Hello, my lovely fans. This chapter is part-love, part-heartbreak. On with the show…

Chapter 9: We're Losing Him

Bonnie

"Every day we do battle and we play at being God. We do not always get to win the battle, but we still fight," Bonnie Bennett said. She watched the crop of residents. Her babies. Her responsibilities. They all looked so impossibly young and she felt like collapsing onto the floor and allowing the grief to take over. But she couldn't. She had to be strong and to show them the way. This was not the time to show weakness.

Hayley Marshall leaned against a wall. Her expression closed off. Like her mother, Hayley could be hard to read. Her eyes flicked to her sister, Davina, who sat on the floor, her knees curled up to her chest. The girl wore blood on her cheek. Someone really should make her change her clothes.

"Is he going to…" Rebekah trailed off, a single tear running down her cheek. "I mean… Is he…"

Josh Rouza wrapped an arm around Rebekah and she leaned against his shoulder. "He'll make it," Josh said firmly. "He's strong."

Caroline Forbes came running toward them. Her eyes already red-rimmed. "Where is he? Is he okay? Does anyone know? Can we see him?" Her words came tumbling, one right after the other. She joined her friends who shook their heads at her.

Tyler Lockwood rubbed his eyes, sliding down next to Davina. "This is just bullshit," he muttered.

"What?" Davina looked at him, her gaze lost. She was obviously in shock. She'd barely been able to articulate what had happened when she arrived in the back of the ambulance. Her hands covered in the man's blood.

"I'll let all of you know how he is when I know more," Bonnie said. She turned and moved back to the doors on the OR.

"We should be allowed to help him!" Tyler called after her.

Bonnie paused. "None of you are entering the OR; do you hear me, Lockwood?"

Tyler gave her a look that could pass for submission but the anger in his eyes told her another story. She did not have time for any of these kids demanding their turn to cut, to slice, to perform a miracle. She had to concentrate on what mattered—saving a life.

"Good of you to join us, Bennett," Elijah Mikaelson called as she entered the OR.

"How is he?" Bonnie asked him, glancing at the man's face. He looked so damned pale.

"Stable," Elijah said. "There is a nasty clot trying to ruin all of the hard work I have been doing for the past two hours."

"Oh," Bonnie replied.

"Come, have a look," Elijah nodded for her to take a look and she inhaled. Usually she would derive pleasure from being in the OR with Elijah. Brain Surgery. The brain being one of the most complex organs of the entire human body. Right now, she wanted to be at home, tucked under the covers, watching reruns of the X-Files. Or shopping with her mother. Listening to the new crop of interns complain about having to do SCUT.

"Damn it!" Elijah swore, his eyes glued to his work.

Bonnie watched something that made her stomach twist. "You can catch it, Dr. Mikaelson. I have faith in you," she told her boss.

Elijah's eyes flicked to her and she thought she saw his eyes sparkle with humor. "Right. Well, if Dr. Bennett says I can save him, I had better do so." His light tone set her at ease and she almost felt death's dark presence decide to tip-toe backwards and out of the door.

"Got it!" Elijah cried and everyone in the room cheered.

Bonnie let out a sigh of relief. "Good," she said.

"Would you like to close him up," Elijah inquired, stepping back with his hands held up in front of him.

"Yes," Bonnie found herself smiling as she moved into position. This she could do. This she had done a million times before.

"I'll go and give the gang the good news," Elijah called to her, already at the doors.

"Dr. Mikaelson," Bonnie called after him.

"Yes?" Elijah called back, pausing, his back pressed against the doors.

"Thank you," Bonnie said, hearing the hoarseness in her voice.

"You're more than welcome," Elijah called, exiting the OR and moving to clean up before meeting her interns; they would always be her interns.

Sighing, Bonnie forced herself to think of the man beneath her hands as anyone else. He's just another patient who was in a terrible accident. She was trained to keep a distance, to not allow personal relationship to get in the way of your training.

He would be fine. They could all go to sleep tonight.

