Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

0.1

Leif grabs the phone with a shaky hand. He's sitting in his chair, and the phone is closer to him than Aerona, who sits on the couch. Usually, she insists he doesn't answer the phone, but this time, she just watches a little cautiously.

"Leifson household, Leif speaking. What can I do for you?" Aerona gives him an approving look. Usually, he'll say something inappropriate, and scar one of their many children.

"You're Leif Trulsson?"

"Yes, I am. Who are you?"

"My name is James Collins, I work at the Mystic Falls prison in Mystic Falls, Virginia. I have news about your son. Just making sure, but, your son is named Mikael Sebastian Leifson, right?"

"Mikael? I haven't from him in almost 35 years. Have you found him? You said he was in prison?"

"Yes, I'm sorry. I have some unfortunate news, actually. He died yesterday of a heart attack."

"What?" His voice comes out a little strangled.

Aerona, already looking concerned by the prison comment, raises an eyebrow.

"Yes, I'm sorry. You said you haven't spoken to him in 35 years?"

"He went off to London for school, and never spoke to us again. We knew he wasn't lost because he said he was running to America with his girlfriend…. I just realized - does he have a family?"

James makes a noise that Leif doesn't quite understand. "Ah, yes, he did. He had seven children, Freya, Finn, Elijah, Niklaus, Kol, Rebekah, and Henrik. They went into the foster care system in 1996."

"What...what about their mother?" Surely, she took them in when Mikael went off to prison.

Aerona raises her other eyebrow. Leif is just trying to comprehend that he has more grandchildren that he's never met or even heard of.

"That's why he went to prison. He killed her and nearly beat Niklaus to death."

"Oh, my god. Is Niklaus okay?"

"He lived, yes. He aged out of the system and can't be traced now, however."

He breathed for a second, a little overwhelmed. He can't imagine his son hurting a child, his own child, but then, he hasn't known Mikael in almost forty years. "Have any of them been contacted?"

"Unfortunately, no. Mikael had no contacts, and took all of the children out of his will. You were still in it, so we searched for you. It isn't as easy with the kids. All we have right now are names from the backs of pictures in his belongs."

"So none of them know their father is dead."

"No. To be frank, I don't believe they'll care. The older ones would be happy, and the younger ones were adopted."

Leif sighs heavily. "Is there anything I can do? I live in Tromsø, and they must all live in America, right? Is there anything, anything at all, that I can do from here?"

"I'm sad to say but, no, not really. All we've really been able to gather is that they should all be adults by now, and that the ones who stayed in the system were problem children." He goes on to say that Niklaus got in many fights, Freya seduced her foster father, Finn got caught with drugs, and Elijah didn't speak for a whole year. He also says that Kol, Rebekah, and Henrik were adopted fairly quickly, so he has no idea what their behaviors were like.

"Well, if they were separated, then I'm not surprised."

James sighs. "Yes, I agree. Like I said, though, there isn't anything you can do. I'm very sorry. If there are any developments, then I'll call and let you know immediately."

James hangs up abruptly. Leif pulls the old home phone from his ear and stares at the tiny screen incredulously.

Aerona asks, "who was that?"

Leif, for a moment, doesn't know how to answer. Then, "a man in America, saying our Mikael has died."

Without communicating their intent, they give a moment of silence for their son. They haven't seen him or spoken to him in so long, though, it's almost easy to get over their grief.

Especially after Leif tells Aerona about the crimes he committed against his family.

Aerona drags a hand down her face. "I suppose we need to tell our other children another sibling of theirs had passed."

Leif nods. They'll do that, and then he'll let Aerona in on the idea forming in his head about how his grandchildren will be found.

Chapter Text

1.1 - a week later

Freya steps out from the chaos of the daycare, into the dingy alleyway that separates it and the funeral home next door.

She needs a smoke, desperately. Outside is the only place she can do it - the kids are exposed to it enough in their homes, she doesn't need to add onto that.

Radley complains about it enough that she's finally starting to take his concerns into mind. She grateful that Radley is so uptight, honestly - it makes him better than his father, better than the man he looks like the most, her father.

He is her son, though - he expresses his dislike for children just like his father, but he's helped raise his younger siblings more than she ever wanted for him.

As she's thinking, she lights up, and takes a puff.

She only has five minutes, so she needs to make the butt last. With Leah's asthma, she's also not really allowed to smoke at home - plus the kids cry when she's gone for too long.

She takes a few more puffs, then scrapes it out and puts the butt back in the box. She puts the box back in her purse, in the place her kids swear is the hardest to get to. She steps inside, intending to put her purse back into her cubby, but she stops dead when she hears her name.

"...Freya Mikaelson, Finn Mikaelson, Elijah Mikaelson, Niklaus Mikaelson, Kol Mikaelson, Rebekah Mikaelson, and Henrik Mikaelson. Please, please help me find them. If you have any information, call me at…."

She stopped listening. Jesus. She hasn't heard any of her siblings' names since she was 17 years old.

Talk about a shock to the system.

A sharp cry pierces the air, and she's sucked back into her job. She promises herself, though - she will look into that guy on the TV, saying her family members' names.

1.2 - a few hours later

"Radley?" Freya sets her keys in the bowl by the door, and takes the ponytail out of her hair. The only baby around here was likely out with his dad.

"Mom?"

"Where are you?"

"I'm in the kitchen!"

"I'm here, too," Nina shouts.

Freya laughs, and pretends to ignore Radley's scolding.

When she enters the kitchen, she sees that Brooke is laying face down on the table, snoring lightly. Her homework, along with Radley's and Leah's, is laid out on the table. Leah isn't in the kitchen, and Radley is sitting next to Nina, on the opposite side of the table from Brooke. "Radley, can I ask for a favor?"

He looks at her cautiously - before Graham, the love of her life, had been in the picture, Freya had moved him across the state for her boyfriends, and she always asked him for favors, usually ones that wouldn't fly anymore - but nods.

She smiles. "Thanks, honey. Can you look up some guy named Leif Trulsson?"

Immediately, his face clears. "Mom, are you serious? Don't you have a phone you can search things on?"

"I do, but I'd rather you do it. You're better at it than me."

He snorts, and pulls out his phone. As he types, he teases, "googling things?"

She doesn't respond, waiting for her answer. Nina takes that moment to tell her about what they did at school - first graders don't have much homework, she mentions, and laughs about it while pointing at Radley. (He pretends to be sad, and she frantically apologizes. Freya suddenly remembers Nik doing that to Bekah, and she has to blink several times for the tears to go away.)

Once Nina is done apologizing, Freya cuts in with a, "what does it say?"

"Well, it says here that he's some Norse dude looking for his grandchildren, apparently they're out in the wind and their father just died…." He reads for a moment, then says, "there's a picture...lemme just…. Oh, my god. Mom, is that you?"

He extends his phone out towards her. He's not wrong - the last picture of the Mikaelson siblings is showing on the screen, showing her sullen, seventeen year old face. Finn is next to her, Henrik in his arms. Elijah is on his other side, with Niklaus at his shoulder. Kol and Rebekah sit at their feet.

Overcome, she just stares at her siblings' faces. She nods mutely, and grabs the phone. Under the picture it says, This is the only picture in the Mikaelsons' belongings that does not have Niklaus' face scratched out. It is also the only photo of all seven children together. Go through this slideshow to see a summary of each Mikaelson, with picture identification, as well.

She swiped, and saw a red circle around her face in the picture. Freya Riley Mikaelson, the caption read. The oldest of the siblings, she was born around 1979 in Mystic Falls, Virginia. In 1996, when Esther (their mother) died and Mikael (their father) went to jail, she was either 16 or 17 years old. She aged out of the foster system without getting adopted or placed in a permanent foster home. Her last known location, in 1999, was in Georgia, USA. If you have any information on her, please come forward.

The next few slides have similar summaries. She doesn't look at all of them - Radley asks for his phone back. He can only stand to see the look in her eyes for so long, she guesses.

"Is that actually you, Mom? In that picture?" She nods. "Who were the other kids?"

She swallows around a lump in her throat. She's never told her children about their aunt and uncles - she never thought she'd see them again, so what was the point?

"Those are my siblings, honey." Her voice cracks; he wisely ignores it.

"I thought you were an orphan, though." His brow creases, and she sees Mikael in him. She sees it more and more every day. The thought of him knowing about his grandfather is terrifying - she can't stand that she has his eyes, so how will Radley feel when he finds out that he's nearly a carbon copy?

"Only since I was seventeen. Before that, I had six siblings - Finn, Elijah, Nik, Kol, Rebekah, and Henrik."

Radley, thankfully, doesn't ask what happened - instead, he asks, "do I have any cousins?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. I haven't spoken to any of them since 1996."

"Wow! Really? Then you have to contact this guy, Mom. You have to."

Freya really, really wants to. But she's scared - what if her supposed grandfather is just as bad as Mikael? What if her siblings don't want to see her?

Radley sees her hesitation. He opens his mouth to speak, but Brooke' snorts in her sleep. He gives her a funny look, then says, "fine, tell Graham. I'm sure he'll tell you the same thing. Just...don't give up this opportunity, Mom. This could be the only chance you'll get to be reunited with them." He looks down at the picture on his phone screen. "Graham won't be home for a little while. Can you tell me stories about them while we wait?"

He gives her the Niklaus Puppy Dog Eyes (TM) that she's never been immune to. Sighing, she sits in Nina's vacated seat, and starts talking.

2.1

Spongebob's giggle is replaced by a man talking about genital herpes, and Finn has never been more grateful.

He's already got a headache - hearing three of his six children fight over Dora, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and iCarly, only to agree on Spongebob has not helped at all. The baby is crying somewhere, too, not responding to Sage's cooing hushes, and god knows where the eldest is. Christine, the second to last, is sitting in his lap, watching as he types in more information.

"Who are you looking for, Daddy?" She pokes him on the cheek, and giggles madly.

Lacey, from the living room, screeches, "shut up, Christine!"

Christine's eyes water, and she starts sobbing. Finn sighs and picks her up. He hushes her as he walks to the living room. The eldest, Philip, is passed out on the couch. How, Finn has no idea. Sage swears the boy could sleep through a tornado.

Lacey is sitting three inches from the TV. Grant and Zach have followed her lead and are even closer.

Finn's headache is going full force.

He sets Christine on the couch, and turns to the kids on the floor. "Why are you sitting so close to the TV?" Lacey smirks live she's gotten out of trouble, so he adds, "Lacey, you're definitely not off the hook."

She pouts, so Grant says, "we-llllllll, Phil is on the couch, so we had to sit on the floor, and Lacey thought we should sit close so we can see better." Zach nods his head so hard, he gets visibly dizzy.

He pinches the bridge of his nose. "You can't sit that close to the TV. You could do bad, bad things to your eyes, alright, kids? Boys, come sit over here by the couch. Lacey…." She crosses her arms and rolls her eyes as the boys do as they're told. They're barely out of the terrible two's and three's that all Mikaelsons have, and yet they're much more obedient than their older sister.

She's eight. She already acts just like Freya did when she was that age.

"Lacey, you are not allowed to say shut up. Also, please, do not influence your siblings to do things you know you aren't allowed to do. Now, apologize to your sister."

Lacey huffs, but says, "sorry." She says it like he's forced her with threat of death. She said it, though, he thinks, and that's a win in my book.

He moves to pick Christine up again, and take her back to the kitchen where he was trying to research Sage's family tree. Christine likes to help, so he'll let her sit on his lap while he goes through the hints and such.

However, he's stopped when he hears what must be the final commercial - and commercials have always been a bad thing, until he had to listen to Squidward contemplate suicide all day, that is.

An older man's voice says, "I'm looking for my grandchildren. I've never met them, and I'm hoping to find them. They were separated in 1996 - they haven't seen each other in 17 years. Recently, my son, their father, died, and none of them can be found to be told the bad news. Their names are Freya Mikaelson, Finn Mikaelson, Elijah Mikaelson, Niklaus Mikaelson, Kol Mikaelson, Rebekah Mikaelson, and Henrik Mikaelson. Please, please help me find them. If you have any information, call me at…." He says the number, and Finn whips out his phone to dial it.

Sage comes downstairs to hear the tail end of the commercial, and see the picture of Finn and his siblings that he'd thought lost on their TV screen. He wasn't thinking about the picture, though, nor how all of his kids except Adam, who was sleeping in Sage's arms, and Phil, who was still asleep on the couch, were suddenly looking a little frightened at how he was acting.

No, it was none of that. As soon as he heard Freya's name, his thoughts had gone to two places - one, now he could potentially expand his side of the family tree, and two, he was really sick of waiting to see his siblings again.

The phone rang once, twice, before - "Hello?" It's a woman's voice, not the old man's. It's accented the same, Scandinavian if he had to guess. Finn doesn't care though; man, woman, adult, child, he might be about to reunite with his family. Whoever is on the line doesn't matter.

Breathlessly, he answers, "hi. I'm calling about the commercial?"

The woman on the other side of the line gives a shocked sounding laugh. "Wow. Alright, I'll go get my father. He'll be very happy to hear someone has answered his calls."

The line goes quiet, so Finn takes a moment to reassure his family. 'It's fine,' he mouths, and moves to the kitchen. He sits heavily in his chair, pulls up himself on his family tree, and waits.

After another moment, the old man's voice sounds, "my daughter says you're calling because of the commercial?"

"Yes, I am. I - "

"Oh, I forgot to say, my name is Leif Trulsson. What's your name?"

Finn grins, happier than he's been since little Adam was born. "It's Finn. Finn Mikaelson."

0.2

Leif drops the phone. Torunn, his youngest, scrambles to pick it up. Her hovering has one good thing about it - he doesn't have to bend over to get it.

She hands him her cellphone for the second time, and he chokes out, "Finn Mikaelson?"

Torunn's eyes go wide, and she claps a hand over her mouth. Aerona, sitting on one of the hotel beds, stands quickly and makes her way to them.

The man on the other line - with an unassuming southern-American/diluted-British accent, and a noticeable hitch in his breath - responds, "yeah. And you're Leif Trulsson. You said you were my grandfather?"

"I-I, yes, I am." A thought occurs to him, and he says, "I don't mean to be rude, son, but is there any way you could send proof?"

Thankfully, Finn seems to understand. "I could text you a picture, or something?"

"Hold on," he says. To Torunn, he asks, "can your phone get pictures?" She nods, so he tells Finn, "that sounds fine. But how will I know it's you?"

"I'll uh...I'll write down my birthday, and your name. Is that okay?"

"Yes," Leif says, feeling overjoyed.

"Alright, well, I'm going to hang up to take the picture, but I'll call right back. Okay?"

Leif nods before he realizes Finn can't see him and says, "okay."

The line goes dead.

As one, Torunn and Aerona demand, "well?"

"He's sending proof. Will one of you get the picture, please, so we can compare it?"

Torunn fetches it quickly, just in time for Finn to send the picture.

The man in the picture is holding up a paper under his chin, that says, Leif Trulsson, my birthday is October 28th, 1981!

He holds the framed picture in his hands, and Torunn holds the phone next to the picture.

He is, unmistakably, Finn Mikaelson. He looks older, of course, and he's thinned out some, but it's him.

Finn is calling within seconds of their revelation, and Torunn answers the phone, as it's still in her hand. She squeals into the device, "you're Finn Mikaelson!"

He says something, and Torunn laughs.

Aerona and Leif share an excited look - this is just the beginning, and they both know it.

1.3

Graham, when he comes back, doesn't have an answer. "Sweetie, you should do whatever feels right." That's his first response. His second is, "if you want to, then you should, even if you're nervous."

Then, when she demands his true feelings on the matter, he says, "I think it's up to you. Of course, I have an opinion. But it's still up to you."

So Freya forces herself to look at the situation at different angles, and only ends up confusing herself.

She doesn't have an answer after two days have gone by - that is, until Radley says, "look, they found one of them."

Freya lunges towards his phone, which makes Nina cry with laughter. Leah rolls her eyes, and Brooke snorts. Radley smirks, and hands his phone over. Yeah yeah, she thinks, yuck it up.

When she looks at the phone, she sees that under Finn Caspar Mikaelson, there's an "updated summary" above the original one.

It says, Finn Caspar Mikaelson, born 28th of October, 1981, called in on 17/09/13. He said, "I'm Finn Mikaelson." We compared his likeness (from the picture you see below) to the picture you see above, and he was a match. He is 32 years old, the father to six wonderful children, and is a professional genetics/family-lines researcher. It is great to meet you, Finn!

She scrolls, wanting to see that picture. She gasps when she sees it - Finn has grown. He's grown a lot. He's not the 15 year old she remembers anymore. He's a dad, the summary says. He's an adult. Her little brother is an adult.

"I've made up my mind," she says, and dials the number.

Chapter Text

3.1

Elijah tucks Katherine's hair behind her ear. She moans, burrowing deeper into their bed.

"I'll take Matthew out for the day. Just rest."

She nods, not responding otherwise. Not that he expects her to.

"Remember to call Elena and Jeremy, alright, love?" She just nods again. He kisses her forehead. "Love you."

"Love you too," she murmurs.

He closes the door behind him softly, not wanting to wake Matthew up from his nap quite yet.

He drags his hands over his face, and leans against the wall. His free time is so rarely spent with his son, alone, that he has no idea what he's going to do. He could take Matthew to the park, but the little boy insists on going with his mom.

Grocery shopping is the only other thing coming to mind.

For someone who's going to college for a second time, he really is clueless.

He's brought out of his thoughts from a cry in Matthew's room. He hurries to his son's room to get the boy downstairs - Katherine doesn't need to be woken up this early today.

When they go downstairs, Matt quiets. Elijah lets him play on his phone while breakfast is made. Elijah, like most of the men in his family, is no chef, but his pancakes are fairly yummy.

Matthew agrees - he willingly gives Elijah his phone back to get some pancakes. The little boy digs in, while Elijah takes his time. He also checks his phone and is surprised to find that Matthew has opened google, instead of one of his baby apps.

He'd typed random letters in the search bar. Elijah goes to delete the letters, and is down to the first three, when a suggestion shows up. Mikaelson.

Intrigued, Elijah clicks on it. The New Yorker is the first hit; it says, "First Mikaelson found in so-called manhunt". A Buzzfeed article is the second hit. It's title says, "WATCH Leif Trulsson meet grandson Finn Mikaelson for first time amidst #MikaelsonManhunt."

Elijah glances back up at his son, then clicks on the video. It shows a man with a cane standing in an airport with a sign that says "FINN MIKAELSON" on it. He briefly wonders if it's the same Finn Mikaelson he knows, or if it's just a coincidence.

It's not - the old man is approached by a tall figure with a head full of hair. That hair isn't something he's forgotten in the seventeen years since he last saw his siblings - it had been Finn's pride and joy in their youth.

He has the sound down, so he hears nothing, but subtitles let him know that Finn and the old man - Leif - seem to have spoken before.

"Dada!" Matthew shouts. Elijah drops his phone to the table in surprise, and raises an eyebrow at his son.

"Yes?"

"Done!"

"Oh, Matthew, good job! You really ate a lot!" There's still a quarter of pancake left on his plate, but Elijah scoops it up and pops it into his own mouth. Matthew screeches with laughter.

He'll just have to look into the "#MikaelsonManhunt" later. He has a son to take care of.

1.4

Freya calls and then hangs up a half-second later. Then she calls again.

A woman answers, saying, "hello?"

"Uh, hi. I was calling because of the commercial…?"

"Oh! Well, Leif is not here right now. I'm his wife, Aerona. What can I do for you today, Miss?" Freya hears wife, thinks grandma, with no small amount of panic might she add, and then tells herself to shut up.

"I'm Freya Mikaelson. The oldest." She's a little abrupt, but she's so nervous she's shaking.

There's a pause, then - "I'm very happy to hear that. We'll need some proof, unfortunately. We've already gotten a prank call or two. We need to make sure, you see."

Freya nods. "Yeah, I get it. How do you want to do this?"

"Well, Finn sent us a picture of himself with his birth date and Leif's name written on a paper. Could you do that?"

Her heart constricts at Finn's name. Objectively, she's know he's been alive (or, she'd hoped he's been alive) for the last almost two decades, but to hear about something he did in real life is new. It makes this real.

"Sure," she chokes out. She hangs up, and grabs a paper off the table.

Brooke complains about her paper being stolen, but Freya doesn't pay her any mind. Graham, bless him, calms her down quickly.

Freya scribbles her birthday - April 26th - and "Leif Trulsson" down on the paper, then snaps a picture. She sends it to the number, and gets a thanks! It'll be just a moment in return.

She sits heavily, and breathes through her nose. Nina and Justin rub her back, though Nina is much more careful. Justin, firmly in his terrible twos, pulls at her hair and cries when she moves his hands away.

Everyone is quiet.

The phone rings, and she picks it up again. Trying for casual (and not anxious), she says, "what's the verdict?"

"You're her. You have to be." Freya sighs in relief. "Freya, it is so good to hear from you…."

4.1

I want to die, Klaus thinks as he hands the lady in front of him her coffee. She's going to be his last customer if he has to effing quit.

She smiles, and runs off to her life that she must love if she's smiling at a damn barista. There's a line behind where she stood, but Klaus ignores it and hands the line off to the newbie. The newbie glares; Klaus ignores that, too.

He goes to the staff bathroom, takes off every green part of his uniform, and stuffs it all in his bag. He has to get to his other job now, and it's on the other side of town, so he has to hurry.

On his way out, he hears a girl in line say something about the Mikaelson Manhunt.

Klaus would really like to stop hearing about that, please.

And yes, he's heard about it and is ignoring it. Every time he thinks about it, his cats give him these looks like they know what he's thinking and want him to feel guilty. Marcel's eyes make him feel terrible.

So, instead of dealing with it (or thinking about why his cat makes him feel so damn guilty), he just ignores it. It isn't happening. Nope.

Except, it is. And he'd really like to become the third Mikaelson found. It's too bad he's never going to take that leap.

Chapter Text

5.1

Kol steps off the plane and wants to melt. Dammit, why is L.A. so hot?

It's the price you pay for seeing them, he reminds himself. And it's a good enough reason, he supposes. He starts walking to baggage claims, and tries to ignore the looks people are giving him for his coat and jeans. It was cold when he got on the plane, alright, people? He isn't crazy.

He picks up his bag, buys a piece of candy to tide over his caffeine addiction, and sets off towards the front doors. His parents should be there, waiting for him. His thoughts stray to the paps; god, he hopes they aren't there. Or if they are, there aren't many. He's already gotten in trouble for shielding himself from them; if his parents are having any trouble at all, he'll -

His publicist calls as he's ranting to himself. He attempts to balance his bag and his candy in one hand - it's difficult, but he's got it. "Hello, dearest. How are we today?" He jokes.

Taylor is silent.

"Fine, be that way. What can I do for you?"

"I need you to tweet something about the Mikaelson Manhunt." Kol stops dead, and coughs harshly at hearing his true last name. He ignores the glares of the people who bump into him, and steps off to the side. Taylor takes it as him disagreeing. "Listen, Cole, it will make you look good. Lots of celebs are doing it. Helping some little old man find his grandkids makes you seem compassionate and - "

"What in the hell are you talking about, love?" He rasps out. He drops his bag to the ground, and stuffs his candy in his pocket. It's his weird way of making sure he's giving his full attention - he can't do that if he has things in his hands.

"The Mikaelson Manhunt? Leif Trulsson, little old guy from Norway, looking for his estranged grandchildren…? How do you not know any of this?"

"I've been on a plane - "

"This has been a thing for at least two weeks, Cole. Don't give me that 'I've been on a plane' BS."

Kol sighs heavily, and rubs a hand over his face. "Why is it called 'The Mikaelson Manhunt', exactly?"

"Because that's the last name of the grandchildren. Their names are Freya, Finn, Elijah, Niklaus, Kol, Rebekah, and Henrik Mikaelson. He's - "

"Dammit, Taylor. Does this guy have a website, or something? I'll do it, I just don't have time right this second." More like, I don't want to deal with the repercussions of this right now.

"Yeah, I'll send the details to you. Sound good?"

Kol lies, "sounds good."

5.2

James and Kathy Henderson had taken Kol in when he was a scared little 5 year old. They'd renamed him Cole Nathan Henderson (not much of a stretch from Kol Nathaniel Mikaelson), and they'd fed, clothed, and comforted him.

They were his parents, even though he didn't call them Mom and Dad. After what had happened, he'd vowed three things - he didn't have a Mom, he didn't have a Dad, and he would never have children.

James and Kathy were cool with it, thank god. They'd been so kind to him since they met him that he'd tried his best to be as good-behaviored and easy to take care of as possible. (He hadn't done that with Mikael; no, he would break shit around the house and scream as loud as he could about the littlest things just to piss him off. If Mikael was going to ignore his existence, Kol was going to make it hell on earth for him.)

So when Kol sees that there isn't any paps around their car, he is eternally thankful. He doesn't have the brainpower to deal with them right now.

He throws his stuff in the trunk, and slides into the backseat. Hailie is already there, smiling widely at him. He hugs her, happy to see his adoptive sister, but he doesn't put his best effort into it.

"Hey bro. You okay?" She frowns at him, and her freckles show adorably.

He ruffles her natural hair. "Just jetlagged, you know how it is."

She nods, accepting his fib. James and Kathy don't, though.

"So, Cole," Kathy says, turning around partially as James drives off to their house. "How's the season going?"

"Oh, it's great. Getting to act side-by-side with the likes of Tina Fey, Bruce Wills, etc, is awesome. And Bill Hader is fuc- freaking hilarious."

Kathy gives him a look at his almost slip, but doesn't comment on it. "I saw that you broke character on the last episode."

"Ah, yeah. Miley Cyrus really got to me, you know? That accent she did…." He blows out a breath. "Man, I got so much shit for that."

"Cole." James reprimands.

"Sorry, sorry, I got so much shite for that."

He cackles at the unimpressed looks James and Kathy give him. Hailie smiles, clearly amused.

After a moment's pause, Kathy asks bluntly, "then what's the problem?"

Kol's face drops. "What? There's no problem."

"Yes, there is. You came out of the terminal looking like you were about to keel over. So what's wrong?"

Kol blurts, "do you know anything about the Mikaelson Manhunt?"

James shakes his head, "I've heard of it. What about it?"

He says, "well, Taylor wants me to tweet about it, to help my image. I don't know anything about it."

Kathy shrugs, "sorry kid."

"It's cool," he waves it off.

Hailie, on the other hand, says, "well, Leif Trulsson got a call about a month ago, it was some guy saying his son, Mikael, had died in prison. Their daughter-in-law was dead, that's why he was in prison in the first place, so their kids were put in the system, but they'd all aged out or been adopted. He's looking for them, so he can reunite them. He's already found two - Freya and Finn, I think. The eldest two."

The thought of his siblings does something to him - instantly, his heart starts pounding. He loses his breath, and his awareness of the people in the car with him lessens to almost zero.

Kol pushes himself forward, so his head rests on the back of the passenger seat. It doesn't help like he wants it to, but he can't think of anything that will help, so he doesn't move again after that.

Hailie immediately starts rubbing his back - his anxiety is old news by now, and she knows well how to deal with this.

He barely notices as tears start to fall, and his chest gets tighter. He's just thinking about his siblings, about being ripped away from them like they all meant nothing, like it was perfectly okay to separate them.

God, Nik's screaming and Bekah's sobs were the worst sounds he'd ever heard, even more than Mother's -

"Cole, look, there's a red car. Oh, and there's another one. That's two. Can you help me count, baby? There's a third, and a fourth…."

Kathy's voice cuts off his bad thoughts. He drags his head up, and looks out the window. There's a red rust bucket next to them, so he chokes out, "five."

Kathy nods encouragingly. He says, "six," when he sees a red SUV, and "seven," when a fire truck passes by them.

Hailie keeps rubbing his back the whole ride home.

Ugh.

3.2

Matthew goes down for his nap roughly - that is to say, he cried, demanded Elijah read him Cat in the Hat, and then pouted. Elijah just left, trusting him to eventually fall asleep.

His baby monitor says he does just that after about ten minutes of whimpering passes by. (And it's not like Elijah wants to leave him alone, crying, but Matthew has to take a nap. He won't be getting out of it that easy.)

Elijah takes the time to check the news - for some reason, E! News wants him to know that Cole Henderson has arrived safely back home. Elijah doesn't follow the lives of celebrities, especially not SNL ones, so he isn't sure why it comes up.

He shakes his head, exasperated, and moves on.

Under that, the headline says, "Freya Mikaelson FOUND!" That's definitely not a coincidence, he thinks, and clicks on the link.

The first thing he sees is a picture of a woman that he knows is Freya without having to consult the caption. She's older than she was when he last saw her, he thinks.

And that's stupid, because of course she is. It's been, what, 18 years? No, 17. But he can't help his stupid thoughts, not when he sees her face and is reminded of tea parties with her and Rebekah, and threatening Finn with Kol's diaper while Nik and Freya laughed until they cried.

He looks at the article, not really reading it. He finds a link to a website, and clicks on it. It takes him to a page that says "MIKAELSON MANHUNT" at the top. There's a row of links at the top, so he chooses the first one at random.

A picture of Elijah and his siblings shows up. He swallows, and looks at the little caption. When it says something about Niklaus' face being scratched out, he scowls. He remembers Father going through the baby books and purposefully removing Niklaus from their history. He'd been so angry, he scratched out Father in one picture. He'd received his first real beating, and he'd never done it again. (Now that time has passed, he's angry at himself for giving up after one punch. Niklaus had gone through so much more. He has to remind himself that he was just a little kid, barely 11 years old. It wasn't his fault.)

