AUTHOR'S NOTE: *Peaks around the corner carefully and waves.* Hello lovelies, I'm so sorry for it taking so long but the holidays took a lot out of me this year so I didn't have a lot of time, energy or motivation to write. Huge apologies for that. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and will have a great New Year.

As I read over all of your reviews, the general consensus is that everyone hates Tatia and they want her to leave or die a fiery death. I love you guys.

Thanks to klarolineepiclove, a-little-blonde-distraction (who finally caught up!), hybridlovelies, and jomosfamilyjewels for their beta reading. They were a huge help.

Hope you enjoy this next part, I'll be back soon with more.

Part 54

As soon as Caroline was out the door, Klaus pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed Elijah. His brother picked up on the second ring and though it took some doing, considering that he was intentionally vague on the reason that he needed him and Katherine to come to his house, Elijah agreed. Once that was done, he called his office to inform Mindy that he wouldn't be back and gave some instructions to be followed in his absence before making his final call.

Klaus had just finished up the call to his lawyer when the front door swung open and the twins ran in. If he couldn't tell by the looks of surprise on their faces at the sight of him, then their noisy greeting would have tipped him off that Caroline had not told them to expect him there.

"Dad? What are you doing here?" Lexi asked.

"Last time I checked, I lived here." Klaus responded.

"I know that." Lexi commented, "I mean you are home early."

"Yeah, does this mean we get some kind of surprise?" Henry inquired his eyes hopeful.

"Sorry to disappoint but no, no surprise today. I just came home early," Klaus stated vaguely.

"Why don't you two go get settled in the kitchen and start on your homework? Uncle Elijah and Aunt Kat are stopping by soon and are bringing the boys and I know you won't want to be stuck doing schoolwork with them here." Caroline interrupted, trying to keep the twins from questioning Klaus' early arrival too much but instead her statement just peaked their curiosity more.

"Why are they coming over?" Henry wondered before he glowered, "Is this about more wedding stuff? Because so far there's been no food or cake, just clothes and paper."

Despite the seriousness of the atmosphere, Klaus couldn't help but chuckle a little at his son's words. "No, it's not about the wedding, Caroline and I just need to talk to them for a bit. You two don't mind keeping Daniel company downstairs do you?"

Whether they simply liked the idea of playing with their young cousin or they could see something in their father's request to know that he needed their help, Caroline didn't know but they quickly agreed and headed to the kitchen with their backpacks.

As they walked away, Klaus told them that he and Caroline would be in the back sitting room if they needed them. Caroline watched as he closed the door behind him. She couldn't believe it but she was almost nervous to talk to him. She hadn't been nervous around Klaus for a very long time but she was unable to help herself. Despite what she had said to Tatia earlier, Caroline couldn't help but feel a little bit of doubt about Klaus' reaction to his ex-wife's return to his life. It was silly, she knew that Klaus loved her and hated Tatia, but years of dealing with being second choice wouldn't allow her to be completely at ease. Not to mention that even if Klaus wanted nothing to do with Tatia, there was still the twins' feelings towards her to consider. Would they want to meet the woman that gave birth to them if they found that she was so close? Would they forget about her in favor of Tatia?

Only Klaus calling her name pulled her out of her dreaded thoughts. "Caroline?"

Her eyes lifted up to meet his and she could see the question in his eyes, the desire to see if she was okay, which she was far from. She shook her head in answer, bringing up her arms to wrap them around herself in comfort. But she had no sooner done that then Klaus stepped forward and wrapped his as well around her. As he did, she again was assaulted by the smell of his cologne and recalling Tatia's comments, she felt herself stiffen.

Klaus noticed Caroline's body became rigid suddenly, and looked at her with confusion. "What is it? What did she say to make you want to pull away from me?"

He saw her hesitant to answer him, and so he continued. "Tell me love, whatever she said that is causing this reaction, don't believe it, she's just trying to drive a wedge between us."

"I didn't believe her but..."

"But what?"

