Chapter 11
Day II / Elijah POV

I have not seen my brother pick flowers in a very long time. Have them delivered? Yes. But this is personal to him enough that he's out of his car, hand picking them and taking them to her himself.

"Y'know, this makes me wonder where all those other flowers came from." Hayley comments.

"You steal them from the lawns of little old ladies?" Kol teases.

"She thinks roses are over done and dry. Much like Hayleys meatloaf was last night."

"I don't see you cooking and it wasn't that bad. It was better than Rebeccas and Freya can't cook to save her life."

"But I can do potions, which is better. I can always order in."

Watching my brother picking lilies on the side of the road is hilarious. I can't recall when he last did something like this. Ordering flowers and having them delivered, yes, but this is much more personal. He's hand picking Roxanne a bouque of yellow and orange lilies.

"This is getting ridiculous." Kol speaks. "She's got you chasing your tail and picking flowers, and crying."

"Davina."

"Don't you bring her into this."

"I believe she had you chasing your tail and picking flowers and crying, or is my memory inaccurate?"

"I wasn't picking flowers. I was collecting herbs."

"Whatever you say, brother."

"You really think she's going to forgive you?" Kol questions.

"Patience is a virtue I still have."

"You have virtues?"

"Children, behave. I'm not in the mood for bickering. I had enough of that last night."

When Hayley disconnected Kols game because he didn't take out the trash. Then it some how turned into an argument of : I like Roxy more than you and you didn't want Hope so why not give her to Klaus and let him be happy with Roxy, without you in her face.
I'm just happy Klaus wasn't there to hear it. Seeing how he looks at Roxanne, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't take Hope and leave us all in the dust to be with her instead.
I can't say I blame him. I would love a life away from my siblings and with Hayley. Somewhere where things are simple and not messy like they are now.

"I think it's sweet." Rebecca comments. "I can't remember the last time I got flowers."

"I can't remember the last time you had a lover that didn't betray you." Klaus comments.

"Speak for yourself."

"Technically, he betrayed her. Slight difference." Kol speaks.

"Technically, they weren't a thing at the time so stop it." Hayley barks. She's getting tired of being painted as the devil woman.

"No. I don't like you." Kol tells Hayley.

"Just don't like Rox too much, Kol. I won't tolerate it."

"Afraid of some competition, brother?"

Competition? Klaus does not share. He will obliterate you, Kol.

"No. Afraid she will do something to spite me and then I will have to hurt you for tempting her to get back at me."

"So she's not the venchful type? That's new." Kol replies.

"Oh, she is. But she's also the patient type. She'll wait, and wait, and when you least expect it," Klaus lightly slaps Kols cheek. "About 5-thousand times harder. I'd give you a different analogy but my daughter's listening."

"I get the picture." Kol lightly slaps him back. "And don't do that to me."

It's almost noon when we reach Logans home and it's oddly quiet.

"Hey Domo," Kol greets the house spirit as the door opens. "Where's Miss Moody today?"

"They're in the library and the runts are napping." The domovoi speaks.

"Why the library? What's wrong?" Klaus demands.

Their library is so heavily charmed nothing is getting in there but them. It makes me wonder what they have locked away in there. And it terrifies me that if asked, Roxanne might give Klaus something to give him an edge in whatever plot he's putting into effect. I know she still loves him or she wouldn't be in pain she thinks she's hiding.

"She's looking for something she's destroyed." The domovoi replies.

"What is it?"

"It's a past-present and future spell that she designed to help her make decisions. The last time she used it, it was chaos."

"Oh?" Is chorused by a few of us.

"She having difficulty deciding on Klaus?" Hayley inquires.

"Roxanne's greatest flaw is she does not let go of things."

"What would it do?" Freya asks.

"It would bring to Roxanne her past self and her future self because she is her present self."

"So, three Roxy's all bitching at each other?" Kol chuckles. "Imagine that Klaus, you've got 3 Roxy's all ready to kill you and the bitch."

