2nd April,2028
Kaitlyn's POV
Two days have passed since Hope and Klaus' argument. Since mine and Ric's argument. Since mine and Klaus' conversation. I've been keeping myself busy with duties for Miss Mystic Falls, in order to avoid any form of supernatural drama, even if it's for a little while.
Except the while didn't last too long when I hear the doorbell go off. I open the front door to see Elijah standing there, in all his glory.
"Oh hey," I say, clearly shocked.
"Hello Rose, I was wondering if I could have a word with Hope?" he asks formally.
"She's your niece, of course you can but she's not here right now. The kids went to the old Gilbert Lake House for the weekend, to practice for Miss Mystic Falls Dance. They'll be at the Town Hall later, though," I tell him and he nods in understanding.
"Well then, could we talk?"
"Sure, let's talk outside," I say as I step out of the house.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be rude but this house is supposed to be a safe place for my kids, exactly why the house in under Ric's name. we barely ever invite anyone in so that things can never fire back at us. There may have been peace for the last sixteen years but this is still Mystic Falls and nothing even stays good in Mystic Falls for too long.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" I ask as I turn to Elijah.
"I wanted to apologize, actually. And ask how I could make up for it, if there even is a way," he elaborates, politely, "all those years ago, whatever happened, I didn't keep my word to you. Of always and forever or of always being there for you and I deeply regret not doing so, I have for the last sixteen years now. I know an apology now might not change anything but I still had to ask for your forgiveness."
"Well, thanks for the apology then, Elijah. And it does mean something to me. Our friendship has always meant a lot to me and just because we didn't keep contact doesn't mean you ceased to have importance to me. You know me well enough to know I don't hold grudges. I'm willing to forgive you if you promise to keep your word this time, of getting me a vintage copy of 'Pride and Prejudice' from your collection," I say in a half-serious manner.
He shakes his head and smiles at me , looking visibly relaxed, "I promise."
"Well then, we're good. I'm headed to the Town Hall, you can come along if you want to see if Hope's there," I offer and he nods as we head to my car and drive to the Hall.
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As soon as we get there, I see Madeline rushing towards me, "there you are, Miss K, these years candidates are a mess! We need to work on them ASAP!" she hyperventilates and I chuckle at her.
Madeline won Miss Mystic Falls last year and Ryan was her escort. A witch they jokingly ran into once told them that they were soulmates, as it's a common occurrence in werewolves than any other species, and ever since then, these two have been inseparable and in love.
"Okay calm down, Maddy, they'll be fine," I reassure her and she calms down a little. Just then she notices Elijah, "oh sorry, I didn't realize you had company."
"No it's alright. This is Hope's uncle. He's here to talk to her," I tell Madeline.
"Oh I'm sorry but she's not here yet. Neither are Lizzie and Josie but Ryan told me they'll be here soon, if you don't mind waiting," she tells him.
He nods, "I'll wait." Madeline then hands me a clipboard and walks away.
Elijah turns to me, "looks like you have a lot of work to do," he states with a smile.
"Yeah, perks of being a Headmistress, I guess. Who would've thought this is how my life would turn out in the end."
"Well, I surely didn't but I must say, it suits you. You always had a motherly nature. Being a Headmistress, raising three kids, it doesn't seem odd for you," he tells me.
I nod, "yeah and life never goes as planned, anyways. I got lucky with the life I have now. I couldn't have asked for anything more."
Just then, Ryan's car pulls up and Lizzie, Josie and Hope get out of the car.
Hope stops in her tracks when she notices Elijah and then gives me in a questioning look.
"Hope, Elijah is here to talk to you. I think you should hear him out," I tell her and she gives me a half-hearted nod while Elijah gives me a grateful smile.
I motion for my kids to follow me and give Hope and Elijah a moment alone.
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It's been a while since I left Hope with Elijah and I'm starting to get worried. As I walk back outside to check on them, I see Hope rushing in past me in a hurry while Elijah looks hurt. I approach him, "what happened?"
"She says she's still not ready to talk to her mother," he replies.
"Of course she isn't, Elijah. First Klaus and now you, you guys can't come to her, advocating for Hayley. Why doesn't she come to her daughter, herself?"
