A/N: So sorry it took so long between the chapters this time. I got caught up in updating WtLOR and then a birthday present. But we should be back to regular updates on this now. There's some Klaus and Henrik bonding time in this as well as someone we haven't seen before making his debut.
I hope you enjoy!
The family is one of nature's masterpieces-George Santayana
Music from the Piano Guys filled the room as Klaus put brush to paper. Usually he'd get lost in his art, everything else blocked out as he let his muse take over, guiding him to what he wanted to create. That wasn't completely possible today. Not with Henrik sitting in his bouncer a few feet away. He couldn't help but look back at the baby every few minutes, wanting to make sure he was alright and happily entertained.
Henrik had recently realized that he had hands and feet of his own and seemed to be utterly fascinated by those appendages, amusing himself for minutes at a time. But just as quickly that amusement would end and he'd want attention from someone else, needed to know that he wasn't alone. A sharp cry would usually alert Klaus to the baby's need, but he didn't like it getting to that point.
Caroline was out for the day at her scheduled wedding dress fitting, something he wasn't about to let her cancel or bring the baby to. She needed to be able to focus on herself for that, to critique the gown freely without having to cuddle a crying baby.
He put down his brush after a few moments and picked Henrik up. Klaus was too distracted to try and follow his muse anywhere it seemed. A new painting for the gallery would have to wait until later, probably at night when Caroline and Henrik were asleep and his demons kept him awake. His best work did seem to happen then.
"It seems that painting won't be happening today," Klaus told the baby as he picked him up from the bouncy chair that he'd begun to fuss in.
Henrik quieted immediately at the contact, little smile lighting up his face as he was held. It made Klaus wonder how often he'd been held before they had gotten him, how much contact he'd had in between all of his mother's luncheons and the constant fighting that happened in that house. At least his siblings and he had one another as constant companions growing up, offering support and comfort to one another when they didn't receive it from their parents.
"Let's do some of that tummy time your mother is so intent on you getting," he murmured to the baby as he carried him down the stairs to the level of the brownstone where Caroline has his mat set out for 'tummy time'.
Klaus had never actually heard the term before-Caroline had gotten it off the internet or from one of the books she'd been constantly reading-but he vaguely remembered Rebekah doing this as a baby. He hadn't been as involved then though, being seven years old when she was born. It was when she was older and could do more things that he'd really taken an interest in her. She wasn't as mischievous as Kol who had enjoyed getting him into trouble as soon as he could crawl.
Laying Henrik down on his tummy under the mobile and dangling different toys in front of the baby wasn't exactly thrilling but Klaus loved the smile the baby made, watched as the little boy tracked the toys and was rewarded with the baby pushing himself up a bit with his head and shoulders held high as he propped himself up on his arms.
His phone started to ring and Klaus shook his head, further amused when he noted Caroline's name on the screen. He'd wondered when she would call. "Hello, love."
"How's my baby?" Caroline asked and he could hear the sound of the other girls chatting away in the background.
"I'm just fine," Klaus replied as he gently attacked Henrik with the monkey he was fond of.
"I am pretty sure I have so never used that endearment for you like ever," Caroline pointed out with a huff.
"He's doing just fine as well, sweetheart. Currently enjoying some of that tummy time you're always adamant that he gets." Henrik faltered a bit as he tried to stuff one of his hands into his mouth.
"It's helpful developmentally," she started and Klaus knew she'd go into a long spiel about it if he let her.
He wasn't about to let her, knowing she needed to enjoy her time out of the house. "How are your alterations going?"
"Nuh uh, so not saying. I'll so accidentally reveal something about the dress so nope." She sighed happily and he could hear one of the girls calling for her. "I just wanted to check in and see how things were going. Cause I miss him. And I keep looking around for him and then remembering that he's with you and I know he's in good hands but…I miss his little smile."
"Isn't it the screensaver on your phone?" Klaus reminded and he might not have been there but he knew she was rolling her eyes at that.
