THE citizens of the French Quarter all prepared themselves for Father Kieran's funeral service. A long line of community members and family, including Cami, Francesca, Genevieve, and Marcel, made their way to Father Kieran's open casket to pay their respects. Klaus arrived late and by the time he reached the casket, everyone else at the service was already seated in the pews. He greeted Cami and gave her a kiss on the cheek before going to give his respects to Father Kieran. However, when he opened the casket, Father Kieran was gone, and in his place was a baby. The baby cooed at him and he smiled widely.

"Hi." Klaus reached down to pick the baby up but before he could, a squishing noise was heard and blood poured from Klaus' mouth. He looked down to see that he had been staked from behind with the indestructible white oak stake. When Klaus turned around, Mikael was standing there with a satisfactied grin. He grabbed Klaus in a choke-hold and sneered at him. "Greetings, boy."

Klaus woke with a gasp and looked around to see that he was in his bedroom at the Abbatoir. After breathing heavily for a few moments, he lied back down in bed. Ingrid rolled onto her back, still half asleep, and motioned for him to come toward her. "It is okay, darling. Just a bad dream."

He rolled onto his stomach, resting his head on her chest and throwing an arm around her baby bump. She wrapped her arms around his head, cradling him, and played with his blond curls. She hummed a song softly and kissed the top of his head.

The soothing nature of her touch calmed him down and he fell asleep on her chest. She smiled when she noticed he was asleep and began to fall asleep herself. "Mikael cannot hurt you anymore."

At Rousseau's, Ingrid, Klaus, and Elijah sat around and drank, Ingrid only having nonalcoholic options.

"Seems rather uncivilized to laugh and dance around the body of a loved one." Klaus commented in disapproval, taking a sip of his drink.

"I thought the same thing." Ingrid agreed as she watched the patrons having a good time.

Elijah poured himself another drink and nodded his head. "Yes, far better to practice your process of grief, Niklaus-- denial, rage, and hoarding coffins in basements." He remarked on a patronizing tone and Ingrid chuckled beside him.

Suddenly, Hayley walked over to them and sat down across the two brothers. Elijah glanced over at her with a smile and proceeded to joke. "I will warn you, Hayley, Niklaus is in a spectacularly foul mood today."

"Sod off." Klaus sneered at him with a harsh glare.

"What's the deal with these moonlight rings?" Hayley questioned him impatiently. "Oliver's trying to set a revolution every five seconds. People are scared, angry, and frankly, I'm tired of stalling."

"It's a day of peace, Hayley. Try and enjoy it." He suggested with a bitter smile. "And, in the meantime, with all manner of unknown enemies conspiring against our family, you'll cooperate with us."

"Awesome!" She commented in sarcasm then rolled her eyes. "I'm very capable of looking after myself."

"Oh, we are well aware." Ingrid replied with a flat lipped smile and raised eyebrows.

"The rings are in progress. I will live up to my word. We will find and punish whoever launched the attack on the Bayou!" He snapped in frustration while Hayley sighed and rolled her eyes. "But, right now--" He grabbed his bottle of scotch and waved it at her. "-- I'm gonna finish this bottle --" He said while opening the bottle. "-- and the next, in the hopes of drowning the demon who has chosen today to haunt me." He looked up at the ceiling before chugging right from the bottle. "Cheers, Mikael. Impeccable, Freudian timing."

Elijah looked at him, stunned, and leaned forward in his seat. "Elaborate." He then narrowed his eyes and pointed a finger at him "Have you dreamt of our father?"

"Go ahead, have a good laugh." Klaus snarled at him in anger.

"I can assure you there is no piece of this that I find even remotely amusing, Niklaus." Elijah replied in a stern tone and licked his lips. "Especially considering I've been dreaming of him, too."

"What?" Klaus and Ingrid questioned together as they gaped at him with surprise looks.

"If you are also seeing him..." He began to brainstorm but stopped mid-thought when he noticed Genevieve entering Rousseau's. She caught his eye and smiled. "Perhaps our elusive, unknown enemy is orchestrating a further attack?"

Klaus stared at Genevieve and smirked darkly. "Well, then. What better way to punctuate a day of peace than by killing someone?"

"Oh, so two funerals." Ingrid commented with a laugh and sipped her cranberry juice.

The Mikaelsons continued to look over at Genevieve as Klaus smiled and waved over at her.

Hundreds of community members gathered in the streets of the French Quarter after the funeral as Father Kieran's casket was placed in a horse carriage to start the parade in his honor.

Outside, the funeral procession was walking down the street to the sounds of the jazz music being played, behind the band was the priests acting as pallbearers for Father Kieran. Near the end of the parade was Klaus, Elijah, and Ingrid. The pregnant woman looked antsy and uncomfortable, she kept fanning herself with her hands and groaning under her breath.

"I bloody hate funerals." Klaus sneered under his breath and studied the parade.

