A/N Sorry for going MIA for about 2 years. Thank you if you have actually stuck around, I won't be able to believe that anyone is reading this. I hope that I've in a small way made it up to you in making this chapter a little more than the length of the previous 2 chapters combined. Also unbeta'd so sorry for any mistakes.

Klaus and Caroline were walking through the woods back to his mansion. Suddenly Caroline stopped and started to tap her pockets in a panicked manner. "What's wrong, love?"

"My phone, I think I left it in the car."

"Why would you need your phone at this particular moment?"

"I need to call Stefan and tell him I'll meet him in the hotel later! He must be worried sick and looking for me everywhere."

Klaus did not like how the close relationship Caroline shared with the Ripper yet he knew now was not the time to argue with her about it since he had just started to earn her forgiveness. Also she was back in his life after eighteen years and he was not going to drive her away so soon. "You can call him when we get back to my home."

"You don't have your phone with you? What type of person goes around without their phone?"

"I was painting, phones are a distraction. I never have one in my studio when I paint."

"Urgh, typical. You're so old fashioned. Keep up, everyone eats, showers, parties and sleeps with their phones now."

"You don't have your phone with you." Klaus pointed out.

"I was using it to play music in the car and putting it in my pocket was not high on my do to list when I was about to see you for the first time in forever."

"Again your perception of time is very poor." Klaus chided. "Eighteen years is not forever." The fact that cared about her enough to actually Klaus remember their past conversation brought a smile to Caroline's face.

Klaus noticed Caroline's smile and smiled himself. He had missed that. The time after Caroline, he'd never met anyone so full of light as Caroline. Klaus realized that up ahead was the unmistakable roof of his home. He wished that he could stay forever in this moment with Caroline but in all his thousand years on this earth, he had not yet discovered a time stopping spell. Klaus remembered that unfortunately his siblings also lived with him; this happy moment with Caroline would dissipate as soon as they saw her. Hope! He was not sure how Hope would react to Caroline, as they never had to experience an event where he truly loved a woman that was not family.

As if reading Klaus's mind, "What is Hope like?" Caroline asked, "Tell me about her."

"Well she's kind, compassionate, loves to organize parties"

"Like me!" Yes, Klaus replied in his mind, Hope is more similar to you than Hayley or me. Klaus suddenly remembered that there was Hayley to deal with too. She rarely came to his mansion but if things worked out between him and Caroline as Klaus hoped, the two were bound to meet which would be a problem as they did not get along with each other well.

"Her mom should have never been Hayley. It should have been you."

Caroline nodded. She understood what he said between the lines. Not that he didn't love his and Hayley's daughter for having the parentage she does. He meant something else. It should have been you… because I love you, not her. I was supposed to have a family with you. Caroline knew they could never have a biological child together but it was the thought that counted.

One of the many things Klaus loved about Caroline was that they (she would never admit it) understood each other perfectly and still do, whilst others would not understand. They were the same in so many ways, in the ways that mattered. They both had deep-rooted parental problems that lead them to being the way they are now. He was dark (most of the time) and she was light (most of the time). His father never loved him because of the fact Mikael wasn't actually his father and instead he hunted him down for centuries. Caroline's father didn't accept her as a vampire and tired to "cure" her by torturing her, then when given a chance after death to live along side his daughter, he chose death. Caroline's love and need for her father wasn't enough to keep him. Klaus's illegitimacy was enough for Mikael not to love him. Esther reacted the same. While Liz seemed like she loved her work more than her daughter. In the end surrounded by so many people (Klaus: his siblings and daughter, Caroline: her friends) they were alone. Both craved for a companionship where even the silence was full of understanding and acceptance. One that took as much as it gave which enabled both parties to grow as people or, in this case, vampires with support of one another. He was the man who thought he was not loveable and she was the girl who thought herself not worthy of love. Like calls to like, Klaus thought.

He was snapped out of his deep thought when he saw his mansion looming ahead of them. He turned to face Caroline "Are you ready?"

"To meet your daughter? Or see your sister who hates me and your brother who doesn't know me?"

"Both."

"I don't I'll ever be ready but as you know I'm not one to back away from a challenge."

As soon as Klaus and Caroline stepped into the mansion, they were greeted by the sound of Rebekah's excited voice.

"Nik, you'll never guess who I found!"

"No, Rebekah I've been trying to tell you. I came here earlier," replied the aforementioned found person, who was Stefan.

"Why didn't you come look for me?"

"I had to go find Caroline."

"Always Caroline."

"There's nothing going on between us."

