It felt almost like déjà vu, to be fleeing from Mikael again. The past few years had been nice to live without the shadow of his presence constantly behind them. She could have gotten used to it.
Rebekah's hands were straining against the steering wheel, the only sign of her emotions. "And how exactly are you going to find out? I don't want to alert Mikael of our presence."
"I believe that they only know his location sister dear." Klaus had his phone in his hand, obviously looking for something. "They wouldn't wake him, not yet. Not when they don't know what he is."
"It is Katerina Petrova who knows where he is. This could be her chance to get one up on us. She will wake him." Tessa interjected. "We can't sit back and wait to see."
"What if it is a ploy? To get us to lead them straight to Mikael?" Rebekah took her eyes off the road to stare down her brother.
"Hush. Both of you." Klaus waved his hand in a motion to shut up. "I'll have people check into. I will not be letting it sit."
"We need to disappear." Tessa insisted, trying to convince Klaus. "If we just lie low for a little while, get some people looking-"
"I will not run away. I am a hybrid now." Klaus turned to look at Tessa, his yellow eyes flickering in for just a second.
"It isn't running away, it's being smart!" Tessa's normal tight control of her emotions slipped, it had been happening more and more now that she was back with her old friends.
"Silence." Klaus's voice was low with a deadly edge. "I will not sit back and let Katerina have time to plot against us."
"Fine." Tessa bit out, focusing on her breathing to keep her temper down. The whole situation with Mikael had set everyone on edge and she refused to make things worse.
"This is the plan. I'm having Stefan keep an eye on the doppelganger and my new hybrid. Rebekah, stay in town and make sure that the Salvatore gang don't cause too much trouble. Keep your ear to the ground with any information on Mikael." Rebekah nodded and slowly eased the truck to the side of the road. "Tessa and I are going to poke around, find out exactly how the Salvatores got their little hands on Mikael."
"Please keep me updated Bekah, if there is any sign of trouble, get the hell out," Tessa said, resting her hand on the blonde's forearm. The Original nodded at her and hopped out of the cab. Klaus slid over, taking the wheel. The two sat in silence as they pulled away, leaving Rebekah to lure one of the passing cars to stop for her.
"Why is it that he still continues to haunt me?" Klaus stared straight ahead, refusing to look at Tessa. She knew who he was talking about.
"You've heard his reasons. He believes vampires are impure, I've always believed that to be quite ironic. After all, it was him and Esther that started the vampire line." Small snippets of the horrible few months where the Mikaelson's flashed behind her eyes.
She couldn't get Henrik's broken body out of her head. The little boy that she had helped so many times, laying mauled on the ground, would forever haunt her. The walk was helping to clear her head, the cool air soothing her hot skin. An odd silence hung in the forest around her, it was broken in an instant when she heard something snap behind her.
"Hello?" Tessa called, regretting she hadn't brought her walking stick. She had no need for the support it provided, only for the assurance that it would hurt when she hit someone. The little noises continued but in random directions. It couldn't possibly be an animal, the direction of the noise changed every few seconds.
The outline of a figure suddenly emerged from the shadows and Tessa stifled a scream.
"Elijah!" She yelped, unable to keep the fear out of her voice. "What are you doing?" The Mikaelson didn't seem like himself, an unnatural stillness to his body.
"You should get home Tessa." His voice was controlled and tight. There was something off about the whole situation and Tessa gladly retreated.
It had been the first time that she had seen a Mikaelson since the tragedy of Henrik. All of the siblings had been cooped up in the house and Klaus hadn't come to see her for weeks. She had been hurt at first but everyone mourns differently.
Her little house was quiet, her mother had already gone to bed. Luck was on her side and the wooden door didn't rattle too much as she slid through. Tessa slipped into bed, only bothering to take off her dress, leaving herself in her shift. Something had been wrong about Elijah and it was troubling her that she couldn't put her finger on it. There was also the ache in her heart that she hadn't seen Klaus in weeks. Deep inside she knew that she was being ridiculous, Henrik had died. That would take a lot out of a family.
