Klaus was sitting alone at a table with a glass of scotch, everyone else partying to celebrate Kieran’s life, when Cami joined him.
“Hey! Earth to you!”
Klaus noticed the wounds on her face.
“Your face—“
“Will heal. Listen, I wanted to thank you---“
Klaus held up his glass. “—Unless you’ve come equipped with the means to fill this, no additional platitudes are necessary.”
“Okay… I'm in a crap mood because my uncle just died, and people are partying like it's Mardi Gras. What's your excuse?” She noticed Klaus scowling. “Klaus, seriously, what’s going on?”
“I've been having these dreams about my dead father. No diagnosis necessary, luv. I've already got this one covered: my fears of fatherhood, of scarring my child as my father scarred me, are manifesting as nightmares.” He gave her a fake smile and took a long drink. “It’s horrifically cliché.”
“Truthfully? I'm just surprised to hear you acknowledge out loud that you're going to be a dad.”
Marcel entered the bar, which Klaus noticed.
“I know more about the trials of fatherhood than you might imagine, Camille,” Klaus said.
Cami saw Marcel walk up to the bar. “And it worked out for you so well the first time, why change a thing?”
Cami left the table.
Klaus continued to sulk and drink at his table, as he glanced over at Marcel. Marcel saw the photos of Father Kieran, Sean, and Cami by the bar, and grabbed a bottle of scotch to make a toast to the entire party.
“I know I haven't been around these parts lately. It's a testament to Father Kieran that we could come together and share a drink, and a story or two. Kieran rolled into town on a rusty old cruiser after his daddy died twenty-five years ago. And darn it, that guy could party!” He and the audience laughed. “That was, of course, before he took his vows. But, even then, he was committed to the Quarter. He knew that this town needed him. And, we still do.” He raised his glass. “To Father K!”
The audience repeated him and drank in his honor and went back to their festivities. Cami became overwhelmed by the atmosphere and rushed into the back room to be alone, only to find Francesca there as well.
Francesca was holding a drink.
“Looks like we had the same idea. It's Cami, right? I've been informed that Kieran's necklace is missing. The key that he always wore? I assume he left it for me.”
Cami was stunned. “Excuse me?”
Francesca smiled in embarrassment. “How rude of me. I’m Francesca Correa, I took over your uncle’s position of Faction representative when his…mental faculties were compromised.”
“His faculties weren't compromised. He was hexed,” Cami corrected her.
“Hexed by one of our enemies! Look, I'm invested in protecting the people of this city, and to do that, I need the key.”
Cami was angry. “It must have fallen off during the events that led to his untimely death. I am so sorry.” Cami then stormed away. As she pushed her way through the party, she passed Katherine whom noticed her mood. Katherine watched as Francesca exited the back room and approached the bar.
Klaus was still sitting at the table, but now Elijah was there with him.
“Seems rather uncivilized to laugh and dance around the body of a loved one,” Klaus commented.
Elijah poured himself a drink. “Yes, far better to practice your process of grief, Niklaus-- denial, rage, and hoarding coffins in basements.”
Katherine joined them at the table and sat down between them.
“I will warn you, Katerina, Niklaus is in a spectacularly foul mood today.”
“Sod off,” Klaus warned Elijah.
Katherine looked at Klaus. “What’s the deal with these moonlight rings? Oliver’s trying to set a revolution every five seconds. People are scared, angry, and frankly, I’m tired of stalling.”
“It’s a day of peace, Katerina. Try and enjoy it. And, in the meantime, with all manner of unknown enemies conspiring against our family, you’ll spend more time with us than with the wolves.”
“Awesome!” she said sarcastically. “Then, we can do that thing where you lock me in a room, I escape, there’s drama, and then you two both realize I’m very capable of looking after myself.”
Klaus was frustrated. “The rings are in progress. I will live up to my word. We will find and punish whoever launched the attack on the Bayou, and you will spend more time at home for your own safety!” She sighed and rolled her eyes, not fazed by his mood or words, though she understand that he thought it was more safe at the compound. “But, right now---“ He grabbed his bottle of scotch. “—I’m gonna finish this bottle—“ He opened the bottle. “—and the next, in the hopes of drowning the demon who has chosen today to haunt me.” He looked up at the ceiling before chugging right from the bottle. “Cheers, Mikael. Impeccable, Freudian timing.”
