Elena held on tight to Hope when Klaus and Dahlia eventually made their way over, but she did her best to look casual, like she wasn't terrified the baby was going to be snatched up out of her arms by an evil witch. Come on, she thought, looking at Klaus. Whatever you have up your sleeve, now's the time.
What he had in mind, it turned out, was linking himself to Dahlia—and then Elena knew what to do.
"And I guess that means you want to link yourself to me?" she asked, sounding bored. "Fine."
Dahlia gave her an inquisitive look. "And why do I want to do that?"
Elena looked at her as though she were an idiot. "I'm reborn every five hundred years?" she said. "If—god forbid—something happened to Hope, she'd come back." She put her hand over Klaus's and tried not to grip too hard. Despite how horrified she was by him right now, this was a comfort still.
Seconds after the linking was complete, Klaus plunged the dagger into his heart, and he and Dahlia both collapsed onto the ground. Elena stayed upright.
It had been a risk, guessing at consequences when the magic was all tied together, but she'd been right. The magic was made to neutralize immortals; Elena wasn't one, so it didn't affect her.
Still clutching Hope, she launched herself over to the car, scrambling through the backseat until she found her phone. She heard a loud gasp behind her and spun around.
"Freya?" she asked. "Oh, wow. I forgot you were here."
"What happened?" asked Freya. "What are—" She caught sight of Dahlia and Klaus on the ground and paled.
"Klaus linked himself to Dahlia and then daggered himself," said Elena. "Hang on—"
She so desperately didn't want to do this, but she called Elijah.
"Elena," said Elijah when he answered the phone. He sounded shocked and furious at the same time.
"I'm somewhere in the middle of the bayou," Elena said. "A couple of hours north of you, near… Pearl River, I think. Get Katherine and get here. Hope is safe."
She and Freya waited for the next two hours, mostly in silence, until Elijah rolled along. The sight of him set Elena's stomach off; she was actually relieved at the sight of Katherine clambering out of the car.
"What just happened?" asked Katherine.
"It was all a plot, Klaus linked himself to Dahlia and then daggered himself to take her out for a bit," she replied.
"After cursing Hayley?" asked Katherine. Elijah shot her a look. "Excuse me for listening," she snapped at him, and then turned back to Elena. "He did curse her, right?"
"Yeah," said Elena. "He did."
A wave of nausea seemed to come over Elijah's face, and Elena knew she had to get out of there before he blew up and she blew up right back.
"We're taking the car," said Elena, gesturing to Katherine. "Come on, grab the baby and buckle her in."
Katherine did as she said, but frowned. "Why?"
"My question exactly," said Elijah, who at least seemed distracted from his impending rant.
Elena turned to them. "Dahlia is linked to us," she said, and it was so obvious to her and should have been to them. "We're linked to Klaus. If we leave the city- let alone the state- it'll hurt us like hell, which means it will hurt her like hell, which means it might weaken her."
"Ugh," said Katherine, making a face. "Just because your modus operandi is self-mutilation doesn't mean I'm game for a plan that relies on us "hurting like hell," thank you very much."
Elena raised her eyebrows. "Boo hoo," she said, and Katherine rolled her eyes at her. "It's just pain. Suck it up."
Elijah frowned, and stepped forward, concern clear on his face. Elena shot him a glare. "I don't want to hear it," she said. "Don't try to reach me unless you have news about Dahlia."
"If Klaus daggering himself rendered Dahlia unconscious," Elijah mused, ignoring her rebuke, "why are the two of you still awake?"
"It's a matter of power imbalance," said Freya. "Klaus and Dahlia are linked, and Elena and Dahlia are linked - and Katherine and Elena are linked - but Elena is bound to Klaus. The laws of their bond rely of physical space, not physical state, and the binding magic only works one way."
Katherine scowled. "Let's just go," she said, hopping into the passenger seat. Elena swung herself up into the driver's seat and shut the door. She wanted to slam it, but she didn't want to scare Hope.
Elijah's brow creased. "Are you certain that Hope is safest with you?" he asked.
Elena offered an insincere smile. "Safer than she would be with you," she replied, doing up her seat belt. She turned the key in the ignition, shifted into drive, and took off.
