AN: Ugh, this chapter messed me up. Writing is masochistic.

The first thing he saw when he woke was Hayley.

"Hey," she whispered softly, shaking the dagger at him, "welcome back."

They were at the plantation house, in his room. It was dark, very dark. The only light was streaming in from the hallway through the open door.

"Hayley?" Elijah stuttered, his mind slowly clearing from its forced slumber. "What day is it?"

"It's the same day but…it's late. Klaus had you out for nearly 24 hours."

He blinked, pulling himself into a sitting position, groaning at the stiffness in his limbs.

Hayley set a hand on his shoulder, easing him back into the pillows.

"Hey, take it easy."

She dropped the dagger on the side table, using both hands to pull Elijah's jacket off, trying to make him as comfortable as possible before his memories came flooding back and he became a juggernaut of raw emotion.

She waited a moment, patiently in silence, until he remembered.

He did remember, vividly.

Leah.

"Where is she, where is she, Hayley?"

She placed a hand on his chest, forcing him back down onto the bed.

"Elijah, please, calm down, Klaus is right under us."

His thoughts were getting tangled before they could be spoken; his longing for Leah was clashing with the fury his brother's name enflamed within him.

"He daggered me rather than face me, the coward."

She kept a hand firmly on his chest, forcing him to look at her.

"I'm not disagreeing with you, Elijah, but now is not the time to go after Klaus."

That's right, she was right, there were more important things.

Leah.

He repeated his words while his mind repeated the scene from the cemetery.

"Where is she, Hayley?"

"She's downstairs. We have her on the couch."

"You bought her back?"

You bought her body back.

"Of course," Hayley breathed, offended. "And before you ask, I did it myself, without the compulsion of the sire bond. I wasn't going to leave her body in that cemetery."

She took his hand, turning it upright.

"Open your hand, Elijah, I'm giving this back to you."

She dropped Leah's bracelet into his open palm.

He ran his thumb over the silver braid, the dull black stone.

"Who took it off her?" Elijah growled, his eyes still on the sterling bangle.

Hayley proceeded carefully.

"Klaus did. He said…he said she wouldn't need it anymore. He's…he's very angry right now. In fact, he doesn't know I removed the dagger. I think he had plans to keep it in you for…a while."

As she expected, Elijah lurched out of bed to go after his brother; the bracelet fell abandoned on the wooden floor in his haste. Hayley flashed, beating him to the door, pinning him to the wall with her hybrid strength with an arm across the chest.

"Listen, Elijah, I know you are angry, and I know you are hurting, and you deserve to beat up Klaus…he's been a massive dick, sure, but not now, Elijah. There is a time for everything, and right now, Hope is down there, and she is grieving, and Klaus is her father, so for her sake, leave Klaus alone."

Elijah was giving Hayley a look that no mere mortal would have survived.

"For her sake, Hayley? I doubt my brother was even considering Hope when he let that witch-when he-"

"Elijah, listen to me."

"Get out of my way, Hayley."

"Elijah, there's something you need to know—"

He wrestled her arm from his chest, but she was now blocking the door. Frustrated beyond belief, Elijah loosened his tie, yanking it off and tossing it haphazardly on the floor beside the forgotten bracelet.

"Hayley, move."

Pushing her aside, he was halfway out the door before she stopped him in his tracks.

"Elijah, I un-daggered you because Leah asked for you."

He had to grab on to the doorframe to steady himself; his legs had nearly given out at her words.

"Hayley, what do you mean she asked for me? Leah is—"

Leah is…

He couldn't say the words, but he didn't have to; Hayley knew what he meant and was eager to prove him wrong.

"Not exactly—Elijah, Leah's downstairs…she had Hope's blood in her system when she died."

/

The clock in the kitchen was counting down the minutes 'til midnight when Elijah entered the front room.

The good news: Leah was indeed alive.

She appeared to be nodding off, her pale face resting on her praying hands, her ruined coat balled up under her like a pillow.

She was looking right at him, but he wasn't sure she saw.

"Leah…"

Was she still dreaming? She couldn't tell.

"Leah. Leah."

She raised her head sleepily, though it felt heavy and stiff. Her eyes didn't seem to want to open any wider.

He was out of her dream and standing before her.

"Elijah?"

Yes, this was better than a dream.

"Elijah!"

He didn't ask questions: not how, not when, not why, not now.

Crossing the room in eager, desperate strides, Elijah threw himself on the sofa, scooped Leah up in his arms, and began to plant kisses from her hair to her hand.

"Elijah, you're smothering me," she giggled through dewed eyes.

