Lifting my head when I heard the deep rumbling of an old truck heading up towards the house I instantly recognised Mary's vehicle and smiled. "Hey buddy, look who's here." Nudging Lucan from where we were studying medicinal plants in one of my large journals which had both drawings and clippings of the different roots, plants, leaves, flowers and berries we would use as druids. The curling blond hair instantly jolted upright and after clocking the truck, he instantly brightened so I told him to go find Hope and tell her that Mary was there. Since Hayley and I had things to get done in order to finish bringing everyone back from their deep sleep.
We had a potential lead after five whole years of searching, and having taken care of every other problem that the Mikaelson family were plagued with, all that remained was to cure the venom that was inside Elijah, Kol and Finn. Having asked a favour from Mary Louise and Nora, they had readily agreed to siphoning off the Bekah's hex after I had located them living the high life in the Bahamas, arranging their wedding to one another. They had thanked me for giving them a second chance, and after I'd asked them to help me save my best friend, they had immediately flown back in order to help without hesitation, which took a huge weight off my mind now that I knew that Rebekah was safe. After that I had the task of finding out what type of poison had been plaguing Freya and then proceeded with the laborious and complex process of making the antidote, which was way more complicated than I thought it was going to be but I eventually managed it, so now all that remained were the guys.
Over the years I had told Hope all about her family and that the reason they weren't around was because they were sleeping deeply and wouldn't wake up until their bodies were better. I'd made her a little pocket book in which I had drawn pictures of everyone so that she would know them by face and name when the time came for the long awaited reunion, and I could sense that Hope was anticipating finally being able to meet her whole family. Lucan, though only four, was bright and extremely intuitive, meaning he knew that something was going on as Hayley and I began to load a rental truck with the five coffins of the Mikaelson siblings, and he knew it was important, so when the time came to say goodbye, he didn't get upset, just hugged me tightly with his doleful eyes that made my heart ache to leave him as Hope talked to Hayley.
"Do you have to go?"
"I do, but I'll be back very, very soon. And I won't be alone." At this they both smiled at one another and as Hayley hugged her daughter close, she promised to call every night before bed and instructed her to listen to Mary as I told Lucan the same thing.
"Now you make sure you be good for Mary, and don't be attempting any magic together whilst I'm gone, okay?" I warned him as I smiled, brushing my hand against his curling golden hair as Lucan draped his arms over my shoulders to hug me. "I love you and I'll call you every day, I promise."
"Are you going on a secret mission with Auntie Hayley?" Lucan asked me curiously as we pulled apart slightly in order to look at one another, his eyes the exact same shade of green that I had. "You're not going to hunt the monsters, are you?"
"No, no monsters this time. Auntie Hayley and mommy are going to look for someone very special, who might be able to help us find a cure for Hope's family. You want Hope to meet her family, right? Well this mission will make that happen." Lucan considered for a moment before nodding his head, agreeing that he wanted Hope to be able to meet her dad, her aunts and her uncles so made sure to make me promise that I'd be careful and not to get hurt by any monsters. In order to raise my son to be aware of the real world around him, I had warned him since young that there were things out there that might be really scary to him, bad people and monsters, but that he didn't have to worry because I, his mom, would always protect him, and until he was old enough and strong enough to defend himself, he would always be safe from the bad guys.
Perhaps some people may say that I was too harsh on that front, that I shouldn't expose my son to such harsh realities when he's so young, but since he already knew about magic, witches, druids, vampires and werewolves, I couldn't allow him to grow up thinking that everyone was good and pure. I was terrified that this misconception of people would one day get him hurt, that someone would want to take advantage of his innocence and there would be nothing I could do to save him from them before it was too late. This way he knew to be cautious, knew that he could trust only a few people other than myself without question, and that everyone else had to earn his trust before he would allow them to become part of his life. It was just an extreme form of 'stranger danger', and Lucan was far too smart to be hoodwinked anyway. Even if I hadn't told him that monsters existed, he would have figured it out himself. He and Hope were far too clever, and the two of them together made it almost impossible to win an argument against them once they set their mind to something. I'd really have my work cut out for me once they were older and more in control of their abilities. I couldn't wait to see them grow up, but at the same time, I wish they'd stay just as they were right now. Looking at Luc's hand, I saw that he was holding his favourite toy, a red fireman's truck. For a moment my heart ached as I thought of Owen, remembering his smile and the way he walked before I pushed those images aside and smiled at my son once more. "Love you lots, my little man."
