Fairytale (Age 5)

'Tell me a story, Daddy.' Hope crawls up to her newly discovered father on his bed, snuggling her head in his shoulder before he has the chance to respond.

'Well,' he chuckles, and moves her arm to wrap it around her, 'What would you like to hear?'

'A fairytale. Your favorite fairytale.'

'All right, let's see. Mmm, Once upon a time..."

Once upon a time there was a girl ("named Rose!"). All right, once upon a time, there was a girl named Rose.

She was quite ordinary.

("She was the prettiest in the whole land, Daddy!")

Do you want to tell this story?

("All right, all right.")

So, Rose was an ordinary girl, or so everyone thought. She liked her books, and she was clever, so clever.

She moved to a bigger city however. ("Because she wanted adventure, right?")

Err, yes. And that's exactly what she got.

You see, her first night there, she met a monster. This monster could look like a human, and that night he was out looking for prey.

She didn't know he was monster and - ("Did he eat her?") No, love, listen.

And she talked to him.

This monster, he was surprised by her bravery, but he was also a very selfish man.

He abducted her.

He kept her around, and - and took away her free will. He tried to control her. ("Why do you sound so sad, Daddy?")

Nothing, love. But she, she was not as ordinary as she seemed, because she fought this monster. And the monster, well, he grew more and more impressed with her. With a human, as tenacious as she was.

The monster, who thought he could not feel, grew to care for her.

And incredibly, she felt the same.

("I knew it! Do they kiss? They have to kiss.")

Well, yes they did, and the monster became a human man once more.

("You copied Beauty and the Beast, Daddy. But it was still nice, though.")

Fear. (Age 10)

"Dad, these attacks. I'm scared." Hope says, her voice low, her eyes on the ground.

"Hope, I will never let anything hurt you, I swear it." Klaus' voice is low and gruff, he sweeps Hope into his arms for a hug.

"But how are you not scared? With everything going on? How do you and Mom stay so brave?"

Klaus rests his head against the wall, as his little girl curls up by his side.

"Let me tell you a story, Hope."

There was once - ("No, Dad. Once upon a time.")

Well, then. Once upon a time, there was a woman.

("Let's call her Faith")

Faith it is. Faith was particularly close to a man who had many enemies.

And she was constantly paying the price for it. She was constantly in danger. Because of him. And he hated himself for bringing it on her.

Each time however, she came out of it, she escaped or was saved. She used to get scared, Hope, but she never let it stop her.

There was one villain though, who was different. This villain kidnapped Faith and made her to kill herself -

("What?")

And come back a monster.

Faith, she didn't want that. She was angry and confused and scared. She was terrified of this woman. Of the villain. More scared of her than anyone else in her life.

("I bet.")

But there came a time when the man Faith was friends with was kidnapped by the very same villain.

("Didn't she get tired of kidnapping people?")

Apparently not.

The man, he thought he was going to die. Until two women showed up and guess who was there?

Faith came back, and I tell you, that she was terrified even then, Hope, but she still came. Because she was fighting to protect her friend.

("Faith won, right?")

It was a hard battle that ended up with the villain passed out.

("And this is a true story? A villain who made a woman kill herself?")

Yes, but the part of the woman coming back to fight her fear, that's true as well.

You can't let fear stop you. Not when your loved ones are at stake.

("Daddy, the man and Faith weren't just friends, right?")

Family (Age 13)

"I don't get it. Why does this family fight so much? There's always a war, Dad."

"Family is complicated. In case you haven't noticed, we don't have the most typical domestic set up, Hope." Klaus leans against his daughter's bedroom door frame.

"No shit, Dad." Hope rolls her eyes.

"And we also happen to be 1000 or so years old, so naturally things tend to be complicated."

"But all this violence? It's so painful to watch. You're supposed to love each other, not betray each other and fight. Why don't you give up on each other and move on?"

"Because, Hope, we do love each other. Always and forever, it means something." He goes up to her, and joins her on the bed.

"Only in the supernatural world, probably. Human families aren't this twisted. They'd just move on."

"That's not always true, you know, Hope, there was this one person..." Klaus starts.

