chapter thirty-two,

, but Marian would always be enough for her. She took Marian from Kol as soon as they arrived at Klaus' home, helping her get undressed and shower. The girl, though she didn't say it, was grateful that Rebekah had done this before either of her brothers could protest; she needed to clean the blood from her body, and she didn't want either of them to see her naked, for obvious reasons.

She was glad that she was able to spend this time with her aunt. They'd had such little interaction both times Rebekah had been undaggered, and Marian had missed her almost as much as she'd missed her own father. Her mother died shortly after giving birth to her, and Rebekah being the caring person she is had decided to step forward and be her mother-figure. It had been hard at first, for Rebekah herself was still only a child when Kol's wife had given birth, but she wouldn't have it any other way.

Rebekah was incredibly gentle with Marian as she washed her body and hair. It hurt, yes, but she could feel the dry blood flaking on her skin and the mass of knots in her hair; she knew she needed this.

Her aunt had just finished washing the conditioner out of her hair when Marian hugged her tightly, surprising the vampire, and began to sob. She was so overwhelmed with emotions and pain that she didn't care that she was setting Rebekah's clothes. She just needed her there.

"Marian," Rebekah sighed. "What's wrong?" It was a bad question. She knew this. Everything was wrong. Esther was supposed to be dead. Finn was supposed to be happy.

Marian was smart, and as Kol had told Damon, she always discovered the truth, no matter how much it hurt her. She knew, of course of Damon's betrayal, of Elena's and Stefan's and Caroline's too. She knew, though it killed her to say, that Bonnie would have needed to have helped Esther to have that much power. Even with the full moon, she knew her grandmother could never harness the strength she had alone. She knew that out of all her friends, it was the ones she saw the least of—Penny, Jack, and Hannah—who had no involvement in the killing of the Mikaelson family, and for that, she felt even more guilty for shutting them out when she did.

So, standing in the shower with her arms tightly around Rebekah, she mourned the loss of some of her closest friends and her ex-lover. She allowed herself to mourn over Carrie Whitman, the woman who had given her more care and hope than she had had in a long time. She mourned for the almost perfect life she had lost because the supernatural world wouldn't allow her happiness.

Marian never answered Rebekah, but her aunt understood her grief. Klaus had told her all about what Mikael had done to her adoptive mother—how she'd been so distressed that she believed she'd seen Henrik. She had seen how close she had been with her friends in Mystic Falls, only for them to turn on her because of the family she had no say in choosing (though, if one asked Marian, she wouldn't change it for the world).

So, after a short while, Rebekah gently peeled Marian's arms away from her and dried her body, helping the girl into her pyjamas and into her bed where Kol was waiting with a deep frown. He had heard Marian crying while he'd waited for her, and he was worried about her.

When things so drastic as these happened to his daughter, she always reacted one—very rarely both—of two ways: she grew a taste for revenge, which she got from him, or she locked herself away from any and everyone. He could see that she was currently stuck with the latter, and he could tell that she would never be the same. He, of course, was worried that both of them would manifest until she turned into a person she wasn't, just like she had in the sixteenth century. Marian had never been so betrayed and let down by people that she loved on such a large scale before.

He said nothing as she laid down beside him and hugged him tightly. So many people had become lost, some had even died, and she didn't want him to leave either. All she needed was him. She knew she would be okay as long as he was there. To protect her. To love her. To help her see that things would always be okay in the end.

...

Kol fell asleep not long after Rebekah had left the two alone. She had no idea that Marian was still awake. The girl wouldn't allow herself to sleep; she had been haunted with a vision of her mother—her real mother—screaming out in pain and pleading for someone to stop. It looked like she was being tortured, until gasped desperately for air, as if someone was choking her. Then, finally, her gasps became smaller and smaller until the woman stopped trying. And she was dead.

Marian wanted to ask Kol about it; she'd never seen her mother before, only in the painting Klaus had hidden in a private art shed in France. She knew that the subject of her mother was sensitive for Kol, and indeed for Klaus who had loved her even when his younger brother had married her. It seemed that Kol was the only one of his brothers who had enjoyed his marriage, and he was certainly the only one who had produced offspring.

