A/N: Here's the next chapter. This is kind-of a filler chapter. But it gives some background that I really enjoyed creating and writing.

I hope you all enjoy!

CHAPTER NINE:

'And I couldn't believe my eyes

I couldn't believe my ears

I couldn't believe my luck

I couldn't believe you're here.'

Couldn't Believe by Broods.

KATHERINE'S P.O.V.

I couldn't believe that he was here. Actually here. Alive. That he had left me.

My heart was beating wildly in my chest, and I could feel my head pounding at the implication of what this meant. What him being here meant for everything that had happened in my past.

He stared down me, his face blank, not even showing any remorse for what he had done to me. I looked over his tanned skin and mousy hair, then I looked into his eyes. The eyes that mirrored Nadia's so perfectly.

Nadia. I let my mind go to her and the time we had spent together since Caroline and I had come to New Orleans. I was glad she had stayed back at her house.

I needed to get out of here. I couldn't bring myself to be civil when all I wanted to do was rip his throat out with my teeth. I closed my eyes for a moment, letting my vampire features fade back into my skin, wiping at the tears that stained my cheeks. Then I shook my head, trying to find some sense of clarity.

I opened them again and straightened myself out. I would not let myself be humiliated by him again. Without another word to anyone I sped from the property, closely followed by Elijah, and ran to the closest bar I could find.

I ignored all of Elijah's pleas as I ordered myself two drinks, gulping them down like they were air as soon as they hit the bench in front of me. I ordered another two, sipping at them more slowly this time.

He stared at me in the mirror that sat behind the bar, but I just continued to sip my drink ignoring that he was even there.

The first man I had ever loved. The man I had given my everything to, and lost everything because, he was alive. Not only was he alive, but he was a vampire. And considering he didn't look a day older than the last time I had seen him, I would guess he had been turned at the same time I had thought he had died.

Elijah placed her hand gently on my arm and I looked into his eyes through the reflection in the mirror. He sought out my eyes in the mirror, locking mine in place, pity and confusing reading out clearly.

#

I felt like I was going to throw up again, but I fought to hold it down as my father spoke over out meal. My stomach rolled and churned dangerously at the smell of the roasted boar that wafted up from the centre of the table and into my nose. I turned my eyes to the dark grounds, trying to let my mind wander until the nausea passed.

Many a meal had been spoilt in the past few weeks with the constant string of nausea. I suspected what the cause of my illness was, but I didn't dare speak of it. I didn't dark so anything, lest it be true. The longer I kept my sickness to myself, the better.

I looked up as my younger sister placed her hand on my arm. She looked at me worriedly, and my eyes scanned their way around the table I realised that my mother and father were doing the same.

"Are you feeling okay Katerina?" My mother said, standing from her chair and touching her hand to my forehead.

"I feel slightly under the weather, but I will be okay."

My mother accepted my excuse and sat back down in her chair. My father, however, leered down at me from across the table. I shifted under his scrutiny, and took a large bite of the greasy chunk of meat on my plate, trying to convince everyone, including myself, that I was fine.

The bitter taste tolled across the inside of my mouth, the grease coating my tongue and teeth and sticking to the roof of my mouth like moist bread. I chewed the thick flesh between my teeth, trying to seem nonchalant. I chewed as my father continued to watch me, trying to force myself to swallow down the foul taste.

Swallowing down the mouthful of food, my throat protested as I tried to push the food down. I reached immediately for my goblet and drank a long swig of the rich mead.

That turned out to be an even worse idea, because as soon as the secondary flavour met with the remnant of the greasy boar, my stomach churned and heaved. I pushed myself up from the chair, sending the chair to the floor as I ran from the house. I stopped not too far from the door, keeling over and emptying the contents of my stomach onto the cool ground.

When the heaving sensation stopped, I stood up from the ground, wiping at my mouth as I tried to fix up my skirts. I turned to re-enter the house, only to find the door blocked by my father as he loomed in the doorway.

"In the lounge. Now."

I followed behind him and into the lounge, sitting down in one of the empty chairs. My mother through the room and came to sit on the chair next to me, looking wholly flustered. My father didn't sit down in the other chair, but instead he stood next to the fireplace and stared into the raging fire.

When he turned to look at me I quickly looked down into my lap, not wanting to meet his eyes. There was still a small chance that he hadn't clued onto my indiscretion. There was still a chance that I wasn't in the family way. No matter how small that chance was, it was still there.

