AN: I am so overwhelmed and thankful for your comments, honestly. I'm so glad you guys are liking it so far. I hope I can keep it up when the new season airs, but we'll see. I wrote around Cami, so here's hoping. lol. So, here's the newest addition, and let me know what you guys think. As always, enjoy!

Chapter 26

"What?" Freya and Keelin spoke at the same time.

K blinked the tears free. She stared back at them nearly trembling with fear as she nodded.

"I'm pregnant." She repeated in the same frightened way. "And I don't know what to do. This isn't supposed to be able to happen, but it's happening, and I don't have anyone to help me, and The Hollow's inside me," her words came out quivering and scattered, almost too fast for Freya or Keelin to understand, "And what if she infects the baby? What if she uses it as a way to get out? That could happen, right? I mean, why not? Everything else happens, so why not that, too?"

"Hey, hey, hey," Freya cooed softly as she approached K. She tenderly held the vampire's shoulders and felt her physically shaking. "Are you sure you're…" she almost couldn't say the word.

K nodded frantically. "There's a heartbeat. I can hear it, feel it. There's a heartbeat right here." She pressed her palm to her lower stomach, just beneath her belly button. "Keelin can probably hear it too, I bet."

Freya glanced over her shoulder at her girlfriend, "Keelin?"

The wolf nodded uncertainly. She took a deep breath and stepped forward. Keelin pressed her hearing –a gift she now had since Freya's ring helped her master her traits- and listened. She pushed past her own frantic heartbeat and that of Freya before hearing a soft, gentle sputter coming from the vampire.

"Holy shit," her face dropped and she stepped back, putting space between her and the situation.

"See!" K declared, pointing emphatically at the freaked out wolf. "This isn't right! You have to help me. I don't know what to do!"

"First," Freya said, "You need to calm down." K nodded repeatedly. She continued to shift on her feet, but took deep breaths, doing her best to calm. "Now, who's-" K immediately glared at the witch, cutting off her question quickly. Freya knew it was rude to ask who the father was, but as far as she knew, it had been years since K and Klaus had seen one another. "How is that possible?"

"He came to see me last month." She mumbled.

"How?" she couldn't remove the disbelief from her voice.

"He said he followed you home," K sighed, "And found my address."

Freya grumbled angrily to herself. Part of her expected Klaus to do something along those lines and while she was surprised it took five years, she was still disappointed by it.

"Okay," she finally said as she pressed her hand to her head. "I need to think."

K showed them to the living room where Freya and Keelin both sat, but K couldn't. She couldn't sit still and hadn't since she realized there was a heartbeat inside her body.

Keelin scooted closer to the witch, "Is something like this possible?" she asked under her breath. "I mean, she's a vampire."

"She was," Freya replied. Her eyes slowly traveled to the pacing young woman who could easily hear them, but instead seemed lost in her own thoughts. "We're not entirely sure what Kali is anymore."

"What does that mean?"

"It means," K said, "That for all intents and purposes, I'm barely a vampire."

"What?" Keelin asked.

"I'm part hybrid."

"How can that even happen?"

"Does it look like I have the answers?!" she snapped angrily. "That's why I called Freya, because I don't know what the hell is happening to me."

Keelin raised a single brow. "You should calm down."

"Calm down?" she hadn't. "Are you kidding me? I am dead, Keelin." She took stilted steps towards the wolf, "I have not felt a heartbeat in my chest for a millennia. I am little more than a supernaturally reanimated corpse, and now I'm pregnant. Can you even wrap your head around how absolutely bat-shit crazy this is for me?"

A tense moment or two passed before Freya spoke.

"First things, first," she sighed, "We need to protect that child." K continued to pace, to shift nervously on her feet and take in one long breath after another. "I need some paper and a pen."

She didn't mean to, but when K retrieved the supplies, she ran. She'd darted off into the distance and was back within seconds. It didn't seem as though she had any control over her body.

"I'll need some supplies," Freya muttered as she began to write down what was essentially a shopping list.

K was still chewing on her thumbnail, tearing it raw and letting it heal again before repeating the harsh action. She couldn't stop. Her brain seemed incapable of anything but immense fear. None of this should've been happening. How in the name of all that is holy was she pregnant? Haley was a surprise, but sure. She was alive. Klaus might have been a hybrid, but they were both –technically- alive. She wasn't. K was dead –dead, dead, dead.

