All the cards

29

"I'm sorry." Lia said,when we got home.
"For what?"
"There I am pestering you about Mal and Isaac, I forgot you had this whole other tragic life."
"It's not all bad. I mean, I have Izzy, and Amira, and Elijah's a dick but I do have my siblings. And I have you, and Mal."
"And Isaac?"
"Yes, my friend Isaac."
"I think you should date him."
"I think it's none of your business."
"That's cute. You really think after a thousand years I'm not going to be in every single part of your life?"
"I'm just not ready to love someone new."
"Good thing you've known Isaac for over two years." I laughed, rolling my eyes. "Zee, I'm serious. I mean you're obviously into him and he's obviously into you. Abraham is gone."
"I love him."
"Do you love him or the idea of him? When you think of Abraham, is it him you miss or is it the memories?"
"I miss him, Lia."
"But is that really the reason you don't want to date Isaac. I mean Abraham was all you knew in this life. He's familiar. Maybe that's why you don't want to let go. You haven't come to terms with losing him."
"I know he's gone, Lia. I know Abraham's gone, but I've lost him too many times. If I allow myself to let Isaac in and I lose him... I couldn't handle it. And Izzy needs me to be strong. He needs me to be his mother, not a pathetic mess."
"You won't lose him. You won't let it happen. This'll be the first time you're happy in, what, a millennium? I'll be right there keeping him safe beside you, and you know that your other siblings wouldn't do anything to hurt him out of love for you. The only one you'd have to worry about is Mal, and I'm pretty sure Mal's pushing you two together too."
"It's Izzy's birthday next week." I tried to change the subject.
"Nice try, sister. You're stuck with this conversation." I rolled my eyes.
"What do you want me to say?"
"I want you to admit to yourself that Abraham is dead. I want you to realise he's not coming back. I want you to give yourself a chance to be happy."
"I will be happy when we get Rebekah back, and when we stop Tristan and Lucien and Aurora. Then I can focus on Kol-"
"And Finn?"
"I'm not thinking about Finn." I sighed. "I should check in on Freya, see how far she's gotten with Aurora."
"You know Finn isn't dead, right?"
"Lia, stop."
"Why? I know you love him and miss him. For god's sake, you could forgive Mal, but not Finn?"
"He tried to kill Izzy and Hope." I glared. "I don't want to think about him or how I feel about him, because Esther screwed him up so much, she made him believe it would be okay for him to kill his niece and nephew. So right now, I have other things to focus on. Other things that need to be fixed before I can even think about Finn."
"Okay." She said.
"Let's get some sleep." I said and she nodded as I headed up to a room.

The next morning I woke up and went to Caroline's dorm room. She sat in her bed, writing in her journal. She jumped when she saw me.
"Amity." She put down her journal. "You scared me. How did you get in?"
"Magic." I said. "Are you ready?"
"For... what?"
"You called me because you thought you might be pregnant. We've established that you are. Now we gotta make sure things are okay with you and the twins."
"Oh." She said. "Okay. How do we do that?"
"Just like back down." I rolled my eyes. She did as I said and I concentrated putting my hands over her stomach. "They seem healthy enough."
"Is there any way to tell how far along I am?"
"Almost six months." I said. "Huh."
"What? What is it?"
"I think they're siphoners. Like your friend Valerie."
"She's not my friend." Caroline said.
"Noted."
"She used to date Stefan. Back when he was human. She was too. His mom sent her to... I don't know... check on him? She was his first love, you know?" I looked at her blankly.
"Do you want to know genders?"
"I think Ric would kill me if I knew and he didn't." Caroline laughed. "Can we keep it a surprise for now?"
"Yeah, sure."
"Is there any way you'll tell me the gender of your baby?" I looked at her.
"He's a boy. I had a son, and Hayley had a daughter." I said softly. I stood. "Okay, here. It's good for your pregnancy." I gave her a jar of tea. "I assume you know how to make tea? Just mix one tablespoon of this with boiling water."
"Thanks."
"Okay, I think that's really all you need of me right now."
"Oh."
"I should get home, anyways. We're kind of in a crisis mode." I told her. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Thanks. I'm good."
"Okay." I nodded and disappeared. I dropped by the house Nik had built. Lia was still asleep. I wrote her a quick note, and headed back to New Orleans.