The constant beeping of the monitor finally woke her up. Her eyes fluttered open; she was in a blue room, florescent lights, little white flowers up and down the wallpaper.

Tacky as hell, but at least she was alive.

She could hear street noise, honks and screeching wheels. The single window was cracked just a sliver.

Leah blinked, adjusting to the light. Immediately she winced. Her shoulder was stiff and ached with a throbbing that spiked anytime she breathed. It was wrapped tight in white gauze tape and her right arm was in a sling flush against her chest. A silent prayer -someone had the decency to change her out of that dumb cat costume.

She tried to pull herself up.

Sweet Jesus, owww that hurt.

Who was here, she wondered.

Hwkl lng benhera?

Damn, they must have drugged her up bad because that was not English.

"Want to try that again?"

Hope was here. Dear god, please let her not still be wearing that dumb costume.

She tried to turn her head to check. Oww, oww, owww.

Okay, no sudden movements.

"I said, how long have I been here?"

"Just overnight. You passed out when they pulled the stake from your shoulder."

What? When was that?

"What? When was that?"

Ow.

Hope huffed in frustration as if this was the thousandth-and-first time she had told this story today.

"After mom showed up. Those Nightwalkers tried to flee but she and the wolves got them. Like, got them bad. You kinda lose your basic rights to keep on living when you violate the treaty that egregiously, especially on Halloween. That's like Elijah's one rule, don't fuck up on Halloween…or April 15th."

"Tax day?"

"My birthday, dumb butt."

Oh. Oh yeah. How could she forget? After all, somewhere, deep down in her Google calendar, she knew that.

"Did Elijah show up?"

Hope wondered if Leah had brain damage.

"Well, you eventually called him so he eventually showed up." She was obviously mad about the phone incident. Again, incident was an exaggerated term; a moment of weakness perhaps? There was no way to explain her refusal to call for help when they needed help without sounding absolutely crazy. And with the psych ward just floors above them, she wasn't going to take any chances- time for some classic conversational redirection.

"Okay, okay, okay, forget that. Why am I here? Wait, is this the university hospital? You brought me here?"

"Elijah was just gonna feed you his blood but you freaked and refused- you don't remember this? You demanded, no, you like yelled at Elijah, screamed at him, telling him to take you to, and I quote, 'A god damn fucking hospital.'"

You have to admit, that sounded like her.

"And then I blacked out?"

"And then you blacked out."

The sass was strong in this one, talk about poor bedside manner.

"Yeah, well, you would have blacked out too if someone yanked a giant piece of wood from your chest."

"I wouldn't have gotten staked because I would have called Elijah when my friend told me."

There we are folks; Hope was being an unsympathetic bitch.

Leah couldn't believe what she was hearing. She was the one with the mangled shoulder and yet here was Hope acting all sore.

Silence, and then the sound of a chair scraping the tile floor. Hope now stood over the hospital bed. She pulled something from her jeans' pocket and threw it on the bed.

"Your wallet. We needed your ID. PS, your health insurance sucks."

Oh, my god, that's right. She was in the hospital. That cost money.

Bills, bills, bills.

She didn't need to be thinking about that now. How was she ever going to pay off this room.

Stripping?

Wait. Something was wrong.

They gave a student on shitty health insurance a single room? No way in hell (no way in America).

She was afraid to ask.

"How'd I get this room - a single room - with a window?"

"Elijah."

Ah, right. Of course. Please, tell me more.

"He compelled the entire third floor. Again, that wouldn't be necessary if you'd let him heal you."

"Hope, listen, real talk." She had to try to get this through her head: "I know you're part vampire, but I, me, Leah, I am not a fan of having someone else's blood forced down my throat."

Hope made a disgusted face. "You're such an idiot."

"Same."

Leah might have fallen back asleep in the long silence that followed. She wasn't sure how much time had passed when she came to again. Her mouth was dry and her shoulder, surprise, still hurt.

"Where's Elijah now?"

Hope was leaning against the wall reading a Town and Country. She slapped it closed and tossed it on the nightstand.

"Elijah's somewhere near. He dropped by but you were out again. He's gonna bring you back with us when they release you."

Another minute passed; beep… beep… beep… beep.