"What do you have to say for yourself, Katerina?" He growled, stepping forward.

"Papa, it isn't…"

Whack!

My face swung to the side with the force of his hand connecting with my cheek. I cried out at the pain that shot through me, tears welling up in my eyes. I grabbed my face and turned to look back up at him. He stood over me, a burning anger filling his face. He swung his hand back and hit me again, the force sending me out of the chair.

My mama started to protest, standing from her own chair, but she quickly sat back down when she met my father's eyes. I stayed where I was on the ground, not braving facing him head-on.

His hand gripped my wrist, sending shockwaves up my arm as he wrenched me to my feet. I steadied myself as he let go, stumbling slightly as pain still radiated from my face and arm. I couldn't see through my tears as they flowed freely down my face.

"How could you Katerina?" He said, taking hold of my wrist once again in a vice grip. "You're better than this. You know better than to throw your body and the reputation of this family around. You had and abundance of potential as someone's future wife, and you go and ruin yourself with some useless boy."

I sobbed at the clear disappointment in his words. He was right. I had ruined my life.

#

I felt at my stomach through the layers of my dress, caressing the swollen lump that protruded visibly from my stomach. I smiled down at my hand, feeling the small life shifting and pushing against the strained skin.

I lifted my head up to look at the sky, feeling the warmth of the sun seeping into my skin. I let my eyes fall closed against the light and breathed in the clear afternoon air. When I opened my again I continued my walk across the garden, picking some flowers as I went and held them in my hand. I was in the final stages of my child baring, and any day now I would give birth to our son or daughter. The thought sent love coursing through my chest. In a matter of weeks, or even days, I would be a mother. And I would be a wife.

After my papa's violent reaction to my indiscretion, he had ordered that Andre and I marry as soon as my papa taught him how to be more than the stable boy he was. Andre, as someone who was considered to be below my station, didn't have the type of upbringing that would make him a 'decent husband', so my father was training him in the family business.

In just a few days we would marry, and we would be able to have the life we had wanted, our own special forever.

I rounded the far side of the garden and slowly made my way past the stables towards the house. I stopped at the sight of the carriage coming up the road from the direction of town, meaning my papa and Andre were back. I sped up my walking, as much as I could with the added weight I was carrying, eager to spend some time with Andre before nightfall.

The carriage came to a stop near the front door of the house and I gripped the small bunch of flowers in my hand as my papa opened the door and stepped down, shutting it behind him. I looked past him and into the carriage through the window, but Andre wasn't there.

I felt my eyebrows furrow as I looked over my father, taking in his rumpled clothes, small spatters of blood staining his pants.

"Where is Andre, Papa?" I asked, stepping forward with one hand resting comfortably on my stomach.

He looked down as me sadly as he walked to the front door of our home, removing his thick coat as he walked. I followed closely behind him as he hung up the coat and headed through the house into the kitchen where my mama and sister were making bread.

"Tell me where he is Papa." I said, standing beside him as he grabbed a goblet of mead and drank it down.

"Where is who?" Mama asked, turning around from the bench and looking at my papa and me curiously, her hand resting on her hip.

"Andre." I replied, pulling out a seat and setting myself uncomfortably into it. "He didn't come back from town with Papa."

Papa drank down the rest of his mead before turning to me, sadness in his eyes. My heart started to hammer in my chest. What had happened? Was the blood on the bottom of my Papa's pants Andre's?

He reached across and grabbed my hand gently. "I am truly sorry Katerina."

Tears sprang to my eyes and I leapt up from my spot on the chair, searing pain shooting through my hips and stomach. "Sorry for what? What happened to him, Papa?"

"There was an accident in town."

I backed away from him, not wanting to hear whatever it was that my Papa was going to say. "No."

"Someone didn't tether up their horses properly, and then there was something that set off a loud noise. Andre went to go and help calm the horses down before they could run off, but he was knocked off of his feet."

"No." I whispered again, my voice coming out as silent as a prayer. I stepped further back, knowing exactly what my father was going to say next.

He stood up from his own chair and made his way towards me slowly as I continued to back up from him. "There was nothing that could have been done to save him Katerina."

"No." I said, repeating it sternly. I didn't believe him. I couldn't believe him. Andre was an expert with horses, he wouldn't go rushing into an unsafe situation where they were concerned unless he knew he could fix it. He wouldn't have endangered himself when he knew that he had me to come home to. "I don't believe you."

"I was there Katerina. I saw it happen with my own eyes."