Elijah was stunned at the part about Mikael. “Elaborate.” Katherine looked between them in concern, knowing what Mikael was capable of. “Have you dreamt of our father?”
“Go ahead, have a good laugh,” Klaus said.
“I can assure you there is no piece of this that I find even remotely amusing, Niklaus. Especially considering I've been dreaming of him, too.”
“What?”
Elijah brainstormed, saying, “If you are also seeing him…” He stopped mid-thought when he noticed Genevieve enter. She caught his eye and smiled. “Perhaps our elusive, unknown enemy is orchestrating a further attack?”
Klaus looked at Genevieve when he replied. “Well, then. What better way to punctuate a day of peace than by killing someone?”
He and Elijah continued to look at Genevieve as Klaus smiled and waved at her.
Genevieve was wandering into the Jardin Gris voodoo shop, closing the door behind herself, when she sensed a presence and was startled when Klaus appeared behind her. She smiled weakly at him.
“You disappeared from the party,” she greeted.
Elijah entered the room, examining an athame. “Do you care to explain why you would choose to torment us with visions of our father?”
Genevieve was genuinely surprised. “Your father? I didn’t. I wouldn’t!”
“Of course, how foolish of me. It must have been that other witch that’s been parading through our house in scraps of lace.”
“I know how talented you are with your tongue, Genevieve. Might I recommend you use it to provide answers? I would so hate to tear it from your mouth,” Klaus threatened her.
Genevieve laughed nervously. “As much as I enjoy these repeated accusations of wrongdoings, I don't know what you're talking about. But, if you've both been seeing your dead father, I can try to get you answers.”
Klaus stroked her neck menacingly. “Fine. Go.”
“Niklaus, don’t you dare let her---,” Elijah started.
“Go!” Klaus said.
Genevieve quickly ran out the door.
Klaus walked toward Elijah.
“You don't trust her, and you're right not to. Only a fool would. But, she certainly wants us to, doesn't she?”
“Let me guess, there's something of benefit for you in all of this, isn't there?” Elijah guessed.
“I need a witch to make those rings for the wolves. Perhaps we'll get both answers and cooperation?” Klaus replied.
Elijah was standing on the balcony of the compound, when Genevieve approached him from behind.
“Genevieve,” Elijah said.
“I asked around. It's not just your father. The purgatory where supernatural souls are trapped is disintegrating,” she informed him.
“What do you mean, "disintegrating?" he inquired of her, wanting more information.
Klaus entered the room. “She's right... more or less. It's actually imploding. A made a call to a rather reluctant Bennett witch in Mystic Falls who said the same thing. The dead are being torn away into nothingness. And, they're not interested in going quietly.”
“So, you're saying that our father, faced with permanent extinction, has decided to spend his remaining tormenting us? How delightful!” Elijah realized.
“Well, on the plus side, we'll soon be rid of his abhorrent soul forever. And what a good riddance that will be!”
Genevieve sighed. “So, am I in the clear, Elijah? Or is there a new conspiracy you two would like to threaten me over?”
“Nothing springs to mind at this precise moment...”
“Oh, gee. Thanks.” She stopped in front of Klaus before leaving. “I have to get back to the girls. Perhaps tomorrow, after the funeral, you and I could spend some time together. Alone?”
“I suppose we’ll have to see,” Klaus replied.
Genevieve sighed in annoyance and left.
“Please tell me you've designed a stronger method to control the witch than playing hard-to-get?” Elijah inquired of him.
“Well, I've always been partial to the classics...”
Katherine was sitting on Francesca’s front porch, waiting until she and her bodyguard got home. When Francesca noticed her, she groaned and tried to be polite.
“Ah, Katherine, right? I’m guessing you’re not here because you want to make a new friend?”
“I don't count terrorists as friends,” she replied, and stood up to face her.
Francesca chuckled and looked at her guard. “Wow. I've been accused of everything from grand larceny to blackmail, but "terrorist," that's new!”
