Klaus and Hayley, AU/AH. Lonely souls Niklaus and Hayley shared one alcohol-fueled, passionate night together and then moved on with their lives. Or at least they tried to. Klaus moved to New Orleans to find power and resurrect his family's flailing empire. Hayley stayed in Mystic Falls and tried to make a living as a waitress. She soon discovered that she was pregnant.

Flash-forward five years, and she has never told a soul who the father of her daughter Hope is. She never had any intention of doing so until fate forced her hand. Note: I have given Hayley's father a name. He's alive and kind of a dick so yeah… His name is Chris.

Finding Hope

Hayley didn't do fear. As a rule. It was not an emotion that she cultivated, nor allowed herself to feel on a normal basis. But then again, this wasn't a normal situation. Far from it, actually.

She moved to the small bed and lightly ran her fingers over the soft golden-brown hair of her daughter. Her pride and joy, her everything. Literally, her Hope.

She had never wanted to be a mother – she'd never really had one herself after all. She believed that she was a mess on a good day. She hadn't wanted to damage an innocent kid in any way and she had felt sure that she would. With the baby's DNA, it seemed inevitable.

When she first found out she was pregnant, she had seriously considered not having the baby at all. She had even gone so far as to book an appointment with the local Mystic Falls women's clinic. She vividly remembered sitting on a cold exam table in a cheap paper gown, legs trembling, waiting for the doctor. She'd had every intention of going through with the procedure to terminate her pregnancy but in the end, she left before she ever saw the doctor. She didn't know why but she didn't want to have to say goodbye to the little life growing inside of her. She might suck at being a mother, she had reasoned then, but at least she wouldn't be alone anymore.

That was five years ago and she didn't regret having Hope for a second. She was in fact nursing a silent fear that her journey through motherhood would end all too soon.

She traced the line of Hope's cheek. The little girl's eyes were closed. She looked so pale as she slept. So unnaturally pale. And worse, her skin was cold. When this nightmare had first started, Hope had always been feverish and she'd cried a lot. Hayley would prefer that to this – the silence, the permeating chill. She wasn't stupid. She knew Hope didn't have a lot of time left. If Chris wasn't a match … God, help them.

Okay, yes, Hayley had other avenues to explore but she wasn't going to exorcise those options unless absolutely necessary. She knew there would be consequences, though no consequence could be greater than the loss of her daughter, the only person who she had ever truly given her heart to. She would ultimately do what it took to save her daughter but she hoped – no, she prayed, to a God she didn't believe in – that Chris would come through for her and Hope for once in his life.

She leaned over and gently pressed a kiss to Hope's cool cheek. She then reached for her tiny hand and held it for a long time until the door opened. Dr. Meredith Fell beckoned to Hayley.

Hayley brushed her messy brunette locks off her face. Then she took one last look at her daughter – wanting to memorize her, somehow – and followed Meredith into the hallway. Meredith had Hope's chart clutched in her hand and she wore a somber expression on her face. Hayley knew the truth in that moment.

"He's not a match – Chris is not a match, is he?" She already knew the answer but needed Dr. Fell to offer her some well, hope. No matter how shallow it was.

"I'm afraid not. I'm very sorry, Hayley."

"Me too," Hayley said hoarsely. "Me too." She pressed a hand to her mouth for a moment. Then she looked at Meredith again. "What's next? What do we do next?"

"We're running out of options here, Hayley," Meredith said in a soft, lilting voice. "We have Hope listed on the registry but it could take months, years, even, to find a match and I am sorry to say, truly I am, that we don't have the luxury of time.

"Hayley," Meredith addressed her, resting her hand on Hayley's in an attempt at a comforting gesture, "we've talked about this. The best option –"

"Is to find her biological father," Hayley said. She nodded. "I know. God, do I know. "

"Are you going to do it?"

Hayley sighed and crossed her arms. She looked in at her daughter so still in the bed that suddenly seemed much too large for the little girl. "Yeah. What choice do I have?"

XoXoXo

A few minutes and several nudgings later, Meredith had walked away. Hayley slumped into a nearby chair and buried her head in her hands. She only looked up when she heard footsteps approaching. She looked up into the green eyes of her father. She didn't really think of him as her father though which was why she called him "Chris".

