Author's Note: And here is another chapter. Never underestimate my ability to bullshit through an entire chapter. I can do it. XD Enjoy!
Caroline suddenly feels sick to her stomach, thinking about the other woman. Caroline didn't trust her, not at all, but that didn't mean that she wanted her to die, and to be honest, Jane-Anne was nothing but nice to her despite it all. Caroline can understand that they were afraid and they were using Caroline and the baby growing in her belly as a way of convincing Klaus to stick around and help them. Or well, get him here, she supposed. But they were really running the gamble to see if he would have actually stayed.
To be honest, before all of this - had someone asked her a week ago - Caroline would have assumed that the only real interest that Klaus had in her stemmed from the chase. He was a werewolf after all, ergo, a predator and enjoyed the thrill that came with a pretty girl not even willing to offer him the time of day. He was just enough of a mess to find pleasure and amusement in it.
Klaus didn't really strike her as a catch and release sort of guy, so when she finally let in and had sex with him, she thought for sure that would have been the end of it. He would have gotten what he wanted and then moved on with his life. But he didn't. And she's still not sure she completely understands why, but now isn't the time to question it.
But Jane-Anne Deveraux died doing magic that proved Klaus was the father of her baby, Caroline can't help but feel somewhat responsible for her death.
"So that proves it," Stefan says as Caroline slowly sits down on the last step as everyone else crowds around, "somehow Marcel can tell when witches are doing magic."
"Not just when, but also who," Elijah says, turning to look at Bonnie. "Do you know of any spell that can do that?"
Bonnie shakes her head. "No, and I don't think that it's a spell, either." She crosses her arms over her chest, face falling into that look of deep concentration that she gets whenever she's utilizing that big brain of hers to the fullest. "I've been doing a bit of reading about New Orleans witches and I think that I might have something, but it's just a theory. I don't have any proof."
"Well, I'm all ears, love," Klaus says flatly, looking annoyed. Not necessarily at her, but at the situation.
"The witches here practice ancestral magic, right?" She waits for the two oldest amongst them to nod in agreement. "Well, I've been thinking, magic like that has to be linked. It's probably why they were able to make powerful enough linking magic to be able to sustain the lives of dozens of babies from say, at least New Orleans to Virginia, all while feeding off the magic of this land. So, what I'm saying, is I think that all the magic drawn from the ancestors of New Orleans goes in the form of a circle. The witches feed them power, and they feed it back. Do you get it?"
"No," Caroline and Hayley say at the same time. They both share a look. Caroline turns to look over at Bonnie. "Can you explain it in a way my pregnant brain can understand?"
"Witches the practice Ancestory Magic draw upon the power of those that have died," Bonnie says, then looks over at Klaus and Elijah. "Am I right?"
"Yes," Elijah says, sticking his hands into his pockets. "When members of the nine covens here in New Orleans die, their bodies are consecrated in a sacred ritual so that their magic returns to the pool of power for the ancestors. So, the ancestors loan their power to their living coven, and when those witches die, their magic is returned to their ancestors. That is the metaphorical circle, Miss Bennett was referring to."
Bonnie nods slowly, biting the nail of her thumb on her right hand, organizing her thoughts. "So then... it's a closed circuit."
"A... closed circuit?" Hayley asks slowly. "What does that mean?" At the look they give her, she quickly amends, "I know what a closed circuit is, I just don't understand it in this context. Unless..." she blinks a few times. "This is all about the magic."
Bonnie nods. "Yes. This leads me to believe that I might know how they are keeping the witches here under such stringent watch." She starts walking around the room, dark eyes flickering back and forth. "So the power has to come from the ancestors, as the stronger force, meaning they can approve of who uses the power. But something tells me this is beyond their control. So that means..."
"Hijacked," Caroline supplies when Bonnie doesn't immediately continue. Everyone looks down at her. Caroline flushes, feeling like she has to defend herself from their skeptical gazes. "I mean, if the ancestors have control - or they should have control but now they don't, doesn't that mean the power itself was hijacked. Or, at least the ability to control it?"
"Sort of," Bonnie says, pointing at Caroline. "Not exactly but you're on the right track. Jane-Anne Deveraux was able to use magic, right? That's how she was able to convince you that Klaus was the father."
"Yes," Klaus says slowly, folding his arms behind himself. "Some kid spell. To identify the mother and father."