Katherine looked very put out. "Do you even know where you're going?" she asked. "This car doesn't exactly have GPS."
"I drove down back in the summer," said Elena. "If I can get onto a main road, I'll know the way."
"And you're going to find your way off of all these dirt roads how, exactly?" said Katherine.
Elena clenched her jaw. "I'll figure it out," she said.
She'd been in the bayou before, but only ever really at night. She tried to remember the way they'd driven in today, and the way she'd driven into the city - she'd definitely taken the I-10 in through the bayou when she'd come down, and it had definitely run parallel to the lake. She drove vaguely west, eyes peeled for anything familiar.
It took her about ten minutes, but she eventually found her way. Soon enough they were on the interstate, driving smoothly along, and that was when Elena noticed it.
"God," said Katherine, at the same time Elena thought it. "My head is killing me."
"Mine too," said Elena, and Katherine turned sharply to look at her. "Just… out of nowhere."
"I guess it's starting, then," said Katherine, and she looked at Hope over her shoulder. She rubbed her temples. "Ugh, it's like a… milder version an aneurysm."
"Okay, there's no way it's an actual aneurysm," Elena said, glancing over at Katherine. "We're not vampires. That would be ridiculously dangerous."
Katherine scoffed. "I'm not saying it is one, you idiot, I'm saying it feels like one."
Elena tried to smirk, but the headache was really getting to her, now, growing and growing, so she kept her focus on the road. "Too much for you?" she asked, tone light.
Katherine laughed without humour. "Please. I've gone way further into desiccation than you ever have. I'll be fine."
"Save it until we hit the state line," said Elena.
The highway pulled out of the bayou and over the lake, and they drove like that for about ten minutes. Traffic was pretty minimal; then again, it was seven in the morning during holiday season. The curse, bond, whatever it was hurt, for sure, but it wasn't incapacitating by any means. Usually, if she were stuck in a car with Katherine, she would have turned on the radio to fill the air, but she didn't think either of them would have appreciated music right then.
They drove along the highway, the pain growing, and Elena clenched her jaw as they turned right along the highway and through some sort of wildlife preservation area. "We're about twenty minutes from the state line, I think," she said to Katherine. "You ready?"
Katherine rolled her eyes.
When they crossed the state line, Elena felt light for a fleeting second; the headache was completely gone, and her mind felt nearly blank. She almost slowed down from the relief, but kept her foot firmly on the gas-
"Fuck!" said Katherine.
The pain was sharp and searing and immediate in her stomach, and Elena gasped. She lifted her foot from the gas on instinct, and then pressed back down right away, clenching her teeth. It was like period cramps on crack, like clawed hands were twisting and ripping apart her intestines. The pain was as sharp as a knife, and it came out of nowhere; she was fine, and then she was not. It was familiar, too, like some long-lost memory, something from when she'd been a child. It became tolerable after a minute; it still hurt like crazy, but it was no longer excruciating once the initial shock of it wore off.
"Why does this feel so familiar?" asked Elena, keeping her voice as steady as she could so as to not disturb the baby.
"It's like childbirth," said Katherine, after a moment. "Before the pushing part."
Elena frowned. "I didn't think labor was all that bad until the pushing part," she said.
Katherine shot her a dark look. "Mine was," she said. "We didn't exactly have epidurals in 1490."
. . .
It was dark by the time they finally stopped driving—Katherine spotted a motel that didn't look too sketchy, and Elena was more than ready to take a break from driving for longer than a five-minute gas station stop. They parked and got out of the car—at this distance from Klaus, Elena's whole body ached as though she'd been run over by a train—and she unbuckled Hope from the car seat. They'd stopped at a few gas stations along the way to change and feed her, and by now Hope was fast asleep. Elena held her carefully, and Katherine gave them an odd, guarded look. She stripped off her jacket and Elena did hers all the way up—they didn't even have to talk about it; they couldn't walk in wearing the exact same outfit.
The woman working the desk looked taken aback when she saw them walk in, but not shocked—it wasn't as though a regular human would see them and think anything but "twims."
"Hi," said Elena, smiling and walking forward—god, walking hurt. "We were hoping to get a room for the night?"
"Of course," said the woman. "Are you going to be staying in town?"
