AS promised, Hope returned to the Salvatore Boarding School with Klaus driving her the eight hour journey. He intended to use the time to try and talk her down from her fight with Ingrid whether she was willing to listen or not. Once they were halfway to Mystic Falls, Klaus called Ingrid to tell her it was safe to return to New Orleans.

Ingrid was in the kitchen, taking out a series of ingredients from the fridge when Eirik walked in and sat at the island. He had a large bandage covering his forehead and bruises around his wrists and ankles. His lips were chapped and cut and he groaned lowly while sitting down.

He watched his mother curiously and raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

"I'm cooking. Why? Hungry?" She asked and turned around to face him, holding a block of cheese in her hand. Eirik nodded curtly and she smiled, waving the block in the air. "Good. I was planning on making grilled cheese. Want one?" She inquired, setting it down on the counter and pulling out a pan.

He watched her for a moment and picked at his cuticles. "Mom, where were you?" He asked, his voice pained and angry. "You were gone for seven years without a word. I'm kidnapped and you're suddenly here."

Ingrid licked her lips anxiously and turned the stove on before placing the pan on the burner. "Um..." She trailed off while trying to decide to herself how to explain it without causing a fight like with Hope. "I was in Siberia, Russia." The hybrid answered honestly while grabbing a stick of butter from the fridge.

"They don't have cell service in Siberia?" He asked in confusion. "Or mail?"

Closing the door, she glanced at him with a hesitant expression and took a deep breath. "How much do you know about your dad?"

Eirik gave her a confused look and paused, trying to peace together the relevance. "Uh... he's an immortal Original hybrid from the eleventh century. He loves music, art, fancy food, his family." He listed off and Ingrid nodded slowly, waiting for him to finish. "I found his memoirs... so I know he's killed people. I know he used to dagger each of you guys as punishment."

Ingrid flattened her lips and nodded her head. "Yeah..." She trailed off slowly. "Not our finest moment." She commented with a small sigh then took a step toward him. "Well after we absorbed the Hollow, we all had to separate. Never able to see each other again. I couldn't..." She paused, tears pooling in her dark eyes as she recalled the still fresh memory. "I couldn't leave, no matter how hard I tried. So I asked your dad to help me leave and make it so I couldn't come back. Even though I really wanted to."

"He daggered you." Eirik concluded knowingly and his face immediately softened in understanding.

"Yeah." Ingrid whispered in a watery voice. "I've been asleep for the last seven years. Just like that movie... Sleepy Beautiful." She referenced with a teasing smile.

Eirik launched out of his chair and wrapped his arms around her neck. "I knew you didn't hate us." He breathed out in relief.

Ingrid hugged him back and kissed the top of his head. "I could never." She assured him softly and pulled away. "You, your sister, and your father are everything to me. I love you all so much."

"I love you, mom." Eirik replied emotionally and hugged her tightly again.

"I love you, baby." She expressed affectionately and stroked his cheek with the pad of her thumb. "Now, let's make some grilled cheese." Ingrid said, backing out of their embrace and holding the stick of butter out to him.

Eirik took it from her with a wide smile and jumped down from the bar stool. He walked toward the counter and waited for her. Ingrid joined him and grabbed a slice of bread, handing it to him and smiling back.

The two were sitting next to each other at the island, eating their grilled cheese sandwiches. Eirik took a bite and groaned lowly in delight causing Ingrid to chuckle as she pulled hers apart and raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." He mused through a mouthful and nodded his head causing her to laugh again. "These are so much better than the ones at school."

"Do you like your school?" Ingrid asked in curiosity and took a bite of her own sandwich.

Eirik swallowed his food and shrugged, tilting his head side to side. "It's okay." He mused dully.

She gave him a concerned look and finished her food before speaking. "What's wrong?"

"I just..." He trailed off and tried to plan his words. "I don't feel like I belong. I'm not a witch. I'm not a werewolf or a vampire."

"It's okay, sweetie. You may just be a late bloomer." She assured him with a kind smile. "I've met all kinds of witches who didn't find their magic until they were adults. It could happen." She replied then placed a hand on his upper back. "Even if you aren't a witch, it's okay."

"How do I know?" He asked in frustration and set his sandwich down on his plate. "I've tried some of Auntie Freya's easy spells and nothing."

"I'm sorry, baby." Ingrid expressed with a small frown. "I don't know. Im sorry I can't give you answers. I wasn't a witch and I wasn't raise by witches, so I don't know. Have you asked Freya? What did she say?"

