I do not own The Originals.

She was looking at him upside down as when he stopped talking. Her head was hanging off the couch and he raised an eyebrow at her. Since he had decided not to re compel her she had been slacking off during their sessions. She had been asking a lot more questions and when he wasn't too irritated with her she would answer. Occasionally she would just stop and stare at him like she was right now.

"Tesla." He said curtly and she snapped to attention. "Is there something you want to share with the class?" He asked but there was no humor in his voice. His patience was wearing thin with her tonight and she rolled her eyes as she got up and sat on the couch correctly.

"I was thinking of a theme song for you?" She said and he let out a breath like he was close to killing her. Which she was sure wasn't far from true. "I was thinking Bad Leroy Brown by Jim Croce." His facial expression didn't change as she began to sing "Bad, bad Leroy Brown, baddest man in the whole damn town, badder than ole' King Kong, meaner than a junk yard dog." He sat down on the couch and spanned his arms across it. "Not a Jim Croce fan?" She asked at he almost cracked a smile but she didn't think it was because he found her amusing.

"What are you hiding Tesla?" He asked her and that made all the words die in her mouth as she looked at him.

"What do you mean?" She asked him

"You are running from something." He said and his smiled widened. He was some sort of sadist.

"I was running from a crazy Australian family Klaus." She said looking at the computer screen. "Are you going to continue your story or not. " He didn't answer but he just smiled at her because he knew that he had upset her. "Well if you aren't then I am going to sleep." She said slamming the computer shut and getting up.

"You know what I am referring to. It is the reason you feel the need to hind behind sarcasm. It is something that your mind is running from." He said to her as she stopped to stare at him. He was enjoying her discomfort. "Something that you dream about." He said and she sat back down on the couch. She knew that that night that she spent with him was going to come back and bite her in the butt.

"You sound like you know a lot about running from your past." She said "We should direct that energy into writing your book." She said and he just smiled again at her.

"I would like you to tell me about your past." He said. "More specifically your one defining moment." He said bring back what she threw at him before.

"Do I have to?" She asked trying to keep her voice light but he knew what she meant. If she decided not to share would he compel her to? But instead of answering her he just said something that made her heart convulse in her chest.

"Tell me about Iris and Domenic." He said and she could no longer pretend that they hadn't existed. So she told Klaus of her one defining moment.


1932

It was July thirty first. She only remembered the day because the first Technicolor short had come out the day before by Walt Disney. The world was hurting in times like these. Unemployment reached twenty four percent and it seemed as if the world was crumbling. Well it seemed as if everyone else's world was crumbling because Tesla was living in the clouds.

Perhaps if both her father hadn't left her a small fortune she would be hurting like the others that she saw around her. The movie house had been almost empty. No one was spending money on silly things like this.

Iris Pulled on Tesla's skirt as she smiled down at her daughter who's blue purple eyes were staring up at her with so much love it was hard for Tesla to understand the amount of love that she felt for her baby. She picked the little girl up. Her dark black curls were pinned away from her face as she kissed Tesla's cheek.

"I liked that picture." The girl said and Tesla rubbed noses with her.

"I liked it too." She said setting her down and taking her out to the car as she nodded at her driver. People sat on the side of the street looking hungry and too hot to be sitting outside. She ushered her daughter inside the car while being eyed by the truly desperate.

"Mommy can we get a chocolate soda?" Her girl asked her batting her dark lashes at Tesla which usually worked.

"Not today honey. We are going to see your papa. He is coming home today." She said as the girl snuggled closer to her in the seat. Her little sailor shorts matched her sailor top with a side pop hat.

"I bet daddy wished that he had a chocolate soda." Iris said looking up at Tesla and she laughed before tapping the driver on the shoulder as he nodded and drove them to a soda counter store.

They both ran inside and ordered two chocolate sodas to go. Iris decided that she wanted a suicide soda which was all the flavors mixed together. Tony was the soda jerk behind the counter, and he loved Iris. They frequented the place so they had become good friends. He was around sixteen years old and Tesla's three year old daughter just loved him. Iris gave him a kiss on the cheek as they left with their three soda's to go. Tesla bumped into a man as he came into the shop. He looked at her coldly.

"Oh dear I am so sorry." She said to him. He had his hair shaved very close to his head and he wore a brown suit. His eyes were almost black beneath his skimmer hat.

