Hello, my lovely readers. This is the last full chapter. There will be an epilogue that I hope to post next week. On with the show…
Chapter 19: It's been a Good Run
"I can't believe it's over," Caroline's voice startled Klaus. He'd been reviewing the last scenes from their film. They completed shooting in a record ten days for a two-hour film. Somehow, Klaus had expected that it would take much longer: months, maybe even years—to finish their work. Instead, Rebekah's script seemed to inspire everyone. Mikael's demand that they work—day and night—for the ten days—might have had something to do with it, too.
"And that's a wrap, people," Jeremy called.
"Who put you in charge?" Kol demanded, hands on his hips.
"Mikael," Jeremy said. "I'm first assistant."
"Since when?" Kol demanded.
"Since you're so bloody slow," Mikael thundered, looking up from the final edit of the film that Finn was working on. "Almost done, Finn?"
"Yes, Father," Finn replied with a quick nod. Sage sat beside him, patting his knee. His eyes moved to her and Klaus smirked. He'd never seen a vampire turn green before. However, Finn's skin looked a strange hue and he looked like he might be violently ill as he continued to stare at his girlfriend, who now looked so much like their mother.
"Klaus," Caroline cried out. "Are you listening to me?" She punched him on the arm, gaining his full, and undivided attention.
Flipping her long locks over her shoulder; Caroline offered him a wide smile. "I think we should go out and celebrate our hard work."
"Let go!" Rebekah shouted, dragging Klaus' attention away from Caroline. His sister seemed to be in the midst of a tug-of-war with Katherine, over a dress. "I made it. It is mine!"
"I'm the one who had to play Cordelia, and you killed off my character in the first five minutes. You owe me!" Katherine shouted, yanking furiously at the dress. "And Queen C wasn't even in the movie version!"
"Neither was Angel," Damon pointed out. "P. S., I do not appreciate what you people are trying to do to my reputation. Vampire with a soul? Psst. What kind of lame-ass vampire would that be?"
"I liked that character," Elena snapped, giving Damon a dark look.
Bonnie came to sit down beside Elena. "Angel was hot."
"Bloody hell!" Finn cried out.
"What?" Everyone shouted.
"I lost the film," Finn told them.
"I will rip out your heart out and feed it to a nightwalker!" Mikael screamed, his face flushed, his fangs out.
Finn groaned and hit a couple of buttons. "Oh, no. Sorry. I saved it to the wrong place. There. Now, it is safely on the flash drive and ready for you, Father." Pulling out the flash drive, Finn offered it to Mikael.
"About the nightwalker bit—" Mikael began when Finn held up a hand.
"It's understandable. I would feed myself to a nightwalker—given all the hard work we did," Finn said.
"Ha!" Kol cried out. "Are you bloody well kidding? I've been running all about this set—bringing drinks to thirsty stars, putting up with Father, Mother, and the rest of you bloody lot! All you've been doing is hiding from Sagesther and downloading YouTube videos of kittens with balls of yarn!"
"But they're awfully cute," Finn argued, showing the videos to Elena and Bonnie.
"And now you're kissing up to Father, in case you turn out to not be his son!" Kol accused Finn, who glared back at him.
"Enough!" Mikael shouted. "I will not have this on my set! Get out, both of you. And do not come back until you can identify yourselves as my spawn or not!" "Mikael, your movie is over, stop bullying the children," Esther snapped. She sat in a chair that said "Producer," and flipped through the latest copy of Vogue. "You have been a terror for ten days now. Have they complained? No. Did they jump at all of your commands? Yes. What more do you want from them?"
"I want them to be my children!" Mikael yelled at her.
Esther slapped the magazine closed and tossed it on a nearby table. "Well, they are. And you do not need a DNA test for that!"
"You lied before. How am I to believe you?" Mikael shouted at her.
"By believing your wife!" Esther retorted.
"Soon-to-be-ex-wife!" Mikael fired back.
"Oh, get a room!" Damon grumbled.
"Good luck to your next wife!" Esther yelled.
Klaus took Caroline's hand. "I think perhaps it would be best if we left." He began to ease toward the exit.
