Hayley stared at the empty crib – just hours ago she had been lying in it, swaddled in blankets – and now it was just empty. It was empty, and it was bleak, and it was everything that the future looked like to her.

It looked void of everything that was good and pure in the world. Her hand reached up slightly to knock gently at one of the crystals that hung from the ceiling that on a day much different from this one, would have caught light, sending waves of sunshine, and colors through the room.

Her daughter would have loved that, she decided, she would have loved the sunshine, and the warmth, and the meaning behind this room, even if her daughter could never understand it. This room, this nursery, was the beginning of their family.

They had already been a family, or rather two sets of a rather dysfunctional family, Klaus and Elijah, and Hayley and the baby, and then she and Elijah kissed, and they were Klaus and Elijah, and Hayley, Elijah, and the baby.

And then this had happened. This beautiful, perfect, nursery that literally bled with every good part of Klaus' being, and every bit of light that neither parents had spoken to each other about but hoped that there daughter would possess.

And there was nothing about the room that hadn't been thought through, not from the skyline Hayley was sure Klaus had painted, or to the wooden giraffe standing against the wall, and pushed to the side. It was the evidence of everything Klaus had the potential to be, it was the evidence of everything their family had the potential to be.

And then they were a family, they were just as dysfunctional, yet they were a single unit. They were Klaus, Hayley, Elijah, and the baby.

But standing in this room now, after all they had given up, after all they had sacrificed, after all the growing up they had done in the space of twenty-four hours there was no doubt in her mind that the moment Klaus had shown her this room they had become a different family, a family different from the Original family.

They had become Klaus, Hayley, and miracle baby. The three little children that no one had ever wanted, but all who somehow, wanted each other.

She could still smell her, she could smell her daughter on the sheets of the crib, just like she could feel her in her chest – or rather how she could feel the gaping hole in her chest where her heart had once been, where it had once beat for her.

The scent was sweet, with a hint of Klaus mixed into her, and for some inexplicable reason that comforted Hayley, for just a little while longer her daughter would be safe with her family, with her parents, with her father.

Klaus was a lot of things, and a good person was not one of them, but the thought had never occurred to her that their daughter was anywhere safer than with him, except maybe with her, and if she was with them, then she had to be untouchable.

Except they couldn't promise that, they couldn't promise that all the mistakes they had made wouldn't come back to affect the little princess who had been born into a warzone, because while Elijah liked to blame this on Klaus, Hayley knew better, this was as much her mess, as it was his.

They had created her, and they had created her world, so it was up to them to fix what they had both unintentionally and slightly intentionally caused.

"Niklaus called," Elijah said quietly as he entered the room causing Hayley to turn around quickly her eyes flashing a dangerous yellow for a brief second, "She's with Rebekah."

Hayley nodded slowly as her eyes turned back to their regular brown, he had assumed that she had been surprised by his entrance, but it wasn't that, his entrance had bothered her. There was something about Elijah being there in this room, in this nursery, that was getting to her.

She wasn't sure what she felt towards Elijah, it was something dangerously close to love, but even that didn't override the basic instinct that this was her room, this was her baby's room, and nobody was allowed in her baby's room.

She suddenly felt like a Mama Wolf whose den had been invaded.

"Good," Hayley said quietly forcing away the feeling as she crossed her arms over her chest, "She'll be safe now."

And Hayley truly believed that, because despite the sorrow and the despair that seemed to have taken up a new and permanent residence in her body, she knew that if she had to give her daughter to anyone, it would be to Rebekah. She knew she had made the right decision.

And then she felt jealousy, raw jealously seep into her bones. Rebekah had gotten everything she had ever wanted – however unintentionally – she had gotten her freedom, she would someday find a man to love if she hadn't already, and now she had a baby, she had a family.

Except that was Hayley's baby, Hayley's family, Rebekah had gotten everything that Hayley had never known she had wanted, and the second she had realized it, she had been ripped away from her screaming, and crying.

"What can I do for you?" Elijah asked quietly as she placed both her hands on the crib – letting it hold her weight, as quiet sobs made their way out of her mouth, "How can I help you?"

"You can't," She cried though it wasn't loudly, "You can't."

"But I can try."

"Just go, Elijah," She sniffed not having the energy in her to feel bad for the look of hurt that crossed his features, "Please, if you want to do something for me, just leave me alone."

And go he did. She wanted to feel bad, that man who was slowly but surely pulling at every string of her heart, and holding her prisoner to him had been nothing short of kind, and wonderful, and protective, and everything she could have ever wanted, but she couldn't, because he didn't understand.

He loved the baby, Hayley knew better than anyone how much he loved the baby, but he couldn't understand, he had lost a niece, he hadn't lost a daughter.

And she couldn't talk to him because he hadn't lost a daughter, but someone else had, someone else would understand her grief, someone else would know how badly every part of her being was hurting.