"I concur." Ingrid mumbled in aggravation.

"You alright?" Elijah questioned Ingrid in concern, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You look--"

"--Exhausted and swollen to holy hell?" She interrupted him in an annoyed tone of voice. "I look like Violet Beauregard except I lack the pigmentation of blue."

Elijah laughed with a caring smile and shook his head. "I was going to say you look lovely."

"Of course you were." Ingrid replied in a sarcastic tone, not believing him. Klaus laughed beside her and gave Elijah an mocking face.

She noticed Francesca a couple yards in front of them, pretending to wipe tears from her face with a tissue. Rolling her eyes, she glanced at Hayley, who was walking with Cami. "I have this unnerving feeling that Hayley was the target for the bombings yesterday."

"Of course she was the target! Were I to wage a war on the wolves, she'd be my first kill!" Klaus replied in a exasperated voice. "I would string her up, for all her worshipers to see."

"Perhaps try a different approach, Niklaus, with fewer references to murder?" Elijah questioned him with a disapproving look on his face.

"No, Niklaus hit it right on the nose." Ingrid replied with a mischevious smirk and pointed a finger at him. "If you were waging a war and sending a message, what would you do? Kill their leader. That is the best option."

"You speak an awfully lot about war for a pregnant woman." Elijah commented with an amused smirk.

"I need to be involved somehow." She replied in a strong manner then waved it off. "Plus, I will not be pregnant forever. Then I can be as involved as you two." She smiled proudly until she started to cough harshly.

She swayed on her feet, looking woozy, and walked away from the parade with the brothers following after her in concern. Ingrid then leaned against a lightpost and coughed up blood. She looked down at her hands, noticing the blood, and stared at it with an out of touch look on her face. Her brain felt foggy and she looked up at her reflection in one of the windows from a local shop. Blood was dribbling down her lips, her cheeks were pale with sweat beading above her eyebrow.

The sound of her husband and brother-in-law calling her name sounded millions of miles away. The world started to spin rapidly around her and she slowly fell to the ground. "Niklaus, I don't feel..." She whispered so quietly that had he not been an Original, he wouldn't of heard it.

Klaus immediately caught her before she could make impact with the concrete and shook her face gently. "Ingrid! Ingrid?!" He called out to her but got no response. When he felt her forehead, he began to panic. "She's burning up."

Klaus and Elijah carried Ingrid into the compound and lied her on a table. Genevieve followed after them, in hopes of helping. "I can help--"

Klaus pushed her away from the table and his eyes flashed golden-amber. "Don't touch her!"

"Let it be, Niklaus." Elijah said in a soothing tone, hoping his brother would allow her to help. "She was a nurse."

"There's a spell I can do. Klaus, get chamomile from the pantry." Genevieve ordered and looked at Ingrid, who was barely conscious. "She's trembling. Your jacket, Elijah."

Elijah removed his jacket and lied it over Ingrid. "She's not breathing..." he trailed off in concern then tuned into what was most important. "I can hear the baby's heartbeat."

Ingrid woke up on the table to find that the room was completely empty, except for one other person-- Mikael. He walked toward her and she automatically backed away from him in fear. "No, no, no!"

Genevieve pressed a damp bundle of chamomile against Ingrid's forehead and chanted a spell. "Coeur blessé, battre avec mwen. Coeur blessé, battre avec mwen."

Klaus looked at Elijah in fear and Elijah paced the floor while fiddling with his fingers. "It's not working!" He shouted and angrily threw a table against the brick wall, shattering it into pieces.

"Welcome to my hell-- stuck in an eternity of watching over that hideous creature my children call brother!" Mikael sneered furiously, stalking toward her and wrapping her up in a chokehold. "I never thought I would see you again, Ingrid."

"Well, your children despise you so maybe take in consideration that you are not welcome." She pushed out of his grip and flashed her hybrid eyes at him. She remarked then circled around him. "So what is this? Astral projection?"

"Your heart stopped allowing you to come to the Other Side." Mikael answered with narrowed eyes.

Ingrid stiffened in her spot and placed her hand on her stomach to see that it was flat again. "The baby..." She whispered in fear and her dark brown eyes began moving back and forth in a panic.

"That kid never had a chance! And as if your bloodline isn't filth enough, you poison it by merging it with Klaus'?" He laughed manically and held his hands up at his sides.

Ingrid sneered and stormed toward him. "Do not ever speak about my family!"

"Your father was a spineless, coward and your mother was nothing more than a whore." He insulted her in a spiteful tone of voice. "Your brothers were morons. And you... you are a filth on this earth."

"You claim my mother to be a whore when it was your wife who slept around. My guess was that you were not man enough for her." She taunted and he glared furiously at her. "What was it Mikael? Not big enough? Troubles preforming?"

He sped toward her and wrapped his hand around her throat.

