A/N: So right. This is apparently going to maybe be a thing? Like an actual multichapter story that focuses on the Mikaelson family dynamics, Klaroline, and itty bitty baby Henrik. Cause its now a thing. IDK But hey, welcome to a new Klaroline story!
Moments of tragedy can either bring a family together or tear them further apart than they already had been.
Klaus Mikaelson wasn't sure what this day would bring about in the end for any of them. To hear that Mikael had killed their mother and then himself hadn't exactly been surprising. His parents' marriage had always been a volatile one, creating a household that every single one of their children had worked their hardest to get out of as soon as possible. Infidelity had run rampant between the two of them leading to more fights than any of his siblings could seem to recount and a terse existence inside and out of the home.
Klaus had gotten out when he was seventeen, having finished high school a year early and managing to snap a full scholarship to the New York Academy of Art. He hadn't wanted to leave his younger siblings behind, not when he'd been the one to take the brunt of Mikael's temper when he turned his anger from Esther to their children. But it had come out that he was the result of one of Esther's affairs and leaving was the only way he could ensure that he'd actually make it to eighteen. Thankfully that news had also reached his apparent birth father who had been livid with Esther keeping his son from him and while their relationship had been tentative, the two only really getting to know one another, when the man had died he'd left his fortune to Klaus, much to Mikael's chagrin.
Klaus kept in touch with Kol and Rebekah, letting them know to call him and Elijah whenever things got entirely too difficult, and while it was Elijah who would go and get the two of them, it was always Klaus that the two stayed with in his loft in the city until Esther finally came over to collect them. Klaus never wanted them to go back with her, pleaded with his mother to finally leave the madman, but she'd made her wedding vows and she meant to stick with them until the bitter end.
And it was indeed a bitter end.
When Rebekah had finally graduated high school and headed off to college, Klaus and Elijah had breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that all of them had managed to survive the madness of their youth.
But then Esther had announced her pregnancy and they knew the madness would never really end.
Mikael had almost been loving and while the rest of his siblings thought that maybe things would be different this time, Klaus knew better and waited for the inevitable insanity to ensue. Nothing happened at all during the pregnancy but here he was at the police station three months after his youngest brother's birth being told the horrors that the police had walked into because of a neighbor's phone call.
Klaus was the one who lived closest to their parents with Finn off in Seattle, Elijah in England, Rebekah at college in Miami, and Kol who even knew where on his journey around the world. So Klaus was the one who was tasked with heading to the station after Elijah received the call and then proceeded to call him.
Esther stabbed more times than they could tell him yet. Dead. Mikael with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Also dead.
"What about the baby?" Henrik. The baby's name was Henrik. He'd been the only one who hadn't seen the child in person. Esther hadn't wanted to garner Mikael's wrath and neither had Klaus. But he had photos on his phone that Rebekah had sent him from the Thanksgiving dinner the week before.
"At the hospital being looked over," the officer told him and Klaus could feel the panic rising, wondering what must have happened to the infant to be there. The officer must have sensed that and tried to offer a reassuring smile. "He seems fine. It's just routine practice. I'll have someone take you there when we're finished here."
An hour and two body identifications later and Klaus was sitting in the local hospital waiting for them to bring out Henrik to him. He knew some of the staff there a little too well between broken limbs from falling off trees as a child to other more gruesome broken bones his family had endured.
Klaus stared down at the small bundle the nurse handed over to him, entirely too small and fragile for him to be holding. At least that meant he was too young to know what had happened, hopefully too little to have any long lasting effects from what he might have heard in that house's walls.
What were they even supposed to do about him now?
"I'm looking for Klaus Mikaelson," he heard his fiance's voice and couldn't help but smile at how frantic and concerned she seemed in that alone. "He's like this tall and has these soulful eyes that he knows how to use way too well and curly hair that you just have to run you hands through and oh god I'm sorry. I just. That was too much. But like-"
"Over here, sweetheart," Klaus called out and saw for himself how frazzled she was as she spun toward him. Those beautiful eyes that had captivated him from the moment he saw her a year ago were full of too much sorrow for his liking as she headed toward him. "You didn't have to come. I know your girls' weekends with Bonnie and Elena are few and far between these days."
