Alicia didn’t like all the team swapping and just when she’d accepted the fact that she and Wanda would be working with Hawke, and she got excited about it, the bloke was gone. She was wandering slowly back home with a couple of bottles of wine and some bread, cheese and meats for dinner. She was too grumpy to cook dinner.
Rounding the corner she came face to face with someone she didn’t know. “Want to slow up a bit there?” She commented with a tilt of her head and a curious expression.
Klaus was rather single mindedly heading to find his daughter when he spotted the familiar-looking brunette and while the desire to find Hope was no less urgent, he did pause long enough to offer a rarely genuine smile. “Alicia!” he greeted warmly. He’d already gotten the list of who was here from his world, some names more welcome than others, and he was pleased to see who he thought was his brother’s fiancée.
“You had the baby,” he observed, unaware that this version of Alicia was not the same one he’d known in Breckinridge. The logical conclusion for him was that enough time had simply passed for her to have been given birth. “Tell me,” he continue cheerfully, “do I have a niece or a nephew?”
Blinking she was about to ask him who he was but the next comment caught her even more off guard.
“What?” She looked down at her stomach. Alicia was in perhaps the best shape of her life and that was saying something given she was a pro athlete before all the insanity here. “I’ve never been pregnant.” She went with. “Who are you?”
“Klaus Mikaelson,” he said after showing his own brief confusion that she didn’t know him. He remembered facetwins being commonplace in Breck, but hadn’t paid attention to those with different memories or places they’d been. “You don’t know me?” Klaus’ expression was a mixture of surprise and disappointment. “The Alicia Spinnet I knew was carrying my brother’s child. You are Alicia Spinnet, are you not?
Narrowing her eyes she was about to respond that she knew the name thanks to a few people she knew but the carrying the brother’s child part stopped her. “Sorry? Carrying your brother’s child? No.” She paused. “I have never been pregnant.” She added a little defensively, she looked down thinking. She’d heard about Breck and that she’d been involved with Kol Mikaelson there. “Are you telling me… you know what, nope,” she blinked a few times. “You’re-” she stopped. “Bloody hell.”
Her reaction drew an amused smirk from Klaus. He liked Alicia and he knew it wasn’t common to see her flustered. He couldn’t help finding it entertaining. “I’m almost sorry you won’t be my sister-in-law here then,” he admitted half-teasingly. There was a short pause and a little genuine regret there. “I need to find my daughter. Perhaps later you can catch me up on this version of Alicia Spinnet. Whether you and Kol are still an item or not, you’re family as far as I’m concerned, love.”
If she weren’t carrying wine, bread and cheese she might have slapped him. “Kol.” She responded. “You have a different sister-in-law here, Davina.” She knew that much at least. Alicia didn’t know Hope personally but she knew people who knew her. “What number house is she in?” Alicia asked but her eyes stayed aware.
“HOUSE_HERE”, he answered easily. He’d studied the map just enough to commit the house number and the path there to memory. It just happened that Alicia was on that path, too, which has resulted in a slight and not entirely unwelcome delay.
“Quickest way is to cut through the yard there and turn left and head straight.” She answered when he gave her the number. Alicia’s house hadn’t changed at all, which was a bit weird but she didn’t mind it. “And you owe me a bottle of wine this week.” She commented before walking away.
“Are you going to tell me where to deliver that, love?” Not really expecting an answer as he continued on his way to find Hope. Having to track Alicia down to make good on that debt would be half the fun.
“You can figure it out if you are as smart as you think you are,” she said turning away from him and heading towards her home.
His focus shifted once more to finding Hope and making sure she was alright. A very thorough exam by medics and witches or whatever they liked to be called had determined he was free of the Hollow. His sacrifice, regardless that it had brought him here somehow, had worked, it was evident. Having still possessed that evil would have been the one thing that could have kept him from his daughter. He was relieved it wouldn’t be an issue.
Hope’s home was also to be his and he used the keycard he’d been given to let himself in once he arrived.
It had to be a mistake. There was no way her father was in Atlantis. Hope couldn’t believe it, and beyond that, she knew he could be from any point in time. In his time, which was kind of a long time. Part of her wanted to rush out and find him but the other part of her knew he was assigned to her house and she should let him find her, if he wanted to.
