Fear- Part III

Warnings: language, hints/talk about adult situations that may be offensive or unsettling for some readers.

Reader Discretion is Advised.


"Elijah, welcome home!" Elijah cringed as his father hugged him with exuberance. Mikael was only for public displays of affection when people were around. He hadn't wanted to come home for the holidays, but he had wanted to check in on his younger siblings.

He was twenty years old and was almost done with college, but he already had a prestigious internship that took up most of his time.

It was easy for him to lose himself in his work. He liked it. He welcomed the escape work gave him. But during the nights where he lay in bed, Elijah couldn't help but be plagued by thoughts of his younger siblings. He knew what his father did. But he also knew Kol and Rebekah had a protector in Klaus. Klaus could take care of them. He was strong.

Elijah still didn't sleep well at night.

"Where is everyone?" Elijah asked, because none of his siblings had emerged to greet him. Even though this was a Christmas party, it was more of an adult affair where colleagues could get drunk without judgment.

"Oh, your brother and sister are around here somewhere…"

It was half an hour later when the family photo was being taken, that Elijah realized Klaus was not in attendance. He turned to ask his mother, but with alcohol and some type of medication flowing through her system, she was useless.

"Where is Niklaus?" The question caused his father to freeze, with forced smile still in place, "He's not here. He had other obligations."

Elijah finally got a ten-year-old Kol alone in a corner. "Kol, where is Niklaus?"

Kol's eyes filled with tears and his eyes darted up to the ceiling. A sinking feeling washed over Elijah. "Kol, where is he?"

Kol's lips trembled, "I can't tell. He'll get hurt."

"Kol, no one will know you told me."

"Yes, if I try to help, Nik gets hurt."

"Kol, please. I'm your big brother. It'll be okay."

Kol's only answer was to look up again.

Elijah got the message.

Mikael was engaged with several colleagues when Elijah slipped away and snuck upstairs to the attic. It had once served as the maids' stockroom, and there was a small closet all the way in the back. Leaning up against the wall were the mops and brooms that had once resided in the enclosed space.

Unlocking the door, Elijah opened it to reveal his fourteen-year-old brother, bloodied and beaten and crammed into the tiny, dark space.

"Leave me, Elijah. You'll only make it worse." Niklaus wouldn't even look at his older brother.

Elijah sighed, closed the door and left the house.

He didn't come back the next Christmas.


"I knew what she was feeling, even without hearing her voice in my head. Happiness, because she had finally gotten the one thing she had always wanted, the choice to decide her own fate. Anger, because she had lost the one person she had always trusted." Klaus sighed and closed the book. Nothing was working. He'd been talking to her endlessly for days now, and he had decided to read her novel to her, hoping it would spark something. She had been rereading the book in preparation for the movie that was coming out. She even had a countdown on her refrigerator. It hurt his chest to know she still hadn't woken up. Dangerous thoughts constantly crept into his mind.

What if she never wakes up?

What if she's gone for good?

What if she dies, never knowing how you feel?

"You know, Niklaus, what you're doing is helping, do you not?" Elijah's quiet voice sounded from the doorway. Klaus had been so lost in his thoughts he hadn't heard his brother enter.

"If that's true then she should be waking up, Elijah! She needs to wake up!"

"She will, brother, you must stay strong. Have faith."

Klaus scoffed. "I don't believe in your God, Elijah, and I'm not strong enough to do this. I need her."

"Brother, she is progressing, the doctors have all said so. How can you not believe-"

"She has had only small blips on the scanner, Elijah! That's not good enough. She needs more brain activity! No, to hell with that, she needs to wake up!"

"She will. Has she ever not respected your wishes?"

And Klaus smiled, because there had never been a time where Caroline didn't please him.


"Will you please make up your mind?" Klaus smirked even though Caroline couldn't see it through the phone. She'd been asking him for three weeks what his favorite cake was, because she wanted to be prepared for his birthday. But Klaus had never answered, constantly changing his mind from chocolate, to spice, to vanilla, really because he didn't care, but it was even better seeing how frustrated she got because "everything had to be perfect."

He loved his little control freak perfectionist.

"You know what, love? I think I've decided." Klaus smirked again as he heard a sigh of relief from his sweetheart. "Great, so what is it?"

"I want pie."

He laughed out loud as he heard a click disconnecting the call.

When he finally saw his girlfriend again, she gave him a stern lecture as to why pie was not acceptable for celebrating a birthday.

