Always and Forever
Summary : In death and what lies beyond it, they all truly found their Always and Forever.
Elijah and Niklaus's final moments together and their journey beyond...
Note: the usual disclaimers apply. Don't own anything. All characters and recognizable contents belong to their respective owners. Not making any money from this.
Not betaed so all the spelling and grammatical mistakes are mine. Let me know if you spot them.
They looked into each others eyes until their last breath - until they were nothing more than dust scattered around the bench that held so many of their conversations and so many memories over the years that they spent in New Orleans.
Elijah always intended to keep his promise to his brother Niklaus. He had promised Always and forever so that's what he would. He will follow his brother into the unknown post-death journey, he will be by his brother's side when they took the final plunge into the beyond.
For his entire existence, Elijah had only worked towards two things - to keep his promise he made to his family of Always and Forever and to attain redemption for his brother Niklaus.
What his brother had done for the world in general and Hope in particular by taking away the darkness and destroying it even at the cost of his own life has finally earned him that redemption that Elijah had always wanted for Niklaus. That's one goal achieved, as for the other promise of Always and Forever he believes that he will be reunited with his family in the future, he hopes it's far far away that they all meet again in the afterlife - he hopes that they all get to live a happy and a fulfilled life before death finally claims them and the second phase of their journey begins. With that thoughts in his mind Elijah joins his brother in the darkness that death brings.
When the fog of darkness finally starts to lift, Elijah notices that they are still in New Orleans (or some version of it anyway). They are not near the bench that they were sitting just a few moments ago, instead they are in the woods of the Preserve surrounding their city. The second thing he notices is the figure of a woman walking towards them. His heart skips a beats (do you still have a heartbeat in the afterlife?) and his breath catches in his throat. Besides him Niklaus pats his shoulder and encouragingly says "Go on".
"I could have waited a little longer for that dance you, you didn't have to hurry back to me so soon." Hayley says smiling and Elijah falls a little more in love with her.
Here's a woman who had every right to hate him after what he put her through- after causing her death but here she was smiling and welcoming him with open arms. He finally moves and Hayley pulls him in a tight embrace. He intends to apologize to her for all the pain that he'd caused her but his mouth has a brain of its own and what comes out instead is "I love you".
Hayley looks him in the eyes, smiles that bright smile of hers and says "I love you" and kisses him.
They do finally have their dance.
Over the years the three of them watch over their family from the beyond. They watch Hope grow up into a beautiful and smart young woman, watch her fall in love and start a family of herself. They watch Kol finally being happy and Freya have a child of her own to love. Even their darling Rebecca got finally experience what being Human felt like when she finally got the cure from Damon Salvatore after his death. She too had a couple of kids whom she and Marcel loved with all of their hearts. Niklaus finally got his happy ending as well when Caroline finally came to the other side after many years.
Always and Forever seems even more of a beautiful promise when you don't have to worry about losing you loved ones and you truly have an eternity to be together.
In death and what lies beyond it, they all truly found their Always and Forever.
The End.