“Alright so now you know most of Klaus and Caroline’s beginnings. I’m sure you’re wondering exactly what happened to Klaus and Caroline after he ripped his mothers heart out. Unfortunately that is exactly the part of the story that’s a little hazy, there are so many different versions it’s impossible to know exactly what did happen. All anyone knows for certain is that Klaus found a way to grant Caroline immortality alongside him. Weather that was done by turning her into a vampire, or a hybrid, or some other way no one really knows for sure.”
“Well then what do people know?”
“That has any significance to what you’re doing now? Nothing until the late 1400’s when Klaus met the woman that you know as Katherine Pierce. The first time that he tried to break his curse. In 1491 a young Bulgarian girl gave birth to a child out of wedlock and was banished from her home to England. Katerina Petrova was always a survivor at her core, so that’s what she did, she adapted to her new surroundings and she survived. She lost her accent, she got herself some expensive clothes and she embarked into London high society which is where she met Trevor and through him Klaus. I still remember when Trevor told me about her.”
“I am telling you Rose she is the spitting image of the girl Tatia. She is the doppelgänger that they seek.”
“If you are wrong about this Trevor it will cost us both our heads.” She knew that being wrong would get them both killed but being right and keeping silent would get them worse than killed. The Originals had ways of making an eternity hell on earth and she did not want to experience any of it.
“I am not wrong, I swear it, it is she.” She hoped he was right because it was far too late now to change their course, they had already requested an audience with Elijah.
“Ah, Rose and Trevor, do I have that right?”
“Yes, Lord Elijah.” Dropping into a perfect curtsey she did her best to avoid his gaze, she did not want to do anything that would cause insult to him.
“Why have you come to us? You told our maid that you have a matter of great importance to us that you wished to discuss. What matter could that possibly be?” She knew that he was intentionally trying to scare them both, to make it clear who was the greatest threat in the room, but knowing it to be true didn’t stop it from working. She was terrified, terrified of the news they brought not being well received, terrified of Elijah himself, and most of all terrified that Trevor was mistaken. If they brought word of the doppelgänger and that information was proved false… she tried her best not to shudder, it didn’t bare thinking about.
“We bring you news of the doppelgänger you seek. We believe we have found her my lord.”
“Where?” His tone was clipped, harsh even.
“Here in London my lord. She is a native of Bulgaria, just turned seventeen, she only just arrived to London a few months past.” She silently willed Trevor to stick to the facts. When dealing with the originals it was best to never try their patience.
“Are you certain?”
“Yes, my lord. I am.” She hoped not for the first time that his conviction was not misplaced.
“What is the girls station in life?” Whirling towards the sound of the new voice she found Klaus standing in the doorway looking delighted. She only prayed that he stayed that way, at least while she and Trevor were here with him.
“Low born I believe, but easily passing for better.”
“Excellent. Elijah I will have a party to celebrate my birth in one week, please tell Rebekah to plan it however she desires and I’m sure Caroline will be happy to lend a hand as well. Whichever of you two is closest to this doppelgänger will invite her as your guest.”
Knowing they were dismissed she and Trevor bowed to them both and began to leave.
“One more thing. The girl, what is her name?”
“Katerina my Lord, Katerina Petrova.”
“So you and Trevor have a habit of taking Petrova doppelgängers to Elijah then?” Elena knew she wasn’t being very fair, Elijah had killed Trevor after all.
“Yes, and each time we did it was for simple self preservation.”
“What do you mean?” She understood about why they took her to Elijah. They were on the run and her life was pretty much the only thing in existence that could have saved either of them, but Katherine?
“The Originals had been looking for the doppelgänger for five hundred years. Every vampire ever made was told of her existence and about how much the Originals, and Klaus especially, wanted her. If we hadn’t told them about Katherine and then someone else had and it came out that we’d known about her earlier, that they could have found her earlier, running wouldn’t have even been an option then.”
“Okay, so I can sorta see where you were coming from there. You were just doing what everyone does, surviving.”
“Exactly.” Rose seemed almost relieved that she understood her motives. It happened five hundred years ago, to Katherine it wasn’t like she was going to condemn her for it.
“So what happened next?”
“The party.”
“Caroline sweetheart, you’re being unreasonable.” He knew it was the wrong thing to say the moment it came out of his mouth, and he was right.
“Unreasonable? Unreasonable! How dare you accuse me of being unreasonable.This woman-”
“Katerina.” By this point he just thought she looked so adorable when she was worked up he just wanted to kiss her. He was so distracted by his thoughts of her lush kisses that he didn’t immediately realize what had just come tumbling out of his mouth.
