AN: Flashback chapter! (and responses to review at the end). Next chapter should be up either tonight or tomorrow.
For more on this story check out hailhaleswriting dot tumblr dot com or allhailhales dot webs dot com / the-original-family.
This fanfiction is unbeta-ed, and I don't own TO, TVD or the characters; I just own the AU/AR they reside in.
"This is us, the Original Family and we remain together always and forever."
Elijah Mikaelson TVD Episode 4.20 "The Originals"
This Is Us, The Original Family
Chapter Nine: Mothers and Daughters
Katerina Petrova; Bulgaria: 1490
Dear lord it hurt so badly. Katerina could not help but think that all this pain would be worth it. She would have a child when the pain ended. She would be a mother to her son or daughter. She had been listing names in her head for months. Narrowed it down to Dmitri or Alexi if she had a son. For a girl she couldn't narrow the list down any further from Ona, Katia, Nadia, Lana or Sonia.
But there would be time to name the child after it was born. Yes, her father was greatly shamed about her having a child out of wedlock but surely when he saw his grandchild he would change his mind. He would not disown her, and he would not take her baby from her once he saw the child.
Her mother spoke, urging her to push a little more over and over until with one final scream of pain her child is born. "It's a girl." She cries.
She had a daughter. "A girl." She said waiting for her mother to hand baby over. "Please mother let me see her."
He mother moved to hand her the baby but her father spoke. "Woman, don't. What are you doing?" and with that her mother handed her baby to her father.
She then pleads to her father "Let me at least hold her once…just once."
Her father looked at her with hate in his eyes saying, "Forget it! You have disgraced this family."
He had not changed his mind. He was going to take her child away. "Father, please! No, father, no!" She screamed while he left the chamber with her baby. Katerina began to sob uncontrollably. Struggling to get out of the bed and chase after him.
Her mother gathered Katerina in her arms and stilled her. "No, Katerina, It's better for her!"
Katerina still struggled "No, mother please…" She said begging. She desperately wanted her daughter. She loved that little girl she had gotten a tiny glimpse of.
"Let her go…let her go Katerina."
"Please, mama…" She said sobbing into her mother, begging to be reunited with her little girl.
Two years later when Katerina returned home a vampire on the run and found her family slaughtered by Klaus she cried over her mother's and sister's bodies. Her father's death should have brought her more pain but it did not. She blamed the whole thing on him. Had he not sent her or her child away Klaus never would have found her and she could have lived a human life with her child and family.
Now that she was a vampire she was determined to live out her very long life. She was also determined to find out where her child went and so she could raise her.
But she never found her and by her daughter's thirtieth birthday in 1520 she gave up ever finding her. If her daughter had survived, she was older than Katerina looked, probably had children of her own and spent most of her life calling another woman her mother.
So Katerina did what she could so the pain that loss wouldn't overtake her: She turned off her humanity. Katherine Pierce was born.
Rebekah Mikaelson; Basement of the Mikaelson Manor; Mystic Falls, Virginia: November, 2010
Her mother was dead, for the second time. Killed by her brothers.
She had begged them the night before to wait, to just contain her, not to kill her. Give their mother another chance. Then Rebekah finally saw her mother while in that clearing. With her ability to sense deception increased to full empathy now that Aaron restored her powers, she had felt her mother's disgust of them. Mother did not want them to be a family; she wanted to destroy them.
When her brothers each looked to her after each hateful thing mother said, as if asking permission and forgiveness for what they were about to do, she turned her back on the scene. Katerina and Sage walked with her at a human pace home and held her when each time her cries turned to sobs. These women who she had never even liked cared more for her than her own mother did, she felt their genuine sympathy for her pain.
But Rebekah loved her mother, even if the woman no longer loved her, so here she sat magically healing the wounds on her body while she was in the coffin.
That's when Bekah had her first vision. Damon Salvatore snapping the elder Bennett witch's neck, Bonnie sobbing, Stefan driving Bonnie's car (with Bonnie and her mother's body) to the Mikaelson house and leaving it in the front yard.
It seemed that someone else had lost a mother tonight, and Bekah decided that this witch would all the help she needed. She knew Bonnie only had her mother and her friends and she had just lost both.
That decision lead to Rebekah's second vision. Bonnie and her crying together… laughing together… supporting each other…calling each other sister…Bonnie marrying Rebekah's twin brother.
It was settled then, Rebekah would comfort this woman. They would be best friends and sisters after all.
Bonnie Bennett; Front Entrance of the Mikaelson Manor; Mystic Falls, Virginia: November, 2010
Her mother was dead. Damon killed her mother. Elena let him. Caroline and Matt let him. Her mother was dead. She no longer had friends. And her father was as usual, not in town.
She was afraid of her own home; they could get in there. They could hurt her and if her father ever decided to be in town, they could hurt him. But he was safe for now, he loved traveling, and when he was in the state he stayed with his girlfriend and her children in Richmond. Bonnie had to worry about her own safety.
