Hello, my lovely readers. We're going to dig up some secrets in this chapter. On with the show…

Chapter 10: Priorities

Three months and Fifteen Days Ago:

Elijah

A buzzing sound broke through Elijah's welcome dream of Hayley in his arms. She was laughing as they danced along a beach in France. Sweet music battled with the buzzing and Elijah attempted to block out the persistent interruption to his peaceful slumber.

"Enough!" Elijah groaned. He sat up and slammed his hand over the alarm, silencing it.

"Good morning," Aurora mumbled. She rolled into his side and pressed a kiss to his chest.

Blinking at his ex-wife, Elijah did not understand how she'd come to be in his bed. "Aurora? What are you doing?" he demanded.

Aurora looked up at him, a smile on her face. "I thought that would be obvious, darling. Don't you remember last night?" She slid a hand into his hair, pressing her lips to his and moved to straddle him. "Oh, Elijah. Last night was magical."

Head beginning to pound, Elijah placed his hands on each of Aurora's shoulders and pushed to the other side of the bed. "I have to get to work. Early shift," he ground out.

"Don't be so eager to leave me," Aurora cried. She slipped her arms around his waist and rubbed her nose against his neck. "We could stay in a bit longer. Like we used to…" She caught his earlobe between his teeth and tugged lightly. She used to do that when they had first begun to see one another and it drove him mad.

Now, all he wanted was to be as far from his wife as he could get. "Aurora. I have work." Without another word, Elijah stood up and strode to his dresser. He heard the quiet sniffling behind him as Aurora got out of bed and made her way around his bedroom, gathering her things.

"I still love you," Aurora said, her hand moving to Elijah's back.

Turning, Elijah looked down at Aurora. "I fell in love with someone else. What more is there to say?"

"What about last night?" Aurora cried. "We made love, Elijah. Does that count for something?" Her eyes searched Elijah's.

"It means I came home drunk and you…" Elijah stopped. He could now remember entering his home. Aurora had come over. His talk with Hayley had not gone as well as he'd hoped. Aurora had opened a bottle. They began to talk about old times. Her fingers in his hair. He lips pressing his. Her nimble fingers on his belt. All of it felt so familiar. And he gave in. Just for a moment. But that was all it took.

"You remember now?" Aurora asked him, her eyes bright. "It felt like back when we were interns. Didn't it?" She leaned up, grazing his lips with hers.

Elijah nodded, snaking an arm around her waist and pulling her closer. Hayley. Her name made him pause.

"What is it, love?" Aurora whispered, hands running over his arms, lips on his chest. "Tell me?"

"It's her." Elijah's head bowed and he could not look Aurora in the eye.

"Her?" Aurora let out a groan. She took a step back. "You mean the intern you were sleeping with?" Elijah's eyes moved to meet Aurora's. Her blue eyes had turned cold. "Right then. Well, I will see you at work."

"Rory." Elijah reached out and grabbed Aurora's arm. "Please, don't tell anyone about tonight." He felt very immature in asking for this promise. It sounded very much like what a high school boy might ask of someone he did not mean to be with.

His embarrassment must have shown because Aurora scoffed and placed a hand on his cheek. "We both have secrets we would prefer were not aired. Don't worry, darling. I won't breathe a word." She threw her arms around his neck and pressed one last kiss to his lips before she exited his bedroom.

Sighing, Elijah made his way into his bathroom. He needed to officially end his marriage. Break the ties between himself and his first love.

Burying all his worries, Elijah entered the shower. He only had forty minutes to gain control of himself and go to work. Eyes closed, Elijah tried to not sink into his memories of his life before but being with Aurora simply opened up old wounds.

"Eli," Aurora called from the bathroom while Elijah flipped through Gray's Anatomy. He had a class he had to study for. Up at five in the morning. He barely slept anymore. Being a newlywed and finishing up his pre-med right before his internship felt like too much. Just one more month and he'd begin the real work. He and Aurora.

"Darling!" Aurora shouted from the bathroom and Elijah shot to his feet.

"Rory?" Elijah called, his bare feet cold on the bathroom floor. Aurora sat on the floor, her arms wrapped around her legs. "What's wrong?" he cried, dropping to his knees before his wife.

