#updated chapter

Elijah hadn’t meant to invade Y/N’s memories as he had. Her mind was still open to him after spending a majority of the night talking about Henrik. When Y/N fell asleep in the arm chair, Elijah couldn’t just leave her there. It was when he picked her up to take her to the bed did the memories flood his mind with the simple touch.

Y/N sat on the couch with a pad of paper and pen in her hand. She looked between the blank page in front of her and the sleeping baby in the bassinet next to her. She owed him this. Sighing, she began writing. 

Elijah, 

I know I left with the promise of not coming back. Turns out fate is telling me that isn’t exactly in the cards for me. I went back earlier this month. I wanted to tell you in person, but I just couldn’t. I saw you with her and I just thought of all the pain I felt and I left once more. So I’m trying this another way and I hope you understand. 

After so many failed attempts, we finally did it. We managed to bring a child into this world. I know it’s going to be hard reading about this, but it is true. We have a son, Elijah. A beautiful boy that I would gladly give my life for. His name is Henrik, just as I promised. 

.

A babbling Henrik sat in his walker as he pushed himself around the living room. Y/N’s grin was big enough that her cheeks had been hurting the last few minutes. Without another thought, she picked up a piece of paper and started writing. 

You should have seen him today, Elijah. He’s grown so much since the last time I’ve written. He started walking on his own. He just decided right then and there that he was going to take a few steps across the room. I wish you had been there to see it…

.

Y/N walked into Tiffany’s shop and tossed a stack of letters in front of her. Tiffany’s eyebrow raised as she looked at them. “What are those?”

“The letters I sent.” Y/N’s voice had sounded broken at the words. 

“He sent them back?” Tiffany asked.

“Unopened.” Y/N said with a nod. “He has no idea about Henrik.”

“Oh Y/N,” Tiffany walked around the counter and hugged her. “I am so sorry.”

But out of everything Elijah saw in the span of seconds, there was one memory that stood out the most to him.

Henrik’s laugh filled the air as he chased a few other kids around the yard. Y/N had been standing on the porch as she watched the kids. At least that was until she saw a car pull up in front of the house. 

“Henrik, Tess, Lila, I need you guys to come inside.” Y/N’s voice was loud and calm despite the fear that was building up inside of her at the unknown car. 

“A few more minutes, please.” Henrik’s voice carried over to her. 

“Now.” Y/N said as she looked over at the kids. Henrik took one look at Y/N and understood what was going on. He knew when Y/N said now, it was for his safety. She hardly spoke to them like that. 

With the other two in tow, the kids ran past Y/N and headed inside. Y/N kept her head high as she watched the car door open and out came Alric. 

“How did you find me, Ric?” Y/N asked from her spot. 

Alaric stopped for a moment taking in the woman before him. “Y/N?” He asked as he took another step closer. “I swear I didn’t know you’d be here.”

“Then why are you here?” She asked, never once relaxing. 

“Would you believe I’m actually recruiting for the school?” He asked as he came to a stop in front of her. “We have a device back in Mystic Falls that shows a source of magic coming from this location. I thought I could help by offering a place at our school.”

Y/N shook her head at that information. “I’m not interested.” She said as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Alaric chuckled. “While you’d make one hell of an addition as staff, it’s actually not your power source, we’ve seen. From what I’ve put together it could be your son.”

“How did-” Panic began to build in Y/N.

“Hey,” He said as he placed a hand on her shoulder. “you have no reason to be afraid. I’m here to help. I figured you of all people would know what an opportunity this would be for him.”

“Just because I know kids that are thriving there doesn’t mean it is best for everyone.” Y/N noted. “You’ve wasted a trip.”

Alaric sighed as he pulled his hand away from her. “You know, there was something about that source that had me curious.”

Y/N rolled her eyes. “What?”

“It’s a lot like Hope’s.” He said as he watched her reactions. “Now I may be out of the loop on many things, but from what Hope has told me, you and Elijah were pretty close.”

Y/N scoffed and shook her head. “If we were that close Ric, I’d still be in New Orleans and not all the way out here.”

He sighed, taking a moment to rework his thoughts. “I know you, Y/N/N. I know about the tragic events your parents put you through before you met the Mikaelsons. And I know all about the stories the Mikaelsons have been through. If my assumptions are right, your son has one hell of a lineage. If the device Hope created was able to locate him, others can do the same.” It wasn’t meant to scare her. He knew what kind of dangers came with being a Mikaelson or a Y/L/N. And if he was correct in his assumptions, her child was both. 

Y/N sighed as she looked back towards the house. “Do yourself a favor, Ric. Get back in your car, and head back to Mystic Falls. We’ll be fine.” She turned and started walking back towards the house hoping he’d get the point. 

