The Devil Takes Care of His Own

Gabrielle

  There was nothing weirder than seeing Nik powerless against the three witches that were trying their hardest to rid this world of our little girl. Yet, somewhere between my screams and Nik's threats, there was a dull in the fight. She was finally born. Genevieve held her and looked nervously between Nik and I. Even though I could tell that she didn't want to do this, I also knew that there was nothing to stop her.

"You have a beautiful little girl." She said, talking to Nik more than talking to me.

"Please. C-can I hold her?" I pleaded, looking at the baby girl that was in her arms.

She handed her to me and I was almost in tears. Nik was still looking in this direction and I looked down into the bright blue eyes that she must have inherited from my side of the family. She was absolutely perfect. I turned my head just a bit when I heard Nik whispering something. It was then that I noticed a small smile had broken out onto his face despite the circumstances surrounding her birth.

"Gabrielle?" he asked, obviously wondering if I had changed my mind about her name again.

I nodded and looked back down at her. Unfortunately, however, she was ripped out of my view after just a few seconds. At the same time, my head was pulled back by Monique, my throat was opened, and my world faded to black while I heard an angry scream coming from Nik.

"No! Ashley!" I heard from my fiancé before a sickening crack that was most likely the snapping of his neck.

I didn't know which was worse when my eyes opened up, the pain on my neck, the pain of having my memories flooding back, or the pain of having my daughter ripped away from me. Still, I slowly got up from where they had laid me on the marble of the church. Seeing everything as a vampire again was incredibly disorienting. I rushed to the compound and started to tear the place apart while looking for Nik and our child. I didn't even have a way of knowing whether or not she was still alive. To make matters worse, I was starving. I dug into the supply of blood bags that were available before running out and making my way to the cemetery where I knew they most likely were. I heard them talking from where I stood and I walked in to see Elijah and Nik arguing over how many times they had been there before.

"We must move faster." Nik said, chalking up another mark on the wall so they knew how many times that they had been through here.

"Or smarter." I teased a bit, making both of them turn around to look at me with surprise on their faces.

Nik walked towards me, placing his hands on either side of my face. He looked surprised and I could tell that he had no idea what to think or what to do. It was obvious that he had expected my death to be permanent.

"Ashley, you're alive. What happened?" Nik asked me, looking into my eyes and trying to figure out what happened.

"I don't know. I woke up in the church." I told him, a little confused since I didn't really know what had happened either, "The baby was born. I'm a vampire again."

"I can't believe you're really alive. I was so scared."

"Nik-"

"-I held you. I held your lifeless body in my arms. I never thought that you would ever come back to me. Elijah and I lay you to rest in that church."

"It's going to take a lot more than a knife to my throat to keep me away from you."

"I never want to feel that way again. You're my world." He said before leaning in and kissing me softly, making me smile against his lips until Elijah cleared his throat so that the two of us would move away from each other.

"I can feel her, Nik. She's here."

"Wait, you've only been a vampire for a few moments. Princess, please. You need to feed and rest."

"I don't care about me. I'm gonna go find our daughter."

I pushed past Nik to exit the tomb and I walked with both of the boys behind me. It felt so good to be a vampire again. Every detail was more prominent and I felt invincible once more. I never realized how much I loved it. We turned a corner when we heard the chanting and there they were. The three witches were standing over Gabrielle. Genevieve was in the middle with a knife in her hand as she held it over the crying newborn.

"No!" I shouted at the same time that Elijah threw something to knock the knife out of Genevieve's hand.

The three of us were thrown back by the power of the ancestors. I ran off to the side and before I knew it, I was fighting hand to hand with Genevieve. A spell she chanted had me on my knees in pain within seconds. But, Marcel was the one to save the day. After Monique was killed, he grabbed the newborn and ran off. I followed Nik while Nik followed Marcel back to the compound. The floors were littered with the dead or dying bodies of vampires and Marcel was sitting beside the fountain with my baby in his arms. I tuned out both of them while Nik thanked Marcel and I kept my eyes on the blue-eyed babygirl as he drank from Nik's wrist.

