Chapter Text
Elijah woke up at six o'clock on the dot, just as he always has.
A little bit of sun shone through his bed window. Which blinded him momentarily unfortunately for him. He got up and headed towards the bathroom to start his morning routine before he took care of the children.
After a quick shower, he headed downstairs. He waved to his older brother Finn who was already awake and then laughed at his older sister Freya who as usual was asleep at the dinning table. The poor girl was never really able to wake herself up without at least two cups of coffee.
He chuckled as he began to make the magic potion that gave him and his siblings their much needed energy, as well as start to make breakfast before the elders had to leave for work.
He looked over at the clock, noting that it was six-thirty now. Right on schedule he thought to himself. Then he looked at the calendar and sighed.
It was the first day of June, more importantly it was the first day of summer.
Which meant no daycare. Great...
And with how the younger ones slept he had about less than two hours before the chaos began. Wonderful...
Once the eggs and toast he made for his siblings were ready he handed it to them and sat down. He grabbed part of the newspaper Finn was reading, and they all tried to enjoy the few moments of peace they would have that day. Not even ten minutes later Finn and Freya were out the door, both promising to be back before the kids went to bed, since they usually took longer shifts during the summer.
So, Elijah started doing the chores.
Cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms, putting up laundry, vacuuming, and of course getting ready a shopping list for later and starting on some bills.
One by one the younger siblings awoke and by nine-thirty the house was bouncing with laughter.
Elijah looked at Kol, his red hair which was slowly fading darker, was munching away at his cereal while trying to talk to Rebekah with his mouth full. Rebekah was just as beautiful as his older sister with blonde hair similar to their mother. Henrik was laughing away, he looked more like Finn with his almost black hair and soft features.
He laughed at his siblings who were the pride and joy of his young life.
Yes, he was seventeen years old. But he couldn't imagine being anywhere else though. He couldn't picture a day without Kol asking him a million questions he could not answer. Or Rebekah telling him of all the beauty she saw out of her tiny bedroom window the night before. Or Henrik crying for him for comfort when he was scared.
It made it feel like basically being a seventeen-year-old stay at home dad was worth it.
The doorbell rang suddenly, interrupting his thoughts.
He got up, telling the children to "behave."
He made his way to the door and he saw a sight he was not prepared to see. When he opened the door two police officers were there, along with a boy who looked younger than five years old. His dirty long blonde hair covering his face, but even from far away he could see the abuse the boy had suffered.
"May I help you officers?" He asked kindly.
"Is this the home of Freya Michaelson?" The woman said.
He nodded, raising his eyebrows in question.
The lady sighed, "may we come in?"
He let them through, leading them to the small living room. Which had a small green sofa, an old television they got from a yard sale, a desk for the older siblings and a kiddy table for his younger siblings to play at.
He quickly made his way to the kitchen, "Kol, please take your sister to your room. Do not come out unless I call or come get you. Go play a game or something."
He decided to put Henrik down for an early nap, so he walked up with the kids. He turned on the baby monitor and turned to the others.
Rebekah sat on the floor with some crayons and paper. Kol, on the other hand, began to ask, "What's goin-?"
"Kol," Elijah said cutting off his little brother’s endless questions. He smiled, "please just be quite and play with Bekah, and do not wake Henrik."
Kol sighed and nodded, he sat down next to his sister and started drawing as well.
Elijah got some water bottles from the fridge and headed back to the living room.
The officers were sitting on the sofa. While the boy sat on the floor, in the corner of the room. His legs pulled to his chest and his arms hiding his face like his hair was only a few moments before.
"So once again, may I ask how I can help you?" Elijah asked politely.
The other officer this time asked, "What is your name and age, and relation to Freya Mikaelson?"
"Is she in trouble?" he feared. The officer shook his head no and he sighed in relief. "I’m her younger brother, my name is Elijah Mikaelson and I’ll be 18 in a week."
The officers looked at each other, silently having a conversation with their eyes.
The woman then turned to him, "Is it possible we can talk to Freya or any other adult?"
Elliot shook his head, "My older sister Freya and my older brother Finn are at work and won't be home until at least ten tonight. Our mother Esther died a few months ago. And my younger siblings’ father and who was also our adoptive father died recently as well. So I am the only adult you can talk to at the moment unfortunately officers."
The officer’s heads’ peaked at the statement about the father.