"You seriously expect me to not drop that after the voicemail you left me?" she asked, incredulous, as she sat down on the chair next to him. She looked down at the baby in his arms and sighed before reaching out to place a hand on Klaus' shoulder, squeezing it gently. "He's so little."
Klaus' phone started to ring and Henrik gave a sharp cry as his eyes opened, clearly not liking the noise. "Could you?" Klaus handed her the baby when she nodded so he could retrieve his phone.
"Hey hey hey. It's okay," she tried to calm the baby, her eyes wide as she looked down at his little face. "I have no clue what I'm doing right now. Babies are so not my forte."
Klaus watched the two of them as he answered his cell. At least Henrik wasn't wailing as he stared up at Caroline who was doing her best with him. "When are you going to get here, Elijah?"
"Not until tomorrow afternoon," Elijah told him and Klaus frowned at that. "Katerina is out of town and our usual sitters aren't available until the morning. I'll catch the first flight after the one who can gets here."
"Can't you bring Italy with you?" Then he could hop on a plane at any minute and be there sooner.
"I don't think having my five year old tag along would be a good idea right now, Niklaus," Elijah replied and Klaus pinched his nose, not sure why having one more kid around would be an issue. "She'll come over with Katerina later in the week."
"What about Finn?" Surely the sibling closest to their mother would be arriving soon enough.
"Sage said they'll be there in the next day or two. Apparently he took a tranquilizer to calm down after the news," Elijah told him and Klaus cursed under his breath, offering up an apology to Caroline when she glared at him and nodded toward the baby.
"I'm still trying to reach Kol and Rebekah can't make it for another two days because of finals," Klaus groaned, not at all surprised by that one. Though he'd have thought she would be using their parents' deaths as an excuse to get out of the finals instead. "What am I supposed to do until then? They'll want funeral arrangements made. What about Henrik?"
Surely Finn or Elijah would be best to deal with him since they had children of their own already. "Book rooms for all of us at one of the hotels-a decent one or you'll never hear the end of it from Katerina or our sister. Pick out a casket or two. As for Henrik, I'm sure you'll be able to feed and change him like you did with Rebekah and Kol. It's like riding a bike. It'll come back to you," Elijah assured before there was a 'daddy!' shouted in the background. "I'll call you later with details on when I'll land."
Klaus hung up the phone, his irritation with his siblings only growing as the nurse headed back over to them. "Are you going to be taking him home now or would you like to leave him here overnight?" she asked, glancing over toward the baby that Caroline was still holding.
It'd be so easy to give the baby back and have someone else deal with him but there had been a promise he'd made with his siblings when they were children. Always and forever and maybe Henrik hadn't been around when that promise had happened but he was still part of it and Klaus knew he couldn't leave the baby in the hospital with strangers.
"We'll be taking him with us," Klaus told her and the nurse nodded, though she looked between him and Caroline for a moment.
"You'll need a carseat," she started.
"I already got us one of those," Caroline interrupted as she stood, Henrik sound asleep in her arms. "We're gonna need to get a cradle or a crib or whatever the little thing is called that he can sleep in, plus diapers and formula and like tons of other things but I saw a Target on my way here."
"You just need to fill out some paperwork then and you can go," the nurse replied and Klaus ran a hand through his hair before nodding. "I'll be right back with it."
"We can totally do this," Caroline assured him when the nurse was gone and Klaus looked over at her. He loved her unwavering optimism and wished that he shared it. "Plus its shopping. You know how much I love doing that."
Klaus laughed at that and hugged her as carefully as he could, careful not to disturb the infant in her arms. "You don't have to stay. This is going to get much worse before it gets better," he murmured into her hair and Caroline pressed a kiss to his jaw.
"We may not have actually made the vows yet, Mikaelson, but this very lovely ring on my hand so means you're stuck with me and I am not going anywhere. Especially not when you need me." He smiled at that and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
"How did I luck out with you?" Klaus asked as he pulled back a little to look at her better.
"I believe it was the great coffee disaster of last January that I oh so nicely looked past when you did that whole dimple smile and asked if you could make it up to me with a better cup of coffee and much better company," Caroline mused with a grin.
"Best decision of my life," Klaus told her and she pressed a kiss to his lips.
"And don't you forget it." She sat back down with the baby as the nurse came back over with a clipboard of paperwork to fill out.
Klaus sighed and sat down beside her, flipping through all of the forms. This was going to be a long night.