A high beeping sound sent Bonnie's eyes moving to monitor. To her right.

"Dr. Bennett," Aiden's voice startled her. "His BP is going up rapidly."

"No!" Bonnie cried. "Hey, you do not get to take the easy route. Do you hear me?" she shouted at the unconscious man on the table. "You do not get to die on me! Aiden, page Dr. Gerard. Now!"

Aiden's feet seemed to be moving through quicksand as Bonnie felt her own BP rise. "Genevieve give him 10 mg of metoprolol to decrease his heart rate," she ordered. Her eyes moving back to Aiden who held the phone of the OR to his ear.

"Dr. Gerard is in the middle of a triple bypass," Aiden called over his shoulder. "He asked if you can stabilize your patient."

"Tell him to get his ass down here, now!" Bonnie shot back, feeling the panic finally filling her body. "Tell him we're going to lose this guy. Rebekah Mikaelson can go in and do his triple for him."

Relating what Bonnie had told him to Marcel, Aiden set the phone back into its cradle. "I'll go tell Rebekah to head up to the fourth floor."

"Right," Bonnie said, watching the medicine she had had Genevieve administer do its work.

The patient's BP slowed and moved back down to 130/75. Closer to normal but not what she could wish for.

"Come on. You do not get to die today," Bonnie informed the man who did not respond.

Marcel

Marcel's hands were deep inside a man's chest cavity when Rebekah Mikaelson entered his OR. "How is the other patient?" he asked her.

Rebekah's blue eyes met his and registered her fear. His Rebekah rarely showed fear and when she did it was followed by an angry outburst. He really did not want her killing his patient.

"Bekah, you up for this?" Marcel asked her, refusing to pull his hands out of his patient until she gave him some confirmation that she was not losing it here.

Nodding, Rebekah moved closer to him. "Yes. Now, would you mind saving the other one," she snapped, her voice low.

"Look, Bekah, I can finish this up and then go work on the other—" Marcel began when Rebekah pinned him with a glare. Her eyes turning dark.

"Gerard, you are needed downstairs. Now, if you will, please, remove your hands from my patient," she growled out. Now that would be the anger.

"Not if you're going to lose your temper and kill my guy!" Marcel argued.

"Marcel, get the bloody hell out!" Rebekah cried, elbowing him.

Marcel gave up, pulling his hands out of the man's chest. "You need to—" he began when Rebekah rolled her eyes.

"I know what I need to do. Now, go. Save a bloody life; would you?" The tinge of desperation in her tone is what caused him to back toward the exit to the OR. "Griffiths, you call me if anything goes sideways in here!" he ordered everyone's favorite intern.

"Will do, boss," Vincent replied, his eyes never moving from the patient.

Shaking his head, Marcel exited the OR and began to wash his hands. His pager went off and he noted that Bennett seemed to have lost patience with him.

Moving into the hallway, Marcel found Klaus Mikaelson heading down the opposite side of the hallway. "Heading to lunch, Marcel?" Klaus asked with a smile.

"Nope. Duty calls," Marcel told his friend.

"Ah. When you have a moment, I have some delightful news," Klaus said.

"You're in a good mood," Marcel replied, pausing and folding his arms over his chest. "Does this have something to do with a certain resident?"

Klaus' smile widened. "All in good time, my friend. Perhaps you can come to dinner tonight, at my place."

"I don't know, man," Marcel replied, walking backwards toward the bank of elevators.

"Rebekah will be coming," Klaus added, smirking.

Sighing, Marcel shook his head. "You like to make it hard on me; don't you?"

"I'll see you at 9:00 sharp. Don't be late," Klaus called, turning his back.

Marcel was smiling when the elevator doors opened and a stressed looking Sage Mikaelson emerged with a stroller. "I love my babies but I don't think they love me back," she told him as he stood aside to allow her passage.

"Why's that?" Marcel asked, holding the elevator doors open with his shoulder.

