Caroline surfaced from the aquamarine colored water, soaking in the sun that beamed down on her in the water. She swam up to their hotel room and went to pull herself up onto the ladder connecting their balcony to the perfect Bora Bora Sea. To put it simply, she loved it here.

As she pulled herself out of the water and climbed up the ladder she looked down at her feet, not quite ready to stop staring at the perfect color of the water below her. She reached the top and went to step onto the deck when a pair of feet on the edge stopped her.

She looked up to find a pair of blue green eyes smiling down at her in amusement.

"You're up early love"

Caroline giggled as he pulled her to him. As he kissed him, she used his closed eyes as an opportunity to surprise him and quickly spun them off the edge of the balcony straight back down into the ocean.

Once they both resurfaced from its shallow depth, Klaus grabbed her by the waist and pulled her close as they floated languidly in the water. Caroline held onto him as they kissed, only pulling back from his delicious lips to smile lazily at him.

"I just couldn't sleep with all this right outside the door. I think out of everywhere we've been, this is my favorite."

"Really?" He said, a slightly mischievous glint in his eye to accompany all the love shining out of them at her, only for her.

"Not Paris?" He asked placing a gentle kiss on her forehead.

Before Caroline could answer he placed another sweet peck by her ear, "not Rome?"

Again Caroline went to answer and again he hushed her with a kiss on the nose "not Tokyo?"

Caroline didn't answer this time knowing now where this game was headed. She just smiled and attempted to duck her head.

"Not Bali?" kiss.

"Or India?" kiss.

"Or Spain?" kiss.

Caroline just giggled, hugging herself tighter to him, wrapping her legs around his waist as he continued to kiss every part of her face and neck, naming all the different places they had been.

"I love them all okay!" she said exasperated but still laughing.

"I'm just checking love," he said finally returning to kissing her lips again.

Caroline pulled away and looked at him, both her hands wrapped around his neck, playing with the perfect curls at his nape. Looking deep into those eyes she whispered some of his favorite words "I love you."

She said it to him often, knowing that although after all this time he believed it, but also knowing he needed the affirmations. And why shouldn't she tell him? After everything he did to prove himself worthy of being loved and capable of loving her so much in return, he deserved to be told and to feel it as often as possible.

"And I you," he whispered back to her, "you my angel, are perfect."

Caroline didn't know about that, but she did think this moment was. The two of them, here, like this, after all the time it took them to get here, to just be with each other, just as in love as they were. This was as close to heaven as she would ever be in this life.

xxx

Klaus was as close to hell as he had ever been. He lay behind Caroline on their large bed; stroking her hair and making sure she was deep within the dream he was giving her; One of her favorite memories of the two of them. She couldn't feel the way he stroked her hair, and she wouldn't remember him kissing her cheek and forehead. These actions were for selfish reasons alone because once he stopped. Once he got out of their bed and walked out into the wet drizzling morning, he would never have the acute pleasure of these things again. He would never have her again.

He reminded himself for the millionth time over the last few weeks that this was for the best. That she would be safer if his enemies believed he had walked away from her without a second glance. It had all been arranged. He had spoken to Stefan and also to Elijah about looking out for her as well as a few still sired hybrids who were commanded to be vigilant but out of sight. She would be safest this way; it was the best thing for her.

It was cruel he thought, that after a thousand years alone waiting for someone to be by his side, waiting for her, that after all that he could not have her for even a full two decades, but after all the threats she had faced by his side, after the last close call; seeing how close he had been to really losing her, he had made the decision that to keep her safe, he would leave.

He had tried to fight it. It wasn't in his nature to give up, or to accept defeat. He was King. He did not lose. Every time there was a threat he fended it off, usually with ease, sometimes barely but nonetheless, all were dealt with. But there were consequences with each new danger. In the aftermath of each, he held onto her a little tighter and she was slowly suffocating. Though she understood why the extra security was needed for her safety and his piece of mind, it had started to take its toll.

She was also losing her light. This was what bothered him the most. In all the adversity he had seen her face, that light never went out, it barely flickered, but after being the target of threats and attacks time and time again she was beginning to allow some of the darkness to seep in.

When the possibility of them being together really become a possibility and not just a hopeful fantasy of his, he had asked her what was constantly holding her back. They had been on good terms for years. She had forgiven him for some of the deaths he had been responsible for and he had allowed that mutt Tyler to live free. It seemed to him that there was very little in their way and yet she was never completely willing to let him in, or to just let herself be with him. He finally lost his patience and asked her why. Her answer both surprised and angered him.

"I'm afraid, I'll lose myself in all this darkness." She said quietly, "You were right, all that time ago you were right. There is an appeal, and a quality about darkness that can draw you in, but I love who I've become. I love that through everything I've been through, I am still happy, and optimistic, and hopeful. I won't lose that." And Klaus would never let her. It was one of the many reasons he loved her, and he had vowed in that moment to himself and in later years to her that that would not happen.

But life had gotten in the way of that promise and he had to make a choice. Either walk away, allow her to grieve and then to move on without fear, or to stay with her and risk the day coming when she really would turn the light off.

When the last attack on them had been a close call was when he had decided that enough was enough. She had taught him not to be selfish, and now with her, he wouldn't be. He would leave her and in turn keep her safe. He would always watch out for her from a distance, but he would not interfere. She would go on to live a full and happy life without fear and without threats. He would on to exist so that she could as well. It wouldn't be living without her, but that was not his priority, she was.

He had left her a letter explaining everything he knew he would never be able to tell her face to face for fear his resolve would break if he looked into her eyes, and a vile of his blood for emergencies and that would be it.

Klaus looked over at the clock, seeing it was now 4 am. He needed to leave soon if he wanted to get enough of a head start so that she wouldn't be able to track him.

Caroline turned in her sleep to face him and he stilled as her arms readjusted around him.

With tears streaming down his face, he slowly pulled her arms away from him and with a great amount of pain to his heart moved out of her reach. He sat on the edge of their bed and bent down to kiss her forehead one more time.

"I will always love you," he whispered.

With that he wrenched himself off of their bed and out the their house into the night. He didn't turn back, knowing if he did, he couldn't walk away. He drove off and couldn't see anything in front of him but the dark sky ahead.