A/N: some characters are a little bit OOC Bonnie/Kol and Caroline/Klaus are in the story but not a big part of it – this chapter is kinda just a cute bonding chapter sooo yaa :)

Chapter Two: Cuddles

Elijah, Klaus, Ella, Rebekah, and Kol all sat in the living room. Ella was sprawled across Kol and Elijah's laps, Rebekah's iPhone in her tiny hands, the four-year-old paying to mind to the conversation going on around her.

Kol looked incredulously at Ella's socked feet that were resting on his thighs, "So let me get this straight…" He started, eyebrow raised slightly. "Elijah knocked up a girl and now we have a little human-vampire hybrid running around our extremely expensive mansion?"

"Well, if you'd like to put it that way, Kol." Klaus snorted as he looked up from his pile of documents the grandmother had given them.

"And you, Klaus, decided to hide the child from our family by sending her away to live with her grandmother?" Kol's attention was now turned to his brother, rather than the feet on his legs.

"We can look past that."

Rebekah let out a scoff and rolled her eyes at her brother, "I wouldn't go jumping to conclusions."

They all turned to Ella as she let out a tiny yawn and rubbed her eyes, dropping Rebekah's phone to the floor in the process. Elijah, Kol, and Klaus all sat silently, waiting to see her reaction. However, to the three brothers' surprise, Rebekah just smiled softly and bent down to retrieve her fallen phone.

"I think she's tired."

Kol rolled his eyes at Elijah, as if to say No shit!

Elijah just chuckled and lifted the sleeping little girl into his arms, leaving the room. The three younger siblings watched as he left, neither of them saying anything for a while.

"I wonder how things would've turned out differently if Elijah had raised her." Kol thought out loud. "Because from what I hear, the grandmother was quite the – "

"Okay, I get it! I messed up!" Klaus snarled at his younger brother defensively. "You don't have to shove it in my face."

Though the blonde Original looked to be angry, his two siblings knew that his anger masked his guilt and fear. The guilt of having potentially ruined his nieces life and the fear of Elijah never forgiving him eating at him slowly from the inside out.

"Nik…" Kol said as a quiet apology.

"I know… I know… I didn't mean to snap at you." Klaus said quickly. "I need to just – never mind."

Klaus stood and left the room without another word.

Elijah exited the living room and went upstairs, carrying Ella to the guest room. When they reached the queen sized bed Ella refused to be put down, clinging tightly to his tie.

"No." She mumbled with one hand around the tie and the other with one thumb in her mouth.

"Aren't you sleepy?" Elijah asked softly, a smile on his lips as he tried to gently pull her fingers from his tie.

"Don' leave." Ella said sleepily. "I like you. You're not mean like my grandma."

Elijah sighed quietly, "Okay, I'll stay." The eldest Mikaelson sibling slid next to his daughter, letting her curl into his much larger body and sigh contently. He laid there staring at the ceiling until he heard soft snores coming from the little body next to him.

"I'm not sure if you understand yet," Elijah whispered softly as a sudden tiredness over came him. "but I'm your dad. I've missed a lot, I know, but I'm going to try really hard to make up for it. I've only known you since eight this morning, but I love you. So does Bekah and Kol, even Niklaus, he is just too stubborn to admit emotion. You'll fit in great. And Mikael, my father, your grandfather, we won't let him hurt you. He'll have to go through all of us first. That's a promise."

Klaus listened from the hallway, guilt gripping his stomach even tighter than before. For the first time in years, he began to contemplate on the type of person he was. He'd ruined a father daughter relationship because he was too scared of his father to deal with it like a man. Klaus shook his head and entered the room. Without a word to either Ella or Elijah, he lied down next to his niece, mumbling a soft I'm sorry before falling asleep next to the two.

Rebekah and Kol came upstairs a few hours later, Rebekah going to check on her seemingly missing siblings before entering and gasping,

"Kol you'll never guess what our big brothers are doing right now."

Kol came behind his sister and grinned,

"It seems like the Grinch's heart just grew three sizes."

Kol and Rebekah went inside, deciding that they were going to join their family, only to watch over them of course. And that's how Caroline found her the next morning when she came to drop off the shirt Klaus left at her house. Elijah, Klaus, and Ella cuddled on the bed. Kol seated on a fancy arm chair, head hanging to the side with a steady snoring noise coming from his mouth. Rebekah was sprawled out on a couch, blonde curls haphazardly spread around her head. Caroline let out an aw! Before pulling out her phone and taking a picture.

"Blackmail is my favorite."

A/N: review!