Chapter 1

By ZebraBow

Authors Note: My first multi-chap Klaroline. Hope you all like it. It's going to take a couple of chapters to get the ball rolling.

Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Diaries or any of the other copy righted things you might recognize. I am not claiming ownership to anything except the plot line and the OCs in this story.

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All my life I wish broke mirrors

Instead of promises

Because all I see

Is a shattered conscious

Staring right back at me

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"Come on, you owe!" Katherine hissed at her. Her long perfectly curled brunette hair shook as she talked.

"Puh-lease, giving me the extra bear claw yesterday is not the same thing as this." Caroline nudged her head towards her living room where a young girl was watching a rerun of Spongebob. "I don't understand why you can't watch her. I have a full day today."

When Caroline Forbes woke up that morning, her plans for the day ahead consisted of lounging around her newly redecorated townhome and catching up on old copies of Vogue and Cosmo. She had just gotten through her second magazine when her doorbell rang. While mumbling about why door to door salesman even existed, she opened the door grudgingly. Of course only her best friend Katherine Mikaelson would be awake before noon on a perfectly good Saturday dressed to the nines like she stepped off the runway with a little girl in tow.

"I know what your Saturdays consist of. And by the size of the stack of magazines, it looks like you don't have anything much to do today." Katherine gave a long pointed look at the blonde. Wrinkling her nose she added, "Plus you know I don't like kids."

Caroline deadpanned, "Kat, you teach kindergarten. If you don't like kids, I would seriously consider a change in career."

"Please Care! I really need you to step in today."

Well, it was a rare sight to see the brunette grovel. She must have really needed to do something today. Caroline arched her eyebrow. She was intrigued. "Are you sure no one else can watch her?"

"Her father has an important meeting today. Their nanny has gone upstate to see some family. And you know that Rebekah is still on her honeymoon with Stefan."

"Well, what about Elena? She is an amazing mom. I'm sure she wouldn't mind taking care of her for just a couple of hours." Caroline tried to reason with Katherine. She had a dismal history with children. Ever since her first and only time at babysitting – with the appropriately named Heller triplets – she had avoided being alone with children.

"Alex has the flu. And to top it all off, Damon is convinced he also has the flu. And you know that a neurotic Damon is way worse than a sick child." Katherine grabbed her friends hands and squeezed it. "Please Care! You're the only one available - well other than Jeremy. And I'm sure my darling brother-in-law, would stake me if I left his daughter with my stoner brother."

Caroline took a minute to think it over. Katherine seemed really desperate and the magazines weren't going anywhere. "Okay fine. But if her father is so strict, will he be okay if his child is left with a complete stranger."

"You're not a stranger. You're my best friend. He won't even find out. Just make sure that you feed her and make sure that she is in one piece when you give her back." Katherine gave a quick hug. "Thanks babe!"

"Geez Kat! Well, thanks for the hug." She tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "What's so important today? Got an appointment with a doc – finally checking out your multiple personality problems?"

Normally Katherine would have hit her back with a copyrighted bitchy Kat comment, but now she looked flustered and bit her lip. After being best friends for the better part of a decade, Caroline knew that Kat was nervous about something. She wouldn't be nervous – unless – she hit the nail on the head. "You are going to see a doctor!" Caroline pointed an accusatory finger at her friend.

Katherine didn't meet her eyes which was a big red flag. "Well, I am going to see a doctor." She paused and took a breath. "I think I should tell someone. It's been driving me crazy. And I haven't told Elijah yet – so you have to keep it hush-hush. I am seeing a doctor – an obstetrician."

Caroline gasped and hugged her friend hard. "Oh my god, I'm so excited. Should we start preparing for a little suit wearing brunette bundle of joy any time soon?"

Katherine swatted her friends shoulder. "Gee thanks Care! I might be - key word on the might. I don't know. I've just been really nauseous and craving pickles all the time. And I remembered that Elena was craving them when she was expecting. And I just thought that since we are twins maybe we would have the same symptoms of pregnancy."

"Woah Kat! Stop rambling - I understand. Everything is going to be okay here. You just get along to your appointment and keep thinking happy thoughts. Remember happy thoughts make a happy baby and if the baby is even remotely half like you, it's already got a hellish personality."