“What are you going to do when your own family finds out about him?” He called out after her, causing her to stop and look at him. “If he’s anything like Hope, I know you are already training him. But just think about it. We can have Freya and Hope help you teach him while keeping him safe.”

Y/N scoffed as she walked back over to him. “If you really know the stories of my family, you know what will happen if he goes there. We’ll bring unwanted attention back to Mystic Falls. When the time comes, I’ll be the one to decide who helps him. Not you.”

Not only Did Henrik possibly inherit his own family’s enemies, Henrik also inherited Y/N’s family’s as well. Elijah hated the thought of someone using Henrik just as they attempted to use Y/N for. 

He sighed as he placed Y/N down on the bed beside his son. Instinctively, Y/N turned over in her sleep and pulled the sleeping child closer to her. And as if Henrik had been used to it as well, he curled into her embrace before a content sigh passed his lips. 

A small smile pulled at Elijah’s lips at the sight. But it hadn’t lasted long. Just as Y/N said earlier that day, there was a reason she wouldn’t go to her childhood home. As he walked out of the room and closed the door gently behind him, he could see the several protection spells in place around the suite. 

Candles with protection sigils etched into them had been lit in several places. A long put out sage stick sat on the counter, ensuring that no one standing on the outside would be able to hear within the walls. Even the table had a protection spell in place, one that Elijah recognized fairly easily since it had been Freya’s spell. 

As he walked around the room, Elijah took in every little detail that proved even Y/N had been afraid of what was awaiting them with their return. Y/N took a risk bringing Henrik here. Their son was in more danger in New Orleans than he would be in Mystic Falls. 

Henrik’s magic was different. Y/N’s family dabbled in the darker sides of magic. And if Henrik held the potential to wield that magic, Elijah knew that anyone in Y/N’s family would be able to sense it. And if they could sense it, it would only be a matter of time before they came looking for him. 

It was with that thought that Elijah decided he wasn’t leaving them alone that night. 

_____

“Momma.” Henrik’s voice was a whisper in Y/N’s ear. His hands reached out to Y/N’s shoulder as he shook her slightly. “Wake up, there is someone in the other room.”

It took less than a second before the words registered in Y/N’s sleep filled brain. She got up out of bed quickly before pulling the charm that had been laid out next to the bed and putting it around Henrik’s neck. She held up a single finger to her lips, telling him to stay quiet, which he quickly nodded in response. 

There were a million things running through her head at that moment. All Y/N knew was that she had to get Henrik out of there, safely. The charm that was around his neck would only do so much. But it would be enough to help him get away if needed. 

Leading him over to the door, she gave him a small smile before opening the door slowly.

“Whatever it is you believe you need to do, I assure you it’s not necessary." 

Hearing the voice, a sigh of relief passed her lips before she looked back at Henrik. "It’s okay.” She said with a nod. “Just stay here while we talk.”

“Are you sure it’s safe?” Henrik asked not wanting to let his mother out of his sight just yet. 

She tilted her head to the door, allowing him to take a look. Henrik moved past the bedroom door for a moment before coming back. “Anything?” She asked with a small smile.

“Nothing bad.” Henrik said with a confident nod.

“That’s my boy.” She said before leaning down and kissing the top of his head. “I’ll let you know when you can come out.”

“Okay momma.” Henrik said watching as Y/N closed the door. 

“You’re still here.” Y/N’s voice was soft as she watched Elijah from her spot, her back leaning against the door. “I thought you would have left.” From where she stood she could see him standing in the kitchenette pouring batter into a pan. 

Elijah looked over his shoulder for a moment, giving her a small smile before looking back at his task. “After you fell asleep, it occurred to me how much of a risk you were taking coming back here now that Henrik is older. It wouldn’t have been me if I didn’t stay and help to protect my family.”

The words caused Y/N to roll her eyes as she pushed away from the door and walked towards him. “We are hardly even close to being a family.”

“That doesn’t mean Henrik should have only one parent looking after him.” He said as he slid the ready pancakes onto a plate before turning the stove off and looking at Y/N. “I am willing to do this on your terms. All I ask is that I get to know him.”

On her terms. She hadn’t been expecting that. While they had spent a majority of the night talking about everything Elijah missed in Henrik’s life, they hadn’t at all discussed how this was going to work between them. She expected a fight. Yet here he was just giving her control over the whole thing. 

After a moment, Y/N sighed as she came to stand beside him, her hands on the counter in front of her. “Remember yesterday how Henrik told me you were good?” She asked as she looked over at him. 

Elijah’s brows furrowed until he remembered what she had meant. During that time he had been in shock, but he had heard the words come from his son. Nodding his head, he waited for her to continue. 