She could faintly hear Klaus and Rebekah talking in another room, probably Rebekah's since Klaus' was at the other end of the hallway.

"I missed this," Rebekah confessed, sitting cross legged on her bed. Klaus looked up at her, seated next to her. The two siblings had admired Kol and Marian for some time, loving seeing how peaceful everything could seem despite the threats that lurked just outside their window. "Marian and Kol. It's been too long for them."

"I suppose now's where you say it's my fault," Klaus grumbled. He didn't need others to tell him what he already felt was true.

"It was all of ours," said Rebekah. "He wouldn't have been daggered if I hadn't told you of his plan to create a dagger for you. The three of us agreed—" She looked around. "Where is Elijah?"

"He left," Klaus said simply. Marian's eyes widened. Elijah was gone, too? "Our mother's words got to him. Now he thinks he's no better than Kol."

Rebekah sighed, upset that he'd chosen this moment to leave them. "He just needs time," she told Klaus. "He'll come back. He always does."

"I'm not so sure," Klaus whispered. "Something tells me he won't come back for a very long time."

"Does Marian know?" The girl looked down, hoping that neither of them would catch her listening to their conversation.

The hybrid shook his head. "No. And we should keep it that way." He turned to Rebekah. "She'll think it's her fault that he's gone. If she asks, tell her he's gone to Oslo to sort out some business."

"How do you know she'll think it's her fault?" she asked.

"I tried to give her a dream, but her thoughts were too loud. She thinks that everyone either wants her dead or gone."

The dream was one of Klaus' fondest memories of the girl. One that he'd taken away from her. Marian had found a way to contact him to beg him to undagger her father. Instead, he'd gotten a witch to locate her so that he could hear her plead for him to wake. When he found her, he'd been shocked to see that she was heavily pregnant, married, and already a mother of two. Marian would never remember the joy she'd felt with Klaus in that one week they'd spent together.

"Paranoia," said Rebekah. "She gets that from her uncle."

Klaus' nostrils flared. "She can't know of Bonnie Bennett's involvement in this," he continued, trying his best to ignore her. "And she certainly can't know that Elijah's left us. Who knows what she'd do if she knew."

Marian tried not to sniffle as she felt herself want to cry again. She heard some shuffling from the other room. "I have some things to do," Rebekah announced. "I'll call Elijah. He's had plenty of time to himself. Maybe I can convince him to come back." They all knew it was a lost cause; when Elijah wanted to be alone, he would be alone for months at least.

Marian heard Rebekah walk down the hall and away from them. She hadn't, however, heard Klaus step out of his sister's room and into her own.

"Aren't you supposed to be asleep?" he asked, shocking her. She had been caught.

"I had a bad dream," she said quietly, not wanting to wake Kol. "Can't go back to sleep."

Klaus stepped further into the room until he sat on the edge of her bed. Marian turned around to face him.

"What was the dream about?" he asked her.

The girl looked down. "My mum," she told him. "My real one." She paused, feeling Klaus tense up beside her. "How did she die?"

Klaus inhaled deeply. "She lost too much blood giving birth to you."

"And my brother?"

Marian had no idea that Kol was not awake, looking up at his brother in shock. No one had ever mentioned his first-born child around her before. He'd forbidden it.

"What do you mean?" Klaus asked.

"In the dream," she explained. "Someone killed her. A witch, I think. But they killed a baby first. A boy," she continued. "Why didn't you tell me I had a brother?"

"What do you mean someone killed them?" Klaus pressed, glancing at Kol for a moment.

"It was like they took away the air." She frowned, not really wanting to remember it. "They couldn't breathe." She looked up at him, eyes glistening with tears. "Please, I don't want to think about it anymore." She was incredibly tired and full of pain. She didn't need this. Not now.

Klaus nodded once, looking from Kol back to Marian. "Alright," he said, slipping his hand into hers. "Close your eyes. I'll give you a dream." A memory.

Marian hesitantly did as she was told, though this time instead of seeing her mother, she saw herself. In 1932.

