Hello! This one took much longer to write because I have awful writer's block. :( I hate writer's block. And it's not as long as the others. Boo.
You come to love not by finding the perfect person,
but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.
-Sam Keen
Now
April 2012
In theory, Klaus would have loved to know what was always going on inside of Emily's head. All her quirks, her mannerisms, the way she spoke, why she said certain sentences the way she had said them. She had never been normal. Maybe this would help him figure out why she had decided that dying was much better than spending an eternity with him.
With me, Klaus thought. With everyone. Everyone that loved you, everyone who wanted you to get better. Why? Why did you do it, Em? Klaus asked this question inside of his head at least ten times a day. He screamed it, as if Emily could hear it and would answer. But she never did.
Klaus's mother walked into the living room where Klaus was sitting. She looked excited, but cautious. Klaus smirked to himself. Don't want to upset the boy by being happy, now do we?
"Did you hear who came back to see Finn?" Esther asked.
Klaus cocked his head, curious, but not looking at her. "No."
Esther smiled in spite of herself. "Sage."
Sage. As in Finn's "one true love" Sage. The woman who Klaus knew for a fact had fucked countless of men over the last 900 years. One of whom being Damon Salvatore. God he got around. Seeing a girl who claimed to love his brother and "waited" for him for almost a thousand years, and yet ended up being a whore and a bitch was not someone Klaus would like to see.
"Is she coming here?" Klaus asked.
Esther nodded.
"Then I'm leaving," Klaus proclaimed, jumping up from the couch.
"Um, no you're not," Esther declared. "Finn is very excited to see her. You should all be happy for him. Here. With us." Esther arched one fine eyebrow and put her hands on her hips. A clear sign that she would not take no for an answer.
"He is the only one that is actually happy to see her. She's not a good person. Did you happen to hear what she did to your daughter?" Klaus countered.
Esther sighed. "Knowing Sage, I don't think I want to." Klaus snorted.
"You don't like her either." It wasn't a question.
"Your brother has awful taste in women," Esther whispered in secret. Klaus grinned. "You can go, if you want," she offered. "I'll bear this punishment alone, I guess," she shrugged.
"Thank you."
Klaus ran out the front door, slamming into Elijah in the process. "Where have you been all night?" Klaus asked, slugging an arm around his brother while walking to his car.
Elijah shrugged. "Avoiding Sage."
Klaus laughed out loud, throwing his head back. "Isn't everybody?"
Elijah noticed the other night that Klaus remembered Emily perfectly. How she looked, what she sounded like, everything. And yet, while he definitely remembered, he wouldn't talk about what happened to Emily and the one thing that was wrong with her.
Klaus ordered two straight shots of tequila for the both of them at the Grill, making sure that there was no sign of Elena Gilbert and the rest of her crew first. It still amazed Elijah how much she and Katerina looked like Tatia. A true genetic curiosity, if you will. When the coast was clear, they sat down at a booth by a window looking onto the Mystic Falls town square instead of the bar.
Klaus wasn't talking, which was perfectly fine with him. The silence gave him time to examine his younger brother. He no longer had bags under his eyes, so he'd been sleeping. That's good. He seemed cheerier, no longer confined to his room. Why he slept in it, Elijah could not understand. Emily's body lied in that room for hours, dead and cold. Elijah shuddered.
Elijah assumed that Emily was probably peaceful now, wherever she was. Klaus, however, wasn't. And he was rewriting Emily. But Elijah knew. Elijah remembered her. The way she would laugh at odd places in a conversation. Or how her blue wyes would be fixated on nothing with such intensity that you'd find yourself looking into the air to see what had her so mesmerized. Sometimes she would just cover her ears with her hands and close her eyes tightly, as if to block out a painful noise. But Klaus loved her so much. Ever since she was born.
In front of him, Klaus slid up from the booth. "Hey," he said. "I'm going to head out." He took out a wad of money from his pocket, much more than needed for a couple shots. "Buy whatever you want," he whispered. Klaus grabbed his jacket and walked out of the Grill. Elijah stared after his brother but decided to leave him alone. Things like this would now happen forever.
