Brooklyn's POV

"Brooklyn? How are you feeling?" Elijah's voice asks, bringing me out of my thoughts about an hour or so after he had left me to clean up.

"Hey 'Lijah. I'm fine. All patched up and settled. Thank you again, for taking care of me." I reply, looking up from my book.

"You're welcome, Brooklyn. I'm glad you're feeling better." Elijah responds, staring at me, his expression tight.

"How are you doing? You know, with everything. I mean, Esther was your mother." I ask, genuinely concerned. Even if Esther was a horrible mother, she was still their mother, I'm sure there was still hurt and loss amidst the betrayal and anger.

"We have no mother. Only Esther and Esther was right." Elijah replies, his expression darkening even more and his posture stiffening against the door frame.

"What do you mean?" I ask, pushing myself off my bed to walk over to where Elijah stood.

"My talk of virtue. When it suits my needs, I kill, maim, and torture. Even today, I terrorized an innocent." Elijah responds, looking away.

"If you're referring to Elena. She's hardly innocent." I scoff, coming to stand in front of Elijah.

"I used Rebekah's hatred of Elena to get what I wanted. I wielded my sister like one would a sword. My sister. You and your pack, your family, got mixed up in a conflict that wasn't yours. You shouldn't have fought our family's battles. You got hurt because of it." Elijah says, looking ashamed.

"Hey, hey. You did that to protect your family, Elijah. And don't worry about my pack or me. I'm fine. I'll heal quickly. I chose to defend you guys and my pack chose to follow me. You had nothing to do with that. And I wouldn't change what I did. You guys deserve to live. I believe that. You know that don't you? Don't let your bitch of a mother convince you otherwise." I protest, pressing a hand to Elijah's chest in a comforting gesture.

"Do we? My mother made us vampires. She didn't make us monsters, we did that to ourselves." Elijah asks, for the first time looking vulnerable and broken.

"You aren't monsters. I don't believe that." I respond immediately, wrapping my arms around Elijah in a comforting hug.

"Come on." I finally say, grabbing Elijah's hand and dragging him to my bed.

Settling myself back in the middle I pull a confused looking Elijah next to me, letting him rest his head on my lap, running a soothing hand through his hair.

"It's okay you know? To be upset, to feel weak. No one has to be strong all the time. You're hurt, you feel lost and betrayed. But things will get better." I comfort, feeling Elijah begin to relax into my touch, closing his eyes as I continue to run a hand through his hair.

"Thank you, Brooklyn." Elijah mumbles, his breathing slowing.

"You're welcome, Elijah." I reply back softly.

Looking down at Elijah's sleeping figure, I couldn't help but feel a small skip in my heart as I smooth the hair out of his face. He really was handsome. And he looked so carefree, unworried, unburdened with the past and pain that haunted him when he was awake.

Allowing Elijah to sleep, I pick up my book once more, flipping through to my place. I was sure that Niklaus would be almost finished with whatever he was doing and then come to see me.

"Brooklyn." Niklaus voice says, breaking through my focus.

"Hey Nik." I say, placing my book down and looking up at him.

"What's this?" Niklaus asks, gesturing to a sleeping Elijah, his expression tense.

"He was sad. He needed comfort and reassurance. I gave him that and he fell asleep." I shrug, running a light hand through Elijah's brown locks.

"I've seen the way he looks at you. He holds you in high regards. I'm beginning to think he has some affection for you." Niklaus comments, pushing himself further into my room.

"He does. He told me, last night." I answer honestly.

"And do you feel the same?" Niklaus asks.

"I don't know. You know it's not that simple, Nik." I remind him, sighing lightly and looking away from Niklaus' searching expression.

"Because you have a mate." Niklaus deadpans. Oh how ironic this was. Niklaus indeed knew I had a mate, yet he never knew who it was. All Niklaus knew was that my mate held no interest in me that way.

"Yes. Because of that. It wouldn't be fair."

"You're not happy though. Is that fair? You deserve happiness, love. And as much as my brother and I don't get along, he'd give you that." Niklaus argues.

