She was four the first time Klaus saw her. She was four and she was everything that Klaus hadn't expected her to be. He hadn't meant to see her, it was purely on accident, Rebekah had never told them where she had taken Hope – he hadn't wanted to know.
He had gone to London to locate something that a witch had claimed would help cut off the witches access to his mother's ancestral magic if not all their ancestors completely. As far as Klaus was concerned if they needed to feed off of other people's magic to be a witch – they had no business being a witch at all.
Somehow it had never occurred to him that Rebekah would take her to London, he had this thought in his head that she had taken her to Mystic Falls – regardless he was glad that Rebekah hadn't taken her there because someone was always trying to kill somebody in Mystic Falls.
She was beautiful even at four years old – her dark hair was long and fell in perfect loose waves right at her elbows. She was small, smaller than he had expected, and she had this smile that made Klaus smile on command. It was lazy, and content, and effortless, and when she smiled it revealed a very familiar set of dimples.
The hint of the devil he had seen in her eyes when she was born, had turned into his eyes completely. Logically, he knew that anyway, that those were his eyes, yet they looked so different on her. They looked bright, and excited, with a hint of mischievousness in them, they looked like everything she represented – hope.
"Auntie Beks!"
Her voice was high – but not an annoying high, more like a sweet soprano, and it filled Klaus with an unfamiliar warmth. For the first time Klaus noticed what she wearing – a tiny little school girl's outfit. A white button down shirt tucked into a plaid skirt with a sweater pulled over it, with black tights, a little pair of black sneakers, and a small backpack strapped onto her shoulders. She looked adorable – which was saying something because Niklaus Mikaelson did not use words like adorable.
"Hello, sweetheart," Rebekah's familiar and not unwelcome voice echoed back as the blonde dropped to her knees so the brunette could dive into her awaiting arms, "How was your day?"
"I read a book!" Hope cried with such excitement on her face that Klaus was hooked on her every word the second she began speaking.
"Oh yeah, what book?"
Hope frowned, "I don't know. There was bear in it though!"
Rebekah laughed in turn making Hope laugh as well – an infectious sound.
"Auntie Beks, can we get ice cream?"
"What for?"
"To eat ice cream," She said in an obvious tone.
"We have some at home, sweetheart."
"But that's no fun." Hope protested.
"Alright then, do you have homework?" Rebekah asked setting her down and taking her hand as they moved down the sidewalk away from the school causing Klaus to follow them unconsciously.
It was like Hope was a magnet and he was drawn to her, wherever she went, eventually however unintentionally he would make his way to her.
"Yes, but I don't want to do it."
"Well then I don't want ice cream," Rebekah said stopping both of them in their tracks.
"Auntie Beks," Hope said seriously waving her down to her height, "Do you think Daddy would make me do homework for ice cream?"
Klaus knew he couldn't die – logically he knew that he couldn't be killed, and that his heart didn't beat because he was already dead, but in that moment he wasn't too sure. Because the second the word 'Daddy' slipped off Hope's tongue like it was nothing out of the ordinary, Klaus could have sworn his heart missed a beat, or someone had taken it and ripped it out of his chest.
"Hope, your Daddy would sit you at the table and he wouldn't let you get back up till you finished your homework, there would be no ice cream involved whatsoever, only do as you are told when you are told."
Klaus wasn't so sure about that statement, the look Hope was giving Rebekah right now was killer and Klaus wasn't sure if there was anything he wouldn't do for her if she looked at him like that – and that was including doing her homework for her.
"Well what about Mommy? Mommy would give me ice cream."
"You're right she would, after you did your homework."
"Auntie Beks," Hope sighed.
"Hope," She sighed back.
"Only if you carry me," Hope said raising up her arms.
"Alright little one," Rebekah laughed picking her up and moving back down the sidewalk, "You drive a hard bargain."
"Auntie Beks?"
"Yes, sweetheart?"
"I love you."
Klaus stopped in his tracks as Rebekah beamed and whispered the sentiment back as the pair entered the ice cream shop. For a brief moment the image was completely different and he could see a little girl – one that looked exactly like Hope – walking into an ice cream shop with a woman that wasn't Rebekah.
"Did you find it?"
"I found something," Klaus said in a controlled tone as he clutched the phone tightly before he had even realized he was calling her.
"What do you mean?"
"She's perfect, Hayley. She's perfect, and she's beautiful, if we leave her with Rebekah for too long she's going to be brat."
"Hope." She said quietly.
"I wasn't looking for her or anything but she's here in this schoolgirl's outfit, and she likes books, and ice cream – chocolate ice cream – and she asks about us, and I need you to tell me I'm at terrible person."
