AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello my lovelies, sorry it has taken me so long to get this update to you but it was a bit difficult to write. If you read the author's note at the bottom you'll read one of the reasons why.

I loved reading everyone's reactions to my cliffhanger at the end of the last part. Everyone is so protective over the kids, not wanting them to get hurt. It is one of the earliest scenes I remember thinking up so it was great to write.

Thanks to klarolineepiclove, jomosfamilyjewels, and hybridlovelies for betaing this for me, I owe them lots.

Part 53

Klaus waited for her to say something as Katherine turned, and that was when he got a full look at her face. It was then he saw that he was wrong; it wasn't his sister in law. "Tatia…"

"That's not happiness to see me Niklaus." Tatia acknowledged a smile on her face as she started to walk towards him.

"Happiness? Not quite the emotion I would go with at the sight of you; anger, disgust, hatred perhaps not to mention astonishment that you would get within a mile of me let alone appear in my office but nothing remotely close to happiness." Klaus declared. As she drew nearer, he found it difficult not to lash out at her, and his harsh tone knocked the smile off of her face.

"Well I'm pleased to see you, even if you don't return the sentiment." She replied as her lips turned into a pout. "But I guess my appearance would be a bit surprising, considering I've been a way for a while…"

"Try eight years." Klaus snapped the anger that had mulled while he had watched her coming back with full force.

Tatia's eyebrow raised in question at his statement. "Has it been eight years? It doesn't seem like it."

Klaus' anger spiked at the nonchalance in her voice. "Believe me; I remember the day you left quite vividly."

"I'm touched that you mourned my departure." She commented as she continued to move towards him until she was only an arm's length away from him.

"It was the day I thought you had stolen the twins from me, the memory of the terror I felt that day has never gone away." He declared. With her so close, he couldn't help but focus on her face, easily seeing the differences that had appeared since the last time he had seen her.

Though they were identical twins, Klaus had always been able to tell them apart. Both moved with grace but while Katherine looked like a lion, powerful, and the aura of being above everyone around her while making sure she was noticed while Tatia moved more like a leopard, sleek and cautious, taking in what was around her. Katherine was always dressed in too high of heels and tasteful yet snug fitting clothes in bold shades with her long hair in large curls while Tatia had been more refined in her wardrobe, soft colors in flowing fabrics. She wore her hair in a more low maintenance style, either straight and around her shoulders or something like the thick braid it was in now.

There were differences in their faces and eyes as well for those who knew them both well, which was how he was able to tell just by her looking at him that she wasn't Katherine like he had assumed and now those differences stood out more to him. Tatia appeared to have prematurely aged a bit during her absence, now looking to be a few years older than Katherine rather the same age. She was still as attractive as she'd always been, but now she had a few more creases and wrinkles around her eyes and mouth and Klaus couldn't help but be curious as to why, not that he really cared. "What the bloody hell are you doing here?"

"I came to see you, as well as the children." Tatia informed him.

"Somehow I highly doubt that seeing as you have not once reached out to us since you disappeared." Klaus reminded her. "Why would you now?"

Tatia smiled at him again, this time he could tell she was trying to act as if she was embarrassed to have been caught in a lie.

"Okay, you caught me. I saw the announcement about your recent engagement and it made me realize how much I missed you."

Klaus scoffed at her words. "Again, doubtful."

"It's true! I had been thinking for quite some time what a mistake it was to leave but it wasn't until I saw the announcement that I realized that I might have waited too long." Tatia explained, again moving a little closer to him so that her face was only inches away. Klaus watched as she brought her hands up as if to cup his face but he quickly intercepted her, his own hands wrapping around her wrists. "What are you doing Tatia?"

"I thought it would be quite obvious as I said, I've missed you." She all but whispered as she leaned in closer to him.

"Considering one of the last things you said to me before you left was that you hated me and hoped I burned in hell for eternity, I doubt my absence from your life has caused you much distress." Klaus stated.

"Words said in anger." Tatia explained. "We were both angry that night, if you recall. The only difference that night was that the fight didn't end in us ripping each other's clothes off."

Despite the hold he had on her arms, Tatia somehow managed to maneuver her body around so that she was pressed up against him, a wicked smirk on her face. "You were always so wild and passionate. That's the Niklaus I remember so well, who loved me so much, that's the one I miss."

Klaus stared at her for a moment, the woman who at one point in his life he had loved very much but now only felt nothing but disgust. He saw the look of shock on her face as he pushed her away from him, causing her to stumble but remain standing. "Any love I had for you after I caught you trying to take advantage of my brother died the day that you walked away from me and my children. And even if I felt some shred of sentimental attachment to you, the love I have for Caroline, the woman who I asked to be my wife far outweighs it. You must think I am a moron to fall for your obvious seduction that I have no doubt is part of some larger design. Now I'll ask one final time, what are you doing here Tatia?"

Tatia righted the hem of her blouse, he knew in an effort to stall as she recovered from his rejection, before she spoke. "Fine, I lied."

