dhh: Thanks for your review:) There is a bit more about Henrik in this chapter. I didn't want to give out too much information at once. Not because I didn't want you to know, just had a feeling it would get boring and confusing.
AN: Thanks a lot for the new follows and favourites to all of my stories:) 'Origin' has 21 favourites now. I think it only had 10 or 11 when I finished.
Chapter 19: Wedding Jitters
(Qaanaaq, Greenland 14.43 ADT)
Most of the snow slowly melted away throughout the day, the temperature rising to just about 4°C.
When Kol and Darwin returned to their cabin, they soon forgot about all about suddenly beating vampire hearts. The atmosphere inside was hectic and panicky. Sage was ordering Klaus and Finn around, having them move tables and chairs while Katherine was desperately trying to fit Caroline into a white summerdress, the latter's teeth chattering violently.
"It's no use, "Caroline threw her hands up in defeat. "My ass simply isn't as big as yours."
Katherine bristled. "Excuse me?!"
"I'm just saying that it's a horrible fit!" Caroline pulled off the dress and threw it aside, now only dressed in blue underwear. "Could you please turn the heat on in here!"
And that was the moment when the beating heart disappeared from Kol and Darwin's minds. They just stood there staring, Darwin with his mouth open, until Finn ushered them outside.
Kol collapsed on the bench. "I seriously need a woman, "he declared. "Any woman, really."
Darwin ignored him. "What's going on?" he asked instead.
"Caroline and Niklaus have decided to get married as soon as possible, "Finn explained. "And the only option is tommorrow evening. Friday, the vicar leaves to spent the summer in Denmark."
Sage came outside, holding two buckets of soapy water.
"Caroline is decent again." She handed one bucket to Darwin and the other to Kol. "Now, make yourselves useful!" She went back inside, moving with quick efficiency.
"What the Hell?!" Kol blinked.
"I don't know if you are aware of it, "Finn said, giving each of them a grave look. "But weddings do something to women. It changes them, makes them unpredictable and somewhat insane. So do as they say and whatever you do; don't get in their way!"
"Alright, "Kol got to his feet. "What is it that she wants us to wash?"
Finn took the bucket from Darwin. "The windows."
"Right, "Kol looked around. "And let's do the dogs too, now that we're at it."
They fished rags and brushes out of the water and went to work. Finn started on the windows, while Kol chased a large white dog with muddy feet around with his bucket swinging wildly.
Darwin watched them with disbelief. "And what?! You are just going to leave me with the women?!"
"Sorry, darling, you lose." Kol had finally caught the dog and had emptied the soapy water over it. Now he was scrubbing it with a brush with stiff bristles while it howled in protest. The rest of the dogs gathered around to watch in uncomprehending sympathy.
"Niklaus is in there, too." Finn told Darwin with an apologetic smile.
"Just my luck, "Darwin mumbled as he went back inside.
Niklaus and Sage were looking through drawers and cupboards, digging out white tablecloths and vases, while Caroline sat tearfully on the edge of Kol's bed with a for once sympathetic Katherine trying to comfort her.
Niklaus sent her anxious looks every now and then, but clearly didn't dare come anywhere near the bride-to-be.
'Well, I do, 'Darwin thought, sitting down on Caroline's other side. "What's the matter?"
"I haven't brought a single dress, "she said, sniffling into a handkerchief with Elijah's initials on it. "Neither has Sage and Katherine only have that one." She gestured at the discarded white summer dress.
Darwin sighed. "What if you don't get married in a dress?"
Caroline frowned at him, her red-rimmed eyes disbelieving. "What then? Sealskin?!"
"Yes."
"What?!" She and Katherine both looked at him, as if he'd grown two heads.
He went over to his bed, knelt down and pulled out a chest from underneath it. He carried the chest back to the women, placing it infront of them, before opening it.
"Ida and I got handfasted here in the 80s, "he told them. "Our second wedding. This was her wedding attire."
Katherine pulled out a pair of white kamiks with a wide colourful band embroided around the middle. They were made of sealskin like Caroline's, but these were lined with soft rabbit fur. Then she held up a red anorak of soft reindeerskin with a large collar of pearls; white, red and blue all sown in a beautiful but complicated pattern. The pants were made to reach right below the knee at the top of the boots. They were black with a wide band of embroidery like the kamiks.
"What is this?" Caroline let her fingers wander over the pearls on the anorak.
"It's a Greenlandic national costume, "Darwin felt torn between asking Caroline to try it on and ripping it out of the women's hands and packing it away again. "Ida and her mother made it ."
