As they walked through the house towards the kitchen with Hope between her parents, their arms around her, she heard raised voices. She paused, glancing at her parents with one brow raised, and they came to a halt beside her so she could listen.

"But I think we'd have chemistry, if she'd give me a chance!" Landon hissed.

"I agree," Lizzie said.

"Lizzie!" Josie gasped.

"You'd have chemistry, though it'd be a very endothermic reaction."

"I'm a phoenix. I'm the only one of my kind, and she's the only one like her. She'd get me."

"There were other phoenixes though. There have been no other tribrids. And species has nothing to do with how people get along. Hope and Ryan fit because he gets her and doesn't think they have to be together because they're the only ones of their kinds," Lizzie finally snapped. "You need to accept that just because you're a part of a rare species that doesn't mean you can't find belonging among other species if you let yourself."

"Come on. Eavesdropping is rude, you know that." Hayley tugged Hope away from the squabbling students.

"Now it makes sense, why he kept trying to find ways to get my attention," Hope said softly as she followed her mother. "He doesn't know how to navigate this world he's in, being the only one like him that he knows of, and he saw me, being the only one like me and the wires got crossed in his head."

"You're very understanding towards my idiot, little brother," Ryan chuckled.

"Everyone deserves a little kindness. It makes the rest of the madness we deal with on a daily basis easier to manage." Hope smiled over her shoulder at her lover.

When they arrived in the kitchen, Elijah set about making supper.

Hayley took the stool on one side of Hope and Klaus took the other, but that didn't stop Ryan from wrapping his arms around her and kissing the top of her head. Hope ran her hand up and down his arm lightly.

"So, Hope, aren't you going to introduce us?" Hayley indicated Ryan's arms around her.

"Mom, this is Ryan Clarke. I guess you can call him my boyfriend, but he's definitely important to me. Ryan, my mother, Hayley Marshall-Kenner."

"Pleasure to meet you, ma'am."

"Thank you, for saving my daughter, Ryan, and for bringing her back."

"I never thought that a mud man would be able to make such a difference in our lives," Rebekah mused.

"In the original Jewish myths, golems are protectors. They're good when they're influenced by the right people." Hope rubbed Ryan's arm again. "Not that I want to influence or control you. I just won't let anyone talk down about you."

"I know, sweetheart."

"I apologize, to you both. I swear I wasn't trying to be rude. I've just never encountered a golem capable of thinking for themselves and feeling so deeply before."

"Thank you," Ryan said, though there was subtle tension in his voice.

"I'm sure you're tired of people judging you for what you are and here I was doing exactly that. Thinking that because I've experienced so much that I know everything. It just goes to show that we don't know as much as we think we do, no matter how long we've lived." Rebekah smiled sadly.

"It's just a fact of life that I have to live with considering what I am. I'm used to it by now." Ryan rested his cheek against Hope's hair.

Hope leaned back against him, wishing she could take at least some of the pain she heard in his voice.

How many centuries of hurt did he carry? How much rejection had he been forced to endure before he met her? What if she was the first person to see him? Her heart ached with the thought. He was a sweet person who cared, if he was given the chance to show it. Why couldn't more people look past his species and see the man he truly was?

"I am sorry though. Truly."

"It would seem that Malivore was created by people who didn't know how to handle this creature they'd created and that's why he got out of control, then created beings that none of us have ever encountered before, even if they are technically golems," Elijah mused as he poured batter onto the steaming griddle.

"So a new species altogether?" Hayley tilted her head to examine the man holding her daughter.

"More like a subspecies of golem. A golem capable of thinking and feeling for himself, while still being a protector."

Ryan shifted uncomfortably behind her and Hope knew it was time to get the conversation shifted away from him.

"Breakfast for dinner?" Hope asked Elijah.

"Of course." Elijah placed strips of bacon into another pan and smiled at his niece. "What person who likes pancakes wouldn't want them for dinner?"

"Is there enough to go around?" Lizzie asked from the doorway. Josie peeked around her sister's elbow.

"Of course. This is a family meal and you are family." Elijah motioned for them to come in.

"I heard what you said to Landon," Hope said after a long moment.

"Was it too much?" Lizzie asked with a wince.

"You were a bit more blunt than I would have been, but then again, you seem to be a blunt person and to ask you to not speak your mind would be to ask you to change who you are. And I have to admit that it gave me hope."

"For what?"

"That we might actually be more like sisters. If that's going too far, I'm sorry. But your mom and my dad are together and I really want-"

"I think you'd be a great sister," Josie cut in.

Before she could do or say anything, tears suddenly filled Hope's eyes and she turned her face into Ryan's arm as she started crying.

"It's okay, sweetheart. It's okay." Ryan tightened his hold on her.

"What's wrong? What did we do?" Lizzie asked, panicking.

"It's just too much," Hope whispered.

"Shh. It's okay."