Bonnie gives him a look like she wanted to ask him something, but then decided it didn't matter and continues on with her original point, "So, they still have access to magic, which means that they are still linked to their ancestors, thus still holding the ability to use magic, but it almost seems like to me, that someone is standing in between the two."
"They can't actually stop the magic from being used," Elijah says slowly, pointing at Bonnie, "but they do know when it's being used."
Bonnie nods. "And judging by the fact that Jane-Anne is dead unless the witches have a mole in their midst - which they might, I don't know enough yet to rule anything out. This person can also see who is performing the magic."
"But not what was being performed," Elijah says slowly, looking over at Klaus. "Marcel didn't know what the spell was that Jane-Anne used, just that she was using magic."
Caroline shakes her head, letting out a long sigh. "What a silly thing to die for. Just to prove that Klaus was the father."
"It doesn't make sense," Stefan says, propping his arm up onto the end of the banister. "I don't understand what the witches are after. They wanted Klaus here, so they used the fact that Caroline wouldn't be physically strong enough to carry his hybrid baby, to get her here, and use his affection for her, to ensure that he followed."
"That seems pretty straight forward to me," Hayley says, shrugging her shoulders. "What do they want from Klaus? For him to kill Marcel?"
"No, that's the thing," Stefan says, casting her a sideways look. "They want to handle Marcel their own way. It's almost like they want him to be a distraction to both Marcel and the witch working for him."
"But there is no guarantee that would work," Caroline points out. "I mean, not to pretend like we don't all know Klaus here, but let's say in an alternate universe he's able to keep his nose out of everyone else's business." Klaus looks over at Caroline, amused, with a closed-lipped smile and raised eyebrows, while Elijah's lips quirk a bit. "What's to stop him from just hanging around me the entire time we're here, breathing down my neck like a creep, instead of helping them?"
"Maybe their hedging their bets on him being nosy?" Stefan guesses.
"Okay, but let's say for argument's sake I don't buy that," Caroline says, slowly climbing to her feet. "What other way could they have to be able to keep Klaus here, and get him to help them?" Caroline looks around the room at everyone. "If they were all so desperate to get him here, they wouldn't just rely on his nature to ensure that he stayed. It would have to be something else. Something more tangible that they could use."
"True," Hayley says, pressing her lips together in thought for a moment. "I mean, it would have to be something that Klaus wouldn't dare to lose. They were essentially threatening him, right? Or am I reading that wrong?"
"They didn't really threaten him," Caroline says, wrapping her arms around herself, as if suddenly cold. "I mean, they just told him about being the father to my baby." Caroline shakes her head, eyebrows pulling together. "Wait a second..."
"Care?" Bonnie asks, staring at her. "What's wrong?"
Caroline looks down at the ground for a moment, rubbing at her forehead. "Wait!" She looks up, locking eyes with Elijah. "Do you remember when Klaus was being his usual lovable self, yelling about how he wouldn't be controlled and this baby wasn't going to be used against him and all that. Remember that?"
Klaus frowns as Elijah nods. Klaus quickly jumps in, feeling like he has to defend himself. "Listen here, I've been alive a thousand years and - "
"No, Klaus, listen!" Caroline says, holding up her hands to stop him. "This isn't an attack against you. Listen. I think they showed us, without showing us, what they have against you. Their tool to keep you working with them. They had to make sure that it worked, so they did." Klaus stares at her with a frown pulling at his full lips.
"What are you thinking, Caroline?" Elijah asks, stepping closer.
"How did they get him out of his tangent, Elijah? What did they say to get him to listen to them?" Caroline asks, suddenly feeling sick to her stomach.
Elijah blinks a few times, looking over at Klaus. They stare at one another, both going back to that day to try and remember what happened. The fact that neither of them seems to know the answer right off the back makes her even more anxious that as soon as their eyes turn to look back at her she's already blurted it out.
"Me," Caroline says softly, looking at Klaus. "They have me. They got Klaus to focus on me over his anger and indignation. Their weapon against you, Klaus, is me."
Klaus's blue eyes widen a bit as if realizing the truth as Elijah utters, "Hey, are you saying you don't care about Caroline?" He shakes his head, looking down at the hardwood, jaw working. "That's what she said."