"Nik!" she exclaimed, not expecting to see him there. She had one hand on the door, the other on her baby bump. One part of her was terrified that he was there in front of her, but another part—a very small part—was overwhelmed with joy that she was seeing someone from her family for the first time in this new life. "What are you doing here?"

"I've come to see whatever run-down life you've got for yourself." He noticed two small children hiding behind the corner, poking their heads out with a giggle. "It seems you've done far better than I anticipated."

Marian wondered whether she should invite him inside to meet her family or not. She still didn't know if she could trust him after he had Elijah dagger Kol.

"Arienne, Sébastien, c'est ton Oncle Nik," she called. The two children happily ran around the corner and hugged their mother's legs, staring up at Klaus.

"Bonjour, Oncle Nik," said the boy.

"Salut," said the girl.

"These are my children," Marian told her uncle. "Arienne and Sébastien." She looked down at the baby bump. "And this little one will be Henri."

Klaus stumbled for a second. Henri? Like his brother Henrik? The brother he'd gotten killed?

"Va trouver ton papa," she told the boy softly, sending him in search of his father. She'd made sure that the deed to the house was in his name so that, if anything happened to them, she knew that they would be safe.

Not long after, Sébastien brought a young man to the front door. He looked from Marian to Klaus with a frown. "C'est lui?" he asked her cautiously. He couldn't believe that the man who had killed her was standing at his doorstep. "L'homme qui t'a tué?"

Klaus smiled cruelly. "I see you've told your boyfriend all about me then," he mused.

Marian lifted her left hand, revealing a simple diamond ring. "My husband," she stressed, "knows everything."

The couple then argued over whether Klaus should be allowed inside, which was solved when the vampire agreed that he would do nothing to harm Marian or her family inside this house.

They invited him into their home, which as he walked through, was littered with pieces of art he could vaguely remember painting. Marian explained that she'd stolen them from one of his hidden storage houses a year ago.

His niece had convinced him to stay for dinner, and then for the night, promising him that her home was safer than most places he would stay in. He didn't expect that he'd end up staying for a whole week, and he certainly didn't expect to have to help Marian through giving birth to her third child.

Klaus hadn't felt his heart beat in a long time; not since he was killed by his father all those years ago. Yet as he stood, watching as Marian screamed in pain on her bed, he swore she could feel it racing in anticipation. Fear. Excitement. He had seen this sort of thing only once before, and the woman had died not long after, along with the first-born son. All that survived was a daughter.

Then, as Marian's screams died down, he could hear the high-pitched cries of a small newborn as the nurse helped coax it from the woman. Klaus' eyes widened in fear and awe. Marian had just given birth before his eyes, and he had been given the chance to stay with her.

"Tu l'as fait, ma chère," Marian's husband, Bertrand said softly, squeezing her shoulder. He was right: she had done it!

"Voici," the nurse said, handing the young woman the child. She'd cleaned him as best she could. Klaus watched as Marian sobbed, taking her son in her arms.

"Mon bébé. Mon petit Henri," she cried. "Bertrand, regardez!" She was overjoyed. Her husband laughed.

"Je suis, ma chère," he laughed, telling her that he was already watching. "Je t'aime," he told her, kissing her. He loved her and their now three children so incredibly much.

Klaus smiled at the couple as they stared at their newborn child, both speaking in foreign tongues he didn't quite understand. Then, the young woman looked up at her uncle. "Uncle Nik, would you like to hold him?" she asked, lifting him towards him. Klaus was shocked. He hadn't held an infant since Marian herself had been born. "Please?"

Klaus huffed a laugh at her childishness. "You really want me to hold your child?" he asked.

"Yes," she said simply , lifting her arms to put her child in her uncle's arms. "Because no matter what you do, I will always love you and I will always want you around."

Klaus stopped his memory there, not wanting her to relive the moments when they'd fought and he'd compelled her to forget. Opening his eyes, he caught Kol's worried gaze once again before he let them fall down to his niece.

Marian was finally asleep.

part ii:

tvd s3, ep16:

wc: