𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐍𝐄

𝐎𝐍𝐄

The Mikaelson's have woken up from their confinement in the not-so-cozy coffins and rescued their brother, Klaus, from the hands of Marcel and all of them waited for someone to open the door.

Klaus hopes it was her who would open the door. His girl. His Auriella. But instead, it was Hayley Marshall, a friend of Auriella's who has been in New Orleans since day one.

"Klaus," Hayley said, then she turned to the rest of the family, "you're all here."

"Well of course we are! We have just woken up from a bloody five year sleep." Rebekah said as she flopped her hands about.

"Right, yeah, of course." Hayley looked back to Klaus, wishing she didn't have to tell him this. "Can we speak in private?"

"Sure." klaus said as he and Hayley walked back into the cute countryside house.

Hayley told him Hope was asleep and to not make a large noise.

They were in the dining room.

"Klaus, there is something you need to know... about Auriella." Hayley said, she was scared to see how he would react.

"What? What about her? Is she alright?" He didn't want to voice his major concern: is she dead? He hoped she wasn't.

"No, no she's not dead but..." It was like she read his mind, or maybe he was that easy to read.

"Spit it out, love." Klaus said, his patience was wearing thin.

"Auriella isn't here. She hasn't been since Hope was two years old." Hayley said.

Klaus started to pace, "What do you mean she isn't here?"

"She's not here, klaus. She turned her humanity off when she found out that Marcel took you and then your siblings were all asleep. She turned her emotions off and left New Orleans and went on a ripper binge. Hope doesn't know her, not like she should."

"Hope doesn't know about her own mother?!" He wanted to tell but his daughter was asleep upstairs and he didn't want his first impression to be one of anger at her guardian.

"Yeah... she calls me 'mom'. She believes that I'm her mother. I can't just tell her about Auriella and then casually say to a seven year old that her mom is a ripper now! It would break her heart."

Klaus contemplated the explanation and decided that it was a good one.

"Can I meet my daughter?" Klaus asked, looking at Hayley.

"Yeah, j-just go wait outside with your siblings and I'll wake up hope." Klaus nodded and exited the house.

"Well? What did Hayley want?" Elijah asked as he was still reading the daily newspaper.

Klaus explained everything.

"Oh bloody hell!" Rebekah exclaimed, flopping her hands about again.

Suddenly, the screen door opened and a seven year old with auburn hair exited the house with Hayley behind her.

"Look who's awake." Hayley said.

The Mikaelson's turned to look at the child and were flabbergasted at how much she looked like her mother and Klaus, but mostly her mother.

"Hello." Klaus said awkwardly.

Hope looked up at him, "Hi." She then turned to Hayley, who was still behind her. "Mom, can I go play in the garden?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

Hope ran out to the garden where a small table with paint sets resides.

Klaus looked back at Hayley who shrugged and sat next to Elijah on a chair.

Klaus turned around and slowly approached his daughter who glanced at him, then returned to painting a blue sky on her piece of computer paper.

Klaus just leaned on the back of a chair when Hope ripped a piece of paper from under a paper weight, keeping together strands of paper. She handed the piece to Klaus who then sat down and reached for a brush and started to paint.

He glanced at Hope, looking at her delicate features then, envisioned Auriella with him and their daughter, happy.

He started to paint that image, sneaking glances at Hope to see what features she had.

Her blue eyes came from Klaus but her pale skin came from Auriella, so did the red tinge in her hair and the obscene amount of freckles.

"What are you painting?" Hope asked. it was the most she's ever talked to him now.

"Just a painting of our family." Klaus said, not realizing his mistake, he had only painted three people but not one of them was the mom that Hope has knew.

"Who's she?" she asked, her finger hovering over the wet paint.

Klaus stuttered, thinking of an excuse, "Oh, s-she's a family friend but she isn't here right now."

"When will I meet her?" Hope was inquisitive of this beautiful red head that was in her fathers painting with her in it. Something seemed to be off in Klaus' stance but Hope didn't seem to notice.

"Oh, I don't know, little wolf. I dont know."