Dispersora | Klaus Mikaelson

Chapter 16

July 18, 2012

Hope was the perfect baby.

"Here we go, my love," said Yara, placing her in a small tub for her bath. She smiled as she yawned, making her cover her mouth. "Good morning!"

Klaus offered her the bottle of baby wash. "Let's clean you up, my littlest wolf."

"You've yet to make progress," snapped Klaus as Yara laid in her bed, belly swollen to a point where it was uncomfortable for her to move. "Yara is days away from giving birth and New Orleans is no safer."

"Will you stop being such a prat?" demanded Rebekah. "We've done everything we can. Marcel has held off on rebuilding his community to avoid conflict, Hayley is managing the remaining loyal wolves as best as she can, but we have no hopes of removing that girl, Cassie, who commands the witches and those few wolves who remain with the moonlight rings. They make the Quarter a hostile environment and if you recall, the home is meant to be a fortress. We cannot both be out at the same time handling business or it arises suspicion, and we've no witches who will help us defeat Cassie. She's a bloody Harvest girl, everyone is doing her bidding!"

"Klaus," said Yara in a strained voice.

"No, I will not be less of a prat," said Klaus hotly. "It has been several months, something must have changed, at yet it has not. And Mikael is no closer to being found."

"Klaus," Yara repeated. She gestured to her belly. "It's time."

"Oh."

Yara had hired an Amazonian midwife to observe tradition, and wished for a water birth like the one her mother had. According to the midwife, Klaus was not meant to be in the room; fathers usually never were. But given that Klaus wasn't the type to observe traditions if it went against his wishes, he was present the entire time the midwife guided Yara in leaning back in a large tub of warm water, sweating profusely as she tried to breathe through the pain.

The majority of births in Brazil were via C-section, which would have been fine for Yara given her vampire nature. Klaus had suggested it to get the procedure over with sooner. She refused, insisting she would wait as long as it took for Hope to make her way out.

She was as eager to be born as they were to meet her. When at last the midwife reached in to offer the baby to them, Yara burst into tears and hugged her to her chest, body slowly beginning to heal and revert to what her normal had been before she took on the pregnancy.

"Minha menina, tão perfeita," whispered Yara as she kissed the top of her head. (T: My girl, so perfect.)

She handed her to Klaus, who seemed almost afraid to hold her, keeping her an arms length away so he could stare in wonder at the baby now looking up at him before he smiled and drew her closer, mimicking Yara by pecking the top of her head.

The Amazonian midwife did the sign of the cross over herself, beginning to clean up. "Eu sinto seu poder. Ela pode salvar o mundo ou pode destruí-lo." (T: I feel her power. She could save the world or she could destroy it.)

Yara couldn't imagine such a sweet little thing causing harm to anyone. The midwife offered her a cooler with milk from one of the city's milk banks so Yara could prop Hope up to drink. Klaus smiled, delighted when he saw Hope drinking eagerly, hungry whimpers dying down.

"Here, it is tradition for the mother's name to go first," whispered Yara. "She would be Hope Isaura Lopes-Mikaelson. It is, however, a mouthful, and I don't quite like how my surname fits with her first name. I want her to be just Hope Mikaelson. After all, I am one, I simply don't use the name."