"Do you any some soda?" Iris asked him and he looked down at the little girl and a smile crept over his face.

"What a lovely little girl you have." He said to Tesla as he bent down and took a sip from the straw that Iris had offered him. Tesla kept a smile plastered to her face but something about the man made her skin crawl.

"Come on Iris." She said pulling the girl down the steps as the man's eyes followed them all the way to her car.

"I think that man liked soda." Iris said smiling at Tesla.

"It was very sweet of you to share with him sugar pie." She said tapping the little girl's nose. However she could not shake the feeling of that man's eyes on them. She thought about it all the way home.

They pulled up to a beautiful yellow house with white trim. It had a white picket fence and a big porch with a chair swing in the front. Tesla thought it was perhaps the most wonderful house in all of California if not the whole country simply because it was hers. She pointed out the window and to the driveway. Iris got up on her seat to look where her mother was pointing as she giggled excitedly.

"Papa!' She shouted and as soon as the car was stopped she opened the door and rushed inside faster than Tesla could even think. She smiled and grabbed the three sodas from the car. She paid Jeremy, her driver, and told him that that would be all for today. He drove away as she made her way inside. She was greeted with the way that he smelled. Tobacco from his pipe and the sandalwood cologne that he wore mixed with his favorite aftershave. She took a minute to take that in. There was nothing that she loved to smell more than him.

Domenic and Tesla were married very young. Tesla had not been eighteen yet and he was only twenty. Her father loved him very much and approved of the whole thing. Dom's mother however took a strong dislike to Tesla. Nobody was going to be good enough for her son. If it wasn't for Iris and the fact that Dom had married her anyway she was sure that Tesla would hate the woman as much as she was hated by her. Tesla's father got to see Iris born and hold her before he had a severe stroke and passed away when she was only one. It had been a very hard time for Tesla but with her two favorite people in the whole world she had managed to make it through.

She walked into the kitchen where Domenic had set Iris on the counter and she was talking at him without stop. She was telling him absolutely everything that had happened since he had been gone. This was only two weeks. However the little girl had missed her father. Tesla couldn't blame her she found it hard to sleep if Dom wasn't in the bed next to her.

"Oh Papa we brought you a chocolate Soda!" Iris yelled excitedly as Dom turned to smile at Tesla. Her heart skipped a beat as he beamed at her. He was the love of her life; the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to her. He sometimes drove her crazy but there was no one in the world that she loved more.

"I love chocolate soda." He said

"I told mommy you would." Iris said "I want to draw you a picture of the show me and mommy watched Papa it was so pretty." Iris jumped down off the counter as she ran back to her room.

"Iris wash your hands please." Tesla called after her.

Domenic closed the distance between them kissing her deeply. She rested her head on his chest as she took in the feel of him. She had missed him so much that tears welled in her eyes as she fought them away. Two weeks was not long enough to be doing this she told herself.

"Oh my dear I missed you too much." He said as her arms wrapped around her.

"I was thinking the same thing." She said as she let herself go against him. She fit perfectly into his shape. He took her hat off and the pins that held it in place as her coffee colored hair spilled over her shoulders in soft waves.

"I miss your smile and the way you walk." He said kissing her cheeks. "I missed your beautiful hair." He said as he ran his fingers through it. When asked why he married her Dom always incorporated her hair into the list of things. He loved the way it fell around her and the rick brown color. She loved his hair which was the same hair that Iris had; black and curly. Though he wore it slicked back.

"You should cut a lock of my hair off and take it with you then you would never have to come back." She said kissing his nose.

"I would but I think I would miss Iris." He teased as she smacked him playfully and he picked her up bridal style. She laughed as she covered his face in kisses.

She remembered every moment of that night. She remembered waking up very late to the sound of shattering glass. Her heart raced in her dress as she sat up in bed next to Dom. She tapped him on the shoulder as he looked up at her groggily.

"Dom I think someone is in the house." She whispered and he shot up immediately.

"Where?" He asked like she would know.

"I don't know I heard a window break. He got up and threw a shirt over his head and grabbed a wooden bat that he kept by the bed. But he didn't get far. There were footsteps coming down the hall and as Tesla turned a lamp on she saw a man standing in the doorway. The man that they had bumped into earlier at the soda shop and she almost screamed when she saw what he was carrying. Iris was balance on his hip looking completely serene.

"Mommy the man came for more soda."

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