He has to force himself to power through the rest of the caption. When he swipes, he finds that there's an "updated summary" of Freya Riley Mikaelson.

He reads it several times. His big sister is a mother of five, now, living a state over from where they'd last all lived together.

Shell shocked, he goes onto the next one. It's Finn. He's got six kids himself, a job in genealogy, and was the first one found.

He moves onto the next one. It's his, he realizes. There's a circle around his face on the picture denoting which of the boys he is. The summary tells him they know nothing of him, just that he'd traveled from Virginia to Portland after Mother's death.

The summary ends with a plea for information. At the bottom of the page, a phone number is listed, followed by, "please help me reunite these kids."

His throat closes up. He scrolls back up to the picture, and swipes until he gets back to the first page, with no circles around any faces.

Feeling more emotional than he has in a while, he stares at the picture.

God, his siblings. He misses them terribly.

He picks up the baby monitor, glad for Matthew's snores. Katherine had left a few hours before, for the cemetery, so he's all alone.

He dials.

4.2

Going to Wal-Mart is not something Klaus enjoys. His Wal-Mart is full of "witches" who do "voodoo" and proclaim him to a have "a long life line" and "great sorrow". Wal-Mart is awful, basically. He can't stand going there, but the food his pets eat is sold exclusively there.

Marcel's eyes have kept him from getting the generic kind. Damn you, Marcel.

He has to go all the way to back of the store, first. Davina, the teenager who works at the store, gives him a wolf whistle as he passes her by.

"Maybe in seven years," he calls out to her, as per their routine.

"I'm 19, loser," she responds, just like always.

"In dog years?" He grins at her, always enjoying being a dickhead to her. She covers her own smile with an air of being unimpressed.

"Ha ha," she says dryly. Her many necklaces jingle as she walks away.

He smiles to himself as he continues on his path. He dodges the improv-death, and the witch who always tells him, free of charge, that his future wife will match her description to the tee.

The shit he goes through for his damn pets.

The food they like - the cat food and dog food version of the same thing, from the same expensive ass brand - is front and center. He grabs a bag of each, and runs.

Okay, he doesn't run. But it only takes him five minutes to get from the back of the store to the self-checkout. He thanks his past self for buying two of those blue bags that you don't just hoard or throw out when he's walking home not three minutes later.

These handles won't break, and he won't be stuck carrying the actual bags the ten blocks from the store to his place.

His thoughts wander as he walks. Maybe Camille will have her kittens today, he thinks. He doubts it, though. She's fit to burst, but she's not due yet. His thoughts, as they so often do now, stray to Rebekah. She'd wanted to be a veterinarian when she was four, so maybe she would know now.

If she even turned out to be a vet, that is. She'd be 21, now. He'd wanted to be a firefighter/astronaut when he was four. Now, he deals drugs after he gets done serving people their drinks all day. It's not a stretch to think she isn't a vet/princess hybrid.

He shuts the thoughts out as he steps up to his door. The lock jams like always, and he grunts out a cuss word at it, like clockwork.

Hayley barks at him, causing Tyler to wake up in a mad dash for a supposed intruder. He rams right into Klaus' legs.

"I don't know why I even keep you around, mutt," he mutters. Tyler just gives him a look like he thinks Klaus is the stupid one.

Marcel meows from the kitchen.

"You better not be on the counter, Marcel!" There's a thumping noise. Dammit, Marcel.

Camille, on the other hand, rubs up against his legs and gets her white fur all over the ankle of his work pants. He crouches down to pet her. She only gets in one pet before Hayley is licking his cheek. She runs off as Tyler comes to join in on the slobber fest.

Klaus wipes off his cheek and stands. He heads towards the kitchen, and shakes his head when he sees Marcel has moved from the counter to the table. He shakes the food bags, and all of his pets converge on him at once.

He feeds the dogs first, so they can get right to business and not trample the poor cats. Marcel gives him a look, while Camille just crouches down to eat.

Klaus makes himself a bowl of mac 'n' cheese, and sits heavily on his couch. A piece of dog fur goes up his nose.

Why is my life like this, he thinks as he turns on the TV.

When it clicks on, it's Oprah. She says, "and now, we're going to talk to Leif Trulsson about what he's trying to accomplish with his Mikaelson Manhunt. Leif?"

Leif's face comes up on the screen, and Klaus flinches. Elijah was his spitting image, their eyes are different, and their jaws (or what jaw Elijah had at 11 years old), and that's it.

He scrambles to turn it to something else, anything else. All he hears before his button-smashing takes him to a rerun of Roseann is Leif saying, "Elijah called in earlier, actually. We are very excited for what this means."

He's trying to relax into the dynamics of Roseann's family when Camille yowls. He stands on weary feet, and grabs his keys and the cat carrier.

Why indeed, he imagines Elijah saying dryly, as he wrestles her into the carrier.

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.

Chapter Text

7.1

Henry sees the video of Finn and Freya reuniting and just smiles. He tells all of his friends, who make fun of him while cooing at the video, but that's beside the point.

He also sends the video to his parents, who don't text back. They're on vacation in the Bahama's, so it's not unexpected. Emily, who is going to school in South Carolina (therefore not in the Bahama's like their younger siblings), called him to tell him how cute she thought is was.

Other than being cute, it makes him think about his birth family. He doesn't remember really anything about them, just the basics: he was the youngest, their mother was killed by their abusive father, they'd been split up, never to see each other again.

It would be like a dream come true to meet them all again. Henry's actually pretty sure his classmates in his genetics class are going to find his family for him - he's become somewhat of an anomaly in class, with his charm, grace, and bad luck.

He's sworn up and down it's normal - they don't believe his total opposite behaviors are something that can happen to just anybody. They're desperate to prove his siblings have it, too, so they're looking for the family he can't remember.

Emily thinks it's creepy.

"If that's creepy, then how is the Mikaelson Manhunt cute?" He asks, a little judgmentally, during one of their regular Skype calls.

"It just is, Henry."

"That's not an answer," Henry sing-songs.

Emily sighs loudly. She drags a hand over her face, and messes up her light makeup. "Fine, fine, dammit…. Oh! I got it." She gives him a smug smile, one she's been dishing out since he was adopted. "The Mikaelson Manhunt is being led by these people's grandparents and aunt. Your classmates wanting to know everything about your long lost family is weird due to it not being a familial person doing the searching, and you don't know most of them."

"Yes I do," Henry scoffs. He sees her point, though. She's right.

"Name one of the people who I haven't heard of before. Meaning, no Prof Matthews, no Jane, no Kelly, no Danny, no Sam, and no Carter."

Henry wracks his brain for a name. "Sarah," he finally says.

"Sarah what?"

"How am I supposed to know, Em? She's the T.A."

"You don't know your T.A.'s name? Henry - "

Henry sighs out, "welp, gotta go sis, love ya, bye!" He hangs up before he's even done speaking. He loves her but she lectures him way too much for someone who's only a year older than him. Plus, he wants to do something that isn't genetics-related or sister-related.

A good trip to the bookstore sounds in order.

5.4

Kol has to send in proof. So he scours for a picture of him when he was newly adopted, because apparently his face on the internet isn't enough. (Leif apparently can see the resemblance between him and the him in the picture, but it isn't enough for him.)

He finds one of him in a baseball uniform at eight years old, holding little two-year-old Hailie's hand. He puts it online as his proof, and tries to not think about how from the time he was adopted in early July of '96 to almost Christmas '97, he'd been inconsolable a lot of the time. He'd always wanted to show things to his siblings, the ones that weren't there, and when Hailie came around, she'd reminded him so sharply of Henrik it'd been hard for him to bond with her.

He forces the thoughts out of his mind.

To his fans and family alike, Kol explains that the picture was taken around his second Thanksgiving away from the hellhole in Mystic Falls, he was eight, that's his adopted sister, etc.

When he's on the phone with Leif and Aerona, he hears another voice in the background. He asks who it is, and instead of being told that it's his aunt (the one he just heard of, and apparently far from the only one), Aerona tells him it's Finn and Freya. "They're just catching up," she says kindly.

He chokes out a response and ends the call. It's not nice, but it is what it is.

He just got home, but shit. He wants to go see them. The video of them reuniting is everywhere. He wants that. He wants it more than he wants fame, more than he ever wanted Elijah and Nik's approval.

And even though he's got his heart and his lungs in his throat, he starts packing and calls Taylor.

1.6 and 2.3

Finn cries. He won't deny it.

He's waited to see Freya for so long, he'd be inhuman not to. (That isn't even mentioning that the last time they'd seen each other, he'd vowed to see her again. He'd shouted it down the hallways of that hospital and he'd woken up sleeping patients and he hadn't cared. He doesn't care now, either, all he cares about is that he's finally keeping up his promise.)

They hug for five minutes. A paparazzo tells him that they counted.

It's awkward, for a second, when they pull away. Finn can tell Freya really doesn't want to. He feels the same, but come on. He's not having this talk in front of the media.

He pulls her further into the airport, an arm around her shoulders. Freya's husband - Graham, Torunn had said - trails after them.

They don't speak, and they don't part, until they're all in the car that's going to take them back to the hotel.

Finn takes the moment to introduce himself to Graham with a firm handshake and a look that says "I'm her younger brother and I haven't been in her life for almost twenty years but hurt her and suffer". Or at least, he hopes that's the point he makes. He isn't going to say it out loud, not with the circumstances (proud Freya and the fact that they don't know each other anymore), but it's important that he reestablishes himself in the role of brother before he has to deal with being the older brother.

Niklaus, whenever he comes around, is going to be tough; in the meantime, Freya and Elijah will be good practice.

Freya pulls his attention away from her husband when she says, "hi."

He almost frowns at her timid tone; he'd never, not once in a million years, call her timid. He smiles instead, thinking about how Philip hates to see negative emotions on his face. With a laugh, he replies, "hi, Freya." He makes sure his tone adds an unspoken, but playful, idiot to the end.

She gives him the stink eye, reading him loud and clear. "Excuse me if it's hard for me to talk to my not so little little brother for the first time in seventeen years."

He shrugs. "Freya, I promise you, I don't mind how weird you've gotten since we were teens. You won't be the weirdest when this is all over, trust me."

"Who will it be then, Mr. I Know Everything?"

He smirks that Elijah Mikaelson Gotcha smirk that all subsequent siblings (except Henrik, poor kid) and Finn himself picked up. "Henrik, clearly. I can make an argument for Rebekah, too. They were so young, they have less memories of us and more of their adoptive families. Plus, we're adults. Do you think 21 year old Rebekah and 19 year old Henrik will be completely fine and not weirded-out by us having kids?"

Freya thinks for a moment, then shrugs. "I don't know, Finn. I mean, I'm 34, and he's 19. It's already a jump." She shifts in her seat - a nervous gesture he'd expect from Niklaus or Kol - and doesn't continue until he motions for her to. She shares a look with Graham, who seems content to sit back and let them talk.

Then, she tells him the story of her oldest's conception. His sister being a sexual being doesn't interest him in the slightest, but Radley's father sure does. Especially since he was her foster father at the time.

3.3

Elijah skips school the next day. Everyone at the school seems to have watched Oprah last night, so, in a moment of flippancy he usually doesn't afford himself, he skips.

Katherine and Matt are both happy to have him, so he doesn't mind too much. He gets to play games with his son that college had been keeping him from, and when Matt goes down for a nap, he and Katherine take the time to reacquaint themselves.

When they're sated, they lie in bed, spooning. Katherine asks, "what do you think is going to happen? When you're all back together?" She's asked him before, what he would do if he and his siblings were reunited. She's always known about them. This time, though, the question is reality, not hypothetical.

He has to think on it; the thought of it not going well makes him tense up. "Well, Freya and Finn will go back to their old mother hen ways. I'll be too emotional to do much. Niklaus may be happy, he may be angry. There's no way to tell with him. Kol will be anxious, Rebekah excited, and Henrik curious."

Katherine snorts at how he has it all planned out. "I meant, what do you think will happen? Do you think you'll be separated again? Go you different ways? Will Kol take you to his movie premieres?" The last one is purely for his benefit; he laughs, and his tense muscles loosen up.

"Well, I will fight to keep in contact. My siblings on the other hand…." She giggles. After a moment, he sighs. "I'm not sure. But I'm going to try my best to keep us together. They might not listen to me, I know that already. But if that's the case, all I can hope for is that being together again makes it harder for us to separate."

Katherine nods understandingly. Quietly, she says, "if you want to go out to New York to see them, you should."

They don't really have the money for it, and Matt can only stand to be away from Elijah for so long. And it's a hard time for her, considering what anniversary just came up.

He's not going to leave her, he decides. "I'm not going to go unless you can come, too, love. And seeing as we don't have enough money for three tickets from Stanford to NYC, I won't be going."

Katherine turns around all the way to give him her patented 'you're an idiot' look. "Elijah." She pauses deliberately. "How about this? You go, and once you've had a few days to catch up with whoever is there, Matt and I come along, too. That way, you'll have some time with them, we can have a family vacation, and I can be there for you when you need me?"

"Katherine…."

"Think of Matt. He can have his first real vacation that isn't to Portland to see my parents, or to Santa Clara to see Jeremy and Elena. And he won't want to stay here, you know that. We can't leave him or he'll freak out."

Elijah takes in her obvious haggling. After a long moment, he sighs. "Fine. But I want to call everyday, to check in."

Katherine smiles and kisses his cheek. "Of course. I mean, the time zones will be an obstacle, but we'll get through it."

He smiles back and presses a kiss to her cheek, then her jaw, then down further. They shift so he's resting on top of her.

He's just gotten to presses kisses on her collarbone when the baby monitor lets them know that Matthew has woken up. Katherine laughs, and leaves him in bed, mind moving onto what he has to pack and what he needs to set up.

Chapter Text

1.7 and 2.4

Freya hates recounting the story, but she'd decided when she was hugging Finn that he needs to know. They'd survived so long in that mansion by keeping very few secrets.

So she tells him. She tells him about the sexual abuse - I consented, she hastens to say; it doesn't matter, he responds, it's not okay that he did that. - and what his reaction was to her getting pregnant.

She tells him everything. By the time they get to the hotel, she's regaled him with her life in 1999 - a not-quite-one year old dictating her life, and druggy boyfriends coming and going. How she went from Mystic Falls to Macon, Georgia, then to the hose where Radley was conceived in Savannah. From there, she went to Augusta, where Leah and Brooke were born, then Atlanta, where Nina had been born, and Graham, then Justin, had come into her life.

And thank god for Graham. He sits there, his hand on her knee, the whole time. When Finn makes a face at her past drug use, he squeezes comfortingly. When Finn tells her she spiraled and he doesn't blame her, he squeezes.

Finn takes them up to their room - across the hall from his and their older family members - and tells them his own story.

Like Freya, he'd been hauled over state lines ASAP, going from Virginia to Kentucky to Illinois into Missouri. He'd lived in a small town called Hallsville for a few weeks, then he went to Columbia, then Jeff City. He'd landed in St. Louis and never left. He doesn't seem too upset about it all, but when Graham leaves - to get ice, ostensibly, but really to give them some space - he clutches her in a hug and they cry again.

Finn hadn't gone through the same struggles as she had, but they'd been taken away from each other. They'd been forced to live their lives away from each other. They'd been ripped from everything they knew.

When Graham comes back, they wipe their tears away and make a pact. When Elijah and Kol and the rest come, they're going to need someone to lean on, and that someone is going to be them.

3.4 and 1.8 and 2.5

Elijah makes sure he's hugged Matthew goodbye and given Katherine a parting kiss that would have made his foster siblings proud. Eventually, after a lot of fretting on his part, she practically pushes him onto the plane.

He goes with a wave, trying to make himself look less nervous than he actually is.

There's no reason to be nervous, he knows that. He's just seeing the people he grew up with - hell, these are the ones who changed his diaper and not the other way around - and he's going to be staying with them for a little while. That's it.

Of all his siblings, he was never the anxious one. It takes the entire flight to remind himself of that.

When he lands, though, he knows what - rather, who - will be waiting for him. All of the anxiety he'd washed away with a stupid airplane movie comes rushing back. He pushes his head into his hands, and lets everyone get off the plane before he even stands up.

If Katherine were here, she would tell him something encouraging. She'd remind him that he'd known these people better than he'd known himself.

He stands.

His Katherine-related confidence pushes him through getting his bags and making it to where Freya and Finn had arranged for him to see them again. The confidence leaves once again when he sees them, sitting down across from each other in deep conversation, with Leif, Aerona and Torunn sitting next to them. The sight brings him back to his childhood, when he and Niklaus were very pointedly not invited to their everyday life. Kol had felt the same way, isolated from his older brothers, and sometimes even Rebekah, who was always with Henrik.

He swallows and keeps moving.

Freya sees him first. She stands and Finn follows suit. They all stare at each other. Elijah drops his bags to the floor.

Aerona says playfully, "well, are you kids going to hug or not?"

Freya lets out a laugh that's a little watery. Finn takes the challenge and pulls Elijah into a hug. "Brother," he greets warmly.

"Finn," he responds, clutching maybe a little too tight. Finn wasn't his closest brother, but they'd always had fun. They'd always helped each other.

Freya's arms wrap around the both of them, and they don't part until there's a snap behind them.

Elijah pulls away at the sound, and finds Torunn standing with her phone up. She looks far removed from the paparazzi behind her.

He sticks out his hand, "hi. I'm Elijah Mikaelson. And you must be Torunn." She nods, so he adds, "it's a pleasure."

She grins. "You're much more mannered than your siblings." Freya laughs again, while Finn does that indignant squawk that always made Kol and Bekah cry with laughter. "It's a pleasure to meet you, too."

He nods, and greets his grandparents, face to face for the first time. Finn comments, "if Niklaus were here, he would be calling you Goody-Two-Shoes."

"I'm aware, brother." Elijah deadpans.

Freya makes a comment about how Finn used to be Goody-One-Shoe - and Stupid-One-Shoe at the same time - and leads them out of the airport.

He can already tell he'll have to work himself back into the dynamic of the Mikaelson family, but if he gets to watch Freya and Finn makes fun of each other like they're still children, then he'll do anything.

5.5

Taylor sighs like his stupidity is physically painful. "Cole, you just got home. You said in several different interviews that you planned on taking a long break. Less than a week is not a long break!"

"I'm aware, I can count," he says sarcastically. He settles heavily on his bed, ready to fight for this. "I don't care. There's extenuating circumstances. I want to go back, and I want to do it as soon as possible."

Taylor sighs again. Kol prepares for Taylor's trademarked Bitch Tone. "You must've been pampered as a child. Whatever Cole wanted, Cole got."

Any humor Kol felt about the situation - the Bitch Tone is hilarious, but it isn't cheering him up like usual due to him being possibly delayed in seeing his family - leaves instantly. Taking on a tone Mikael had enjoyed to use, he hisses, "no, I wasn't pampered. In fact, I was ignored. My parents decided to forget about me as soon as my mother pulled me off the tit." He takes a deep breath and counts to ten, then thinks about Hailie when the stupid exercise doesn't calm him down.

"Cole. I'm sorry." Taylor sounds cautious and regretful. He drags a hand down his face, cursing his temper and his stupid father for giving it to him.

"You should be," he snaps, before he reigns himself in. "Sorry…. Just, I need to go see them. I need to ASAP, Taylor… please. This is really, really important to me." He's basically pleading to see his siblings. He hates it, but he'll do anything to get Taylor to let him go back to New York.

Taylor sighs once more, softer this time. "Fine, Cole. But I'm taking a week off once all of the hype around this goes down."

Kol smiles widely. "Thank you, Taylor. You're a saint."

He hangs up, and goes to Twitter to announce he'd be on his way soon.

6.2

Rebekah decides that she's going to go out to the car now, instead of waiting in the building for Fred. He's got a meeting with parents; it's going to take a while. He asked her to stay inside, but Rebekah has other plans.

She rolls the windows down enough to get a good breeze, then locks up the car and takes the keys out. School got out at three, and it's now three forty five. She's all alone in the parking lot.

Perfect, she thinks. Her phone opens to her lock screen - a picture of her adoptive family, Fred, and herself on her wedding day - and it makes her smile, just like always. She's going to need it.

YouTube asks if she's interested in several, boring-looking videos as soon as it's opened. Rebekah ignores them and searches, 'Mikaelson'.

The top video is titled "Oldest Mikaelson Siblings Reunite". She clicks on it, and watches as a tall figure - very clearly Finn - embraces a slightly shorter figure - very clearly Freya.

She watches it three more times. The way Finn's whole face lights up at the sight of Freya is burned into her mind. The way Freya clutches at his shirt, like she's scared she'll lose him again if she lets go, will haunt her for years to come.

By the third re-watch, she's crying - not weeping or sobbing, just crying. I'm leaking, she thinks a little hysterically, not bothering to wipe away her tears.

She clicks out of the video and finds that the second top video is titled "Elijah Mikaelson FOUND". Without having to think about it, she clicks on it.

It starts out in the same airport, but there are more people this time - an older couple, a woman who looks like she isn't much older than Freya, a man who looks about Finn's age, and her siblings. Freya and Finn are talking, while the other four occupy themselves with other things.

Then Finn looks up, and the camera swings to what he saw - a dark haired man that Rebekah knows is Elijah without needing the helpful arrow and bolded ELIJAH on the screen. She watches them greet each other, and hug. She watches, still crying, as they walk out, looking happy and contented. I want that, she thinks.

There's a knock on the window, and she startles, dropping her phone onto her lap. It's just Fred, giving her a concerned look. "Are you okay?" He asks through the window.

Before she can hastily say 'of course', the video changes to a couple who start talking loudly about how Cole Henderson is Kol Mikaelson, and when is he going to reunite and when is he going to give an interview.

She ignores it, and unlocks the car so he can get in. He slides his stuff to the back as soon as he's got the door open. He settles, then rubs at her cheeks to get the dried tears off. She pulls her head away, and looks down so she can turn her phone off.

"Honey, why are you watching YouTube videos alone in the car?"

The words make her sound crazy, but his tone is so understanding that she doesn't have a mood swing over it. Instead, she says, "Fred, I'm Rebekah."

He gives her a look like, this bitch is crazy. It's a look she's been on the receiving end of for years. When he speaks, however, his tone is still just as understanding as before. "Yeah, that's you."

"No, I mean, I'm Rebekah Mikaelson. Not Rebekah Bell, or Rebekah Dawson, but Rebekah Mikaelson."

"Bex, what do you mean?"

She explains, "I told you before, I was adopted."

He nods, looking confused, adorable, and adorably confused. "I thought you didn't know who your parents were, though."

She shakes her head. "No, I do. I remember all of my siblings' names still."

"Howard and Kayley?"

She gives him a look. He smiles back at her, clearly trying to make her laugh. "No, my biological siblings. Freya, Finn, Elijah, Nik, Kol, and Henrik." When he gives her the look back, she sighs. "I promise I'm telling the truth. I have proof - "

"I don't not believe you, Bex, it's just…. Watching videos on YouTube is not healthy - I mean for the baby," he interjects when he senses she's going to interrupt. "You're stressing yourself out over those videos." He raises an eyebrow challengingly.

She rolls her eyes, but doesn't confirm or deny. He grins and takes her hands in his.

"If you don't do that again, I'd love to help you get your proof together to present to the guy running the whole thing."

She smiles and leans over to hug him. He hugs back, and with their child between them, and the idea of seeing her siblings again, Rebekah is more content than she ever thought possible.

5.6

Kol steps off the plane, feeling so jetlagged it was a new personal record. He's got bags to go get, he knows that, but his brain isn't exactly firing on all cylinders. He couldn't sleep last night, too excited and anxious, and hadn't slept on the plane, because the guy next to him would not shut the hell up. Kol doesn't care about your bunion, dude! Really!

He's preparing to just go straight to where his siblings told him they were, when Taylor calls. "Hello?"

"Get your bags."

That's the whole conversation - the dial tone hits his ears as soon as Taylor stops talking. He blinks at his phone, not comprehending what he was just told to go do.

It takes an embarrassingly long moment before it clicks. He struts off towards baggage, gaining a little momentum. He grabs his bag quickly enough, and manages to go around the media frenzy in another new personal record.

As soon as he's around the crowd, he sees his welcome party - Elijah first, then Freya and Finn, then Freya's husband, Torunn, and his grandparents.

He can't be responsible for what he does next.

He rushes forward and jumps on top of Elijah. (Now, Kol is not short. He's 6'1". Elijah looks to be about 5'10" or 5'11". It's not a huge difference in reality, but ask Elijah that.)

They hit the floor hard, but Kol doesn't care. He's got hugs to dish out. He squeezes his big brother, then stands gracefully, and mashes his other big brother into a hug. Freya comes forward willingly, and then he's hugging Leif and Aerona.

Before he can hug Torunn or introduce himself to Graham, he's pulled backwards. An arm goes around his chest from under his armpit to his shoulder, and he's getting noogied for the first time since high school.

"What was that, brother?" Elijah cries playfully. "Think you can just take me down and not get retaliation?"

Kol does what he's always done in these situations - he doesn't respond, and drops his entire body to the ground.

Elijah and he go down again. This time, though, they stay there. Finn, Graham, Torunn, and his grandparents are all laughing, while Freya jokingly does the picture frame hand gestures.

"I think this is one for the books," she says with a stupid accent.

Kol laughs and laughs.

All the worrying he'd done last night, it was all for nothing. He's barely been around his siblings for ten minutes, and he's already having a good time. He can't imagine anything going wrong in the future reunions, not after having his own.

Chapter Text

4.3

Klaus wants everyone to know that the chairs his vet have in the waiting room are despicable and evil.

The sound of a wailing cat - probably Camille, if he thinks about it, which he really doesn't - permeates the air and makes everyone wince. 'Everyone', in this case, being a lady with a bird that's also screeching, and a teen with a dog with a cone around it's head.

This is not how he wants to spend his time. He'd rather be with Sophie, the girl he sells to (who also has wild mood swings between 'you're cool' to 'I want you to die'), or Davina. Or even Tierney, the other bartender who always tries to hang out.

God, even Stefan would be better than this….

"Hey, could you turn this up?" The lady calls. He nods, grabs the remote from it's sitting on another of the evil chairs, and turns the volume up. He catches Oprah's voice, and his head snaps up.

There, on the screen, is Leif. He looks like any other old man on television, wrinkled and aging but happy. When Oprah speaks, he smiles a smile that's missing a few teeth.

"We have Elijah Mikaelson on the line, everyone! What a treat."

Klaus' eyes widen.

"He called in right before we started rolling, actually. Elijah? Can you hear me?"

"Yes I can, thank you. Thank you for having me."

"Of course," Oprah says, then launches into a question. Klaus doesn't hear it. All he hears is the voice of his brother, and not the pre-pubescent one, either. He hears Elijah say something about wanting to see all of them again, how it's been his biggest wish since he was hauled over state lines in the days after Mother's death. His mouth drops open in utter shock - this is his brother, his big brother. Hearing him speak is more shocking than he'd thought possible.

The sounds throws him through such a loop, when the vet comes out, he's just gaping at the TV.

"Mr. Mikaelson?" Klaus closes his mouth with a click and stands. The teenager and the lady suddenly look very interested in him. The teenager pulls out his phone.

"How is she?"

The vet smiles at him. "She did great. There's five little kittens waiting for you. As for Camille, she's sleeping right now, and letting them nurse."

"Good, that's great," he says. The teenager's phone makes a noise, but Klaus ignores it.

"Here, I'll take you back there now."

Camille is in a cat bed on an operating table, with five little fluff balls suckling for milk. There's only one who looks exactly like Camille - a little white fluff ball in the middle of four other, calico fluff balls.

Objectively, Klaus knows he can't keep all of them. He knows having seven cats, therefore nine pets total, is not the sane thing to do.

He decides that he doesn't care about objectivity or sanity and goes over to pick out names.

0.5

"So, are you our only aunt, Torunn?" Elijah asks over the dinner table. Freya, Finn, Kol, and Aerona all tune themselves in. Graham is out getting batteries or something, so it's just the family for the moment.

She snorts and shakes her head. "I am as far from being an only child as a person can be."

"Well, duh," Kol says, "you're Mikael's sister. Obviously you aren't an only child."

"What Kol means to say," Finn cuts in, "is that we are wondering what other siblings you may have."

Torunn responds, "let me think for a moment. There are a lot, even without my half-siblings."

Freya shoots them all a look, asking half-siblings? without saying anything.

After a moment of them mouthing words to each other frantically, Torunn says, "I have 12 siblings and 4 half-siblings. I'm the youngest, and Gregor is the oldest. Some of them have passed, sadly. But, anyway, Mikael was number seven, I think."

"What?" All of the Mikaelsons exclaim at the same time. Aerona, who's listening in on the conversation, smiles at the way they've all familiarized themselves so quickly.

"What do you mean what?" Torunn asks, looking from one shocked face to another.

"Well, he never mentioned any family. I'd never heard of any of you until you came and started trying to find us. Hearing that he was number seven of what, seventeen, that's crazy!" Freya exclaims.

"Does anyone else remember him saying he had no family?" Kol asks, looking around from sibling to sibling.

Finn nods. "Yeah, he always insisted it was just him. When I was making my family tree, I couldn't find anything about him, so I almost believed it."

Elijah perks up. "You have a family tree? Can I see it?" Finn nods, smiling, clearly happy that someone else is interested in their family history.

