Last chapter, I hope you all enjoyed this and maybe even checked out the song that inspired it. The end came easy for this story and though I'm sad to switch it to complete, it was ready and I'm excited to move on to the next story. Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement, they were beyond appreciated.

I've also borrowed one of my favorite lines from Caitlyn Siehl (she has previously stated that with credit, she's alright if readers borrow lines). If you've not heard of her, I'd recommend checking her out.

Be warned, you're going to need a visit to the dentist by the time all is said and done.

FIVE.

I know the reasons not to break your heart
I know the reasons still I stray too far
Made me realise
It's been a wild season
Seems I made it this far

Yeah, still got that wolf in me
It's been a wild season
And the hunting never stops

And we still on the prowl
'Till everybody drops

Wild Season by Banks & Steelz Feat. Florence Welch

Shit, she knows she's late but there'd been an issue down at the station house and her Mom had come home 15 minutes after she was supposed to. Thankfully Caroline had allowed for some sort of issue, this was Mystic Falls of course, but a comedy of errors had left her running nearly 20 minutes behind including the driving rain. Looking like a drowned rat was exactly not how she wanted to have this conversation.

"I was beginning to think you'd stood me up," Klaus comments when she hurls her bag across the booth, sliding in after it, "our waitress was getting ready to comp my wine and everything." Shooting him a glare, she sets her wet umbrella against the booth, making sure to tuck it away.

"You're such a drama queen," Caroline rolls her eyes, "we've been eating here at least once a week for the past 6 months. They totally knew I was running a couple minutes late." Klaus hums and swirls his glass. He isn't exactly happy about their lunch spot, or even the town itself, but other than a long-suffering sigh here and there he was a pretty good sport about it.

"Hey Caroline," Sarah appears on cue, "sweet tea and the greek salad with a large side of fries?" Caroline nods and thanks the girl.

"How are your classes going?" Klaus asks when Sarah walks away. Sarah never lingered to chat with Caroline when she ate with Klaus. No neighbors stopped by the table, even when Ellie joined them for lunch. There had been questions at first, how Klaus felt about Ellie, if they were going to get married with her being an unwed mother and all, the same sorts of nosey questions that neighbors ask in small towns. They'd all been quickly dismissed when Klaus informed each and every one of them that it wasn't any of their damn business.

There were still murmurs though, because she was a, technically, unwed mother and Klaus was known around town as the wealthy benefactor who had more money than he knew what to do with. No one had yet to physically state the term gold digger, she didn't even want to imagine what would happen if Klaus were to hear that one, but the implications were there.

"Well enough," she comments, "I totally hate the math I'm required to take, but it kinda is what it is, you know?" She was trying, she really was, but statistics was a foreign language. Being thrown into the Middle Ages? She could do it in her sleep. Confidence intervals, though? No thanks.

"If you need help, you know where I live," he comments lightly. There's still an undercurrent of hurt in it though, and Caroline flinches.

The past 6 months had been rocky, to say the least. Despite her initial excitement, all of Klaus' more...irreputable qualities and habits had quickly come to light. It was had not to see the murder-happy man that sometimes swung a little too close to crazy and Caroline had shown her reluctance in immediately pretending everything was ok. But there was a very large part of him that was still the man she had married a thousand years ago.

It had been hard to reconcile the two parts of him, and so their near daily lunch routine was the closest they could come to a compromise. He babysat Ellie on a fairly regular basis, despite his killer instinct, she trusted him wholeheartedly to never put their daughter in harm's way. Klaus was still a little touchy about their separate living quarters and lack of intimacy.

She had to give it to him though, he never complained, never pushed the envelope, and remained loyal to her. Well, sometimes his hand lingered a little too long on the small of her back and he had a terrible habit of playing with a piece of her hair, but she wasn't exactly about to nip either of those activities in the bud.

"Speaking of which," Caroline trails off when Sarah returns with her drink, "I wanted to talk to you about something."

"And what might that be, love?" Klaus murmurs, not quite meeting her eyes.

"I want to move." His eyes snap to hers and his expression tells her that he hadn't been expecting that. "I mean, look, I don't want to stay here working as the secretary at the police department forever, you know? And things with you here haven't helped," he opens his mouth to speak, but she cuts him off quickly, "before you get all defensive, that wasn't meant in offense to you. I'm just sick of everyone asking about us and judging me. I want to start over and go somewhere where no one cares that I'm a technically unwed mother whose significant other turns up with blood on his collar."

"I understand your reasoning, Caroline, but I fail to see where it's going," Klaus points out.

"Right, I forgot about that," she laughs awkwardly, "I want you to come with us and I want the three of us to actually live together, like a family."

"This means you're alright with, well, what I am?" It's when he's like this that she can barely fathom the blood on his hands. He's so hopeful and earnest, so much more of the man she loved than the monster she didn't know how to.