"Love you too mommy." Peppering his face with kisses I then blew a raspberry against his neck which made him giggle and squeal before I finally had to let go and get on the road with Hayley, Mary walking us over to the truck as she gave us last minute advice to stay alert and not drop our guards at any time, and to run if there was any hint of trouble. Hayley took the first shift for driving, and as we pulled away from the house, we both looked back in the rear-view mirror for one last look at our babies.
"God, I always hate it when I have to leave." I sighed heavily, slumping in my seat as Hayley selected a station to listen to.
"I know, but this time should be the last time. Once this is over, we can wake everybody up, rescue Klaus then Hope will have the family I always promised her." Hayley listed, her fingers gripping tightly onto the steering wheel as she continually glanced back to where Hope and Lucan were still waving to us. We watched them until they were far beyond our sight, and we had no other choice but to focus on the road. "Hey, I'm not sure if I ever thanked you before, but I want you to know that I really appreciate you doing all this with me."
"What do you mean?" Frowning slightly as I glanced at Hayley, she sent me a smile as we headed towards Austin Texas where all our hopes lay with finding this one woman who may or may not actually exist.
"I mean, I know you're doing this for Bekah since she's your close friend, but I'm glad that you've stuck around all this time. It's been easier dealing with all this knowing that you're right there next to me the whole way, and because you stuck around, Hope hasn't grown up completely alone. I know she has Mary and her grandpa Ansel, but having Lucan to grow up with has been good for her, and you teaching her how to control her magic is beyond a relief." Hayley explained to me whilst continuing to drive, letting me just sit there and listen. "I guess I'm just trying to say…thanks."
"Hayley." Unable to hold back my expression, I grinned at her with humour as I noted how adorable it was Hayley trying to be all mushy and emotional considering she was usually so tough and hard core. "You're also a really close friend. You and Bekah are the real deal, so it's not just for her I'm doing all this. I'd never leave you to handle all this by yourself, it just goes without saying." Seeing her blush slightly in embarrassment from the gooey emotions, Hayley then smirked as I punched her playfully on the shoulder, the both of us now smiling. It was a fun road trip, belting out tunes way off key before finally reaching our destination where I was then able to do a more accurate locator spell to figure out where our target was.
Since I didn't have the woman's blood or any personal affects, I tracked all general werewolves in the area and thankfully, we only came up with the one. She was at a bar, so Hayley and I discreetly scoped the place out before heading on inside. We sat and had a drink each and pinpointed the person we were after. A good looking woman who seemed like she had something to celebrate judging from all the drinks she was consuming with a few friends. "You got this?" I asked quietly as we watched her out of the corner of our eyes and Hayley nodded, so I finished my drink and told her that I'd wait for her out back.
Leaving Hayley to handle it, I waited outside in the back alley where pretty much everything seemed to be dumped, so I ignored the smell and leaned back against the mesh fence until Hayley appeared with the woman who we hoped was the last descendent of the Malraux wolf pack bloodline. Without her venom, we had no chance of making the cure to for Hope's family. Unfortunately the woman, Keelin, was just as spunky as we expected and the moment she stepped through the door, elbowed Hayley in the face and I couldn't help but wince with a smirk as she then took off. "Gotta hand it to her, she's smart." I noted to Hayley who gripped her nose which had almost been broken as Keelin took off. "Kinda reminds me of you."
