Chapter 15
It took about a month of Kol being on his best behaviour before Davina relented and took him back as her boyfriend. A vampire, but still the person he used to be. Myriam thought it was pathetic, really.
Kaleb had left the city upon coming back to his senses and his own body, and Myriam couldn’t blame him. If it had been up to her, she would have left as well. But she stayed. Because she’d never run from anything again.
She hadn’t left Débauche in a month, either. Klaus came to her when he had time, but she never went to the Compound where he was still keeping his parents and Mikael pretty much on his two feet. Myriam hated it. She hated everything. And she didn’t want to get out of bed. It was as if the whole world was spinning and making her nauseous which was stupid because she was a vampire and couldn’t get sick.
She had her witches do some spells on her to see if she was under a spell or poisoned or whatever, but they couldn’t find anything, and that was so frustrating. Myriam actually burst out in tears over that. There was something wrong with her, she could feel it. She sighed when she felt a familiar depression next to her in bed and rolled into him. “I’ve missed you.”
“What’s this nonsense of not wanting to leave your bed, love?” Klaus asked kindly as he put his arms around her. “You have a business to run.”
“I know,” Myriam sighed.
“Have you been feeding lately? You look a little pale around the nose.”
She nodded. “The bare minimum though, just enough not to desiccate, but blood tastes disgusting, so something is wrong, but my witches can’t seem to figure out what.”
“Perhaps Freya can mean something to you.”
“Oh hell no,” Myriam huffed. “I don’t trust her, Klaus. I believe she’s truthful, but I doubt we can trust her.”
Klaus sucked in a breath and nodded. His wife had the same suspicions as he did. “Ask Davina. Or some other powerful witch you trust. We’ll turn every stone there is to figure it out. Would you perhaps like to talk to Camille? She has some great insights.”
“You think I’m crazy?” Myriam asked with a small voice.
“No.”
“Then why suggest talking to Cami?
“Well, perhaps you are struggling with something that makes you this inactive, and you can’t talk to me about it. Cami asks the right questions.”
“I’m not going to talk to Cami,” Myriam said as she took out her phone and shot Kol a message. He responded immediately that he and Davina were on their way. “Happy?”
“And what if Davina can’t find anything either?”
Myriam huffed.
“Love?”
“Fine. You can call your sister.”
~o.O.o~
“Oh, I can smell it,” Kol said as he walked into Myriam’s apartment. “I could smell it the moment I walked in here!”
“What are you talking about?” Klaus looked at his brother, a confused look on his face. “Smell what?”
“Myriam! Honestly, Nik, you don’t know the scent of your own wife? Or perhaps you’ve forgotten to use your nose around her for the last 300 years?”
“What in the world are you talking about?” Myriam complained, refusing to lift her head from her pillow. “I’ve been fine – until this issue.”
“There’s another layer on top of your scent, darling,” Kol said as he sat down on the bed next to her, wedging her between him and Klaus. “If my mutt of a brother uses his bloody nose, he’d smell it too. What is strange, however, is that I can’t hear that extra heartbeat that usually comes with this thing.”
She turned her head to look at him and narrowed her eyes. “What crackhead in which drug den did you drink since you resurrected because what you are implying is impossible. There is absolutely no freaking way that I am pregnant!”
Klaus looked at his brother with a confused look on his face before inhaling Myriam’s scent. It was different. It was… new. Like Kol said, another layer mixed with her own. “Impossible or not, I think he’s right.”
“Alright, let’s not freak the vampire out here,” Davina said as she swatted Kol on the head. “Let me see,” she said as she placed her hands above Myriam’s body and started to chant a little spell before being knocked flat on her ass. “What?”
“Are you okay?” Klaus questioned as he pointed to the young witch but remained at his wife’s side. “Myriam? Love? Do you know what just happened?”
“How the hell should I know?” Myriam muttered. “I feel worse.”
“How is this possible?” Klaus looked at the witch for answers. “I know that us vampires can have a healthy body if, IF, we ingest enough blood to keep everything in check, but a pregnant vampire? That’s unheard of!”
“Well, you’re part wolf,” Kol pointed out. “And you likely don’t shoot blanks. As for Myriam… I have no clue…” he said as he hadn’t moved from the bed either. “Well… I might. You won’t like what I’m thinking.”
“Kol,” Klaus warned him.
“Two recent events have changed Myriam’s course. One; she was an Augustine Vampire. Two; before that, our mother tried to change Myriam into a vampire hunter and changed her entire genetic makeup to make her an Original like us. Mother wanted us dead, yes, but what if she had a failsafe in the spell used on Myriam that would reward her humanity after we’d all die?”
“But we didn’t.”
“No, and Myriam didn’t turn into the vampire hunter mother wanted her to be either, because of her demons.”
“This is ridiculous,” Myriam huffed as she pushed Klaus off the bed and got to her feet. After a slight wobble, she made it to her dresser. “I want a second— third opinion,” she looked at Klaus as he got back to his feet. “Time to get your fucking evil mother out of fucking storage. The bitch and I need to have a fucking chat.”
“Love, we could ask Freya—”
“If Kol’s right and I have a parasite in me, it’s your mother’s fault. So, let’s go straight to the source.”
Klaus was taken aback by that. For months she had avoided coming to the compound because he currently housed his parents in various states of desiccation and she hated them with a passion, one that rivalled his own. His wife didn’t look pregnant. But she was right, the only way to be sure that Esther’s spell on Myriam had messed with her body was by asking Esther herself.
He wasn’t going to allow himself to get excited – yet. A child in their family was something they’d always wanted. Rebekah might get a bit jealous, but she’d be a fantastic aunt. Kol would be the crazy uncle and Klaus the overprotective father. Myriam, the doting mother.
Although the last time Klaus brought a child into the fold Myriam bolted, and many years later killed him while she was under the influence. But this would be their own flesh and blood, surely it would be different this time?
Myriam seemed to stabilise somewhat after she had two glasses of blood and was well enough to walk back to the Compound with them, albeit grumpy and very pissed off. She sulked when Klaus took her all the way down to the dungeons with a few bags of blood to rouse his mother from her slumber, but he didn’t want to risk his mother running away.
Once she was on her feet, Klaus compelled her to speak the truth whenever he or Myriam would ask a question, that way, they knew that everything coming out of her mouth was true.
“Have you come to kill me, again?”
“Oh, I’d really love to,” Myriam replied as she stood behind Klaus for safety. “And depending on how this conversation will go I actually might.”
“Behave, love,” Klaus told her quietly.
“I honestly don’t know why you’re keeping her alive, seriously!”
“For times like these,” he replied before looking at his mother. “What exactly did you do to Myriam back in Mystic Falls?”
“I had her in my possession for a few days so I could prepare her for the spell that would turn her into a vampire hunter, like your father. I thought it’d be irony for the one you love so much to be your downfall, Niklaus.”
“Why her?”
“Because she took Alaric from me after she cleansed him, of course. I couldn’t allow that to happen,” Esther said as she propped herself up against a wall. “I hadn’t known about her demons being so tenacious and fiercely protective of their master. They ripped away every part of the spell that was harmful to her and those she loved and left her being an Original vampire, like yourself. They sacrificed themselves to save their master.”
“What else did you do with the spell, Mother? Kol suspects you did more.”
“Oh, of course! Should she have completed her task by killing all of you, she’d revert back to being a human to live out the rest of her miserable life alone,” Esther smiled then. “Call it a reward, if you will. But I doubt it stuck like most of my spell didn’t.” Esther then sniffed the air and blinked. “How is that possible? You smell like a human. Or at least a part of you.”
“Both Kol and I suspect her to be with child, mother. Because of your spell and the interference of Myriam’s demons, is that possible?”
“With her? Anything is possible, but Niklaus, if she’s truly with child, Dahlia will come for us all! She will take the child and cause eternal suffering for you!”
