Incentive for @klarolinegivesback. For the lovely @themikaelsoncupcake who asked for “WW2 Bomber Pilot Klaus Mikaelson’s plane goes down in Germany during a bombing mission. The sole survivor and trying to evade the Nazis, he stumbles upon a farm and Caroline Forbes in the process.”
This one took me slightly longer than I’d hoped, but I finally managed to get it finished. Sorry for the delay, and I hope you like it!
Gotta hold on easy as I let you go;
Going to tell you how much I love you
Caroline wasn’t sure how long she’d be running. It felt like it had been years, but she knew it hadn’t. It had only been a few days at most, probably only a couple. All she knew was that her legs couldn’t hold her anymore, and she needed to stop.
She needed water too, she wasn’t sure how long she could keep going and not get dehydrated.
All she remembers is her father’s paniced voice, as he’d laid there, blood covering him, his wounds open.
“Go,” he had urged. “Go, Caroline. Now. You have to go. Quickly. Before they-”
He’d cut himself off, his words raspy, and his eyes had started rolling into the back of his head.
“No, no, no,” she’d cried, as she’d bent down to him, holding her father’s head in her lap. “No, I can’t. I can’t.” Her head had shaked venemously. “I can’t,” she repeated, “I can’t leave you.”
His smile had been sad, as his blue eyes had started to droop.
“Yes, you can,” he’d murmured, his voice barely there. “You have to. And you are so strong, you’re beautiful, and you’re too good. But you need to go.”
And he’d tugged himself away from her, his hands dropping to his sides, with the last of his strength.
“You’re gonna survive this,” was the last thing he’d told her, his lips barely moving. “You’re strong enough.”
And so she’d run, with the sounds of soldiers marching quickly disappearing behind her, as she’d dropped her father to the ground. What would her staying prove anyway? Other than costing Caroline her life.
Besides, she would keep her promise to her father.
And that’s when everything turns dark.
Now I know I have met an angel in person;
The next time she opens her eyes she’s at a place unfamiliar, and she has to blink a few times until she can see properly.
She’s disorientated, and then she’s confused by the softness at her back, surprised by the fact that it isn’t the hard, concrete ground, because the last thing she remembers is running, escaping the grounds where her father was, and did she collapse?
She supposes that made sense, considering her lack of substance for the past few days.
But, then how did she get here?
She’s just about ready to jump up, at least get a good look around, if that meant she had been kidnapped, when there’s a low chuckle in her ears, and a pair of hands on her shoulders, that makes her startle, sitting up rather quickly, and immediately being struck by feeling dizzy.
“Easy, love,” the voice tells her.
She groans, her hands coming up to hold her head in response.
A pair of hands soon replace hers, and in her state, she lets them, her own hands falling to her lap in response, as a small sigh escapes her lips. And there’s that chuckle again, followed by a thumb pressing into forehead deliciously, the ache easing.
An amused hum, and then, “Better?”
She’s sighing before she’s even comprehended what that voice means. It takes her a few minutes (she had just woken up, sue her!), but when she does, she lets out a loud screetch, her eyes opening immediately, only to find a pair of very familiar, blue eyes staring back at her. She may gape slightly as her eyes widen, her jaw dropping, because what-
“Klaus?” Her voice wavers slightly, turning hysteric almost, but he’s here.
He’s grinning at her, more relaxed than she’s seem him before.
“Hello, Caroline,” he even dimples. “Did you miss me?”
But her eyes are still wide, as she tries to come to the reality that he’s here.
“Klaus?” she repeats, and she really can’t control herself with how the tears start rolling down her face. “How? I thought you were- we thought you were all-”
He cuts her off before she has a chance to babble slightly.
“Yes, they are. They’re all gone.”
He gives her a minute to let that settle, and she settles back on her knees more firmly. They’d all thought everyone on the plane was dead, and they’d all mourned them, but it was still a bitter pill to swallow, knowing that it was definite she’d never see any of them again.
Kol. Stefan. Enzo. Even, Damon. Though, she’d not miss him too much.
“How? I mean, you’re-” She struggles for words, her mouth opening and closing a few times.
Klaus lets out a bitter laugh.
“It’s a bit of a long story,” he tells her slowly. “The plane went down during our last mission, and I barely managed to escape. I had some help to recover from the… injuries, I’d sustained. The plan was to return home.” The to you goes unspoken, but she hears it nontheless, and it almost makes her smile. “But the news reached us about how everything had gone off, and it wasn’t safe, in the state that I was.”
