A/N: Disregards Season 5 of The Originals

Caroline

The phone fell out of Caroline's hand and she sunk to her knees on the floor, shaking but unable to make any other sound. She wasn't sure how long she'd been there when he found her like that.

"Caroline?" Klaus called, concern evident in his tone as he ran to kneel beside her. She didn't—couldn't—acknowledge him. It didn't matter. Nothing would ever matter ever again.

"Caroline," Klaus prompted again, more insistently. He noticed the silent hum of the phone still connected on the floor. He picked it up and said, "Whoever you are, whatever you've done…"

Caroline found her voice then, barely, cutting him off. "No, Klaus…" She still wasn't crying. What was wrong with her? She felt like crying until she drowned the whole earth, but she couldn't. "They're…" She might not be able to cry, but she also was finding it difficult to breathe. "They're …dead…Lizzie and Josie." And she let out an indescribable sound, but still no tears. She didn't register the door that had just closed or who might have come. She only barely noticed Klaus taking her in her arms, not saying another word, but holding her just tight enough so that she wouldn't come apart entirely.

"Niklaus," Elijah called, coming around the corner and stopping at the sight. "What's wr—"

Klaus must have waved him off, because there was no further conversation between them and Elijah didn't come into the room.

"I can't…" Caroline moaned. "I can't breathe…"

"You can. I'm right here," he replied quietly, stroking her hair.

It was like something triggered inside her. Suddenly, she was acutely aware of everything in the room, everything that seemed too sharply in focus, particularly Klaus. She stared at him, disbelievingly. "You're here. Yea, you're here. DO YOU THINK THAT MATTERS?! ARE YOU THAT SELF CENTERED?! MY DAUGHTERS ARE DEAD!" Now, Caroline was sobbing as she ran out the house.

"Caroline!" Klaus insisted, trying to call her back, but she was already gone. Klaus stared, flabbergasted and stung, at the spot Caroline had been a moment ago. Then, furious, he turned all his thoughts onto Elijah, who'd just dared to come look back in. "I don't matter! Who does she think she is?! Who's been there for her all this time? I've given her everything! Had her want for nothing! And she dare's throw that back in my face! Like I'm not enough for her!"

"Niklaus!" Elijah interrupted him. "This isn't about you! Her daughters are dead, Niklaus. Can you try to understand that?" He gentled, cautiously putting up a hand to his brother. "We will never lose Hope. But, imagine, just for a second, if we did."

It had the desired effect. Immediately, Klaus set back on his heels, sobering and taking a breath.

Elijah nodded. "Now, go find her before she does something she regrets."

It didn't take long to find her, collapsed and sobbing violently, in the center of a stone gazebo off in the surrounding woods—a common refuge where he'd found her times before. He didn't dare initially say anything, just took a tentative step forward before stopping even then.

After a moment, Caroline stopped sobbing, though her face was still streaked with tears. She looked up at him slowly and miserably, her voice hoarse and hollow, so absent of its usual commanding peppiness. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean what I said." She paused. "You were just trying to help, I know that. It's not that I don't love having you here. I just…" She shook her head, not able to finish the sentence.

Klaus took a few more steps toward her, but stopped before reaching her side. "I know. And you know I'd never want to hurt you, Caroline. I'll go if you want."

Caroline looked at him, devastated both for herself and knowing she'd hurt him. "Is it selfish to ask you to stay?"

Klaus looked at her like she was the most confounding, exquisite, infuriating sight he'd ever encountered. "You know, you might just be giving my crazy a run for it's money today, love." But, he gave her a gentle smile. "I remember what it's like to lose…" he proceeded cautiously, "everyone you'd loved. And so I know there's nothing I can say. But, I will never leave you, Caroline."

Caroline pulled him toward her with such force as if she'd been possessed, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him passionately. He responded with equally intense kisses, pulling her tightly towards him until there was no space between them, kissing her everywhere all while never letting her go. They were not two, but one and nothing could harm them so long as that was so. In that moment, all the world disappeared except for the two of them...

"You don't have to feel this," Klaus offered her.

Caroline was in a simple, but elegant black dress with long lace sleeves. The initial shock had worn off, but she knew the worst was yet to come; and, now, it was time for the funeral. She had thought losing Elena, then Bonnie, had been hard. But this. This was turning out to be another type of beast entirely. She didn't see an end to the numb hopelessness that faced her, but she refused to look into that future. It would break her beyond repair if she did. She knew the funeral would be excruciating, would bring up so many memories of raising her girls, watching them grow up, grow apart from her for a time as they found their own way in this world, then come back to her. She stopped those thoughts before they could overwhelm her. It would be simpler, so much simpler, to take the suggestion and turn off her emotions. But, she'd learned the hard way before that it wasn't really better.

So, it was probably the hardest decision she'd made, but she knew it was the right one when she answered, "Yes, I do."

He didn't try to contradict her, just took her hand as they headed out the door, followed by Elijah and Rebekkah.

She loved him for that. She'd been a bear the past few days, but he had stood by her, more patient than she'd ever seen him. It had taken her a long time to finally find Klaus so many years after Stefan had died. She'd just been a child and needed time to grow up and really find herself. And they were still fire and ice, but somehow, they'd found a way to make it work. In some ways, Caroline had come to understand what Elena had found with Damon. They all challenged each other in every way, but made the other both better and stronger for it. So much changed along the way, but love always requires sacrifice. Sometimes that sacrifice seems too much, like now, but it also provided strength and protection against the very worst.

She hadn't been very lucid during the funeral, going through the motions like it was a bad dream, her thoughts running in and out and in all directions of the people she'd lost over the past 100 years, the things she still had, and most importantly, so many memories of Lizzie and Josie. She'd hardly registered the din of the crowd disappearing until it was just her and Klaus beside the grave.

Caroline did not leave their grave for three days, during which she would be eternally grateful to Klaus. Klaus had compelled the groundskeeper to leave her be and not ask questions and Klaus had done the same. He encouraged her to eat and, though she'd only touched enough not to start desiccating, he'd brought her blood bags, knowing she had neither the desire or energy to leave quite yet. But, eventually she knew she had to. She wasn't sure how she'd move through the future, the future that now, truly, was the life of a vampire; but, she also knew she didn't have to do it alone and she'd take each day as it came.