Daydream • K.M.

(3.35) Birds and Bees

When the footsteps had faded away, Andrew cleared his throat in a way that told Eden he didn't seem to want to have this conversation with Eden. Selena took a few steps around the room before she settled herself down in the the chair that sat in front of Eden's vanity.

"Eden..." Andrew started.

"If this is supposed to be some weird version of the puberty talk, you can spare me, abuelita made sure that I had more than enough of those talks when she saw that both of my best friends were male." Eden rushed out. Eden had heard enough horror stories about puberty to write a book, and clearly the talk still had little effect on her.

"No, mija. We're here because we want to make sure that you're making the right choice here." Selena explained, and Eden sent her an incredulous look.

"You came to me the day before my wedding to ask me if I was sure about getting married?" She questioned, hoping that her parents were simply talking about if she made the right choice in cake for the reception. Andrew cleared his throat, squaring his shoulders as he faced his daughter.

"Eden you've been all but missing for almost two years now and then we get a message in the mail saying that you're getting married to a man that I have never even met. And to top it off, I also have a granddaughter and I've missed out on many months of her life?" Andrew asked Eden.

"Eight." Eden answered in a small voice, and her father barreled on. "And you expect me to just go along with this like everything is okay? Well I can't do that Eden. I need to know that you and my granddaughter are safe at all times." Andrew took a breath, turning to Eden and giving her a chance to respond.

"I wasn't trying to disappear on you guys. Believe me, there have been more times than I can remember where all I wanted to do was tell you that I wanted to come home. And I'm sorry that I can't tell you why I've been gone so long but I promise you it's not because I didn't want you in my life. I just want to keep you safe." Eden promised them. There was a still silence where Eden saw her parents exchange a look. Her mother then stood up from her seat and raised a cynical eyebrow.

"Keep us safe?" She repeated. Eden closed her eyes, wanting to kick herself for saying that. She should have known that the phrase wouldn't have passed her parents unnoticed.

"Why exactly would you need to keep us safe Eden?" Selena asked, slowly coming closer to Eden. Eden ran a hand through her hair, frustratingly trying to put the right words together.

"I never-" Eden felt Selena's hand against her shoulder and her voice died in her throat at the intense stare that her mother was giving her.

"Eden, don't lie to us. Are you being held here? Is Nik in some sort of trouble?" She asked her daughter. Eden shook her head immediately; the last thing she needed her parents believing was that she was in some sort of drug cartel.

"Guys listen, I promise that I'm here because I want to be here. Nik's family has roots here and so we just settled here." Eden wasn't exactly lying. Klaus' family did have roots here and with everything going on in the city here lately, it's not really like Eden had much time to think about where she wanted to live now that she had all the time in the world to live everywhere. "We have friends here and we have the house and I love having Haven exposed to such a historic city."

Selena sent Eden another skeptic looked before dropping her hand and turning to face her ex-husband. Andrew, for his part was now staring at a picture that stood atop of the dresser. It was one of the only pictures in the compound and it was simply a picture of Eden and Klaus that Jana had captured while the two weren't paying any attention. Jana had the photo framed and gave it to her younger cousin as one of her birthday presents.

"I don't know a single thing about this man, Eden. And you want me to be okay with giving my only daughter away to him?" His eyes shifted from the photograph to his daughter, his green eyes somber.

"He's a good man." Eden said quietly, and her father let out a strained chuckle.

"As if that is enough to prove to me that he is worth taking care of not only you, but of my granddaughter as well." Andrew told the hybrid. Eden sent him a sympathetic look.

"Eden this is a big thing you're asking us to be okay with." Selena added, and Eden sent her mother a scowl. Rarely did Andrew and Selena share the same view point these days and the fact that they were both scolding Eden did not bode well for the conversation.

"Look, I do want you to be okay with the fact that I'm getting married. But I also won't let you control if I'm allowed to marry the person I love. Nik and I have been through a lot these last few years and despite the history, I know that he is the man I love." Andrew snorted.

"You told everyone he was dead. We believed that he was dead."

"I know, and I believed that he was dead too. When I found out he wasn't I didn't think that I would ever be able to forgive him. But after this last year, I realized that I had to let it go if I wanted to be with him, and I do." There was another pause.

"But you're sure this is what you want?" Andrew asked his daughter.

"Yes." Eden answered simply. She watched her father's face for a moment and saw his expression go through that of defeat to one of pain.

"So why didn't you tell us about Haven?" His voice was hushed, as though if he said it too loud then he would wake the missing baby. For this, Eden really had no answer. She couldn't very much tell her parents that if she told them about Haven then she was putting her daughter in danger because that would only fuel the fires to their worry.

"I didn't know how to tell you." Eden said instead. Selena scoffed quietly, turning the attention to her.

"You didn't know how to tell us that you were pregnant or when she was delivered or when she began crawling? You didn't feel like we deserved to know any of that but when she sees Dimitri she apparently has grown quite fond of him." Eden groaned internally, she could already picture the trouble the two of those were going to get into when Haven was older.

"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about-" Selena cut her off.

"It's not that you didn't tell us. It's that you hid her from us. Your brother and his girlfriend seem to be all too comfortable with Haven but we are strangers to our own grandchild." Selena's voice cracked and Eden felt as though there was a cactus stuck in her throat.

"She has no idea who we are Eden and you denied me a chance to get to know her when you know how much the bond with your grandmother meant to you. It's not fair, it's not fair to Haven or to Andrew and I."

"Mom that wasn't my intention. I just didn't know what to say and then time just kept going by. I'm sorry." Just as the words left Eden's mouth she understood what she was going to have to do.

Selena and Andrew did not belong to the supernatural world. They led a nice and normal life where in their minds their estranged daughter would always come home when called and a son who could never do anything wrong in their eyes. It was not white picket, but it was a hell of a lot better than their life would be if they knew that their little girl was now a mix between a vampire and a werewolf. She would be selfish to keep Haven and her grandparents away from each other but she knew that it was what she was going to have to do in order to keep them safe.

"I promise we'll all sit down after the wedding and have a talk okay? We can talk about where you want to go from here and I'll listen." Eden told her parents. Her heart broke on the inside because despite the fact that Eden had told her parents they were all going to have a talk after the wedding, she knew that was not going to be the case.

Eden had faced the fact that though she was going to live forever, the same would not be said of her family. Andrew, Selena, Maria, Jupiter, and even Stiles would all be gone one day and the only family Eden would have left was going to be Jana and her new family. They were going to be the ones keeping her sane when she lost the family in front of her and she had to hold on to them as much as she could. Because she knew that by the end of the trip that there was a very real chance that the people in front of her wouldn't remember neither her daughter or even herself. By the end of this trip, Eden was going to have to compel away their memories.