So a bit longer chapter which is basically a rewrite of the 20th episode A Closer Walk With Thee.
As the season is fast coming to an end with this episode I'm starting to stick more to what actually happened on the series while putting my spin on things. I tried to entwine Caroline into the plot more and there is pretty heavy female friendship/bonding going on. So beware of that too.
It was Father Kieran's Irish-style Wake that everyone attended. Cami became overwhelmed by the atmosphere and rushed into the back room to cry and be alone, only to find Francesca Correa there as well.
"Looks like we had the same idea. It's Cami, right? I've been informed that Kieran's necklace is missing. The key that he always wore? I assume he left it for me."
"Excuse me?"
"How rude of me. I'm Francesca Correa, I took over your uncle's position of Faction representative when his...mental faculties were compromised."
At the same time Caroline and Hayley arrived together as they had grown rather close to one another. As they came in, they took in the sight of Francesca and Camille arguing in the back.
"Oh, this is not good. Should we do something?" Caroline asked Hayley.
"Like what? Tell Klaus to banish the Wicked Witch."
"You know who she is?"
"Yeah, Elijah told me about her. She is the leader of the human faction since Kieran's hex started to affect his mental health. And she's like the biggest mafia boss in New Orleans."
Just then Camille rushed past them and sat opposite Klaus who was drinking alone at a table.
"Hey! Earth to you!"
Klaus held up his glass, "Unless you've come equipped with the means to fill this, no additional platitudes are necessary."
"Oh, stop with the sulking. You are Father to Be, don't you have anything better to do then to drink your day away alone."
"We're honoring Kieran. Even us bad guys can take the day off."
"Maybe you can. Not all the humans are on their best behavior. This Francesca person cornered me just now, asking for some key. "
That got Klaus a little bit more interested in that particular conversation. "What did you tell her?"
"Doesn't matter, I don't have it." But then she realised that Klaus knew more than he was letting on. "Which you know! Or you would have asked 'what' key."
Klaus sighed and reached under his shirt where he was wearing the key around his neck.
"Had someone lift it for me."
"Off my uncle's sick and dying body?"
"I'm trying to do you a favor. Trust me, you don't want to be part of any of this. This is bigger than you."
"Don't patronise me, Klaus."
"Okay, I'll tell you as much as I know about it-"
"I don't want to know. I don't want to know any of it." And Camille just stormed off.
Caroline and Hayley wanted to greet and tell her how sorry they were about her uncle. But she walked past them and didn't even look their way.
"What do think that was all about?" Hayley asked Caroline.
"Something about that key around Klaus' neck."
"And you don't anything about it?" Hayley asked surprise evident in her voice.
"No." Caroline glanced at Hayley and rolled her eyes, "Just because I'm sleeping with the devil, doesn't mean I know how he runs his Hell."
Hayley and Caroline both laughed at that as they went to the counter to get something to drink. Caroline wanted a real drink while Hayley had to settle for soda.
After Cami had left his table, Elijah joined Klaus.
"Wow, I'm just Mister Popular today."
After a little pause, "Seems rather uncivilized to laugh and dance around the body of a loved one."
"Yes, far better to practice your process of grief, Niklaus- denial, rage, and hoarding coffins in basements."
Just then Caroline and Hayley joined Klaus and Elijah with their drinks.
"I will warn you, ladies, Niklaus is in a 'spectacularly' foul mood today."
"Sod off." Klaus said to Elijah.
"Klaus, what is that key around your neck and why was Camille so upset with you and that woman, Francesca." Caroline asked after she had made herself comfortable at the table.
"You don't beat around the bush, do you, love?"
"Um no, so what's with the key, Klaus?"
"Nothing, it's just a family heirloom."
"And I'm guessing it's Cami's family heirloom?" Hayley asked.
Klaus sighed in frustration. "Ladies, ladies, you'll find out about the key soon enough. But can you please let me be right now."
"What got you into that mood, today?" Caroline asked a little offended.
Klaus was just about to say something to Caroline when Hayley changed the subject. "What's the deal with these moonlight rings? People are scared and angry after some guy came to the bayou and set off and explosion, and frankly, I'm tired of stalling."
"Yes, yes, Hayley, I got all the details already. But it's a day of peace, Hayley. Try and enjoy it. In the meantime, I'm forbidding you going to the Bayou when there are explosions happening."
"Awesome! Then, we can do that thing where you lock me in the tower, I escape, there's drama, and then you realize I'm very capable of looking after myself."