"Very funny Lia. Come on, let's just get this over with." Hayley moved with her hybrid speed in order to cut Keelin off, allowing me to follow behind and reach them just as Keelin swore that she wouldn't go down without a fight. "Will you relax? I'm not here to fight you. I need you. You're the last of your pack. That makes you special for reasons that are too complicated to explain."
"I don't care about your problems."
"Well you're going to have to, because of all the people hunting you, we're the only ones that don't want you dead." I announced myself as I rounded the corner, halting beside Hayley as we stood shoulder to shoulder which only made Keelin all the more twitchy. "And trust me. There are plenty of people out there that want you dead just because of how special you are." To this Keelin insisted that here, she had a life, career, people she cared about and that she was not going to give that up easy, so if someone wanted to take it away from her then they would actually have to kill her. I looked at Hayley, recognising that she was listening to something which obviously seemed to be threatening to us, because she cut the conversation short and instead of negotiating, simply knocked the werewolf out and slung her over one shoulder. "One way to handle things, I suppose."
"Come on, we can't stay around here. There's people looking for us." Understanding that confrontation was not preferable at this point since we were currently in the progress of kidnapping someone, I nodded my head and let her whoosh me away to safety. We kept Keelin close and found a place where we could take her and extract her venom without getting found. Whilst Hayley set up, I put up some protective spells around the place and runes to warn me of intruders before returning to find that Keelin was awake and none too happy about being kidnapped, already struggling to get free. "Relax, I'm not your enemy. If I left you where you were you'd be dead already."
"Let me guess, we're on the run from vampires? You have the same stink they do." Keelin snapped back, making me click my tongue disapprovingly.
"You know it's rude to tell people they smell." To this Keelin just scowled at me and commented that I smelled earthy and weird, so I just shrugged it off and continued to help Hayley prepare to wake up Freya.
"I'm special, I'm a hybrid. Half vampire half werewolf." Hayley informed Keelin, putting all the bottles of venom extract with the family bloodlines labelled on the glass, she then turned around in order to our rather uncooperative guest. "And considering we just saved your ass, you should show us some respect." Still Keelin remained defensive, questioning whether it was actually us that led them to her in the first place, but as Hayley then pointed out, it hardly mattered. "They know who you are and they want you dead. The only way to survive is do exactly what we tell you."
"Trust us, you'll survive longer if you listen." I said to her as Hayley started to get the venom extractor ready to start harvesting Keelin's venom. "All we need is a small favour, a little of your venom and then not only will we send you on your way, I will even provide you with the means to stay completely off the radar. Untraceable by witches and vampires alike. Sound like a good deal?" I offered her as Hayley approached her with the mask. "I'll give you fair warning though, this will hurt like a bitch."
"Do I even have a choice?"
"Not really." At least we were honest with her, though it didn't encourage her to trust us at all.
"Why are you doing this to me?" She questioned as Hayley pulled back the plastic cover and lifted the coffin lid to reveal Freya, completely unchanged in the last five years and sleeping peacefully in her velvet lined box.
"I'm trying to save my family." Hayley answered solemnly before turning around in order to face our guest. Or prisoner, I guess you could say. "Keelin. The people in there are dying. The only thing keeping them alive is a sleep spell, and the only one that and cure them is her. She's a witch, and she left me instructions on how to wake her up early. The only thing that I am missing, is your venom. Once she gets on her feet I can give her the ingredients I got and, with any luck, no one has to die." Explaining everything fully to her in order to stress just how important this was to us, and also how simple it was to fix it all, Keelin contemplated for a few moments before then looking at us both directly, reading our expressions to see if we were telling her the truth.
"So if I give you what you want…will you let me go?"
"You have my word." I also promised her that we would keep our end of the deal, and so Keelin gave us permission to extract her venom on the sole promise that we would let her go afterwards with the means to stay hidden from her enemies. To her credit Keelin pushed through the painful process of us literally pulling the venom out of her teeth in order to harvest it, draining it into a glass container before we had enough to work with. Keelin then demanded to know when she would be allowed to go, so we assured her she'd be set free once we knew that the cure worked.