“It’s fine, we’re not keeping it anyway if I am. How do we get rid of it?” Myriam said coldly. “Davina couldn’t even find it with her magic without being knocked on her ass. It’s a parasite, it makes me feel weak and lethargic. It needs to go.”
“You could try to ask Freya for help. If Myriam’s truly with child, she’d be able to pierce through every defence the child may have at this point as Freya’s kin,” Esther suggested, still not wiping the look of worry off of her face. “Niklaus, Dahlia will come for that child.”
Myriam growled and snapped Esther’s neck before making her way upstairs to the courtyard to pour herself a big glass of bourbon. There was no way that she was pregnant and if she was, Esther was a terrible witch, one that couldn’t even work around demons with her spells. Why had she ever been so afraid of the woman when all she could do was fail?
Even so, magic was fickle and it was entirely possible that Myriam was pregnant; it wasn’t as if she’d been turned into an Original vampire after being a regular vampire for so long, or been the victim of some crazy scientist turning her into a Ripper who liked to munch on vampires instead of humans. The universe had one hell of a sense of humour.
No, if she had something inside of her, it was likely some magical parasite draining Myriam from all of her energy, no matter how much or how little she ate. Witches were good at shit like this. Yes. She wasn’t pregnant. And Freya was going to fix Klaus or else. What if he’d father a child with another werewolf? Or a human? Myriam would kill them all, and her husband would be so angry because a child was what the family had yearned for for years. Marcel was adopted, but a flesh and blood child…
Oh.
If she were pregnant, she’d have to fight her family over it because there was no way that Myriam was going to give birth. Nor care for a child. No way in hell was she going to take care of a child. She wasn’t maternal. She liked to help people, but raise a child? Hell no.
Oh, hell no.
She knocked down her glass of bourbon and poured herself another. She could just run away and forget it all, but she was still feeling so lethargic that running away sounded like a chore. She sat down on one of the sofa’s and sighed deeply. There was no doubt that Klaus had already called Freya and there was no doubt in her mind that Klaus was already thinking that she was with child.
Oh, hell no.
Drowning her glass, she reached for the bottle for a refill and growled when Klaus took it away from her. “Give that back. I’ve earned it after having dealt with your mother and no doubt Freya is on her way.”
“And I doubt she’d want you drunk, love,” he said kindly as he sat down next to her, a worried expression on his face. “And what if Freya won’t be able to determine that you’re carrying?”
“Then we’re going to carve open my stomach and pull whatever it is out of there and throw it away,” she said as she tried to crawl over him to get to her bottle of alcohol. “We are not raising a child!” she then paused for a moment as she was sitting on Klaus’ lap with her knees. “Oh, I know! We could give it to Dahlia! She loves to be a mother, doesn’t she?”
“Why are you doing this, love?” he sighed as he threw the bottle of alcohol across the courtyard against a pillar, smashing it to pieces. Klaus then sat her back down next to him and looked at her, truly looked at her and what he saw broke his heart. She was scared shitless. “Talk to me, Myriam,” he said kindly. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”
“I don’t understand why you’re not even remotely upset about the fact that it’s possible that I’m a pregnant vampire,” she stated angrily. “Haven’t I been through enough?”
“You speak of children as if they’re a burden.”
“I love children. When they’re not mine,” she crossed her arms over her chest. “They’re noisy. Loud. Stinky. Demand attention constantly and they’re fucking adorable and fragile. But we’re vampires, Klaus. The child will be born into a family made out of mostly vampires with anger issues and paranoia, and they will inherit our enemies.”
“If a child should be born into our family, they’ll have some very cool aunts and uncles who would do anything to protect them from our enemies, and they won’t have anything to worry about,” Klaus assured her. “Myriam, when I brought Marcel into our family, we weren’t ready for it, but your influence has changed us all, for the better.”
“I am not mother material!”
“You’ll be an excellent mother, Myriam, I promise you that.”
She hit him in the chest then and got to her feet to walk to the other table with bottles of alcohol on it. “And why the fuck is shit like this always happening to me? Can’t I get like a break? Couldn’t this have happened to Rebekah? I’m sure she’d be a great mother! Hell, even Kol and Davina would be better parents than me!”
When Freya entered the courtyard, Myriam thought she smelled delicious and made an attempt to take a bite out of her out of frustration, but the oldest Mikaelson flung her across the courtyard. “What is this? Kol told me about what happened to her a few months ago, did she have a relapse?”
“That’s for you to find out, sister,” Klaus sighed as he pulled Myriam to her feet and made sure she was in one piece before making her sit down in a chair again. “Myriam hasn’t been herself lately, and up until today, she hadn’t left her bed for almost a week. We had Davina come in who couldn’t be of any use. Before that, Myriam had her own witches try to figure out what was wrong but they came up empty as well. Now, we have a theory and our mother admitted that it could be a possibility.”
“You want me to check her over?” Freya blinked at him. “All those other witches have failed.”
“You’re not any witch, you’re my sister,” Klaus begged her. “Please.”
“Niklaus, I don’t have time for this, Dahlia is drawing close, and I still haven’t figured out why or how on Earth she could have found me.”
“If our theory is correct, you might be able to get more than those other witches have gotten previously,” Klaus said carefully.
Freya’s jaw dropped then. “What! How!”
“We’ll discuss the how later, please, all we need is confirmation.” He looked at Myriam for a moment before looking back at his sister. “I promise, she won’t bite.”
Freya sighed and nodded before sitting down on the table in front of her brother and his wife and took her hands. Closing her eyes, she quietly chanted a spell as feelings and emotions flooded over her. “Someone’s good at hiding,” Freya smiled as she concentrated. “It’s already using their magic to remain hidden until it’s time to come out, but that takes a lot of energy which it draws from you, Myriam. It’s no wonder you’ve been feeling ill and out of sorts.”
“It’s a parasite.”
“Only a parasite of the good kind,” Freya opened her eyes to look at Myriam with tears in her eyes. “You’re expecting a baby in five months.”
“The hell I am,” she muttered. “Take it out.”
Freya nervously laughed. “I can’t.”
“Then get me a knife and I will!” Myriam growled.
“You won’t,” Freya said as she put her hand on Myriam’s stomach. “Your child is protecting itself, and therefore, you. You’re even more indestructible as you previously were. It’s why Davina bounced herself off of you when she tried figuring things out and why your witches didn’t come up with anything, either. Whether you like it or not, that child is coming in five months or so.”
“Fuck this shit,” Myriam said as she swatted Freya’s hand away and headed towards the exit. “I’m going to find a way!”
“It’s not your decision to make!” Klaus snarled as he walked after her. “Not by yourself! You can’t run away from this, Myriam and you can’t make this decision on your own because it’s our child! You heard Freya, there’s nothing you can do about this, and the baby will come. Our baby.”
“Then we’ll give it to Dahlia so she can fuck off again!”
“What!” Freya blurted. “Are you out of your mind! Do you have any idea what she’ll do to your child? Myriam, that’s the last thing you’d want!”
“Stop telling me what I want!” Myriam yelled before speeding back to Débauche and telling her security that none of the Mikaelsons were allowed entrance to the club before going back to her apartment with a bottle of bourbon.
~o.O.o~
That night, the Mikaelsons had a family meeting about Myriam. Klaus had decided to leave his wife alone, for now, because she was being unreasonable. Rebekah was, as expected, happy to hear that their family was going to get an expansion and Kol was excited to become an uncle. Cami was present as well as Davina because by now they were practically furniture in the Compound.
“To be honest, Nik, I understand where Myriam’s coming from,” Kol sighed as he took a sip of his drink. “We’ve always promised her to protect her, no matter what and yet, look what she’s endured over the years. Even at our hands. Your hands. Esther. Mikael. The Augustine Society… the fact that she hasn’t completely lost her mind or the will to live is beyond me. Compared to us, she always was fragile.”
