Chapter Text
He had convinced Marcellus to go somewhere more private, somewhere where his vampires were not hearing everything they discussed. The compound was it, of course. Marcellus had changed it to his liking, modernized it, but it was still the same as always. Still his home.
There was no one there, just the two of them. In the past it had many times been like that. As well as with Rebekah, they taught him to fight and to wield a sword in that house. To read and to write, to play piano. History, geography, mathematics, music. Everything Marcellus knew he learnt in that house. His home. Their home. The home of his future child, and soon Camille's as well.
"Klaus?" He questioned his son when they crossed the doors.
"I have always called you that in public" Marcellus answered opening his arms.
"Back then it was before the 20s, and always in the company of humans. Those friends of yours were not human"
Back them he could only publicly acknowledge Marcellus as his protégé, not his son. But times had changed, thankfully. Not that Marcellus could call him "papa" in front of the humans, they looked around the same age, but it was different around those who knew. Even more when they had nearly a century of not seeing each other. When he thought him dead. And what had Marcellus thought then? Why had he not come to find them? Did he look for them? He must've, why wouldn't he? They were his family. He was his family.
"Am I supposed to call you my father when you abandoned me? You and Rebekah left me!" Marcellus's eyes shone with tears he was not willing to shed.
Klaus nearly gasped at his words. How could he think that? How dare he think that? That he abandoned him? How could he abandon his son? He would never do that. He was a various kinds of monsters, but not that kind. Never that one.
"Elijah dragged me out of the city, broke my neck until morning came! And when I awoke, I came back. I went to the theatre. I searched for you. You were not there. I thought you were ashes!" he raised his voice, a few small tears rolling down his cheeks "I thought Mikael killed you! Rebekah and I were heartbroken. I grieved you for ages, I couldn't even speak your name without it bringing tears to my eyes. Why would you ever think I left you behind? Why would you ever think I abandoned you?"
His son said nothing, he just stared, crying. He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but no noise came out of it. Klaus remembered one of the sparring practices where Marcellus told Rebekah he would marry her one day. His sister, being who she is, told him that she would never marry him someone who couldn't best him in a duel. They didn't know he was there, but he had been listening. That moment was tied to the moment of his death somehow. Marcellus had asked him what he meant to him, if he was family. Did he not believe himself their family?
How could he not? Klaus had brought him home the very same day they met, presented him to Rebekah and Elijah as his protégé. He taught him to write, read and fight. He talked to him about his unique condition. Marcellus knew the depths of his wounded soul and the fear he felt towards his father, and he understood better than any of his siblings could. He daggered Kol for daring to frighten him and try to turn him. He turned him with his own blood. He took him everywhere, taught him all he knew. Loved him. Mourned him. Wept for him. Drew him a thousand times to have a reminder of him when he thought him dead. Nearly a century of complete isolation and withdrawal as he grieved his only child, his son. Looking forward only to the breaking of his curse to take vengeance in the name of his son. To kill Mikael for what he did.
"You left and never came back" Marcellus said, his voice so small he might as well be whispering "I waited for you to return, I waited for years. Rebekah didn't return. You didn't return"
Klaus sighed, it weighed on him, that sadness.
"I couldn't bear the thought of stepping a foot in this time after I thought you dead, so keenly I felt your absence"
Often, after presuming him dead, he thought that if that was how his parents had felt after Henrik's death he could understand their need to keep the rest of them safe. It was not often he agreed with his parents's methods, but he could understand that at least. He would too do anything to keep his child safer. Children, he corrected himself, for Camille was soon to bring forth another. A sibling for Marcellus.
"I'm sorry" his son said "I've missed you all"
Klaus approached him, placed his hand in the back of his son's neck and brought him to his arms.
"All is well now" he promised.
All was to be even better.
Cami thought her uncle was taking the news surprisingly well. But he was probably still in shock. What had his attention now was whoever was in the attic, because apparently no one could go up. He tried to stop Kol from going upstairs, which was futile, because he went either way.
"What's upstairs Kieran?" She asked tilting her head "I mean, I now know you love to have your secrets, but trying to stop an Original to keep one it's a little stupid. Who is upstairs?"
Kieran sighed in defeat, whatever he was hiding was no longer going to remain a secret. Kieran waved his hand and turned around to face Cami.
"Cami, I know you are mad, and you have a right to be, but please try to understand–"
"Understand? Understand what? That you told Sean, but you lied to me" she crossed her arms her voice raising slightly.
