»»———— 2018, Cadiz, Spain ————««
I knocked on his door, which was open, but I didn't know if it was out of habit or because he didn't feel like he had a right to privacy in my house. I stopped mid-knock and, as he turned around and smiled at me, I started to wonder if the person I had before me would be a complete stranger. My memories of Henrik, though they were not faded or disturbed by time, were centuries old. Seeing how much he had grown, he must have come to life again some years ago. Maybe he had even grown out of the person I had once known.
"May I come in?" I said in a whisper that was intended to be louder than it actually was.
He smirked and gestured me in. "It's your house."
I couldn't help but copy his smirk as I came in and closed the door. We stood there for some seconds and I had to awkwardly gesture him to sit down on the bed. He did and watched me pace around the room for some seconds while I gathered my thoughts.
"You're alive," I started.
He smirked again. "I am."
"How."
He rubbed his hands together, looking down and smiling. "Two years ago, I was walking around the grounds where our village used to be. Now it's a city called Mystic Falls."
"I'm familiar with it, yes."
"Well, I happened to find a Bennet witch that was acting as an anchor to the other side. She was strong enough to do a spell so that spirits could come back to the living through her. I think she was trying to rescue a loved one, but I took the chance and popped back to life."
I nodded and bit my cheek trying to contain myself. I had spent centuries trying to get him back, trying to both remember him and let go. He was the only thing that was part of my human life that I wanted to keep but didn't have, and when I accepted it and decided to do let him go it nearly destroyed me. I had to turn off my humanity. I even had to get rid of the Mikaelsons because they were a constant reminder of him. I had to redo my life from scratch over and over again and, now that I had finally made it, he showed up. And he says that the only thing I had to do was find an anchor to the other side and use it to get him back?
I couldn't believe how furious it made me. It was all a waste of time when it had such a simple solution.
No, no. Olga was right.
It wasn't a waste of time.
Every step of the way, I did what I had to. Maybe those steps took me down some dangerous paths, some bad moments and a lot of pain. But they were part of the path. And I went through them and came out learning stuff: that sometimes doing the right thing is hard, but it's still the right thing to do; that running away from my problems won't fix them; that family doesn't have to necessarily share my blood, that talking about problems instead of tackling all on my own can be better... I had learned who and what was important to me.
"And you waited two years to come here?" I continued.
He nodded. "I wasn't quite sure what to do, honestly. I had no one and no way to find any of you. I had been stuck on the other side for centuries and that had taught me only one thing: if I was there was because I was a not human."
"You're a witch," I concluded. It made sense. His mother was a powerful witch. Finn had been one too, even Rebekah and Kol used to display early signs of magic when they were humans. It was only natural that Henrik would be one too.
"Yes," he said, "I thought that would be my ticket to finding you, but I had to learn how to use my powers, so I did a lot of travelling, found witches that were willing to teach me and, when I was ready, I tried to find you and my siblings. But you were the only one that I could reach."
I sighed. "Henrik, your siblings are..." I tried to find a way to break it to him. "As you said, unavailable."
"I know Finn is dead." He didn't seem sad. The way he said it was more factual than emotional. Maybe he had had time to come to terms with it, the way the rest of us did. "But what about the others?"
"Well... they are under different spells and curses..."
He seemed very confused at that. I shook my head, deciding that here was no soft way to introduce him to all the Mikaelson family drama; he would have to crash straight into it and accept it.
"Some four years ago, a guy named Marcel Gerald, who had been a sort of protégé of Niklaus, felt he had been neglected and betrayed by the Mikaelsons and decided to take his revenge against my- your family, Henrik," I explained, "He cursed Rebekah and poisoned Freya, used a powerful dark object against Niklaus, and bit both Kol and Elijah. Marcel... he's a hybrid, a very powerful and dangerous one. His bite is toxic to even Original vampires... To gain more time, Freya put them all under a sleeping spell and used Niklaus to anchor them to the world of the living."
He nodded though it was pretty clear that he was taking me at my word; he didn't have all the details or context yet, and I knew we would need many long conversations to fill him in on everything.
"Freya," he asked the first question, "Who is she?"
