Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any recognizable people or places.
This is my first foray into the Vampire Diaries universe so please be kind.
Finnish putting the butter meringue cream on the cake, Calynn Arianna Menken stepped back with a smile. She had been working on this cake for two days and now the only thing left was to put the raspberries on the top and put some eatable glitter all over it.
Calynn's mother was turning 50 tomorrow and Calynn's mother had begged her to make a cake and of course she had agreed, she loved to bake and decorate cakes. She turned around to get the berries from the fridge and sighed in annoyance when she saw that they were starting to mold.
"Mom!" Calynn called out. "I'm going to the store to buy more raspberries, do you need anything else?"
"I'm right here Cal, no need to shout." Irene Gwendolyn Menken, walked slowly into the kitchen, looking frail and tired.
"Mom, do you need anything?" Calynn asked again with a smile.
Calynn adored her mother and loved her completely and Irene loved her daughter above anything else even though Calynn's conception hadn't been consensual. Irene had been raped when she was 20 years old and instead of getting an abortion or even putting the child up for adoption, she loved the child with all off her being, giving her the name Calynn, meaning powerful in battle and Arianna which means holy.
"Pringles." Irene smiled a brittle smile as she placed a thin hand on her daughter's cheek.
Calynn had moved back in with her mother around 7 months ago when Irene had started getting sick. She was tired all the time, bruises appeared from the slightest touch and she lost weight at a rapid pace. Calynn had convinced her to go to the doctors who after an insufferable amount of test could determent that Irene suffered from both leukemia and bone cancer.
And so Calynn had moved back in with her mom to take care of her while she went through all the chemotherapy and medications. Calynn didn't mind and while her mother hated being dependent on anyone, having been a single mother from the age of 21, put herself through school while raising a child and then working her butt off to make sure said child would have anything she needed without actually making her a spoiled brat.
"Sure, I'll get pringles." Calynn laughed. "What flavor?"
"Spicy ones." Irene chuckled.
"I'll be back with the raspberries and the pringles as soon as possible." Calynn said as she shrugged her jacket on. "And don't touch the cake!"
"I wasn't going to." Irene denied but the smirk on her lips gave her away.
"Sure, you weren't." Calynn laughed and walked out the door. "Love you, mama."
"Love you too, Cal." Irene called back with a smile in her voice.
Calynn wasn't scared to walk alone late at night on a Friday for several reasons, one of the most prominent ones being that ever since she was a child her mother had hired several self-defense teachers and martial art instructors so that Calynn would never have to feel as helpless and go through what Irene herself had. Which made the 29-year-old feel pretty confident as she walked towards the store.
Calynn grabbed a basket as she walked into the store and started to make her way to the fruit and vegetable isle. She quickly grabbed some raspberries, spicy pringles, a couple of sodas and made her way to the counter.
"Hey Marv." Calynn said as she put her stuff on the counter.
"Hello, little one." Marv the owner of the store smiled at her. "How have you been?"
Marv, or rather Marvin, was an older gentle man in his 60 that had bought the store around 30 years ago and Calynn had grown up with him as a sort of grandfather/uncle. And while Calynn was something of a weirdo that didn't really care about most people, she did like Marv and loved him in her own way.
Some psychiatrist had once told her mother that Calynn was almost borderline psychopathic and should be medicated. Irene had ripped the psychiatrist several new holes and declared that Calynn was perfect the way she was and she didn't need any medication.
And sure, Calynn didn't really feel emotions like most people, but that didn't mean she didn't feel at all or was a psychopath. It took her a while to love someone or even like someone and if she didn't like you, she couldn't care less about what happened to you.
"I've been good, Marv." Calynn hummed. "Mom's birthday is tomorrow, you coming for some cake?"
"I'll come around lunch time if that works for you?" Marv said as he bagged her items.
Before Calynn could answer a man with a ski-mask ran into the store waving a gun and demanded that Marv put all the money in a bag.
"I will give you the money, just calm down." Marv remained calm as he started to open the register.
"Hurry up old man!" The man shouted.
Calynn thought about using her self-defense skills but a subtle shake of Marv's head stopped her from interfering. Calynn tried to back away slowly so not to make the man more trigger happy.
"Where are you going?!" The man snarled at her and turned his gun on her.
"Nowhere I just didn't want you to…" Calynn didn't get any further as the sound of a gun going off went through the air.
