Chapter 3 - Third Floor
A few weeks later
Clad in one of the most expensive tailored suits he owned, Klaus strode in the NYC skyline that is Mikaelson Enterprises for the sixth time of the day. His personal assistant, Vicky, rushed to his side looking rather confused and obviously exhausted from running across the street after spotting his town car pull up.
'Mr. Mikaelson, I didn't know you'd be back from your trip to Poland,' she huffed, running after him in her four-inched footwear. They entered the elevator together and he rolled his eyes as her shaky fingers pressed the last button on the pad.
'I emailed you the change of flight last night,' he scoffed.
'I was—I'm sorry Mr. Mikaelson, it won't happen again,' she sighed, slapping a hand over her sweltering forehead.
He smirked at the knowledge that the building maintained a cool temperature, so he was certainly the cause of the spike in her temperature. They reached their desired floor in no time and soon as the doors opened breezed past her and stepped right in front of the encased glass, not giving her a chance to take another step.
'I know it won't happen again, Ms. Donovan,' he shoved his hands in the pocket of his navy blue pants and flashed her a sardonic smile. 'Because you're fired. See yourself out.'
He turned his back on her, uncaring whether she was on the verge of tears or whatsoever it was he saw flicker on her face. Damon would commend him for finally firing the girl his fiancée had recommended as an assistant. She had never been suitable for the job anyway, and although he knew Tatia would blabber on and on about how they were close friends and how Vicky needed a job because she got fired for always being high as a model, he couldn't have cared any less.
He had been patient with her back then and even showed her what little kindness he had, and well, if she thought she could take that for granted, well she was certainly wrong.
It was three in the afternoon as he was idly scrolling through his mail when he heard the steps of familiar bulky heels inching closer towards his office. He knew who it was instantaneously because what followed it was the sound of his best friend pleading in what sounded like: 'Please, mom, you're acting like a weirdo.'
Soon enough, Maria appeared by the doorway of his office clad in a maroon knee-length dress, a shawl wrapped around her shoulders and the same infamous moon shaped glasses of hers perched on top of her pointed nose. Damon showed up a few seconds later in an Armani suit, greeting him with an eye roll and a dramatic gesture towards his mother.
'To what do I owe the pleasure?' He pushed himself off the swivel chair and made his way towards his Godmother, giving her a kiss on the cheeks. A thing they were all accustomed to do with each other's mothers.
'I heard you were snooping around my hotel, son,' she raised a pointed brow as she sat down on the white leather couch adjacent his crystal table. 'I'm fond of you, Niklaus and I love you like my own, but this is not something I tolerate.'
He glared at Damon. He never knew when to keep his mouth shut.
Snooping around isn't what he'd exactly call it. All he was doing was asking around the hotel about the residents of floor number 24 and paid a few men to find out as much as they could about the residents of the hotel in the last three years. He silently cursed the hotel doorman who had warned him about facing the female Salvatore if she ever found out one of those men he hired harassed the security guard of the hotel and threatened to end his life.
He laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head as he glanced at Damon in annoyance and gave him a look that said: you had to open your big fucking mouth.
'You're looking at the wrong son,' Maria chuckled. 'Now why don't you two tell me what is going on.'
'It's nothing, I swear,' Damon waved his hand dismissively. 'Klaus was just feeling like a detective and decided to snoop around but he's over it now. He went to Poland and came back a changed man.'
He wouldn't have been doing all of those things if she had just called him, but it's been exactly five weeks later and he has yet to receive an anonymous phone call. Greg and he had even drove to where he had found her during the old man's afterhours but came up with nothing.
The only reason the younger Salvatore knew about it too was because he had asked Damon to tell his brother to call him if he ever saw her again, but alas, Stefan always called with empty news.
'I won't press the matter at the moment,' Maria stood up and narrowed her eyes at him. .'But the next time I hear another one of your people straining my employees, you two—rather, three with Stefan included—will hear the end of this from Esther and we both know that she is even worse than me. Got it?'
