May 7, 2019
Eisa was the only one who remained unchanged after five years.
Being put to sleep was unfortunately a lot like being daggered. There were moments of consciousness where she remembered that she was asleep, only able to listen to the world passing her by. Most times, she could hear nothing. Other times, there was a buzzing, and some unintelligible words being spoken to her.
Sometimes, there was a bit of light, which always gave her hope and made her think it was time to awaken. But the dim circle never grew, and always faded before she could think to reach for it.
Conjuring up images was the hardest. But when she strained herself to do so, to bring up a memory that would comfort her, it would make her happy, before she drifted back into unconsciousness to rest for another long while.
The buzzing sound had been magnified in her ears, just moments before she actually woke up. The light glowed brighter, and there was a sensation of pain in her shoulder before her eyes opened, causing her to cringe at the feeling of sunlight. She was no longer used to it, and it made her want to recoil.
"Easy does it," came Freya's voice, helping her sister out of the coffin she'd been placed in. "How do you feel, Sister?"
"Exhausted," replied Eisa, rubbing her eyes. "How long has it been? Am I healed?"
Freya smiled. "That you are. We've been waiting for you to wake."
After blinking several times, Eisa was able to make sense of her surroundings. She was in an unfamiliar attic, which smelled musty, and was unfortunately covered in cobwebs. Aside from a few pieces of broken furniture and boxes that radiated a bit of familiarity, it had no semblance of home, which led her to suggest she was not, in fact, in the attic of the Compound.
"Where are we?" she asked, seeing no one else was there.
"An abandoned house I had put under my name," said Freya, pulling her into a hug. "It wasn't wise, keeping you in New Orleans. Not that any of us stayed there."
"Freya, I reiterate, how long has it been?"
"Five years."
Five years of a tiny light. Five years of buzzing. Five years of struggling to look at memories that would make the wait easier. Five years of sleeping dreamlessly, unable to truly rest.
Eisa nodded slowly. "Alright. Well, you can fill me in on everything on our way to... wherever everyone else is."
"Just drink this first," said Freya, handing her a blood bag. Eisa snatched it away from her unintentionally, bringing it to her lips and groaning as she devoured it. She hadn't realized just how much she missed blood. She reached for another bag, which Freya gladly handed to her.
"You were starting to desiccate," said Freya. "I apologize... it had been awhile since I came to drip a bit of blood in your mouth."
"Couldn't feel that, honestly, so it's alright. Now... tell me all of it."
Freya had a lot to talk about.
After Eisa had been put to sleep, the family had had a very serious (though not at all peaceful) talk about what to do next. They had Lucien's venom, his blood, and several notebooks where he'd outlined just how and where he'd found the wolves from different Packs. It seemed easy, tracing his steps and getting the different strains of venom.
It definitely wasn't easy.
He'd cleaned up after himself quite well. Each Kingmaker Land Development facility had housed wolves of a different kind. The one Hayley and Klaus had gone to had mostly Paxon and BasRoq wolves. The others would be harder to locate. Lucien had done his job, exterminating as many as he could, which had not only made the wolves retreat deep into unknown territory, but had also made several of them change their identities, and renounce their status as part of their Packs. Random wolves were scattered everywhere, and many had no idea which original Pack they were even descended from.
Locator Spells weren't easy without the blood or venom of a pure wolf from one of those lines. While the Poldark and BasRoq wolves that were rescued had easily submitted to giving their blood, many of the others were not only reluctant, but also determined to keep from ever helping vampires after what they'd suffered.
The family had elected to move out almost entirely out of New Orleans in a meantime. Elijah needed to be protected at all costs, therefore, he'd gone with Klaus, Hayley, Hope, and Isela to live in a spacious but isolated house in the mountains.
Rebekah had remained in New Orleans with Marcel to send word of any developments that might be of interest, and maintained the Compound ready for whenever Klaus came to visit Cami (which he did a lot of). Kol and Davina had gone to travel the world together, occasionally stopping to visit the others. Freya had jumped between places for a while before settling in Texas, where she'd made an interesting discovery.
"No bloody way," said Eisa with a wide grin. "You—?"
She nodded. "It was difficult, honestly, figuring it out without being able to ask you for advice. But... I'm sure about it, and I'm happy. My girlfriend is actually a werewolf... the Malraux wolf we'd been needing to make the cure."