"All she said was that I would know because I would feel it." Eirik responded in aggravation and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah. Freya isn't helpful sometimes." She mused gruffly then smiled warmly at him. "You don't need to be a witch to be incredible."

"Hope's a witch, Auntie Freya is a witch, Uncle Kol was a witch. Shouldn't I be one too?" He asked and began to tear his sandwich apart. "Both you and dad are werewolves. I should at least be a wolf. Something. You know?"

"Oh, sweetie, you don't want to be a wolf." Ingrid responded with a shake of her head.

"Why not? You love being a wolf." Eirik pointed out with a confused expression.

"I love being a hybrid. Trust me, love." She said softly and smoothed out his hair. "You don't want to be a wolf."

"How will I know if I am?" He inquired curiously. "Do I just wake up one day as a wolf?"

Ingrid shifted uneasily in her seat and licked her lips. She debated whether she should be honest about the werewolf curse or change the subject until she recalled how it felt to find out after the fact. "In order to become a wolf, you have to be born with the werewolf curse. And then in order to trigger that curse, you have to... take a life. A living life."

"You have to kill someone?" He gaped at her in disbelief and she nodded slowly. Eirik sat back against his seat and processed that for a moment. After a second, he turned to her with an off expression. "Who'd you kill?"

"I, um..." She trailed off, unable to explain to her son the sins of her past.

"Mom, I know you kill people. The kids at school talk and I've read dad's memoirs. He mentions you a lot." He remarked with an overwhelmed and disturbed face.

"That's why I didn't want you to know." Ingrid commented with a small sigh. He looked at her in confusion and she pointed at him. "That face. I can see it. It scares you. I scare you."

"No." He replied, shaking his head. "You don't scare me, mom, because I trust you. This face--" He said while gesturing to himself. "--is because dad mentions things that no child should have to read about their parents."

Ingrid choked out a laugh and curled her finger over her lips. "I'm sorry. That's..."

"Yeah. It's scarring." Erirk commented in disgust and stared in front of him with wide eyes. "So, can we change the subject? Who'd you kill?"

The hybrid settled down immediately and rested against her seat. "I... I killed your grandmother, Esther."

Eirik turned toward her with a surprised expression and Ingrid sucked the air from her teeth. "Why?" He asked, intrigued by family drama.

"She lied to your father about who he was and manipulated him his entire life." Ingrid answered in a vicious sneer. "After she made us into vampires, Niklaus couldn't control his hunger and killed someone. That's how he found out he was a wolf. So your grandmother Esther put a curse on him, making his wolf side dormant. I was just... so blinded by my anger that I snapped... and I killed her. I didn't mean to but that's the thing about the werewolf curse, Eirik." She said with a far off expression and slowly shook her head. "It fills you with a rage like no other and it keeps building until one day... you can't control it and---"

"You take a life." Eirik finished for her, understanding where she was going.

"Yeah..." She mused lowly and glanced at him with a stern face. "You don't want that carried around with you forever." She explained with a regretful expression. Ingrid never felt regret for those lives she took but she didn't want Eirik to think it was acceptable. Hypocritical? Yes. However, her objective was to raise her children to be better than her in every way.

He was about to respond but Ingrid's new cell phone started ringing. She glanced at it and was confused by the unknown number. Bringing it to her ear, she answered it and listened closely to the person speaking. "Alright. I'll be there when I can." She responded sternly and hung up with a heavy sigh. "That was your school. Apparently Alaric wants your father and I to attend a parent-teacher conference." She then waved a hand nonchalantly and placed a piece of her sandwich in her mouth. "I'll just go when I drop you off on Monday."

"You're dropping me off on Monday?" Eirik asked, both shocked and excited.

"Yeah. Did you not want me to?" Ingrid asked quickly and glanced at him in concern. "I don't have to---"

"No, mom." He interrupted with a laugh and shook his head. "It's fine. You can take me." He said with a small smile and she smiled affectionately back at him.

After lunch, Ingrid unlocked the door to her office and strolled into the room. Taking note of everything, she smiled widely when she realized not a single item had been moved. She walked over to the bookcase and grabbed a framed photograph off the shelf.

"Dad never let us in here." Eirik commented from the doorway causing her to turn her attention toward him. He slowly walked in, almost hesitant, and glanced around.

She set the photo back down and walked toward her desk, running a finger across the top and collecting a streak of dust. Grimacing in disgust, she wiped her hands together before sitting down in her chair. Closing her eyes and sighing heavily with a grin, she responded happily. "This was my office. This is where we would come to decide what to do."