The heartbeat in her stomach made her feel queasy. It was so strange, so foreign, and it scared her beyond reason -to the point she couldn't even be happy she was getting something she'd always wanted. There was something alive inside of her and instead of being happy it was a child, it felt like an alien. Any moment, she expected the fetus to come bursting out of her chest glowing blue because The Hollow was using it as a vessel to escape. And then, the fetus would track down Kol, Rebekah and Elijah, kill them and assimilate the rest of The Hollow's power.

With a groan, K buried her face in her hands and sank into a nearby chair. She knew her theories were ludicrous, but then again, SO WAS A PREGNANT VAMPIRE!

Keelin had been watching K pace back and forth. Her eyes had been locked to the apparent mother-to-be, in fact, all the while she could hear the delicate heartbeat.

When she was finished with her list, Freya asked K where she could purchase anything she needed. She took Freya's phone and typed in the name of a shop she knew that sold curios the witch may need. K elected to stay behind. Relations between witches and vampires were tense no matter the country, so having her alongside Freya wasn't a good idea, nor was telling anyone she was a Mikaelson, which K said.

~!~

It took the day to gather everything for the spell Freya needed to protect the growing child. She wanted to make sure her niece/nephew would be as safe as possible. Since the fetus was too small to draw blood from (likely the size of a bean or so) Freya took a bit of K's blood. If anything, she hoped she could separate anything containing K's blood from the clear invader known as The Hollow. She truly prayed it was enough.

K laid down after giving Freya her blood, and things were done to her. She hated how powerless she felt and that even more magic had to be done to her, but she had no choice.

As Freya chanted, the candles burned and whatever she'd put in the bowl smoldered, she touched K's stomach. K stared at the ceiling and clenched her fists tightly, forcing herself to have faith in Freya's abilities.

Heat formed beneath the witch's hands, much more than K should have felt normally. Her brows came together as the heat increased to the point it was nearly a blaze. She sucked in a sharp hiss through her teeth and began to fidget beneath Freya's hand, but the witch never faltered, never hesitated to keep.

After a moment, the heat became too much and K had to struggle not to scream. It felt like Freya was burning her with a hot poker, jamming it ruthlessly into K's stomach, but just as suddenly as it began, everything stopped. The second the last syllable left Freya's lips, the heat stopped.

"There," the blond sighed as she removed her hand.

K quickly examined her stomach, swearing Freya burned her, but there was nothing. Her skin wasn't even red. K looked up to Freya and saw her smiling softly.

"Your baby's safe from anything The Hollow might try to do." She said as confidently as she could. In truth, Freya could do little more than pray her spell worked.

With a relieved sigh, K fell back onto the couch again. That was one thing she didn't have to worry about, but there were still many, many more.

~!~

K offered her place to the pair who was glad they didn't have to pay for a hotel and were honestly exhausted. They hadn't stopped moving since landing and now that the adrenaline and shock of what brought them to London was gone, they needed to sleep.

Freya was at first reluctant to take K's bed, but K didn't have a guest room and she hadn't been sleeping much since finding out she was pregnant. It took some convincing, but the blond finally agreed.

The two were sleeping in the other room while K sat on her balcony overlooking the city once again. She wanted so badly to grab something strongly alcoholic to drink, but she didn't. Instead, she drank water. Yay…

Her mind raced to the point of headache. So many things refused to be silent and it actually hurt. It actually caused her physical pain.

With a sigh, K stood and headed back inside. She was surprised to see Keelin grabbing a glass of water for herself. The wolf smiled kindly.

"Can't sleep?" she asked politely.

"No," K sighed softly.

Keelin looked over her for a moment. She could tell K was still unsettled.

"Are you okay?"

"I don't know what to do." K said sadly. "I've never had a child before."

"Freya says you've taken care of dozens of kids, though."

"Taken care of, yes, but never bore." Her eyes welled with tears. "I have no idea how I'm supposed to handle any of this. Do I call Klaus and tell him? If I do, he'll come here and I can't let him leave Hope. But then what? Do I do this on my own? Do I have the child and then send it away to have you and Freya, or Hayley raise it? Can I even raise a child while this thing is inside me? And what is it going to be? Is it going to be a witch like Hope? A werewolf? I have so much of Klaus in me that I'm not even a vampire anymore, so will this child even be part me, or will it be a clone of Nik?"

