A.N.: What do you think to the rewrite so far?
This chapter is again dedicated to Savanna95 for your ongoing reviews. They make my shitty days at work much better!
Machiavelli's Daughter
02
Vacation's Over
"Okay, so…you have five Originals living in our witch-house," Caroline said, still with that bomb-blast look on her face. Giulia could see thoughts whirring, cogs spinning as Caroline processed this information. "Seriously?! For how long?"
"I've kept them all here since we finished the remodel," Giulia admitted. "Figured it was safer; the witches kept them cloaked… I woke Finn in the New Year."
"Does Rose know - ?"
"She knows he's a vampire. So does your mother, by the way; she kind of knows a little about what's going on. So does Ashlyn. And Sheila… They all know titbits, enough to help but not enough to put them in danger," Giulia said quietly.
"Except from five Original vampires!" Caroline blurted, her expression indignant. Giulia didn't blame her for the outburst; she fully anticipated a proper tongue-lashing at a later date when Caroline had had time to fully absorb everything, realise the ramifications and recognise the risks Giulia had taken.
"The precautions have been reinforced," Giulia told her gently. She had made sure this town would remain protected from the supernatural after she had initially left it ten years ago to go to college. "They won't hurt anyone…and these ones are not like Klaus."
"Even Elijah killed people," Caroline said quietly, the gentle voice of reason.
"I don't need to be reminded," Giulia sighed sadly, Slater's hesitant smile flickering through her mind, Rose's struggle with loneliness after five centuries with one person giving her a stomach-ache if she dwelled on it too long. There was a reason Rose had bonded with Matt, who, like her, had been left alone in spite of all their efforts to help support and protect their families. Elijah had killed people; but then, so had Caroline. So had Giulia; she had done it to protect this town, and the people she loved who lived here. Caroline had killed one carnival-worker shortly after she transitioned into a vampire, overwhelmed by her new heightened senses and emotions and the desire for blood. Elijah had killed people because it was necessary to his plans - and because he could, because there was ancient history and bad blood. "They grew up in a different world… But they're learning how to keep under the radar in this one."
Caroline asked curiously, "Why did you wake Finn first?"
"Finn was daggered in the Twelfth Century A.D.," Giulia murmured, gazing at Elijah. "I thought he'd need the most help acclimating… I'd thought if I were to wake the others too soon, he wouldn't get the attention he deserves. Between him and Isak, he's actually the most well-adjusted… He's spent far less time as a vampire than any of the others… He's still quite…"
"Human," Caroline said softly.
"I…was going to say still quite like you," Giulia said. "He's not lost who he is to what he is."
"Why do you let him near Zita?" Caroline asked, her frown gentle but faintly accusatory. Rarely did Caroline comment on Giulia's parenting technique. How Giulia raised her daughter was her business; Caroline was Zita's godmother, Liz her surrogate grandma, but Zita was first and foremost Giulia's daughter. And Giulia was, in spite of a few significant meltdowns in the early days, a wonderful mother. The decisions regarding Zita's safety, upbringing, education, her happiness, were Giulia's to make; there was no way on earth she would jeopardise Zita's delight and innocence, her safety, her life, with the decisions she made for the both of them.
"He adores her. He adores children… When they were human there was no-one Elijah trusted more with his own children than Finn," Giulia said. "It's fundamental to his character; he is hard-working, earnest, and he protects the vulnerable… He looks after his family." Caroline sighed heavily, arms folded over her chest.
When he had woken to a clean, alien world, Finn had looked into Giulia's face, and the colour that had come from replenishing his blood-supply through a transfusion drained from his face. He had stared at Giulia, as if seeing a ghost, startled and at the same time full of wonder, awe. She had seen that look on Elijah, before – as if he recognised her from somewhere, some ancient memory. A name had whispered through her mind, even as it fell from Finn's lips: Lucrezia. A legendary figure in the history of Provence, one of the most powerful women of her time.
