"What do you think, Hope? Shall we make some pancakes today?"
Grace propped Hope up on her hip and swirled around the kitchen with her. Of course the little girl wouldn't answer, but over the past few months these kind of monologues had become a habit of her. At least Hope wouldn't give unwanted feedback.
The baby just squeaked happily and clapped her hands in joy. Out of the fridge she got the necessary items and she started the making some Gilbert-family-recipe pancakes.
It sometimes still felt oddly normal. Most of the time she spent in New Orleans there hadn't been a quite minute, danger and enemies lingered around them all the time and she got sucked into the whole business rapidly.
But since Dahlia's death everything had been relatively quiet. Except from the tension in the families' inner circle. Grace and Elijah moved into the compound again and being this close to Nik had caused both of them sleepless nights and an overall grim mood. After a short time, Grace learnt to distracted herself. She picked up her studies again and she fully bloomed in her role as an aunt. Elijah on the other hand distracted, himself, too, he only resided at the compound at night or if Nik went god knows where. He had problems keeping himself together around Nik and because of that it was probably better if the brothers kept apart as much as possible.
Still, Elijah did his best to be there for his niece. Every full moon he brought her to Hayley, so the suffering mother could at least see her at this horribly short amount of time. He also was often there when Grace cared about the little girl and helped a lot which was perfectly adorable.
But the best part of every week was their little ritual of date night. Every Saturday evening they went out and Elijah always surprised her with something new: sometimes a fancy, exotic restaurants, a theater play that made her cry, cinema showing a movie in a foreign language with subtitles or wine tasting. Once he even gave another guest lecture at university which was quite funny considering the circumstances.
Elijah really tried his best to pick the shards up. But even though they spent the most romantic evening and despite the fact that the tension between them was through the roof, nothing happened. Whenever one of them tried to make a move, the other pulled away. It was the right time and they both wanted it, but something always kept them from finally admitting it.
Ariana and Rebekah, her newly announced consultants considering such issues, always wanted to yell at her whenever she told them that again not even a kiss happened. Grace was so happy to have them both, even if Rebekah was so far away, trying to find a way to bring back Kol.
Another good thing born out of the circumstances was the growing easiness between Freya and Grace. They both knew that they were the only ones who were really up to change diapers and read bed time stories and over that, the two women threw their slight mistrust away and bonded. It made things a lot simpler, especially because Freya was actually quite the nice person.
"You know what? Auntie Gracie wrote her last exam for this semester yesterday, which means she has loads of free time. What do you think? Television all day to forget my very real problems?"
She mumbled while spinning a pancake in the pan. Studying for exams really had occupied her mind a lot, so she wouldn't waste one thought about her broken friendship with Nik. Grace tried her best to not act silly around him, but she still only spoke as less as possible to him. Of course he tried to have a serious every day and he apologized countless times, but Grace wasn't ready to forgive him and she just wanted to be left alone.
So auntie duty had to take over the whole day. Maybe she could also go to Marcel and the newbie vamps a little more. Since Marcel and Elijah ran the city, things worked well between the factions and teaching the newly created was an enjoyable task.
Gracie turned around to the counter where they usually gathered for breakfast. Usually Grace just ate together with Freya, but as it was Sunday, she hoped that for once they could all eat together.
She want to put the newspaper away that was on the counter, but when she lifted it, an envelope fell out of it. After she crouched down to fetch it, she frowned a little when she saw that her name together with the address of Ariana's pension was scribbled onto it.
"Well, that is rare."
Quickly she sat Hope into her baby's chair before opening the envelope and pulling out a card that stuck inside it. Grace raised her brows when she read what was written on it.
You're cordially invited to the wedding of Josette Laughlin and Alaric Saltzman.
Whoever Josette Laughin may be. It seemed she had missed quite a lot since she left Mystic Falls. Not only had Jeremy left the town behind, too, Ric would actually marry, which was quite the surprise considering he had been dead less than a year ago. Could such a event go smooth in Mystic Falls? There was a high chance that it wouldn't.