Aurora had tears running down her cheeks as she lifted her head to look at him. And she was smiling. "We're having a baby," she choked out. Laughing, she picked up a plastic stick. "I asked Bekah to grab it for me at the shop."

"You asked my sixteen-year-old sister to pick up a pregnancy test?" Elijah eyed Aurora, taking the stick and examining the two little plus signs on it. "If father found it; he would have sent her off to a nunnery."

"She brought it to me, right after my Philosophy exam," Aurora retorted, leaning into his chest and Elijah wrapped his free arm around her. "Tell me you're happy, darling. I won't have it if we don't both want this baby. I simply can't live without you." She pulled back to meet his eyes and Elijah cupped her face.

"I want many, many babies with you, my love," Elijah whispered. He nuzzled her nose with his own before he kissed her deeply. "I want to make a whole household of babies with you."

Aurora's head fell back. She began to laugh as Elijah sat the test down and picked her up. "I don't know if my body can handle that. We'll see how things go with the first one, shall we?"

"We shall," Elijah said, lying her down on the bed. "I love you, Mrs. Mikaelson. And I will love you forever."

"I will love you forever, too," Aurora said as Elijah lifted her shirt to press kisses to her flat stomach.

Stepping out of the shower, Elijah wiped the steam from the mirror. When he looked at himself, he saw not the happy boy he had been—back when life lay at his feet—no, the man who looked back at him saw too much, been hurt too deeply. Elijah did not know if he liked the man he had become but he knew he could not turn back the clock. He could not return to his old life. And he had to get to work.

Elijah returned to his bedroom, donned a suit, slid his watch into place, slipped his cell into his pocket and left his bedroom and what remnants of his former self—who happened to reappear last night—behind.

Tiffany

Needle puncturing flesh. Tiffany squeezed her eyelids shut tight. She was not squeamish about needles. She'd had to draw blood many times before. She'd had her blood drawn many times before. She just felt so tired of this routine. Have your blood drawn. Take another test. More questions. An endless series of questions.

Death. She knew it stood beside her. At any moment it might tap her on the shoulder and ask her to take walk along a path she'd seen others take, too many times before. Tiffany Marshall did not give up. She did not lie down and take it. She'd worked too damn hard and given up far too much to get this far in her life to have it all go to waste. She still had so much to tell her daughter, Hayley, and the other girl, whoever she would turn out to be.

No, Tiffany would be damned if she would roll over and die without a fight. She just wasn't happy about where her help was coming from. Kol Mikaelson. In spite of her complicated friendship with Mikael, she did not trust the young man.

The nurse set the vial of blood in a case and clicked it closed. "I'll be back tomorrow, Dr. Marshall."

"Thank you, Sonya." Tiffany nodded at the woman who she'd know for over thirty years and who knew how to keep her mouth shut when need be.

Bedroom door closing, Tiffany found herself alone, again. She did not like being left alone anymore. It allowed her too much time to ponder her previous choices. Maybe she was being punished for her past sins. This thought made her chuckle.

A soft knock on the door made Tiffany lift her heavy lids. She should have taken the medication later in the day. And she would have if she'd known she would have a visitor. "Yes?" she called, her voice low, drowsiness hitting her hard.

"Mom?" the door opened and her younger daughter's head popped inside, Tiffany knew the girl's presence was a happy hallucination, brought on by the drugs, but she would not complain. "Hi. I thought that we could talk. Since everyone is at work right now."

Tiffany nodded and waved for her daughter to come inside. "I've had trouble sleeping lately, so I've taken a drug to help me sleep. You can stay with me, if you'd like." She watched the girl take slow steps over to bed. "I won't bite." She laughed and watched her baby through eyelids that wanted to shut. "I thought you were the most beautiful baby I'd ever seen."

"Then why did you give me away?" the girl whispered, climbing onto the bed and laid down beside Tiffany.

Adjusting her position with effort, Tiffany curled a trembling arm around her daughter's side. "I had an affair, honey. A long time ago," Tiffany fell asleep talking to her.

"With who?" the girl asked.

Tiffany might have answered her daughter—thanks to the drug—but she fell asleep instead.