She wasn't the Lucrezia of their character-defining vampiric-adolescence, but in a delirium fuelled by werewolf-venom even Elijah had mistaken Giulia for Lucrezia. Through his memories, Giulia knew she did look exceptionally like the long-lost Lucrezia. But it was her resemblance that had given Finn pause – he had been too stunned by her appearance to kill her; and the fact that she knew why he was shocked, could speak medieval French and Italian as if no time had passed, told him that she had seen Elijah's memories of Lucrezia… On quiet evenings before the others had woken, she would come and sit and share a glass of wine with Finn, just sitting and enjoying the fresh air, talking. Companionship. But nothing had coaxed him to open up like introducing Zita, who had smiled, climbed onto the piano-stool, and played for him. Music transcended any language-barrier, any age-gap.
And Finn didn't mind that Giulia hadn't taken the daggers out of his siblings' hearts immediately. She had a plan; and he wanted them left as they were, hurt by their indifference to the suffering Giulia was sure they hadn't realised he was enduring. None of them had endured a daggering of comparable duration to his. They had left him to suffer inside his own mind for nearly a millennium. Elijah's favourite brother. The man he had trusted with his children in their human lives; and had missed for a millennium, throughout the duration of their vampire existence.
"Why was that Isak guy glaring at you?" Caroline asked.
"He's grounded," Giulia said, deadpan. She sighed. "He can be worse than Kol on his really bad days. Only, not completely blotto; he likes his blood-highs rather than high-balls. There have…been a few incidents with him, in some particular nightclubs and sorority-houses… He's caused me more aggravation than the others combined. So - the witches are keeping him on lockdown until he starts behaving like a good little boy."
"You two don't get along," Caroline guessed, and Giulia shrugged.
"He mistook me for someone from his family's past. And then learned just because I'm not her doesn't mean I'll tolerate his behaviour any more than she would," Giulia said. She got the feeling from Isak that…he'd answer only to the elusive Lucrezia who had fought and earned his grudging respect, even if they had never, according to Finn, truly been friendly. Finn told her Lucrezia had strongly reminded Isak of their mother; calm, transcendent, educated and stern but great-hearted - and ferocious, truly terrifying when crossed. Finn had alluded to a young girl, a ward of Lucrezia's, over whom Lucrezia and Isak had fought like an impudent dog sniffing after her, and the ferocious she-dragon protecting her, her wrath singing his fur every time he got too close and making him think better of approaching again - at least, for a little while.
"What about…Elijah's daughter?" Caroline asked, looking a little stunned. Even though Caroline knew Giulia had missed him like a lost limb, they hadn't spoken about Elijah between themselves for years. It was a horrible thought, but he was no longer a direct influence in Giulia's life.
"She was daggered in the 1980s," Giulia said. "She has the healthiest attitude of all of them. Actually she reminds me a little of Lexi."
"That's a name I haven't heard in a while," Caroline said, grimacing guiltily. Part of the messy fallout from Klaus' sacrifice ritual was having to tell Lexi that Stefan had sold himself body and soul to Klaus for a decade, to save Damon's life. She had been…a tad ireful about this, given everything she knew of the brothers' complicated history. Giulia knew there were always infinite angles to look at any given situation. Kol had tried to convince Lexi not to intervene, to let Stefan serve his time, and help repair whatever damage Stefan had endured after the fact.
In a shocking development, it was Damon offering to spend the decade "being Lexi'd" that had finally convinced Lexi not to chase after Stefan and drag him home by his fangs for "de-Ripperfication".
Stefan would spend a decade with Klaus; Damon would spend a decade with Lexi.
Giulia wondered which brother believed they were enduring the worst torment.
"Why…?" Caroline trailed off, sighing and shaking her head.
"What? You're gonna dull your fangs down if you keep grinding them like that… Come on, spill it," Giulia said, giving Caroline a look.
"I mean, why wake these guys at all?" Caroline asked. "We've had like a decade with no drama here."
"Exactly," Giulia sighed. "We've had a decade. Stefan's decade with Klaus is nearly up… They're insurance. Kind of…poetic justice for Klaus."
