This chapter took the longest to write out of all the other chapters due to the fact that it was difficult to figure out what Elijah would tell Hayley and what he wouldn't. After all, he's usually a closed off person when it comes to people he's not too familiar with. Therefore, I wanted to stay true to his nature and not go overboard with the sharing. Hopefully, I managed to do that in this chapter. Fingers crossed!

Now on with the chapter!

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

Chapter 5 - Family Above All

It was a much welcome and very appreciated surprise for Hayley when Elijah pulled the car into her apartment complex parking lot. Elijah had been right when he told her that she'd like this surprise. This was officially the weirdest kidnapping/hostage situation ever, but Hayley wasn't going to complain about how it was going down. After all, Elijah had said a time or two before that it wasn't exactly a kidnapping/hostage situation where he was concerned. He was proving himself to mean it so far, or at least he was proving that he thought he was proving himself right.

"Remember that we're only here for you to pick up some of your belongings to last you until everything is sorted out," Elijah spoke up, breaking Hayley from her thoughts.

Hayley rolled her eyes as she turned to glance at him. "Okay, dad," she joked not missing the sudden flash of something in Elijah's eyes...distaste at her joke, maybe.

Before she could even think about saying something else, Elijah was out of the car with the door slamming shut behind him.

"What was that about?" Hayley asked herself as she was confused by his sudden, seemingly uncharacteristic from what she'd gathered about him so far, actions.

Pushing her current confusion and curiosity to know what was up with Elijah all of a sudden to the back of her mind, Hayley opened the door and got out of the car. A smile lit up her face as she stared at her apartment building. It had only been a few days or so since she'd last been here, but it sure felt like it had been an eternity.

"Home sweet home," Hayley whispered to herself.

"I don't suppose you have your key on you," Elijah spoke for the first time since in the car.

Hayley turned around to look in the direction of where Elijah currently was. He was standing in front of the car, looking from her to the security lock on the front door of the apartment building and then back to her. In her happiness to be home now, even if just for a little while, Hayley hadn't been thinking about the fact that the apartment building door was always locked for extra security.

Shaking her head, she answered as she shrugged her shoulders, "Nope, no key."

"How do you plan on getting in?" Elijah asked, giving her a curious expression.

Hayley laughed briefly, walking up to the front door with him trailing close behind her. "This is luckily not my first rodeo," she told him, pressing the intercom button for her neighbor's apartment.

A few moments of silence passed before her neighbor's voice came over the intercom.

"Who is it?"

"Hey, it's Hayley," she spoke into the intercom. "I forgot my key again."

"I keep telling you that you need to get a spare," her neighbor said, voice sounding partially annoyed but mostly amused.

Hayley shook her head and rolled her eyes. "And I keep telling you that I will get around to it," she replied. "Will you let me in?"

"Yeah, sure. Come on in."

At the sound of the door buzzing, Hayley backed away from the intercom and opened the door.

Turning her head and grinning at Elijah, Hayley said, "That's how."

Elijah had an amused expression on his face. "You forget your key often?"

Hayley mock glared at him. "No," she answered. "Forgetting my key is often times code for, "I'm too drunk to find my key."

Not waiting for a response from Elijah, Hayley entered the apartment building and headed for the stairs. When she didn't hear Elijah walking behind her, she frowned and stopped walking. Turning around, she gave him a confused look as she took in the sight of him just standing outside the door.

"Are you coming in?" Hayley asked him.

"I can not enter the building without the landlords permission," he informed her.

Hayley laughed briefly.

"Why are you laughing?" Elijah asked curiously.

"Because that was the landlord on the intercom," Hayley answered, crossing her arms. "And she said to come in and you heard it so technically, you were invited in," she explained. "After all, technicalities often times do win," she said as an afterthought. "Now come on."

With that said, she turned back around and continued to the stairs. She smiled once she could hear Elijah's footsteps suddenly following her very closely. It wasn't long before they'd made it to the fourth floor. Hayley walked down to the end of the hall where her apartment was located. Arriving at her door, she stopped and turned back to Elijah.

"I should check and see if my roommate is home," she told him. "He's a werewolf, too, and I'm sure he's aware of what's going on." Hayley chuckled. "Wouldn't want you getting bit now, would we?"

Elijah shook his head. "No, not at all."

With a teasing smile, Hayley turned back and reached up into the light above the door. Feeling around, she soon felt her hand make contact with the spare hideaway key. She grabbed the key and took it out of the light, putting it into the keyhole and turning it. She walked inside the apartment after pushing the door open, frowning at how dark it was inside with all the curtains closed. Turning on the lamp next to the couch, Hayley looked around frowning even more at the sight of the messy apartment. To think that Hayley had actually thought that having a gay roommate would mean a clean apartment. Stupid stereotypes, always getting people's hopes up.