Keelin's brows came together as she watched a woman she knew to be strong crumble before her. K took in one shaking breath after another, blinking the tears out of her eyes and letting them fall.

"I am so unbelievably terrified that I've doomed this poor child who's done nothing but have the misfortune of being conceived." Her voice trembled. "And there's nothing I can do to save it."

Surprised in herself, Keeling stepped forward and wrapped her arms around K, pulling the distraught vampire into a hug and holding her tightly. K clung to her, clutching the wolf's shirt in her clenched fists and burying her face in Keelin's shoulder.

"It'll be okay," Keelin said softly. She tenderly stroked the back of K's head. "Freya's spell will keep it safe, isolated from The Hollow. After that, it's just one thing at a time, okay?" they slowly parted. Keelin forced a smile as she held K's jaw reassuringly. "Just one day at a time."

Slowly drawing in one quivering breath after another, K forced herself to calm and nod.

~!~

The following morning, K took Keelin and Freya to a nice little restaurant not far from her apartment building for breakfast. It wasn't as though she had food in the house, anyway. But as they sat in the crowd of people and the two with a pulse ate, K felt her stomach growl. It actually growled with hunger –something she hadn't felt for actual food in a long, long time.

"Can… can I try some of that?" K asked, eying Freya's omelet with a predatory glint.

"Uh," Freya was a little surprised, but nodded, "Yeah, of course."

K grabbed her fork and took a bite of the egg dish. She'd never tasted anything so delicious and immediately tried to take more. It wasn't until the third bite that Freya pulled her food away.

"Get your own," she laughed lightly. "Jesus."

K apologized. She didn't remember the last time food actually tasted like food and she felt ravenous as a result. Freya explained that it made sense. It wasn't as though the baby could survive on blood. It wasn't a vampire, after all, so what else was there but normal human food? As far as cravings went, that was perhaps the strangest for K.

After ordering her own omelet, bacon, ham and a few pastries and devouring them with relative ease, K finally calmed. For the first time in the ten minutes it took for her to clear her plates, Freya and Keelin weren't afraid they were going to lose a finger.

As she settled, K stared off into space twirling her fork between her fingers. Like every time before, her brain drifted to the quivering heartbeat inside her. It was still so new. And utterly distracting.

"Kali," Freya's voice snapped her out of her thoughts and drew her attention. "Are you okay?"

K scoffed under her breath. She was far from it, as far as she was concerned, but that wasn't what she was going to say. K knew Freya was well aware she was freaked out, but there was something she wanted to know, something that had been weighing on her.

"What do I do about Nik?"

Freya's shoulders slumped. "I don't know." She answered honestly.

Freya knew that telling her brother about the pregnancy would result in his coming back to London, thereby leaving his daughter, and it wasn't as though K could go to him. Then again, it wasn't as though K could not tell Klaus about it.

"Thanks," K replied in a voice thick with derision. "So helpful."

~!~

Freya and Keelin remained for a couple of days and used the trip to London as a vacation now that they'd settled everything they needed to with K. The vampire was fine with it and let the happy couple come and go as they needed before taking them to the airport. She thanked Freya copiously for her help and begged her not to say anything to anyone until she knew what to she was going to do. Freya reluctantly agreed. She knew K would have no choice but to tell the family, but whether or not she did it before the baby was born was up for debate. Still, the witch felt it was K's decision and agreed to her terms.

Weeks passed and the heartbeat grew stronger, K's mind remained hectic and she had moved. After selling her apartment in London, K took up residence in a villa in Rome: Via de capo le Case. If there was anything she'd learned as of late, it was time with the Mikaelsons had made her realize how much she preferred the finer things in life.

K had moved initially so Klaus couldn't find her again, but that precaution lost a little something when she found herself contemplating calling him. She'd gotten his number from Freya and kept hold of it just in case. The trouble came with actually using it. She simply couldn't make herself dial the number no matter how much she wanted to. K still didn't think it was a good idea telling Klaus about her pregnancy at the moment. She was stuck in a weird vortex of selfish selflessness. She was selfishly keeping the truth to herself to selflessly let Klaus remain with Hope and the family he'd built over the past few years.

