MONDAY rolled around and Ingrid drove Eirik back to Mystic Falls, taking him back to school. Klaus tagged along on the trip because Alaric wanted to see both hybrids for a parent-teacher conference.

Ingrid was hoping to see their daughter on their trip and have enough time to speak to her before anymore disastrous consequences occurred due to them being so close. Hope wasn't answering any of Ingrid's text so the mother hybrid assumed she needed space and only sent small texts of encouragement and endearment.

Eirik was sitting in the backseat with his brand new Nintendo, playing a video game with headphones in. Ingrid was driving while Klaus sat comfortably in the passenger seat. The ride was silent but not an uncomfortable silence and they all found it pleasant. Klaus looked out of his window at the world passing by then turned to Ingrid with a mischievous smile causing her to raise an eyebrow at him.

"Uh oh. When you look at me like that it means you've been thinking and that's never good." She commented in a teasing tone.

Eirik heard her through his headphone and chuckled to himself while Klaus gaped at his wife in feigned offense.

Ingrid laughed to herself and reached over to take his hand. "I'm just kidding."

"I'm over here, thinking of something nice, and you decide to leap to wild conclusions." He grumbled playfully and scoffed, pulling his hand away. "I'm insulted."

Ingrid laughed harder then narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. "Is it really a leap though?" She rhetorically questioned then leaned a hand over, not taking her eyes off the road, and grabbed his cheeks in her hand. "It's okay, darling." She said tauntingly while squeezing his face in her hands. "I love you."

Klaus smacked her hand away before grabbing it in his and kissing her knuckles. "While you're being mean to me, I've conjured an idea." He remarked smugly and listened to her laugh again. "The kids will be at school so we'll be alone..." He hinted seductively. "We can do whatever we want, wherever and whenever."

Eirik looked disgusted as he increased the volume of his game, drowning out the sound of his parents flirting with one another.

"Oooh." Ingrid hummed lowly, intrigued where he was going.

"Yeah." He mused back in a sultry tone and kissed the back of her hand again. "For the first time in fifteen years we are entirely alone. No one to bother us."

Ingrid giggled and spared him a glance from the corner of her eye. "I'm liking the sound of that."

"I knew you would." He responded smugly and intertwined their fingers.

"You guys are gross." Eirik commented from the back seat and groaned, pretending to gag.

The couple laughed at him and shared an amused look before they all returned to the silence of their trip.

When they arrived to the Salvatore Boarding School, Ingrid parked the car as the ghostly whispering started again. Sighing, she turned off the car and the trio climbed out. Eirik threw his back pack over his shoulders and gave Ingrid a hug and Klaus a fist bump before running off to find his friends. Ingrid laughed and waved to his retreating figure then looked to her husband. "Ready to be berated by a man we each once killed?"

Klaus threw his head back and laughed in recollection. "I'm sure he doesn't hold that against us." He remarked causing Ingrid to chuckle beside him. "Yours was indirect so does it actually count?"

"Yes. I got two for one with mine." She replied with a smug smile.

The couple walked into the house and Ingrid immediately began to study the interior as nostalgia washed over her. They both turned to look down the hall as heavy footsteps approached them. "Mister and Misses Mikaelson." Alaric greeted them formally with a nod of his head.

Ingrid smirked in amusement and tried to hold back a laugh. "I think we're past formalities."

"Beyond." Klaus added with his own amused smirk. "You don't kill someone twice and expect a formal greeting."

Alaric gave her a stern expression and tilted his head to the side. "Are you guys finished?"

"By all means." Klaus responded and gestured for him to lead the way.

Alaric walked them toward his office and held the door open for them. Ingrid walked through the door and mused dully, unimpressed. "This is relatively... basic."

"Not everyone can afford Italian maple and imported leather, Ingrid." Alaric gave her a pointed look as he approached his desk.

She smiled smugly at him and took one of the seats in front of him. Klaus smirked at them and sat down next to his wife. Alaric sighed heavily and began to ponder over the situation. "We need to discuss Hope's behavior." He approached delicately and set his palms down on the desk.

"Can we hurry this along?" Ingrid requested impatiently. "We have approximately one hour before apocalyptic events begin to happen and I would like to spend most of what time I have with my daughter."

Alaric glanced over at her and slid his hands down to his lap. "That's what I wanted to talk about. Hope has been suffering from a lack of maternal influence."

Ingrid sucked on the air of her teeth and slowly nodded her head. "Right." She whispered knowingly and ran her fingertips across her temples down to her cheeks. Klaus reached over and placed a comforting hand on her upper back. Clearing her throat, she shifted in her seat. "Well, I'm here now and we're working on it."

"Where were you, Ingrid?" Alaric asked in annoyance. "I've been trying to call you for seven years. You don't get to show up when things start to get bad. You need to show up for all of it or not at all." He began to lecture her and Klaus smirked at him, amused by his courage to give parental advice to the female hybrid. "You can't just pop in when you feel like it."

