Hey guys! Author's note at the end. Enjoy!
Chapter Four
The phone rang for what felt like an eternity before the other end of the line was finally picked up.
"Kali, hi." Hayley's surprised voice greeted her. "How's it going?"
"Fine," K said, a bit forced. "Um, everything's fine."
There was a brief pause. "What's wrong?"
K chewed on her lip, bit into the inside of her cheek as she thought about what to say. She had questions –questions she doubted Hayley could answer- but ones she had to get off her chest.
"How are things with Hope?"
Hayley took in a long, deep breath. The fact was, things with Hope were becoming complicated, and while she wanted to lie, Hayley had a habit of telling K the truth when it came to their little girl.
So she told the truth. She told K everything, from Hope selling her blood, to the fact that the wolves and vampires were freaking out because there was another hybrid in play. Worse yet, the hybrid was a child.
K couldn't put into words how disappointed she was in Hope for something so stupid. True, she had the right to do a lot of things, but it was obvious Hope had no idea what she'd done.
Turning kids –and that's exactly what this boy was- was so dangerous. It locked them forever in a tumultuous state. Their hormones were already raging, shifting around so much they couldn't find anything to settle on for long, and now he was an animal. Actually, he was a pair of animals, given immeasurable strength and an incredible appetite.
How could Hope have been so stupid?
"So," Hayley finally said with a heavy, exhausted sigh. "How are the twins?"
It was K's turn to become exasperated. "That's why I've called, actually." K leaned forward, propping her elbow on her knees and running her fingers through her hair as she thought. "They're so much like Hope, Hayley. It's almost frightening."
"How?"
And like Hayley had with her, K simply blurted out the truth.
"They said they can see it? Like… I actually see it."
"That's what they said."
Another bought of silence followed her declaration. K wasn't certain what she thought Hayley would tell her, but she needed something. Hayley was the sane one in their family, the one that helped balance everyone else. It wasn't as though K could tell Klaus. She knew he'd realize that it meant their sons were powerful, he'd see it as a benefit. But Hayley, Hayley saw it from a mother's point of view, saw it as something worrying like K did.
"Wow," she finally mumbled.
K did little more than nod.
They'd gone through something similar with Hope when she was young, but those were voices. Hope heard the witches, heard things the others couldn't because she was not only strong, but a connected to that side of reality. But, this was something different. Yes, Hope had heard the Hollow previously, but the boys actually saw her and there was something more terrifying in that. It was harder for K to hide from them.
"Anyway," K eventually sighed, "Is there anything else happening?"
"Not really, no." Hayley replied. "She does miss you guys, though."
K's stomach sank just a bit and her head dropped. She missed Hope, too, but their last meeting wasn't exactly a good one. She wondered if the little girl still had flashes of K and Klaus in wolf form tearing each other to pieces. She prayed no.
"I wish I could see her." K admitted. "You're still keeping school pictures and stuff for me, aren't you?"
"Oh, yeah." Hayley said quickly.
It'd been an agreement long ago that Hayley would do for K what K had done for Klaus –commemorating Hope's life through the years. At first she didn't understand why K wouldn't simply want the pictures as they came, but K explained it was simple. Seeing her growing up just made K want to seek Hope out more than before. After what happened over Christmas all those years ago, she assumed Hayley finally understood completely.
"But she still misses you guys." Hayley continued. "I think she understands why she can't see you, but with Klaus, it's breaking-"
"What do you mean?" K interrupted.
There was a light pause on the other end of the line, one that only lasted seconds, but gave K a thought she couldn't push past. He wouldn't…
"Kali, Klaus hasn't been around in years." She said plainly. K's jaw flexed. "I thought you knew that?"
"No," her voice was as tight as the rest of her. "I didn't. How long's it been since she's seen him?"
"I don't know… two years?"
"Two…" K had to stop herself from yelling. It wasn't Hayley's fault –obviously- but she was getting more and more angry the longer she was on the phone with the young woman. She calmed herself. "He told me he's been visiting her in Mystic Falls."
"Well," she sighed. "He hasn't."
It didn't make sense to K why Klaus had seemingly stopped visiting Hope. Through the years, whenever K and Hayley would speak to one another, it somehow hadn't been brought up. The pair generally talked about the kids, or anything happening in Hayley's life. If ever the comment of how much Hope misses the pair of them, K simply assumed it was because they weren't around like they used to be. She never guessed it was because Klaus had simply dropped off the face of the earth.
"I'll talk to him," was the last thing K said on the subject.
~!~
Klaus returned home a few days later. The moment he walked through the door, he was leapt on by the boys. K remained seated in the living room, smiling at the interaction, but still annoyed with him over what Hayley had told her.
The day progressed as it normally would, and when Matthew and Alexander were finally put to sleep, K broached the subject. She didn't much feel like fighting in front of the boys, and there most definitely would be fighting.
"Spoke with Hayley a couple of days ago." She said as he poured them both something to drink.
"Hm?" he made a noise versus actually speaking.
K remained silent until he turned and offered her a drink. She saw his brows twitch slightly at the stern look on her face. Good.
