Kol and Edie are sat in a hotel room watching TV with three empty wine bottles strewn across the floor.
"So, is this how you spent your days when you were upset?" Kol pondered while stroking the porcelain arm of the most amazing woman he had ever met.
Edie chuckled and revealed how relaxed this all seemed for her. She liked the normalcy of it all. And Kol couldn't agree more. When Edie mentioned they should probably go meet his family, Kol quickly refused. He didn't want to meet those ingrates. Edie tried to assuage his anger to no avail.
Just as she was about to press the stroppy vampire further, smoke began to seep underneath the hotel door. Kol jumped up from the bed and fazed to the door. Edie was alert and positioned herself against the opposite wall.
One. Two. Three.
Kol burst the door open to only find a burning sage and note left on the door mat. He looked up and down the hall, but saw no one. He affirmed with a nod that no danger was there before Edie slowly approached the note.
It was written on an odd-colored parchment that would only belong to someone of high rank. The smell of sage soon filled the room and Edie suddenly felt faint. She was seeing something else. Somewhat like a movie playing before her where she was the protagonist.
Then she knew.
"It's Dahlia and Esther."
Kol stared wide-eyed at the woman before him. He just nodded as the tears steamed down her face. She remembered everything. The burning, the sage smoke spiraling through the air as they chanted and the screams. The echoing, harrowing screams as the ancestors were banished. It was all coming back to her.
They remained silent for a few moments.
"So, they hijacked the séance?"
Edie took some deep breaths.
"They needed the power to resurrect him."
Kol swallowed the lump building in this throat. It was impossible for it to be their father so it must be...
"Finn."
Edie collapsed to the floor with Kol quickly moving to her side, but Edie wasn't upset. She was so indescribably angry. The ancestors were going to let her go. They had released her and then, once again, the Mikaelsons had ruined her life. She was looking to Kol and he couldn't read her face but he could feel her rage from her stare.
He knew to an extent that his comfort was not what she wanted. He looked to the floor and then slowing began clearing up. He looked back to see her glaring into space and slowly approached the door.
"You don't have to go," she called to him. She half-meant it. She didn't want to push him away. She knew it was not his fault, she was just trying so hard to not fall into what had been indoctrinated into her for the last centuries whilst running around the world with Mikael. He had told her that the Mikaelsons only look out for the Mikaelsons. They destroy any opposition. Kol had proved otherwise, but now... It seemed like it wasn't enough. If she wanted a true normal life, maybe Kol wasn't meant to be a part of it.
Kol could see her struggling with her own words so quickly kissed her cheek then fazed back to the door with his bag in hand.
"I do. I love you, Edith Anne. Because I love you, I have to go."
She didn't look up as he closed the door behind him.
Back at the manor, a quiet hush had befallen them. Klaus was in his study. Rebekah was somewhere gallivanting about New Orleans. Elijah silently waiting for Kol to return.
Klaus emerged form his study to find Elijah sitting in the same spot he had left him. He made a barb about how Elijah might turn into a statue with all his righteous potential just sitting there.
Elijah knew Klaus wanted him to bring Kol back, but it wasn't that simple. He explained that the best thing was for them to wait until he returned on his own accord. If he goes and finds him now, then they may lose him forever.
"Are we going to be in this continuous cycle of chasing each other to the ends of the earth just to piss each other off in the end and never speak until we decide to chase each other all over again?"
"Niklaus, what we need to do now is apologize to our brother."
Klaus scoffed and Elijah's suggestion. But after he saw how serious his brother was. He sat on the sofa opposite him and laughed.
"You're mad, Elijah. I think for once in your life, your morality has finally plagued your judgment. We're family. Apologies and forgiveness are implied."
"Maybe for normal families. However, we are a unique case where we are stuck watching the rise and fall of empires together for all eternity. If we never learn to apologize for our wrongdoing then we might as well never learn to forgive each other. Some things need more than implication."
Klaus stared at Elijah and couldn't help but feel angry. Where was his apology in regards to Aurora? Why did he have to forgive Elijah for his error in judgment that destroyed his life?
Ding. He looked over to his phone and saw he had a message from Cami.
I won't wait up. See you tomorrow for coffee?
Then he knew. He had forgiven Elijah a long time ago. But he realized it took him far too long to do so. Whatever resentment he feels towards his eldest brother now is but a fraction to what he felt initially and he knew it took him centuries to come this far.
"What o' what do we have here? A friendly chat between my eldest brothers? Or perhaps nonchalant plotting instead?"
Kol looked between them with his mischievous grin and both immediately rose to their feet.
"Kol-"
"Save the speeches. I'm sure you are ready to tell me your reasons. I have heard them all before and I honestly could care less. Always and forever. Family first. I think I have had just about enough of that for today."
Kol was ready to run to his room when Klaus suddenly blocked his path.
"Kol, wait."