"She's hurt and scared, Rose."
"Well so is Hope. Hope is a sixteen year old teenager who feels like her parents don't understand her. You think Hayley sulking around at home is going to comfort Hope? Get Hayley to talk to Hope or things will get worse," I warn him.
"Hope is participating for Miss Mystic Falls. It's on the 17th. Ask Hayley to be here to support her daughter. I'm sure Hope would appreciate it," I tell him and he nods at me before walking away.
I spend the rest of the day working out the statistics of the competition while Madeline orders around the participants. In her words, "this is a disaster in the making," but I think she's just being dramatic. She honestly reminds me of how chaotic Caroline used to be during our times as well.
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10 April, 2028
Kaitlyn's POV
Apparently Hayley did stop by at school the other day and talk to Hope. Hope seemed to be better since then so she went back home a week ago and things have been quite steady lately. As Ric's words keep ringing in my ears, I have been avoiding all types of Mikaelson interaction for the most part, lately and have been putting my time and effort into the Miss Mystic Falls organization chaos.
"Okay, where is Hope? Why is she late? Landon, call your girl, right now!" Madeline barks at him and the poor kid looks horrified.
"I'm here, I'm here! Sorry I'm late!" Hope jumps out of her car and rushes towards Madeline as Landon looks relieved.
"Finally! What took you so long? You know what, nevermind. Start practicing with Landon and god help me, if he messes up one more time with the twirl, just call me and I'll deal with him," Madeline says with a glare at Landon as Hope chuckles with a nod before walking away.
"Miss K, you need to talk to the caterers or I'll go crazy," she tells me dramatically.
"Yes ma'am, I will," I say with a laugh and she walks away and I turn around to see Rebekah and Klaus leaning against Hope's car, with amused looks on their faces.
"First Caroline and now your son's girl, you really never can get out of this mess, can you?" Klaus asks with a short laugh and I roll my eyes at him.
As I turn to walk away, Rebekah calls out to me.
"Lyn, I was hoping we could talk."
"I'm kind of busy right now, Rebekah," I tell her.
"Please?" she asks with puppy eyes and obviously, I give in.
"Elijah said you guys made amends so I guess that only leaves me and you in a bad place and I wanted to fix that before I left so I'm just here to apologize to you for leaving you behind the way I did. I know we were like sisters and I terribly wronged you, so I understand if you choose to not forgive me but I still am sorry for it all. I hope someday you find it in yourself to forgive me," she states sadly.
I look down thinking back to how we really were like sisters once.
"You know, of all people, I think yours hurt the most. I half-expected Klaus to leave at some point and I knew Elijah would follow after him but I really thought you were going to stick around, not for me but just because you said you wanted a timeout from your brothers. You already liked Matt and I was here too, I thought you wouldn't leave with them but then you just disappeared as well and I concluded that you left with them. Turns out you actually left before them and even then you didn't bother to say goodbye, so yeah, you leaving hurt the most," I tell her, "but I also understand why you left. Yeah, you should've said goodbye but I guess we can't change the past, only forgive and forget in order to move on. So I'll try, Rebekah. I promise."
She nods, "maybe when we see each other again, we can try the 'sisters' thing again. Till then, I wish you the best, Rose," she says and walks away as I look down, trying to fight tears.
After a while, I collect my thoughts again and get back to work. For some reason, Klaus stayed back for the rehearsals. 'So much for not being the overprotective dad,' I think to myself. Throughout the day, he has tried to approach me many times but every time he tries, I walk away. I don't know why I'm doing it, either. Maybe it's because of what Ric said, maybe it's because one-by-one I've forgiven their entire family and they seem to be creeping their way back into my life or maybe because I'm scared if I get too close, all my emotions towards him will burst through the walls I've spent the past sixteen years building up. Maybe it's because I'm scared everyone will start to see that I still do love him, that I never really stopped loving him. So it's better that I keep my distance but things never go as planned, do they?
As I go to walk away for the 100th time when I see him approaching, he grabs ahold of my wrist and turns me around to face him.
I give him a confused look but it's clear that we can both feel the electricity surging through our veins right now.
"What's wrong?" he asks me, looking concerned.