"I know Elijah thought his family was gone," Caroline said. "Sunk into the seas."
"Klaus always had them on standby. He would never give up control over them," Giulia said.
"So how do you have them?"
"He's arrogant. And - he's been distracted," Giulia shrugged. "It wasn't hard to swipe them from under his nose, not with the help I had…"
"Why did you say waking them is poetic justice for Klaus?" Caroline asked.
"He's had total control over them for a millennium; he forced a promise from them, based on his greatest lie…" At Caroline's bemused expression, Giulia continued: "He murdered their mother, and then pinned it on their father… They have the right to learn that truth, and to process it their own way, away from him… This is the only way I know to break the cycle of his abuse, and ensure their freedom… Vampires live by their example; it's time they evolved and set a new precedent. Once they see the Originals will no longer tolerate Klaus' treatment of them, the majority will stop treating each other by the example they've had set for them. And if Klaus is distracted by his family, he'll have less time for Stefan. For us."
"You really think so?"
"I can hope so," Giulia said. "When the time comes, we might need their help."
"Their help? With Klaus," Caroline guessed, and Giulia nodded noncommittally. It wasn't just their sadistic brother they would need the other Originals to help fight against. Things were heating up with the indignant, zealous remnants of the Order. She had made sure of it. In trying to discover her uncle's fate, Giulia had become involved with - and unbeknownst to the survivors, now pulled the strings within - all that remained of the Order. For a decade, she had been using the soldiers in the warped underground organisation firstly to seek out and neutralise Klaus' enemies, and then pitted them against each other, rooting out liars, betrayers, and cowards, opportunists, idealists and the weary. Amongst Klaus' enemies and within the Order there now survived only the strongest, the most zealous; the most dangerous. It was to deal with them that Giulia had woken the Originals.
All she had to do was provide the motivation to unite them, in spite of this new truth and their mutual loathing of Klaus, to annihilate an enemy common to so many, and to set the precedent for how the next millennium would go. If they were to survive to see it. Nothing forced a person to re-evaluate their life-choices than the threat of imminent death.
She had been playing the Order against itself for years, at the same time systematically eradicating Klaus' enemies, organising massacres and brutalising relationships that had survived the centuries, reorganising alliances, plotting assassinations and weaving the threads of fate and destiny into a rich tapestry that would dictate how the future unfolded. The information she had misappropriated from the executed Slater's studio had formed the basis of her plan to avenge herself, avenge Elijah and his siblings, to avenge anyone ever harmed by Klaus, without ever going after the monster itself. She didn't have to break the narcissist, just the source of his bloated ego: The enemies he had allowed to survive, to continue on, both loathing and fearing him, resentful and seething at the knowledge they were alive to loathe and fear him because he willed it; they endured, in torment, at his mercy, because he wanted it that way. He had built up his reputation over a millennium in the hopes that it would make the only person he had ever feared think twice about approaching him; Mikael, the man who had raised and abused and been embarrassed by him.
Children learned by example: Mikael had punished Klaus for his part in causing Henrik's death, but not killed him, and to this day Klaus lived in perpetual terror of Mikael. He did the same to his own enemies: allowed them to live on in fear of him, constantly running, constantly in a state of hyper-vigilance and paranoia, never truly living. They had forgotten how.
Giulia had started to teach the Originals what it meant to live, in this time, with so many opportunities open to them, especially after the revelation of Klaus' greatest lie, the promise he had held them to, viciously, unforgivingly, one-sidedly, for a millennium. They could be anything they chose in this new age; what would they choose to be, had they no fear of Klaus, or anything else? They had to deal with Klaus' greatest betrayal; and then…well, things would unfold in their own way. Giulia could only gently nudge them in the direction she wanted them to take - and not be seen to be doing it was the key.
