Above All Else

Chapter 27

The sun had just sunk below the horizon as Caroline and Silas began their leisurely stroll through the gardens in the back of Mikaelson's home. Caroline felt a nervousness that she couldn't explain, offering her Father a shaky smile she started twisting her fingers together as the silence prevailed.

"Is this weird to you? This is weird isn't it? This shouldn't be so weird." Caroline spoke so quickly that it pulled a chuckle out of him. "Sorry." She murmured as she glanced at him sheepishly, "I don't do awkward silences well."

"A trait you must have gained from your Mother." His soft voice carried a hint of wistfulness within it.

Caroline grinned elatedly at him, "Really?"

"Yes." He chuckled at her excitement of having this in common with her Mother. "She always felt the need to fill any bout of silence with random bits of knowledge or her charming penchant of rambling."

Caroline's wide smile nearly split her cheeks, "She rambled?" How was it possible that she felt a connection with a woman she never met? She was just so happy to hear where these little traits of hers came from, to learn that it wasn't just some bad habits she had picked up over the years that seemed to annoy everyone but Klaus, but something that she had inherited from her Mother.

Silas laughed fully, "Yes and quite often too." Shaking his head slowly while he recalled to her, "She was always embarrassed by that fact but it was one of the many things that I found utterly enchanting about her."

Caroline couldn't help the pang she felt in her chest thinking about the Mother she didn't remember and had never met as she watched her Father's face light up when he spoke of her. Clearing her throat she glanced over at him as they continued wandering slowly through the beautiful gardens, "I know you told me stories about her when I was little but could you tell me more about her?"

Silas smiled when he heard the thirst for knowledge about the Mother she never had the honor of truly meeting. His voice took on that wistful quality again as he spoke of his late wife, "She was vibrant and so full of life. She had this way about her that could make even the moodiest of people be unable to fight down a smile."

Caroline knocked her shoulder against his, "Why do I have the feeling you are talking about yourself?"

Silas grinned unrepentantly, "Because I am." He spotted a stone bench tucked underneath a willow tree overlooking the moon lit pond and guided her to it. Sitting down beside her he began to weave his tale to her, "Your Mother's parents were the leaders of their village. Her Father was the ah..." He thought for a moment to come up with the proper term, "Mayor I guess you could call him and her Mother was the healer. They ran their village under strict guidelines and bred them all to be wary of anything supernatural." Silas scoffed, "Down right pig headed if you ask me, seeing as they worshiped the Gods and Goddesses just as we did. I hated dealing with them. But as a neighboring village leader it fell under my responsibility to attempt to have peaceful relations with them."

"Why did you have to deal with them at all?" Caroline asked, she vaguely remembered her childhood, but from what she did she knew they were always so guarded and stayed as far from other's as they could. She had a hard time thinking of her imposing Father playing nice with the locals who looked down on them for being who they were.

"Sometimes I forget that we strived to keep you safe and therefore kept you mostly isolated from outsiders. If we hadn't had to deal with a conniving bitch you would have grown to." Silas stopped himself as his mood started to become dark, he did not want to waste the precious time he had left with his daughter by bring up things that could not be changed. "We had to trade with them out of necessity. We had things that they needed for survival as well as they did for us. Food, utensils, tools. Everyone had to have a skill in those days to contribute to our villages as well as others. I was there negotiating a trade when I first saw your Mother. The sunlight was filtering through the trees just as she stepped out of the forest cover carrying her basket of clothing into the village square, the sun lighting her up like some woodland fairy. Her natural beauty struck me so hard my breath left my lungs as if I had been hit square in the chest. Her Father had seen my look of enchantment and shooed her away quickly. But I had caught her looking back at me in curiosity." Caroline rolled her eyes at the smugness of his voice it reminded her of how Klaus was with her in the beginning, "Though nothing pulled me in more than her scoff as I smirked at her looking over of me. After that day I made it a point to follow her around, often catching her unaware. Oh how she snubbed me in the beginning but I could see I was wearing her down even if she hated to admit it."