This story will be a combination of the time Klaus and Caroline spent travelling the world looking for a solution to the Gemini problem prior to Hayley's kidnapping. Present day will pick up after Klaus's sacrifice. There will be characters from all three shows, but probably won't follow the event in Legacies.

The title for the story is from "Grace" by Rag n Bone Man. It's the song that plays during the final moments of the season four finale of "The Originals."

Prologue

Somewhere in the Amazon – 2021

The air outside was sweltering. The moisture that hung in the air was almost tangible. Niklaus Mikaelson felt that he could reach out and hold the atmosphere in his blood soaked hands, but he couldn't really. He couldn't do a lot of things. He couldn't rule his Kingdom of New Orleans. He couldn't be a King. He couldn't hold his daughter without killing her. He couldn't even be in the same city as anyone in his family.

His enemies, well, he did have them.

For two years, Klaus had traveled the earth hunting down those who dared stand against him at his farce of a trial. A trial! As if he was accountable for the petty grievances of those he gifted with his eternal life! They owned him everything. He owed them nothing, and yet they thought they could subdue him? The thought that those idiots actually believed he would remain imprisoned for all time was laughable. Five years he spent there. Five years out of a thousand. Klaus thought back to a time he explained perception of time to a baby vampire long ago. A baby vampire full of light.

Caroline Forbes. In over a millennium, Klaus had never met anyone quite like her. There had been the bartender, Camille, and yes, he had loved her. But Camille wasn't her. She wasn't Caroline. Caroline. The memory of her face haunted him even though he hadn't seen it in person since the day she gave herself to him in the forests of Mystic Falls. As soon as he was forced to flee New Orleans once again, he had checked up on her. Upon learning his old friend and her new husband, Stefan Salvatore, had died and she had opened a school for supernatural children in Stefan's name, Klaus sent her a check large enough to last for years.

That was how it all began. Klaus looked in shock at the caller ID on his new iPhone. Her number hadn't even changed. It was a simple thank you call that turned into staying up all night watching the sun rise and set from different sides of the planet. She had changed. Klaus could hear it in her voice. She was forever stuck in the filler year of seventeen, but he could tell she had aged. She was the mother of twins and was married and widowed in the same day. She ran a school of children that depended on her the way she had once depended on her late mother, Liz.

Klaus always thought Caroline sounded like an angel, even when she had been awake and pouring over reference books for 18 hours. Sometimes their calls would last only a few minutes. Sometimes they couldn't say goodbye. She was his light in the dark night that his world had become. His brother, Elijah, had no idea who he himself was, so while the brothers had been estranged before, Klaus had never truly been alone. Caroline had also suffered great loss. They all had. Life was never easy among immortals.

Living forever meant watching everyone live and die one by one. Caroline was the last immortal left in her little band of misfits, her children Josie and Lizzie both being living siphoner witches. Elena and Damon Salvatore had both taken the cure and married. Bonnie Bennet was back from the dead for good this time, still mourning Enzo St. John. Jeremy Gilbert was all grown up and occasionally did work for Alaric Saltzman, also human again. Stefan Salvatore and Tyler Lockwood were both dead. Of course, Klaus secretly enjoyed the latter, though he did miss the former.

That left Caroline. Everyone she loved grew and changed, moving through each phase of life, marching to an eventual death. And she knew she would be the one to watch it all. Alone. In the end that's all she would be: alone. Then there was Klaus, who was also alone in his own way. Klaus would have run to her side after that first call had his daughter not been under Caroline's care, assuring he would stay away. The only person Klaus Mikaelson had ever put before himself was his only daughter. He had given everything for her safety and would do so again… even if it meant he would be forever alone.

That's where his enemies came in. In the beginning, they had been easy to find. But eventually, word spread that Klaus was on the hunt and his enemies spread to the four corners of the earth, desperate to stay alive. Of course he didn't always go for the kill right away. He always did enjoy playing with his prey. He liked to draw it out on more often than not. After all, they put him in a dungeon and separated him from his family for five long years. They deserved it. Didn't they?

Caroline didn't think so. No matter how dark his mood, she was the light. She had long since given up on trying to force him to abandon his revenge, but she never condoned it, either. She always believed in him: believed that there was good inside of him. In his darkest moments, he had raged at her to just let go of him and leave him to his misery. She always just laughed and reminded him that she wouldn't let him out of his promise that easily; reminded him that he was stuck with her now. Always and forever.

The promise. It had been ten years since Caroline's high school graduation, though she still looked exactly the same. Klaus did, too, of course. They always would. He decapitated some angry dead supernaturals and then teased her about her not-so-subtle graduation announcement. Just a normal day in Mystic Falls. He wished so deeply that she would come with him then to New Orleans. How different things might have been if she had. In spite of his dreams, he knew she wouldn't be returning home with him... yet. So he allowed the impertinent mutt, Tyler, back into Mystic Falls so that Caroline could see that relationship through until its inevitable conclusion. Then he promised to be her last love… however long it took.

Klaus intended to keep that promise. He didn't give his word very often, but when he did, he followed through. He was a patient man. He waited a thousand years to break his curse, didn't he? He could, and would, wait for Caroline. And so he did. He waited for ten years for this day. Thousands of text messages. Hundreds of hours of phone calls. Days of FaceTime. And today was the day. Caroline was due in the middle of this bug-infested jungle shack any minute.

