Disclaimer: I own nothing, just playing with Klaus because he's sexy. Lyrics belong to Sam the Sham, The Kinks, and Frankie Vallie.
A/N: My first Klaus story, got this plot bunny back in April and didn't think that it would hold my attention for long but now I'm actually posting it! This is unbeta-ed but if anyone wants to beta the rest of the story (only 7 chapters) which I'm just putting the finishing touches on, feel free to pm me. Also on Livejournal, same username.
Who You Are and What You Could Have Been
Part 1: Chapter 1
I'm gonna keep my sheep suit on
Until I'm sure that you've been shown
That I can be trusted walking with you alone
Klaus is upset. Not that he would admit it.
Sure they managed to desiccate the history teacher (everything should be set right) but in the struggle to subdue him, Elena somehow got a hold of the white oak stake (not right) and all terms for negotiation shifted in her favor as a result. He left that night, appeasing the truce, with his hybrids on his heels all except Tyler (part of the deal). In return Elena promised to send him a pint of her blood every few months so long as he stays out of her life and Mystic Falls.
It was the only option he had.
On his way out of town, Klaus stopped by Caroline's in hopes of wooing her away, only to hear her and Tyler already celebrating his departure from their lives, loudly from her bedroom (but it could have just been his exceptional hearing).
He left a hybrid's head on the bloodstained porch for her to find in the morning.
Rebekah, having already left him in that godforsaken hell that is Mystic Falls Virginia, met up with Kol in a far away country that had long since been renamed from the last time they were there. Klaus received a text from Kol telling him that Rebekah was with him and when Klaus tried to call back the phone had been disconnected.
He pretends not to care (he would not be like Mikael) and he has his hybrids now so he is never alone.
But he is.
Now when Klaus is upset, he eats pretty little blondes. On his way up the eastern seaboard to find Elijah in New York, he's gone through quite a few but he's not sure why this one caught his attention as she walks into the grocery store talking on her cell phone.
It could have possibly been her hair. The same shade as Rebekah's.
The way she walked, maybe. Her ass swung just so like Caroline.
Perhaps it was her voice. Cold and imposing like Esther's.
Klaus follows her into the busy little store and grabs a basket out of a man's hand as he passes, ignoring the shouts of protest. The handle is cold and unfamiliar in his grip but that's the last thing on his mind.
He imagines her hair twisted around his fist as he fucks her from behind.
Her naked legs as she runs away from him, thinking she even has a chance.
Her screams dying as he rips out her throat with his teeth-
Klaus stops short when he catches the tail end of a wild musky scent, causing an old woman to run into the back of him with a shopping cart (doing more damage to the cart than him).
Werewolf.
Klaus ignores the commotion around him as people stop to help the woman up. He spots the source of the faint scent at the other end of the aisle, her back to him as she reads labels in the refrigerated section. He pushes past the people around him, in their search of an apology for the old woman.
Her jeans do not fit her right and the tank top is far too tight across her back for his liking. He could change that. Her hair is long and wavy (like Katerina's) but more of a rusty brown. He would not change that.
The girl turns and sets a gallon of milk in the shopping cart ahead of her as he approaches. Klaus stops short. Again. She isn't the werewolf, the baby inside her is, he can tell now that the scent permeates through her not from her. Oddly though, she does not smell of werewolf.
She gives him a friendly smile as she pushes the cart further down the aisle to look at the eggs. She is quite plain average looking really, no makeup or perfume to cloud his senses, there is nothing remarkable except her smile. All warmth and no inhibitions.
Klaus stands in the middle of the aisle for a full minute watching her compare the WIC voucher in her hand to a carton of eggs. Thoughts he hadn't had since before he was turned (having a family, a baby) flash through his mind. He quickly pushes them aside and instead imagines a friend, better yet a child he can raise to be just like him.
"Boy or girl?" Klaus finds himself asking as he stands beside her, the blonde he was after completely forgotten. Her hand instantly goes to her belly as she smiles.
"Boy. That's not an accent you hear every day." A boy.
