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When Judith awoke, she had found that her family had taken her and Hope to a place they had never seen before. Judith was held protectively against Klaus' chest, as Hope was to Hayley.
Judith was nervous, unaware of what was happening with her and where she was . She wasn't afraid of what was to come, she knew an evil was coming. She was more afraid of what evils that had already happened were to come to light during any of this.
When the Mikaelson's entered the old compound, Klaus looked around before he began to speak "Our home. Once the pride of our family, now a flophouse."
The house was a disaster and anyone with a brain and could feel how cold it was could tell that it had been abandoned, and left to rot.
"Indeed, the mighty have fallen." Elijah agreed, despite how worried he was about his nieces, he too felt the disappointment of seeing his once powerful home, a deserted mess.
Hayley, who wasn't worried at all about the appearance of the compound and instead about the status of the two kids' health. Hayley knows that Judith isn't her daughter biologically, but she still felt the overwhelming urge to protect her from any and all danger. And even then, she might as well have been hers.
"Where's Vincent?" She asked worriedly, as she rushed past the two brothers to lie Hope down, before she turned towards them and walked over to Klaus. She gently rubbed an unconscious Judith's head before she took her from her father's hold and laid her down beside her little sister. Suddenly a man spoke up, someone neither of the girls had ever met.
"Right here. I kept my word. Now the only question is whether or not you guys are gonna keep yours. As soon as I'm finished healing— woah. Whose child have you people kidnapped? And what did you do to her?" The witch, Vincent Griffith had moved over to protectively stand in between Hayley and the couch in which Judith and Hope lay.
"What kind of monsters do you think we are? I thought we were friends, Vince." Nothing about Klaus' tone at the moment was friendly. How dare he make such an incredulous accusation against not only Niklaus himself but his present family?
"Enough, Klaus. It's a long story, but this is Judith. She's Klaus' first daughter. Now can you please help them?"
Vincent nodded, lowering his hands and tearing his eyes away from the girls and back to the three vampires in front of him. "Okay. Okay. But as soon as I'm finished healing your kids, you got to leave the city."
"Well, we're not gonna stay, are we? Your city has lost its charm." Klaus snapped back, ready to rip Vincent to shreds if he continued his pestering any longer.
"What he means to say is that we're very grateful, just help them and we'll leave," Hayley said as she looked into Vincent's eyes pleadingly.
"Just give us what we need, and we will do so, happily "Elijah said to him, standing from his crouching position between his nieces, Vincent nodding in agreement before making his way over to the two.
"Excuse me."
"Okay." Vincent spoke softly as he rubbed his hands together. "Nettoyer timoun sa a. Nettoyer timoun sa a. Nettoyer timoun sa a. Nettoyer timoun sa a. Nettoyer timoun sa a." Soon after he was finished chanting he touched their temples and the two girls both awoke.
"Mom?" Hope called out, while her sister sat up looking around. Hayley quickly walked over to the two girls as Vincent stood, pulling them into a hug.
"That's it. The little girls are purified." Vincent told them, walking away as Klaus thanked the man, "No look, the only gratitude I need from any of you is seeing you leave the city." Vincent spoke as he held his hands up in a gesture before going to walking out.
"Go see your daddy." Hayley encouraged Hope as she helped her stand. Hayley held Judith for a few seconds as she watched Hope.
The younger Mikaelson began walking towards her father only for a dead crow to drop down infront of her, this causing Hope to whir around and Judith to become spooked as she jumped in Hayley's arms.
"Judith!" Hope called out. The girl quickly let go of Hayley and rushed over to her little sister and pulled her into a protective hug, as more crows began to fall rapidly and in a larger amount than before, forming a huge but perfect circle around the two. Hayley rushed to them, pulling both girls into her just as the crows stopped.
"What is this?" Klaus asks angrily, looking over at Vincent.
"I don't know." Vincent answered honestly, looking at the two girls and the dead crows that had fallen all around them.
"Mom? Can you hear that? It's whispers. Saying a name. Over and over. 'Kre Nah Han, Kre Nah Han.'"Hope spoke, as she looked around where the crows had come from while she tried to find the location of the whispers she and clearly Judith too were both hearing. Except the two little girls were the only ones that could hear it.
"Vincent, what is that?" Hayley questioned, looking up at him in worry.
"It's a nearly forgotten dialect. It's Creole. It means The Hollow. The Hollow is coming."
