THREE

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Mystic Falls, Virginia

Wednesday

Hope had always thought that when you've lost someone very important, you were so saddened that you wanted to die. She had thought she would feel depressed and bitter, the way Caroline was sometimes on the days where the day was gloomy and dark, and don't get her wrong, Hope was deeply saddened and bitter due to the fact she had lost her mother, but she also felt so furious she felt like she would murder the next person that came walking out of that door. Well, maybe not, seeing as she was quite fond of this one. She would have to make an exception for him.

"Hey." She found herself smiling despite herself, the first time she had smiled since her mother's death, the sudden calming feeling taking place inside her chest. "You came."

He arched his eyebrows somewhat amusingly, "You didn't think I would?" He asked as he sat down by her side and she couldn't help but notice the way he had put a considerable distance between them. Hope didn't like it in the slightest. The way he was so guarded, as if he was afraid something quite awful would happen if he crossed that line, Hope wondered what had to have happened to make him act so — well, afraid.

Oddly, it reminded her of her father.

Hope anxiously bit into her lips, "I don't know." She told him, looking down. "My life is in the shatters. Nothing seems to be going right for me anymore. So, I don't quite know what to think of things, of people anymore."

He looked at her in the deep concern, "How's your mother?" He asked, and her chest clenched painfully at the reminder. "Did you find her?"

"We did." She choked. "Only she died soon after and now that she's dead, I just feel so angry all the time. There's this uncontrollable rage inside me that I don't quite know what to make of, how to manage and I feel like I am slowly going insane." Even after having beaten up Roman, it didn't make her feel any better about herself. In fact, it made her feel as if she was just as awful as he, if not more.

He turned sharply towards her, his hand holding her by each side of the head softly, "Hey, you are not going insane." He whispered, his dark eyes meeting her eyes desperately, as if he was trying to get her to understand something she didn't quite know. "It's all normal." She wondered if he was speaking from an experience, if he lost a parent too.

Hope lifted her head at him softly, questioningly. "It doesn't feel normal."

He smiled softly. "Well, to be fair here, normal is overrated."

She laughed.

He kissed her lightly on the forehead and pulled away, much to her huge disappointment. She liked having him near. "My aunt Freya is marrying very soon." She began hopefully, looking at him with a tiny smile. "Would it be possible that you would come with me? Be my plus one?"

New Orleans, Louisiana

Friday

In her long, white dress and beaming smile that shined brighter than she had ever seen her, Freya looked absolutely beautiful.

When Freya finally kissed Keelin, for the first time in a long while, Klaus started to believe that maybe there was a chance for a happy ending, after all. By his side, Caroline smiled a small, but bright smile he had become so accustomed to since knowing her and even after all this time, Klaus felt his dark, bitter heart thump with joy at the fact that she, who had more than one reason to abandon him and leave him to rot more than most, had decided to stay by him instead. "I am glad you've came." He whispered, finding himself smiling despite himself.

Caroline grinned at him. "Believe me, even if you haven't invited me, I wouldn't have missed it for anything in the world." She then added, "Besides, it's been a long while since I attended a wedding. Last one was —," She didn't need to say it. Her own to Stefan Salvatore. Where she ended up broken hearted and shattered when he had left her to die, a widow within a week of marrying him.

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