Kaleb saw the email from Kol and Davina that was for everyone, it was announcing they would not be returning for a spell. Kaleb wasn't surprised, Davina and Kol weren't exactly homebodies, and enjoyed travelling. He just sent them an email wishing them fun travels and they'd see them when they returned. Part of the Skulk was the travel, Kaleb enjoyed it, he liked leaving the US from time to time, though he was always careful not to return to England and Ireland, but he had gone to Scotland with Bonnie and Kai. But mostly he took them to Italy, Greece, Portugal, places he didn't get reminded of everything the Travelers stole from him.
"DA!" he looked up as Rameses came barreling into the study where he was working.
"Hey, sunny boy!" he caught his son, pulling the boy up onto his lap. Rameses had a mop of natural curls looser than Bonnie's curls, but still as tight and thick as hers, green eyes, and he had his mother's complexion for sure. At first glance one would never think he was Kai's son, but Kaleb saw Kai's mouth and nose on his son, and it was adorable how innocent the boy was.
"Da, I... I... I got Eye of Hocus!" Rameses shoved the Eye of Horus in Kaleb's face giddily then.
"So I see, boyo, but it's Horus not hocus," he chuckled.
"Horus..." Rameses tested out, but giddily grinned.
"Now, boyo, the Eye of Horus is an old symbol, it is for protection, health and restoration," he informed his toddler.
"Restoration?" Rameses tested out the word slowly and carefully as he looked up at Kaleb curiously.
"Aye, according to Egyptian myth, the god Horus, the bird head god of sun," he teased playfully tickling Rameses' sides which had the boy squealing. "Horus fought against the god Seth, the lord of the desert, master of storms, disorder and warfare; the Egyptian trickster god."
"Uncle Kol!" Rameses bellowed giddily.
"Would not surprise me if they're related," Kaleb informed his toddler which had Rameses giggling. "Horus fought the god Seth, Horus lost his eye; I think the left one, in the battle, the eye was restored to Horus magically, making Horus whole again, and healing."
"Oh," Rameses eyes were comically large as he stared at the Eye of Horus with wonder. Kaleb chuckled as he ran his hands through Rameses' hair.
"Where'd you get it, sunny boy?"
"Pop-pop," he answered.
"Rudy?" Kaleb muttered. "You're sure?" he asked curiously as he looked at his son, Rameses let it go and Kaleb was startled by the weight of the piece. This wasn't costume jewelry.
Rameses shrugged and scrambled off Kaleb's lap, running through the house. Kaleb got up as he left the study, looking for Rudy and finding him on the porch reading the paper. Rudy was a very stiff man, and Kaleb wasn't overly fond of him seeing how he had sort of impacted Bonnie's views on good things. Rudy though was sitting on the porch with sweet tea and his paper.
"What's on your mind son?" Rudy spoke as Kaleb poked his head outside.
"Eye of Horus Rameses is running around with," Kaleb started.
"Boy found it the other day when I did the grocery shopping," Rudy looked up. "When you took Bonnie to her appointment, and Kai was... vampire."
"You didn't get it for him?"
"No," Rudy answered.
"Rameses said you did."
"I said he could keep it, it's just a bit of costume jewelry," Rudy shrugged. "People here seem to always be throwing stuff out. Don't tell me you're taking the piece from the boy."
"It's not costume jewelry," Kaleb said as he held it to Rudy who took it. The old salesman was a bit stunned at the weight as well.
"I'm..." Rudy started.
"He said Pop-pop gave it to him," Kaleb informed him.
"They don't call me pop-pop," Rudy admitted.
"I thought they did?" Kaleb blinked a few times.
"Nah, they call me Gramps, I thought pop-pop was an imaginary friend, they sometimes talk to nothing calling it pop-pop, so I thought it was an imaginary friend."
"Bon and Kai know about this?" Kaleb asked warily.
"I don't know," Rudy admitted.
Kaleb nodded as he saw Aska and Havoc running through the garden with his boys. He watched the toddlers chase the pair of massive dogs, almost giddy.