The click of the door made her jump up, she held her breath as it opened. Every bone in her body wanted to run up and hug him but she held her ground. What if he didn’t know who she was.
“Dad?” She said heartbroken.
“It’s me, sweetheart.” Klaus just stood there, barely inside the doorway, taking the sight of his daughter in. He wasn’t certain how long it had been since he’d left her and time could be a funny thing. In Breck, she’d been nearly an adult, but the girl he’d left behind more recently in New Orleans had been so young, far too young to be made an orphan, but it had come down to his life or hers and when those were the stakes, his choice could be the same every time.
“You look so grown up,” he said out loud and there was a hint of pride and longing in his eyes. Regret, too, that he had missed it, though never that he’d made it possible for her to do so. Klaus had so many questions he wanted to ask her, but first, knowing already that it was safe, he strode toward her and drew her into a warm hug that he was loathe to let go of anytime soon.
He looked real, but she didn’t believe it yet. Blinking away tears she smiled painfully. “It’s a good sign you know you who I am.” The words were painful but a security blanket. She couldn’t let herself break or be fooled again but the hope of seeing her father again.
“When is the last time you saw me?” She asked about the time his arms wrapped around her. Hope didn’t know how to respond, she waited a bit before hugging him back as she tried to force tears not to fall but they fell freely.
After a few moments, she pulled back to look at him. “Dad,” she started. “How old was I when you saw me last?”
“You were 15,” he answered her. “I had to tell you goodbye, to ensure the Hollow could never hurt you or anyone else again, but I’m certain you remember the day just fine without me having to explain it to you.”
“It’s not really something you forget,” Hope swallowed the pain and forced an awkward smile. “I remember it every single day.” She paused. “It’s been two years.” Two years since her mother and father but sacrificed themselves for her. That was a pain she still didn’t know how to handle.
“Um, Marcel is here, so is Kol and Davina.” It was easier to distract herself with updating him. “Kol and Davina got married a few months ago, and Marcel runs one of the teams here. A lot of the Mystic Falls people are here too, Damon and Elena, Stefan and Caroline, Josie, Liv, Bonnie…” she trailed off awkwardly.
Klaus had hated having to leave his daughter, especially so soon after they’d lost Hayley. It was something he would have wanted to protect her from if he could, but there hadn’t been another way. He’d sacrificed his own life - and Elijah with him - to permanently get rid of the Hollow and ensure her safety.
He nodded at the list of people who were here with them, some more welcome than others. “Two years,” he commented as she trailed off. “You’ve grown into such a beautiful young woman, Hope.” It was hard to believe two years had passed for her when for him it felt like only moments.
“I don’t think I look that much different from when I was 15,” she really didn’t see that much of a change. It shouldn’t be awkward seeing her father again but she wasn’t even sure how to act, she wanted him to be proud of her but she didn’t know what to say.
“Did you know dragons are real? And well, they are real here, a few different kinds, but I mean at home. Did you know they are real at home?”
Klaus raised his brow at her. “I have never in over a thousand years heard of a single dragon sighting.” From anyone else, he might have accused them of being mad or lying, but coming from Hope, he believed it, incredible as it sounded. “Do you mean to tell me you’ve met a dragon?”
“You could say that,” she shrugged. “It’s a whole thing happening at home right now, all these things we never thought were real, well it turns out they are. Dr. Saltzman killed the dragon, but yeah, they’re real.” Hope really wasn’t sure what else to tell him, it wasn’t like he didn’t know all about the dark stuff from her past and the last two years she’d kept to herself more than anything else.
It took a lot to surprise Klaus Mikaelson, but he was surprised by this and his interest was more that piqued. That it concerned his daughter only added to his curiosity. He wanted to know everything about the time he’d missed with her. “What else have you seen?” he asked. There was perhaps more he wanted to know about, but he thought this wasn’t something she was more willing to discuss with him.
“I think we’ll need something to eat,” she almost added to drink too but didn’t. “But I’ll tell you all of it,” well, most of it at least. She wasn’t really sure she wanted to talk about Landon with him just yet. That was a little complicated.
“Then lead the way, daughter, we’ll get something to eat and drink and you can fill me in. I want to know everything!”