one; HOME

"KOL!"

Kara's shouts were futile as she glanced around desperately for her brother-in-law, ignoring the looks she was receiving from the group near her. She spun around to face the last spot she had seen him. She felt something against her ankle, and she froze in shock before she peered down.

Her eyes widened when she realised that it was the hem of her dress against her ankle, and she reached down, her chest tightening when her fingertips brushed against the rough material of her dress that she hadn't felt in a very long time.

A shaky laugh escaped her as her eyes filled with tears. She turned around and faced the group of Supernatural creatures who stared at her down with wide eyes.

"Am I...?" She swallowed in an attempt to clear the lump that had formed in her throat, "Am I alive?"

"Who are you?" The doppelganger asked, and Kara clenched her fist, "Where is Damon?"

"He was not there when Kol pushed me into your friend," Kara told her tightly.

"That doesn't answer her first question." Stefan Salvatore said, "You were also with a Mikaelson."

"My name is Kara." She said with much less hostility than she had with Elena, "Now tell me, how might I journey to Louisiana."

Stefan didn't have a chance to respond to her when Bonnie turned to face them.

"Something's wrong." She gasped, "I touched Damon, but nothing happened."

The doppelganger froze from her pacing and turned to the crypt. She was gone before anyone could utter a word. Kara hadn't a care about the eldest Salvatore, "And what of Kol?"

"Something took him." Bonnie answered, looking less sympathetic than Kara had about what had happened to Damon, "I don't think it was what was taking everything else, though."

She didn't stick around, opting to follow after Elena and Kara trekked into the woods in the opposite direction from them when a tree older than the rest around it caught her attention. She stopped before it and stared at the gnarled wood with wide eyes.

Ingrained in the ancient bark, Kara could still make out the 'K E' crudely carved into it inside an awfully shaped heart, and she raised her hand to touch it. A smile formed on her face when she noticed that, around it, carved into the bark were more letters, some old and some very new.

"You know, this tree has been here since I was a boy." Stefan had stopped beside her, looking curiously at the place where Kara's hand still lay, touching the bark as though it were made of glass, "It didn't have a name, but couples came here to carve their names into the bark. Elena told me they still did that today. They call it the 'Kissing Tree' now."

"We were the only initials when I died." She finally responded, lightly trailing her hand over the 'E'. Stefan noted that her smile became quite sad, "Myself and Elijah."

On her left, Stefan choked, "Elijah...Mikaelson?"

"I'm his wife." Kara grinned cheekily at the stunned look on his face, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Elena said Elijah spoke of you once, but not a name, and Freida mentioned you once," Stefan spoke when he finally found his voice. He watched the woman who was tracing the material of the sleeve of her gown, "You were human. But you died just after they became vampires."

"I did, and I have been in the veil all this time." Kara hummed, touching her hair and beaming as she twirled a curl around her finger. She took note of the question on his face, "Werewolf gene, untriggered."

His lips parted in realisation. He opened his mouth but paused and turned to look at the crypt and his face crumpled in sadness, "I can help you get to Louisiana." He said quietly, a faint smile twitching at his lips when her face lit up, "But, how did you..."

"I'm always around." The scar on her upper lip became more prominent when she beamed at him, and despite the war of emotions going on in his head, he couldn't help but smile in return, "Keeping a watchful eye on my family. They are a bit crazy, you know."

Stefan laughed because he did know. He jutted his head and began to walk away from the tree, which Kara gazed fondly for a moment longer before she followed the vampire back in the direction of the crypt.

✦❀✦

Stefan had needed a moment alone after learning that his brother wasn't able to come back, so Kara had left him to his devices. She had been without Elijah for over a thousand years. She could wait a while longer while she let the man who was helping her mourn his losses.

She sat quietly on a seat nearby the crypt and stared at the place she had last seen Kol, her brow furrowed as she mulled over his final words to her.

"Live the life you deserved to have, sister."

Was she meant to live out the rest of her life with Elijah, aging while he remained the same, dying once again while he lived? Would she turn for him? She wasn't sure if he'd even feel everything for her that she still felt for him. She knew he still mourned her, blamed himself even, for her death. It wasn't his fault she wasn't strong enough.

She'd failed him, failed their baby.

"Live the life you deserved to have, sister."

Caroline Forbes sat beside her, watching the woman as she lost herself in her own world. Stefan had informed her that she was related to the Mikaelson family through her marriage to Elijah. He had also told her that he would take her to New Orleans in the morning. She wondered if this woman would run screaming when she learned what a thousand years had done to the family.

Kara remembered the way Kol had touched her stomach when he had spoken those last words, and her hand drifted to the place where he had. Harshly, she exhaled in shock when she felt the faint bump.

Caroline watched her movements in confusion until she heard it. The faint thump of a second heartbeat which she could faintly hear alongside the woman's own, "The heartbeat." She finally spoke, and Kara's gaze snapped to her, "You're pregnant?"

Tears filled the resurrected woman's eyes as she clutched her stomach tighter.

"Are you sure?" She demanded of Caroline, who nodded as she continued to watch the woman grow more emotional by the news.

Kara smiled widely at the confirmation, and tears continued to flow freely down her face as she thought of Kol and what he had given back to her. She hoped he knew just how grateful she was to him and just how much she adored him.

"Are you okay?" Caroline asked gently.

"I am." Kara cried, "I was barely a moon along when I died, and I was so overwhelmed by everything since Kol pushed me into your friend that I did not even think that it was possible for me to still be with child."

"What happened?" Stefan had appeared beside Caroline. He watched in concern as the woman continued to cry, despite the smile on her face.

Caroline didn't have a chance to respond to him when she caught sight of Jeremy over Stefan's shoulder. He was screaming Bonnie's name at the top of his lungs as he grew closer to the crypt.

Kara wiped at her tear-stained face, and she got to her feet as Elena rushed out of the crypt with Alaric Saltzman behind her. Tyler Lockwood stopped beside Caroline and Kara. They all looked at each other in confusion as Jeremy Gilbert's panicked screaming grew closer.

He skidded to a halt between Elena and Tyler. It took everything in Kara not to lunge at him or his sister. Jeremy looked at each of them with desperation ingrained into his features before he seemed to find what he was searching for, and he brushed past Caroline. Kara glanced over to see Bonnie Bennett a few yards away from them all, beyond a fenceline.

She faced her friends with terror and acceptance in her eyes, and then she was gone faster than Kara had even seen her.

══════════════════

kara's back from the other side and we'll be moving on to new orleans and her reunion with the mikaelson's very soon!

this honestly took way too long for me to write because i'd get inspiration, write about 300 words and then lose my train of thought which was very annoying.

thanks for reading!

~r