For All My Love And Rage |Originals AU

3. Are They Children Still?

Mikael had been resurrected before. Many times, in fact. More than he bothers to count. Death and pain had been his close friends since childhood. Not good friends, of course, but he learned to appreciate the consistence of it.

The unbearable pain of being pushed into existence was one no being should have to remember. Yet, there he was, forcing these children—one of them was his child—to experience it, like he himself had to since he was a boy.

It's true, none of the three girls nor the boy were actually children. The first girl, Hayley, had a little girl of her own, she was a mother; not a child. The second girl, Camille, had a soul wiser than his own; she was no child. The third, Davina, perhaps, he could still call a child; although she had lived through too much pain to be naïve, and indeed, she was far from it—even if she could sometimes be childish. As for the boy—his little Finn—even if he still had naïve dreams, he had lived for far too long to still be a child.

As for the other children, the ones he was yet to go heal and save....None of the other Mikaelsons were children. Mikael still remembered them as such. Yet that did not matter. They were far too old and far to experienced to be called children...

But what else could he call them? They were not children anymore, none of them, even if they acted like it. Besides, no matter how much he wished for it, they were not his children. He had done nothing to earn the title of father. Still, he swore he would someday deserve such a title.

He began by making the passage from Death to Life as painless as he could for them. Their feeble screams filled the room as he pushed air back into their lungs.

With little Hope resting comfortably in his arms, he watched the two creatures he had brought back to life. They struggled, screaming like newborns. Frowning, he turned to the child in his arms. Hope threw him an inquisitive gaze, her little fingers grabbing the bottoms of his shirt.

"I wonder," he whispered, turning to the resurrected children, "If I too looked as lost as they do now," his eyes fell back to Hope, "Every time my parents brought me back to life against my will..."

Hope giggled at the sound of his voice, raising her hands to touch his chin.

He chuckled. "You are quite right, my girl," he smiled at her, "I will wonder about such things later." he analyzed her adorable features before nodding. "The children are more important." He had decided he would keep calling them all children, no matter how old they were.

"Now," he turned his gaze to the bodies. The boy had awoken. A smile creeped on his lips as he watched the boy get up. "I have work to do."