"About what exactly?"

"About missing you, you're not who I'm here to see." Tatia answered. "I want to see Henrik and Alexandria."

"No." Klaus shot down. "That is not going to happen."

"You can't keep them from me." She fired back.

"Actually I can and I will." Klaus declared before yelling through the door for his assistant. When she appeared a few seconds later, he spoke again. "Mindy, Ms. Pierce was just leaving. You and Maddox escort her out of the building immediately."

"This isn't over, Niklaus." Tatia hissed as she stormed out of the room.

Klaus stayed rooted to his spot after she left, replaying the whole incident in his head to try and absorb it. He had always wondered if she would cross paths with him again but he had never really thought it would happen. The last words she said ran through his head and as they did, he reached for his phone.

/

"I know you are around here somewhere." Caroline huffed angrily as she looked around the mess in what was the living room though if you looked at it at the moment, there wouldn't be much living in it since you could hardly walk in it. Everywhere you looked there was either Christmas or wedding stuff, decorations she was in the middle of putting away mixed with brochures for caterers, venues, or samples of invites. She knew that she could just Pinterest everything but Caroline really liked holding things in her hands when trying to make decisions.

The problem was that she had gotten all of the stuff out while she had been taking a break from putting away the Christmas décor and the two things had gotten mixed up. What was worse was that the chaos had somehow eaten her phone as well. She had thought about calling it but considering they didn't have a landline that was impossible so now she was looking for it the old-fashioned way. She needed to leave soon to pick up the kids from school so she really needed to find it; thankfully her keys were by the door so she was only missing one item.

"Ah ha! There you are." Caroline exclaimed when she finally found the elusive device. She quickly checked the screen and saw that she had several missed calls, voicemails as well as texts from Klaus. Her ringer must have gotten turned to silent earlier and therefore didn't hear it ring or alert her. She knew something important must be going on for him to try to ring her so many times and started to check the texts when the doorbell rang. "Of course an unexpected guest would show up now, because why wouldn't they since I'm getting ready to leave."

Caroline quickly walked to the door as the bell rang again. Without checking the peephole, she swung the door open and was surprised by who was on the other side. Yet despite the familiar face in front of her, Caroline knew that she was looking at a stranger. It was the little things that told her she wasn't looking at Katherine. "Tatia."

The brunette looked at her with a bit of surprise before it turned to appreciation. "Clever girl. You figured me out in less time than it took Niklaus. What gave me away?"

"Katherine doesn't knock." Caroline answered.

"Yes, well my sister never was one for boundaries." Tatia responded, as she looked the woman in front of her up and down, "I must say, you're not quite what I expected. Niklaus never really had a thing for blondes, it's Caroline right?"

"Yes, it is." She replied, not fooled for a moment that the woman didn't know who she was. She didn't think it was a coincidence that Klaus' ex-wife suddenly showed up on their doorstep not long after her and Klaus became engaged. Which meant that Tatia knew who she was.

"Aren't you going to invite me inside?" Tatia asked.

"No, I don't believe I will. I try not to invite strangers into the house, especially when I have no clue what their reasons are for showing up at the door." Caroline retorted. Normally she wasn't this hostile to someone when first meeting them, but she wasn't just any ordinary stranger.

"Then I guess its a good thing then that I already visited Niklaus before coming here." Tatia stated. "He had no issues with me stopping by for a visit with the twins. As a matter of fact he said he would call to tell you but considering your reaction to my appearance, I suppose it was another one of his empty promises."

"Oh, I have several missed calls from him as well as texts but I very much doubt that they say anything about allowing you inside." She replied. "Especially considering the twins are not here and he knows that."

"I don't know what Niklaus has told you about me, I'm sure he has painted me as the villainess ex-wife while he is the hero of the story." Tatia stated. "Which would explain your low opinion of me."

"My opinion of you is not based on you and Klaus, I know he is not innocent in what happened between you." Caroline explained. "It's your actions with the twins that tarnishes any image I have of you."

"Because I gave them up."

"You didn't give them up, you threw them away." Caroline snapped angrily. She saw the arrogant look in Tatia's eyes leave only to be replaced with anger.

"You have no idea what you are talking about!" Tatia retorted.

"I know you didn't want to be a mother, I know that Klaus manipulated the situation so that you got pregnant and when you found out you were mad at him. I don't blame you, but instead of taking it out on him, you took it out on Henry and Lexi. They are the ones who paid for their father's sins when they are the only ones that were innocent in this whole situation." Caroline rationalized. "You left two babies without a mother, choosing your own selfishness instead, only to show up eight years later thinking that you would just be welcomed with opened arms and not thinking a bit of how that would affect them at all."

"Well Niklaus had no issue with welcoming me with open arms," Tatia fired back.

Caroline looked at her with confusion. "What are you even talking about?"

