~Hayley POV~
It had been three weeks since Grace had gone on the dreaded trip and every aspect of the compound had been shaken by its effects. Elijah had resorted to awkward mode and just interacted with Grace as little as possible, hoping he could just avoid being a part of it at all. Klaus was turning to his old friend—unbridled anger—and was doing very little in his attempts to curb it. Amelia wasn't good at calming him down either so the strain on their relationship only became more evident. And Hayley was just finding it difficult to cope with the idea that the child she had literally died for spontaneously disowned her.
"Hey Gracie." Hayley leaned against Grace's door, happy that she was at least taking her schoolwork seriously. She was at her desk going through some sort of magic homework and turned to Hayley with a warm grin.
"Hey, what's up?" Grace asked.
"Well I figured you've been so cooped up in this house you might want to go out and see the outside for a little bit." She offered. "I'm craving hot dogs and slushies, you want in?"
"Hate to break it to you, but I'm grounded." She said with a raised brow, seeing right through Hayley's gesture. "Which means those hot dogs and slushies come with strings attached."
"Well they are very reasonable strings." Hayley sat down beside her daughter and Grace sighed in exasperation. "You have to stop this Fiore thing."
"I can't just stop the truth." Grace told her with a shrug.
"You can't seriously think this is the truth." Hayley insisted.
"I know it sounds crazy, but this is the Mikaelson Compound, damn it!" Grace huffed. "I am the only biological child of a vampire—correction the Original hybrid—but when I say my mom compelled everyone to forget her, that's a step too far?"
"I know even you can see the effects it's having on everyone around here." Hayley continued. "Are you really okay being the cause of it?"
"I am not the cause of anything. Anastasia is."
"Elliott's girlfriend Anastasia?" Hayley inquired.
"Yeah, she's also Fiore's half-sister." Grace explained. "It's a whole thing."
"So this is because you don't like Anastasia?" Hayley muttered with a depleted sigh. "Look, I don't like her too and I miss Elliott more than anything, but this is not the—"
"I don't care that Elliott is gone. He picked a side, and it wasn't ours." Grace snapped. "Anastasia made him do his bidding and if he can hex me then he can sure as hell keep my mom locked away."
"I am your mom!" Hayley shot back, her own anger coming through. "Your birth literally killed me! And now you went on some trip, and you want to throw all that away."
"I'm not throwing anything away." Said Grace with a quiet sigh. "I am so lucky that you are one of the many parents I have been gifted with...but you're not my mom."
"Fine. Whatever." Hayley got to her feet and huffed out of Grace's room, feeling heavier than she did when she left.
"This family isn't whole." Grace said, causing her to turn around. "I haven't felt whole in a long time. There was an ache in my heart where my mom used to be. I know you feel that too."
Hayley was taken aback by this admission. She had felt that something was missing but there was no way this could be because of some story Klaus used to tell.
"When my grandpa fixed the memory...I've never felt so alive." Grace continued. "I felt like me. And I have a lot of feelings towards my mom—confusion, upset, anger...but a lot of love for her too."
"I'm glad you're feeling better, Grace." Hayley murmured, trying not to be affected by her words.
"I hope you enjoy your hot dogs and slushie, Aunt Hayley."
Hayley shook her head and left her daughter's room feeling like she had only taken steps backwards in her pursuit of fixing this. She sat on her bed and groaned, face in her hands as she thought about the relationship she had with her children that only seemed to crumble even further each passing day.
She pulled out her phone and sent a text to Elliott, even though she was fairly certain she would not be receiving a response back.
Hayley: Hey kiddo, thinking of you. Hope you're good.
She waited for a moment, holding onto the sliver of hope that he might respond this time. But as she flicked through the many texts she had sent and received no response to, she knew this time was no different.
The tears trickled down her face but she didn't even have the voice to express her anguish. She simply sat and let herself wallow in the salty tears that streaked down. She felt a comforting arm wrap around her shoulder, and she didn't have to look to know it was Elijah.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked her. She sighed in contentment as she thought about how far she and Elijah had come before reality crashed around her.
"I think I'm a bad mom." Hayley explained, Elijah turned to her in disbelief, but she knew it wasn't his opinion that mattered.
"You are a fantastic mother." He refuted.
"I find that hard to believe." She replied bitterly. "I have one kid who never talks to me and spends all his time with his evil girlfriend and another one who doesn't like me so much she invented a whole other woman to be her mom."
Elijah's body tensed against hers for a second, but her supernatural senses were too honed to not notice. And now she thought he agreed too.
"You cannot judge your parenting ability when people are at their worst." Elijah told her with a heavy sigh. "Elliott and Grace are going through rough patches right now, but you were still his mother when he went into my mind to save you. And you are no less of a parent to Grace than you were when she accepted that award for most improved student last year."
"Why don't they want me, Elijah?" Hayley said as she sobbed quietly into his chest. Elijah held onto her tighter and Hayley knew he wished he had the words to take away her pain.
"Sometimes we push people away because we are afraid of how much we want them. Because it hurts to need them that much." Elijah spoke soothingly and ran his hands across her wavy brown locks. "In spite of their words, I don't think Elliott and Grace have ever needed you more than they do now."
~Klaus POV~
Unbeknownst to Elijah and Hayley, Klaus had heard their conversation and he could not take the unnecessary hurt Grace was causing Hayley. It had to come to an end, and he knew he was the only one strong enough to do what needed to be done.
Drastic needs called for drastic measures and Klaus was going to carry them out.
"This stops now." Klaus stormed into the living room where Grace was watching TV. He yanked the plug out of the socket and Grace sat up in alarm.
"I was watching that!"
