All Kinds of News
Klaus and Caroline both managed to wake up on time the next morning. Klaus suggested that they both go out for breakfast, but Caroline gave him a look. Afterwards, she managed to drag him into the kitchen and tell her what he wanted. After making them whole an omelet, they ended up taking a shower together. After dressing, Caroline had Klaus give her his necklace so she could put his ring on it before putting it around his neck and he did the same for her. Neither of them liked their rings being off at that point, but they had to appear normal. Klaus told her that he would have a surprise for her at lunch and that he had received a text from Elijah saying that everyone was meeting at the club because Bonnie wanted to talk to everyone. Caroline focused on what was going on out of worry for her friend, but when she found the reason behind it, she smiled and told Klaus that they needed to go.
Work moved slowly for both Katherine and Caroline at the bookstore. Katherine had come up with an idea and she thought Caroline might like it. She was a little nervous about talking to her and knew that something had went down between Caroline and Stefan because she would get a glare every time she asked what had happened.
"Caroline, I need to talk to you about something important. I think you're going to like it, but I want to run it by you before I do it."
"What is it Kat?"
"Okay I know that most days are so slow in here that it doesn't make sense for us to both be here at the same time, and we both have seemed to have found someone that we would like to spend more time with."
"Where's this going, Kat?"
"I want to add your name to the deed with mine. I also want us to start splitting shifts. Both of us would only have to work half the day, except for busy days when we would both be working. I'm also going to start being closed on Mondays since it's our slowest day of the week. That would leave us splitting up the times on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and we would both work Fridays and Saturdays at the same time."
"How long have you been thinking about this?"
"I came up with the idea this week and I wanted to run it by you before going through with it. We can tell everyone after we get it done. What do you say? I can have the papers ready by the end of the day and we can make our own announcement tonight."
"Are you sure you want to co-own this place? I mean you started everything; I just work with you."
"I'm sure. You've usually done more work than I have here and I want us to both be able to have a more stable schedule. With being an owner, you wouldn't get paid hourly; you and I would be getting paid from the profits. We won't be rich like the guys, but we wouldn't have to work as much to get paid the same."
"If you're sure this is what you want to do, then I'd be happy to co-own this place with you."
"I have another issue I need to talk to you about."
"Okay the first bit of news was great, but you look really nervous about this part. What is it Kat?"
"There's another reason I wanted to get the business squared away… I'm pregnant?"
"What?"
"Don't make me repeat it."
"No, I heard you. Does Elijah know?"
"He was the one that took me to the doctor. I thought I caught the stomach flu, but they did a blood test and I'm pregnant."
"What did Elijah say?"
"He said he didn't want me to run off from him. He wants us to keep working on our relationship since it just started, but he seemed really happy with the idea of a baby. I was freaking out and he calmed me down. He wants me to move in with him so he knows I make it to all my doctor's appointments and we have more time together to think about what we want with each other."
"I think you guys will be fine. Elijah is a nice guy and I'm sure he will stand by you through this. I think you guys will stay together, and not just because you have a baby on the way. I think you two will stay together because it's what you want to do."
"Okay well you can tell Klaus, but that's it. Everyone else will know tonight. I just think he deserves to know he's going to be an uncle and that I'll be staying at the mansion. He'll probably want to stay with you anyway."
"He'll get tired of my house eventually because it's way smaller than what he's been used to. When will you be moving everything?"
"Over the next few months. I'll have to get my clothes this week, but everything else can wait a while. I just hate to leave you there. If Klaus wasn't there with you right now, I probably wouldn't have considered it."
"Okay well give me a text when you decide to swing by so I know to be home."
"I will. You took this a lot better than I thought you would."
"Right now, I don't think anything could surprise me."
"Everything has been so crazy lately. Bonnie heard that you and Klaus are together and refused to believe it. She said she would believe it when she sees it."
"Well I guess she'll see it tonight."