Giulia was the only person with the brilliance and gumption to get away with working two armies - and Klaus' enemies did constitute an army; he had lived for so long and treated people so horrifically - against themselves, for no-one's endgame but her own, creating so much devastation in such a narrow time-frame. Calculated chaos. Only one person in the world knew the extent of her involvement in the silent, unending war within the supernatural world: herself. Others knew bits and pieces, enough to build on the reputation that had begun to be whispered about when she was seventeen, enough to give her those few heartbeats of time that were the difference between life and their deaths, and to get her what she needed the first time she politely asked.
As Carafina had once quipped: It wasn't whether she had castrated the Roman legion. It was that people believed she had.
The die had been cast; the threads of fate were weaving themselves together, and she had meticulously planned the pattern they would form. She had moved the chess-pieces across the board, deliberately and carefully, strategic; she was a general. A master strategist.
She knew it was time, when she removed the dagger from Finn's chest.
The totem shattering this morning had only served to force her hand, to do what she had been reluctant to for weeks, running out of excuses to prolong the inevitable.
She needed the Originals awake. All of them.
Giulia needed the daggers.
"We've had a ten-year vacation, Car," Giulia told her, on a heavy sigh. "The deep breath before the storm… Vacation's over."
"So…why haven't you woken Elijah yet?" Caroline asked succinctly. She sighed softly, as Giulia hesitated over Elijah's body, Caroline's pretty eyes glancing from Giulia to her dead lover. "It's not because of Fabian, is it?" She asked it quietly, delicately, but it still made Giulia shiver.
"It's…not because of Fabian," Giulia admitted, almost honestly. She couldn't deny Fabian wasn't still taken into consideration; they were still technically married, after all. And just because they had chosen to live separately didn't mean they wanted to be apart. It was best for Zita. It was what Fabian had needed; though he had craved the unexplainable peace her presence granted him, prolonged exposure to Giulia causing his visions to come less and less frequently - and now more than ever they both relied a little too heavily on his foresight. "And it's not because of Zita. It's…because of me."
"Why?" Caroline asked softly, truly interested in Giulia's response.
"Elijah was daggered knowing I was dead; he saw my body burned beyond recognition at the quarry… From a purely pragmatic standpoint I - don't want to have to explain that I can't answer why I didn't die in the sacrifice as a transitioned vampire… And I don't want to learn why. It's been ten years, Car… I've changed."
"Yeah, but, you're better," Caroline said fairly, and Giulia laughed, shaking her head. Caroline could always make her laugh, no matter how dark the situation seemed. She needed Caroline and her shining armour, she needed her Foot-in-Mouth Forbes, her incessantly buoyant, beautiful friend who took every hit with dignity, squaring her shoulders and turning the other cheek. She needed the perspective Caroline gave when she really needed it. She needed Caroline to remind her not to take herself too seriously; and sometimes, to talk her off the ledge.
"I am," she agreed wholeheartedly, rubbing her face with her hands. "I was in such a hideous place when I met Elijah…when everything happened."
"I know," Caroline whispered, her expression harrowed. Seventeen had been horrific for Caroline, too, but she was able to see the silver lining to her transition.
At seventeen, Giulia had been a borderline alcoholic, and a workaholic suffering from insomnia. She had buried herself in her projects to avoid facing her emotional trauma: she had struggled with reconciling that Damon had murdered her dad; that she had been orphaned, and because of her vampire relatives, pushed out of her family home, because she felt so unsafe, uncared-for, neglected; she had felt betrayed and overlooked by Stefan especially, whom she had blamed as complicit in her dad's sudden death; she had fallen out with Bonnie over the Gilbert device that had ultimately led to Caroline being turned into a vampire by Katherine. She had even smacked Bonnie, the night she had realised Caroline had died. She had stopped talking to Elena unless absolutely necessary - indirectly, she had blamed Elena in part for her dad's death, as Stefan had been trying to protect her from Damon… She had been a child-genius abusing alcohol and drugs, strung out from insomnia, forging her way through college classes, overextending herself with schoolwork, private projects, community work, organising the defence of her friends and her town against a looming evil, all the while refusing to stop and acknowledge that she was fundamentally shaken by her father's death, and that her heart just kept getting broken, first with Caroline's transition, then by Tyler triggering his werewolf-curse. She had been taking unplanned road-trips to New York City for long-weekends; putting her life at risk going beyond what she had believed she was capable of, burning two-dozen vampires alive, pitting herself against volatile werewolves who had kidnapped and were tormenting Caroline; Giulia had been tortured in her own library, a place she had always been entitled to feel safe, and never breathed a word about it; and worst of all, she had been cohabiting with and fucking a thousand-year-old Viking vampire, engaging in a game of murder, sexual torment and Machiavellian strategy, out-manoeuvring each other at every turn while gradually learning to let each other in through tiny secret doors in the enormous walls they had built to keep others out. And she had kept whatever their relationship had been from the people closest to her out of dread of their opinion on it.