"So not the same. It's like when I miss you. Photos just don't do you justice. But okay, we're heading to lunch now so I'll be home in a few hours."
"Take your time, Caroline." Klaus smiled down at Henrik, watching him push himself up a bit again. "Enjoy the day. We'll be here when you get back."
"I love you," she murmured into the phone.
"I love you as well." He hung up shortly after that and pocketed his phone again before dancing the monkey much to Henrik's delight.
Had his mother and Mikael ever done this with the boy? He couldn't remember Mikael ever playing with Kol and Rebekah though he did remember seeing Esther play with his younger siblings every so often. But usually they were in the hands on nannies at that age. Out of sight, out of mind.
"When did you get that?" Kol's voice echoed in the room, startling the two of them and causing Henrik to fall back down, letting out a little cry.
Klaus scooped him up, running a soothing hand along the baby's back as he stood. "I'm pretty sure I would have noticed if Caroline was pregnant the last time I was here. Especially for you to be holding that," Kol continued as he dropped his bags to the floor beside him. "Or is this the child of some sordid affair? It happens all the time on the soaps that Rebekah used to watch. And with how you were when you first got kicked out I could almost see it happening. Though not lately with how utterly wrapped you are around Caroline's finger."
"This is Henrik," Klaus clarified, watching Kol's widen at that. This wasn't exactly how he'd wanted this conversation to go. They'd been trying to reach him for ages and from his brother's confused expression Klaus wasn't certain if Kol had even listened or read the messages.
"How did you manage to get mother to bring him here?" Kol asked as he stepped closer, looking intently at his baby brother. "Did she finally decide the money wasn't worth it and leave the bastard?"
"Kol." Henrik rubbed his face against Klaus' shoulder, a clear sign that he was getting sleepy. Klaus glanced at the clock, noting the time and it was near his morning nap. "Let me put him down and I'll explain everything. I take it by the luggage that you're staying with us this time?"
His brother didn't always depending on what his plans were. "That okay?" a touch a vulnerability in his voice before he shrugged, trying to look nonchalant about the idea.
"Rebekah has the big room on the fourth floor," Klaus told him. "You can have your pick of the other two."
Henrik easily settled down for his nap and after making sure the monitor was on and he had the app going on his phone to check in on the boy, Klaus grabbed a bottle of scotch and some glasses before heading up to the fourth floor. He found Kol jamming out to music as he tossed his clothes into drawers. "You brought the good stuff," Kol commented as he nodded toward the bottle before dropping down onto the bed. He pushed the suitcase off so Klaus would be able to sit down as well.
"We've been trying to contact you for weeks," Klaus started as he poured his brother a glass.
"You know how much I hate the holidays. I unplugged for a few months and enjoyed all India had to offer. Which was quite a bit," Kol shrugged, letting the liquid swirl around his glass.
Klaus rubbed at the back of his neck, not sure how to go about saying any of it. Straight and to the point seemed like the best answer. "Mother's dead. Father killed her and then he killed himself."
It sounded so matter of fact as he said it, but images of what he'd seen in that house bombarded him, reminding him how brutal it had all been. There was no need to tell that to Kol though. They were all more than capable of imagining how awful it had been.
Kol's hands shook as he brought the glass to his mouth, downing the liquid before holding the glass back out, needing more. His jovial attitude was gone, taken over by the stark realization that his parents were both gone. "When?"
"After Thanksgiving," Klaus told him as he poured more scotch into the glass.
"I was in...I don't even bloody remember where I was exactly then," Kol muttered.
"You couldn't have stopped it, Kol." None of them could have. If it hadn't happened then it was probably only a matter of time before it did. The relationship between their parents had always been volatile.
"We should have tried harder to get her to leave him," Kol was practically shouting, anger reverberating through his body as he finished off the next glass before dropping it to the bed. "Why the fuck didn't she leave him? How the hell was money and a damn reputation worth more than her life?"
