Hello, my lovely readers. This is the final chapter of this fic. Please, check the end note for when "Something to Rely on." On with the show…
Chapter 22: Do You Know What Happened?
Caroline
Ice. Did the weatherman just say they were about to be hit with a freak ice storm? In New Orleans? Thank you, Global Warming! Caroline could not believe her eyes as she curled up in bed. The comforter was up to her chin. She pondered the wrongness of having a TV in the bedroom during the first year of marriage but she liked to watch movies. Klaus slept like a rock beside her. Caroline's head turned and she glanced warily at the closed curtains. Easing off the side of the bed, she made her way to the window and eased the curtain back to peer at the dark, gloomy sky. Maybe they would get lucky. Maybe it would pass…
"Caroline, turn the TV off," Klaus grumbled.
Not asleep. "Sorry, honey," Caroline went over to climb back into the bed. She curled into Klaus' side. Her drooping eyelids closed and she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, and forgot all about the storm to come.
~0~
"Forbes. Mikaelson," Bonnie called out. She had her hands on her hips as Caroline came to a stop in the lobby of the hospital. "The news is forecasting a storm with ice. They could be wrong but we need to make sure that we're prepared. I want you two in trauma today. I'll be on the floor, too. In case things become too hectic. Dr. Mikael Mikaelson is coming down. You might even get the opportunity to see the great man in action." Bonnie's words were directed at Caroline.
Caroline felt a smile on her face. She'd never been able to watch Mikael work on a patient. Since she appeared here, he'd always been too busy with admin work. This might be the day to see their boss's boss perform a miracle.
Klaus came down the stairs with Marcel. "What are you two doing down here?" Rebekah quipped. "Thought you'd be busy with your scheduled procedures." Her words were definitely meant for Marcel.
Marcel's brows went up. "Sorry to disappoint, Bekah. Thought I'd come down here. It's all hands on deck."
"Right," Rebekah rolled her eyes. "Whatever."
Klaus moved to stand beside Caroline. "Are you looking forward to the night to come?" He asked. His eyes were glowing.
"You seem to be," Caroline retorted with a smile.
Klaus shrugged. "Haven't seen a storm like the one they're telling us we might have before. It might be a lesson for all of us."
Before Caroline could reply, Hayley came in through the front doors. She did not look very well. Her eyes were red-rimmed and she was sporting dark circles. "Where have you been?" Bonnie called. "Your shift started half an hour ago."
"We're going to have a storm. Traffic is crazy," Hayley replied.
"Uh-huh." Bonnie shook her head. "Get out of my sight and get dressed. We don't know when this storm is hitting. Dr. Mikaelson is coming down soon."
"Dr. Mikaelson?" Hayley choked out. Her eyes went wide and she looked like she might start crying.
"Mikael," Klaus added. His expression matched Caroline's puzzlement. What had happened that Hayley was acting like this? She should be dancing through the lobby. Unless… No…
"Excuse me. Dr. Bennett. I left something in the on-call room. Be back in a minute," Caroline called. She had already turned and headed away from the others.
Bonnie called after Caroline, "You'd better get back here before patients start flooding in here. I swear it's like they never moved past the intern year." Her words became muffled as Caroline moved further and further away.
Heading for the on-calls rooms, Caroline caught sight of Hayley ducking into one and ran for it. Caroline barely made it before Hayley started to close it. Wedging her foot in the door, Caroline pushed it open and Hayley took several steps backward. "Caroline, what the hell are you doing?" Hayley demanded.
"Where is it?" Caroline demanded, closing the door behind her.
"Where is what?" Hayley demanded. Her voice came out as a half-growl of warning. Her eyes were dark and Caroline would usually back off when Hayley was in this kind of mood but Elijah was now Caroline's brother-in-law. They were family. Family looked out for each other.
"The ring! Where is the ring! I know Elijah planned on proposing!" Caroline cried out in exasperation. "Don't tell me you two went through all of this drama the past year and then you told him "No!" Caroline shook her head. "That would be just too cruel!"
Hayley turned her back on Caroline. "It's not your business, Caroline." She tore her shirt off and then began to undo her pants. "Can you, please, just go away and let me undress in privacy?"
"Like I haven't seen it all before!" Caroline snapped, going to lean against a locker. "What happened? I thought you were going to live happily-ever-after! We were going to be family, too." She watched Hayley's head shake. "Is this about your mom?"