"Ah, but love, I do believe you Americans have pie on the Fourth of July, don't you?"

Caroline's brow furrowed and she cocked her head, posture he found absolutely adorable on her. "Yeah, so? What's your point?"

"Is the Fourth of July not the celebration of America's birthday?"

He ducked as she threw a sock she had been folding at his head.

The week leading up to his birthday Klaus had constantly texted Caroline, changing his mind from pie to cake and back again.

He couldn't wait to see what she had decided on.

On his birthday, he arrived to find Caroline had made him a cake.

"Oh, so you decided to go against my wishes for pie and made me a cake?"

After she sang to him and he had blown out the candles, she cut the cake open… to reveal a pie inside.

A pie.

Inside his cake.

His Caroline had made him a pie and cake.

Because he hadn't told her what he wanted.

When his mouth dropped open and he met her shining blue eyes, she just smiled at him and dabbed his nose with some frosting.

"It's an inside surprise cake, silly. But instead of doing a design of different layered cakes, I put a pie inside."


Elijah and Klaus were sat in silence, both lost in thought as they kept vigil over the sleeping blonde.

A knock on the door caused both men to start from their inner musings. A middle-aged man in a white lab coat stood there, a large file in his hands and a serious, no-nonsense heir about him.

"I'm looking for the next of kin for a-"the man paused to flip open the file and look at a name, "Miss Forbes?"

Klaus stood and stepped toward the man. "That's me."

"And your relation to her?"

Klaus paused. "I'm her boyfriend." If this hadn't happened I'd be her fiancée, but I'll change that when she wakes up.

The man snorted. "No, I need the next of kin: parent, legal spouse, sibling, or grandparent. Boyfriend does not count. So I'll ask again. Where may I find her next of kin?"

"Listen to me you bloody-" Klaus started but was cut off by his older brother as a hand was placed on his shoulder and Elijah spoke up.

"Her mother is out of state and we have been unable to reach her, but perhaps you could let us know and we can relay the message-"

"No." The man cut off Elijah, whose eyes widened at the cold and rude behavior. "I will speak with the mother when she decides to show up." The man's eyes flicked to Caroline's body on the bed. "It's not like my patient is going anywhere."

Klaus made to throttle the bastard, but Elijah once again stopped him. "What do you mean your patient."

"I'm Dr. Laythen Conroy, Head of the Neuroscience Department and Expert in Persistent Vegetative State Patients. So you get her mother here, because she has some decisions to make."


Klaus stood in the hallway outside of Caroline's room, repetitively calling Liz Forbes. The arsehole doctor wouldn't tell him anything and had even kicked him out of Caroline's room stating that his patient needed to be left alone and that only family could visit during the listed visiting hours.

Resisting the urge to smash his phone into the wall after another failed attempt, he paused as his phone starting vibrating with an incoming call.

"Hello?"

"Klaus Mikaelson? I'm trying to reach Klaus Mikaelson." The voice was female and tired but also tinted with anger.

"This is he."

"This is Sheriff Forbes, you've been trying to reach me?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact I have. Your daughter has been in the hospital for weeks and you have made no move to come be by her side even though she could possibly be dying!"

"I-What? I thought, I knew she'd be okay. Caroline's always okay. She pulls through." The voice was reaching a hysteric desperation, which Klaus took to mean the woman was finally accepting the fact that she was a horrible mother.

"Well, regardless of what you believe, she's not okay. She's in a coma. And now the doctors won't tell me anything because I'm not you and we aren't married."

"I can't. There's-they need me at the station. Nobody can cover for me and we've been having brutal animal attacks that need dealt with."

"It's Caroline. She's your daughter."


"I'm still not comfortable with this arrangement, however, since Mrs. Forbes has waived her rights and gave you legal power of attorney, Mr. Mikaelson, you will now be responsible for Miss Forbes' future."

"And what exactly does that mean, mate?" Klaus and his brothers sat in an office across from Dr. Conroy.

"I have studied her brain scans and they aren't improving. The little blips you see are common for any brain that is still receiving oxygen. She is what we call a persistent vegetative state patient. She is only alive because the machines are on. But if we were to cease the support, she would be clinically dead. Your decision, Mr. Mikaelson is to pull the plug or not to pull the plug."

Kol stiffened at the man's abrasive and cold tone. What happened to bedside manner?