At that point Klaus stopped listening and let them finish their lover's quarrel. He guided Caroline inside and up the stairs. Caroline didn't ask where they were going, she knew but what she didn't know was if she was ready for the meeting that was about to take place. Caroline had run from Klaus, more specifically her feelings for him (being away from him helped her figure out what she really felt as well) for so long, she wasn't sure if she could shout to the rest of the world which was who Klaus' large family －whose members she was mostly unfamiliar with－ were in this situation. She certainly knew she wouldn't be able to tell her friends yet, Klaus and the Mystic Falls gang might have no crossed paths in the last 18 years however a powerful mass murderer who tried to kill you multiple times is quite hard to forget no matter how much time had passed. The world had changed technologically wise however human's and supernatural's feelings tended to remain the same. Hate, mistrust and fear were feelings that were hard to let go of. Before Caroline knew it Klaus was knocking on Hope's door, identifying himself to her and asking her permission to come in with a guest.

Klaus was incredibly nervous and for the first time in his life, he felt awkward. How exactly did one go about introducing the women he loves to his daughter especially when the aforementioned love appearance wise looks the same age as the daughter? However before Klaus could ponder more about that question he could not seem to find an answer to, Caroline reminded him of one of the reasons why he loved her by breaking the ice.

"So you do you like cheer?" Caroline asked referring to the photo of Hope in her cheerleading outfit with people Caroline assumed were her friends.

Caroline didn't want to be the first to initiate the conversation but neither of the Mikaelsons seemed to know what to do in this situation. Caroline didn't either. But Caroline Forbes was not one to back down from a challenge.

"Yeah I do, plus being captain is a great excuse to boss everyone around," Hope replied tentatively, still unsure how to react to this woman who had suddenly reappeared in her father's life and appeared in her's. In addition to that Hope could not stop thinking about what this conversation, this introduction meant. Her father had not in all her eighteen years ever willingly introduced a woman he was seeing to her. How would Hope adapt to this change? She liked the odd routine she had here with her father, mother, uncles and aunts. Moreover how did she feel about that fact that this girl seemed to be quite young both appearance and supernaturally wise. It was kind of weird to think about that age difference this person who had the potential of being her stepmother and her dad had. Forgetting the supernatural part it was like her dad was dating one of her friends.

"The best opportunity to boss everyone is to arrange the school dances. But I suppose you'll be graduating soon?"

"Yes, this May."

"That's only a few months away you must be excited!"

"I am. Were you?"

"I was, I thought it was my opportunity to get out of the town I had spent my whole life in but when the time actually came I found it hard to stray far away." Caroline looked at Klaus when she said this thinking about how he wanted to take her away from the small town life. She continued, "Too much had happened there and I wasn't ready to be a vampire in a place where I did not know the established community. My friends are all somehow supernatural, except for one. That town was a magnet for supernaturals so much happened between those last two years in high school. I actually meet Klaus during that time."

Hope could not help but cough in surprise when she found out this information. She was not quite sure she knew how to word want she wanted to ask or if she wanted the answer. "You, um, meet each other when you were still in high school?"

Caroline and Klaus exchanged glances, at once realizing how awkward this must be for Caroline.

"Don't let my face fool you, I'm thirty-six. I could be your mother, actually your mother is around my age so honestly it's not that bad."

"She was quite mature for her age," Klaus said, finally added into the conversation.

"And he was quite immature for his age," Caroline retorted.

Hope could see that they were about to start bickering like an old married couple. She startled at the thought. An old married couple. She realized they were familiar with each other's words and presence. That they seemed to just fit and she could not ask her father to not date because it would be like asking him to tear off a part of his body and bury it. He would do it if he asked her but real love is thinking and doing what is best for someone else. Hope asked Caroline, "How old were you?"

"Eighteen," Caroline replied with a reminiscent smile on her face.

"Just eighteen, we first met on her birthday," Klaus clarified.

Caroline wanting to avoid getting into the topic of the reason they met, frantically searched around for something that gave her a bit more of insight into Hope's life and allowed a more substantial topic than cheerleading. Caroline realized there were books, everywhere, and when there wasn't there were notepads with haphazardly written notes or long paragraphs.

"Do you enjoy writing?"

"Yes."

"So the Mikealson artistic talent is branching out now, huh?" Caroline directed to Klaus who kept on contently smiling and watching the two people he loved the most's interaction.

Hope was taken aback no one aside from her and her father's siblings knew about his art. He had told Caroline about this, therefore Hope could not deny it was something real between them at least on the part of her father. Since Caroline was here she assumed it was on Caroline's part as well.

"That's really wonderful, art has different ways of expressing itself. Also everyone needs away for all their feelings to come out. My negative ones come out through stress cleaning," Caroline continued on.

Hope could not help but laugh at this, she was so completely the opposite of her father who was prone to impulsive killing sprees.

Encouraged by the laugh, Caroline dared to ask, "What are you working on now?"

Now more open to the idea of Caroline in her and her father's life, Hope changed fully heartedly put an effort into the conversation and replied without leaving a little detail out as she felt as she went on that Caroline was genuinely interested. In addition, a bonus that did not hurt at all, Hope found Caroline surprisingly easy to talk to.