"Aw, Freya, this makes me unbelievably happy! This is a wonderful thing to wake up to. You must let me meet her."
"Soon, I promise, once we get you to where the others are. For safety, only I could come and get you. It would draw less attention to the house. But they're all eager."
Eisa bit her lip, refraining from asking the question she was really curious about. Freya seemed to know what it was. "Hayley's been waiting for you," she said. "She missed you a lot. I think she's been planning an entire speech to give you."
"A speech? That's a bit dramatic, isn't it?"
"There's a lot you two have to discuss."
"Well, yes. It's apparently been five years since she told me she would wait for me. And it seems like she did wait."
They had to drive for two hours up a winding road filled with trees before they reached an expensive-looking house with a remote-controlled fence that let them in as soon as Freya clicked the button attached to her keychain.
Eisa sat up, looking out and seeing the front yard had nicely trimmed grass around a tiny garden, though the entirety of it was covered in the sort of things a seven-year-old would keep handy for outdoor activities: a bicycle (without training wheels), a hula hoop, a picnic table with an easel ready to have a canvas placed over it, a small trampoline, and a yoga mat.
"Hope must have been out here, earlier," said Freya as she parked the car. Eisa could see into the backyard, where a pool and seating area lay under a canopy.
"This place is really nice," she mentioned as she got out of the car. "Wow... Nik is spoiling her rotten."
"Not rotten," laughed Freya. "She's a good kid, doesn't ask for much. It's safer for her to stay home and do school here, so she's had to have enough space to be active whenever she's not working on assignments."
"Let me guess," said Eisa, catching sight of a piano in the living room. "Elijah's teaching her music, and Nik is teaching her art."
"Something like that. Hayley intended to do it all, but Klaus grew restless within the first few weeks of being out here, only able to go to the supermarket when necessary, and she put him to do some of the teaching, which he finds calming. He's surprisingly patient with Hope. I had no idea that Klaus was so good at math."
Eisa chuckled. "Well, after a thousand years, you learn a lot, whether you want to or not."
"He's been a big help in teaching her how to deal with numbers, has all sorts of funny sayings to help her remember the different rules. She's quite advanced for her age, already reading at a high school level, and she's working her way up to being able to write at that level, as well. You can imagine who's taking care of that."
"Elijah," said Eisa knowingly. "You and Isela have been teaching her magic?"
"Yes. Hayley likes it in moderation— nothing too major. Healing Spells to help herself, if anything. But Hope's learned a lot on her own... she's the one who keeps the garden growing, the one who fixes the limbs of injured animals who cross paths with us."
"Who's teaching her science and history?" asked Eisa, waiting for Freya to open the front door.
"Elijah and Nik both teach her history, while Hayley handles the physical and social sciences as well as her physical education. Not to mention Hayley's teaching her a lot about wolves, so that she's ready, if she ever triggers her curse. We haven't yet told her how that's done."
"Got it," said Eisa. She entered the house once the door swung open, and flinched when her siblings, Isela, Marcel, Davina, and Cami all burst out with a chorus of greetings.
"Easy there," said Freya when they all rushed to her at once. "She's been asleep for five years."
Eisa wasn't sure whose questions to answer first, because everyone seemed to be asking her the same thing, but in different words.
"I'm fine," she told them, and she actually meant it this time. "I'm cured." She swept her shirt off her shoulder to reveal the bite was gone. "I hardly felt the time pass... it's not as bad as being daggered for three hundred years."
Klaus looked a bit guilty as everyone's eyes flickered his way, but Eisa just smiled, and went to pull him into a hug.
Someone tugged at her shirt, and she turned to see a little girl holding up a painting for her. "I'm Hope," she said, grinning at her. "And I made this for you."
"You did?" said Eisa, seeing Hope had painted her. "Oh, wow, what did you use as a reference?"
"My dad gave me a picture of you from..." she looked at Klaus for confirmation, "1823?"
Klaus nodded, and Eisa smiled. "Well, I love it. Thank you very much, Hope." She extended her hand to her. "I'm your Aunt Eisa."
"My mom told me," she said, looking back at Hayley, whose face was red at the moment that Eisa looked her way. "She said you're the one who got me all the fashionable clothes when I was little."
"You and I will go on a shopping spree soon," Eisa promised. "Non-designer clothes are perfectly alright while you're growing up, but certain things, like shoes and pants, must be more heavily invested in."