"You know I have a dorm room," she stared at the ceiling squares. "A room that I pay for. My own room. I'm not homeless."

Another minute passed; beep… beep… beep… beep.

"Dad ordered it."

"That doesn't change anything. I'm not going home with you."

Hope's sneakers squeaked as she approached Leah's bed.

"You don't understand. He's ordered you under house arrest until further notice."

Leah snorted, which made her shoulder hurt like a bitch.

"Let me get this straight," she winced, "I've been grounded by someone else's parents? This is a joke; you do realize parents can't ground kids after like, 17, 18. And I know you live in magical fairy vampire land, but it's, like, illegal to keep people places against their will."

They could probably hear her cynical laughter down the hall in ICU.

"This is fucking not a joke, Leah. He's furious about the attack; he's furious at you."

Either she was still drugged up or she had lost brain function while out because the words coming out of Hope's mouth were not making any sense.

"Wait, I get attacked and I'm being punished?"

Now Hope was furious; if her friend wasn't in a sling she would have grabbed her shoulders and shaken the stupid out of her.

She spoke slowly as if to a small child. There were pointed hand gestures.

"I'm gonna try this again. Klaus Mikaelson…thinks you…Leah St. Ann…conspired with a band of banished vampires…to kill me, his precious baby girl."

Leah couldn't believe Hope just said that with a straight face. Please someone knock her back out with painkillers, she couldn't take this shit anymore.

"What am I, on trial? Law and Order: Supernatural Victims Unit? How could I possibly have been involved? Plus, there is a whole pack of teenage werewolves who can testify that I was just as clueless and unaware as the rest of y'all. Call up Jesús and Paolo."

Hope smacked herself. Leah wasn't even trying to take this seriously.

"José and Pablo, you idiot, and that's not gonna help; dad thinks very little of the Guerrera wolves, so just roll with it, please? Pul-lease don't fight this," she begged. "I know it's fucked up but yet…think of it as one big extended sleepover."

"Ok, and if I want to leave?"

"You can't."

"So… not a like sleepover."

"Don't make me smother you."

"And put me out of my misery, please do."

They could go like this for hours if they wanted. Neither of them did.

"Please, Leah, I don't want to fight. I want to keep you alive," Hope confessed, sympathetic at last.

Silence; then another voice in the choir.

"I prefer you alive as well."

It was Elijah. He leaned against the doorframe with a set of papers in his hand, waving them at the girls.

"Some good news, at last. Release forms. I've compelled the head nurse. You are free to go."

Ah, another variant definition from the Mikaelson Dictionary of Fucked-up Terminologies.

The real definition of "good news" is when you are actually free to go. "Free" is the ability do what you want without threat of compulsion, dismemberment, or death.

"Fucked-up" was her life right now.

So no, Elijah, I am not free to go.

/

"She has to go."

Elijah looked up from his journal. He had just stopped by the manor, the first time since All Saint's Day. Leah had been under house arrest for three weeks now. She hadn't even been allowed to attend classes; Hope had made up some excuse to the professor for her about a sick aunt in Kansas. She took notes for Leah, and bought her books from the library and even (though this had been Elijah's idea) offered the Alumni Development department a generous donation not to fire their errant employee and to keep her job open for if (when) she returned.

Anything, to make sure Leah didn't fall behind.

"I need those credits, I have to graduate. My scholarship only covers four years."

Leah was washing out the coffee press in the kitchen, but she was using only one arm, the good arm, her non-dominant arm. There was a lot of soap everywhere; it was really funny, but also really sad at the same time.

Hope was a broken record of apologies, repeating her words for the millionth time.

"I know, this sucks I know. But look, you can email in your essays and, and your exams can be take home, and everything will be okay."

Leah meant to turn off the faucet, but she was busy using her left hand to gesture wildly.

"Or," she shrugged, which was a horrible idea given her shoulder, "or, your uncle could just compel all my problems away. In fact, why doesn't he just compel me my diploma now? And while he's at it, compel away all my student loans, and compel me a Kia Optima and a townhouse in Brooklyn and 2.5 kids for good measure."

Hope's face said loud and clear that she didn't appreciate the attitude.

