Episode Three: Wonder Where Your Heart Came From

Marcel doesn't know what to say as he watches this teenage girl stare in awe at her father's desiccated body. Despite everything that happened, guilt sits heavy in his chest. He pushes the feeling down, steps forward and says, "Hope, I can't imagine what you're going through right now, but you have to understand that I cannot let you let him out."

Hope turns away from her father to glower at Marcel. "This is how you've kept the man who thought of you as a son?"

Marcel's eyes narrow. "Hey, you have no idea what your dad is really like, okay? He ruined this city, he ruined my life, he ruined everything he touched! I was doing the world a favor when I took him down! Including you, might I add."

"Including—you took my father from me!"

"Well like you said, I know exactly the kind of father he was, and believe me, I saved you a lot of grief."

With a little shriek of rage, Hope pushes her hands out and blasts Marcel against a wall. "Saved me grief? I've spent fifteen years grieving my father!"

After he crashes to the ground, Marcel drags himself to his feet. "And I am sorry for that, I truly am. But in the time that he has been out of commission I have rebuilt this city into a place of peace. Now that your family hasn't been here to start a new war every other week, this community has grown into a place where people are safe and happy! I'm not going to let you change that!"

Hope juts out her chin in defiance. "And how exactly do you expect to stop me?"

"There are two main ingredients to break the boundary spell around him, and one of them only I have."

This throws a particularly spectacular wrench in Hope's plan. She looks over at Vincent, who puts his hands up and shrugs. "Hey, I knew this spell was powerful. Didn't know it required special ingredients. He got a different witch to cast it for him."

Frustrated, Hope turns back to her father. His skin is a sickly gray, the lines of his veins blackened. His open eyes stare at nothing. Hope tries to reach a hand through the hole in the brick, but it bounces off an invisible barrier.

Vincent looks at Marcel and says quietly, "You may have spent the past howeverlong rebuilding this city, and yeah, you haven't done a half-bad job. But you and I both know damn well that for as long as Klaus Mikaelson has been in this city, incapacitated as he may be, you have never moved on."

Marcel gives Vincent a dirty look. "Oh go to hell."

Early the next morning, Hayley's walking up the steps to the front door of the Monroe house. The patch of brightly colored flowers off to the side belies her true emotions; she's a little jittery, having spent very little time sleeping and a great deal of time trying to remember how she last helped a young person who triggered her curse. She's also at a loss of how to talk to River's parents, doesn't know what they know. She thought a lot about Tyler in the prior few hours, how completely out of touch his family had been with their wolf heritage. Still, she rings the doorbell once, and only has to wait about a minute before the door swings open, revealing a surprised but smiling Mrs. Monroe. "Well hello!"

With a smile of her own, Hayley says, "Good morning, Rachel. I'm sorry to stop by so early."

"No, no, please, come in!" Rachel Monroe steps to the side, giving Hayley room to enter.

As Hayley walks into the living room of the Monroe house, she says, "I was hoping I could talk to you about something…pretty important."

"Well that sounds serious." Rachel gestures toward the couch. "C'mon, let's sit down." As they get settled, she mentions, "I know I've told you this before, but I just cannot believe that you have a seventeen-year-old daughter. I swear, you don't look a day over twenty-five."

Hayley ducks her head a little. "Oh, thank you." It's something she hears a lot; more often than not, people assume that she and her daughter are sisters. "I actually wanted to talk to you about your daughter." That gets Rachel to sober up. "It's nothing—I like River a lot, actually. You know that Hope and I have had to move around pretty much since she was born, and no one has ever brought as much joy to her life as River has."

"I could say the same thing about Hope. River ain't shined this much in years. Though she did come home pretty late last night, said she and Hope had gotten into some kind of argument?"

Hayley takes a deep breath. "That's what I'm here about. River…they didn't get into an argument. I asked her to tell you that—and I am so sorry—but I wanted to be here when she told you—"

Before she can find her sentence, River appears in the doorway, still dressed her pajamas. Both mothers look up at her. "Um. Hi."