"She was Greenlandic?"
"Yes." He smiled an almost bitter smile. "You're in Greenland, why not dress thereafter for your wedding?"
Caroline sniffled. "I don't know if I can accept this. It must mean a lot to you."
"It does, "he admitted. "But no more than your wedding means to you."
"I just need to know ..,"Caroline bit her lip. "What happened to Ida? Is she dead?"
"No, "Darwin gave her that strange smile again. "She's 49 now. You can probably imagine what happened with us."
She nodded. "Yes, I get the picture."
"I know it may look a bit kitschy to you ..."
For some reason that word made her smile and she shook her head. "No, it's beautiful."
"Come on, "he got to his feet. "Try it on. I'll be outside."
(Break)
(Mystic Falls, Virginia 14.34 EDT)
There hadn't been much sleep for Damon that night. Rebekah had been in and out of bed every half an hour to go listen at Henrik's door and when she had actually slept, she'd been tossing and turning and mumbling unintelligibly. It wasn't until the early morning hours that she finally fell into a peaceful sleep, her hands relaxed on either side of her head and her mouth half open.
Damon had tried to get a couple more hours of sleep, but his head had been buzzing ceaselessly with too many thoughts. As it was, he had been up before eight, but luckily the last couple of years had taught him to function on a minimum amount of sleep, thanks to Stefan's restlessly wandering the house at all hours of the day and night and his incessant nightmares, when he finally managed to fall asleep.
Stefan.
Damon had spent the morning and first half of the afternoon by the kitchen window, watching the sun travel over the sky and the shadows move at its command. He'd been thinking about everything, but coming up with nothing at all.
'I could really use Elijah right about now, 'he thought, sighing involuntarily.
The oldest Original with his calm, collected mind would've known what to do or would've at the very least come up with a bunch of different strategies. Whenever Damon came up with a plan, it usually blew up in his face in the end, because he didn't have the needed patience and because he mostly let his arrogance take over instead of his better judgment.
Elijah would never do that. He knew the position of decision maker came with great responsibility and he had no reason to be arrogant as he had nothing to prove. He was an ultimate authority only second to nature and one of a few to ever make Damon feel vulnerable.
He dropped his useless brooding as someone approached.
Henrik entered, dressed as he had been the night before. He rubbed his eyes and yawned, stretching his arms over his head.
"Goodmorning, "Damon held up his coffee mug in a salute. "How did you sleep?"
Henrik glanced at him. "With one eye open."
"Look, "Damon paused, trying to figure out how to broach the subject. "I'm not going to try to kill you or even convince you to kill yourself. I just ... "
"You just take care of your own, "Henrik concluded for him. "I know. So do I."
Damon shrugged. "Well, I'm glad we are on the same page."
Henrik gave him a searching look, seeming almost amused about something. Then he spoke. "Actually, we may not even be reading the same book, but I tell you one thing, Damon Salvatore; I am not afraid of you. Because no matter how this ends, one day you will be meeting me on The Other Side and if I were you, I would seriously consider my course of action, as it may be the one thing that determines, how unpleasant your eternity there will be."
And he said it completely without menace, making Damon wonder if he had somehow misunderstood. But no.
Henrik got himself a bowl of cereal and sat down at the kitchen island, while Damon was still trying to recover from the shock.
"So what? You want me to back off?"
"No, Damon." Henrik picked up his spoon and it bent in his hand. He sighed in annoyance and got up to get another. "I want you to think ... Ah, here!" He dug a plastic spoon out of the utensil drawer.
Damon frowned. It wasn't the fist time he had heard that. How many times hadn't Elijah asked them all to think?
"I want you to realize that the thing that is most likely to get in your way, is you." Henrik sat back down. "Now, I can help you find your brother. As a matter of fact, I even know where he is. But it all depends on you being able to follow a simple game plan without losing your patience or acting on impulse."
Damon's frown deepened, but he said nothing.
"If I died, yes, so would Esther, "Henrik continued. "But I am not the only one she is bound to. She is also bound to Mikael, she is feeding him with power, and in the event of our deaths, all our power; mine and hers would shift into him, which is why I need to seperate myself from her and I can only do that with her blood."
It was difficult to find the timid boy from last night in this ancient creature's eyes. 'Kind of like with Darwin, 'Damon thought. 'Sometimes a boy, sometimes a man ... and sometimes something frightening.'
But Henrik wasn't Darwin. Darwin was controlled by his emotions, Henrik was in control of his. Strangely enough, he seemed to have inherited more of Elijah's cool.