"I guess she will. Elijah and Klaus are on their way. Klaus is going to sit with you while I go to lunch. Then Elijah is going to stay with me while you go to lunch. It's great being able to have your own business. Nobody can gripe to you about having guests or how long you take your lunch. You'll love co-owning with me. The papers will be ready to sign by closing time."
"I'll be here." She said with a laugh. Katherine was so glad that her friend was happy again. She regretted telling Stefan because it seemed to have caused a rift between them. A few minutes later, Klaus and Elijah came into the bookstore. Elijah went straight to Katherine and walked her out. Klaus walked over to Caroline and wrapped his arms around her.
"I have your surprise for you. Well part of it."
"I just had an interesting conversation with Katherine and I think I need to tell you about it."
"Elijah told me that she's pregnant."
"Oh there's more."
"How much more could there be?"
"Elijah asked her to move in with him to make sure she gets to her doctor appointments and they can have more time together to make sure their relationship is what they want. AND Katherine is drawing up the paperwork today to add my name to the deed. I will be the co-owner after today and then we're going to be changing our schedules. We'll be closed Sundays and Mondays. She and I will split the hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. However, Fridays and Saturdays are will be whole days that we work together."
"Is there anything else?"
"I don't think so. I'm only allowed to tell you. She's going to tell everyone else tonight when Bonnie makes her announcement."
"Okay well here is your surprise." He said as he offered her a rolled up paper from behind his back.
"What is this?"
"Blueprints. I thought that we could go over them and you could tell me what you wanted to change before we start building."
"Blueprints… for the house you want to build for us?"
"Yes. I thought we could go over each room and you describe what you think it should look like and I'll draw it. I've already included an art room for me and a room for you to use for all your magic stuff. We'll have our own offices, unless you want to share, and we'll have a gym and pool."
"You seem really excited about this."
"Yes well I also thought ahead and made sure we would have rooms close to ours for when kids come along."
"I went next door earlier and bought one of those daily planners so I could keep up with our… activities. I will put an X by the date, and below the date I will mark N for no birth control or C for condoms. I say we go back to using condoms just in case we managed to finish the binding without getting knocked up. If we did, then I guess it won't matter, but if we didn't I want to keep it that way for a while. There's so much going on and everybody has to be ready for what's coming. I don't even want to think about having to fight of an attack while being pregnant."
"For safety reasons I agree with you. When the danger has passed, we'll talk about it again. I'm going to miss feeling your walls clamping down on me skin to skin."
"Oh I'll miss it too, but we have to be careful. I'm going to give you a little heads up though; we can't take condoms to rituals with us and sometimes there's so much energy that we won't be able to hold back from each other. It'll be sort of like the binding, but not as powerful. We have to have a back-up plan."
"What about birth control?"
"I can't get on it until we know for sure we didn't conceive the other night. Then we have to worry about it actually working. I'm highly resistant to medicine if you haven't noticed. What about you pulling out? If nothing else works, you might have to."
"I will if I can. It's a little hard to be in control when I'm inside you. I never even had the thought with you."
"That's because we're mates. Okay so we have to be careful, but we don't have a lot of ways to do that."
"We'll think of something. Does everybody have this problem?"
"No, it's usually just when it's the female is the witch. Men are sooo lucky. However, it's mostly difficult because it's me. If I was any other female, things would be easier."
"Do you see me running or complaining?"
"No."
"So lighten up. We'll figure out something, but if we don't we'll deal with stuff as it comes up."
"Fine. So what do you want to do now? Kat is going to be at lunch for another half of an hour."
"I'll show you the blueprints, and during your lunch we can discuss changes. Tonight, we'll sit down and draw what we want the rooms to looks like."
"Sounds good to me. Let's get started because I don't think we need to tell Kat and Elijah yet."
"We won't tell them until we have it built. However, I do have to let Rebekah know. With her knowing, the Salvatores and Elena will know."
"I really don't want to talk to Stefan yet, so how are we going to get around him tonight?"
