1.) The Little Things

When the sun has long risen up in the horizons, Elijah walks down the hall while simultaneously adjusting the leather strap of his watch. He has freshly showered and is donning his usual, crisp unimpeachable suit. The morning sun enters through the large windows of the plantation house, lightening up the place beautifully. He stops walking when he reaches the doorway to the kitchen. He watches the pregnant Hayley rummage through the pantry. She's still wearing her nightie that ends mid-thigh underneath a gray cardigan and is barefoot. Her hair is unkempt and cascading down her shoulders. The nightie looks so perfect on her, despite (or maybe because of) its simplicity and innocence. One of her hands is shuffling through a cabinet while the other is resting on the large swell of her belly. She hasn't notice him yet.

"May I help you find what it is that you're looking for?" He asks, entering the room now.

Hayley startles, causing her to slam close the cabinet, the sound echoing through the very quiet house. She gives him a look. "I think I've had enough of vampires creeping up on me to last a lifetime."

Elijah chuckles. He stops in front of her. "Forgive me. I have spent most of my lifetime with fellow vampires and it is greatly difficult to creep up on us."

She holds her hands aloft briefly. "Hey, you don't have to tell me."

"Did you sleep well last night?" He asks, watching her rest her lower back against the counter beside him.

"I guess." Hayley shrugs. "I mean, let's face it, how often does heavily pregnant women sleep soundlessly and comfortably?"

"I wouldn't know. I've never been pregnant myself."

Hayley looks at him confusedly before laughing – the sound so lively and heartening to Elijah. She says, "Wow, that was a lame attempt of a joke. Terrible, really. You should just stick with great, big, noble words."

Elijah eyes her amusedly. "If you find the joke so terrible, then why did you laugh?"

"I laughed on the account of it being lame." She answers.

Elijah chuckles more before it inevitably wanes. "Where have my siblings gone to this morning?"

"I don't really know. The both of them were quite vague about it. Rebekah says something about going into town to whatever – she had closed the door before she could even say it and Klaus just told me that I shouldn't do anything risky today and then he's out the door. Quite charmers, you Mikaelsons are."

"Ah, yes. Please forgive my siblings. I'm afraid they have lost their touch on manners and proper etiquette."

"I understand." Hayley says. "Of all the near-death experiences they've had, proper etiquette is pretty much out the window of their thoughts."

Elijah nods. He admires her for her open-mindedness. She was, after all, a vagabond. And in order to blend into an unfamiliar place, one needs an open mind to see things in the way the locals do. But now, she doesn't have to be a vagabond anymore. She now has a family, people who would accept her for who she is. Elijah takes pride in giving her that.

He looks around. "So you haven't had breakfast, I take it?"

Hayley sighs. "No. I've been trying to find something to eat, something that I'm really hungry for and I couldn't. I don't know what I want – or what the baby wants, for that matter. I couldn't put a finger on it." She lowers down her voice. "No offense, I know that this is why you're protecting me in the first place but being pregnant is a bitch. It isn't all rainbows and unicorns – miracle baby or not."

Elijah finds himself amused again. "No matter. We'll just narrow it down into categories." He says. As he is about to say something, Hayley beats him to it.

"I am not eating cereal or bread…or eggs." She cringes. "Just the thought of them makes me feel even more nauseous than I already do."

"Fruits, then?" Elijah suggests but his ideas in the category dies down just as quickly when she bites her lower lip, grimace etched upon her face. "Meat? I hear bacon is quite a hit in the mornings."

Hayley giggles. "Just the thought of you eating bacon…" When her laughter dies down, she says, "But bacon's out of the picture. I've looked at the pack of it in the fridge too many times already and I can never bring myself to take it out and cook it."

"So no meat also. Vegetables?"

"Elijah." Hayley sends him exasperated look. "Do I look like I love vegetables? I am a wolf. We're never caught munching on grass for a reason."

"Well, what would you have me say, Hayley?" Elijah says, a smile twitching on his lips. "I'm afraid I'm running out of food categories to suggest. I can recite the plays of Shakespeare off the top of my head but I'm afraid I'm a tad rusty on naming off kinds of food."

Hayley crosses her arms, grinning at him. "You said that you'd protect me no matter what, right?"

In a heartbeat, Elijah says, "Of course."

"Well, then you have to protect me and my baby from dying of hunger. You're gonna have to think of something that my baby – need I remind you, your niece – would want." She tries to say it firmly but she seems t find it difficult to keep her face straight.

"Hayley, I am a very powerful vampire and you know that quite well." He says. "But I am as capable of reading minds of fetuses as any given human on this earth."

Hayley sighs heavily. "What a disappointment."

Elijah's eyebrows raise, a laugh slipping past his lips. "Am I now?"

She's about to respond quirkily but she stops abruptly.

For a fleeting moment, Elijah is on high alert. He touches her arms. "Hayley?'

But his momentary lapse of panic fades when she smiles genuinely at him and says, "Pineapple."

Elijah eyes her confusedly. "Sorry? Pineapple, really?"

"Yeah." Hayley says. "It all clicks now. Pineapple is the way to go."

Elijah shakes his head at her amusedly. "Pineapple it is." He drops his hands from her arms. "I'll get some in town and–"

"I'll come with." Hayley volunteers herself but Elijah is already disagreeing.

"Hayley–" He starts.

"What?" She asks defensively. "I haven't left this house in days and if I don't breathe fresh air and see people other the three Original vampires, I am gonna lose it."

"You can get fresh air in the garden and as for seeing other, unimportant people, I'm afraid it is not essential to your safety."