“Injuries?” she repeats, as she gives him a once over. “But you’re okay now?”
He does smile this time, “Yes, sweetheart. I’m fine. 100% healed.”
She looks suspicious but she lets it drop. She does have another question, however.
He shakes his head slightly, almost tutting at her.
“I’d been separated from a few friends,” she raises her eyebrows at that, but he merely rolls his eyes at her, “that helped me, and I wasn’t sure where to go. I was trying to keep hid, whilst finding somewhere to recoop. And then I saw you, lifeless on the road.”
She falters slightly at that, “Klaus-”
He doesn’t let her, however, and his hands clench around hers as he moves forward. His eyes are more blue, and more intense than she’s seen them before, too.
“I’ve never been that scared,” he insists, almost in a whisper, as though it’s a secret between the two of them, and it kind of is. It always was. “I thought you were dead,” his voice breaks.
Not much has broken out yet. Their home is still relatively calm, compared to everywhere else. That is until the news hits her. Her mother is there, and so is her father, when she returns to her childhood home, and she knows it’s bad news even before either have opened their mouths to speak.
She stands there, still and tall, as her heart beats wildly in her chest.
It’s her father who speaks, as he clears his throat, and gestures behind her.
“Caroline, why don’t you take a seat? We need to talk to you,” his voice is a soft murmur, one that she associates with when he told her that her uncle hadn’t made it, those years ago.
Her forehead scrunches up slightly, as she studies him.
“I think I’ll stand,” she decides.
He hesitates but then he sighs, “Okay.”
It’s her mother who speaks next.
“We received a letter today, Caroline,” is what she tells her.
She presses her lips together.
“No,” is what Caroline’s response is.
Her mother’s eyes drop to the floor, as she takes a step towards her daughter, a hand resting on her shoulder.
“I’m sorry, Caroline,” she says softly. “Their plane went down. Some sort of mission that went horrificly wrong.” A hesitation and then, “There were no survivors.”
“No,” Caroline says again, her head shaking in denial, though she can feel her tears streaking down her face.
Her mother walks towards her, with something akin to pity in her eyes, but she merely backs away, sliding down the wall at her back, as she crumbles to the ground, with the tears streaming endlessly down her face.
“You’re lying,” Caroline insists, even as she hiccups with the sob caught in her throat. “He can’t be- he’s not dead,” she insists, her voice increasing in volume.
Her father looks the most concerned, but she ignores him, as she throws her head back, her cry’s echoing off the walls.
“I wish we were, sweetie,” is what he tells her, as he bobs to her height.
He pulls her into his lap, like he did when she was 5. She burries her face in her neck, as her mother stands to the side, her fingers curling around her daughter’s shoulder, trying to offer what comfort she can.
“I’m sorry,” her father whispers over and over again.
She’s not sure how much time has passed like that, but she eventually, the tears slow, her father’s hand smoothing down her back, and that’s when her mother decides to speak up.
“I know you cared for him, Caroline, but-”
Her head whips to the side, her eyes narrowing slightly, as she shakes her mother’s hand off.
“Care for him?” She repeats. “I love him. And he loves me. Always.”
She swears her mother rolls her eyes (they never were close, the two of them, the blonde much preferring her father’s gentle touch to her mother’s slightly cold one, and she knows her mother never much approved of Klaus, she knew that, and so did Klaus), before she speaks up.
“Yes, well. Maybe he did.”
The he’s gone now goes unspoken, but Caroline hears it, louder than ever, and she grits her teeth.
“And what? Now you think you can get your way?”
Her mother opens her mouth, but Caroline cuts her off, “That was rhetorical.”
She pulls herself out of her father’s eyes, the tears slowly coming back, as she tries to come to terms with what that means. A life without Klaus.
“Now,” Caroline tells her stifly, “If you’d excuse me I’ll go to my room to mourn my childhood friend and fiance.”
She can find it in her to hate her mother as much as she did that day, considering she’d died the day after, but there was still some resentment there.
Her eyes clear slightly, and her own voice breaks when she meets his gaze, “Then, you can imagine how I felt when I was told you were dead.”
His eyes soften, when he finds tears there.
“Be quiet,” she sniffles, and she moves even closer, her arms coming around his neck and holding on for dear life. “I just need you. I need you to hold me, I need your skin against mine.”
She feels his arms wrap around her, and his lips curve up against her neck.
“Oh, how I’ve missed you too. My love.”
So, she let’s that be enough for now.