Eirik walked over to where she was standing before and looked down at the photos sitting on the shelf. There were pictures of both the children as infants and one of four year old Eirik, seven year old Hope, and Ingrid on the porch of the Montana farm house. He smiled happily and picked up one of the framed photographs. "I remember that house."

Ingrid opened her eyes and turned to look at the photo. Smiling, she nodded her head in agreement. "I loved that house."

"Why'd we leave?" He asked curiously, setting the frame down and walking over to sit in the chair in front of her desk.

"Hope got sick." Ingrid answered with a frown and drew shapes in the dust in her desk. "Vincent Griffith assured us that he could cure her but we had to come to New Orleans. It was only meant to be temporary. A day or two. But that eventually turned into weeks and then Elijah, Kol, Rebekah, and I absorbed the Hollow..."

Eirik stared at her meaningfully for a moment before breaking the silence. "She doesn't hate you. She's just mad."

"I know." The hybrid whispered softly and rested her chin in her hand. "I don't blame her either. There are so many things that I could have done different. I could have left a letter behind. I could have made a final phone call. But I didn't. Instead, I asked Niklaus to dagger me barely into the first hour. But I can't change anything." She remarked with a heavy sigh and rested back against her chair. "All I can do is try my best to mend what's been damaged and hope she will accept my efforts."

Later on, Eirik had finished playing his video games and went searching around the Abattoir for his mother. He found her sitting in the den by the fire, reading Klaus' memoirs. He watched as she smirked to herself and bit her thumbnail. Her phone buzzed and she immediately reached for it with a hopeful look until she read the notification and frowned in disappointment. Sighing, she tossed the phone to the side and ran her fingers across her forehead.

"Staring is rude, love." Ingrid commented without looking up and smirked in amusement.

"Sorry." He mumbled sheepishly and walked into the room.

Closing the book in her lap, she glanced up at him. "What's up?"

"I'm bored." He groaned and threw himself down on the couch across from her.

"Uh, okay. What do you like to do?" She asked curiously and frowned to herself for being so clueless. "We could go to the swings or color." Ingrid offered up ideas awkwardly and fiddled with the edge of the book.

"Mom, that's baby stuff and I'm not a baby anymore." He grumbled in annoyance and rolled his eyes.

"Right..." She mused quietly and looked down at her lap, running the pad of her thumb across her lower lip. "So... uh... what do you want to do?" She asked, giving him the opportunity to provide ideas.

Eirik sat up after hearing her tone fall in sadness and looked at her apologetically. "I'm sorry."

"For?" Ingrid asked in confusion, furrowing her eyebrows.

He opened his mouth to speak but then shook his head. "Nothing." He assured her with a smile then studied the woman before him for a moment. Silence filled the room and Ingrid shrugged her shoulders, about to speak again when he asked her "What was it like? Being daggered?"

"Oh..." She was caught off guard by the question and shifted in her seat. "It's just like sleeping. It was seven years for you but it felt like a minute for me. You can hear everything around you but you have no true sense of time." She explained to him with a face of recollection.

Eirik soaked this in for a second then ran his hands across his jeans. "Is it weird? Being back?"

"Yes." Ingrid answered honestly with a nod of her head. "When I left, you were four. You were my baby, who loved to play cars and paint in the garden. Now... You've grown up. You're almost a teenager and it hurts because..." She trailed off with tears in her eyes and licked her lips before taking a shaky breath. "I don't know you. I feel... I feel horrible because I'm your mother. I should know you better than anyone and I don't." She whsipered sadly, a tear rolling down her cheeks. "And it's... difficult to accept that my son has grown up without me and I'm basically a stranger."

Eirik teared up at hearing her speak and his bottom lip quivered. Growing up the last seven years without her had proven to be difficult and he hoped everyday that she would come home. Now here she was, sitting in front of him, and he barely made a dent in understanding how the adjustment would take its toll.

"Okay." He stood to his feet and walked toward her, holding his hand out for her to shake. "Hi. My name's Eirik Augustus Mikaelson. I like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Marvel comics. I play Minecraft, Mario, and Call of Duty for fun. I love outer space and math. I hate licorice and mushrooms. My favorite foods are fruit gummies, waffles, and mac and cheese. It's really nice to meet you."

Ingrid smiled widely and chuckled through her tears. She leaned forward and grabbed her hand in his, shaking it up and down. "Hi." She whispered in a watery voice. Eirik let go of her hand and launched forward, hugging her tightly. Ingrid returned the embrace and closed her eyes, another tear falling down her face.

---
Comment
Vote
Share
Xoxo
-the1andonlytifftiff