Chapter Text
0.3
Leif is just getting ready for going on Oprah - his and Aerona's oldest, Astrid, called to tease him about how she'd gathered all of her siblings and they would be watching - when Torunn's phone rings.
She looks at it for a second, a little surprised, but picks up the call.
"Hello?" She's silent for a moment, then says, "yes, he's right here. I'm sure he will be."
He takes the phone and says, "Leif Trulsson here. What can I do for you?"
The man on the other line sounds tired, or drained maybe, when he speaks. "I - I don't really know how to do this. I guess I'll just - my name is Elijah Mikaelson."
Leif feels he same elation as he had with both Finn and Freya's calls. He has Elijah send in the proof, and when he gets it, he just stares at the visage of his grandson. Elijah looks a lot like Leif did at 28, so much so that it's uncanny.
He shows Torunn, and she gasps. "That's proof enough, I say."
He nods, agreeing completely. He doesn't bother to compare the picture of Elijah to the picture he has - he just calls and lets Elijah know that he believes him. "I'd love to talk to you right now, but I'm about to go on TV."
"Oh?" Elijah sounds looser, now, a little amused. Less emotional. "Who is interviewing you?"
"Oprah, her name is. Nice lady, don't you agree?"
"I've never met her, but she seems nice enough."
"Well, I'm certain she'll be happy to hear that you have been found as well." A secretary comes into their room, and beckons for him. He's going to say something about needing to go, when the secretary asks, "who's on the phone?"
"Elijah," Leif says.
The secretary's eyes light up. "Keep him on the line. Can he talk during the segment?"
Leif asks.
Elijah laughs. "I suppose so."
The secretary, when Leif tells him, smiles. "Okay, good! He's going to be transferred to the overhead phone, and we'll put him on when we're ready for him. Sound good?"
Leif communicates that to Elijah, who agrees. Elijah is different from Freya and Finn - Freya is nervous, visibly and obviously. She shakes. Finn is too preoccupied with other things to be nervous or confident. Elijah is easy with his time, his actions, it seems. He seems to be completely fine with going on Oprah without being prepped first.
Their diversity reminds him of how he and his siblings were, so many years ago now.
Leif is liking his grandkids more and more.
5.3
Kol has another panic attack when he hears Elijah's voice for the first time in 17 years. He's just trying to watch Leif Trulsson on Oprah, and suddenly, he hears his big brother's voice.
He's never had two in as many days, and Hailie freaks out. James and Kathy sit her down and let her know that Kol wasn't born Cole Nathan, he was born Kol Nathaniel. She obviously knew he was adopted - a little white boy with two black parents and a mixed, also adopted little sister, do not a natural-born family make.
She just had no idea that he is Kol Mikaelson, at his core. She's shocked to find out that he's a little boy inside who had his family cut away from him like an amputation.
They tell her this as he's curled into himself, trying to get Elijah's words about wanting to be a family again out of his head. She isn't there to rub his back, or make him count the trinkets in their home.
She's there for him, though, when he finds his courage to tweet about it - he stupidly does it without Taylor's permission.
"All American Hot Mess colehendofficial
Hey #MikaelsonManhunt ! I was born Kol Nathaniel Mikaelson - have you been looking for me?"
Well, he's always been good at pretending to be brave.
6.1
Rebekah loves Frederick, she truly does. But if he makes one more damn comment, she's going to scream.
"This is not funny!" She starts at a normal volume, but ends with a screech.
Fred doubles over, hands on his knees, crying with laughter.
She flicks paint at him. He straightens and gives her a betrayed look.
"Bekah? How could you?" He sounds affronted.
She raises a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. "You threw paint at me first, dingus. You know me, I always defend myself."
He nods, and rubs at the paint like it'll get off his clothes instead of getting spread out. Sigh. This is why he needs me, Rebekah thinks. He says, "I know that sweetie, but...did you have to do it back so much?"
She stares at his fuchsia-speckled face in sudden horror. "Oh my god…." She puts a hand over her mouth, suddenly in tears. Her breath hitches with a sob as she wails, "I hurt you!"
Fred's smiles slides off his face. He rushes forward, and wraps his arms around her. She sobs into his neck, thoughts going through all of the bad things that could come from her flicking paint onto him.
"It's okay, Bekah, I'm fine. I was just teasing you, I promise. We're okay, I'm okay, you can stop crying now…."
"Augh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She pulls away and wipes her tears off. "Damn hormones," she whispers. She knows her students will be back in class soon, as well as the teacher of the room. Neither she nor Mrs. Williams will want to explain why she's crying.
He shushes her. "I told you, it's fine. I can handle a mood swing or two, I promise."
She smiles at him, overjoyed that this is the man she's going to spend the rest of her life with. She really made a great choice.
Mr. H, Fred's main teacher, pops his head into the room. "C'mon, Freddy, class is about to start. You and Bekah need to get back into teacher mode."
Fred nods. With a grin, he responds, "gotcha Tom. I'll be right there." Mr. H gives them a smile and moves towards his classroom. His palm rests on her cheek for a moment, and she leans into it. Then he slips off to his classroom.
She's still standing there, eyes closed, when the first of the kids come in with Mrs. Williams. Two of them are talking about something adamantly. Curious, she moves closer to them, to hear what they're saying.
Amelia says, "they found 'Lijah! Can you believe it?"
Robert shakes his head. "Mmm-mm. Plus, they're going in order."
"What?" Amelia's eyes get wide.