"Why would I do that?" She asked in that tone she used when she was really just making you feel beneath her. It was her 'I'm werewolf royalty so hear me roar' voice.
If anyone had asked Klaus five years ago, Hayley would have been nothing but a one night stand that he had sought comfort in after one too many drinks. And even now he had a hard time admitting that she was his best friend.
Klaus didn't have friends on principle, let alone one he valued above the others – yet somehow his brother's girlfriend had become his best friend – though that was justifiable as she was his baby momma first.
As both had come to terms with the idea that the baby was coming, that they were both becoming parents, they had formed a silent, unspoken agreement, no matter what their opinions of the other they had to find a way to work together. They had to be put her first.
But then they had to give Hope up, however temporarily, and they had spent countless hours in solitude with one another. They had spent weeks sitting silently in that nursery – Klaus on the floor with his back against the wall, and Hayley on the rocking chair.
And eventually, the silence had become too loud, and before he or even she had realized it they were friends, friends who had a child together, friends who woke each other up in the middle of the night because the missing presence of said child was so dominant that they couldn't sit through it alone.
They had become unlikely allies, and even unlikelier friends.
Time and tragedy had forced them together.
"Because if you don't then I don't know how I'm going to stop myself from walking in there, and picking her up, and carrying her all the way back to New Orleans."
"Does she still look like me?" Hayley asked quietly.
"She's a perfect mix."
"Do you think Rebekah knows your there?"
"If she doesn't then we shouldn't have entrusted her with her care."
As if on cue Rebekah – who had been giving her undivided attention to Hope – flicked her eyes in his general direction for a brief moment as if to answer the unasked question, yes she did know he was there, and she was going to carry on with her day till he made her mind up.
"I-does- I don't even know what to say," Hayley stumbled over her words trying to make up her mind.
"She's happy," Klaus said finally speaking the reassurance that both of them had needed for the past four years, "She's happy, little wolf."
"Then that's it then isn't it?" She asked quietly, "You wanted motivation to leave her behind, there it is. She's happy, and if you bring her back she won't be."
"She asks about us," He admitted, "Asks what we would do."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean she didn't want to do her homework, and when Rebekah told her she would only get her ice cream if she did her homework, Hope asked what Mommy and Daddy would do."
Hayley laughed though it was a sorrowful tone and then wondered aloud, "What would we do, Klaus?"
"Maybe we would've given her the ice cream," Klaus mused, "Maybe I would have forced her to do it. Maybe you would have."
"You can be bad cop," Hayley decided.
"Honestly, do you even see an end of the road? Because I don't, I don't think either of us are ever going to be bad cop."
"I think we have to believe that we will." Hayley said softly.
"Believe," He said slowly the foreign word rolling off his tongue.
"I sit at tables with you guys."
"What?" He asked confused at the sudden turn in the conversation.
"I sit at tables with you guys. When I see you and Elijah somewhere I just slide into the table with you guys like you aren't Originals. I did it when I was still a pregnant werewolf, and now I do it when I'm a childless mother hybrid. And I see the way people look at me when I do, like I'm absolutely insane, like one can't just slide into a table with the Originals, like they can't just sit down with them, unless they are one of them."
"What's your point?"
"My point is I hated you, I hated you for what you did to Tyler, I hated you for the sire bond you created with the hybrids, and then you got me pregnant, and I hated you even more. You were cruel, and manipulative, and I hated you."
"Your feelings towards me are not news, Hayley."
"I hated you, Klaus, I hated you so much that I went to Mystic Falls to ruin your life and get rid of the rest of your hybrids. And then despite how much I hated you I slept with you, and because my life is a constant cycle of a bad decision followed by an even worse outcome, I ended up pregnant."
"You still haven't gotten to the point," He said roughly.
"The point is, from the second I knew I was pregnant with your baby, Klaus, you stopped being scary to me – however subconsciously – everyone fears you – your own sister and brother fear you – but I don't. I was scared you would try and take Hope away from me, but I was never scared of you. From the second I knew I was pregnant with Hope, I stopped being scared to slide into a table you were sitting at, because the second I got pregnant, I became one of you."
"When have I told you that you weren't family throughout this entire conversation?"
"Would you just let me finish? I'm one of you, Klaus, I'm probably a couple centuries younger than you all, and I'm much more killable than you are, but I am an Original, in every sense of the word that matters. I am an Original, I am family, I am one of you, and if I can still believe in things so, so can you. That means you have to believe that she will come back to us. Because if I'm an Original and I can believe, than any of you can believe."
"She's right you know," Rebekah said quietly as Klaus hung up the phone, "We all have to believe that she is going to go home."
"Don't get me wrong little sister," Klaus said as she sat down next to him on the bench, "I knew what I was doing when I gave my daughter to you, but I don't think you should be so excited to have to give her up."