“Are you insinuating that your best friend is mentally unstable?” Klaus angrily shot at his brother. “Do dare to say that to her face and see what happens.”
“You know I’m right!”
“You’re wrong,” Klaus shot at him. “She’s the strongest of all of us. Always fought hard to keep us together, to make sure we all got along. She’s the sole reason why you’re still out of your box.”
Cami looked between the arguing brothers and raised her hand. “If I may?” she asked before continuing. “From the stories I’ve heard about her from you, I can say that you’re both right. But did she ever get council for everything she’s endured?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” Cami smiled kindly at Klaus. “You yourself told me that talking to me about your issues was the first time you truly spoke to someone outside your family to get insights. Did Myriam have someone like that? To help her navigate through all the troubles that she’s had?”
“She has me.”
“Other than you, Klaus. You’re too close,” she laughed. “And frankly, not really on her emotional level.”
“Well, she found herself living with a vampire hunter for awhile two years ago after Kol died,” Klaus sighed. “I was back in New Orleans at that time, but she wasn’t ready to come home yet.”
“She doesn’t particularly like Alaric anymore,” Kol scowled. “Don’t get me wrong, he had a great influence on her and adopted some good ideas from him on how to deal with her issues, but he hurt her. I should go and rip his heart out for that, but she told me not to.”
“Is there anyone else she had a connection to that’s not you?”
“Why do you ask, Camille?” Klaus asked as he tiredly pinched the bridge of his nose. “My wife has lost her mind, obviously.”
“No, she hasn’t. She’s terrified, Klaus. Likely even beyond that, and when people experience that much fear, they tend to be irrational. So, I’ll ask again, is there anyone still living that she had a connection with? Because that child will come, no matter what, and it’d be in both their interests if she’d be okay with that.”
“Well… to be fair,” Rebekah piped up. “Nik is the prime example of lashing out when he’s terrified if there’s anyone who could get through to her it’d be him.”
“He’s too close to her, Rebekah. What she needs is someone impartial. Someone who knows her and who she had a bond with to be a mediator of sort between herself and her feelings,” Cami explained. “Come on, there must be someone who still gives a crap about her?”
“And why are you saying that?” Klaus snapped. “She’s adored by everyone!”
Rebekah sighed as she twirled her hair around her finger. “Not really. The whole Mystic Falls gang ganged up on her after finding out that she was married to the big bad wolf who was willing to sacrifice everyone to break his curse.”
Kol looked at Klaus. “I know someone.”
“No. I don’t want him in my city!” Klaus shot at his brother. “He will not set one foot in my city, I’ll kill him on sight because he was supposed to be her friend, but in the end, he betrayed her!”
“But deep down, he still cares for her. I’ve seen that on occasion when she and I tried to stop you lot from raising Silas,” Kol pointed out. “He hurt her, yes, but he might just be the person we need to help her.”
“Whoever it is, I suggest you get him fast,” Cami spoke up.
Klaus scowled. “This is a bad idea.”
“Klaus, do you want to help your wife or not?”
“Fine!” Klaus blurted before looking at his brother. “You go back to Mystic Falls and fetch me Damon Salvatore, and God help me for not tearing him to shreds when he’s in front of me!”
~o.O.o~
Kol hated to be back in Mystic Falls. For some reason, he could still feel the fire that consumed him lingering in his bones after setting foot on the soil. He hated having have to deal with the idiots, but this was for Myriam’s good.
He knocked on the door of the Salvatore home and waited patiently for the door to open. He was going to try to be nice about it, be a reasonable person and not to fly in a blind rage, because his brother had been right, Damon Salvatore was one of those who hurt their Myriam, and they shouldn’t be allowed to walk this earth. It was because of Myriam that he was still alive.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Damon’s voice sounded as the door swung open. “Aren’t you supposed to be dead?”
“I was. And then I wasn’t,” Kol replied. “Good to see you, Damon, I’m not here to hurt you,” he added before taking one of Elijah’s white handkerchiefs out of his pocket and waved it around. “I’m calling for a truce.”
Damon narrowed his eyes on Kol. “Is Myriam alright? Is that why you’re here?”
“Do you know something I don’t?” Kol said surprised. “You act as if you were expecting something.”
“Yeah,” Damon nodded as he closed the door behind him. “I’ll explain on the way.”
“I wasn’t dreaming about this,” Myriam muttered as she looked around. She was standing in an empty Mystic Falls square. The tent was there, the Grill, everything like she remembered it to be. But it wasn’t her dream. Her dream had been filled with cabbage fields but the cabbages were baby heads, and it was creepy as they were crying their literal heads off.
It was then she noticed Damon sitting on one of the benches and waving her over. “Hello, gorgeous!”
She sighed as she sat down next to him. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m doing this with everyone’s permission,” Damon assured her as he gently tapped her on her leg. “I figured we needed to have a chat and this was the only way that I could assure my safety.”
Myriam looked at him, confused for a moment. “You’re leaving me too?”
“What!” Damon huffed as he put an arm around her. “No! But you’re making it kinda hard for me to be your friend still, you know, because of you choose who you’re hanging out with.”
“Still that, huh?” she got up from the bench. “Yeah, you know what? I understand you don’t like my husband, but to think that I’m anything like him and that I’ve changed overnight after he came to town still hurts, Damon. But in your mind, I’m associated with Klaus, and that makes me the bad guy too. And I’m not going to fight you on that again. But I’m also not going to talk to you. So, let me go.”
“Nah,” Damon didn’t move from his seat. “I brought you in here because this is where we had some of our best talks, even before Klaus made his presence known. You know, when you were Myriam Hawthorne? You warned me about people and disapproved of Katherine because you knew her.”
“It wasn’t as if you listened,” she sulked as she kicked against a rock.
“I liked that Myriam very much.”
“That Myriam is dead. I have a big scarlet red headstone to prove it.”
“Is she, though? Because when we met again, you were doing the same thing. You protected me and in a way, Stefan. You cared. It wasn’t until Klaus came to town that you decided to stop controlling yourself and it lead us to fear you even more than we needed to fear Klaus,” Damon said kindly. “And Kol said the same, you know. You’re the only one who fought for him, while he was dead and after he came back.”
“But let me guess, it’s the in-between bits that you hate.”
He shrugged. “We all have our moments. I’m not here to judge you on your body count, because I want to bet mine is still higher. But you killed Caroline and mutilated Stefan.”
“Eye for an eye.”
“I happened to care about both.”
“Tough. You’re a vampire, get over it.”
“And you are a supernatural mystery,” Damon finally got to his feet and looped his arm through hers as he started to walk around the square with her. “The witch turned vampire turned Original Vampire turned Vampire ripper and back to your Original self. Not to mention everything you’ve seen and experienced over the years… I don’t want to be you.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“So I understand that you’re scared about your current status,” Damon replied with a sigh. “And it’s a tough cookie to swallow because I know that you were alright with not having children. You accepted the fact that you were barren – I didn’t know back then that you were a vampire, but still.”
“I’m not having this baby, Damon.”
“I’m not saying you should, it’s your decision, but you do have to realise that the Mikaelsons want this baby. It’s their blood. So either way, you’ll have to deal with it anyway. And you could run, but you love Klaus so much that you’d return eventually,” he said with a shrug. “And to be honest, I think you’d be a great mother.”
“What!”
“No, seriously,” he laughed. “It’s why I suggested you allowed my uncle Zak to take care of you. Not because you were older and because I took pity on you, but because you’d make a great mother. Because you are capable of kindness. You take so much care of your life, the people around you. You’re fair, and you’re always willing to help someone out.”
“And look where that got me.”
“Yeah well… between all the good bits you do stuff we don’t agree on so…” Damon shrugged. “But Myriam, you don’t have to be so vicious anymore. You’re reunited with your family. Kol is back in the land of the living, and you have so many people who are more than willing to do the dirty work for you. And you have your club back! This place is amazing, Myriam! I’m so proud of you for carving out your own little patch of normal in this crazy world.”