I tilted my head. Maybe Henrik had been too young when he died that he still didn't know everything that his parents had gone through before running away from the Old World. "She's your oldest sister," I said, "A witch. She kinda appeared out of nowhere a century before all this."
He smirked again, laughing at his own joke: "That's the way of us, Mikalesons."
I chuckled too. "It is." I had stopped pacing and had sat down next to him, though I was not entirely sure about touching him. Maybe I could hold his hand, maybe he needed me to comfort him somehow, but it felt too odd just yet.
"Where are they now?" He asked.
"Marcel has Niklaus trapped in New Orleans. He might hurt him, but he won't kill him, so don't worry too much." I had tried to be reassuring but somehow I felt like I had failed. "The rest of them are safe. Hayley has them in caskets and they are well protected. Björn made sure of it."
"Hayley?"
"She's... Oh, gods... How do I explain this? She and Niklaus had a kid together, but they are not together together. In fact, she's with Elijah, but it only gets weird if you think too much about it, so don't."
He laughed at that. "I'll try not to." He then fell silent, looking at the floor. "Hayley, Freya, Björn, Peter, Olga, Marcel... so many new people important in you life, for better or for worse, and I have no idea who any of them are."
"Oh..." That was the only thing I could say. I had been so worried that he had changed that I hadn't realised that I had too. I had new people, new knowledge, new memories, that had nothing to do with him, and letting him into them must have been overwhelming for him as well. "Well, Björn is my brother... my real brother. I found him some centuries ago. Well, someone found him for me, but that's another story. As for Olga and Peter, they are my friends. Olga is a witch, Peter a werewolf."
"You all live together?"
"Yeah."
"As a family." He sounded so distant and sad, as if he was disappointed that I had a life.
"I suppose so, yes."
He sighed and rubbed his face. It was as if this all new information was starting to feel heavy on his shoulders and he was crumbling. Something he had said came to mind: I had no one and no way to find you. He must have been so alone, and now he was trying to find out if I had enough space in my life for him while his family was otherwise engaged.
"Hayley lives near New Orleans with her daughter, your niece, Hope," I tried to give him some sort of good news, "She's trying to find a way to bring your siblings back, Henrik. I go there as much as I can to help out... Hope is really cute, I can introduce you to them if you want."
He shook his head vehemently. "I think that would be too much," he said a bit bewildered. The shock of it all was finally catching up to him. "I think I'll need time to process it all, and certainly before I meet any new family."
"I'm sure you have so many questions, most of them you haven't even thought of yet. You can stay here as long as you want and I'll answer them all," I decided with conviction this time, "I'll help you through this." I took his hand and gave it a squish.
He looked up to me and stared into my eyes looking for something. "You are wrong about one thing, though."
I frowned and released his had slowly, afraid to have screwed up.
But he took my hand again and continued. "You corrected yourself when you were going to say that they are your family," he said, "They are, Beyla, just as much as they are mine. I couldn't see you all the time when I was on the other side, I could only do it from time to time, when one of you was thinking of me. But the times I could, I saw how you behaved with them. You were a partner in crime with Kol, and he doesn't let just anyone in so I know he likes you. Rebekah trusts you enough to ask for your advice. Elijah takes care of you as he does with any of the rest. Finn talked to you, and honestly that was enough. And Nik... Nik loves you, Beyla. You're his family. I could see that. Anyone who has eyes could see that."
I forced a smile. "I'm not sure if you have the more updated information, Henrik."
"I don't need to," he said, "that kind of love doesn't change easily."
If only you knew...
"I'll figure things out," he said, "And I'll help you and Hayley rescue my siblings."
We smiled at each other and stayed in silence for some other minutes. We would figure it out. We would rescue the rest of the Mikaelsons and I would be there when Niklaus and the others saw Henrik for the first time. I was going to be there and I was going to be alright. Even if Niklaus hated my guts, he would get over it when he saw that I had been one of the people who had rescued him, I was sure. And I was going to get to know Henrik again, this new Henrik that was a witch and looked older and knew only the bare minimum about me. We were going to get to know each other again and we would be fine. And together, we would fix everything.
I smirked as I suddenly started to wonder if he would go to some of Olga's therapy sessions with me. I thought we would need them.
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