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I will never forget you.
There’s a letter on her office desk that just laid there untouched. Regardless of what she said in their final moments together, she wished she had looked back just one last time because it’s been sixteen hours and thirty-three minutes since he’s been gone...
And fuck, she misses him so damn much.
She tried to save him, with what little time she had. She had spoken to Elijah the day before and the two had a plan to stop him from meeting his untimely demise. The Original Hybrid had finally found happiness and peace in his life, and it wasn’t fair for all of it to end so quickly. But that plan had clearly failed, and both of them were gone.
So now, this piece of paper would be his last gift to her, and it breaks her heart knowing that there would be no more ridiculously beautiful dresses, no more unexpected phone calls, no more sketches with short, yet meaningful messages attached to them. And maybe she’s just not ready to accept that this is it, that this is the end. So there the letter sits, untouched.
The thing is, Klaus has always been the person she counted on. In fact there was a part of her that took him for granted. She knew that all of her friends would inevitably die, Elena, Bonnie, even Damon, and one day her daughters will too, and she wanted to spend as much time as she could with them before it happened. But as scary as that thought was, she had always relied on the fact that he would be there when everyone else is gone - this immortal creature that is beyond Death no matter how matter times it comes for him - and when all of her friends and family have passed, she knew she would finally be ready to accept his offer and let him show her the world like only he knew how.
But the world has a funny way of messing with you. Instead, he was the one that was gone too early, and if only she went to find him sooner, perhaps she wouldn’t be filled with such devastating regret. Regret for the years they could’ve spent together. Regret for never really getting the chance to know him as the man she always wanted him to be. And regret for not knowing what it feels like to have an epic love like she had always imagined.
Gingerly, she picks up the letter from her desk, as though she is afraid that it would crumble at her touch. She holds it to her heart for a few moments before carefully peeling the wax seal from the envelope.
The paper is pristine white, uncrumpled apart from the neat, deliberate folds he made to fit it inside the envelope. The thought that she was touching something that he had treated with such care in his last few hours brought an onslaught of emotions that she fought to hold back. She slowly unfolds the letter, draws in a deep breath as she prepares herself for his words.
Dear Caroline,
I meant it when I said I didn’t know how to say goodbye. To my siblings, to Hope and most of all, to you. So I’m taking the easy way out by writing it here in words, and because little messages and letters seem to be our thing. And if my voice message from over a decade ago was any indication, this letter will still be here for you to look back on even when I’m dead and gone.
There are so many things that I want to say to you, but I never thought that this would be one of them - I’m running out of time. So forgive me for going straight to the point.
I never told you that I love you.
And I should have said it because I do. It took me a while to realise this, but I loved you when I saw the strong woman that you are when we met on your birthday. And I loved you when you showed up at my family’s ball looking beautiful in that blue dress, and suddenly every person in the room began to fade away. I loved you more when you showed me that you could forgive me for everything that I’ve done. But most of all, meeting you after all these years, I’ve realised…
I love you, still.
And even though I never said it, I think that a part of me feels better knowing that you knew this. When you said so blatantly that I was in love with you that night in the Gilberts’ house, I wanted to admit the truth - that love confused and terrified me, but for you, I had happily fallen into it.
So Caroline, I wish I had more time and more courage to tell you this in person. But maybe after a few centuries, we might meet again in the afterlife, and I’ll tell you then.
I’m sorry that I couldn’t be your last love like I promised, but you were mine.
I’ve always looked out for you, and I will continue to do so even after I leave this world. Be happy, Caroline, that’s all I ever wanted for you.
Yours,
Klaus
Silently, she places the letter back on the table as she feels wordless tears trickle down her face. She knew he loved her, but this was cruel, because she would have rather not known for sure, than to live with this bone crushing sadness that was currently dwelling inside of her.
His words echoes every emotion that she tried to suppress within herself in the past, but now she is finally tired of hiding the fact that she loves him too. Despite not seeing each other for years, she still felt the instant connection upon meeting him in France, and it had only intensified after witnessing what a man, and a father, he had become.