Klaus, being even more frustrated, said the following to Hayley. "The rings are in progress. I will live up to my word. We will find and punish whoever launched the attack on the Bayou yesterday, and you will stay put for your own safety. But-"
"Maybe Klaus is right, Hayley," Caroline chimed in.
Hayley sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Thank you, love. BUT, right now I'm gonna finish this bottle and the next in the hopes of drowning the demon who has chosen today to haunt me." He looked up at the ceiling before chugging right from the bottle. "Cheers, Mikael. Impeccable, Freudian timing."
"Elaborate. Have you dreamt of our father?"
"Go ahead, have a good laugh."
"I can assure you there is no piece of this that I find even remotely amusing, Niklaus. Especially considering I've been dreaming of him, too."
"What?" Klaus asked surprised.
"If you are also seeing him…Perhaps our elusive, unknown enemy is orchestrating a further attack?"
"Well, then. What better way to punctuate a day of peace than by killing someone?"
"And how do you know which of your many enemies is behind this attack or whatever it is?" Caroline asked him.
"By going through them one by one, starting with the witches." He smiled at Caroline. "Elijah care to join me to talk to the leader of them, Genevieve?"
"When Klaus got back to the compound later that night, he went to look for Caroline who he found in the kitchen, in the middle of draining a blood bag."
First he watch her as she didn't notice him, taking in the sight of her, the woman who had been sharing his bed for the last 3 months and who he was very much in love with although he hadn't said the words to her. He thought about it, maybe it was the time that he did, maybe then she would abandon her ridiculous plan to go back to Mystic Falls.
"Feeling a little peckish, love?"
Caroline jumped a little, as she was startled by his presence.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Klaus told Caroline as he stepped closer to her, like a tigger circling around his prey.
Caroline laughed a little and smiled at him, "We both know that's exactly what you hoped to achieve."
By then he was close enough to touch her and he did, he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close while he said, "Oh, maybe." Klaus openly checked her out as she wasn't wearing anything but her short PJs when he continued "Or maybe I just wanted to watch you being you, acting naturally, not hiding and acting like a human being."
"What the hell has gotten into you? Are you drunk?" Caroline asked.
"Yes, both from whiskey and my love for you." Klaus said, looking her straight in the eye.
"L-love, since..what are you even talking about?" Caroline asked confused and scared of what he was saying.
Klaus sighed as saying it out loud was tough for him but he needed to say it, "I love you, Caroline, I do, I always have."
"Are you out of your freaking mind?" Caroline said and stormed off.
Klaus wasn't going to let it go, so he followed her to her bedroom.
He found her pacing from one side to another.
"You can't say these things, Klaus, when we have agreed to keep it casual."
"It's how I feel, Caroline." Klaus tried to step closer to her.
"Don't. Don't come any closer."
"Why not?" Klaus asked, still inching closer to her.
"Because I can't do this right now, so much is going on and you pull this?"
"I'm not pulling anything. I'm telling you how I feel. Please don't act like it doesn't matter to you."
"Of course, it matters, it changes everything. Knowing your feelings are that deep, I can't keep sleeping with you."
"What?"
"Klaus, we AGREED to keep it casual. No declarations of love and all that crap. You agreed."
"Now, I'm disagreeing. I want to have all of you, not just your body."
"Yes, I am starting to get that. This was never about just getting me in your bed, was it?"
"No," he said as he looked her straight in the eye.
"Klaus, please go or I'm going to sleep in one of the guest rooms."
Klaus was so hurt that his declaration had the opposite effect on her so he didn't say anything and did as he was told.
The next day they both decided to act as nothing happened and just avoid each other as much as possible. Caroline had told Elijah that she was going to stay in town until Hayley has given birth to support her and then she planned to go back to Mystic Falls.
"Good job, brother, as always," Elijah said to Klaus, ending their conversation in Klaus' office, leaving Klaus to ponder where it all went wrong.
Hundreds of community members gathered in the streets of the French Quarter after the funeral, as Father Kieran's casket was placed in a horse carriage to begin the parade in his honor. Inside St. Anne's Church, Cami was lighting a candle for her uncle at the sacristy when Klaus approached her.
"Your reading was beautiful."
"Sneak attack? Not fair. I'm still pissed."
After a pause she told him, " Tell me about the key."
"I thought you didn't want to know."