"I knew what I was doing as well when I took that child from New Orleans. I knew that she would never be mine Nik, but I also know how much she loves me, and that is enough for me that will always be enough for me. She loves you Nik, more than you know, and when you finally experience love from Hope Mikaelson you'll be able to understand what I truly can't explain, that little girl will always be more than enough, no matter how or how much she loves you."
"She's happy," He observed as he watched her laugh to herself through the window of the ice cream shop as she stole some of Rebekah's ice cream.
"Silly girl," Rebekah said fondly. "She knows I can still see and hear her."
"That's probably why she's doing it."
"Do you want to meet her?" Rebekah asked suddenly, "I understand why you can't send letters, or call, and I understand why you will never set foot in London again till all this over, but you're here now, and you've already been following us for a while. Come meet your daughter, Nik."
"I'm not sure that's a good idea," He said slowly despite the fact that he was sure how ridiculously fast his heart was beating in his chest – or maybe he was imagining it, he couldn't be sure anymore, Hope was making him feel things he hadn't felt in centuries.
"I wasn't aware that that had ever bothered you before."
"I can't be reckless with her."
"Then don't be, we'll tell her you're my friend, and you just popped by for a visit."
"She can't ever talk about me, Rebekah."
"I know that Nik," Rebekah sighed, "I'll explain it to her, I'll make something up, she can't be compelled – not that we would resort to that anyway – she will understand, so please Nik, come meet your daughter."
Klaus looked at Rebekah for a long moment, and then back at the window before he stood up and waited for her to lead the way.
Up close Hope was more than beautiful, at the tender age of four years old, Hope Mikaelson was already stunning. She had defined cheekbones like her mom – in fact Klaus had been wrong, while she was the perfect mix of the two, Hope looked exactly like Hayley only with his eyes.
While he cared for Hayley in a manner far greater than he had when all this had started, and while she had become the one person in the entire world who knew him better than Hayley, their relationship was purely platonic, Hayley was Elijah's and it was as simple as that. However, even he couldn't deny the beauty of the hybrid – he had slept with her after all – that she had passed on to their child and he was rather undecided if he was grateful for that.
"She's shy," Rebekah warned under her breath as Hope looked at him curiously from underneath her long, dark eyelashes, "Hope, darling, this is my friend Nik."
Hope stared at him for a second before turning back to her ice cream, letting her long hair fall as a wall between him and her. He felt like he should've been put off by the action, but it only seemed to make her more endearing.
"He's going to have ice cream with us." Rebekah said giving Klaus a pointed to look to get ice cream, apparently that was a requirement to be part of the table.
Despite the fact that he couldn't even remember the last time he had ice cream, and the fact that he didn't like chocolate ice cream, he bought a cup of it anyway, and slid into the seat next to Rebekah who was shooting him a 'do something' look.
He replied with a glare, this had been her bloody brilliant idea.
However, Hope solved the dilemma for the both of them as she shyly pointed at her ice cream and then his, "Same."
Klaus smiled, "It is."
Hope studied him as she absentmindedly tucked her hair behind her ear – something Klaus didn't miss – her eyes roaming his face searching for something that he wasn't quite sure if she found or not.
Then she furrowed her eyebrows, closed her eyes, touched her eyelids, and opened her eyes again. She pointed a small finger at Klaus' face with her intent most likely being his eyes though she ended up pointing more so at his nose, "Same."
Rebekah inhaled sharply, even she hadn't been expecting Hope to be so observant.
Klaus hesitated before nodding, "Yes sweetheart, same."
Hope crinkled her nose as if she was thinking of something before she nodded to herself and pushed her bowl of ice cream to Rebekah, "Switch."
"You don't even like pistachio ice cream," Rebekah protested.
"Please?"
Rebekah sighed but slid her own bowl over, "Don't say I didn't warn you darling."
Klaus watched with fascination as Hope dug a spoon into the green ice cream, and swallowed the bite, making a face the whole time. She was funny – in her own way – and he was fascinated by her, he knew if he had the chance he could spend all his time just watching her and never be bored with the activity.
"Switch."
This time she was pushing the bowl of ice cream towards him.
"What do you say?" Rebekah prompted.
"Please?" She repeated.
Klaus pushed his chocolate ice cream that he hadn't even touched across the table towards her, and took the pistachio ice cream as well, and when she looked at him expectantly, he took a bite of it. He made a face, he forgot he hadn't liked it either.
"Same," Hope said for the third time in a more excited tone, as her body language loosened.
"Yes love, same," Klaus repeated as well.
"Auntie Beks?"
"Yes darling?"
"Do I still have to do my homework if I didn't finish my ice cream?" Hope wondered.