"No, just driving through," said Elena, looking down at Hope.
"Where're y'all headed?" asked the woman.
"Atlanta." Katherine and Elena spoke in unison, and Elena resisted the urge to look over at her—she hadn't even realized it, but, of course, she'd chosen Atlanta because Katherine had chosen Atlanta, in 1864, when she'd needed a backstory.
Something dark came over the woman's expression, and she looked down at Hope. "You aren't taking that baby away—"
"No!" said Elena, and laughed, and made it sound realistic. "God, no. We're going up to visit our parents. Nik's getting a flight up tomorrow, but he had a work thing he couldn't get out of."
"Alright," said the woman, looking a lot less suspicious. "What's her name?"
"Miranda," said Elena, and pressed a light kiss to Hope's cheek.
They ended up in a room with a queen bed and a crib—thank god they had a crib, Elena hadn't even thought about it (but she'd have to start thinking about it, at least until Hayley was—she felt ill from the very train of thought.) Hope was already sound asleep, and Elena flipped out the lights and crawled into the bed, Katherine right next to her.
"You can't honestly be planning on sleeping," Katherine said, and Elena shushed her, turning onto her side so she and Katherine were facing each other.
Katherine rolled her eyes. "If she didn't wake up in the lobby, she's not waking up now," she said, but at least it was in a whisper.
"I'm not planning on sleeping," said Elena. "But pacing around the room is just going to exhaust me even more. Besides, I don't think I could sleep right now."
Katherine, who was, of course, in just as much bodily pain as Elena, nodded in agreement.
"What's our game plan for tomorrow?" asked Elena.
Katherine sighed. "I don't know, Elena," she said, sounding like she was going for classic Katherine snark but wasn't at full energy at the moment. "I'm just along for the ride, remember?"
Elena closed her eyes for a moment. "Okay," she said. "Fine. Thank you for coming, Katherine. Happy?"
"Not even a little," replied Katherine, kicking her under the sheets. "But, I'm here now."
. . .
They got a call from Elijah at around ten in the morning. Elena shuddered when she saw caller ID, and Katherine snatched the phone and hit speaker.
"What is it, Elijah?" she asked.
"Katerina, I presume?" asked Elijah, the mildest hint of amusement in his voice, and Katherine rolled her eyes.
"Duh," she said.
"Are all of you—"
"I'm fine, Elena's fine, baby's fine, why are you calling?" said Katherine.
"It appears Dahlia's magic is allowing her to melt through the dagger," said Elijah. "Very slowly, of course—Freya thinks your distance is slowing her progress immensely, but progress is progress still."
"So you want us to go further away?" asked Katherine.
"On the contrary, I'd like for you to return," he said, and Katherine shot Elena a weird look. "Once Dahlia breaks through her slumber, she will be able to track Hope and therefore the two of you, and nobody will be there to protect you."
Elena looked at Katherine, and knew that the both of them were desperate to say 'I can protect myself,' but that they both knew that wasn't true, not now, not with Hope in the mix.
"We'll get on the road," said Katherine.
They stopped by the continental breakfast for coffee and pastries—well, one muffin for Elena, and four for Katherine—and Elena fed Hope (thankfully, the car they'd found Hope in had had a bottle,) and then they drove back down the way they'd come. They hit the labor pains again a few hours later, which weren't quite as bad the second time but were still pretty awful, and then the migraines, which were just terrible, and then they reentered the bayou. Elena stayed on the main road, wishing desperately that Hayley was around in human form and not as a wolf, feeling horribly guilty that she had Hayley's daughter in the car with her, but not letting herself even slow down.
"So," said Katherine, and Elena could tell from her voice that she wasn't going to be particularly nice. "You're going to be a mother, now."
"What?" asked Elena.
Katherine scoffed. "Come on, don't tell me that isn't exactly what you're thinking. Hayley's out of commission for god knows how long, maybe forever—"
"Don't say that," said Elena.
"—and you can't honestly think that Klaus doesn't fully expect you to take her place and be a perfect happy family with him."
Elena swallowed, because of course Katherine was right, and of course it was the last thing Elena wanted to think about.
"I'm not going to be Hope's mother," said Elena. "That's only ever going to be Hayley."
