The Prince of Mystic Falls

106. The Rat Catcher

Pairing: Alaric/Finn- hand, mild

Notes:

*The rest of the family is in New Orleans right now in "Factions" (Chapters 7/8) in a crossover story.

**By this point, Finn and Henrik have almost completely forgotten their former lives. They only remember things in dreams and flashes every now and then. I was thinking they would have had experience with other plagues (not the Black Death of 1347-1351 exactly) but other ones. However, they just don't remember all of that when Alaric is telling his not-so-great bedtime story.

Mystic Falls, Virginia

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Saltzman-Gilbert Residence

Late Evening

"Finn, Henrik, you two need to keep it down! You're going to wake up the babies!" Jeremy hissed.

"Look, Jeremy. I can jump from this bed to the other!" Henrik said jumping from one bed to the other.

Matt came in rubbing his eyes, "Little dudes, what are you still doing up? It's like 10:30 pm."

"It was Henrik! He was jumping on the beds, not me. Tell him, Jer," Finn yelled.

"Finn, if you wake up the twins, you are going to be in big trouble!" Jeremy whispered in frustration.

Just then, they heard the sound of the babies screaming in the next room.

Matt and Jeremy looked at each other.

The door opened, Alaric looked in, "Guys, what's going on in here?"

Jeremy spoke first, "Sorry, Uncle Ric. I was trying to get them back in bed. Henrik was jumping on the beds-again."

"No! I wasn't! It was Finn," Henrik bellowed.

Alaric sighed, "Matt, Jeremy, can you go see if Jenna needs help with the twins? Then, bed. I got this. Thanks."

They left and shut the door.

"Finn, back in bed. Come on. Henrik, no more jumping on the bed. We don't want to have to take you to the hospital emergency room, okay? Come on, back in. There we go," Alaric said tucking them both in. He heard a scratching at the door and let Sadie in. Sadie laid down on the floor in between both twin bed.

"Uncle Ric, can you tell us a story?" Finn asked.

"A story, geez, I don't know. What kind of a story?" Ric asked perplexed. He was drawing a blank.

"Daddy tells us stories about what happens to bad kids!" Henrik said now sucking his thumb. He seemed too old for that thought Alaric.

Finn agreed, "Yeah, like the bad boys who tied up the chicken grains with a string to trick people and killed the chickens. They messed with the people and got then got sewed up in a sack and then ground up in a mill."

Henrik laughed, "The chickens then ate them. Get it? The chickens ate the kids."

"That sounds like an awful story. Well, if you like awful stories, let me think. Okay, I got it, but then you both have to go to bed, again," Ric said with determination.

"We will," Finn promised.

"Story! Story!" Henrik chanted.

"Okay, shh, I'm thinking...This story is called The Rat Catcher of Hamelin or Rattenfänger von Hameln in German. My grandfather used to tell me this one, and he was pretty mean, so brace yourselves," Ric started.

"I'm scared," Finn said.

"It's not scary, I swear. So the time is during the Black Death. The people of Hameln, in lower Saxony of Germany were dying, like so many others in Europe. The Plague was a bad disease, but we have medicine for it now, don't worry. So the people got the plague by little fleas on the rats. They thought if we get rid of the rats, no Plague, right?" Alaric paused.