I was sitting in the nursery holding my daughter in my arms as Nikolas played with his toys on the floor in front of me. Nik was standing in the doorway admiring the view of the three of us together.

"Are you going to stand there all day?" I laughed at him making him chuckle. He tried to walk forward but something was stopping him. I looked him confused before blood poured from his mouth and he started to desiccate. "Nik!" I called to him standing with my daughter still in my arms. He fell to the ground and burst to flame. I screamed out before I finally saw who was behind him. "Mikael." I breathed out in fear. I went to grab Nikolas, but he was lying on the ground blackened to a crisp. "No…" I breathed out before looking down to see my daughter pale and lifeless. "No!" I screamed with grief, pain, and anger. Suddenly Mikael was right in front of me. He ripped my baby from my arms and bit into my neck, draining me dry.


I sat up quickly in bed, sweat pouring from my forehead in time to hear Nik gasp awake as well.

"Nightmare?" I asked him, but he didn't answer me before getting up and pouring a drink I'd wished I could join him in.


After learning the Father Kieran was dead and when his memorial was I made sure I was in attendance with Hayley, Elijah and Nik. Nikolas was being watched by one of the wolves we trusted, Jackson. Jackson seemed to have a nack for taking care of kids and Nikolas loved him like another uncle. I watched as Marcel grabbed a bottle of something and stand before the entire party.

"I know I haven't been around these parts lately. It's a testament to Father Kieran that we could come together and share a drink, and a story or two. Kieran rolled into town on a rusty old cruiser after his daddy died twenty-five years ago. And damnit, that guy could party! [He and the audience laugh] That was, of course, before he took his vows. But, even then, he was committed to the Quarter. He knew that this town needed him. And, we still do." Marcel raised his glass. "To Father K!"

"To Father K." I joined the group of people in saying. I walked around with a bottle of water when I saw Cami push her way through the party looking as though she'd been crying. I watched as Francesca exited the back room Cami had just left and approach the bar. Across the room I spotted Nik and Elijah drinking at the table and went to join them.

"Seems rather uncivilized to laugh and dance around the body of a loved one." Nik said.

"Yes, far better to practice your process of grief, Niklaus- denial, rage, and hoarding coffins in basements." Elijah joked as Hayley and I joined them in the booth sitting between the two. "I will warn you, ladies, Niklaus is in a spectacularly foul mood today."

"Sod off." Nik told him.

"What's the deal with these moonlight rings? Oliver's trying to set a revolution every five seconds. People are scared, angry, and frankly, I'm tired of stalling." Hayley told Nik.

"It's a day of peace, Hayley. Try and enjoy it. And, in the meantime, with all manner of unknown enemies conspiring against our family, you'll move back in with us." Nik told her. "We need all the protection we can for Nikole and our children."

"Awesome!" she said sarcastically. "Then, we can do that thing where you lock us in the tower, we escape, there's drama, and then you two both realize I'm very capable of looking after her myself."

"I already agreed to move back in Hayley." I told her. "I can't risk me or my children if another bomber decides to drive by."

"The rings are in progress. I will live up to my word. We will find and punish whoever launched the attack on the Bayou, and you will return to the compound for my wife and children's safety!" Nik ordered and Hayley sighed and rolled her eyes at it. "But, right now—" he grabbed a bottle of scotch he'd taken from the bar. "— I'm gonna finish this bottle –" he opened the bottle. "— and the next, in the hopes of drowning the demon who has chosen today to haunt me." He looked to the ceiling toasting something. "Cheers, Mikael. Impeccable, Freudian timing." Nik said before chugging the drink and everything inside froze.

"Elaborate." Elijah ordered stunned. "Have you dreamt of our father?"

"Go ahead, have a good laugh." Nik told him.

"I can assure you there is no piece of this that I find even remotely amusing, Niklaus. Especially considering I've been dreaming of him, too." Elijah revealed.

"What?" Nik asked stunned.

"Make that three of us." I told them.

"If you two are also seeing him..." Elijah stopped mid-thought and I followed his gaze to see Genevieve enter the bar. She caught our eyes and smiled. "Perhaps our elusive, unknown enemy is orchestrating a further attack?"

"Well, then. What better way to punctuate a day of peace than by killing someone?" Nik asked smirking before waving at the witch.

"You two go talk to her. Hayley and I have unfinished business elsewhere." I told them. "I'll see you both at home." I said before giving Nik a small kiss before she and I left.


We made our way to Francesca's house and waited for her to come home. When she did and finally noticed us the woman groaned and tried to be polite.

"Ah. Hayley and Nicole, right? I'm guessing you're not here because you want to make a new friend?" she asked us.

