Caroline wanted him to know that his father had chosen his name.

Klaus pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers, closing his eyes in exasperation. "Fine, Caroline. What about Henrik Charles."

"Fine. Thank you."

"You can't keep doing this Klaus!" Caroline finally yelled, throwing down her fork on the table, Elijah and Rebekah looking at her in shock, but she ignored them. She was done putting up with Klaus and his inability to at least try to spend time with Henrik, to even look at the child that he had helped to create. "He is your son. He is your responsibility. Do you want him to grow up thinking that you hated him? He doesn't deserve that, no child deserves that."

"I will not sit here and listen to you dictate to me how I can live my life-"

"You have a child Klaus. It's not just your life any more. You made a choice, and Henrik is the consequence of that choice. Man the hell up and take responsibility for your actions. It is not his fault, and you're throwing away a chance at having someone love you. You're being selfish and petty; he is just a baby. He hasn't done anything to deserve your hate." She was breathing heavily by the end, and she watched as his nostrils flared, the fork in his hand bending under the strength of his clenched fists.

"He lost me you." He whispered finally.

"No. Through everything, I'm still here aren't I? You are going to lose me if you don't stop this and spend some time with your son. Get to know him Klaus, for me, for yourself, for him. And if you don't do it soon, I'm going to walk out the door and you'll never see me again." She hated it, she hated that it had had to come to this, but she needed him to at least try, even if she had to use his feelings for her as a catalyst. Because she didn't want to lose him anymore. She wanted, she wanted to be with him. She loved him, so much, and she loved his family, she loved Henrik, but she wouldn't stay and watch him hate his son. She couldn't do that.

So she was pleasantly surprised when she went to Henrik's room the next morning to find Klaus finally, finally in there, staring at his son, a hand pressed tenderly against the boy's face. Henrik stirred, a soft cry leaving his mouth, and at Klaus' panicked expression, Caroline rushed forward, scooping him up and rocking him gently, shushing him as she prepared a bottle with one hand. She looked over to find Klaus still there looking at her. "Would you like to feed him?"

A few minutes later she had a very terrified looking Klaus seated in the rocking chair in the room, watching as he fed Henrik. And she felt a surge of pride. He was trying, and that was what mattered in the grand scheme, right?

It started out as just a kiss. It may have been an accident, but his lips brushed over hers as they lay Henrik to sleep three months later, and things... well things escalated from there. They stumbled down the hall to Klaus' room, clothes flying off as soon as the door was shut. Colliding together, kissing and touching before Klaus lifted her up and carried her to the bed.

It wasn't really unexpected though. Over the past three months, they had bonded taking care of Henrik, little by little. Klaus was... well he was getting better, and he was trying still. And Caroline could see, in his eyes, he truly cared for his son. They ate dinner just the three of them some nights, both Klaus and Caroline by silent agreement deciding not to leave Klaus alone with Henrik. They talked, and he made her laugh, and he cared for her. And she finally let herself feel the feelings that she felt for him.

And so she let him lay her down on the silken sheets of his bed, watching through hooded eyes as he kissed a trail down her body, stopping, looking down at her hungrily, from in between her parted thighs. He lowered his head, still looking into her eyes, his tongue sweeping out and flicking her clit. "Oh..." she moaned, and he gripped her hips in his hands as he devoured her. She was no virgin, but no one had ever... no one she had been with had even wanted to do this with her. And she hadn't had to ask him; he had just done it, because he wanted to? Yes, that sounded right. And he brought her to the point of sheer and total boneless bliss, catching her as she fell. His lithe body moving back up hers, catching her lips with his, his tongue plunging into her mouth as her arms and legs wrapped around him, the taste of herself on his lips filling her with more- if that was possible at this point- desire for him. And he obliged to her unspoken desire, thrusting forward, filling her with him.

Finally, finally helping to satisfy the ache that had been building in her for him for almost two years. But Caroline knew as he moved in her that she would never really have enough of him, that she would always stay for more. More of this, more of him. "I love you." She moaned out, to both of their surprise as she came again.

"I love you too," He murmured softly, grabbing her lips again, spilling into her.

They were a family. A very dysfunctional family, but a family nonetheless. And they tried, they all tried. Rebekah and Elijah tried, Klaus and Caroline tried, and the greatest surprise of all was that Henrik had managed to bring them all together amidst the odds. And they weren't perfect, they never would be. But they were together, and they were almost happy.

There was still the war with Marcel to consider, but even in the midst of that, they had managed to find real happiness.

A/N: So I'm really not happy about the baby plot, but I tried to fix it a little bit. And I may have been a little too happy about killing off Hayley. *hangs head in shame*