"So you have to wake up Sleeping Beauty right? How do you do that?"
"You know, you ask a lot of questions." Hayley mused before making her way over to Freya with a syringe and needle in her hand filled with the exact stuff that was going to bring her back from the deep sleep she currently existed in whilst I finished the preparations for the spell she would use to make the cure. A seven pointed star with candles at each tip and one vial of venom for each of the seven packs. Hopefully all of this would succeed in bringing Elijah, Kol and Finn back from the brink of death because by the looks of things, they didn't have very long and Finn was looking worse off than the other two, having been affected for the longest.
Hayley brought Freya back and the moment she was awake, she was gasping for air and quickly coming back to her senses, embracing Hayley tightly as I brought her an herbal concoction I'd prepared. "Here, drink this. It'll help you gain back your strength and nourish you." I instructed her.
"Lia." Surprisingly, Freya looked just as relieved to see me as she was to see Hayley, hugging me too which I hadn't expected since before now, we hadn't exactly been close. All the same I returned the gesture and made her drink the herbal brew before helping her out of the coffin and directing her to where I'd already prepped the spell for her. Just as Freya was about to begin, my wards alerted me to the presence of people gathering outside and Hayley turned her head quickly, signalling that she'd also heard something.
"We've got company." I announced, standing upright and looking to where they were gathering. "They won't break through my barriers, but they have numbers. If they surround us or try something to trap us in here…"
"They must have been tracking her." Freya reasoned before looking to Hayley imploringly, and informed her that she still needed more time. Understanding, Hayley rushed away in order to confront the intruders whilst I stood to watch over Keelin and Freya just in case anybody got through. I'd put the boundary spell up in a rush, meaning that there was likely to be weak spots and if these vampires were old and strong, they might be able to force their way inside. Just as Freya was beginning to get the spell underway, one of these vampires strode straight towards Keelin who had been struggling to break free, making her look up in alarm however I pushed out my hand forcefully and flung the vampire back against the wall where thick vines like rope started to grow around his limbs, torso and neck until he was completely engulfed and even his screams were silenced.
"Did you just…?"
"I'm a druid. Plants are my thing." I explained vaguely as I exhaled a deep breath then looked over to Freya who had not even blinked, continuing with her spell to combine the venoms and other ingredients in order to create the antidote. Hayley dealt with the intruders, and once Freya stopped chanting I immediately helped her to administer the antidote to her siblings, going first to Kol whilst she saw to Elijah, and once the youngest brother began to show signs that the infection was clearing, I smiled with relief and brought him out from his sleep. "Hey there. Been a while." I greeted as Kol's eyes began to flutter, groaning in confusion for a moment before he was then able to focus on me.
"Lia." Nodding my head, I indicated to where he was bitten and sure enough, there wasn't even a wound that remained as Kol's hand jumped to feel it, breathing and smiling with relief once he learned he had been cured. "Not to sound ungrateful or displeased to see you love, but I'm starving for a bite to eat and I'd rather you weren't on the menu." Without a further moment of hesitation, Kol then disappeared as Freya then roused Finn, the last of the brothers, and after I had allowed myself a hearty laugh I woke up Rebekah. Our arms dove around one another and embraced tightly, glad to see one another again and that everything was alright. He hex was gone, but like Kol she was utterly famished and quickly left in order to find something to eat so I chased after her, yelling to be careful and not to kill anyone.
"I see you still chaperone my younger siblings, dear Ophelia." Finn stood behind me and I instantly recognised the subtle tones of his voice so I turned to smile and greet him.
"Finn, I'm glad you're alright."
"Entirely thanks to you. Were it not for your actions, I may not even be here today." He took my hand and kissed it in the old fashioned gentlemanly way that I'd come to expect from the Mikaelson brothers, however I noticed that his eyes lingered on my neck and he suddenly went very pale.