She sits down with her face in her hands, so deep in thought that she doesn't hear the door to her office open and close.
“Caroline?” She hears a familiar voice from a much needed friend, “I came as soon as you called”
She looks up and sees her best friend, looking a little older than she last remembered, dragging a huge luggage behind her.
“It’s too late, Bon. He’s gone,” she whispers.
“What do you mean?” Caroline hadn’t filled her in on the details when she called to ask her to come home immediately. Hearing the urgent tone in her voice, Bonnie dropped all of her plans and came straight back to Mystic Falls. She had hoped that Bonnie could've helped her and Elijah plan something, but it was too much of a rush, as the witch was all the way in Russia when she called.
“Klaus… he’s gone. He sacrificed himself to save his daughter, and…” she chokes, trying to hold back her tears, “I tried… I tried to find a way to save him, but I couldn’t,” she sobs, “he’s gone”
The brunette moves forward to hug her friend, and the two stand still, holding each other for a few minutes until the air suddenly shifts and Bonnie feels the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She turns to look back and gasps at what she saw.
“No! This cannot be real,” she proclaims, “You’re not really… dead, are you?”
“Who are you talking to, Bon?” Caroline asks, trying to mask the shock and dare she say, hopefulness in her voice. It couldn’t be, could it?
“Klaus,” Bonnie’s voice shakes.
The Hybrid is standing in the room, looking ever as real and tangible as Bonnie had remembered him. But looking at Caroline's confused expression, it was apparent that the blonde vampire cannot see him.
It is as though Caroline had sobered up the moment she heard his name, “Klaus?” She walked towards the spot that Bonnie was looking at and reached out at the invisible air.
Nothing.
Her heart drops to her stomach in disappointment, but then, she hears it.
“I’m here, love”
Her dead heart metaphorically skips a beat. Hearing his voice, despite not being able to see or touch him, provided her some kind of solace.
“How is this possible?” She asks.
“I don’t know. When the white oak stake went through my heart, I felt my body disintegrate but my spirit woke up a while later in the exact same spot. I spent the first hours trying to locate Elijah, to see if the same thing had happened to him, but I couldn’t find him. So I came here” he said.
“Then are you really… dead?” She asks, shakily, afraid to hear his answer.
Bonnie turns to speak up, “You can’t see him, while I can and that points to him being dead. Yet, you can hear him so that’s got to mean something else. It’s almost like his body is gone but his soul has stayed behind instead of moving on to the Other Side.”
“Is there anything we can do?” For a moment, Caroline’s thoughts turn selfish. What would she do if she had to go on living the rest of her eternity hearing his voice, yet not being able to see or touch him. The thought was almost worse than not knowing he was there at all.
“I can try a variation of the spell I did for myself during graduation. It might make him corporeal, at least long enough for us to figure out what’s going on”
“Thank you, Bennett”
“I hope you don’t think I’m doing this for you, Mikaelson,” Bonnie mutters, “if it weren’t for Caroline, I would’ve left the second you showed up”
“Thank you for doing this, Bon,” Caroline says sincerely.
“Thank me again when it works”
The candles delicately placed in a perfect circle begin to light up when Bonnie starts to chant unfamiliar words. The air suddenly becomes dynamic as intense magic fills the room.
The witch’s eyes roll back until they were completely white, and as she finishes off the last of her spell, a gust of wind blows into the room through a previously closed window.
Caroline had closed her eyes from the sudden attack of leaves from the garden outside, but when she opens them, she sees him slowly reappearing in the middle of the circle of candles.
“Klaus!” She exclaims, vamp speeding towards him. She carefully reaches out to see whether the Universe decided to answer all her prayers and brought him back to her world, but alas, her hand falls straight through.