"And you came to me," Caroline says softly, running her hands through her hair again, feeling the stress pulling at her shoulders.
"They didn't have to elaborate any further," Elijah says as Klaus's expression blackens in anger. "We didn't even give them time to get to their threat. Once they realized you were just going to listen because of Caroline, they didn't need to add anything else."
"So if Klaus doesn't do as they ask..." Caroline says slowly, looking around the room, "what are they going to do to me?"
"Nothing," Klaus growls. "If these witches know what's good for them, they won't think to lay a hand on you."
"And so long as they think that you're helping them, they won't," Stefan says, rubbing at the back of his neck. "We're just going to have to figure out what they plan to use on Caroline to convince Klaus to work with them, and find a way to stop them." He reaches out and touches Caroline's shoulder. "Don't worry. We aren't going to let anything happen to you. I promise."
"They aren't going to hurt you, Care," Bonnie says. "I'll stop them."
Caroline looks down at her hands; anxiety and fear washing over her. "It's not me. I don't care about me. If they hurt me, they are going to hurt my baby..." she says softly. She raises her eyes to look around the room, stopping once her eyes find Klaus's - his dark and angry, ready to take on the world. "Don't let them do it, Klaus, please. Use your crazy big evil mastermind brain to come up with a plan." Her lips press together tightly. "Don't let those witches hurt our baby."
Klaus stalks across the circle to Caroline, placing his fingers on her chin and jawline, looking into her eyes. "No one will hurt our baby. No one."
"I'm not strong enough to protect our baby," Caroline says, staring down at her shivering hands, trying to decide if it's from her own turbulent feelings or from the lack of food.
Klaus applies a tiny bit of pressure just beneath her chin so that she can look up at him again. "I will deal with the physical things, you worry about the hardest part. Keep that baby safe and healthy in your belly until it's nice and ready to come out."
No one trusted Hayley to leave their sights, so she took Stefan's bed, Bonnie and Caroline shared their's, Klaus and Elijah had their own and Stefan got the short stick and slept on the floor of the hotel room. Not much else got done after that, but it did leave all of them thinking. Bonnie stayed up well into the night asking Elijah and Klaus all sorts of questions about Ancestral magic and then spent more time reading through the grimoires that she had.
Even though the lights were out and everyone was in bed by almost one o'clock, no one seemed to sleep. Caroline listened to everyone breathe deeply and roll around in their beds - Stefan's being a pile of blankets and pillows - the whole night. Thankfully she didn't cry. She just stared at the ceiling wondering how she was going to get through this.
Caroline sits up, sliding out of the bed to walk over to the table on the other side of the room to grab her phone off the charger. She unplugs it and slinks into the bathroom, pulling up her contacts and calls her mom. She knows that it's late and her mom is probably asleep, but she needs to talk to her. She's told her mom a bit about what is going on - not that she's pregnant, but that they have to stay in New Orleans for a little while - but she just wants to talk to her mom for a bit of clarity.
Liz was always good at that. She knew how to make Caroline feel better. Maybe it was a secret mom power. Caroline prays that she is able to get this ability by the time she has her baby.
Caroline keeps the light off and slightly closes the door to the bathroom and sits down on the floor. She knows that everyone is probably still awake and if she peaks back into the room, she can see the bed Klaus is sleeping on through the darkness. She keeps her voice down and calls her mom, even though everyone was probably awake, but she still wanted to be considerate of them. It takes a few rings but Liz picks up.
"Hey, sweetie. What are you doing up?"
"I can't sleep," Caroline says softly. "I just wanted to hear your voice. Are you at work?"
"Yeah, I'm working the night shift tonight. I'm just driving around town, keeping an eye out. What about you? How was your day?"
"It's fine," Caroline says, drawing her knees up to her chest. "We were doing a lot of shopping, Bonnie and I. Klaus got a house for us to stay in but it's like, really old and a lot of stuff inside had to go. We're repainting some of the bedrooms. We already finished Bonnie's..."
Liz is quite for a few moments, considering, before asking, softly, "You aren't going to be coming back in a week or two, are you?"
Caroline sighs, rubbing her forehead. "No. It's going to be a while before we can come back, I think. So... I'm going to need my homework sent to me. My books and everything - same as Bonnie. Break is almost over so we should get something set up so that we can get our homework and stuff."