“I set that business up 300 years ago, Damon. It’s always been mine even when I was off doing things for Klaus or fleeing from Mikael.”
“And I know you take great pride in it.”
“And you’re going to tell me that I’m going to be a proud mother? That’s just ridiculous. Vampires shouldn’t have children!”
“But you were human once. What were your thoughts then?”
“That was a different life. I was poor, homeless and I was constantly raped. It’s a damn near miracle that I never got pregnant then,” she spat as they continued to circle the square.
“Surely you dreamt about it?”
“Dreams are just that. It wasn’t in the cards for me. Nobody wanted me for a wife. The colour of my skin would have made me a servant or a companion like my mother and I would have ended up just like her.”
“But what if?”
Myriam sighed, knowing that Damon wouldn’t give up. “It’s not something I wish to discuss.”
“Well, I do.”
She was quiet for a moment as she thought of what she felt back then when she was still human. “I was so in love with Klaus back then, and sure, I even imagined what it’d be like if I’d have his children, but he was a vampire and couldn’t conceive. I never even brought it up in conversations because Rebekah kept talking about wanting to be human, like me, and start a family. When I came to the New World on my own, as a married woman, I saw all those women with their husbands and children, and I knew that that would never be a possibility for me. Klaus would never allow someone else than him to bed me and even Klaus bedding me took nearly 30 years. So again, I gave up, and when I turned, that dream was forever gone. As the years progressed, I learned to accept it. Even if I had been a human still, the constant threat of Klaus’ enemies and his father haunted me. Our child would never have a safe haven. A safe place,” she rubbed her eyes with her free hand to crush the tears that were coming out of them. “Instead, I cared for my demons as if they were my children. By treating them well, they served me well.”
“And then Esther turned you into a different kind of vampire, and you lost them as well.”
“Yeah… now I don’t have anything but the club.”
“Klaus told me about his mother’s spell. You would have reverted back to being a human after you’d completed the task she sent out for you.”
“Yeah, well, her spell was meant to do more things, and my demons thankfully stopped all that, I just wished they would have interfered with turning me part human again, too.”
Damon nodded as he led her to the coffee place and got them something to drink. “Dr Wes Maxfield and the Augustines knew about your condition.”
She blinked at him then. “What?”
He let out a breath. “After Elena and I were cured, I went back there to see if we could find a cure for you. I found a list of everyone associated with the Augustines and killed them all. Raided their homes for their files. I found my own file. Enzo’s. Elena’s. Back in the day, they liked to open us up and remove vital organs, studying the healing qualities of a vampire in a hope to cure illnesses or grow new limbs. Hurt like a bitch, especially when your eye would be scooped out on a daily basis. Or your pancreas cut out of you… Enzo and I were the ones providing them with all the scientific data they needed and desired.”
“I wanted to go back and kill them,” Myriam muttered.
“Elena’s file was pretty straightforward, but yours? Not so much. You kept passing out and coming to and administered the compound several times, but it wouldn’t stick. So, instead, they cut you open and found a fully functional womb with a fetus in it.”
“What?”
“And they cut it out. The fetus died, but they put it in one of those jars with fluid in them and stuff. After that, they could do whatever they wanted with you. That fetus protected you from the ripper compound.”
“I was pregnant before?”
Damon nodded slowly. “They wanted to keep you around because you were the vampire who could get pregnant but Wes wanted to test the compound instead and alienated most of the board of trustees.”
“I was pregnant before, and they killed it?!” she slammed her hand on the table. “What the actual fuck!”
“I found the jar and took it to your headstone in Mystic Falls. Dug a hole and gave it a proper burial for you. I… I didn’t say anything because you were so out of it and I didn’t trust Klaus with this information.”
“Did Alaric know?”
“No. I didn’t tell anyone. Not even Stefan or Elena. But I did compel Alaric to forget that I drained him of his blood to get the vervain out and that he needed to go to New Orleans to keep an eye on you,” Damon admitted, a playful smile on his face. “I must admit, he was home faster than I ever expected, whatever you did, he surely mustn’t have liked that.”
“Killed his witchy friend who wanted to syphon the compound out of me but she’d take my extra strength and durability along with it,” she muttered. “See? I only kill someone when they deserved it. Stefan is still alive because even though he deserves death, I thought it’d be funny if he didn’t have a leg.”
“He has grown a new leg.”
“Fucker. I’ll have to come back then.”
“No,” Damon shook his head laughing. “You’re going to leave Stefan alone, and you’re going to enjoy being pregnant with an impossible and magical baby that’s yours and your husband’s. You finally got what you wanted all these years ago, and you should embrace this with open arms. After all the crap you’ve endured, you finally have something positive in your life.”
“But I’ll be a horrible parent! And what about our enemies? There’s literally an immortal aunt on the loose who had made a deal with their mother that every firstborn Mikaelson will be taken away by her! I can’t keep a child safe!”
“You’ll be a great mother, Myriam,” Damon took her hand and squeezed it. “All you need to do is to be more in touch with your emotions because I have the feeling that you have stopped allowing yourself to feel much than just the surface of things.”
“If I don’t keep a lid on my feelings then I’d be an emotional wreck. We don’t want to go there, Damon,” she warned him. “There’s not knowing what I’d do if I felt as deeply as I felt as a human. Likely kill more. Paint New Orleans red. Literally,” Myriam rubbed her eyes again as the tears kept falling. “Because I fucking lost a child that I didn’t know I was pregnant within the first place and if I allow myself to feel that deeply, I just want to raise the entire Whitmore campus and school to the ground. Set it all on fire, kill everyone.”
“And I did that for you. All the medical information about all the subjects and shit is gone. The fire was amazing. You need to allow yourself to be taken care of, Myriam. That’s why you have a family. A husband. A great best friend. You no longer have to protect them or yourself. Allow them to take care of you so you can be your best self and take care of that miracle baby of yours.”
“But—”
“You deserve it. You’re a Queen, Myriam. Klaus literally worships the ground you walk on even though he has a shitty way of showing it. He may not win the award for husband of the year, but he did tell Kol to come and get me so we could have a talk about what’s going on. Because you know I’m right.”
“But I’m afraid, Damon.”
“And you should!” Damon laughed. “That’s the joy of being a parent, live in fear all the damn time because your child could stub their toe or cut themselves open! And when they’re a teenager, who knows what they’ll bring home? Every new mom is afraid, and you can’t ever be ready to become a mother, but you adjust and adapt. Your child will be safe. In fact, I bet it’ll be safer in your family than a normal child is with human parents.”
“But—”
“I tell you what,” Damon smiled at her. “I’m currently sharing your bed with you. Good thing you told your security guys that no Mikaelson was allowed to enter the building because your husband doesn’t like me much, but… I want to take you somewhere after you wake up and continue this conversation, what do you think? Think you can do that without ripping my heart out?”
Myriam let out a chuckle. “Sure.”
“Good, now wake up.”
~o.O.o~
Damon told her to take a shower and freshen herself up and feed appropriately before they headed out. Myriam was feeling lighter for some reason and thanked Damon for that. “Don’t thank me yet,” he had said as they went to the first hospital they could find and headed straight to the maternity ward where, as it happened, a bunch of mothers were walking around with their big bellies.
“Excuse me,” Damon asked one of them. “Hi,” he smiled. “My name is Damon, and this is my girlfriend Hope, and I was wondering if you could tell her how you were feeling.”
“Excuse me?”
“Hope’s pregnant and scared shitless.”
The woman barked out a laugh. “Oh! Who here isn’t? Is it your first, sweetheart?” the woman said as she took her hand and led her to sit down somewhere. “Everyone’s afraid with their first. Or their second. Or third… because we as mothers don’t know if we can handle it. Or we think the world is a scary place. Or we have money woes. When I had my first, I freaked out. My husband couldn’t calm me down, and I was paranoid about just about everything. The baby had to get everything new, cleaned. Everything was, and when people wanted to touch my baby I had them clean their hands with antibacterial soap first!”