"What?" Hayley let out a shocked laugh. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Maybe you're worried about the whole ''til death do you part' thing? You think that death might come earlier. Rather than after you've had babies and gotten old. And lived a long, happy life together." Caroline watched Hayley still. "Death can happen any day of the week. One of us could die tonight. But being happy. Being happy doesn't come around that often. You need to grab it and hold onto it when you can." Pushing away from the lockers with her foot, Caroline shrugged. "That's just my thoughts."
Walking to the door, Caroline paused. "For what it's worth: I think Elijah would make you happy, Hayley. If that's what you want." She patted the edge of the door and then left the room.
~0~
Standing in the lobby, Caroline cupped her elbows. Josh stood to her left. Hayley to her right. The storm had not arrived. However, Caroline had begun to have an uneasy feeling. And since Elijah had not shown up yet. It just got worse.
Rebekah
"I really don't need help finding bandages, Marcel," Rebekah snapped as she stalked down the hall and toward the supply closet. She'd volunteered for this superfluous duty to avoid breathing the same air as Marcel.
"You can't avoid me forever, Bekah," Marcel replied as Rebekah opened the supply closet door and let it fly in his face. By the sound of his voice, she could tell he'd caught the door in time and had come to join her inside the small space.
"Go away, Gerard!" Rebekah snarled, turning to glare at him.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you! How is that intern you've been hooking up with? Huh? Is it Oliver? Or that Lucien guy?" Marcel retorted, leaning against the closed door.
Scoffing, Rebekah went to grab bandages off the shelves. "You don't know a blasted thing about what I've been up to!" she snapped, rolling her eyes.
"Then why don't you tell me?" Marcel demanded.
Rebekah kept her eyes on the shelf in front of her. "If I spent time with either of those fools is was to stop feeling so horrid about the fool who left me." Her words came out softer than she'd intended for them to. When she turned she found Marcel right behind her.
"Bekah… I thought you wanted me gone." Marcel's hands went to her cheeks, cupping her face.
Rebekah had almost forgotten how dark his eyes were. Forgotten how lost she could become within their depths. "Marcel, we have work to do. Lives to save. Heroics to perform."
"Storm's not here. Yet," Marcel said. "Maybe this is our last day on earth."
"Don't be stupid and sentimental," Rebekah murmured. Her eyes went to his lips. Her hands rose and then clapped them to the back of his neck, directing his lips to hers.
"Bekah," Marcel groaned, pulling back.
"Stop. Talking," Rebekah cried. She felt her heart open and her legs as she hopped into the air, throwing her legs around Marcel's waist. His fingers went to the drawstring of her scrub pants. Her own fingers took hold of his shirt and she unbuttoned it as quickly as possible, covering his kiss with fiery kisses.
When they came together, Rebekah cried out, her nails digging into the skin of Marcel's back as the shelf behind them banged against the wall and she cried out.
~0~
"Looks like the storm's already here," Marcel said. He was slipping his belt back into place as Rebekah wound her hair into a bun at the back of her head.
"I said: Stop talking," Rebekah retorted, adjusting her scrub top.
Marcel grinned and closed the space between them. He pressed his lips to hers. "I promise I won't talk when you come home with me."
Rolling her eyes, Rebekah shook her head. "Let's just make sure we survive tonight, shall we?" She pressed another, quick kiss to Marcel's lips. "I'm going out first. You can follow me if you'd like."
Marcel continued to grin. "I'd follow you to the ends of the earth, Rebekah Mikaelson."
"Such a charmer." Rebekah rolled her eyes and pushed the door open.
The moment they were in the hallway, Rebekah knew the storm had officially begun. "Come on, people, move!" someone at the end of the hall could be heard shouting.
Rebekah turned to give Marcel a wary look. He nodded and together they moved down the hallway with the bandages. Not quite at the end of the hall, Rebekah could already hear cries of pain and screams of people in pain.
Now, Rebekah found herself running and dodging other staff to get to the lobby. Bonnie was standing near the desk. "Alright, people, remember to use the color code." Rebekah knew what that meant. They had to tag patients, making other docs and nurses aware of who the most seriously wounded were versus the dead versus those with scrapes, and other minor injuries.
Rebekah went by the patient with a green card in her hand. "Doctor," the woman called weakly. "I have a headache. Can I get some Tylenol?"
"Yes." Rebekah replied. "Let me just see if I can find a nurse." She spotted Genevieve at the same time that her Father spotted Rebekah.
"Bekah, I need assistance," Mikael shouted. His patient began to spurt blood and Rebekah turned to the woman on the chair. "I will send a nurse your way as soon I can."