Klaus had no answers for that and watched as Kol slammed his hands into the wall. His family had never been huggers but he'd learned a bit about offering comfort from his relationship with Caroline. He headed over to Kol and wrapped his arms tightly around him, feeling his brother stiffen at the contact at first before sagging against him.
"Why Nik? Why is our family so fucked up?" Kol muttered.
"Mikael." In Klaus' mind everything led back to that monster and his controlling, vindictive ways. There were other factors as well but he would forever think that without Mikael the rest of it wouldn't have fallen like it did.
He let go of Kol and stepped back, giving him room to breathe.
"How do you have the baby? There's no way father would have left you anything," Kol pointed out. "He'd make you pay back all the food you ate in his house as a kid if he could have."
Klaus snorted at that. It almost surprised him that Mikael hadn't tried for something like that, forced him to reimburse him for everything. Especially after he'd inherited his fortune from Ansel, becoming richer than Mikael could hope to be.
"They hadn't updated the will and the others...they couldn't take him in." He didn't want to think about the adoption option that had been batted around for a while. "I got custody of him."
"You're raising a baby?" That actually got a chuckle out of Kol.
"With Caroline, yes," Klaus nodded as he sat back down on the bed.
"That makes more sense. Though now I'm wondering how many lists and schedules she's been trying to make that have to do with a baby," Kol mused, chuckling again at the thought of it. "Diaper ones and feeding ones. Is there a clothing schedule?"
"How would one even schedule clothing?" That sounded absurd.
Kol paused for a moment. "Oh I don't know. Make sure he's not wearing the same outfit in a two-week cycle."
Ah. Well.
"She is." Kol clapped his hands together, obviously amused. "You really should invest in the post-its company considering how many she goes through. Speaking of? Where is Caroline?"
"She has her first wedding dress alteration fitting today," Klaus told him. "Rebekah and some of the other girls in the bridal party are with her and then they're going out to lunch."
"Leaving you on baby duty," Kol nodded. "Are you going to be getting one of those older nannies like we had for a few years or one of the younger ones that seem to be all the rage these days?"
"Neither." They wanted to raise Henrik on their own. It'd be harder, but it was something he and Caroline were adamant about.
"How long until he wakes up from this nap?" Kol asked, itching to get a chance to spend some time with him.
"He'll be out for about an hour and before you say anything about waking him early, believe me the last thing you want to deal with is a cranky baby." And Klaus didn't want to endure Caroline's wrath if he ruined Henrik's schedule. "Besides, this gives me time to hear about your time in India."
Kol nodded again. They would need to go into more details about all that had happened while he was gone, but that could wait for a bit. For now they'd enjoy spending a bit of time together. Something they hadn't done in months and suddenly seemed important to do after the loss they had faced as a family.
"If you look at that phone one more time we're going to take it away," Bonnie teased from across the table.
After making sure that the sound was on she stuffed the phone back into her purse before wrinkling her nose at her friend. "You're baby free. I'm pretty sure you're supposed to be living this up right now, Care," Bonnie continued as she raised her glass of wine, the others in the small party following suit.
It wasn't that Caroline wasn't excited for some time with her friends, she'd been looking forward to it for days, but she hadn't lied to Klaus either when she'd said she kept looking for Henrik every so often. The baby had become such a huge part of her life in so short a time that it was odd not to have him with her. She'd read it was something that happened to a lot of parents when they began to go out on their own after being with their baby for so many days. They'd only had him for a month but it seemed like that was long enough for the attachment to deepen significantly.
"It's just weird to not be bouncing him around or talking constantly to him. But I am having fun," Caroline assured her friend. "My dress is perfect. I'm so going to get a big piece of chocolate cake for dessert. I'm with friends and going to have a glass of wine without interruptions."
"I still can't believe you're kind of a mom," Elena shook her head, picking at the breadsticks that had been dropped off for them to enjoy.