"Caroline, what's going on?" Liz asks softly. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Caroline says, resting her chin on her knees. "There's something I have to tell you, but I'm not sure how to say it. I'm going to need some time to think of a way to talk about it but know that I'm okay. I'm not hurt. I'm fine. I have Bonnie and Stefan. Klaus too and his brother Elijah is also here. And just today we ran into Hayley."
Liz is quiet for a moment, no doubt fighting the instinct to insist that Caroline just tell her what was going on, but Caroline is so thankful that she doesn't ask about it, no matter how much she no doubt wants to. "Okay... and Hayley is?"
"Oh, when Tyler was in the Appalachians or whatever, he met Hayley, she helped him control his shift. I met her shortly after he came back. She's... kind of a friend..." Caroline says slowly. She runs her hand slowly through her hair, knowing that her tone left a clear opening to questions she wasn't sure she wanted to answer.
"Right..." Liz says. "And is Hayley really a friend, Caroline?"
Caroline is quiet for a moment, not sure she's willing to go that far. Maybe things will change, maybe they won't but Caroline is willing to give the benefit of the doubt. "Well... she's not an enemy. She's looking for her family and it led her here. So we are all kind of sticking it out together for now."
Liz sighs. "Just, please be careful, alright? I hate that I can't be there with you."
"Of course I'll be careful, and I know." Caroline rubs at her forehead, finally getting tired now that she's spoken to Liz. "I should let you go now. Have a good night."
"I love you, Caroline, be safe."
Caroline smiles, wishing that she could reach through her phone to hug her mom. "I love you too."
"Don't worry about school. I'll talk with your teachers, and Bonnie's."
"Thank you. Love you."
"Love you too. Goodnight, Caroline."
"Goodnight, mom."
Caroline hangs up her phone and sits there for a moment, just quietly thinking about Liz and how much she missed her. She was going to have to tell the truth about the baby soon. She would much rather do it face to face. Maybe she could find some way to go home for a few days to talk with Liz and Elena about what was going on face-to-face.
Caroline does the math in her head. It's just about February. So she's actually over four months. She needs to go see a doctor at some point, just to confirm everything again. But that scares Caroline more. She doesn't feel like she has a baby growing inside of her. Maybe the baby is that malnourished that it simply isn't growing fast enough. Caroline doesn't know but maybe she should speak to someone who would know better than her - like a doctor. Although, Caroline does know that she's not eating enough and if she wants to avoid getting a good scolding from everyone, that's going to have to change.
She's got to start taking better care of herself, she knows. But she is honestly stressing like no one would believe. She feels as if everything is out of her control and it is terrifying.
Caroline pushes herself to her feet, slipping back into the quiet room, plugging her phone back in on the table, flipping it over so the screen won't light up the room, before crawling back in bed next to Bonnie and rolling onto her side, closing her eyes and willing herself to sleep. Thankfully, she slipped to sleep almost immediately.
They get up early in the morning, packing up the hotel and putting as much as they can into Stefan's and Klaus's cars as they go back to the house. Stefan, Bonnie, and Hayley in one car while Caroline, Elijah, and Klaus were in the other one.
Caroline sits in the back as Klaus drives and Elijah sits in the passenger seat. She waited until the store that they ordered their furniture in opened before giving them a call.
"Hello, this is Caroline Forbes, I'm calling about the furniture being delivered to my house later on today..." Caroline says, turning her eyes out the window, watching as they drive past the busy streets of New Orleans. "Yes, I needed to add a bed to that order. Yeah, I need six beds now. No, I have five ordered right now, and I need to make it six. No, I don't want eleven, I want six. The total is six. No, I said I already have five ordered I just need to add one more. Six. One more than five, one less than seven. Six. Yes, thank you! And you know what? Please go back over my order so I know everything is correct," Caroline says, sighing as she digs out her notebook and flipping to the correct page. "Okay go."
She waits as he pulls up her information - which she thought he was already looking at?
"Forbes, Caroline," Caroline says. "F-O-R-B-E-S. What? That's impossible! I was just there yesterday. I need these beds by tonight. It's got to be. I put it under my name. Wait, we were just talking about my... okay, you know what? Nevermind. Could it be under the credit card I used? Klaus Mikaelson? Mikaelson. Mikaelson."