Caroline looked into his blue eyes and could see the desperation and fear in them. He was worried that Tatia had succeeded in her goal. "Your cologne."

"What about it?" Klaus asked confused.

"She implied that the two of you had been physically close enough that she was able to not only smell it, but some of it lingered on her as well. A cologne that she said she got for you." Caroline explained.

"She did," Klaus replied. "But not in the way she was implying. If I recall correctly, Tatia did purchase a bottle as a gift once, however it was Rebekah who first gifted it to me. She picked out a different scent for each of her brothers years ago when she said that we couldn't be trusted to pick out anything that wouldn't suffocate anyone around us."

Caroline couldn't help but smile a little at his explanation, it sounded just like something his sister would do. Which Tatia would have known about but neglected to add.

"And as for a trace of the scent being on her, there is the possibility that some would have rubbed off on her when I grabbed her arm to stop her when she tried to touch me." Klaus explained. "Nothing happened Caroline, she attempted a seduction but I put an end to it. I swear to you."

The tiny bit of doubt that had been refusing to go away suddenly vanished at his words coupled with the expression on his face and Caroline knew he was telling her the truth. "I believe you."

Relief flooded his face as he pulled her close. He hugged her tightly before kissing her forehead. The action comforted her, but it didn't stop the question coming out of her mouth. "Why? Why did she have to come back after all of this time?"

"I don't know, I honestly believed she'd never return." Klaus confessed. "But the fact that she has shortly after we became engaged cannot be a coincidence."

"But what does she want? You? The twins?" Caroline asked, "She seemed quite jealous of both of my connections to you and the kids earlier."

"I don't believe she cares one bit for me nor has any intention of rekindling things between us. Her seduction wasn't because of any desire for me but a manipulation, one with duel outcomes that would help her. If she had succeeded, she would think she could use it to get me to let her see the twins while also driving a wedge between the two of us and possibly damaging the bond between you and them." He explained.

"If she just wanted a chance to see the kids, why all of the tricks?" She inquired. "Any other person would just come see you and ask for a second chance. I mean, sure you might be mad at her for leaving but if she really wanted a second chance…"

"I stopped trying to understand Tatia's reasoning a long time ago, sweetheart, even when I thought I knew her." Klaus stated.

Before either of them could say anything, there was a knock at the door just before they heard Lexi's voice. "Caroline? I'm having problems with my math homework, can you come help?"

"Yeah, sweetie, I'll be right there." Caroline called out to the little girl before focusing back to Klaus. "I need to go, she needs me."

"Yes, she does. And remember Caroline, that regardless of what Tatia might say or do, the twins love and need you." Klaus stated, cupping her face gently so that she could only look at him, to see the truth in his eyes. "So do I."

Caroline leaned forward and gently kissed him, before pulling away and heading out of the room. There was still more to talk about and they would but it would have to wait. The children were the priority now and she wasn't going to neglect them just because there was a disturbance in their lives. Moreover, Elijah and Katherine would be there soon and Caroline had a feeling the discussion would be best with all of them contributing to it. She didn't know Tatia save for the few minutes that they had spoken so the other three would be the best judge of what the woman wanted and her reasons behind wanting them.

The four of them were sitting around the kitchen table when the front door suddenly swung open and the sounds of commotion that could only mean it was Katherine, Elijah and their boys followed. "Where is everyone? You have Elijah bundle us all up to rush us over here and yet there's no one in sight."

Caroline saw Klaus roll his eyes at Katherine's bellowing before he called out. "We're in the kitchen."

The clacking of her heels announced her approach before they saw her, standing in the doorway with Logan perched on her hip. Caroline had no idea how the woman could walk around on three inch heels lugging around an almost toddler without falling but Katherine made it look easy. When her eyes met the other woman's face, Caroline had a brief flashback of another very similar face who had showed up at the house not too long ago but pushed it down and smiled. "Sorry, we were just finishing up with some homework."