"They're at the age where they'll have imaginary friends, Kaleb," Rudy pointed out.
"They're witches, Rudy, witches don't have imaginary friends, they're usually very real spirits, ghosts, or a peek through the Veil," Kaleb informed him.
"Could be something from Kai's side," Rudy said.
"Not at two, and my sons are not sociopaths," he growled as he walked down the steps of the porch, pocketing the Eye of Horus again. He watched his boys as they chased the massive wolfhound which gracefully loped around them. Kaleb was thankful to Kol and Davina for letting them pet sit Havoc and Aska because the boys loved the dogs.
Radzim squealed as he climbed onto Havoc, riding the massive dog like a horse. Kaleb chuckled as the dog carefully walked around with the boy on his shoulders before laying down. Kaleb just enjoyed watching his boys, but his fingers slid over the Eye of Horus worriedly.
Part of Kaleb accepted that this could have been a gift from beyond the veil, powerful witches were able to reach through the veil as children. Children, young children, according to his Gran had a gift of seeing what adults could not, particularly through the veil. They could see the Underground, the Other Side, the veil; witch or not, it was because young children were more open to the world. He watched carefully as his boys played. Wincing a little as Rameses and Radzim rolled into the grass.
Kaleb didn't like his boys pulling out things from thin air and he didn't like them having a friend named pop-pop, it was concerning. He'd have to talk to Bonnie and Kai about it, but for now he'd watch the boys. Perhaps Vincent had a book about young witches; or Rebekah and Monique would have better advice about this. They had small children, witch children too.
~~~*~*~*~~~
"Elena, I'm not coming up to Virginia any time soon," she said into the phone as she walked through her house with a basket of laundry. Her boys were messy, and she didn't mind, but she did so much laundry it was taxing.
"Lexi would love Rameses and Radzim," Elena persisted. "And there's no vampires, werewolves, or monsters, Bon."
"Are you saying there's something wrong with vampires, werewolves, and monsters?" Bonnie asked irritated.
"No, but Bon... there's a life outside the supernatural."
"Elena I'm happy as a witch, I like being a witch, and my boys like being witches, they like the Skulk and they're accepted, Elena, which is a lot," she reminded her friend.
"Bon, it's not real," Elena sighed.
This was the part that irritated Bonnie about Elena, there was almost a natural aversion for people to shy away from the supernatural, to forget it's realness, to forget that there were monsters which stalked the shadows, and there was magic. It always faded from normal humans memories; and since Elena had become human she had been avoiding the supernatural; her and Stefan both. Though Stefan accepted its realness given the fact he was still friends with her and Caroline.
"It is real, Elena and I like everything about my family and life, and I have two beautiful sons, and a happy life."
"Jeremy asked after you," Elena announced switching the subject.
"Where is Jeremy?"
"Out with Alaric, Alaric isn't taking the divorce well, they're in Portland, I think," Elena admitted.
"Maine or Oregon?" she asked.
"I honestly don't even know," Elena sighed. "Alaric is on a mission to find himself, and Jo revoking his visitation rights has really messed him up."
"Jo never revoked his visitation rights, Elena, Alaric stopped showing up," Bonnie countered seriously. She had been here the entire time, and at first Alaric was late to visit, then he would be missing his visits by a day, then a week, then he was missing his weekends and now he just didn't show. Jo had enough troubles trying to keep Josie and Lizzie safe, they hadn't fought Alaric when he had stopped showing up.
"He wouldn't just leave his kids, Bon, I don't believe that."
"Believe what you will, but he left, Elena, and he hasn't looked back," Bonnie stated as she examined a mystery stain on Kaleb's shirt. One of the boys had clearly put it there, but it was a weird stain.
"Alaric didn't leave Jer and I after Jenna died," Elena reminded her.
"And that was about... what, fourteen, fifteen years ago, Elena."
"Har-har, it was eleven," Elena countered sourly.
"Right," Bonnie nodded. "Look, Elena he's not whoever he was, and he's not a good dad, and he's gone, we don't know where to, other than when you tell me what Jeremy and he are up to."
"He loves his girls, Bon," Elena sighed.