"The Giulia he will remember is gone," Giulia admitted quietly. "He won't recognise her in me."
It shouldn't even have crossed her mind, but she couldn't help wonder… Giulia liked herself, as she was now. She liked the polished, cultivated Giulia, who no longer used her projects as an escape but for enjoyment, this better-adjusted Giulia with degrees and PhDs under her belt, who had a tiny child who brought nothing but joy and wonder into her daily life, this Giulia who had travelled and lived and studied all over the world, was cultured and excited to explore, wise beyond her years from experience, this calmer, mature still-flawed Giulia that she liked, was proud of being, the reliable, wise Giulia her friends could always count on, whether it was for financial advice, a cup of sugar, a dose of reality, to haul their granddaughters out of hairy situations in New Orleans, or deliver a baby in the kitchen at 3 a.m. in spite of her ingrained terror of childbirth because there was no time to call an ambulance, or destroy a secret-society that imprisoned and experimented on vampires on a small college campus.
Beyond her academic accomplishments - and keeping her friends whole and for the most part alive - she took little pride in her seventeen-year-old self. Grief could only excuse so much, and she wasn't one to let herself off lightly.
Giulia's heart would always stutter, she would always go breathless at the memories of her relationship with Elijah, especially the sexual aspect of it. How could she not? It was the most erotic and sexually-heightened relationship she had ever had, inextricably tangled with an intense emotional connection, deep respect and a soul-deep understanding and appreciation for one another.
It was because of Elijah she knew the love she deserved, and was capable of giving to another: It was because of Elijah she hadn't been afraid to acknowledge the real thing in her complicated, excruciatingly emotional relationship with Fabian, and refused to give up on. Real love was rare; she was spoiled to experience two great loves as exquisite and heart-breaking as Elijah and Fabian. She had Elijah to thank for teaching her to be unafraid of letting in genuine, deep love, in spite of all the complications and pain.
The pain made it real.
Pain begot scars; scars begot strength.
But no matter what, Elijah, and his passion and their love-affair, was still inextricably tied with that hideous time in Giulia's life, defined by her grief, her alcoholism, her glacial anger and disappointment in the people who should never have let her down, the pressure she had put on herself, the risks she had taken because she had believed no-one else could do what she shouldn't have been able to, for the people she loved most in the world, and the people who had let her down - she didn't like remembering how much pain she had truly been in. She had been crippled under the weight of her grief, her anger, using her devastating intellect as her greatest, impenetrable defence.
Elijah had known her as that seventeen-year-old she couldn't look back on without wincing in discomfort. She was not ashamed, but she was the first to acknowledge that she had not been the best version of herself, which she had since worked on, hourly, polished and cultivated - and done so in Elijah's absence. He had had no part in Giulia's journey to becoming an emotionally healthy adult; she had made choice after choice, nurturing the potential of this Giulia she now was.
"Elijah was there when I wouldn't let anyone else be," Giulia said softly. "After Damon…and Stefan's part in my dad's death… My anger, their betrayal - if it weren't for Elijah I would've grown into an adult hostile toward even the idea of letting anyone close enough to trust, let alone be emotionally intimate with… If it weren't for him, I'd've run for the hills the first time I ever met Fabian."
"He's that important to you?"