"I'm not letting you go, ever, I'm not letting you go."

"They wouldn't tell me where you were," she said, her voice wavering.

"I'm right here, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

"I was so scared," she finally broke, snaking her arms through his.

They clung to each other for what seemed like hours until the clock in the hall struck five minutes 'til.

"Hmm, Elijah, where were you? Earlier? I woke up and you weren't here."

He was still buried in the side of her neck.

"I was detained, I am sorry, I would never have left you if it had been up to me."

"It was Klaus, wasn't it? He did something to you, what?"

He tried to silence her concern in an avalanche of kisses.

"Let's not speak of my brother right now."

Leah turned her face from him so that his kiss fell on her cheek instead.

"Elijah, Klaus is really mad; him and Hope's mom got in a huge fight earlier, right over there in the kitchen."

"Oh, really?" he asked lazily, breathing on the back of her ear. He really didn't give a damn about his brother; he just wanted to hear the sound of her voice.

"A fight? About what?"

She coughed. He tensed.

"Leah, are you okay?"

She waved him off, untangling herself from him.

"Yeah, yeah, just a side effect of having your throat slit open, nothing to worry about."

He shuddered at her humor; he didn't think it was funny.

You're too serious, he remembered she once told him.

He ran a finger across the flawless skin of her cheek, down her neck and across her pale collarbone.

"I can't believe you're here. Tell me—"

"How? It's kind of a funny story: Last night, before…the thing happened…I was halfway through turning into a wolf in my hall shower when Hope found me. Sometime during that fun adventure I bit her—"

"You bit Hope?"

She slapped him playfully on the arm then used her hand to stifle another cough.

"Don't say it like that, you make it sound weirder than it was. Yeah, I bit her and so her special magic blood was in my system when…"

"I understand," he hushed her, stroking her cheek. "I'm glad there's still a little luck in the world."

"I don't know if you should call it luck. You know I've been thinking…a lot in the last four hours…about everything, but one theory that might not actually be so crazy? I'm starting to think it was Hope who healed my arm all those months ago."

"Where's Hope now, I thought she would be here with you," he asked.

Something crashed in the room across the hall and he had his answer.

"That's probably the third vase in two hours. Hope and her dad have been going at it forever, all night. I'm pretty sure she hurled the coffee table at the piano just before you arrived."

"Truth be told, I had planned to smash that piano over my brother's head anyway; I thought you were gone and I wasn't going to let him slither away from this one. I'm sorry…I'm still in shock honestly, I can't believe you are…okay."

Okay was far from fine but they could work on it; they had the time.

He tangled his hand through her hair, determined to memorize the feel of every strand.

She grabbed his hand, pulling it away and enclosing it in her own. Her bright face grew grim, her eyes looked tired.

"Actually, I've hit of a bit of a snag."

She coughed again into both hands. When she pulled her hands away, they were red with blood.

Elijah grabbed her by the wrist, staring at her splattered palm in horror.

"Leah, what's wrong, what are you not telling me?"

The clock in the kitchen was counting down the minutes 'til midnight when Leah started to fade away fast.

And now the bad news.

The bad news was Leah was dying. Again.

Elijah did not take the news well. Leah hadn't realized there was any more furniture left in this house to be destroyed, but there went the armchair and the side table and the strange twisted glass sculpture that she actually kinda liked.

"This can't be true, tell me it again, Leah."

Leah had to stifle a fit of coughing before she could answer him.

"Stop throwing things and maybe I will. If Klaus won't let Hope give me her blood, then I don't think there's a force on earth that can change that, trust me, she's been arguing with him for hours trying to get him to change his mind. Elijah, her blood is the only thing that will complete the transition, but Klaus said no, so please don't push him, don't beg him, please, you said he's already daggered you once tonight, please don't provoke him, Elijah."

Wiping a hand across his exhausted face, Elijah paced before her couch.

"Am I just supposed to let you die?"

"Yep, and it wouldn't be the first time."

She was joking. How was she joking at a time like this? What was so funny?

He didn't find this even remotely funny.

"Leah, you need to complete the transition, it's already nearly been 24 hours."

"Trust me," she coughed again, already nodding off, "I know."

She was too tied to really argue, what was the point anyway? She was just glad he was here, if it had to end like this. She just wished Hope could get free in time to say goodbye.

She also wanted to tell her which photo to use at her funeral.

Elijah took a second to listen in on the argument still raging on behind the locked doors to the study.

"So, is that what my brother has been up to? Locking Hope away in the office, keeping her from you? I swear, I am going to—"

Elijah made a violent movement toward the hall.

