Enigmatic Fears: A Klaus Mikaelson Story {7}

Chapter 8: Stranger To Me

"You came." I said, smiling at Alaric who grinned back at me.

"Yeah." He replied. "I never should have questioned you."

"A thing many people learn too late in life." I chuckled, before noticing the ire emanating Grace and Klaus.

"I can tell."

"Then perhaps you'll listen when I say this." I said before compelling him. "Go wait for me at the compound and forget your unwarranted attack ever happened."

"Hey Gracie, Dec said I should tell you the bread pudding in the fridge is yours." Alaric said to her. "But I think your mom's waiting for me at the compound, so I'll see you later, okay?"

"Sure." She said with a warm smile.

"Go home Grace." Klaus said, his eyes cast to the ground.

"You're not even gonna look at me?" She asked him. "Aunt Hayley has gone missing and I am scared." She said as she stood before him, practically forcing him to look at her.

Slowly, his gaze moved upwards, and he saw what his daughter really looked like. His shock was obvious as were the million and one things he wanted to say.

"We're too close." Was all he could muster. "I can hear the whispers. You must too."

"If you don't do as I say, I'll have Freya bind you to the compound with a spell!" He snapped.

"Don't you dare speak to my daughter that way!" I shot back at him.

"She is just as much mine as she is yours!"

"Is that so?" I questioned. "Because only one of us knew what she looked like before two minutes ago. Only one of us had to watch her sit by the phone and get on a first name basis with the mailman because of how desperately she wanted to hear from her father. Only one of us had their heart break again when she stopped because they knew the innocence, they had both vowed to protect, had been lost. So tell me again how she is equally ours. Throw in a sad tale about Mikael, while you're at it."

"You've barely spoken to me since my arrival and no you seek to berate me on silence?"

"At least you know how it feels."

"Can you stop fighting please?" Grace asked, causing the two of us to direct our attention to her.

"Go home, Grace." Klaus repeated. "Please."

I shook my head in disbelief, before going to shepherd my daughter out. "Fiore, wait."

"What?" I snapped at him.

"You came to see me." Klaus told me. "You sought to bring me back here and yet here I am and now you act as though I am a stranger to—"

"Because you are." I interjected. "You are a stranger to me. I don't know you. I thought you had just gone back to being Klaus the Destroyer, but this is something else altogether. You are a coward. I did not ask you to come to New Orleans and act as my saviour. I asked you to acknowledge that there are lives in the world that you are responsible for. And just because it's easier to ignore them, doesn't mean they aren't there."

"If I am such a stranger, then why do you claim to know me as you do?" He countered. "You don't know who I am, Fiore Mikaelson."

"That is not my name!" I yelled at him. "I want nothing to do with you! If I know you it is because the millennium, we spent together meant that I knew you better than I knew myself. And whatever remnants of that are left, make it clear to me who you are. But worry not, because I do not wish to know you."

"But I want you to know me." He murmured quietly. "Because you are the only one who has ever really known me."

"You want me to talk to you, Klaus?" I questioned. "Talk to my daughter."

Grace and I got back to the compound with my daughter trying her best not to be too offended by her father's treatment of him.

"It's not because he doesn't love you." I assured her. "It's because he loves you. But he's never been all that great at expressing it."

"Then why are you so mad at him?" She asked.

"Because just because I get it, doesn't mean I have to be okay with it." I told her. "And the same goes for you. I just don't want you to be too disheartened by today."

"Okay." She said before putting on a brave smile. "Thank you."

"Anytime." I replied, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "Anyway, your friend's waiting for you."

"Huh? I don't—"

"Cut the crap, I wasn't born yesterday." I said with a roll of my eyes. "I know what a teenage boy smells and sounds like, vampire or no."

"And you're not mad?" She questioned.

"No." I responded with a shrug. "But if he goes into your room again, I'll kill you both."

"I actually believe that."
"And you should."

She gave me a quick hug before disappearing to meet her friend whilst I went to meet mine. Alaric was in my bedroom, looking at a picture of me, Grace and Klaus. Back when we were happy and had never heard of the bloody Hollow.

"I should warn you Mr Saltzman, most of the men that make it into my bedroom, never live to tell the tale." I began. He turned back to face me, placing down the picture on the dresser with an unamused look.

"You're here."

"That I am." I said as I sat down on my bed. "And it is to thank you. I really appreciate you being here."

"More than Klaus?" He asked and I sighed.

"How did you know Klaus was here?"

"I saw him today." He replied. "He was an ass to me and Declan. And you know, because I told you. A thing you didn't do."

"I didn't want you to get like this."

"Angry?"

"Irrational."

"How is it irrational to be mad that you kept this from me?" He asked angrily.

"Because I could have told you Klaus was coming, and you would still be like this!" I said with a sigh. "Sometimes it's easier to just not tell you these things."

"Fiore, you act like you don't know Klaus!" Alaric continued. "Not only is it dangerous for you to be around him, it's also dangerous for your daughter. And I'm not just talking about The Hollow."

"Alaric—"

"No, you don't understand." He said with a shake of his head. "I watched Grace break. I watched her fall to pieces as she saw her friends who always had their dads on their side. And then I saw you. The strongest person on the goddamn planet, shatter. Because you broke twice. You broke watching Grace's heart get torn apart but then he tore your heart in pieces two. Because you loved him. And I had to watch my best friend get hurt the same way that I did. And now that you've picked up the pieces he left behind, he gets to walk right back in?"

"Alaric, it is not the same." I murmured. "I am sorry that you saw that, and I am thankful that you were there to pick up the pieces with me but I can't just tell Klaus to leave when Hayley is missing. She's the mother of his child."

"Oh, so now he remembers?"

"Ric, I—" My phone rang, and I got a phone call from Marcel, thankfully taking me out of that conversation. "I need to take this."

"Mother?"

"So you haven't forgotten I exist." I teased. "I just figured with all the silence I had heard from you..."

"I'm sorry, I meant to tell you the second I got here, but I've been more than a little pre-occupied." He replied.

"So I heard." I murmured quietly. "I am so sorry about you and Rebekah, I know how much you loved her."

"That's—That's not what I'm calling about right now." Marcel told me with a deep sigh. "There's something you should know about Hayley's disappearance. And before I begin, remember that you love her."