"Is that what you caught from that?" Kol snarks. "Did you miss the part where there is nothing about Mikael on the internet at all?"

"Sorry I don't really care about him," Elijah rolls his eyes. Kol snorts at the sarcastic comment, but doesn't respond.

Freya asks, "are we on the tree?"

"Of course. I don't have any of your kids or anything, but - "

"Wait, wait, wait." Kol interrupts.

"What?"

"How many of us have children?" Everyone in the room except for Kol raises their hand. "Seriously? It's just me that has common sense?"

"Unlike some people - " Elijah starts.

"Someone, you mean." Freya cuts in.

" - who will not be named, we have found someone that we loved - "

"Okay, that's bullshit and I know it. What happened to 'I'll never bring another Mikaelson into this world lest they end up like us'? Was that only good for a limited amount of time? Has my vasectomy coupon expired or something?" Kol looks around at them expectantly. He gets nothing. "Okay, so you're all old now, great. I can't wait for Nik, Bekah and Henrik to come so we can bask in our childless lives."

Everyone stares at him. "...anyway," Freya says.

Kol huffs and sinks down in his chair like he used to when Mikael would ignore even his backtalk.

"I'd really like to hear about our other aunts and uncles. I'm sure Finn would, too."

Finn nods eagerly. "For sure. Lemme just get out my phone and I'll - "

"You'll have to do that later, my boy," Leif says as he comes into the room, Torunn's cell in his hand. "I just got a very interesting call."

"What was it, annwyl?" Aerona asks, leaning forward in her chair.

"A boy in New Orleans called to say he saw a man who was called 'Mr. Mikaelson' the same night that I was on Oprah. Apparently, he wasn't sure if he was allowed to call it in, and that's why he waited so long. But, he sent a picture of the man. Torunn, child, show everyone, please."

She grabs the phone from his hand, and curiously looks at the picture. In it is a man around Elijah's height, with blonde hair and a nice figure. She couldn't see any face, unfortunately.

Kol perks up, and reaches for the phone. Torunn hands it over with a "there's no face to see."

Kol looks at the picture and shrugs. "If I'm being completely honest, that ass is definitely one of ours."

Elijah looks over his shoulder and nods. "I agree, actually. And that's Niklaus' hair color, or it is as I last knew it."

Kol hands the phone over to Finn and Freya, who look at it with a critical eye. After a moment, they nod in unison.

"So Nik is in New Orleans?" Kol asks, clapping his hands together once. "That really narrows it down. No, really," he clarifies at the looks his siblings give him, "I'm not being sarcastic. He could've moved out of the country. He always said he wanted to go to Europe, and he's old enough that he could have gone if he really wanted to."

"Well, now we know he's here in America, more specifically New Orleans. It's a start."

There's a moment of silence, then Kol says, "I really thought he'd be here by now. Like, you know how he was. He clung onto us tighter than Mikael did to his bat." Freya and Elijah flinch, while Finn looks down at the table, an awful look in his eye. "Why isn't he here now? Why hasn't he come forward?"

Elijah speculates, "maybe it's because he feels we're better off without him. Father ingrained his supposed otherness so deep into his head that Niklaus would never refer to us all as 'us'. He confined once that if not for him feeling like the rest of us needed him around, he would have run away and left us be."

Freya, Finn, and Kol all look shocked. They start speaking over each other, questioning Elijah about this piece of their brother's psyche they never knew about.

Leif, Aerona, and Torunn watch on as their son/brother's children talk about what the abuse that was dished out did to their brother. And even though he was their son/brother, they're glad, in that moment, that he's gone.

4.4

A few days with the babies has told Klaus one thing - he's going to keep as many of them as he can. He has a feeling Davina is going to steal one, but he won't be giving any of them up easily, not even to her. She's the only one he's okay with his babies going to, even if it's only grudgingly.

The little white mini-me of Cami he named Hope, while the others were named Diego, Tim, Lexi, and Josh. Camille and Marcel had been in parent mode since he brought the babies home.

He's been spending his time since making sure they're growing properly and ignoring the development of the Mikaelson Manhunt. He's noticed that Kol and Elijah made their ways to New York City, just to see their older siblings. Must be nice to have that kind of money, he muses. And time, he adds, as he's helping Camille get out of the box the cats are all in and looking at the clock, which tells him he's going to be late to work.

"Shit…." He gathers his wallet and keys quickly, and leaves with a pat to both Hayley and Tyler's heads.

Calling Davina leads to her voicemail usually, but this time, she answers, thank god. "Davina, hi. I need you to check on my pets today. Whenever you get the chance, please."

"It's my day off, so I'll just stay until you get home and eat all of your food," she teases. He grins, and dodges several people as he makes his way down the street.

"As payment, I assume?" She hums in agreement. "How about no. You get to play with the dogs and make sure they don't eat the kittens. That's payment enough."

"Cami had her kittens?" Davina squeals. Cami had been Davina's for a while, but then Davina had moved to an apartment that didn't allow pets, so she had gone to Klaus. Davina doesn't see her much anymore, but she still keeps up with her.

"Yes, she did, but you can't have them."

"Aww, Klaus…."

"No." His tone is stern, but he's smiling widely at their banter. Davina is his only friend, his only real one, at least. Sophie and Lucien never make him laugh when he goes out to sell to them. Davina is always trying to cheer him up.

"At least one, you can part with one, can't you?"

"No."

"Oh come on, Klaus. You can't have six cats. That makes you the newest old cat lady of the French Quarter."

Teasing, he replies, "you're absolutely right. I can't have six, I can have seven."

"Ugh!" She barks. "When I come over, I'm stealing one in my bra and you can't do anything about it."

"Okay, I could if I wanted to, seeing as we've long established that you are of legal age. And if you take one, then have fun dealing with Cami, and also bottle feeding the poor animal until it's big enough for solid food. Now, I have to go to work, so I'm going to end the call. But there better be five kittens when I get home."

He smirks when she sourly says, "whatever," just like every other teenager alive.

Once work is over, he trudges his way back home, expecting that she's stolen one or is making up a campaign that'll get him to hand over one of his babies.

What he finds instead is Davina, sitting on his couch, eating his leftovers, and watching his TV. And she's let Tyler onto the couch.

He closes the door loud enough that she jumps, and gives her the Mikaelson Family Eyebrow of Incredulity. He probably should have forgotten that stupid nickname for the shared family facial expression, but he's clung to the weirdest things from his childhood.

She grins sheepishly, and gently pushes Tyler off the couch. He grumbles and clip-clops over to his bed.

"Sit down," she offers, scooting over and waving towards his couch.

"Oh wow, Davina, thank you so much for allowing me to sit on my own furniture. Are you going to let me eat my own food, too? Wow." He plops down as he speaks, and makes sure that Davina has very little room.

"Smartass."

"Well, now you've done it," he rolls his eyes. "I can see I'm not welcomed here in my house, so I'll just be going." He stands like he's really going to leave, but Marcel runs into his legs like he's protesting it. "Fine, fine. I'll sit. Are you happy now, cat?" Marcel meows his answer, then purrs loudly when Klaus reaches down to scratch his ears.

Davina watches it all with a smile. "He's got you wrapped around his little paw, doesn't he?"

Klaus just nods. Davina laughs.

After a moment, she reminds him, "I'll be taking one of the babies when I go."

"No, you won't be. You won't claim one as yours, you won't do anything. I'm their keeper, and what I say goes." He's a little angry sounding, he realizes after he's finished talking. He sighs at himself.

Davina gives him a look that could melt steel. "And why exactly are you so adamant about this? It's just one cat, Klaus. Just one freakin' kitten."

"Why? Because I won't sit around and let them be separated. They belong together, and taking them away from each other would be like ripping them limb from limb."

She gapes at him for a moment. He's said too much. He stands, ready to grab her and throw her out, when she whispers, "is Klaus short for something?" He clenches his jaw. "Is it short for Niklaus?"

He glares at her, not unlike how he had when they first met, her a grumpy sixteen year old who was going through tough times, and him an angry 23 year old who was feeling major depression. "Is that any of your business?" He snaps.

She gasps. "You're - It - He's - "

"Time to go now," he interrupts, and grabs her by the bicep. He's done this before, when she was drunk and sad and threatening to puke on Hayley, so he knows how to be gentle but firm.

Davina still recoils like he's dragged her off the couch by her hair. "Why haven't you called it in, you idiot? Why haven't you connected with them?"

He opens the door, and pushes her out. "Just leave. Thanks for watching them, but just go."

She smacks the door open before he can slam it shut in her face. He pushes on it, making them end up in a test of strength. She's spitting mad, her nose is scrunched up and she's glaring daggers at him. "I'm going to call you in," she threatens.

"Call me in to what? I have no idea what you're talking about," he says through his teeth.

"I'm going to call Leif Trulsson and tell him your address and phone number."

It takes a moment, but her face when she speaks shows none of her tells. Her tone isn't enough to cement her sincerity, but her face being stone cold sober and her tone together tell him something. She is completely serious.

He stops pushing on the door, and she stumbles forward.

Eyes wide, he asks, "what do you want from me?"

Smirking smugly, she responds, "I want two of your kittens."

7.2

Henry watches the reunion of Elijah and Kol with tears in his eyes. He's not the only wet eye in the house - he can clearly see Joanna and Kyle wiping away tears. Even the professor seems emotional.

The professor gives everyone a moment, then turns off the video. "Alright everyone, we need to get cracking to our real-life case study. Henry, we think we've made a breakthrough. Can you jog our memories of what you remember?"

He's done this four times now. Still, he stands to do the tedious task. "I was the youngest of more than five siblings, we lived in Virginia but I'm not sure where, my name wasn't Henry, and my mother died around the tenth of May, 1996." He sits back down before anyone can needle him with questions he doesn't know the answer to.

"Alright. Thank you, Henry. Everyone, please take a look at the materials I've sent to you…"

Henry tunes the professor out, remembering Emily's voice telling him how this was all creepy. He doesn't agree, exactly - it's not creepy, it's just a little annoying.

He can't recall the last time he came to class and it wasn't spent researching leads to his family.

He used to love this class, but now it's wearing on him. Especially with the Mikaelson Manhunt gaining traction all around the world, and becoming big news.

He sighs, and pushes the thoughts out of his mind. He'll have to talk about why he's feeling so exhausted of researching his family with his Mom, when they get back. Until then, he'll have to settle for only passively looking through the adoption records.

Chapter Text

8.1

Davina gets home and maps out a plan. God knows she'll need one for what she's about to do.

She pulls out her favorite I'm an adult who owns stationary stationary and writes at the top, "Operation Amputated Limb." She giggles at it, and herself, feeling stupid for acting like this is all a joke or something.

She makes a list of things that she needs to do, and it looks like this:

1. Make sure Klaus won't take Tim and Josh away from me when I go against his wishes
2. Call Klaus in
3. Offer to pay for a trip to New York (USE WHAT'S LEFT OF THE SHUT UP MONEY)
4. When he doesn't want to go, threaten to call him in
   4.a. Go to the bathroom once on flight and think about how it's weird that we're friends, considering the circumstances
5. Anyway
6. If this doesn't work out, and he hates me, have a plan.
7. What will I do if he hates me?
8. Whatever, I'll figure it out

Once she's made the list, she grabs her phone.

Dialing the number is easy; pressing call isn't. While she was making the plan, she ignored the fact that by doing this, she'll be betraying Klaus' trust, and going against her word. She doesn't want to do that, but he needs to be with his family. She would give anything to get to have hers back. The difference here is that he doesn't want his family, while they want him, and she wants her family, while they don't want her.

He's being stupid. She'll be doing him a favor.

But maybe he has a reason for staying away. There were six years of his life he'd never spoken of, except to mention that he'd run away at seventeen. He'd never said anything about where he went, or what he did until he came back to New Orleans at twenty-three. For all she knows, he could be a murder. He could be a wanted criminal, or something.

Maybe his siblings won't care. Siblings usually stick together through thick and thin, right? So they should just brush off any of the bad things he does - the ones she knows about (selling his anti-depressors like candy) and the ones she doesn't (killing a man in Canada, maybe? it can't be impossible, right?).

Ugh. Moral issues.

She sets the phone down after erasing the number. She'll give him five to seven days, and if he hasn't called in himself, she'll do it for him.

8.2

Katherine steps off the plane easily. Matt had been wonderful, sleeping most of the flight, and then being entertained by the cartoon the plane provided for the rest of it. And she loves being in the air, even if it reminds her of Tatia and her stupid obsession with air crafts.

Getting to see Elijah is a great way to distract her, especially with Matt being too interested in everything to keep her busy.

Matt continues that trend as she grabs their stuff, and buys a toy that's way, way too expensive. However, when he sees his daddy, he becomes a lot like a pointer dog, and focuses on nothing else.

"Dada!" He screeches on repeat, much to the chagrin of everyone around them. Luckily, it catches Elijah's attention.

Katherine gives the people around her sheepish smiles, and hurries toward Elijah. He comes forward, too, so they meet in the middle. Elijah pulls Matt out of her arms, and kisses his cheeks while making sloppy noises.

"Where's the crowd?" She asks, shouldering her backpack a little higher.

He grabs the luggage bag before answering, "they stayed home. If you and Matthew had come with me, then they would've been here, like with Freya's husband. But they decided to let us have a moment alone before you and Graham get an interrogation."

"Graham?"

"Freya's husband. They wanted to wait for you to be here before they gave him one." He smiles, and kisses her on the cheek. His lips land much closer to her lips than they did Matt's. She grins back.

"So, are they everything you ever thought they would be?"

He laughs, leading her out. "Let me remind you, I knew them for all eleven years of my life. Freya has matured, though she was already so adult-like, I don't imagine it was much of a leap. Finn has given up on being a hair model, he's made a family tree. He's a genealogist now. And Kol, as you know, is the actor Cole Henderson."

"Do you remember how we went to go see that stupid movie he was in for our one year anniversary?"

He smiles at her, and even though Matt's got his fingers in his Dada's mouth, it's just as beautiful as it always was. "Yes. I told him, and he actually blushed. I think that's the first time that ever happened."

Katherine laughs. She's heard lots of stories about the Mikaelson siblings, none more than Niklaus, Kol, and Rebekah. Kol being shameless and careless is something she knows a lot about.

They've barely entered the parking lot before he's saying, "there's our car." He sets off, holding Matt a little tighter while he's in the road. Then he turns to her, a soft look on his face she doesn't see often enough. "You'll love them, Katherine. I've told them about you already, and I don't doubt they'll love you back."

"Thanks, babe," she says with another kiss, this time to his cheek.

He beams at her again, and hands Matt to her. "You get him in, and I'll get your stuff?" She nods, and pulls her backpack off so he can stick it in the trunk. Matt goes in to the car seat easily, not minding that it's not his usual one.

She slides into the passenger seat at the same time that Elijah settles in the drivers'. Matt babbles while he backs out, so Katherine indulges him.

Elijah grabs her hand over the middle console, and gives her the look he's always given her, the one that says, I love you so much. Even though she's nervous to meet his family, an odd feeling considering all she knows about them, she returns the look happily.

8.3

Radley Mikaelson, now Radley Bishop, has spent his whole life watching the universe tear his mom down.

First, his dad got her pregnant and bailed. (Or something like that, he isn't really sure. His mom has never talked about it before.) Then, she got with Xavier, who got her hooked on inhalants. Then, she met John, who she left Xavier for.

He can still remember Xavier slapping his mom for breaking up with him, and John promising to never leave after that. Well, John did leave. He left Mom, when she was a few months pregnant with Leah.

Then came David, for all of five minutes, who did two good things: put Mom through rehab, and brought Brooke to their lives.

David left for his ex-wife, though, and Radley had a few years of his mom swearing off men for good before she started seeing this other guy. She never brought him home, and never spoke of him, so he has no clue who the guy is.

He got Mom pregnant, though, with Nina. She had Nina and swore off men again, until she met Graham at the GED place. She'd dropped out, and he was a teacher there. And the rest is history. Except, not really, because life is still going on, and his mom still has problems. His life is still a soap opera waiting to happen.

Take Nina for example. Nowadays, they all just say that Nina is Graham's, like Justin is. Radley knows it isn't the truth, all of them do.

He has no problem lying for his mom, though. After everything she's gone through, he'll do anything for her, including getting adopted by Graham and changing his name to Radley Bishop.

He'll also watch his younger siblings while Mom and Graham go have fun in New York.

She promised she'll get us out there soon, he reminds himself daily.

Chasing after Justin is a full time job, especially with Nina insisting on being his boss and that pissing him off. Leah can't do it without needing her inhaler, and Brooke is too lazy to do it, so he's always watching them.

It's worth it, though. Mom calls every night, and tells them about how the reunions are going. She's happy, and that's all he really cares about. He just has to remind himself of that a lot, that's all.

8.4

Caroline flops heavily onto the couch. She loves Bonnie, but all she hears about is her long distance relationship with a guy from Santa Clara, and everything - every last thing - relates back to him.

God, she wasn't like this, was she? Caroline will seriously apologize, if she was. It's awful, never hearing anything out of Bonnie except stuff about Jeremy. Like, what does she do when they aren't texting? Did she talk to Grams? If so, how is she?

Anyway. After that exhausting lunch, all she wants to do is watch some trash TV and not dwell on anything.

The TV turns on as slow as Grams walks. She's twenty-four, and still living with her mother. It's not a plasma - Liz doesn't want one, and what she says goes. The image isn't too bad, luckily. She can barely make out the pores on the Kardashian's faces; if it was any worse, she would've already bought a flat screen.

The bad screen is why she blames not seeing it earlier.

When it finally gears up, she sees a picture of seven people on the screen. She hears the name Mikaelson, but she brushes it off. Surely, he isn't the only person in the whole world with that last name. She also thinks, this must be that Manhunt everyone was talking about. But then she sees the faces.

It's a little fuzzy, but the only person in the photo that's standing looks strikingly like Klaus, just aged down from the seventeen year old she knew.

The commercial changes into a different one before she has enough time to take it all in.

So, she plucks her phone out of her purse, and searches, "Klaus Mikaelson."

There are a couple hundred hits; she clicks on the top one. It's a website that's clearly affiliated with the commercial, as the picture is front and center. And yeah, that's Klaus, right there. His isn't showing off his cute dimples, but his hair is just as messy as it always was, and his eyes are showing the melancholic look he'd had at the beginning and end of their relationship.

The page said that they were separated on May 10th, the day their mother was killed, and that the search was being led by the Mikaelson siblings' grandparents and aunt.

"Oh my god," she mumbled.

Klaus, her at-one-time Epic Love Story, was Niklaus Mikaelson. Is - is Niklaus Mikaelson. The picture and the date of death for the mother is proof enough of that.

Holy shit.

Without thinking, she dials the number at the bottom of the page.

"Hello?"

Stupid, she asks, "is Klaus there?" It hadn't said anywhere if he had or hadn't been found, so it's a fair question. However, she didn't introduce herself first, so she's being rude.

She's going to correct herself, but when she starts to speak, the woman on the other line says, "Klaus? Do you mean Niklaus?"

"Um, yes. By the way, my name is Caroline Forbes. Is he? There, I mean."

She's all over the place, but the woman doesn't seem to mind. "I'm Torunn Leifson. And unfortunately, no, he hasn't been found yet. Do you have any information on him?"

"Well...he goes by Klaus." She wracks her brain for anything else pertinent, but all that comes to mind is how he swept her off her feet as easy as he left. "Um, I think he lives in Louisiana now, or something around there." She bites her lip, feeling like she's disappointing Torunn. "I haven't seen him in three years, I'm sorry I don't have more."

"That's quite alright. If you don't mind my asking, how did you know him?"

"Ah...he was my boyfriend." Bonnie had despised him for the first bit there, and so had the Salvatore brothers. By the time they'd hit six years, though, her friends had come around. Now, they hate him, and she can't mention him without getting a glare, an "I told you so", or a guilt trip.

When Torunn speaks, she doesn't judgmental at all. "Well, I'm glad he wasn't alone, at least. How was he?"

"Excuse me?" Was this lady asking how he was in bed?

"I mean, was he okay? He suffered terrible abuse, and I think all us Mikaelsons and Leifsons would feel better knowing if he was okay or not."

"Oh…." Did she want to tell Klaus' secrets? It couldn't hurt, could it? This is his aunt, after all. "Well, we were together for six years. He was good at hiding his emotions. I wouldn't say he was depressed, though, except for at the fifteenth anniversary of his mother's death, it really hit him hard. I'm not sure why, it hadn't affected him much the other anniversaries. He left the day after and I haven't heard from him or seen him in the three years since."

She clears her throat, all of the emotions of the time coming back to her. "Sorry," she adds.

Torunn quickly consoles, "it's okay. His siblings will be happy to hear that someone was there for him, and that he was okay." The thought of his siblings knowing about them is scary - she'd never had to worry about them, because while he spoke of them often, he never said anything about finding them - but she hums her agreement. "I'll call you when we find him, is that alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah, it sounds great. Thank you."

"No, thank you." And the line goes dead.

There's more finality and closure in that than in her relationship with Klaus. The thought makes her breath hitch with either a laugh or a sob - she decides not to choose which one is worse.

Her mom finds her crying into her ice cream when she gets off work a few hours later.

8.5

Graham and Freya settle down for bed easily. They've been together for a few years now, so they're more in sync than Graham had thought possible.

He curls around her, and listens to her talk to the kids. He'd been a little daunted at first, since dating her meant dating her and the whole, four-kid package. Her oldest, Radley, had been suspicious at first, too, where the girls had seemed uninterested.

Now, though, they've all gone from Mikaelson's to Bishop's, and he's happy to call them his children.

Freya hands the phone over so he can say good night to Nina and Justin, and then she ends the call.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Are your brothers always like that?" He asks, referencing the interrogation they'd given him and Katherine.

She shrugs. "Finn has always been protective of me, and Elijah has always been a little, well, scary. Scary isn't the right word. Kol is the scary one, really. When we were still in the Manor, he would go on rampages and ruin things around the house to get attention." Graham raises an eyebrow. "Don't give me that look. He isn't and was never crazy. Father ignored him, and so did Mother. He wasn't the middle child, but he didn't always have a friend around, since Rebekah was busy with Henrik, and Elijah and I had paired off with Finn and Niklaus. He just felt left out and neglected."

Graham stifles a smile at her defensiveness. "So if I ever leave you out of something, you'll freak out and break a window."

"No," she laughs. "And the only time he ever broke a window was when he was four. He'd graduated to sticking wine glasses down the garbage disposal and flushing Mother's jewelry. And occasionally dislocating his arm."

She says that like it's a fond memory. Not for the first time, he wonders what he married into (not that he regrets it for even a second). "Are mental illnesses common in your family?"

"What?"

"Well, you have anxiety, and Kol has it, too. And from what you've told me, it seems like your parents were sociopaths, or at least showed tendencies. Kol, too." When she doesn't respond, he adds, "you just called your brothers scary."

"Elijah isn't scary, he's just...fierce. Driven."

"And sociopathic?" He teases, trying to lighten the mood. He's honestly not trying to call her family crazy, but it's coming out that way, and he doesn't know how to fix it any other way.

"No." She isn't laughing. She doesn't look mad, but she's not amused. "Why would you think that, anyway?"

"Elijah seems like he isn't, I was just teasing you about that. But Kol? Kol is irresponsible, and clearly had early behavioral issues. Your parents, from what you've told me, were manipulative, grandiose and shameless. Also, irresponsible."

She countered, "so irresponsibility is a sign of being a sociopath?"

"No, but - "

"Next time you talk to your dad, let him know he's got a new case to study." She crosses her arms and lays with her back to him.

"Freya, honey, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to say anything bad about your family. I was just asking because my siblings and I never did anything like this."

Sighing, she turns to face him. "Well, that's because your parents didn't abandon you. They didn't leave you with six siblings to take care of, and they certainly didn't single each of you out as the favorite, or the hated."

The information is all new to him - they've never talked in depth about what her parents did to her and her siblings. Quietly, he asks, "did they pick favorites?"

"Of course. They loved Finn and I, and Henrik. They could've loved Elijah, too, but they saw him as a 'traitor'. He loved Niklaus too much to been seen as anything else. The same went for Kol and Rebekah. Either you loved them, or loved him. And if you loved him, then you were the children that they dealt with, instead of loving back." She frowned at the concerned look on face, reading him easily. "We all loved Niklaus. Some of us showed it more than others, though, and that got them sent to that terrible position. He threatened Finn and I about it, too, so I never switched."

"He threatened you?" Graham knows he sounds a little silly, since his tone come out a little high, but he doesn't care.

She nods, but doesn't elaborate. "Anyway. Do you want me to tell them to back off? I can do that, if you want. I'm sure Elijah has, already." She doesn't say it, but she implies that she's done with that topic.

And well, if there's one thing he can do, it's go along with the subject change. "No, it's fine. I would appreciate not having to do that again, though."

She nods, and turns so she can mold her back to his front. "Of course, love. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, babe."

Chapter Text

6.3

There isn't much in the way of proof, other than her birth certificate (as well as Henrik's, Kol's and Nik's that she stole from their baby books weeks before Mother died) and a picture taken May 8th, 1996.

The picture shows all of her family - except her wretched parents, of course - happy, whole, safe. Nik has a black eye, and both Elijah and Kol look roughed up. Rebekah herself is missing a tooth, from the slap her mother hit her with, and Freya's makeup is running. Only Finn and Henrik look okay physically - though at the time, Finn had been shaking with fury, and Henrik had just calmed down from a crying jag that lasted hours.

But they were happy, to be together without their parents, and safe, since their parents weren't home. Their levels of overall happiness and safety hinged on their parents, as you can tell.

She shows the picture to Fred. It's a bit nerve-wracking, since she's kept this secret for almost twenty years, but he reacts well.

"That's you?" He asks, grabbing the picture gently.

She nods, biting her lip.

"When was the taken? How long have you had this?" He glances up at her briefly, then looks back down to the picture.

"It was taken two days before my mother's death, and I've had it since my social worker let me get the film turned into actual pictures."

He looks both impressed and a little sad. "Wow. That's…."

"It's depressing, I'm aware." She laughs a little nervously. She's tempted to tell him about what she does when she's sad - look at the picture and pretend she can talk to them again. She won't divulge that, but she wants to.

He smiles a fleeting smile, still looking at the picture. She doesn't miss how his eyes land on the bruises and other flaws. Eventually, he says, "you should send this in when you call. It'll be the second picture they have of all of you guys, and it shows Niklaus' face. That's a big deal."

"Oh, if he knew you'd said that, his ego would inflate ten times what it already is."

"Is that what he was like?" Fred questions curiously.

"Yes." She reflects for a moment, what her siblings were like. In the face of abuse and neglect, they had all carved themselves a space in the family. Freya was the mature mother-like figure, Finn the perfect son/brother, Elijah the martyr, Nik the egomaniac, Kol the troublemaker, Henrik the happy one, and herself the princess.

They had all had their "alter egos" of course. Freya had locked herself away, Finn had angry jags of misbehavior, Elijah had put himself first, Nik had treated her like she was the best thing to ever happen to him, Kol had been good, she had put Henrik before her, and Henrik had cried and cried.

She can't stand to think about it anymore, though. Her hormones aren't helping what's always been a delicate subject. So, instead of expanding on it, she says, "I'm going to call in now. Can I have that back?"

He frowns at the way she's shutting her emotions out - he hates it, but it's not something she can fix - but says nothing and hands her the picture. Once she has it, he offers, "I'll be right out here if you need anything, alright?"

"Yes, thank you, love." She gives him a smile, and moves to their bedroom.

8.6 - May 8th, 1996

"Okay, everyone, settle down now! I'm going to put it on a timer, and if it's not perfect, we're going to do it over and over again until it is." Freya clapped her hands, like that would make her siblings listen.

Finn, clenching his jaw, pulled Henrik away from Rebekah and Kol, and rocked him. He wasn't exactly gentle, but Henrik responded better to it than he did to the kids' poking and shushing.

Freya, knowing what he was doing to help her, shuffled him into the seat at the table. "You two just sit here, while I get the others." She leaned in, and added under her breath, "I know you're upset, so thank you for not doing anything about it."

"What am I supposed to do? Punch the wall?" He snorts, "hit Niklaus and blame it on him?"

She eyes him sternly. "Don't joke about that."

"Was I laughing?"

"Whatever, Finn." She turned, and in her normal pitch, she said, "okay, kids, let's go."

Elijah sighed, and pulled Niklaus to the table. "Come, brother." He used his haughty tone, the one that made Niklaus smile.

This time, it was barely a smirk, one that didn't reach his eyes nor last long. But it was a smile nonetheless, so Elijah, and by extension, Freya, took it.

Rebekah scurried to the table, eager to get the spot next to Niklaus. Kol, however, leaned up against the wall, acting like he was Finn's age instead of his own.

Niklaus rolled his eyes, and ignored the smarting of his blackened one. "Kol, just sit down. It's just a picture. It won't take that long."

His levity was noted. It was also a facade, since they all knew what he thought about pictures. He hadn't been in one with any of them since Henrik was a baby, not ones that Father hadn't removed him from at least. This would be his first, and since Father wouldn't know, it would get to last more than a few days.

Even Kol, who loved to do the opposite of what he was told, understood that. With a heaving sigh, like sitting for a picture would kill him, he hopped into the chair next to Elijah.

Freya came over to pull her seat out, and ruffled his hair. "You look like a king, sitting there," she teased. Rebekah instantly asked if she looked like a queen. Even though she wasn't at the head of the table like Kol was, Freya assured her she did.