"Calynn!" Marv shouted.
Calynn looked down and felt shocked as she saw the blood spreading on her shirt. Shouldn't gunshot wounds hurt?
The man in the ski-mask just ran out without his money as Calynn fell to the floor. Marv rushed around the counter and fell to his knees beside her.
"Calynn, you're going to be okay." Marv assured her, then he looked up when he heard the door jingle and shouted at the person who entered. "Call an ambulance!"
"Marv…" Calynn murmured. "I'm cold."
"It's just a little wound, you'll be fine." Marv lied as he put pressure on the wound.
"Marv… take care of my mom, please." Calynn looked at him with tears in her eyes. "Don't let her give up her fight against cancer. Promise me."
"I…" Marv was pushed out of the way by a paramedic who quickly fell to his knees beside her.
Calynn felt black creep into her vision as she was placed on a gurney and forced her head towards Marv, "Promise me!"
She saw Marv nodding his head and mouthing 'I promise' as the doors to the ambulance. Calynn looked up at the roof of the ambulance and to her it looked like the lights were getting closer before everything when white.
XOXOXOX
Calynn felt like she was floating in darkness, she was numb and couldn't really move. After a while she felt like she was being squeezed through something very small. She heard a muffled female voice say "I can see the head, keep pushing."
'Please no, please, please I beg you, tell me I'm not actually being born' Calynn thought with slight disgust.
Suddenly she was out in the light and she had to squeeze her eyes shut against the brightness. She felt herself be handed to someone and forced her eyes open to see what she assumed would be her mother.
"Congratulations, Ayanna." A woman said. "It's a beautiful little girl."
"Calynn." The beautiful dark-skinned woman holding her whispered with a smile. "Her name is Calynn."
Calynn tried to control her hand enough to place it on the woman's cheek but only managed to slap her self instead, making the occupants in the room laugh.
"That's a beautiful name, Ayanna." The other woman spoke up again.
Why did that name ring a bell? Did she know her or something? And where were all the doctors and nurses?
"It means 'Powerful in Battle'." Her new mother, Ayanna said.
Calynn yawned and snuggled closer to Ayanna even as her mind was working through all the clues and putting the pieces of the puzzle together, but she didn't manage to solve it until she saw the face of the woman who had delivered her.
That face belonged to Esther Mikaelson, the bitchy witch mother of the Originals. No, no, if that woman was Esther then that meant… her mother was Ayanna Bennett, one of Bonnie Bennett's ancestors.
Calynn started to wail her little lungs out, she didn't want to be reborn in the first place, but definitely not in a fictional universe in the times before indoor plumbing. She didn't want to relearn to walk and talk, she wanted to go back to her real mom!
Ayanna shushed her and somehow, she started to calm down. "It's okay Calynn, I know, I know, new world, new people, but you'll be alright, of that I am certain."
1 Year Old
The first year as the daughter of Ayanna was spent sleeping, eating and shitting, basically. Calynn hated it with a passion, she hated it! But there was very little she could do about it which sucked.
She had learned that she was a year younger than Kol and that meant that Rebekah would be born soon. Calynn was considered a prodigy, not that that word had been invented yet but whatever, in the village because she started to walk very quickly and then some words came quickly to, but thanks to the fact that she didn't really have the best control of her weak muscles she wasn't able to speak fluently, no matter how hard she tried.
"Ko, Ko." Calynn pointed at Kol who was walking over slowly while holding his mothers' hand with a young teenage boy walking on Esther's other side. "Es'er."
"That's right, sweety." Ayanna smiled down at her daughter. "Esther and Kol."
"Good morn, Ayanna." Esther smiled as they walked up.
"Good morn, Esther." Ayanna greeted back. "How are you and the family?"
"Go mo Es'er." Calynn did her best to wave a stubby arm. "Ko."
"Good morn to you to, Calynn." Esther chuckled.
"Good morn, Cal." Kol smiled brightly. "This is Finn."
"Go mo, Fi." Calynn gave a baby giggle as Finn chuckled and greeted her back.
"To answer your question Ayanna, the family is well." Esther said. "Everyone is waiting for the little one to finally decide to be born."
"Ekah, Ekah, Ekah." Calynn bounced in her mother's arms.
"What are you saying, sweetie?" Ayanna asked.