Without Emily, Klaus would always be just a half of a whole. Never fully himself. It amazed Elijah every time he thought about it. Klaus could have any woman he wanted. Through compulsion or just good old fashioned seducing. Many women over the centuries have wanted him, badly. And Elijah was certain that Klaus had had lovers. Many. But that's not who Klaus loved, Elijah thought. Not his string of fancy lovers from all over the world. But a poor, mad girl from home.
Then
March 1069 A.D.
Rebekah's hand sizzled when she touched the necklace. She hissed and pulled her hand back. She looked to the woman beside her. "Ayanna!" she exclaimed "You burned me."
"It is not yours to touch," she said simply. Rebekah sighed, defeated.
"Mother!" Rebekah looked up to her brother's voice. "Is that Niklaus?" she asked to the witch next to her.
"Mother!" her brother shrieked again.
Rebekah ran to the door. "Something is wrong," she whispered.
Rebekah raced to her brother and gasped. Niklaus was holding her youngest brother, Henrick. He was bloody and unconscious. "Henrick?" Rebekah sobbed. She barely noticed her brothers and parents running over, grief already on their faces. Her mother pushed everyone to the side to reach her two sons.
"What happened?" she asked Niklaus, panicked and crying.
"The wolves," he whispered.
Esther cradled Henrick's head on her lap. It just lolled to the side. "Ayanna?" Esther pleaded. "Do something!" she screamed.
Ayanna walked slowly and knelt down beside Henrick's body. She touched his forehead and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry, Esther. The spirits won't give us a way." She looked at the grieving mother, sorrowful. "Your boy is gone."
Holding her son, Esther let out a painful cry. One only a mother could give. "No! No, no, no!" she chanted, screaming.
Rebekah heard a gasp. "Oh my God," Emily breathed, tears stinging her eyes. Rebekah watched her best friend kneel down beside Niklaus. He looked to Emily and suddenly sobbed, throwing his arms around the younger and much smaller girl. Rebekah watched Emily show a tenderful love that she had never seen before, one that no one could even dare to compete with.
Emily gently placed her arms around the older man as he laid his head onto her shoulder. She stroked his hair and whispered soothing things to him, things that really had no meaning but seemed to be working. Klaus still sobbed for his brother, heartbroken. Rebekah could see that Emily was crying, but not as much as she should be. She's waiting to be alone, to be strong, Rebekah realized. Emily doesn't want Klaus to have to comfort her.
Pang pounded into Rebekah's chest. This is exactly what her brother needs. Someone who loves him. Someone who won't abandon him. Someone who will be strong. That's what Emily is. He'll need her forever.
Two weeks after Henrick died, the rest of the family was killed. Mikael fed them Tatia Petrova's blood and turned them into vampires. To keep them all safe, their mother had told them. But there were so many consequences, blood lust being the worst. They were monsters, immortal. The humans that had once been their friends were now food.
They all killed somebody. But when Klaus killed a girl from the village, a secret was now revealed. The murder that Klaus committed awakened his dormant werewolf side and everyone knew that Esther had been unfaithful. Klaus was the evidence of the affair. All the cold glances and hurtful words now made sense.
When the truth came out, Mikael went into a rage, killing most of the village. In the middle of the night, he went next door to the Harte's. James tried to intervene.
"She loves you!" James screamed. "It was a mistake and she's probably so, so sorry. Please, Mikael." At the beg, Mikael cocked his head and smiled gently. Then he pulled out James Harte's own heart.
A woman's scream echoed through the night. Mikael stepped over James's body and slammed into the back room. Alex was huddled into a corner, alone and shaking. She looked up at his, tears spilling over on her cheeks. Mikael gently grabbed her hands and pulled her to her feet. He stroked her face. Alex closed her eyes. Then Mikael snapped her neck and slammed her head off her body.
With the blood of his friend's on his hands, Mikael walked slowly back to his own house, not feeling the guilt of his actions at all. What he failed to notice was the other bedroom in the Harte household. The one that at this very moment held Jasper and Emily, cradled in his arms. A brother protecting his younger sister.
With the door to the bedroom opened slightly, they both saw their parents murdered gruesomely. Jasper turned away from the sight, disgusted. But Emily couldn't look away. Her eyes went wide and gray. Something inside of her snapped, and she suddenly didn't feel anything like herself.
So. Emily's actually mad. And not only because she watched her parents die, but many other things we will see later. I'll just go ahead and tell you this: Emily's life is basically a mess. Review, Review!