I pull my hand away from his grip and say, "what do you mean?"
"You know what I mean. Did I do something wrong?" he asks again.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I lie as I turn to walk away again.
"You're always leaving," he says as he walks towards me again, "why are you avoiding me?"
I shake my head while looking down guiltily, knowing he's not wrong. I am avoiding him but he can't know that. I can't confirm that.
"I'm not avoiding you. I just have a lot to do. Talking to you isn't exactly a priority right now," I tell him, "besides, I have no reason to avoid you." A LIE!
"Fine, lie all you want. I just wanted to invite you to the party we're hosting on the 12th," he changes the topic.
"Oh, what's the occasion?" I ask curiously.
"It's...it's my birthday and Hope insisted we have a party so," he trails off as I mentally facepalm myself for asking.
"Oh, it's good to see you and Hope are okay again," I change the topic again to remove the awkwardness.
He nods, "thanks to you, I guess. I...will let you get back to your work but I really hope to see you there. Hope has already invited all her friends, including your kids. You can bring Alaric, if you like," he tells me, although it looks like he's internally praying I don't bring Ric along.
"I'll think about it," I tell him. Ric would never agree to go, anyways. Plus, he won't even be here this week either. So, I guess we'll see what happens.
He nods, knowing that's as good as it's going to get and I walk back to Madeline, in order to help her with the dance.
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Later into the night, as the decorators got started on the Hall decorations, Madeline insisted on moving the dance rehearsals to the Town Square as 'these kids still have a lot of progress to make', according to her.
The entire day, I've been feeling guilty about the way I spoke to Klaus this afternoon. At this point, all my emotions are so over the place and conflicted that I don't know what to do anymore.
When I, finally leave the Hall and reach the town square, I see Klaus looking at Landon and Hope dancing. He has an angry, threatening look on his face.
"He's a good kid, so stop shooting daggers at him with your eyes," I tell him as I stand beside him.
"Daggering is my specialty, love. You knew that," he says jokingly as he turns to look at me.
I give him a mock-surprised look and let out a short laugh, "yeah I know. But he's a student at my school. So you can't kill him or harm him in any way. He's off limits," I tells him in a half-serious tone.
"If you say so," he shrugs.
Just then, Madeline declares the rehearsals are over for the day and the kids sigh in relief as Maddy rolls her eyes at them and the kids approach us.
"Hey mom, Maddy thinks I'm doing better than Josie. What do you say?" Lizzie teases.
"I think you both need to worry more about enjoying this experience than anything else," I tell her.
"Told you mom wouldn't choose between us," Josie nudges Lizzie.
Ryan rolls his eyes at them, "of course she wouldn't. Everyone knows I'm her favorite," he boasts.
"No you're not," Lizzie complains, "mom, is he your favorite?"
"It's true, he is my favorite son," I tell them.
"I'm your only son, mom," he rolls his eyes and I laugh.
"Well, that's even better, isn't it?" I joke and my kids roll their eyes at me as the others laugh.
"Whatever. We're headed to the Grill, do you want to come along?" Ryan asks as he emphasizes on the 'you' while glaring at Klaus. This doesn't go unnoticed by the others as we feel the tension grow.
"No, you kids go ahead. I'll head home," I tell him, trying to dismiss this situation before things escalate.
"You guys go ahead, we have a family dinner planned at home so I'll skip this tonight," Hope tells them and I smile at her and Klaus. 'Well, that's progress!' I think to myself.
The kids nod and we all go our separate ways from there.
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12 April, 2028
I really tried to get out of going to this party. Trust me, I really did but the kids won't stop nagging. Hope has already called me thrice today to see if I'm still coming. Even Madeline is dragging Ryan along. Obviously, Ric is out of town so I'm going alone. They have this theme decided so I wear a turtleneck-style yellow-black dress with my hair in an updo.
3rd person POV
Upon entering the party, Kaitlyn feels anxious as she gets flashbacks from the Mikaelson Ball.
"Some things never change," she says, looking at the extravagant party.
"When you have a 1000 years to change but still don't, maybe it's something worth sticking to," Elijah comments from behind her.
"Yeah maybe," she says as she turns to face him.