"We aren't. He can lose the attitude or I will make him leave you alone. I hope he behaves for you and Bekah's sakes, but I don't know."
"Your sister still doesn't like me. I saw how she looked at me out the window the other day. If looks could kill I would be dead."
"I'm her favorite brother. When she realizes that I'm still her brother and that now she has a sister, she'll come around. Just give her some time and try not to scare her in the meantime."
"So she's worried that I'm going to take her brother away?"
"So to speak. Now, let's look at these blueprints before they get back. I want to be able to note what we're changing during your lunch."
"Okay. No more distractions. Let's get started." She said with a giggle and Klaus smirked. She looked at him realizing what she said and shook her head. He started showing her floor plans and she made mental notes for things to add or change; there wasn't much that she wanted different. She had to admit he came up with the idea for a beautiful house. She had images running through her mind of what everything would look like, but kept them to herself.
When Kat and Elijah came back, Klaus quickly rolled up the blueprints and he and Caroline made their way out for her lunch. They chose a booth in the back so they wouldn't be bothered and set out discussing changes and additions. Klaus wrote down her ideas and by the time lunch was over they had managed to finish. He told her that he would drop of the list and blueprints at the architect and they would have the revised blueprints in the next day or so. Klaus had another surprise for her, but he had agreed with Elijah that they would tell her and Katherine at the club later.
The rest of the day passed too quickly for Caroline; she didn't want to go to the club that night. Klaus and Elijah showed up to take the girls on over. Everybody was meeting before the club opened to discuss their news. Everybody agreed on an order in which to give news before it would become a group discussion. Bonnie and Jeremy would go first. Then Katherine and Elijah, followed by Stefan and Rebekah, Damon and Elena, and ending with Klaus and Caroline. With everyone in agreement, Bonnie and Jeremy stood up to begin. Bonnie decided to be the one to tell the story.
"Okay guys, I know we've been gone for a couple weeks and when we came back we were really busy getting back on track, but now we wanted to take a few minutes to catch up. While we were on the cruise, I got sick and had to see the doctor on board. I'm pregnant." She said smiling, but continued when she saw everybody getting ready to rush at her. I'm not done yet. Jeremy and I were talking the next day when we walked past the chapel and saw a couple getting married. Jeremy proposed and we didn't want to wait until we came back, so we're also married!"
Everything went by crazily for the next few minutes. All the girls swarmed to Bonnie to wrap her in a group hug, while the men all went to clap Jeremy on the back in congratulations. When it came time for Katherine and Elijah to give their news, Katherine decided to speak first regarding the store, but Elijah would take over and explain moving and the baby.
"Well I guess it's our turn. This first part includes Caroline, and we've already taken care of all the little details today. I added her to the deed today; we both now own the bookstore. WE made changes to our schedule too. We'll be closed Sundays and Mondays now, but open the rest of the week using the same hours. However, we'll be splitting the shifts for 3 days out the week. This decision was best for both of our interests, and I will let Elijah explain my reasons." She said while turning to Elijah to pass the floor to him.
"Katherine will be moving into my family's house with me. We went to the doctor a couple days ago because we thought she had caught a stomach virus, but when the blood test came back, it revealed that she too is pregnant. She's not very far along but we want to take this opportunity to explore our relationship before the baby comes. I have no doubts that we will be fine, but we want to be sure."
Once again, the girls swarmed for a group hug, but the guys shook Elijah's hand instead of clapping him on the back. Damon and Elena decided to speak up next instead of waiting for Stefan and Rebekah.
"Okay so everybody listen up because I'm only going to say this once." Damon began and smirked when almost everyone rolled their eyes. "Okay, so everyone knows that me, Stefan, and Caroline are pagans. Caroline performed the ritual equivalent of a marriage on us, but Elena wanted us to be legally married and we eloped. We ran down to the courthouse a couple days ago and got married. We also found out that she is pregnant too. It must be in the water or something because I'm afraid for all us menfolk."