"He does," she agreed. But Alaric hated what his girls were too, and he hated magic and the supernatural, which was why he was a Hunter, him and Jer could fuck off from whence they came because the supernatural wasn't all bad.
"Have you seen Damon recently?"
"Yes, he's staying here right now, Rameses and Radzim love their Uncle Damon," Bonnie chuckled. Truthfully, they just loved having a vampire jungle gym they could clamber all over.
"Well, tell him we say hi, and Stefan wants to talk to him," Elena said.
"Why does Stefan want to talk to him?"
"We'd like for him to come visit his niece and nephew," Elena said. "I... I'm pregnant."
"Really?" Bonnie sputtered.
"Yeah," Elena sounded goofy and giddy for a moment. "And we want Damon here to meet them when they come into the world."
"A nephew, so a boy?" Bonnie asked warily.
"Yeah, we're thinking to name him after my dad and Damon," Elena explained.
"Damon will be thrilled," Bonnie lied. As much as she and Damon got along, and as much as they were lovers, Damon was forever in love with Elena, and he was envious of the life she was building with Stefan. At least when Damon was here in Louisiana he was a part of the life Bonnie had built, and he had a place in her family. He loved being a fun uncle to her boys, where he felt taxed being around his actual niece.
"I know, and I want him involved," Elena said. "I just... he's Stefan's big brother, and I know he and I ended things, but, he's..."
"He's Stefan's brother," Bonnie finished for Elena.
"Yeah."
"Congratulations though on the pregnancy!" Bonnie said earnestly. She frowned at the blood on Kai's shirt but tossed it into her cold-water bucket. She'd have to have Kai clean out the blood, she had told him she wasn't doing that anymore.
"Thank you!" Elena giggled happily. "It's just... perfect, oh, Matt's running for Sheriff."
"I thought he was going to hold off on that," Bonnie muttered as she counted the socks.
"No, he has a real standing, especially after everything with Dr. Wesley Maxfield," Elena said.
"Who's Dr. Maxfield?"
"He apparently was an epidemiologist at Whitmore College, and he was experimenting with mutagens of the COVID virus, injecting them into dying patients to see what would happen. Was almost like the zombie apocalypse, Matt almost said we should call you and Kol, but there was this FBI guy, Stilinski or Walinzki, something like that, he came in and worked with Matt to stop Dr. Maxfield," Elena explained.
"Well that sounds, terrifying, I'd rather not live through the Walking Dead unless I'm Michonne," Bonnie decided as she started the laundry. "Elena, it was good talking to you, but I have to go."
"Talk to you later Bon, and you should come up with the boys, Lexi needs some friends," Elena finished as she hung up. Bonnie just sighed and shook her head, she wasn't inclined to take her sons up to Mystic Falls just to be friends with Elena Salvatore's daughter.
Bonnie shivered when hands slid around her middle and lips pressed against her pulse, fangs scrapping tantalizingly across her throat before a hot mouth was sucking on her neck.
"Kai," she shuddered.
"You smell so good pregnant," he breathed.
"No biting," she chimed as she wiggled her hips against his.
"I only bite Kaleb," he promised.
~~~*~*~*~~~
Caroline was sitting quietly on the Big House's porch, the wind ruffled her hair lightly and Klaus was in the garden painting with Constance and Hope. Grace was running with Faith and the boys, Landon was trying to learn a new song on the guitar, and Amity was embroidering with Alizée on the steps. It was all so peaceful, so beautifully, blissfully peaceful.
In the years since Strix, and the Trinity's attack on the Mikaelsons, when the McCall-Hale Pack was introduced to them, Caroline had adapted to her new existence. Not a vampire, not a wolf, not a hybrid like Klaus, but a hybrid all the same. Caroline would admit it was a strange existence and one she had had difficulty adapting to, but it was who she was now. She watched Amity and Alizée working on their embroidery and smiled a little as she watched them. It was strange to be a step mother too, she liked it. Hayley and Klaus had made great kids, so curious and expressive, and innocent, she had been enjoying being their Maman a lot, even when her humanity had been off.