“He’s got this ability to tell someone’s intentions in his life without ever needing to speak to them.” Her eyes moved away from him to her hands as they traced the designs of the counter top with her finger. “The more he gets to know the person, the deeper he can dive into that intention. While I know you would never do anything to intentionally hurt him, he’ll know before you do if at any point you even think about turning your back on him.”

“I would never do that to him.” Elijah said as he watched Y/N begin to shake her head.

“You made that promise to me once.” She looked back at him. Elijah didn’t miss the hurt that was clear in her eyes. “You said this would be on my terms, but it won’t be up to me. You can get to know your son. I will never deny you that. Spend time with him, show him the world through your eyes. Let him see you as the man that saved me and who I fell in love with.” A sad chuckle passed her lips as she ran a hand up her arm. “But the moment he tells me you’ve changed, that’s when I’ll step in and put my foot down.”

Elijah understood exactly what Y/N had been telling him. She wouldn’t interfere with the time he asked for, nor would she make things difficult. But he knew that Y/N would make sure that Henrik wouldn’t walk away from this with a broken heart like she had.  

He placed his hand on top of her hand that was still placed on the counter. A sigh leaving his lips. “I know that it is going to take more than a few conversations for us to come close to even a fraction of what we used to be. But I need you to know that I am truly sorry for not only hurting you but making you feel that you couldn’t even trust Freya.”

“That was hard.” Y/N admitted. “There were so many things I wanted to tell her.” She paused for a moment. “To tell you. Every part of me wanted to include you and your family during the pregnancy, but every time I worked up the courage to tell you, I would think about that night. And I know you are apologizing for hurting me and I’ll accept it. But forgiving you is a whole ‘nother level.”

“I have learned from early on that your forgiveness, even your trust, is not something you take lightly.” Elijah nodded, his hand squeezing slightly on top of hers before removing his hand completely. “I would never expect you to shrug it off for my benefit.”

A small smile pulled at Y/N’s lips, disappearing a second later, as she took in his words. “As long as we both understand.” Pushing away from the counter, she took a few steps back. “I’m going to talk with Henrik, and then I’ll properly introduce you two.”

Elijah smiled. “Take your time. But I should warn you, breakfast might be cold by the time you’re done.”

Y/N rolled her eyes and walked back to the room. Once in with the door shut behind her, she found Henrik sitting in the middle of the bed, with her grimoire in his lap. 

“Can I learn this one?” He asked as he looked up at Y/N. 

Y/N’s head tilted as a smile grew on her lips. Walking over to the bed, she sat down next to him, looking at the spell. Her fingers ran over the page as she took the spell in. “This one wouldn’t be hard to do. If you wanted to, we could ask Freya to bring some things over and try later. But how about we talk about something first?” She asked as she gently pulled the book out of his lap. 

“Is this about who he is?” Henrik asked as he watched his mother put the book on the nightstand. “It is more than later.”

Y/N chuckled and ran her hand through his hair. “Have I ever mentioned you are too smart for your age?” Henrik just grinned up at her. “But yeah, this is about him.” She took a deep breath trying to find the right words that she needed. “You know your favorite bedtime story?”

“The one about the vampire that saves the witch?” He asked excitedly. No matter how many times, Y/N had told him that story, it had always been his favorite. He never grew tired of it. In his world of supernatural creatures, that was a positive outlook in a sometimes dimmed world.

Y/N smiled. “Yeah, that one. I was the witch that the vampire saved.”

Henrik’s eyes widened slightly. “I knew it.” He mumbled to himself and Y/N tried to hold back a laugh. “Was he the vampire?” He asked a moment later.

“His name is Elijah and he is that vampire.” She nodded. “And for a while there, after he saved me, he continued to protect me from our family that wanted to hurt me. And in return I helped him protect his family when someone wanted to hurt them. And I-we fell in love. It was a real life fairy tale to me in some ways.” She bit down on her lip a moment. “And then the only thing that was missing from our happy ending was you. And with some help of a bit of my magic, we got you.” She said with a smile. 

She watched as a look of confusion formed on his face. “But if it was a happy ending, why didn’t I know who he was?”

Y/N sighed. “Because before you were born, we got into a huge fight and mommy moved away to get a clear head. I didn’t know I had you until Aunt Tiff told me. For the longest time I tried telling your dad about you. But things got…hard and mommy was mean by keeping you away from him. And when Elijah saw us yesterday, we needed to have a long talk about you. And if you want to, he wants to spend some time with you.”

Henrik looked down at his hands and guilt filled Y/N. Maybe that had been too much to throw on him. Maybe she should have taken things slower. But she always told Henrik everything he needed to know and there was nothing she told him that he couldn’t handle yet. 

“He’s good.” Henrik said, still looking at his hands. “Right?”