Klaus shoved a spoonful of pistachio ice cream into his mouth to cover up his snort of laughter; she was resilient, he would give her that.
"Yes, Hope," Rebekah said in a firmer tone, "You have to do your homework."
Hope turned to him with an expectant look, "Would you make me do my homework if I didn't finish my ice cream?"
"Yes, Nik," Rebekah turned to him with a gleam in her eyes as his daughter inadvertently put him on the spot, "Would you make Hope here do her homework if she doesn't finish her ice cream?"
"Well," Klaus considered the question as he looked between his little sister and his daughter – two girls who had the unfortunate means to reduce him into bending to their will, "I suppose I don't really see how the two correlate."
"What?"
"I don't really see what one has to do with the other," Klaus amended at his four year olds confusion.
"Everything," Hope said seriously.
"Everything reverts backs to ice cream," Rebekah confirmed, "Absolutely everything, and the little monster doesn't even like ice cream."
"Yes, huh, I do," Hope insisted.
"Hope, you've literally taken two bites out of this, you don't like ice cream."
"Well that's cause it's cold."
"So then why do you insist on eating ice cream on all the time?" Klaus wondered aloud.
"My Auntie Beks says my mommy loves chocolate ice cream," Hope declared proudly, "And I'm going to be just like my mommy someday."
Klaus stared at her for a long moment, before settling on not saying anything to her at all. How did he reply to that? There was nothing he wanted more for his daughter than to grow up into the kind of woman that Hayley was – perhaps with a little bit more innocence – but there weren't words for how deep of a chord her words had struck.
"Auntie Beks," Hope yawned, "I'm sleepy."
"Well maybe if you hadn't stayed up so late last night, you wouldn't be so sleepy," Rebekah scolded half-heartedly as they all stood up, Hope reaching her arms up for Rebekah the second she did so.
Rebekah obliged easily as they made their way out of the ice cream shop and then raised her eyebrows at him when he hesitated, "Come on, Nik, she doesn't bite. Neither does the house."
"I'm not sure that's a good idea."
"Why not?" Hope asked sleepily as she placed her head on Rebekah's shoulder.
When Klaus realized he didn't have an answer that he could give her, he nodded and began following along. He – along with everyone else – had this idea that he would be a strict father, but he didn't feel like one, in fact he felt like a dog on a leash, wherever she pulled, he followed.
It was easy to pinpoint the exact moment when she fell asleep, her breathing slowed down slightly, a peaceful look crossed over her already serene features, and her entire body relaxed.
"We don't live far from the school," Rebekah said quietly as they turned a corner, "She's still in primary school, and she hates everything about it besides the reading. She loves books, it's her art – which she is absolute rubbish at."
Klaus smiled – the fact was amusing to him, "I should go."
"Tuck her in, Nik," Rebekah said quietly as she pushed open the white fence that she had managed to obtain, "If you don't owe her that much, you owe it to yourself, she may not remember today when she gets older, but you will. You're going to have to live the rest of god knows how long in this moment, give yourself this moment."
Klaus took her from Rebekah gently, carefully, and hesitantly. He hadn't held a child since the last time he had held Hope – and even she was a baby at the time – but just like the first time, she fit perfectly into his side, her head in the crook of his neck, her hands resting gentle on his shoulders.
She wasn't heavy by any means – not that anything was heavy to him, but it was an unfamiliar feeling, if not a welcome one. He made his way carefully up the stairs, he knew that he would drop her – vampires didn't drop anything – but the irrational fear was still there.
He pushed open the door to the room that was the strongest with her scent, and entered. It was a simple room despite the elegancy of it – it didn't look like a child's room by any means, though Klaus never could have pictured his daughter sleeping in a princess carriage bed.
The furniture was a cream color, with a chandelier hanging from the ceiling, as well as twinkling fairy lights wrapped around furniture, and lined up on the walls, while the room itself was painted a light pink – almost peach color.
He pushed back the covers that seemed to melt against his hand, and with one hand behind her head, the other on her back, he placed her gently on the bed. With hesitant hands he tucked the dark hair that had fallen across her face, behind her ear, and smiled to himself as her nose that had been scrunched up, relaxed.
"Sleep well my littlest wolf," Klaus said quietly as he tucked the covers underneath her chin, and bent down next to the bed, running his fingers lightly through her hair, "One day you'll wake and I'll still be here, but for now this is how it has to be. If any other man runs out on you in the middle of the night, you snap his neck, unless I get to him first, in which case I'll snap his neck. Be safe, Hope. Be strong, Hope. And sweetheart, you really should do your homework."
And then with one kiss to her forehead, and a last look, Klaus was gone, leaving Hope with a small, lazy, content, and unconscious smile playing at the corner of her lips.