"She's gorgeous." Nik said after Marcel had slid the baby over to her father's arms.

She looked so small compared to Nik. Her whole body was almost the size of his forearm. Still, he smiled while looking down at his baby. His voice cooed a bit and she opened up her eyes while looking up at him. Her head turned a bit to look at Marcel and I couldn't stop staring at her.

"My little princess, I don't believe your mother got enough time with you." Nik said while he gently handed me the baby.

"She's perfect, Nik. Isn't she?" I asked, mumbling a bit since I didn't feel like pulling my eyes away from the baby that was in my arms.

"She has very good genes."

"She got lucky, she looks like her mother." Marcel said, making me laugh a bit, "Maybe there really is a god."

"I don't know. She's got that little twinkle of the devil in her eyes, that's all me." Nik said teasingly, making me roll my eyes a little bit.

"She's got your nose." I told him, making him nod and bop her teeny little nose.

"We should have another." Nik said, making me look over at him briefly with wide eyes.

"If this pint sized trouble maker caused all of this, a second would definitely break out a third world war."

"It's worth it."

I rolled my eyes playfully and followed Nik upstairs to the nursery we had set up for her. He took her from my arms and placed her in the cradle, both of us smiling when she wrapped her tiny fingers around her hand.

"Did you hear that?" Nik asked me, making me look up at him with confusion since I had assumed that the footsteps I heard were just Elijah walking around downstairs.

"What? Ignore it. It's probably just Elijah or Marcel. Don't worry about it." I told him honestly, a little annoyed since it most likely wasn't anything for him to be worried about.

"Stay here."

"Nik-"

"don't move."

I sighed and watched him walking away. I listened to his footsteps going down the small flight of stairs while he looked around. I had hoped that his paranoia would lessen now that the princess was born and safe in her cradle where she belonged. I heard Elijah calling my name and I walked away from the nursery, going all the way downstairs to the dungeon that had been here for centuries.

"What is all this?" I asked him in confusion when I saw that Genevieve was pressed against the wall with her hands pinned up above her body.

"I brought you a present." He said in a teasing tone while he gestured over towards the redhead against the wall, "I figured you'd want to be here while I decide what to do with her."

"You brought Genevieve into the compound? I'm sure Nik has spent enough time joking with you and telling you that the gift I like the most comes in a little blue box."

"I didn't exactly have time to gift wrap anything."

"Please. As long as she lives, the witches will never stop coming for her. Esther will never stop coming for her. The baby is to be consecrated with her ancestors. She can't live." Genevieve pleaded while tears of blood started to stream for her eyes, "They're coming for me because I failed them. I swear, I'm sorry."

I rolled my eyes and walked towards her, pressing the knife into her stomach and twisting it while the life fled from her eyes. Sorry was such a useless word at this point. She had tried to kill my baby and now she was sorry. As if that was enough for her redemption. I tossed the knife onto the floor when I was done with it and I went back up the stairs to the nursery with Elijah behind me. Both of them sat on the bed while I rocked in the chair with Gabrielle in my arms. Elijah was explaining to Nik everything that had happened between us and Genevieve.

"If our mother has control of the witches, they will never back down." Nik said while looking down at his hands as he tried to figure out what to do with the whole situation.

"No." Elijah said to his brother, sighing just a bit, "There's no way that we could get through this without a few dozen quarts of blood being shed all over the quarter."

"Neither will the Guerra wolves. They want control of the quarter and we are a threat to them until they're ousted as a whole. The two of them will never be safe."

"Klaus-"

"-my biggest enemies are within these borders and I have basically introduced to them the two things which can be used against me. I finally have weaknesses."

"And they're both blonde and in some way strangely related to the main woman who's leading the crusade."

"What will we do, brother?"

"We will fight. We can make this home a fortress. But, we can never stop fighting. Gabrielle is everyone's main concern, after all."

"A fortress? My daughter and fiancée will become prisoners in their own home."

"We'll leave. We have had to run before."