Klaus grins but says nothing until he motions to her large belly. "Soon?"
"No, a few more weeks 'till I pop. I'm not quite a waddling duck yet." She laughs trying to hide her frustration but it shines through when she shoves the shopping guide into her purse.
"Problems?"
"How'd you guess?" she softens the sarcastic comment with a warm smile. "Kelsea."
She extends her hand and he pauses for a beat before taking it. "Nik." He flashes his dimples and she flushes, glancing away. "Here," he pulls out his wallet and hands her a hundred dollar bill. "Take this, get what you want."
"I can't," she shakes her head. "I'm fine."
Klaus grabs her hand and looks her in the eye. "Take it." Kelsea closes her fingers around the money just as the blonde from before slips past them in the aisle, renewing his hunger.
"It was nice meeting you."
Disappointment briefly flashes across her face as she eyes the blonde. "Thank you." She holds up the money and grabs a carton of eggs before leaving the aisle.
He slides up next to the blonde and catches her eye. "Hello, my dear, would you care to join me for a bite to eat?"
VV
Klaus finds her again at the bus stop in front of the store, the grocery bags surrounding her on the bench while she works on crocheting an uneven baby blanket, glancing at a book in her lap every so often. He pulls the Expedition along the curb and leans over the center console, glancing in the rearview mirror to be sure all the blood is off his face.
"Are you waiting for the bus?"
"Nope just sitting here 'cause I can," Kelsea looks up and smiles warmly at him. "You again."
"Me again. Do you want a ride?"
"The one piece of advice my mother gave me was don't get into a strangers car." He chuckles as he comes around the car to lean against the passenger door.
"Really, even if you have already taken the strangers money?" She shrugs smiling slyly so he slips on his innocent face and hold up his hands, palms out in an attempt to look nonthreatening. "I promise I'm not a serial killer, just a nice guy wanting to give a pregnant woman a ride home."
Kelsea raises her eyebrows and sets the blanket back in her bag, looking mildly offended. "And if I wasn't knocked up?"
"Then I'm just a nice guy giving a beautiful woman a ride."
"Hmm a ride?" Kelsea throws her head back letting out a bright raucous laugh (the infectious kind), bringing a smile to his face. Klaus playfully rolls his eyes as he crouches in front of her while she tries to stifle her laughter. He doesn't have all day to sit there and charm her into his car. But he does.
"Let me take you home."
She nods her head almost robotically as the compulsion takes hold but a smile still tugs at her lips and giggles, "You can give me a ride later."
VV
Klaus sits on the twin bed in her room as she puts the groceries in the small refrigerator just outside the door. The room is empty except for the bed, a night stand and a crib in the corner that looks like it belongs in an antique store, better yet the dump.
It was odd for him to be this close to a human and not be ripping out her throat or even thinking about it. Maybe it's because she reminds him of Caroline (strong and caring) or Esther (motherly and independent).
No, Klaus tells himself, he just wants the baby. A son he can mold and shape, to love him without the sire bond. To be loyal to him without force.
Even in death Mikael still shapes his life.
"Thank you again," Kelsea murmurs, watching her shoes as she leans against the door frame.
"No problem, love."
VV
They talked on the phone for weeks after they met, mostly about her life, her past and what she wants for her future. She's brutally honest and completely uncensored about her life, thoughts and opinions. Like Rebekah.
Kelsea's father left when she was young and she was raised by her mother who dove into alcohol when he moved out to marry another woman. Since she was five, Kelsea has taken care of the cooking, cleaning and laundry for both herself and her mother (trying to be a good daughter).
When she was sixteen she met the baby's father, who was a few years older and into drugs. He gave her the escape she so desperately wanted.
She was pregnant at nineteen.
He was gone by her twentieth birthday.
She lost her job, all her friends and was forced to move back in with her mother soon after. Despite all of this she is a caring, warm, down to earth soul and he rather likes talking to her. It is refreshing to talk to someone without a hidden agenda. Someone who genuinely likes him.