"I'd like to say I slept on it, but I didn't sleep. I stayed awake all night next to the body of a hexed priest, only to attend a funeral filled with vampires. So, I'm thinking...you should tell me about the key."
"Kieran told Marcel that the key leads to something that can be used against the supernaturals if we get...too far out of line. So, I let it be, because I knew if he had to use whatever Pandora's box that key opens, it'd be because he didn't have a choice."
"You could have just asked me for it."
"Would you have just handed it over?"
"So, what does it open?" Camille asked Klaus angrily.
"I don't know! I have turned this city upside-down, trying to find it. The church, the rectory, I even searched your family's tomb! It's hard to find a needle in a haystack when you don't even know what the needle looks like."
"Oh, so that's why you are here…"
"I'm here because my friend is grieving. I'm here for you, if you need anything."
A bit later.
Outside, near the end of the parade Klaus was walking with Hayley and Elijah with Caroline next to each other.
"You alright? You look…" Elijah asked Caroline.
"..like I haven't slept a whole night while being pissed off at the world?"
"I was going to say that you look lovely." They share a smile which doesn't go unnoticed by Klaus who was slowly gaining up on them with Hayley.
"And I suspect you are not so mad at the world but more at my dear brother?" Elijah asked Caroline.
"Yeah, but I don't want to talk about it."
Now Klaus and Hayley walked side by side with Caroline and Elijah.
"Elijah, do you think I was the target of that bombing in the Bayou the other day?" Hayley asked.
"Of course you were the target, love. Were I to wage a war on the wolves, you'd be my first kill!" Hayley glared at Klaus who continued to say, "I would string you up, for all your worshipers to see."
"I believe that was my brother's way of telling you he'd like you to not return to the Bayou for the time being."
Elijah turned to Klaus, "Perhaps try a different approach, Niklaus, with fewer references to murder?"
"Okay, Hayley, look at it that way, if I find out you have gone there again, I'm gonna drag you back home kicking and screaming if I have to…for the sake of my child."
Caroline and Hayley both rolled their eyes and Hayley muttered to Caroline, "One bad dream and suddenly, he wants to be a responsible daddy."
Caroline laughed a little while Klaus wrapped his arm around Hayley and pulled her close, leaving Elijah and Caroline to stand awkwardly next to them.
"Let me put this into perspective: my father lived to torment me. It is not my intention to become him. This cycle of misery ends with my child."
Hayley yanked his arm away from her with a fake smile "You forgot one thing in your little attempt to plead your case- she is not your child. She's our child."
Hayley took Caroline's hand and pulled Caroline with her to walk at the front where she noticed Camille.
"Cami!"
"Hayley, Caroline, hi."
"Hi, I know you don't know me, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about your uncle. I didn't know him personally but Elijah and Klaus said that he was a really good person."
"Thank you. You want something, don't you?"
Hayley smiled awkwardly and Caroline supported her with a smile too. "I'm sorry about the timing... I was just wondering, if before he died, did he say anything weird about Francesca Correa? I think that she may have been involved in an attack in the Bayou. If you hear anything…"
"Look, Hayley? I'm trying- mostly failing- to stay out of all this stuff, but... she's a real bitch. So, yeah, if I hear anything, I'll let you know."
"Thanks. And again, sorry about your uncle." Hayley said as she slowed down.
"I'm also so sorry about your uncle, Cami," Caroline offered her own condolences to Cami.
"Thank you, both of you."
As Hayley walked away with Caroline, she started to cough and looked woozy.
"Hayley?" Caroline started to worry about her.
Hayley leaned against a lightpost as she began to cough up blood.
Horrified at the sight before her, Caroline yelled for Klaus to come help her. As Klaus and Elijah rushed there, Hayley collapsed in her arms.
When Klaus got there, as he was the fastest, he took Hayley in his arms and they all rushed to the compound.
At the compound they layed her on the table and Genevieve who also witnessed Hayley's collapse, joined them in the compound.
"She's not breathing, I can hear the baby's heartbeat, but not hers." Elijah told them as Genevieve told them that there's a spell she can do.
While Genevieve did her spell, Klaus grew more frustrated by the second, bit into his wrist and dribbled it to Hayley's mouth in hopes that it would heal her.
"She's still not breathing. It's not working," Caroline said while panicking.
"Will the baby survive if delivered now?" He lunged at her body, "I'll rip it out of her myself!"
Elijah and Caroline simultaneously blocked Klaus from touching her.
"Are you insane, Klaus?" Caroline asked incredulous at how he could even suggest something like that.