"My apologies for missing your calls. We don't exactly receive calls on the floor of the Eastern Siberian Sea." Ingrid responded dully with narrowed eyes. Laughing humorlessly, she waved a hand and smiled at him. "Something about the cell service and a coffin don't mix. My mistake."

Alaric's face fell and he sighed heavily, resting his head in his hand. He looked up at them and breathed out a small "okay" to himself before looking at them sternly. "Then whatever martial problems you're both having need to be resolved because it's just going to end up hurting Hope and Eirik."

Klaus and Ingrid shared a confused look then both burst out into a fit of laughter. Shaking his head, Klaus licked his lips and chuckled huskily. "There aren't any. Believe me." He commented smugly with a wide, suggestive smirk plastered on his face.

"Besides, I don't think you're exactly the best candidate to give marital advice." Ingrid snarkily commented between laughs. "Well, this was a waste of ten minutes." Ingrid remarked, calming down from her laughter and wiping the tears from her eyes. "Thank you for the free entertainment and the parenting advice. I'll be sure to put it to good use." She assured him sarcastically and stood to her feet. "I'm going to see my daughter with the remaining fifty minutes." She then walked out of his office with Alaric calling after her. However, she ignored him and continued on with Klaus following suit.

Hope was walking along the soccer field and made her way toward the bleachers before taking note of her mother sitting there by herself. Sighing lowly, Hope walked toward Ingrid with a confused expression on her face. "What are you doing here?"

Ingrid turned her head and gave her a small, warm smile. "Alaric asked to meet with your father and myself. Plus I wanted to see you."

"No offense, mom, but I don't really want to see you right now." Hope replied with an exhausted expression

Ingrid felt her smile fall in hurt as her hopes squashed underneath her daughter's dismissal. "Okay..." She whispered to herself and licked her lips. "I understand." She said, standing to her feet and brushing off rhe back of her pants. She was about to walk away but turned around and decided against it. "No. We need to talk because this cannot continue to be left unresolved. Hope, I understand why you're mad. You have every right to be. Maybe you're right... I abandoned my family. I left Niklaus to pick up the pieces alone and that was... shitty of me. I can't take it back and I cannot change it. I have a lot to make up for and I am trying to do that. However, that doesn't excuse using Eirik as bait."

Hope rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her chest. "Of course." She sneered in aggravation. "Always taking his side. Just admit he's your favorite."

"There's no favoritism." Ingrid replied sternly and shook her head.

Hope scoffed and laughed humorlessly. "Please. You spend more time with him than me."

"Not of my own choice." The hybrid pointed out loudly. "Don't you think I would spend the same amount of time with you if I could? I am literally standing here, trying to talk, when all I should be doing is getting as much distance between as possible." She remarked stressfully. "I am risking everyone by standing here."

"I don't care about everyone else." Hope snapped furiously and pointed a finger in her mother's direction. "And I know you don't either. You don't care about anyone but yourself. I've heard the stories. I've read dad's memoirs. You murdered just for fun. You can't lecture me about having empathy for other people's lives when you weren't empathetic for the thousands of people you kill. Stop trying to spin this as some heroic act. Just tell the truth. Tell me you want nothing to do with me and we can be done." She sneered out with tears in her eyes. "I wouldn't blame you. I'm the problem child. I'm the reason all of our family has to be separate for all of eternity."

Ingrid's face immediately softened and she took a small step toward the witch. "Hope." She called out softly, getting her attention. "You didn't do that. That wasn't because of you." Ingrid tried to reassure the teenager with a shake of her head. "If we're going to be honest, our family... has been broken for centuries. We were bound to split eventually. We hate each other but we love each other. I want nothing to do with your uncle Elijah but I would never let anyone kill him. Family protects family. Always and forever." She said with a sarcastic and sad smile.

"Our family... has always been clouded with tragedy from a very early start. Far before we were vampires. It's a curse to be so devoted to each other but in a twisted way, it makes us strong." Ingrid mused lowly and shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. "You're right. I don't care about people. I never have. Anyone outside this family is simply a bug on my windshield. But you're my daughter and I care about you." She explained emotionally, her voice wavering.

"I love you despite what you may think of me. I love you unconditionally and nothing will change that. But I can't give you what you need if you don't let me in." Ingrid brought up in a pointed manner. "You keep pushing me and rejecting me and that's only going to hurt you further. You don't get to do that and villainize me."

They both turned to see the trees beginning to die around them and Ingrid sighed in frustration. "We're running out of time."

"Mom, you need to get the hint." Hope brought the conversation back. "I don't want to talk to you. Hence the declined phone calls and ignored texts. I'm not interested. You had seven years to come home and decide to be a mom. You don't get to decide to come home suddenly and lecture me about family."