"Good morning, doll face," a husky voice whispered into her ear and Tiffany giggled. She could not remember feeling this good in her entire life. His arms slipped around her waist and Tiffany leaned back into his warmth.

"I think we should run away together more often," he whispered, lips gliding along her neck. His fingers pressed into her hips and Tiffany did not regret for a moment leaving her boring life behind. She loved being a surgeon but this, this was better.

"God, you are delicious," her lover mumbled into her ear, turning her around and Tiffany sighed as he tugged her skirt up and pushed her against the wall of their room. The walls were not thick, but she wasn't worried about anyone finding out.

Losing herself in him, Tiffany pressed her lips to his, losing herself in his body as he pushed her high against the wall and her hands moved over his back, through his hair and back down.

To think she almost missed out on joining the rescue effort on their mission to Haiti. She'd heard about it from a fellow resident. People were dying. Hurricanes whipping out entire towns. Devastation everywhere. The hotel they were living in doubled as a make-shift hospital. Limited supplies. Tiffany and her colleagues working to fight Mother Nature's reign of terror.

And in the middle of all of the misery and pain, Tiffany and her lover grasped at their tiny bits of happiness as often as they could get hold of it. Tiffany could not remember being in love before or even feeling this passionate with another person, but she loved this man. She loved him too much.

~0~

Two months after the trip to Haiti, Tiffany found she was pregnant. Her husband was thrilled. "It's not yours," Tiffany's words made her husband, Nathaniel's eyes, turn dark with anger.

"Then you'll go on a trip. Somewhere in the Mid-West, or out-of-the-country. Have that baby. Give it up for adoption. And come home," he stated these things with the same lack of passion that led to her having an affair in the first place.

"The hell I will," Tiffany shouted at him, her fingers curling into fists.

"Tiff, honey, my father is on the board. This will ruin us. And I will make sure your career ends today." Nate sat back in his chair, watching Tiffany shake with rage. She hated him so much in that moment.

~0~

Tiffany could not help but smile when Nate found out he could not produce children on his own. "Adopt the baby," he'd said.

Feeling pleased, Tiffany set about adopting her daughter and bringing her home. She's already picked out a name. "Hayley Jane," Tiffany whispered to herself.

~0~

If she'd only ended the affair then.

"What do you mean 'You're pregnant?" Nate demanded, his fingers digging into Tiffany's shoulders. He'd finally dug up some passion after all.

"I am. And this time I'm keeping it," Tiffany hissed.

Nate shook his head. "Hayley is enough. I treat her like she's mine. And I suggest you either end things, or you get your tubes tied. One way or another, this ends now, Tiffany. So, help me God, I will take the house, the cars, your work, and Hayley."

"No, Nate!" Tiffany snapped. She slapped him in the face and Nate took a step back. "My father was right. You're trash," he spat before he walked out of the room.

Taking a long breath, Tiffany looked at her middle. "I'm sorry, baby," she said. She could not give up everything. She could not lose Hayley. It was too much of a risk.

Tiffany woke to find her younger daughter asleep by her side. Her arm trembled and she willed to be steady as she placed a hand on the top her daughter's head. She had so much to tell her girls. She just did not know if they would forgive her, or if she would have to leave first.

Caroline

Therapy. Sit in a circle. Talk about what you'd been through. Go outside and do yoga. Again. And again. And again.

Caroline thought that when she chose to focus on PEDs or Trauma, she would never, ever be in Psych. Unlike some people she could mention.

As if on cue, Stefan walked into the therapy session and leaned against a wall. Caroline bugged her eyes out at him and he let out a chuckle. The group therapist, a boy named Lloyd, who was barely older than Caroline gave Stefan a sharp look, his blue eyes piercing into Stefan who held up his hands.

"Sorry," Stefan said and Caroline smirked before turning back to Lloyd.

"So, we were about to talk about our fears of going back to the world outside," Lloyd continued and Caroline sat back in her seat. She allowed her mind to drift.

"Caroline," Klaus whispered into her ear.

Turning around, Caroline rolled her eyes. "You, again," she groaned. This guy just did not give up.

"I thought you might reconsider having a cup of coffee with me." Klaus said. He leaned against the wall to her left.

