"Hey..." Rafael yelled as he was suddenly flipped over Penelope's back magically. He landed on the mill floor with a heavy thud, expelling a thick gust of wind from his lungs. "Damn," he groaned as he looked up at Penelope, who was looking down at him with a smirk on her lips. "That hurt," he said, then rolled over and jumped up.
"Payback for that punch you landed earlier," she said, and then pointed to the black eye she had.
"I said I was sorry. You were supposed to go the other way," he grumbled.
"Well I didn't," Penelope said.
"I still think we should be a little more evenly matched," Raf stated.
Hope came up beside them and said, "Which is why you're not. The witches need to learn to defend against creature who are stronger and faster than them, and the vamps and you need to learn to defend yourselves against magical attacks. I have cream to fix Pen's eye, and you'll heal in no time at all. Until then, learn to push past the pain."
She stepped away from them and into the center of the room and clapped her hands, gathering the attention of the rest of her students. "The same goes for the rest of you. We have less than two weeks left until the full moon. That means I only have a little over a week to get you into fight shape, or the adult won't let you come with us."
"Yeah, but we've been kicking ass all week," Penelope said.
"You guys are doing great," Hope assured them.
"But..." Josie said.
"But Dr. Saltzman's a worrier. It's taken everything me, Caroline, and Auntie Freya have to get him to agree to you guys coming with."
"Then we'll have to prove we're good enough to join this fight," Kaleb said.
Hope looked down at her watch. It was already way past dinner time. "Alright you guys can go. Josie and I have somewhere to be. I want everyone here right after breakfast though."
The boys grumbled as they grabbed their duffle bags and left.
"You ready?" Hope asked Josie.
"Nope," Josie said as she shook her head.
"You finally going to find out?" Penelope asked.
"Yep. Auntie Freya can do the spell when the sun goes down."
"I still can't believe you may have impregnated by sister," Lizzie said with a glared.
"If I never hear the word impregnant again I will be one happy witch," Josie groaned.
"Same here," Hope agreed.
Josie wrapped her arm around Hope's shoulder. "Let's go prove you're just a normal girl."
They stepped out into the warm evening air, and slowly made their way back to the school. Hope looked back, and noticed Penelope and Lizzie weren't following. "I hope they aren't killing each other."
"What?" Josie asked.
"Pen and Liz, they aren't following us," Hope said.
They stopped walking and looked back at the mill. When neither girl stepped out of the building Josie asked, "You don't think they're... you know?
"No way," Hope said automatically. "I joked about to Pen about her asking Lizzie out and she laughed for like ten minutes straight at the idea."
"Then what do you think they're doing?"
"I don't know. Maybe they're fighting. Like practice fighting. Of course, it's Pen and Lizzie so they could really be fighting."
"I don't hear them yelling. Do you think we should go check on them?"
"No... No way..." Hope said, imagining all the possible things they could walk in on. "I'll ask Pen about it tonight. I'm supposed to sleep over in her dorm remember."
"Oh yeah," Josie pouted.
"Hey. I've barely gotten to spend any time with Pen all week. She's been off with MG, while I've been with you or my family."
"I know, I was just hoping we could go to our spot tonight," Josie sighed.
"Oh..." Hope said. Her eyes widened when she realized what Josie was implying. "Oh! Oh well I think Pen will understand if we chill another night."
"No. You spend tonight with Pen, but I want tomorrow night."
"I promise," Hope said. "Come on. I'm hungry. I kept us past dinner again. We should get something to eat before heading to my dorm room."
They went into the kitchens and found the boys doing the same thing they were planning on doing. They were all standing at the island digging into a pan of lasagna that was sitting in front of them. MG pulled two forks from the cup that was sitting in front of them and handed them to Hope.
Hope handed the second to Josie and asked, "Is that meat?"
"Yeah," Landon answered.
Hope set her fork on the table and went to the refrigerator and dug around until she found what she was looking for. She pulled it out and sat it on the counter.
"Since when do you not eat meat," Rafael asked, looking at the pan marked 'veggie'.
She pulled a plate out of the cupboard as she said, "Oh, I do. I am a wolf, remember? Josie doesn't eat meat though."
Josie took the plate from Hope. "Thank you."