Caroline's daughters were destined from birth to merge on their 22nd birthday, bringing one of them to her death. Caroline had been researching for years, trying to find a way, anyway, around it. He listened to her every lead and traveled the world chasing shadows. Finally, after two years, he had a tangible lead. Deep in the heart of the Amazon was a coven said to have answers for them. Klaus arrived the night before and helped himself to a snack of the local villagers. It always astounded him that with all the comforts of today, there were still people who chose to live in jungles with no electricity. He enjoyed his technology.

Fortunately, Klaus was no stranger to doing things the old fashion way. He compelled a couple of horrified survivors to burn the bodies and headed down to the river. He looked down at his blood soaked grey Henley and decided against even trying to save it. He lifted it off and used it as a rag to wash the blood off his hands and stubble in the murky water. Once he decided he was as clean as he could get, he pulled on an olive green Henley from his duffel bag and slid it on over his dark grey jeans and black boots, his necklaces dangling just beneath the soft fabric. He threw his bag over his shoulder and cast the ruined shirt aside and turned back towards the shack.

"Somebody's going to have to pick that up, you know." Caroline stood there is all her blonde glory, hip cocked with her fisted hand resting on its sharp angle. Unlike Klaus, she was wearing very little. She wore khaki hiking boots and dark green shorts. Her light blue tank top hugged her curves perfectly, pulled slightly tighter by her hiker's backpack. Her long curls fell out of her messy bun, framing her face in the sunlight.

Klaus stopped in his tracks. For a moment he was stunned. She was stunning. He had Face Timed with her at least once a week, usually more, for the last couple of years, but nothing could have prepared him for that moment. If he hadn't already been dead, he was sure his heart would have stopped cold. His face lit up with the characteristic smirk that the baby vampire had so longed to see in person. She was perfect. She was Caroline. And she was here.

"Hello, sweetheart."

New Orleans – 2026

Caroline walked the streets of New Orleans carrying the urn with what she saved of the two Mikaelson brothers. It was unseasonably cold for the time of year. The tears drying on her cheeks felt like ice burning their way down her face. She couldn't believe Klaus Mikaelson died saving another. They had said their goodbyes earlier that day in the bar, before he went to his family. She didn't know if anyone in his family knew of them, but she had certainly never told Alaric or her girls… or anyone. Klaus was complicated. He was private. And he was hers.

Now he was gone. Everyone left her. Or would leave her. Everyone in her life was human…ish. Klaus had been her forever person. They were supposed to have had forever together. She never told anyone about him because she knew how they would react. Klaus Mikaelson: The Great Evil. That's what they would say, but she didn't want to hear it. So she kept their story a secret, although she suspected Hope figured it out sometime in middle school. Caroline always thought there would come a day that everyone who would object would be gone and their love would be free. It seemed easier just to wait. They had an eternity, right?

Klaus had never been the villain in her story. She wouldn't exactly say he was Prince Charming, either, but he was never evil. At least, he wasn't evil to her. She knew he had done terrible things. She had seen him do terrible things. They had travelled the world together as often as possible for the last five years. After all, he had promised to show her the world: Rome, Paris, Tokyo. He promised to show her genuine beauty, and he did.

As glamorous as those destinations had sounded when she was eighteen, she greatly preferred the places they had been. Most of the places they visited were remote corners of the earth that time forgot. Caroline wished she could have travelled with him for the sake of travelling, but life hadn't worked out like she wanted. Did anything ever? They would come together for a couple of weeks whenever Klaus managed to break himself away from his revenge murder spree long enough to find an actual lead that could help Lizzie and Josie.

Lizzie and Josie. They were Caroline's reason to breathe. They were the children she was never meant to have. She was dead. She died before she finished high school. And yet magic gave her a family. Magical miracle babies. That's what Lizzie and Josie were, and that's what Hope was. It was a hard thing to explain, and Caroline had always been glad she didn't have to explain it to Klaus. He knew. He knew what it was to give up on having a family and wake up one morning only to hear a heartbeat from a life that shouldn't have been.

Caroline walked the streets reflecting on what should and shouldn't have been. The bars in this part of town had died down and the streets were emptying out. Her stilettos clicked on the pavement as she walked and walked because she had no idea what she would do when she stopped. Her world had just stopped. It was almost cruel that her dead heart continued to beat when it was so broken. But she couldn't break down. She was a mother. She didn't have that option. There are no breakdown says for mothers.

As she walked the streets and the stars grew brighter with the fading of the lights of the city, Caroline came up with a plan. Bringing back Klaus from… wherever he went… was impossible. But why should that stop her? Stopping The Merge was also impossible, but they were getting closer, weren't they? She hadn't given up on her daughters and she wouldn't give up on her last love. He had promised her, and some promises can't be broken.

Caroline walked back to the bench where the brothers faded away and sat down, turning the urn around in her hands, her arms resting on her knees as she bent her head forward. It was ceramic and older than the brothers themselves. They found it together in Cairo on one of their little trips. It was said to have restorative properties. Caroline looked at it and smirked, a trait she had picked up on the road. If she was honest with herself, she knew all along that this wasn't the end. She wouldn't let it be the end. Not yet. Not before she got forever. "I don't know where you went, love, but I will find you, and I will bring you home."

"And I'm going to help you." The older blonde sat up in shock, totally unaware that her private moment had been intruded upon. She prepared herself to tell off her intruder, until she saw shiny red hair. Her anger quickly faded to relief when she looked up into the bright blue eyes of Hope Mikaelson.

Caroline's smirk returned.

A/N Hey! What do you guys think? I haven't written anything since I was first in college... a dozen years ago. Should I keep this going? Let me know! xoxoxoxo Eli