Chapter 2! I got a review, somebody added it to their Faves, and somebody put it on their story alerts. *Wild clapping and spinning* Woot! And now we have chapter 2. This is now not a one chapter story, folks! Stuff is now goin' down! Getting serious up in here. Remember, I don't own anything TVD. If I did, Elijah would have never died, they would have stopped trying to kill Klaus like 14 episodes ago, and Kol would still be here. And Rebekah might be a mermaid, but that's just my childhood talking. Here we go!

Friends are born,

Not made.

- Henry B. Adams

If you've ever lost somebody dear to you, you know what this family was going through. If you've never experienced it, then you cannot possibly imagine it. It's as if there is a huge, gaping hole in the world. For a minute, you can't breathe, think, blink. Everything that once came natural to you, you have to think about. You have to force yourself. Nothing is normal or natural.

Em is dead, he had said. A simple sentence. One that had taken the breath away from everyone in that room. A sentence that had said so much, with so little. A nightmare.

Rebekah tried to stay still. In fact she had every intention to. But her knees gave out from under her. Kol remained upright, frozen.

"I, I don't know what happened," Klaus began. "I'm so sorry." He whispered an apology so unneeded. What was he apologizing for? Rebekah could not rework the words into anything but what they signified. She crumpled further, her body folding into itself, until her head was so deeply buried beneath her shaking arms that she could no longer hear what anyone was saying.

Klaus went on, himself shaking too. "It happened on the hill. I couldn't just leave her there. God, I just couldn't." He was shaking and crying so profusely that it was a wonder they could understand him at all.

'I don't understand," Rebekah said, finally lifting her head up. "How can, h-, how can this happen?" she sobbed.

'Who did it?" Kol forced out, between clenched teeth. "Who killed her?"

Klaus bent down. "I don't know." He looked at Elijah, his eyes boring into him. 'Do you want to see her?'

This question took a moment for Elijah to comprehend. She's dead. Why would he want to see her? Is his brother really that crazy? Or is he just imagining this entire thing. Elijah liked to think it was a little of both. He hesitated. "Yes," he whispered.

Leaving their brother and sister behind, Klaus rose from the couch and led Elijah upstairs. They passed pictures of Emily stretching over the last century or so. Her paintings, a legacy to this family anyway, were hanging up along the walls. They were so lively, perfect. Until finally, they stopped at a door with no noise, or bustle, or life behind it. Klaus waited until Elijah inclined his head, then turned that knob and stepped through the threshold.

Emily was lying on her back on the bed. The stake was no longer on her heart; Klaus must have removed it. Elijah stepped closer, resting his hand on her hair. Her forehead was smooth, still warm. Klaus was wrong; that was all. She was not dead, she could not be dead, she….He lifted his hand, and her head lolled toward him, her face gray and touched by veins that protruded when a vampire dies. Her chest and shirt were matted with dry blood. But no new blood was circulating.

Suddenly, there was movement behind Elijah.

"Klaus? He said.

Klaus nodded and ran out of the room. He ran down the stairs and past his siblings still in the living room. He ran past his mother and Finn, coming back from wherever they ventured off to tonight. They still didn't know. Esther now looked breathless, reaching out to him. He picked up speed. Then he turned the corner, outside the front door, sank to his knees, and retched.

Elijah came back down the steps. His expression was unreadable.

"What do you think happened?" Kol asked. "Klaus just ran out all of a sudden. What do you think happened." Elijah looked to his brother.

Rebekah interrupted whatever he was about to say. "My God. He's probably this absolute wreck right now. I just can't even imagine. He loved her so much…" She trailed off.

Now, Elijah spoke. "Maybe," he said. "But he also may have killed her."

Then

Fall 1052 A.D

If you were to look at Alexandra Harte at this very moment, you wouldn't be able to tell that she was eight months pregnant with her second child. She was entirely skinny, had been her whole life. She never got even a little chubby. To her, it was a blessing. To others, it was a mystery. Everyone was jealous.

Alex, as most people called her, was extremely beautiful. Her golden hair spilled to her waist in slight waves. Her dark blue eyes shined brighter than any star in the sky. Her slightly tan skin always made her look like the inside of her home must be summer. But it wasn't just her appearance that was unfair.