Henrik started to eat, obviously having said, what he wanted to say and Damon could vaguely hear Rebekah getting out of bed upstairs. A couple of minutes later, the shower turned on.
He poured himself another cup of coffee. "Howcome you never changed?"
Henrik looked up. "Excuse me?"
"Your body, "Damon clarified gesturing with his mug. "It was alive in the casket, why didn't it change? Your powers grew."
"Well ..," Henrik wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "My spirit was never there, even though my heart was beating, I was still dead. Your spirit is what makes you human, your magic is what makes you a witch or a warlock and magic grows in your heart and runs through your veins."
"Yeah, "Damon leaned back against the kitchen counter, crossing his arms over his chest and tilting his head to one side as if deep in thought. "I don't get that."
Henrik snickered, suddenly a boy once again. "No, neither do I."
(Break)
(Qaanaaq, Greenland 17.03 ADT)
Elijah returned with the flowers he had been able to find with the help of a local hunter, who had been compelled into being extra friendly and suddenly having the time to go flower picking, though he had been on his way out with a shotgun.
Back at the cabin, the first thing Elijah noticed was that for some reason, the poor dogs were all in a mess. They were covered in dirt, the white ones almost brown. Kol and Niklaus were watching them, speculatively.
"I just didn't see that coming," Kol shook his head sadly.
"See what coming?" Niklaus' voice was dripping with sarcasm. "Dogs rolling on the ground? No, however could you have forseen that?"
Kol sighed. "Let's not focus on the past ... Now, what can we do?"
Niklaus gave him an annoyed look. "Besides giving them another wash?"
"You washed the dogs?" Elijah put the flowers, Purple Saxifrage, on the bench. "What on earth were you thinking, Kol?!"
Kol threw up his hands. "I don't know, alright?! Why don't you set up a committee to discuss whether or not I might be clinically insane like you always do?!"
"Calm yourself, Kol, "Elijah ordered automatically. "I just want to know, why you thought it was a good idea to wash the dogs?"
Kol pouted. "I wanted to clean them up for the wedding."
"This may come as a surprise to you, Kol, but they are not invited!" Klaus snapped.
"Relax ... " Elijah's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "We will simply have to wash them again and let them dry inside. Niklaus ..."
"Oh no, not me, "Niklaus smirked at his older brother. "Caroline and I have a cat, remember?"
"That's right, "Elijah frowned. "Then ..."
"Not in here either." They turned to see Sage standing in front of the door with her hands on her hips. She was guarding the doorway like the Final Boss in a Super Mario game. "We've just finished setting up everything for the wedding."
"Then how about the shed?" Kol suggested.
Niklaus rolled his eyes. "That's where we keep the food. They would eat themselves to death."
"Well, "Elijah gave Niklaus a far too friendly smile. "What would be easier to move? A cat or a wedding?"
"No!" Niklaus crossed his arms over his chest. "And that is final!"
"If there is one thing I have learned these past two years, "Elijah said slowly. "It is that that phrase doesn't mean anything anymore."
An hour later, Klaus was sitting with Caroline at their table, their small cabin filled with 16 canines. They were in the beds, on the rugs, under the table, one had even taken up residence on the kitchen counter, but that was Klaus' own fault. Too lazy to set up water bowls, he had simply turned on the water and let them drink directly from the tap.
The air in the room was stuffy and humid and he could tell Caroline was trying hard not to gag at the smell of wet dog.
He sighed irritably. "This is not exctly how I imagined spending the night before my wedding."
She gave him a queasy smile. "Well, I won't be here. I will be sleeping in the other cabin."
His eyes narrowed. "The beds are all taken. Who will you be sleeping with?"
She sighed in exasperation. "Claws! We'll have Kol's bed and Kol and Darwin will share. But any complaints from you,.. any at all!.. and I'll remind Kol that there are an extra bed over here."
"No no!" Klaus quickly backed down, holding up his hands. "No complaints!"
She huffed. "That's what I thought!"
(Break)
(London, England 22.15 GMT)
Stefan opened his eyes.
'What the Hell is going on?'
Had he been sleeping? It didn't seem so, because he wasn't laying down, he was kneeling on a cold stone floor. The taste of human blood was fresh in his mouth and he swallowed hard, trying to get rid of it.
"You must be strong."
He lifted his head and took a look around. He wasn't alone. There were rows of kneeling men and women and he was in the back left corner. He counted. Twelve in each row, three rows ... thirtysix.
