Disclaimer: I don't own The Originals, but isn't that a tad obvious?
Klaus groaned as Elijah pointed out another spot of blood on the concrete of the courtyard. He moved towards it, the mop bucket protesting noisily. It was an old thing that they never used because the cleaning crew brought their own. He wiped up the mess and looked up at his older brother with an indignant look on his face.
"There, are you pleased now?" Elijah nodded serenely and Marcel grinned at the sight. Klaus was wearing yellow rubber gloves and a dark green apron that matched his shirt for the mammoth cleaning job he'd had to do.
"I think you might have missed—" Klaus shot marcel the most murderous look and the younger vampire held his tongue. "It's all for you anyway, I don't get why you're so mad."
"I'm mad because we pay people to do this very job." Klaus responded and Elijah scoffed. "I don't understand why I was the one who had to scrub this damned courtyard top to bottom."
"Because it was filthy and you yourself said that you were planning to bring a special friend here." Elijah pointed out, beginning his human speed descent down the staircase.
"I said I might." Klaus quipped. "For all I know, there are contingency plans in the event that I happen to meet the girl before these guardians deemed her ready." Elijah nodded at that possibility. "They could have very well packed up the whole orphanage and been halfway to Alaska by now."
"Nope." Marcel vamped down the stairs getting there at the same time Elijah touched the now spotless concrete floor. "I had some of my guys keep an eye on the house until you got here. The whole place has been business as usual." Klaus didn't let them see it, but he felt relief wash over his entire body.
"Thank you, Marcellus." Elijah passed Klaus on his way to the front gates. "Now Niklaus: the courtyard is clean, let's go find your daughter."
The trio followed Elijah, who offered to drive, into the huge black SUV and he sped to the address Marcel gave them. The house they pulled up to had a homey feel to it and Klaus could feel anticipation and trepidation coursing through his veins as he alone walked up the driveway to the huge door. As soon as he lifted his hand, it swung open to reveal a woman in a white t shirt and dark blue jeans. She had the curliest brown hair Klaus had ever seen and had probably tried to tame it in a hair tie, but long tendrils were already worming their way out of it. She pushed some of her hair back as she looked up at him with dark brown eyes that were almost black in the low light.
"Niklaus Mikaelson, we've been expecting you for some time now." Klaus took an involuntary step back and frowned.
"I had to take some time to compose myself before I even attempted to come here and see—" He stopped and the woman nodded understandingly.
"I assumed as much but you must understand, Hope has been very eager to meet you in your…" She trailed off, searching for the right words. "Official capacity." Klaus swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat
"I wasn't aware she even knew who I was."
"She didn't, Sister Erika filled her in when we got back here and she'd calmed down." The woman looked up with a jolt. "And I just realized, I never introduced myself. I am Sister Joanna. I run the St. Jude's Home for Children." Klaus nodded.
"Niklaus Mikaelson," He swallowed again and looked further into the house expecting Hope to be standing there, waiting as Joanna had said she was.
"She's in the green house," She didn't even invite him in, she simply stepped aside and began walking away. Klaus turned to glance at Elijah before closing the door and following Joanna through the huge house. "It's her favourite room in the house and she wanted it to be the first thing you saw when you got here."
"How exactly did she—"
"We have a very bizarre arrangement with your daughter, Niklaus." Klaus tried not to shudder at the word again. Daughter. He found his daughter again.
"Klaus please."
"Klaus." Joanna smiled. "She has an uncanny ability to tell when people are lying, so we simply don't lie to her."
"Sensible." Klaus tried not to be too sarcastic. "Might I ask how Hope came to be in your possession at this orphanage?" Something flickered in the woman's eyes but Klaus acted like he never saw it. She smiled after a short hesitation. They continued walking up a long flight of stairs.
"A young woman banged on our doors very early one morning almost six years ago, she said her name was Rebekah Lebonair and that she was in possession of a witch that needed a place to grow." Joanna's voice became solemn. "She gave us explicit instructions to keep Hope alive, safe and happy away from the French Quarter for at least five years or until she could defend herself." Klaus' eyebrows shot up. "If her little display at the Market with you, her powers are still unstable, though she is getting better." Joanna stopped before double doors that looked like they were built with the house. The nun knocked twice and opened the door, leading Klaus into a breathtakingly beautiful room. There were flowers growing all over it, in pots, in huge buckets, in crates; miniature palm trees lined a small white rug that led to the center of the room where a young woman was seated on the floor before a round coffee table wearing a worn out but still presentable white dress.
The woman stood up at Joanna's entry and smiled at Klaus politely. With quick steps she made it to them in a few seconds.
"Sister Joanna, are you sure?"