"Damon and I will be staying at the boarding house since he's the eldest out of him and Stefan. Stefan can explain the rest with their turn, but I also wanted to add that I got a promotion at work."
She finished and the girls hugged again. Damon made the remark about women being so sensitive and got a few slaps from them. The men clapped him on the back before helping the women slap him. Then Stefan and Rebekah stood up and Stefan decided he would speak for both of them.
"Caroline also did a handfasting for us the same night as Damon and Elena. I had already given Rebekah a ring and we decided to set a date so she can have her dream wedding. We'll be getting married in June. We have decided to buy a new house or build one, so we aren't living with Damon and Elena since they began making their own family. Another reason is because we have as well. Rebekah is pregnant too."
Everyone started shifting in their seats and looked at Klaus and Caroline. They were all wondering if Caroline was pregnant too, and it made her feel more worried than ever that she could be. It was way too early to even begin to find out, so she would just have to smile and play it off. Klaus decided to speak for them.
"Caroline and I are together now. I know some of you have been worried about her since she got out of the hospital a few weeks ago, but she's stopped drinking and her health has greatly improved. I'm going to be staying at her house to give Elijah and Katherine some space to work things out and I was planning on telling Stefan that he could take Rebekah there and stay with her, but it seems like they already made plans. Caroline and I haven't been together long, but we've both been really happy together. Since everything is still pretty new to us, we will probably be spending a lot of time together, so if you don't see us every day, don't worry. Another thing is that we're going to be trying to help Kol. I know he doesn't want anything to do with us and that he's fallen into a very deep rut, but I think we have a shot at helping him and we're going to take it. We only ask that everyone let us do what we got to do before trying to interfere. On another note, Elijah and I have hired someone to work in the office so he and I will have more time to work through the new events in our lives. He will be starting here tomorrow morning, but I don't think you all will see much of him. Now I need Stefan, Damon, and Rebekah to follow me for a private discussion." He finished as he turned back to Caroline. She gave him a small smile and he kissed her cheek.
"So Blondie isn't pregnant too then?"
"DAMON! Don't even start with me!" Caroline screeched with a stomp.
"Well?"
"You nosey prick, we just started having sex a couple days ago since you want to pry into my business, so I guess the only thing to say is that time will tell." He finished it a rush. Stefan lowered his head. He wanted to make things up between them but after seeing her avoid him, he knew she wouldn't hear him right then. Klaus gave Caroline another kiss on the cheek with a smirk and led the smaller group up to his office to explain that he was building a house for Caroline and him. He was now worried for Caroline with every other female she associated with being pregnant at the same time.
Downstairs, Caroline was worried about the same thing. She knew Klaus would be back down soon and they would leave to find Kol, so she decided to spend some time with Bonnie. She would see Kat and Elena later, but she hadn't seen Bonnie since getting out of the hospital.
"Congratulations Bonnie. I'm so happy for you."
"You look better than the last time I saw you. So… you and Klaus? How did that happen?"
"It just happened. He's been really helpful with everything and I've actually managed to let go of Tyler. I haven't even thought about him for days."
"So you're happy?"
"I'm very happy, Bonnie. I didn't think I could be this happy anymore."
"He seems different with you than he was with Tatia. What happened to her?"
"She was cheating on him. She actually moved away a couple days ago. We got together while you were gone. I know it must seem like everything has happened so fast, but we actually thought about everything before we started this. He was upset over Tatia's actions, I was upset over Tyler's death, and I don't want to sound like we are just using each other to get over our past, but we have been helping each other get past it. We have a lot in common and we value the same things, so we kind of bonded through everything. One thing led to another and here we are. We're doing well, so we want to keep it up."
"As long as he treats you right and you guys are happy, then I'm happy for you. I hope everything goes perfectly for you two."
"I'm sure we'll have our ups and downs like everybody, but we'll get through them." She said as she heard everyone coming back. She gave Bonnie one more hug before she grabbed her purse and made her way back to Klaus. They said goodbye to everyone and made their way out of the club.