"I see that." Katherine commented as she leaned down to kiss the tops of both of the twins' heads. "But I must say this isn't what I was expecting to see when I got here; I thought there might be some kind of crazy wedding thing going on, or the possibility that you finally killed Rebekah for driving you crazy with all of her suggestions. But since I don't see any blood on any of you, nor a weeping Stefan, I'm guessing it's the former?"

"Nope, nothing to do with the wedding." Klaus stated before he turned towards the twins when Elijah came up behind Katherine, Daniel beside him. "Well it looks like Daniel is ready to spend some play time with his cousins. Why don't you take him downstairs and see if you guys got any toys for Christmas that he hasn't seen."

The twins quickly did as their father told them to, taking their cousin down to the playroom, where they would be safely tucked away from overhearing the adult's conversation while Klaus and Caroline moved the other adults into the living room. As Elijah settled Baby Logan on the floor with a couple of toys, Katherine looked at her brother in law and his fiancée worriedly. "What's going on? The two of you are freaking me out here. You're not calling off the wedding or something are you?"

"No, we said this didn't have anything to do with the wedding." Caroline reminded her.

"It damn well better not be, because if the two of you called it off, there would be hell to pay. If you think I was bad when I was trying to get the two of you to wake up and realize that you were perfect for each other, I'd be the devil incarnate if…"

"Katherine, if you'd shut your trap long enough for someone to get a word in edgewise we'd tell you what we brought you here to tell you." Klaus snapped, interrupting her and cutting off her rant.

"Well someone is grumpy. What happened? Did Caroline cut off the sex until after the wedding?" Katherine retorted, placing a hand on her hip as she glared at him.

"Katherine, please." Elijah said, speaking for the first time. "Let the man speak."

"Thank you, brother." Klaus declared. "Caroline and I both received a visitor today...your sister."

Katherine's face lost every bit of color as her mouth dropped open forming a perfect O and for the first time since she had met her, Caroline saw her speechless. Elijah eyes' widened in surprise before he turned his focus on his wife, placing his hand on her the small of her back to soothe her. When she didn't regain her voice, he spoke instead. "Tatia? She's back? When?"

"Earlier today, she showed up at my office and then later here at the house." Klaus explained.

"Why?" Elijah asked.

"It doesn't matter." Katherine muttered before focusing on the three of them, who were now staring at her again. "If she comes back, just shut the door in her face."

"Kath…." Elijah started but Katherine stopped him. "Don't 'Katherine' me, Elijah. Whatever sob story she came up with, she's just using it to get us to forgive her and give her what she wants."

"But she's your sister."

"She left us; Nik, her babies, me." Katherine replied angrily. "She was my family, my twin, we were the only ones either of us had after our parents died. But it didn't stop her, she just left as if nobody mattered to her, and if that's what she thought then we having nothing to say to each other."

Caroline had always seen Katherine as an extremely confident woman, who never let anything phase her, so seeing her so vulnerable was something new. She wanted to try and comfort her but after seeing how she reacted when Elijah tried to talk to her, Caroline didn't think that Katherine would want any comfort. She was both angry and hurt and it was causing her to be very abrasive. So instead she thought it might be best if she took the focus off of how Katherine felt and back to the subject at hand.

"We wanted to tell you what happened and maybe get your opinion on her motivations for coming back. She told Klaus that she wanted to see the twins, and told me pretty much the same thing, but we both aren't sure if that's truly what she has come back for."

"Tatia claimed that she saw our engagement announcement and that it caused her to realize how much she missed me and the twins so she returned." Klaus explained.

"My sister did always want what she couldn't have." Katherine acknowledged, her eyes drifting towards her husband, remembering the night she had caught Tatia in bed with Elijah, attempting to seduce him with the deception that she was actually Katherine. Though she had found out that Elijah was confused on who he was in bed with, it had still hurt a great deal when she first saw them.

"However once I rejected her advances, she retracted her attention for me and stated she was only interested in seeing the twins." Klaus finished.

"Are you and Caroline planning to let her?" Elijah asked. "What do Henrik and Alexandria think about all of this?"

"We didn't tell them." Klaus declared.

"Maybe we should." Caroline suggested.

