Chapter 49

"Happy Birthday, Otti!"

She groaned, unwilling to open her eyes after a bad night's sleep, but forced them open, along with a smile on her face. "Ah thanks, guys…" She managed, trying her best to convince them that all was fine.

"I can't believe my little lady is 14!" said Damon, hugging her and placing a kiss on her head.

"I can't believe I'm spending my 14th birthday in hospital…" retorted Ottilie, frowning as she tried to push herself up to a sitting position, failing miserably, and falling back into the pillows, exasperated.

Damon sighed, placing her wrapped present down at the end of the bed so that he could put his hands under her arms and lift her to a more comfortable position. "Otti, we've talked about this."

"No, you've talked about this with the doctors, and not even asked me what I want to do, and what I feel would make me better."

Damon didn't reply, looking at his brother, standing in the corner of the room with his arms crossed against his chest, for support. Stefan, catching Damon's look, took a step forwards, and took the spare seat next to the bed whilst Damon perched on the edge of it.

"Otti, we can't take you from the hospital – the doctors say you're not strong enough," he tried reasoning with her, knowing that she was probably too fed up to listen to reason.

"You could compel them – you know you could – you've done it before!"

"I know, and maybe that was a bit hasty of us," cut in Damon, "but Otti, we can't look after you properly at home. Look at all this –" he gestured to the machinery and monitors connected to his daughter's frail body. "How could we honestly say we were caring for you properly if we were to take you back without all of this?"

Ottilie huffed and lowered her eyes to the bed, trying to keep back her tears, knowing they were right, and hating the fact. She knew that she wouldn't manage well at home – she could barely sit up alone, let alone get to the bathroom or up the stairs by herself, and she definitely didn't want her family having to help her in that department…

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," Damon tried again, reaching to tip her chin gently so that she was looking at him. "We will celebrate your birthday properly when you're out of here, okay? And today, we will make the best of it."

She nodded, trying to muster a smile for her dad, and hating herself for being so spoiled and bratty.

"Okay, present time!" exclaimed Stefan, pushing a wrapped box into her hands, mindful of the IVs that were sticking out of them.

Unwrapping it, she gasped in delight – it was a beautiful lined journal and pen set. "Wow, Stefan, it's lovely. Thank you!"

He smiled adoringly at his little niece, "so you can write about all the exciting things that happen to you," he teased, as she rolled her eyes at him.

"Not that anything exciting will happen in here!" she countered, sticking her tongue out at him.

"Okay, my turn!" interrupted Damon, reaching for the small present he'd placed at the end of her bed. "Careful, it's antique…"

She handled it gently, amazed to find an old polaroid camera and film. "I love it, Dad, thank you," she said, genuinely smiling at him for the first time that day.

"That's so you can take pictures of all the exciting things that happen to you," he smirked at Stefan.

They spent the rest of the morning chatting, before they left her to rest, promising that they'd be back that evening, and that the rest of their friends would be popping in to see her throughout the day.

Sure enough, all of the Mikaelson siblings came to wish her a happy birthday, followed by Lexi, then Caroline, Bonnie, Tyler and Matt. Later in the afternoon, Greg stopped by with a huge cake that his mother had baked for her, and they sat and chatted together until Greg had to go, leaving her with a chaste kiss on the lips and a blush on her cheeks. Smiling happily to herself as she relieved it, Ottilie drifted off into a deep sleep.

"But do you really think this is best for her? We can't protect her if we aren't around?"

"I just think she needs a break from all the supernatural stuff, Stefan. Marcel will keep looking for her here, and we can deal with him, and she'll be safely away from it all."

"She's not going to like this, Damon…"

"I know, but I don't know what else to do. She was dying in my arms, Ric – you have no idea what that's like. I can't lose her – and I'll do anything to stop her from suffering. Even if it makes her hate me."

"Jo, you're the doctor here. What are we looking at?"

"I'll be honest with you Stefan, it's not good. Even on the medication we've put her on, if she has another attack that big, I honestly don't know that she wouldn't go into cardiac arrest – and you know it's not 100% that she'd pull through that, especially as she is now."

"Shit. So you think we should send her away?"

"I think she needs to be away from as much stress as possible, and dealing with all this isn't going to help. She needs to rest and get stronger before we can even consider operating on her. She needs the ICD but in her current state, I don't think she'd pull through the surgery."

"ICD?"

"Oh, sorry, Ric. It's an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator. It'll shock her heart before an attack has any chance of taking hold. It's not a big surgery, but she's so weak at the moment."

Ottilie lay in bed, listening to the conversation going on near to her. For once, she was relieved that her heartbeat was so irregular that nobody in the room would be able to tell that she was awake and taking in all they were saying. She knew that she had to avoid being sent away at all costs, or how else was she going to defeat Marcel? Keeping her eyes shut, she carried on listening.

"So what do we do? Send her away to stay with Ric's friends, and then lure Marcel in and sort him out?" she heard Stefan ask, sounding somewhat dubious.

"Yep," replied Damon, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

"You think we'll be able to defeat him?" Ric sounded concerned.

"If we can't, nobody can – the Mikaelsons will be there, and we'll have Bonnie and her voodoo stuff."

"And what if Kai turns up?"

"Kai is dead."

"You don't know that for sure. How many times have we fallen for that one with that bastard? Oh, sorry Jo…"

"No, it's true. He is a bastard. And even if you think he's dead, I wouldn't be resting on my laurels…"

"So it's decided. As soon as she's fine to leave the hospital, she'll go out of state."

Ottilie knew what she had to do. She had to lure Marcel to Mystic Falls before her family sent her away, so that she could kill him, before he killed her family, and she had to do it without telling anyone. I suppose I'd better really start trying to get stronger… she thought before opening her eyes reluctantly, and eying up the unappetising plate of hospital food in front of her.