Caroline looks up to see Klaus staring back at her from the rearview mirror with raised eyebrows, looking amused, which just makes her even madder.
"Mikaelson. M-I-K-A-E-L-S-O-N. No, no 'c'. Klaus. K-L-A-U-S. Do you even have a Mikaelson?" Caroline groans, dropping her head back against the seat. "Listen to me. What was your name again? Brett? Listen, Brett, spelling Mikaelson the way I did, do you at least have a name under that order? Yes? Great! That's the only one? Even better! What's the first name? Are you kidding me? I'm Caroline! Caroline Forbes! You took my name and... you know what? I don't care anymore. Just tell me the order."
As he goes over the order with her, Caroline had to shoot daggers with her eyes at Klaus when his met her own in the rearview mirror. She can see those pretty, full lips spread in an amused smile that just fuels her anger more. And even Elijah has a hand covering his mouth as he stares out the window. And he's cleared his throat more than once. And every time he does, Klaus's smile grows just a little bit more.
Caroline was so busy glaring at the brothers that she almost missed what he was saying. "No, six beds. Come on, Brett, we just talked about it. What...? You thought I was talking about a different..?" Caroline's jaw drops, unable to believe what's happening right now. Someone has to be playing a joke on her. "Brett, are you messing with me right now? You're killing me, I'll tell you. I don't know, Brett, you tell me? Why was this the most difficult conversation of my entire life?" Caroline sighs. "Just make sure there are six beds on the order, Brett."
Caroline bulks, pulling the phone away from her ear, leaning forward in her seat to look between the two brothers. Elijah who was blinking slowly while trying to keep his face impassive as he looks out the window, and Klaus who was more than enough visibly amused for both of them.
As soon as she leaned forward, Klaus says, "Don't say it, Caroline. I don't know if Elijah's stoicism can survive it."
"This fucking kid just asked me what name I wanted to put this order under."
Elijah coughs to cover his smile while Klaus laughs, his entire face lighting up with mirth, shaking his head. Caroline might have found it cute if she didn't feel like she was somehow in the twilight zone.
Caroline leans back into her seat, putting the phone to her ear, her voice calm, "Mikaelson, Brett. Put under the Mikaelson order." She marks her own notes. "Okay, now go over the order one more time. Good, good, good, yes. Thank you, Brett. I wasn't sure we were both going to survive this call, but I'm so glad we did! Now, when will that be delivered?" She waits a moment, before sputtering in disbelief, "My order, Brett! When will my order be delivered? Mikaelson! Brett! The order name is Mikaelson! Thank you! Sweet lord! Thank you! Alright, we'll be there! No, I won't fill out a survey, I can promise it's not going to make either of us happy. Don't ever ask anyone to do that ever again, for your own sake. Goodbye Brett. Stay in school."
As soon as she hung up, she looks over at Elijah first, who was rubbing at his face, trying to keep what little bit of composure he still has under wraps, while Klaus was actually laughing, rubbing tears from his eyes.
He pulls into the driveway as Caroline says, "I feel like I had an aneurysm and truly died over thirty seconds ago."
Caroline leaves the car as both brothers laugh, making sure that she had her notebook and purse before she does. Stefan, Bonnie, and Hayley look at the car with two brothers as they both calm down, exiting the car.
"What's wrong with them?" Stefan asks.
"They got to witness the literal shaving of a hundred years off my life from a conversation with a sixteen-year-old boy who needs to stop working at his dad's store, that's what," Caroline groans. She glances over at Klaus as he wipes away mirthful tears, sending her a charming smile when their eyes met. "My pain makes you stronger, doesn't it?"
"Yours and others," Klaus says, amused.
Bonnie and Stefan both shrug their shoulders before starting to grab everything out of the car and into the house. Once everything is moved out of the cars, the guys head out to run back into town. They were going to do recon and Klaus wants to both lay down the groundwork to finally revealing himself to Marcel, while Elijah was looking in on the witch's angle and Stefan was going to figure out where the werewolves were.
"I'm not sure as the only vampire that can't survive vampire bites, I should be the one to go..." Stefan says slowly, crossing his arms over his chest with a quirked eyebrow. They all stand around the front yard, finishing up discussing their plans before the men head out.
"Do you intend to get close to Marcel using your long history?" Klaus asks, giving him a sideways look.
