Epilogue We Sink

The world outside rages.

Caroline watches it through her window and thinks with wry amusement that it's just like Niklaus, to make the entire world aware of his approach.

The amusement fades to be replaced with apprehension.

It's only been 700 years. Her father had slept for longer. Only decades, but still, it had been longer.

"Mother?"

The voice makes her turn, and she smiles to see Nicholas. He joins her at the window, and she reaches up to ruffle his hair. The color came from her – the only thing that came from her. Otherwise, he's all Niklaus, right to the dimples that cut into his cheeks when he grins at her.

"You need to cut your hair," she tells him, and he rolls his eyes. He reminds her too often that she was only a century older than he is when she Ascended, that she shouldn't treat him like a child any longer.

But he is her son, and she thinks she will always treat him like a child to some extent.

"It's my father, isn't it?" He asks her, turning his blue gaze out the window. He's more thoughtful than Klaus was, her precious boy. And he has a reckless streak that sometimes worries her.

"Stefan says he thinks it is," Caroline replies. "And he's the only one that knows Klaus' resting place."

Nicholas presses a kiss onto her head and hugs her shoulders.

"It will be okay."

BTS

Nick had grown up with stories of his father. He knew that he looked much like the Ancient that her mother still grieved for. From Stefan, she had heard stories of the leader he had been. From Enzo, she had heard stories of how he had fought.

From Katherine he heard what an asshole the man had been.

Nick had no doubt that his father had been an asshole; he knew how his mother had Ascended, after all. But Caroline had also stayed loyal to the man for 700 years when there was more than one opportunity for her to make an alliance that very likely would have made her life easier.

Instead, she had maintained an iron hold on power over not just her own territory in Australia, but also his father's lands in North America, not even giving them to Enzo, when he had Ascended.

Asshole or not, there had to have been something pretty spectacular about Niklaus, to inspire that sort of loyalty in Nick's mother.

For seven hundred years, the man had been the subject of most of Nick's bedtime stories. He had eagerly listened to the tales anyone would tell him… but a story was not the same as a father. Hearing of the man as some sort of tall tale…

Well, sometimes Nick wished he could simply know his father.

700 years, and he might finally have the chance.

He knows that his mother disapproved of when he acted "recklessly," as she called it. But he was hardly a fledgling anymore, and as she had pointed out, Stefan was the only that knew where Klaus had gone to Sleep.

So Nick follows the other man when he leaves his mother's manor.

Nick had thought they would make their way to New Orleans, but instead they travel only a short distance, into abandoned land in the Outback.

"He didn't want to go far from her, even in Sleep."

It doesn't surprise Nick that Stefan knew he was being followed, but it does make him grit his teeth.

"We need to work on that," Stefan notes as Nick joins him. "You have power; with your parents you would have to. But it will only take you so far."

"I know," Nick mutters, before looking out at what appears to be empty land. "Did he really care about her so much? The tales I hear… what you and Katherine and Enzo tell me, it seems very at odds with what mother does."

"That's because your mother is the only one that knew the… softer side of your father" – Stefan digs under the sand, until he pulls up a door that has been buried. He heads down the steps, and Nick follows – "he was well on his way to becoming a monster before he met your mother. Even after… he didn't choose to Sleep because he was tired, Nick. He did it because he knew that staying would mean destroying Caroline."

"He didn't know about me, did he?" Nick asks. "Mother has never said it outright, but I came to conclusions."

This hidden place is dark and miserable, and not at all suitable for the resting place of an Ancient.

Nick supposes that is the purpose.

They come to a room, empty but for a platform on which a prone form lies.

"He never knew," Stefan agrees at last. "Your mother didn't know until Klaus had already left."

This is his father, with white wings mottled with brown. Nick rustles his own. He had always been bitter over it, that they were so plain. The only thing unique was that his mottles were fiery orange rather than brown, but in comparison to Caroline's sunset wings… they had always seemed so boring.

His mother had always told him they were beautiful.

Nick takes a hesitant step towards the unconscious figure, and Stefan leaps forward, hastily pulling him back.

"There are safeguards in place," he growls, when Nick would have snapped at him. "Use your brain, boy. You have a good one."

He does, and Nick knows his actions were foolish… but this is the father he has never known. He should be forgiven a misstep.

As though Niklaus can sense them so close, the world around them rumbles. It sends dust and debris flying down, and Nick and Stefan are tossed apart. It's violent – Nick doesn't know if it's because he's so much closer to the source, or if it truly is more violent. All he knows is the world around him seems to be off balance.

