Phone Calls
by poopaw
Disclaimer: Disclaiming.
Klaus watches Hayley from the window. She has a hand on her swelling belly and a content smile on her face. The sun is in its slow descent and the light captures her perfectly.
If he focuses on his abilities just a little bit more, he'll hear the soft and quiet beat of another small heart. The most beautiful melody he has ever heard. A sound so akin to a song that he feels he knows all too well.
Hayley stops in her walk and looks back at the house. He does not pretend he wasn't looking at her.
"What?" she mouths.
Klaus raises an eyebrow and decides that the moment is over. He can't possibly have a quiet moment with his child's heartbeat anymore, not now that the mother knows he's been watching. She's never been very fond of him and she knows he feels the same. And so, he leaves the room and finds solace in his office upstairs.
When the door closes and he finds assurance that Hayley has continued her walk and nobody could hear him, he dials a number he's memorized far too long ago. With the lull of his child's heartbeat in mind, he finds himself wanting to hear her voice as well.
The line gets picked up after the fourth ring and he hears shuffling, a muffled "Ouch, fuck!", and a door closing before he finally hears her voice.
"Klaus?"
He finds himself bowing his head in attempt to hide a bashful smile from his nonexistent audience. This is the first time he makes an attempt to reach out to her. There was just something in the way the afternoon felt that made him long for something he's not supposed to.
"Hi, Caroline."
Silence meets his greeting and he wonders when she'll hang up.
"Are you dying?"
Would it be selfish for him to wish for her to never hang up?
"No."
He's been selfish since his transformation anyway. It doesn't really matter.
"Are your siblings dying?"
"No."
"Is anyone dying?"
"None that I know of at the moment."
"Then why are you calling?"
Klaus stands from his perch on his mahogany table and walks to the window. He sees Hayley sitting by the pool with Elijah now. They're talking quiet intimately, heads bowed in an attempt to become closer.
Her hand is still on her protruding belly. The only evidence of his child's existence.
"Can't I call?"
He hears her sigh on the other end. "You know you're not supposed to, Klaus."
He ignores her completely. Seeing Elijah so intimate with the mother of his child makes him feel things he shouldn't. "I wonder."
She humors him and accepts the change in topic. "Wonder about?"
Could he turn his back on all of his insecurities about family and power if – "If it were you instead."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Klaus watches as Hayley chuckles quietly and leans her head on Elijah's shoulder. Her eyes are bright with life. His brother, in turn, looks as content as his prim and proper self could ever be. Hayley's hand is still on top of her belly, where his child rests.
"If I wasn't spiteful that night. If I had just let out my frustrations elsewhere."
"Listen, buddy. I left my dorm room because Elena and Bonnie were there and I didn't walk halfway across campus to listen to you talk nonsense, ok? I'm going to hang up now."
"Wait," he practically yells out in a haste to stop her. Elijah turns his head a fraction of an inch and his eyes immediately dart upwards. Klaus gives the slightest shake of his head and his brother merely raises an eyebrow and turns his head back to the brunette beside him.
"I just wanted you," he murmurs, turning away from the window in fear of his brother hearing his conversation.
He hears her stop walking and sighs quietly at his tone. "Klaus," she firmly whispers back. "You just can't call in the middle of the day after months of silence. We haven't seen nor talked to each other since that day. You can't just call me out of nowhere and talk about things I don't understand. You can't just tell me you want me."
"Apologies," he tells her. It doesn't really matter because he hardly means it. He just needs to hear her voice today. "Would you have liked me if you met me when I was still human?"
"Klaus –"
He sighs and rubs his temple. What a rare day in history this is – a moment when his walls come down and he has no fight in him to put it back up. "I used to be good."
Her silence rings loudly than anything she could've said.
"I wonder about that a lot."
"First of all," she quietly whispers back. There is a certain sarcasm present in her voice. It doesn't sound biting or vicious at all. She's humoring him. "You wouldn't have met me at all if you were still human, seeing as you'd have been a hundred years underground by the time my parents decided to conceive."
Klaus' lips move upwards a bit at her words. "Yes, I suppose you are right."
"Second of all," Caroline sighs and her voice is louder this time. "You shouldn't wonder about what ifs, Klaus. That's a dangerous path for someone who can live forever."
"I know," he murmurs. "I just – I just wanted her to be you."
He hears her walking on the other end. Was she just wondering around campus?
"Klaus."
It seemed like forever before he heard her voice again, and it's in the way she says it that he understands. "You know."
"How could I not?"
"You're not mad?"
"I don't have any reason to be."
It stings but it's the truth. And he appreciates the truth, especially coming from her. "Yes, I suppose you're right again."
"But if it helps, I'm not very glad either," she manages to say through her teeth. "Now, please don't make this any harder for yourself, Klaus. Don't call me again."
The line gets cut and that's it.
AN: I still owe an epilogue to my last story but maybe this'll make the blow of maybe not finishing it (or like waiting for 300 years) hurt less? I don't know. My Klaroline feels have been declining as of late. And I can't seem to get it back. :(