"No," Stefan says, making a face.
"Thought not," Klaus says.
"Don't worry," Caroline says, patting Stefan on the shoulder. "If you get a werewolf bite, Klaus will be more than happy to give you his blood so that you would be okay." She gives Klaus a look, which he returns with an amused high browed one of his own.
"I'm sure you'll be alright, Stefan," Klaus says, turning his gaze toward the youngest male vampire.
Stefan raises his arms in surrender. "Right."
"You'll let me know if you hear anything, won't you?" Hayley asks. "I want to be able to talk to them myself. They are my family after all."
Stefan nods. "I will."
"Be careful with Marcel, brother," Elijah says, turning to look at the blond next to him. "How he is alive now alludes me. I thought for certain that he was dead."
Klaus's face falls somber. "Yes, curious as to how he survived Mikael's attack."
"So the fire was all Mikael's doing?" Caroline asks, wrapping her arms around herself. "You're certain?"
Elijah and Klaus nod as the former supplies, "Yes, I held him off while Niklaus and Rebekah fled. It was a tumultuous and trying time for all of us. We are fortunate to have made it away with our lives."
"That's got to really suck," Hayley says softly, still standing close to Caroline, no doubt still seeing her as the only person who cares just enough to stand between her and Klaus. "I mean, to be chased around the world by your own dad? And he wants to kill you on top of it? That sucks. Big time."
"Yes..." Elijah says softly, casting Hayley a steady look. "Not the finest times."
"Well," Bonnie says, having been leaning on Klaus's car, writing down a list in Caroline's notebook. She rips out the pages and passes them over to Stefan, who was closest to her, "I'm going to get started on things here, once you guys get back. One of you needs to pick up those items for me, and someone also needs to do some shopping. While we're here cleaning the place up, painting and getting everything in order, the least one of you can do is make sure food finds it's way to us."
"Oh!" Caroline bounces over, snatching the papers from Stefan's hand, looking down at them. She notes the first one is herbs, which she wasn't interested in for a moment. She hands that back to Stefan before plucking the pen from Bonnie's offered hand and scribbles down a few more items, pleased to see that her friend knows her well enough to place quite a few of her favorite foods down. She writes down anything extra that she can think about before passing to Hayley, the last person that actually needs to eat.
Caroline turns to Stefan. "I can't stress this enough. Are you listening to me?"
Stefan nods, folding up the piece of paper and sticking it into his pocket. "You've got my undivided attention."
"Okay," Caroline says, cupping his face with and staring into his eyes, "Macaroni and cheese. I can't stress this enough. If you don't get the Kraft macaroni, you can't come home, understand?"
Stefan's eyebrows shoot to his hairline. "Yes, ma'am."
Caroline turns to Elijah, now placing her hands on his shoulders. "Listen to me, Elijah. I know we don't know each other but if you care even a little bit for Baby growing inside of me, in your efforts to learn more about the witches, you will get me gumbo from Sophie Deveraux. She works at Rousseau's. It's delicious and Baby really wants some. A big bowl, Elijah."
Elijah nods, smiling lightly. "Who am I to deny what Baby wants?"
"Excellent!" Caroline grins. "I am starving so that would be great! Thank you." She turns around, making eye contact with Klaus as Hayley finishes scribbling down whatever extra that she wants and passing the pen and paper back to Stefan. "And you," Caroline says. Klaus smiles at her, folding his hands behind his back. "You be good. You've got the mischievous look in your eyes."
"I always have mischief in my eyes," Klaus says proudly. "It's my trademark." He smiles down at her as she steps closer.
"Be good. The last thing we need is to make more enemies, okay? There is something going on here and we need a wider view on what's going on before we do anything... mischievous."
Klaus leans in close to her, smiling wolfishly. "As I'm sure you already know, Caroline, but I can be a very patient man." Caroline flushes, not sure if he's referring to his pursuit of her, or when it comes to his devilish plans, but either way, so long as he keeps to observing and planning in secret, then they should be okay. At least, she hopes so.
"Good," she says, "alright, ladies, to work! Stefan, mac and cheese, Elijah, gumbo, don't forget."
"Are you going to eat them together?" Stefan asks, half-joking, half-serious.
Caroline glares at him. "Maybe, I'll have to feel the moment."
Stefan crinkles his face. "Good to know."