Then, she moved to the camera, and set up the timer. "Okay, everyone, it's starting." She ran to her chair, between Kol and Finn, who had Henrik in his lap now, and had just gotten herself settled when the camera flashed.

She stood again, and moved to the camera. The picture looked great. She smiled, glad that there would be a memory like this for them to look back on in the future.

"How's it look?" Elijah asked.

"It looks like the bomb." Finn rolled his eyes at her attempt to be cool, but Kol and Rebekah laughed. "I was thinking, though. We should do one more, making silly faces. You guys wanna?"

Rebekah nodded so hard her hair whipped around and hit Niklaus. He just smiled, though.

His tender moments, like so many of theirs, were few and far between. For Niklaus, Kol, and everyone older than them, they often were only about Rebekah and Henrik. Even when Rebekah was acting like she owned the world, and when Henrik would cry until he couldn't anymore.

Freya pushed the thoughts away. "Okay, I'll start it….now."

She ran to her seat, and had a few more seconds than last time to make a silly face. Only Henrik hadn't done it, but then, he was barely a year and a half old.

Kol bounded out of his seat to see the picture, so Freya crouched down to his level. Rebekah came over to see it, too.

Kol laughed at the face Finn made, where he rolled his tongue and crossed his eyes, while Rebekah said that Henrik looked adorable with his dopey look.

Before she could show her other brothers, the sounds of Mother and Father's car coming up the driveway sounded. Frantically, she handed the camera to Rebekah, and told her, "hide this where our parents won't find it."

She didn't seem to understand quite why, but she nodded, and ran upstairs. Kol cocked his head at her like he was deeply thinking about why she said that. Then he made a little shrug, and ran after Rebekah.

Niklaus swallowed anxiously, and made sure he and Elijah looked busy. Finn stood, and moved towards her, cradling Henrik more gently. In an undertone, he said, "if he hits Niklaus, or calls Kol a fag again, I'm going to kill him."

"You can't," she responded in the same whisper. "I'm not eighteen yet. Just wait until then, Finn, please."

Angrily, he gave her the Mikaelson Family Eyebrow of Incredulity. "Fine. Take him," he said, handing Henrik over. The baby made a protest, but quieted immediately when he heard Father's voice. "I'm going upstairs. Have fun dealing with them."

And with that, he had left her with three of her brothers and their parents. Dammit, Finn.

8.7 - May 16th, 1996

Nik blinked his eyes open. There was a nurse standing there, and when she saw that he's woken, she smiled brightly at him.

It was a fake smile. He'd seen enough of them in his almost nine years of life to know which ones were real and which ones weren't.

She gushed, "it's your birthday, honey. We got you a present, me and Kyle. He's not here just yet, so you'll have to wait, but that's okay. We can do our tests first."

He gaped at her. It was his birthday, the first one he'd ever spent without his siblings. He was alone, except for his two nurses who tried so hard to cheer him up, it made his sadness worse.

Humiliatingly, he felt his eyes well up with tears. He hadn't cried in years, not since Kol was learning to walk and almost fell down the stairs. Crying brought on an odd, terrible feeling that he hated. He felt weak, and vulnerable, and like he was laying himself out so Father could hurt him even more.

Rachel's eyes widened, and she comforted him awkwardly. She tried to pull him into a hug, but the railing was between them, and he didn't want a hug, anyway. There were only six people on the planet who could hug him, and they were gone.

He pulled away, angry at the circumstances, and sobbing like a baby. "Just leave me alone," he pleaded.

She patted his hair, and said, "I'm sorry Niklaus, I can't. I can't leave you alone like this."

If she wouldn't leave, then he would hide. It was the coward's way out, but he didn't care anymore. He pulled the sheets over his head and curled into the fetal position, not caring when his broken ribs twinged painfully.

His concussion was making him dizzy, but he didn't care about that, either. He just wanted to be alone, far away from the nurse who thought her presence would make up for his siblings'.

She wouldn't leave though, and he knew it. He knew it, because he never got what he wanted, and he never would.

0.6

A knock sounds on the door of Finn's hotel room.

"Hold on, Sage," he says, and moves towards the door. It's Graham. He smiles easily and tells Finn it's time to go to dinner. Finn says he'll be right there, tells his wife and their children he loves them, and makes his way downstairs.

Leif smiles at his grandson, when he gets to the table. "We'll order first, but then, we have a surprise for you, Finn."

"Really?" Finn questions, a bit excited. He has no idea what it could be, and that makes the suspense better.

Leif and Aerona nod. He smiles, but doesn't ask about it again until after everyone has placed their orders.

Aerona starts, "now, usually, I would not allow this, but you'll want to pull out your phone."

It clicks then, without them saying anything else. He grins, and pulls up the ancestry app.

"We're going to tell all of you about the family you have yet to meet," Torunn adds, excited.

"What do you have so far?" Leif questions.

"On our side, just my siblings, Mother, and Father. I added you three as well, but I don't have any dates or anything."

"I'll start, then," Torunn says. She gestures with her words, and almost knocks over Elijah's drink. "Sorry about that."

"It's alright," he waves off.

"If you're sure." He nods, so she turns back to Finn. "I was born the 11th of April, 1976, in Tromsø, Norway." Finn adds the info quickly, and delights at the hint that shows up. He ignores it, though, and gestures for any more information. "On the 23rd of November, I had a daughter named Octavia Daanson, two 'a's."

"Who is her father?"

"Zachariah Daanson. We married in 1994, oh, and all of this happened in Tromsø. Then, on the 3rd of June, 1996, we had another daughter, Rachel."

Leif and Aerona went on to say their birthdays - the 25th of July, 1929, and the 22nd of September, 1930, respectively - and that Aerona had been married once previously before Leif. His name was Emil, he was much older than her, and with him, she had four kids: Gregor, born 1947, Annalise, born 1948, Birgitta, born 1950, and Greta, born 1952. Emil died in 1953, she met Leif in 1954, and in 1957, they were married.

Together, they had 13 children, not including her first four. He puts in the information of all of them while ignoring Kol's constant complaining and Elijah's answering bickering of how they're hearing about their aunts and uncles, and isn't it interesting? and no, of course it isn't, what do I look like, someone who's having fun? and of course you do, I thought it was obvious.

Finn ignores them so hard, Freya has to deal with them, despite it usually being his job. They love, and they'll listen to her sometimes, but she doesn't have his 'keep doing whatever it is you're doing and you'll suffer' voice.

They calm down, though, when the food comes, and allow Finn to continue to hear about how Leif and Aerona's oldest, Freydis, died young, and left a daughter not much older than Freya. The daughter, Ellinor, had been raised by Gregor and his wife in America.

They go over the rest of their cousins, and Kol interrupts only a few times: once to comment on poor Ogechukwukama "Ogechi"'s name, their cousin who was born only a year after Niklaus, and the other two times to ask if he could leave.

By the time dinner is over, Finn has a lot of his side filled in. They'd also gone over Leif and Aerona's parents, and when they heard that, other than Leif's mother who died in childbirth in 1945, and Leif's father, who died in 1978, they could've met their great-grandparents on Aerona's side. Her mother had died in 2002, and her father in 1999.

Elijah and Freya had been most upset about it, but calmed quickly when Torunn said she has news.

"Earlier, I got a call," she starts, "from a woman who claimed to know Niklaus." Freya, Finn, Elijah, and Kol gasp, while Leif, Aerona, Graham, and Katherine look interested, and Matt plays with the food left on his plate. "She said her name is Caroline, and that she and Niklaus - or Klaus, as she said he goes by now - had been together for six years."

"Six years?" Kol cries, garnering even more looks from the people around them than they had been before. "Six freakin' years?"

"Are you sure?" Elijah asks, prompting Katherine to lightly punch his arm. "I don't mean it like that. He always said he'd rather die alone than lose someone important to him, and he'd sworn off dating."

"He was nine."

"He was eight. And it wasn't a light decision, even though it sounds like it. We'd all made a pact, to never have children that could be tormented by either our parents or us, lest we turn out like them. He thought it best to just never date anyone, or fall in love. He didn't want to become our father."

Kol, swallowing visibly, cuts in, and redirects, "Torunn, did she say anything else?"

"Just that he didn't seem depressed generally, and that he left her on the fifteenth anniversary of your mother's death. Apparently, it affected him, unlike all the other ones they'd spent together. She wasn't sure why, really."

"May I see your phone? I'm going to call her back, see if I can't get anything out of her," he says, reaching a hand out expectantly.

"Bad idea," Freya coughs with a smirk.

"Shut up. Don't you want to see if there's anything else we need to know? Not depressed doesn't mean non-suicidal, or even mentally healthy."

"She hasn't seen him in, what, three years this coming anniversary? How would she know?" Elijah counters.

"Because six years is not an insubstantial amount of time. Surely, she had gleaned something about him we should know in the six years they were involved."

Finn adds, "I think you should call her."

"Don't be stupid," Freya responds as Elijah says, "that's an awful idea".

"Well, without one of our other siblings here to break the tie, I will be calling her. Torunn, the phone, please."

Reluctantly, she hands the phone over.

He goes to the call history, ready to dial the number again, but before he can, the phone rings.

0.7

Hesitantly, Kol answers the phone. "Hello? Are you calling for the Mikaelson Manhunt, or is this like a telemarketer, or something?"

"Kol? Kol 'Maid Service' Mikaelson? Is that you?"

All the air leaves Kol's body in one fell woosh.

There's no one else it could be. It's a female voice, and since he's been sitting across from Freya all night long, it can't be her. There's no one else who could possibly know about that nickname from his childhood.

"Rebekah? Princess Rebekah Mikaelson?"

"Yes, yes it's me." She makes a noise like she's crying, but he can barely handle his own emotions on a good day, so he pretends she isn't.

"Oh my god. It's wonderful to hear from you." He laughs wetly. He loves his older siblings, but Rebekah had always been the one he was closest to, even if it wasn't true for her. "How are you? How has life treated you?"

Everyone is staring at him, none more than his siblings. It's clear they want to talk to Rebekah, too, see if it's actually her. He's not about to give up the phone, though. Hell no.

"Well, I was adopted by a loving family. I'm married. We live in Denver." She doesn't waste a second to say, "I'm happy to know that you've made it out well."

"Yeah, I think my life is pretty obvious, and well-known, sister. But you, married? Pfft. What a poor guy."

She huffs at his teasing. "Fred is very lucky to have me."

"Fred? Like Flintstone? Or more Jones? Does he wear an ascot, or does he drive to work in a foot-powered vehicle? Bekah, it's important that I know these crucial details - "

"No, he doesn't wear an ascot, or drive a...whatever you said."

"A foot-powered vehicle? Shame, his legs would be amazing." He snickers, at both the sound she makes like he's completely offended her, and at the faces his other siblings, grandparents, and aunt are making.

"Whatever. Are you with our other siblings? I'd love to talk to them, since they won't annoy me nearly as much as you do."

He grins at the venomous tone, all too used to it, ever after so long. "You know, that reminds me - Freya, Finn, and Elijah all have children, now. Can you believe they're so old? And they went against the pact we all made! They - "

Rebekah hitches a sob, and he shuts up. Tentatively, he asks, "what's wrong?" Elijah gives him the evil eye, like he's done something to hurt their sister's feelings for real. They'd always teased each other, and he wasn't going to stop now.

"You hate children?" Her tone is blank, but that says more than it would have if she'd screamed at him.

"What? I love children, just not Mikaelson children. I mean, I've only met the one, and he's a sweet kid, but from what I hear, I don't need any more nieces or nephews - "

"I'm pregnant, you ass. Are you going to just not acknowledge my child, since you already have so many nieces and nephews or - "

"What? Rebekah - "

She hangs up on him. He pulls the phone away from his ear, shocked.

Elijah and Freya glare at him. Freya questions, "how do you even know it's her?"

He snaps, "she called me Maid Service Mikaelson. Who else knows that nickname, and isn't Nik? No one, not even Henrik."

Finn demands, "then what the hell did you do?"

"I didn't do anything," he insists before pressing her number again.

"What do you want, Kol?" She asks instantly, her screw you tone coming out in full.

"Listen, you brat, that's not what I meant, and you know it. I'm sure I'll love the kid. I just meant, I'm enjoying my life without any mini-me's running amok, and I thought you would feel the same way. Clearly, that was incorrect."

"Clearly," she icily responds. "Now, if you could please hand the phone to someone who isn't you, that would be much appreciated."

"How do you this isn't my phone?" He can't help but tease.

"Even you aren't stupid enough to put your personal number online. Now give the phone to someone else or so help me, Kol Nathaniel Mikaelson, I will - "

"She wants to talk to you," he blurts, and passes the phone off to Elijah. Leif snorts, while Aerona and Torunn watch the exchanges avidly.

"Hello? Who is this?...This is Elijah…..Yes, yes…..I truly apologize for his behavior, Rebekah, I'm not quite sure what he….Oh, he did, did he?" He gives Kol the evil eye again. "I'm going to have a talk with him, definitely…..Well, in that case, I'll hang up so that you can send it in. It has been great to hear from you, really…..You too."

Then he puts the phone down. "Katherine, could you take Matthew to the bathroom, to get cleaned up, please?"

"Sure. But you're going to tell me what happens while I'm in there."

In the face of her finger pointing at him dangerously, he easily agrees, "of course, love." She smiles, nods, and takes Matthew away from the table. Once she's out of earshot, Elijah turns to glower at Kol. "You told her you wouldn't love her child?"

"Rebekah's pregnant? Are we sure about this?"

"You know what, I think I need to use the restroom, too," Graham inserts awkwardly before hastily leaving.

"Well, it was definitely Rebekah on the phone. And she's going to text a picture that she called 'proof'. But I don't care about that, I care about Kol telling her he wouldn't love her child."

He puts his hands up. "Hey, it's not my fault, I thought she was single, or sticking to the pact, at the very least."

"Sure, Kol. If she tries to rip you limb from limb, I won't be stopping her."

"What? You'll just let her hurt me?"

"If there's one thing I've learned about pregnant women, it's that you let them do what they want." The phone buzzes, but they ignore it momentarily.

"Oh my god," Kol sighs. "Just check to see if the proof is good or not." He mumbles, "what do I care."

Elijah, fed up with him, shakes his head and looks down to the phone. He gasps. "Oh my god. This is that picture, the one that was taken just days before…."

He trails off, so Freya grabs the phone. She gapes. When Finn sees it, he lets out a shocked laugh. And when Kol sees it, he lets out a hoot. "That's us, alright. That means that we've found our dear sister."

He hands the phone to his elders, who look at it with delight and surprise. This is only the second instance of Niklaus, Rebekah, and Henrik that they've seen before.

And even though Kol just made Rebekah mad, it's a very successful dinner.

Chapter Text

8.8 - May 10th, 1996

The guy at the door said his name was Ansel. Freya wasn't exactly keen to let him enter, especially with the mood Father was in, but, as the perfect daughter she was expected to be, she let him in. Her manners demanded it.

She had no idea what she was doing by letting him come in.

She showed Ansel to the sitting room, where Mother and Father were. At the sight of Ansel, her parents stood. Mother looked concerned while Father looked angry.

Ansel said, "you know why I'm here."

Mother looked between both men, and responded, "Ansel, I'm not sure that's a good idea." Freya looked from Mother to Father to Ansel, feeling like she'd missed part of the conversation.

Father growled, a tone he used exclusively for Niklaus, "get out of here before I make you."

Ansel looked like he was biting down his anger. Freya watched from the doorway, knowing she should leave. No one had told her to, though, and she was curious. The man said, "I just want my son. I know what you've done to him, and I want to take him somewhere where he won't be hated."

"Excuse me?" Mother cried, disgusted.

Father glared. "You mean the mutt? He's no son of mine, but he isn't yours, either. I've been forced to raised him, unfortunately. You're nothing to him."

Freya, at first unsure of who they were talking about, got the sudden realization when she watched Ansel glare back. His jaw jumped as he clenched his teeth, something that Niklaus did a lot. Oh my god, she thought.

"I will be when I take him away from the two of you. Esther, you even told me, you don't love him or want him. At least in my home he would be around people who don't detest his very existence."

Father was enraged by the insult he saw in the words, the way that - he thought, at least - Ansel insulted his parenting skills. Freya knew he didn't have any skills, but thought he did, and due to that, Ansel's words were insults. Father hated being insulted; it made him the kind of angry that was dangerous to more than just Niklaus.

She didn't stick around long enough to watch Father go after Ansel with his favorite bat - one that he'd stolen from Kol.

She ran upstairs, and pulled her siblings from their rooms. She pushed them all into their parents' room, the only one with a lock. Once they were all in, she didn't both to explain - she just said, "a man named Ansel is here, and he angered Father, and he's going to hurt him."

"What?" Finn demanded. "What the fu- hell are you talking about, Freya?"

Niklaus, much more pale than usual, said blankly, "my father is down there. My true father." His voice was the same as it was after a beating - rough, angry, inflection-less. Freya hated it.

Rebekah gasped, crying from the stress of it all, and Kol wrapped his arms around her. Elijah held onto Henrik a litte tighter.

They were silent for a moment, thinking about that. Once, when Rebekah was a baby, they'd all gotten together and talked about it - when or if Niklaus' birth father would show up to take him away. They'd give him up, they agreed, as long as they could still communicate with each other. They hadn't imagined this, though - that he would show up and Father, who often said he hated Niklaus, would deny him taking his son away.

Before anyone could say anything, there was a screech from downstairs that sounded inhuman. Freya's hair stood on end.

Niklaus didn't feel the same way. He ran to the door, and unlocked it quickly. He sprinted downstairs, Elijah - sans Henrik, who now sat on the bed - hot on his heels. Freya thought, goddammit, and told Finn, "you stay here and lock the door. Don't let him in."

She didn't say who - she didn't have to. She and Finn shared a look, silent but full of words. They didn't have to speak verbally to converse about this - this was Code FUBAR, and it wouldn't be just Niklaus who was hurt, like they'd predicted. No, there was Elijah, and Mother, and even Ansel. And Freya, but she didn't put any more thought into going downstairs to help.

She ran downstairs, the door slamming behind her, to find a horrific scene.

Mother was in a pool of blood - at first, she couldn't tell where it was coming from, but a few, nauseated steps closer told her that Mother's throat was slit. Not far from her, Ansel lay, head bashed in from Father's bat.

And not far from them was Elijah. He was standing over the prone form of their half-brother, who had curled himself into the fetal position. The bat was held in one of Elijah's hands, like he'd grabbed it before it could hit him.

While Niklaus was often put at Father's mercy, Elijah wasn't. Sure, Father had hit him before, but that was because Elijah had gone too far in protecting his younger brother. This, in contrast, was a direct conflict with Father that would never be tolerated.

As always, Freya's predictions were true - she watched as Father ripped the bat from Elijah's grip and hit him over the head like he was hitting a home run. Elijah stumbled over Niklaus, and fell to the floor, clutching his stomach in one hand and his head in the other. She didn't dwell on the way his stomach was dripping blood like a faucet; instead, she looked over Niklaus. He was unconscious, clearly severely injured.

Freya was often the soft spoken one of her siblings, tying with her oldest younger brothers for the spot. Rebekah, Niklaus and Kol weren't even close, and Henrik couldn't speak, so there was quite the competition. Soft spoken, though, didn't mean nicest - that was Henrik's spot, if only because all of his siblings had the anger issues of their father, and he was a baby.

Freya was no different. She would shout, mostly, and threaten to run away or get a tattoo and show it off to all of his friends. That's not what happened this time - no, this time, she saw red.

In a move only Elijah had ever done before, Freya charged Father. He laughed cruelly as he saw her approach.

"Oh, Freya, what are you going to do? If neither of your pathetic brothers could do it, then you certainly can't, either."

She paid him no mind, and didn't respond. Instead, she reached for the bat with both hands, desperate to get it away from him.

He laughed again and threw her to the ground using her grip on the bat. The second she was down, he kicked her in the ribs. He was infuriated - it wasn't something she'd ever seen directed at her before.

His hissed words brought her out of her thoughts. "I won't kill you, if only because you've been loyal to me. But the next time you pull a stunt like this, you'll end up like your mother." He pulled out his Swiss Army knife, now bloodied, and slashed at her face. It didn't connect, but it was close enough that any bravado she'd had was completely gone. She looked up at him with fearful eyes.

"You shouldn't see this," he cooed. Then, his foot connected with her head roughly, and she was gone.

8.9 - May 10th, 1996

When the police pounded on the door, Finn, despite Rebekah's screeching, opened it. She wasn't sure what happens immediately after - just that the police came in, dragged them out, and made them sit in the lawn while the ambulances took away five stretchers - three with her siblings on them, two with body bags - and the cop car took away her father, who scowled and raged at them. She was told not to think about him, but if she didn't think about him, then she thought about what actually happened.

The cops forced her to keep her eyes forward, she'll remember. They wouldn't let her look in the sitting room; when Kol tried to look, they snapped at him. Only Finn was left to look without being shouted at - Henrik's head was hidden under his baby blanket, and none of the cops seemed to care if Finn saw or not.

The only other vivid memory of the scene she had was the way the neighbors looked at her family. Mystic Falls was a small community, and every time anything with the cops happened, it was a neighborhood spectacle. (Later, Kol will say it was the first kind of attention he got that was negative that he didn't revel in. Father's neglect was a game to him, but the neighbor's eyes peering at them angered him.)

She remembered curling into Finn's side, Kol, with Henrik in his small arms, curled into the other.

She didn't remember the car ride, but she remembered the police station. They'd been sat down at a table, told to talk about what happened. So the younger three didn't have to, Finn had answered every question: they don't know, they weren't downstairs, they were hiding, they were scared, we were fucking scared, what did you want from us, to get killed?

Then, he asked where the other three were and if they were alright and what in the hell happened - the cop responded by saying that it didn't matter, as there didn't seem to be anyone to contact and that meant one thing: going to the system.

It wasn't until the next day she understood what the system was.

They'd spent all night on a cot on the floor of Nik's hospital room. She woke to the sounds of adults saying it was time to go - then, they tried to get Finn to leave, but he wouldn't. He punched a cop, and was wrestled to the ground, and she was screaming. Nik was, too, and Henrik. Henrik was screeching because that's what babies did; Nik was screaming because Kol was ripped out of the room by his arms, then Finn, then Henrik, then her. She could hear his wailing all the way to the elevator.

8.10 - May 11th, 1996

Freya was woken by the screams. She couldn't move, her ribs were on fire. She was forced to endure listening as Rebekah pleaded to go back to Niklaus' room, as Finn, before the younger girl, was shouted down from trying to yell his siblings' names.

A nurse named Rachel came in a little while later, after the screaming and crying had stopped, and gave her a friendly look. "It's crazy, really. Those kids were so loud they must've shook the whole building." She laughed, and looked at Freya like she wanted her to laugh back.

Freya didn't. She didn't find it funny, not at all - she hadn't seen her siblings since the door closed behind her what felt like an eternity before. They'd been in Niklaus' room, which meant he'd seen them; she suspected that he wasn't laughing, either.

"Whatever," she sighed, not bothering for any kind of manners anymore. Father was probably in jail, so what did it matter if she wasn't perfect?

Rachel gave her the stink eye, but didn't comment. She left after a moment, leaving Freya unsure of why she was there in the first place.

In another room not far from Freya's, Elijah lay, blinking lazily at the F.R.I.E.N.D.S. rerun. His head hurt and throbbed, making watching the show a process. It wasn't fun, but he didn't really mind it all that much.

His injuries - both his concussion and the stab wound Father had stuck him with the second he'd gotten between him and Niklaus - had led to something good happening. They were all never going back to that mansion. On top of that, he'd finally defended Niklaus the way he deserved.

The only downside was that leaving the house meant leaving each other - he could guess that much from the way his siblings had so fiercely not wanted to leave Niklaus' room.

Life wouldn't be easy again, not that it ever was. No nurse had come in to tell him, but he could guess - he would be going from the home that he was raised in to a foster home, or if he was lucky, a home where he was adopted. Lucky being subjective, of course.

For now, he wouldn't focus on it. His head hurt so bad he wasn't sure he could even if he wanted to, anyway.

8.11 (part one: 31st May 1996; part two: June 3rd, 1996; part three: January 1st, 1997)

Kol glared at the woman trying to send him into the house. She made another bargain that he ignored pointedly.

"No."

"Kol, come on. You've already been adopted. You're going to be living here until they move, and then you're going to go wherever they go."

"No!"

"Stop being immature and just go in there, Kol." I'm barely six and my whole family is gone, Kol wanted to shout and scream and cry, but he didn't. He was silent.

"No! No!"

Kathy, his new mother, came out of the house, no longer carrying his bag. She saw what was happening and crouched down on his level. "Hi sweetie."

"Leave me alone," Kol bit out.

"I'm sorry, but I can't. Well, not out here. If you want, you can go up to your new room and be alone there? But just until dinner, then you'll have to come downstairs."

Kol looked her in the eyes, unsure. Eventually, he looked down, and mumbled, "fine."

"Good, thank you." Katherine stood, and told the social worker with a glare, "you can go now." Her 'don't come back unless it's to finalize the papers' wasn't said and probably wasn't heard, but she meant it.

With a scowl, Kol went inside and the woman got into her car and sped off. Good riddance, Kol thought, laying on his new bed.

…

Henrik was just as uneasy about being taken from his siblings as the rest. Even though he was a baby, he'd only ever gotten comfort from his siblings, and didn't want to be taken from them at all.

It was like losing his parents, the ones who'd raised him. He'd lost his parents, the ones who made him, but he'd lost his real parents: his siblings, the only people who cared about him.

Reflecting back on it, he can remember that he didn't mind, necessarily, going to a new family, but would deny himself any comfort from his new parents, Jason and Teresa. He wouldn't play with Emily, and he wouldn't cry when he needed things. He was too worried he would get in trouble, or get hurt like his siblings, so he was quiet at all times.

He was the opposite of Kol, who he still remembered in those days. He never acted out, not once.

Eventually, he was taken to therapy, and eventually, he forgot his birth family. He opened himself up to the Bell family, and was there when Sarah was born.

Through it all, he lost the memories of his siblings, yes, but he never forgot that whatever the hell happened, it was so bad he had to go to therapy when he was two years old.

…

Rebekah sighed heavily at the couple in front of her. They weren't her first, and the more they talked about how they'd lost a child the year she was born, the more she didn't want to go with them. They'd just be using her as a replacement for that kid.

The woman, Alice, reached across the table to grasp her hand. "We know how this sounds, but...we would really love it if you came to live with us. Just for a test run, if you want. Just to see if we work together."

Rebekah eyed her warily. At five, she knew all too well that those nice, cutesy words didn't mean a lot. But on the other hand, she was sick of the foster home she was in. There were older girls who always tormented her, and younger girls who said she had cooties.

Finally, she looked to her social worker, and asked, "can I have a test run?"

Chapter Text

0.8

A day after the disastrous dinner, Finn and Freya make announcements - they're bringing out their families for the long weekend.

Finn says his wife, Sage, will be coming out, and then tells at least five hundred thousand stories about how cute she was back in high school. Kol pretends to gag behind his back at Elijah, who scolds him. He also texts Rebekah, obviously desperate for someone to be on his side, but his other sister apparently agrees with his brothers - love is Amazing, Awesome, some other 'a' word.

Freya also makes sure to tell him one day, he'll know what they know, and he'll apologize. Fat chance.

Still, when Sage and co., and Radley and co. arrive, Kol keeps his mouth shut. Torunn thinks it's hilarious, but Leif and Aerona see it as something else - he's quiet like that because pushing too far never led to anything good in their childhood.

They've talked about it several times, but they won't be approaching him or any of his siblings about it until they've got a game plan. Plus, with great-grandkids around, they've got their hands full.

Sage's flight is first to land, and Finn paces agitatedly. Kol's eyes follow him, while Freya bites her nails and looks at the flight listings. Elijah, through all of this, talks with Graham and Katherine, and acts like he isn't just as anxious as his siblings.

That's another thing they've noticed. All four of the Mikaelsons they know - and potentially the older two of the three still out there - show signs of anxiety. Not just signs, really - the whole shebang.

They hate it, that their grandchildren were so negatively affected by their childhoods.

Aerona and Leif ignore it, though, for the moment.

Sage is carrying a baby, and has five more kids holding onto a rope with handholds behind her. She's just as beautiful as Finn said, and his kids are just as energetic. When they see him, they screech and drop the rope to crowd around Finn.

It's an adorable sight, especially since Kol pales and steps back. Freya and Elijah, who holds Matt in his arms, on the other hand, move over to introduce themselves to their nieces and nephews. Graham and Katherine watch with a smile.

Aerona and Leif share a smile, overjoyed at the way their family is coming together.

...

With the exception of Finn and his family, they're all still at the airport a few hours later. Kol, apparently exhausted from keeping up with all of the small children, is passed out in his chair. Katherine has Matt in her lap, and she and Elijah are quietly reading to him. Freya and Graham, who sit across from Aerona, Leif, and Torunn, play checkers on their phones.

Torunn, after spending long moments on her own phone, tells her parents, "I think I have an idea on getting Niklaus to be found."

Leif nods encouragingly.

"Elijah told me that Niklaus, if he is anything like he was, won't do it on his own. So I'm thinking that we maybe call his ex-girlfriend, and see if we can reunite them."

Not unkindly, Aerona asks, "and how does she fit into this, Torunn?"

"We can get her to maybe say something, or suggest she wants to go out somewhere, and then she can take him to a place where we are waiting."

