Summary: When nurse Caroline Forbes is hired by Elijah Mikaelson to take care of his younger brother with a terminal illness, Klaus, she didn't expect to fall in love with the charismatic blonde.
A: I don't own TVDU or any character. Sorry, my english isn't good.
--
Rebekah didn't think she'd ever seen Elijah so broken. If he had been worried last time when Nik was hospitalized, he was beyond worried now. He had taken time off from work and sat all day with his head bent over their brother's hands, waiting for his body to heal enough for the doctors to stop the sedation and for him to wake up. After the operation, his body had been so weak that Marcel had had to put him under palliative sedation until his body was sufficiently healed after passing out, but in most cases, when palliative sedation is applied, the patient does not wake up...never...
"Lijah?" Rebekah asked, shaking her sleeping brunette brother with his head on the hospital bed.
Elijah's suit was crumpled and his hair was blown in all directions. Not as disturbed as a normal human being, but not at all Elijah-style, in fact, he didn't look at all like Elijah-style anymore. The circles had moved permanently under his eyes, and he only left Niklaus's side to get coffee. Their blonde brothet was slowly breathing in the hospital bed, dozens of cables stuck in his skin and a respirator on his face.
"Hi, 'Lijah, how are you doing?" Rebekah asked him in a pitiful voice.
"I'm fine, Rebekah...really, I'm not the one you should be worried about." Elijah responded, slowly lifting his head from the hospital bed. Had he slept like this? The back was killing him.
He said he was fine, but he wasn't. He stayed up all night worrying about their brother, about what will come, what if he won't be able to see his smile ever again? To talk to him? To take care of him? He was broken, ever since Niklaus had fallen into a coma, he had constantly watched his breathing apparatus go, knowing that it was the only proof that there was still hope, that he would ever wake up again. Rebekah sat down next to him and said:
"You need to get out of here, 'Lijah, we can stay with Nik while you shower, or eat something, or..."
"No." he said. "No...he's my responsibility, my little brother, I need to be by his side...because if I give up, he will surely too, I can't let him give up hope. He's in pain, Rebekah...and I can't stand the fact that I can't do anything to help him...you know...you know that moment when you feel that the whole world is against you...and all you need is just one more step to fall into the darkness?"
"Elijah..."
"He was just a child, he didn't deserve this, any of this...no one does."
Now, they both knew Elijah wasn't talking just about Klaus' disease. Mikael was in prison, but the trauma he caused to Nik wasn't.
A few tears threatened to fall from Elijah's eyes. He stayed home with Nik for so many years after he got sick, taking care of him, being there for him 24/7, he resigned from his job for him, and when he needed to go back to work, leave Niklaus alone with someone that then was a stranger...it was hard. He would never tell Niklaus that, but it was hard working and knowing that in every moment, he could lose his favorite brother, or that Nuk was feeling bad and Elijah wasn't there for him...the brunette was feeling as lost as Klaus was feeling then. After all these years always with each other, it was hard, more hard that you could ever describe.
~flashback~
~a few years ago~
Entering the Labonair Arts's college dorm, Elijah, Freya, and Finn headed straight for room 239, dragging large empty suitcases behind them.
Four weeks ago, Niklaus had passed out right where they were sitting, and he had never been the same. He was taken from hospital to hospital, treated with a bunch of drugs that didn't work, seen by a bunch of doctors who all came back with the same answer: they didn't know what he was suffering from. However, he felt worse and worse every day, until at this point he was declared too ill to continue his studies, and so they had to vacate his dorm room, and take away his dreams with them.
Fistly, they started by packing his clothes, books, and the ten mirrors he apparently had...then they got to the painting stuff. The easels, the sketchbooks, the paintings for the future gallery, all laid to the ground by an illness.
"I'll go with Niklaus in New York at the end of the month..." Elijah said, while closing a suitcase. "We're looking for more treatment options."
Finn just sighed.
"At how many doctors have you already been, Elijah? Nothing is working, and he's just suffering more...a new doctor will not change that. And you have a job, you know? It all is just a lost of time. "
Elijah looked him dead in the eye, but then, as he packed up a sketch of Niklaus' dream gallery, he said:
"Actually, that's what I wanted to talk to you about, or with Freya, to be more exact. I've thought about it for a long time, and I'm going to take a break from work so I can be with Niklaus. He needs support during these times, and I'm perfectly capable of taking care of him by him."
However, their conversation was interrupted by the creaking of the door opening:
"How is he?" a voice called from the doorway, and the Mikaelsons turned to see Lucien, Niklaus' former roommate.
"He's holding on." Elijah said, eyes empty and hope still in his heart. "He'll feel better soon. The doctors are taking good care of him, Mr Castle, don't worry."
They remembered Lucien from when they came to visit Niklaus in the winter, the young boy was following their brother everywhere, trying to copy him in everything, and now he even seemed a little lost without Niklaus around.
"Wait, what...what are you doing?" Lucien asked, noticing the things in the suitcases.
"Niklaus can no longer attend college." Finn said nonchalantly.
"So he's not going to feel better after all." the brunette young boy said.
"He'll just need more time to heal, probably, but he'll be fine." Freya said. "However, he is strong, and willing to fight, he will get better soon, that's what the doctors are saying."
They had a constant need to say that Klaus is strong, or brave, powerful, they realized later in life...that was because they listened to their father their whole childhood telling him the opposite.
--
Elijah held Niklaus in his arms a few hours later as he leaned over the toilet in his hospital room, the IV squeezing his hand a little. He rubs his stomach as he flushes it down the toilet, his headaches tormenting him at the same time. Elijah hummed verses to his, trying to calm his nausea.
"You shouldn't do this...I'm fine...I shouldn't be this weak..." he said, but moved even closer to Elijah. "I shouldn't sleep all day, I shouldn't~"
"Hey, it's alright, you're sick, Nik. You have the right to do what you want. And you're not weak, you're strong, you're brave, don't forget that."
Klaus pulled his fluffy gray robe closer over the hospital gown, letting Elijah take him completely on his lap. The boxes taken from the dorm room were now in the hospital room, most of them opened. From the dorm room, to the hospital room. Niklaus leaned against Elijah, standing up a little, when a knock on the door, followed by the entry of several nurses with a medical cart caught their attention. They slowly got into the room, while Klaus was trying to stand up.
"Hi, sweetie, we need to do some checks and to give you some shots, if you could..." one of the nurses said, pointing to the bed.
Elijah had pressed the button next to Klaus' bed a few minutes ago to call someone, noticing his brother's unwellness, and now he was just glad the nurses were here. He took Niklaus's arm around his shoulder, helping him to his feet and removing his robe after placing him on the bed so the nurses could examine him. The cart was loaded, he noticed.
They drew some blood, checked his heart rate and blood pressure, then took a floppy disk and an injection in turn from the cart and began, Elijah holding his hand. Some injections were treatments, some were for immunity, and the rest were for his illness.
He noticed that his brothers had started to treat him differently since he was hospitalized, they were kinder, more focused, constantly worried, avoided serious topics around him, sometimes treated him like a child and he hated it, but still, although he would never admit it, he adored all the love they showed to him now. Some of them, at least.
~end of the flashback~