Everyone looked different.
Klaus and let his hair grow out a bit more, allowing his curls to really stand out. Kol, Elijah, and Marcel had let their hair get a bit longer as well, and Kol had grown a full beard while Elijah and Marcel allowed some stubble to reside on their faces. Cami, Freya, and Rebekah had all cut their hair to various lengths. Davina and Hayley had each dyed their hair. Overall, the only ones that had aged were Hope (obviously), Isela, Davina, and Cami.
Eisa had gone to take a shower before she went to sit down for dinner, since of course, she hadn't bathed in five years. She'd thought of the changes in their appearance, and found herself smiling, because it looked like the time had treated all of them well. No one looked sullen or marred with sadness. They seemed to be pleased with their lives, which was what mattered most.
"You really outdid yourselves," said Eisa once they'd gathered around the table to enjoy the feast that had been prepared in her honor. She'd been placed between Elijah and Kol, whose hands she took and squeezed reassuringly. "Thank you. All of you. There is still so much I wish to know, aside from what Freya told me." She looked over at her sister. "Where's your girlfriend, by the way?"
"She's an ER doctor," said Freya. "She'll come by later."
"Keelin is so nice," said Hope, leaning over the table to push the tray of ham toward Eisa. "She and my mom taught me how to heal people without magic."
"Something she neglects often," mentioned Hayley.
Hope grinned. "Well, if I can do magic and take people's boo-boos away, why do other stuff?"
"She's not wrong," said Klaus, ruffling her hair and making her sit back in her chair. "Sit back, love, don't worry, your Aunt Eisa can serve herself."
"Well," asked Eisa, "are we going to be staying here, or are we going to return to New Orleans?"
"Most likely return to New Orleans," said Elijah. "The Strix liked to have their base there, and your lieutenants have been quite good about leading them in your absence. I check in from time to time, and it seems they have done a spectacular job of using their resources for more worthwhile missions."
"That's comforting to hear," said Eisa. "Cami, how have you been?"
Cami beamed. "Well, I still work at Rousseau's part time, but I'll be leaving that job soon, now that I'm fully licensed as a psychologist."
"That's wonderful, congratulations! Are you excited?"
"Yes, though, there are a few things I need to talk to my boss about soon, and I'm not sure how it'll go down."
"You can never go wrong with a bit of compulsion," said Eisa teasingly. "If it doesn't go well, I'm sure Nik would be happy to lend a hand."
Cami blushed, putting her hand on Klaus's. "We've discussed it. I just want to start off without compulsion first, to see how it goes down..."
"Hope," said Klaus suddenly, seeing that she'd finished all her food, "why don't you go bring that other painting you wished to show your Aunt Eisa?"
The little girl grinned and ran off, and Eisa raised a brow. "Shooing the child out of the room? What news are you about to give us, Brother?"
"Well, they already know," said Cami, gesturing to the others, who were smiling. "But... I'm pregnant."
Eisa clapped her hands over her mouth. "I'm getting another niece or nephew? That's the perfect welcome back gift!"
"That implies we created this child solely to benefit you," said Klaus, scrunching up his nose. "I assure you, we did not."
"How far along are you?"
"Only around three months. It's been... calm so far. Isela and Freya think this baby will be a regular hybrid, if it's a hybrid at all."
"Oh, really?"
Freya nodded. "With Hope, she got the wolf gene from both Klaus and Hayley, the witch gene from Klaus, and the vampirism from Klaus. Both parents were supernaturals, it makes a bit more sense. With this baby, Isela and I believe that it will be either just wolf and vampire, or wolf and witch, since of course, unless it is born a siphoner, it cannot be witch and vampire. There is also a chance it will be born just a wolf. We really won't know until the baby grows older."
Hope came running back into the room. "Ta-da!" she said, holding up a canvas with a New Orleans landscape.
"You painted that?" said Eisa. "Wow, that's insanely accurate."
"My dad let me look at a painting he made like this," said Hope. "Copying was easy."
"Though, she added her own flair in the skyline," said Klaus. "Different coloring than mine. After all, mine had darker themes as I did it in the nighttime, but Hope wished for hers to be in the daytime."
"She's taking after you," mentioned Eisa once Hope went to set the painting down. "She's grown so much... I'm sad to have missed it, but I'm glad that you didn't."