The silence that follows is eerie.

Nick gets to his feet, and looks to his father.

No one is there.

He opens his mouth to call to Stefan, only to find himself instead pressed into the stone of the underground chamber.

"Who are you?" the voice is a croak, a testament to its lack of use in the last seven centuries.

And Nick finally understands why there was so often a hint of sadness in his mother's eyes as he grew older. Because looking at Niklaus is almost like looking in a mirror. Nick's hair is lighter… but otherwise he is truly the image of his father.

It is one thing to be told so, but another to see it, and in his fascination, Nick can't think of a thing to say.

Of course, his father's hand threatening to crush his wind pipe would make speaking difficult anyways.

"Who are you?" Klaus repeats.

"Klaus, look at him," Stefan demands, stepping up behind the man he had called Sire for so many centuries. "You know who he is."

Klaus does as Stefan orders, he truly looks at Nick. His only reaction is a slight widening of his eyes, and then he drops his son, spinning away from him to face Stefan.

"She didn't tell me," Klaus growls out. "Did she loathe me so very much?"

"She didn't know," Nick replies with a scowl, because father or not, Klaus is not allowed to speak of Caroline in that tone, the one that doesn't hold the respect that his mother deserves. "Right, Stefan?"

"She found out once you were already asleep," Stefan agrees, inclining his head in Nick's direction. "I didn't wake you as I didn't think you…"

Stefan trails off, and Klaus lets out a coarse, bitter laugh.

"You didn't think I would be much of a father as the man I was?" he replies, his tone cold and distant, and this isn't at all how Nick imagined this going, meeting his father for the first time.

He hadn't expected Klaus to be so… cruel.

"Maybe you shouldn't have woken now." The words are out before Nick can stop them, and Klaus whirls to face him while Stefan eyes widen and he rapidly shakes his head. But Nick is reckless and wild, and in seven centuries, no one has ever told him what parent he gets that from.

So he leaves the words hanging there and whirls away.

If this is his father… well, maybe Nick was better off when Klaus was just a story.

BTS

"Well, that was rather spectacularly done," Stefan drawls out after Nick had made his escape. Klaus, staring after the retreating boy – his son – whirls to face the man that had been his loyal General for centuries.

"How long has it been?" he asks, because he can't think about… about his son, and what it means that he is full grown, and how much that means Klaus has missed.

"700 years, give or take a decade or two," Stefan replies, leaning against the wall of the cavern. "He's strong you know. She named him Nicholas."

Nicholas, the modernization of his own name.

Looking at him at very nearly been like looking in the mirror. Except the hair… he had Caroline's hair, and her nose.

"700 years," Klaus murmurs. He climbs the stone steps that Nicholas had just used. Stefan is at his back, but remains silent. When he steps out of the catacombs he had made his tomb, the sun is shining, but the sand is wet, and he sees several cracked stones. His awakening had not been gentle, and the sight makes him smirk.

"How do you feel?" Stefan asks, his voice hesitant. Klaus bites back a laugh at the question… it may have been seven centuries, but surely Stefan isn't so changed that he'll beat around the bush?

"You mean do I feel sane?" he bites back, and Stefan looks away, his jaw tight. Klaus gives a shrug. "I didn't feel insane to begin with. I suppose time will tell… or perhaps it will be my first meeting with Caroline. Will I try to kill her or not?"

He expects Stefan to continue to keep his silence – his General had made it clear that while he respected Caroline for what she had achieved, he did not approve of her relationship with Klaus – but instead the other angel steps into his space, his eyes turning fierce.

"You won't lay a finger on her, Niklaus."

Klaus narrows his eyes and his hand snaps out, grabbing Stefan by the throat and lifting him until he's on his toes, his thumb cutting off Stefan's air.

For a moment, he truly plans to kill him. He is thousands of older, an Ancient, and he has had 700 years to rest and recuperate his incredible power.

700 years to be haunted by dreams and nightmares and regrets, and he releases his hold on Stefan, letting the other man stumble away with a gasp. Klaus flexes his fingers and calms his breathing, because isn't this why he went to sleep? Because violence and power had come to mean so much to him, that he could no longer…

"I need Caroline," he says, his fingernails digging into his palms. "I need to see my…"

He hesitates, because what was Caroline to him? She had been so much seven centuries ago – lover, hesitant ally, enemy, and now he no longer knows what to call her except…

He had chosen to Sleep, and it had all been for her.