"Cami, Sean was studying to take my place in the community, of course I told him" her uncle tried to excuse himself, but she wasn't having it.
"Oh? So it was a pack then, priesthood plus occult education. Good to know"
"Now, this is not there more pressing matter. The more pressing matter is that you affirm to be pregnant with a vampire's baby" he hissed in a low tone.
"Hybrid, now and at the time of the conception" she corrected "I only found out about a week and a half ago, thank God Klaus told me"
"Do you have any idea of who he is?"
"I do"
"Do you?" Kieran pressed "Klaus Mikaelson is the most ruthless vampire to ever exist, he used to rule this city with an iron fist, killing anyone who opposed him. If the child is really his you can't have it"
Cami placed her hand over her stomach protectively and took a step back.
"You don't get to tell me what to do. I'm having this baby whether you like it or not"
It was as if she was a child again, refusing to go to the church with her parents angering them. Her uncle was never really pushy about religion, not for a priest, but he did treat her condescendingly. They all did. She wasn't like Sean. Her twin was always the perfect child, her parents favourite. Religious but tolerant, good and kind but not a doormat, strong but not mean. The perfect child. Nothing like Cami. Cami who talked back, who asked too many questions, who sneaked out during the night, who got drunk and didn't return home. Who assaulted a guy and liked it. But Sean turned to be not so perfect, killing all of the other seminarians and then himself. A small, cruel part of her was glad that he was not perfect. A part she hated, because her brother was dead and she was looking for the bright side of it. What kind of psychopath does that.
"Do you have any idea what kind of danger you're putting yourself and the child in if what you say it's true?" He exclaimed, anxiety coating his voice "A child born of a vampire, of Klaus Mikaelson. What even is going to be that child?"
She did have an answer for that. She wasn't sure. Klaus thought it would a werewolf, because apparently it was hereditary, but no one was sure given that it had never happened before. Personally, she was fine with giving birth to a werewolf, she didn't really have a preference for that. And if it was a girl giving birth to a creature with superior strength might be for the best. The world was cruel to women.
"We don't know yet, Klaus is looking for a witch to find out"
Kieran snorted "Good luck finding one here. Marcel doesn't allow the witches to do magic in this city"
"Marcel?"
"The vampire that rules this town, got rid of the werewolves, has the witches on a leash and all the vampires obey him"
Marcel, a vampire who got control of the city. What are the odds? Is not that Cami believed that Rebekah's lost love and Klaus's son was alive and well and was the ones running the city, but she also not not believed it.
"Well, Klaus will handle it"
With those words Cami walked to the staircase and went upstairs, where Kol was. He had been up there for a while and hadn't said anything or returned. He wasn't alone, there was a girl with him. Small, a brunette wearing a white dress who couldn't be older than seventeen. The girl looked at her, eyes wide as she stared at her stomach.
"What?" The girl questioned to no one in particular.
She wasn't looking at her stomach, she looked at her hand. The child, she was looking at her child.
"So you finally broke your curse" Marcellus placed two glasses of bourbon on the table and sat on the couch by his side "How does it feel like?"
How did it feel like? He didn't turn more than once, more than the night of the ritual. But those three days where fantastic, some of the best in his very long life. But as good as they were, they were too out of control. He acted on instinct, on his bloodlust. He felt free. But he couldn't afford to be so helpless again. And he surely couldn't be a wolf again. That morning, after spending three days as a wolf, he awoke remembering Henrik. Remembering his death, how he was torn apart by the wolves of his blood father's pack. The thought that he was most likely related to those wolves, that he shared blood with his little brother's murderers.
That worried him, his inability to accept his wolf side. His future child was almost certainly a wolf, how could he teach him anything? How could he make sure the child wouldn't hate himself when Klaus couldn't help but do just that?
"It is a pleasant feeling, the freedom of running under the full moon" he decided to tell a half truth.
"And Mikael is dead. So...are you all returning to the city? Like, moving back in?"
"We are" he nodded picking up his glass "And there has been a new development, which is the reason we chose to return. You are going to have a sibling"
Marcellus choked on the bourbon, coughing for a few seconds.
"What?"
"It seems that breaking my curse has given all of the abilities any wolf has, amongst it, the ability to pass on the werewolf gen" he explained and drunk all of the bourbon in his glass. The topic made him nervous "Although we are not sure what the child is going to be, we were hoping to find a witch here who would help us"
Marcellus left his glass over the table.
"I control the witches in this town, I could get any to help you" his son affirmed "but, for something like this we need someone who we can trust. Lucky for us, I know a trustworthy witch"