"Aidan!" she exclaimed as she looked in each of the four other rooms in the apartment. "Are you home?!" she called out, getting no reply back.

When she didn't get a response or find him in any of the rooms, Hayley went back to the front door.

"The coast is clear," she said, smiling briefly. "No need to worry about whether you'll get bit or not." Hayley grinned mischievously as a sudden thought entered her mind. "That is unless you manage to piss me off," she said teasingly.

Elijah grinned back, playing along for a moment. "We would not want that."

"No, not at all," Hayley agreed, still grinning.

"Are you going to invite me in?"

"No sister's spell to let you in?" She answered him with her own question since she was still feeling in a teasing mood.

"You must mistake me for my brother."

Hayley shrugged. "Can't be too careful," she replied, leaning against the frame of the door. "I've only known you for a few days or so. I barely know anything at all about you."

Elijah stood there in silence, thinking for a little while before propositioning, "Invite me in, and I'll tell you what you want to know as long as its within my comfort zone of what I'm willing to reveal to you."

Giving it a little thought, Hayley finally nodded her head. "I think that sounds fair." She moved out of the way so he could get by. "Please do come in. And please forgive the mess as well. My roommate isn't the cleanest person in the world."

Once Elijah was inside, Hayley closed the door. She watched as Elijah walked around the living room, checking things out. Her eyes widened in slight embarrassment when she noticed a certain cabinet was open just enough to reveal the names of a few specific DVDs that she did not want Elijah catching sight of. In a flash, she was across the room and slamming the cabinet door shut.

"Is everything okay?" Elijah asked, raising an eyebrow.

Hayley nodded her head and shrugged nonchalantly, leaning back against the cabinet. "Yeah, everything is fine."

Elijah gave her a disbelieving look but said nothing.

Pushing herself away from the video cabinet, Hayley made her way to the kitchen to get a soda from the fridge.

"I should go pack," she said, unscrewing the bottle cap and taking a sip of it. "Then you can tell me a little bit about yourself per our deal."

Something on the coffee table suddenly caught her eye.

"Or better yet..." She started to say, exiting the kitchen and walking back into the living room. "You can tell me about yourself while I pack," she finished, grabbing his arm and steering him towards her bedroom. "Kill two birds with one stone so that we don't waste time."

When she was sure he wouldn't see what she was about to do, Hayley ran over to the coffee table. Reaching down, she picked up her cellphone and silently prayed that it had a good amount of charge still on it. Pressing the button on top, a wave of relief washed over her when she saw that the battery bar was most of the way full.

"Oh, thank god!" she exclaimed to herself, jumping up and down in excitement in her mind.

Quickly turning the volume down completely and setting the ringer to silent, just to be safe, Hayley put her phone into her bra and turned back around to make her way to her bedroom. She couldn't help but laugh when she entered her room to find Elijah standing there looking around awkwardly.

"What? You never been in a woman's bedroom before?" Hayley asked, teasing him; he just made it so easy at times.

"Not like this," he answered, his eyes immediately widening like he hadn't meant to answer the question like that; his response was an obvious slip of the tongue.

Reaching a hand up to her mouth, Hayley tried her best to stifle her laugh. He looked so uncomfortable. It was as clear as day that he was the type who preferred to keep his personal life personal. Hayley would've normally kept teasing a guy in this situation because she didn't usually care about hurting the guy's ego or pride, but this time was not like most times. And Elijah was not like most guys she came into contact with either.

"So I've heard stories about you and your brother not having the best relationship," Hayley said, changing the subject as she walked over to her closet and pulled out her suitcase. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't the least bit curious about whether those stories are true or not and why."

Happy and relieved about the change of subject, Elijah replied, "There's a chance that some or parts of those stories are true."

"I'm all ears," Hayley said, looking around the room and trying to think of what she thought she'd need for the next few days (hopefully, fingers crossed) or so. "I'm probably the closest thing you'll ever get to therapy."

Her response gained a chuckle from Elijah.

"You just might be right about that."

"Probably so."

Elijah sighed. "It's a rather long and boring tale that takes place over centuries."

Glancing at him from over her shoulder as she picked up her suitcase and placed it on her bed, Hayley smiled and said, "Well, you're a really good story teller and I'm a really good listener."

"You may come to regret saying that."

"Why don't you let me be the judge of that?"

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you."

"I won't," Hayley assured him with a small smile before turning her attention back to packing.

