Chapter Text
Mystic Falls
“So is the whole Kai thing dealt with?” Enzo asked, handing a coffee to Damon, and taking a seat with the rest of the family for breakfast.
“It’s something,” Maya muttered, digging into her food.
“So, he’s not gonna screw things up?” Damon asked.
“No he’s definitely going to screw things up,” Klaus replied, lifting Luna into his lap, and stopping Liam from pushing his fruit onto his sister’s plate.
“And…we’re okay with that?” Cary inquired, mentally reminding himself to check in with Klaus’s Vampires and see if they could co-ordinate something to keep an eye on the man that had come back with his Alpha.
“Not in the slightest,” Klaus replied, moving the fruit juice away from Luna and handing her a glass of milk instead, frowning when he saw Maya smirk and at him, and the juice moved back into Luna’s line of sight without anyone touching it.
“So are we…” Cary’s eyes darted between the two children, “ taking care of him?”
“Nope,” Maya shook her head, gleefully avoiding the annoyed scowl that Klaus was now shooting in her direction.
Cary opened his mouth for a moment and then closed it, glancing at the others at the table, who didn’t seem to have any idea what was going on, “I’m confused.” Everything that he knew about Klaus from both stories and what he’d seen in person, told him that the Alpha did not just let people do what they wanted, especially when they were going to fuck things up for him.
“We’re going to let him screw some stuff up,” Maya said, taking pity on him, “Take the heat off of me for a while.”
“Alright,” Cary drew the word out, grabbing his cup of coffee and making to leave, “I’m gonna have someone follow him, because I did not like any part of what you just said.”
“Excellent plan,” Klaus said, definitely not paying attention to his Beta, “Luna that is far too much sugar in the morning, drink your milk!” he insisted, moving the mango juice away from her again.
Luna pouted at her father, and then looked over at Maya, “Mommy can I have some juice?” she asked sweetly.
“Course you can baby,” Maya replied, refusing to show how surprised she was at the use of the word ‘Mommy’ in front of everyone, sure Luna had said it once, but they’d been interrupted by Kai, so there was everye chance that the little girl had forgotten all about it.
The rest of the family however, were not able to hide any of that surprise. Jenna choked on her coffee, while Enzo practically coughed up his pancakes in shock. Rebekah had frozen mid pour of her own blood infused beverage, causing it to spill over the rim. Caroline slapped a hand over Damon's mouth in an effort smother his laughter, while Freya’s mouth dropped open in shock, but Kol’s grin turned into a wicked smirk. “Luna my love, do you know that if Maya is your Mummy, then dear Jenna over there is your Grandma?”
Luna gasped in amazement, even with her first Mommy and Daddy, she’d never had grandparents before, “For real?!”
Jenna shot Kol a withering glare, and reached out with her abilities, causing Kol to throw himself out of his chair, and then turned to Luna, who was staring at her with wide eyes, “You’re my Grandma?!”
“Oh my God,” Jenna whispered in horror, and Damon couldn’t hold back his laughter, gasping for breath as he took in the terrified look that Jenna was giving Luna.
After such a loud, and shocking breakfast, Rebekah had slipped quietly away from the family. Klaus had to re-establish himself, and his power with his pack, while Maya would not be let out of her mother’s sight. The blonde Original didn’t really have a place in mind to go, so instead she just wandered Mystic Falls, trying to sort out her feelings.
She was deep in the woods surrounding the town, when she heard movement, movement that most definitely wasn’t animal and was surprised when she saw Mason Lockwood emerge from behind some trees, a duffel bag full of chains in his hands. “Mason.”
He stopped short for a moment, despite the fact that he’d spent some time on the Original’s land with a wolf pack, he still wasn’t used to just seeing them just exist. “Rebekah.”
“I would have thought you would have left town by now,” she said, “From what I’ve heard around town, that’s kind of your thing, isn’t it?”
He walked towards her, the two of them moving in the same direction in the woods, “Well I thought about it,” he admitted. “I mean the woman I thought loved me, turned out to be a lying bitch who triggered my curse by making me kill my best friend, and wanted to use me as a sacrifice to save her own ass. But uh…my brother’s dead, and my nephew has no idea what will happen to him if he gives into the anger he feels all the time. Plus, you know, my whole Pack’s dead, so I don’t really have anywhere to go…”
“Yes unfortunately for your pack, my brothers are not one to just let things go, and your pack really pissed them off.”
Mason shrugged, “Oh I know, believe me I get it, but it’s not like I can just find another pack, they tend to stay hidden.”
“Nik has a pack,” Rebekah pointed out, expertly dodging tree branches as she traversed the terrain, heading closer to her first home.
Mason let out a self-deprecating laugh, “Yeah, even if I wanted to join his pack, those guys really don’t trust me, something about being stupid enough to fall for Katherine’s manipulations.” For someone who had had his whole world shattered only a few months ago, he was taking things remarkably well.
