The chapter you've all been waiting for! I totally thought I updated this yesterday... I'm sorry!
Enjoy!
Chapter 12
"Shit," Elena whimpered, looking down at the little pink plus sign.
This wasn't part of her plan. Hell, she hadn't even finished high school yet! And Kol was leaving to go on tour in a few months; she couldn't take away his dream, too.
She curled up into a ball on the tiled floor of the Mikaelson bathroom, hugging her knees against her chest. There was a life growing inside of her. A life that she and Kol had created.
She had to tell him. He'd be happy, she knew that. All of her fears meant nothing when he loved her as much as he did. He had told her numerous times that he wanted to marry her and start a family; the ring on her finger proved that.
Elena looked down at the sparkling promise ring on her finger and sighed. They were in this together for better or worse and she knew that he would support whatever decision they agreed upon.
Wiping away her tears, she stood and swung the bathroom door open, only to be met with the glacier blue eyes of the Mikaelson matriarch.
"Esther."
"Have you heard from Nik?" Damon asked across the coffee table, his eyes zeroing in on the youngest Mikaelson male, "I asked Elena and she said she hadn't."
Kol shrugged, looking up from the newspaper, "I called my mother and she said she hadn't heard from him, either. So, I'm assuming that he's staying somewhere else for the time being."
"Obviously not at a hotel since all the good ones are booked solid because of the holidays," the raven-haired man threw in, "I'm just angry he hasn't checked on her once. She deserves better than that."
Kol agreed wholeheartedly, but held his tongue. The past few days had given him time to reestablish his role in Elena's life and he had been grateful. He knew that they would never return to the way their relationship was when they were teenagers, but he still loved her. God, he loved her.
"Come on, baby. Go wash your hands and I'll make you some eggs, okay?" Elena asked the little girl trailing behind her with a smile on her face.
"Okay, Momma," Claire agreed, skipping to the bathroom as he pigtails bounced.
Kol looked at the scene happily. Seeing the love of his life and their daughter together was always enough to make butterflies appear in his stomach; not that he'd ever admit that out loud.
He watched as Claire came running back in and sat at her normal place at the table, between him and Damon. Her chocolate eyes observed the table before they landed on Kol's glass of orange juice.
Sensing that she didn't want to ask her mother to do more for her, her father asked, "Do you want some orange juice, Claire?"
"Yes, please," her eyes lit up as she smiled.
Elena peeked over her shoulder and her heart warmed as she watched Kol pour her a glass of juice. Since she found out that she was pregnant, she wanted this very scene before her every day. She wanted to see Kol and Claire together, bonding as a father and daughter should. Her heart had never let go of him, but now it was pulling her in two different directions.
How could she get what she wanted without hurting Klaus in the process? Could she truly be selfish enough to throw away everything he had sacrificed for her and her daughter? She knew that Klaus always held out hope to be able to be with her completely, but she never saw him that way. She just couldn't hurt him either.
"Someone's losing track of time, again," Kol whispered in her ear as he pulled the frying pan off of the stove. His arm had wound itself around her waist and was holding her small body tightly against his much larger frame as he murmured, "How are you feeling? Any pain?"
Elena shook her head, not trusting her voice quite yet. Whenever he was this close to her, her mind seemed to scatter in every which way. Lust and love clouded her emotions as she struggled to formulate a tiny, "I'm okay."
He smiled and pressed a kiss to the top of her wavy hair before splitting the eggs onto two plates and offering one to Claire.
"Do you have any plans for today, 'Lena?" Damon asked as he watched Claire devour her breakfast, "I have to go down to the studio today and talk with Andie, but I'm free after that."
"Oh," the brunette said as she took her seat across from Claire, "I was actually going to ask if you could take me to my parents. I'm not cleared to drive yet and my mom has been hounding me to see Claire."
Kol observed the disappointment on Elena's face and stepped in, "I can take you. I'm free for the next few weeks. Damon can join us when he's finished if he wants."
Damon watched Kol critically before he nodded, "That would be fine, that way you and Claire aren't waiting on me."
"So, it's settled. I'm sure your mum will be excited to see me," Kol smiled as Elena snorted so hard she nearly choked on her coffee.
"Stop fussing," Kol chided softly as he watched Elena readjust her hair for the fifth time to try and cover the small stitches receding into her hairline, "You look beautiful."