"Your welcome," Hope replied, and then picked her fork up and dug into the meaty lasagna.
"You know, I never thought I'd see the day where Hope Mikaelson was the person we looked up to for relationship goals," jested MG.
"Ha ha," Hope smiled and gave him a little push.
"I never thought I see the day where Hope Mikaelson smiled," Kaleb joked, a playful smile on his lips.
"Ha ha. You guys are so funny. Just remember who's teaching who... I might decide it's time to test your skills out myself."
"Oh I'd pay to see that fight," Landon laughed.
"So would I," Kaleb said, looking intrigued. He stuck out his fist and said, "You and me. Tomorrow."
"You're on," Hope smiled, and bumped her fist against his.
Josie leaned forward and whispered in Hope's ear, "You're sexy as hell when you get all macho. I wanna eat you up instead of this lasagna."
Hope's eye's widened comically and her mouth dropped lightly, and she coughed as she choked on her food. When she looked over at Josie, she was eating her food as though nothing had happened, while the boys were all looking at her with concerned looks.
She shrugged her shoulders and got another bite. When she was sure the boy's attention was back on their conversation she looked back over at Josie and gave her a pointed look, who just smiled innocently back at her.
They chatted with the guys while they ate their fill, then excused themselves. When they made it to Hope's hallway, she pulled Josie past her door and gently pushed her into the little alcove near the window. She pressed her body against Josie's and kissed her feverously. She pulled back and husked, "That wasn't very nice." Then leaned forward and attached her lips onto Josie's pulse, sucking just hard enough to lure a soft moan from Josie, but not hard enough to leave a mark.
"If this... ahh... is the re-response... mmm... I get, then I'm... not s-sorry," Josie fumbled through soft moans and heavy pants.
Hope pulled back and smiled. "I suppose I can forgive you. If you promise to make good on your devilish little whisper."
Josie smiled wide and then quickly switched their positions using a reversal spell. She leaned down and kissed Hope soundly before pulling back and saying. "I always make good on my promises." She smiled sweetly at Hope and then turned around and walked to Hope's room.
Hope stayed against the wall as she forced her racing hormones to settle, then headed down the hall, past her room, and into the bathroom.
A few minutes later, she entered her dorm room expecting to find the room full of aunts only to find one. Freya was sitting on Hope's bed with a book in her lap, and Josie right next to her. "Where is everyone?"
"Keelin went into town to get somethings for the baby, and Rebekah took Faith outside to play the vamp speed peekaboo game that they love to do."
"Aunt Freya was showing me baby pictures of you," Josie smiled widely. "You were such a cutie."
Hope smiled softly. "I'm sure you were even cuter."
Freya closed the book and sat it on the bed. "So, you ready to find out if you're able to make a baby with Josie?"
"I think I like impregnant better than make a baby, but yeah," Hope said.
"Then let's get this over with," Freya said. She pointed to the floor where there were half a dozen thick green candles sitting in a circle, with a wide wooden bowl in the center.
"How does this work?" Hope asked as she stepped into the circle.
"Sit with your legs crossed and place the bowl in your lap," Freya instructed, and then sat in front of her. She handed Hope pocket knife. "I took two fertility spells, one for men and one for woman and combined them. I've already tested the spell on Keelin and Vincent to make sure we would be able to tell the difference, as well as one of Keelin's witch patients who was born with both sex organs. You're going to fill the bowl up with your blood, just enough so the bottom is covered, and then Josie and I will chant the spell as we practiced yesterday. If you are only able to get pregnant then the blood will glow bright red. If you are only able to get someone pregnant the blood with turn white. If you are able to do both, then the blood will separate. One half will turn white, and the other half will glow bright red."
"And if I can't do either?" Hope asked softly, unable to look up at her aunt or Josie.
"Then the blood will do nothing," Freya said solemnly and reached into the circle to grab Hope's hand. "If you can't do either, then well deal with it how ever you want. All you have to do is say the word."
Hope nodded her head and then leaned back slightly when she felt Josie's hand squeezing her shoulder. She didn't now how she wanted this test to turn out. On one hand she thought it would be cool knowing her and Josie could have a baby that is genetically theirs, but on the other hand she didn't even know if she wanted kids at all. Plus, she wasn't sure if she wanted to burden any children, they may have with her weird tribrid genes, but the thought of never being able to have a child of her own left a sad feeling in her chest. It was one big messed up situation where she just didn't know what she felt or wanted except that she was too damn young to even contemplating any of this.