A small noise came from outside and Tessa froze, mind instantly jumping to the wolves that had attacked Henrik. Their house was near the edge of the village but surely no wolf would be so bold. Pushing the blankets off with shaky hands, Tessa sat on her bed, listening intently for another noise. There was another, though Tessa could have sworn it sounded like a footstep. Reluctantly she stood, moving to the door of the house, a blanket throw over her shoulders to protect her modesty. The door, again, swung open silently and for that Tessa was grateful. The last thing she needed was to wake her mother up because she heard some noise in the night. As Tessa stepped through the door, she saw a figure standing a little ways away from the house.
"Klaus!" She called, her heart soaring. He turned, possessing the same unnatural tightness that Elijah had. "What are you doing here at this time of night?" Tessa had missed him but this whole situation was odd.
"Tessie." His answer was shaky and Tessa pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders.
"What's wrong?" She wanted to step closer to him but some animal instinct told her not to. Klaus only shook his head at her, turning away. He disappeared into the night faster than he should be able to. Tessa was left standing in the doorway, heart beating too fast in her chest.
"Mikael has a habit of believing what he wants to," Klaus replied bitterly, forcing Tessa to shake away the last few dredges of the memory.
"And where exactly are we going? What information can we glean that will help us?" There was an edge to her voice, she didn't like the idea of leaving Rebekah behind.
"We aren't getting information Tessie love, we are getting reinforcements." Klaus smiled over at her and she huffed.
"All the reinforcements that we need are in the back of this truck." She shot back, "Just undagger your siblings." Klaus' jaw set and he didn't look at her as he spoke.
"No. Not until this problem is dealt with. Why would I undagger my siblings while Mikael is hunting me down?" While Tessa knew that there was no arguing with Klaus while he was in this mood, she was going to give it her best effort.
"If you all worked together, there's a possibility that we could take Mikael down." Tessa insisted, squeezing the plastic door handle in her anger. The weak material gave way and she let go, the handle still retaining the indents of her fingers.
"No more talk of this. We are going to find werewolves." The cab fell into complete silence as Tessa thought about what to do.
Internally, she realized that this situation was a make or break. It would be all too easy to fall back into the pattern they had before, of her complete obedience to Klaus. Her opinion would never matter and she would be stuck following behind him, trying to clean messes up. Now there was another path, she could fight back. Tessa could demand that her opinion was heard instead of him overriding her.
"Pull over." She said through gritted teeth, her fingers had wrapped around the door handle again though with a different motive.
"Why would I do that?" His tone was light, and he glanced over to be met with her serious face. "What game are you playing?" Tessa met his eyes but didn't answer. "Answer me."
"I'm not going along if you won't work with me. What was the whole point of this? You wanted my help and now you won't even listen to me." Tessa spoke, doing her best to keep her tone even. Her temper was spiking again. A little voice in the back of her head told her that she hadn't fed in a while.
"I've made an executive decision Tessa. Respect that." His temper was quickly rising to meet hers.
"Why should I? You are not some god Niklaus, I am allowed to question you." The truck swerved as she spoke, a true testament to his anger.
"A god? I have never claimed to be. All I have expected from you is loyalty!" His voice was getting louder, ringing in the small cab.
"Blind loyalty! And the moment that someone goes against that, they wind up with a dagger in their chest. Your siblings live and die at your whim, how is that fair?" She should be controlling her volume. Fighting with Klaus never ended up well.
"I do that to protect our family, to keep them from harm." Somehow he had reigned in his voice, though there was still a tightness to it. Tessa decided to do the same.
"They are their own people Klaus, you need to let them make their own decisions. You can't always control everything!" She wanted Kol and Elijah back, she missed them. Hopefully, this opportunity would be the perfect push to get him to let them out.
"I will always do what is best." His jaw had set, hard blue eyes looking only forward. Tessa's teeth teased her lip as she decided what to do. This argument had been pointless. It was time for action. That little voice reminded her that only minutes ago she didn't want to start any fights, the one true disadvantage of being a vampire, all your heightened emotions. And so she yanked on the door handle, pushing out against the wind. They were going quite fast down the highway and the wind began to fill the cab. A hand gripped her shoulder, digging in painfully, but she gave it no attention. With a deep breath in, Tessa jumped out of the moving semi.