“That’s a bit overboard…” Myriam muttered.
“It is,” the woman nodded. “My best friend was pregnant around the same time as I was, the wife of a cop. She begged her husband to stay home all the time because she didn’t want to risk raising the baby by herself.”
“I can imagine…”
“But it gets better. Once you have your bundle of joy in your arms, you feel as if you can take on the world! You’ll realize that sanitizing everything for your child does more harm than good or that your husband needs his job so he can keep a roof over your head. The fear never goes away, but if you surround yourself with the right people, it’ll be just fine. I promise,” she squeezed Myriam’s hand. “This is my fourth child, and it might be my last, but who knows? Children are such a blessing and so worth the fear and anxiety. Just roll with it.”
“That’s easier said than done…”
The woman shrugged then. “That’s the best way, really. Women have been giving birth for millennia, and every single one at some point has been scared out of her wits. But everything will be fine. I promise.”
“Thank you,” Myriam smiled at her. “I feel a lot better.”
“Good, because a stressed out mom is bad for the baby,” the woman smiled. “Now, if you’d excuse me, I have to go back to the ward, I think that baby number four is about to be born.”
“Good luck,” Myriam watched as the woman waddled away from them before pointing at her. “Why don’t I look like that?”
“You’re a vampire. Of course, you’re not showing,” Damon huffed. “Or it could be your baby’s magic. Klaus said that his sister said it was hiding?”
“Yeah, okay, makes sense,” Myriam sighed as she got to her feet. “Alright, let’s go and meet with my husband… after I make a short stop at a pharmacy to get him something.”
~o.O.o~
She had taken Damon’s hand as she walked into the courtyard where the entire family was sitting as she had requested, enjoying a drink. “Thank you,” Myriam said as she came to a halt before them. “For… bringing Damon to me. He was a big help.”
“You look a lot better, love,” Klaus smiled at her as he got to his feet to greet her properly. “Are you feeling better?”
“I still feel that this whole thing is being forced upon me but yeah, sure, let’s roll with it,” she shrugged before handing Klaus a gift bag. “That’s for our future adventures together. Should we be able to get another, at least I want to have some say in it.”
Klaus looked in the gift bag and then looked at her, shocked. “What!”
“Hey, I’m a vampire, modern medicine doesn’t work on me. You’re so going to suit up after this kid is born!” Myriam smiled at him before sitting down next to Kol and grabbed his glass of alcohol.
“No, no, darling,” he said as he took it from her hands. “No more alcohol for you. If it’s true what Damon says about you, your insides work differently than ours.”
“The technical term they used for Myriam was hybrid,” Damon said, not daring to move an inch in an area filled with Original vampires, even though he was confident he was going to be left alone. “A human with regenerative abilities. Something between a human and a vampire. It’s likely you won’t even need blood anymore.”
“But you told me that—” She could feel the anger rise inside of her but tried to keep her cool. She’d promised Damon.
“I didn’t want to upset you, I know how much you like to be an Original vampire, indestructible. You still are, just… more human. With fangs and impenetrable skin.”
“So my insides are human, but the rest of me is supernatural,” she quipped as she got to her feet. “Great! Now if you’d excuse me, I have a former witch to kill!”
Kol stopped her with a smirk on his face.
“What?”
“It’s not Mother’s fault. Her spell would have worked perfectly if your pesky pets hadn’t interfered.”
“My pets saved me from killing you! If your mother hadn’t taken me for some sense of irony, then I would still have been a fucking vampire. Fragile, sure, but just imagine, it’s so easy to incapacitate me now! Just slip me some poison, and I’d be down until my body would heal itself! I only had to worry about vervain and wolf bites before!”
“I’m all for killing Mother,” Freya nodded. “Because of her, I grew up with Dahlia, who, by the way, is still coming.” Freya took Myriam’s hand and took her down to the dungeons with her. “Let’s do some bonding, shall we?”
“Nice and slow?” Myriam smiled widely. “I did that with another vampire, I sent her parts as a present to Damon and Stefan. Even Klaus, because he had shown an interest in her.”
“Oh, hell yes.”
“I think not,” Klaus was unamused. “I find her rotting away a much better option,” he took the hands of his sister and his wife and took them back upstairs. “If you truly want to do something, I suggest you go back to Débauche and get your belongings. You’re coming home, Myriam.”
“The hell I am,” she stood next to Damon who hadn’t moved at all, which was so unlike him. “They won’t kill you, you know,” Myriam playfully elbowed him.
“I just want to get out of here, unless you need me?”
“I’d like it if you’d stick around but I understand that you don’t want to.”
“Nah, we’re dealing with some idiot right now in Mystic Falls, and Stefan and Elena will likely fuck shit up, so I’d better go,” he placed a kiss on her cheek. “Call me when you want a talk or to vent, okay?”
“I’ll try.”
Damon smiled then and left immediately. It was then when Rebekah almost jumped up and hugged Myriam tightly. “I’m going to be an aunt! Myriam, you have to move back in here so we can protect you and the baby.”
“I don’t have to do anything,” Myriam said as she gently pushed Rebekah away from her and sat down in Klaus’ lap. “Débauche is safer than the compound.”
“Nonsense!” Rebekah huffed.
“Do I need to remind you that your mother snuck in and gave us breakfast? That won’t happen in Débauche,” she then looked at Klaus and smiled. “Unless you can close all exits and allow me to turn this place into a fortress as well?”
He gently took her hand and kissed it. “Love, you are safe here, even without your reinforcements. Rebekah is right, you should move back in and if you feel safer by having our rooms protected by the same magic you have over at your club, then so be it. But not the entire building.”
“You’re really willing to do that for me?”
“All you need to do is ask, love. It’s all you’ve ever needed to do, but you never do.”
“Because I don’t want to be a bother.”
“You’re my wife, you’re never a bother unless you run away and hide. Because you’re making me feel worried when I’m not near you.”
Myriam sighed as she put her head on Klaus’ shoulders and noticed that everyone had given them some privacy. “I’m sorry I reacted the way that I did.”
“That’s alright, love, I’m afraid as well.”
Myriam bit her lip as she looked up at him as she remembered her conversation with Damon. “I need to tell you something… well… a lot. But I don’t want anyone to overhear us, because it needs to be between you and me. Can we go to Débauche for the night?”
“Of course,” he softly kissed her. “But tomorrow we’re going to make our rooms to your liking because I do wish for you to move back in with us.”
“That’s fine.”
“Really?”
Myriam nodded. “Yes. It’s time that we find a middle ground, you and I, and I’m willing to give up my residence in Débauche for that. But I won’t stop running it.”
“I’m not asking you to,” he smiled at her and helped her to her feet. “Very well, let’s have a quiet evening without eavesdroppers.”
They picked up some food along the way, and Myriam lifted the Mikaelson ban with her security before taking Klaus upstairs with her. Spreading their food – which was some Chinese and local cuisine – on the table, she sighed. “What did Damon tell you exactly?”
“Merely about his experiences with the Augustines himself and how they knew that you were a special kind of vampire. One that they preferred to keep due to your insides,” he replied as he took a bite off his food. “He kept it a secret from everyone including us to keep you safe.”
Myriam nodded as she toyed with her food, suddenly not that hungry anymore. “I want to tell you a few things, and I want you to promise to let me finish before saying anything.”
“You can tell me anything, Myriam, you know this.”
“I know, but some things were better kept a secret because whatever you’d try, it wouldn’t be able to happen, frivolous things that don’t really matter,” she got up and sat down in his lap. Her chairs at the table were comfortable, and she had chosen them for this reason specifically so she could just be lazy and feel like a cat. “You know how little girls usually dream of having children, right? Become a mother?”