"What?" Katherine and Klaus said at the same time.

Caroline shrugged. "Believe me, I don't like the idea much but I can't get past the thought that they shouldn't be left in the dark about all of this. The twins know that aside from when we held back from telling them about us, that you have always been open with them and I think if they found out about this from someone else it would hurt them."

"While I agree with Caroline on her reasoning, I don't see why they should be told if you have no intention of letting Tatia see them." Elijah recognized. "Which it doesn't sound like you were very willing to do."

"I just wonder if they should have some of decision in the matter." Caroline elaborated. "I mean, what if they don't want to meet Tatia and they hate us for forcing them to? Or it's the reverse and they want to meet her but we don't let them?"

Klaus considered what she was saying. When he had first found out that Mikael was not his biological father, he'd been hurt and hadn't given a damn about the man whose blood did flow through his veins but after he got through that pain, there had been times over the years when he had been curious about him. Did he want that for the twins? No, but he didn't trust his ex-wife either.

"Regardless of what decision we make, there's no way that I'm going to unleash this kind of confusion on them without knowing more of what Tatia wants."

"So you are considering letting her back in?" Katherine inquired. "After everything?"

"I'm considering talking to her to find out if her intentions are genuine and not just part of jealousy that someone has what she gave up." Klaus clarified.

Caroline nodded in agreement. She didn't like Tatia, but she also couldn't deny Henry and Lexi the opportunity to meet her if they truly wanted. "Okay, then next time we see her, we'll talk about what she really wants and go from there."

"I just hope we don't regret it." Klaus announced.

/

The next day, Caroline waited patiently at the school's pickup spot watching the doors for any sign of Henry or Lexi as the kids poured out of the school. She had been there for about ten minutes and was surprised that they hadn't made their appearance yet. As much as they both liked school, they were always eager to get home and hardly ever dawdled. True, there were a few times when Lexi got caught up with friends but in those times Henry would come out to tell her.

"Caroline? Are you even listening to me?" An irritated voice called to her from her phone.

"Yes, Katherine." Caroline replied. "I'm here."

"I didn't ask if you were still there, I asked if you were listening to me." Katherine retorted.

"Oh, sorry. I wasn't." Caroline admitted. "I'm waiting for the twins to come out of school and they are taking forever. I'm starting to worry."

"Why? It's not like the two of them are in the principal's office for getting into trouble." Katherine replied before she seemed to understand what Caroline was getting at. "You're thinking that perhaps Tatia showed up there?"

"Well I wouldn't put it past her, I mean she showed up at Klaus' office and at the house, why wouldn't she show up here? Especially considering that she might think it's the only way to see Henry and Lexi." Caroline explained.

Katherine let out a snort before answering. "It's not showy enough for her, if she wanted to make some grand entrance with the twins, she'd do it at the house so she could kill two birds with one stone, see the twins and piss off Nik."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Caroline conceded. After a few more exchanges, the two ended their conversation.

Caroline waited until the flow of kids trickled to next to nothing before she headed inside. Perhaps they were helping their teacher with clean up or something, she wouldn't be surprised. The twins didn't mind helping out someone else, it was cleaning up their own rooms that they would balk at. Within minutes she reached their classroom, only to see one occupant inside.

"Hi Caroline, so was it Lexi or Henry that forgot something?" The twins' teacher asked them, smiling at her in greeting.

"Um, I don't know I haven't seen either of them. They haven't made it outside yet." Caroline explained as she looked around.

"But they left twenty minutes ago." Ms. Agnes stated.

"What? How could they have left?" Caroline asked. "I know their father didn't come and get them."

"No, it was their aunt. She said she came to surprise them."

As soon as the words were out of the other woman's mouth, Caroline felt her heart stop and fear grip every fiber of her being. She had been wrong about what Klaus' ex-wife might do because she knew it wasn't Katherine who had taken the kids, it was Tatia.

Okay don't hate me! I promise I'm not doing this just for the sake of angst.

And don't forget, Tatia looks just like Katherine who the school would be familiar with.