"Okay." The woman offered Rebekah a wan smile. Some part of Rebekah's brain lit up but then her Father's shouting at her awoke the instinct to please her father and Rebekah ran over to stop the man on the gurney from bleeding out. Marcel had already jumped in, too.
~0~
An hour later, Rebekah sat on top of the gurney, doing chest compressions on a young mother who had not made it through the front doors.
"My mommy! You need to help my mommy!" a little girl of four had caught Rebekah's attention.
"Oh, shit!" Rebekah cried. It was the same woman she'd left in the lobby who had asked for Tylenol. "Shit. Bloody. Bloody shit!" Rebekah groaned as the gurney was wheeled along the hallway. "This woman asked me for a pain med. She said she had a headache. She had a green card for pity's sake!"
"Help her off!" Klaus cried. "Hayley! Over here!" Hayley came to join them. "Where is Elijah?" he demanded. "We need our brain surgeon."
Hayley shook her head. "I don't know. He should be here."
"You think?" Klaus snapped, rolling his eyes.
Something was going on and Rebekah did not know what. "Hayley can do it."
"What?" Klaus and Hayley cried out. They looked at Rebekah like she'd just lost her mind.
"We do a scan. Find out what the issue is. Hayley will open her up. She's seen Elijah do it a hundred times. With any luck, he'll show before she ever makes the first incision," Rebekah said.
"No! I can't!" Hayley shook her head. "I'll kill her!"
"We're in the middle of a bloody ice storm, Hayley! You are a resident! It's time to shine!" Rebekah retorted.
Hayley continued to shake her head. "We need Elijah." She pulled out her phone. "I'm going to the lobby to call him."
Rebekah rolled her eyes and looked at Klaus. "At this rate we might as well call 'Time of death.'" Then she spotted the woman's little girl. "Screw it. Someone page: Freya Mikaelson!" She shouted. Someone was going to save this woman's life if Elijah did not show the bloody hell up and Hayley was too much of a chicken to do it.
Hayley
"I can't do it," Hayley stood in the scrub room adjacent to the OR. "I can't. I'm not ready." Her hands were trembling.
"You can do this, Hayley," Rebekah kept saying.
Freya leaned against the sinks, her back was turned to the window of the OR. "This type of surgery is beyond my expertise. Hayley, you've spent countless hours studying Elijah's techniques. And you will have plenty of company in the OR." She offered Hayley a kind smile which Hayley attempted to return. She wished her mother could come down to give her a pep talk, or a lecture, or something. Where the hell was Elijah?
"Okay." Hayley inhaled sharply. "I can do this." She nodded. Trying to free herself of all of her anxiety, she grabbed a bar of soap and turned on the sink in front of her. The combination of hot water and dragging the soap over her skin reminded her of the reality of this moment. A woman was counting on her. Her child was counting on Hayley to fix her mother. She could do this.
After she finished she made her way toward the doors that separated the OR from the scrub room when the door opened. "Elijah?" she cried.
"Hayley." Elijah stepped inside the scrub room and looked from Hayley to Rebekah. "Niklaus informed me of the situation on the way."
"You got my calls?" Hayley asked, her heart slamming in her chest.
"Yes. I did. I may have had a drink or two and am unable to perform this surgery," Elijah stated calmly.
"You what? What? Elijah?" Hayley felt panic beginning to grip her again.
"Hayley. You are a competent surgeon. No. You will be brilliant. I have no doubt this is the day that we take the training wheels off and you finally learn to ride." Elijah watched Hayley as Hayley watched him.
"No. No!" Hayley shook her head. "You're here. You can perform the surgery. Please!"
"Hayley." Elijah moved to place his hands on her shoulders. "I will be right beside you." His fingers moved down to her upper arms, massaging her until she began to relax. "I will not leave your side."
"Oh-okay," Hayley sighed. "Right. I guess. I guess I'm going in then." She glanced at Elijah's sisters. They were both nodding. She turned to face Elijah.
"After you, doctor," Elijah said. He moved aside and Hayley felt her heart pounding, again. Her feet took her inside the OR. They moved to the table. She heard herself giving instructions and it felt like someone else was talking. Elijah stood right beside her, making her feel steady as the world continued to spin.
"Elijah," Hayley said quietly as a nurse handed her a scalpel. "I am about to open a woman's brain up. And I need you to ask me, again. Please."
"Ask you?" Elijah's puzzlement dissolved. His eyes traveled around the room, going over the other people there. "Now?"
"Yes. Please." Hayley continued to hold the scalpel. "I need you to ask me. Right now. I need you to say the words while I work to keep this woman alive. I need you to keep me steady. Can you do that?"