"You look beautiful tonight, Rose," Elijah says as he lifts her hand with his and kisses it, "would you like to dance?"
Kaitlyn nods as they join the others on the dance floor. Mid-dance, they switch partners and Kol turns out to be Kaitlyn's next dance partner.
"There you are, sunshine. I feel like I haven't seen you in ages," he says with a cheery smile as they glide along the dance floor.
"I've been busy and you never even visit anymore," Kaitlyn complains as he rolls his eyes.
"Or maybe... you've forgotten about me now that the rest of my family is back into the competition."
"Oh please, no one could ever replace you and you know that well enough. Stop being dramatic," Kaitlyn reassures him.
"Maybe you just remind me that sometimes," he says as the song comes to an end, "now if you'll excuse me, I promised my wife another dance. We'll come find you afterwards."
Kaitlyn then leaves the dance floor and walks to the bar, getting her a drink as she watches Elijah dances with Hayley, Kol with Davina, Ryan with Madeline and Hope with Klaus.
Landon approaches Kaitlyn while the others dance, "hey Miss K, want to dance?" he asks her.
Before she can reply, Klaus approaches them as the dance comes to an end, "actually, I think you already have a date, mate," he tells Landon, "and I think she's waiting for a dance."
Landon gives him a nervous nod and rushes away, as he finds Klaus intimidating after the entire incidence.
Kaitlyn gives Klaus a disapproving look because of his behavior towards Landon.
He gives her a cheeky smile in return, "now how about that dance?" he asks her cheekily.
She sips on her drink, "I'd rather not. I'm fine right here," she answers.
"You already danced with Elijah and Kol. Why don't I get to have a dance?" he whines and she rolls her eyes at him.
"Oh come on, consider it your birthday gift to me. Please?" he begs her with puppy eyes.
Kaitlyn finally gives in and they join the next dance.
As they join the other couples on the dance floor, "I Won't Give Up- Jason Mraz" starts playing.
They settle into a comfortable silence as they slowly glide along to the music on the dance floor.
After a while, Klaus breaks their comfortable silence, "you look ravishing, tonight. In case I didn't tell you already."
"I'm getting some serious Deja-vu right now," she states with a chuckle.
Klaus chuckles along with her, "Hm. I still remember that night so well. I swear the world stopped for a moment when I saw you on the dance floor for the first time that night. Even then I didn't get the first dance with you as Stefan stole you," he complains with an eye roll.
"Well, you did get to dance with Care, though," she teases.
"No one else was there. It's funny, you know, how Stefan and Caroline ended up together in the end and we..."he trails off.
"But this time is different because this time, no one's going to end up dead. And the song is different too," he analyzes.
"Hmm and somehow it's always so well-timed, don't you think?" Kaitlyn asks in an accusing tone with a raised brow.
Klaus chuckles again, "I swear it's not my doing, love. Maybe it's just fate," he whispers into her ears in a half-mocking tone.
"Or maybe it's just one compelled DJ," Kaitlyn retorts as she moves away and the song comes to an end. They both bow and then Kaitlyn walks out of the dance floor as Klaus looks around to see Ryan shooting daggers at him, with his eyes while Josie, Lizzie, Hope and Landon are wearing amused looks on their faces.
Kaitlyn spends the rest of the time hanging around Kol, Davina and Freya along with Elijah at some point, as well.
After the party is over and everyone has left, Elijah hands Klaus a box. He opens it, looking confused to find a note and a Viking wolf bracelet inside.
"Rose's gift to you," Elijah tells him and walks away.
Klaus opens the note.
"Didn't know when the right time to give you your gift was, so I left it with Elijah. It's a Viking wolf, if you haven't realized already. You once told me about your wolf form and this reminded me of that conversation. So I got it for you. I hope you like the gift. Happy Birthday, Nik.
With Love,
Kaitlyn"
He looks at the bracelet in awe as tears of happiness and sorrow pool into his eyes. Happiness because she remembered that conversation. She got him such a meaningful gift. She called him 'Nik'. Sorrow because he messed it up all those years ago and walked away.
Klaus then puts on the bracelet at once, secretly swearing that he'll never take it off.