"I am happy, Nik." I deny, shaking my head lightly. Because that was the truth. I was happy being friends with Niklaus, even if it was nothing more than friendship.

"You could be happier though." Niklaus argues more.

"Nik, just drop it." I hiss. "Now, did you contain Finn?"

"Yes, my mother's body was burned and Finn in the basement still unconscious. I doubt he'll have much fight once he's wakes up though. Your bite is enough to render any of us fairly useless." Niklaus informs, knowing firsthand what the bite of an Alpha Wolf felt like.

The first time Niklaus had caught up with us, Aaron bite him and then drug him back to our camp in the forest. I, of course, was the one to save Niklaus. Just like his blood was the cure for regular werewolf bites, mine was the cure to an Alpha Wolf bite, well that or any other Alpha Wolves in my pack. But obviously, they weren't exactly keen or eager to help the legendary Original Hybrid. He had after all, been hunting us, his intentions to kill or try and turn us.

"I can heal him later." I offer, shifting slightly under Elijah's weight.

"What should I do?" Niklaus asks, looking at me seriously, earnestly looking to me for my opinion and I valued that.

"It's not up to me, Nik. It's up to you and your family. But I know that if you allow him to die, even if you are hurt by his actions and distrustful of him, you'll regret it. Not to mention you are still currently bound to your siblings. Perhaps, once he's woken I can talk to him." I offer, placing a hand on his.

"Thank you, Brooklyn." Niklaus responds, giving me a hint of a smile.

"That's what best friends are for. Now come on, let's not disturb your brother. We still have a movie marathon to watch." I reply, smiling back and scooting from under Elijah's upper body weight, laying his head on my pillow before exiting my room with Niklaus.

Turning on the tv, Niklaus returns from the kitchen with popcorn and other various snacks.

"You ready?" I ask, snuggling into the couch.

"Hmm? Yes, I am." Niklaus says, catching sight of his sketch pad.

"What is it?" I ask, watching as anger and sadness crosses Niklaus features before smoothing out to indifference one more.

"It's nothing." Niklaus replies, ripping out a few pages and throwing them into the fire.

"I'm sorry." I reply simply, snuggling up to Niklaus' side.

"It's okay. I'm over it. Caroline was never going to fall for me anyways." Niklaus sighs, wrapping an arm around my waist.

"I'm still sorry." I comfort, shifting in his arms to lay my head against his chest, hand over his heart.

"It's okay. I have you." Niklaus replies, kissing my head.

"Mmmhmm." I mumble, clicking on our movie. "Always."

"Where is everyone?" Rebekah says, interrupting our movie, though I was only half coherent as is.

"I thought you'd have gone by now. Kol's fled. Esther is gone and Finn is dying." Niklaus comments, barely glancing at his sister.

"I hated you when I learned you killed our mother. But I realized now that after a thousand years together as a family, you're the only one who never left me." Rebekah admits, moving in front of the screen to block our view.

"Well, aren't we a pair?" Niklaus muses, his arm running through my hair, lulling me back into slumber.

"There's something I need you to see." I hear Rebekah urge.

"Sister, I'm a bit busy. Have you just come to brag about your skills as a torturer?" Niklaus responds, annoyed.

"Look at the images on the wall behind Elena. The Natives told the story of our family history, look at the images on the far wall." Rebekah urges, presuming showing Niklaus something, but I hadn't opened my eyes to check.

"What is it?" I hear Niklaus ask, shifting lightly under me.

"A Native worshipping the Great White Oak tree." Her voice responds.

"And? We burned the tree to the ground." Niklaus scoffs.

"Look at the markings that precede it. That's the native calendar."

"That can't be right." Niklaus denies.

"A White Oak tree, 300 years after we fled back to the Old World. There must have been a sapling, a new tree to replace the old. That tree could kill us. It's not over, Nik." Rebekah replies solemnly.

"Nik?" I mumble, feeling him tense.

"We'll deal with this later, Rebekah. Go to sleep again, love." Niklaus dismisses lightly, running a soothing hand through my hair once more.

"Mmmkay." I mumble, allowing myself to fall back into a slumber.

Edited 12/9/18