“A human pulled up to the wolves’ home in the Bayou on a motorcycle and blew himself up,” she told her.
“I heard.” She grabbed her keys and walked to the front door. “Awful. Goodnight!”
Katherine was annoyed, so she head butted the guard before slamming his head into a birdbath and knocking him out. Francesca looked at her in shock for a moment before giving a fake smile.
“Word on the street is, he owed a hundred grand to the Palace Royale casino! And then, after he died, the debt was erased. Just like magic,” Katherine told her.
“Jeff was a fixture at my roulette table. Sometimes he was up, sometimes he was down. I absolved his family of the debt he owed out of the goodness of my heart,” she replied. Katherine glared at her skeptically, not believing her, and Francesca shrugged. “Feel free to sniff around. My hands are clean! And, I’d advise you to mind your manners. It’s lucky you’re still alive. You’re the one the wolves all whisper about like royalty. If I was interested in hurting the wolves, you'd be my target.” She smiled. “And, when I go after someone? I don’t miss.” She walked into her house, leaving Katherine on the porch.
Katherine left, heading down the street to go to the compound.
Monique whispered from behind a tree she was hiding behind, as she cast a spell on Katherine and then stabbed the puppet that represented Katherine with a pin.
On the streets outside, the funeral procession was walking down the streets to the sounds of the jazz music being played, behind the priests casting pall bearers for Father Kieran. Near the end of the parade were Klaus, Elijah, and Katherine. Katherine kept coughing, but she figured it was probably nothing, since she hadn’t been around any witches lately as far as she knew, for them to even remotely do any harm toward her.
“You alright? You look---,” Elijah began.
“Several months pregnant and peeved off at the world?” she inquired.
Elijah gave a smile at that. “I was going to say you look lovely.”
“Do you think I was the target of those bombings?” she questioned, wanting their opinions, considering what Francesca had said last night and what she knew she’d do if there was war brewing.
“Of course you were the target! Were I to wage a war on the wolves, you'd be my first kill!” She glared at him. “I would string you up, for all your worshipers to see,” Klaus said.
When he made a comment about fatherhood, she said, “One bad dream, and suddenly, you want to be a responsible daddy!”
Klaus wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close, leaving Elijah awkwardly beside them.
“Let me put this into perspective: my father lived to torment me. It is not my intention to become him. This cycle of misery ends with my child,” he whispered to her.
“You forgot one thing. She’s not your child. She's ours,” she reminded him.
“Very heartfelt, Niklaus,” Elijah commented.
“I bloody hate funerals,” Klaus replied back.
She pulled away from Klaus and began walking in front of them a ways away, between them and the funeral procession. That’s when she began coughing again and this time felt and looked woozy. Klaus was the first to notice and blurred towards to stand at her side.
He put a hand on her arm and noticing him there, leaned against him.
“Klaus.”
“I’m here, luv.”
A moment later, she collapsed and he caught her, gently picking her up in his arms.
After Klaus got Genevieve to come, Klaus and Elijah entered the compound. Klaus layed her on a table.
“I can help---,” Genevieve began, but Elijah pushed her away from the table.
“Don’t you touch her!”
Klaus didn’t trust Genevieve any more than Elijah did, but he was going to do anything to save Katerina and his unborn child.
“Let it be, Elijah. She was a nurse.”
“There’s a spell I can do,” she said and went to get chamomile from the pantry. When she came back, Klaus was still standing at Katherine’s side. She looked at Katherine whom was barely conscious. “She’s trembling. Your jacket.”
Before Elijah could take his off, Klaus took his jacket off and layed it on top of her, silent.
“She’s not breathing. I can hear the baby’s heartbeat, but not hers,” Elijah said.
Genevieve checks her pulse and realizes that Elijah’s right.
Katherine found herself some place that looked like she was at the compound, but she knew she wasn’t when she saw Mikael. He walked towards her and she backed away from him.
“Mikael,” she stated.
“Hello again, Katherine,” he greeted with a smile, having met her back when they’d all tried to kill Klaus, before Klaus had had an advantage over him and had killed him. “Welcome to my hell-- stuck in an eternity of watching over that hideous creature my children call brother!” He said, as he stood in front of her.