"Niklaus might have told you that he hated me, but I assure you that when we were face to face, pressed up against each other that he acted quite differently." Tatia explained, her lips curving into a smirk as she brought her wrist up to her nose, and sniffed. "Even after a decade he still wears the same cologne, a very distinctive scent when on him especially, L'Eau D'Issey pour Homme. I remember when I bought it for him, I guess he decided not to change it when I left. I guess he wanted the memory."

"You're lying." Caroline said, her eyes narrowing at the brunette. She knew that Tatia was lashing out at her, trying to get her to believe what she was alluding to have happened between her and Klaus but she wasn't falling for it. Yes, she was jealous of Tatia, because of who she had been to Klaus and the twins but she didn't for a minute believe that Klaus had done anything with Tatia, not in the way she was implying. She didn't know why Tatia possibly smelled like Klaus, but she didn't jump to conclusions.

"Am I?" Tatia asked. "How can you be sure? Niklaus was always very much in love with me, why do you think he went to such extremes to get me to stay with him? And it makes me wonder, if during the time I've been gone if he hadn't perchance used his relationship with my sister as a replacement for me? Maybe still is?"

"I believe it was you who had the affinity for exchanging your spouse for his brother, not Katherine." Caroline answered, again seeing a look of surprise cross Tatia's face and couldn't keep the smile off of her own. Tatia really thought that she was clueless about her past with the Mikaelsons and that gave Caroline a huge feeling of satisfaction. "Now, I have wasted enough time standing here arguing, you are not going to get whatever you came here for so please leave my house before I call someone to make you leave."

"Fine." Tatia agreed as she stepped backwards. "But before I do, just remember this. You might be engaged to Niklaus and you might be playing at being the twins' mom but you're just a replacement."

"No, I'm not. Because you aren't their mom, a mom is the woman who takes care of them when they are sick, punishes them for sneaking cookies, or knows the names of their favorite stuffed animals; you're just the woman who gave birth to them." Caroline retorted before slamming the door, effectively ending the discussion. She leaned her back against the door, breathing deeply as she tried to calm her anger down that was raging inside her. She had always thought about what could happen if Tatia came back, in none of the scenarios had it happened like this. Caroline had thought that if this day came, the other woman would be remorseful for leaving and do everything she could to earn a chance to see her children. Instead, she got a woman who tried to lie, manipulate and if she wasn't wrong, seduce to get what she wanted. Not the woman she wanted around her children.

Speaking of the twins, Caroline knew she needed to leave and go get them. She was already going to be late. Standing up straight, Caroline walked over to retrieve her coat before she opened the door again, this time more tentatively than the last but with the same result of someone being on the front step.

"Caroline." Klaus greeted a combination of relief and irritation. "I've called you at least a dozen times, why haven't you been answering?"

"Well at first it was because I lost my phone, then it was because I had my hands full with your ex-wife." Caroline informed him.

"She came by?" Klaus replied. "What did she want? What did she say?"

"Probably the same thing she said when she came to see you. To see the twins, she tried to lie to me at first and said that you told her to come by." Caroline explained.

"I didn't…"

"I know." Caroline assured him. "And I'll tell you what else she said but first, I need to go get the twins. Did you want to come with me or do you need to go back to work?"

"I'm staying, this is more important." Klaus stated.

"Maybe you should stay here, I think someone should call Katherine and Elijah to let them know in case she makes anymore surprise visits. " She acknowledged and when he nodded in agreement, she went on. "Do you think she'll leave now?

Klaus shrugged. "I honestly don't know. For her to appear so suddenly, I have to think that she won't just leave after being told no once. That's not Tatia. When I talk to my brother, I'll tell them to come over, I don't know if this is news that Katherine should get over the phone. But I don't want the twins to find out."

Caroline nodded, biting her lip anxiously and Klaus knew there was something on her mind. He reached up and brushed a piece of hair behind her ear. "There's something else, something she said. Tell me Caroline."

"We'll talk about it when I get back, I promise." Caroline replied as she leaned in and kissed him goodbye, the scent of his cologne reaching her nose as she did and Tatia's words came back to her, flaring her anger but she squashed it down. She didn't believe a word of what had come out of her mouth but she did need to talk to him about what happened when Tatia was at Klaus' office. She waited until Klaus nodded in answer before she headed out the door.

So do you hate Tatia even more? What do you think she is up to? Does she really want to see the kids?

I had several people who were worried that Klaus would fall for Tatia's seduction or that Caroline would think that Klaus would go back to Tatia but I hope that I showed that she's not that insecure about them. She knows that Klaus hates Tatia and even though she wants to talk to Klaus about what happened, she trusts him.

As for why this part was difficult to write, it was the whole thing with Tatia and the matter on how her return should be handled. Meaning if she should be given a second chance or not at least before she showed her true colors. It can be a touchy subject so I was a bit scared. Just remember that in Tatia's eyes, Klaus is the villain.

Up next, Katherine finds out that her evil twin is back and Tatia shows that she isn't going away.