"It doesn't matter how far we run anymore. Wherever we go, they'll follow us. We have made this their most interesting hunt. I will not have people hunting my child."

"Then we are out of options." Nik said with an exasperated sigh that made me roll my eyes before I got up and walked into the room with Gabrielle still in my arms.

"Don't be ridiculous." I said to both of them with a small whine coming from Gabrielle, making both of the brothers look up at me, "There's always a third option."

"Alright, princess. Let's hear it." Nik said to me with his eyes focused on his baby.

"We made a promise to her, before she was ever born, that she will be safe and loved. No running. No surrendering." I sighed and decided to let them in on what I had been thinking about since she was born, "The only thing to do is send her away with someone who loves her while we take care of the mess we've made."

"If no one knows she lives, she will not be hunted by the witches."

"Klaus, what exactly is it that you intend to do?" Elijah asked, interrupting the back and forth that was going on between Nik and i.

"I intend to do the same thing that I've always intended. I am going to do whatever it takes to save this little girl." He admitted, obviously getting his brother upset.

Elijah angrily stormed out and I sighed, sitting down on the bed with Gabrielle in my arms. She was looking up at me again and I was still smiling down at her while Nik was trying to figure out what to do. He was pacing back and forth in front of the bed.

"We will tell everyone that she is dead. Marcel will be compelled." I suggested, sighing a little bit since I absolutely hated the whole situation.

"We will go into mourning."

"We need to set up a memorial."

"Ashley, you are the absolute love of my life. I promise you that all my efforts will go towards keeping our baby safe. No running, and no surrendering." Nik stood up and grabbed his phone off of where it was lying on the bed, he obviously had something on his mind that would help to get us out of this mess, "Get Gabrielle's things. I'll take care of everything else."

I got a bag together and gathered all of her things together. But, for those last few minutes, I was able to hold her in my arms and ignore the fact that the world was against my family. Nik wanted to go with Gabrielle alone. He claimed that it would bring up too much suspicion for both of us to go together. After all, the whole world was watching us. I was supposed to take the mourning public while gone. Elijah and I brought a huge bouquet of flowers to the memorial that was set up in honor of all the victims of that night. As expected, I was in tears the whole time. The grief of losing a child was not something that I had to fake. I was a mess that night. In fact, I was lying on our bed with my head buried into the pillow. Nik walked into the bedroom and kicked his shoes off before lying down beside me and wrapping an arm around me.

"Is she safe?" I asked him once I felt his arms pulling my body towards his.

"She is with family." He told me, kissing my cheek gently, "There is no one I would trust more with that girl's life."

"She'll be happy with Rebekah."

"Of course she will. Rebekah is the best choice we could have made." He said before sighing a bit, "We will tell Olivia too."

"You're sure about that?"

"Of course I am. She will be most safe around her family. The more people that we could have on our side, the better. In fact, she should move here. It would be good for you to have her here."

"I love my sister, but she isn't the one that I want here." I sniffled a bit and I felt Nik's rough fingers begin to wipe away my tears as they streamed down my cheeks, "I want my baby, Nik."

"I swear to you and to our Gabrielle that I will single-handedly take care of every single person who wishes that little girl harm. She will return to us, my love. Just give it time."

"Promise?"

"Of course I do."

"Fine. I guess I can wait."

"I love you so much." He said sweetly while he pushed some hair from my face so that he could look into my bright eyes, "You know that, right? I love you more than I ever thought I could love anyone."

"I know. But I assume there might be one other very tiny person that you might love more than me."

"Without you, I wouldn't have her."

I smiled softly and leaned in to kiss him lovingly. While I knew that it would be a while before she was back in my arms, I knew she was safe. For now, that's all I wanted. Nik and I would be able to get rid of all the people who were out to get her. As long as she had people who loved her, she would be happy and she would be safe. My beautiful, blue-eyed little girl would spend the rest of her life safe and protected by the few people who knew about her existence. Rebekah, Elijah, Olivia, Nik, and I were fully prepared to spend the rest of eternity protecting and fighting for this little girl. But, it was all worth it for Gabrielle.