She gives him a look. "Elijah, would you rather my losing it induce labor? I mean, it could happen when you're getting that pineapple."

With her determined look, Elijah finds himself giving in. "Fine. But getting pineapples – that is it."

"Hey, it's not like I have friends to see." Hayley says. "I'll meet you at the front door in a few." She gives his hand a brief squeeze when she walks by him as she exits the kitchen.

Elijah could feel his hand still tingling from where she had touched him but he ignores it. He makes his way to the front door, by the foot of the stairs.

After a moment, Hayley emerges down the stairs, having only thrown on a coat and scarf over her nightclothes and slipped on a pair of black flats. She looks so effortlessly – literally, as she's just tousling her hair, Elijah's bet to be her attempt to tame it – beautiful. Insanely beautiful. He opts not to dwell on it and buries the thought deep in his mind.

She meets him at the foot of the stairs and takes the arm offered to her and together, they walk out of the house. They walk down the driveway, to Elijah's sleek BMW. Hayley raises her eyebrows at it but she suppresses the comment when Elijah opens the door for her to get in. Once the both of them are in and Elijah pulls out of the driveway, she speaks her comment aloud.

"Fancy car. Dashing suit. Sparkling personality." She says. She smiles when Elijah gives her a look. "Is there ever something Elijah Mikaelson doesn't have?"

Elijah sends a smile in her way as he drives the car into the main road. The smile is soft but there's a hint of sadness in it. "You may think that we have the world in our palms but there are a lot of things that we can never have."

Hayley becomes quiet as she registers his words in his mind. Elijah worries that his statement may have exposed the secret desires of his. Hayley is very smart person – of course she knows what he's talking about.

"Right." She says apologetically. "Stupid question."

"No, it was a perfectly valid question."

"Well, even so, I get it." She says. "Family is everything to you. The fact that you can't build one on your own must be harsher than I thought."

Elijah nods his head, his hand gripping the steering wheel. That is true. It's one of his greatest wishes and he has long ago accepted that he can never have. It's a pain to accept it but there's nothing more he could do. He focuses on the road, not being able to meet Hayley's eyes for a moment. Then suddenly, he feels her warm hand sliding into his that is resting on the center console. She weaves their fingers together. When Elijah dares to look at her briefly, she's staring out the window. For the whole drive, their hands are together, neither one speaking more. It's a comfortable silence anyway.

When they have reached the town, Elijah parks the car and the two of them walk to the area of the Quarter where all the food stalls are located. Elijah watches Hayley as they walk. Both of her hands are in her coat pockets and she looks around, taking in the surroundings.

She meets his stare. "So what was this place like before? You know, way back when you and your siblings ruled town."

Her back bumps into his chest as the huge crowd surrounds them. He places a hand on her arm while the other is on her waist to guide her as they maneuver themselves in between people. He says on her ear, "Things were almost the same. Only now, they are modernized. The people do what it is they did before but only in a different way. Socializing, business – everything. Although I am glad to see that there are some traditions that are still greatly intact and sacred among them. It's nostalgic, that way. When you think about it, New Orleans is a great place to raise you child."

"Oh, yeah?"

He hums in agreement. "The history is so rich, making it rather mysterious and mesmerizing. She'll adore this city."

"Yeah and to top that, the streets are clean."

Elijah chuckles. "Yes, that, as well." He looks around and sees a fruit stall at the end of the street but there are still a great number of people between him and that. He tells Hayley, "Could you wait for me over there," he points to a street sign, where the crowd is somehow slimmer, "while I get you your breakfast?"

"Sure." She says and walks over to it.

Elijah walks through the crowd and to the fruit stall. As he buys and waits for the vendor to skin and cut the pineapples, he uses his sharp hearing to keep track of Hayley. Through the noise in the street, he could still separate her from them. He furrows his eyebrows when he hears her laughing, a sound unmistakably hers. And then he hears her say, "Hey, buddy." Now, he's rather curious.

When he finally gets the paper bag of fruits, he makes his way back to Hayley. The sight explains what he had just heard. One of the townies has a Labrador on a leash. Hayley is petting the head of the dog, scratching it softly.

She says to the female townie, "He's so sweet."

The townie replies, "It's weird. He's normally not so good with other people."

Hayley just grins happily at the dog. For a moment, Elijah is transfixed with the way she's smiling. There's so much in it, so much happiness. It baffles him that this is only because of a stranger's mere dog. Suddenly, he wishes that she is always like this, that this smile wouldn't fade away. But he knows that is impossible. She can't live in their world and be forever happy and content. There is always a problem, there will always be. So he savors this moment before it is gone.

And that's when he discovers something deep within him. Something that is only elicited very few times. He hadn't felt this way in such a long time. Feeling like this terrifies him. He couldn't explain. He wouldn't. But now that he is painfully aware of it, he is torn.

"Hey!" Hayley calls for him.

Elijah musters up a smile and walks over to her. The townie and the dog are now walking away, but the smile on Hayley's face is still intact. He presents her the bag and she looks into it, her smile only widening.

She looks up at him again. "Thank you so much, Elijah."

"It was my pleasure."

"So let's head on home."

"Wait." He says.

She looks at him confusedly. "What it is?"

"It seems to me that you're enjoying yourself here."

"Well, I am."

"Then let's stay for a little bit longer."

She eyes him skeptically. "You sure? You made it plenty clear–"

"Yes, but I also fear that lack of fresh air and other people might induce labor and believe me, I am not ready for that no more than you."

Hayley laughs at him, her fingers curling around his arm as they start walking again. "Okay, then."