Shaking her head, Caroline moved to walk past him when Klaus stepped in her way. "I do not want to seem as if I am pressuring you. If you truly are not interested, I will leave you alone."

"Look, you just made me spend the night taking care of a bunch of premies who are nicer than you are. I smell. I need sleep. Or at least a nap. And I'd like to hang out with my friends at some point in the next forty-eight hours." Caroline pushed past Klaus and headed toward the stairs.

She shoved the door open to the stairwell and moved to the top step. A sudden case of light-headed-ness made her fingers grasp for the railing. But her fingers did not seem to want to find anything but air.

Caroline let out a cry as her body tipped forward. Then the pressure of a hand on her belly took her by surprise. Her back met something hard and she sighed in relief, realizing that she was not a broken mess at the bottom of the stairs.

"Good thing I'm stalking you, love," Klaus whispered into her ear. "Otherwise you might have Bekah popping your shoulder back into place. As much as I love her, she has no bedside manner." His soft chuckle in her ear made Caroline growl and turn in his arms. Big mistake. His lips were on hers and she could not find the will to fight him off.

"Oh, God," Caroline moaned as Klaus turned them away from the dangerous stairs and pressed her against the nearby wall. Her hand found his and their fingers intertwined. He placed her hand above her head and groaned as he pushed his hand into scrub pants. "You are such a jerk."

"You're going to fall madly in love with me, Caroline," Klaus whispered into her ear.

"No way in hell," Caroline retorted. Grabbing him by the back of the neck, she pressed her lips to his, shutting him up for the time being. Maybe being involved with your boss was not the worst thing in the world. But she did intend on making this into a thing. Just a little stress reliever. Fooling around with your boss, take two doses, once a day, as recommended.

~0~

"Caroline, do you have any fears about confronting the outside world?" Lloyd asked her. He peered at her through his glasses and she wanted to give him a recommendation on a style from his decade.

"Nope." Caroline shook her head with a smile. "I'm fine."

"Caroline, you nearly died and lost an unborn child," Lloyd began when Stefan came to stand beside him.

"I think today's session is over," Stefan pointed at the clock above Caroline's head.

Turning, Caroline noted the time and smiled. Getting to her feet, she stretched her arms above her head. "I'm about to go outside. Nothing to fear out there." She waved good-bye to Lloyd and practically skipped out of the room.

"How are you feeling?" Stefan asked once they'd exited the building.

"Better," Caroline said. She wrapped her arms around herself. "I think I just needed some sleep."

"And being locked up will give you that me-time you need," Stefan joked and Caroline gave him a look. "Too soon?"

Caroline scoffed. "Probably." She looked at the tree where a bird had begun to chirp a cheery tune. She wished she felt like joining it.

"Are you going back?" Stefan asked her.

"Back?" Caroline gave Stefan a look.

"Back to New Orleans?" Stefan offered.

"Maybe," Caroline tugged at the long sleeves of her shirt. "Lloyd's going to sign my release so I can get back to work."

"Good," Stefan wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I'm looking forward to your joining me on the daily rounds. You know some of patients think they're vampires?"

Caroline shook her head. "I was figuring zombies. Maybe aliens. I hear they're getting a comeback."

Stefan nudged her. "Want to get some coffee?"

"Coffee?" Caroline rubbed her arms, thinking of Klaus. "Um. Okay."

"Good. So, Lena and Damon are coming by my house, later tonight. I thought maybe I could sign you out and we could hang out," Stefan looked hopeful and Caroline nodded.

"Sounds like fun." Caroline's eyes drifted to the bird in the tree. "But I think I need to have some more me-time." She turned back to the building that she would never think of as a home no matter how long she ate, and slept there. She needed to be alone.

Re-entering the facility, Caroline paused. "Ms. Forbes, there's a phone call from a Klaus Mikaelson for you."

"Can you take a message?" Caroline called back. "I'm going to my room."

"Alright," the nurse replied.

Caroline needed to meditate and concentrate on healing before she could deal with Klaus or anyone else.

Thank you for reading, faving, following and reviewing.

Answer to guest reviews:

Guest: Thank you for the sweet review! I hope this chapter did not disappoint, even with the shocking twists. xx

Guest: There will be more Haylijah moments in the next chapter.

Peace,

J