"You need to watch yourself." Her father told her sternly. "Enough with the 'Fiore is my mother' racket."
"But she is!"
"SHE IS NOT!" Klaus roared. Grace was taken aback by her father's outburst.
It had been years since he had yelled at her like that. He too felt it's resonance and took a deep breath as he tried to calm himself down.
"Grace, I understand that my relationship with Amelia hurts you but you cannot turn to fantasies to deal with that pain. Especially when they are hurting everyone around you. Amelia has done nothing but try and be kind to you. And you have repaid that kindness with unprovoked rudeness."
"Is it unprovoked to not like the woman who clearly tried to have an affair with you when you were married to my mom?" Grace asked with a raised brow.
"Your mother was not born." Klaus retorted. "In fact, Hayley is besides herself. Elliott's absence already hurts her and—"
"That has nothing to do with me." Grace said with a frown.
"So you really don't care that your mother is miserable because of your actions?" Klaus asked in disbelief.
"If you're asking me if I want Hayley to be miserable, then of course not. But she's not my real mom, Fiore is." Grace told her father determinedly. "And you're not gonna change my mind."
"Your phone."
"Excuse me?"
"Your phone. Now." He said as he held out his hand for it.
"I'm not—"
"Grace, do not make me repeat myself." Klaus said in a near growl. Reluctantly she obliged and he got up and started taking cables from the TV.
"What are you doing?"
"Until you can learn to behave with respect, you are not just grounded, but you cannot have any electronics. Phone, tablet, laptop, TV? Gone." He explained.
"You can't just do that!" She shrieked.
"I am your father, so not only can I do that, but I will." He replied firmly.
"But—"
"You can have them back when you apologise to Amelia and your mother."
"Fiore is my mother. Whether you believe me or not." She told him, her first clenched tightly in anger.
"Fiore is not real!" Klaus snapped. "I made her up to tell you stories, but she does not exist!"
"She does!"
"Then where is she, Grace?" He asked her. "And where has she been? Because even if she is real, she abandoned us—all of us. Why would you want that?"
"She had to make a sacrifice! For everyone!"
"Right." Klaus muttered stiffly. "In the meantime, you've got a real mother, who has managed to make countless sacrifices for you, while being here all the while."
And with all her modern-day belongings in tow, Klaus left the room.
~Grace POV~
Grace lay on her bed in silence and already her will had begun to dissolve. Listening to music usually helped her in times like this but thanks to her dad's new punishment for her, there was only oppressive quiet.
Her father's words had managed to strike a chord with her and she began to wonder if maybe she was taking this too far. Maybe Silas was a liar and had made it all up. Maybe she should just accept that Hayley was her mother. Maybe—
"Jeez Grace when I call, please pick up the phone!" Grace sat up abruptly when she heard Lizzie's voice. Sure enough, there Lizzie stood, Josie by her side, in the middle of her room in New Orleans.
"What are you—How are you—?"
"Astral projection." Josie answered. "When you didn't pick up the phone for ages, we got really worried about you."
"So I convinced MG to let me siphon off of him long enough so we can talk." Lizzie continued. "Which means cliffs note version only. Why are you avoiding us?"
"I'm not avoiding you." Grace explained with a huff. "I'm grounded. And my dad took everything."
Lizzie and Josie took a moment to glance at her now barren room.
"Yikes."
"Yeah." Grace said with a wry laugh. "He said I've been making everyone miserable with this Fiore thing. And he's right. So thanks for the help guys but I'm done."
"Not so fast!" Josie said giddily. "Mom's been packing for a long trip to Europe and she found this binder."
Josie showed Grace a purple scrapbook labelled Mikaelson Baby Shower.
"Guys, we've been over this." Grace said with a sigh. "No pictures of her exist anymore."
"So we thought." Josie flipped open to a page where there was a picture of Caroline and Stefan smiling together at the baby shower.
"Cute picture I guess but—"
"Look closer." Lizzie interrupted.
As Grace examined the photo further, she realised that in the background, heavily pregnant and with an incredible smile on her face sat Fiore.
"Oh my gosh."
"I know it's kinda blurry but—"
"It's her." Grace murmured as tears began to trickle down her eyes. "Mom."
"We did it, right?" Josie asked hopefully. "We found proof! We just have to show Mr Mikaelson and then—"
"He'll believe me." Grace finished. "He'll have to."
"Hardly." Lizzie said with a roll of her eyes.
"But—"
"Sorry Grace, but all this proves is that a blurry pregnant lady was at a baby shower." Lizzie told her. "If you showed this to your dad, he'd probably just get angrier at you."
"She's right." Josie said in disappointment.
"I know she is." Grace muttered glumly.
"But this isn't it right?" Josie asked. "It can't be."
"Don't worry, it's not." Grace looked up at Lizzie with a renewed, if tentative, hope.
"You have a plan?" Grace asked.
"And not even you can mess it up Grace." Lizzie said with a mischievous grin. "This photo proves that it's not magic that's getting rid of any evidence of Fiore. Someone is looking for photos of her and hiding them."
"But they're doing a really good job of it." Josie interjected.
"Yeah, but if they've missed this one, it means they could have missed others." Grace explained.
"Exactly!" Lizzie exclaimed with an evil beam. "We just have to keep looking until we come up with enough evidence that no one can deny."
"But how am I meant to look when I'm trapped in this house with nothing but silence to keep me company?" Grace asked.
"Got that covered too." Lizzie smirked before turning to Grace with a steely determination. "But for my plan to work, you have to play this so much safer Grace. Can you handle it?"
"For my mom? Anything."
"Good." Lizzie smirked once more with pride. "Operation Fiore Come Back Home is a go."