Katherine laughed before giving her another hug. "It feels so good to get that off my chest." She stepped out of the doorway before turning around. "Oh before I forget, she has an art class at five at the museum. Her dad will pick her up and no one will ever be the wiser."

"Got it. Now waddle along and keep my future godchild happy." Caroline smiled as she watched her best friend walk away. Nowadays it seemed like everyone was moving on with their lives. Well, everyone expect her. At least today she could keep her thoughts occupied with her new guest. For the next few hours, Caroline could pretend that everything was normal and she wasn't on the path for spinsterhood.

"So your name is Ella right?"

"Yup," she replied without removing her eyes from the plasma screen tv. She had moved on to an old rerun of Hannah Montana.

"So what do you like to do Ella?" Caroline inquired. She had to keep the kid occupied for a couple of hours and even though she would have liked to, she wasn't going to stoop so low as to leave her in front of the tv.

"I am not supposed to talk to strangers," Ella mumbled back.

Caroline huffed in mild annoyance; looked like her anal-retentive aunt had taught her well. "Hi, my name is Caroline. And besides I'm not a stranger silly. I'm best friends with your Aunt Kat. Besides, I am friends with your Aunt Rebekah."

Ella's eyes grew wide, "You know Aunt Bek? Isn't she the best?"

"Yup. We're just a pair of old chums." Okay, so she might have lied a little bit. Swallowing the rising bile, "She's so great!" And cue involuntary eye roll.

"She always takes me to get ice cream. My dad doesn't like it that much. She calls him Mr. Grumpy behind his back. But she promised me not to tell anyone. Uh-oh, you won't tell him will you Caroline?"

Caroline smiled, "I promise I won't Ella."

"Pinkie swear?" she held out her little finger.

She smiled at the innocence of the child. Wrapping her finger around the child's, "I promise. If I you like ice cream so much, I'm going to get you a bowl."

"Okay," Ella smiled and turned her attention back to the television screen.

Caroline looked at the clock and saw that it was half past three. Maybe she could dig up that old box of cards that she had stored away somewhere and play a round of Go Fish to pass the time with her new friend. She opened her fridge and frowned in dismay. Other than a half empty bottle of champagne and suspiciously moldy block of cheese, it was entirely empty. Thank God she kept the freezer compartment full to the brim with various flavors of ice cream.

She grabbed her favorite – Nutty Choco Vanilla – and placed generous scoops into the two bowls. "Here you go Ella," she said giving the young girl a bowl and a spoon. "It's my favorite. Hope you like it."

"Thank you," she took a scoop of ice cream and ate it. "This is so yummy. I've never had this flavor before. Aunt Bekah usually makes me get plain flavors like Vanilla and she usually yells at the ice cream man."

Caroline hummed in agreement. "So, what's this show about? Is that girl supposed to be the pop star in disguise?"

"Yeah, she's a secret pop star. But she has to keep up the secret because –" Ella started coughing mid-sentence.

Caroline turned and looked at the young girl. "Are you alright Ella? Oh my god, is that hives? Are you allergic to nuts?" Of course, it would make sense that she would nearly kill the first child that she had babysat for in nearly a decade.

"I've got to get you to the hospital. Don't worry Ella. Everything is going to be alright." She reassured the wheezing child. "It's going to be alright," she softly reassured herself as she grabbed the car keys.

"Help, I need a doctor!" Caroline stormed the emergency room of the hospital. Ella was cradled in her arms. During the short car trip she had stopped wheezing, but the hives had spread to her arms and covered the whole extent of her face.

"Somebody please help me," she was to the point of tears. She didn't have a lot of medical knowledge, but common sense told her that the small girl should not be unresponsive for so long.

"What happened?" a nurse stopped and asked her.

"She's allergic – she had some nuts – please help her," Caroline pleaded. Ella was starting to stir in her arms.

"Ok. We need a gurney in here," the nurse told one of the attenders, "case of child anaphylaxis coming through. Get the doctor and prepare the epi-shot."

The nurse placed Ella on the gurney. Caroline felt like everything was going way too fast. It felt like just a few minutes ago she was talking to Ella in her cozy little living room. She also felt incredibly stupid. She should have asked if she was allergic.

Caroline walked along with the gurney to a hospital room. Ella was muttering things in her half-conscious state, "It hurts."

Caroline felt her heart constrict. She knew that she was at fault here. "Oh sweetie! I'm so sorry. But everything is going to be okay."

