Title: Three Wishes Granted and One That Wasn't

Author: Razorbackgal0225

Rating: T—for slight language and discussion of character death

Disclaimer: I have a mortgage and a car payment. Since I have those, it should be obvious that I don't own anything connected with the Vampire Diaries, book or TV, or the Originals. If I did, well, a certain pairing would be much more front and center.

Author's Note: And this is the end. For those watching the Originals (SPOILER ALERT!) I know the gender of the upcoming baby doesn't match the show, but I started this story prior to the magic ultrasound Hayley had that revealed a girl and I didn't want to go back and change it. Anyway, thanks again to everyone who took the time to review, favorite or follow this little drabble. I hope the ending doesn't disappoint. Thanks for reading.

The Not-Granted Wish

Every single day, Caroline wondered if she had waited too long to admit her feelings for Klaus. Her mother's death two years ago had brought a lot of things into perspective, but she still needed more time to come to terms with what she felt. Since then, Klaus had never been far from her thoughts. Their relationship had not changed much in that time; she still received random gifts and text messages and she still sent funny pictures and stories to him. Somehow sharing all those insignificant events with him had made her feel as though she knew him better than anyone else in her life even though she hadn't seen him in months. But she still had her own issues to work through. It had been years since she had held any hatred for him, and quite a while since he had done anything to incur wrath from her friends, but that didn't mean they would be overjoyed if she were to head east to join him.

Stefan was the first to give Klaus an endorsement. His comment after her mother's had been just the start. He had brought the hybrid's name up more often the month's following, finally asking Caroline just how she felt. After a few drinks, she finally admitted to liking him. Stefan had raised an eyebrow and waited patiently until she added that it might be more than liking him. Then her best friend had simply smiled, nodded and changed subjects.

Elena was next. During a rare Damon-free weekend, the girls had been relaxing by a pool when Elena had abruptly asked Caroline when she was going to New Orleans to be with Klaus. Caroline performed a literal spit take and stared at her friend in disbelief. Elena shrugged and explained she had talked to Stefan and wanted Caroline to know that it was alright. After everything the group had been through in the last two decades, Klaus was by no means the completely evil monster she had initially believed and if he made Caroline happy, then Elena was happy for her.

The last one was the most unexpected. On her last trip to visit Damon and Elena, she hadn't been able to sleep and had wondered into the study to read. She was startled out of her book by a male voice. "I'm sorry."

She had looked up to see Damon standing in the doorway. "It's okay, I've read it before."

"No, that's not what I mean." The elder Salvatore was more subdued than she could remember him being in recent years. "I meant for everything that happened. Before, in Mystic Falls."

Caroline was surprised to say the least. She had made her peace with what had occurred between them a long time ago and had finally forgiven him. The events before her turning had never been mentioned since that night in New Orleans when Klaus had threatened Damon. "I know. That's not the person you are now."

He nodded and she waited, as he seemed to have something else to add. She was about to return to her book when he said, "You should go to him." Her head whipped back up to meet his gaze. "I can't stand the guy, but even I can see that you belong together. And you…you deserve to be happy." With that he had left.

Caroline was mature enough to realize she didn't need her friends' approval to like a guy, or love or whatever it was she felt for Klaus. However, she was also smart enough to know that things would be much, much easier if she had it. A weight she hadn't realized she was caring had been lifted from her shoulders. She had been researching plane tickets and hotels in New Orleans when her boss at the art gallery in Dallas had asked for a volunteer to claim a painting from the reclusive artist Niklaus Mikealson, she had jumped at the chance.

Caroline took a deep breath before raising her hand to knock on the door. She hadn't been this nervous since she had planned her first dance, back in high school. She was standing on the porch of the house to which she had been given an invitation almost eighteen years ago, in a city she hadn't visited in almost the same amount of time. She was on the verge of knocking again when the door was opened. Although it was a familiar face which greeted her, it wasn't the one that she expected. She stared silently, and almost rudely, for a minute, taking in the features in front of her. He looked so much like Klaus, except without the centuries of loneliness and anger buried in his eyes. He did have Hayley's hair and eye color, but the cheekbones and dimples definitely came from his father.

"Caroline!" the boy greeted her. Henrik's welcome surprised her; she had only seen Klaus's son in pictures and had never met in person. "I can't believe you're here!"

"Henrik?" she asked hesitantly, wondering if she were somehow mistaken. "How did you…" she couldn't find the right words to finish her question.

"Recognize you?" he filled in. "Are you kidding? I don't know how many sketches and paintings I've seen of you over the years." He stepped out on the porch and offered his hand. "It's great to finally meet you," he said with a huge smile on his face.

Caroline couldn't help but return his gesture. Seeing Henrik was like seeing a happier, lighter version of her Original. "It's nice to meet you too."

"I wish I could stay and chat, but I have a study group to get to and I have to walk. I'm grounded," he explained, rolling his eyes. A very Klaus-like gesture. "Dad's upstairs in his studio. You can go on up, I'm sure he'll be thrilled to see you." He bounded down the stairs like a typical teenager instead of the only son of a hybrid vampire/werewolf. "I'll see you later, Caroline!"

She was still smiling as she turned to enter the house. She had been a little worried about meeting Henrik, since she knew how important he was to Klaus. If their first meeting was any indication, she shouldn't have been. She wandered into the house and up the grand staircase, listening for any sounds to clue her in to Klaus's location. She heard a brush moving against a canvas at the end of the hallway, so she moved in that direction.

"Henrik, I told you. You're still grounded from the car; I don't care if you have to walk two miles to Caleb's house." Klaus announced, not turning around to see who was standing in the doorway.