"He was. Is? I don't know… I haven't been emotionally intimate with him for a decade…" Giulia said. "We started as friends… But how do I go back to that? And…should I? Do I… Will he fit? I - We don't have to be anything, and I don't expect anything to come of waking him…after all, I'm a mother, we have a business, and I have a relationship with my husband that is just far too complicated to even entertain the idea of introducing Elijah into the mess… Just the thought that he could be…irrelevant to my life now is upsetting to me."
Caroline sighed heavily, thinking her answer through.
"I know Elijah just wanted his family back. You did that for him. His daughter's downstairs watching Supernatural, y'know, you did that. For him. I'm pretty sure you did it because you could, because you've got gumption, and you probably have some big endgame in mind, but… You did it," Caroline sighed, shrugging. "I think that is pretty above-and-beyond extraordinary. Regardless of like…romance…if he wakes and you're sure a relationship with Elijah's still worth pursuing, considering who you are now and who he is, that's a pretty strong place to start, no matter what that relationship turns out to be, whether it's just friends, or something else. And…yeah, Fabian…that's complicated. Our lives are complicated…"
"That they are," Giulia agreed, suddenly feeling tired, head-achy.
"And I think you've had way too long to overthink this," Caroline said, in her fair voice, her vulnerable exasperation making Giulia's lips twitch. If she ever wanted a cocktail of fiery passion, salty-sweet truth-bomb and well-meaning exasperation she looked to Caroline, who never failed to deliver. "Just - tell him about Fabian. I think Elijah can appreciate complicated relationships. Besides Zita, Fabian's the most important person in your life - I'll always be your best-friend; I'm a given, so I don't count myself!" Caroline half-laughed, as Giulia frowned, starting to interrupt. "You've built this incredible life for Zita, and…Fabian should be a part of it, and that's…kind of fundamental to where you're at right now, and I think Elijah would need to know that… Maybe right now, the Fabian of it all…what you need is a great friend. Maybe someone to give a different perspective, with a thousand years' experience."
"Your perspective is always pretty on-point, Caroline," she said earnestly, with a tired smile. "You keep me sane."
"It's not a job for the faint-hearted," Caroline said, her expression deadpan, and Giulia smirked, nudging her.
"Now, are you done stressing? Because we do have plans for this weekend, and we promised lunch for everyone, so," Caroline prompted, tapping her watch significantly, and Giulia smiled, the monumental act of removing the silver-dagger suddenly reduced to an afterthought, by Caroline's healthy dose of perspective, in comparison to the promised delights of their weekend.
She had too many things to look forward to this weekend, and in her life in general, to sour things by worrying herself to distraction with questions that would answer themselves in due course anyway. She intended to enjoy every moment of this weekend, with her little girl and most of the people she adored best in the world, before everything changed again.
Giulia pulled the dagger out, cleaning it off on Elijah's ruined suit-jacket, and tucked it into her handbag; she pulled out a blood-bag and set up an intravenous transfusion, just as she had for his siblings and daughter. The transfusions helped reduce their bloodlust when the vampires gained consciousness; Giulia didn't want Elijah hurting himself trying to escape the witches' house to satiate his bloodlust - not that she truly worried he'd go on a murderous feeding-frenzy. She worried about his comfort, waking from complete desiccation.
Her heart stammered, after seeing Elijah for so long with the silver-dagger embedded in his sternum. He looked almost alien without it.
Whatever Caroline said to settle her nerves, Elijah had been a tremendous influence on her life, for as short a time as he had been part of it; they had been together a fraction of the time Giulia had had Elijah desiccated in her safekeeping.
As they left the attic and gathered the dogs, Caroline quietly asked after Fabian; had Giulia heard from him recently? How were his debilitating migraines?
"If you're some insane mystery-spot for his visions, and you stop him being in pain…and you love each other so much, and hate being apart…why can't he come live with you again?" Caroline implored, sighing, miserable on Giulia's behalf. Caroline knew a little about seemingly impossible relationships: she and Tyler had dated for nearly a year, a vampire and a werewolf, dating despite the dangers and the legacy of hatred and prejudice between their species. At least it was something as normal as their college choices that had broken them up: they remained perfectly amicable, though Tyler didn't return to Mystic Falls nearly as much as they would've wanted.