"I need to see my mate," Klaus says, and the word feels foreign on his tongue, yet somehow right. Angels often took lovers, sometimes for centuries, but it meant something more to be called mate. Mate meant forever, and when forever was a possibility, making such promises became a serious matter.

"An interesting claim to make on a woman that you were willing to kill the last time you saw her."

Klaus frowns and looks at Stefan. It's so easy to think of the man as his General of old, but though nothing has changed physically, there is a difference. A split in loyalties.

"You are hers now," Klaus remarks, and he shouldn't be so surprised, because hasn't Caroline always inspired loyalty in those she chose as her own?

"When you chose Sleep, she gave me a home," Stefan admits. "I'm her General now."

"Lorenzo would not have so easily given up his place at her side," Klaus points out with furrowed brows. "What happened?"

"He Ascended."

That is another surprise, one that is not particularly welcome. Klaus knew he would have to reclaim his home from someone, but knowing that it will be Lorenzo, who had Caroline's back for so very long.

He hopes the other man will be sensible and –

"He claims Otukan," Stefan continues. "There were some… disagreements, at the beginning. But territory disputes were figured out. Caroline was quite… determined to keep both your lands and hers. She very nearly killed Genevieve. It was spectacular."

Klaus closes his eyes and imagine it, Caroline the Avenging Angel against Genevieve's deathly beauty. Of course Caroline would have won; she would have refused anything else.

"Ruled my lands and raised my son," Klaus murmurs almost ruefully. All things he should have been here to do, yet couldn't, because he was too mad on power. And God, but he loves her.

And perhaps his earlier musings were wrong. Perhaps he has changed, because that thought – love – doesn't make him fear as it had before. Instead, he wants her.

"I need to see her," he says again.

This time, Stefan just nods and takes to the air, Klaus close behind.

BTS

Nicholas lands, and there is a darkness in his gaze that Caroline recognizes almost immediately.

He has met his father.

"Why did you wait for him?" he asks when he sees her there. His blue eyes are dark and angry, and Caroline has to resist shaking her head. He is so very much like Niklaus… of course their first meeting would go awry without Caroline there to buffer it. "What did you see in him that was worth spending centuries as a bloody nun, because I don't see it."

"He's your father, I would rather hope you wouldn't see the same things in him as I did."

Nick's expression tells her that he isn't amused, nor will he be put off by light hearted distractions. Caroline sighs and entwines her arm with her son's, leading him down the corridors of their home.

"I met him when I was little more than a Fledgling," she says. "A hundred years old and out in the world for the first time. Niklaus exploded into my life, and I thought his presence would scald me."

"It did," Nick remarks. "He tried to kill you."

"Ah, yes, the tales you've heard from Katherine, because she always did love the thought of poisoning you against him if she could."

"Did she tell me any lies?"

"No," Caroline acknowledges wryly, even as she remembers the fights she'd had with Elijah's mate over the tales the dark haired woman carried. "No, she didn't need to. The truth was tempestuous enough."

"Yet you spoke to me of him as though he were a good man," Nick says with a scowl, and Caroline laughs.

"Now that is a lie. I have called him great, but I would never call him good" – their walk has brought them to her sitting room, and she leads him out onto the balcony. The storm that had raged earlier has ceased, and the world is eerily calm, a sure sign that another storm is coming, though Caroline thinks it will not be a physical one – "no Archangel is good, Nick. Not if they've lasted for any length of time."

She's sacrificed her own morals over the centuries, many times, to protect the lands she calls her own. It's far easier to understand Niklaus now that she's had a taste of the power that he held even before her birth. She will never forget the events around her Ascension… she simply can acknowledge the why of it now. And perhaps it's because it's been 700 years, and holding onto old grudges seems foolish when she looks back at Klaus' actions.

He had chosen to Sleep, rather than cause her more pain. And though she'll never excuse the pain he did cause… she cannot ignore the choice he ultimately made either.

"So that's it then. He'll come here and you'll just welcome him back?"

Caroline cups her son's cheeks and tugs him down to press a kiss to his forehead. He's so filled with anger and fire, this boy of hers, so protective over her… and she's so used to thinking of his similarities to his father, that maybe she's failed to see the ones he shares with her. She was like him once, filled with such righteous fire, before time and power taught her to properly play the game of Archangels.

"You will be incredibly powerful one day," she says pulling back and looking into his eyes. "But I hope that it's centuries from now."

"You were only a century older than me-"

"And not at all prepared. I survived by surrounding myself with good and loyal people, and because I was powerful enough to get lucky. I don't want that for you, Nick."

"We weren't talking about me. We were talking about my father."