Hope's hand is still pressed up against the wall of the boundary spell, and she lets her energy flow around it, feeling out for any weaknesses or areas of vulnerability. As she's doing that, Vincent tries once again to reason with Marcel. "Look, man, it's like you said upstairs: this city is crawling with twice the usual vampires. It always is this time of year. And maybe fifteen years isn't a hell of a long time when you live forever, but the rest of us mere mortals sure feel it. Fifteen years of having to fear going outside because the things that go bump in the night have come to town. Can't you just let us end it?"

Sighing, Marcel says, "Maybe you're right. Maybe there's more I could be doing to make sure that the locals are safe when Klaus's sirelings show up. I'll take that one on me. But you can't honestly believe that letting him free is the solution to this problem."

"Maybe not the best solution, no, but it sure is a permanent one."

"There is another permanent solution."

Hope's head whips around, her eyes wide. "You can't."

Marcel puts a hand up to stop her. "I'm not going to kill him. You think I haven't figured out that the rest of his family, all of whom should have been dead at this point, their sire lines along with them, is linked to him?"

"Well, then, if you hate them all so much, why not just end it?" She shrugs. "What's stopping you?"

Marcel opens his mouth to answer, but says nothing. Vincent laughs wryly and leans against the wall. "What's stopping him is Rebekah."

"Alright, shut up."

Confused, Hope asks, "Rebekah? What about Rebekah?"

"Hell, after all this time, after all the women you've tried to fill your bed with—"

"Vincent—"

"—you ain't never got over Rebekah. Still as hung up on her as you were when you was a kid."

Realization dawns on Hope, and she looks away, face reddening slightly. "Oh. Well. Okay."

Marcel rolls his eyes. "Yeah, so maybe Rebekah doesn't deserve to die for all the shit the rest of her family has done. So what?"

"Would you do it for her?" Marcel looks confused at Hope's question, so she clarifies, "If it was her, standing in front of you, asking you to release her brother. Would you do it for her?" Instead of answering, Marcel runs a hand over his face. "So will you do it for me? A girl who…I guess in some ways is kind of like your sister?"

Marcel doesn't answer for a long time. He stares inscrutably at Hope, who stares right back, eyes pleading. After a long while, he holds his hand out to Vincent. "You got a bottle or something on you?" Eyebrows knit together in confusion, Vincent digs a little glass vial out of the pocket of his jacket and hands it over. Marcel opens his mouth, revealing his fangs, and rips at his own wrist. He lets the blood flow into the vial. "The key to breaking the boundary spell around Klaus is blood. You need two different kinds: mine, and Mikaelson blood."

When Marcel offers the vial of his own blood to Hope, she's shocked. "Well, I've definitely got the second one."

She steps forward to take the blood, but before her fingers can close around the glass, Marcel pulls it away. "Before I give this to you, I want you to promise me that you won't take that dagger out of his chest until you are far, far away from this city. I don't want him runnin' around New Orleans lookin' for payback."

"I promise."

Marcel slowly places the vial into Hope's outstretched hand. "Hurry up and get it over with."

River presses herself against the wall opposite Hayley. Rachel looks back and forth between the two of them. "Okay, what am I missin' here?"

Instead of answering, Hayley gives River a prompting look. "Do you want to tell her what happened yesterday?"

"River?" Rachel stands up and walks over to her daughter. "River, what the hell's goin' on?"

Her voice thick, River whispers, "I killed someone last night, Mom."

Hayley's eyes are fixed on Rachel's face as the horror of realization sweeps over it. She knows. Hayley stands as well. "It was a complete accident, something done in self-defense—"

"How did you know?"

It takes Hayley a few seconds to realize that Rachel's question was directed at her, not River. "She described the feeling, the pain of the curse being triggered. I remember it."

That makes Rachel turn from her daughter to stare at Hayley. "You're a…?"

Nodding, Hayley finishes the thought. "A wolf. Like River."

A sob bubbles up out of River, and Rachel wraps her in her arms. "Oh Lord. Oh my poor baby." She rocks her back forth.

They're all silent for a long while, Hayley watching somberly as mother comforts daughter. Eventually, she says quietly, "I just want you to know that I…took care of it."

River picks her head up from Rachel's chest, confused. "What do you mean?"

Adjusting the hem of her shirt, Hayley replies, "Um. The body. I took care of it. Last night, after you left. You don't have to worry about—about police, or—"

"What does 'I took care of it' mean?"