"Because he was a good little boy and listened," teased Kol. "You should have seen the tantrum he threw when we all agreed that we should lay low." He started to mimic Klaus's voice, "'Our sister is under a bloody sleeping spell, and the only way to get her the cure that she needs is to make ourselves known to all who would deny us parts of the antidote!'"
"Instead, we had to be more covert," offered Rebekah. "Marcel and I searched New Orleans, casually. Kol and Davina got what they could in other countries. Hayley, Freya, and Isela traveled everywhere here. And the cherry on top, the last bit of venom, conveniently came from Keelin, Freya's lovely little girlfriend." Her eyes suddenly widened. "Oh, Eisa, you will not believe what happened while you were gone."
Eisa blinked, looking a bit nervous. "What is it?"
"Remember that dress you wore for that party Marcel threw when you just arrived in the city, back when Hayley was still pregnant? The Versace dress?"
"Er... yes?"
"Gigi Hadid wore it to the 2018 Met Gala." She pulled out her phone and showed her a picture, which made Eisa raise her eyebrows.
"Well, she looks good in it," said Eisa honestly. "Though, I would have liked to be the one to show that dress off. Alas, we can't all have what we want. Donatella was probably losing her mind when she couldn't contact me. At least I get to say Gigi Hadid and I both wore it well."
Once nightfall came, Eisa got to meet Keelin, the wolf who was dating her sister. A brief 'if you hurt my sister, I'll kill you' talk was had, but with no major threats, since Eisa could see that Keelin and Freya were really happy together. Keelin seemed like a good person.
"Hope's asleep," she heard Hayley's voice say behind her, once she'd gone to get herself more to drink. "Do you want to walk outside?"
Eisa downed her glass and nodded. "Yes, let's."
Hayley offered her arm, and Eisa took it, finding herself wanting to blush as the hybrid led her to the backyard, which had lights all over, making the pool glow.
"Freya said you had a speech," said Eisa, before Hayley could start talking.
"I did have a speech," said Hayley. "There was... so much I wanted to say. I wanted to explain to you all the ways I worked to heal, to grieve properly, so that I could accept Jackson's death, and accept my life without him. I wanted to tell you about all the reading I did, learning more about my identity, solidifying who I am as a person, and not just as a mother and a supernatural. And then I realized that telling you all that outright was just re-introducing myself to you. Which led me to figure out that... what we both need is to start fresh."
She stopped in front of her, extending her hand and smiling. "Hi. My name is Hayley Marshall. I'm a hybrid, and I'm going to be twenty-eight in June. I have a beautiful seven-year-old named Hope who loves to paint and to run around helping animals. Five years ago, I lost someone I loved, and I have since healed, leaving me ready and available to take control of my own life and seize the opportunity to be with the person I have wanted to be with for a really, really long time."
Eisa slowly took her hand. "Hello," she replied. "My name is Eisa Mikaelson. I'm an Original vampire, and I'm... hold on..." she tried to do the math quickly in her head, "phew, one thousand and forty-three years old, but still bear the face I had when I was twenty-five. Five years ago, I lost someone I loved, too, and I watched someone else I love go through the same pain. I lost my brother, and I experienced... a few moments where I wished to be lost, too. But in those few moments that I have been conscious amidst my sleep, I have also healed, and I have found comfort in the memory of those who are no longer with me. I'm ready to face my fears, and to be with someone who wishes to be with me, as well."
They shook hands, and Hayley brought both up so she could kiss the back of Eisa's. "Eisa Mikaelson, you helped me realize that there was so much more to me than I knew. You protected me, comforted me, did everything in your power to make me feel like I mattered. You never judged me, and you kept loving me even when I didn't deserve your love. I have waited five years to see you again, and I don't want to waste another minute not being at your side. I love you. I've loved you since I met you, even if I was too foolish to say it. I've loved you even when I shouldn't have loved you. I would very much like it if we could get to know one another all over again, as partners."
The Original pulled Hayley up, bringing their lips together, and holding the back of her head tenderly, allowing them to remain connected, bodies pressed tightly together.
"Hayley Marshall," whispered Eisa, pressing her forehead against hers, "I've always loved you, too. Even when I shouldn't have loved you. I'd very much like to be your partner."
A/N: Am I impulsively going to publish my Finn Mikaelson story before finishing this one? Yes I am. This one is almost over, so if you would like to read the new fic, check out 'Tainted' on my profile!