Unable to contradict him, Hope dug her fingers into his shirt, trying to anchor herself as best as she could in this new storm she found herself in.

"We didn't mean to make her upset!" Lizzie continued.

"It's okay," Klaus assured the twins. "Hope has been through hell so she's still learning to process accepting people loving and caring for her."

Hayley tried reaching for her, but Hope flinched away.

"Let her be for a moment," Klaus caught Hayley when she reached for her daughter again.

"Klaus-"

"She's overwhelmed, so she won't be able to recognize us comforting her right now," Elijah said softly, his expression twisting with guilt.

"It's not your fault," Elena murmured.

"But it is. I knew she was out there and I looked for the why, when I should have been looking for her."

"It hurts," Hope whimpered.

"I know, sweetheart," Ryan whispered.

"Why?"

"Because when you don't know how to process kindness and love. There's nothing wrong with you, Hope. You just need to relearn how to accept that again, especially from your family."

"How do you know?"

"You know my story, sweetheart. You know what I've been through. That's how I know. And I know it'll take time for you to be able to actually be able to accept positive reactions from people, but it's not impossible."

For a long moment, the only sounds were of Elijah cooking and the quiet breathing of the other occupants in the room while Ryan continued to run his hand over Hope's hair in an effort to soothe her. Hayley and Klaus sat in desperate silence, wishing they were the ones able to offer their daughter comfort."

Finally, Hope sat back and brushed her hand roughly across her face to wipe away her tears.

"Sorry about that," she mumbled, hanging her head.

"Don't apologize. You're still processing all the emotions you've been forced to repress for the last ten years, not to mention remembering what it's like to feel again after flipping the switch," Hayley said as she reached for Hope's arm in an effort to comfort her daughter.

"Perhaps some food and some blood are in order," Elijah suggested.

"Yes," Kol agreed. "Food and blood always help no matter what you're going through."

Hope perked up when she heard that and her gums ached with the thought of quenching her thirst. Elijah caught her reaction and he grinned as he started passing out plates of food while Kol poured out glasses of blood for the vampires. Josie helped herself to some orange juice, then poured some for the non-vampires in the room.

Picking Hope up, Ryan sat her on his lap and then started cutting her pancakes up.

"What are you doing?" Hope giggled.

Stabbing a bit of pancake with the fork, he lifted it to her mouth.

"This. Now open up."

Hope wrapped her lips around the bite with a smile.

"Are you going to feed me everything on this plate?" she asked after she swallowed the bite.

"Of course." Ryan kissed her temple.

With Hayley on one side, Klaus on the other, and sitting on Ryan's lap while surrounded by her family, she didn't think she could ever be happier, except the specter of Malivore hanging over their heads and what it could mean for Ryan.

"We need to deal with Malivore, once and for all, while making sure that Ryan doesn't get hurt," Hope said after a moment.

"I've been gathering grimores ever since I remembered you," Elijah informed her.

"You have?" Hope raised an eyebrow.

"I knew that whatever happened to you, especially since it erased you from our memories, it had to have involved dark magic. So, I started acquiring everything I could get my hands on that might help lead me to you or at least what happened to you."

"He found so many grimores, we eventually had to send them to New Orleans for Freya to store because there was no way we could keep them with us," Elena laughed, running her nails across his shoulders as she spoke.

"There are several hundred at least," Hayley confirmed.

"So, it'll take time." Hope slumped against Ryan and sighed.

"You took Malivore down pretty hard and with you pumping him full of your fully activated tribrid blood, it'll take him a while to recover from that, so we've got time." Ryan fed her another bite of pancakes.

"Ryan's right, and perhaps Freya and Keelin can get those grimores sent up here so we can start looking," Elijah commented.

"How do you plan on saving me?" Ryan asked.

"I don't know, but I'll find a way, I promise." Hope licked the crumbs off her lips, then kissed him softly.

"I know you will. You are the most powerful witch I've ever met." Ryan fed her another bite, then kissed the tip of her nose.

"You two are disgustingly sweet, I think I'm getting cavities," Lizzie teased.

"Brushing and flossing regularly works wonders to prevent that," Ryan replied.

Hope snickered around the food in her mouth and Lizzie stuck her tongue out at her.

"I just sent a text to Freya. She said she'll have some people get them ready to ship up. Most of them still in the packages I sent them in, but she admitted to snooping in some of them so they need to be reboxed." Elijah tucked his phone back into his jacket.

"Thank you, for helping me with this," Hope said softly.

She sniffed back tears that suddenly sprang into her eyes once more and Ryan rubbed her back softly as he kissed her temple.

"Ryan brought you back to us, so we owe him this at the very least."

"And we all feel the same," Klaus agreed. "Having you back in my life filled this whole I couldn't fill, no matter how I tried. No one could take the place of my biological daughter that we all fought so hard to keep safe."

After that, the conversation drifted to more mundane things and Hope tucked her head under Ryan's chin, sighing in contentment.