"Why? It's just getting good," Caroline complained while Klaus picked her up and began to carry her toward the glowing exit sign.
A loud crash from near his parents made Klaus move faster while the others began to leave as well.
"I cannot believe you threw a table at me with your bloody powers!" Mikael shouted.
"I'll throw more than a table at you!" Esther's words were followed by more breaking furniture.
"Finally! They start breaking other people's stuff," Damon cried, pulling Elena out the door, with Klaus behind them.
"Wasn't that table from our house?" Stefan asked Damon.
"Yeah," Damon replied.
"You brought my stuff to the set!" Stefan cried.
"Because they kept breaking things. Mainly Kol, but sometimes Sexy Bex—and since you two are married—what's yours is hers." Damon shrugged and hopped into his car. "Coming?" he called to Klaus.
"I'll be using the company car," Klaus called back.
"We have a company car?" Kol inquired, moving to join them.
"No," Klaus said, blocking Kol's forward movement. "I have a company car. It's one of the perks of being the star of the film."
"Correction, Mr. Ego!" Caroline called, "I'm the star. That makes it my car." Grabbing the keys from his hand, she flipped her legs over his shoulder and dropped to the ground. With a grin, she jumped behind of the wheel of the new Mercedes convertible and put the key in the ignition. "This is so cool. I think I'll drive by Tyler's. He should see my new car."
"Caroline!" Klaus shouted as Caroline took off. "Get back here with my car!"
~0~
"Hey, anybody home?" Bonnie's voice bounced off the walls of the Mikaelson household to the sound of nothing.
Gingerly, the witch entered the house. She half-expected Kol to leap out at her. When he did not, she breathed a sigh of relief and took a long look around the house. Nothing seemed out-of-place—other than the whole no one saying "Boo."
Walking up the stairs, Bonnie peered inside the first bedroom she saw. Rebekah's. The bedspread lay, untouched.
"Rebekah?" Bonnie called, pausing before stepping inside the room. Her eyes kept darting back to the open doorway, still expecting one of the Originals to come jumping out at her. Wrapping her fingers around the handle to the closet, she opened it to find…nothing. No clothes. No shoes. Absolutely nothing.
Bonnie walked over to the dresser to find nothing. The nightstand. Nothing.
Stepping out of the room, Bonnie went into Elijah's old room. Nothing there.
Kol's room. Nothing.
Finn's. Nothing. Well, she didn't expect to find much there anyway.
Klaus' room. Nothing. No paints. No creepy sketches of Caroline. None of Caroline's underwear were tucked under his pillow.
It was like the Originals had vanished off the face of the earth.
Bonnie could not decide if this was a good thing or a bad thing. So, she decided that she should go to the Salvatore's. They probably knew what had happened. And Elena would be there—probably doing something disgusting with Damon. Shivering, Bonnie turned to leave the house when she found a note taped to the door of Klaus' room. Her name was written on it. Plucking it off the door, she flipped it open and sighed. Of course. That made as much sense as anything else had this summer.
~0~
"Lay off my booze!" Damon shouted into the Great room. No one seemed to be listening to him, as usual. The doorbell rang again and he rolled his eyes. "I'm coming!" he shouted at the new source of his irritation.
Swinging the door open, he grinned. "Bon Bon, what's up?" he asked her.
Bonnie slapped a piece of paper into his chest and stalked past him. Damon glanced at the paper and then at the angry witch. "Something I said!" he called after her before moving the paper to take a look at its contents. "Huh."
With a smirk, Damon walked back to the little party. "So, that would explain why Stefan packed a bag, and didn't tell me where he was off to." Coming to stand in the middle of the living room, he watched Elena pouring herself another glass of bourbon. "And for those of us who are still human—I think not drinking ourselves into an early death would be a good idea."
"Damon Salvatore, Guilt Police, rings kind of false to me," Alaric said, shaking his head and picking up the bottle.
"Do you think they'll come back?" Elena asked dully, staring into her glass.
"Regretting your choice of Salvatore already?" Bonnie quipped, grinning and gulping down her drink.
"No!" Elena snapped. "I love Damon. I just wish that they would have said something first."