“Only you will know, my love.” She placed her hands on top of his, causing him to look up at her. “If you don’t want to spend any more time with him after a while, that’s fine, okay? But it’s what you want to do. I won’t make you do this if you don’t want to. That power of yours is a great one, it will never let anything bad happen to you.”

The table had been set with breakfast. An assortment of plates covered the already small table, leaving very little space. It had been what kept Elijah busy. He had been surprised by the fact that Y/N hadn’t blocked him from hearing the conversation. To be honest, he had only caught the last part of it and it actually made him nervous. 

He now understood what Klaus had felt when seeing Hope for the first time in years. A child such as Henrik, who has known the stories of his father, was sure to have expectations. Living up to them would be a challenge that Elijah would take and hopefully live up to them. 

The tension in his shoulders released the moment the bedroom door opened. He stood in front of the table, letting Y/N take the lead on this. He wasn’t going to jump right into things if there was a possibility of making Henrik uncomfortable. 

Tightly gripping Y/N’s hand, Henrik kept himself close to her as they walked out. While normally not a shy child, Henrik was meeting his favorite person in all of the stories his mother told. To know that character that he had imagined to be so many things was his father had him nervous. But he wanted to meet Elijah. 

Y/N led him over to where Elijah had been standing. She could see the man before her was just as nervous as she and her son were. This was a big step, but if her son was ready to do it, she’d take it with him. 

Sighing, she gave Elijah a small smile. “Elijah, this is your son Henrik.” She looked at Henrik next. “And Henrik, this is your dad, Elijah Mikaelson.”

Elijah smiled at Henrik before he kneeled down to his level. He placed his hand out in a simple greeting. “It is great to finally meet you, Henrik.”

Henrik eyed Elijah’s hand before letting go of Y/N’s hand. Moving past Elijah’s outstretched hand, Henrik moved in to hug Elijah tightly. The action itself had surprised both Elijah and Y/N. “Thank you for saving momma.”

A smile pulled at Elijah’s lips as he wrapped his arms around his son. The comfort of the small arms wrapped around him had been unexpected to him, but he had enjoyed it. There were so many ways this meeting could have played out, but Elijah had been glad this had been the outcome. 

Y/N’s heart swelled at the sight before her, at the same time the guilt poked its head out as well. She never doubted for a moment that Henrik would accept Elijah into his life. But this very moment could have happened years ago if she hadn’t been so stubborn. 

“I believe your mother is very capable of saving herself now.” Elijah noted as he looked up at Y/N. He chuckled as he watched her roll her eyes at the statement. 

As Henrik pulled out of Elijah’s embrace, he began to dive right on into everything Elijah had missed in his lifetime. From the things he could remember, the details of every house they had moved into and even the magic Freya had began teaching him. 

Elijah had a grin on his face as he listened to all of the details he was giving over. Even as he stood and led Henrik over to the table to get him started on his breakfast, he listened and absorbed every piece of information he could.

Y/N watched the interaction before her from her spot. She wanted to save this moment in her mind. Henrik wasn’t upset with either of them that prevented this meeting. Henrik loved that his hero was right there in front of him, wanting to know everything about it. She loved the way Elijah had immersed himself in the conversation as if he had never missed any of it. 

She listened as Elijah began offering his input and Y/N couldn’t believe she had put this off for so long. As she watched Henrik take a bite out of the pancakes Elijah had placed in front of him, she took that moment to interrupt. 

“I’m going to let you two spend some time together.” She said as she took a few steps back towards the room. “I have a few things to get in town.” It was as she turned to continue walking that she felt Elijah grab a hold of her hand. She turned back and looked at him. 

“You don’t have to leave.” He said softly. “Have breakfast with us.”

“You need time with him.” She gave him a small smile. “I won’t be gone long.”

“Please stay.”

His words had surprised her. Not only the words but the way they had sounded to her. She nodded her head after a moment and gave him another smile. 

As they walked back to the table together, Henrik was already starting on another pancake, causing Y/N to shake her head, a smile on her face. “Slow down there, the food isn’t going anywhere.”

“She’s right.” Elijah noted as he took his seat at the small table. “There are several more where those came from. Wouldn’t want you to make yourself sick before you even start.” The eye roll that Henrik gave had Y/N and Elijah chuckling. 

“Seems your mother’s habits have been passed down.” He said as he looked at Y/N.

“Oh he’s just getting started.” Y/N grinned. “Give him time, you’ll learn he’s got more of you than he does of me.”

For the first time, the three had a meal together. It was everything Y/N had hoped it would be. This was exactly what she pictured their morning routine would be if things hadn’t changed as they had. And while she would never admit the thought out loud, she knew this was just a moment of light in the darkness that she was sure to surround them.

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