Ella started crying, "My throat hurts. I want my daddy."

Caroline soothed her hair. "I'm right here sweetie. I'm not going anywhere."

A brunette haired female doctor entered the room. "We need to give her a shot of adrenaline. And could you please sign this waiver and fill out these forms."

"Okay, go ahead." Caroline watched as they gave Ella the shot in her upper arm. "Will she be fine now?"

The doctor smiled at Ella, "She's been a very brave girl. I'm Dr. Fell by the way, but call me Meredith. And we will have to keep her here for a few hours to see if she has any delayed reactions. Would you mind telling me what happened?"

Caroline let out a sigh of relief. "She had some ice cream with nuts in it. I just – I didn't…" She stumbled over her words. How in the world was she going to explain this one?

Meredith smiled, "Don't worry it happens. But most parents tend to carry epi-pens with them in case something like this happens."

"Oh, I'm not –"

"Looks like she's waking up," the nurse stated. Dr. Fell turned to assess Ella. Caroline's worry lessened a bit when she noticed that most of the inflammation had gone down.

"Water please," her voice sounded croaky like as if she had the world's worst sore throat.

The nurse handed her a cup of water which Ella drank eagerly. "You've been a very brave girl. Haven't you?" She looked towards Caroline and stated, "Now, if you could please fill out the form miss. We can't discharge her without them."

"Of course, thank you so much - both of you," Caroline gave them a grateful smile.

"Just doing our job," Dr. Fell said. "And you rest okay little missy."

Caroline watched the two leave with a thankful feeling before turning towards the little girl in the hospital bed. Ella had fallen asleep and Caroline could feel the bubble of guilt about to burst in her stomach. She would have a lot of explaining to do. Looking at the forms in her hand, she realized that she knew almost nothing about Ella other than her name. Grabbing her phone, she dialed her best friend's number.

Klaus Mikaelson massaged his forehead in annoyance. After a long day of going over contracts for the new merger, he was more than ready to go home. Of course having both parties not give even an inch in comprise led to most of his headache. The other part came from Elijah constantly calling him asking if he had seen Katherine. According to his dear older brother, the last person to see Katherine was Klaus. He vaguely remembered his sister-in-law collecting his daughter in the morning before he left for work.

His pounding headache had left him in a worse for wear mood. He was more than ready to go see his favorite girl. He smiled as he began to pack up his briefcase. Today was Saturday which meant that Ella would have gone for her art class. She would show him a new painting – mostly paint splatter very reminiscent of the early abstract period – and tell him about her day with Aunt Kat. Putting the keys into the ignition, he started driving towards the museum.

Katherine Mikaelson had never been fond of children. Even when she was younger, she had looked at her baby brother with a type of mild disgust when her twin couldn't contain the glee of being an older sister. Still, she couldn't ignore the surge of pride and protectiveness that came when the doctor confirmed what she had been suspecting for a few days now.

She held her hands to her stomach and smiled. She probably looked ridiculous, but nothing could bring her down. Her baby – Elijah's baby – was probably not bigger than her hand, but she already felt like a mom. Walking with a new found air of confidence, she walked towards her car.

Looking at her phone, she did a double take. 42 missed calls and 16 voice mails. Most of them were from Elijah – she hadn't told him what she was going to do today. No point in giving him false hope. She knew that he wanted to be a father more than anything. He had been dropping little hints over the past year about starting a family, but she hadn't felt ready. Now, she knew for sure. She might be nervous, but she was more than ready.

She pressed play and listened to the voice mails as she walked across the parking lot towards her car. The first few were from Elijah. He was going from mildly concerned to starting a search party. She skipped one of his and went to the next one which was oddly from Klaus.

"Kat, what I would like to know is where my daughter is? She never showed up for her class and I would like to know what you two are up to. Call me back immediately."

Katherine looked at her phone in a peculiar expression. Maybe Caroline had gotten side tracked and forgotten to take her for the class. Her phone played the next voice mail.

"Hey Kat. It's Care. I've called you a million times. I'm at the ER – with Ella. Kat, I screwed up… But she's fine now. Um, just call me when you get this."

She stood in shock as she finished listening to the message. Oh shit.

Because it came

Down like a Tidal Wave

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Authors Note: So what do you think? Review and let me know.

Kudos to anyone who can guess the song.