Savior | Klaus Mikaelson

Chapter 81

Nothing was certain.

There was no guarantee that everyone who went with them to fight Lucien would make it back alive. There was no guarantee that the remaining Heretics would still be okay. There was no guarantee Sarah was actually just fine and being kept merely to lure them in. And there was no guarantee Vincent's plan would fully work. But they had to try.

They left their things settled before exiting the Compound. Maddy ensured the current copy of her will was the one she wanted to keep. She checked the letters she had saved for Hope, and ensured everything she wished to say to her had already been written somewhere. She hugged her little girl tightly, kissing the top of her head and rubbing her back, whispering how much she loved her in case it was the last time she'd ever be able to do so.

"Almost ready?" she asked Klaus when she found him in his study, finishing up his own will.

"Yes," he said, signing off then folding the piece of paper. "I am."

She sat on his desk before he could get up, keeping him there. "I don't know how to say goodbye," she murmured. "To you or to Hope or to my brothers and all our other family members. So I won't say goodbye. But I will tell you that no matter what happens tonight... I love you so, so much." She cupped his face, pressing her thumb over his lips to silence him before he could say anything. "I have been so blessed to have you at my side these past years. I was blessed to meet you and I was blessed with the opportunity to create and raise a beautiful daughter at your side. If I die I will be at peace knowing that Hope will be safe with you and those who are still here to tell her stories of me if I'm gone after today. Please know how much you mean to me. And if I die and you're still here, know that I will remember you and love you always and forever, and I will be waiting for you to find your peace, even if it takes another thousand years before I see you again."

He almost wanted to burst out for her not to say such things. To not speak as if she was actually going to die. But the truth was, they simply didn't know. So he remained silent until he finished speaking, then sat up and kissed her, cradling the back of her head, a singular tear slipping out of his eye and drifting onto her cheek to allow her to know he was crying.

"I love you, Madeleine Mikaelson," he said when he pulled back, his lips ghosting over hers. "I have never deserved you. I never deserved your love or your patience as you stood beside me even when others did not. If I perish tonight, I wish for you to know that you made me the better man I never saw myself being. You stayed my hand, quelled my rage, inspired goodness in me, aided me in opening up to risks and possibilities and you gave us a beautiful daughter after enduring a horrific labor that nearly killed you. Unlike all the souls I've encountered and forgotten in the long march of time, I will carry you with me. Whether you die, or I do, or we both find ourselves reduced to ash by dusk. Wherever it is we are tomorrow, I will hold you in my heart as I have never held anyone before. And I promise you, Madeleine, if anything happens to you, I will do my very best to raise our daughter, as I know you will do the same if anything happens to me."

Just like that, she burst into tears.

"You wouldn't want a hybrid or tribrid kid?" Maddy had asked, tilting her head on the day that they confirmed she was pregnant. The same day Jo and Meredith had told them their theory that the child might be a tribrid.

"Well," he'd replied, "I would be proud all the same. I would care for them all the same. A powerful child sounds very nice. However, it could hurt you if the child has more magic than the average supernatural baby. I cannot bear to lose you. If you were to die giving birth, I could not raise the child. Not alone. I simply couldn't."

Maddy didn't hold it against him. "That's why we leave clear instructions in case the worst case scenario comes true. Let's talk about that now, if you'd like. Who should get custody if I die?"