“Don’t feel too bad,” Rebekah shrugged, “It took Elijah far too long to understand that Katherine never really loved him either, of course he knew her when she was human, and was apparently…sweet, or at least that’s what he used to say. Personally I think that all doppelgangers are vicious, manipulative things that will do anything to survive. But I am an excellent judge of character.”
“Well the next time I wanna go out with someone, I’ll come to you to make sure they don’t want to sell me to an enemy they made hundreds of years ago,” Mason smirked, hefting the bag he was holding higher on his shoulder, he’d made sure that he’d got enough chains to hold his wolf down, so they were actually testing his Werewolf strength.
“That doesn’t explain why you’re out here though,” Rebekah pointed out, she didn’t know if it was the lingering magic in the land from when her family had been turned, but very few people came so deep into the woods, “There’s nothing around here for miles.”
“I was looking for a safe place to shift,” Mason replied, “The Lockwood Cellar is too close to home, I need to be deep enough into the woods to make sure I don’t hurt anyone.”
“You don’t just turn and run wild like the rest of them?” Rebekah asked, having seen how in tune with their wolves her brother’s pack were, she found it odd to meet a Werewolf that didn’t embrace the change.
Mason shook his head, “This was never something I wanted, even when I found a pack, changing was still…torture, if I could lock the wolf back up I would.” He was uncharacteristically serious, but ever since he’d triggered his curse his life had been miserable, Katherine had been the one spark of good, and that knowledge was more than humiliating for him. She’d ruined him, and then pretended to be his saviour, and to top it all off, he’d chosen to stay in a town where there was a girl that looked exactly like her walking around. So far Mason had been able to avoid her, but he doubted that would last, he had no idea what he would do when he was confronted with Elena Gilbert.
Elijah stepped inside the mansion, concentrating his hearing, so that he could find his brother. He would only give himself a day back in Mystic Falls before he would return to New Orleans, he’d made a promise to keep Davina safe, and leaving her alone for longer than a day seemed like a bad idea, especially with her coven hunting her. But he needed to see his brother, in person, not just through a screen, he needed it, so that he knew that he hadn’t failed his brother, like he had so many times before. And he wanted to see Jenna, he’d left her at her most vulnerable, and yes, he’d done so at her behest, because she knew that Davina was in trouble, because she was a mother, and felt some responsibility for the young girl, especially knowing that Davina’s own mother was someone that the young girl feared. But Elijah had missed her, they hadn’t had the chance to really speak while he was away, Jenna was focusing on being able to connect with Maya, and that hadn’t left her with much time to do anything else, not that she had wanted to; and Elijah understood that, if he hadn’t been protecting Davina, he would have done the same to try and get his brother back.
Elijah heard Klaus’ voice coming from the other side of the grounds, at the pack house, normally he would stay away from the house, knowing that the wolves there liked to know beforehand when Vampires would be in their space, but today, he didn’t care. He was outside in an instant, watching for a moment as Klaus mediated the sparring between his enforcers. His niece and nephew were in the shadow of their father, unwilling to step away from him, moving when he moved, so that there was no distance between them. Elijah took a step forward, and Klaus’ eyes snapped up to meet Elijah’s, the gold rising in his irises for a moment, as his wolf recognised the arrival of more of his family.
Klaus laid a hand on the children’s head, directing their attention to the uncle, so that they knew where he’d be, “Elijah,” he spoke softly, and was in front of his brother before he could blink. Whilst Elijah was usually the most in control of his siblings, he allowed himself a moment to shed that control and hugged his brother, in full view of his pack. It was only then that Elijah was able to relax, knowing that Klaus was alive, safe, and back with the family.
“So why are you wandering the woods?” Mason asked, glancing at the blonde Original, causing her to shoot him a glare. “What?” he smirked, “I’m baring my soul to you! The least you could do is reciprocate, you know, a little.” He pushed, he could tell that she was upset.
“No one made you talk to me,” she replied defensively.
“Nah, of course not, I mean it’s not like you could snap me like a twig if I displeased you,” Mason replied.
“You’re displeasing me now,” Rebekah shot back.
“Alright, fine,” he held his hands up, the picture of surrender, “I just thought you looked like you needed to talk, you know…to someone who doesn’t know any of your history, you know…someone who’s got no skin in the game.” He moved away from her, in order to go deeper into the woods, suppressing a smile when he heard her follow him.
The two walked in silence for a few minutes, before Rebekah finally spoke up, “Luna…” she started, “my niece, she- she called Maya her mother today, and Nik, he’s her father…”
Mason paused and looked at her, the tension in her shoulders, the shame hidden behind indifference in her eyes, “And that upset you,” he spoke quietly.
“Yes, no,” she shook her head, “I don’t know, I just…”
“Just what?” Mason asked carefully, “Whatever it is Rebekah,” he looked around and gave a shrug, “Who am I gonna tell?”