And then she was moving, out of the nursery, and towards her bed, clawing at the covers, at the shelves in the room, toppling things over, and throwing things at walls, till she finally found what she was looking for.

With shaky fingers she dialed the number she had dialed so few times that she could count on her fingers that amount of times she had done so.

"What is it?" The smooth accent wasn't harsh but it also wasn't welcoming, it didn't matter, right now she was a desperate woman, and she couldn't care if anyone would perceive her as such, especially not this man.

"Where are you?"

"Why? What's the problem?"

"I need you to come home." Hayley said quickly before she lost the nerve, "I need you to not go on a killing spree, or some kind of alcoholic bender, or whatever it is you do to handle your grief, and I just need you to come home."

"Home," He said slowly as if the concept was foreign to him.

"Home." She repeated in the same tone. Three hours ago, the concept was simple, home was wherever the baby was, home was wherever their daughter was, and now it wasn't so simple, because the fact still remained that home was wherever she was, but if they went anywhere close to where she was, they brought with them hell on earth.

"I'll see you soon, little wolf."

Hayley wasn't sure if she believed he would actually show up, as her pregnancy went on, he had been kinder and kinder to her, but she had always suspected that that had more to do with the fact that her daughter seemed more like a person.

Even she could constantly hear the tiny little heartbeat despite her hearing not being as good as the vampires, it thumped quietly and steady, always reminding them that there was someone they were fighting for, it the most peaceful of manners.

But when she looked up from her seat in the rocking chair – where just hours ago she had been holding the most precious baby in the entire world – she wasn't the least bit surprised to see Klaus standing there just like he had promised he would be.

"I'm here, what is it?"

Now that he was actually standing here, the reason for her freak out suddenly seemed like the most embarrassing thing in the world.

"I didn't want to be alone," She whispered quietly.

"And so you called me?" The statement sounding hard to believe even to her, let alone to him.

"Yes."

Klaus sighed as if he wasn't sure what to do with himself, Hayley didn't miss the way his eyes roamed like he couldn't focus on anything longer than a few seconds, and she couldn't imagine how she would have felt if she had created this room.

She could understand how much thought had gone into the nursery, but she would never truly know, everything in this room held meaning, and he knew better than anyone else what the meaning was, they were things he would may never get to explain to his daughter.

He moved across the and sat down on the floor next to the rocking chair, his back resting against the wall, and his arms resting on his bent knees.

"So I'm guessing that your love letter was in fact for me, then?"

Hayley laughed despite everything, but it wasn't a happy laugh, it was a laugh filled with sorrow, and longing, and everything in between, "It was for her."

"Dear Littlest Wolf," He mused.

"Actually, I called her Zoe, and then Caitlyn, and then Angela, and when none of those sounded right, I just called her my little girl," Hayley mused as well before she stood up her eyes wide and panicked, "We have to call Rebekah, we have to call her right now, she needs to come back, oh god she needs to come back."

"Hayley, Hayley!" Klaus said loudly standing up as well and blocking her path, "We can't call Rebekah, we need to give it time. And she most definitely can't come back. Whatever it is, it will have to wait."

"It can't wait," She said desperately her hands clutching at Klaus' upper arms, "We didn't name her! We didn't name her! We were so caught up in getting her to safety, in getting her out of New Orleans, in keeping her alive, that we didn't even name her!"

"Hayley!" He said even louder this time as she grew even more agitated at the thought.

She had just handed her baby over to Rebekah, and now she was going to raise her baby for god knows how long, and Hayley hadn't even named her. She had agonized over the decision during her pregnancy, when she actually had a chance to sit down and think about her pregnancy, but now Rebekah was going to name her, and change her, and kiss her, and do all the things she wouldn't get to do.

"I don't want Rebekah to be her mother!" She cried over him as the truth came spewing out of her mouth, "I don't want her to be with Rebekah, I don't want her to be with anybody, I want to hug her, and kiss her, and I want to tell her I love her, and I want her Klaus! I want my baby!"

Klaus stared at her as she clutched is shirt between the her two hands, making them closer than they had been since the night they had conceived their baby, and finally after what seemed like forever, his arms gently wrapped around her body, one hand at her waist, and the other on the back of her head, and his chin dropped to rest on the top of head.

"I want her too." He said so quietly that if she hadn't been changed that night she never would have heard him admit what he couldn't have before, admit what he had never been able to say before. "I want to hold her, and I want to read to her, and I want to teach her how to walk, and I want to teach her how to appreciate life, and art, and music. I want to show her how beautiful she is, and how beautiful the world is. I even want to yell at her, Hayley, I want to yell at her, and I want her to yell at me, and I want to be so frustrated with her that all I can think is that we brought this on ourselves when the two most stubborn people in the world had a baby. I want to lock her in a tower so she never knows what a boy is, and I want her to be happy, but more than any of those things, I want us to be the ones to make her happy."