"Says the adopted child," said Katherine.
"Stop it," said Elena, through gritted teeth. "That's not the same and you know it."
"Are you excited to have a baby?" said Katherine. "You always wanted to be human again so you could have a family, right? Don't tell me you're not looking forward to it at least a little."
"Katherine, please, don't do this," said Elena. "Seriously—"
"Seriously," Katherine imitated. "Is that supposed to make me feel—"
"Katherine, I can tell you're jealous, and last time we fought over your jealousy I shoved the cure down your throat, so can we not do that again, please?"
Katherine paused for a moment. "You—"
"I know you," said Elena. "You think you had your baby ripped away from you and now I'm having one handed to me, and it's another example of something I stole from you, and all I do is steal, steal, steal your life like a folk story, and I get that you're upset but I seriously can't deal with this right now—"
"Pull over, Elena," said Katherine suddenly, voice sharp.
"What—"
"Just do it!"
Elena pulled over, putting the car in park. She turned to Katherine. "What—?"
"You need to calm down, or you're going to get us both killed," said Katherine. "Your hands are shaking like crazy."
"Oh," said Elena, and closed her eyes, taking deep breaths.
"Speaking of crazy, why the hell are you freaking the fuck out?" asked Katherine. "I thought you were at least—"
"You don't get it, do you?" asked Elena, and then ran her hands through her hair, resisting the urge to pull it out. "God, you never get it, you're so hell-bent on blaming me for taking everything from you that you never even want to consider the fact that maybe you wouldn't want it!"
Katherine almost snarled—if she'd still been a vampire, she would have shown her fangs. "I had my life stolen from me—"
"So did I!" Elena put her head down on the steering wheel and took a few, long breaths, and then sat back up. "Look, yes, of course I want to have a family someday. And yeah, of course I know that Klaus is going to expect me to step in as Hope's mom, and if you could just see past yourself for one second, maybe you'd understand that that's terrifying."
"Because you're 'not ready'?" asked Katherine.
"Because Klaus is terrifying," said Elena, and Katherine blinked.
"Is that so?" asked Katherine. "I thought you two were past that," she said, and used air quotes for emphasis. "I thought you were so in love—"
"He's still Klaus!" said Elena. "He still killed me, and Jenna, and so many people—you think I've forgotten what he did to your family? You think I'm not fully aware of who he is, now that he's just turned the mother of his child into a wolf? Guess what that means for me, Katherine—I get to be the one on watch for betraying him. And if I want to leave, I can't, because now I'm responsible for a baby, and if I wanted to take the baby and leave, I can't, because I am all too aware of what happens to the people who betray Klaus, especially when those people are doppelgangers, so—"
"You want to leave Klaus?" said Katherine.
Elena stopped in the middle of her sentence. "No," she said, and then: "Yes? No, I don't—I don't know what I want—I don't want to leave—I just, I want to have a choice, I don't want to be trapped and I don't want to be scared and I don't want every choice I make to have to keep in mind that I'm now responsible for a baby I didn't ask for." She swallowed, and it hurt. "And I feel guilty as hell because Hope is perfect, and she doesn't have a mom, and of course I'm gonna take care of her but I don't want to have to—"
She sat back in her seat, breathing deeply. "I need to get driving again," she said, "and this isn't helping." She shifted back into drive, and pushed down on the gas.
A few minutes after they'd gotten back on the road, Katherine started to speak.
"I thought Klaus was going to marry me when I was younger," she said, and Elena almost took her eyes off the road to look at her in shock. "A lot younger," Katherine admitted. "When I first went to England, he was courting me. I thought we were going to be married. I thought I was going to have his children. I thought maybe, if I were married to a rich English nobleman, I could go back to Bulgaria and find—" Katherine paused for a moment, then took a deep breath and kept going. "And then he wanted to sacrifice me, and he murdered my whole family and hunted me down, and I didn't see Nadia until five hundred years later, when I was the last person she'd want me to meet, and then she died, and then I died, and then I come back and guess what I find."
"I'm sorry," said Elena.
