Part 3:
Cami twisted the ring on her finger roughly, struggling to remove it as quickly as possible. It mocked her, practically burning her skin with its falseness. The marriage she'd mourned had been a lie. The husband…
She squeezed her eyes shut tightly as the ring slipped off her finger and tumbled to the carpet at her bare feet.
She swallowed thickly and swiped at her still running nose.
Where her mind had been racing before, struggling to adjust to the new information she'd received tonight, it now moved slowly, sluggishly…examining each piece of the puzzle determinedly.
The kids were asleep down the hall and the house was uncharacteristically silent, allowing her time to breathe and contemplate her next move. Devastated by the truth though she may be, the fact remained that Hope was Klaus and Hayley's daughter, not hers. She couldn't keep them from the child. Their supernatural strength aside, she couldn't, in good conscience, do that to any of them, including Hope. But the fact also remained that, in Hope's eyes at least, Cami was her mother, and Cami would be damned if she'd let anyone, including Niklaus Mikaelson, hurt that sweet girl.
In Cami's heart, Hope would always be her daughter…and she would never abandon her.
She would not abandon her…and she would not keep Klaus from her, which meant that at some point she would have to deal with him.
She hated him at this moment.
How could he say such a horrible thing about her son? Even if Nik wasn't his, he was an innocent child…and he was Cami's child, didn't that mean anything to him? She'd thought Klaus cared about her…at least a little. The night they'd said goodbye, it had definitely seemed like he cared a great deal. No lengthy discussions were had, no professions of love had been made, but she'd felt more loved than she ever had in her entire life in those moments with him. And now it was as if they were back to square one…he playing the role of monster, she merely the brave bartender.
I should keep Hope as far away from him as possible, she thought, spitefully, just to spare her the pain that loving him will undoubtedly cause her.
She ignored the part of her that knew instinctively he would never hurt his child, and chose instead to focus on her anger.
What about her son? Her sweet, Dominik? The more she thought about it now, outside of the heat of the moment and the shock of learning the truth, the more sure she was that he was Klaus's child. She had no idea how it was possible, and she doubted Klaus would ever believe her, but she knew there had been no one else in her life in that way. Now, with all of her memories fully intact, she could remember the details of her and Klaus's brief time together. It had been incredibly powerful, to be sure, but powerful enough to break the laws of nature? Of science? Of even magic?
She doubted that.
And yet somehow…
Glancing at the framed photo on her bedside table, she studied her son's countenance; his blonde curls and full, pouty lips, his twinkling eyes that always seemed to have an amusing secret hidden in their depths.
Did he look like Klaus…or was that just what her heart wanted her to see?
She looked away.
Her head hurt from crying.
Her heart hurt from loving someone who could easily devastate her world on a whim.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.Drip.
Cami concentrated on the sound of the water leaking from the faucet of the old claw foot tub and the way the almost too-hot water felt against her skin. She cleared her mind and let herself enjoy the way the heat permeated her tense muscles, relaxing them one by one.
Her mind drifted, replaying the day's events…Klaus's cruel words. She tried not to dwell on the memory. She knew Klaus well enough to know he lashed out when he was angry or hurt. That didn't make what he'd said okay, but it meant the psychologist in her understood his motives. Of course that was assuming that the idea of her conceiving a child with someone else was indeed upsetting to him, that she had hurt him with the news of her son. She didn't know if she had that kind of power over him, the power to inflict true emotional pain, but she had to believe that she did…because the alternative, that he had said what he did simply to be cruel—not out of hurt-fueled anger, but out of genuine disregard and hatefulness, was devastating.
And though his words would likely sting for a long time, the truth was, she had to face the fact that what he said might very well be true. Her son might not be his. The idea of it was crazy to her…that she might somehow have conceived a child with someone without knowing it, but it was really no less crazy than imagining that her time with Klaus had resulted in her pregnancy. Her time in New Orleans had taught her nothing if not that what she thought she knew of the world was but a tiny portion of reality.
She prayed.
The part of her that still believed in God after what had happened to Shawn, to Uncle Kieran, to her…that part of her prayed as hard as it could. The prayer was simple.
Please.
Please.Please.Please.
Over and over. That was all.
As angry as she was at Klaus…as hurtful as his words had been to her, she wanted nothing more than for him to be Nik's father. She knew him, had seen inside him. If she could prove to him that Nik was his, then he would be just as devoted to and as fiercely protective of her son as he was of his daughter. And what mother could want more for her child than that? Certainly Klaus came with his share of issues, but his love for his child could not be argued.
Anger and abandonment issues aside, he had a deep capacity for love. Anyone lucky enough to take up residency in his heart would be the receiver of a loyalty more fierce than any Cami had witnessed before.
Please.
She needed to find out the truth about what had happened three-and-a-half years ago.
Her thoughts shifted, drifting back to the beginning of this whole mess.
In his quest to find a remedy to the curse trapping Hayley in wolf form, Klaus had killed a warlock whose talisman he needed for the reversal spell. It turned out the warlock had a twin sister who was even more magically gifted than he had been.