"Hayley will bleed to death!" Elijah told Klaus.
"I won't lose that baby." Klaus told them.
"We won't lose either of them," Caroline told him. "Let her do her job, Klaus."
Suddenly, Genevieve got a vision of Monique using a poppet to cast the spell on Hayley, and was stunned.
But she didn't say anything to them as she now knew what to do and changed the spell she was using without anyone noticing.
Hayley woke with a loud gasp on the table, blood still covering her mouth and neck. Caroline helped her sit up and Klaus rubbed her shoulder affectionately.
"You're alright, love. You're alright."
"I saw him. He tried to kill me. I saw Mikael." Hayley told them.
Hayley was sitting on her bed, thinking, when Klaus approached her room. She noticed him, but he still stopped and knocked before fully entering.
"You've proved quite resilient, little wolf. Fighters, both of you." Klaus told Hayley, praising her for her efforts when confronting and fighting Mikael.
"I guess we've had to be. Especially lately."
Hayley, after a pause, "I've decided to stay in the compound until I give birth."
"I'm relieved to hear it. All I ask is that the child is kept safe."
"And what about me? What happens after she's born? If you try to take her away from me, I—
"Come with me, hmm? Please. I want to show you something."
Hayley reluctantly got up and followed Klaus out the door. He took her to another room in the compound, which he had already set up to be a nursery, complete with a crib, a bassinet, and a gorgeous mobile hanging from the ceiling, among other things. Hayley stared in surprise as she took everything in.
"Believe it or not, Hayley, I would actually like you to be here. Our daughter should be raised by her parents, in her family home."
Hayley looked around the room and smiled at him "You, me, Elijah, Caroline and the miracle-baby, all under one roof? Sounds like a bad reality show.".
Klaus chuckled nervously "Uh, you said you saw my father?"
"Why do you call him that? He's not your real dad."
"He's done damage only a father could do. What did he say to you?"
Hayley smiled warmly as she said, "Nothing true."
They were having a lovely moment that was witnessed by Caroline who also came to check up on Hayley. Hearing that exchange between the parents-to-be brought a smile to her face, thinking how when she first came to New Orleans the two of them couldn't stand each other and she wanted to change that and now it had changed without her interference. It was a bittersweet moment for her as she knew that after she had gone back to Mystic Falls she would miss Klaus and Hayley but with the way things were, she knew that they would get along after the baby was born and there was nothing else she had to do. So she closed the door and left them to talk amongst themselves.
The next morning Klaus found Cami in the Cemetery, at his twin brother Sean's grave.
"Cami!"
"You said you checked my family's tomb, but I've been thinking- all this time, I've wondered why Kieran didn't have Sean interred where he belonged, with the family. But then, I realized... what if he saw an opportunity to hide something he didn't want anyone else to find? "
"What are you saying?"
"I'm going to need a sledgehammer."
Later that day.
Klaus and Cami were breaking into Sean's grave in order to look for the object with the lock that is unlocked by Kieran's key. Once inside, they find a box, and pull it out. Klaus used the key to unlock it, but the box was empty.
"Someone must have gotten to it."
Cami grabbed it to examine it more closely.
"I don't think so." She brushed the dust off the inside of the lid, revealing a carving in the code Cami used to help get around Klaus' compulsion. "My brother taught me this code fifteen years ago. I never knew how he learned it."
Klaus asked her, "You can tell me what that says?"
"I can... but I won't. I'm sorry, Klaus."
"Cami, this is too—"
"Dangerous? Yeah, I got it. But, if Kieran taught Sean this, my brother was meant to be brought into it all along. That makes it my responsibility now, whether I like it or not."
So, Klaus really had a lot to do in this chapter.:) That's why my secret working title for this is "Klaus and his three women". :) Really sorry for everyone who doesn't enjoy other ships with Klaus and Caroline as much as I do. But I loved writing this chapter and i really feel now that this story is something I would like to read myself.
Commenting some of the things.
No, Caroline isn't jealous of Cami and Hayley, not yet anyway.
And that particular heartbreaking scene between Klaus and Caroline. I really tried to stay true to Caroline's character. She's a teenager, doesn't know herself and doesn't want to admit her feelings for Klaus, not in its entirety. So having Klaus say that makes her very nervous and uncertain.
Cami and Klaus ARE JUST friends right now.
Hayley and Klaus are becoming friends. It may seem unnecessary right now, but it has a larger meaning later.