"Alright." Elijah said quietly. "Hayley Jane Marshall, the day I met you, you were sitting on a bar stool. Your hair hung down your back in these waves. My only thought was what they would feel like under my fingertips. I walked up to you and asked if I could order you a drink. You turned to me with these wide eyes and this little smile at the corners of your lips. I fell deeply, deeply in love with that smile. And every day. Every day that we were apart I only wanted to hold you. I wanted to beg you to forgive me for my dishonesty. You deserve so much that I did not give you. You are smart. You are brave. You are as strong as any of the women in my family and that is all I wish for every night before bed. That you will do me the honor of being my family. Hayley, will you marry me?"
"If she won't, I will," one of the scrub nurses blurted.
Laughing, Hayley inhaled to stop herself from crying. "Yes! Yes, I will. Sorry. I've got my hands in someone's brain. You'll have to wait to put a ring on it."
The sounds of chuckles and laughter filled the OR and Hayley felt all of her fears fall away as everything Elijah had taught her came into play. Then the lights flickered and went out. "Oh, shit," she groaned.
~0~
"The patient lives," Elijah said, intertwining Hayley's fingers with his.
"She does. No thanks to me," Hayley rolled her eyes, burying her head in Elijah's chest. "And I can not believe you lied about being drunk."
"Niklaus informed me that you were too nervous to perform. I knew you could do it. You would have, too, if not for the lights," Elijah said, pressing kisses to Hayley's collarbone.
Hayley laughed and toyed with her new engagement ring. "Aurora's not going to change her mind, is she?"
Elijah shook his head. "No. She signed the papers before I bought the ring. I delivered them to my lawyer. Aurora and Tristan told me they're planning on returning to London to set up a practice."
"Huh." Hayley glanced at Elijah's phone screen on the floor. "I think we should probably jump back into the fray."
"Probably." Elijah nuzzled her neck and Hayley leaned over to kiss his shoulder as he got up and moved to get his pants. "Time to shine, doctor."
Hayley grinned, falling back on the on-call room bed.
~0~
"The call just came in. We need a team to go out and into the field," Bonnie told them in the lobby. "Claire volunteered."
Davina had already moved toward the door. "I'm going if she's going," Hayley said.
"So am I," Elijah said.
Bonnie nodded. "Be safe."
~0~
"We've got a pile-up over here," one of the paramedics told them. "A good Samaritan was trying to help when he slipped and fell down this hill here. Haven't been able to get him back out. He was talking before. Haven't heard anything since."
"Right," Elijah said. He gave Hayley a look. "How do you plan on getting us down there?"
"Old-fashioned way. Any of you into rock-climbing?" he asked, looking at the three doctors.
"I used to climb trees," Davina told them.
Elijah sighed. "As have many of us."
"I'll go," Hayley said. "I use the wall at my gym sometimes." Elijah opened his mouth. "I'll be fine." Hayley cupped his face and gave him a quick kiss. "Don't worry about me."
Elijah shook his head. "If you don't come back up; I'm coming down."
"I know," Hayley grinned. "Okay, boys, harness me," she called. She allowed the two paramedics to help her into a harness and then moved to the side of the hill. She took a hard hat and flipped the light on, giving everyone a thumbs-up before she began to go down the side of the hill. The ice made the going rougher than the wall at the gym had ever been.
Once Hayley's feet hit ground, she called up. "I'm down okay!"
"Hayley?" Elijah called. "Tell us what you see!"
Hayley peered through the icy rain pouring down. "Nothing," she called back. She began to walk around, looking for anything remotely human. Then she saw a man sitting beside a tree. "I see someone!" she shouted.
"Can you go to them?" the paramedic called.
Hayley found her throat closing. She moved closer to the man and knelt down. "Hello?" she called to him.
"Hello," the man groaned. Then he blinked at her. "Hayley?"
"Kol?" Hayley looked at the branch sticking out of Kol's chest and watched blood come out as he coughed.
"Don't worry. It looks much worse than it is," Kol said with a smile. Then his head rolled to the side.
"Elijah, it's Kol!" Hayley screamed in the dark, freezing night. "It's Kol!" She felt her eyes blurring as people began to shout from above. "Don't worry. You're going to be fine, Kol. Just stay with me," she said, wrapping her arms around Kol. "Everything is going to be just fine."
"Something to Rely On" will begin Jan 9, 2020! Hope you have a happy holiday and a wonderful New Year!
Thank you for reading, faving, following and reviewing.
Peace,
-J