"Kind of?" Rebekah snorted as she enviously eyed the glass of wine that she was unable to have. Privacy of their home was one thing but Caroline was so not buying her underage almost sister-in-law a drink out in a public restaurant. That was just not the place for a fake ID. "If you'd bothered to visit at all and saw Caroline with him you'd know that she is his mother. Even I see it and I still can't wrap my head around it all."
Elena had a sour look as she glared at Rebekah before turning her attention back to Caroline. "So when are you guys getting a nanny? Do you want a bilingual one?"
"We're not doing a nanny." That was something her and Klaus were adamant about.
"But what about when you're at school? Who's going to watch the baby?" Elena asked.
"Klaus will. I only have classes two days a week for this last semester. And I'll be on baby duty two days a week so Klaus can work on his art. The rest we'll do together." Caroline shrugged. She really didn't see what the big deal was. It probably wouldn't run as smoothly as that because there were always hiccups along the way but she thought their plan was a good one. "You and I didn't have nannies when we were growing up."
"Did anyone in Mystic Falls have a nanny?" Bonnie laughed at the idea.
"Tyler did," Elena reminded. "Until Mrs. Lockwood caught Mr. Lockwood with her one day. I heard our moms talking about it once."
"Oh scandal in Mystic Falls, how intriguing," Rebekah rolled her eyes. "I had several nannies over the years. All there to keep me out of my parents' way. I like that you and Nik aren't getting one. Even if it's all the rage in the city."
"I thought you liked Mystic Falls," Bonnie started as she looked over at Rebekah. "Or was it just Enzo that you enjoyed?"
A chorus of Ooo's echoed around the table as Rebekah sat a little taller, trying to stifle her blush. "Small towns really are full of gossips."
"Well what else is there to do in one?" Elena pointed out, Caroline and Bonnie nodding along with that. "Gossip is our one constant source of entertainment. Plus we've all wondered what he's like in bed."
"Thought Caroline might let us know that one but they never got together. They're just friends and she met Klaus before they could ever become something more. And we've seen the sickening sweet looks those two give each other," Bonnie looked over at Caroline who shrugged happily.
She hadn't exactly fallen fast for Klaus Mikaelson but once she'd started falling, there had been no stopping. She hadn't been able to get enough of him and it was the same for him in regards to her. "Okay, no getting that doey eyed 'I'm in love' look!" Bonnie protested.
"Enzo details!" Elena urged. "He's good, isn't he?"
"Don't you two have your own love lives to entertain you?" Rebekah asked before grabbing another breadstick.
"My love life is currently based around chemicals and their reactions to one another," Bonnie sighed. Winter semester classes sucked.
Elena shrugged. "I'm single."
"Aka she's not sure which of the Salvatore brothers she wants this month," Bonnie snickered, Caroline following suit.
"I think I liked talking about the baby more," Elena muttered as she glared at them.
"How is Klaus with him? Does he coo and aww at Henrik?" Bonnie asked, because she really couldn't see Klaus Mikaelson doing that. Even if she was shown a video she didn't think it would happen.
"He lights up whenever Henrik smiles at him." Caroline grinned. She loved to watch her boys together. "And he's way better at bathtime than I am. Probably because Henrik doesn't wiggle as much for him." Plus she she was always terrified that she'd end up dropping him somehow when the baby was slippery. "But okay. We need to go over your outfits and what we still need to buy." She pulled out her wedding planner book and the group collectively sighed.
"Who's turn was it to make sure she forgot that thing?" Elena whined as Caroline flipped to the page she needed.
"Next time we let her bring Henrik so she can't carry that damn book around too," Rebekah murmured, looking at the others for confirmation for her idea before Caroline started going on about the exact color of the shoe they all needed to find for their bridesmaids dresses.
Kol held his nose as he watched Klaus change Henrik's diaper. The baby had been smelly when he'd woken up but he hadn't expected for it to smell that bad when the diaper was actually opened. "How can something so little make something that smells so horrible?"
"You're exaggerating," Klaus murmured. Or maybe he was just used to it all now after having done so many diaper changes.