“Of course. Rebekah drove us mad by wanting to play her version of house when we were growing up. She’s always wanted to be a mother, and I’m sure she’ll be a great aunt to our child.”
“For a while, I had those dreams too. I played house with my friends. I wanted to be just like my mother until I found out what she’d really been prior to falling pregnant with me and then I knew that her fate was going to be mine. We were too poor to go up in life. The colour of our skin, while accepted, still worked against us. I was resigned to be a servant or become like my mother, and that was going to be the only way I was ever going to get children of my own. And that sucked. My mother struggled raising me on her own. So I pushed that thought aside. When she died, and I went to look for better opportunities, I was at risk of falling pregnant all the time, I’m surprised that didn’t happen then.”
Klaus nuzzled her ear. “I’m sure you would have found a lovely gentleman eventually, Myriam.”
She barked out a laugh then. “In that time? No. And then I kidnapped Kol, and he kidnapped me right back. I didn’t have to worry with him because with him being a vampire, it meant that he couldn’t get me pregnant. And then with you… I never felt the things for Kol as I feel for you, Klaus. He’ll always be my best friend, I never saw him as anything else but you… even now you only have to look at me, and I melt into a puddle of drool. I feel you in every fibre of my being. You’re a part of me.”
“I feel the same, love,” he whispered as he continued to nuzzle her earlobe.
“But especially then, you were not open to any romantic feelings, and that was alright, I’m a patient woman, and I waited for you,” she smiled as she leaned into him to stop him from doing what he was doing. “I always believed you’d be a great father and it was a shame that you were a vampire. I even had my demons look for ways to make you fertile again or even if there was anything magical I could do but we came up empty. So I forgot about having children, again. Resigned to the fact that I wanted to spend my life with you and that meant without any offspring.”
“My apologies love, I wasn’t aware that—”
“It’s alright,” she smiled at him. “It’s something a woman tends to keep to herself. Usually, the thought of having children would scare men away. When we married, and you sent me off to the New World, it wasn’t easy. All these women with their husbands, falling pregnant, having babies, doing their duty for the colony and there I was. Alone. For a long while, I wished I’d be raped and be pregnant so that we could have a child of our own. Because I knew that while the child wouldn’t be yours, you were going to love it nonetheless.”
She let out a long sigh and shook her head. “And then I died. Turned. And I had to give up on the idea completely, and I was fine with it. I got what I wanted; I could spend my days with you for eternity, and that’s what I liked above everything else. When you brought Marcel into the mix, I hadn’t thought about becoming a mother for so long and couldn’t even remember what my own mother was like so I left you for you to take care of him on your own. You didn’t give me a choice at that point.”
“Why didn’t you say anything about this before?”
“Because it wasn’t important, and later, impossible.”
“But Rebekah talks about it all the time.”
“She’s still a teenager at heart, Klaus. She may be over a thousand years old, but emotionally she’s not older than maybe 20. It’s the age where you still want things, no matter how impossible. I was realistic and kept my dreams to myself.”
“And yet, here we are,” he smiled as he placed his hand on her stomach. “You are carrying my child.”
“If it weren’t for your mother and my demons, this wouldn’t have been possible. And I was freaking out because this is impossible and I am impossible. I mean…” she let out a breath. “This is going to be hard to hear, and it made me so very angry, and it still does but… Damon told me what Dr Wes did to me and what the Augustines did to him in the past. Wes found out that I was a special kind of vampire because when he took me, he opened me up to see why the serum he developed wasn’t working. And found that I had a uterus and a fetus in it.”
“What! You were pregnant then?”
She looked at him with tears in her eyes. “He cut everything out of me and put it in a jar with preservation fluids and then the serum took. I was likely crazy with hormones still but…”
“I’m going to kill him!”
“Damon went back after he was cured,” she said as she put a hand on his mouth. “Found everyone involved with the society and killed them all. Took their research and burned it all. He found his file and Enzo’s, and mine. He read mine and burnt it. He took the jar with our baby in it and gave it a proper burial in the plot that I’d reserved for myself for the person who I was in 1864 in Mystic Falls.”
“Everything’s gone?”
Myriam nodded.
“Well, at least he’s not completely useless then…”
“And he kept my secret, even from me, to keep me safe. Because while you’re a vampire-werewolf hybrid, I’m a vampire, but on the inside, I’m still human. I don’t know how that works, exactly, but I’m a vampire that can get pregnant. Just imagine if the word got out…”
“Don’t worry, love,” he brushed her lips with hers. “Nobody outside our family will know about this, and you’re right in being worried about security at the compound. So our rooms, including the one we decide to become the nursery, will be secure to your standards.”
“I can bring in the people I used for Débauche?”
He nodded. “As long as the rooms will be accessible to our family.”
“Thank you,” she smiled at him.
Myriam was happy. Not only had Klaus allowed her to secure their rooms as she saw fit, but he also allowed her to work from home. In fact, he insisted when she brought it up. She still wanted to go back to Débauche at least once a week, but Klaus had promised he’d come with her.
Freya was getting on Myriam’s nerves though, but she could understand why. Dahlia was worse than Esther and Freya had been dealing with her aunt for a very long time. And Myriam was worried too. Now that she had accepted that she was going to be a mother, her unborn baby was in danger.
However, for her own sanity, she was going to let Klaus handle this, and stay out of it. She didn’t have to fix everything, just keep her head down. However, knowing her luck, trouble would find her or she’d find it. So, she didn’t leave the rooms that she had protected.
Rebekah came home with a big haul on books about pregnancy and babies and even had bought the first item of clothing for the baby which made Myriam want to go shopping for baby clothes herself. Which was strange because she’d never had that urge before.
Both Kol and Rebekah were more than happy to accompany her and, feeling safe, she went out with them, and the three of them had so much fun, it was a lot like old times like they used to get into trouble. For the first time in a long time, family felt like family and Myriam knew that their baby was going to be alright.
However, when it was clear that Dahlia had made it to New Orleans, Myriam stayed inside. She knew that she’d likely still be a sitting duck because of Dahlia’s powers, but she was safer. Perhaps the surprise that Freya had nothing to do with all the magic around their rooms was going to be a blessing, seeing as Dahlia taught Freya.
Myriam knew that both Klaus and Freya already had their run-ins with Dahlia and survived, but one night, Klaus told Myriam to leave town for a couple of days, with Kol and Davina. He and Freya were going to take on Dahlia, and he wanted her out of New Orleans until it was safe to come back.
She refused at first, but Klaus managed to convince her to leave anyway for her own and their unborn child’s safety. And Myriam accepted it because she was allowing Klaus to protect her instead of her protecting him. But, she didn’t want to go to Mystic Falls, either. Taking her far away from New Orleans, Kol and Davina decided to take her to Disneyland.
She couldn’t help but worry for the three days that they were there, but also loved it because Davina was so excited about Disney that it was infectious and Myriam ended up buying a lot of cute things for the baby. Klaus was going to kill her for taking this mother thing a tad too far, wasn’t he? Ah, who cared? She merely hoped that she had a Klaus to come back to.
When they returned, Klaus, Rebekah and, unfortunately, Elijah, were in rough shape but Freya was tending to them. “Welcome home,” Freya smiled at them. “We won. Your child is safe from Dahlia, and I am free.”
“Good,” Myriam replied as she sat down next to Klaus and ruffled his hair. “What happened?”
“Oh, she turned the White Oak Stake into ash and made us breathe it in, but we’re alright love,” Klaus kissed her gently. “Freya’s overreacting and wanting to play the big sister.”
“I’m not playing! I am!” Freya laughed, shaking her head. “But yes, they’re fine.”
“What happened?” Kol asked as he sat down with Davina on his lap.
“We’ve all become orphans,” Klaus replied. “And we won. Granted, nobody really stays dead in this family, but I’m sure that we’re through with them for once and for all,” he put his arm around Myriam and smiled. She smelled like cotton candy and sunshine. “How was Disney?”