When Stefan placed her mother's body on the front steps of the Mikaelson home, gave her back her car keys and whispered 'I'm sorry' to her Bonnie wanted to smack him. He let Damon kill her mom. He had just dropped them off at the Mikaelson's, a place where she did not know if they would kill her for her reluctant involvement helping their mother destroy them.
But that was answered when Rebekah, sped out the door and pulled her into a hug. "You poor dear." She said while sitting with Bonnie, rocking her soothingly on the front porch. "No worries Bonnie, you are safe here."
At this Bonnie cried harder. This woman who she barely knew, and probably lost her own mother tonight was comforting her and offering her safety. She held onto Rebekah for dear life and would not let go even when they were no longer alone.
Katherine and the red-head from earlier joined them. The red head spoke. "Bonnie, my name is Sage. Could Finn and Elijah move your mother inside, while we move you too somewhere more comfortable to grieve?"
Bonnie nodded, but looked at Katherine in fear. That was Elena's face. But this woman was kinder then she ever seen her or Elena be. Katherine spoke. "Bonnie, I know that you do not know me as anything other than a villain, but I am here to support you. I turned my humanity back on recently. I will not harm you. No one here will."
Bonnie nodded. Katherine was nice, she was supporting Bonnie like Elena, (her supposed best friend) was supposed to be.
"Damon and Elena killed her, just because I was dancing with Kol yesterday. I didn't know who he was besides a handsome guy! They think I betrayed them. But they betrayed me by letting Damon and Elena kill my mom." She sobbed and let the three women lead her into the house while Finn and Elijah moved Abby's body into the house.
"Shh love. You are safe here. You are welcome to stay as long as you want." Rebekah said, beginning to rock her again.
Just then, Klaus, Kol and another man arrived. "What is this?" The man said.
"It seems that unraveling mother's plan on our own had a consequence. The Bennett witches were blamed and Abby was killed by Damon as punishment for Bonnie's treachery." Rebekah explained.
The man nodded. "Bonnie, my name is Aaron. I am very sorry that this happened to you. You are welcome to stay here as long as you need and Bekah, Kol and I will assist you in any Wiccan burial rites you wish to perform for your mother."
Everyone in the room nodded including Klaus.
The rest of the night was a blur. She was shown to a room, given some herbs with sedative properties and Rebekah stayed with her all night. Rebekah even cried a bit with her.
It was the saddest night of Bonnie's existence. Not only for the death of her mother but for the death of her old life. The next morning she woke up an honorary member of the Mikaelson family and everything was different.
Hayley Marshall; Hayley's Suite in the Mikaelson Mansion; New Orleans, Louisiana: April 2011
It was a girl. She was having a baby girl!
Not that she wouldn't have been happy with having a son, it just that she really was out of her depth with the idea of being someone's mother. Having a son was even more daunting, she wouldn't know where to begin and was all but certain that if this child was a boy he would turn into mini-Klaus (a thought that terrified her to no end). With a girl she at least had some point of reference, since she had been a little girl once. And she thought at least her daughter would have a shot at being her own person.
She was going to be someone's mother. Her little girl would call her Mommy in the accent she would surely pick up from growing up around Mikaelson's. Now that she knew the gender she could dream of all the milestones of her child's life.
Her first word …the first time she walked…her first day of human school…her first shift… her first hunt…
Hayley was still apprehensive at the idea of motherhood but at the same time she couldn't wait to meet her daughter. She wasn't going to be alone, her child will have many uncles and aunts to help with her care and Klaus would be around Hayley supposed. She could do this.
Sage Mikaelson; Erik's Nursery of the Mikaelson Manor; New Orleans, Louisiana: April 2011
Sage did not remember her mother very well. The woman died in childbirth when Sage was eight. Sage was the second eldest and the eldest girl so when mother died it was her responsibility to care for her younger siblings.
She remembered little things; her mother's voice an accent from Ireland not English like her father and everyone else in the Village, her red-blonde hair, her smile and when Sage's son was born she remembered another thing: her blue eyes. Sage had the same eyes and saw them in the mirror each day, but seeing them on her son caused her to remember them on her mother.
And now Sage was a mother, to the sweetest little boy ever and she could hardly believe it. She hoped her family was in the afterlife and watching over her so they could see little Erik. Would they mind that he drank his mother's blood instead of her milk? Would they love him even if his vampire face showed while in their presence?
He was such a bright little one, always happy and giggling. How could anyone not love him? She was pleased he got her playful personality and was able to make even her eternally serious husband smile brightly.
Sage loved being a mother and would not change a single thing about the experience. Her child was perfect; then again she was biased because he is her child.
AN: Just thank a big thank you for those of you that reviewed! I would respond to you each individually but every time I read a review my brain seems to short-circuit and I forget how to Internet.
In the next few chapters we will see the aftermath of Mating, and the festivities of the Bonnie/Kol wedding. So naturally there will be more couple fluff and some jealously. So be prepared for more two-person scenes with Bonnie/Kol, Katerina/Elijah, Finn/Sage and Klaus/Hayley. Also Caroline will arrive and shake up one couple, and Rebekah and Aaron will be upset because they are the single ones in the family and have a big brother/little sister heart to heart.