Yawning and stretching, Kol inserts, "it's a good idea. Nik will hate it, though. He likes to be in control, and if we all ambush him, then he'll turn into a raving madman."

"Then what do you suggest?" Torunn responds in kind, her tone turning a little sharp.

Kol shrugs with a laugh, not offended. "I suggest we greet the newcomers."

They turn and see the kids in the pictures on Freya and Graham's phones coming towards them determinedly.

The leader of the pact, a boy who looked exactly like Mikael (which upon seeing for the first time in a picture, the other Mikaelson siblings had commented on unhappily) strode toward them, a younger boy who looked a lot like Graham on his shoulders. Freya and Graham stand up and move toward them, meeting in the middle.

Kol stands as well, looking towards his grandparents and aunt instead of the family. "As for Henrik, if we found him and went to him, he might like that. He was so young, he hadn't really developed preferences yet." Torunn nods, and doesn't respond. Kol continues, "I doubt Nik will be happy to see how there's a Mikael Jr here."

"They're going back on Monday, you know that. Unless he comes to New York in the course of the next two or three days, he won't see him in person any time soon."

He waves a hand flippantly. "I'm just saying."

Torunn rolls her eyes. "I know you were. Now come on, let's go meet the kids."

6.4

Fred smooths his hand down Rebekah's side, and curls her closer to him.

She melts into his embrace happily, still reeling a little from hearing from Kol and Elijah for the first time in almost twenty years.

He's aware of how stressed she is, and it's obvious in the way he's forcing her to stay in bed.

God, she loves him.

Growing up, she'd always wanted this type of romance, this type of life. She wanted someone who would hold her, love her, raise a family with her.

On that note, she thinks, and turns around to face Fred.

"I was thinking, we haven't talked about names yet."

He smiles at her gently, a smile she never saw pass between her parents. "Well, what were you thinking?"

"I know what I'm thinking, I want your opinion."

He laughs. "Okay...Ella. Charlotte, that's a cute one. Oh, Mia! Mason - from college, you might remember him, I'm not sure if you guys ever met - he says Mia is a huge deal over in Britain. Hmm…. Maybe Grace?"

"I do remember Mason, he was the one who liked to get blackout drunk and hit on every living thing in shouting distance. As for your names, I like them. Mia is cute, but not enough for me to consider it."

"Fair."

"I like Grace, though."

"I thought you would. Now, what were your choices?"

"Layla, Victoria, Scarlett. Maybe Riley, or Avery. I also liked Leah, but apparently Freya named her daughter that, so I can't use it now."

Fred brushes some hair back from her cheek. "We couldn't have used it anyway. Lee has a daughter named Leah, too."

"I thought Lee never saw his daughter? Why is she practically named after him?"

Fred shrugs. "I have no idea what he was thinking when he named her that."

"He's a crazy one, that's for sure."

Fred raises an eyebrow. "Am I allowed to say the same about Kol? He made you cry, Bekah. That's worse than being a pot-addicted mooch."

"It's really not, and we both know it. And he's always made it his business to make me cry, Fred."

He clenches his jaw, and starts to speak, but she cuts him off.

"Lee always messed with you, right?" She doesn't wait for his reluctant nod. "It's what big brothers do. They mess around with their younger siblings' feelings, they tease them, they make you cry. Fred, I promise, I'm not mad at him, and you shouldn't be, either."

"But Bekah - "

"I only cried because of my stupid hormones. And a miscommunication. Let's just forgive and forget and put it all up to the pregnancy."

He looks at her growing stomach instead of her pleading eyes. Quietly, he responds, "alright, I'll let it go. Are you going to go out there, to New York?"

"I'm not sure. I want to, but they might not let me fly, and I am certainly not driving to New York from Denver." She scoffs at even entertaining the thought.

"You aren't 28 weeks along yet, and that's when they might say you can't fly. They really won't let you at 36 weeks, and 28 is a maybe maybe not, but now should be fine."

"Well, then I might. But if I go, don't worry love, you'll be going too."

He grins, and flips them so she's resting on top of him. "Good."

8.12

Radley has to share his hotel room with Finn's sons, Philip and Grant, and, while it's not ideal, he doesn't mind that much. Leah, Brooke, and Nina have to share with Finn's girls, Lacey and Christine, while Justin is sharing with Finn's sons, Zachary and Adam, and with Elijah's son, Matthew.

All of Finn's and Elijah's kids seem cool enough, for being much younger than him. And his uncles and great aunt are pretty cool, too. As soon as he had a moment alone at the airport - when his siblings were being introduced to their grandparents - Kol had come up to him and offered to hang out sometime. "So you can get away from all these kids, and I can get away from your mom and your other uncles," he'd said.

Being part of a big family isn't something Radley is used to, and having a cool uncle has only been a recent development with Graham's brothers. Plus, Kol isn't that much older than him, only eight years. He's always been the oldest, and unless Niklaus or Henrik had a kid in 1997, he always will be. But with Kol around, he isn't always going to be expected to be the oldest all the time.

Being oldest brings along something he doesn't necessarily like - all of his cousins look at him like he's the coolest thing since sliced bread. Kol whispers to him at dinner the first night they're there that he got the same treatment.

Leah thinks it's cool having cousins, at least. Radley and Leah have always been the closest, and if Leah's happy, then Radley's happy. Even if he's stuck sharing with little boys who treat him like he's some kind of god and won't leave him alone.

7.3

Waiting in airports in far from entertaining. Now even seeing Emily again is enough to quell Henry's boredom.

Watching the latest on the Manhunt is a nice break from the boredom, but the video of the second generation Mikaelsons is only so long.

What's worse is that he goes from bored to jealous. Jason and Theresa have lots of stories about the Bahamas and how they're so happy they got to skip school. Emily and Henry can't just leave school, and they couldn't just leave for the Bahamas.

The car ride back to the house he was raised in after being adopted has him mostly silent, or asking superficial questions about the trip.

His parents corner him when they get home. His mother says, "Emily, Jason, Theresa, go to your rooms, unpack. We need to talk to your brother." When all three give her sly looks, she adds, "now."

They run upstairs, and Henry sighs. "I'm sorry I'm not in a great mood today, I know you guys just got back, and I should be acting happier to see you - "

"Do you know what the Mikaelson Manhunt is?"

"Um, yes? Why?"

There isn't an answer, just - "do you remember what your birth name was?"

Henry feels his stomach sink. He thinks he knows where this is going. Silently, he shakes his head.

"You're Henrik Mikaelson."

Henry gasps. God, he was positive that they wouldn't say that, that his prediction was just some pipe dream. It isn't though. He's Henrik Mikaelson, one of the last Mikaelsons who haven't been found.

Instead of reacting in an appropriate way, he demands, "why didn't you tell me earlier?" He isn't mad, or happy, or anything, really. Just shocked.

His mother grabs his hand. He jerks it away. "Honey, we just heard about this Manhunt."

"We were on internet blackout, and we heard about it last night. We didn't want to tell you over the phone."

"Oh my god." He steps back, and his father reaches out for his shoulder. "Stop. Don't...just, don't."

He runs upstairs like he's still fourteen and yelling about how he hates his life.

8.13

Caroline decides to stop moping...after several days of moping.

She repeats to herself, I am over him, I don't need to be hung up on this.

Her mom agrees, and pushes her out the door. "I want to watch my trashy TV shows alone now. Go talk to your friends."

So, she went. Walking up to Bonnie's door, she doesn't notice the new car in the driveway. However, when she knocks and the door opens, she definitely notices the guy who is certainly not Bonnie.

"Um," he says.

"You're not Bonnie," she replies.

"You're not takeout."

"Nope."

There's an awkward moment of silence, until she blurts, "um, who are you?"

"Jeremy Petrova. You?"

"Caroline Forbes."

He nods his head and purses his lips. "Was there something you needed?"

"I kinda want to talk to one of my best friends if you don't mind. I'll settle for you telling me why or how you got here."

He smiles, and Caroline thinks, that's why she likes him. "I flew out here to see her. I couldn't wait anymore."

"Aww. Well, I'm glad you like her as much as she likes you."

He blushes but can't respond, as Bonnie comes toward the door, looking down at her wallet. "How much do they need?"

"Bon, it's not takeout," Jeremy says at the same time that Caroline laughs, "I'll take anything you can give me."

Bonnie's head jerks up and she gives a sheepish smile. "Caroline! Hi! Oh my god!"

She jumps forward, past Jeremy, to get outside to hug Caroline. Caroline hugs her back, needing it more than Bonnie knows. Jeremy grins, and closes the door just enough that it doesn't click into place.

They pull back, and Bonnie rests her hands on Caroline's biceps. That's when she notices the ring on Bonnie's finger.

Bonnie notices her noticing, and grins. "You remember how I told you I love him?"

"Oh my god, Bonnie."

"I know!"

"Bonnie, when? What happened?"

"He showed up here after you went home a few days ago, and we went to the courthouse that night. Grams was the witness. I was going to tell you, I was. Stefan doesn't know, either. Honestly, we've just been kinda holed up here...if you know what I mean."

Caroline laughs, and it's both out of shock and happiness for her friend.

"Do you want me to clear out, then? Meet tomorrow?"

Bonnie side eyes her flower garden, then nods. "Please?"

Caroline laughs. "Of course. Just let me know when it's safe to come over."

Bonnie steps back into the house after another brief hug. "I will. And thanks, Care, you're the best."

"I know," she laughs, and goes back to her car with a wave.

And even though it's not the right thing to do, the second her door's closed, she calls Stefan, and doesn't wait for him to even greet her before she screech-confesses, "Bonnie got married to Jeremy!"

Chapter Text

7.4

Henry doesn't slam his door, because he isn't actually fourteen anymore.

He does cry, though.

He isn't proud of it, but knowing that he isn't actually Henry Franklin, and knowing he's actually Henrik Mikaelson are two very different things. Knowing he's the youngest of that many siblings, had gone through that kind of abuse for even just two years, it's shocking.

His therapist, back when he was a little kid, had told him he didn't show any signs of physical abuse. What does that mean, exactly? Was he the only one not hit by his birth father? Was he the only one who went to therapy? No, right? It's impossible that he's the only one that went to therapy.

I'll only find out if I call myself in, he thinks, and then buries his head deeper under the pillow. He really does not want to do that right now. He can barely wrap his head around his birth name being Henrik; he can't deal with that stress just yet.

He doesn't know how long he stays in bed, thinking on repeat of his biological family, desperately trying to get back a memory, anything at all. He just want to remember something, because if he can't, there's no way he's going to be able to connect to his siblings.

Emily comes in, sits on his bed, and rubs at his back. It makes him tense, and his mind screams, you already have an older sister to rub your back.

In a way, he wishes he'd never known. The Mikaelson siblings would've thought he died, maybe, but then he wouldn't have to deal with all of this familial dysfunction. He wouldn't have to think about everything like this, like he's an outsider to both of his families.

"What's wrong?"

Henry - Henrik - Henry (he isn't going to change his name, he decides) shrugs. He wants to tell her, but she could never understand. Only Henry and Theresa are adopted; Emily and Jason were born into the Franklin family.

Emily sighs. "You have to talk to one of us. If not me, then one of our parents, or maybe Jason or Theresa…."

"I'd really rather not speak to anyone right now, Em, so just leave me alone." His words are muffled by the pillow.

"Not gonna happen."

"Yes gonna happen."

"Not until you tell me what's wrong." She pokes him in the side, but he ignores it and her. "Henry."

"They told me who my real family is."

"We're your real family."

"You're my adopted family. This family isn't my real family."

"What? How could you say that?"

He sighs, and pulls the pillow off his head. "Fine. My biological family is…. You guys aren't my biological family. I'm just trying to wrap my head around how many siblings I have."

"You know how many siblings you have?"

"Including you, Jason, and Theresa, there's nine."

"Nine? Who exactly is this biological family of yours?"

He whispers, "the Mikaelsons."

"Oh my god."

Henry doesn't react outwardly except to hide under his pillow again.

There's a long, long moment where neither speak, and then Emily breaks the silence. "What are you going to do?"

He makes a noise that isn't a yes, no, I don't know, or any other answer.

She sighs. "Henry, you have to call in. Everyone is waiting for Henri - you, they're all waiting for you to call in."

"And Niklaus," he says petulantly. He doesn't want to call in, but he can't stand not knowing. He especially doesn't want to be pressured into it all, though.

"Henry. You have to."

"Why? So that I can tell them I don't remember anything about them, or living with them, or what our parents did to them? So I can try to connect with my siblings and have zero luck because I'm not like them in any way?"

She gives an unimpressed look at the way he exploded up from under the pillow. "You are like them. Maybe not in ways you think matter, but they're your siblings. Your genetic codes say you're all almost the same, at the very least, so it's impossible that you have no similarities."

He drops his head down into his hands, feeling overwhelmed and more anxious than he has in years. "You don't understand."

"What don't I understand exactly? Not connecting with new siblings, because I know - "

"They were all abused, terribly. Some of them witnessed my birth mother dying! Niklaus was beat within inches of his life! Their day-to-day was a horror show. I don't remember any of it. How could I possibly connect with them if the only thing that's connecting them is our mutual past?"

She gives him a helpless look. "Henry…."

He flops back and runs his hands through his hair, messing it up into spikes. "What's worse is that I had to find out all of that from a website, that anyone on the planet with internet access can read."

He swallows his emotions down. He feels like he's overreacting and not reacting enough, all at the same time. What he's going to do is beyond him.

"I think you should call. If you were one of the others, wouldn't you want whoever's in your position to call in?" She doesn't give him time to answer before adding, "plus, you already know some things about one of your brothers."

"Which one?"

"Kol. He's an actor, remember? He has interviews all the time, and they're all over YouTube. You could try to find something in common with him, and he could be your in to the family, so to say."

"Oh my god. You're right." Even though he doesn't feel it, he smirks happily. "Get out, I want to start in on my research."

She takes the dismissal for what it is, and hugs him tightly. "Make sure you actually find something," she orders before leaving.

He nods, and once she's gone, he opens YouTube on his phone and searches, "Cole Henderson."

4.5

Klaus welcomes Davina over reluctantly. All she wants to do is talk about his family, and he'd honestly rather pull out teeth, or relieve that time that Caroline's mom found them in the throws of passion, than do that.

Still, she wants to see Tim and Josh, so he lets her come in. Tyler jumps up so he can slobber on her, and Hayley follows. When he tries to tell them to get down, they don't listen of course, so he just shrugs at Davina.

She gives him the evil eye, and pushes the dogs away from her.

"Thanks for all the help there," she sarcastically remarks.

Rolling his eyes, he responds just as snappy, "no problem."

She rolls her eyes back, and moves over to the box. "Hi babies!" Camille meows happily.

Klaus moves over to his couch, quickly muting the news station that he'd left on. Watching Davina coo at the baby kittens is more entertaining than hearing about another shooting.

Over her shoulder, she demands, "do you know how cute these babies are?"

"Yes, I'm well aware that they look cute now, but when they cry all night? Not so cute then."

Davina turns her whole body to give him a devastated look. "They cry?"

He shakes his head. "Do you know nothing about kittens? Of course they cry. They want milk, and Camille has to be able to hear them."

Davina pffts to herself, and stands. She stretches out, and moves over to the couch. Her feet land in his lap as she smirks at him, all what are you going to do about it?. "So. What do you want to talk about?"

"I didn't ask you to come over so we could talk. I don't think I actually invited you over, now that I think about it."

"Pfft. Whatever. I want some gossip." When he just looks at her, she whines, "come on, there has to be something interesting. Is that Cary guy still stalking you?"

"Cary wasn't stalking me, he was just - "

"Just what? Being creepy and staring at you all the time?"

"I don't know, okay? I haven't seen him in a while."

"How long is a while?"

"A week."

"Klaus! I specifically asked you to tell me if something happened!"

"Yeah, you asked, I never said I would - "

She heaves a sigh. "Oh my god, whatever. You say that every single time something like this happens."

She pouts and throws her head back, so he allows himself to smirk. Once her head goes back up, he wipes his face of all emotion. He has a reputation to uphold.

"Well, fine. We don't have to talk about Cary. We can talk about something else."

At her evil smirk, he panics. "I don't agree to this."

"You don't even know what I want to say."

"I don't have to."

"Ugh. I was just going to ask for your brother's number. He's hot."

"I don't have the numbers of any of my brothers, and I don't want to know which one you're talking about, either."

"Kol." She laughs, and it sounds like she's the villain in the story. "The hot one."

"None of my brothers are...hot, Davina."

"Kol is. And you are, too, honestly."

"You're, like, twelve."

"I'm nineteen. Which, by the way, Kol is twenty-three. I like twenty-three much more than twenty-six."

"Davina."

"Fine, okay, I'm just messing with you. I do want to ask you why the hell you haven't called yourself in yet."

She moves her head sassily, and raises an eyebrow at him. "Davina, just let it go. I'm not calling in."

She throws her hands up. "Why not?"

"Because, they're better off without me."

"Give me an example, then."

He clenches his jaw. "Fine. When I was six, Kol was up in a tree, and I was sitting under it with Rebekah. He fell, and I couldn't catch him. He broke his arm."

"And that's somehow your fault?"

"I was supposed to be watching him. Instead, I was playing with Rebekah."

"Who was in charge of Rebekah?"

"I was."

"So you were watching two little kids, by yourself. How old were they?"

"Kol was almost four, Rebekah was two."

"Why were you watching two little kids when you were barely any older than them?" Her tone makes it obvious she thinks he's crazy for acting so nonchalant about it all.

"Elijah was helping, he'd just gone inside to get some snacks."

"Where were your older siblings?"

"Homework, I assume."

"Oh god, Klaus. Who allowed this? Why were you and Elijah watching them all alone?"

"Who else was going to watch them?"

"Uh, a babysitter? Your parents? Freya or Finn?"

Klaus rolls his eyes. "That would never happen."

Davina gives him a look that he doesn't quite understand. "Did you get punished for it?"

"Of course I did. He was my responsibility, and he got hurt."

After a long moment, she responds, "you know that isn't normal, right?"

"That's what the therapist said."

She perks up. "You went to therapy?"

"If you count being forced to go to one and never speaking, ever, then yes I did."

"God, Klaus…."

8.14

Radley goes down to the cafe the hotel had by himself, wanting a moment away from Matthew, Justin, and Christine's screaming.

He's starting to realize, though, that he won't get any amount of time by himself unless he full-stop runs away. Kol cements that by following him downstairs. He waves at his fans, but doesn't sign anything, and sticks close to Radley.

Even though it's midday, he orders a beer, and winks at Radley.

"What are you doing that for?" Radley asks, looking down at his water, then to the beer. He raises an eyebrow judgingly, as well.

"I could say it's because I want to, but honestly," Kol drops his voice, "I want to look good for the paps."

"Good? Are you serious?"

"Everyone likes a bad boy, nephew. You'll learn that soon if you haven't already."

"All I've learned is that you're all nosey and shameless about it."

Kol laughs. "You got that right." He takes a long swig, and chooses what he wants for lunch before talking again. "What brought you down here?"

"I wanted to get away from the kids. All they want to talk about is how they're best friends now, and how they're going to have sleepovers all the time, even though none of us live anywhere near each other."

"Well, Rebekah lives in Denver, which is somewhat near where Elijah lives. Nik is in New Orleans, which is pretty close to you in Atlanta and Finn in St. Louis. I live here sometimes, and in L.A. other times, so I live near Elijah, as well."

"Wait, wait, wait. You live here?"

"Well, on Long Island, but - "

"If you have a house here, why are you staying here?"

Kol shrugs. "I don't know. I guess I like being close to the family. And my house here isn't that big, it wouldn't fit the majority of us even if I knocked out a wall or two."

Radley groans, disappointed. He likes the hotel well enough, but he'll take any excuse to get away from it.

Impulsively, he demands, "tell me a story."

Kol grins and raises an eyebrow. "What kind? Are you too young for the naughty kinds of stories?"

He rolls his eyes. "I meant one about the family." If he were any more comfortable - he isn't sure he could be, seeing as he just met Kol, uncle or not - he would've slapped a dingus on the end.

"Hmm. Well, you'll have to fact check me here, but remember, I was not quite six years old at the time, and I wasn't in the loop." Dramatically, he clears his throat, and says, "Nik is not my father's son. His father was named Ansel, and Ansel wanted him, desperately."

"Wanted him? Ew."

Kol scowls. "Not like that. And don't make fun of him, alright?"

Radley nods sagely, understanding that this is serious. Kol, from what he's seen, has very few serious moments, meaning he needs to shut up and listen.

"Ansel wanted Nik to live with him. Somehow, he'd managed to convince his wife to accept Nik, and she and their children together were set on getting Nik away from Father. At first, it was just him, but then they realized we were all being abused. They knew Freya was trying to wait until she turned eighteen, so she could get custody of us all, but you know how that turned out. They also knew that Finn wouldn't take their calls, but Elijah would. And from Elijah they learned that it wasn't just Nik getting hurt, it was all of us."

Ashen faced, Radley asks, "why didn't Finn take the calls?"

Kol sighs and looks down at his beer. "Father would...he saw Finn as the perfect son. Finn was a little more scared than Freya was, and he would do anything to keep that image in Father's mind. I can think of only a handful of times he went against it. Finn and Elijah never said any more about that when they told me about this." He swallows, and shakes his head. "Anyway, Elijah would tell them exactly what was happening to his knowledge, about all of us. They were going to petition for us to be taken from our parents, but Ansel couldn't wait any longer. Father was being crueler and crueler, and Ansel knew he had to get him out of there. Freya had never interacted with him, didn't even know who he was, and she let him in. He pissed Father off, and he was killed."

"Oh my god."

"Yeah." He gives a sad smile. "That was the end of us, until now. He died trying to protect Nik, and the rest of us by extension. I remember, his wife tracked me down after a few years. She'd moved her kids back to New Orleans, where they'd been born, I think. She said she tried to get custody of Nik, but the system wouldn't let her."

"Why not?"

"She had too many children. Three boys and three girls. At the time, the oldest was eighteen, and the youngest was not quite five."

"Wow. All of their work, and it was all for nothing."

"Unfortunately. Nik got maybe a few hours with him, at most. And he has two sets of half-siblings that he hasn't seen in... for us, it's been almost twenty years. I don't think he ever met that side of his family."

Radley shakes his head in empathy. "That's terrible."

Kol shrugs, and smiles widely. "Yes, but an equally terrible time is when Finn brought a girl home for the first time…."

5.7

Kol goes back to his room after telling embarrassing stories about his siblings to their kids. He and Radley had been joined by Radley's sisters, as well as Katherine, Matt, and Graham.

It was fun, but he wants to go out soon and call Hailie, which he'll be doing at his house instead of the hotel so his phone won't be tapped, somehow.

He's just grabbing his coat from where he left it at Leif and Aerona's table chair, when Torunn's phone rings.

"Can someone get that?" She calls after a moment.

"Got it," he replies, and hits accept before he even picks the phone up. "Hello? This is Torunn Leifson's phone, her nephew Kol speaking."

"Uh...hi. I have a tip about Henrik Mikaelson's whereabouts. How do I do that? Like, how do I give my information to the guy in the commercial?"

Kol grinned widely. "Just send in anything by text, or tell me your story. I'll get it to Leif, don't worry."

"I don't really have a story."

"Okay then. Did you see him somewhere?"

"No."

"Did you speak to him?"

"No."

"Then what's your tip?"

There's silence, and Kol is about to hang up, thinking it's just a prank call, but the guy on the other side of the line, says, "I'm Henrik Mikaelson."

Kol coughs on his own spit. "Excuse me?"

Chapter Text

5.8

Kol hangs up several minutes later, feeling shocked and awed. Henrik had told him the basics - he lives in Richmond for school, but lives with his adopted parents on Virginia Beach, he's a freshman, he goes by Henry, etc. - and asked to not be called until tomorrow, as he's having a hard time coming to terms with his identity. Kol had agreed, but he'd added, "I'm going to tell the rest today, though."

Henrik had said, "um, okay. I guess I'll...call back, or something."

And Kol hung up, and here he is. He wants to go tell them all now - Henrik, the baby of the family, has been found. But he also wants to call Hailie, and who knows how long it will take to get everyone gathered in the common area on the ground floor, which is the only place they can all fit.

He decides, after a moment, that he should tell everyone about Henrik first, to give them time to think on it.

The phone rings just as he moves to get Torunn.

It's a number from New Orleans, and Kol clicks accept before it can get through the first ring. "Hello, this is the line for the Mikaelson Manhunt, Kol speaking."

He doesn't hear a masculine voice like he expected (hoped) - instead it's a woman on the line. "Uh, hi. So, this is going to sound kinda bad but…." She sighs loudly. "Okay, first, my name is Davina, and I'm friends with Niklaus Mikaelson. He goes by Klaus, now."

"Klaus, yeah, I'm aware," he says at the same time that she says his brother's nickname.

"How'd you know? I'm curious." Her voice is cute, he thinks, then gets back to what he was doing with a shake of his head. Now isn't the time, Kol...

"Oh, some woman named Caroline called in not too long ago, said she knew a Klaus Mikaelson. I don't know if I should tell you this, but they were together for six years."

"Holy shit! He told me he ran away from the system when he was seventeen, and spent six years back in his hometown. That's probably when he was with her. Oh my god, that's gold."

"Yes, it is." Finally, someone understands!, he thinks. Then the voice of his therapist comes to mind, telling him to focus. "But, more importantly, other than his new nickname, what info do you have on him?"

"Well, I was talking to him yesterday - to see his cats, he's a cat lady, by the way - and we started talking about his family. I already knew he was one of you guys, but he'd asked me not to tell anyone, so I hadn't...but then he started to talk about how he was abused like it was nothing, and I realized that I have to get him connected to you. He needs someone to talk to him about this that understands, you know?"

Kol swallows heavily, hating the fact that his brother is so nonchalant about what happened to him. "Yeah I understand. I didn't realize he was open about it…."

"He isn't. I didn't know he was abused, really, until I found out he was a Mikaelson. There were a few hints, but he'd never said anything about it until last night." She pauses, then says, "I'm going against his wishes, but I'm going to give you his phone number and his home address."

He perks up instantly. "Okay, hold on. I gotta get a paper and pen." Once he has them, she rattles off the information, and he writes it down eagerly. "Thank you so much, really. I'll let you in on a little secret. Henrik called in just before you did, so now we're almost all together."

"Almost all?"

"Rebekah has said nothing of coming here, Henrik is having a hard time coming to terms, and Nik doesn't know that we know about him. We're getting there, of course, but it's just taking a little while."

"Well, I wish you luck."

"Thanks." There's a moment of awkward silence, then he asks, "can I bother you to do me a favor?"

"Um, it depends."

"Will you ask Nik about us some more? Or Caroline? Or his siblings on his dad's side?"

"He has other siblings?"

"Yeah, his dad had kids and lots of nieces and nephews. I've actually spoken to a few of them before, including his cousin Cary."

"Wait, wait, wait. Cary? Blond hair, thick New Orleans accent?"

"That's the one. How do you know him?"

"He stalks Klaus all the time, or he used to, at least."

"Probably just wants to reunite him with his family and doesn't know how to go about it. I wouldn't be worried. Now, can I give you my number?"

"Why?" She suddenly sounds like she's creeped out by him. He blanches, then gets his wits about him. She's interesting, but she can't be right now, not when he's on the verge of getting his family back together.

"Well, it'll be nice to have someone Nik knows on our side when he eventually get him back to us. This is my aunt's phone, see, and I just thought it would be easier if you could call me on my cell." He has a realization, and adds, "but if I give it to you, you can't - I repeat, cannot - give it to anyone, for any reason, ever."

She huffs at him, "I'm not stupid. Just give me your number."

He smirks, and thinks about all of the ways they could get Nik back to them while she gets a paper and pen, just like he had earlier.

0.8

Kol gets his family together in the common room within the hour, which Leif and Aerona feel is a feat in and of itself. Everyone sits on chairs, sofas, or stands. A few faces look a little annoyed, but the grin on Kol's face says they won't be that way for long.

Torunn and her parents watch as he stands in front of them, and beams. "I got two very interesting calls today."

Elijah humors him, and asks who they were from.

He pauses dramatically. "The first was Henrik, and the second was a close friend of Nik's."

Freya coughs on her own spit, and Elijah gapes. Finn asks, "what?"

Kol nods, and tells them what happened without his usual flourish. He can't - he's just too excited about it to be dramatic.

The mood saddens when they hear that Henrik is having a hard time, and that Niklaus is still not opening up about his abuse.

Aerona smiles at them all, though, and says something that perfectly lifts their spirits: "we're getting them back soon, and then we'll be able to help them."

Elijah, the most optimistic, smiles widely, and starts suggesting ways they can get him back to them.

8.15

Radley lightly swings Adam's carrier, and wishes he's anywhere but there, watching his cousins mess around. Even listening to his mom and new found uncles go back and forth about something in the common area (which they are...loudly) would be better.

But no, he's stuck making sure that his cousins don't burn the hotel down to the ground. He also has to stave off the creepy reporters who want pictures of them all, and the staff who desperately want the kids out of the cafe area.

He checks his phone, trusting the the next three oldest - Leah at 13, Brooke at 11, and Philip at 9 - will be able to keep the younger kids in check.

He doesn't know why he ever thought that, though, because he's barely checked his FaceBook before Nina screeches, "Uncle Finn is NOT better than Mama!"