"River—"

"No, Mom!" River steps away from her mother to glower at Hayley. "He was a person and you just took care of it—"

"River!" River falls silent. Rachel nods to Hayley. "Thank you."

"Things are about to get really difficult and complicated, River," Hayley explains. "Trust me, the last thing you're going to want is a police investigation."

River takes a shaky breath. "I don't…I don't know what happens next."

"That's why I'm here." Hayley walks over to River, places a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I'm going to get you through this."

Hope bends down and picks up a rock from the tunnel floor. Wincing, she drags its sharpest edge across the palm of her left hand. The blood drips down into the vial with Marcel's. "Vincent, how should we do this?"

Vincent steps up to her side, in front of Klaus's upright body. "I'll teach you the incantation, and then we'll chant it together. You're gonna have to be the battery for this spell; you're the most powerful person here. I'll help you channel that power."

Hope nods, and when Vincent points to the base of Klaus's tiny crypt, she pours the blood in a half-circle in front of them. Then she and Vincent get on their knees, unsteady in the rubble, and hold hands. Vincent takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, and begins. "Baryè tonbe lage nonm." Hope joins in. "Baryè tonbe lage nonm."

They chant two more times before they're interrupted. "Hey, hey, sh." Hope shoots Marcel a deadly glare, but he's staring up at the ceiling. "Someone's here. In the compound." He looks at Vincent. "Can she do this by herself?"

Vincent looks at Hope, who shrugs. "Well, you've definitely got the power for it…yeah, okay. Marcel, you and I gonna take care of whatever's goin' on upstairs. Hope…" He puts a hand on her shoulder. "You can do this."

Marcel and Vincent enter the courtyard slowly. Crowded around in a semi-circle is a mass of vampires, menacing in the shadows of the decrepit compound, all of them Klaus's sirelings. Alastair Duquesne steps forward, arms outstretched. "Marcel Gerard."

With a cautious smile, Marcel says, "Alastair. So nice to see you again."

"Yes, yes, it's time once again for our annual pilgrimage to see our sire suffer as he has made us all suffer. Something we look forward to every year."

"Can't blame you. Klaus Mikaelson's caused a lot of grief in his time."

"I couldn't agree more. Which is why I found it odd…" He steps closer to Marcel. "…that you would allow him to go free after all these years."

Marcel looks at Vincent, then back at Alastair. "Who told you?"

"Does it matter?"

Surveying the mob around him, Marcel says, "Look, I get that it's not ideal, but it's been fifteen years. Maybe it's time we all...learned to do something other than hate Klaus Mikaelson."

"Why should you care if we continue to revel in the fall of the most hated man in history? If it has become too much of a burden for you, to keep your sire locked in a dungeon…" Alastair shrugs. "…perhaps you should hand him over to me."

"C'mon, Alastair. You and I both know you'd kill him as soon as you were done torturing him."

"So?"

Marcel chooses his next words carefully. "He may be the worst thing that ever happened to my city, but that doesn't mean I want Klaus dead."

"Well you see, Marcel Gerard…I don't much care what you want anymore." The vampires encircling Alastair start to shift threateningly. "We know that you plan to release Klaus Mikaelson from his hell, and we came here to stop you."

With a laugh, Marcel says, "Hey guys, maybe you forgot, but it's not exactly like you can kill me. Elijah Mikaelson ripped my heart out and tossed me off a bridge, and yet here I am, standing before you and telling you that no one comes into my city and tells me what to do."

The vampires start to close in on Marcel and Vincent. "That may be true," Alastair says. "We may not be able to kill you." His gaze shifts over to Vincent. "But we can kill your witches."

Rolling his eyes, Vincent says, "Alright man, enough of this," and blasts Alastair up onto the first floor balcony.

There's silence for a moment, and then Marcel says, "Well, we got ourselves a fight now," and the vampires descend upon them.

The three women settle into chairs in the Monroe living room, each with a steaming mug of tea, despite the midmorning heat. As the optimistic sun streams in through the window, Hayley says, "I was worried that maybe you didn't know that you came from a wolf line. I've known people in the past who have triggered their curses without knowing. But you knew."

