The Wolf - Klaroline

09. Reigning Pain in New Orleans

Season 1 Episode 9

Notes:

As promised, because your response to the last chapter was absolutely amazing, here's an earlier update! :) Thank you so much for all your kind comments and messages letting me know you are enjoying the story and wanted me to release a new chapter sooner! It got me working on this asap. Hope you guys enjoy it!

As always, I have to ask you to please excuse all the many mistakes you'll certainly find. They're all mine! But coveredinthecolors did whatever she could to help make this better.

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone reading this! And please remember to review or drop me a note wherever if you do enjoy it! It really makes my day and helps me find my muse to try ad get this story out quicker. I can be easily bribed with comments, guys. I'm easy like that.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

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The one positive thing about having nothing to do — and no one to escape from, which is a welcome change — is that Caroline finally has some much needed time to get her pregnancy reading up to date. It's ridiculous that she's already twenty two weeks along and only now starting on the material that she should've had committed to memory four months ago.

It doesn't take long for her to realize that she is a mess. Didn't take any of the nutrition supplements recommended for the first trimester, didn't do any of the exams that could diagnose possible complications early on, is still in the process of understanding what kinds of classes she should attend before birth... Lamaze, Bradley or Alexander? What are the best maternity hospitals in New Orleans and how long exactly will it take her to reach them, so she can be prepared and perfectly timed once the contractions start? What is the best, most comfortable milk pump that money can buy? Best strollers? Car seats? Bottles? Jesus. There is so much to learn and to research and to think about and it is all highlighting how utterly not ready for motherhood she is.

She spent five months focusing exclusively on surviving and keeping the baby alive and not beating the crap out of the baby's father that she didn't even stop to acknowledge that there is an actual tiny person on the way, and that this demands certain arrangements, all of which she's extremely behind on.

It's overwhelming, to say the least. So overwhelming, in fact, that she hasn't even taken the time to get to know the French Quarter. But at least she can see it from her balcony now, which she guesses is an improvement.

She likes to seat at the balcony with a cup of coffee and a book and just enjoy the city air in the morning. The view from her window at the plantation house was nice, but it got old pretty fast. Here at least she can hear the uproar of life around her; people down on the street, the musicians, the vendors, the tourists. Every day is different. She read all there was to read about the Crescent City back at the plantation and would very much like to take a stroll across the Quarter one of these days. Maybe go to Café du Monde for some beignets, and stop by Rousseau's to glare at Sophie until she gives her some of that delicious gumbo she makes. For now, thought, taking a second to breathe without imminent death breathing down her neck is more than enough. Caroline's taking some time off of fearing for her life. And anyway, all the homework she accumulated over the months has been occupying pretty much all of her time.

"You do realize these books are all written by charlatans after the honest money of desperate mothers-to-be, right?"

Caroline lifts her head from her book to see Klaus leaning against the doorframe of her room, eyebrows arched at her.