"I don't count terrorists as friends." I told her standing to face her with Hayley at my side.

"Wow." Francesca chuckled looking at her bodyguard. "I've been accused of everything from grand larceny to blackmail, but "terrorist," that's new!"

"A human pulled up to our home in the Bayou on a motorcycle and blew himself up." I told her.

"I heard." She said before holding her hand out for her keys from her bodyguard. "Awful. Goodnight!" she walked past us to her front door. Hayley, annoyed, headbutted the bodyguard before slamming his head into a birdbath and knocking him out. Francesca stared at us in shock before smiling fakely at us.

"Word on the street is, he owed a hundred grand to the Palace Royale casino! And then, after he died, the debt was erased. Just like magic." I told her.

"Jeff was a fixture at my roulette table. Sometimes he was up, sometimes he was down. I absolved his family of the debt he owed out of the goodness of my heart. Feel free to sniff around. My hands are clean! And, I'd advise you to mind your manners. It's lucky you're still alive. You two're the one the wolves all whisper about like royalty. If I was interested in hurting the wolves, you two'd be my targets. And, when I go after someone? I don't miss." She warned us before walking into her house. I sighed and Hayley wrapped her arm around my shoulders.

"Next time." I said before we started walking back to the compound. Suddenly, it got colder and I shrugged my jacket around myself tightly.


The next day I stood with Elijah and Nik in the funeral procession walking down the street to the sounds of jazz music being played behind the priests acting as pallbearers for Father Kieran. I'd spent most the night up with coughing fits and feeling a little warm.

"You alright? You look—" Elijah started saying, but I didn't let him finish.

"—Nine hundred years pregnant and pissed off at the world?" I offered.

"I was going to say you look lovely." He told me smiling.

"Thank you." I said before we were engulfed in silence once more.

"Do you think either Nicole or me were the target of those bombings?" Hayley asked.

"Of course Nicole and Nikolas were the target! Were I to wage a war on the wolves, you and she'd be my first kill! I would string you up, for all your worshipers to see." Nik told her and I shook my head.

"Thank you dear that was a wonderful picture." I told him.

"I believe that was my brother's way of telling you he'd like you to return home with us, Hayley." Elijah offered. "Perhaps try a different approach, Niklaus, with fewer references to murder?"

"As much as I would hate to throw you over my shoulder, and drag you kicking and screaming to the compound, we both know I will for the sake of my family's safety."

"One bad dream, and suddenly, you want to be a responsible daddy!" Hayley said sarcastically.

"Come on Hayley." I groaned.

"Let me put this into perspective: my father lived to torment me. It is not my intention to become him. This cycle of misery ends with my children." Nik told her.

"Mmm." Hayley said unconvinced.

"That's why there's two of us." I told him before moving away from the Hybrids and Elijah towards Cami who was up front.

"Cami!" I called out to her.

"Nicole, hi." She said smiling at me.

"Hi, I know you and I don't really get alone, but I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about your uncle. He was really good to people like me during the storm, and I really appreciated that. I've lost almost every member of my family so I know what you're going through." I told her.

"Thank you." Cami said before she looked me over. "You want something, do you?"

"Epic bad timing, I'm sorry. I was just wondering, if before he died, he said anything weird about Francesca Correa? I think that she may have been involved in an attack in the Bayou. If you hear anything—" I started telling her but she cut me off.

"Look, Nicole? I'm trying- mostly failing- to stay out of all this stuff, but... she's a real bitch. So, yeah, if I hear anything, I'll let you know." She told me.

"Thanks. And again, sorry about your uncle." I told her.

"You, too." She told me. I walked away from her and that was when the coughing grew worse. I started feeling light headed and leaned against the closest thing which happened to be a light post. I kept coughing and coughing, but it wasn't until I saw blood that I started to get scared. I tried to call for Nik, but it was getting harder to breathe through the coughing and the blood pouring out of my mouth.

"Klaus!" I heard someone call out before my world grew dark.


When I woke again I looked around to see I was in the compound. I saw Genevieve looking at something behind me and I turned to see myself.

"Oh my god!" I said shocked enough to jump off the table. I looked up to see a man walking towards me. "Mikael."

"Hello. Daughter." He said harshly.

"I'm not your daughter." I said keeping my body and the others between us.

"Coeur la sais patri avec mwen. Coeur la sais patri avec mwen." Genevieve chanted. We watched as Nik, fear and frustration clouding his face, bit into his wrist and put it to my mouth, but nothing happened.

"Come on!" he called out before looking to his brother in fear.

"She's still not breathing. It's not working!" Elijah said before he angrily threw a table against a brick wall, shattering it into pieces.