Kol loudly dropped his things to the floor and eyed his brother with curiosity.
Elijah slowly stood beside Klaus and Kol began to feel very small. Like he was a child again being scolded. He felt very exposed and foolish, but he remembered the image of Edie kneeling on the hotel floor and resolve returned along with a glare directed at the two monsters that tried to destroy her very existence.
Klaus began to speak but no words came. Elijah couldn't open his mouth. As if they both were unable to say anything.
Kol became a bit impatient and demanded to know what they were playing at before he claimed he had no time to stand and wait for them to think of what could possibly fix what they had done.
"Nothing will," Elijah expressed.
Kol froze at the base of the stairs. He slowly turned back to his brothers, set his bag back on the floor and stood before them with his arms crossed in front of his slightly puffed out chest.
"Nothing will excuse what we tried to do. We weren't thinking of you when we made the decision and that is inexcusable. We-"
"We're sorry," Klaus concluded. Kol's breath hitched as he looked into the eyes of the two men in his life that he always felt estranged from. The two men in his life he always wanted to feel a part of their bond.
"Kol, we handled the situation in a way that made you question how much we care about you. It was unfair and we are sorry. We are a family. Always and forever."
Kol chuckled a at the words. He had heard so many times before. They were the two sentences he thought he never wanted to hear again and yet, hearing them now. He couldn't help but feel like they had finally included him.
"Alright, now enough with this drivel. Where is she? We can't very well just apologize to you. We didn't try to almost erase your existence, now did we?"
Kol's smile faded and Elijah asked the dreaded question, what happened. Kol explained everything. The unknown sender of sage. Edie remembering Dahlia and Esther. Finn. Elijah and Klaus looked gravely at their younger brother and tried to make sense of it. Klaus clapped his hand on Kol's shoulder and smiled.
"Don't worry, dear brother. I know from a great deal of experience that the Mikaelson charm is a force to be reckoned with even with the greatest of wrath."
Kol laughed at his brother's jest and then Elijah patted him on the shoulder as well as extra reassurance. Of course, Klaus then noted Kol and Elijah both might have to take lessons from him due to the noticeable lack of Hayley as well.
Both Kol and Elijah shared a look before playfully lunging towards the middle brother. Once the laughter had died down. Kol's eyes swept the room again.
"Now where might our dear sister, Rebekah, be?"
Rebekah strutted down the streets of New Orleans with a flask full of moonshine. She was feeling drunk on the lights and the music. The jazz was livening up her whole evening. She wanted to feel numb. However, one person in this world doesn't want that for her.
"Rebekah, you can't be seen in the quarter."
"Shhh, Marcellus. I don't want to be seen either," she chuckled. Marcel snatched the flask from her hands and emptied it onto the street.
"Of course you would be here to ruin the fun. What do you want, Marcel?"
He smiled as she used his preferred name and quietly wrapped his arms around her form behind. She lent back into him and breathed in his cologne. However, it all felt too much and she moved herself away from as fast as possible.
"Oh no, not again. What are you running form this time? I won't believe for a minute it has to do with my happiness."
"It's unfair. I am a wretched human being and it's unfair for me to be happy like this."
Marcel paused and saw the crease in her forehead change from annoyance to sadness.
"I was willing to destroy my brother's one chance at happiness to save my family. And then I realized... That's all we ever do! Destroy other people for family. Always and forever. But this time, we were willing to destroy our brother's solace, our brother's joy, for what? Because we certainly couldn't claim for it to be about family."
Rebekah dropped down onto the bench behind her. She wanted to scream or to cry or to jus disappear. Marcel went and sat beside her. He gently held her hand in his ad just let her breathe. He noticed her breaths become slower and he looked over to see the alcohol had worn off and she was back to her original feeling of regret.
"Why do you do that to yourself?" Marcel questioned in the silence surrounding them. Rebekah looked to him inquisitively.
"You thought what you were doing was right? Was it selfish? Sure, but most of the time, the people's lives you 'ruin' are the people who would happily ruin your lives' as well," he finished.
"And what about the innocent ones? Like Kol and Edie?"
"Those are the people we have to face. To remind ourselves to be better than what we were."
Rebekah took a deep breath and then looked up to Marcel. His deep brown eyes bore into hers and she felt a smile prick her cheeks.
"There we go. That's what I was hoping for. A little R&R would do you good, you know?"
She smiled before looking deep into his eyes again. As if they held all the answers.
"I think I could defy my family if they ever decided to sacrifice you," she smirked.
"My eternal existence likes the sound of that," he smiled back before catching her lips in along kiss.
Ding. Marcel groaned and threw his phone to the ground. Ding. Rebekah slowly reached down to answer. Marcel tried to persuade her to leave it, but she just pecked his lips and swiped her screen.
Then her back became perfectly straight.
"What's wrong?"
"Finn's back and he's at the manor."
• • •
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