“Uhhh, do not say her name to me! This woman is coming to your party and instead of doing what you would normally do and just compelling her to stay here or just forcing her to, you think that the only way to get her to cooperate until the full moon is for you to make eyes at her.”
“Now Caroline it is not like that. You know I love you more than anything else in this world. I have no feelings for this girl whatsoever. What I do have is a curse that needs to be broken as soon as possible, and unfortunately she is essential to that process. We need her.”
“I am not arguing the fact that we need her, I’m arguing about the fact that you are going to be doting on her all night at a party that I helped to plan. You do know what that is right? You are relegating me to the position of a servant while you swan off to be with Tatias twin!”
Without another word she stormed out of the room in search of Rebekah. She knew at least she would see her side in this, she should have known that Nik would never see sense, he was a man after all.
Klaus watched her go and did not even try to hold back his groan of frustration. Women were so infuriating.
“She does have a point brother.”
“No she does not, and your saying she does will do nothing more than make her even more stubborn so please refrain from doing so within her hearing.” Klaus knew exactly what he was doing. He could not trust the task of keeping tabs on the doppelgänger to another, it was too important, too vital to his future. Their future.
“I only find it strange that it shall be you who entertains the girl when you have not only countless minions who would gladly undertake such a task for you as well as two unattached brothers who would also be more than willing to keep her distracted until the full moon rises.”
“As though I would ever trust such a task to any other. No, I shall do this myself and then I shall spend the next five hundred years making it up to Caroline. After the curse is broken.”
“Very well brother. It is your choice.”
“Why didn’t Klaus trust one of his brothers to keep an eye on Katherine? I mean I sort of understand not trusting one of his ‘minions’ but his brothers were his family.” Wouldn’t his family have helped him break the curse. Especially if it was on Caroline like they thought.
“True, but Klaus knew his brothers well. Kol was a party boy and would have likely become distracted by a girl he could keep. Not to mention Kol had never had an interest in Tatia and as someone who looks exactly like her it wasn’t likely that Katherine would hold his interest either. Elijah, however, had the exact opposite problem. Remember he had been in love with Tatia, and Klaus feared he would fall for Katerina as well. A fear that was well founded apparently since that is exactly what happened.”
“What? I thought Trevor-”
“Trevor was not alone in his affections for Katerina Petrova. Just as she once had a Salvatore on either side of her it was nearly unheard of even back then for Katherine to have only one admirer vying for her attentions.” So Katerina was always Katherine at heart. She supposed that made sense.
“So Klaus was right not to trust anyone else with Katherine.”
“Yes, not that it did him any good. She still got away after all.”
“True. So what happened next?”
“Trevor and I brought Katerina to Klaus.”
“This Lord whose party it is.”
“Lord Niklaus.” Rose supplied the name hoping that the little tart would finally remember it. The last thing they all needed was for her to cause offense to Klaus publicly. She did not know what would happen then. Being the doppelgänger may grant her some leeway, but not much. Especially not with Caroline.
“Yes, what is he like? I feel that I should at least know something about him if I am to be a guest in his home.” Oh, she would be so much more than that.
“Well, he is how all Lords of means are in London. Larger than life. I would not wish to color your perception of him however with tales of my own experiences with him. I shall leave you to make your own conclusions as to his character after you meet him properly.” She did not know what all Klaus wanted the girl to know, so she remained as vague as possible.
“Thank you Rose, I do not know what I would have done here in London without you and dear Trevor here to help me along.” She sounded so sincere, but Rose had been around for centuries now and she could see the artifice of it all. There was not a drop of sincerity in her words to be found. Trevor however, was eating it all up like a besotted fool, she would have to speak to him about that. It would not do for him to become too attached to the girl. She was not long for this world after all.
“The pleasure was ours, you are delightful company. Speaking of company here comes the Lord Elijah now, he is the Lord Niklaus’s brother perhaps he can enlighten us to the whereabouts of the host?”
“Come now you know my brother Rose, he is always delayed in his arrival anywhere.” Usually by design, like now. A delayed entrance was a grand entrance after all.
“Even to his own party?”
“Especially to his own parties. Who might this lovely young lady be?”
“Forgive me, you must think me poorly mannered not to have introduced you right off. Lord Elijah may I introduce to you Miss Katerina Petrova. Katerina the Lord Elijah.”
“Pleased to meet you.”
“The pleasure is all mine my lord, as it should be.” The little hussy was making eyes at him. More disturbing than that however was the fact that he was looking right back at her. She could not wait to be rid of her. The faster she was pried off of Trevor they better off they both would be. Looking across the room she saw the perfect distraction.
“Oh look, there is the Lord Niklaus now.”