"What are you reading?" she asks over the phone while he taps the bookmark against the spine of the book as it lays open, face down, on his belly.
"The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli."
"Ooh I heard of him, that's the one about power and ruling, right?"
His lips twitch up into a faint smile. "Yes, it's the one about ruling."
"Hmm and what are you wanting to rule?"
"Everything," he answers honestly but keeps his tone light and playful. "What was the last thing you read?"
"Yeah, since I read all the time," she scoffs playfully. "Umm, I think it was Pride and Prejudice. Didn't understand a damn word and it was required reading so I didn't give a fuck."
He can hear the scratching of the sponge against a pan in the background. "Is your mom awake?"
"Nope, passed out hours ago. I'm doing up the last of the dinner dishes while she sleeps. Otherwise she will throw a fit."
There is a long pause as she rinses the dishes before he asks, "What are you going to do?"
"I have no clue," she whispers.
VV
Klaus wipes blood from around his mouth and looks down at what is left of Kelsea's ex, the baby's father. It wasn't a particularly slow death but Klaus feels better nonetheless, the thought of… whatever his name was… being out there with the ability to waltz back into Kelsea's life made his skin crawl. Not that he cares about her.
He kicks a severed hand out of the way and stalks over to the car to pull a small bag of Elena's blood (just enough to turn them) from the cooler in the back. He leans back against the bumper and waits.
It is a full moon.
Klaus can feel it, the need to turn; it's like an itch deep in his skin that he can't scratch; an ach in his bones. Having been suppressed for so long, he relishes that feeling.
He checks his watch and waits. Not yet.
A small red headed girl is the first to gasp to life and Klaus is by her side, blood bag in hand. The rest of the pack come to life soon after, all horrified to find their friend dead, but Klaus speeds around them passing out the small bags of Elena's blood.
Why waste perfectly good werewolves?
VV
It is 4:30 in the morning when the cell phone rings, breaking the dead silence of the house. Klaus had gone to bed not long before, a particularly feisty blonde he had found with a few of his new comrades had kept him up most of the night. He answers with a grunt, his face still buried in a pillow.
"Nik," her voice is just above a whisper and laced with fear. He is out of bed and pulling off his blood stained clothes before Kelsea can even finish the next sentence. "They're four minutes apart."
"All right sweetheart, I'll be there in a few minutes."
"Ok," Kelsea says her voice cracking as she disconnects the line. Klaus shoves the phone in the pocket of his jeans and pulls a clean shirt over his head. Grabbing a coat from the back of a chair, he is out the door in seconds.
He finds it funny that the night he kills the baby's father, Kelsea goes into labor.
Funny indeed.
VV
Klaus pulls open the screen door to Kelsea's house and lets it slam closed behind him, waking her mother from her drunken stupor on the couch. Pathetic. She spits and sputters at him unable to form actual words as he crosses the living room, paying her no attention.
She settles on throwing a beer bottle at him which crashes into the wall beside his head. Klaus stops and turns, ready to tear out her throat when Kelsea starts to descend the stairs. She comes into view clutching her belly and grimacing in pain, her hair still wet from the shower.
"I'm never having anymore children. This little bastard is enough," she smiles weakly, her eyes still shining with tears, as she passes him. A small smile is all he can muster in his rage. "Could you get my bag please, it's in my room."
Kelsea says nothing to her mother, didn't even bother to look at her as she walks out the door. No point.
Up the stairs and back down with her bag before the screen door has even slammed closed, Klaus heads towards the door but stops and drops the bag. The veins beneath his eyes darken and he feels his teeth elongate. He speeds over to her mother; his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming as he pushes her into the couch. He wills himself to keep his grip light. No need to mark her.
"You will keep drinking. Do not stop," he pauses, smiling slightly. "Until I tell you." She nods dumbly and he lets her sit up. She reaches out a shaking hand to open a beer bottle as Klaus picks up the bag and pulls the door closed behind him (with no intention of ever coming back).