"If you're hungry Finn then don't be afraid to go find something to eat. Kol and Bekah have already left to do just that." I invited him but Finn refused, still repulsed at himself as a vampire and the thought of giving into his hunger was something that seemed to disgust him. I offered him my own blood, saying that as long as the source was willing it shouldn't go against his moral code, but more than anything he needed to drink and return his strength but when I offered Finn my wrist, he immediately shook his head and gently pushed my hand away.
"You blood is too pure and good to be taken by a monster such as I, or anyone for that matter. Thank you for your kindness, Ophelia, but I shall not take your blood."
"Either way you have to have something. Come on, let's go before you start to dessicate again." So without allowing any kind of argument, I dragged Finn after his younger siblings in order to track them down where I reigned Kol in from draining a poor young woman completely dry, having him help clean her up and send her back home to rest. It was like trying to control three toddlers all on a sugar high in the middle of the city, trying to keep tabs on the lot of them and make sure they didn't do anything too destructive or noticeable in their desperate need to satiate their hunger. Finn was alright once he'd had a little blood, it was easier to keep Rebekah and Kol under control. They ended up locating a transit bus full of felons, so I expressed the rule that they could have the law breakers so long as they were truly guilty of their crimes but leave the officers alone, just knock them out or something and stage it to look like some vigilante had killed the inmates or something but to try not to kill anyone at all, if remotely possible. Honestly I should be glad they listen to me to this extent.
By the next day I was exhausted, though when Hayley, Freya and Elijah caught up with us, I'd beamed and rushed to Elijah in order to jump on him, hugging him tightly to finally reunite after five years. I'd missed the lot of them so much, and now that we were all together, they were able to finally slow down from their frenzied feeding and properly look at one another. Bekah continually hugged me again and again, wanting to know everything that had happened to me in the last five years and so I promised her that we would catch up over drinks and that back home, I had a little surprise waiting for her. I wanted to shock her by introducing my son Lucan in person, so I hid the details to myself for the time being whilst Kol finally hunted down one of the convicts that had escaped from the bus and was now screaming in terror for his life. "Good Lord that one has some lungs on him. He should've been an opera singer. Might've ended better for him actually."
"Is this absolutely necessary?" Freya questioned as she strode through the carnage as I just did my best not to look or hear what was going on whilst Bekah returned with the question on whether or not Freya wanted them at their full strength in order to rescue Niklaus. We all talked and argued on what was to be done, myself suggesting that only Freya and I went in since we were far less likely to attract attention and weren't as well known to the vampire world as the rest of the Mikaelsons. We at least stood a chance at facing Marcel and getting out of there with Nik alive, but everyone else strongly opposed my suggestion. We each argued further until Elijah made the final decision that we were freeing Nik today and from his tone of voice, I knew there was no further discussion to be had. I followed the Mikaelsons, wondering if perhaps I had any place in this next part of the plan.
Part of me wanted to go and help save Nik, but then the larger part of me felt terrified about seeing him again. There was so much confusion and uncertainty that for a moment, I could not help but feel a build up of pressure and panic within me which Rebekah immediately sensed and came to my rescue, putting her arm through mine and leading me forwards towards her family. "Come on Lia. You're one of us, so don't fall behind. We'll make a proper plan once we're on the move, but for now let's just head to where Nik is. New Orleans." With her beside me I felt a little better, able to breathe more freely and even Kol put his hand on my shoulder as I was brought into the Mikaelson family circle, almost in a manner that felt ritualistic and significant. Like I'd truly earned my place here, and so once we were back on the road and moving, I allowed myself to relax and just sleep for a while, knowing that my reunion with Niklaus was inevitable, and that I couldn't avoid it, so I may as well just wait for it to happen and in the meantime, enjoy the fact that the Mikaelsons were back and awake after five long years.