She hides her disappointment as she knew she should be happy enough being able to see him. The rest will have to come later, and trust her, if there was any shred of hope left, Caroline would search the world to find a way for him to come back in full.
“Hello, love,” he replies, his voice thick with emotions.
“Look, I’ll leave you guys to talk. I’ll bring over some of my grimoires later and we can figure out the next step," Bonnie adds, sensing the unspoken tension between the two.
“Thank you, Bonnie, truly,” Caroline says, hugging her best friend.
“There’s not a thing in the world I wouldn’t do for you, Care,” Bonnie replies.
When she left, the pair turn to face each other once more.
“Caroline, the letter... I…,” he begins, before she holds a finger to his lips.
“Don’t say it. Not right now,” she whispers, “I want you to tell me when you come back for real”
“I might never,” he says sadly, “I don’t know what’s happening, but there could be a chance…”
“You told me that somewhere out there lies the secret to having everything you want, and I will find it, even if it takes me an eternity to do so but I will,” she promises.
“I can’t do this to you, love. I have to let you move on and be happy, instead of being stuck here with half of me”
“If you think you’re the only one who feels the way you said you feel in your letter, you’re wrong. I want you back, Klaus, more than anything," she looks into his eyes, conveying everything she feels into him.
He sighs deeply, “I wish I could kiss you now”
“In due time, you will. I don’t know how or when, but if there’s anyone that I know who wouldn’t die no matter how hard his enemies try to kill him, it’s you. Trust me, I’ve been that enemy,” she chuckles, as he smiles fondly at the time they used to be on the opposite sides. It seems like a lifetime ago.
They stand there for a while, just looking at each other, afraid that in the next second, he might disappear again.
“Anyone capable of love is capable of being saved,” she says quietly, thinking back to the words she said to him long ago.
After spending two hours reminiscing their past, Klaus stands up from his seat next to Caroline and says, “I should find Hope now, let her know that I’m… well, I don’t know what exactly I am”
Caroline looks at the clock, “She’s due to be here anytime soon. Freya is flying her back after your funeral”
“I should wait for her in her room, then”
“I’ll show you the way”
The two begin their way down the corridors of the school. It was well past midnight and the students were long inside their dorms.
She opened the door to Hope’s room and Klaus stepped inside. It was his first time in her daughter’s dorm and the walls were lined with photos of their family, giving him a pang of guilt for missing most of her childhood.
“I’ll see you later,” Caroline interrupts, as she turns to close the door. But just before the lock clicks into place, Hope and Freya come around the corner.
“Headmistress, what’re you doing here?” Hope asks when she reaches her, opening the door to her room once more. When she turns, her face contorts and she begins to cry, “Dad?”
The young tribrid runs towards him, but just like Caroline, her hands fall straight through.
“What’s going on?” Hope asks through her tears.
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Caroline provides, “Your dad showed up a few hours ago in my office and at first, I could only hear his voice. But Bonnie was here and did some of her magic to him visible, but as you can already tell, his physical body cannot be brought back by a matter of a spell”
“I can’t believe it,” says another voice. Freya has a big grin on her face, as though she knew something that the others didn’t, “It worked. It actually worked!”
“What worked?” Klaus asks.
“After Caroline told Elijah of your plan to sacrifice yourself, he naturally came to me to try and stop all of this. He had taken the white oak stake from you in secret and had me spell it so that when you inevitable stake each other, the Hollow would transfer itself into Elijah, killing him instead.
It was supposed to disintegrate your physical body and have it transported to a safe place, along with your soul until we found you to wake you up. The spell was of course, experimental, and we had no idea if it would work. But now it seems that it did work in a way, but your mind and body had somehow split up,” Freya explained.
“There must be something we can do!” Hope says.
“Find Bonnie, and the two of us will pour over some Grimoires to find a spell to reunite his body and soul. Meanwhile, Caroline and Hope, you must go find his body and it bring it back”
“Where would that be?” Caroline asks.