VV
A screaming, healthy baby boy is born at 2:32 that afternoon. Kelsea is nearly crying as much as the baby out of sheer frustration and exhaustion.
Childbirth is not an experience Klaus ever wants to witness again. The blood, the screaming and the crying (his hand being broken about five times in her grip) - he sees nothing beautiful about it. But the baby in the end is beautiful.
Klaus sits hunched over in the chair beside the bed, the unnamed baby swaddled on his legs, his tiny head cradled in his hands, for hours while Kelsea sleeps. Just thinking, imagining this baby's life with a mother that loves him unconditionally. Even in the moments after he was born Klaus could feel her love for the child radiating from her. At least the child has that since he was now fatherless but no father is better than a father that doesn't want him (or love him).
"Hey," her soft voice breaks him out of his reverie.
"Hello, love."
Kelsea gives him a weak smile and holds out her hands, motioning for the baby. She pats the bed beside her when he stands. As she shifts onto her side, Klaus lays the baby on the bed and moves to sit in the chair but she grabs his wrist and pulls him back.
"What should I name you, hmm?" she murmurs to the baby as she runs her fingers over the dusting of black hair on his head. Klaus shifts her legs over and sits on the bed with his arm over her to prop himself up.
"What names do you like?"
It takes Klaus a moment to realize that she is talking to him. He shrugs. "I had a brother named Henrik."
"Had?" He gives a swift jerky nod and looks back at the baby. "I'm sorry."
"People say that but it never makes it better." He catches her gaze again and this time she looks away, flushing slightly.
"Henry, I like Henry Jamison Kroe. If that's ok?" She looks up, smiling at him. He gives her a dimpled grin in return.
"I like that too."
VV
Kelsea sits in the backseat of the Expedition with Henry as Klaus drives her home. To her new home really. He had bought the house after he met her, with the intent of staying around for a while. It was nothing too extravagant, just six bedrooms and three baths and the last house in the cul-de-sac with the back of the property butting up against a dense forest surrounding the area (that he compelled the land owners to give to him).
Renovations had finished the previous week moving the kitchen from the front of the house to an addition off the back of the dining room, making a study for Klaus. Leaving the rooms upstairs open for his siblings, should they show up.
Klaus pulls around the circular driveway and Kelsea finally looks up from watching the baby. "Where are we? I thought you were taking me home."
Klaus just smiles as he helps her out of the backseat and grabs the carrier and the bag for her.
"Nik," she whines, wanting an answer but he ignores her and shoulders open the front door. He leads her up stairs to a large room at the end of the hall. It is longer than it is wide with a beautiful crib, changing table and dresser all painted black, stocked with everything she needs for Henry. An antique rocking chair sits in the corner beside the bay window overlooking the huge back yard, shaded by two large dogwood trees.
Painted across the midnight blue ceiling are the phases of the moon with the full moon above the crib (playing the irony for all it is worth). The dark blue fades down to a light baby blue that covers the walls where antique paintings of the individual constellations hang.
Klaus waits by the door until she is done examining the room. When she turns, smiling as her eyes fill with tears, he catches her eye.
"Stay with me."
VV
A week later the police show up on his door step to inform Kelsea that her mother had died a few days prior from alcohol poisoning. She stands stoic, no tears, nothing, as she answers the questions and tells the cop to contact her aunt to take care of the body.
Henry's cries from the baby monitor break through the tense silence after Klaus closes the door behind the cop. It seems to snap her out of her shock and she slips up the stairs without a word but the moment the door to Henry's room closes he hears her resolve break.
Humans.
He gives her half an hour before he goes to check on her and the baby. She's standing over Henry's crib, crying softly when he pushes open the door.
"Are you alright?" Klaus asks quietly from the doorway.
"Why do people ask that when they already know the answer?" she shoots him a sardonic smile over her shoulder. He walks over and rests his hand on her back, both watching as Henry sleeps. Kelsea turns and before he knows it her arms are around his waist, her head against his chest.
Humans.
His hand comes up to stroke her hair as she cries while the other rubs light circles on her lower back, beneath her shirt.