She knew she was on the Other Side the moment she’d seen Mikael and feared for her and Klaus’ child, as well as herself. She didn’t want either of them to die.
“The baby,” she stated.
“The baby? The kid never had a chance! And as if your bloodline isn't filth enough, you poison it by merging it with Klaus'? The deathless vermin, fancying himself a daddy?” he mocked and then laughed at that, now a hand around her throat.
Furious at that, she threw him off her with as much strength as she could muster, as she realized that he was trying to kill her, which meant that she wasn’t dead yet.
“Neither of us are dead. If we were, you wouldn’t be trying to kill us.”
Tapping into her Traveler magic, she through him against a wall in her anger.
As Genevieve pressed a damp bundle of chamomile against Katherine’s forehead and chanted a spell in French, Klaus got frustrated and afraid. Afraid to lose her and the child, he bit his wrist and made a little bit of his blood go down her throat, hoping that it would heal her.
“Come on!”
He looked at Elijah in fear.
“She’s still not breathing. It’s not working!” Elijah angrily threw a table against the brick wall, shattering it into pieces. He then paced, as Genevieve continued to work on her spell.
Klaus asked, “Will the baby survive if delivered now?”
“Katherine will bleed to death!” Genevieve replied.
“I won’t lose that baby,” Klaus said, though inwardly he didn’t want to lose either of them.
“I won’t lose either of them,” Elijah told him.
After getting a vision that Monique had used a poppet to cast the spell on Katherine, she was stunned for a moment, but then told them, “I know what to do. Get my bad, the gris-gris pouch! Now!” She then dabbed a wet cloth on Katherine’s forehead.
Once it was brought to her, she spread the salt around Katherine on the table, as she continued to get visions of casting the original spell.
On the Other Side, Katherine and Mikael were still facing off.
“You're dead, Mikael. Your son already beat you!” she reminded him, trying to make him see reason, even though she knew it was most likely futile, knowing him.
“He is not my son! He's a scourge, a walking symbol of weakness!” he yelled at her.
She found a lose piece of wood from the staircase and easily broke it off, in order to defend herself against him.
He continued to stalk towards her menacingly.
“There is no saving that atrocity festering in your womb. Klaus will destroy it, one way or another. Better he dies now, and you along with it!”
Mikael jumped up onto the second floor balcony, as she made her way up the staircase. She rapidly spun around and stabbed him in the heart from behind with the piece of wood, when he was close enough to her.
“My daughter has an advantage Klaus never had-- she will never, ever know you.”
Katherine finally woke up with a gasp, Genevieve’s spell successful, which relieved them all.
“You’re alright, luv. You’re alright,” Klaus assured her and helped her sit up, since he was closest to her.
“I saw him. He tried to kill me. I saw Mikael,” she informed him.
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That night, Katherine was in her room siting on her bed in thought, when she saw Klaus at the doorway of her room. She noticed him, but he stopped and knocked anyway before fully entering.
“You’ve proved quite resilient, Katerina. Fighters, both of you.”
“I guess we’ve had to be. Especially, lately.” She looked at him, when he was silent. “I’ve decided I’m going to spend less time with the wolves as you’ve asked me to.”
He smiled. “I’m glad to hear it.”
“But no mouth-breathing bodyguards, no telling me what to do,” she demanded.
He smiled. “All I ask is that the child is kept safe.”
“And what about me? What happens after she’s born? If you try to take her away from me, I---,” she began.
He interrupted her, saying, “Come with me.” He headed out the door, but stopped when she didn’t follow him. “Please. I want to show you something.”
She got up and followed him out the door. He took her to another room in the compound, which already had a nursery set up, complete with a crib, a bassinet, and a gorgeous mobile hanging from the ceiling, among other things. Katherine looked at everything, as they both stood inside the room.
“Believe it or not, Katerina, I would actually like you to be here. Our daughter should be raised by her parents, in her family home,” he informed her.
She touched the crystals hanging from the mobile and smiled at him.
“You said you saw my father?” he inquired, wanting to know everything.
“Why do you call him that? He’s not your real father,” she wanted to know.
“He’s done damage only a father could do,” he told her. “What did he say to you?”