"Let just do this. There's no sense in worrying until we know for sure what's going to happen," Hope said. She handed the knife back to her aunt and then turned to Josie. "Can you get the tourniquet and needle from my top draw?"
Josie nodded her head and went to get the items Hope wanted.
"Why do you have those in your draws?" Freya asked sternly.
Hope shrugged her shoulders and nonchalantly stated, "To feed Auntie Bex without her knowing it."
Freya's mouth dropped open slightly. "You were giving Rebekah your blood without her knowing it."
Hope accepted the items from Josie with a smile, and then handed the rubber band to Freya. "How else was I supposed to do it? She hates the school's animal blood, Caroline hadn't gotten any real blood yet, and she never would have accepted it if I had offered it to her. It was either this, or slowly watch Auntie Bex go mad craving the real stuff until one day she would snap and attack someone and then Doctor Saltzman would kick her out, probably after staking her with his crossbow a few times."
Freya took the tourniquet from Hope, with a slightly amused look on her face. "I take it the only reason you stopped was because Caroline and Rebekah went on blood run."
"Yeah. Caroline wasn't happy when her daughters began bringing her mugs of my blood," Hope answered, and then stuck the needle into her arm.
Freya's eyes widened in a look of horror and amusement. "You didn't."
"In my defense, I had just come to common ground with Lizzie and I couldn't say no to her. Besides, she was ready to tap her own vein, and I couldn't feed Caroline her own daughter's blood."
"How did that even come up?" Freya asked amused.
Hope pulled the needle from her vein and tossed it to the side along with the tourniquet. "It was the day I told her about our plan to close Malivore. We finished talking and I asked her to help fill up a mug for Auntie Bex. It's easier with someone helping me. She asked why I was doing it when the school has blood, so I explained about the animal blood. She hadn't realized it wasn't human, and the school doesn't explain what happens to a vampire who doesn't drink human blood. She was pretty persistent after that. She wanted to fill a mug up herself, but that wouldn't have gone over well. I knew that Caroline would accept the blood if Lizzie gave it to her. That's how that got started."
"If it makes you feel better, we both got lectured for doing it," Josie added.
"A little bit, yeah," Freya said, then chuckled. "This is something your father would do. You do have the very best of his traits. I'm sure he'd be incredibly proud of you for trying to take care of the people he loved. Just please at the very least let people know it's your blood their drinking, that way they have the opportunity to say no if they wish."
"Sure Auntie Freya," Hope assured her.
"Alright. Let's get this over with," Freya said.
Josie and Freya chanted the spell they had practice the night before, three times, then sat back and waited for the spell to work. A full minute passed, and nothing happened. Hope looked up in horror. "Maybe you did the spell wrong," she suggested hopefully.
"I'm sorry honey," laminated Freya.
"But..." Hope sighed as she looked down at the bowl. "I just want the choice," she mumbled. This was just another thing in a very long list of things that she didn't get to choose, and it hurt. Maybe she didn't care about having a baby biologically linked to her, but she at least wanted to be able to make that choice with Josie. One day in the future when they were both ready, and now that choice was taken away from her.
Josie got on her knees and carefully leaned forward between two of the candles and place her hands on Hope's shoulders. The second her hands touched her the blood started to glow bright red and separated into two equal portions.
"Wow," she said and looked up at Freya in shock, who was looking at the bowl with the same level of surprise.
Josie took her hands off Hope and the blood stopped glowing and it sloshed back into one component. She tentatively put them back and the glowing returned, and the blood once again separated into two portions. She looked up at Freya and asked, "What does it mean?"
"I'm not sure," Freya said unsurely. She stuck out her hand and closed her fist one finger at a time then turned her hand upwards. All the candles extinguished at once and the blood in the bowl stopped glowing. She smiled comfortingly at them. "I can say for certain that you cannot get Josie pregnant. No white means no way to impregnating your girlfriend."
Both girls groaned.
"Can we please never say that word again?" Josie begged.