"What about your birth father?" The male officer asked.
"My mother divorced my birth father when I just turned three. Freya was 9 and Finn was 7. I haven't seen him or heard from him since." Elijah answered honestly, though he was rather confused at the question.
The officers once again began to have a silent conversation with each other.
The woman nodded and looked back at Elijah, "Mr. Mikaelson what we are about to tell you must stay in this house for right now do you understand son?"
Elijah nodded.
"The boy over there is your brother Niklaus Mikaelson."
Elijah’s eyes opened wide at the news, he looked towards the boy and now realized that he looked like his sisters.
"He has been living at your father Michael’s house all this time. We were called to the premises yesterday around one this morning, this hasn't been the first time we have been called for a domestic disturbance but this one required us to arrest your birth father and take custody of Niklaus. We looked for the boy’s mother and came up with nothing. However, your sister popped up. Now you have a choice in taking the boy or not. If you do not want to take him, because it looks like you already have your hands full. We will arrange for a foster home to take him for the moment."
Elijah didn't know what to do.
He looked, really looked at Niklaus like he would at his other younger siblings.
The boy was small, too small to be healthy. The boy’s wrist was in a cast, and it looked like his arms were covered in bruises and burns from what the shirt he was wearing let show. He recalled from earlier how the boy’s face was also banged up and if you listened to the silence you could hear him have trouble breathing, from hurt ribs he assumed. He thought it over, they really didn't have the room. Each of the siblings shared a room, Freya and Rebekah, Kol and Henrik, and Finn and himself.
But looking at the boy he knew what he had to do.
"Excuse me for a moment, I need to make a phone call." He walked to the kitchen, taking out his phone and calling Freya. When she answered, he told her what the officers told him.
"What should we do Freya, I think we should keep him," he pleaded with his sister.
"He's not a puppy Eli," he grunted at the nickname, "If we take him, we have another mouth to feed and all the problems that come with him."
"Freya he is our brother! What about when mom died and Kol was acting up, Rebekah wasn't eating, and Henrik was just a new born baby? We didn't give up on them! Look at them now, Kol is doing so much better and Rebekah got all the weight she lost back and is eating three times a day! And Henrik is such a good baby." He said, "And if you’re worried, Mrs. Gerard can watch the kids and I’ll get a job, not a full time but a part time."
Freya groaned, "You know what fine, but he's your problem. He's hungry you feed him, he gets in trouble you’re in charge. I don't want to deal with anything that involves him, understand?"
He sighed, not understanding his sister's empathy or lack thereof, "Yes."
She sighed, "I have to go, my manager will have my ass if she sees me having a phone call before break."
She hung up, he looked at the phone and sighed.
He walked back to the living room. The officers stood up, obviously wanting to leave.
"We'll take him. However, I am going to file for guardianship when I turn eighteen next week. I was going to with my other siblings as well," He told the officers, not telling them that he expected Freya to leave when he became of age.
The officers nodded.
"I’ll walk you out." He said as he led them to the door, the woman handed him a file and they bid him farewell. He walked back to the living room, he was about to say something to the boy, but his phone buzzed.
He took it out and saw a text from Finn.
FINN: Freya called me about our new brother?
He sighed as he started texting back.
ELIJAH: Long story but he's staying with us. I'm gonna file for him as well
FINN: Are you serious??? you barely know the kid five minutes Elijah???
ELIJAH: If you just saw him Finn, he looks so much like the kids. He's so small and he's hurt. What was I supposed to do? Put him in a foster home or somewhere else?
FINN: I shouldn't have expected anything less from you little brother.
ELIJAH: Thank you Finn, I’ll take the floor I guess for now
FINN: I saw a couple of yard sales on my way to work. I saw a bunk bed and a fold up couch, I think. It’s a yard sale so it will be at most $200 for both things. I know we were saving the money to do something fun with the kids this summer but I think this matters more. Vincent said he'll cover for me, so I’ll leave work at three this afternoon and get them. I'll move to the basement, Rebekah with the boys so Freya can have her own room and be more bearable and you'll be with him.
ELIJAH: That’s sounds okay, are you sure you want to leave work?
FINN: Elijah you are raising those kids, I have no responsibility besides working. You take care of everyone else. Let me help take care of something for you.
ELIJAH: OK
He closed his phone and took a second to breathe. It prayed it would all work out.