Elena groaned, "You know she's going to freak out if she notices that I got stitches. I told her it was a minor accident because I didn't want her to worry."
Kol sighed and nodded as he continued driving. Claire was singing along in the backseat to some Christmas song that was playing on the radio, completely oblivious to what was happening in the front seat. He knew firsthand how overbearing the Gilbert matriarch could be and kept his mouth shut. When he was dating Elena, he was on the other end of many protective threats and talks.
"Does…does she know I'm coming?" He asked hesitantly, seeing the familiar colonial home come up in front of them.
She fidgeted slightly, "They still think Nik is coming. So, either way, they'll be relieved to see you instead. You know how they felt about him."
"Do they…know?"
Elena nodded, "Of course they know; they're my parents."
He groaned, "So, let me guess, they hate me, right?"
"Not at all," she said quietly, disentangling her fingers from her hair and turning to face him as the car stopped, "They understand why I did what I did. They don't blame you for it."
"Nana and Papa's house!" Claire squealed, scrambling to undo her booster seat, "Do you think Nana made cookies, Momma?"
Elena smiled and unbuckled her own seatbelt before twisting and undoing her daughter's booster seat as well, "I'm not sure, but there's only one way to find out, right? Go on inside and Kol and I will be there in just a minute."
Claire wasted no time catapulting herself out of the car and scurrying to the front door, dragging her doll by the hair behind her.
"I missed so much," Kol said quietly as he observed his daughter, "I missed all the important things in her life."
She sighed and looked over at the man who once meant everything to her, "You didn't miss everything. She still has her whole life ahead of her. Yeah, you were absent for the first five years, but there's still so much left."
"Tell me. Please," he turned to Elena and took her hand in his, his dark eyes beseeching hers, "I need to know why. If it's nothing I did, then why did you leave?"
She took a deep breath and looked down at their entwined hands, "Your mother. Esther…she had suspected that I was pregnant for a few weeks and I finally took the test when I was staying over one night. And…she found out."
"Then why did you leave?" He asked, his brow furrowing, "Telling our parents would've been the hard part, darling, and if my mum already knew-"
"She told me to get rid of Claire," Elena whispered, tears filling her eyes as she looked at him, "She said that you wouldn't have time for a baby because you were going on tour. That you wouldn't have wanted our baby anyway."
Kol's mouth opened and closed a few times, completely lost for words. He couldn't believe that his mother would do something like that to the woman he loved more than life.
He leaned forward and took her face in his hands, stroking her cheeks reassuringly with his thumbs as he firmly said, "That wasn't her choice to make. I would've been thrilled to know that you were pregnant with my child. Of course I would've put the tour on hold as well, but it would've been worth it to see you with my child."
She shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks, "I couldn't ask you to do that. Your tour was important and Esther didn't want you settling for some small town girl that you knocked up-"
"Don't you dare talk about yourself or our child like that. I would've gladly put my entire life on hold if it meant that you were happy and that Claire was healthy. I…I know that you had a tough pregnancy and I'm sorry that I wasn't there for that…but if I would've known, I would've dropped everything to help you," he swore quietly, searching her mahogany eyes, "My mother was wrong. She had no right to tell you what to do with our baby."
Kol drove as fast as the speed limits allowed on his way to his family's home. After convincing Elena that he had to run to the store to pick something up, he decided to pay his mother a visit and confront her about what she truly thought about Claire.
After pulling up next to a beat up rental car in the driveway, he huffed as he slammed the car door and made his way to the house. He was so angry that he could hardly see straight, but he knew that he had to keep his calm.
"Sweetheart, how lovely to see you," Esther said, looking up from the magazine she was reading on the couch, "I wasn't expecting you today. Is everything all right?"
Kol gritted his teeth as he took a seat on the couch opposite his mother, "We need to talk."
She stiffened slightly, but offered a frosty smile as she airily said, "Oh? About what?"
"Tell me that you didn't make Elena leave," he said, barely controlling the rage in his voice, "Tell me that you didn't know she was pregnant with my child."
Esther laughed, her bright teeth sparkling as she smiled maliciously, "Why would you care? You were quick to right her off when she left, so why should you believe anything she says? She left on Christmas Eve for Christ's sake and she was only seventeen."