"I'm not crying over her, I'm crying over who she could have been."
VV
Rebekah shows up a few months after Henry is born. She stands on Klaus' doorstep surrounded by her luggage, large sunglasses covering her eyes as she plans her dramatic entrance once a hybrid or Nik opens the door. But she is taken by surprise when a human girl opens the door with a warm smile and a baby bottle.
"You must be Rebekah," she says, her eyes missing that glassy, compelled look so many girls around Nik have. "Nik has told me about you."
The girl turns and calls his name. "Come on in." She pulls the door open wider so Rebekah can step into the foyer. "So Nik told me you were traveling with your brother, is he here too?"
"No," Rebekah answers shortly. Told you about me?
Klaus saunters into the foyer, the baby in his arms, not missing a beat when he sees his sister.
"'Bekah, so good to see you." He hands the sleeping baby off to the girl who quietly slips up the stairs after giving her a kind smile.
"Who is she Nik?" Rebekah asks crossing her arms over her chest asshe tries not to sound jealous.
"Come now 'Bekah not jealous of a human girl are you?" he teases heading through the dining room to his study.
"Shut up Nik!"
VV
Rebekah decides she likes her. It takes a few days but she finds Kelsea to be a genuinely kindhearted and ordinary person, just as Klaus told her (but she has better senses about these things). She truly seems to care about her brother (he's just as petulant and reclusive as ever).
Rebekah takes Kelsea shopping at the little mall not far from the house, the first time she has been out of the house since she had the baby. It's frightening how much he's rubbed off on her in a few short months. Rebekah sets out to change that.
She buys Kelsea clothes she says she doesn't need, shoes she won't wear, bags she won't use and enjoys every minute of it.
"The clothes in the twenties were less…slutty." She holds up a pair of tiny faux leather shorts that leave little to the imagination and adds them to Kelsea's pile.
"The what?"
Rebekah sighs and turns around, catching her eye. "You didn't hear that." That's tiring though, the compelling when she lets something slip. She would rather Klaus just compel her to be fine with the fact she is living with thousand year old vampires but no he wants to keep her the way she is (uncorrupted was the word he used).
Kelsea's eyes lose that glassy look as she glances over at the pile of clothes Rebekah is gathering up for her. "There is no way in hell that I'm wearing those!" She holds up the shorts and raises her eyebrows.
"Nik will like them."
"Then he can wear them." The mental image comes to both of them simultaneously and Kelsea throws her head back to let out a loud cackle making the other shoppers look at them in annoyance while Rebekah leans against her to keep from falling over.
She decides she likes her sense of humor.
VV
Kelsea slips out of her room and pulls her bedroom door shut as quietly as she can. Henry in one arm and a bag over her shoulder, she carefully tiptoes down the hall avoiding the spots that creak and groan.
The house is eerily silent with no sounds from the TV, radio or any kitchen appliance, the usual sounds as she cooks or cleans. It is quite creepy.
Rebekah is out shopping, for what Kelsea does not know (she has enough clothes and shoes for a small army of girls) and Klaus is in his study below. Perfect for her get away.
Kelsea keeps one eye on the staircase as she passes intent on the next door on the left. A creak from the floor below startles her and she quickly dives into the room, keeping the door cracked just enough so she can see out. When no one appears at the top of the staircase she crosses the room to a set of frosted glass doors.
Kelsea pulls them open and sighs at the sight of a bathtub that she knew was bigger than the whole bathroom she had at her mother's house. It was black marble with room enough for two and level with the window, overlooking the garden she had planted just behind the kitchen. She had told Rebekah she planned on asking Klaus about putting in a garden. She's not sure if Rebekah told him or if he overheard but the next day she found the area tilled with a cute little wrought iron fence surrounding it.
Kelsea turns on the taps and starts to strip herself and Henry as the tub fills. She dumps in some of the bubble bath stuff Rebekah had bought her to create a nice thick layer of bubbles on the water. The water is perfect as she carefully slips in with Henry. Keeping her feet flat and her legs bent, Kelsea rests Henry against them to soap him down.