Kol stepped back as Klaus disposed of the dirty diaper and looked around the nursery instead. "Your artwork right?" he looked back at his brother for a second who nodded, his attention still on the squirmy baby. "I like this place more than what this guy had. His room there was just so…" He didn't know the appropriate word. "Stiff I guess."
It didn't seem at all homey. His mother had hired decorators to put it together but Kol could tell all of the little touches that showed Caroline and Klaus had a hand in every bit of this nursery. "I think you and Caroline don't know a thing about raising kids," Kol started as he rifled through the drawers in the dresser, shaking his head at all of the neatly folded clothes. He stopped when he saw the photograph of Klaus holding the baby in the chair that was just off to the side, Caroline's reflection of her taking the picture in the mirror behind them. "But you'll do better than they ever did with us because he'll always know he's loved."
That was something he definitely hadn't always felt when it came to his parents. With his siblings it had been better but even then there were times he was pretty sure they wrote him off as a lost cause. He still thought they loved him though. They always took him in whenever he showed up in their cities even if they did so with a lecture.
Kol didn't expect Klaus to hand him the baby then but he took him, feeling awkward as he held his baby brother for the first time. Henrik stared up at him with big eyes, taking in this new person in his life as Klaus moved to clean up the changing station and wash his hands.
"Kol?!" Rebekah exclaimed excitedly as she entered the nursery and headed over to him, working to hug him as best she could while he held Henrik. "Where have you been? We've been trying to contact you for weeks. Do you have any idea how worried I was?"
"Yes yes, sister, I'm sure you were inconsolable," Kol told her, almost wanting to take that back at the glare she directed him.
"She was actually," Caroline commented from the doorway to the nursery before smiling at the baby.
"My apologies then, Rebekah." Kol watched as Henrik perked right up at the sight of Caroline, pacifier falling out of his mouth because of how wide his smile grew.
"Hmph, see if I care the next time you're gone for months," Rebekah muttered before leaving the room in a huff. He was going to need to go after her and make that right.
"Clearly he has a favorite," Kol murmured and handed the baby off and watched Caroline start to excitedly recount her day to his little brother. "Can't say I blame him. My chest or your chest, clearly yours is the winner, Care."
She lightly swatted him before he left the room to head after Rebekah. "Did you have fun with daddy?" Caroline murmured as she bounced the baby in her arms and scooped up the fallen pacifier.
He cooed back at her and she nodded along to the little bursts of nonsense before sensing someone behind them. "How did Kol take everything?" Caroline asked when she found Klaus standing in the doorway, watching the two of them with so much adoration in his eyes.
"As well as can be expected," Klaus sighed. He knew his brother was still processing some of it. They all were and probably would be for a while. "He's going to stay for a few days. Just long enough to irritate Rebekah into wanting to disown him is my guess."
She laughed at that, remembering the last time the four of them were all in the brownstone together. It'd been a bit tumultuous but Caroline had a feeling that it would probably go a little better this time. Her and Rebekah were getting along a lot better. She'd always gotten along with Kol. As long as the siblings didn't end up going for each other's throats it'd be fine. Caroline had a feeling they needed this chance to spend time together after everything that had happened. It would do the three of them good.
"How was lunch?" Klaus asked as he stepped forward, brushing her cheek when he was close enough.
"Productive!" Caroline wrinkled her nose when he laughed.
"That explains the texts I got from all of them demanding that you bring this one along with you next time," he told her and she rolled her eyes at that.
"Like I can't order people around while entertaining him," she murmured before kissing Henrik's cheek.
"I don't doubt your capabilities for a second, Caroline," Klaus told her and she leaned in to kiss him briefly. They could hear loud stomping coming from the floor above and Klaus shook his head. "But we should probably go and dangle this one between Kol and Rebekah so they don't end up starting World War III between them."
She laughed again and accompanied Klaus out of the room, Henrik munching happily on his pacifier as they went to help smooth things between the two siblings. It was going to be an interesting next few days.