This is a little something that I wrote to help prepare myself for the season finale on Friday. My nerves are going crazy due to me thinking of all the scenarios of how the finale can go. Fingers crossed for something not too heartbreaking to happen.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything associated with The Originals...I just like to play around with the characters. I only own the plot.

Upon finding out Marcel is now the beast, Hayley tries to prevent Elijah from letting his guilt overtake him by revealing a surprising truth to him. - Post 3x21 {Hayley/Elijah}

Hayley watched on as Elijah paced frantically, back and forth, across the study. Her heart was genuinely breaking for him. It was as if lately he couldn't catch a break. One screwed up thing after another kept happening either to him or because of him. Everything happening because of him was due to the fact that he did whatever he thought would help his family. But, for some reason, the outcome of the things he had done in the past few days or so never seemed to turn out the way he hoped they would.

Finding out that Marcel was the beast after all he did to try to prevent it from happening was painful for Elijah. He truly did care more about Marcel more than anyone thought he did, killing him had been difficult for Elijah to do. His guilt was obvious to anyone who wanted to see it. Most did not seem to want to, though. Elijah would never break down in front of anyone else like he had done in front of Hayley. If only he did then maybe Hayley wouldn't be the only one who forgave him for his actions. He had chose to do what he thought was the only choice that he had to make to keep his family safe. That was the reason why it was downright heartbreaking to find out that he was the one who caused Marcel to become the beast. And in turn, it was downright heartbreaking for Hayley as well.

"I know that on the surface you feel like this is all your fault, Elijah, but do you really have to go and face him?" Hayley questioned, standing up and making her way over to him. "You shouldn't feel like you have to do this when deep down you know that this is not all your fault."

Elijah stopped pacing and turned towards her. His next words were the ones that finally broke through the metaphorical dams holding back the tears that Hayley had been keeping at bay for the at least the past hour.

"I have to do this."

His guilt and personal blame were too strong for Hayley to break through. They were too strong for her to be able to convince Elijah that everything that was happening now wasn't solely his blame to take on. Marcel was to blame for this as well. He had lead everyone on to believe that he hadn't taken the serum yet when really he had. Deep down he had probably known that Elijah would make the decision to kill him to try to keep his family safe. Neither of them were completely innocent in this, but Elijah shouldn't be putting all the blame on himself.

Hayley looked away from him and made her way across to the opposite side of the room in an attempt to hide the tears that were forming in her eyes from him. She was aware that chances were nothing she could or would say would change his mind about this. His mind was made up and usually that was that. However, she couldn't not try to change his mind. Maybe something would be able to change his mind. It was a long shot, but it was one that she had to take.

"Do you know why I really pushed you away after Jack died?" Hayley asked, sneaking a glance at Elijah out of the corner of her eye.

Elijah remained unmoved from his earlier position. His facial expression was the only thing that had changed. Elijah's lips had been set in a tight, thin line before as opposed to their current slow quivering movement as he awaited Hayley's answer to her own question.

"Losing Jack sucked, but I can and have moved on and am continuing to live without him," Hayley stated honestly, not sugar coating the truth. "But if I..." Hayley paused, choking on the rest of her words. "If I lost you, Elijah..." Her voice broke as she slowly made her way back over to Elijah, but still avoided eye contact with him. "I don't think that I'd ever be able to recover or move on from that," she admitted, shaking her head as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "That was selfish of me to push you away because I was afraid to get close and then lose you, I know, but I can't help it because that's how I honestly feel."

Elijah would've been lying if he said he wasn't surprised by her sudden revelation. It was no secret that Hayley cared about him and that she loved him, he just hadn't been aware that her feelings for him went as deep as they seemed to based on what she'd just said. A part of him wanted to give in to her fear, to stay there with her. But an even bigger part of him knew that the first part of him wanted to go with the more dangerous option.

Keeping Hayley and Hope safe were his main priorities right now, even if it meant possibly hurting Hayley emotionally along the way if something were to happen to him. More or less, he was damned if he did and damned if he didn't. But, at least, if he went with the latter choice Hayley and Hope could both make it out of this mess alive and safe. Their safety was what mattered the most, even above his own safety.

"I'm sorry, Hayley," Elijah spoke quietly in a genuinely apologetic tone. "I took Marcel's life," he regretfully reminded her. "Therefore, I provided the final ingredient to creating the monster that he has become."

Hayley sighed, reaching forward to place her hand gently on his arm. "Elijah, you didn't know," she said, trying to help ease his terrible guilt.

Elijah shook his head. "That changes nothing."

A moment of sad silence fell between them.

"Just be careful," Hayley whispered after a while, her voice breaking while she forced herself to accept the fact that Elijah was going to go and face Marcel with the rest of his remaining siblings.

"I will be as careful as I can be," Elijah promised her as he gently cupped her chin in his hands, turning and tilting her head so that she was looking up at him.

Hayley couldn't hide her tears from him any longer. She cried silently, her tears rushing down her face as if her eyes were suddenly waterfalls. "I can't lose you."

Elijah smiled sadly, tracing his thumbs under her eyes to catch the fresh tears that insisted on falling from her beautiful green eyes. "I will, one way or another, come back to you."

Wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and pulling him as close to her as she could, Hayley returned Elijah's sad smile for a brief moment. "I told you once before..." she said, pausing to look deep into his eyes, "don't make promises that you can not keep, Elijah."

"It's not a promise," he replied, leaning forward and pressing his lips gently against hers. "It's a statement that I hope to turn into a fact."

"I hope you turn it into a fact, too," Hayley agreed.

No more words were spoken after that.

Hayley deepened the kiss, holding onto Elijah as tightly as she could. For all she knew this could be the last time she would be able to be in a similar moment to this moment with him. She was going to hold onto him and kiss him for as long as she could. She never wanted to let him go and she never would; if she only had a choice in the matter.

Thoughts?