James Harte was a chiseled farmer with dark hair and even darker eyes. He had Alex's tan and, where Alex was skinny and slender, James was tall and muscled. Their son, Jasper, had his mothers' face and his father's build. Or at least he would when he was older. Jasper was six.

And right now he was napping. Alex and James were talking as quietly as humanly possible. Jasper was impossible to get back to sleep once awoken.

"I just want a girl," Alex hoped. "There are already too many damn boys in this house, anyway," she joked.

"Yeah. And possibly one that resembles me," James laughed.

A knock on the door startled them both and Alex bustled over to answer it. She was greeted with a tall, blonde woman. She exuberated a wildness about her, a power. Alex was instantly drawn in.

"Hello. My name is Esther and I heard that you and your family just moved in next to us. I just wanted to welcome you." Esther smiled.

Alex fumbled. "Oh, um, well, thank you. It's nice to see at least one person might like us here."

Esther laughed. Suddenly, Alex realized that Esther's stomach was bulging. And Esther realized that Alex was staring.

"Nine months,' she said, not at all offended. "This is my fifth." Alex's eyes widened.

"My God. I only have one and I'm already wandering when he's gonna move out," she muttered, joking.

Esther took the joke in stride and laughed. "How far along are you?" she asked.

Alex froze. Nobody could really tell she was pregnant. She was actually trying to keep it a secret until the baby was actually born. Good luck, she had once heard.

"Eight and a half months," she whispered. Esther tilted her head toward Alex and lifted one fine eyebrow up.

"Well, then," Esther declared. "Looks like we're on the same boat."

Over the next few days, Alex and Esther spent every waking moment together. Esther would come over in the mornings just to talk. They would exchange stories about their husbands to each other which would leave both of them almost on the floor, laughing hysterically. Alex would argue with James and go and get Esther, just to be told unequivocally that she was right.

They each grew comfortable walking into each other's houses without knocking. Alex would start to wear Esther's maternity clothes. They would exchange baby names with each other. They grew able to finish each other's sentences.

Their husbands also grew close. Mikael, Esther's partner, would go hunting with James in the mornings while the girls gossiped. They would drink together. Soon, they all became inseparable.

Mikael didn't approve of them walking in the woods though.

"You're going to end up giving birth to that child under a willow alone," he had once predicted.

Alex could see things in Mikael that she could see in James, but with a positive twist. James was reserved, Mikael was level- headed; James was shy, he was introspective; he was obsessing, Mikael was exacting.

He was also right. Esther's water broke three days later, while she was walking alone in the woods without Alex. If a few early hunters and been a few minutes later and not have helped her, she might very well have given birth to Rebekah Mikaelson on a bed of twigs.

Finn, Elijah, Niklaus, and Kol were all excited to have a little sister. Especially four year old Klaus. He would always go up to Rebekah and talk to her and pat her head. He didn't seem to understand that she had no idea what was happening.

Alex would visit the baby girl every day. She hoped her baby would be as beautiful as her. She hoped Jasper would love his sibling just as much as little Niklaus loves his baby sister. Three nights later, Alex dreamed about her baby. It was beautiful. She woke up in the middle of the night, with the mattress soaking wet.

Pain made her double over. James panicked. He sent his son over next door, to go and get Esther. With her entire family with her, for some unknown reason to them all, Esther helped Alex give birth to a magnificent baby girl.

"Oh, my," she said, her eyes wet. "Look at that."

"I know," Esther said, her throat tight. "I see."

James touched his daughter's perfectly fine brown eyebrows. Her fingernail was longer than her nose. "She's perfect. She's…" He shook his head. "I don't know what to say."

Mikael laughed. "I think a celebration is in order." He took a bottle of champagne and poured it into four small glasses. "To family," he said, raising his glass. "To… does she have a name?"

James looked at Alex. "To Emily," she said, smiling.

James lifted his glass. "And, belatedly, to Rebekah."

Esther looked at her children, and found Niklaus, somehow asleep. She laughed. Five minutes ago, a woman just gave birth and he was snoozing away. He was lying on the bed beside her. Alex reluctantly put her now sleeping baby next to Klaus.

"Look at that," James said. "Not even a n hour old and my daughter's already sleeping with some guy."

They all looked at the bed. The baby startled, a reflex. Her longs fingers flailed open and curled back into fists, grabbing for purchase. And although she was completely unaware, when Emily Harte again settled into sleep, she was holding tight to Niklaus Mikaelson's hand.