“I know that we discussed no decorated nursery but…” Myriam bit her lips as she looked at Klaus. “I went a little overboard. It was simply too cute to pass up on and—”
“Love, if you want to have a fully decorated nursery, we shall have one.”
“Really?”
“Of course, whatever you want for our child.”
She smiled then as she ran her fingers through his hair. “Will you dagger Elijah for us?”
“What!” Elijah said confused. “Why? Haven’t I suffered enough?”
“No,” Myriam said simply, not taking her eyes off of her husband. “It was so peaceful without your brother around.”
“But we’re a family,” Freya said confused.
“Believe me, you’ll want his ass daggered within the year,” Myriam replied. “He’s not all that great.”
~o.O.o~
Myriam was so proud of Klaus, hosting an art show at St. James’ Infirmary. She loved his paintings, and there were actual people who weren’t compelled to be there to admire his work. She kept her distance and sat at the bar nursing a soda, but tonight, Klaus was basking in the light that he deserved to be in.
The critic, however, Myriam wanted as a snack. As her pregnancy progressed, she was getting hungrier and not for just blood, no for the weirdest human food ever. Bananas with mustard or pickles with chocolate. Fried Oreos. Jambalaya with waffles. It disgusted her, but it was all so good.
“I wouldn’t expect you to host an art show without compelling the critic to speak your praise,” a male voice sounded which made Myriam look at her husband’s back and the man’s back.
“And I wouldn’t expect an uncultured savage to crash such a formal affair.” Klaus sounded as if he knew the man. But if he did, how come she didn’t?
“Ah well, not my usual scene,” the man replied. “Although that annoying blood bag does have a point, your work is derivative.”
“Huh.”
“Of Degas, I’d say. Of course, I happen to know that you compelled Degas to mentor you. I always thought his work improved after your influence.”
“Finally!” Klaus smiled. “Someone with an eye for art!”
“Ah, well, if you live long enough, you do acquire a taste for it. Amongst other things. Speaking of which, can we please have a drink? I am quite parched.”
Klaus chuckled as he slapped his friend’s shoulder and walked with him to the bar. Myriam tried not to snarl when this man started to bad mouth Kol, although she agreed with how he described Finn. “What are you doing in New Orleans, Lucien?”
“Oh, various reasons,” Lucien replied, and Myriam had to dig deep to connect the name to the stories Klaus told her about his life before her. “One, business. Two, there are rumors that there’s a vampire in New Orleans that can get pregnant and three, your life might be in danger.”
“My life is always being threatened, so I’m not concerned about that,” Klaus replied as he tried to remain his cool and Myriam tried not to show anything either. As far as this Lucien was concerned, she didn’t exist. “But a vampire who can get pregnant? Where did you hear that, my old friend?”
“Ah, well, you see…” Lucien said proudly. “I’ve perhaps pulled the greatest con ever. Mortals are so fascinated by the idea of living eternally, right? They hate growing old, there’s a shortage of donor organs and such… so, in the 1940s I went to a college not far from here and suggested to a few people that there was a way. With vampires but that no one had actually managed to catch one yet.”
Myriam wasn’t liking where this was going.
“At the beginning of the 50s, they had acquired a vampire and yet another through one of its members, and they began experimenting on them,” Lucien laughed. “It was glorious. Anyway, I’ve pretended to be a descendant of myself over the years, and they still allowed me to see the data they collected.”
“What was this group called, if I may ask, dear Lucien?”
“Augustine. They’re smarter than they look, honestly. They developed a cure against werewolf bites for vampires and for humans, they have a serum that can turn vampires into vampire eaters… Oh, Niklaus, it’s amazing. And through their research, they discovered a vampire who was carrying a fetus. A live fetus! And she’s in New Orleans now!”
“Well, that’s truly fascinating, Lucien,” Klaus said enthusiastically. “I happen to know that vampire.”
“Really? You want to introduce us, maybe? Wouldn’t it be grand to continue those experiments together?”
Klaus let out a breath, trying to stay calm. “I’ll text her a message, come, let’s go out back and wait for her.”
Oh, she didn’t want to wait until they got outside, but for the sake of all the humans inside St. James’ Infirmary and Klaus’ beautiful paintings, it was better if they’d do this outside. How old was this Lucien anyway? Oh, that’s right, he was only a hundred years younger than Klaus.
Lucien was a dick, and Myriam hoped that Klaus would allow her to get a few punches in.
“You rang?” Myriam said as she walked around the corner of the building.
“Wait, that’s the woman from inside,” Lucien was confused. Good. “What games are you playing, Niklaus?”
“Me? I’m not playing any game,” Klaus said as he made sure Lucien was between himself and his wife. “Lucien, please meet Myriam Mikaelson. My wife.”
“Your— what?”
“Wife,” Myriam replied as she looked around for anything she could hit Lucien with. “And you’re the fucker who created the Frankenstein society and fucked with my friend and me,” she said as she found a wrench and picked it up. “Do you have any idea what they put me through? What it felt like?”
Klaus threw Lucien against the wall and Myriam pounced. She started hitting him everywhere, blood spilling out and Lucien struggled when she kept him down with one hand and continued to bludgeon him. “Do you have any idea what they did to my friend? They opened him up, removed his organs and did it all over again the next day. While he was fully conscious!”
She threw away the wrench and popped out Lucien’s eye. “Like this!” Lucien cried out in pain as he put his hand in front of his empty socket.
“You bitch!”
“That’s Queen Bitch!” she growled as she looked at Klaus, feeling strong and powerful and capable of killing Lucien. But she wanted his permission first, knowing how much he wanted to rip apart Wes Maxfield.
“Go ahead, love,” he encouraged her. “I’ll take pleasure in watching you rip him to shreds.”
Myriam broke Lucien’s legs first and then ripped off his arms as he lay on the ground. She then picked the wrench after opening his torso with her bare hands and started to hurt Lucien so bad that Klaus had to muffle his screams. Myriam was soaked in Lucien’s blood, but she was feeling so powerful. Here she was, taking apart a vampire that had 800 years on her and it felt great. She put her hand around his heart and squeezed it before ripping it from his chest. “Oh, that felt good,” she let out a breath as she allowed herself to be pulled to her feet.
Klaus pulled her closer against him. “You look ravishing, my love,” he muttered in his ear. “And I’m sorry that Lucien set things in motion for you to get hurt.”
“It’s alright,” Myriam smiled at him before looking down at Lucien’s dessicated corpse. “Can we kill some more?”
He chuckled and kissed the top of her head. “How about I take you home instead where I can peel the clothes off of you and ravish you.”
Myriam let out a giggle as she jumped into his arms. “Yes please.”
~o.O.o~
Myriam knew that eventually, likely someday soon, she had to start giving birth, but as a vampire, wouldn’t that be impossible? Of all the books she read about childbirth, merely pushing one out of her lady parts would only cause the baby to go back in seeing as her body had healing abilities.
It was likely that the baby was going to have to be cut out of her and she didn’t like that idea at all, seeing as she wasn’t showing, the baby was hiding and chances were that they could stab the baby.
“What’s on your mind?” Freya asked after getting tired of the vampire wearing a hole in the rug. “Anything I can help you with?”
Myriam let out a breath. “How on Earth are we going to get this baby out? I mean, my body will heal itself, and it could keep the baby inside, and thus it’ll die. Can’t exactly cut into me either because you don’t know where the baby’s hiding.”
“Well,” Freya said calmly as she stopped Myriam from pacing by grabbing her by her arms and made her face her. “I could make an elixir that could temporarily bind your child’s powers so that we can see where it’s at. You likely won’t like it because the magic will go and you’ll balloon like any other pregnant woman. That might hurt.”
“But that would work?”