"It's not fair."

"No," Klaus agreed pressing her lips to her head, "It's not."

"She's ours."

"And she will come home to us."

"But when?" She asked desperately as she looked at him as if somehow he would know all the answers that she couldn't find for herself, "When? After she's calling Rebekah 'mom'? Or after she's calling some random dentist 'dad'? Or maybe when she twenty and wants absolutely nothing to do with us? We didn't even name her Klaus even that, Rebekah, will get to do."

"I want to promise you that I will have our daughter back while she is still small enough to fit in the clothes in that cupboard, and the cradle by your bed. I want to promise you that you will be the only mother figure in her life, and I the only father. I want to promise you that she will love us as unconditionally as we love her, but I can't, Hayley, because I've tried promising them to myself and it didn't work. But there is one thing I can reassure you of."

"What?" She asked, if he had anything good at all to tell her, then she wanted to know, she needed to know, she needed something to get her till tomorrow, something to hold onto, something more than the idea of one day having her daughter back, something to sustain the right now, something to make her get up tomorrow and fight.

"Rebekah will not be naming our daughter."

"You named her," Hayley said slowly as she tried to decide if she was angry with him for naming their daughter without so much as asking her input, or if she was forever grateful that he had remembered to do it.

"I didn't mean to," Klaus admitted, "And then Rebekah asked me what her name was, and I just knew, little wolf."

"Tell me her name isn't something completely old fashioned like Eleanor," Hayley begged when in reality she would love her daughter's name even if her name was 'Eleanor' simply because Klaus had picked it, because her father had picked it, because for as long as they were apart, she would have this one piece of them.

"Hayley, there was only one name we could have ever named her."

"Her name," Hayley said as a feeling of inexplicable peace washed over her, she had to be right, this was the only thing that her name could be, it was the only name Hayley could ever imagine calling as she chased after a laughing little girl with dark hair and bright blue eyes, "It's Hope, isn't it?"

Klaus nodded, "Her name is Hope."

"Dear Hope," She said quietly testing it out.

"Wherever you are, we want you to know a few things," Klaus continued.

"Your mom and dad miss you very much."

"We also love you very much," Klaus said making her breath catch in her throat.

"Wherever you are, we hope the sun is shining."

"And we hope that the winds are laughing."

"And we hope that wherever you go, you find all the love in the world," She said her voice cracking slightly.

"We hope a lot of things for you, my littlest wolf."

"But most of all we hope for your happiness."

"Because you are ours, and we are yours, and we will always find our way back to each other."

"And no matter who you end up with, no matter who you love the way we want you to love us, nothing will ever change that." Hayley said firmly.

"I'm not so good at loving myself, but Mama, she's a pro at it. So for now I'm going to love you the best way I know how, sweetheart, and I'm going to do that by fighting for you, whatever terrible means necessary, and when we make our way back to each other," Klaus said quietly his eyes never leaving hers, "I'd really like it if you taught your father to love as well as I know you will."

"Here's the thing about our crazy, dysfunctional family, Hope, we're the kind of family that doesn't just fight for the people we love, and we don't just die for them," Hayley said just as quietly, "We kill for them, and Daddy, he loves you more than anyone in this world. So if you're going to teach him how to love like I do, I'd really like it if you taught me how to love like he does."

"But this isn't us promoting murder or anything, Princess," Klaus smiled gently.

"No," Hayley laughed a real laugh this time as she sniffed, "Be kind Hope Mikaelson, be the kindest person you can be, and smile wide, smile like every moment is the best moment you've ever lived. Even when you're crying, I want you to smile."

"And find happiness in simple things, find happiness in everything." Klaus said and then added as an afterthought, "But don't be an optimist, nobody likes an optimist."

"And nobody likes a pessimist either," Hayley laughed again, "Do what your Daddy and I haven't quite managed yet, find a balance."

It was a healing thought, somehow Hayley and Klaus had stopped being Mom and Dad, and the baby had stopped being miracle baby, somehow they had become Mama, Daddy, and Hope. They had become a family.

"But be passionate, Hope," Klaus whispered, "In everything that you do, be passionate. I want you to love, I want you to be so scared of love, that you can't imagine doing anything else but loving. I want you to let people in, I want you to love like you've never been hurt. I want you to be passionate."

"So that's it then, baby girl, I made you a promise that we would figure it out together, and we will, just from separate ends of the world for as long as we have to while Daddy and I make a world where there isn't a soul who doesn't love you."

"Goodnight, Princess. Good morning, Princess. Smile. Breathe. Love. Have Passion. Hope, be safe. Hope, be strong. And most of all, know how much you're Mama and I love you, know how much we want you."

"Love, Mama and Daddy."