"One of them developed an inner ear infection. The other has a mystery rash. I'm going to have to beg Mikael for some time off and this is going to leave room for my male counterparts to try to steal my position." Sage ran a hand through her hair, sighing. "Anyway, I'm holding you up."

"Not a problem," Marcel said. "Good luck with the babes."

"Right," Sage replied, giving the babies a look.

"Hey?" Marcel called when the doors started to close. "Are you going to Klaus's impromptu dinner thing tonight?"

"Yes. He sent Finn and me a joint e-mail and left a phone message. Looks like it's important, to him." Sage shrugged.

"Good. That way it won't be me, Bekah, Klaus and whoever," Marcel said with a smile before allowing the doors to close.

Getting off the elevator, Marcel's eyebrows rose when he found last year's interns sitting on the floor. "Hey…"

"You're here," Caroline cried, pressing a tissue to her nose.

"Yeah," Marcel nodded. "I'd love to chat but I have a patient to go save." He hooked a thumb in the direction of the OR. The others stared at him blankly.

Feeling confused, Marcel entered the scrub room and got ready before entering the OR. "What took you so long?" Bonnie Bennett demanded, doing chest compressions and looking like she wanted to rip his heart out.

"I'm here now," Marcel retorted. "What do we have?"

"Patient was hit by a car. Elijah just finished removing a clot from his brain and then he decided to go into cardiac arrest," Bonnie snapped. "Why do you think I called for the cardio doc?"

Marcel nodded. "Alright. Okay, man, we're going to take good care of you," he said, glancing down at the patient's face and then it all came together—why all the urgency.

"Shit!" Marcel muttered, cursing himself for not moving faster. This was one of their own.

Hayley

Breathing steadily, Hayley ran through the range of emotions that threatened to overwhelm her. Fear. Anger. Despair. Looking to her left and right, she could see that her friends were also working through their emotional lows. Davina's quiet sobs focused her attention. The blood on her sister's face drove her action.

"Davina, come here," Hayley demanded, marching over to Davina and holding out a hand.

Davina stared back up at her with wide, shocked eyes. "What? Um. Why?" she mumbled, wiping at her eyes with the inside of her shirt.

"You need to get cleaned up and changed." Hayley turned to Josh. "You'll let us know if there are any changes?"

Josh nodded. "Sure."

Caroline looked up at Hayley. "Do you need help?"

"No. We're fine," Hayley said.

"I'm going to get some coffee," Tyler said, hopping to his feet and running a hand through his hair. "I need to… I need to do something. Somewhere else." He stormed down the hallway.

Ignoring Tyler, Hayley grabbed Davina and jerked her to her feet. "I think I should stay here," Davina argued, digging her heels in but there was no traction in the floor to prevent Hayley from dragging her down the hallway.

"You need to get the blood off. You need to get his blood off you," Hayley snapped, holding tightly to Davina's wrist.

"But I…" Davina did not seem to know what else to say and she fell silent as Hayley continued to pull her down the hallway.

Hayley felt like the mother of a small child as she plunged into the first bathroom she could find. Turning on the sink, she ran warm water and grabbed paper towels. Davina leaned against the sink, her eyes on her blood covered hands when Hayley began to wash the blood off Davina's face.

"I…" Davina began.

"Don't. Just don't talk right now," Hayley said, moving swiftly to grab more towels and to clean Davina's hands. The blood seemed to cover the girl. She really needed a thorough shower to rid herself of the blood under her fingernails, in the roots of her hair—where she'd run her hands through it—soaking her clothing.

"You need clothes. I'll go find some scrubs," Hayley said. "Stay here."

"But…" Davina's lower lip wobbled. "I don't want to be alone."

"I'll be back," Hayley promised, gripping Davina's shoulders and staring into her eyes. "Okay?"

"Okay," Davina mumbled, nodding and hugging herself.

Hayley inhaled sharply, before she strode back into the corridor. She made her way down the hall and turned a corner. "Where are the damned scrubs?" she muttered to herself. There were nurses on this floor who could tell her but she did want to talk to anyone. And she was a doctor. She could find a stupid supply closet by herself.