As Hope went on and on talking to Caroline and their conversation evolved into childhood stories, terrible experiences with Klaus, favorites and everything else possible for people who just meet to talk about, Klaus slowly slipped out of the room. He continued down the hall to his studio wanting to continue the painting he had left unfinished. The painting, that in some way led to Klaus and Caroline reuniting.

While Caroline sat in the living room (Stefan and Rebekah had finally stopped arguing and had left to "reunite" in Stefan's hotel room, Caroline really did not want to spend more time than necessary thinking about what her best friend and Klaus's little sister were doing) she went through her voicemail, which, surprisingly, was a lot considering she got a call or a voicemail from each of the people who had left the messages today about once a month and they never called on the same day. It was as if everyone she knew some how knew that today was when Caroline's life would really change. Today she would either choose to stay with Klaus or walk away for as long as she could. Both choices would drastically impact her life, she couldn't do it half away it would hurt both of them too much. The limbo of neither here nor there. not really knowing.

"Gorgeous! Long time, no see. You left me in Atlanta! That's twice now, I'm wounded." She quickly skipped over that message, she had no interest in healing Enzo's wounds.

Then was Elena with an update about her and Damon's world travels. That was part of the reason Caroline wasn't sure she wanted to visit Rome, Paris or Tokyo. Elena always sounded tired or bored. Maybe that was just another thing Klaus would have to persuade her into. Next was Matt with an update of his life and demanding one of hers in between pronouncing his worry about her traipsing about the country and sometimes the world with another vampire known to go off the rails.

God she loved Matt in a totally platonic way but he had to learn that Caroline could take care of herself. Being a woman didn't mean she had to sit around and play the good little housewife. It was why Klaus was right. A small town boy would not be enough for her. They were all confined to that small town misogynistic view, not that they were bad people, they just didn't know any different. But a hybrid that had lived a 1,000 years did. He was able to see that fire in her and was always supporting her to do what she wanted. In addition to giving her what she wanted but that was where his old fashionedness came in, Caroline being a modern woman wanted to earn what she went after.

The last voice message was Bonnie asking her if she was all right.

"Caroline?" she spun around noticing that Klaus had crept up behind her, having finished his Vampire hearing was still useless with the stealthy originals.

"Yes, Klaus?"

"Why do you brush aside how smart you are? Your 4.0 GPA and your valedictorian title? Which is impressive considering everything supernatural you had going on during your high school years. Why did you give college an abysmal try? Why didn't you pursue more changeling world-altering subjects for your major? Why did you give in to the stereotypes that town cursed you with?"

"My friends, that town, they didn't value intelligence. They cared about beauty and good values, morals, hah! Brunettes with good values is the reason we always ended up in the messes we were in but at least I became me and then I met you."

"You did it again, you just brushed it aside. Hope's leaving after she graduates," he stated matter of factly.

Caroline was quite surprised he let Hope leave but then again he let her leave too. She remembered being told long ago by maybe her paternal grandmother: If you love something set it free. If it comes back it's yours. If not, it was never meant to be. "So?" she replied impatient to see where he was going with this.

"So, you should go to college again. Study something that lets you explore the world, be who you are who not the person that town confined and still confines you to be. Go to college here or somewhere else. Where ever you want," Klaus hesitated for a moment unsure how she would react to what he wanted to say next. "If you would allow it I'd like to come with you but if you don't want me to, I won't,"

"What if I don't want to go back?"

Klaus could blantly see on her face that was a lie. He could see her longing clear as day, the desire to explore the world as he had seen eighteen years ago. There were many ways to reach the same goal in this case, one of the options was travelling the world which Klaus could see Caroline was not ready to do yet and the other was to uncover its secrets.

"Then you would be lying to yourself," Klaus truthfully answered.

"How about this I'll do some serious thinking on this. But for now can we just enjoy being together again? I mean I just met your daughter and that went much better than expected if I do say so myself so I think it is maybe a sign that it's finally the right time for us."

"Deal." Klaus replied happy to be here with her after all the time of worrying that she would never turn up on his doorstep.

A/N Reviews make my day and also tell me that I should continue on with the story or just abandon it. I have one last part left (hopefully) in mind.

Also help! Which names are the best? I'm trying to choose names for their future fanfictional kids.

Joy, Grace, Angel, Karma, Luna

Hunter. King, Roman, Wolf, Archer, Arrow, Chase

Side note of my internal ramblings: Can you believe it? Klaus and Caroline knew each other for less than a year tv timeline wise! It seemed like they knew each other for most of the show. Well I guess it seems like that because the show's gone on for 7 seasons and they met in the 3rd. The thought just occurred to me while I was writing about how Caroline had a perfect GPA yet she was portrayed as a stupid character, or maybe this isn't really her character at all and its me projecting myself on her but whatever it's fanfiction.