AN: Never thought I'd do this, but I wrote a Hayley one shot. This is more in line with her TVD personality and is sort of a way to explain the stark contrast. A way that is not at all true I'm sure, but it was still fun.
She is the queen of broken promises.
Elijah looks at her and sees the swooning princess who needs to be saved, and Hayley lets him, because so far he is the only one who's bothered to give a damn about her. But Hayley is no one's fool and she knows that the second she ceases to fit his mould if damsel in distress she'll be abandoned to Klaus' mercy for the next Good Cause. And she will cease to fit it, because the edges of Elijah's pedestal are already beginning to dig at a spirit that's never been all that good at playing passive bystander.
But she smiles and reminds herself that it's just another eight months and if she can just grin and bear it out, then she'll be free of Mikaelsons and the fetus they've placed such importance on. And how sick is that? Placing the weight of Klaus' redemption on the fragile shoulders of an infant? Doomed from the start.
But oh well, Hayley won't be sticking around for the aftermath of the brothers' twisted dance. She's never been much for redemption arcs anyway, and Klaus' is more impossible than most.
Then Elijah is daggered and Hayley is pretty sure she's screwed unless she can get this vampire freakshow out of her and run away. Hayley is the queen of broken promises, and apparently Elijah is the king. They'd be the perfect couple if he weren't hidden away in parts unknown. It's with that wry thought and a mocking toast to the Noble brother that Hayley prepares for werewolf abortion.
And the world goes to hell.
She's attacked by vampires, and really what's new? But this isn't like her wild days as a nomad, because somewhere along the line she stops fighting for her survival and starts fighting for theirs. And isn't that a bitch? Two seconds ago she wanted the thing dead, but now she'll fight tooth and nail to keep it alive. She has time to wonder if this is what being a mother means before she's saved by yet another Mikaelson. And yay for survival, but how many of these freaks are there because she did not sign up for blonde, British and bitchy.
She gets a lecture and she thinks Rebekah might want to bond, so whatever. Hayley is a survivor and she needs allies. So she'll give Rebekah the dagger, and when Elijah returns she climbs back up on his pedestal. She breaks character for one brief moment and slaps him, because ruler of broken promises is already taken by her fuck you very much, but Elijah writes it off as pregnancy hormones or whatever and Hayley manages to calm down and think and realize that catering to Elijah and Rebekah's images of her will keep her alive, so that's what she'll do.
Rebekah wants a girl friend? Sure, Hayley can do that.
Elijah wants the pristine Madonna? Hayley hasn't been a virgin since she was fifteen, but it's just another role so what the hell.
No one wants the teenage runaway that betrayed thirteen friends for a flash drive of nothing, but neither of them know that story and Klaus' smirk says he's too amused with her role play to ruin it just yet.
It becomes her mantra, to remind herself of the time until the baby is born. It doesn't help anymore, though. She loves this baby, and they will never let her run away with it and she can't leave it with this family. Not when Klaus doesn't know how to love it and Rebekah just wants to be gone and Elijah will only be around until the next Good Cause pops up. Hayley may not know how to parent, she may not have morals made of gold, but she has a better chance at doing this right than the Mikaelsons, so she promises that she'll always be there, even if it means giving up everything that made her, her to do so.
She wakes up a Hybrid and has to drink her daughter's blood before sending her away for safety. She wants to go, sees no reason she can't, but Elijah has already given up the child for his next Good Cause - her transition. Never mind that she went through the werewolf change alone at sixteen. No, Hayley is a precious snowflake who needs her hand held.
Hayley needs her god damn daughter and a blood bag, you pretentious douche.
But she should have known better. She played her role too well and now she's lost the only reason she stayed to begin with.
She shouldn't be surprised. She is the Queen of Broken Promises
AN: And there it is.