"That's pretty mean, making your kid walk so far in the mean streets of New Orleans," Caroline teased. She saw Klaus's back straighten in surprise and she found herself holding her breath again as he slowly spun on the stool to face her. He looked exactly the same as he had twenty years ago when he made his first appearance in her hometown. Still ridiculously handsome for someone so capable of terrible things. And yet, those blue eyes that she had seen so icy and cold were filled with wonder and warmth as he realized who was visiting him. She bit her tongue to stop the tears that threatened to fill her eyes. "Henrik told me where you were, I hope you don't mind."

"Caroline." And there it was. No one, in all the years she had traveled the world, meeting new people and experiencing new things, had managed to say her name in the same way. Whether it was his voice, his accent or the affection she could hear, his speaking of her name never failed to fill her stomach with butterflies. "You're here," he stated as he rose to move towards her.

Suddenly the butterflies in her stomach multiplied and began flapped nervously. Caroline glanced around the room, taking in the many paintings that lined the walls, some hanging, some propped up. She recognized herself in a few, lending credence to Henrik's statement of why he recognized her. Then she saw the painting she had been sent to claim. It was named simply Midnight, but the painting was rich with depth and feeling, like so much of his work. "It's beautiful," she breathed.

"Thank you," he answered, his voice right next to her year. She had been so entranced in his work that she didn't realize he had moved to stand behind her. "It's a commissioned painting for a gallery in Dallas. Sweetheart…," he began.

She nodded and started speaking quickly, trying to calm her nerves. "I know. I'm here to pick it up. I thought it was the perfect time to visit, especially since I haven't been here in so long. And you've promised to show me the city you love, so here I am. Ready to be shown." She turned almost shyly to face him. What she saw was a complete surprise. The look of astonishment and affection which he had worn upon seeing her had been replaced with one of cool disinterest. She frowned, taken aback by his change of heart. "What's wrong?"

"A perfect excuse to visit, don't you mean, love?" Even her favorite term of endearment sounded cold to her. "This way it's not because you wanted to be here, but because your boss sent you." He turned back to the painting on which he had been working with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Collect your prize and go, Caroline."

Caroline's mouth fell open in shock. She was finally in the very place where he had asked her to be so many times, and he was blowing her off. "Seriously?!" she cried, regressing to her favorite term as a teenager. "I'm finally here and you're going to pout about the reason?"

"I'm not pouting, sweetheart," he furiously brushed paint on the canvas in front of him. "Pardon me if I'm not thrilled about being a work assignment."

She stomped over to stand next to him, grateful her anger had dissolved her nervousness. Being mad at Klaus was much more comfortable than anything else. "Who cares why I'm here. I'm still here. Isn't that what you wanted?"

At this statement, Klaus dropped his brush and stood again. "Oh yes, Caroline. I've been waiting with bated breath for you to show up on my doorstep to collect a bloody painting. I can hardly wait to hear what your next excuse will be. Possibly more of my cure-all blood for your idiotic friends? Or maybe your latest boyfriend has left you and you're looking for comfort. I realize I've set a standard for giving you whatever you wish, but lines must be drawn."

"So what, everything you've said to me was a lie? All the presents and the reminders of what I was missing, were those an amusement until something better came along? How you would wait for me, wanted to be my last love, those were just words?" Caroline lashed out, suddenly terrified her worst fear had come true and she had missed her chance. Maybe she had misread the tone of his voice when he greeted her. Then a horrible idea hit her. He was raising a child with another woman; it was entirely possible that relationship had developed into something deeper.

"Forgive me, love, but I had rather hoped when you decided to come here it would be for…" he trailed off, his jaw tightening. He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he reopened them, he was staring at her coldly. "I've changed my mind, actually. You can't have the painting. Go back to your boss and explain your failure." He turned slowly to face the nearby window.

Baby vampire Caroline would have screeched and thrown a fit, complete with shouting and name-calling. Grown-up vampire Caroline however had seen the flash of hurt in Klaus's eyes before he had a chance to regroup. She realized now why he was upset. He didn't know she had been falling in love with him steadily for years; that she would have been in New Orleans with or without her job. Knowing that he still cared, that her seeming refusal to admit that she wanted to be with him had hurt him, gave her the courage she needed to explain.

"Okay," she answered. "I'll do that. I'll go back to Dallas and tell him that I didn't get the painting. Or better yet, I'll call him right now. And then I'll go back downstairs and out the door and sit on your porch until you realize that I'm not here just for the painting. I'll wait, as long as it takes, until you believe that I'm not here just because my boss asked me to. Until you believe that I've been headed here for years. But mostly that I'm sorry it took me so damn long to realize that I love you."

She had made three steps out the door when Klaus's hand on her arm stopped her. "What did you say?" he whispered, his eyes no longer cold and flat.

The tears Caroline had been struggling to hold back emerged at the touch of his hand. "I said I love you, you big stupid hybrid. I'm not really here for that painting, I'm here for...," she never got the chance to finish, as Klaus's lips crashed into hers.

For fifteen years, Caroline had fantasized about what it would be like to kiss Klaus. The first time his lips, his real lips, not Tyler's, had brushed her cheek after graduation had caused her to blush furiously for weeks after and had added fuel to the attraction fire that had been building. Her imagination had not been even in the same universe as reality. His lips were soft and strong, taking and giving, thrilling and comfortable all at the same time. She knew then that everything that had happened to her, good and bad, had led her to this moment. She was exactly where she was meant to be.

Hours later, both of them sated and tangled in Klaus's expensive sheets, he pulled Caroline into his arms, kissed her temple and sighed, "Welcome home, love."