Leah laid her head back down on her makeshift pillow, pleading with him from beneath heavy eyelids.

"Elijah, just leave Klaus and stay with me. Please?"

/

By the time Hope broke away from Klaus it was past midnight; at last she had been forced to nearly knock out her father with the leg to Elijah's fancy writing desk in order to escape the study.

He was stilling yelling at her as she stormed across the hall.

She found them in the front room; Elijah on the couch, Leah asleep across his lap, curled in the nook of his arm.

Sprinting over to Leah, Hope touched her face; she was cool to the touch.

"Is she asleep, Elijah? Am I too late?"

Elijah was silent as the grave; adults could be so useless sometimes.

"Leah, Leah, can you hear me?"

"I am so sorry, Hope," Elijah's voice broke. "I am so sorry."

"No," Hope shook her head, refusing to hear his words. "No, don't apologize, not yet, I can fix this. I can fix her."

"You can't fix her," came Klaus' smug voice from the doorway. "What would you do, Hope, turn your best friend into a hybrid so she could hate you for the rest of time?"

"Shut up, dad."

"And I assume I have Hayley to thank for waking you up, Elijah, I had hoped you'd stay under until this all blew over."

"Dad, shut up."

"Well, it's past midnight and she has yet to complete her transition—let sleeping dogs lie, shall we?"

"SHUT UP, KLAUS, JUST SHUT UP."

That actually did shut him up.

That had an effect.

That hurt.

Klaus.

Hope had called him 'Klaus' with all the confidence of a child grown up. His daughter had never called him anything but dad before - my dad, hey dad, stop dad, stop – she had called him dad bitterly and angrily and furiously before, but that was all still familiar, never something so icy, so distant, so cruel as…just…Klaus.

Klaus made to say something, but he wasn't sure if it was an apology that was stuck in his throat.

It was so silent; they could all hear the clock above the fridge, tick tock.

Scurrying to her feet, Hope raced into the kitchen, returning with a knife.

Klaus took a step to stop her.

"Hope…what are you doing?"

Hope turned the knife in her father's direction before kneeling beside Leah and slicing her wrist. Before the blood could even slip down her arm, Hope shoved her wrist into Leah's mouth, forcing it down her throat.

"Come on, Leah. Come on, work, god dammit."

Elijah pulled Hope's wet curls away from her tear-soaked face, gently shaking his head.

Hayley had been hiding out in the night, from many things, she would have to admit to herself eventually. Now, lured back into the house by the sound of Hope's voice, she finally joined them, coming to stand by Klaus.

Klaus tried to smooth it over with his daughter.

"Hope, I'm…I'm sorry. This is not how I planned it to turn out."

Still kneeling before the couch, Hope turned on her parents.

"How did you expect this to turn out? Tell me! All I wanted was a friend. Someone I could bring home and do normal college stuff with, why was that so hard for you to accept? Don't look away, mom, this is your fault as well. You don't like Leah, fine, that's fine, but you didn't have to be so mean, and rude, and push her away, just because she reminds you of someone who's been dead for years – years, mom - and that's not an excuse and that doesn't justify all the crap you put Leah through. You said it yourself: shit happens and then you move on. So move on mom, and move on dad, and both of you: get over yourselves because Leah didn't choose who her mother was. She didn't choose who her father was. No one has a choice but we do the best with the family we are given. No child, no one, should ever have to pay for the sins of their parents…I should know."

Ignoring the shocked expressions on her parents' faces, Hope pushed off the floor, getting to her feet. Shoving her way past Klaus and Hayley, she dropped the knife on the kitchen island before storming out through the open patio doors.

Hayley swung around to face Klaus, sighing.

"Well, we fucked up."

"An unhelpful observation, Hayley."

Resigned and defeated, Elijah gently laid Leah back down on the couch, arranging her hair around her face and her hands upon her cold chest.

"Elijah, we're sorry," Hayley tried, speaking to his turned back.

When he didn't respond, she pulled something from her pocket, forcing it into Klaus' hand.

"Give it to him, go."

Klaus took a cautious step toward the couch, clutching the bracelet in his hand.

"Elijah."

Silence.

He hadn't expected anything else really.

"Elijah, this is hers, you should give it to her."

He placed a comforting hand on his brother's shoulder, which tensed under his touch.

"Elijah, I am trying to fix this."

With a final stroke of her cheek, Elijah at last turned from Leah to give his brother an answer.

"Fuck you, Niklaus."

He was gone before Klaus or Hayley could even react.