Ingrid chuckled to herself and looked down at her feet. "Okay." She whispered with an eye roll. She found it funny that Hope had a strong opinion about what was acceptable family behavior when a few days ago, Hope stuffed Eirik in a coffin just like her father had done to them plenty of times over. "You can keep pushing me away. That's your choice. But you don't deserve to be mad at me for not spending time with you when you're the one doing this. I'm not one to back down so while you may not want to talk to me, I want to talk to you. However, I can respect the aspect of needing space." She mused with a shrug and turned to walk away.

"So you're just going to leave?" Hope asked in disbelief with a scoff.

Ingrid turned around to face her with an incredulous expression. "You wanted me to and I am. Plus we only have maybe another ten minutes before we cause the end of all life. So yes, I'm leaving. I'm going home."

"I waited for you." Hope whispered painfully as a frown formed across her face. "For seven years I waited for you to come home and explain why you ran away that day. I cried out for you but you just left without any explanation. It took weeks before dad would finally speak your name let alone explain where you went or why you left. I tried so hard to convince myself that you would come back and it was temporary. But then weeks turned into years. At first I blamed myself. Maybe there was something in me that drove you away. Maybe I wasn't good enough for you." She said in a teary voice then shook her head with an angry scowl. "But no. It's no one's fault but your own. You made that choice."

Ingrid paused for a moment and licked her lips before approaching her. "I had to leave regardless. You get that don't you? Even had I choosen not to be in that coffin, I still wasn't going to be around like you wanted me to. I had literally no other choice."

"Yes!" Hope snapped and threw her hands up, interrupting her. "But at least I could still talk to you! I could call my mom when I needed her instead of wishing you were here!"

"It wouldn't be enough. For either of us." Ingrid replied with a pointed expression. "We'd both want more from the other that the other wouldn't provide. I didn't want to give false hope." She explained with a sad smile. "But it seems that was inevitable."

"So you just locked yourself away?" Hope questioned in disbelief. "You could have at least explained everything first. One final phone call or a letter. Something to provide closure."

"Would it have?" Ingrid asked in confusion, raising an eyebrow. "No matter what choice I made, it wasn't going to ever be good enough. There was always going to be a longing for more."

"You should have stayed." Hope spoke in a hushed tone through tears.

"I had no choice." Ingrid replied back sympathetically. "You know that. It was either me or your father. He had already missed five years of your life, I couldn't let him miss more."

They both watched as a bird began falling down from the sky and crashed against the grass in front of them. Ingrid gave Hope a significant look before backing away from her. "We can speak more later. I have to go. I'm sorry but I really have to leave. I love you." She shot her daughter a face of apologies then sped away, leaving Hope alone on the edge of the soccer field to process everything that had been said between them.

The Mikaelson hybrids had returned to New Orleans hours later, a safe distance from Hope. Klaus found Ingrid sitting in her office with her eyes shut and a glass of scotch in her hands. "Are you alright, love?" He asked in concern as he walked through the door.

"Uh..." She trailed off while rubbing her temples. "Yeah. I'm fine."

He approached her desk and sat down in one of the chairs in front of her. He glanced at her with a knowing smile and reached across the desk to grab her hand, pulling it away from her face. "You can talk to me."

Sighing, she turned her head up and met his eyes. She threw back her liquor and set the empty glass down on the desk. "Did you feel abandoned?" She asked curiously, playing with her earlobe, and he gave her a confused expression in response. "When I left, did you feel abandoned?"

Klaus' face fell as he realized why she was asking and he quickly moved to reassure his wife. "No. Not at all. I knew that if you had the option, you would've been here." He remarked with a warm smile and stroked the back of her hand with the pad of his thumb. "She'll come around."

"Yeah." Ingrid breathed out, not convinced in the slightest. "I want more time with her but I don't want to push her. She'll just pull further away. What should I do?" She asked in a whiney voice, looking at him in frustration.

"Keep doing what you're doing." Klaus responded and kissed the back of her hand. "Keep trying. Hope's... just angry at the moment. She'll eventually understand."

"She thinks I'm playing favorites." Ingrid informed him a frown. "I'm not trying to. I have no favorite. But it's impossible to give her the same attention because I can't be near her and she refuses to answer my calls."

"In the end, that's her choice and she'll learn the results." He tried to soothe her anxieties again. "Ingrid, you're a wonderful mother. Things are bleak now but it'll be alright. Hope needs some time, she'll come around. Give yourself some credit. You're doing better than you think." He said, standing up from his chair and walking around the desk toward her. "But for now, how about I take your mind off it?" He suggested with a mischievous smirk and leaned down toward her. Klaus kissed the soft skin behind her ear and hummed happily when she moaned quietly. "Want to go upstairs?" He asked against her skin, sending shivers down her spine.

"No." She smirked wickedly and stood up from her chair before moving everything on her desk. "Here's good."

Klaus laughed and picked her up, setting her down on the top of her desk and standing in between her legs. He tangled his hands in her hair and kissed her passionately on the lips.

---
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-the1andonlytifftiff