"Don't be ungrateful, it's not a good look on you. I'm gonna take a shower. You, drop the attitude and figure out what you want to order for dinner. And you're wasting water."

She slammed the faucet handle down before leaving.

That was yesterday. Now Hayley wanted to know why some girl was washing dishes and doing chores around the house, some girl who wasn't the maid. At least the maid had two good arms.

"She has to go, I want her out," she said again, repeating her words for the millionth time.

"Are we discussing Hope's friend or a stray dog?"

"Is there a difference?" She philosophized from the doorway.

Elijah was tired of this argument already. Clearly Hayley had waited the whole three weeks to talk face-to-face and just let it all out. Did she even know these were Niklaus' orders? He didn't agree with his brother, but he was trying to do right by him; his house, his rules.

He closed his journal and looked intently at Hayley. Really looked hard. Her eyes gleamed in that intense way they did when she wanted something. Her forehead furrowed in that adorable way it did when she was annoyed. Once, he would have pulled her close, a hand resting lightly on her upper arm, and kissed that forehead, a promise that everything would be okay. That's all he had been able to do: extend promises, keep promises, break promises. But when Hayley had transitioned, the gulf between them grew; larger and larger until it swallowed the fragile relationship they had slowly built.

The gravity of that tragedy still pulled them together. Two suns, the center of their own universes, spinning closer and closer and closer.

He had left the plantation house to avoid crashing into her.

But now he was back.

You came back.

I always come back.

So he might as well give her his attention.

"Until we learn the motivations behind the attack on Halloween, it's wisest to keep Leah close."

"We're not running an orphanage, Elijah."

He gave a noncommittal shrug, the one that really pissed her off.

"Is this your thing, Elijah? Some motherless girl bats an eyelash and you ride in, knight in shining armor, and in two seconds you swear you've found some…fairytale ending?"

"Is that your summary of us?"

Hayley pulled herself away from the doorframe, swaying deeper into study, simpering.

He was fishing, so she took the bait.

"Nine, ten months, all that time yet you never really knew who I was. That's the summary of us, Elijah. You didn't know me and you don't know her."

Elijah made an unthreatening gesture, leaning back in his chair.

"Are you implying something?"

"It's clear why you've moved back in."

"No need to exaggerate: I'm only here for the weekend."

"And this has nothing to do with the slowly healing human in our kitchen?"

"Hope was attacked. My family needs me."

She let out a low whistle, moving her weight to the other foot.

"Oh man, family above all, I know that line, no, no, that's good… but going after your niece's best friend, Elijah, not so good."

"Hayley, your opinion is not requested."

"My opinion?" Hayley growled, throwing her words like darts. "Elijah, that girl, is a threat. Are you going to sit there and tell me it's not the slightest suspicious that I found her in an alley full of banished vampires?"

"Yes, how did you find her so fast? I didn't realize the sire bond was still active."

Hayley looked embarrassed, if just for a second.

"Any mother knows when her child is in danger," was all she said. "And don't change the subject, I'm far from done here. Leah whatever her name is, Hope's 'friend,' I don't care who she is—she's a witch with an unknown allegiance and she's under my roof."

"Niklaus placed her under your roof."

"And until I can convince him to kick her out, you better remember that she's here for one reason, to be our prisoner - not your girlfriend."

Elijah let out an unnecessary breath.

Now who was fishing? He wouldn't take the bait.

He simply shook his head in answer, as if he hadn't the slightest what she meant.

Hayley Marshall was no fool.

"Stay away from Leah, Elijah. I know you think I'm just being, petty, or whatever, but I don't want to see you get hurt. You know it too; this might end poorly…for Leah. I don't want her hurt, because I don't want Hope to suffer. Not again, not anymore, but I can't and won't promise anything, to you or to anyone.

Klaus and I have a right to protect our daughter."

Elijah looked offended, "I wouldn't dream of undermining your parental authority."

Hayley hugged herself through her heather sweater. She could read him now so well; at least he wasn't lying about that last bit.

"Make sure you spend some time with Hope while you're here. She misses you."

She forgot to shut the door when she left.

AN: Thank you again, sweet reviewers. Ana, thanks for pushing me to really think about how I write the characters and their relationships!