"He makes a horrible first impression, doesn't he?" she smiles at him and squeezes his hand. "Let him make a second one."

"He might not even come," Nick grumbles, but he leans against the railing, his gaze focused hungrily on the horizon, and despite his anger on Caroline's behalf, she knows that he has yearned for this his entire life.

Yearned for his father.

Enzo and Stefan had taught him to fight, even Kol had come to play a role, but none had been his father and Nick had been very aware of that.

"I don't want to see you hurt again," Nick admits at last, though he doesn't take his gaze from the horizon. "And I know that history shows he is very capable of doing so."

Caroline just ruffles his hair, and she wishes she could promise that she won't be hurt… but she can't be sure.

Not until Niklaus arrives.

BTS

Bonnie is the first to meet them, and Klaus smirks when he sees her.

"The more things change," he muses as he halts before the dark skinned vampire who crosses her arms and gives a sniff.

"Well, you don't appear to have changed at all," she comments, looking at him with a speculative eye. "I sort of hoped you'd stay asleep."

"Bonnie," Stefan warns, because of course he knows Klaus' temper and fears for the vampire.

Yet Klaus simply feels… amused.

"I'm not here to kill anyone," he says, moving around Bonnie to continue to Caroline's manor. It also looks much the same, though he can pick out cameras and other bits of technology that are foreign to him. An old house in a new world. "Where is your Sire?"

"You can't just come in here demanding to see the Archangel!" Bonnie snaps. "That's not how this works."

"I'm not here to see the Archangel," Klaus drawls in reply, tossing a smirk over his shoulder. "I'm here to see my mate."

And he's apparently rendered the vampire mute, because she just gapes after him. Klaus gives a low chuckle and continues into Caroline's home. If Bonnie won't show him to her, then he'll just wander until he finds her himself.

It doesn't take long. He finds the corridor that houses her rooms, and before he can reach her door it opens, and there she is.

Physically she has not changed of course. She's still the slim, beautiful blonde that he remembers meeting in Elijah's court. But the differences are there in her eyes. They'd once burned with a righteous fire that threatened to burn everything he was, but she's matured. There is a new darkness there, one that could only be borne of centuries as an Archangel.

And that darkness makes the light of her that much more addicting, because it's still there as well, and it brings him up short and speechless, which he hadn't expected.

He's so caught up in this first sight of her, that he doesn't realize that their son is at her back, not until he fidgets and flares his wings in discomfort. It drags Klaus' gaze away from Caroline, to see that Nicholas' wings are white and mottled, just like Klaus' own. Though the mottles hold the fire that had always been reflected in Caroline's unique wings.

"He has my wings."

Caroline blinks, and Klaus does as well, because he hadn't meant for those to be his first words to her. Yet now they are, and he feels like the Fledgling, foolish and awkward. Until she giggles.

It's incredibly pathetic, but at the sound the world stops. He takes a step toward her and it starts again.

"Hello, Little Fledgling," he says, a smile curving his lips at the sight of her, her hand covering her lips to muffle her mirth.

"I'm not that young anymore," she points out, dropping her hand. She wants to come to him, he can tell, but their history lies between them, making her hesitate.

"You'll always be my Little Fledgling," he replies, and it's going to have to be him for once. He will have to be the one to bridge this gap between them, caused by his own actions and insanity. He has no idea how to do it.

So he closes the distance between them and cups her face in his hands and simply looks at her. He leans down, rests his forehead against hers, and they stare at each other.

"Klaus," she murmurs, her breath mingling with his.

"Caroline," he returns.

And he closes that final distance, pressing his lips against hers. It's all it takes, her hands come up to clutch at his, and she opens her mouth to him. It's warm and wet and hungry, and for the first time in Klaus' memories, it doesn't come with the bitter after taste of regret.

He is in love with this woman. He has been for nearly 1400 years… and though it might have taken 700 years of separation, he thinks he's finally ready to learn how to love her.

A throat clears awkwardly, and Caroline tears her lips away from his and looks over her shoulder to where their son is very carefully looking anything that isn't them.

"Sorry, Nick," she says, and steps back from Klaus, her tongue darting out to lick her lips. Klaus hesitantly releases her, his hands feeling cold without her skin under them. But she moves to Nick's side, and the boy looks down at her, dimples cutting into his cheeks, and Klaus swallows, his throat suddenly thick.

Caroline reaches up to run fingers through Nick's hair, hair that Klaus knows will never be neat, because his own has never been neat. In turn, he bends his knees slightly, so she can reach his hair more easily.