Rachel nods. "We never told River. We…we had to leave our pack behind when she was young. We thought we could protect her if she didn't know. My husband and I never triggered the gene, so…we hoped we could leave it all behind us."

"I understand. I had to leave my pack, too, to keep Hope safe. It's not easy."

"No, no it ain't."

Hayley sips her tea. "Well, I know how scary this is for you, River, so I am going to be with you every step of the way. Your first full moon, everything you need to know about wolfsbane and your venom and pack dynamics—I've been doing this a long time, like I said last night. I want to make this as easy for you as possible."

From her place curled into her mother's side, River gives a little smile. "Thank you."

Rachel looks down at her daughter, then back at Hayley. "I want to thank you, too. To be honest, it's been forever since I thought about our wolf heritage. We're lucky to have you here. But…would you mind if I have some time with my daughter?"

"Sure, yeah, of course." Hayley finishes her tea and sets her mug down on the coffee table. She stands up. "I'll show myself out." After a pause, "I don't want you to worry, River. We're going to take care of you. I promise." She turns to head for the door, but then comes to a halt. "Oh, just out of curiosity: what pack are you from? I'm a Crescent."

With a thoughtful look, Rachel replies, "Oh, the Crescents. Heard a lot about them in my day. Yeah, we're from a line in Texas? There's none of us left now. Lost everyone years ago. We're Malrauxs."

The mob is a mess, a throng of bodies falling over each other in their zeal to kill Vincent. Marcel dances between vampires deftly, cracking spines and tearing hearts from chests. Before long, the fountain in the center of the courtyard is bubbling with blood. As Marcel tosses a man up into the rafters, Vincent flicks his wrist, and the three vampires closest to him collapse, their necks snapped in an instant.

"Subdue Marcel!" Alastair shouts, shoving people toward the self-proclaimed king of New Orleans. "Subdue him and then we may tear apart the witches!"

"I think you will find—" Marcel lashes his arm out, beheading a vampire. "—that I—" Each fist punches into a vampire's chest, pulling out their hearts. "—am not so easily—" He appears behind someone and bends their spine over his knee. "—subdued!" He grabs the nearest arm and bites down, infecting the vampire with his venom.

As he does, a few bodies go flying past him, crashing into the brick of the wall in an almost comical fashion. Marcel looks over at Vincent, who is doing his best to keep the horde of vampires from collapsing on top of him. "How much longer can you hold out?" he shouts over the din.

"As long as it takes!" Vincent replies, sending a small group of vampires to their knees, shrieking and gripping their skulls. "Shouldn't be too much longer now!"

"Baryè tonbe lage nonm. Baryè tonbe lage nonm." Hope's head is bowed, her hands pressed firmly against the barrier around her father. The power that this spell requires is more than she's ever used in her life, but it spills out of her as naturally as her own breath. It's warm, somehow, and fills every inch of her body. As she chants the words Vincent taught her, she envisions the boundary spell melting away like winter ice, granting her access to her father.

As she focuses all of her energy on the spell, she doesn't notice the silent figure creeping up behind her. "Baryè tonbe lage nonm. Baryè tonbe lag—" She cuts herself off with a shriek as she's yanked backward, raked over the bits of brick on the ground. Her body smashes into the opposite wall, where she crumples like a paper doll. A tall, thin vampire with short hair approaches her, fangs bared. She tries to get her feet under her but slips in the dirt. Before she can defend herself, the vampire swoops down and sinks his teeth into her neck.

As Hayley marches away from the Monroe house to her car, she dials her daughter's cell phone number. The call goes right to voicemail, and she curses. Climbing into the car, she waits for the beep and says, "Please tell me you didn't know. Hope, please, please tell me that you did not know that your girlfriend is from the Malraux bloodline. This isn't us, Hope. We don't keep secrets from each other. And we definitely don't keep things like this from each other. I just…" She sighs, key resting in the ignition. "Just…call me? As soon as you get this. I need to know that you're safe." She starts the car. "I love you."