“It would’ve taken him back to where he turned into a vampire, so somewhere deep in the woods of Mystic Falls. The spell makes it so that his body could only be found by those he loved who loves him back, in case he’s accidentally discovered by his myriad of enemies. So I imagine that the two of you would be the best candidates,” Freya says.
Caroline blushes at her words, Freya had said it as though Klaus' feelings for her, and vice versa, were obvious to everyone around them.
“Well, I guess it’s time to go, then,” Klaus pipes up, feeling a sense of hope for the first time since his supposed death.
He lingers back, watching them from behind, as they navigate through the forest.
At first, he wanted to lash out at Freya for doing such a thing behind his back. But after walking around the woods for hours with his two favourite girls, he was selfishly glad because if there was any chance he could come back for real and hold the two of them in his arms, he would take the opportunity without a moment of hesitation...
When Hope was sure her Dad was out of earshot, she turns to her headmistress.
“When I was young, there was a time I transported myself in a dream to where my dad was, and I saw him killing people and I was horrified. I cried to my mum, my aunts and uncles, and they tried to comfort me.
They told me that despite what he had done, there was still a part of him that was good, a part that was capable of love. They told me all the things he had sacrificed for me and our family, but one day, Aunt Bekah told me about a girl he used to love.
She said for a thousand years, my dad had lost his humanity. But in Mystic Falls, he found a girl who brought about a change in him that no one expected. He loved her, and she tried to deny it, but it was clear to everyone else she felt something for him too. He did everything he could to please her, and despite making mistakes, he ultimately wanted her to be happy. And for the first time in a long time, he put a person’s happiness before his own.
And Aunt Bekah said that it was because of this girl that he learned selflessness and forgiveness, and that without her, he wouldn’t have tried to open his heart to love me...
I think she was talking about you, Caroline.”
Caroline smiles. She and Rebekah never had the best of friendships, but they both cared deeply about Klaus, and it was good to know that she spoke highly of her.
“Your Aunt Bekah doesn’t give him enough credit, I think he would’ve gotten there eventually,” she reassures, “I might have shown him the ropes but he’s become a different man because of you”
Klaus was about to interrupt them, having caught the end of their conversation, when the three of them notice rustling of leaves nearby.
“I think we’re close,” Caroline says, looking around for any signs of another body.
They walk around another big tree and surely, there is a pile of leaves swirling around Klaus’ body. He looks the same as he did the day he ‘died’ and it was strange seeing both his physical and corporeal self side by side.
Hope mutters a spell and the leaves begin to settle beside his body. Wordlessly, Caroline picks up his body with her vampiric strength, relishing in the feeling of finally being able to touch him, even if it was only his shell.
“Go,” Hope says, “I’ll catch up”
Caroline vamp speeds back to the school, allowing the corporeal Klaus and Hope to have some father-daughter alone time.
Finally, it had taken two months for Bonnie, Freya, Caroline and Hope to search through Grimoires for the spell they were looking for.
Freya had put Klaus’ body in a temporary state of preservation, but now it was time to end this torment and bring him back once and for all.
Caroline had left the clearing where they planned to perform the ritual as instructed by the three witches, who were now joined by Davina. The magic required would be so intense that it could consume anyone who wasn’t a witch involved.
Seconds turn into minutes, and the long hand of the grandfather clock at her office moves slowly.
She takes this time to reread the letter he left for her, and she was so absorbed in his words that she almost doesn't notice the door to her office open.
She looks up and in her heart of hearts, she knew he would be standing right there.
And indeed he was, with a smile so rare and blinding that fills her insides with giddiness. She once again vamp speeds to him, but this time, she doesn't hesitate and throws herself into his arms.
He catches her easily and the two hold one another, and damn, it finally feels like coming home.
“I do believe you owe me something,” she breaks the silence, without breaking her hold on him.
His blue-green eyes stare into hers, with an intensity that she had never felt before.
“I love you, Caroline,” he says earnestly.
“I love you, too”