Rarely does she get moments like these to herself (really she doesn't give herself these moments). Since she moved in, Kelsea feels like she has to cook and clean. The least she can do is have hot meals on the table and keep everything picked up for the roof over her head. She is grateful everyday for Nik, not many (if any) wealthy artists in their twenties would move in a woman with another man's child and not expect sex.
He never complains about Henry crying in the middle of the night, never balks at giving him a bath, and dotes on him as if he is his own child. He buys her new clothes (now Rebekah's job), gave her the most beautiful kitchen she could ever dream of, gets her everything she asks for (or doesn't ask for), and simply talks to her. Some nights they are up on the deck over the foyer talking about nothing and everything until the sun rises (she absolutely loves those nights until Henry wakes her up only a few hours later).
"We should call Nik to come and get you," she muses softly as Henry smacks at the bubbles multiplying around them. "Before you're a cute little raisin."
Just as she reaches over the edge of the tub for her phone, the door opens and Klaus walks in, Henry's frog towel thrown over his shoulder as if he's psychic. Sometimes she really wonders.
"I knew I forgot something," she chuckles, holding a bubbly Henry out to him. Ignoring her immodesty, Klaus pushes up the sleeves of his shirt and takes the baby from her.
"Enjoying yourself?" he asks over his shoulder as he rinses Henry off in the sink before wrapping him up in the towel.
"Yes, immensely," she giggles as she sinks down lower so only her face is showing. "It's not like you use this. There was at least this much dust," she holds her fingers about an inch apart above the bubbles.
Klaus chuckles, rolling his eyes playfully as he slips from the room with the baby, letting her take the rest of her bath in peace.
VV
"I always wanted a sister," Rebekah watches as Kelsea paints her toenails before meeting her eyes. "I love my brothers but…"
Kelsea gives her a knowing smile. "They won't paint your toes pink?"
"Exactly."
VV
They dance around the living room, the music blasting from the sound system that has only ever played jazz, as they sing along (off key) with The Kinks. The early morning sun streams through the open patio doors illuminating them in a soft golden light. Kelsea's white cotton nightgown swirls around her legs as she spins in circles, her head thrown back and her arms outstretched.
"Niiiik," Rebekah draws out his name in a singsong voice when she spots him watching from the bottom of the staircase. "Dance with us," she whines. She grabs his hand and pulls him onto their makeshift dance floor in the middle of the living room. They had pushed the furniture against the walls and the Indian rug (he spent entirely too much money on) was rolled up and shoved in a corner.
Kelsea stops spinning when she sees him, bare-chested and hair still tussled from sleep. Her heart rate jumps but she smiles and grabs his other hand.
"Yeah you really got me; You got me so I don't know what I'm doing now…" They sing as they dance around him. Shimming and bouncing, Kelsea throws her head back and lets out her infectious laugh making him smile.
"How could you let me miss the sixties?" Rebekah hisses in his ear, low enough so Kelsea won't hear.
"Just another decade with a war, sweetheart."
He excuses himself when the song changes, much to their dismay and slips into the dining room to watch them from the shadows. Rebekah wraps her arms around Kelsea and they sway back and forth, singing softly now (still off key).
"You're just too good to be true; Can't take my eyes off of you; You'd be like heaven to touch; I wanna hold you so much…"
VV
"He loves you," Rebekah announces as they stand in the dressing room at a fancy new boutique that had just moved into the mall while Kelsea zips her into a pretty green cocktail dress.
"We're just friends."She blushes and turns to sit on the small bench. Rebekah raises an eyebrow and looks at her in the mirror, completely unconvinced.
"I know my brother."
"It's been nearly a year since I met him. Is he waiting for me to drop the baby weight or something?" Kelsea asks jokingly, but Rebekah can hear the pain in her voice, watching as she pulls her shirt over the curve of her belly self-consciously.
"Do you love him?"
"I don't know," she whispers.