Grant and Zach look terribly offended, and so does Lacey. Christine huffs, while Justin and Matthew look like they couldn't care less. Adam's eyelids flutter, and Radley thinks, if they get us kicked out and wake up Adam, I'm going to kill all of them.

He stands, and has to pull Nina away from Lacey before they can tear each other's hair out.

"Okay! Okay! What happened!" Both girls open their mouths to tattle, but he says, "uh-uh. Phil, you, speak."

He sighs. "Nina and Lacey were talking about our parents, and they started arguing."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Brooke rolls her eyes, like always. "Does it even matter?"

"Yes, it matters, you brat - "

"OKAY," Mom says, coming to stand in front of the crowd of children. She takes in the two little girls looking to catfight, and Radley holding Nina by the armpits and a foot and a half off the ground, and purses her lips. "If you're one of Finn's, he'll be out here in a sec. If you're one of mine, come with me. And Matthew, you can go with us, or you can go with Uncle Finn. What do you want to do?"

He thinks for a moment, then says, "Finn!"

She nods, and tells Phil, "watch him, okay?"

He nods with a sweet smile that he certainly didn't give Radley. "I will."

"Okay, good. Let's go, kids."

Radley hitches Nina up further, which pisses her off terribly, while Leah and Brooke get Justin.

As they head back to their rooms, Radley asks, "what were you guys talking about in there?"

Mom smiles a conspiratorial smile. "Expanding the family," she explains vaguely. He rolls his eyes, but doesn't question her any further.

8.16

Davina hangs up from the phone call and paces her apartment for an hour, pushing her fingers through her hair nervously. Then she sat, cried for a few minutes, and paced again.

She did it in Klaus' best interest. She knows that. He needs someone to talk to about what happened to him, and he needs it 23 years ago, really. Also, if Kol was telling the truth, he wouldn't just be reuniting with one set of siblings, but two. She did the right thing.

It just sucks that she went behind his back, that's all. Klaus and her tease each other a lot, and they've flirted harmlessly, and add to that their rare heart to hearts, then you've got a lifetime friend. A lifetime friend she just betrayed hard.

She's getting ready to just man up and tell Klaus and apologize and probably move to Antarctica or something in shame, but her phone rings. It's the same number that Kol gave her earlier.

She answers, "hello?"

His voice comes over the line, excited as all hell. "Hey! Davina, great news! We have a plan" He doesn't allow for a word in edgewise before he's telling her all the details.

Once he's ended his long winded tirade, she asks, "so all I have to do is distract him?"

"Yep, and not for long, either. We haven't contacted her yet, or at least, I'm not sure if we have. I don't doubt that she'll agree though, and then we can work out all the missing stuff."

"There's stuff missing?" She asks dryly, feeling better now that she knows she hasn't ruined Klaus' life. The plan is going to make sure that Klaus can leave if he wants, not contact them again. Kol even said if Klaus really wanted to never talk to any of them again, then he'd lose the number and address she gave him.

He's going to have options, and she might even get to meet the girl who stole Klaus' heart. She feels so much better about it that she flirts with Kol before he hangs up. He stutters, says something nerdy but endearing, and then ends the call.

For starting the day out so badly, she's happy with how it's progressed.

8.17

Stefan doesn't screech. It's not something he's ever done, and he won't start now. But Caroline can tell he wants to. He'd been rooting for Damon and Bonnie since forever. Now that's she's married - and didn't bother to tell either of them - and it's not Damon, it's to the guy she'd been talking to from California, he's shocked.

He makes the funny confused face, and Matt, as he walks by, laughs. "Hey! Don't make fun of me! Bonnie got married!"

Matt's jaw drops. "What? To who? Damon? God, please tell me it wasn't Damon."

"No, thank god for that. It was Jeremy, the guy she's been talking to. We're all gonna get together soon and meet him if I have anything to do about it."

Stefan, meanwhile, pouts. "What's so bad about Damon?"

"On the scale of dickheads, and if Mr. and Mrs. Mayor are the lowest, and Klaus is the highest, he's up there with Klaus."

Caroline frowns. "Hey, don't say that. Damon is nowhere near as nice as Klaus is." They both give her judgy looks, but she ignores them. Klaus had been nice, he'd been great, even. He'd just broken her heart, and that was why everyone hated him. "Anyway, Matt, go back to work. I'll fill you in when you get off."

"Okay. But if there's a quiet moment at the bar, come over, alright?"

She nods. "I will." He smiles, and walks off, so she turns back to Stefan. "I went by her house, right, and he was there. He seemed nice, so I don't think we need to go into panic mode yet. She really likes him."

"Okay, so he's nice, he came all the way from California to elope with her, and what? Are they going to stay here? Go back to California? Move somewhere else? Do they have anything planned at all?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. All I know is, her ring is beautiful, she seems very happy, and Grams approves."

"Approves like she approved of Klaus or approved like she approved Aurora?"

"Like Klaus. She only approved Aurora so that Damon wouldn't blow a gasket."

Stefan rolls his eyes again, unimpressed by everyone saying bad (but true) things about Damon.

"Oh, and she loved Klaus? Since he was such a great person?"

"She did love Klaus, and he was a great person. Stefan, there are things you don't know about him."

"Are one of those things why he left you?"

"I think so, yeah. It was also the anniversary of his mom dying, so…."

Stefan's eyes turn sympathetic, but that doesn't stop him from saying, "when he left you, Caroline, he was not a great person. He left you all alone, he didn't even say goodbye."

She shakes her head. "I don't want to get into this, Stef. We were talking about Bonnie."

He rolls his eyes. "Okay, then let's - "

Her phone rings. There's no name, but she recognizes the number from the Mikaelson Manhunt commercial. "Sorry, Stefan, I have to take this." They might be calling to tell her that they found Klaus, and she can't miss that call.

He shakes his head, rolls his eyes again, and waves a hand allowingly.

She smiles, and answers. "Hello, Caroline Forbes speaking. Did you have more questions about what we talked about?"

Instead of the woman from before, it's a man. He says, "actually, I don't, but it's on topic. I'm Elijah Mikaelson, Klaus' brother." She tilts her head, interested. Klaus hadn't spoken of his siblings as often as he spoke of his life between Mystic Falls and Baton Rouge, but when he did, he'd spoken of Elijah the most. He pauses for just a moment, "is this a good time? Wherever you are, it's loud."

"Ah, yeah, I'm out to eat right now. But it's okay, I have a moment." Stefan gives her the stink eye, and moves over to the bar to talk to Matt. She waves immaturely; he flips her off.

"Good, good. We got a call today, you see, and it was someone with information on my brother. They gave us a phone number and address."

"Wow! Really?"

"Yes. I wasn't the one who spoke with her, but I hear that he's turned into a cat lady." Caroline scowls when she hears that it was a her with Klaus' personal information. "We have a plan in place, and we're hoping you can help us."

Even though she doesn't want to reunite a Klaus who's in a relationship, she does want to get him back together with his siblings. "I'm listening…" she says, already knowing she'll do anything to help him.

8.18 - Mid 2007, Mystic Falls

Caroline absentmindedly ran her fingers through Klaus' hair. He sighed happily, and she shivered as his breath rolled over her bare skin. He smiled, and she felt his lips curl.

It wasn't the first time they'd laid in bed together for hours, but usually, it was her on his chest, him running his fingers over her scalp.

"Klaus?"

"Hmm?"

She didn't stop running her fingers through his hair as she asked, "tell me about it."

He tensed, so she ran her free hand over his back. She drew a silly pattern with one of her fingernails, and he relaxed. "Love...it's not a good idea. I don't want to ruin this moment."

"It won't be ruined, Klaus. I promise. If you tell me, even just something small, then it's a sign you trust me. How could that ruin anything?"

He tilted his head up, and looked her in the eyes. "I do trust you. Implicitly. But I don't want to look back on this moment and think of my father and not you. I want to remember how beautiful you look, not the face you made when I told you what he did to me."

Her eyes softened. "I understand. If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to."

"Thank you, Caroline." He moved upwards for a kiss, which she happily gave him. It was a chaste as a kiss between two naked people could be, and it didn't last long. He settled back over her, his head laying on her breast.

They stayed silent, Caroline not knowing what to say. She wanted to know more about him, but she also didn't want to force him. He was two years older than her, and he'd been so careful not to force her into anything. She loved him, and she wanted him to go at his own pace, but she wanted to know that part of his history just as much.

Instead of saying any of that aloud, though, she kept quiet.

It was a long time before either spoke again.

"He knew the moment I was born. He knew I wasn't his, and he hated me for it." He swallowed, and she tensed. "He never showed it until I was five years old. He wasn't as nice to me as the others, but when I turned five, that was when he turned his back on me, and made my mother follow him."

She desperately wanted to know what that meant, but she didn't dare ask.

"He started beating me whenever I did something wrong. And every thing was wrong, and everything was my fault. Once, someone left the cap of the toothpaste on the counter, and he stormed into my room, enraged, and beat me in front of Kol. Kol cried and cried, and he got Mother, and Freya, and Finn, but none of them could do anything. He'd been drinking, and he wanted to hurt someone. The next day, he said it just happened to be me, but he was a liar. It was always me. Always." He'd closed his eyes when he first started talking, and with every sentence, he shut them tighter. A tear still leaked out, though, and onto her chest.

"Caroline. What did I do?" He asked, suddenly sobbing. He was almost silent, his voice a whispered rasp. "What did I do?"

She took in a deep breath, reminded herself that she asked and that she loved him, and consoled him for hours.

Later, he'd tell her it was the second time he'd ever cried about it, and the first time he'd cried since in eleven years. She'd just hug him and thank god he wasn't dead.

Chapter Text

Worldwide Trends ◽ Change

#MikaelsonManhunt
Cole Henderson
#MeAndMySiblings

r/MikaelsonManhunt

Sub Summary:

This is a subreddit for the Mikaelson Manhunt (more here: mikaelsonmanhunt.com/faq). Here, updates, pictures, and other things can be posted. This is not affiliated with Leif and Aerona Trulsson (who are the ones searching for their grandchildren) at this time (though we are trying to make this official), so hints/tips/etc. about the whereabouts of the Mikaelsons ARE NOT WELCOME. Please, send them into the official site.

So, what happened?

A man named Mikael Leifson (a Norse immigrant) and his wife, Esther (a British immigrant), had seven children together, outlined below. One of them, Niklaus, was actually the son of a man named Ansel Wolff (a German immigrant), who lived in the same town as the Mikaelson family. Mikael cut off all contact with his family when he came to America, as did Esther at his insistence. Mikael was very abusive and violent, which is said to have passed on to several of his children (including Niklaus). On May 10th, 1996, Mikael killed both Esther and Ansel, and severely beat three of his children. He was arrested, and the children were taken to the hospital. From there, they were taken to group homes and foster homes. All but the youngest child was taken out of state in a gross attempt by Mikael’s powerful friends to separate them. The youngest children were adopted, and what’s known about all of the children’s time in the system is below. The children were lost to the system under the influence of those powerful friends.

Recently, Mikael died in prison, and his will showed that everything was to go to his parents, whom he had not spoken to in 35 years. The only thing he left for the children was a letter that has not been read at this time. Mikael’s parents, Leif and Aerona Trulsson, decided to go to America to look and they took their youngest daughter, Torunn Leifson, with them. They put out a commercial in order to spread the word, and have also set up a website (mikaelsonmanhunt.com). They wish to connect their family, and more specifically, these siblings, together again.

At this time, most of the children have been found.

Info on the siblings:

Freya Riley Mikaelson -- individual picture of her -- born April 26th, 1979 in Mystic Falls, VA; 17 at the time of the murder. She was one of the three injured, suffering from several broken ribs, minor internal bleeding, and minor cuts. She was taken to Macon, GA on June 22, 1996, to a group home. She complained about the group parents several times, and was labeled violent after an altercation with another girl. She aged out of the system. Her last known location was in Savannah, GA in May 1997 (after she had turned 18). EDIT: SHE HAS BEEN FOUND! She now lives in Atlanta, GA, with her husband and children.

Finn Caspar Mikaelson -- individual picture of him -- born October 28th, 1981 in Mystic Falls, VA; 14 at the time of the murder. He was not injured. He was taken to Memphis, TN on May 20th, 1996; Little Rock, AR on May 23rd, 1996, where he stayed until the 20th of March, 1997; Ashland, MO on March 21st, 1997; and finally, St. Louis, MO on August 24th, 1999, which is his last known location. He was not recorded as being violent, though all of the foster and group parents he was with said he was quiet and angry. He aged out of the system. EDIT: HE HAS BEEN FOUND! He still lives in St. Louis, MO, with his wife and children.

Elijah Daniel Mikaelson -- individual picture of him -- born March 14th, 1985, in Mystic Falls, VA; 11 at the time of the murder. He was one of the injured children, suffering from a concussion, stab wound, and minor internal bleeding. He was taken to Muskogee, OK on May 15th, 1996; Santa Fe, NM on May 16th, 1996; Salt Lake City, UT on May 20th, 1996; and finally, Portland, OR on May 23rd, 1996, which is his last known location. He was never violent, though he was “unhappy...or, more likely, depressed”, according to his social worker’s report at the time. He aged out of the system. EDIT: HE HAS BEEN FOUND! He lives in Stanford, CA, with his wife and child.

Niklaus Joseph Mikaelson -- individual picture of him (only known one) -- born May 16th, 1987, in Mystic Falls, VA; 8 at the time of the murder. He was one of the injured children (also the one suffering from the most abuse), suffering from several broken ribs, a concussion, internal bleeding, a broken collarbone, and a fractured radius. He was taken through Charlotte, NC, Atlanta, GA, Montgomery, AL, and then Baton Rouge, LA between the 20th and 25th of May, 1996. In 2005, when he was 17, he ran away from his foster home and has not been located. He was violent in all homes he was put in, often lashing out verbally and breaking things. A psychiatrist diagnosed him as depressed when he was first put in a foster home; it is unknown if he’s still suffering.

Kol Nathaniel Mikaelson -- individual picture of him -- born August 4th, 1990, in Mystic Falls, VA; 5 years old at the time of the murder. He was not one of the injured children. He was adopted on May 31st, 1996, by a couple from Los Angeles, CA. They took him home with them, and changed his name to Cole Henderson (yes, THAT Cole Henderson), though this was lost to both paper and electronic records by sabotage. His last know location is Los Angeles, CA. He did not spend enough time in the system to go to any group homes, though the foster home he was in said he was depressed and manic. EDIT: HE HAS BEEN FOUND! He is actor Cole Henderson, and currently lives in Los Angeles, CA, and Long Island, NY.

Rebekah Claire Mikaelson -- individual picture of her -- born June 11th, 1992, in Mystic Falls, VA;  3 years old at the time of the murder. She was not one of the injured children. Like Kol, a out-of-state couple came to Richmond, VA, where she was staying, and adopted her. She was taken to Colorado Springs, CO on January 1st, 1997. Her last known location is Denver, CO, in 2001. She was not recorded as violent, “just extremely snippy with the other children”. EDIT: At this time, it’s unclear whether or not she has been found. Kol has recently made a comment that references her, but not the other so-called “Missing Mikaelsons” Niklaus and Henrik. Stay tuned for updates. EDIT 2: SHE HAS BEEN FOUND! She lives in Denver, CO, with her husband and a child on the way. According to Kol, she has not decided if she is coming out to NYC for the reunion.

Henrik Devon Mikaelson -- individual picture of him -- born October 14th, 1994, in Mystic Falls, VA; 1 year old at the time of the murder. He was not one of the injured children. He was adopted in Richmond, VA, on June 3rd, 1996, and taken to Virginia Beach, VA sometime between then and July 4th of the same year. His last known location was there, in 2004. He has not been located at this time.

Sub rules:

• Kol Mikaelson = Cole Henderson. Try to use Kol, but if you forget, it’s fine.
• This is NSFW because it’s about murder/child abuse, but it isn’t labeled that way as it’s not graphic.
• IF YOU SYMPATHIZE WITH MIKAEL, YOU ARE GETTING BANNED. Sympathizing with Esther is tolerated but not encouraged as she was both victim/abuser, but blaming the children or trying to excuse Mikael’s actions is not going to be allowed, now or ever.
• If you knew them at any point and want to say something, you have to post proof along with the comment, or it will be deleted (only after being debunked and put on r/quityourbullshit).

...:::...

[DISCUSSION] Cole/Kol’s role in Closeted (posted by ayeayecapncringe one week ago with 1048 upvotes)

*Edit: title should say just Kol

Background info if needed: Kol was in Closeted and he played a gay guy named Jamie with serious internal homophobia. SPOILERS AHEAD.

I really want to talk about his performance. Going in, I knew he was bi, but when I came out, I seriously thought he was homophobic. He played Jamie perfectly. The hatred, the tone that conveyed he was right and what he was saying was obvious, the offhand remarks. It was all spot-on. Also, Jamie was such a dick, I was concerned Kol was, too.

I watched an interview and he proved to be a funny, nice dude, but I wanted to comment that his acting seemed too real. Like, he’d-been-abused/he-was-around-homophobes-at-some-point too real.

What do you guys think?

COMMENTS:

-- hailiescomet1996 (commented one week ago with 2019 upvotes)

Here is my proof (us messing around with paparazzi)

I’m Cole’s adopted sister (see here: reddit.com/r/IAMA/comments/z1c9z/i-am-Cole-Henderson-movie-star-AMA where you can find us talking to you guys and him confirming that he was with me) and I wanted to say that he worked very hard on this role. (Quick note: I knew he was adopted bc he’s white, I;m mixed, and our parents are black, but I knew nothing of his life before hand as he didn’t talk about it.)

He said he’d talk to homophobes who were gay, talk to homophobes who weren’t gay, talk to ex- and currently-closeted gay people, etc. He also said that he’d known a man who was homophobic and would abuse his son, and used that guy as inspiration. Looking back, he was talking about his biological dad, Mikael. This role was very important to him, as he is a very involved member in LGBTQIA+ stuff, and feels that most gay characters who start out as homophobic aren’t portrayed correctly. He worked so hard on that role, and I’m glad someone is noticing.

Okay, rant over.

--- daaaaaavid [Moderator] (commented one week ago with 57 upvotes)

Mods checked. She’s the real deal, people. Stop flagging this comment.

...:::...

[DISCUSSION] Anxiety and other mental illnesses (posted by excuseme-imshy 5 days ago with 3418 upvotes)

So, we know that Kol has anxiety, and it looks like the official website says that Mikael “negatively affected all of the siblings” and prolly caused anxiety/PTSD/etc.

I have two questions: is it right to assume that all of the children had those mental illnesses and if so, should we treat them like we do Kol, where we acknowledge and are respectful of his anxiety?

COMMENTS:

-- daaaaaavid [Moderator] (commented 5 days ago with 235 upvotes)

1. YES, we are assuming that they were all psychologically affected by the abuse, even Henrik.
2. YES, we should treat them like we treat Kol.
3. THANK YOU, this is so sweet. I’m glad we aren’t all dicks who like to excuse behavior (cough cough)

...:::...

[PICS] New dump on MM website (only individual pics) (posted by daaaaaavid 10 days ago with 3814 upvotes)

Here’s a link to the google drive for easy access.

Picture count:

Mikael: 10

Esther: 8

Freya: 3

Finn: 1

Elijah: 5

Niklaus: 0

Kol: 2

Rebekah: 7

Henrik: 2

COMMENTS:

-- Mcmissionairy (commented 10 days ago with 459 upvotes)

Prolly a stupid question...but why aren’t there any pics of Niklaus and so few pics of the kids in general?

--- hailiescomet1996 (commented 10 days ago with 389 upvotes)

Cole says these were the pics in Mikael’s possessions. He liked Rebekah the most (visually…?) and I guess he thought Elijah looked good in those pics bc Finn was his favorite and there’s only one. Idk. They aren’t sure.

--- daaaaaavid [Moderator] (commented 10 days ago with 281 upvotes)

I think it’s because Mikael and Esther didn’t take pics of the children a lot. Like, Mikael didn’t really care about any of them, so I’m not surprised.

...:::...

[UPDATE] Mikaelson Manhunt update (posted by ColeNateHend one day ago with 10629 upvotes)

Hi everyone, Kol Mikaelson here! Sorry for the stupid title, I pulled an all-nighter last night and am running on coffee. I want to get an IV drip so I can streamline caffeine to my blood. ...clearly I’m not awake right now. Am i? Am I even real? (I’m gettign a stare down from my youngest niece and nephews how do you politely tell children to run along or just leave me tf alone...go bug your parents. this is why i don’t have kisd everyone.)

Anyway, me and my siblings (the found ones, anyway, excluding Bekah and Henrik) wanted to let you all know what’s going on.

First tho, pics! Here’s me and Elijah , sorry for the middle fingers we were TIRED OF fINN’S AND FREYA’S SHIT OK,=, (I was trying to backsapce why didnt it work why is there a equal sign there…) Here’s me, Elijah, and Freya , we were making fun of Finn (the asshate...next time he wakes me up at 7 AM IM GONNA RUN AWAY) plus we were drunk. HEre’s me the white girl . Here’s Elijah and Finn looking fnacy for a dinner we went to. Theses are pics Rebekah has sent us one and two . ALSO, our informant says this is what Nik looked like when he was a teenager...and here’s Henrik one and two (he sent them in himself).

So, like I said, we have an informant about Nik. I;m not gonna say where he lives for obvious reasons and he doesn’t even know that we know that he’s living there or even alive period. Anyway, we know he’s alive and that’s cool. Bekah has been found everyone...she lives in Denver and she’s not sure if she wants to come see us all in Ney Work. Henrik is also found, he lives in Virginia, and he’s def not coming to NY anytime soon BUT he does wnat to talk to us so it’s cool. Cold feet, therye a thing.

Speaking of, Nik is alive! He ran away as you all know and no one knew where he was but actually he ran into a cop who called up the DCFS and they said “yeah we odn’t care, keep him”.... Anyway, he is alive. Nik if you’re reading this say hi to your cats for me  my informant says theyre adorable. Also pls come help me Finn’s and Freya’s kids are terrors they always want my attention idk how to deal with children like you do PLS YOU CAN’T DENY THIS PRETTY FACE COME HOME WE MISS YOU :* :* :* :* :* :* (one form each of us love you)

EDIT: Hi, this is Elijah (who happens to be considerably more awake than Kol). Thank you for all the well wishes, and for those of you who hit on us...Kol and Henrik are available, however my older siblings and I are attached, and so is Rebekah. I’m not sure about Niklaus, though.

We’ll update again soon, hopefully with Niklaus here to annoy Kol into silence (I can’t say I enjoyed my childhood but that was a skill I was always happy to have around). Take care, everyone!

COMMENTS:

-- daaaaaavid [Moderator] (commented one day ago with 388 upvotes)

This is the funniest fucking thing I have ever seen…. Yes, it’s the real him, his AMA is in his history…. I’m going to go update the sidebar, but I have a question first. Is Niklaus found yet, or…? I coulnd’t tell.

--- ColeNateHend [OP] (commented one day ago with 9726 upvotes)

We know where he lives (like I have an address and everything but dont tell him i do pls) but he’s gone to us...forever...in the mind...WING...WIND godDAM cant spell... mardi grass...alcohol...hel’l never come to NY when he can have hot french chikcs

EDIT: Elijah here. I took out the information about Niklaus’ whereabouts. He is technically found, but we have yet to communicate with him. Just do whatever you feel is best.

---- daaaaaavid [Moderator] (commented one day ago with 291 upvotes)

Lol okay. Thanks Elijah.

----- ColeNateHend [OP] (commented one day ago with 402 upvotes)

Of course.

-- hailiescomet1996 [Kol’s Sister] (commented one day ago with 7422 upvotes)

Cole omg go to bed, stop drinking all that coffee. This is so embarrassing for you. Mom and Dad are laughing their asses off.

EDIT: Elijah, make him go to bed!

--- ColeNateHend [OP] (commented one day ago with 11051 upvotes)

HAILIE WHY MAKE HTEM STOP ;( :( :( :( :( :( :(

EDIT: Elijah here, he has passed out as of 10:37 AM. Hopefully when he wakes up none of our nieces and nephews will make fun of him too bad.

Also, pleasure to meet you. You’re the first adoptive sibling any of us have met so far.

Can I private message you?

---- daaaaaavid [Moderator] (commented one day ago with 517 upvotes)

Nooooo tell us all the embarrassing stories we wanna hear

---- hailiescomet1996 [Kol’s Sister] (commented one day ago with 498 upvotes)

Sure!

Kol: Okay, Bekah, I’m gonna add Henrik to the chat and then I’ll back out so you guys can talk, cool?

Me: Yes, that’s fine.

Kol: K

Kol HAS ADDED Henrik TO THE CHAT “Maid Service and the Dutiful Princess Rebekah”

Kol HAS RENAMED THE CHAT “Maid Service and the Dutiful Princess Rebekah” TO “Maid Service, the Dutiful Princess Rebekah, and Baby Mikaelson”

Kol: Henrik, this is Rebekah. Bekah, this is Henrik.

Henrik: I’ve told you a million times I go by Henry.

Kol: I’ve told you a million times that that’s cool and all but I was calling you Henrik while you were in the womb. You aren’t and will never be “Henry” to me.

Me: Be nice Kol. If he wants to go by Henry, then let him.

Henrik: Thanks Rebekah, it's great to hear from you

Me: I'm happy to hear from you too! I've missed you.

Me: And it’s no problem

Kol: For now it isn’t

Kol: WHATEVER SHE SAYS DON’T BELIEVE HER

Kol: HENRIK SHE WILL REEL YOU IN WITH NICETIES AND THEN DEMAND FAVORS IN EXCHANGE

Me: NUH UH KOL SHUT UP

Me: And what, pray tell, happened to leaving the chat so we can talk privately?

Kol: I changed my mind.

Kol: You can’t see but I shrugged.

Henrik: oh my god

Chapter Text

6.5

Rebekah thinks it over for a good few days. Talking to Henrik - Henry; damn, that's going to be hard to get used to - only bolsters her decision to go to New York.

The problem is, she wants Fred with her. Their school isn't going to just let them leave - or at least, she doesn't think so; it's not like she's asked - which means she'll be stuck in Denver until the semester is over/winter break comes, or she'll have to ditch and then inevitably face the wrath of the school board.

She doesn't bother to tell Fred any of this, incorrectly believing that she can handle it all on her own.

That's why Fred finds her sitting on the kitchen floor on Friday night/Saturday morning, eating Hostess cupcakes and having an anxiety attack. He sits with her, and listens as she tells him her dilemma through tears.

"I just want to see my siblings again," she wails, clutching his shirt. "And I can't because of the stupid school!"

He rubs her back, and asks, "have you asked to get time off? They know you're pregnant, and they've been good about giving you sick days. And you heard what Elijah said. His college let him go to New York and are accommodating him, just because he's part of the Manhunt."

She's quiet, thinking it over. Elijah had said that, and Elijah never lied - at least not to her.

"Do you think they'll do it for me, too?" She asks, looking up at his face from his chest.

He nods earnestly. "They'll probably let me go with you, if you ask."

She breathes for a moment, calming herself down. She was shaking, but Fred's like a balm, and she feels so much better.

"Will you go with me?"

"Of course. But let's wait until Monday, then we can, okay? I think all three of us want to go to bed."

The baby takes that moment to kick, and the way they're sitting allows Fred to feel it. They grin at each other, and Fred lifts her like a princess. She leans up to kiss him, loving him more and more as the days pass. That night, they do very little sleeping.

Her lucky streak continues when, on Monday, her bosses allow her to go to New York with Fred. She also scores cheap tickets.

When she tells Kol, he squawks about how his tickets weren't cheap at all. She laughs until she cries when he says he's going to fistfight the CEO of 'airplanes or whatever'.

8.20 Late 2007

Liz stared at them both, overtly suspicious. With a finger in the air pointing at both of them, she said, "you better be in your separate rooms when I get back."

Caroline huffed, "duh, mom.

Klaus, much nicer, replied, "of course, Ms. Fo-ah, Liz, I mean."

She nodded with approval of his use of her name - he'd been with them long enough that it only made sense - and left them sitting at the table, eating their breakfast.

The second she was out the door, Caroline leaned across the table and kissed her boyfriend soundly on the lips.

"Hi."

He smiled indulgently. "Hey."

"Mom won't be back until tonight. You wanna?"

With a smirk and a nod, he stood and pulled her towards his room, where Ms. Forbes never dared to go.

0.9

It's decided the second Rebekah calls that only the "blood relations", as Kol calls them, will be welcoming her. It doesn't ending up mattering, since the children have to go back to school. Only the youngest ones, Christine, Matthew, and Justin are still there. The others plan to be back soon, though, since break is almost upon them.

At first, Leif and Aerona had been unsure, but now, sitting in the airport again, they're glad it's only them, and Mikaelson children. Torunn offered to come, but Rebekah had asked it was just them for this first time.

Kol is tapping his foot nervously. Freya is reading, Finn is once again on the family tree, and Elijah is people watching.

Like last time, Leif and Aerona busy themselves with talk of their children, other grandchildren, and their lives back in Tromsø. All of them were keeping themselves updated on the situation, and the news of Rebekah making her way out had excited them.

Already, Finn was endearing himself to them. Many of them also found themselves roped into movie nights playing only Kol's films.

"I'm glad they are all welcoming Mikael's children. I never said, but I was a little worried," Leif tells Aerona, hushed so no one can hear them.

