Enigmatic Finales: A Klaus Mikaelson Story {8}

Chapter 9: You Need To Have A Party

"What part of play it safe did you not understand?" Lizzie asked as she and Josie put down their bags.

"I'm sorry, okay?" Grace said as she flopped onto the bed in dismay. "I saw an opportunity and I took it."

"And how did that work out for you?"

"Does this mean we're grounded as well?" Josie asked them. "Because I am not breaking your dad's rules under any circumstances."

"Josie!" Grace exclaimed.

"What?" Josie said with a shrug. "He's scary!"

"Ladies, focus!" Lizzie snapped, gathering the attention in the room "It doesn't matter if we're grounded, most of the work we have to do is here. If Fiore is Grace's mom, then she obviously lived here. This is the best place to find things of hers."

"Well whoever is hiding her stuff did a great job because she has been seriously erased from here." Grace muttered.

"It could have been your mom herself, before she erased herself." Josie suggested.

"No, that doesn't make sense, how would she have forgotten that photo in mom's binder?" Lizzie replied.

"Wait a second." Grace murmured as a profound realisation struck her. "Whoever is hiding these photos would have had to spend lots of time around us without it being suspicious."

"Yeah? So?"

"So, we would have noticed if there was some weirdo hanging around us all the time. Which means whoever is hiding everything—"

"Is someone we know!" Lizzie exclaimed.

"Like of course, she would have chosen someone close to home to keep her secrets." Josie added, just as excited.

"Knowing my mom, it's either your parents, or my dad's siblings." Grace furthered her theory. "So one of them still remembers my mom is alive."

"Well you know what that means, Grace." Josie said, sharing a grin with her twin.

"No?" Grace said with a frown. "What are you—"

"Grace, you need to have a party!"

"...I hate it when you do that twin thing."

~Klaus POV~

Klaus was watching his daughter and her friends as they sat in the courtyard, chatting away with abandon. He had a wry smile on his face as he saw his daughter be the happiest she had been since the ill-fated trip to Sweden. She was laughing and beaming and his heart ached with memories of what their life had been like before. She must have noticed him watching as she looked up at him and waved, smiling softly. He waved back and she returned her focus to her friends and he silently wished he had never let her go in the first place.

"She'll come around." Amelia had wrapped an arm around his waist and placed a kiss on his cheek. "She's a teenager. Being difficult is what they're best at."

"I suppose." He murmured with a heavy sigh. "But I can't help feeling responsible for this particular bout of difficulty."

"How could you have known that telling your daughter stories would lead to something like this?" Amelia asked him. "You've been telling her those tales for at least as long as I've been here and it never came up until now."

"True as that may be, the timing between me telling her about us and her dreams of a fairy-tale mother is awful coincidental."

"Why are you so sure that we're the problem?" Asked Amelia, trying to curb her pain. "She seemed fine when we told her. It wasn't until that trip."

"At which point her hatred of you spontaneously appeared."

"But she apologised."

"Only so her friends could visit her."

Amelia was getting sick and tired of Klaus finding any and every excuse to downplay their relationship. She had been incredibly patient with him, giving him time to adjust to her return to New Orleans, waiting a year to be in a relationship, waiting another year for him to tell his child. And now that everything was finally in the open, she wanted to relish in their love whilst Klaus only wanted to wallow in misery.

"Nik, I am at wits end."

"With what?" The hybrid said in confusion.

"I am tired of you blaming your daughter's problems on me." She told him. "I have bided my time, done everything you asked of me, but as soon as there's an issue with Grace it's my fault?"

"I told you she wasn't ready to know about us and you didn't listen." Klaus shot back. "Why are you surprised that upsets me?"

"Because she was fine!" She snapped. "She already knew we were together and at the time didn't have a goddamn issue! Then she went to whatever trip, met some psycho who twisted her brain all up but you wanna blame that on me?"

"Amelia—"

"No!" She continued. "Grace is your daughter and Fiore is her insane delusion made by you. I mean God, what is so special about her anyway? She's just some weirdo witch—who from the sounds of it wasn't even that good at it—who is so insecure and obsessive and at times just plain stupid. So maybe concern yourself with why that's the new parental figure your daughter wanted and leave me out of it."

For a moment in time, Klaus had actually agreed with what Amelia had to say. Grace hadn't been bothered by their relationship until she went away. So perhaps it had nothing to do with Amelia and he was simply projecting his own insecurities. And had Amelia ended her argument there, she might have even received a rare heartfelt apology.

But she had disparaged Fiore—and that could not stand.

"Do not speak of her that way ever again."

"Grace?"

"Fiore."

"Nik!" Amelia exclaimed in disbelief. "She is not real!"

"To you perhaps, but to Grace she is a very important part of her life." Klaus told her. "Mine too. Real or not, Fiore brought us together and for that I will always be grateful, no matter where we end up. And is not your place to decide who she is and is not."

"You do realise you are defending a storybook character over me?" Amelia asked.

"I suppose I am."

"And that's where I have to draw the line." Amelia rolled her eyes and began to stalk away from the man, who in spite of everything, she still very much loved.

"Where are you going?" Klaus asked her, as against all odds, he too loved Amelia.

"There's only so much I can put up with." She said with a shake of her head. "And if I am standing right in front of you and you still want so made up girl, how am I supposed to compete?"

"Amelia, wait."

"I've been waiting, Nik." She told him with a tired shrug. "No more. I've proved my love to you. Now it's your turn."

And as she flashed out of the compound, Klaus didn't know if she ever was coming back. All he knew was that he wanted her to.

A/N: It is truly insane to break up with a real life love interest for a made up character but if anyone thinks I will love them more than I love Klaus and Fiore Mikaelson, they are sorely mistaken.