"Alright is probably a little strong," she admits, "but I'm going to have to be if I ever want to be like you." She wasn't hesitating with the curve balls today, pleased with herself when his second of hesitation turns into a wry grin. "I know you have no intention of letting Ellie be just a werewolf and if you two are planning on living forever, I fail to see why I wouldn't either." His grin has pulled into a full smile, and he drops his eyes momentarily.

It's these glimpses of him that confuse her the most, that conflict her the most. But as the months had gone by, she'd seen more and more of them, until the small glimpses had become hours, days, weeks of the man she loved. Even when the skin under his fingernails looked raw and he'd been wearing a different shirt only hours earlier, the smile he reserved for only her and Ellie no longer required a second thought. That had made her decision all the more final.

"Well, yes, I'd planned on broaching the subject with you at some point when I thought you were ready. I suppose I should have known that you would tell me when you were ready whether I'd considered it or not."

"You're totally going to have to get used to that," she laughs, pausing only to thanks Sarah for dropping her salad off. Klaus rarely ordered anything, much more content to pick the fires off her plate. It was exactly why she'd upgraded to the large.

He doesn't move to snatch a few fries immediately like he normally does, nor does he push them to the side so he can squeeze some mustard on the plate. Instead, he watches Sarah's retreating back before sliding over to her side of the booth, pushing her inward.

"Oh my god, you complete dork," she snorts, "only teenagers do this kind of thing," she bumps him with her shoulder. She knows he doesn't miss the way she chews her upper lip to keep from laughing, or that she doesn't shift away after she bumps him with her shoulder.

"Forgive me for wanting to sit next to my wife," he scoffs, "next time I'll order us at least three tables apart."

"Not your wife in this century, buddy."

"Oh, I beg to differ," he reaches for the hand where she still wears the thin silver band. "You were so adamant about this thing, and I had absolutely no idea why. It would be centuries before I understood the significance."

"I think what matters is that you still got it for me, even though you didn't know what it meant."

"What a strong little thing," he mutters, smoothing his thumb against the band, "that ties you so strongly to a monster like me." He grins up at her, flashing teeth.

"When is a monster not a monster? Oh," she pauses, holding his gaze, "oh when you love it."

So when she'd picked Boston, she hadn't been expecting the winters to be so damn cold. And despite her whining to Klaus about him skinning her a moose or something, he had yet to actually do it. She did find a lot of ridiculously warm coats in her closet, though. Today was one of those days where she stepped out of the lecture hall and her whole face immediately went numb.

"I'm so sick of this weather," she groans, pulling her zipper up as high as it would go.

"You're telling me," Rebekah grumbles. When she'd heard that Caroline and Klaus were moving to Boston so Caroline could actually go to school, Rebekah had already enrolled herself. She'd groaned about Caroline's topics of study but had decided that another history degree couldn't hurt. The two sat next to each other in their 16th Century Political Theories class, as well as their Chinese Empire class. "Coffee?"

"Yea," Caroline agrees, "Klaus said he was going to be a couple minutes late. Apparently Ellie knocked another little boy over and they wanted to have a parent conference. I told the teacher I had class but she insisted," she rolls her eyes. She generally tried to keep Klaus away from the administration, limiting his time to pick up and drop off.

"What I wouldn't give to be a fly on that wall," Rebekah sighs wistfully, pushing the door to the school coffee shop open. Caroline picks a table, it's crowded enough that the open one she knows is right next to the heater would be taken before she and Rebekah had even made their order.

"Here," Rebekah pushes to cup in front of her, hanging her purse on the side of her chair. "I assume my brother got back well enough this morning?"

"He got back after I dropped Ellie off this morning," Caroline takes a sip of the coffee. It's a mocha and she's sure Rebekah is a mind reader. "Is it...sorry, he doesn't talk to me about these trips, how'd it go?"

Caroline had asked Klaus to leave her mostly in the dark when it came to his supernatural dealings, at least in the meantime. She would ask every so often and he would give her a very glossed over version of what had been happening or where he'd gone. He left most of the dirty work to his hybrids or a few of his older vampire employees, one of the compromises he'd agreed to make, only leaving to take care of what required his influence.

"Not well," Rebekah admits, "he and Elijah were fine, of course, but repercussions needed to be taken in the city. The man he'd left in charge, Marcel, they were close. We were all close at one point. Klaus practically raised the poor sod."

"Oh, I didn't...is he ok emotionally?" He'd left the week before, and despite the noodle necklace Ellie had made him, still seemed a bit down. His texts had been few and far between, although he did make sure to call for a few minutes at night.