Still - more Bourbon Street lost weekends for them!
"No matter how much he loves me, Fabian would never give up fromage for me, and I don't blame him," Giulia said lightly, her lips twitching, as they reached the front-door and exited the house, into the sunshine. It already promised to be a glorious day; early June was one of her favourite times of year, before the humidity started to wreak havoc, and the birdsong was beautiful in the dusk after a prolonged evening. Caroline rolled her eyes, climbing into the Jeep; settling the dogs into the back, Giulia yawned widely, rolling her shoulders before climbing into the passenger-seat. Caroline put the car in Reverse and started to pull away from the house, adjusting the stereo and trying to continue the conversation about Fabian, while Giulia had nowhere to escape to. Giulia frowned, agitated, feeling like she was missing something crucial, rubbing her arm, and glancing around the car.
"I just think -"
"STOP THE CAR!" Gasping in horror, she flung the door wide as Caroline stamped on the brake, yelling, startled, as Giulia tried to lurch from her seat, gave a strangled yelp, half-garrotted by her seatbelt, untangled herself, and raced back to the house, Caroline's giggles echoing in her ears, berating herself. "Four years!"
Zita was four years old.
Perfectly long enough not to forget her, too wrapped up in a conversation with Caroline.
Her cheeks flushed, she followed the sound of giggles around the house, through Finn's meticulously-tended parterres overflowing with herbs and lush plants, under the honeysuckle arbour, and down the gentle sloping hill tall with grass and wildflowers, toward the sun-dappled gurgling creek.
She smiled, her heart thumping back to its regular pace, striding to the battered old oak leaning precariously over the water, where a tyre-swing had been strung up, and on which Zita was giggling madly, Finn gently pushing her every time she swung like a pendulum, her molasses curls flying, her face alight with joy.
Giulia memorised the scene, never wanting to forget her daughter's pure happiness.
Hearing her approach, Finn took his eyes off Zita for a half-beat, his lips twitched into a knowing smile.
"May I have my daughter back, please?" she asked, laughing, and Zita's laughter gurgled almost drunkenly as Finn caught the swing and held on, leaving Zita a little cross-eyed and dizzy as the swing twisted and spun, winding down like a drunken top.
"Hi, Mamma!" Zita giggled, taking a step and pitching sideways, still cross-eyed and dizzy. Giulia chuckled, scooping her up as Zita staggered unsteadily.
"Hi, love," Giulia sighed, hoisting her up onto her hip. "Give Finn a kiss goodbye." Zita obliged, clasping Finn's hollow cheeks in her tiny dimpled hands, peppering his lips with kisses. Finn gave her a quiet goodbye, and escorted them as far as the honeysuckle arbour, to pause and start tending the plants he looked after so tenderly.
"When can we come over to play again?" Zita asked.
"Soon," Giulia promised. "Not this weekend, though. Did you give Lagertha the DVD?"
"Mm-hmm. She says she's going to wait until she can watch it with me. But I think it's because she and Isak fight over the remote a lot, except he's nice to me," Zita said candidly, her adorable lisp making Giulia smile as Zita cuddled up to her, yawning into her shoulder as Giulia carried her back around the house to the car, where Caroline was wiping tears of laughter from her cheeks.
Giulia buckled her daughter into her car-seat, Caroline shuddering with suppressed laughter as she drove them to the Boarding House, to join a line of cars and RVs waiting to get onto the Salvatore property. The five camping-sites had now opened for guests of the vintage festival to start arriving, claiming their pitches, vendors setting up stalls, pop-up restaurants, salons, speakeasies and dance-halls, bands already rehearsing before their allotted performances.
It was going to be a wonderful weekend.
The calm before the storm.
A.N.: Another chapter for you. Let me know what you think!