She took a deep breath and fiddled with the card. It was actually time to spend her hometown a visit. Quite some time had passed since she left. Grace didn't want to go alone, but she wasn't sure if it was a good idea to ask Elijah to come with her. He probably wasn't to keen on going there, old wounds and everything.
Shaking her head, she put the envelope on top of the newspaper again. This was a matter to think about later, there was still some time left to decide. For now she just prepared the table. She tried her best to make this a good meal, so she set up tea for everyone and filled blood into three of the expensive crystal glasses for the vampires. Elijah liked A positive the most, while Nik and Grace preferred O positive. She smiled lightly when she noticed how closely she knew them, up to their taste in blood. For Freya and Hope she prepared freshly squeezed orange juice. When she was done, she proudly inspected her work. Everything was ready, the pancakes looked amazing and she just had to wait for the others to come.
"I don't remember employing a new chef."
Nik smirked leaning in the doorframe. Grace only rolled her eyes at his attempt to be funny. He strolled inside the kitchen and picked his daughter up.
"Somebody has to pretend that we're just a normal dysfunctional family, huh?"
She sat down on her place and hoped that everyone would come before the pancakes would turn cold. It was strange to have such simple worries, she noticed.
"Shall we teach my daughter lies?"
Grace closed her eyes for a second to keep herself from boiling over immediately. He just couldn't let it be.
"Well, in my opinion your daughter should grow up as ordinary as possible and learn that she has a family who loves and cherishes her above all instead of fighting each other, but I'm not her mum, so..."
She shrugged. Her sarcastic tone and her reference to Hayley's 'absence' had him obviously provoked. But before he could open his mouth and pick up an argument, Elijah walked in and interrupted Nik.
"What my brother wanted to state is that he's very thankful for this excellent meal..."
He lightly touched Hope's cheek and shot Nik a warning glance before walking over to Grace.
"...This looks amazing, my love."
Elijah kissed her temple before sitting down at the head of the table.
Thankfully, Nik kept from continuing this, sat Hope back in her chair and took the seat opposite Elijah.
"Mornin'."
Freya drawled sleepily as she came in. Her hair was a mess and Grace could've sworn that there was still make up leftovers on her face. The vampire hid her grin.
"Long night, sister? Did your...companion leave already?"
Nik teased her, but the oldest sister ignored him. Her eyes widened a bit when she saw the meal in front of her and she smiled thankfully at Grace. She really appreciated it that the other woman in the house at least tried to ease the heavily tensed atmosphere a bit.
"Wow, we should do that more often! I never had a proper Sunday breakfast to be honest."
Freya and Grace chuckled and they all started to eat. The woman chatted about Freya's party night while feeding Hope and ignoring Elijah's and Nik's silence. Sometimes these two were so alike. She was disappointed that both of them couldn't at least pretend to have a nice, quiet Sunday morning for her.
"Wasn't a full moon Friday? Tell me, brother, how's Hayley?"
Nik suddenly chirped in, mockingly cheering. Freya and Grace stopped mid-sentence in their conversation and nothing but a deadly silence was to be heard, except from some munching sounds Hope made.
"Don't you dare take her name into your foul mouth, Niklaus."
Elijah's voice was close to a growl.
"What? Did I hit a nerve? I thought Gracie was your latest beloved."
She saw the rage lighting up in Elijah's eyes.
"Elijah..."
Grace tried to calm him and placed her hand on his, but his fist only clenched around the knife he held. He shot his brother death glares.
"I warn you..."
His brother laughed amused.
"What, Elijah? What do you wanna do? Dagger me again?"
Elijah chair scraped loudly over the floor when he jumped to his feet. The noise made Hope immediately cry. Grace tried to calm her and block out the brother's bickering, but tears of disappointment and anger already stung in her eyes. When the fight grew louder and louder and they started to point their knifes at each other, Grace had enough.