It took a few seconds to breathe through the pain and open her eyes. At this point, her one thousand years didn't matter, the lack of blood in her system was not doing any favors for her healing. The semi was still driving away from her and Tessa had no idea if Nik's temper would allow him to turn around. It didn't matter, she had made her point, even if it was somewhat aggressively. That tended to be the best way to communicate with him. There was a buzzing in her pocket and Tessa fished out her phone, eyebrows raising at the fact that it seemed to have sustained no damage. An unknown number was calling her and Tessa debated for a moment if she should answer. She didn't and instead let the number go to voicemail. The next step on the agenda was to brush herself off and find a car. Though Klaus might not have wanted to hide from Mikael, Tessa was determined to. The patriarch knew how much the vampire meant to the siblings and considering that she was the easiest to kill, she was a target. Her phone buzzed again, the same unknown number. With a huff, she answered.
"Hello?" Tessa asked, wondering who was on the other end.
"That was quite dramatic." It was Klaus and part of her wasn't surprised. She couldn't hear the thrum of the engine in the background and she figured he had pulled off at the nearest rest stop.
"You finally listened." And all it took was jumping out of a car. She shifted, trying to get comfortable and let out a small groan. She wasn't healing very fast.
"You haven't fed in a while." Tessa elected to not answer. Instead, she focused on watching for cars. "You aren't healing." None of this was a question so again, she didn't bother responding.
"Was there something you needed Niklaus?" She huffed, keeping her eyes on the road. She partially expected the semi to come zooming down the road.
"I merely wished to make sure that you weren't lying along the side of the road prostrate." He said, his voice remarkably even. Tess would even say that perhaps her little stunt had scared her. Even though Klaus knew that she was hard to break, he had never liked seeing her get hurt.
"As you can tell by our conversation, I'm not." She kept her answers short, not wanting to engage any more than she already had. She had a point to make dammit.
"Could we come to a compromise Tessa?" Klaus said after a long second, obviously the thought of compromising take a great deal out of him. Cars whipped by for a few seconds as she thought.
"What kind of compromise?" She was determined to give no room on this argument.
"We lay low and simply seek out the locations of possible wolf packs. That way when the threat of Mikael becomes more apparent, we can move quickly and create more hybrids." It wasn't a bad compromise, she thought, mulling it over in her head.
"Fine. You'll have to come to pick me up." As though her words had summoned them, a car gently pulled to a stop in front of her. Klaus rolled down the passenger window and stared at her from the driver's seat. "How convenient." She mumbled as she slid into the car.
"What can I say, love? You're predictable." Klaus wisely kept his mouth shut after seeing the look that she sent him.
"Just so you know, if you break this compromise, I'm gone." She met with a silence that she hoped meant that he understood.
Klaus finally spoke after remaining silent for several long minutes. "There is a human at the rest stop that you can feed on."
"I'm assuming that it is the owner of this car?" She was inspecting her nails, the pink nude was chipped and dirty.
"Correct," His fingers tapped along the steering wheel. "I was thinking that we head to Richmond. The city is large enough for us to disappear."
"There's no werewolf packs near us." Tessa countered, "And it's still close to Mystic Falls. If Mikael comes here-"
"You don't know that." His voice tightened with the flare of anger. She realized why he wanted to stay in Richmond.
"No. Farther away. This is not a discussion." The small car pulled into the parking lot of a rest station, the semi parked farther down. A man stood next to the truck and Tessa's fangs dropped, slicing a lip open. The scent of blood filled the car and Klaus glanced at her.
"Hungry?" He chuckled as the car door flung open and Tessa exited. The body dropped to the floor after a couple of seconds.
"Maybe." The blood smeared on her face, staining her sleeve.
"Where to now?" Klaus asked, leaning against the car. She looked at him.
"I say we go to the only place that we can really hide." There was a streak of red in her hair and Tessa grimaced. "New York City."
AN: well here you go