Finally she found the closet and opened it to find sets of scrubs. She grabbed a pair without thinking about what the size was. Did it really matter? Then she had to remember which bathroom Davina was in. Why did there have to be so many on one stupid floor.

Gritting her teeth, Hayley pushed the door open to the third bathroom on her search—the second had been a men's room. "Davina?" she called.

"In here," Davina's voice called from inside one of the stalls.

Hayley pushed the door open to find her sister, kneeling in front of the toilet. "I couldn't hold it anymore," Davina said, gasping and wiping her mouth with toilet paper.

"That's okay. Here. I got you these," Hayley held up the scrubs.

"Thanks." Davina took them and Hayley slipped back out to give her some privacy. Three minutes later Davina came back out, wearing the scrubs which seemed to be one size too big for her, making her look like she'd borrowed Hayley's scrubs. "Do they look okay?"

"Yeah," Hayley said.

They walked out of the bathroom and back to the hallway where Tyler stood with a tray of coffee. "I got some for you, too," he told them.

"Thanks," Davina muttered before sitting down beside Josh and ignoring the coffee altogether.

"Has anyone called Freya?" Caroline interrupted the two seconds of silence. Everyone else just stared at her. "You know, because they're, you know…" She frowned and Hayley jumped in.

"I'll go call her," Hayley told them, turning and walking away quickly.

On her way to the lobby, she bumped into Elijah. "Hayley, how is he?" Elijah inquired, giving her a long look.

"Jack?" Hayley shook her head. "I… I don't know. Marcel's working on him."

"And Davina," Elijah added. His hand moved to cup her elbow and Hayley's eyes fell on the all-too-familiar gesture. "Kol's been frantic since they came in."

"Oh, where is Kol?" Hayley looked around the lobby. She hadn't seen him since Davina and Jackson came in—no one knowing which one was dying due to all of the blood.

"Kol had an emergency surgery he had to attend to, but he's been hounding the nurses to give him updates on Davina…and Jackson." Elijah shook his head.

"She's… She's traumatized," Hayley said. "I have to call Freya."

"Yes. Of course." Elijah took a step back and Hayley felt cold.

Pulling out her phone, Hayley could only look at it until Elijah took it from her. "Perhaps you should allow a nurse to make the call," Elijah said. "I think you need to sit down."

"Somewhere else," Hayley told him, looking at the patients' families. She could not deal with being around all of these people and their grief, their crippling anxiety.

"Right," Elijah said, taking her hand and leading her away from the lobby. They slipped into an empty room and Hayley sat down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. "I don't know what happened, Elijah."

"Kol said that he and Davina had a row and then she… There was a car and Jackson was closer. He did what we do—he saved a life," Elijah said, taking a seat beside her and beginning to rub her back.

Tears began to burn her eyelids and Hayley buried her face into his chest, allowing herself to fall apart. "Stupid heroic bullshit," she muttered.

"Quite," Elijah let out a chuckle.

Pulling back, Hayley let out a laugh and then felt guilty before letting out another. "He's really stupid. Stupid, hero guy." Another sob burst out and then more, hysterical laughter.

"Oh, Hayley," Elijah said, placing his hand on her cheek and stroking her skin. His eyes moved to her lips and she moved her hand around the back of his neck, feeling urgency consume her.

"Elijah," Hayley moaned before pulling him on top of her.

"Are you sure you want this?" Elijah muttered as she slid her legs around his waist.

"Shut up," Hayley said, undoing his belt and pushing his pants down. "I don't want to talk. I don't want to think. I want you."

Elijah answered by jerking her shirt off and then kissing her passionately. She lost herself in him, in them. Screw what was right and wrong. She needed him and she could give a damn what that meant.

Thank you reading, faving, following and reviewing.

Answers to guest reviews:

Guest: Thank you!

Guest: I am so sorry for this chapter. I actually really love the idea FreyaxJackson since S3. I can't say what will happen, otherwise I spoil the plot…

Peace,

Jessica