"Ekah." Calynn did her best to point at Esther's pregnant stomach.
"Your daughter must be truly gifted." Esther told Ayanna softly.
"Why is that?" Ayanna looked at her.
"Mikael and I have not told anyone of the names we have picked out for the child." Esther hummed. "But if it is a girl, we were planning on naming her Rebekah."
"Ekah." Calynn nodded with a big smiled, god she was getting tired of not being able to make herself understood.
Ayanna sat Calynn down on the ground so she could toddle over to Finn and grab his hand. She knew that Finn and Kol had both felt pushed away and outside their family after they had all been turned into vampire. 'Always and Forever' always including Niklaus, Elijah and Rebekah but never really Finn or Kol.
"Hi, Fi." Calynn smiled at him. "P'ay? Wi' Kol?"
"You want to play with Kol?" Finn asked softly.
"An Fi." Calynn told him.
"She wanna play wit' you an me." Kol translated.
Calynn giggled as Finn agreed to play with them. She was determined to have a great second life and make her real mom proud. And if that meant killing people and such with the Original Family then so be it.
6 Years Old
As the years passed and Calynn grew she stopped seeing it as Irene being her real mom and Ayanna someone else. They where both her real mom and she had grown to love Ayanna as she had loved Irene. And so, Irene remained her mom while Ayanna became her mother.
Did she miss Irene? Every day. But most days she thought of her mom with fondness and happiness instead of sorrow and longing. She knew her mom would want her to be happy in her new life so Calynn did her best.
At 6 years old she could speak, read and write fluently without a problem, which made learning witch craft an interesting but fun thing. Ayanna had started to teach Calynn about her powers when she was 4 and levitated a cookie form the table into her hand.
The odd thing was that Calynn's magic wasn't really nature magic and not dependent on the ancestors. From what Ayanna had figured out over the years, Calynn's magic came from herself and not from anything else, this in turn made both Esther and Ayanna theories that Calynn had the possibility to become the most powerful magic user ever.
The only thing Calynn herself really wanted to know was if her magic was more like Harry Potter or Merlin. Sadly, she couldn't really ask anyone about that, but what she did know was that she didn't need any incantations, even if she used them to help, or ingrediencies for most of her spells, all she needed to do was concentrate and picture what she wanted to happen.
"Cal!" Kol came running up to her with a 5-year-old Rebekah stumbling after him.
"Kol and Bekah, what can I do for you today?" Calynn asked pompously, knowing it would make both of them laugh.
"Mama screamed at us." Rebekah looked sad.
"Mother sent us out because we were in the way." Kol explained with a mischievous smile.
"And were you?" Calynn giggled.
"Kol was." Rebekah nodded. "But I just wanted to feel the baby kick and move."
"Henrik." Calynn smiled. "He will be coming screaming into the world soon."
"Another brother?" Rebekah almost wailed.
"You're lucky." Calynn looked at Rebekah. "I don't have any siblings except an older brother who decided to leave and travel before I was born."
"I'll marry you and then you can share my siblings." Kol declared with a bright smile.
Calynn didn't say anything, she just laughed. She knew that she would probably be forced to marry in the future but she hoped she could marry for love or at least marry someone she was friends with.
"Kol, Rebekah." Esther came waddling up to them.
"Mother." Kol said hesitantly as Rebekah hid behind him.
"I'm am so very sorry for screaming at you both, it wasn't you I was mad at." Esther tried to explain as she did her best to bend down to their level.
"Growing a baby in your tummy makes your emotion go all over the place." Calynn hummed, trying to explain hormones to children.
"She's right." Esther smiled gratefully at her and stood up.
"Kol, I need you to run into my home and pull the cloth from the bed in my room." Calynn said suddenly as she walked over to Esther just as her water broke. "Seems like little Henrik has decided that he wants to greet the world."
Kol rushed into the house to do as he was told while Calynn let Esther lean against her as she helped her inside.
"Rebekah, can you gather all the pillows and place them at the head of my bed?" Calynn asked.
"I will." Rebekah ran to do what she was told.
"This can't be happening." Esther mumbled. "Ayanna isn't home yet."
"I'll help you." Calynn told her softly. "Mother has been teaching me."
Together they slowly made their way into Calynn's room where Kol and Rebekah had done what Calynn had told them. Calynn gestured at Kol to help her get Esther on the bed, while Rebekah held the pillows in place so that Esther could be as comfortable as possible.