“It should,” Freya nodded. “I could have Kol check things over for you, and when he agrees that it’s safe for you, you drink it. You expand, we know where to safely slice you open and get your child out of there.”
“You make it sound so simple.”
“Because it is,” she smiled encouragingly. “Now, are you feeling any different from yesterday?”
“Apart from the anxiety? No,” she sighed, shaking her head. “But it would give me some peace of mind knowing how long I still have to go.”
“Likely another week or so,” Freya smiled. “Have you and Klaus thought about of a name yet?”
“Not really, no. But he said he’d leave that responsibility to me.”
“Of course he did,” Freya handed Myriam a book of names that she had picked up from the bookstore. “This might help you,” she said before leading her to the sofa and set her down. “Relax. Everything’s going to be alright, I promise.”
Myriam huffed. “Where is Klaus, anyway?”
“Dealing with Tristan and Aurora. They’re not too pleased that Lucien’s dead. Niklaus figured he should kill Tristan and Aurora before they have the chance to mess things up,” Freya replied, a smile on her lips. “You were right about my family. They may be violent and volatile, but they do everything for each other. And I believed them to be scattered, but you made them whole again.”
“I’m still not allowing Klaus to undagger Elijah.”
Freya smiled then. “He doesn’t have to. It’s terrible of me to admit this, but I went inside Elijah’s mind. I saw what kind of monster he truly is. You’re having a baby, and you don’t want someone like that around it while it grows up. The baby is going to have all the family it’s ever going to need with you and Klaus as its parents, and myself, Rebekah and Kol as its uncle and aunties.”
“It’s not terrible what you did,” Myriam smiled at her. “I would have done the same if I’d be reunited with the family I lost long ago. Granted, mine were selfish pigs and didn’t even know that my mother had been pregnant, and I didn’t accept them but killed them all, but that’s different. You knew you had a family and that must have hurt. So I don’t blame you for being curious to Elijah and visiting him in his mind,” she added. “That being said, we’re all still a bunch of vampires with emotions usually running high.”
“I know,” Freya replied. “But I wouldn’t change this for the world. I have wonderful siblings and who in a million years would have thought that Niklaus Mikaelson would have a great wife who’s not only beautiful, smart and resilient but also very strong?”
She let out a snort. “That’s debatable.”
Freya shrugged. “Would you like me to see if I can tell if your child has done cooking?”
“Yes!”
~o.O.o~
It took another month for Freya to be comfortable with delivering the baby. She and Kol had gone over the recipe of the elixir that Myriam needed to drink and were sure that it’d work. “You do realize that it’s gonna hurt like a bitch, right?” Kol asked Myriam. “First drinking the elixir, temporarily binding the baby’s powers, will make you balloon and look like a pregnant lady for real. But that’ll hurt. And then… we have to cut you open and get the baby out.”
“She knows the gory details, Kol,” Freya said with an amused smile on her lips as she mixed the elixir with some blood and handed the cup to Myriam.
“I’ll be fine,” Myriam replied, slightly nervous but tried to hide it because she had an anxious hybrid pacing the room as it was. “Seriously, you all need to relax because you’re not making things any better for me.”
Klaus stopped his pacing for a record of 1.3 seconds. “I’m sorry, Sweetheart, but I just can’t stand to see you in any sort of pain or suffering. I’ve watched you through enough and this – the idea is almost unbearable because it’s not only you but our child as well.”
“Well, we know it’s going to be a bloodbath, but the baby will be fine, and I’ll heal. Even if they’d accidentally remove the womb as well, it’ll grow back, it’ll be fine,” she smiled at him. “You could leave the room if you wish, but I think that three pairs of hands are needed.”
“No. I’m not leaving your side. Where is Rebekah?” he pressed, coming over to take her hand even though his own were subtly shaking.
“I am here,” Rebekah said as she walked in with a bowl of water and some towels underneath her arm. The sharp knife she was going to use was already on the table. “Well, go on then, show us your pregnant belly,” she said encouragingly. “Kol, make sure you take a picture or two for memory sake.”
Myriam groaned at the sentiment during the stressful moments. “I fucking hate you all right now,” she muttered as she downed the blood and the elixir. Not soon after, she could feel her stomach expand and that hurt. Trying not to show her family how much, she decided to walk around to ease the pain somewhat. Her top was getting too tight. Her boobs were expanding as well, and she couldn’t help but be in awe of her child’s magic.
Looking over at Klaus, she found him staring at her. The expression on his face was one she didn’t quite recall seeing over the years, so she wasn’t sure how to perceive it. “Klaus?”
“Look at you,” he said with a hoarse voice. “You look—”
“I’m pregnant, and fat,” she pouted as she looked down at herself. “I don’t think I like this feeling. Why do humans enjoy this?”
“You look absolutely ravishing, love,” he said as he walked to her and gently placed a hand on her expanded stomach.
“We enjoy it so much because we feel our child grow inside of us,” Freya explained after she had swallowed hard and had tried finding the right words. “In a way, your child is a miracle and powerful, but on the other hand, it robbed you of the pleasures of being pregnant. However, I am certain that your next pregnancy will be different. If you so choose to become pregnant again.”
“Let’s just stick with this one for a while,” Myriam said quickly as she looked up to Klaus, he was standing really close to her with a look of admiration on his face. “You really like seeing me like this?”
“It makes it more real, I guess,” he muttered as he felt a kick against his hand.
“I felt that,” Myriam said as her eyes grew wide. “Oh wow, that…”
Freya smiled then. “I hate to ruin this moment, but we have to hurry. Kol and I didn’t make the elixir that potent as we were afraid to bind your child’s powers completely or we weren’t sure about whether or not it would have permanent side effects.”
“It’s not safe?”
“It’s magic and a child, of course, there’s a risk that it’s not safe,” she said as she nodded at Rebekah to get ready. “Just be ready to feed her your blood, brother, everything will be alright.”
Myriam could feel that Klaus was tensing up again and she made him look at her. “It’s going to be alright, I trust them, and I will heal. What’s important is that our child gets to meet all of us and live a beautiful life.”
Klaus let out a breath and scooped her up only to place her on the bed. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
~o.O.o~
While it was entirely unnecessary for her to rest in bed as her wounds were healed, she did have to admit that holding her and Klaus’ child in her arms as they were on the bed with the three of them was an out of this world experience and Myriam loved it. They were alone in their bedroom, and there was this pink fluffy cloud that they were on. “He’s perfect,” she sighed happily.
“A miracle,” Klaus smiled at her as their son had wrapped his tiny hand around his finger and was sleeping in his wife’s arms. “Did you think of any names for him?”
“I still think it’s ridiculous that you’re putting me in charge of that. We should be in this together.”
Klaus shrugged. “I think it’s the woman’s duty to pick a name.”
“You’re being severely old fashioned, Klaus,” Myriam rolled her eyes at him. “But so am I, and yes, I’ve thought of a name for our son.”
“And?”
“In my time in France, it was custom to name the first born son after their father. So, I was thinking we could name him Nicholas. Nicky for short.”
“W-what?”
Myriam chuckled softly upon seeing the stunned look on Klaus’ face. “Nicky Mikaelson.”
“Love, I don’t think the world is ready for that.”
“If you don’t like it… or don’t appreciate the sentiment… that’s fine…” she said slightly disappointed. “I shall have to come up with something else. I could name him after his jerk of a grandfather, but I don’t want that… and the other one isn’t much better. Everyone knows the Mikaelson name. Everyone knows not to mess with Niklaus Mikaelson. I thought it’d be good to honor you and give our boy a name that would immediately tell people not to mess with him.”
He brushed her lips with his own. “I think it’s a wise decision and thank you, love…”
She smiled then as she gently caressed their son’s cheek with her index finger. “Welcome to the world, Nicholas Mikaelson. We are your parents and while we may be a bit silly at times, know that you are welcome and loved. You will be protected by your family. Always and Forever.”
- THE END