"I think I'm going to go visit Bonnie tonight," she said when Klaus was walking over to check on her.
"Are you alright sweetheart?" he asked cautiously. Klaus was very cautious about her over the last few years, he'd been a match for her when her humanity had been off, but since she had willingly flipped the switch back on he'd always been careful with her. Part of her hated him for it, another part of her was happy he loved her enough to be careful with him. Klaus' family was rarely sensitive, but it was nice they were trying to be sensitive for her.
"Yeah, just... melancholy," she admitted to him.
"About what?" he asked.
"Not a talk to have with the kids around," she said softly. She and Klaus could have those talks, the talks of mourning mortality and having lost their human lives. But it was never anything she had around the girls. She didn't want the girls to ever know her secret envies and resentments about her vampirism, but she also felt she had to share it.
"I will be happy to talk this evening," he promised.
"Kay," she smiled as he pressed his lips to her brow before she darted off to talk to Bonnie, she wanted to vent her human wishes with a human.
~~~*~*~*~~~
"If you weren't married to me, love, what would you want to be?" Kol mused as they packed.
"I don't know..." Davina admitted thoughtfully. "Maybe an actress, work on television or Broadway. Yourself?"
"Travel photographer, and you'd have to be my model," he mused.
"You think I'm pretty enough to be a model?" she giggled.
"Stunning, gorgeous, brilliant," Kol promised. "And about to be surfing with me in New Zealand," he muttered as he kissed her shoulder.
"You're being a romantic, Kol," she waved off.
"So long as I don't become a Disney Prince I can woo and romance my wife," he murmured softly. She laughed a little as he wrapped his arms around her. "You're sure you're alright for us to not return to New Orleans?" he asked softly.
"Life does not begin and end in New Orleans Kol, we can go wherever you want," she promised softly as they stood together.
"I don't like being Regent," Kol muttered tiredly.
"Kol, we don't have to do, we don't... you can renounce the Regency," she informed him.
"I've tried, the Nine won't call a vote, and the Skulk is internationally acclaimed, and powerful, and I can't even wriggle out of this Regency," Kol sighed. "Being Regent is not appealing to me, love, never was, and the power, it's a drop in the ocean of what I can do on my own."
"Then we leave," she shrugged. "Regency doesn't bind you to New Orleans, Kol, it just... gives you leadership and power, and it doesn't bind you."
"I feel bound, and I don't like it," he informed her seriously. "I don't like being bound, Davina, and I could feel it, like chains, and I don't like it."
"I understand," she nodded softly as she looked up at him, carefully her fingers traced under his jaw. "We'll go wherever you want, for as long as you want," she promised. "And when you're ready, we'll go back to New Orleans."
"And if we're summoned before I'm ready?" Kol asked.
"Well, then we leave after we are summoned," Davina said. "We go, kick ass, leave, go on our merry way and we'll live, Kol."
"I love you," he chuckled.
"You'd better, it'd be very awkward at this point if you don't," she mused playfully.
"New Zealand," he murmured as they looked at over their bags.
"Where exactly in New Zealand, Kol?" she asked finally.
"Hm?"
"Where in New Zealand, Kol? It's an entire country, there's places to go, where are we going?" she asked.
"Raglan, we're going to Raglan," he stated.
"Raglan, okay," she nodded.
"Thank you," he repeated it again as he kissed her temple.
"You know, since we'll be in that part of the world, we should also go to Australia," she mused. "I always wanted to see the Great Barrier Reef," she informed him.
"Oh it's lovely, stunning," he informed her seriously.
She chuckled as he kissed her cheek again. She was just happy Kol was perking up a bit, he hadn't handled Quarantine well, and she saw the way Regency was weighing on him, and there were other parts of him he wasn't sharing or expressing lately too, which had her worried about him. Davina got the sense her husband just wanted to move on with life, but he also couldn't push time forward to finish everything he wanted done.
"When this is over, Kol, we'll be anything," she said softly to him.
"And what would you like to be?" he asked.
"Yours," she replied. "You?"
"Maybe we should start a rock band," he mused.