"What do you want?" Hayley snapped.

"Hey, watch the tone, Hayley… Look, I know this is a hard time for you but you promised me three hundred bucks if I came down here to be tested."

Hayley's eyes flicked to his and she jumped to her feet. She glared at him. She had never wanted to hit anyone more than she did right now. "You came to collect huh?"

"Baby, you promised."

"Don't call me 'Baby'. Don't call me anything. I don't know why I expected any compassion from you, any understanding. Your granddaughter – your freaking granddaughter – may be dy-" She couldn't say the word. "She's sick, Chris, really sick, and all you care about is your fucking payoff."

"You promised –" Chris started again but she shot up a hand to stop him.

"And you promised that you weren't always going to be such a shitty excuse for a father, such a fucking deadbeat," Hayley hissed. She waited for him to apologize but he didn't and honestly she wouldn't have forgiven him even if he did.

She had scrimped and saved what was left of her savings to get him here. Now she never wanted anyone gone from her life more. She yanked three crumpled hundred dollar bills from her pocket and threw them at him.

"Hayley-"

"Go to hell, Chris. Burn there," Hayley said. She walked away as she heard him scrambling for the cash. He needed it. After all, he had a crippling gambling addiction to compensate for. She could be hurt but all she felt was disappointment that he hadn't saved her daughter. He had never done a damn thing for Hayley but he should have wanted to be there for Hope somehow. How could anyone turn away the sweet little girl?

It would be too soon if she never saw Chris again.

She went back to Hope's room and dropped down into the chair beside her. She had spent so much time in that chair that she was thinking of writing on it – "Hayley's ass was here". But she didn't have the energy and her sense of humor had gotten lost somewhere between the fear and all of the pain.

She sat there for a long time when suddenly she heard the door open. A cup of coffee was being stuck under her nose. She wrinkled her nostrils and then looked up at her best friend Tyler. "Thanks, really, but-"

"I know. The stuff they serve in the cafeteria here will put hair on your chest. But you need a pick-me-up and this was all I could think of to do."

She accepted the Styrofoam cup now. She didn't take a sip though, just held it in her hands, hoping its warmth would spread throughout her chilled body. She felt Tyler's big hands lightly drop onto her shoulders and he began to give her a massage. The Tyler of old might not have cared about her comfort but he had grown and matured over the years. Tragedy had a way of making one grow up fast and they had both seen more than their fair share of it.

The new and improved Tyler had loaned her a shoulder to lean on many times in the past few months and she appreciated it more than her flimsy words could communicate.

Tyler looked at Hope, his goddaughter. "How is the little fighter?"

"Not fighting quite as much as she used to," Hayley said in a quiet voice. "Tell me she'll be alright."

"I want to," Tyler said. "Hey, I believe it. You'll see her through it; I know you will."

"I'm trying," Hayley said with a sigh.

"I take it your Dad isn't a match."

"No, he isn't." She shrugged. "Meredith says that I need to track down Hope's biological father."

"How do you feel about that?"

"I feel … sick," Hayley said. "Really sick and just extremely tired." She leaned back in the chair.

Tyler picked up the speed of his massage. His fingers almost bit into her skin through her sweater but it was okay. It didn't bother her. She appreciated the sentiment.

"You never talk about him. Ever."

Hayley nodded. "Well, some one night stands aren't worth mentioning," she said off-handedly. "But now I have no choice but to track him down."

"What if he decides he wants to be a part of Hope's life?"

"I'll cross that bridge when I come to it," Hayley said. "Hope getting better… That's what matters most at the moment."

Tyler nodded. "Yeah. And besides how bad can this guy really be?"

Oh you have no idea, Hayley thought, feeling a twinge of guilt in her stomach. There were many reasons why she had never told anyone that Klaus Mikaelson was her baby daddy. One of them was currently massaging her shoulders. Tyler hated Klaus with a passion – with good reason - and Klaus hated Tyler still more. Hayley had always told herself that she was protecting Hope and Tyler by not revealing that Klaus was Hope's biological father, but now she wondered if she had done it just to protect herself…