Caroline Forbes was not a morning person.
Something nudged her foot, tugging her big toe and she pushed back, sleep dragging her slothful limbs, clinging to her lethargic muscles. The thing persisted, jerking her toes and scraping the pink soles of her feet. Squirming under the pile of pillows she had buried herself under, Caroline kicked back the blankets. She refused to get up; whatever it was would have to concede defeat and let her be. Grinning under her soft chrysalis, she groaned as sleep dragged her back into its beautiful fog. Then she felt the bed dip, heard the soft spurts of muffled laughter, tendrils of silver chortles bursting through thrilled fingers and her blue eyes cracked open and glared.
Hope.
Electrified by the prospect of having awoken the blonde, the child began jumping up and down the bed with a spirit that shook Caroline from the mattress. Rolling over to her back, Caroline used her elbows to push herself up. She blew a strand of hair from her face and tried to calm herself.
"Sweetie, it's so early"
It was her one day off from the bar, no boisterous drunk clients trying to pick her up with tired lines, no sloshed customers getting sick on the floor and tipping her morsels. In truth, Coyote Ugly was one of the trendiest bars in the Meat Packing District and Caroline loved her job. What she loved even more than her job was her beauty sleep. Slumber, she would not be relishing because of the beautiful little monster rocking her bed.
"Wake up! Wake up!" Hope screamed, bouncing up and down on the bed.
Caroline grabbed her ankle, a move meant to sedate the hysterical child. What she had not counted on was jerking her small ankle, a trigger that sent the waif little thing plummeting down on the bed, immersed in a whirl of blankets.
Ow!" Hope cried, rapidly climbing down the bed "Daddy!"
Caroline groaned, smacking her head back against the pillows, clenched fists pounding the mattress. She was in no mood to deal with Klaus's wrath today. Caroline was tired and cranky, besides the fact that they hadn't had a proper love making session since Hope arrived. She was always on edge about Hope barging in on them mid tryst like she had done that one time.
Two weeks and counting.
"I swear nothing happened" Caroline shook her head, stepping back with her hands held up in meek defence. She was tired of defending herself every time there was a problem with Hope, tired of Klaus forever swooping in to rescue his daughter from the big evil stepmom.
"There, there" Klaus soothed while rubbing her knee "Daddy will make it all better. I promise" he cooed, brushing back her brown curls from her wide blue eyes.
Scooping his daughter up onto his hip, Klaus kissed her cheek and glared bitterly at Caroline.
"What happened?" he inquired and Caroline caught the repressed snarl in his voice.
"Nothing, it was an accident" she replied, puffing a breath of hot air through her lips. She didn't like his accusatory tone one bit and had it not been for the little monster
"Just let her jump on the damn bed, love" he said "she's only a child"
"It's seven in the morning!" she cried, hands splayed on her hips "You need to set rules, Klaus"
"We need to set rules, we're co-parenting remember?" he said pushing open the double doors to the en-suit bathroom
"In theory but whenever there's an issue you come running. You never let me handle things"
"You're not my mommy! "Hope's bottom lip quivered, arms clasped around Klaus's neck.
"I think you girls are due some bonding time," he simpered, eyes darting from Hope to Caroline "don't you think so, love?"
"What am I going to do with her?"
"Go show her Nemo, you know how much she likes that"
Showing her Nemo meant taking Hope down to the aquarium. Klaus thought that the place calmed her and after reading an article about Aquarium therapy, he made her visits to aquarium almost mandatory. This would be Hope's fist therapist, Caroline mused because Manhattan was crawling with toddlers and therapists on daddy's payroll.
"Nemo?" she whined," Honey, I have a dress on hold at Bergdorf"
"Don't make me with go with her, daddy" Hope moaned, pressing harder against her father.
"Pretty please, "he cajoled, closing the gap between them with his daughter snug around his waist "I'll make it worth your while, sweetheart" he told Caroline.
"You wouldn't tease a girl, would you?" she smirked, the pad of his thumb brushing her bottom lip. The brief flicker in his eyes disappeared as soon as Hope tweaked his ears, crying for his attention.
"I'm my late for meeting, love" he told his older blonde.
"Sure, go ahead. I'll take care of Hope" she surrendered, her fingers ruffling her tangled flaxen locks.
"Thank you" he grinned, setting Hope down on the bed before kissing the top of her head "Daddy loves you" he whispered before returning to Caroline.
"And Daddy loves you too" he reinforced with a lowly growl, hands cupping her face. Lowering his head, he kissed her with slow precision that disputed everything she had felt about him earlier than morning.
Klaus loved her and she didn't want to doubt that again.
..
Caroline loved the mammoth space of their loft. She loved the sunlight flooding through the wall to wall French windows, dancing around the baby grand in the middle of their lounge and she loved the neon graffiti walls in her photography studio downstairs where she could sit for hours developing her film. A collection of her work was displayed around the apartment, the grey prints sitting in a nice contrast against the exposed brick of Klaus's walls. He liked to show them off as if they were high priced Picasso's whenever a few of their friends and colleagues swung around for a drink or two.
