The Devil In Me

Chapter 42

When Bonnie Mikaelson's child entered the world, she was surrounded by love and family from almost her second breath.

The night had been long, and drawn out. Bonnie had been the only calm person in the house. The Mikaelson town house, filled to the brim with their rapidly expanding family was tense and high strung. The men paced the drawing rooms, and study, while the women stayed upstairs, occasionally sending down for things, or coming down themselves.

Kol was pale, he gripped a glass, still full, hours after being poured and stared at the fire, his head turning to each sound from the hall. Stefan sat beside him, distracting him, trying to reassure him, having been there before. Elijah was in his study with Damon, and Klaus was sitting on the floor, his back to the wall, staring under the dining room table, at the three pairs of eyes that blinked back at him. The children were restless, sensing the energy in the house. They resisted going to bed, and could not be allowed to get under the nurses feet, and so had been relegated to the realm of the men.

Klaus gently closed the story book on his lap and held his breath. The inquisitive eyes had eventually dropped closed, their heads huddled together under the make shift fort they had built with cushions and throws. He shifted uncomfortably, as he braced his hands on the floor to stand up. Hours of sitting had numbed his hands and legs, and he walked stiffly, trying to bring life back to them. He saw Kol and Stefan by the fire, his brother's hands were white with tension, his eyes unfocused, no doubt upstairs, where his wife lay. He clapped a hand to Stefan's shoulder as he passed. He would fetch him warm milk, to calm his nerves, as he used to, he decided, a little sentimentally. It seemed once you let one emotion back into your heart, it opened it up for all others, he thought grimly.

He went into the hall, glancing upwards as he went, yet seeing nothing at the dim top of the stairs. He wandered past the study, and the sound of a familiar name made him pause. He looked in, and saw Elijah and Damon, sitting drinking and talking over the desk. He made his way in, and accept a glass Elijah poured him.

"Am I interrupting?" he asked.

"Not at all... we were simply sharing our recollections of the last time we waited with such baited breath for such a long time..." Damon said, leaning back and arching an eyebrow at Klaus. He perched on the edge of the desk.

"Caroline" he guessed, seeing the truth of his guess reflected in their expressions.

"It is similar, yet very different" Elijah mused.

"In what way?"

"Bonnie is healthy and strong, her husband is waiting for her downstairs... it is very different." Klaus gripped his glass at his brother's soft words.

"Tell me about it" he asked gently, wishing he could see the scenes behind his brother's eyes.

"Well, Caroline was adamant that her child, your child... was alive, even though the doctor thought it impossible, and had told us as much. It was soon after that, that I told you of it's fate, well, what I believed had been it's fate. Yet, Ellie was a miracle child, who held on, and Caroline the miracle mother who carried her to term... despite all the... complications." Elijah said.

"I remember the weather on the night of her birth... the storm, we thought the entire sea had risen to the heavens to come down on us" Damon said with a small smile, recalling.

"She was upstairs for hours, hours upon hours. The nurses kept going back and forwards, carrying these bundles of sheets... Mrs Pierce was sent from the room, she could not stomach..."

"What?" Klaus asked, surprised by the tremor in his voice.

"The blood" Elijah finished.

"I recall Rebekah joining us downstairs also... she could stand the blood... but the cries, they broke her heart, as she is not as tough as you might imagine."