Since the plan to locate Elijah through the witches failed, it ended up being down to me. At first Marcel was supposed to hand Elijah back over to us after Klaus saved his life from the witch that had tried to take him down, but it had already been a couple of days and still no sign of my favourite Original brother, so we were getting pretty impatient. I knew I could find Elijah without a problem, and better yet, not get caught casting the magic to locate him.
Only thing was, there was a lot of magical disturbance in the earth and air throughout New Orleans, so it took me a little time. It didn't help that I was feeling nauseous at the most inconvenient times of the day and I was now being put off certain foods just from the smell. Who the hell willingly let's themselves get pregnant? Oh right. This dumbass right here. Anyway, I was getting closer to finding Elijah's location, holding my hand over a map focused on the quarter where Marcel was holed up.
My mind wandered through the magic of the earth, following the flow as I searched out Elijah's energy, though it was muted and faint because of the fact that he was desiccating with a dagger in his chest. However, I did notice that it was starting to grow stronger, allowing me a better focus on it until finally, I could see him lying in his coffin, resting in an attic room identical to the one that Rebekah had described to me. Seeing it, I straightened up and Bekah immediately noticed the change. "Have you found him?"
"He's in St Anne's church, the attic room with the girl. Davina." I said to her, allowing my mind to continue to wonder, looking out to the streets where people seemed to be getting ready for a festival. Back in the attic, I saw the girl herself, and Bekah had been right when she'd said she was young. Sweet and innocent kind of young, and she didn't feel dangerous. A little unstable maybe with all that magic knocking around in her, though there seemed to be four different types of energies trying to combine together but ultimately failing. She was talking with a guy I'd never seen before, but I quickly picked up on the fact that this was Marcel, and she was persuading him to let her go to the festival. "She'll be at the Dauphine Street festival tonight, so the attic will be empty. That's your best chance at getting him out without our little teenaged witch throwing you out a window again."
"Do not remind me otherwise I may be tempted to break her neck next time our paths cross."
"Chill Bekah, she's just a kid." I reminded her, letting my hand drop back down to my side just as another witch walked in, greeting us all warmly though I didn't like her from the moment she crossed my border. She was up to something. The magic alerted me to the fact that she had an ulterior motive, and her entire attention was almost immediately focused on Hayley as she took a seat at her own invitation.
"How are you feeling Hayley?" She questioned, looking at Hayley and also at her belly without any degree of discretion. Hayley told her she was fine, keeping up the pretence that she was still pregnant as the witch, Agnes, began to bombard her with questions about her condition and seemed to worry about how the pregnancy was processing.
"I told you Agnes, I feel great." Glancing at me, I shrugged at Hayley to signal that I was fine and that she should just handle this.
"You are overdue for a check-up." The elder witch insisted, not giving up on her insistence that Hayley needed to be properly looked at.
"What am I gonna do? Pop into the Quarter for a quick ultrasound? A pregnant werewolf escorted by a witch?" Hayley started sarcastically, making an excellent point. It's not like Hayley could just walk into the city and risk being seen by the vampires. Rebekah looked as though she wanted to make a comment, looking up with mild irritation and a hint of jealousy so I gave her a look that told her not to start anything.
"I know a doctor out in the Bayou, off the beaten path. Now, I took the liberty of making an appointment for you. Tonight, after-hours, just us. Vampires will never get word of it." Agnes assured Hayley who sighed heavily, once more glancing at me and I gave a minute nod. Getting a physical check-up wouldn't be a bad idea. After all, there's only so much magic can do before science becomes the better alternative.
"Okay fine. Bayou baby doctor it is."
"I'll be coming too." I announced, which immediately put Agnes on edge.
"Oh no, that won't be necessary. I'm sure we'll be just fine…"
"Either I go, or neither of us goes." I interrupted, giving Agnes a look and after a few moments, Agnes decided to just sit quietly. "So I guess that's settled then." There was no point in Haley going at all, because nothing would show up on the ultrasound, though thinking about it now, maybe that wasn't such a bad idea. If the witches thought that the baby was gone altogether, it might make them back off on whatever it was they were cooking up, so I discussed it with Hayley.
"But wouldn't that just open up a whole load of questions as to what happened? One of their people was killed when she used magic to confirm the pregnancy. Won't they know something's up?"
"Not if they think you just lost the baby."