"I don't want a story, Dad."

"Give it a chance."

Once upon a time, there was a completely mortal, non super-natural, in-no-way-related-to-magic -

("I get the point, Dad.")

human. She had recently lost her brother, who had gone on a killing spree before killing himself.

She moved to the city he used to live in, to find out what went wrong. Her parents gave up on him. She gave up on them.

As it turned out, he was driven mad by a potion.

The only other relative she had there was her Uncle, who was turned into a vampire and tried to kill her before dying himself. She forgave him too.

("So the supernatural screwed her family over too?")

Yes, but when she came to town, she didn't know about the supernatural. Always and Forever is a human tendency. The supernatural makes it complicated, but family is always human.

("Who was she?")

Someone Hayley knew.

("But if her brother actually killed those people himself, without the potion; she wouldn't have forgiven him then, right? I mean, as a human, could she have done it?")

Well, she came to town because she believed in her brother's innocence, unlike her parents. She showed forgiveness right there. And even if it was as you said, she would have, eventually.

("How are you so sure?")

Because she was later able to accept and forgive a man much worse than her brother. Or so Hayley says.

Forgiveness (Age 16)

"Hope, you need to talk to us. You can't stay in your room, cooped up like this." Klaus stares at his daughter's figure under the covers of her bed.

"Go away."

"No. I will not. Your mother and I are worried about you. Ever since the attack in the bayou - Hope, if there's anything you need - "

Hope rears her head, "Do I look like I need anything Dad? I'm fine."

"If you're having nightmares, Freya can - "

"Nightmares?" Hope sits up straight, "You want to know the problem? I killed someone, Dad. I didn't think I would ever do that. It's the only thing that kept me sane in this family. But the day of that attack, I pulled the heart out of a vampire who was a little older than me -"

Klaus walks closer, "In self defense."

"STILL." Tears spring to her eyes, "That was someone with hopes and dreams, and I took it away. And in that moment, I enjoyed the power I had. What kind of person does that make me? My whole life, I've fought against being the monster that every Mikaelson can be, and look at me now. You might as well give me a certificate, I'm now an official Mikaelson."

"You protected us that day, Hope. You fought for what you believed in. Mikaelsons do that as well. You're a good person, love. A wonderful person." Klaus says.

"Why do I find that so hard to believe?"

"You have to forgive yourself, just like you forgive us."

"I don't think I can." Hope shakes her head.

"Do you remember the story I told you ten years ago? About Rose? I left something out."

The monster didn't become a man after they kissed.

He stayed a monster.

Rose still loved him.

She loved him for what he was and also, who he wanted to be.

And only with that love, did he start to change, slowly, into a man.

("So you're saying that we're monsters?")

I'm saying that it takes time and unconditional love to become who we want to be. I'm saying it's possible to love people who have done wrong, and it's possible for them to want to be better.

It's possible to love ourselves.

Forever (Age 17)

"Dad, can I tell you a story?" Hope approaches her father, who is sitting in an armchair, lost in his thoughts.

"Well, this is a nice reversal of roles, go ahead."

Once upon a time, there was a woman who stumbled into this world unexpectedly. She was only human, but that didn't stop her from standing up for what she believed in. She was brave, smart, and kind. She could love unconditionally.

Once upon a time, there was a woman who was needed by the supernatural, more than she needed it. She sought to understand it. She didn't break. In fact, she helped others put the pieces back together.

Once upon a time, there was a woman named Camille O'Connell, and she died today, fifteen years ago.

Klaus says nothing, his eyes shining bright with tears.

"Every story you've ever told me, Dad, is about her, right?" Hope asks, smiling gently.

"How did you find out?"

"It wasn't hard for me to figure out that you get all sad on this date, every year. I asked Mom, Davina. They said it hurt too much for you to talk about her, but she meant a lot to you. She wouldn't want to see you like this, Dad. We should celebrate her spirit. Which is why, I've called Davina, Vincent, Marcel, and Mr. Kinney. We're going to go out and drink and have a good time. She liked parties, right?"

"How do you know all this?"

"Please, I feel like I've known her forever."