The Secret Life of Elijah Mikaelson

Oh, Baby. // [part two]

"Oh, I tried to ask, Elijah! One night, about three weeks after that, I realized I was pregnant. After a lot of soul searching, I decided you had the right to know, so I came back to New Orleans to look for you."

His eyes widened, listening with rapt attention.

"Kol told me I'd find you at Rousseau's, and he was right - you were there with a pretty blonde woman. I was too afraid to approach you, so I called your phone first."

Tears pricked at her eyes as she replayed the painful memory.

Elijah knocked back the amber liquid, which coated his tongue and throat with a fire that was not entirely unpleasant.

"Hit me again," he told Cami, who sighed as she refilled his whiskey glass.

"Drinking won't bring Y/N back, Elijah," she warned him, but he ignored her. He drank it quickly and asked for another, before she was forced to cut him off for the third time that week.

"I'll just finish closing out the register, and then I'll drive you home.. again," she told him, pocketing his car keys.

His phone began to buzz, the sound of the vibration against the wood of the bar reminding him of a honeybee. A honeybee.. like the one on Y/N's necklace, which had rested against her collarbone after they'd pledged their love to one another.

God, he missed her so much.

The buzzing became irritating, bringing back the memories he was specifically drinking to ignore, so he swiped at his phone to make it stop. He hadn't realized he had answered it.

"Elijah, it's going to be alright," Cami said when she caught the expression on his face, as she placed a hand over his on the bar.

But he didn't see Cami. He saw his beloved Y/N, with her honeybee necklace and swollen lips. Her hair tousled gently against her pillow, her eyes filled with love, only for him.

"You're so beautiful, you know that? I am so in love with you."

Cami knew it was the whiskey talking and ignored him, but Y/N didn't.

She had heard him tell another woman he loved her through the phone, when she was calling to tell him she was pregnant with his baby.

"And that, as they say, was that," she shrugged, the sobs hiding at the back of her throat where she prayed they'd stay. "You had clearly regretted our night together, and moved on.. with Hayley first, and then some cute blonde bartender. I wasn't about to come in and wreck your life with a child you resented, just because you accidentally knocked up her mother."

He shook his head.

"Regret? You think I regret what happened between us? I replay that night with you in my mind hundreds of times a day. It was the best fucking night of my life, and it just became a million times better, because I found out we made a baby that night. A baby Y/N! You and me." He sniffled, his hand coming up to cover his mouth as a tear finally escaped, glistening as it ran down his cheek.

"I have never moved on from you, and despite your betrayal, it's unlikely that I ever will," he said quietly, his eyes not meeting hers.

"Betrayal? I did what I thought I had to do, for you and our daughter."

He shook his head, finally meeting her gaze. "You know that I treasure my family above everything," he scolded. "How could I feel any less about my own child?"

She'd had her doubts over the years, wondering if running away and hiding Ava from Elijah was truly the best thing for everyone, and not just a way to punish him for breaking her heart.