Amelie

Summary:"You have loved and you have lost, all while I have succumbed to: the darkness, the light, to my wildest dreams and deepest fears. I have loved you while you have lived your life to its fullest, now I must live mine." Klaus kept his last love a secret for a lifetime but now it's time to reintroduce her to the world.

Chapter Seven

It had been weeks since Klaus had spoken to Amelie face to face and he was doing better than he expected. He took the opportunity to let Hayley and Elijah have their time together while he kept his mind occupied by spending quality father and daughter time. He had to act like the man he wanted to be and not the infatuated man that Amelie made him. The Klaus she knew from the 1930's was the man he had been all throughout his time in New Orleans; strong and charismatic.

Every couple of days, Amelie would call him to see how he was and he knew that soon enough she was going to be given her memories back. From what he heard, Jon had his magic back and had returned the necklace back to Amelie but that was the only contact that they had. Amelie wasn't holding up as well as he was, almost every night she was heading down to that jazz bar on Bourbon Street where Klaus took her or she was in one of the night clubs and she partied the night away. Coming from the era of a carefree lifestyle, it was the only way she knew how to let go. Klaus had caught a glimpse of her once being escorted out of a rave but he couldn't step in, Amelie didn't want that; she wanted to enjoy this new lease of life that she had and he had to let her. He realised that everything didn't revolve around him. If he was going to have a relationship with her, he had to let her live before she came back to him.

After a night of heavy drinking and partying, she woke up to a messy apartment and a pain on her neck that she couldn't describe. As she reached around to the back of her neck she felt a huge bandage and when she looked in the mirror she saw a tattoo that she would've been too scared to get while sober. 'C'est ma vie' was the perfect thing to have, only Amelie led the life she had and only she could control it. She checked her phone and saw a text from Jon, beckoning her to come down to his home so he could restore the fragments of her memories that were altered.

Stepping into the cold was hard enough but as she emerged from her apartment block, Klaus emerged from his compound with his daughter in his arms. They shared a longing look before Amelie gave into temptation and ran across the road to him. She took Hope's little hand and gave it a rub as she looked into her hood.

"Hey little miss cutie." Amelie greeted her as Hope laughed and cuddled into her dad.

"Hey Ama." She replied in her childish voice.

Amelie looked up at Klaus and placed her hands in her pockets. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, how's the head?"

"It's bouncing right now. I presume that you saw me stumbling into my apartment?"

"I think the whole street heard you singing your heart out as you arrived home." He smiled a little as he balanced Hope on his hip. "Where are you heading to?"

"Jon said he's going to try and give me back my memories so I'm heading over there now. Where are you two going?"

"One of those indoor play parks. It's a bit boring sitting at home, isn't it love?" he looked down at Hope as she nodded.

"That sounds fun, I wish I could go." Amelie smiled down at Hope and glanced at Klaus. "I'll let you two get going then."

"It was nice seeing you." Klaus put Hope onto her feet and took her hand, he glanced over his shoulder at Amelie as Hope pulled him down the street.

"Take lots of pictures for me." She called out to him, but she didn't get a reply; he was enjoying his time with his daughter and as much as Amelie wanted it, his attention wasn't on her for a change. She craved it more now than ever.

Being in Jon's house alone with him was strange. Amelie didn't know where to look and she didn't want to be there but what she did want was her memories back so that she could make the right choice for herself.

"You look a little worse for wear." Jon commented as he took her down to his basement.

"I'm a little hungover this morning." She replied as she walked down to the place she ran out of only a few weeks ago. "Is this spell going to work?"

"I've spent a couple of weeks on it and I'm confident that it will." He motioned towards a chair and watched her take a seat. "How are you feeling about this?"

"I'm nervous, I didn't expect you to act so normal."

"I let my excitement get to me. I've searched for you for a lifetime and I was so close to you when you were living in Chicago but then you disappeared. I knew you were alive, Alexander linked our lives to yours but I didn't expect you to be so young when I found you." He explained as he mixed a few herbs together in a mortar.

"I've had a storybook life and by storybook, I mean it's almost too crazy to believe." She took off her coat and placed it on the back of her chair. "Is this going to take long?"

"The spell won't," he put the mixture on his fingertips and stepped towards her, "but you'll need time to adjust and let everything sink in." he placed his fingertips on her temples.

Amelie closed her eyes and chewed the inside of her cheek. "I didn't expect any less."

"This might hurt a little bit." He closed his eyes and put pressure on the side of her head as he said the spell.

As memories flooded back into her mind's eye her brain felt like it was on fire. She gripped onto the handles of the chair and dug her nails in. She tried to get up but Jon kept her in her seat; he needed her to have her memories back more than she did and he wasn't going to let her slip away so easily. Flashbacks to their time together swarmed her; their first kiss, the day he proposed to her and the day she lost everything. Tears flooded her eyes, everything was too much for her. Loving two men just the same made her torn, she didn't know who she wanted or what she wanted any more.

"I know I was a little over bearing with you, but I couldn't stop the spell halfway." He said as he washed the residue of herbs from his hands.