"She told me you haven't been to see Hope in two years, Nik." She told him evenly. His jaw tensed. "Two years."
"It doesn't matter." He mumbled.
And that set her off. Before K could truly control the volume of her voice, she was yelling at Klaus for his selfishness, for turning his back on his daughter. She told him that she didn't put herself through that spell just so he could walk away from her anyway.
K fumed and screamed, shot insults and brought up valid points. All the while, Klaus remained silent. He didn't say anything and took her angry abuse. The truth was, he didn't have a valid excuse, so he simply kept his mouth shut.
~!~
Hayley's missing, Klaus is in New Orleans, and K can't stop pacing.
It took everything in her not to follow him to the city in search of the Crescent Queen, but she couldn't. Not only did she have the boys, but Hayley had told her she's taken Hope home to the manor after her ordeal at school. K had to remain as far from New Orleans as possible, which made the fact that one of her dearest friends was missing all the worse.
K and Hayley shared a special relationship built on mutual pain, heartache and love. It was stronger than most any friendship K could claim to have with anyone else in her long life –including the Bennetts- and that was something she never thought she could say. The bond they had was indescribable, and now she was missing.
Those five years they spent searching for the family's cures may have been short, but she, Hayley and Hope became a family during them, a tightknit family –and now one of them was missing.
The boys were sleeping, but K couldn't manage. Instead, she was sitting on the back stoop with a glass of blood, her knee bouncing uncontrollably and her phone nearby in case there was a call. She had no doubt Klaus would find the hybrid, but there was no way to know how long it would take.
Silence had enveloped her for so long that the sudden cry of her phone made K's insides lurch. She quickly snatched for her phone, dropping her glass of blood the same instant. The cell phone was to her ear before the glass shattered against the concrete.
"Hello?" she answered quickly. "Nik, did you find her?"
Nothing. Nothing greeted her ear except for a soft, almost inaudible whimpering sound. Light, shaky breaths were all she could hear and for some reason, those sounds made her skin crawl. She already knew. She already knew who this tiny, weak sound belonged to, but she couldn't make herself speak.
And then came a quivering, "Mama?"
The air had been purged from K's lungs in one long gust. Her shoulders began to tremble and tears formed in her eyes. This was the first time she'd heard Hope's voice in so very long.
For a moment or two, no one spoke. The weight of the phone call –even though nothing had been said- seemed to be holding them both hostage. But eventually, she found the strength.
"Mama, are…"
"Hope," K breathed. Her eyes fell shut and tears trailed down her cheeks. "Hello, sweetheart."
Hope broke. She began to cry into the phone, softly weeping from thousands of miles away and all K could do was… nothing. She could do nothing, but listen.
Her arms ached to hold the little girl, the seven-year-old Hope that still lived in her mind, but it was impossible. All K could do was listen to her cry.
"Shhh," K eventually said in a soft, sing-songy tone. "It's alright, sweetie. It's okay."
"No," she mumbled into the receiver. "No, it's not."
"Why?" K kept her voice sweet and kind, motherly despite how much it hurt her to do it.
There were a few more sniffs, and a few more strangled breaths before Hope seemed to gather herself enough to speak. K could still hear her struggling to keep from crying.
"Dad hates me."
K's brows came together curiously. "What are you talking about? Of course he doesn't."
"Yes he does, because of what I did."
"Hope," she said sweetly, "I'm sure no matter what's happened-"
"I'm the one who took mom."
K's back tensed. She clenched her jaw and thought about what that meant for a moment. On the one hand, it meant Hayley was in no real danger. On the other, it meant Hope turned on her mother. It was a tossup as to which situation vied for her attention the most.
"Am I broken?"
The random question snapped K back into the moment. It shot down her "disappointed mother" feelings and brought up the need to reassure her little girl once more.
"Broken? Why would you be broken?"
"That's what dad said I am." She started to cry again. "He said he broke me."
Again, K's head dipped. "That isn't what he meant, sweetheart. He's just afraid."
"Of me?"
"No, of course not. He's," K took a breath and let it out softly, "He's afraid you'll be like the rest of us, that's what he meant."
"I don't understand."
K ran her fingers through her head and tried to think of a way to better describe what she meant.
"Sweetheart," she began softly, "It's us, who are broken. We… we've been through so much that it's hard not to become… toxic. And your father is afraid that we are… infecting you."
"Infecting me? You guys aren't like a disease." She said sternly.
"We are, actually. That's the best way to describe most of us. Your mother's perhaps the only one who isn't." K took a deep breath and sighed once again. "The fact is, a thousand years of sins is a hard thing to ash away.
"You don't know much about your grandparents, but Mikael was… he was a bad man, and he broke you father, your aunts and uncles, when they were very young. Nik is afraid he'll do the same to you.
"He doesn't think you're broken, sweetheart. It's him."
AN: Hey guys. I hope you liked the story. I'm sorry it's been so long. I was sick for a little while and then life got in the way. I want to promise it won't happen again, but I'm sure you guys know how it can get. So, again, I'm sorry this update took so freaking long. I'll do my best to keep them more consistent from now on. :)