"I thought the man who fathered Nadia loved me, but he ditched me as soon as things got tough," said Katherine. "I thought Klaus loved me, but he just wanted to drain me of my blood like a pretty little tool. I thought Elijah loved me, but he hunted me down for centuries even after he decided to side against Klaus, just to punish me for running from him. I thought Stefan and Damon loved me, but… well, you can see the pattern."
They drove in silence for a minute, listening to Hope's steady breathing, and Elena tried to imagine Katherine getting up and seeing Elena with a baby and Elena with Klaus and Katherine, who'd fought and fought and lost everything, seeing Elena, who she figured never fought and somehow got everything.
It wasn't true, of course, but Elena could imagine it still.
"I'm going to make Klaus buy you an apartment," said Elena.
"What?" said Katherine.
"You shouldn't be living under his roof," said Elena. "When all this is over, you can go find an apartment you want to live in and I'll convince Klaus to pay for it. You can't leave the city, but at least you can leave."
Katherine didn't say another word the whole ride down.
. . .
When they walked into the house, Freya was kneeling over Klaus's body, stake in hand, and Elena lost it.
"Stop!" she cried out. Katherine took the baby from her in one swift motion and Elena ran over, falling to her knees at his side. "Freya, you can't do this, please." She looked past Hope and saw Marcel struggling, and then she reached out to grab Freya's wrist and was thrown back. "Freya, you don't have to do this, please," she said. "There's another way, you don't have to—"
Klaus's hand shot up to stop Freya, and he pushed himself to his feet.
He looked over to Elena and Katherine. "Put Hope upstairs," he said, and they ran up, just before they heard Dahlia coming to.
They were only upstairs a few moments when something started to rustle—vines were growing out of the floorboards.
"What the hell?" said Katherine.
"It's Dahlia," said Elena, and then a vine wrapped around her waist and held her in place. "She wants—"
A vine pricked Hope's hand, drawing blood, and then everything stopped. A second later, Klaus was there.
"I'm sorry," said Katherine, which was so unexpected Elena almost forgot to be scared. She handed Hope over to Klaus. "I didn't—"
"There was nothing either of you could have done," said Klaus. "Unfortunately, I have no idea where that vile harpy has fled to."
. . .
After Klaus dropped Hope off with Cami, Elena and Katherine followed him into the dining room, and froze.
"Ah, mother," said Klaus. "I've arrived just in time for another of your deaths."
Esther was sitting there, in her original body—wearing red lipstick, for some reason—and smiling serenely.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" asked Elena, and all the eyes in the room turned to her. "Seriously? Seriously?"
"Elena," said Esther, still looking perfectly pleasant. Her eyes travelled over a few inches. "Katerina, I presume, though I don't believe I've ever had the pleasure."
Katherine stepped back, angling herself slightly behind Klaus, though Elena didn't think it was conscious on her part.
Elijah was there, of course. He met Elena's eyes and she looked away.
"That's new," remarked Esther, because Esther was the worst.
Elena took a seat just as Elijah said, "You're in excellent spirits," practically growling. Esther looked over at her.
"You despise me so deeply, Elena," said Esther, "and all I've ever done was wish to free the world of the monsters I created."
"All you've ever done was ruin every doppelganger's life from now until eternity," said Elena. "And murder Tatia."
Esther smiled. "Surely you've heard that it was Elijah's doing?"
"I have Tatia's memories of that night," said Elena. "I remember her dying, and it was your blade that killed her, so don't try that on me. And I'm not finished, either. All you ever did was sell away two of your children—"
"Two?" said Esther.
"Freya to Dahlia and Klaus to Mikael," said Elena. "So look, I'm sorry if you feel like you haven't done anything wrong, but from my perspective, all you do is ruin life after life after life."
"You think your life is ruined, then?" asked Esther. "From what I know of you and my son, I'd say the opposite."
"Your son killed me when I was seventeen," said Elena. "Because of you. Every parent I've ever had is dead, and most of them because of him, because of you. I'm twenty years old and I live with monsters and killers, and I have been both of those things, because of you. If you hadn't killed Tatia a thousand years ago, both Katherine and I could have had actual lives and loves and freedom. We'd both have had families. We'd have had a shot at being actually happy. But go ahead and tell me I'm beingoverdramatic."
. . .