Both he and Damon nodded like children being offered the finest candies available.
'Now, Mikaelson, treat my son and I for a late lunch, why don't you?' Maria flashed him a smile, patting his chest. 'It's the least you could do after taking up my precious time away from my art gallery.'
'I know just the place,' Damon wiggled his brows, earning a light slap on his arm from his mother.
He shook his head at the woman in amusement but found himself unable to say no. He grabbed his coat from the back of his chair and followed them to the elevator, listening to his Godmother talk about art that he was reminded as to where his talents, passion and love for it came from.
As it turns out, the restaurant Damon lead them to was recently opened by one of their old college buddies. They haven't heard from the positively incessant man in a long time, so it was a shock to him to find out that their friend who had slacked off during their days back then now owned two chains of restaurants.
Marcel's is what it was called, named after the ever so modest man himself.
'How did you even find this place?' He asked Damon just as soon as the waiter finished taking their orders. 'It's not exactly a place you see while driving or walking down uptown Manhattan.'
'Elena said she visited a restaurant often and so we went once and I thought it was just a coincidence how everything reminded me of New Orleans, but then I saw a picture of the three of us in that fair back in his hometown wearing nothing but jeans and cowboy hats and it all clicked.'
He grimaced at the memory. Marcel had asked them to join him on his road trip to New Orleans back then and although it had been an amazing experience, he had been drunk and only remembered sleeping with three different girls during his weekend visit.
'This Marcel you talk of,' Maria began, taking a sip of the glass of water she ordered. 'Is he the one that Klaus best during his fencing tournament?'
Klaus laughed at his Godmother's vivid memory. 'That would be the one.'
'The same one who Klaus and I bullied during our first year after he punched Stefan,' Damon grinned as they reminisced their college years together. Marcel back then had been a pain in the ass, but nevertheless their friend too.
'Why have you lost touch with this man?' the raven-haired woman asked, scrolling through her digital planner. Maria was the definition of multitasking. She could be reading a book whilst talking to you and still tell you what was going on in said book. She was probably some kind of a witch or some supernatural voodoo lady.
Damon shrugged as he answered for the both of them. 'We lost contact when we graduated. We didn't exactly grow up together, nor was his mother our Godmothers.'
Another reason as to why they had stopped ultimately talking to Marcel was also because of how busy their lives have been upon graduating. He had went and built his company and Damon was in court twenty four hours a day and although they had tried to squeeze in time for their college friends, it hadn't really been an option with all the endless workload they were piled under.
The fact that they had a fight back then wasn't also lost on him. Marcel had called them a bunch of working buffoons controlled by money and sure there was some truth in his words, but if it wasn't for that, then they wouldn't be where they were today. Him with the Mega Corporation and Damon as one of the best lawyers in the state.
It wasn't only his fault though, because he had also told Marcel things that he hadn't meant back then, but what had nailed the coffin was when the Salvatore called him a poor bastard that only took English Literature as a course because it was literally all he could afford.
They had never looked back on that incident up until now of course so it was safe to say that upon hearing that there was a portrait of the three of them hanging in his restaurant gave him a slight hope on rekindling that friendship.
'Well, well, well,' a familiar voice said, surprising all the three people that sat on the sixth booth at the restaurant. 'Look what the cat dragged in.'
'Don't blink,'
Caroline followed his order, flaring her eyes as her doctor took a look at her retinas with his handy flashlight. It was the sixth time he had done that since she was rushed to the hospital five weeks ago after one of those scary episodes that happened.
There were two types of panic attack. The first one was when her chest would tighten and she would find it hard to breathe but she knew how to overcome those. Dr. Gilbert said she only needed to take a deep breath ten times and count to five and it would be okay and he was right.
The second was when the world begins to spin and she loses consciousness, but that wasn't until the end of looking like a complete violent fool because she forgot where she was and what she was doing. The longest one lasted in just two minutes up until the one she had at church which apparently took five minutes maximum.