"Il tuo tè, signora."

Her waiter's voice snapped K out of her thoughts.

"Grazie." She replied with a smile.

He gave her a gentle nod and disappeared shortly after setting her tea on the table. K added just a touch of sugar (because now there were rules to what she ate and drank, apparently) and went back to staring at the beauty of the city older than she was. She hadn't been to Rome in centuries, not since the Renaissance, in fact. A lot had changed.

The same few questions continued to run through her mind. Should I tell Klaus? How will he react? Can I raise a child? What if Freya's spell doesn't hold The Hollow at bay? What is this baby going to be? Who will raise it if I can't?

Mothers-to-be were supposed to be worried about names, about baby-proofing their homes and whether or not they could save enough money for college. They most certainly weren't supposed to worry about whether or not their supernatural child was cursed with god-knows-what.

With a long sigh, K ran her fingers through her hair and lifted her tea cup to her lips. She sipped on the sweetened brew while she lazily watched tourists on mopeds speed by, a few honking their squeaking little horns.

~!~

Virginia:

Klaus hadn't felt comfortable for months. He couldn't pinpoint the reason as to why, only that something was scratching at the back of his head. There was a strange, gnawing feeling that continued to haunt him ever since leaving K in London, and he didn't know what it was. Something felt different. Not wrong necessarily, just different.

While dealing with The Hollow before she had to be broken up and shoved into his loved ones, Klaus wondered why he and K weren't connected like they once were. Freya suggested it was likely because The Hollow had severed the connection when she initially possessed Klaus. It would make sense that she didn't want the other vampire to know what was happening and somehow managed to break their link as a result, but Klaus –for the first time ever- wished he had it back. He wanted the connection to return, that link that told him exactly how and what K was feeling. Without it, he felt disturbingly alone.

But he was also smart enough to know that his strange apprehension and worry was likely longing. Klaus realized that the feelings coursing through him were likely him wanting nothing more than to reunite with K, that he just wanted to be with her again after so long apart.

Klaus leaned back in his seat, hidden away in his bedroom and staring at the picture K had sent him. He wanted to believe he simply missed her, but he didn't –not completely. Something still felt so strangely off and it bothered him.

~!~

Rome:

K sat at what had become known as her table at the bistro down the street from her villa. Everyday she'd come to the same little restaurant; order herself a bit of food and tea and people-watch for a while. It helped her forget sometimes, helped her ignore the insanity of her own life, but she knew the feelings were only going to get worse.

As she picked at her croissant, tearing a small piece off and eating it, she felt the air around her shift. It was an odd sensation given she was surrounded by people and outside, but she felt it nonetheless.

The prickle at the back of her neck forced her to turn and when she did, K was full of happiness and apprehension. Klaus stood a few yards behind her walking towards her table. When her eyes met his, he froze and K felt her heart wanting to thunder. She always loved him in black which made his outfit of dark-wash jeans and a black button-up shirt the perfect combination.

When he saw her, Klaus felt his step hesitate and a gentle smile tug at the corner of his lips. He slid his hands into his pockets and stood back, content to admire her at a distance. Her hair fluttered softly in the gentle breeze, her eyes sparkled and a soft smile lit up her face as she stared at him over her shoulder. He was so glad she'd called and told him where she was, so happy she wanted to see him again because he was more than willing to go through eternity without her at his side so long as he could see her every few months. Klaus needed K in his life in some capacity.

After a moment or two of staring at one another, K shifted in her seat. She pushed back and stood, ready to join him. Klaus let his feet close the distance between them as K turned around.

He suddenly froze. Klaus felt his body tense, his blood run cold and his head waver. The world around him was beginning to darken as his vision tunneled on K and the pronounced bump she now sported.

K saw his stunned expression and his eyes focus intently on her stomach. At just over three months pregnant, K's stomach was just beginning to press against her t-shirt. Instinctively, she gently cradled the growing mass.

"Nik," she said softly despite being nearly ten feet from him. Klaus' eyes shot to hers. "Say something."

He opened his mouth, but words couldn't come.