"Kol, I need you to run and get water from the well, okay?" Calynn looked at him.
"Okay." Kol quickly left to do as he was told.
"Rebekah, I need you to run home and tell them what is happening." Calynn didn't want Rebekah to see this and be scared to ever have children. "But don't run to fast, I don't want you to fall and hurt yourself."
After Rebekah had left Calynn hurriedly lifted Esther's dress and cut off her underclothes so she could see if she was dilated enough to start pushing. Right now, she was really happy that she had taken that midwife course out of curiosity when she was twenty.
"You can't push yet." Calynn told Esther with a small smile.
"Here's the water." Kol came walking in, carrying a big bucket of water with his arms straining just as Calynn had put a blanket over Esther's hips to protect her modesty.
"Good job, Kol." Calynn smiled at him. "Now I need you to go and barricade the door and then come back quickly."
"Why does he have to do that?" Esther asked while panting, sweat beading on her brow.
"Because I don't want your other sons or your husband to barge in while you are bringing Henrik into the world." Calynn explained as she transferred some of the water into a bowl and the rest into a pan. "And the towel around his hand is so you won't break it."
"What do you want me to do now?" Kol asked as he walked back into the room while wrapping the towel around his hand.
"Sit by your mother's head and bathe her forehead with a cloth dipped in cold water while you let her grip your towel wrapped hand." Calynn instructed as she used her powers to heat the water in the pan.
"Are you going to be okay, mother?" Kol asked quietly as he slowly stroked a cold towel over her forehead and hair.
"I will be fine, dear." Esther did her best to reassure her son.
"Esther it's time to push." Calynn said as she settled between Esther's legs. "On three, okay?"
"Okay." Esther nodded.
The birth was long and hard and she had to send Kol out to stop the people banging on the door, which resulted in Finn coming in and taking Kol's place.
"I sent Elijah to try and find father and told Niklaus to look after Kol and Rebekah." Finn quickly grabbed his mother's hand and stroked her forehead with the cold cloth.
"Thank you." Esther murmured tiredly.
"Esther I can see the head so I need you to push." Calynn ordered while holding a clean towel to be able to catch the baby before he hit the bed.
Esther screamed as she pushed the baby's head out but then she slumped against the pillows tiredly. "I can't…"
"Yes you can." Calynn declared strongly. "You have brought several children into this world, are you really going to give up on this one?"
"I feel so weak." Esther mumbled but she started to take several deep breaths to gather all her strength.
Calynn knew why Esther was feeling so weak, there were to much blood pooling between her thighs to be normal. "Push now!"
"Ahhh!" Esther pushed with all that she had and little Henrik slid free and Calynn quickly bundled him up in the towel.
"Finn, take him, quickly!" Calynn handed Henrik to Finn.
"What's going on?" Finn asked worried.
"I'm fading." Esther said weakly.
"No, you're not, not on my watch!" Calynn might not like the way Esther will try and kill her children in the future but at the moment she wasn't that person.
As Finn watched, Calynn placed her small hands over his mother's midsection and concentrated. At first nothing happened, then suddenly Calynn's eyes flew open. Finn gasped as he saw that her eyes weren't their usual golden brown but they were glowing a pinkish purple and Esther started to regain the color in her cheeks.
"I did it." Calynn murmured as her eyes turned back to normal and she swayed slightly were she was sitting.
"Thank you, Calynn." Finn said reverently.
"No problem." Calynn smiled tiredly.
"I'll go and let the others in." Finn handed baby Henrik over to Esther with a smile.
As he left, Calynn got up and started making the room look less bloody and the she opened the shutters on the window to let in fresh air.
"You saved both me and my baby today." Esther spoke up from where she was softly cleaning a nursing Henrik.
Before Calynn could answer Mikael walked into the room to see his wife and child.
"I'll leave you bond with little Henrik." Calynn smiled and walked out of the room and then the house.
As she walked out of the house she saw the rest of the Mikaelson siblings sitting around and talking. Calynn smiled at them, then she felt her world blur and the next ting she knew she was in Finn's arms as he looked down on her in worry.
"What…" Calynn looked around.
"You started to sway and then you almost fell to the ground but Finn managed to catch you." Niklaus explained.