"If she really wanted me dead, I would be. But I wouldn't not mind three of her."

"You would mind. Carrick minded. It was during a lifetime he kept her under his thumb so much that she questioned too much. That time around, Carrick died death by Roxanne's future self- who had her powers binded by Carrick to keep her under his influence- pushing him out of the tower window."

"Carrick's reincarnated too? Where does it end with you people?" Hayley asks.

"It won't end."

"Why?"

"When she wants you to know, you will know."

"I hate how cryptic witches are." Hayley announces. "No offence, Freya. And don't call me a bitch, Kol."

"I'm domovoi. My loyalty is to the master of this house. Not any of you."

"And I'll call you shithead if I want, and you'll deal with it." Kol replies.

"None taken. We're cryptic for a reason." Freya shrugs.

There's laughter coming from the library and then Roxanne falls out of the portrait. Logan is right behind her, but she's not in a mood that I can only describe as being high.

"What did you do to her?" Klaus growls. He thrusts the bouque into my chest and climbs the stairs.

"She was in a mood so I gave her a green fairy."

"No, Nikki. I just wanna be on the floor. Right here. He's good."

He's attempting to pick her up and she's laying back so he has her by the hands and she's not working with him at all.

"Not on the floor, love. You hate the floor. It's filthy, remember?"

She lets out an exasperated groan and goes in the opposite direction so now she's leaning in to him with her arms around his waist.

"C'mon, lets get some water and walk it off."

"Walk what off? Did you just call me fat?"

"Now look what you've done." Kol chuckles.

"Well you're gonna deal with it. Cause your head is fatter than my ass."

She skips the last step and both hands go out like she's expecting to fall. Then she smiles.

"Kitty!"

"No!" The domovoi runs and vanishes into mist before she can catch him.

"Aw. I don't think he likes me. I don't remember cats being able to do that."

"Do you even remember where you are?" Kol asks.

"What are you doing?" Klaus is just as confused as I am.

"I squish you head." She's got one eye closed and is squishing my Hayley's head in an optical illusion between her thumb and index finger.
Hayley smiles, "She is trashed. How much did you give her?"

"Enough. She's a hybrid so it takes more to affect her. I haven't seen her this chill since after that time after she got stuck in wolf form."

"What?" Klaus asks and he takes both her hands to keep her from molesting his torso.

"I'm not a hybrid. I'm a tribrid." Swinging their arms to and fro like I have seen Bridget do with James. Then she rips her hands away and grabs him in a bear hug. She breathes him in and slips her hands beneath the back of his shirt.

"Okay, uh, here, Elijah. You take Hope. We are off to the city for a girls weekend now that Dalilah's not a threat."
Roxanne is scenting my brother by rubbing her forehead and cheeks on her chest.

"Have fun."

When Hayley passes them, Roxanne reaches past Klaus, grabs Hayley by the hair and pulls her backwards and thrusts foreward so she nearly slams into Rebecca.
Klaus grabs both her hands, turns her around and puts an arm around her shoulder.

"C'mon, lets walk it off."

"At least she didn't get depressed. Sometimes drugs have the opposite effect I want on her."

"Such as?"

"The last time I got her drunk it was why this, why that, and a lot of crying. Followed by her anxiety sky rocketing and I snapped her neck to knock her out. I'll take those."

"Thank-you."

Holding Hope and the bouque was awkward.

"Roxy! Get back here!" I hear Klaus outside.

"No!"

We move to the patio doors at the back of the house, and see Klaus out there chasing Roxanne around on the lawn. She's stripped off her pants and is just in her t-shirt and underwear.

"Yes! Put your pants back on!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"I don't want my pants!"

"Well you need your pants!"

She stops running from him and whirls around, "Why?"

"Because my brothers are here and I'm not having them or your pack ogling you."

"So now I'm fat and ugly?"

"Rox-"

"Nope!"

She darts away from him before he can grab her.

"Roxy, please, before you get cold, put your pants back on."

"No."