'It's okay now, Caroline,' Dr. Grayson announced, switching the small device off and handing it to the nurse beside him. 'You'll be released tomorrow but I suggest you take it easy… I know you're looking for a job but at this rate I'm not so sure if it's a good thing anymore. There's something we haven't figured out and we have to wait for your results to determine the new medicines I will prescribe.'
She nodded patiently and waited for him and the rest of the nurses to leave before letting the waterworks she's been holding in finally erupt. He had said everything; every single process they had made regarding her mental condition had been swept under the rug after her recent incident.
They thought she had been doing well but there was a nerve in her brain that was still unable to function and was the epitome of what created her perceptual breakdowns. He had asked her what had caused the last one so they could prevent it from happening and worsening her condition but the thing was that she didn't… couldn't… much as she tried remember how it was triggered.
Caroline flipped on her side and grumbled in defeat. One of the worst parts about being confined in the hospital for weeks was that nobody visited her. The nuns back at the convent had better things to do and April wasn't allowed to go out on her own.
She heard one of the older nurses say she had a visit while she was asleep and figured it was Camille after seeing a book wrapped in a red bow on the bedside table.
She completely felt desolate and just simply spent. She didn't know how anyone can live all alone and be content. Her mind and thoughts suffocated her that every time she got in too deep, she would feel her chest tightening signaling another small attack. It was just all too overwhelming.
As she came down from her breakdown, one of the few nurses she saw every time she visited for her checkup slipped into her room. The dark girl wore pink scrubs unlike the older nurses earlier and gave her a genuine smile as she waved the clipboard she was holding around the air in a comical manner.
'Hi, Caroline,' she pulled the silver cart carrying all her medical equipment closer to the hospital bed, the jovial expression on her face never faltering. 'I'm Bonnie and I'm here to take note of your vitals.'
Caroline nodded and hoped she didn't look like she had cried her whole eyes out. Bonnie wrapped the blue fabric around her arms and began humming a tune to fill the quiet atmosphere. Her brows furrowed in deep concentration at the sudden awareness she felt at the sound leaving the nurse's lips.
She couldn't quite place it, but she knew she's heard it before… way before.
'Bonnie,' her eyes widened at the revelation. 'I-I know this song!'
Bonnie smiled at her, not the reaction she was hoping for to be honest. 'Caroline, I'm sure you've heard this song on the radio or something…It has nothing to do with-'
'I don't listen to the radio, Bonnie,' she shook her head adamantly. 'I know this song. I feel like I loved this song.'
Bonnie nodded, finally taking her point of view in to consideration. Sure, it may have been just something small and not really medically relevant, but the fact that she felt something akin to familiarity towards a certain thing or whatnot just made her day a lot better.
'What else do you feel? I mean, do you remember when you heard this song or the particular moment you were listening to it?' Bonnie placed her hand on her hip. 'If I tell Dr. Grayson that you knew a song, he's just going to shrug it off but maybe if you can fill in the gaps… he might take that as a sign of progress.'
She scowled. 'I just… I just know that I've heard of it.'
'I'm sorry, Caroline, it's probably just a song you heard off the streets,' the nurse sighed sadly. 'I know things aren't looking really bright right now but it's going to be okay.'
Caroline wanted to scream or just violently react to what Bonnie was telling her because she knew she wasn't overreacting but she knew it would just lead to her being thrown to some psychiatric ward of some sort.
Maybe Bonnie was right, maybe she did have a point, but the difference was that she had a connection to the song… it's like it was a part of a memory that she had valued before everything that happened and if they weren't going to try and listen to her, then maybe she was looking for help in all the wrong places and in the wrong people.
A/N: This is just a short filler. I'm researching a lot and trying to process my ideas for this story and I'm not having the best of time. Thank you for the reviews, I appreciate it a lot! Next chapter will have a Klaroline interaction again and hopefully one that I can publish this coming week. If you have any ideas, anyone or anything you want me to add, feel free to tell me.