“The same things he’s always said about you. That you’re not family. He also threatened our child and myself. Nothing that’s true. He can have his opinions for the rest of his life on the Other Side all he wants, but I’ll never believe him, because he’s wrong.”
He smiled at that last part she’d said in agreement, in which she smiled back. It was such a moment, that they began to make out.
When Monique returned home, Genevieve grabbed her by the arm roughly, angry with her.
“What the hell did you do to Katherine?”
“I was trying to do what the ancestors asked!”
“That baby is part-witch! The ancestors want her consecrated to the earth so her magic can fuel our community! She has to be born first before she can die!” She smacked Monique on the shoulder. “Leave. I don’t want to look at you.”
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The marching band was continuing to play in the streets as the party raged on. Klaus and Elijah stood on the sidewalk and watched from outside the compound.
“When Mikael is truly gone, do you think then I’ll find peace?” Klaus confided with him.
“I certainly hope so. Although, it's not only our father who haunts you, Niklaus,” Elijah reminded him. “You might want to make peace with the living.” Elijah soon left.
Klaus watched Marcel whom stood across the street not far away, and Marcel looked back at him, having noticed that Klaus was watching him. Klaus then watched as Marcel turned around and walked away.
When Marcel walked down a dark alley, he found Klaus waiting for him at the end.
“Your furlough ends when the clock strikes,” Klaus reminded him.
“I'm aware. Don't worry! I intend to be far away from here by then. But, just because I'm across the river, doesn't mean I'm not in the game. Full moon's coming. I know you're up to something with the wolves, and I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out what. And any way I do the math, it ends with me and my guys dead.” Klaus looked at him blankly. “Or, maybe we're supposed to fall in line, pledge our allegiance to you all over again so if we get bitten, you might deign to cure us. Is that what you're after? 'Cause it's not gonna happen.”
Klaus smiled. “Well, that will be your choice, just as you chose to bring my father to town. You, who knows better than anyone, the specific agony of a father's hatred.”
“Klaus---,” he began.
Klaus yelled at him, saying, “I spent decades trying to make up for what your father did!” He then composed himself. “How did I fail?”
“Maybe the scars just ran too deep,” Marcel replied.
They looked at each other for a long moment until Klaus decided to leave.
“Goodnight, Marcellus.”
Marcel spoke when Klaus was almost gone. “You didn't fail me. You raised me. You taught me everything that I know. You taught me that I can't afford to be weak. Not when my enemies are stronger. So, whatever it is you've got coming with the wolves, just know that I'm gonna fight for my guys. I'm gonna fight for my city.” He then shouted to him, “And, I will fight until I am dead!”
Klaus looked at him, saying, “I would expect nothing less.”
Klaus stormed away, leaving Marcel alone in the alley.
Katherine was watching the party winding down from her balcony when Elijah entered the room behind her. When she saw him beside her, she said, “If I died and someone threw a party, I would be so peeved.”
“You almost did. In a thousand years, I can’t recall a time I felt so frightened,” he admitted.
She didn’t say anything and he went to leave, but she stopped him with a hand on his arm.
He looked at her.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that to you. That’s our curse as vampires. We get to watch every human we care about die and have to live an eternity with that grief.” She let go of his arm.
“Yes, it can be a curse, and I wouldn’t wish any harm to come to you,” he replied.
“You can’t protect me forever though, you know. And I may be human, but I don’t need protecting all the time. I may not be invisible like I was as a vampire, but I can still take care of myself,” she reminded him.
Davina was organizing herbs in the greenhouse when the wind started blowing and the windows shattered. It blew through the windows. She started to hear Tim’s song in the wind chimes, and all the candles and lights in the room flickered. She was afraid, as she called, “Tim? Is that you?” But then she turned around to see Mikael’s form flickering in front of her. “Who are you?” she inquired of him.
“Your friend Timothy has moved on, Davina. I'm truly sorry for what my son did to him,” he greeted.
“You’re Klaus’ father?” she questioned.
“And I’m the only one who can rid you of him forever. But first, my little witch, I need you.”
Davina was confused. “What can I do?”
Mikael smiled. “You can bring me back to life.”
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