Liz heaved a sigh. "I've got to get back to work." Standing up, she shook her head. "Let me know if anyone calls," she directed at Damon who nodded.
"Will do. Unless its Papa Original, looking for a second date," Damon replied, patting Liz on the shoulder.
Liz scoffed. "My days of dating vampires are long over."
"Good to know," Damon said. He walked Liz out the door and Elena picked up the note he had set down on the coffee table.
Dear Bonnie,
In case you happen to come by our home, you will find that we have left—seeking new adventures, in Europe, as much fun as we had in your tiny town.
If you would like to join us, please do.
With respect and a great admiration of you femoral artery,
Kol Mikaelson
Setting the note down, Elena shook her head. "Jeremy's note said: Gone to Europe. Be back before senior year. Love, Jer. How is he ever going to graduate from high school?"
"Summer school," Damon quipped, re-entering the room and grinning at them. "Hey, enough with the sad faces. The Originals are gone. Be happy, people!" The doorbell rang again and Damon rolled his eyes. "That had better be Donovan, with the food."
Stalking back to the front door, Damon found a UPS worker at his door. He rolled his eyes, signed the clipboard took the package inside and walked back into the Great room. "So, looks like we have more mail." Ripping open the package, he withdrew a DVD. "Oh, look, Mikael sent us our hard work. Anyone want to check it out?" He waved the DVD around at the others.
Elena looked glum. Bonnie had begun to sink into the couch, the bottle of bourbon clutched between her knees. Alaric just looked like Alaric. Damon shrugged before slipping the DVD into the player that Kol had set up because he thought he lived in Damon's house, too.
The video began and Mikael appeared on the screen. "That's not the movie!" Bonnie cried, waving the bottle at it. "He didn't even have a part!"
Kol popped in front of the camera. "Hello, ladies and gentleman. This is your first screening of my first uncensored film called "Family," please, sit back and enjoy."
For a moment the screen went black and then Mikael appeared back on the screen. "Kol, what the bloody hell are you doing?" Mikael shouted. "Stop moving the camera about! Blasted hell!" The camera moved to point at Klaus who sat on top of a desk, with a sketchbook on his lap."
"Boy, what are you doing with that!" Mikael shouted. "No son of mine sits about making art, when he is to be making my film!" Mikael came back onto the screen as he attempted to rip the sketchpad away from Klaus who fought back. They fell on the floor and began to roll around.
Elijah appeared on-screen, removing his jacket and loosening his tie before he hopped onto his father's back and tried to free Klaus from a chokehold.
Elena began to laugh. "Oh, my God!" she cried, tears running down her cheeks.
The camera switched position to Caroline and Rebekah. "I am not wearing that!" Caroline said.
"Why not?" Rebekah snapped, waving a bra from the '80s and Madonna's cone-bra days. "This is coming back into fashion!"
"Where?" Caroline snapped. "See this!" she picked up a dress more fit for the seventeenth century. "This is not right either! I know that current fashion is hard for you to wrap your tiny brain around but—"
"Me? I have a tiny brain!" Rebekah shouted. "Would you like to have a bloody test to see who is more intelligent?"
"Bring it on, sister!" Caroline snapped.
"Right then," Rebekah snapped back. "Finn, get your bloody phone! We need an intelligence test, with an objective judge."
"Oh, like your brother is going to be objective!" Caroline snorted, folding her arms over her chest.
Finn came on the screen. "Yes. Bekah. Which one would you like, there are so many."
"Find the easiest one," Sage told him, joining them and Finn looked up before wincing at her appearance.
"Sage, darling, could you possibly change into something else?" Finn begged.
"Never change, Sage!" Kol called from off-screen.
Sage threw up her hands. "In all my years, I have never tried this hard to please anyone. That's it. I'm going back to professional boxing in Hungary." Stalking away, Sage disappeared.
"Sage, wait!" Finn shouted, following his fiancée.
"Finn, drat, now who will be judge of our test!" Rebekah grumbled, pulling out her own phone.
Katherine appeared. "Did someone say they needed a judge?" Smirking, she took Rebekah's phone. "What am I judging you on?"
"Intelligence. We want to know who is smarter, me or Bekah," Caroline stated.