The pain is intense, sharp and ripping. Hope just barely has the wherewithal to give the vampire an aneurysm. That sends him howling in pain, and Hope is able to scramble away, back onto her feet. Recovered, the vampire lunges for her, but Hope is buzzing with so much power that all she has to do is extend a hand and the vampire freezes. Wide-eyed, he clutches at his chest, and moments later, his heart is flying from his body and into Hope's hand. With a yelp she drops it, and then watches in awe as the vampire, a gaping hole in his torso, collapses, dead.

Hope stands there for a long minute, gasping and staring, horrified, at the desiccating corpse on the ground. She looks down at her own hands, now covered in blood, and she is unable to comprehend exactly how she was able to pull out the vampire's heart so easily.

Instead of dwelling, she returns to her spot in front of her father. Shaking slightly, she resumes the spell. "Baryè tonbe lage nonm. Baryè tonbe lage nonm. Baryè tonbe lage nonm." It only takes another minute or so, but then she feels a ripple of energy throughout her body, from her toes all the way up to her hands. The air around her father glows for the briefest moment, and she knows that it's done. Hope stands and slowly, so slowly, reaches out. When her fingers brush the hardened skin of her father's face, a tiny, incredulous laugh escapes her.

Before she can do anything else, Marcel appears in the entrance to the tunnel, covered in blood. "Hope, we gotta go."

"Jesus, what happened?"

Marcel points to the dead vampire on the ground, heart lying feet away. "I could ask you the same thing."

"Just a complication." She gestures to her father. "The spell is broken."

"Come on." Marcel reaches through the hole in the wall to pull Klaus's body out. Once he's free, Marcel says, "Follow me. Vincent's waiting on the other end of this tunnel. We're gonna take you to your car, make sure you get out safe."

"Wait, what about whatever was going on upstairs?"

"Don't worry about it, let's go!" With that, he turns and begins their exit, Hope right behind him.

Once Klaus is carefully laid across the backseat of Hope's Honda, she shuts the door and turns to face the two men who helped her. "I can't thank you enough."

"I don't want your thanks," Marcel says. "I just want you to get his ass out of my city."

"You say you hate him, and maybe you do, but I can't help but think that it's significant that in fifteen years you never once tried to find a way to kill him without killing the rest of my family." Marcel is silent. "You knew he was linked to all of his siblings, but you had a decade and a half to figure out a loophole so that you would be able to kill him and you didn't." Hope smiles a little half-smile, and shrugs. "But hey. What do I know?"

She sticks out her hand, and Marcel shakes it slowly. "I can definitely tell that Hayley Marshall raised you. You got your momma's mouth."

With a laugh, Hope turns to Vincent. "Thank you so much for coming to get me. I've been waiting…well, my entire life for the chance to get to know my father."

"Don't mention it, kid."

Hope takes a deep breath and then hugs both of them, Vincent then Marcel. As Marcel hugs her back, there's an odd expression on his face, something akin to melancholy. When she's done, she laughs awkwardly. "Okay. Now I'm going." She climbs into the car, turns it on, and backs out of her spot, waving goodbye as she begins her long drive home.

Hope's just merging onto I-10 East when her mother's voicemail plays through her car's stereo. "Shit," she murmurs to herself. She tells her phone to dial her mother, and within seconds Hayley's voice fills the car. "Jesus Christ, Hope—"

"I know, I know, I am so sorry."

"You would not believe the past twenty-four hours I have had."

"I can definitely say the same." She glances up at her rearview, sees her father's motionless body. "Look, I am so sorry that I left, and I want to know everything that happened with River, but I just made it to the interstate and it's been…it's been a long day. And I'm calling you to let you know that I got him."

Hayley's silent for a long time. "Really?"

"Yeah. Really."

"Well, as pissed off as I am at you, I'm also really proud of you."

A slow smile spreads across Hope's face. "Really?"

"As annoying as it is to say it, it was a very Mikaelson thing for you to do."

Pride burns so hot in Hope's chest she worries she might explode. "I should be home in a couple of hours."

"Okay, baby. Drive safe."

"I will. I love you."

"I love you, too, Hope."

Hope hangs up, gives her backseat one more look in the mirror, and the daughter continues the final leg of her journey to bring her father home.

The fourth episode, "Stay Awake with Me," is already available on the Tumblr blog peopleandrhythm at this time.