"I was, too. Mikael left when some of them were very young, and over a quarter of a century goes by before they hear anything about him again. And what they do hear is that he'd killed his wife, and mistreated his children horribly." She shakes her head, still having a hard time reconciling her baby boy with the man who gave his children haunted looks and odd quirks. "I think that's why they started out so welcoming. They wanted these kids to feel like they were family."

"Yes, I believe that as well. Now, however, I think they've genuinely let the Mikaelson children into their image of family."

"I hope so. Eventually, we'll have to go home, and leave them, unless they come with."

"The only one I know who might is Niklaus, but that's a stretch. Kol will visit us, though, I'm sure of that."

They both look at Kol, the youngest of the Mikaelson siblings that they've met in person so far. He tells stories of his adopted sister all the time, and his parents, but he's latched onto them like a child on it's first day of school. Freya, Finn, and Elijah have also become close, though it's obvious they're bracing themselves for when it's time to return to reality.

Rebekah will be a handful - the few times they've spoken, she's made it clear, not through words but through actions, that she has pregnancy brain. She'll react badly, they've predicted to each other. Henrik already is a handful - not wanting to come out, according to Kol, and feeling so awkward it resonated through the computer screen.

After that Skype session, Leif had observed, "interesting that the youngest is the most guarded."

That was leaving out Niklaus, though. While Kol visiting them is a sure thing, Niklaus ever even talking to them is uncertain. He hasn't spoken to any of his siblings though. And from what Kol reports from Davina, he's ignoring the whole Manhunt so he won't have to deal with it.

They've been married for so long, they know they're thinking about mostly the same thing by just looking at each other. Aerona comments, banking on that history of theirs, "the ones we have yet to met are going to be difficult, aren't they?"

He smiles, a touch sad, and nods. He can't answer though, before a loud squeal sounds, and there's suddenly two more people in their group.

The blonde girl from the pictures, all grown up now, is running ahead of a cute young man with looks a model would be envious of. Privately, Aerona compares him to Katherine, Sage, and Graham, and wonders how it is that all of Mikael's children end up with stunning people. Probably because of what he put them through, she thinks a little sourly.

She forces the thoughts from her mind, and watches as Kol hugs her, then swings her around. They're both chattering like Freya had told stories about. Since Henrik couldn't talk when they were separated, and Niklaus was often glued to Elijah's side, they spent a lot of time together. This led to a bond none of the others could get close to with either sibling.

When Kol releases her, she's sobbing, one hand over her mouth and the other on her stomach. The young man, Fred, gives a concerned look that endears him to Leif and Aerona immediately, but allows her to fling herself at Elijah, then Freya, then Finn without his interference.

It's clear they won't be introduced to Rebekah any time soon, not when they all stand in a circle and catch up (hushed so the paparazzi and passer-by's won't hear). Watching Rebekah come back into the fold - Kol's words - is interesting, but there's someone they need to meet.

They move closer to Fred, who they've heard is a teacher like Rebekah, and is very protective. Once they're close enough, Leif sticks his hand out, and introduces, "hello, we're Rebekah's grandparents, Leif and Aerona Trulsson."

Fred smiles at them kindly - Katherine's smile had been downright clinically interested, but Aerona reminds herself she shouldn't be comparing anyone - and says,"Fred Dawson. It's nice to meet you both. Rebekah has been really looking forward to meeting you..." He looks off at his wife, and continues, "even though she isn't acting like it."

Aerona waves a hand before offering it to him. "Oh, it's fine. They've been apart so long, it's no surprise we aren't her first priority."

"Yeah, you're right. Um, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

He gives an awkward smile. "Are she and Kol always so…." He shakes his head, unable to find the word he's looking for.

"Well, from what we hear from their siblings, they were very close as siblings." Leif answers, "however, their personalities don't mesh very well at times. Both too snappy, if you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I think I do."

They talk for a little while longer before Rebekah can separate herself and come over to meet them. Jokingly, Leif thinks, Fred might be my new favorite.

8.21 Later (continuation of 8.20)

Caroline knew her mom knew that they were having sex. For god's sake, she was 18, so it's not like she wasn't allowed to have it.

Her mom knew that Caroline knew that she's uncomfortable with them flaunting it, though. So even though Caroline felt a little teenage-indignation, she respected that she lived under her mom's roof, and made sure to only have sex with Klaus when she wasn't home. She also made sure to leave no evidence.

Klaus had the guest bathroom, and he didn't have to share like Caroline and her mom did. It made disposing of the condom easy, plus it gave her somewhere to hide on the off chance her mom interrupted them.

That was what he was doing right then, throwing out the evidence. God, that makes it sound like a crime scene.

It almost was, she couldn't help but think. She'd had a pregnancy scare a few months before. She'd been honest with her mom, saying she wasn't sure and that she hadn't told Klaus, because everyone knew he would go into lock down mode the second both family and emotions were brought up. Damon said stupid shit about how much he loved Stefan all the time, just to annoy him. It was honestly a wonder Klaus hadn't punched him yet.

But that was beside the point. Her mom had taken her to the doctor after giving Klaus the okay to hang out with Matt and Stefan (he was twenty then and now, but he still lived under her roof, and obeyed her rules, one of which was 'I have to know where you're going and okay it'). The doctor had confirmed there was no baby, just school stressing her out and unhealthy eating habits coming together to make her late.

She was newly eighteen, so it was easy to say she'd had a scare at eighteen and not seventeen. The doctor had been judgy, and she knew her friends would be, too.

Eighteen sounded so much better than seventeen. (Her mom had said, "twenty-five and settled down sounds so much better than seventeen and fooling around.")

Klaus had no idea. He probably never would. Well, maybe if she actually did get pregnant, then she would tell him. But she wasn't interested in children any time soon, so she'd didn't dwell on it.

Klaus wouldn't let it go though. He'd exited the bathroom while she was mid thought. He was wearing his pajama bottoms from breakfast, and nothing else except the twinkle in his eye he always got after a round or two.

Klaus at twenty was a whole different beast than he was at seventeen. Back then, he'd been skinny, not in a good way, and what few times she'd seen him even partially naked had shown her he was not all that fit. His ribs stuck out after being starved - unintentionally by his foster parents, definitely intentionally from his foster siblings. He was bruised from the other foster kids, and, she'd learned from a hushed conversation with her mom, a truck driver he'd had to fight off after a ride. Now, though, he had abs, his ribs didn't stick out, and he was toned in an adult way she found insanely hot. There were no bruises on him now except the ones she'd made.

Klaus asked, "I know I'm beautiful, but that wasn't what you were in deep thought about, was it?"

She stretched out on the bed, gleefully noting that his eyes were glued to her. "No, it wasn't. I was thinking about your modesty, actually."

"Well, it's not like I can help I'm the sexiest person to ever live." She snorted, so he added, "after you, of course."

"Right."

She smiled at him, and he flopped onto the bed next to her, snuggling up instantly. It was the only part of his room he'd decorated. The sheets were dark blue, while the comforter was a lighter shade that almost matched his eyes. The rest was the same guest-bedroom-decorations they'd always been. He'd said he didn't change anything because he liked the way it looked, but she didn't think floral was his style. Truthfully, she thought it was because he was worried he'd get kicked out. But it had been almost three years. It was December 2007, and they'd met in April of 2005; he'd moved in days after she found him in the woods. He was here to stay, he just was so unsure of his footing, he'd made it so he had no real attachment to the room.

God, he broke her heart just by existing. Every time his birthday came around, he seemed surprised to get a cake and presents. When his father's friend, one of Virginia's auditors Klaus called Mr. Perverted, had come after him claiming that watching Mikael abuse his children had emotionally damaged him, Klaus had been surprised when everyone rallied behind him and not the older man. And even in tender moments, Klaus was so awkward about his feelings that it was clear to her he'd never learned to truly express them. He refused to go to counseling, though. Something about it all being a waste of money that made you actually think about your problems. She'd laughed, then, but the words sounded so much like Mikael had the only time she'd ever seen him that she didn't think it was funny anymore.

"Seriously, though, what were you thinking about?"

Caroline eyed his genuinely curious face, and decided to risk it.

"The future. What life is going to be like after college." He wasn't going, and they both knew that.

He shrugged. "Nothing will really change for me. But you, you'll be some big shot party planner. You'll probably bathe in money from all of the clients who will just throw it at you while begging that you make their event better than everyone else's."

She laughed. "You'll be right there with me. The 1% will beg you for your art. The art critics all over the world will cry at the beauty of your paintings."

He smiled, pleased. "I can just imagine an art critic needing a party planned, and going to us, hoping we'll agree to it."

"He'll want to use your canvases. Are we going to go for it?" She teased.

"Do you have a theme in mind?"

"Hmm...how about family?" A little girl with your dimples? A little boy with your laugh?

His smile turned strained the second she said it. He wasn't stupid, though, and he knew exactly what she meant.

"Caroline…."

"Klaus."

"You know I don't...I'm not…."

"We're discussing. We aren't making plans, Klaus," she nearly pleaded, pushing him onto his back so she could straddle his waist. "Please, just...tell me what you think about it. We aren't going to set anything into stone unless you want to."

He looked frustrated, but relented after a long moment. "I don't want children. But if we did have one…." He whispered, "I wouldn't want it to be alone. I've seen what having siblings is like, and I've seen what being an only child is like."

Her throat closed all of a sudden, and she swallowed, trying to get past it. "I would like that. Being an only child sucks."

He smiled fondly at her. "Yeah. But sometimes, it seemed like the better option."

"Really? When?" She gave him an interested look, and propped her self up on his chest. His hands rested on her thighs comfortably. She knew what he was doing, but she figured it was all she was going to get out of him. Frankly, it was more than enough to sate her curiosity.

"When Finn got all uptight about things. And when Rebekah insisted on tea parties with her stuffed animals."

"Aww. Did you have to put on a tutu?" She pictured that in her mind, and couldn't help but laugh.

"No, thank god. She only owned two, and one of them was only for Kol's use." He smirked, and even though it was a little too show-man-Klaus for her, she accepted it.

"Darn." She leaned down to whisper in his ear. "You would look great in one. I think I kept my old one?"

He flipped them over, and playfully growled, "I don't do drag, love."

"Unless I want you to," she batted her eyelashes.

He shook his head, for once denying her request.

With an evil smile, she started to tickle him.

He eventually wore the "damn tutu".

7.5

Henry had watched the video of his siblings reuniting in the same area of the same airport as the last few times. Now all he wants is to call them again. The few calls he'd made hadn't sated his curiosity about them at all.

Emily says he needs to start calling every day, talk to each of them separately, and form relationships. His mom and dad feel the same way, while Jason thinks he's making it harder than it really is, and Theresa is just saying she's glad her parents didn't want her and that's why she's there, not because she was taken.

None of them are really helping him all that much. The only thing that helps is going over the situation.

Freya and Elijah like to talk to him about anything, and they put him at ease. Finn feels awkward, but he's trying, usually by making small talk about school. Kol feels very awkward, and overcompensates. Leif and Aerona are grounded, calm, and kind, and he loves talking to them.

Rebekah is the only one other than Leif and Aerona who calls him Henry. The rest forget all the time, so he's given up on them ever calling him his preferred name.

He's told himself before that's one of the reasons he isn't making the drive up to New York City. But really, it doesn't bother him as much as he makes it out to.

Really, he's just scared.

Seeing Rebekah do it, though - and she'd told him she was scared, too - makes him realize he can't let this fear control him. He has to see his siblings, he can't let this pass him by.

He starts planning immediately, thinking about the next three day weekend he has and how he'll get there.

5.9

Fred is just now getting questioned about his intentions - hadn't passed muster, apparently - and Kol is flipping out.

He doesn't really know why. Fred is super nice, Rebekah is just the same as he remembers, and everything is fine. There's no Radley to talk at until he unwinds, though, but there's also no more Nina and Lacey to screech in his ear anymore. Still, he's been feeling anxious all day, like something's about to happen.

Logically, he knows he's feeling like this because of Rebekah. Not in the sense it used to be - god, how many times had he blamed the wasted makeup that he smeared on every surface on his sister? - but in the sense that he's worried she's not the same. Or doesn't like him. Or the fact that she's an adult and he doesn't know how to deal with it. Or any other nonsensical thing.

He just knows that he has to get the hell away, maybe call Hailie again, but she'll just berate him about his sleeping schedule again. That's a bust.

They're all crammed into the penthouse, where Freya, Graham, Justin, Elijah, Katherine, and Matt sleep. Fred's at the table, being stared at by all the adults except his grandparents who find the practice both silly and unnecessary. He heads towards them without realizing it, stumbling a little in his haste to get away.

It feels a little too much like that shoot he did once where his character was questioned by the police, and they'd said something about bringing in a friend who would make him talk and he'd stopped breathing in front of the whole crew.

He pushes the thought away, hating it as much as he hated the memories of being Pizza-Face (at least Maid Service was creative; Maid Service was a joke about how he made messes, and it's funny, whereas Pizza-Face is just stupid). He sits heavily on the couch, and rests his head in his hands. Aerona asks him if he's alright, but he barely hears her.

He can't help but think that this was a bad day to do this. Rebekah would try to take the attention back, just like she always did.

He loves her, he loves seeing her, and even though the belly kinda freaks him out, he's ready to become an uncle again. It's just...she was the attention whore of them all. Henrik screamed and cried, but he was a baby. Freya and Finn were Mother and Father's favorites, Elijah was not someone you ignored, and even Nik got attention, bad as it was. Kol was...just there, a mouth to feed, a faggot who would grow up to be a drama queen and nothing more.

Father was dead - Kol hasn't spoken to him since before May 10th, 1996 - and his words still ring in Kol's head.

Rebekah, Father knew, would be someone when she grew up. Kol, not so much. And it isn't all that true - Rebekah is not yet a teacher, and Kol is a movie star with awards under his belt - but he can't help but feel like Rebekah is here to take the attention away from him. God, he feels like such a child, but he can't stop thinking about the fact that Rebekah is making something of herself - she's married, she has a kid on the way - and he isn't - he hasn't dated anyone since he fake-dated April Young.

He doesn't realize he's hyperventilating until Elijah and Graham try to coach him into even breaths.

He manages it slowly, and it calms him down even though it isn't his usual game of counting things. When he looks up through teary eyes, he sees everyone staring at him, concerned. Rebekah is right in front of him, crouched down and petting his arm comfortingly.

She looks so scared for him that he instantly feels like an asshat.

Shakily, he stands, steps around his sister, pushes past Katherine and Freya and Finn and goes to his room here in the hotel. He locks the door, and moves the bag of clothes he's been living out of in front of it so no one can strong arm their way in.

He sits on the bed and just stares at the wall. God, he really hates himself sometimes.

Chapter Text

2.6

As soon as Kol is out the door, Freya takes charge and forces everyone to find a seat. Fred looks around, obviously confused going from interrogation to family meeting so quick. Finn wishes that he didn't have to deal with this so soon - he also wishes that Katherine and Graham weren't there to see the spectacle, either. He's glad, honestly, that Sage isn't there in that moment.

Finn also knows, through the time spent bonding again with his little brother, that Kol would not want outsiders knowing what's going on.

Unfortantely, the room they're all in is where Graham and Katherine are living, so they can't just be kicked out. Finn thinks about it, though, remembers the dinner where Rebekah had first called, and decides.

"Katherine, Graham, I think you should take the kids and Fred down to get something to eat," he suggests. It isn't a suggestion, though, not really.

His brothers- and sister-in-law understand quickly - and god, Finn is glad his siblings have ended up with smart people, Niklaus, Kol, and Henrik not included - and take their leave. Fred looks back at Rebekah, concerned, but Graham says something lowly that makes Fred's shoulders loosen up. Katherine is last, holding Justin and Matthew's hands.

Then it's just the family.

Torunn looks extremely upset. She's sitting next to Rebekah, who isn't crying, but is on her way there. His grandparents are still sitting on the couch, and while Aerona looks a mix of sad and angry, Leif just looks shocked. Elijah has his head in his hands, and Freya is sitting on Rebekah's other side, rubbing her back.

Finn plops next to Elijah, and sighs heavily.

They all know that they're messed up. Father had done terrible things to them, physically and emotionally. It was bound to hurt them, give them problems.

But knowing that and see that are two different things.

Finn can't help but think about how Niklaus was the one Father beat physically, and Kol was the one Father beat emotionally. The worst Niklaus was ever called was bastard. Kol, the few times Father paid him attention, was called faggot, waste of space/air/food, queer, and more.

Finn and the others existed in a bubble of safety, easily popped. Niklaus and Kol didn't live in that bubble. Kol had, up until he told the family about his boyfriend at pre-school - it was harmless, and Kol actually also had a girlfriend at the time - and Father dragged him out by his heart.

Niklaus had never lived in the bubble, but Finn think if he had, Father would have pulled him out by his hair.

He doesn't have time to dwell any more, though, because Freya takes charge again and calls, "family meeting time."

It's like Torunn was waiting for someone to say that. She says quickly, "is that normal?"

His grandparents look expectant, but all the rest of them can do is shrug helplessly. It's only been a few weeks since Finn reunited with his siblings, and in that time, none of them had had a bad reaction to anything. Kol, certainly, had not had an anxiety attack around them.

Torunn makes a frustrated noise. "Does that happen to the rest of you?"

Freya nods uncomfortably, while Elijah says, "it's happened before, but not often and not recently." Rebekah nods, then starts to sob. Freya hugs her tightly, and Rebekah melts into the embrace. Finn has always been jealous of their relationship, honestly. His sisters have always clung to each other.

Torunn looks at him expectantly. "It's happened once or twice," he relents.

Leif sighs heavily, upset. Torunn switches couches to comfort him. Aerona, meanwhile, asks, "what can we do to keep that from happening again?"

Finn says, "well, I don't want to talk about foster care."

"Or Father," Elijah adds, lifting his head.

"Or any of Father's friends," Freya continues.

Rebekah sobs out, "or Mother, or Ansel, or anything!"

Finn watches the faces of his grandparents and aunt, and suddenly understands they all look angry. Not at Finn, or his siblings, but at Father.

He's always felt like the problems he and his siblings have are partially his fault. Not because Father did what he did, not because Mother stopped caring about them, but because Finn is the second oldest. He's the oldest boy. When Father started beating Niklaus, he was old enough to try and stop him.

But he never did.

He stops that train of thought, thinking, this is exactly what will cause me to have an anxiety attack.

He looks around at his siblings, and sees looks that make him think they're thinking something similar. Elijah, in particular, has dropped his head in his hands once again.

Sighing, he rubs his hand over his face. He already knows he's going to have a lot to deal with in the very near future, and if he keeps having thoughts about his childhood, it's going to be a whole lot worse.

8.22

Caroline is the most excited Liz has seen her since Tessanne won The Voice.

She came home in a hurry, and the only reason why Liz was ready for her is because Stefan gave her a heads up.

Liz really likes Stefan; he's been one of the greatest friends her daughter has ever had, and she can't appreciate him enough.

That isn't the point here, though - Caroline is talking about Klaus. The boy who came into their lives fresh off running away, skittish, in need of a shower, and practically starving. The boy who left so abruptly, his breakfast was left on the table, half-eaten and still warm. (He'd been planning it, Liz can't help but think. He'd had a bag packed, and she knew that, because his closet was mostly empty when she went looking for him.)

Liz had once loved him like a son. She'd been waiting for the day he proposed and she could actually call him that. Now, she just feels a mix of things, nothing concrete. She can't hate him, but she still feels lots of negative emotions about him. Anger, over his departure and what happened after, bitter, over how he said he felt like her house was home and over how he left so easily. Hatred, for what he did to Caroline. Still, there was love, for all the times he did things for her, like drawing her pictures or cooking dinner or getting in a fight with a boy who threatened her.

Now, as Caroline talks about him like she used to, like she's still in love with him, she feels sad. She's entertained the idea that Klaus only left because he has no idea how to deal with emotions. He'd been every bit as in love with her daughter as Caroline was with him. He'd even told her, days before he left, that he felt like he could recover with Caroline at his side.

But then he left. And now, three years later, Caroline is saying there's a plan to get him back with his siblings. All Liz has to do is call him and lie to him.

She remembers when he was seventeen, newly moved in and chafing in the clothes she'd bought for him. She'd promised she wouldn't lie to him. She had also promised he would regret it if he hurt her daughter in anyway. Back then, she'd meant physically, but it ended up being emotionally. Is she really going to break two promises, just to help him?

Caroline pulls her out of her thoughts with a plea, "please, you have to. He always wanted to get back together with all of them. He always thought he'd get better if he was with them."

Liz sighs, and says, "fine." If only because she remembers him, on the first anniversary, hiding in the woods and fighting off tears.

Caroline thanks her, and tells her that she isn't sure when the plan will be set into motion, but be ready.

Liz agrees, and watches Caroline go to her room. She does want to see Klaus again, wants to see him get better. The only problem is that she fears what he'll do when he finds out what he left behind him.

4.6

He can't help it. It's one of those times he just can't help himself.

He gets off work (night shift, aka, why god), barters with Sophie and ends up not selling anything, and trudges back home. Hayley and Tyler greet him like they always do, and he checks on the kittens. Marcel proudly shows them off. Klaus just smiles and rubs behind Marcel's ears, much to his cat's delight.

It's after he's fed them, pet Camille, and settled down with breakfast that he turns on the TV. He sees something about the Mikaelson Manhunt, and goes to turn it off, but he sees something that stops him in his tracks.

Rebekah. His baby sister.

She's wearing a wedding ring, and she's pregnant, and even though Davina had already told him all of this, he feels like he's been shot. His heart stops. He chokes on his dinner.

Tyler ruffs at him, seemingly a mix of concerned and uncaring. Hayley and Marcel move towards him. Marcel lays in his lap, and Hayley tries to eat the takeout Chinese. God, his pets are ridiculous.

He pushes them away gently, and returns his attention to the TV. Rebekah cries, and hugs their siblings. He takes in their faces like a starving man, knowing he probably won't be watching anything else about the Manhunt.

He's still watching it, trying not to fall asleep, when Davina knocks on his door. He opens the door with a playful sigh, even though he feels drained. She pushes past him gently, and steps into his apartment.

She sees the TV first, then what's on it.

She swings around, a bright smile on her face. "Are you finally going to call yourself in?"

He scowls, feeling like he has to fight her optimism with pessimism. "No."

Her mouth drops open in a way he can only describe as sassy. Her hands go to her waist like they have every time she's been pissed at him since they met. "Seriously? You'll watch them all be happy but you won't let yourself be the same?"

To think he'd been happy to see her.

All she does these days is pester him about the Manhunt. She should realize that if he wants to be sad and lonely, he gets to be sad and lonely.

He doesn't, actually, but it's better than seeing his siblings and reliving the horrors of his childhood.

"Davina, if you came here just to annoy me, you can leave. I'm too tired for this right now."

She rolls her eyes. "I actually came by to hang out, but you're acting like a dick, so yeah, I'll be going. Don't worry, I know where the door is," she snarks.

She leaves, slamming the door. He rolls his eyes, tells himself, "whatever", and goes back to the TV.

8.23

Davina grumbles, leaving in a hurry. Really, she should know better by know than to push Klaus, especially right after work. That doesn't mean she's okay with his bullshit.

Feeling petty, she decides to do another something that will only piss him off when he finds out - she's going to track down Cary, the stalker/cousin of her best friend.

Her first instinct is look online, then maybe the phone books if she's desperate, but after walking several blocks, and calming down, she decides to go back to all the places Klaus had seen Cary and start there.

The bar he works at isn't open, so she counts it as a bust. The bar he frequents is also closed. The Wal-Mart she works at is simply too big for her to check all on her own, and since she has no desire to include the zero other friends she has, she calls it a day and stops.

The Wal-Mart is a few blocks from the Starbucks Klaus works at, so she goes there, thirsty after a few hours of sleuthing.

As luck would have it, she sees his weird-looking face sitting at a table, sipping a drink.

All thoughts of getting herself a drink go out the window. She moves towards the table instantly, and sits, surprising him.

"Um...who are you?" His brown eyes cataloge her face in a way she has definitely seen Klaus do.

She sticks a hand out, and says, "Davina Claire, a friend of Klaus Mikaelson's. You know, the guy who you stalked?"

He blinks, gapes a little, and looks around shiftily. "I didn't stalk him," he tries.

Davina raises an eyebrow sassily, and says, "mmhmm. Anyway, I wanted to ask if you're actually his cousin?"

"Who told you that?"

"Kol Mikaelson."

"Kol? How is he?"

She scoffs. "He's fine. Answer my question."

He sighs. "Yes, I am. I-I wasn't trying to stalk him, it's just, I live in New Orleans, and the rest of the family lives all over, and I found him. We've all heard stories of him, you know. Uncle Ansel's bastard son."

He starts to go on, but Davina cuts in, "don't call him that."

"Sorry. My dad has always called him that, I've never known him as anything else, really. All of his siblings call him their half-brother."

Davina softens, remembering Kol's long stories of what life was like having a half-sibling. She was an only child, with no family to really speak of except Klaus and his pets. The only difference between Klaus' maternal half-siblings and his paternal ones was the fact that the Mikaelsons got to grow up with him.

"I don't get it, were you only stalking him to figure out what he looked like?"

Cary shakes his head. "My aunt Mary, Ansel's wife, she knew Niklaus' parents. She's told all of us just how terrible they were to him, how he acted like them. I wanted to approach him, but I've always heard that he's mean." Cary looks away, suddenly shy.

And even though Davina just got kicked out of his apartment, and has spent all day trying to find Cary so she could ostensibly betray Klaus - for the second time in a short time - she says, "he isn't mean, he's just damaged." She looks down at the table, and continues, a touch quieter, "I can tell you about him, but I don't think it would be a good idea to meet him right now."

"Why?" He asks, but she can't answer before another person is sitting at the table.

It's a girl, older than both her and Cary. She looks like Klaus in the eyes and dimples and hair. Cary is Klaus' cousin, and she can tell. This woman is his sister, and she knows it, instantly.

"Hi?" She greets.

Cary says, "this is Niklaus' friend. She was just saying she doesn't think we should meet him, but she'll tell us about him."

The woman looks infinitely more interested. "Really? You can tell us about Niklaus?"

"Is that all you caught? She doesn't want us to meet him," Cary snaps.

Davina, irritated by his tone, snaps back, "yeah, because he's dealing with a lot right now! He has one set of half-siblings hunting him down, he doesn't need another set trying to know everything about him at the same time!"

Cary has grown more confident with Klaus' sister at his side. He instantly counters, "we're half his blood, we have the right to get to know him. We didn't get to, if you haven't caught on by now."

She rolls her eyes, but it's his sister that speaks next. "Calm down, Cary, let's just leave it be for the moment." She turns to her, and says, "Jessika Wolff, one of Niklaus' half-sisters. What's your name?"

"Davina Claire, his friend." She makes sure he posture is defiant. Klaus is older than her, and a guy, and most people have a hard time believing they can be real friends. In reality, she's proud to say her crush lasted only a week.

Jessika just smiles at her, while Cary gives her a look she doesn't like. "I don't understand why we can't meet up with him, but we can let it go if you promise we get to meet him someday soon."

Cary glares at Jessika, but Davina feels soothed by her tone immediately. "He just has a lot going on right now. I'll definitely get you guys in touch, though, as soon as I think he can handle everything life is throwing at him. That said, I won't answer everything, I don't know him well enough to tell you certain personal preferences, but, you know, ask away."

Jessika nods, and pulls out her phone. "Okay, that's fine. Is it okay if I write things down, for my other siblings?" She repeats his nod back at him. "Um, I've always wondered what his favorite color is."

"He says it's green, but he uses black so often in his art I feel like he's lying." Jessika starts typing with her thumbs, looking very interested.

Cary leans closer. "Is that why he always had that notepad with him? He was drawing?"

"He does a lot more than drawing. Usually, he paints, but he's been busy lately, so it's been a while."

"What's he been doing that makes him so busy?"

Davina shrugs. "His cats had kittens, and his maternal half-siblings are all over TV, and he's pulling extra shifts at work."

Jessika responds, "we're like that, too. It came from my dad."

Davina leans her elbow on the table, then her chin on her fist. "Really? Will you tell me about your siblings? I know pretty much nothing about the Mikaelsons except what Kol's told me."

"Kol? How's he doing these days? I mean, except being in blockbuster after blockbuster." Her smile is a little sardonic.

Cary cuts in, "she says he's fine."

"Yeah, I mean, I don't know him that well, but he says he's happy to see his siblings."

Jessika and Cary both smile, and she's sees the similarity to Klaus once again. Cary says, "well, that's great!" She wonders, briefly, how they both seem to know him, but he's never said anything about it before. She's definitely going to report back to him about Cary and Jessika, though.

"Yeah, tell him we said hi, will you?" She nods, and Jessika continues, "anyway, my siblings. There's me, Chris, Sabrina, Sebastian, Elizabeth, and Peter. Chris and Sabrina are older than me, um, they're 35 and 33 years old. They both have kids. I'm 30, and I have kids." She waves a hand around her head a little distractedly. "Then there's Sebastian, Elizabeth, and Peter. They're 27, 23, and 22. Peter has a kid, and is going to college at Oxford right now, actually." She smiles at Davina proudly. "I have to say that. I'm so proud of him I can't help it."

Davina feels wistful - her parents don't give a shit where she is, and they never did - and jealous at the same time. Kol says the same thing about his siblings. He's the most successful, money wise - he's even told her some of the Mikaelsons are middle class at best - but he still talks about them like they're his children, like they've made him proud. Klaus, what few times he's talked about his siblings, has always had this same tone. Like he couldn't be prouder.