"You talk with him more than I do," Rebekah reminds her, "you'll have to ask him." Caroline sighs and Rebekah frowns at how put out her sister in law looks. "Look, Caroline," she pauses, "you know my brother and I have had our difficulties over the years and I do realize that some of his actions are based on fears that he can't control. I'd never tell him that because I have plenty of reason to hold a grudge against him for so many things, but at the end of it all, I do love him. Speaking honestly, there is no great redemption plot for him, he's a man who has done terrible things and feels little to no regret other than not killing some of his adversaries sooner. Despite that fact to you still love him for the man he is, you shy away from the monster that he is as well. The clock is ticking, Caroline, you need to learn to love the monster too."

She can't quite make herself meet Rebekah's boring gaze, but Caroline knows she's right. The past three and a half years had been about reconciling with the man she'd been forced to leave and coming to accept the monster he'd become in the centuries past. She knew what he sometimes got up to during the day when she had class and their daughter had school, but having a vague idea and accepting it were two entirely different topics.

The agreement had been graduation. She pouted about it feeling a little too high school vampire novel, but Klaus had made a valid argument. She'd be happy to have her degree, they could disappear for a little while without any questions while Ellie spent the Summer at Liz's with Rebekah playing the backup babysitter, and she'd still be younger than him. Graduation was only three months away, and Caroline had yet to really accept every part of Klaus.

"Mama!" Ellie's squeals, plowing into Caroline. She nearly falls off her chair, it wasn't easy to keep a steady stance when thirty pounds takes you out, but Klaus is suddenly on the other side of her, holding her up. "Mama, Daddy ran really fast and said he's gonna call Uncle Kol to come bother Aunt Bekah."

"Oh, Daddy ran really fast, did he?" She shoots Rebekah an eye roll before turning her sights on Klaus.

"Ellie, my sweet, what have I told you about tattling?"

"Snitches get stitches," she growls, looking entirely too pleased with herself. At this point, the noise levels in the coffee shop had plummeted and everyone had heard her three-year-old daughter giggle maniacally while making a reference she was way too young to understand.

"Good girl," he coos, scooping her up. It's hard not to coo at the bright-eyed little girl with her little blonde curls puffing out from under her kitty toboggan and her kitten paw mittens. Caroline still manages a dark glare at the two of them who are a little too chummy for her liking, "it's a very important lesson to learn."

"Seriously? What else have you been teaching her? This is, oh my god, Klaus," this is no time to be laughing she wants to tell him, but settles for giving him a hard whack on the arm. She's got more serious threats to dole out, "next time, I'm picking out the books you have to read."

"No," he groans, "I can't take anymore Peppa Pig."

"Quit your bitching, Daddy," Ellie smacks a startled looking Klaus lightly on the face with her kitten mitten before he breaks out in laughter again.

"That one is all you," he manages, pointing an accusatory finger. Caroline has to bite her lip to keep from joining in, but despite the fact that their 3-year-old had just cursed, little Ellie smacking the most terrifying supernatural creature in the world with a kitten mitten was just a little too much.

"You two are disgusting," Rebekah sneers.

She should have known.

Klaus was normally in their bedroom after she showered, reading or sketching in his big chair by the window. He claimed that he wasn't so mundane to have his own dedicated chair, but he sat in it nearly every night and so Caroline called it his. He wasn't there tonight though, she'd found him in the office, sprawled on the couch in front of the fire and nursing a bourbon.

Rebekah was right, this trip must have been difficult.

She approaches him quietly, he can hear her she knows, but the situation called for careful steps. Pulling his glass from his hand and setting it on the side table, she sits and pulls him down so his head is in her lap.

They'd been intimate since they'd moved to Boston. Obviously sexually, but increasing they'd been more intimate in the way they interacted entirely. Some nights he would comb her hair after her shower and others she would lay beside him for what felt like hours, running her nails up and down his back. They hadn't done this though, not since he'd been human at least she thinks, absentmindedly running a hand through his hair.

"How was your trip?" She asks softly after a few minutes.

"Difficult, but necessary. Everyone cowed into obedience well enough," he speaks slow and quiet. This was often how she'd get him to relax after a hard day of working beside his father, something about it soothed his terrifying temper.

"Do you want to tell me more?" His eyes snap open to meet hers, she never usually asked anything more. She gives him a sweet smile and his eyes close again, satisfied by her interest.

"Not tonight," he mutters. She hums a response, she doubts she'll ever hear anything more, but the offer was there. The fire has almost died down before she speaks again.

"Will I look like you?" Her other hand moves to trace his cheek, to smooth her thumb under his eye.

"No," he opens his eyes again, but this time they're yellow, "your's will be black," he reaches up and traces a similar pattern under her own eyes. "And your teeth will be slightly different," his hand moves to trace her bottom lip and he flashes his own teeth, "but you will be glorious."

Leaning down slowly, she presses her lips to his, yellow eyes watching her every movement carefully. It won't take three months for her to be ready to face this, maybe not even three years, but sometimes love is jumping off a fucking cliff without looking what awaits you at the bottom.

"When is a monster not a monster?

Oh, when you love it,"

-Caitlyn Siehl