That blue hue from the other day appeared, almost like a calling but only this time Judith was the only one who could see it.
"How do you feel?" Elijah asked, tucking some hair behind Judith's ear as he stared down at her in concern.
"I'm so cold," Judith answered. The girl tried to sit up, but was gently pushed to lay back down.
"Where's my sister? Is she okay?" She asked, looking at her uncle who held her hand in his own.
"Yes. Yes she is gonna be fine, sweetheart. She's resting in the other room down the hall," Elijah told the young girl, a soft smile on his face something, one she mimicked herself.
"Miss H-Hayley said you and dad love New Orleans most of all, " Judith recalled and Elijah nodded, as this was true once.
"Yes we did. Like our first true love. We once thought that it was, but now we've matured in the sense that now makes putting your love into a place instead of the people you have in it is asinine," Elijah explained to the small girl, who simply smiled as she held onto every word he said.
"Uncle Elijah, I don't feel so good," Judith said suddenly. It felt like a switch. She felt awful since she lost consciousness but just then a wave of sickness hit her like a bus.
"Try and get some rest, okay. Your father will be in here shortly," The uncle felt his heart break a little seeing his already small niece seem so much smaller due to the stress her body was currently experiencing.
Elijah reached over and grabbed the wash cloth from its bowl on the nightstand, before ringing it out. He laid it on her forehead, smoothing it out across her face. He held her hand in his, using his thumb to rub the outside of her hand.
"How is she?" Klaus asked quietly as he stepped into the room, hearing her soft little snores the second he stepped out of Hope's room.
"It would seem as though Vincents purification spell was just a farce. She's no better than she was when we left the safe house. What about, Hope?" Elijah softly removed his hand from Judith's and stood to stand in front of his brother.
"Unfortunately, I fear she's the same. I don't know how it's possible to be this helpless, Elijah. The children I've only just come to know again are in mortal danger by some ancient spirit drawn to them, with plans to destroy them and everything in its path. I've just got back to Hope, I just learned of my true first born. There is never a moment of peace!" Klaus and Elijah froze as they heard the movement of the little girl in the bed. Klaus looked at the sleeping girl longingly, so much emotion in his heart.
"It appears so brother, but we will do everything in our power and more to fix them so that we may live a life together. A good life together. Like we were meant to from the very start," Elijah told his younger brother who still hadn't looked back up at him yet.
"The first 9 months and then the last five years of Hope's life, all 8 of Judith's I've missed. Birthdays and Christmas I've missed it all. Tell me brother, what kind of father does that make me?" He finally tore his eyes away to look at his brother.
"The kind that never had one to lead by example. The kind that already loves both his children more than anything else although he only knew about one. The kind that despite all odds is the greatest father I have ever seen. You'd burn this whole world down for either of them and I think that says a lot about the kind of father you are, Niklaus," Elijah said, and klaus finally looked up at his brother. Tears welled up in his eyes at what his brother had said.
"I appreciate your words, Elijah. And I thank you for staying with her while I tucked in Hope." Elijah patted his little brothers back, before stepping around him. The older original kissed his niece's forehead, budding her a well slumber before exiting leaving the father and daughter alone.
Klaus sat in the spot once taken by his big brother, right next to little Judith. In the queen size bed, dead in the middle Judith looked like a flea on a bear. She was so little but even the littlest of warriors can harbor the biggest of battle scars.
Klaus knew that the second he looked at her. When he picked her up for the first time and the girl flinched slightly as his touch, or when she fell in his hold the night prior and the marks from her early childhood could be visible. He had been so worried about her that he hadn't taken a further glance.
The father picked up her small hand and held it, pressing small kisses to the back of it and rubbing them in.
Judith began to stir a little which caused Klaus to freeze in his actions. He watched the girl intently, his eyebrows furrowing when she began to move and whimper as if she was trying to get away from something. He could protect her in the real world but the demons that haunted her in her own dreams at night were no match for the Hybrid Mikaelson.
This began to burn the question that none of them had time to ask. Where did she come from and why hadn't anyone noticed that a child her size had been missing for well over a year? When she finally settled down he gave her hand a small squeeze before using his free hand to reach up and touch her forehead.
"You my little darling, are now one of the most protected little girls in the world," The hybrid whispered as he entered her mind.