"It's okay, I shouldn't have tried to move." Amelie said quietly as she stared down at her feet. Part of her was scared to look him in the eye but part of her wanted to hold him and never let go.

"Just sit there for a moment and let everything resonate. Do you need a glass of water or anything?" he walked closer to her and crouched down beside him.

"I don't want anything." She turned her head slowly towards him and took in a deep breath. "This is just so strange."

"I know that having all your memories back is going to be weird for a while, but you'll grow to accept that." He touched her hand but she moved it away slowly.

"That's not strange, the conflicted feeling that I have in my heart is what's strange." He got onto her feet shakily and rested her quivering hand on her forehead. "What am I going to do?" she whispered to herself. She stepped over to him and ran her fingers through his short, brown hair and pursed her lips.

"I'm not asking you to make a choice right this moment." He said quietly as he stared into her eyes, her blue eyes looked as if they were staring straight into his soul as he became more entranced by her. She edged closer towards him and kissed his lips gently, only once but he craved more.

"I know because I can't make a decision. I love the two of you so much for so many different reasons." She pulled away from him and ran her hands over her face. "I need time."

"Let me show you what life could be like with me, I want to take you out; I'm attending a charity ball tomorrow night, accompany me."

Amelie gave Klaus the chance to take her out and she owed Jon the same chance; it was only fair. "Text me the details and I'll be there."

"It's formal attire."

"My favourite." She gave him one last longing look and grabbed her stuff before heading back out into reality.

Missed calls from Klaus flooded her phone but she didn't have the nerve to call him back; she knew he was curious to see if her old feelings for Jon came back and she wasn't ready to tell him the truth. She scratched at the bandage on her neck and returned to the little bakery she discovered before Alexander chased her throughout the city. It was no surprise that she found him there, chatting up the young woman behind the teller. She stood behind him, hoping that he wouldn't notice her but as the young woman greeted her, he turned around with a smirk.

"Just a coffee and an iced bun to go, please." Amelie said as she avoided all eye contact with Alexander.

When the young woman moved into the back of the bakery, Alexander turned fully to Amelie and leaned on the glass counter. "So shall I call you my sister in law now or are we sticking to a first name basis?"

"I'm not your sister in law," she swallowed back her fear harshly and glanced at him, "I haven't made my decision."

"Even with your memories back you can't see how much my brother loves you. I never did see the appeal to you."

Amelie scoffed and looked away from his general direction. "I'm not blind, I see how much he cares but I love Klaus just the same as I love him."

"You knew Jon first." Alexander pointed out.

"But Klaus saved me from a life that would've killed me slowly. Hunger and the cold was on my cards until he plucked me from the poorhouse. Yes, your brother loved me since I was fourteen and yes I was going to marry him young but I fell in love with Klaus too."

The two of them fell silent when the young woman returned with a coffee to go and a small bag with the baked good inside. Amelie turned her back to Alexander but was stopped by him before she could walk away.

"Don't break his heart." He warned lowly.

Amelie snatched her arm away from him and composed herself, saying to him over her shoulder, "I'll see you at the charity ball." She shot him one last glare before leaving the bakery with her head held high.

For this first time in a long time, Amelie felt like a hot commodity instead of the neglected fiancée or betrayed lover. Both men had treated her unfairly but both loved her just as much as she loved them. She saw her opportunity to live her life and nobody could put any blame on her if she wanted to take her time to make her decision. She got the feeling that she was going to enjoy having two men fighting for her affections.

Her apartment was her safe place; she could let go of everything that bothered her; she wasn't even going to think about the man that lived across the street and she wasn't going to imagine how her date with Jon was going to go. With her half-drunk coffee, Amelie stared into her bare wardrobe with a frown. She spent the money that she found in Klaus' jacket on a few new things but as she flicked through the hangers she found something that was just perfect for the ball tomorrow night. Her impulse buy might have saved her the bother of venturing out into the cold again; the long-sleeved dress made from black lace was the perfect thing for her date and for a high society event. Even if she was the girl that nobody knew, she was going to act as if she knew every person there; to live any sort of a life, she needed friends. It was all the better if they were going to be in high places.

The dress fit her like a lace glove and she couldn't have been happier with her appearance as she tried the garment on. As she checked out herself in the mirror she caught a glimpse of a dark figure in the window across the street. Her breath left her body as the light flickered on and she saw Klaus for the first time since her memories came back. With his sleeping daughter in his arms, he glided into the room and put her in to bed. Amelie moved towards the window and watched him tuck his child into bed and watch over her as if he was her guardian angel. Amelie pressed her hand against the glass window and smiled as she watched the tender moment between a loving father and his daughter.

It was a side of Klaus she had always wanted to see and now that she saw it, it made her desire him more. He didn't notice her watching him but she noticed everything about him; the look he had as he watched Hope, the caring he had for her and the soft side of him instead of the hard exterior he liked to put up. Amelie snapped out of her infatuation and moved away from the window; she wasn't going to think about anyone while she was in her fortress, but it was so hard when one of her great loves lived so close to her grasp.

A:N Thank you for the follows and favourites, the next two chapters are going to be like a kind of two part special, but I'm going to upload them separately and you'll get to see more of the love triangle. Thanks for reading!