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

He's trying to catch her flailing limbs and she's slapping his hands away, stepping backwards and getting closer and closer to the water. He grabs her and tries to pull but the momentum is too much and they both land in the pond.
When they surface she's sobered and he's laughing.

"You look like a drowned rat."

Her hair's gone flat and is sticking to her face. He gets out and gives her a hand out of the water. The moment is sobering and it causes the opposite effect Logan mentioned before. It starts with why are you such a dick? Followed by why of everything from why her to why do I still love you? And then her announcing: I need a nap. She doesn't bother with the door. She climbs up the lattice that goes up to the second floor where her little balcony is.
Klaus hangs his head a moment, screams at the heavens before starting towards the door. The part Logan and I snicker at is she responds by screaming right back. So loud and shrill you'd think someone was killing her.

"Strip down and I'll toss it in the washer. There's a robe in the bathroom that you can use."

He doesn't say anything. He changes into the robe and Logan tosses his clothes in the washer.

"You can just dry it."

"That pond has both fish and frogs in it. You'll dry their stink right into your clothes."

Hope reaches out for Klaus and when he takes her, she smooths her hand over the robe, and coos.

"You might want to shower too."

"You're right. I can smell the fish. I'll me right back. Give me ten minutes." He kisses her forehead and hands her back to me and lets me keep the robe that she wants to touch.

"Where are the kids?"

"Val & Sean are out buying lumber to build them a playground. To keep it from them, the others have taken them out to the local park. Roxy's having them build a small park identical to her childhood school park."

Klaus is out of there in eight minutes and returns wearing a different robe. Logan comes in and takes that one to be washed too, and Hope is in Klauss lap to continue enjoying the softness of the navy blue robe.

"What do you plan to do with her?"

"She's got one more day. After that, I plan to tie her to a chair." He bounces Hope on his knees. "And wait until she gives in and talks to me."

"That's abusive."

"But effective. I've missed three years of their life. I won't want to miss more and I don't want to be without her longer. To add insult to injury, there's Hayley and I have no kingdom."

"That is your own fault."

He gives me a look to shut up.

"I won't coddle you, Niklaus. You shouldn't have attempted to compel her, and I think I speak for both of us that I want to know why that didn't work."

"I think it's something to do with the tattoos."

"They're just ink."

"Be that as it may, who's to say her mother didn't put protective mojo on the ink before applying it? The scripture itself across her is all protective spells and symbols."

I consider this. "Possible. Have you ever met her mother?"

"Not her biological mother but I have met her human family."

"And?"

"She's the middle child of five, and they're all boys."

He does not say anything else but he is smiling about something.

"I have a story for you, Hope. One about the queen's peasant family and the first time your father went camping for fun."

"You did what?"

"It was Easter. Everyone gets so busy around the holidays and Easter offered 2-weeks off for her nieces and nephews, and so mom suggested they all go camping in Arcadia just like they used to do then they were kids.

"Roxy knows they're oblivious to what she is but she wanted to appear normal and have time with them one more time in case she didn't get it later. Mom being mom, was inquiring about her love life and since I was serious about this relationship, I thought, one camping trip won't kill me.

"It was a two day drive to Arcadia where we met with the human family her witch mother and werewolf father had left her with when she was even younger than you, my dear Hope. Her eldest brother was in prison so he was not there. Her other older brother was there with his wife and their four children: a set of twin boys and a set of twin girls. Her younger brother was there with his money grubbing fiance, and her youngest brother had moved back in with mom after graduating from community college, because despite his brains he was still unemployed.

"For the first time in my life I slept in a sleeping bag in a pop tent in the middle of the woods." He leans in closer as if sharing a secret. "What her father doesn't know is we put those sleeping bags together as one and shared it."

He continues to tell her about how her mother delighted him with stories of a rebellious Roxanne when she dressed in clothes from Hot Topic and chopped her hair off to spite her father when he demanded she behave more like a girl, and made him laugh when she would argue with her ex-husband who was there only to see the children that never went to see him but would at least call their mother; which is more than what her father got.