As Caroline tied Hope's pink suede boots, she felt the little girl's scowl burning holes on the top of her head and she looked up.
"Is there a problem?" she puffed, nervously combing her fingers through her hair.
"Do you know what you're doing?" Hope huffed, arms crossed over her tiny chest.
"Theoretically, no" Caroline said before she cautiously took Hope's hand.
..
Katherine snapped the laptop shut and sat there for a long while glaring at rose pattern on the Oriental rug they had bought two summers ago. She wondered why they had even bought the damn thing before her mind drifted to that one time they had made love on it. Perhaps it had been the sumptuous scarlet colour of the rug, too much scotch or the raging storm that night but they had behaved like fervent teenagers.
A few military wives often referred to deployment as a little death. Katherine still felt the grief but she was getting better at coping, better at numbing herself to his absence. However, she still struggled with the empty bed, not having him there when she stirred in the early hours of a chilly morning. Katherine hated sleeping alone. One would think that with her being a cop she would be better equipped with handling his deployment but distances were distances and they affected relationships in the same manner. She missed him and she craved him.
You got to stay army strong Kat.
Wrapping her hands around the hot mug, her thumbs traced the bold NYPD letters printed on the ceramic. She sighed letting everything sink in, allowing the news to seep in.
Elijah was coming home.
After a year- long deployment in Iraq, he was finally coming home to her. Sixty more days until Christmas and her husband was coming home for the long holidays.
She ambled her way through to the kitchen, the cold snaking its way up her bare feet and she wiggled her toes on the cold tiles.
It was Monday morning and her new tenant was ushering out a different girl, a Sunday night pick up from some random pub, his tedious routine. He was naked as usual, nothing she hadn't seen before and she was starting to think that he was a nudist. Either way he loved showing it off and he loved that it riled her up in more ways than one. He stopped when he saw her, his eyes considering her carefully through long eyelashes and his jaw muscle jumped. Katherine cracked a hesitant smile and he gave a slight nod, a smile teasing his lips. Her brown eyes roamed over his hard chest, tanned skin glistening in the cold sun and dragged down to his hard muscles before snapping shut. With her lips pressed tightly together, she pried one eye open before snatching the cord and dropping the blinds. The white blades fell down with a sharp clank and she pressed her hips against the counter top. She was in desperate need for something cooler than the coffee she was filling up on. A powerful rush tickled up her spine and Katherine had to reprimand herself.
Down girl, down.
Her Elijah would soon be home and all the nonsense would cease, officer Tyler Lockwood would go back to the searing undergrounds of hell from where he came. As much as she was loath to admit it, she had enjoyed having a man around the property. Lockwood had been very good with his hands. It wasn't that she couldn't get dirty but she enjoyed having someone else getting dirty on her behalf.
She sighed lighting a cigarette before finally submitting to her shower, the taste, the frantic pull, everything felt so overtly dramatic that she had to stub the thing out before she had satisfied her senses. Nothing worked; her nerves were getting the better of her. She needed to get to the precinct and shoot something and fast.
She pulled her hair back, taut around her shaky fingers; she had survived without Elijah for so long she worried if she could survive with him.
..
They took the ubiquitous yellow cabs rushing past their grey bricked apartment building much to Hope's protests. She wanted to use their driver but Caroline felt that it was her duty to show the kid her New York, or rather her Manhattan as they wold not be leaving the borough.
"I want ice cream!" Hope scoffed, sliding and writhing in the backseat of the taxi.
"No. It's too cold"
"Nobody says no to me!"
"Well, I just did"
"Daddy's paying you to make me happy!"
"Your daddy is not paying me"
"He gives you money!" she objected, tiny brows furrowed and arms crossed across her chest in firm defiance. Caroline could feel the cab driver's eyes scrutinizing her from the mirror, she was about to retort, give the little girl a piece of her mind but thought it better to resign and play with the threads of her tweed coat.
..
They stood in front of the tank observing a school of fish as they floated around the deep blue sea. Caroline found the scene strangely soporific, beautiful and serene. She turned around to look at Hope.
"Pretty isn't it, Hope?" she asked in her sweetest voice.
Hope looked away from the tank, the intensity in her eyes startling Caroline, "I hate you" she seethed without blinking.
"Yeah, well right now I hate me too" she replied with a shrug and before she knew it, Hope was bent over throwing up on Caroline's brand new Manolo Blahniks.
..
"That's the third time you're throwing up today; seriously lay off the damn doughnuts"
"It's not the doughnuts, "Bonnie mumbled, wiping her mouth with a paper towel. She latched on to the sink to steady herself before pushing the tap down and washing her hands.
"Probably something you ate at Elena's place then?" Katherine said rolling her eyes but Bonnie could hardly hear her over the cold running water as she splashed water on her face.
"Maybe it's that ridiculously expensive wine my sister likes so much" Katherine added, grunting and examining her short manicured nails.
"I still can't believe you guys shared the same womb" Bonnie huffed, coming up for air.
"Regrettably" Katherine smiled, head cocked as she stared at Bonnie in the mirror.
"You look like shit" she offered with a big smile.