She growled animalistically and sped them forward, slamming him into the wall. Punching her hand into his chest, she grasped his heart in her hands while he bellowed loudly in pain.

"The deathless vermin, fancying himself a daddy?" Mikael questioned with a laugh in between agonizing screams. "There is no saving that atrocity festering in your womb. Klaus will destroy it, one way or another. Better he dies now, and you along with it!"

"I should have killed you thousand years ago." She snarled furiously and was about to rip his heart out when he pushed her away from him. She crashed into one of the tables causing it to break and her to tumble to the ground. Ingrid rolled over into a crouched position before exposing her full hybrid face, fangs and all. She cracked her neck then charged toward him.

Elijah was pacing at Ingrid's bedside as Genevieve continued to work her spell. "Coeur blessé, battre avec mwen."

Klaus, fed up, moved to pick up her up while speaking in a fearful tone.. "I'm taking her to a different witch."

Genevieve held her hand out, stopping him. "If you move her from here, my spell will break. There won't be enough time."

"Will the baby survive if delivered now?" Klaus questioned in a frantic manner and didn't wait for an answer before lunging for Ingrid's body. "I'll rip it out of her myself!"

Elijah sped at Klaus, stopping him from physically tearing into his wife's womb. Genevieve listened to them struggle and began chanting again. "... battre avec mwen. Coeur blessé, battre avec mwen."

She suddenly got a vision of Monique using the poppet to cast the spell on Ingrid and was stunned for a moment. She quickly snapped her fingers and looked at the brothers. "I know what to do. Get my bag, the gris-gris pouch! Now!"

Ingrid grabbed a piece of the broken table and stabbed Mikael with it when he sped toward her. She then grabbed another makeshift stake and twirled it around in her hand with a smug smirk. "I pity you, Mikael. Your son is going to be a far better father then you have ever been or ever could be."

"He is not my son! He's a scourge, a walking symbol of weakness!" He thundered at her, ripping out the stake aggressively.

"You are right..." She trailed off with a nod of her head. "He is not your son nor will he ever be. Because a proper father does not beat his son or convince him that he is a bastard. You are no father, you are a coward. You are the epitome of weak and pathetic." She sneered furiously at him and motioned to him with the stake. "My daughter has an advantage that your children never had. She will have a father."

In a fit of blind rage, he sped toward her but she simply sped away and reappeared behind him. She then drove the stake down through his back and into his chest, piercing his heart.

Genevieve spread salt around Ingrid on the table as she continued to get visions of Monique casting the original spell. She crushed herbs with her fingers and spread them over her body.

Ingrid woke with a loud gasp and Elijah helped her sit up while Klaus rubbed her shoulder affectionately. He placed relieved kisses on her temples and took a deep breath. "You're alright, love. You're alright."

"Niklaus, I saw him. I saw Mikael." She informed them in a dark tone of voice and the brothers shared horrified looks.

Ingrid was sitting on their bed, folding laundry and setting it in designated piles to be put away. Klaus walked into the room and smiled at her, standing at the end of the bed in front of her. "You had me worried today."

"I know. My apologies, my love." She expressed genuinely with a deep frown.

"It's not your fault." He reassured her with a small smile and paused for a second. "She continues to prove her resilience."

"Yes, she has." She agreed with a proud smile and rubbed her baby bump in a soothing manner.

Klaus stared at her affectionately then his smile fell slowly as he thought over the events that had just passed. "What did he say to you?" He questioned with a clentched jaw causing her to look up at him in confusion. "Mikael. What did he say to you?"

"Niklaus, no--" She began to argue against the idea but he walked toward her and sat down on the bed while shaking his head.

"I... I need to know." He whispered with a hurt look in his light blue eyes.

"No, you do not. You don't need to hear the ramblings of a deranged mad man." She rejected sternly and shook her head.

"Ingrid, please." He pleaded softly, grabbing ahold of one of her hands.

Sighing, she gave in and licked her lips. "He said the same things he always did. Except he called our daughter an atrocity. He said you would destroy her and that our bloodlines are tainted." She reluctantly told him and intertwined their fingers. She looked up at him to see his face was curled up into a furious sneer and his eyes were glistening with tears. "He is wrong. He has always been wrong."

"No, what if he's right? What if I destroy her like I destroy everything else?" Klaus questioned in a heartbroken tone of voice. "What if I end up just like him? Or worse?"

Ingrid immediately wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a tight, comforting embrace. Rubbing his back, she whispered softly against his shoulder. "I know that you're scared and that is normal. But you will never be like him because you are capable of love. Mikael was not. He never loved a single person in his entire life. You already love our daughter so much and she isn't even here yet. I know you far better than you know yourself and I know that you will be nothing but loving to her."

She kissed his shoulder and pulled away from him slowly, gazing up into his eyes. "Don't allow small minded people like Mikael poison your idea of being a father. He never was a father so don't let him ruin your chance."

---
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