"I think I used a little too much magic." Calynn yawned as Finn put her down on the ground again.
Suddenly Mikael came storming out of the house and quickly made his way over to Calynn. He looked at her and then he fell to his knees before her and pulled her into his arms. "Thank you for saving them."
Calynn didn't know what to say to that so she only hugged back and nodded against his shoulder.
12 Years Old
The first time Calynn brought someone back from the dead, she was 12 years old. After she had saved and healed Esther six years ago the whole village had found out and started to come to her for healing.
Mostly it was just children who had fallen and broken something but sometimes it was men who had gotten a bad cut or had a hunting accident. Calynn was often requested to help her mother with taking care of the women who gave birth.
Calynn were mixing some ingrediencies for a potency potion that she had invented when there was a loud banging on the door.
"Sonja, what can I help you with?" Calynn asked kindly as she opened the door.
"Please you have to help." Sonja begged with tears on her cheeks. "My little brother is hurt, he fell down the well."
"Of course." Calynn grabbed her back and hurried after Sonja.
Sonja's little brother Harald was only three years old so if she could help him, she would do her verry best. When they arrived at the well most of the village had gathered around were Anya was rocking back and forth with her son in her arms with Harald's father, Hardyng, was standing behind her trying not to let his tears fall.
"Calynn!" Anya called out. "Help him, please!"
Calynn ran over and fell to her knees beside the distraught mother. "Place him on the ground."
Calynn could see that he wasn't breathing and that his lips were turning blue meaning he must have drowned before they could pull him out of the well.
"Get ready to push him on the side." Calynn looked up at Anya. "Because when he wakes up, he will have to chough up the water in his lungs."
"He's dead, child." An older frail looking woman said rudely, "Let him be."
"His name is Harald and he is a three-year-old little boy." Calynn glared. "I am doing everything in my power to save him and if that bothers you, you can walk away."
The old woman just huffed but she didn't leave.
Calynn took a deep breath and placed a hand on Harald's small unmoving chest and concentrated. This time the whole village saw her eyes snap open and glow, most of the time when she used magic, her eyes didn't glow, that only happened when she used a lot of power.
"Come on Harald, it's not your time yet." Calynn's voice had an odd musical echoing cant to it. "Your father, mother and Sonja would miss you."
The villagers saw some sort of light pass through Calynn into Harald who started to chough up a lot of water even as he cried. Calynn herself smiled as Anya did as in structed and pushed Harald to one side so he could get rid of the water in his lungs.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you." Sonja attacked Calynn with a hug.
Things changed after that. It started small at first with gifts consisting of food and clothes started to appear outside her mother's door addressed to Calynn. Then people started to bow their head at her when she was out walking and doing chores.
And then Calynn started to feel an influx of power on some days and even started to hear whispers in her mind. When she told her Ayanna, her mother smiled sadly and told her to sit down with her.
"Calynn, my dear daughter." Ayanna hummed. "The power influx and the whispers are prayers and worship."
"What?" Calynn asked shocked.
"The villagers are convinced that you are a Goddess trapped in mortal form, here to help them and guide them." Ayanna explained, she hadn't wanted to tell her daughter what had been happening in the village but she couldn't lie either. "As you know, belief has a bi impact on magic especially your sort of magic and with the people praying and worshipping you, you get more powerful."
"But I'm not a goddess." Calynn protested.
"What makes a god, Calynn?" Ayanna asked softly and when Calynn just looked confused she asked another question. "Do we believe in gods because they exist to do gods exist because we believe?"
"I do not understand." Calynn whispered.
"To me you are my beautiful daughter but to them you are a Goddess." Ayanna stroked Calynn's hair. "And I don't think you could convince them otherwise even if you tried your best."
"I don't want to be worshipped, mama." Calynn looked up with sad eyes.
"I know baby, but there is nothing you can do about it at this point." Ayanna hugged her and then sent her off to bed.
Calynn laid awake in bed thinking about what her mother had told her. How could they even think that she was some sort of god? She was just Calynn. And sure, she did bring Harald back from the dead but that was done with magic. As she fell asleep, she resolved to convince the villagers that she wasn't a goddess and then everything could go back to normal.
A/N: First chapter done; I hope you liked it.
The question I have now is; Who do you want Calynn to be with?
Finn?
Elijah?
Niklaus?
Kol?
Someone else?