Jessika goes on, talking about her siblings, what it was like growing up, and how she's always viewed Klaus as this guy she should know but doesn't. Davina listens, and tells them more about Klaus, and can't think of anything but two things: how much she wishes she had a family, and what Kol will think of all this.

6.6

Rebekah understands anxiety more than any of her siblings might think. She is so in control of her emotions - usually, anyway, it's not like her daughter is helping matters here - that it might seem impossible to them that she understand.

But she does, and while Kol's outburst doesn't make her feel like she'll fall into one anytime soon, she does feel on edge. Her whole body feels uncomfortably tense.

Fred is back, Katherine leaving Graham to watch the boys - her nephews, her adorable little nephews - and she leans back into his chest. She does this only when she seeks comfort, and he knows it. He also knows when she can't seem to calm.

She had assumed, when she was on the plane, that it would hard for her to adjust to having these siblings again. She has other ones, adopted ones, but the difference is, they're sane. They aren't damaged like her. They aren't damaged like her real siblings.

She hates to think like that, but she hasn't grown close to her adopted siblings. She also knows for a fact that her siblings and she are, at least in her opinion, ruined. Father has hurt them in ways they cannot be brought back from.

And that's where her thoughts are now. On her siblings - she is so excited to see them again she may pee - and her father - the utter asshole - and her anxiety. It's really taking away from her happiness, and it sucks.

She can't help but think that Kol's anxiety is taking away from her moment. But then she pushes that thought away, watches her nephews play, and hold Fred close, away from her over-protective siblings.

8.24 - May 20th, 2010

Stefan and Bonnie, full from all the ice cream, didn't move when Caroline went to the bathroom.

They did move when she shrieked.

Bonnie got there first, only because Stefan fell out of bed whereas she jumped and landed fine.

"What? What is it?" Bonnie screamed, as they rounded into the bathroom. Caroline sat on the floor, holding something they couldn't see, and sobbing.

Stefan privately wondered if it was a used condom. Maybe she was clutching the last bit of Klaus she had. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing he'd seen her do in the week and a half Klaus had been gone.

It was a lot worse.

It was a pregnancy test, clutched in Caroline's fingers. And, after a closer look while they hugged her close, it was positive.

Chapter Text

7.6

With winter break looming ever closer, Henry feels more and more like he has to go see his siblings. Other people get hay fever (or is that the spring?) - he just gets the overwhelming urge to drop all of his homework and drive up to New York City to see the people he knew for less than two years of his life.

He feels ridiculous, but, as everyone in his class says, it's normal. One of his peers even said "being away from your pack is making you feel like you're surrounded. It's obvious you gotta return to them, and asap, so you can feel protected again." And even though Henry had been weirded out, he sees what the guy had meant. With all but he and Niklaus in New York City, he feels like he's the outsider since he isn't with them.

(Freya had remarked that he's closer than his estranged brother, so he feels more reachable to them, which he also attributes to the fact that he has actually contacted them. It seems a little obvious to him why he's easier to connect to than Niklaus.)

On the topic of his older brother, Henry thinks again about the plan. He doesn't know his part in it, or if he even has one, but he's extremely excited about it. He wishes he'd played hard to get, so they could all come gallivanting around the nation to get him.

Theresa had shot that down, citing his uncanny ability to be uncomfortable in every situation. When she'd said that, he'd shrugged and nodded, which is something he's noticed Kol doing in all of his interviews.

He's a lot like his siblings, even though he didn't grow up with them.

Beyond that, he's decided that he doesn't care that they refuse to call him Henry. He's lived so long without them that he's choosing to let them do whatever. Including call him the wrong name and not tell him what his part in the plan is.

He pushes his homework away, already knowing that he won't be getting any of it done. He can't stop thinking about other things, and he knows from experience it's better for him to realize that now. If he attempts anything, he'll just frustrate himself.

The phone rings, and he thanks the fates for the distraction.

It's Freya. He smiles and clicks accept.

"Hey, Freya. What's up?" He leans back and runs a hand through his hair.

Her tone is warm when she says, "hey! I'm calling to see if you're going to be visiting any time soon. I know you told Kol you don't want to, but I kinda need to know. Something's going on right now, and it's important."

"Woah, is everything alright?" 'Something's going on right now' sounds really bad.

He hears her settle on her end. "Yeah, technically. Kol just had a little...thing...and I don't want to set him off again."

Henry's breath catches. "He had an anxiety attack?"

Freya makes a scoffing sound. "How did you know that?"

"He's talked about his anxiety is several interviews," Henry explains before his mouth can catch up with his brain. He hadn't wanted to tell any of his siblings about that, especially Kol and Rebekah, who both tease him all the time. "Um...I mean, it's on his wikipedia." Like that's any better, he thinks to himself in his best Chandler Bing voice.

There's a moment of silence, and then Freya says, "okay then. He did, and if you're coming up soon, I want to make sure we don't trigger another attack, in any of us."

He thanks god for her bypassing it, and responds, "oh, okay. Well, break is coming up, so I want to come see you guys. I wasn't going to at first, because this is all a little weird for me, but…. I decided I can't let this just pass me by. I need to do it sooner rather than later, you know?"

He can almost hear her smile. "Yeah, I do." They're quiet again until she says, "about the plan…."

He settles in and uses his notebook to take notes. Once he hears about it, he gets an idea that keeps him up all night, long after he's gotten off the phone.

3.5

Fred takes everything in stride, and Elijah appreciates it deeply. Sage and Graham aren't like that. Katherine, certainly, is not like that. It's something he doesn't like about her, one of few.

She doesn't know that he has that list - originally made by his college (the first time around) roommate who had hated her with a passion - and that's the way it's going to stay.

That isn't really the point, though. The point is, Fred fits in extremely well. The Mikaelsons have always liked people who are cool, calm, and collected, and Fred is no different.

He whispers in Rebekah's ear, and talks about his job with Katherine and Graham, who have both, once again, fallen into the role of mediator. In this case, mediators make sure everyone stays sane. Usually, they're breaking up fights between Finn and Kol, who are almost exact opposites.

That makes him think again about his little brother. Not the one currently hiding away from them, but the one...currently hiding away from them. Hmm. He's talking about Niklaus, not Kol. (They're more alike than he's thought, aren't they?)

Niklaus was never one for mediating, but when it came to Kol and Rebekah, he was a pro at getting them to play nice. Elijah has never learned his secret, but he's always suspected that he threatened to stop playing with them. That's what Kol did whenever he didn't want to play with Freya and Finn's kids.

Maybe that's what caused it? Radley had to go home, wouldn't return until winter break came, and with his departure, Kol lost the only other young guy., except Henrik Elijah isn't sure why, but Kol has taken much more to Radley than he has to Henrik.

He decides he's going to ask him about that. Elijah sure isn't the oldest, but he's always been the one keeping things together. He's always been there for his siblings. He's always been the one to talk it out, and he won't stop now.

Which means he's going to go talk to Kol whether his little brother likes it or not.

1.9

With Elijah gone off somewhere, the significant others entertaining the grandparents, and Finn and Torunn talking again about the family tree (pointedly ignoring the tension Kol left in his wake), Freya goes to talk to Rebekah.

Rebekah has moved herself to the table in an attempt to distance herself from everyone else. Freya, when she was pregnant, had loved those moments away from other people. She doesn't think it's best for Rebekah right now.

She sits next to her, and watches her look out the window.

Freya remembers Rebekah when she was younger. When she would look out the window in her few quiet moments and when she would just not move. It was when Kol was at tee-ball, and when Niklaus and Elijah were busy with something, like they always were. Her options in those moments were her much older siblings, or her too-young brother, so she chose to be alone.

In those moments, she was silent. In this one, she isn't.

"What do you think set him off? Finn told me he didn't have one before today." Before I came, she means.

Freya shrugs, remembering Henrik's words. She'd looked him up online, and his wikipedia said it was mostly when he was too far into the spotlight. Tonight, she thinks it was the opposite. "It was probably a lot of things. He has a lot going on."

"Being an actor is not that much," she denies, but she sounds like she doesn't believe herself.

"I meant the fact that he has all of us coming at him from all angles, and the public at his heels, and his adoptive family, too. Plus, when Finn and I's kids were here, he and Radley, my oldest, became good friends. Kol confided in him, and now he's gone."

"I think it was because I took the attention away from him. I mean, not really, because I'm supposed to be reuniting, but here we are, talking about him." She looks to the table, and twirls her finger in a string of her hair. "I think he's always hated me for the fact that Father tolerated me and not him."

"That's not true. He loves you. We all do." Freya grabs her hand, and she looks up.

"I know he loves me. I meant deep down. Subconsciously. Father hated him since the second he said he had a girlfriend and boyfriend in pre-school. He's only been one step ahead of Nik since he was four years old, and you know what that means." She sniffles.

"I do. But listen...I think Elijah went to talk to him. He isn't alone. So if you want to have a reunion moment, let's do it."

Rebekah smiles, and says, "I'd love to."

She asks a lot of questions, most of which pertain to their brothers and motherhood. She wants to know what birth is like, how to raise a baby, how to handle a job and a baby.

Freya tries her best to answer, but Rebekah is in a very different position. She has a husband, and she's in college, and she isn't barely eighteen.

Still, she has a lot of fun talking to her baby sister again.

8.25

1981 - 2 ½ years old

Freya toddled around, excited at the prospect of a new baby. She'd known for a while, of course, but knowing was different from seeing. And she wanted to see.

Father was somewhere, she didn't care, but Mother was in front of her. She had a bundle in her arms, and Freya knew, instinctively, it was the baby. They'd said it was a boy, who they were going to name Finn.

She'd wanted a baby brother, and she got one.

When Mother sat down on the floor, Freya leaned over and saw the little baby. He was adorable, with a cute nose and a scrunched face. Way too small to play with, though. That was okay, though, he'd get big soon enough, and when that happened, she'd be there to play with.

1985 - 5 10/12 years old

Elijah came home much the same way that Finn did. Father wasn't present, Mother was showing off her baby like he was a trophy. Finn was the one toddling around, though his walking was much better at three than Freya's was at two. He was also less interested, already having a sibling.

Freya, however, wanted to see the little boy. In some ways, she was curious if he would be dark haired like Finn, or light haired like her. She wanted to see if his nose was small, or big, or if he had freckles. She wasn't sure if babies could have freckles, but she wanted to find out.

When Mother leaned towards her and Finn, Freya saw little Elijah. Much like Finn, he was adorable. He was awake, and when he blinked, she saw the blue eyes Mother said all babies had.

Finn looked, too. And despite telling her he didn't want a new baby, he looked excited at the new playmate.

1987 - 8 1/12 years old

Mother had cheated, and Freya was the only one who knew. She didn't know the guy's name, or what he looked like, or anything like that. She just knew that on one of the nights Father was away, campaigning in Richmond, she had a guy over.

She didn't know Freya knew. She didn't knew that, when Freya looked down at Niklaus, who Elijah called Nik with his clumsy tongue, she saw a boy who was different. He was blonde, he had dimples, and he was different.

She would never tell him, she'd decided. She'd treat him no different, love him like she was supposed to. And she would make sure he was happy and sane, because surely Father wouldn't like his differences.

1990 - 11 ¼ years old

Kol came home to Niklaus bouncing around excitedly. Finn again didn't care much, or so he said. Elijah pulled on her sleeves and demanded to see the baby.

Mother showed them, excited like all the last times.

She let her and Finn hold him, but made Elijah and Niklaus only look. Too young, she said. Elijah was allowed to touch his little fingers and toes, but not Niklaus. The three year old was a little too clumsy for Mother to allow him.

Still, he was smiling brightly and was babbling to Elijah about how Kol would grow up to be the coolest younger brother ever.

1992 - 13 1/12 years old

Freya was so excited about the little girl who was her sister - her only sister - that she forgot to make sure Kol got to the hospital room okay.

When she looked back, she saw that he was walking between Niklaus and Elijah, who both held one of his hands. He was new to walking, and luckily for him, his older brothers would let him walk whenever he wanted.

Elijah was more cautious, but Niklaus was more carefree. If Kol fell, Elijah made sure he was alright while Niklaus high-fived him. Of course, when they walked into the room and saw Father, she was sure he'd be in worried parent mode. Father hated him, even though he did everything he could to to be good, to be the perfect son.

Freya pushed the thoughts away for her baby sister.

Mother was in bed, holding her, and from the door, Freya could see the blonde hair and button nose.

Finn pushed past her, curious. She followed a half step behind him, ignoring Father in the corner. He was barely awake, and she wanted to keep it that way.

Rebekah was beautiful. She was tiny, and cute, and a girl.

Kol thumped a fist on her leg, and raised his arms to be picked up. She did, and moved to let Elijah and Niklaus see.

Kol made gurgling sounds - the happy ones - while Niklaus stared, wide eyed.

"What's up?" She whispered to him.

He ignored her to look at Elijah and Finn. They both nodded, so he told her, "she's so cute we have to protect her. And we'll do it good!"

She ruffled his hair, and smiled at him, and thought he got that cute little smile from whoever his father was.

1994 - 15 5/12 years old

Father had gotten snipped after he found out Mother was pregnant again, so she knew this would be the last one.

But he was so cute, she almost wanted more. Finn didn't feel the same, as he'd confided in her that he hated being an older sibling. She chalked it up to his hormones, even though he was probably too young to get them, and ignored him. Elijah felt like it was time, and Niklaus was just worried that their parents would turn the baby against him. Kol and Rebekah were so excited they could scream - and they did.

They visited in the hospital again, not the house like the first times. That time, Henrik was in the clear bed thing, asleep. Mother was in her bed, snoring. Father was scowling in the corner, not wanting Niklaus in the room but allowing it after Elijah and the kids pitched a fit. Even Finn had gotten angry, insisting.

Freya had been planning on sneaking him in if Father didn't let him, and she was happy to not to have to go through with it.

She stopped thinking about, and instead thought about Henrik. He had the darkest hair of them all, and was tiny, even smaller than Kol had been. She couldn't help but think he would never get bigger, even though she knew it was stupid to think that.

He was lucky, though - if he stayed small, he had six older siblings who would protect him. Some of them were even getting practice in already. They would be ready for whatever life threw at him, at all of them. (At least, she hoped.)

8.26 - 17 Nov 1997

Freya chose the name Radley because it was a Nordic name, and why not continue the pattern.

Plus, it was cute. Cute didn't make up for the teasing he would probably get for being named after Boo Radley - which he wasn't - but whatever. She could name him whatever she wanted.

His father, the man who'd been so nice to her and her foster siblings, wasn't there and he never, ever would be. She would never let her baby be anywhere near him.

She was too young to be a mom, but she already knew she'd do her absolute best. She wouldn't let anyone hurt her little boy.

(Unfortunately, it didn't happen that way, but at least he got a good step-dad, right?)

3.6

Kol's door is locked.

Elijah knocks, then knocks again, then threatens to break the door down, knowing how Kol will react to that.

The door is opened with the chain still on, only allowing one of Kol's eyes and his nose to show.

He looks at Elijah for barely a second before saying, "ugh, no."

Elijah rolls his eyes, responding, "open the door before I send Finn down here."

Kol shuts the door, but Elijah still hears him say, "ew, Finn."

When the door opens again, this time with enough space for him to get through, he says, "Finn isn't the bad, Kol. Really."

"Have you ever tried to talk to him with any amount of emotion? He doesn't feel any of them, so he doesn't recept any of them. He's like a robot. I think he was made in a lab. Don't you?"

"No, I think you're just upset and deflecting."

"Like a pro," Kol comments, as they move to sit on the bed.

"Clearly not if it's so obvious," Elijah snips back, settling down on the edge.

Kol pouts. "Let me have my fun, brother. I need something happy to tide me over until we all go home."

"I'll let you do anything you want if you tell me why you had your attack," Elijah barters.

Kol's eyes light up while his face droops. It's a funny picture, but Elijah doesn't feel very funny at the moment. Mostly, he feels like he's lost all practice at being the compassionate, listening brother he used to be. "Anything? For a stupid heart to heart?"

"Yes." He nods to drive it home. He already knows what Kol will ask for, so he has no doubts on whether or not it's a good idea.

"Take me to the batting cages?" Kol begs, having already asked once before. Kol still enjoys the sport, while Elijah and Freya both go out of their way to avoid it. He doesn't want to go alone, in the interest of not getting mobbed by himself, but no one will go with him. "If you don't want to, I understand, but please." He puts his hands together and shakes them in a motion he's been doing since he first saw it on TV.

"Fine. But only if you tell me the truth." Kol's face lights up and drops again, in quick succession.

Kol sighs and drags a hand over his face, all excitement gone. "I don't know, Elijah. It wasn't just one thing."

Elijah scoots closer, offering comfort where he can. Niklaus, in these situations years ago, would want a hug, but Kol has never been like that. At least, not with Elijah he hasn't.

"Was it Rebekah?" He asks gently.

Kol shakes his head, shrugs, and looks away. "Kinda."

"Was it because...she's different than you remember and you aren't sure how to deal with it?"

"Are you a mind reader or something?" Kol demands, looking his way again. His eyes are dry but his voice says something different. He stands and starts pacing; Elijah tracks him with his eyes. This is a situation they've been in many times - one sibling pacing, one or more siblings watching. "Because that's a huge part of it. She's pregnant. She's an adult. She's married, she's going to school, she's going to be a teacher! She's grown up, and I hate it."

Elijah reads between the lines - she's matured, and I'm not, and I don't know how to feel about it.

"Kol, we've all grown. When we see Niklaus, he'll be different, too." Kol groans, but doesn't respond. "Why do you feel like this with Rebekah, but none of the rest of us?"

"You, Freya, Finn, you were all already acting like adults. You aren't surprising. And Henrik, he was so young he barely had a personality. Rebekah is an adult now," he stresses, "and Nik is going to want nothing to do with us. You know that, right? We're going to go trampling through his territory, and we're going to force his hand, and he's going to want absolutely nothing from us. He'll hate - "

Elijah stands and grabs his shoulders, a little rougher than he'd meant to. "We are giving Niklaus a choice, Kol. If he wants to leave, he will have the choice to. As for Rebekah, you're right. She's grown up. But so have you." Kol snorts, so he continues, a little louder, "you were called Maid Service because you dealt with things violently and messily. This time, you weren't violent, you calmed and took yourself out of the equation. That is not something you ever did. You had to be part of every fight, every argument. You put yourself in the middle of everything, but not this time."

Kol starts to deny it, but Elijah talks over him, wanting him to take this to heart. "You have matured. You've grown up. And you're dealing, in a way I think is helping and healthy for you. But, Kol, I know you, and that is not all that's the issue here."

Kol closes his eyes with a shaky sigh. "I'm scared she won't like me any more," he whispers. "I'm exactly what Father said I would be - nothing. I have nothing to be proud of, not like her."

"What? Kol, you have an Oscar, that's something to be very proud about."

Kol pushes away from him. "A stupid trophy? Rebekah is married, she has a job, she's going to graduate college, and be a mother. She's barely twenty-one years old, and she's got all of that! And where am I? Alone with nothing but a trophy!" He grabs his hair, clenches his teeth and makes a sound that's both sob and groan. It makes Elijah's heart twist painfully.

All of his words smack of Father, and Elijah hates them. He hates that Kol feels this way. He hates his father so much it makes him want to punch a wall and finally have that break down he was due almost twenty years before. "Having a family is not something you have to do right now, brother. That isn't what makes your worth."

Kol turns away from him, shaking his head.

"Get Father's words out of your mind. He wasn't right. He never was. Everything he did to us, everything he said to us, it was wrong. All of it." He wants to say, especially what he did to you, but Kol would never believe him. Everyone has always said poor Niklaus, not poor Kol. He wants to say they all suffered, still do, but he can't. So he stops talking.

"I can't, Elijah. I can't forget what he did to us, what he did to me. He hated me because of something I can't change, and that haunts me every day of my life. I can't even reunite with my sister properly, because of him," he spits, angry again. "I had all these thoughts about how she's better than me, how she wants all the attention that I never got, stupid shit like that. And it's all because Father would have rather ignored my existence than acknowledge he had a son who wasn't straight."

He kicks the bed, muttering about Father and Mother and how he hates them, and Elijah sighs heavily.

He's always had a suspicion of Kol being a little more messed up than the rest of them. Maybe not Niklaus, but he was up there. And this only proves it - Kol has gone through many emotions, all in the span of twenty minutes. He's been happy, excited, angry, upset. He's never been able to deal with his emotions in a healthy, safe way, and it shows.

Elijah thinks, I have my work cut out for me, then goes to tell Kol again about how it's all Father's fault.

Chapter Text

8.27

Mikael sat down at the table, glad to be away from the crowds. He liked being a politician, but he hated the crowds. He was always having to take suggestions, wave to babies, and stay on his feet for hours. It was one of the downsides of his job.

His friends, Harold and Thomas, sat next to him. No one else sat with them - Mikael and his friends weren't known to be friendly behind the scenes. Understatement, Harold liked to say.

And today, Mikael had something to say no one could hear.

Thomas asked after his family, and Mikael answered, "who cares. The baby cries all the time, and the other kids are annoying, like always."

"Yeah, same. My kids need to learn to shut up."

Harold nodded, and they kept talking about their kids for a few minutes before Mikael said, "one of these days, I'm going to kill all of them, just to of them."

Harold raised an eyebrow, but Thomas laughed. "Sure, man."

"I'll take out Esther's little boy toy, too. He keeps trying to talk to Niklaus. He wants to take him." Mikael scowled and shook his head. Who did that half-breed think he was? First he took Mikael's wife, now his punching bag.

Harold said, "well, that is his son. Didn't you say you cheated a few times? Didn't one say their kid is yours? Wouldn't you want to see your kid?"

Mikael scowled again, and replied, "he hasn't been there for Niklaus, I have been. He's my son." He ignored the comments about his illegitimate children. No need to hash up old news.

"You hate him," Thomas pointed out.

"So?"

"So...you hate him, but you claim him as your son? Why?"

"Because I raised the boy. He doesn't get to come in now and take him away." Mikael glared at the table. "I've already taken Niklaus out of my will, but that man is putting him in his. He's giving Niklaus more than he deserves. All I'm leaving my children is a letter."

Thomas grinned. "What's in the letter?"

"Among other things, the reasons why I hate them. Individually, too." Mikael smiled smugly.

Harold frowned, while Thomas laughed. Harold needed to stop being such an emo pussy. Mikael was just talking smack, he should know that. There was no need to act all uppity and moral.

"Maybe I'll say why I...dealt with Niklaus' biological father." Mikael laughed, imagining the look on the little bastard's face. He'd probably cry like the bitch he was.

"You're not actually going to do that, right? What would Esther think? What'll happen to Niklaus?"

Mikael shrugged. "So what?"

"Yeah, Harold, it doesn't matter. Whatever." Thomas hated the little brat almost as much as Mikael did.

"Harold, just leave it alone. Who cares what they think. Esther's opinions don't matter anyway, she never has anything smart to say. And Niklaus is halfway to brain dead, so he really doesn't matter." He'd beat the boy so many times, there was no way the bastard had retained all his brain cells.

Thomas laughed a little too loudly - must've already started in on the wet bar, then. Harold sighed, and looked away. Mikael knew he'd never get Harold on his side, but whatever. He'd do whatever he wanted and Harold couldn't - no, wouldn't do anything about it.

5.10

Kol comes back to the room after a long few hours. Elijah has metaphorically smacked some sense into him, and he's here, first and foremost, to talk to Rebekah.

But when he walks in, Rebekah isn't there, and neither is Fred. No one is there but Finn, Freya, and, somewhere in the back, in the bedrooms, Katherine, Graham, and the kids.

"Um, where's Bekah?"

Freya shrugs. "She went back to her room. She was tired. So did Leif and Aerona. It's getting late." No one points out that it's only 8:45 P.M.

He groans, and sits at the table with his big sister. He drops his head into his arms. "Shit. I wanted to apologize to her."

Elijah comes up behind him, and squeezes his shoulders. "There's nothing to apologize for. You just want to talk to her."

"Shut up, Elijah." He appreciates his words more than Elijah knows, but he'll never tell anyone that. (Though maybe his tone speaks for him. There's no bite when he says it.)

Finn comes over, practically swaggering, the douche. "You'll just have to talk to her tomorrow."

"Ugh!" Kol burrows deeper into his arms. He doesn't want to lose his nerve. It's already slipping through his fingers.

Finn ruffles his hair, so Kol slaps his fingers away.

Freya taps her nails on the table. "Were you going to tell her about why you had your attack? Because I want to know what set you off so that we can keep it from happening again."

Kol shakes his head. Elijah sits next to him, a supportive but not touching distance away. Elijah is good at comfort until it comes to physical contact. The only one who ever got a hug was Nik. "It was just more of Father's bullshit, nothing we can really stop."

"Elijah!" Kol brought his head up off the table to stare at Elijah. "Why don't I just tell them every personal little thing about you?"

"I didn't say any particulars, so I thought it would be okay." He shrugs like the French. Kol scoffs.

Freya and Finn watch as Elijah and Kol bicker. Kol's using the interactions to boost himself back up, and he thinks Elijah knows it. His older brother has eyes in the back of his head and a supernatural ability to know everything about everyone. Kol, in some ways, hates it, but it's so uncanny and interesting he can't help but want to know more about it.

You know what, that's a good idea. What better way to break the tension than to make fun of his siblings (or himself, really).

Once there's a break in the sarcasm match, Kol asks, "okay but seriously, can you read minds? Are you the robot?"

He rolls his eyes. "No, I'm not the robot. There isn't a robot," he adds when he sees Kol's face. "None of us are robots. I just guessed, honestly."

"Nope, wrong, incorrect. You're an alien." He turns to Freya, knowing exactly how to continue this. He makes sure his eyes are widened and that he gives off an innocent vibe. "Oh my god, Freya, when he was brought home, was he green? Grey? Big eyes? Big head, thin, short body? Could you see all of his ribs? Was he like that one guy in Men In Black where his body opened up and a little guy popped out?"

She blinks, no longer used to his barrages of questions. Finn laughs, taking a seat himself and settling in. Elijah makes a classic Elijah's-Pissed face at him, which he pointedly ignores for Freya's answers. (It's not like he's ever really acknowledged an Elijah's-Pissed face before, anyway.)

"No, he just looked like any other baby. He isn't a robot or an alien."

"He looked pretty ugly though," Finn teases, a smile on his face that Kol has never seen before.

Elijah scowls. "I take it back, I am psychic. And guess what? You and Kol are going to get a dressing down in your near futures."

Kol laughs, throwing his head back. Finn grins good naturedly, and Freya rolls her eyes. "'Dressing down'?" She quotes. "Seriously?"

Elijah gives her a deadpan look, and they stare at each other without blinking for a whole minute and a half.

Finn pulls out his phone in this minute and half, presumably to text Sage, but Kol watches it avidly. He's missed the staring competitions. Hailie never wants to do one with him.

Finally, Freya blinks, and rubs her eyes. "I have no idea how you do that, honestly."

Elijah shrugs like he doesn't care, which makes Kol's eyebrows raise, amused, instantly. "I'm just the best at being still, silent, and blank, I guess."

"Oh, man. You didn't think that was subtle, right? You were definitely boasting just now."

Finn adds, "over being the most robot like," and even though he and Kol aren't that close, he's got Kol's back. Kol fist bumps him over the table.

Elijah sighs like he's losing brain cells every second he stays out there, and stands. Kol can see and feel the sarcasm that's about to leave his brother, and he loves it. He revels in this.

He employs his pompous voice. "If you'll excuse me, children, I have to go recharge my batteries." Then, he changes his tone so when he speaks, his voice is as flat as a board. "Uh, I meant go to bed. Right. Goodnight."

He moves to the back, to go see his wife and child - and ouch, inner-Kol, shut up - leaving the other three of them out there. Once he's gone, Kol bursts out laughing, and his older siblings follow him into a fit of giggles.

0.10

The next morning, Leif and Aerona are eating their breakfast alone, as the kids are all still in bed, or in the city.

They're just talking about little Matthew and Justin, and how cute they are, when the phone rings. The screen says, Henry, so Aerona picks it up.

Henry has latched onto them, and they don't mind at all. He's their youngest grandchild from Mikael, and he's also one of the two who aren't with them in person. Leif doesn't quite understand his reasons for not being with them, but Aerona does. She and her husband are new ground for all the kids, so Henry must feel the most comfortable approaching them. They don't have expectations like his siblings do.

Leif continues munching on his oatmeal and reading the newspaper while she answers. "Hello, dear. Is there something you need?"

When he answers, his voice is wheezy, like he's out of breath. He talks a mile a minute. "No, not really. I was just calling about the plan. We're drawing Niklaus out, right? What if I drive down ahead of time, set things up? I was thinking, we could take him out to dinner, talk to him. And then see if we can't get invited to his ex's mom's house after. She probably has pictures of him, right? And don't pictures mean a lot to him?" He laughs breathlessly. "Sorry, I'm really excited. I've been up all night."

"Oh! Really?" He makes a positive noise, so she gently scolds, "Henry, you need sleep. American college students have the highest levels of stress, you know. You could have waited until morning."

"But then I would've forgotten. I mean, I know we already know how we're getting him to Mystic Falls, but after that, we have pretty much zilch. Just dinner. We need topics, exact times, a plan!"

She shakes her head at him, and offers, "then what are your ideas?"

He takes a deep breath, and starts talking. An hour later, she's written it all out and promised to tell the others when they get back.

Chapter Text

Find it here.

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