XIX
Shirley glance at her once more, as if not really believing her. The way that she was looking at her was making her nervous. "You look older," she commented.
"I know," she said. "We haven't seen each other since I was twenty I think."
Shirley quickly lost interest, she rolled back to her back and gave a long suffering sigh. "Now what do you want? I hardly think is to visit your dear old, mom."
Katherine gulped, mentally cursing Elijah and herself for being so stupid as to think that Shirley would change, didn't they know by now that Shirley wouldn't change? "I'm pregnant." She said. "I just thought that you would want to know."
"Why is not my child," Shirley said sarcastically looking at Katherine for the first time, her eyes traveled towards her pregnant belly. "And weren't you going to be a nurse or a banker or something?"
"A doctor," she said icily. "But I've postponed my studies until the twins comes."
Shirley let out a small laugh. "Twins! Oh, darling the worse mistake you could have done is getting yourself pregnant, believe me children are a pain."
Katherine's voice broke as she forced herself not to cry. "Well, then I just thought that I should let you know, I thought you would be interested, guess I was mistaken. Well, I won't bother you any longer."
Shirley nodded. "Are you married at least?"
"No," Katherine said sharply. "But I have a wonderful man on my side and with his help I think I'm going to do just fine. Goodbye, mother."
"Katherine . . . Katherine, earth to Katherine!" Caroline practically shouted and Katherine gave a small jump in surprise, she had been lost in her own thoughts. Currently, she was helping Caroline packed up all the broken/useless stuff in boxes.
Caroline herself looked distracted, but Caroline being Caroline always put aside her feelings and concentrated on her work.
"Sorry," she said as she closed down a cardboard box. "I just have a lot on my mind."
Caroline frowned. "About your mom?"
She nodded. "Among other things, I just thought that people could change, I guess I was wrong. I was stupid getting my hopes up."
"Don't say that, Kat," Caroline said gently. "She's your mom, you have every right to have hope, but you're right some people aren't capable of change."
Katherine frowned. "I'm guessing we're talking about Klaus now. Did he return home last night? Has he tried to call you?"
Caroline shook her head. "Nothing, I never really pegged him for a coward," she grabbed the box. "Oh, well no use crying about it, it's back to handling things by myself like I always have."
There was the sound of a small bell when the door swung open. "Sorry, it's close-"
She trailed off when she saw that it was Klaus. "You're not supposed to be carrying heavy stuff!" he scolded as he took the box from her. There was an awkward silence.
Katherine cleared her throat. "Well, I'm going to shopping with Bonnie, I haven't seen her in a while . . . um see you later."
"Later," Caroline whispered as she crossed her arms over her chest. "What are you doing here, Klaus are you finally ready to talk to me?"
He nodded. "I wanted to apologize for what I did last night, you have every right to invite your friends since we're not dating or married-"
"Klaus, I'm not mad about the kiss," she interrupted. "What are you trying to say?"
"I'm saying that perhaps it's better if I move out," Klaus said. "Give you some space, this was never going to work out anyway."
"What wasn't going to work out?" Caroline said angrily. "Because we've only been living together for a few weeks and look I know both of us aren't the easiest people to get along with, but I thought the whole point of all of this is to be able to learn how to work together and raise our child, and now you're running away?"
"I'm not running away!" he snapped furiously. "I'm still going to help you financially-"
"Will, you listen to yourself I don't care about the money, all I want is for my son to have a father figure, no matter how dysfunctional he may be-" she stopped short when she felt a sharp kick in her stomach.
Klaus looked at her. "What's wrong?"
A smile spread across Caroline's face. "I think the baby just kicked, look," she placed Klaus' hand on her belly and the baby kicked again. "See?"
"He's a strong kicker." He commented as he pulled away his hand quickly, looking almost afraid.
"I'm not mad about the kiss," she said again. "It was just a one-time thing, we were just caught up in the moment. Agree?"
"Agree." Klaus said a little too quickly. He looked at her in amusement. "Are you saying that you want me to move back in?"
Caroline shrugged. "We lasted this long, we can survive a few more weeks."
Caroline hurried to answer the door the following afternoon when whoever was on the other side, didn't stop knocking. "I'm coming!" she said as she tried to rearrange her hair, so that it didn't look that messy.
When she answered the door she was surprise when she saw Esther and Rebekah standing there. Rebekah gave her a small smile, Esther didn't even blink. "Hi, Caroline," Rebekah said. "Sorry to bother you-"
"May we come in," Esther interrupted curtly.
"Oh, sure," she said as she opened the door wider and tried to hide her nervousness. What the hell was Esther doing here? The last time she had seen her had not been pleasant. "Would you like something to drink?"
"No, we won't stay long," Esther sat on the couch and faced Rebekah. "Rebekah?"
Rebekah opened her bag and pulled out a small, antique music box. Esther got it from her and simply said. "It was my mother's."
"It's beautiful." Caroline didn't know what to say. How was this relevant to her?
"Klaus was always my mother's favorite grandchild," she said. "And on her deathbed she made me promise that I will give this to Klaus' wife."
"Oh, but I'm not-"
Rebekah gave her a look that said shut up.
"You're close enough, and is also a token of apology," she said as she placed that box in Caroline's lap. "And my way of saying welcome to the family."
Elijah was just entering his apartment when he heard Katherine's voice and another woman that she didn't recognize.
". . . Yes, plenty of space. . ."
"We could move this . . . breather exercises."
He paused, Katherine was standing next to a strange woman with long, white hair, and Katherine's hand was on her seventh month pregnant belly.
"Welcome," the woman said when she noticed Elijah. "I am Eve."
"Hello," Elijah said awkwardly.
"Elijah, Eve, Eve, Elijah," Katherine said smiling. "She's a friend of Bonnie, she recommended me to her."
"For what?"
"For assisting your wife in her home birth," Eve said peacefully. "Here she will be surrounded in a safe environment as she gives birth to her twins."
Elijah narrowed his eyes. It was official, Katherine had lost her mind. "Excuse me, may is talk to my wife?" he said tightly.
She nodded as Elijah pulled Katherine towards their bedroom, "Katherine, you are not going to have our babies in the living room!"
"What's the big deal?" she frowned. "Lots of women have home births."
"Yes, in the middle ages," Elijah snapped. "You need a hospital, with nurses and doctors and drugs-"
"No, I want to have a home birth," Katherine said. "I've been doing some research and some women have found home births peaceful and private."
Elijah opened his mouth to argue, but Katherine shut him up with a kiss. "I need to go back to Eve, sweetheart."
Katherine was tossing and turning in her sleep and it didn't help that she knew that Elijah was as awake as an owl next to her. "What's wrong?" he finally whispered.
"Your babies won't stop kicking me," she sighed. "They are fully awake at night and won't let me sleep."
Elijah smiled a bit as he placed his hand on her belly. "Girls, let your mother sleep."
They stopped kicking and Katherine relaxed. "I think they like it when you place your hand on my belly, at least they quieted down."
"I don't mind having my hand on your belly all night if it helps you sleep," Elijah said. "Look, Katherine I've been doing some research and many doctors have advise against homebirth, 6 out of 10 women-"
"Elijah," she interrupted as she gave him a kiss. "It's going to be fine, it's my choice."
-End of Chapter Nineteen-
Any baby names?