Katherine started laughing. "That's easy. You're both stupid. Thanks for the phone, Rebekah, I needed an upgrade. Speaking of… Where is Elijah!"
"It's my sketchpad!" Klaus screamed in the background.
"Never mind. Who wants to get lunch?" Katherine said.
Rebekah grabbed her phone and stalked out of the camera's view. "Matt can judge the contest!" Caroline called after Rebekah.
"And whoever wins gets to keep him as pet!" Katherine added. "I'm in!"
Caroline and Katherine disappeared.
The screen went black and Esther appeared. She sat crossed-legged, in the middle of a pentagram with what looked like blood on her forehead and candles surrounding her.
"Esther! What are you doing?" Mikael's voice demanded somewhere off-screen.
"I am cursing your film, Mikael, the same way you cursed our marriage!" Esther cried, throwing some kind of dust in front of her. "Spirits, I call upon thee—" she began when Mikael came into view.
"So help me, woman, you will stop this!" Mikael cried.
"What shall you do to me that you have not already done!" Esther cried, getting to her feet.
Mikael stepped into the circle of candles and he grabbed her. They began to kiss and then…
"Oh, no! Creepy Papa and Mama Mikaelson sex! Cover your eyes!" Damon screamed at the others.
"You can still hear them!" Bonnie moaned.
"Where is the remote!" The sound of Elena desperately trying to find the remote was heard when the sounds stopped and Damon peeked at the screen.
"They're done!" Damon told them.
"Oh, thank God!" Alaric said. "Wait! Who's that?"
"That looks like Kol? Or is it Elijah?" Elena said, crawling toward the screen.
"No! No, no, no!" A horrified Bonnie shouted, scrambling off the couch and searching for the remote just when the face appeared on the screen. "Damn you, Kol Mikaelson!" Standing up, she stomped out of the room and Damon could hear the witch muttering about a tracking spell and a whole world of hurt for the youngest Mikaelson brother.
"Bonnie and Kol?" Elena breathed. "I thought she was with Jer, again."
"I think she is," Damon said, pointing at the camera.
"Oh, no, ew!" Alaric and Elena said, both scrambling for the remote while Damon poured himself another drink and shrugged.
The screen went black again and then Caroline appeared on it. She stood in a cute sundress, holding a sheaf of papers. "So, Rebekah. You are Mikael's daughter."
The camera moved to take in Rebekah's smile as she kissed Stefan and then went to hug her parents.
"Elijah, you are Mikael's son," Caroline announced.
Elijah nodded, adjusting his tie and Klaus grinned. "No doubt in my mind," Klaus said.
Caroline gave Klaus a long look. "Kol, you are… Mikael's son."
Kol and Jeremy high-fived before Kol stripped off his clothes and began to dance around the room while Mikael groaned and placed a pillow over his face.
"Finn, you are Mikael's son, too," Caroline announced and Finn got to his feet, moving to take the paper.
"Perhaps you could run the tes,t again, just to be absolutely sure," Finn complained, looking dubiously at the findings. Sage same over and hugged him, her red locks obscuring the look on his face.
The other Mikaelsons got up and hugged Finn. "You're one of us," Elijah said. "Whether you like it or not."
Finn groaned and then hugged them back. Kol pressed closer and everyone let out disgusted sounds.
"Kol, get off!" Rebekah shrieked. "Ugh, Father, make him dress!"
"I'm going out on the balcony!" Kol told them, opening the doors and then hopping onto the railing. The camera moved out and onto the balcony to shoot Kol jumping from balcony to balcony while other hotel guests watched from the pool below. "I am Kol Mikaelson!" Kol shouted to everyone who could hear him.
The camera moved inside to do a close-up of Klaus and Caroline kissing, showing off their new wedding rings and laughing.
"And that's almost all!" Katherine said, and the camera moved to face her. "Tune in again, to see one more surprise for the Mikaelsons and friends." She winked and the screen went black.
Damon sat back. "Looks like this story isn't over after all."
Elena sighed. "What else could there be to say?"
Alaric piped up. "I guess we'll have to wait and see."
Thank you for reading, faving, following and reviewing.
Peace,
Jessica