"Very, Erika." Erika still looked unsure but trusted Joanna to the fullest. She held her hand out and Klaus took it gingerly.
"I will not hurt her." He promised but the woman laughed almost mockingly. Klaus' small smile slipped and he tried to maintain an impassive facial expression.
"I'm not worried about her, Mr. Mikaelson." Erika explained. "That little show she put on at the market, that wasn't even an eighth of her full potential." Erika smiled at Joanna and whirled around. "Your highness," She called playfully. "Your tea party may need to be cut short; your faithful servant has a visitor and so do you." The little girl came running out. She was wearing a pink dress with holes at the bottom and ballet pointe shoes with no strings but she still looked stunning amidst that. Her dirty blonde hair fell in ringlets down her back and her face was flushed from whatever game they were playing. She stopped before Sister Joanna.
"How dare you interrupt the royal tea party?"
"Our sincerest apologies your majesty." Klaus cut in and he saw Hope's eyes widened when she recognized him. Joanna smiled at Erika and together, they left the room though, and Klaus noticed this with a smile, they left the door ajar.
"You again."
"Hello." The girl's eyes narrowed suspiciously. The man Sister Erika had called her father shifted uncomfortably in the doorway until she stepped aside.
"What are you doing here?" Klaus tried to ignore the fact that her eyes were the exact shade and color of his, or the shape of her lips which came from his mother, her hair was his too, but the shape of her face, the stubborn set of her chin and the grace with which she carried herself, that was all Hayley. He smiled, reminiscent as she walked to the table, her movements not at all like a child. She moved like a grown woman, her stride graceful and her steps confident and sure.
"I came to see you." He replied simply and the girl looked terribly hopeful for a moment before her face settled into an emotionless mask.
"Oh. Ok." She shrugged and sat down at the coffee table, fixing the hands of one of the stuffed animals. "Well would you like to join me for tea?" Klaus smiled and nodded.
"I'd love to." He sat down on the floor on the other end of the table. There were two chairs on either side with different toys on each. He looked at them in turn as she went around, pouring tea for each. There was a green frog on one, a Barbie doll, a ken doll and an Optimus Prime action figure. He wanted to laugh at the diverse guest list. "How much of yesterday do you remember?"
"Everything." Klaus shivered even though vampires couldn't get cold. "Those flowers burned me and I hurt you because I was in pain." Sister Erika had explained it all. "I'm sorry."
"It wasn't your fault."
"Yes it was." Klaus shivered again. The girl's raw honestly was almost terrifyingly beautiful. "Sister Erika gave me the thing to repeat and I completely forgot it yesterday." She shook her head. "It won't happen again."
"What did you have to repeat?" A small smile played on both their lips as the toddler recalled what was said to her just that morning.
"I am safe in my space." She answered. "It's supposed to be calming but it just annoys me." He laughed softly. "But I'm annoyed enough to distract me from doing magic, so it works."
"Do you know what you are?" At this, Hope nodded though she looked a little unsure. "So tell me then, Hope, what are you?"
"Sister Erika says I'm half witch half vampire." She frowned. "But she also says that I smell like something else and my heart beats, which isn't normal for a vampire."
"Sister Erika told you a lot." Hope nodded.
"She isn't allowed to lie to me." Klaus smiled. "I'm very good at telling when people are lying to me," She continued honestly. "So can I ask you a question now?"
"Of course."
"Are you really my daddy?" Hope began tentatively as she took a sip of the apple juice that was their tea substitute. "Because Sister Erika says that if you are, then I'm part werewolf too. And she's happy about that but I would just be happy to have a daddy." Klaus felt her words pierce him in his un-beating heart.
"I think I am, Hope." He felt tears pricking the backs of his eyelids as the girl's bottom lip quivered. She searched his eyes, probably for some indication that he was lying but there was none. All she could see was what he felt. Fear, Confusion, Desperation and a tinge of Intimidation. "You have my eyes," He whispered and she gasped as she noticed.
"I do!" She smiled. "And your hair too." Klaus nodded. The little girl pulled a large portion of hair to her shoulders. "Mine is longer." She made a face at him and stuck out her tongue.
"Mine used to be that long," Hope laughed a loud bubbly, infectious laugh that had Klaus grinning.
"Boys aren't supposed to have long hair!" She yelled, still laughing and Klaus felt a tear slid down his face.
Hope realized that he was crying and stood up from her plastic chair to walk over to him. She wiped the tear away with her hand and held his face. Klaus froze, waiting to see what she would do.
"You shouldn't cry." Her voice was barely audible. "We're together now and that's all that matters, isn't it?"
"Yes, that is all that matters."