"Yeah! First Finn, then Freya, then Elijah, and now Kol. See? They're in order, which means Niklaus is next."
"You're stupid," Amelia accuses. "They were born like this: Freya, Finn, 'Lijah, Niklaus, Kol, Rebekah, and Henrik. That's not in order."
Robert opens his mouth, ready to call Amelia stupid. Rebekah cuts in quickly, not wanting a shouting match to happen before class starts up again. "What are you kids talking about," she asks, crouching down a little. Her stomach gets in the way of her getting down to their level completely.
Robert brightens up, apparently excited to talk about this subject. "The Mikaelson Manhunt!"
Rebekah coughs on her own spit. "Mikaelson?"
Amelia nods. Robert asks, "have you heard, Mrs. Bekah? Kol is Cole Henderson! The funny guy from Book of Random! And Elijah, he called in to talk to Oprah! My daddy said so!"
She'd heard the names, but written them off. Hearing them now, connected to the last name Mikaelson, well, she's sure it's no coincidence.
"Wow! That sounds very interesting," she says. She won't bother to find out anything now - she'll do that when she gets home. She has to make sure, after all. Her memories of her time before are spotty at best; there could be no correlation, though she seriously doubts it.
Robert and Amelia talk to her for a few more minutes before Mrs. Williams starts up class.
Rebekah doesn't have any time to think of the possibilities, not with kids always needing her or wanting her attention. It still plagues her thoughts in what few free moments she has.
0.4
Leif is told that there's a celebrity claiming to be Kol the morning after he goes on Oprah. Torunn shows him a picture of the young man, and Leif sees it.
"We're going to go see Freya and Finn tomorrow. They're reuniting tonight, and they want to take us out to eat, to get to meet us. Maybe they'll have an opinion. For now, what should I say?"
Aerona tells her, "just say we're looking into it and will get back with an answer after we ask the others. Send Elijah a text now, we'll get his opinion and then the older kids'."
Torunn nods, and looks back down at the picture of him. The prospective Kol is smiling, and he looks so much happier than he does in the hundreds of photos from Mikael's house.
Leif says, "I hope this boy is really him."
Torunn nods, and replies, "it'll be good for the publicity, and I imagine that the ones we've already found will be overjoyed to have seen so much of their brother."
"I didn't even think of that," Leif says. He wraps his arm around his youngest, and hugs her, feeling like one of the luckiest guys on the planet.
Aerona smiles at them, and kisses his forehead. The affection makes him wonder what life was like for his poor grandchildren, raised first by an abusive monster, second by the system or strangers. It certainly wasn't easy, he's sure.
1.5 and 2.2
Finn flying out to meet Leif had been big news. Freya doing the same thing, especially with her husband tagging along, is just as big.
In fact, the whole situation has gotten so big that Freya and Finn haven't been able to communicate with each other, or Elijah, or Kol. When they finally got sick of not being able to talk to any of them, Leif's daughter, Torunn - Freya's aunt, which is just a scary thought considering it had always been just her and her siblings, or just her and her kids, no extended family - set it up for them.
The media found out, and after Kol's twitter declaration, the buzz around the situation has blown up. So, Freya is going to New York, where Leif, Aerona, Torunn, and Finn are, and her reunion with her brother is going to be televised. Awesome.
Graham thinks it won't be nearly as bad as she's thinking it will be.
"What is he going to say, though?" She asks when they're on the plane.
"What's he going to say about what?"
"Radley."
"What about him? His circumstances?" Graham looks a little confused, but also a little like he's causing her trouble just cause.
"Yes, his circumstances. He was born literally days after I turned 19. What's Finn going to think about that?"
"Well, you realize you don't have to tell him, right?"
Freya gives him a look. "Do you realize that when we were growing up, he was my best friend? For years? He was the only person on the planet who I told all of my secrets. And I'm not going to just not tell him about his nieces and nephews."
Freya wants to know about Finn's kids - they're her nieces and nephews - so she can't imagine not letting Finn know about her own children. She's just worried that Finn won't like the circumstances around Radley's birth.
He'd always been a little high and mighty. Not like Elijah, who would be his own can of worms when he came, but still. Nik, Kol, and Bekah had always made fun of him for being the "second hand moral compass" of the family. The only reason he wasn't the actual moral compass was his penchant for occasional mischief.
Still, his being a little more fun than Elijah didn't mean he would take kindly to her son's parentage.
Graham shrugs. "I don't know what to tell you, honey. He might not care at all, or he might find it, ah, distasteful, we'll say. I'm sure he won't disown you, though. He couldn't."
"He could," she counters.
"I seriously doubt it," he replies.
"You don't even know him, Graham, how could know what he - "
"Freya, you don't know him anymore. He isn't 15, he's 32. He's a completely different person. There's no telling what he's going to say. Just calm down, and stop thinking about it."
Freya frowns at him, knowing he's right. Her anxiety is just getting the best of her. Still, she irrationally doesn't talk to him until they got off the plane.
Once they step off, they walk right into a sea of flashing cameras. She ignores all of that for the face in front of the hoard.
"Finn!" She takes him in, knowing that the picture of him online doesn't do him justice instantly.
He's much taller than he was so long ago; his hair hasn't changed much from it's permanently perfectly coiffed state. His teeth aren't as crooked. His smile hasn't changed, though - it's just as bright.
She's crying. She doesn't care.
She flings herself in his arms, and they hug for the first time in 17 years.