"I assume you know why I'm here." Mikael said drawing my attention to him.

"This is just another nightmare. I'm dreaming." I insisted.

"On the contrary, my darling- this is very real." He told me. He vamp-sped to me and put me in a headlock. "Welcome to my hell- stuck in an eternity of watching over that hideous creature my children call brother!"

"You're dead! How can you be here?" I looked back at the group of four people hovering over my body. "Oh my god! NO!" I finally started putting up a fight trying to get away from him. "Noo! My baby!"

"Your baby?" Mikael asked and I screamed again, praying someone would hear me and help me. "Those kids never had a chance! And as if your bloodline isn't filth enough, you poison it by merging it with Klaus'?" he laughed manically. "The deathless vermin, fancying himself a daddy?" Suddenly, I realized what he was trying to do and I bit his arm making him break his grip. I twisted his arm behind his back breaking it before picking up a coat rack and swinging it at his head with all the strength I had.

"She's not dead! I'm not dead! If we were dead, you wouldn't be trying to kill us!" I told him.

"Couer la sais patri avec mwen."

"I'm taking her to a real doctor." I heard Hayley insist.

"If you move her from here, my spell will break. There won't be enough time to get her to a hospital." Genevieve told her.

"Will the baby survive if delivered now?" Nik asked and I could feel the shock in the others. "She wants the baby to be here with us if anything should happen to her. We spoke on this."

"Nicole will bleed to death!" Genevieve told him.

"Would you rather have her or the baby?" Hayley asked him and he didn't answer.

"I won't lose them." Nik insisted.

"Patri avec mwen. Coeur la sais patri avec mwen." Genevieve paused in her chanting. "I know what to do. Get my bag, the gris-gris pouch! Now!"

"You hear that. I'll be back with my husband soon and you'll stay dead where your son put you!" I told him.

"He is not my son!" Mikael bellowed. "He's a scourge, a walking symbol of weakness!"

"Yea your weakness not to keep your wife interested in you." I told him with a laugh. I kicked the banister on the staircase to break off a piece of wood to use as a stake and started up the stairs to get away from him as he stalked me.

"There is no saving that atrocity festering in your womb nor the one that breathes. Klaus will destroy them both, one way or another. Better one dies now, and you along with it!" he shouted at me before he jumped up onto the second floor balcony behind me. I quickly jumped down to the first floor with him following me quickly. I rushed behind him and stabbed him in the heart.

"Ahhhhhh!" he cried out.

"My children has an advantage Nik and your children never had- she will never, ever know you." I told him harshly. He fell to the ground and I sighed before watching Genevieve do her spell.

"You did good." A man said behind me and I turned and backed away quickly. I didn't see him clearly before I was thrust back into my body with a gasp. Nik held me to him, rubbing my back and shoulders.

"You're alright, love. You're alright." Nik told me. "I'm here. I'm here."

"I saw him." I told them. "He tried to kill us. Mikael tried to kill us." I said leaning into Nik more.


A few hours later I was sitting in my bed with Nikolas next to me sleeping when Nik walked in.

"You've proved quite resilient, love. Fighters, all of you." Nik said.

"We've had to be. Especially lately." I said smiling at him. "Hayley decided to move back in. She's offered to be my personal bodyguard."

"Well, I'm relieved to hear it." Nik told me.

"Just be nice to her." I told him and he chuckled.

"I will try for you." He told me and I smiled up at him.

"Good." I said.

"Come with me, hmm?" Nik told me going to a door that connected to our room. It was a room he'd had added in there while I stayed at the Bayou. "Please. I want to show you something." He'd added a door connecting our room to Nikolas' so we could get to him easier. I got off the bed gently so I wouldn't wake our son before getting up and following Nik to the new door. Inside it I saw a nursery, complete with a crib, a bassinet and a gorgeous mobile hanging from the ceiling. Toys and books filled empty spaces with a rocking chair close to the door for the balcony.

"What do you think?" he asked me and I smiled at everything that I saw.

"It's beautiful, Nik. I can't believe you did all this for her." I said playing with the mobile above the bed.

"Uh, you said you saw my father?" Nik asked me and I turned to him.

"After all this time we still call our men who aren't our fathers' father and our fathers by their names." I said shaking my head in thought. "Did you ever meet your real father?" I asked him curiously.

"Once. After Mikael killed him." He told me. "What did he say to you?" I smiled up at him before moving closer to him and kissing him warmly.

"Nothing that could ever be true." I whispered. Nik stared into my eyes for a moment before genuinely smiling and kissing me. After we separated we crawled back into bed with Nikolas between us. I smiled at my boys before falling in my first dreamless sleep I'd had in days.