Freya chuckled, "Sure. As to what happened, I think it might have to do with bond. We still don't know enough about it and what is happening between the two of you. We're playing a guessing game. But you can at least relax about this."
Hope physically relaxed and reached over her shoulder to cup the hands still resting on her shoulders. "Thanks Auntie Freya."
"You're welcome honey," Freya said. She leaned forward and placed a loving kiss on Hope's forehead, and then reach out and cupped Josie's cheek with a gentle smile. She stood up, taking the bowl of blood with her. "You girls go do teenage things. I'll clean up."
"Thanks," Hope said, as she and Josie stood up. "Penelope's probably wondering where I am."
She went to the closet and grabbed her prepacked backpack and then reached for Josie's hand. The both said bye to Freya as they left.
Josie pulled them back to the alcove, although she sat in one of the chairs there, and pulled Hope down to sit in her lap. Hope allowed her body to relax into Josie's and leaned down for a loving kiss.
Hope pulled back with a smile on her face, and whispered, "We can have sex again. No more teasing."
"I kind of liked the teasing. You get this adorable frustrated look on your face when I pull away."
"Have I mention how evil you can be?"
"One or twice," Josie chuckled. "Can I be honest with you?"
"Of course you can. You don't ever have to ask or be afraid of being honest," Hope assured her. "Besides, I can feel when you're lying or holding back from me so there really is no sense in trying to do it."
"True," Josie smiled. "I just..." she paused and took a deep breath. "I guess a part of me was hoping that maybe one day we would be able to have a baby that is a part of both of us. I know it's silly. I'll love any baby we have regardless of where they come from. Just like my mom loves me and Lizzie. I guess I just liked the idea of it."
"You wanted the choice," Hope summed up. "I get it. I don't even know if I want kids yet, but when the blood did nothing, I was disappointed. I want that choice to be there for when we are ready to have a baby, and in those two minutes, that choice was stolen from us."
"We do have choices though," Josie said with a sad smile. "I may not be able to carry your baby, but we still have the choice between one of us or adoption."
"Yes we do. We do have choices we can make; in many years when we aren't teenagers still in school and are responsible adults."
Josie chuckled, "Is that your not so subtle way of telling me you're ready to move past this discussion?"
"No," Hope said, jutting out her bottom lip slightly. "That's my not so subtle way of telling you that I love you and would like very much to pick this conversation up again in about five or so years from now."
Josie chuckled, "Let's make it ten and you have a deal."
Hope smiled widely at Josie and leaned down for another kiss. She tugged lightly on Josie's bottom lip as she pulled away again. "I wonder if Pen will care if I'm an hour late?"
"That depends on what she was doing with my sister," Josie said.
"Oh... I forgot about that," Hope said. "I wonder what that was all about. It can't have been good though. I've never seen them stay in the same area for more than a few minutes without one of them being snarky to the other."
"We should try and find out," Josie told her. "I'll work on Lizzie tonight, while you work on Pen. Maybe we'll get lucky and one of them will spill."
Hope nodded her head, leaned down for a chaste kiss, and then stood up, pulling Josie up with her. "We'll compare note after training." She pulled Josie down for another kiss then headed for Penelope's room.
Penelope opened the door just a few seconds after Hope knocked and practically yanked her into the room. Her roommate was sitting on her bed with her tablet in her lap glaring at them, not that Hope time to get a good look at her, because Penelope was pulling her across the room.
"Did you buy a tent?" Hope asked. Penelope had stopped pulling her long enough for her to notice the tall domed tent sitting where they had built their fort the week before.
"No," she said, and then pulled Hope through the door, and zipped it up behind her. She whispered the silencing spell, and then grin at Hope. "I found it in the basement with a bunch of other camping gear."
She shrugged her shoulders and then laid on her bed, which was sitting in the center on the tent, with enough room on either side for the girls to set whatever they would need too. Drinks, snacks, shoes...
"So come on," Penelope said and patted the bed beside her. "Don't keep me in suspense. Can you get JoJo pregnant or not?"
Hope knelt on the bed with her bag in front of her. "Not," she said as she rummaged through the bag. She pulled out a small tin and then pushed her bag off the bed. She took her shoes off and crawled up the bed to sit beside Penelope. "Which is a good thing. We think."