His mate. His son. And never once in all his years of life had Klaus ever contemplated having this.

"I don't want you to hurt her," Nick says, breaking his gaze from Caroline's to meet Klaus'. "Growing up, she was always there. Even with her Archangel duties, she still managed to be there" – Klaus' gaze darted to Caroline, then back to their son, because Nick was right. The duties of an Archangel were not easy, nor were those of mother. Yet Caroline had been both – "so I don't want you to hurt her. I won't threaten you, because we both know that I can't. But I'm also your son" – and when Nick lifts his chin like that, Klaus can only think of how similar it is to Caroline – "and if you want to know me? You won't hurt her."

They stand there in silence, Nick's gaze dark and defiant, and Klaus watches the boy closely.

His son.

And though he had never, in all his millennium of life, contemplated being a father… he wants to know this boy – this man, that holds pieces of both him and Caroline.

So though he knows it will not be easy, that there is 700 years of Nicholas' life to catch up on, Klaus gives a sharp nod and offers his hand. Nick clasps it with his own, and seems to hesitate. Finally, his jaw tightens and he pulls Klaus in, his arms a hard band.

Klaus is shocked at first. He cannot remember being hugged by anyone but Caroline – Tatia probably had, but she is a distant memory in his mind – and at first he doesn't know what to do. But slowly his arms come up, clasping the boy back.

It lasts just a handful of seconds, and then he is watching his son's retreating back, but somehow Klaus feels as though his world has changed.

"He's the best of both of us," Caroline says softly, and he looks down at her. She reaches out and twines their fingers together, and that touch tethers him back to the world that seems to be shifting so rapidly beneath his feet. "He's our greatest accomplishment."

He reaches over, runs his hand under her hair, to the nape of her neck, and kisses her again. Because this is something he recognizes. This is something he knows.

It's so much better, yet still so painfully familiar, the feel of her warm body pressed to his.

"I want to take you to bed," Klaus says, his voice a growl when they pull back. "But I'm afraid I don't quite know if that's proper."

"When have you ever cared about proper?" she replies, a smile hovering around her lips.

"Since my last memory is of nearly destroying you."

The smile drops from her lips at his words, and he curses himself for a fool, because why did he bring it up?

But instead of lashing out in anger or hurt, she gives her head a tiny, sad shake.

"Do you plan to kill me?"

The thought is so reprehensible to him that he rears back from her, his eyes flashing angrily.

"Of course not!"

And then he freezes, and she inclines her head slightly at him. Because there is his answer. Once, he had tried to kill her for crazed power. And now?

Now all he wants is to hold her.

"It's been 700 years, Klaus. And I'm tired of missing you."

In response, Klaus kisses her again, this time unleashing all the hunger feels. He feels her jump up, and catches her under her thighs. It's a stumbling journey, to get from the hall into her rooms. But somehow, between kisses and curses, they make it, and tumbles her onto the bed.

Her wings flare out behind her, and the sight of them makes him pause. He runs his hands along them reverently, and she closes her eyes, lets them flex into his touch.

"I love that you're showing me a whole new, very loving side, Niklaus," she grits out when he turns his hands from stroking her wings to stroking her. "And I would very much like to explore it in the very near future… but I haven't had sex for 700 years. It's been a very long dry spell for me."

Her words make him freeze for a second, and her eyes flash open, spitting fire, and then the clothes begin to tear.

She is hungry for the touch of skin on skin.

He's simply hungry for her.

He thrusts into her, and they both freeze, because God, but it's been too long. She wraps her legs around his waist and clutches at his back, fingernails digging in as he begins to move again. She moves with him, their motions growing frenzied as they grow closer and closer to the edge.

She falls over on a scream that she muffles against his neck, but he doesn't bother to try and silence his own shout. He wants the world to hear it. To know that she is his.

They lie next to each other, panting hard, and he tugs her into his arms, nuzzling his nose into her hair and breathing in deep.

"I kept your territory for you," she murmurs into his skin, and feels her press a kiss over his heart.

"I know," he replies. "You're brilliant."

There's more, of course. He will have to travel to his territory and see what's changed, to remind the people that may have lost him to legend of what he is capable. An Archangel cannot be weak, after all. And he'll have to cut himself a new place in the Cadre. He will not stay out of politics, and in times past their number has only ever been ten… but Klaus has no doubt that with Caroline at his side, he will change that.

But for now, he holds her as she cuddles into him and falls into sleep. Klaus has no desire to follow her, so instead he'll simply watch over her.

He's slept long enough.

End.