“For the past thousand years…there are only two things I’ve ever truly wanted in this life, freedom, to live, to love, and to be a mother. I’m free now, in a way I never thought I’d be, but my other dream,” she finally looked at him, “I’ll never be a mother, I’ll never have a family like that, and that my brother gets that, when he’s never wished for it-”
“You’re jealous,” Mason filled in the blanks, “And hurt, but you can’t tell your family that.”
“I just needed some time away from them.”
“But, the kids, they’re not Klaus’ biologically, they’re adopted, why can’t you do the same?”
“What are the odds that another pair of orphaned supernatural children will just cross my path?” Rebekah scoffed.
“Rebekah, there’s probably tens of thousands of children in the US alone waiting to be adopted. Why do they need to be supernatural?” Mason asked, confused.
The Original sighed, “Nik took in a human child once…about 200 years ago, he took him in and Marcel…grew up knowing that we were Vampires, he wanted to be a Vampire too, but Nik refused, he never wanted this life for his son, it can be a hard life, violent, bloody, and any Vampire that isn’t an Original…well they’re weak, especially in comparison to us, too easy to kill. Nik wanted Marcel to have a normal life, get married, have children, but Marcel was persistent. It became a bone of contention between the two…” she didn’t know the full story of how Marcel was turned, seeing as how she was in a coffin for that part of his life, but she did get the bare bones. “It took him being mortally wounded for Nik to turn him, and when that happened, he became a target…for every single one of our enemies, and he suffered the consequence.”
She knew that Marcel was alive, but when she fled New Orleans, she believed that he was dead, she had been devastated. “I can’t take the chance that something would happen to my child, not like that, I would never survive it.”
“A supernatural child already has a target on their back,” Mason said in understanding.
“We were lucky to find Liam and Luna alive, most supernatural children are killed with their parents, I doubt that will happen again.” She took a seat on a fallen log, hands folded in her lap, “I just…need some time and space.”
Mason stood in front of her, a little awkwardly, not really expecting their conversation to be so serious, “Do you want me to leave?” he asked, unsure of how to proceed.
Rebekah gave him an appraising look, searching for any signs of pity, and when she found none, she shrugged, “You can sit if you want.”
22nd June 2010 - New Orleans
Emma, one of Klaus’ Hybrid enforcers was careful when she walked the streets of New Orleans, the tension on the streets, especially in the French Quarter, was at an all time high, the Vampires were scouring every inch of the city looking for Davina, but so far they hadn’t found her.
She took a seat at a table at an outdoor table of a cafe, opposite one of the Vampires that her Alpha had placed inside Marcel’s organisation. “Jai, how are things?” she asked conversationally.
“Going pretty well,” he replied, flashing the daylight ring on his finger, not one of Maya’s, the lapis lazuli he got from her was on the inside of a bracelet, hidden, but safe. The one on his finger was from Marcel, indicating that he was trusted enough to be a part of the ‘King’s’ inner circle. Seeing as how it was the middle of the day, and Emma didn’t have any daylight jewellery to protect her, anyone who happened upon them would think that he was on a date with some regular woman.
“I’ve checked in with Del,” she said, sliding three drawings across the table, three Witches, all who were using magic in the quarter that Davina had sensed. He grabbed them up without looking, not wanting to draw attention to it, “She doesn’t know if they’re looking for her, but if they think that they’re safe…”
“I’ll take care of it,” he nodded, “quietly.” Marcel would typically make a show of going after the Witches publicly, but Jai couldn’t do that, not without showing his hand to Marcel.
“It’ll have them wondering about it,” Emma replied, and he shrugged in response.
“Don’t really have a way around that. What about things with you?” he hadn’t had contact from Klaus for longer than usual, and it had had him worried. He felt Emma slide her foot along his, and she leant forward, as though they were having an intimate moment.
“We had a temporary setback, everything’s okay now though, but with the way things are here…well…I’m setting up to move in.”
Jai let his brows smooth at the information, if the pack was getting ready to move in, that meant that it probably wouldn’t be long before Klaus came to town, and destroyed the very precarious balance that Marcel had created in the French Quarter. “Let me know if you need any help with boxes, I’m stronger than I look.”
Emma gave him an amused glance, before standing, “I’ve got to get back to work,” she said, aware that a couple of Marcel’s people had just spotted them, and were watching, “But I’ll call you,” she said flirtatiously, she leant down and brushed her mouth against his, eyes flashing gold for just a moment, signalling him to go with it. He relaxed into the kiss and smiled up at her when she pulled away.
“Looking forward to it,” he replied, watching her walk away.
Rousseau’s
Sophie Deveraux slid into the back of Rousseau’s, catching her sister’s attention, getting her to follow.
“What is it?” Jane-Anne, “We’re supposed to be keeping a low profile,” she hissed. “We shouldn’t be seen together.”
“We’re sisters, Marcel’s guys can’t say anything about that.”
“I’m not talking about Marcel’s guys,” Jane-Anne replied, “The coven, or rather what’s left of them are not happy with you, half of them want to string you up in the cemetery!”
“Well I may have something that will help,” Sophie replied.