They seemed to be in an old underground car park, possibly abandoned. The cement walls were covered with grafitti, probably colourful once but now faded.
The woman from the York Minster, now wearing a forest green dress, was walking down the front row, holding a golden pitcher. She let the kneeling people drink from it, one by one. There wasn't just blood in Stefan's mouth, the smell of it was thick in the air.
'They are all vampires, 'Stefan realised.
He wanted to get up and run out of there, but his body wasn't under his own control. He couldn't even lift his hands, let alone get to his feet.
The woman came to the end of the row, and walked back to the front centre where a man stood, a dark expression on his face.
Mikael.
He didn't really recognise him, the name just popped into his head. It was the man he and Damon had woken from some witchy slumber. It had to have been him the woman had been talking to in the church.
She handed him the pitcher with a small smile on her face, but he didn't drink from it. He just took it and set it aside on what appeared to be some makeshift alter that stood a bit to the side. Two golden candlesticks and a knife was placed on the surface and it was covered with a dark red piece of fabric.
The woman spread out her arms and the candles lit. Her right hand was bandaged and Stefan knew instinctively that it was the taste of her blood in his mouth.
"My friends, "she said, her voice being thrown back and forth in the large, empty room. "You have been called to do a task, a noble task." She paused for a minute, and Stefan found that he could not look away. "Among us walk those called the Originals. They cannot be allowed to spread their evil poison any longer. They must be destroyed."
'Yes, they must be.' Stefan's mind seemed to have developed a second conciousness, one he did not control. A part of him wanted to shake off her words, another part swallowed them whole, believing them without question.
"With my blood, you have all been given a purpose; to leave this place and search for these Originals. And when they have been found, you will be called into war, to fight on the side of Mother Nature."
She send a smile around the spellbound crowd. "Now go, my flock; spread out and come back with the information that I seek."
And finally Stefan moved and so did the rest of them.
'This is wrong, 'he thought vaguely as he set out to follow her command.
(Break)
(Qaanaaq, Greenland 23.58 ADT)
"Niklaus."
Klaus sat up, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. At first he reached for Caroline, but remembering that she wasn't there, he looked up at the man standing beside his bed. "Elijah?"
His brother was holding something wrapped in animal hide. He held it out to Klaus. "I have something for you."
Niklaus took it cautiously already having guessed what it was, but not entirely sure why his brother was presenting him with it. He unwrapped the sword and held it up. An old Norse proverb was written on it in runes: 'Bare is the back of a brotherless man'.
"I had it made not two centuries ago, "Elijah informed him. "I always take it with me, no matter where I go."
Niklaus nodded slowly. "And now it will serve as my rite of passage into marriage?"
"Yes." Elijah sat down on the edge of the bed. "I know you are supposed to take one from an ancestor's grave, but their graves are far away and their swords rusted away by now. And, well, I am an older relative and technically deceased, so ..."
"It's a great gift, Elijah." Klaus let a stream of sunlight that snuck through the curtains, catch in the blade, which was broad, double-edged and perfectly straight. It hadn't been made by an amatuer. "Are you sure you don't want to keep it and give it to Darwin one day?"
"He has already been married, as you know. And he took the sword from his grandfather's grave, when he became a vampire." Elijah sighed. "Besides, considering the proverb on the blade, I don't find it appropriate to give to him."
"Oh right, "Niklaus lay the sword down on the blankets. "Didn't think about that."
They sat in silence for a minute, neither knowing quite what to say to the other. The rift between them was far from mended, but some of the poison had been drained from the wound.
'It doesn't hurt quite as much as it used to, 'Klaus mused, running his fingers over the blade of the sword.
"Well, I'll leave you to yourself now, "Elijah said, standing up. "And I'll see you in the morning."
Niklaus nodded again. "Yes, see you."
But just as Elijah put his hand on the door handle, Niklaus' head snapped up. "Elijah?"
He didn't turn and said nothing but stood still, waiting for Niklaus to continue.
"I want you to be my witness ... or 'best man' as they call it these days, "Niklaus said a bit hurriedly. "I always have. If you decline, then I won't have any."
That was it.
He had actually decided not to ask. He hadn't wanted to give his brother an opportunity to hurt him with a no. But then Elijah had given him the sword, had offered Klaus something that was important to him, and opened himself to rejection. And wanting to return the favour, Klaus made a hasty decision to do the same.
Elijah did not pause to think or just to make Niklaus nervous. "I'll be honoured to, " he said, simply.