"Yeah, she was only seventeen. No sane seventeen-year-old would run away from home knowing that she was pregnant," he stood and pointed an accusing finger at her, his voice raising, "You wanted her to get an abortion, didn't you? You didn't want her to tell me because you knew that I'd choose her over my career!"
"Your career was more important!" She yelled, standing as well and wrinkling her nose bitterly, "She was a schoolyard crush! She didn't deserve to be a Mikaelson, especially if that child would've been born out of wedlock! Lord, could you imagine the gossip? No, it was better that she took care of that little problem when she did."
Kol's hand dropped as he took in what his mother said. He smiled slightly as he spoke, "You don't know then, do you?"
"Know what?" She spat, crossing her arms over her chest.
"She kept the baby. She kept my baby," he said reverently, "Nik has been raising that little girl for the past five years. The little girl whose last name is Mikaelson."
Esther stifled her gasp, "You're lying. Nik would never bring dishonor on our family that way."
"Suit yourself, but that Claire is your granddaughter," he said hotly, "And she is entitled to everything that a Mikaelson is entitled to."
Her eyes widened as she yelled, "Niklaus!"
Kol's brows furrowed as his mother yelled, only for Klaus to walk in with a bored look on his face looking a little worse for wear.
"Yes, Mother?"
"You've been here? This entire time, you've been here?" The youngest grated in anger, "You left Elena to fend for herself while you've been enjoying the mansion?"
"You also neglected to tell me of your partner's child," Esther said coolly, "I believe that should have come up at one point or another."
The blond's eyes shot from brown to blue over and over again, trying to think of a reasonable answer that would expunge him from scrutiny. He hadn't wanted to deal with this now, not ever, but it looked like fate was no longer on his side.
"Claire is of no consequence to the Mikaelson name," Klaus answered, choosing the harder to please of the two, "It was simply a formality that I extended to Elena when Claire was born so the child would have some sense of paternity."
Kol growled, "That's a goddamned lie and you know it!" He turned to his mother and pleaded, "Claire will be six next year. The timeline is too precise for her not to be mine. You know it, I know it, and he knows it, too."
"You knew that girl was pregnant when you took her in, didn't you?" Klaus opened his mouth to reply, but she held up her hand and spoke once more, "Didn't you, Niklaus?"
"Yes," Klaus admitted sullenly, "I knew she was pregnant, but not with Kol's-"
"My name is on the birth certificate, you bastard," the youngest Mikaelson threw out, "You knew that. Hell, all of our siblings know that I fathered her!"
Klaus walked so he was toe to toe with his brother, snarling down in his face, "You have no idea what you're talking about. You were too immature to be a father then and you're still too immature to be one now. Claire would do well to never know who her real father is; a drunk, a cheat, and a womanizer!"
"Well, at least I didn't run over my girlfriend and leave her for dead in the middle of the bloody road!"
The eldest pales immensely as he took a step back, his blue eyes darting around Kol's face for any hint of a lie as stuttered, "I-I don't k-know what you're t-talking about."
"Oh please!" Kol growled, his eyes turning almost black, "You were so wasted, yet you insisted upon going and finding Elena yourself. You and Damon couldn't have been more than twenty minutes apart from each other and you were both headed in the same direction. But when Damon got there, Elena was lying in the street in a pool of her own blood. She almost died, Nik! And then you pulled your bloody disappearing act and didn't even bother to check on her!"
Klaus sneered, "That doesn't prove anything-"
"Not to mention how beat up the rental car is outside. Hit something recently?" Kol huffed, "I think the correct question would be someone instead of something!"
Esther turned to Klaus, worry evident on her face, "You told me that you hit a deer. Was that a lie, Niklaus? Is Kol telling the truth? Did you hit that girl?"
"I-it was an accident! I was drunk-" he stopped and turned back to Kol, "You can't tell her. I'll lose her forever if she found out."
"You don't deserve her."
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Oh! And I'm doing a little contest type thing. If you can guess my age, where I'm from, and my favorite color, I will do a one-shot with a pairing of your choice! (TVD/TO only, please). Just leave a review with your answers (and preferred one-shot pairing) and whoever's closest will be announced next chapter :)
I will be doing this for all my stories, but there will only be one winner. That means if you read all my current stories, then you can comment on each of them with a guess to increase your odds!
Thanks, guys!
~Grace