Even Elijah's eyes widened at the man's audacity.

"There is no decision. Those machines stay on until Caroline wakes up." Klaus' tone held no room for discussion, but the doctor proceeded anyway.

"Mr. Mikaelson, keeping someone alive is a large burden-both financially and emotionally. It is my opinion that you stop the pain now and begin to move on. This is a delicate situation that is best dealt with by making a clean break. I've watched families become financially drained holding on to notions there loved ones will one day wake up and be okay again. It never ends well."

"But, Dr. Conroy, there is always the chance she does wake up?" Elijah interjected.

The man sighed like he was tired of answering this question. He had answered it many times before.

"Medically speaking, yes. But in my twenty-five years of experience? No. I've seen less than one percent come out of that state and none of them have come back as even half the person they used to be."

"What do you mean?" Klaus' voice was soft, worried. He had never allowed himself to go down this road of thought. But here was this man, this expert, telling him his worst fears.

"I mean the best case I've seen was where the patient could sit up and drink by them self. No walking, no talking, no other kind of independence. They still needed a catheter and eating was difficult." Seeing Klaus paling with each detail, he added, "They are more of a child, a burden on their loved ones than anything else. In fact, I'd say they are almost a curse. Seeing the one you love so helpless, so unlike what they were, leaving those around them haunted by their memory, well, I wouldn't want to live like that."

"You're wrong."

"I beg your pardon?"

Klaus focused his eyes, which were alight with a new ferocity, onto the doctor. "I said you're wrong. She will wake up and she will continue to be the beacon of light in my life that she has always been. And you, mate, are going to do everything you can to help her. That's my decision."

And with that, Klaus stormed from the room.


A short time later Elijah had tracked his brother down and found him pacing in the hallway outside of Caroline's door.

"Brother, perhaps we should consider our options." Elijah had been contemplating how to approach his brother. He disliked how much the welfare of this woman affected his brother. His brother was broken and didn't need more heartache. Maybe the sooner he let the woman go, the better off he would be.

"Are you mad, Elijah? There is nothing else to consider. She will get better. She has to."

"You heard what the doctor said. He knows what he's talking about."

"No, I heard some cynical, overworked arsehole who doesn't know Caroline and doesn't care. I know her Elijah. She will be fine. She will make it through this. She wouldn't leave me like this."

"On the contrary brother-"

"No! If you can't understand that, then there is no 'we.' Right now I only want those around me that are going to support us."

"Niklaus, look at what this is doing to you. I will not stand by and watch you drive yourself mad over some girl you've known less than three years."

"Then leave, Elijah, it's what you're good at."

The pain struck Elijah hard, it had been a long time since the brothers had fought this bad. It had been a long time since the last fight they had that had struck such a blow.


"What would you have had me do, Elijah? She was playing us!"

"No, Niklaus, she loved me. She told me so. You got inside her head. It's always you!"

"Always me? You'll believe that conniving twit over your own brother?"

"You're not my brother!"

Klaus stopped, his anger immediately froze and commuted into hurt. Elijah watched the fight leave his body as years of insecurity took over and destroyed his brother from the inside out. It was a low blow. Elijah knew it. Klaus knew it. And yet, Elijah had said it anyway, because he wanted Klaus to hurt. Elijah felt used and violated and he wanted his brother to hurt as much as he did.

"No, I guess not. A real brother would never abandon their siblings. A real brother steps up to protect their brothers and sister. So, no, we aren't related." With that said, Klaus turned on his heel and walked out of Elijah's office.

They didn't speak for over a year.


So, so sorry for the wait! School ended, which was crazy, my brother graduated, we had family in town, we had some repairs to make on our house -_- and I have been assigned more hours at work because I'm now one of the people who can fit. And I had to rearrange my class schedule for next semester because they already cancelled one of my classes. And its been super hard to write with everything going on.

Congratulations to LittleMissBrit (I tried to PM you but couldn't) who guessed which movie the line was from ("When Harry Met Sally"). And the line was "When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible." Harry says it at the end, so good call!

Thanks for all the reviews and lovely feedback! We were up to 1.1% for reviews! If we could keep increasing that it would make me super happy! I like to know what people are thinking and feeling. Did I make you laugh or cry? Smile? Frown? Did Caroline not waking up frustrate you?

Trivia Question: What was the book Klaus was reading to Caroline at the beginning of the chapter? HINT: It was recently made into a movie.