"How you managed to snag a great guy like Elijah is beyond me" Bonnie said tossing the towel into a distant dustbin as she followed Katherine out of the ladies bathroom and back into the bar to interrogate witnesses to a shooting.
..
Elena tucked her chin into her high collard cashmere coat, brown eyes scanning the playground as little girls pushed each other on a tire swing and a group of young boys wrestled each other next to a big yellow slide, trampling the sandcastle a fastidious little girl was building.
She smiled, suddenly wondering how the kid would turn up and what she wanted to become when she grew up. She speculated about the type of parents she had, whether they were deserving and gracious parents, if they loved her enough. Elena was terrified, thinking that she would never have that, these moments where a mother would sit in Central park watching as her kid played with other children.
She worried about Katherine's reaction when she asked her to be her egg donor and was frankly petrified about her sister's response. Katherine Pierce had always been a lose canon, who knows what tricks she could conjure up in that crazy head of hers.
Jolting up slightly at the sound of her mobile screeching from her Prada bag, she sat up quickly and yanked it out.
"Are you okay"
"I'm fine, Stefan"
"Where are you?"
"Saks, glove department, "she lied with a straight face "they have that calfskin you've eyeing"
"Nice, "he replied, not really listening to her "I'm gonna be home late tonight so-"
"Dinner will me in the microwave, as usual"
"What are you making?"
"Baked salmon with wasabi sauce"
"Cant wait, "he grinned broadly "I love you"
"I love you" she smiled, snapping the phone shut and combing through the playground again to watch the little girl with yellow ribbons in her dark hair.
..
"You're gonna need to sit down for this, "Bonnie said pushing a bottle of wine toward Caroline. It was already five pm, early evening and after a day of running around after Hope, Caroline was more than grateful for big glass or two.
"Uh…ok" Caroline furrowed her brows, looking from Bonnie to the bottle then back at Bonnie. She noticed that her friend had only pulled out one wine glass from the cupboard and wondered why she wasn't sharing a glass with her. Slowly, she settled into a seat across from her best friend, elbows resting on the table. She quickly peered over Bonnie in the direction of the guest bedroom where they had finally been able to calm down a restless Hope.
"Something's happened, "Bonnie said, wetting her lips as soon as Caroline picked up the bottle and poured herself a hefty glass.
"Uh…aha"
"Something really bad"
"Are you gonna continue being cryptic or are you gonna spill it out, Bon?"
"I'd rather show you"
"Uh…ok…"
Bonnie rolled up her sleeves, Damon's robe looking chucky and comfortable on her. Hesitantly, she sank a hand into her right pocket and pulled out a white plastic stick. Caroline watched as Bonnie placed the stick on the table, removed her hand from it and folded her arms across her chest, waiting. The blonde's blue eyes, widened, her mouth gaping slightly as she stared at two pink lines forming inside the window on the plastic stick. Then it finally registered and she could hardly contain her excitement as she leapt up from her chair.
"You're pregnant!" Caroline's face crinkled into a wide, teary eyed grin.
"Not the reaction I want"
"What do you mean, Bon this is super news" she exclaimed, grasping Bonnie's upper arms with her hands.
"No, it isn't"
"Of course it is and maybe now Damon can finally commit"
"No, I'm not doing that, I'm not lording some baby over him so he can commit" she shook her head vehemently "I'm not even sure I'm ready to be a mother, I still enjoy my job"
"This is not the twelfth century Bonnie; you can still work and be a mother"
"Yes, but not a cop…at least I don't want that for my kids"
"Great, then you can finally take that damn bar exam and suit up"
Bonnie shook her head, combing a shaky hand through her hair "I'm not even sure I want to be a lawyer anymore, I had my heart set on Detective Bennett" she said.
"That was just to please your father"
"Maybe"
"Well, now you can be Bonnie Salvatore, attorney at law" Caroline shrugged her shoulders with a sympathetic smile and quickly added, "or something"
"Bonnie Bennett," she affirmed, pushing a hair behind her ear "we both know I'll never be a Salvatore."
"Don't say that"
"Don't say what, that Damon will never marry me? Caroline you see how he is, you see how we are…" she snapped, glaring at Caroline's glass of wine, tempted to take a mouthful of it "Look at us and then look at you and Klaus-"
"Bad example" Caroline quickly interjected
"Or heck, Stefan and Elena, now that is love"
"Damon is crazy about you" Caroline said, her voice quickly softening.
"And I'm crazy about him but he can't—he can't give me the kind of love I need right now" she took a seat, her knees sagging beneath her "I don't want him to love me in his own way; I want him to simply just love me"
Caroline broke into a warm smile, grabbing hold of Bonnie's limp shoulders and gripping her into a tight hug. She held her for a while, felt as Bonnie's weight sank into hers, waited for the tears.
"You stink" Bonnie's nose crinkled against Caroline's neck.
"I had a little accident with Hope" she murmured, gently swaying her friend.
"I'm gonna be sick gain, "Bonnie squeaked making a face.
"What is it with me today, is it my coat?" Caroline yelled, bunching up the lapel of her tweed coat as Bonnie ran off into the bathroom again.