"You were hoping you could, weren't you?" Penelope said slyly.
Hope opened the tin and scooped out a small bit on her right middle finger and started coating Penelope's swollen back eye. "Josie was a little. She liked the idea of it, and I liked having that choice, but I can't so the small part of us that was hoping for it is moot."
"It would be pretty badass though. Ow. Take it easy. I hope you aren't this rough when you play with Josie."
Hope purposely pushed a little harder.
"Ow... Alright, alright. I'm sorry. Geeze."
"There, you're all done," Hope said, and then close the tin. "Here keep it. I'll make more if you need it. It should start healing in about a minute." She rolled over to grab her pajamas out of her bag. "You know, we don't have to talk about Josie."
"Then what else are we supposed to talk about. She's literally half of who you are now," Penelope said.
Hope laid back on the bed and pulled her bottoms on, then rolled over to look at Penelope. "I just mean, that I know you're still struggling with me and Josie being together, and that's okay. You don't have to put yourself through more pain just to make it seem like you're okay. You can just be yourself with me."
"I know I can Hope, and this is how I'm dealing with it. I promise I'm okay."
"Alright," Hope said, and then grinned. "So, did you take my advice about asking Lizzie out?"
"What? No way!"
"Then what were you two doing after practice? You and Lizzie never followed us back to school. We even waited a few minutes before we headed in."
"Oh... Well..." Penelope stumbled. "We were..." She sighed heavily. "We were just arguing. You know how Lizzie is. Everything has to be her way, or she freaks out."
"What had to be her way?" Hope asked curiously.
"Well... I can't tell you that," Penelope said.
"Why not?"
"Because if you know about it, then Josie will know about it, and then Lizzie's surprise for her will be ruined."
"What surprise? And why are you helping her with it."
"Again. I can't tell you, because Josie will know, and I'm help Lizzie for the same reason. It's not like you can help her."
"And you're actually helping her?" Hope asked suspiciously. Something sounded off to her.
"Well, yeah. She's actually doing something nice for once. Hard to say no when the most self-absorbed person in school wants to do something nice for someone else."
Hope opened her mouth and then closed it again. That actually made sense in the, there was no way to argue against that answer, so it had to be true. "Alright. I guess I can accept that."
"Good. Never mention me asking Lizzie out again please. It creeps me out."
Hope chuckled, "Fine."
"Oh!" Penelope exclaimed looking very happy all of a sudden. "I was totally right about Landon being Bi. I convinced MG to ask him out and he said yes."
Hope's jaw dropped slightly. "It hasn't even been a full week since we talked about that. How did you get him to do that so fast?"
"Trust me, it wasn't easy. MG's infatuation with Lizzie ran deep. It took nearly every second I've spent with him to get him to see that he was never going to get Lizzie. Once I finally had him convinced it wasn't hard to place the Landon seed in his horny little boy mind. After that all I had to do is sit back and watch the magic happen. It didn't hurt that you've been pairing him up with Landon all week."
"I may have been doing that on purpose," Hope smirked.
"I figured. You know, if we really set our minds to something, we could be an unstoppable force."
"Yeah. Probably," Hope shrugged her shoulders. "Hey, we should find you someone. Is there anyone in this school who you've noticed?"
"No. Just Josie," Penelope said solemnly.
"Come on... There has to be someone you at least think is cute."
"I think a lot of people are cute, but Jo's the only one who've I've crushed on."
"Then we'll just have to go boo hunting," Hope said with a smile.
"Boo hunting?" she asked with a chuckled.
"Yeah. Josie's my booboo and we need to find you a booboo. So, we're going boo hunting."
Penelope laugh rang through the small tent, bouncing off the silencing spell, surrounding them with the sweet sound. "It sounds even more sillier when you explain it, but okay, I'm game for some boo hunting. Do we need to capture a spirit in order to capture a boo?"
Hope gasped and lightly tapped her friend on the arm. "You're mean sometimes!"
Penelope just laughed harder, and after a moment Hope joined in. It felt good to hear Penelope laughing and it seemed though her laughter was contagious.
[IK you were hoping Hope would have the ability to have a baby with Josie.....I was too....]