Elijah didn't speak up for a bit; Hayley assumed that he was trying to decide what parts of the story to tell her. From what she knew of him so far and the stories she'd heard, he wasn't much for opening up to strangers. She was happy to be one of the exceptions because her curiosity of the relationship between Klaus and Elijah was borderline about to drive her crazy.

"You don't have to go into details," Hayley offered, turning around to look at him, crossing her arms loosely over her chest. "The short story will suffice."

She was given a hint of a smile in response. Despite how small it was, it was an obviously contagious smile because Hayley couldn't help but smile back at him.

"Just enough to drown out the curious fire blazing within me." She laughed.

"That sounds fair," he replied, using her words from earlier, his smile growing into a full blown one now.

It was her turn to smile in response to him. Not to sound corny or anything like that, but it felt as if their were suddenly butterflies flying around in her stomach. Hayley had to turn away quickly because she was suddenly getting ideas in her head that would not be polite to act out. Elijah certainly didn't seem like the type of guy who would approve of her sudden ideas. She was not about to chance accidentally ruining whatever it was that was between them.

Elijah then proceeded to tell her the parts that he was comfortable telling of the tale of why he and Klaus were not on the best of terms these days. By the time Elijah was finished with his centuries and centuries long tale, Hayley wasn't sure how she was supposed to respond to that. The main thing she took away from the tale was that for Elijah it was family above all. Even after all the shit that Klaus put him and their siblings through, Elijah stood by him.

Klaus daggering all of his siblings at one point or another throughout the years and carting them around in coffins...Hayley had heard stories and was aware that Klaus was sadistic, but she had never thought he would actually be that sadistic. But she surely did now. Even despite that and everything else that happened at the hands of Klaus to him and his siblings, Elijah still stood by his brother when it came down to it. If that wasn't the actions of someone who was family above all, then Hayley didn't know anything at all.

"You stood by him despite all of that?" Hayley said as more of a statement than a question.

Elijah nodded. "It's family above all."

Hayley had to commend him for such a motto and actually living by it. After all he'd told her about the past, she wasn't sure she'd ever be able to keep that motto up if she'd been in Elijah's position. Family above all is one thing if the family member in question is deserving of it. But it's a whole different thing when that family member is someone like Klaus. There's no way she would've been able to do what Elijah had done, standing by Klaus like he had for centuries.

"Oh, god," Hayley thought to herself, biting her lower lip. "What will he do if he finds out what I did?"

"Are you okay?" Elijah asked, breaking Hayley from her thoughts.

Hayley nodded and put on a fake smile. "Yeah, I'm fine," she lied, hoping that he would buy her lie even though she didn't even believe it herself.

Elijah's face gave away the fact that he didn't believe her. Lucky for Hayley, he did not try to press the issue. She was almost completely sure that she would've come clean right then and there if he'd pressed any further. There was just so much guilt that she could take before it became too much for her to handle for any longer than she already had. She was extremely close to her wits end already.

"I think I have everything that I need now," Hayley said, getting off of her bed and picking up her fully packed suitcase. "Oh, wait a second. I almost forgot," she said, rushing to the bathroom once she remembered she needed her toothbrush and toothpaste. "Alright, now I have everything," she reiterated as she came out of the bathroom.

"Here, let me take this out for you," Elijah offered, reaching out to take her suitcase from her.

Their hands touched briefly and Hayley's breath caught in her throat.

"Oh, um...thank you," she replied, pulling her hand away from the suitcase quickly and hightailing it out of the room. "If you develop any feelings for Elijah and he finds out what you did, those feelings would ruin you, Hayley," she scolded herself, doing her best to push any and all feelings she may have been developing so quickly for him deep down inside her. "I'm ready to go when you are."

"It would be best to be going now," Elijah said, exiting the bedroom and walking to the living room. "We don't want Klaus finding out about Freya's loophole."

Hayley nodded her head, agreeing with him. "That is a good point."

Letting Elijah lead the way out of the apartment, Hayley returned the hideaway key to it's rightful place. She locked the apartment door and closed it behind her before following Elijah down the hallway. For the entire walk to the car, Hayley found herself in the midst of an inner battle to keep any feelings she could possibly have for Elijah, or develop in the next few days, at bay.

As if her current predicament wasn't already complicated enough with having to constantly battle her feelings of guilt. Now she would possibly have to add growing feelings for Elijah to the list. If she were to feel something for Elijah, the stakes would grow immensely. It would turn into a case of, If he found out, she could lose him, but if he didn't, she could lose herself. There was no way that this was going to end well for her. Or possibly even for anyone that was involved.

Alright, so there you all have it now! Chapter 5!

Let me know what you thought of it! All thoughts and feedback are very welcome.