Elijah had told her not to follow them when they went to meet Dahlia, to which Elena had replied "oh, are you going to compel me, then?", which had made Klaus laugh hard enough that he couldn't then turn around and tell her not to come, so there she was, following the Mikaelsons and their mother along to the location Marcel had found through Davina. Elena didn't want to think about what Davina would have to say to her; she felt horrible, once Rebekah had explained how they'd gotten Esther back, and if she hadn't been too afraid of setting Klaus off she would have made a bigger scene of it. Katherine was at her side, which was sort of strange, seeing as Elena thought she'd feel safest next to Elijah, but then Klaus was furious at Elijah and not at Elena and there was no way Katherine wouldn't be thinking about that very fact.
Right before they arrived, Klaus turned around. "You two," he said, and Elena realized that she and Katherine were still wearing the same clothes, and that there was a fair chance Klaus didn't remember who was who—and then she realized that out of everyone here, Katherine was the person Klaus was the least angry with, barring Elena herself.
(Klaus was off the rails, and Elena was the only person in his life he wasn't angry with—that felt like a hell of a lot of pressure.)
"Stay out of sight," he said. "If Dahlia sees you, she could use you against me, and we can't have that." He was looking directly at her as he spoke—he did know which one she was, then. That was nice.
She stayed just out of sight with Katherine, resisting the urge to dash forward when she saw Freya on her knees—Katherine could clearly tell, because she yanked back on Elena's arm—she stayed out of sight when Dahlia pulled out the stake, when she did god-knows-what with it and it appeared to evaporate into lightning—and then all of a sudden, Klaus was coughing and Rebekah was falling over and Elijah was already on the ground and she knew, she just knew, she was using the stake to kill all of them, they were breathing the white oak—
–Klaus couldn't die. Not only could she not let Klaus die, but Stefan, Caroline, Damon, Josh, Aiden, now, Marcel—she couldn't think about it. She had to look for solutions, for something to do—
Freya was the only Mikaelson not dying, but Freya was trapped in Dahlia's circle—and there had to be some sort of boundary spell on it— if the circle could be broken, Freya might be able to do… something.
This would work so much better if Katherine were to catch on, but Elena coludn't count on that.
She ran to Klaus's side and fell to her knees, bringing her palm up to his lips. Klaus started to shake his head—of course him drinking her blood wouldn't stop the white oak, she wasn't an idiot—so she brought her hand closer.
"Trust me," she whispered, low as she could.
Klaus looked at her for a moment, and then bit her palm, hard.
Blood rushed up through the wound; it was deep, but that was exactly what Elena needed. She dared a glance over at Dahlia, whose attention was all on Esther (who Elena refused to even look at), and Elena crawled over to the circle and slammed her hand down on it.
She met Freya's eyes, which looked frantic, and Freya started mouthing a string of words Elena could not make out. Elena squeezed her hand, trying to make more blood gush out, but it was useless if Freya couldn't finish the spell before Dahlia noticed—and Dahlia would notice any second.
A bloody hand hit the circle to her right, and Elena looked over to see Katherine kneeling next to her.
The circle broke seconds later, and Freya gasped, and Elena and Katherine were thrown back by the force of the magic. Dahlia's head snapped towards them, but then Esther moved, suddenly, and it took Elena a moment to realize that Esther was wrapping her chains around Dahlia's neck. Freya thrust her arm forward, and Elena felt Klaus's hand—his smooth, not-at-all desiccated hand—grab her own.
He was going to live. They were all going to live.
"Elijah," Esther whispered, and Elena looked over to see Elijah grab the knife. There was blood trickling down his chin; it had to be Katherine's. Elijah tossed the blade in the air and Klaus caught it with the hand that wasn't holding hers. He rushed forward, and then that was it. It was over.
She rose to her feet, and nearly fell, due to the exhaustion or the continual blood loss or both. Elijah grabbed her at the elbow, and Elena was too tired to snatch her arm away but not too tired to push herself off of Elijah and stumble into Rebekah, who let Elena lean against her and gave her a little blood. By the time Klaus had stepped back to where they were standing, she felt fine.
"I guess we're officially orphans," said Klaus, and Elena, who had spent the last five years being orphaned in every way imaginable, almost laughed at the relief in his voice.