He tells Hope about the humans Roxanne refers to as her brothers. One is in prison. The other is a gym teacher. The other is a teacher that works with deaf children and he himself is deaf due to a certain gene that causes hearing loss. The youngest had graduated college and was going to eventually open up his own shop one day that would remodel and restore vintage cars.
Hope wants up so he picks her up and holds her so she can stand on his legs, and he continues the story of Easter weekend. Roxanne's nieces and nephews taking part in the Easter egg hunt and Roxanne popping their balloon and telling them about the real story behind the Easter holiday as they know it, which resulted in a fist fight between Roxanne and her older brothers wife. Roxanne won when she broke a raw egg over the woman's head and the children couldn't stop laughing.

In the end, he had enjoyed himself and felt normal for the first time in a long time.

"Why do I get the feeling there's more to that story than you're sharing."

"Because there is."

"Such as?"

"Roxanne and I humping in the woods, the tent, the pond, and the back of her flatbed truck."

"She's too young to remember that."

"It's still something I don't feel the need to share it with her."

"You can share with me." Kol pipes up from the video games. "Who's better: Hayley or Roxy?"

"Roxy." Klaus doesn't miss a beat when he answers.

"I beg to differ."

"When I said it meant nothing, I mean it meant nothing. Kol, don't attempt to drive a wedge between us or I may have to drive steak through your chest. If she hears you and thinks I'm lying, which I'm sure she already does, will farther upset her and I'm tired of her emotional roller-coaster. I blame you for that. Do not drug her again."

"It was that or break her neck. Which would you prefer?"

"What was wrong with her you felt the need to drug her?"

"She was looking for a page from one of her books she thought she hid somewhere in my library. Truth is, she destroyed that spell because of the chaos it caused the second and last time she used it. I wasn't going to have her do it again. Not finding it was upsetting her. If you think she's a roller-coaster now, then you need to see her when you're not here."

"What does it do?"

Does he not believe the domovoi?

"It's for the future, past and present. She would be visited by her past self, her future self and she is her present self and her two other selves are to help her make decisons now."

"By decisions you mean me."

"I do."

Klaus exhales deeply. "What happened last time?"

"In a previous life, you two met. It was brief but enough to make her doubt Carrick. So she created that spell and it ended with her and her future self pushing Carrick out the window and he took them
both with him."

"When?"

"That time it was before the time you had with her as Philomena."

I remember Philomena. She was what caused Klaus's depression and vicious cycle way back when. He had her, he turned her, and then he lost her because Mikael took her from him.

"That was her?"

"It was."

Klaus is frozen on the spot and doesn't move until Hope touches his face. He tucks her in to his arms and sniffs.

"Did she know who I was?"

"I'm not sure. I wasn't sure it was her until after she was dead. I kept trying to catch up to you two but with Mikael up your ass, you kept moving."

"How could you tell after she was dead?" He asks.

"Did she tell you what she is yet?"

"She's a tribrid. What else could she possibly be?" Klaus sounds like he's at a loss.

"I'll take that as no. She'll tell you when she wants you to know. It's not something we share. Steve doesn't even know what I am and it keeps him safe. If she doesn't tell you, it's not entirely to do with trust, but it's to keep you safe. Do you need time alone?"

He nods and lets Logan take Hope from him. Klaus doesn't go upstairs but he does go outside to be by himself.

"Why would she doubt Carrick?"

"Once upon a time, Carrick and her were a thing. Then things changed and she wasn't interested anymore."

"Sophie?" Kol asks.

"It was even before Sophie and all this other whores. He's been trying with every new life to convince her things that she knows deep down aren't true anymore. He's just refusing to accept it." She kisses Hope's cheek. "Lets go make noise with the xylophone."

When Logan is gone, Kol asks me, "Once he's done being emotional, you think he's gonna be pissed?"

"Hard to tell these days, but something tells me no."

"Think the Kloxy ship will sail again?"

"You know Klaus. When he wants something, he gets it one way or another."