"Can't you two behave yourself just for once?!"
Grace came to her feet and her hurt tone surprisingly grabbed the brother's attention.
"I spent hours preparing this, because I wished for nothing more than a peaceful meal with my family and you haven't got anything better to do than ruin it. Thanks for making the baby cry, by the way. I'm outta here, you can clean the dishes yourself."
She literally threw her napkin on her nearly touched plate and stormed out of the kitchen. Grace couldn't bear it anymore. She tried, she really tried so hard to keep them together, but these men had nothing in their mind but fighting each other. They both claimed to want the best for Hope, but actually they were quite willing to let her grow up in this unhealthy, unstable environment. It was unbelievable.
Grace decided to have a walk along the river to calm herself. At least there were enough people out there so she wouldn't be tempted to rip someone's head off.
She did so much for this family and none of them even thought of even showing the slightest bit of gratitude for that. As if she didn't risk her life for them some months ago, as if she didn't swallowed her anger every day when she saw Nik. As if it wasn't painful enough to be around Elijah even tough she was so afraid of being hurt again that she didn't make a move.
Over the past few months she developed hell of a trust issue. She didn't trust Elijah with her heart and she didn't trust Nik at all anymore. That was something that was really bothering her, because since the beginning she could trust them all without hesitation. But now she understood why the siblings had driven so far apart over the centuries. She just didn't expect to experience it herself that soon.
"Grace."
Elijah's voice ripped her out of her thoughts. He walked up behind her, he probably followed her but left her some time on her own to give her some space, but now he endure it anymore. Grace took a deep breath, but kept walking.
"There's nothing I wanna talk about, Elijah."
The Original easily kept her pace. His hands were buried in the pockets of his pants as he walked, his eyes on her all the time.
"Are you sure about that?"
She sighed and then came to a halt to face him.
"Can you please stop making amends for your brother's behavior? The only thing you could do is stop being such an idiot and go for every provocation he gives you. Seriously, Elijah, I'm trying. I'm trying really hard and you aren't making it better by destroying my nice Sunday pancake breakfast."
Elijah's eyes grew softer and he let out a breath. At least he seemed to see his fault. He took her hand in his and squeezed it lightly.
"I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
"Ok."
She returned the gesture and didn't let go of his hand when she turned to walk back towards the compound. Elijah seemed quite surprised, but didn't continue the topic.
"Ariana dropped by early. She left an envelope and said that it was left at her place for you."
Grace nodded and bit her lip. This was another topic she hadn't thought enough about.
"I know, already found it. It's um...an invitation to Alaric Saltzman's wedding. Can you believe that he's really tying the knot?"
She chuckled nervously, to which Elijah smiled.
"Do you want to go?"
Taking a deep breath, she thought about that for some seconds, but then came to the conclusion that she actually shouldn't debate this for hours. It wouldn't hurt going there.
"Yeah. I...I just don't wanna go alone."
An amused expression crossed his handsome features when he understood what she wanted to tell him.
"Miss Gilbert, do I misinterpret this, or are you asking me out? To a wedding?"
They both chuckled, enjoying that the ease between them was back quickly.
"I actually am. So, will you accompany me, Mr. Mikaelson?"
A playful streak sounded in her words and Elijah's eyes sparked, very willing to play this game. He really liked the idea of taking a day off with her and have a short change of scenery. Maybe they could finally talk about those many unspoken things that kept them from finally get closer again.
As they walked hand in hand back to their home, Elijah had to admit that he looked forward to visit Mystic Falls soon.
..............
Little crossover in the making before we start with the next season :P
I was bored and brain dead after I wrote my last exam yesterday, but I couldn't write anything, so I decided to play around with photoshop a bit and this 'teaser pic' came out:
I'm not good at editing, but sometimes it's just so relaxing :D