Flashes of her past began to play like a cinema of some sort in his own head. His anger peaked and he suddenly had a taste for blood. Men, sometimes women, and even some rotten teenagers had harmed his little girl. People who were supposed to be protecting her, failed her each time they struck her.
This broke Niklaus' heart. Unfortunately the thing that can bond him to his eldest daughter the most is the childhood trauma the two have in common. He swore to himself that when Hope was born that she nor any other child he had would bare the brute force of abuse and yet here he was, seething with rage at the thought of anyone hurting his little girl.
People made her cower with fear until her last normal day when she thought she had killed the man who had then tried to kill her. He almost felt a twinge of pride, up until he realized that two of the people in that house were still breathing. Not for much longer, anyway. He'd changed that soon enough.
Klaus walked down the stairs in the Abattoir in search of his two daughters. "Hope? Judith?" Klaus stopped in front of a mirror and looked in it with a shocked expression. What he was seeing was terrifying to him, but he would never admit this aloud.
"Today, you will die at the hands of Marcel.
Unless, you kill your enemy first." He heard the god awful sound of Mikael, come from the mirror. A second later, his super hearing picked up on the presence of someone behind him except when he turned he saw nothing. Klaus walked under the stairs and looked, but again he still didn't see anything, but then Judith and Hope alked out in front of him.
"Daddy? We're ready to go," Judith said to him softly.
"Aren't you coming?" Hope asked him, Klaus looked down at the two girls with a blank look on his face and nodded.
He grabbed a hold of the two girls' hands and began to walk off.
Later in the day, Klaus and Elijah were walking through the compound, side by side as usual. "You need to go to the bayou without me," Klaus told Elijah, this causing the older brother to glance over at him in confusion.
"Why?" Elijah asked.
"Jude and Hope. I'lI be right behind you."
Klaus said, ignoring the question. He needed his brother to stop pestering and obey his order.
"Why?" Elijah asked again.
"Both of my daughters nearly died. I have to make sure the threat to them is over and then after I owe a visit to my eldests' former residence," Klaus simply replied.
Between the actual threats they faced, the fact that he saw his father, and learning about Judith's past that was enough of people doing whatever to his family and thinking they were going to get off free.
"Well yes, Niklaus I am aware of this. However, you're not doing this without me. Those little girls are my family too, and the threat to them will fester unless we both eliminate it." Elijah replied, stopping in his tracks, causing Niklaus to stop walking as well to look his brother in the eye.
"Brother, Marcel loathes you most of all. Freya will help me here. I need to know the two of them are safe. You and Hayley can assure that." Klaus said, walking off before his brother could reply.
Judith, Hope, Elijah and Hayley walked through the field of flowers, leading them up to the old Kenner home out in the bayou. They hadn't seen Mary in awhile and they were eager to see her again.
Hope and Judith stopped every once in awhile to pick some flowers for Mary. When they finally got to the house, Hope and Judith rushed to the door to knock. Mary opening the door seconds later, with a wide grin.
"Grandma Mary!" The two sisters called out excitedly in unison.
"Well hello sweethearts." Mary bent down to give the two girls a hug. "Oh, my girls!"
"We picked you some flowers." Judith told the girl as she grabbed the flowers from Hope and combined them with hers before holding them out so Mary could take them.
"My darlings, why don't you run on inside. I need to talk to your mama," Mary said, looking behind the two girls, before immediately looking back down at Judith who had a hurt look on her face. The older woman went to touch her cheek but the girl had grabbed her sisters hand and ran inside the home.
"...she didn't mean to make you upset, Judith," Hope said softly, looking at her big sister who was reading the grimoire Hayley thought she hid from them. The older Mikaelson girl shrugged her shoulders, not tearing her eyes away from the book.
"Ugh!" She slammed the book shut slamming it down on the floor next to her before standing up and beginning to pace. "There's nothing in our wretched grandmothers spellbook that explains whatever the heck this Hollow thing is or how to get rid of it," Judith ranted, dismissing Hope's statement. She paused, running her hands through her hair before squatting down and raising her eyebrows at the book. "I don't know how we're supposed to eliminate this thing, Hope."
"Don't ignore me. And that's not our responsibility right now, J." Hope said looking up at her sister.
"I'm not ignoring you, Hope. And I'm not hurt about what Mary said okay. Hayley is the closest thing to a mom I've ever had, but she didn't ask for this. She didn't ask for me to drop in on her life or yours. I'm not her daughter, no matter how hard I wish I was."
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