Klaus had brought her wrath down on all of them.
"Way to go, Klaus…you killed the Wicked Warlock of the East," Cami teased, darkly.
"Pardon?" he asked, clearly unaware of what she was referring to.
"Didn't you ever see The Wizard of Oz?" she asked in a surprised voice.
He blinked at her.
"Dorothy drops a house on the Wicked Witch of the East and then her sister, the Wicked Witch of the West, swoops in to avenge her sister's death?"
Blink.
"Who killed my sister?" she impersonated, in a screechy voice.
Blink.Blink.
"Really?" she asked, exasperated.
Nothing.
Nevermind," she muttered, finally giving up.
In light of said witch, Thora's, campaign to kill everyone Klaus had ever crossed paths with, Cami had been invited to stay at the compound. She'd refused at first, but Klaus had convinced her to stay fairly easily by claiming that he needed her help caring for Hope in Hayley and Rebecca's absence.
She'd been skeptical, but in a surprisingly short amount of time, she and Klaus had developed a sort of domestic rhythm, where the infant was concerned, with Elijah pitching in when necessary.
Time and proximity bred a certain undercurrent which began to accompany their interactions. That same electricity had always been there between them, snapping and popping when they ventured too near, but living in the same space had heightened it to almost unbearable proportions.
Something had been bound to give at some point.
And, finally, it did.
The first time he kissed her she was standing in Hope's room deep in the middle of a warm New Orleans night. The baby had cried out in the darkness and Cami had come to soothe her, swaying back and forth and singing softly until she drifted back to sleep. She'd placed the child back in her crib and stood quietly for a few moments, toying with the necklace at her throat and staring out the open window at the foggy, moonlit night.
"What are you thinking about, Camille?" his warm breath puffed against the back of her neck, startling her from her reverie.
She turned, eyes wide, pulse beating rapidly at the base of her throat.She had no filter when it came to him, so she told him the truth.
"You," she whispered into the balmy air.
His eyes darkened in a way that felt both familiar and dangerous, and something deep inside of her clenched tightly in response.
"Me?" he confirmed, softly, reaching up to caress her hair where it moved slightly in the night breeze.
She nodded, stepping bravely into his space, her heart pounding.
He smiled.
"My brave bartender," he said, gruffly, slipping his fingers through her hair, pressing the tips into her scalp.Sending little shivers up her spine.
The moonlight hanging in the foggy air caused everything to take on an unearthly glow, and she found herself mesmerized by the way his eyes looked in the glowy half-light.His face came down toward hers and Cami pressed her toes into the soft carpet, moving herself another inch closer to him, unwilling to give him the chance to back away this time.
She watched his lashes catch the moonlight as they dipped toward his cheeks, and her eyes slipped closed just as his lips pressed against hers.They were full and soft and they held hers, expertly…cradling and rocking, massaging and pulling, coaxing…
And just like that, it had been over. Like every other time emotions between them had become heightened, he had disappeared, leaving her standing in the moonlight alone.
Suddenly, she was brought back to the present, her skin prickling with awareness.
Her eyes snapped open.
"Klaus?" she whispered into the steamy air.
"You really should lock your doors, love," came his lilting reply from directly behind her. "It simply wouldn't do to have a stranger waltz in off the street."
The water sloshed over the sides of the tub as Cami spun to face him.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded. "How did you get in my house? I didn't invite you."
"This is my house now, love. I bought it." He smiled, smugly.
"Of course you did," she breathed. "That was you, last night? In my room?" she accused, already knowing the answer to her question.
"Guilty, as charged," he confessed, unrepentantly.
She forced air through her nose, annoyed by his arrogance and unsettled by his proximity, given the nature of the memory she'd just been entertaining.
"You scared my—,"she paused, swallowing her near mistake. "You scared Hope," she finished, softly, casting her eyes downward. She realized then that she should probably be embarrassed by her nakedness, but the foamy, lightly scented bubbles coating the surface of the water shielded most of her nakedness from his eyes. Honestly, she was too emotionally exhausted to care…and he'd seen it once before, anyway.
She felt him take her hand from its perch against the cool porcelain of the tub. His thumb stroked gently across her knuckles, and she stared at their joint hands, unable to look away.
"Cami,"he said, softly, as he knelt down beside the tub, placing his other hand along her jawline and tilting her face until her eyes met his. "I'm not here to hurt Hope or you…or your son," he promised.
She could see sincerity and regret shining clearly in his eyes. He was sorry for what he'd said…she knew he was.
Klaus paused, watching a lone tear cling precariously to Cami's lower lashes.
"You once said that you trusted me not to hurt you," he nearly whispered. "Do you still?"
His eyes pleaded with her.
Forgive me, they seemed to say.
She hesitated, focusing hard on the emotions she saw swirling in the blue-green depths.
Eventually, her head nodded, just barely, and Klaus watched the lone tear as it quivered momentarily before losing its grip and slipping silently down her cheek, finally disappearing into the bathwater below.