"I don't think it'll fool them. When you lose a baby, isn't there…you know. Blood? I mean it'll be very obvious if I did lose the baby and they would have heard about it. Besides, if I knew that the baby was gone then wouldn't I have said something?"
"Not if you were hiding it from Klaus." I was so glad I'd cast a silencing spell around us so that no one could listen in on our conversation, otherwise if Klaus overheard even the smallest detail of our discussion then he would kick the roof off this place. He'd been rather obliging recently, keeping his distance but without avoiding me. Every time he went out into the city he'd ask me if there was anything I wanted and usually I gave him a list of things that we needed in the house. Mostly food, but some other essential products too like cleaning supplies and toiletries. It almost made me laugh thinking about Klaus going around a shopping mart with a basket or trolley picking up the essentials.
He was careful, choosing openly not to invade my space like he knew that I'd lash out of him, and I knew exactly what he was doing. This was all his ploy to try and make me forgive him. The only reason he was being so conscientious was because he knew that pushing me would only make things worse, and it infuriated me that despite the fact I knew this, it was actually working. Damn him. Anyway, putting that insufferable guy aside, we had bigger problems at hand. "So what do you want to do? I can make another illusion spell and go in for you, it's not a problem, or we can come clean now and deal with it, or we can make it seem like you lost the baby and all of this will be over."
"I'm not ready to tell Klaus yet. If he finds out what I made you do, that I was going to get rid of his child…he'll kill me."
"No he won't." I said to her, having started to absently paint my toenails as a means to pass the time. I'd chosen a lavender shade polish, testing it out and it actually looked pretty good. "First off, I won't let him, and second, you're still the mother of his child. He can't kill you." Hayley wasn't at all reassured by this logic. "Okay, so telling Klaus is out, that leaves our last too options."
"I just don't think trying to fool the witches will work." Well they did seem to be a particularly tenacious lot. They'll figure out eventually what happened to the baby when it becomes apparent that someone in the house is still pregnant and then a baby just so happens to appear after forty five weeks of pregnancy. It doesn't take a genius to put it together. "So I guess it has to be the switch up again. Are you sure you're up for this? You seem to be struggling today."
"It's just the heat. I've been reading up on pregnancy and everything as much as possible, and these are all normal symptoms, though I'm not sure if I count as normal. You know, being magical and all." Finishing my feet, I then started on my nails. "So, how do you feel about it being a girl?" Hayley had no idea how she felt, or even what she was supposed to feel. Right now, she just seemed rather indifferent to the kid. "You weren't ready for this, I get it. It's okay not to really feel anything yet, but I'm pretty sure it'll change when you meet your kid."
"Part of me hopes so, but I'm not sure how to be a mom. I never met my birth mom, and my adopted one kicked me out after I turned into a wolf the first time." This made me look up in surprise.
"No way, I'm adopted too." Hayley blinked at me.
"Really?"
"I was adopted when I was eight. My parents are legendary, though, so I'm sorry about yours. Hey maybe when this all dies down, you can come meet them. They love it when I bring people to visit because I never used to and they've pretty much adopted Bekah too. She even calls them mom and dad." I said to Hayley without even thinking about it, returning to my nails. "And anyway, being a mother is a tough job, but so long as you love your kid you can't go far wrong."
"Guess we'll find out sooner or later. Do you mind if I ask how you came to be adopted?"
"I lost my real family in a fire." Her face fell so I sent her a reassuring smile, promising her that it was okay and I didn't mind talking about it. She seemed relieved that she hadn't touched upon a forbidden subject or anything, and we actually ended up talking about our experiences in the foster system before becoming adopted. We bonded over it, and soon enough Hayley and I felt close enough to refer to each other as friends, which was a pleasant surprise. I had known of her before, since she'd been the one to rat out Tyler and the other hybrids, which was kinda a dick move but she had only done it because she thought that her parents would be resurrected by Silas, manipulated by Professor Shane just like so many other people.
We were cool over that, in any case. It's not like I cared about it or anything. In fact the more I got to know Hayley, the more I liked her. She was spunky and self-reliant, the kind of girl I could appreciate and admire for her type of character. We got along famously, and soon enough I was painting her nails a pretty shade of wine red, talking about things that naturally filled the time without ever seeming to end, and I smiled to myself when I thought that maybe I can add one more close friend onto my very exclusive and short list of personal relationships I had, which so far was counted at two. One more. I'll roll with that.