Klaus was furious, though he knew none of his anger showed on his face. Caroline had gone from impossible to vengeful. She had apparently decided that if he was allowed to engage with another woman at this party then she was equally free to make a new friend of her own. They had argued long and loud about it, but her position would not be changed. If he went through with his plans for the doppelgänger than she would warm a different bed tonight.
In the five hundred years that they had been together thus far, she had never slept apart from him. How could she even contemplate such a thing now, NOW that they were so close to being free from this curse. He understood that she felt insecure about the doppelgänger and her place in his affections but it was simply nonsense, and he had told her so. But did she listen? No! Of course she didn’t and his darling sister was no help at all. She just kept repeating that stupid phrase about how what was good for the goose was good for the gander. He was so close to simply daggering his sister for her interference and placing her alongside Finn that he had to order her from his sight before he gave into the impulse.
She would not truly go to another, no, not his Caroline. Would she? In all their five hundred years together he had never had cause to doubt her, until now. In this moment he was less than secure in his love for her or hers for him. Then it finally struck him, of course, she was not planning to be with another, she only wanted him to believe she would so that he could feel what this Katerina’s presence was forcing her to feel.
In all their years together both their human lives and their new ones now, Tatia had been the only one whom she had feared would ever take him from her. It hadn’t been true of course, not even she could have pried him from his beloved’s side, but the fear had been very real. Now, another was entering their lives who was the spitting image of the woman from so long ago and it was dragging up all those old feelings. While he saw this Katerina Petrova as nothing more than a tool to be used and then discarded, Caroline saw her as Tatia reborn, and here he went straight to her side.
Could he abandon his plans for her, did he dare? While what Elijah had said before was true, there were others he could task with this, he still did not trust any but himself to ensure that the sacrifice came to pass as he needed it to. As they needed it to. She would just have to get over it and understand that this was not personal. It was survival. With every step he took though, towards the doppelgänger and away from Caroline, he felt more and more undecided. What the bloody hell did she expect him to do? He could not trust anyone else with this.
Could he?
No! No he could not. Within a week the sacrifice would be performed, this nightmare would be behind them, and they would move on.
“Ah, Niklaus let me introduce you to this lovely creature. This is Katerina Petrova.”
“So did Caroline sleep with someone else?” She couldn’t believe that was what she wanted to know about most, but come on. She already knew that Katherine escaped, she even knew how she escaped, this was new.
“Well, yes and no.” What the hell kind of answer was that?
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I wasn’t there for this next part personally, Trevor and I had left hours before to avoid being caught out in the morning light, but I heard about it later.”
“What happened?”
“Well…”
Klaus was furious, he could not find Caroline anywhere. She was not waiting for him in their bed as she normally was, and he had looked everywhere for her. She had better not be with another man, if she was, he did not know what he would do. His fury was already being equal parts abated and fueled by the thought that she might have sought out another.
Jerking open the doors to the music room he finally found her, and she was not alone.
Caroline was sitting draped across the small settee where the guests would sit to listen to someone else perform wearing nothing at all and there was a small red haired woman kneeling between her legs seemingly taking great delight in getting his darling girl off. He vaguely recognized the outline of the girl as being a guest from the party, a tag along he did not meet during the festivities. He might not have met her before but he was transfixed by her now.
“Hello, Nik, care to join us?”
“I thought-”
“I know what you thought. To tell you the truth I was close to doing exactly what you are thinking about. I had even started to try and choose a man, but they were all wrong for one reason or another. Then I realized why. They were not you Nik, I never want any man but you.”
“I love you, my siren of the falls.”
“And I love you, my darling wolf.”
“Of course the girl did not survive her time with them, but it is a story that is still told to this day five hundred years later. Caroline couldn’t bring herself to step out on him, even in anger.”
“Is that it? Is that all you wanted to tell me?”
“Well you already know the rest of this one. Katerina found out about the sacrifice, Trevor helped her to escape, she turned herself and fled back to Bulgaria while Trevor and I ran to Africa.”
“Yeah and when she finally got home Katherine found that Klaus had beaten her there and killed her entire family. I know this already.”
“Then there is really only one more story to tell.”
“What?”
“What happened to Caroline in the 1920’s, in Chicago, though I am surprised that Stefan never told you about it when you found out that they were coming here.”
“What?” Stefan knew Klaus?
Stefan slowly came back to consciousness only to find himself tied to a chair in the center of a room that’s walls were coated with blood so thick it almost looked like paint. Turning his head slightly in either direction he found Bonnie, Damon, and Matt all hanging in one of the corners of the room, and Matt was looking a little worse for wear. He could barely hear a sluggish heart beat and he wasn’t sure the boy would make it past the next hour.
Hearing the door in front of him open he turned to get his first real look at Klaus.
“Oh Caroline darling, look who it is. Hello again, Ripper.”
What?
Kasey1939 