Hello, my lovely readers. Life has its ups and its downs and its really downs. On with the show…

Chapter 9: We All Need a Little Help, Sometimes…

Elijah

Elijah Mikaelson nuzzled his nose into the bare shoulder of his fiancée. She made a little purring sound in the back of her throat, indicating she was not as asleep as he'd feared she might be after a late night with mother. Apparently Tiffany came down with the flu. Elijah knew it was possible to get the flu—even after receiving the vaccine, and he thought Hayley might need to sleep in today. His mouth trailed down her back and she groaned. Her fingers curled into his hair and her head turned to gaze at him with those warm eyes that he knew he would love waking up to every morning, for the rest of their lives.

"Now, this is what I call a "Good morning,'" Hayley moaned, rolling onto her back.

Elijah grinned and ran his fingertips up and down her arms as he kissed her lips and she wrapped her legs around him. "A good morning, indeed."

"Better than coffee," Hayley muttered.

"Better than waffles?" Elijah teased. "With fresh syrup? Strawberries and whipped cream on top." He kissed the tip of her nose and Hayley let out a laugh, rolling her eyes.

"You're making me hungry," Hayley moaned.

"Let me help your appetite along," Elijah muttered, bringing her leg up to kiss her inner thigh.

"Good idea," Hayley's eyes rolled backwards as Elijah continued to kiss his way down to her knee.

Moving above her, Elijah felt intent on making his lovely fiancée very hungry for their morning meal when the doorbell rang. Hayley's eyes sprang open and her smile turned into a frown. "What the hell?" she cried out.

"Don't worry about it. We'll ignore it until whoever it is goes away." Elijah moved his mouth to Hayley's neck.

The doorbell sounded again and Elijah paused. Hayley let out another groan. Sitting up, Elijah shook his head. "Perhaps I should tell them to go away."

"Perhaps not," Hayley leaned up and shoved Elijah onto his back. "I'm way better at ignoring people. It take a lot of training. And starts with family. And friends. Really annoying roommates. They're in the bathroom. In the kitchen. In the living room. Sometimes they come into your bedroom to talk and bring cookies and then there are crumbs. Total disaster," Hayley said as she peeled off her nightgown and laid down on top of Elijah who already felt distracted.

They began to kiss, long and slow when the door buzzer went off and whoever it was decided to leave their finger on the button. Growling in frustration and anger, Elijah caught Hayley by the shoulders and eased her backwards. "I am so very sorry. But if they keep doing that; your groom will be in jail."

"Okay. I get it." Hayley slid backwards. "And I'll come help you dismember whoever it is." She slipped off the side of the bed to grab her nightgown while Elijah climbed off the end of the bed. He grabbed a pair of jeans and a T from his dresser and headed into the hallway.

Running down the stairs, Elijah shouted. "I'm coming. Just a moment!" He jerked the jeans on and then the T before he flipped the bolt lock and then twisted the knob. Leaning against the doorframe; Elijah's brows came together. He certainly did not expect this scene to greet him.

"Hi, Elijah. I am sooooo sorry." Caroline offered Elijah a strained smile. Then her eyes filled with tears as she rocked a baby on her hip. "She hates me!" she wailed.

"Who hates you?" Elijah asked, pushing himself off the doorframe as Hope began to wail as well.

"Her!" Caroline held the baby toward Elijah like the child might explode. "She hates me!"

"What's going on?" Hayley appeared beside Elijah, her eyes going from Elijah, to Caroline's sobbing form to the going-red-in-the-face infant.

"I can't do this!" Caroline told them. "She doesn't want me to be her mother! You have to take her! You've already had one! You know what to do with them!" Caroline continued to thrust the wailing baby girl at Elijah as the child pin-wheeled her tiny legs.

"Alright." Elijah opened his arms and took the baby as gently as possible into his arms. She stared up at him with huge eyes and stopped crying.

"See! See! I told you: It's me! She hates me! I feed her! I burped her! I sang her a song! I rocked her! I burped her! I changed her! I told her she could have any toy she ever asked for! And nothing! She wants me to disappear!" Caroline's shoulders drooped.

Hayley took Caroline by the arm and dragged her inside. "You look like shit," Hayley announced.

"Thanks," Caroline moaned, running a hand through her hair. Elijah would admit—silently—that Caroline did seem to be at loose ends. Her shirt had baby puke on it. Her hair might not have been washed or combed in a week. Her eyes were blood-shot and she looked as if she had not slept in a month.

"Caroline, this is all very new for you," Elijah said quietly as he felt Hope growing heavy in his arms. Her small fist was jammed just under her mouth, her eyelids fluttered as she drew closer and closer to the land of nod. "It becomes easier."

"Not when your new baby hates you," Caroline muttered as Hayley pulled her over to the couch. The blonde tucked her legs under her. "Klaus makes it look like the easiest job in the world. She always eats for him. And laughs at his stupid jokes. I swear she smiles at him, too. It's not gas!" She threw her hands up in the air and let out a bitter laugh. "I thought I could handle this! I wanted it! It was my idea to have a baby. Now, we have a baby and I just want to take her back. I am a horrible mother!" She threw herself onto the pillow to her right.

"Caroline, you lost a child and this child lost her mother. You're still strangers. You're trying to get used to each other. It takes time," Elijah said quietly. He leaned down and watched as Caroline sat up. Easing the baby into her arms, he watched as she took the child who burrowed into the fresh pair of arms and pressed her cheek into Caroline's breast. "See, you're just overwhelmed. Both of you. Be patient."

Elijah looked over to find Hayley staring at him with a smile she was trying to repress. "I'm going to make us all some waffles."

"Thank you," Caroline called. Then she added. "Please, don't tell Klaus about this."

"Promise we won't," Hayley said, following Elijah into the kitchen. "You thinking about getting into the family advice bus?" she teased him, pressing her nose into the side of his neck.

"Not any time soon," Elijah replied as he opened the fridge door. "I only make appointments with family and friends."

"And fiancées," Hayley added as Elijah pulled out a bottle of milk and a cartoon of eggs.

"Most definitely fiancées," Elijah removed a cartoon of strawberries.

"You've got more of those?" Hayley asked, nodding at the strawberries.

"Yes." Elijah double-checked to be sure.

"And whip cream?" Hayley's eyes were lit up.

"Of course," Elijah said.

"Good. I just wanted to make sure we have all the right ingredients for later," Hayley said with a wink. Elijah loved how her mind worked as they set about the task of making waffles for themselves and their surprise guests.

Freya

Stretching her arms above her head inside the on-call room, Freya tried to find her inner calm. She would be in the ER for her day's shift. She'd requested the position. Honestly, Freya just wanted a distraction. After her little slip on Valentine's, she'd noted Vincent Griffith finding anywhere else to be than working alongside her. She had decided that today that would change. They were professionals. There was no need for the drama.

As if thinking his name would make him appear, the on-call door opened and Vincent started to come in. His wide dark eyes widened when he caught sight of Freya.

Freya stood in her sports bra and a pair of scrub pants. "Hello, Dr. Griffith," she said, lowering her left leg to the ground from where it had been resting against the side of her knee. "I'm glad you stopped in here. I requested your service today." She marched over to the lower bunk and snatched up her scrub top, yanking it over her head and then shot Vincent a serious, no-nonsense expression.

Vincent frowned. "I think Lucien's been hoping to get on your service this week…"

"That's too bad. Lucien Castle can find someone else to kiss up to today. Today, you are mine." Jerking a hairband over her wrist, Freya tugged her blonde locks through it and then moved to the door.

Eyes dropping to the floor, Vincent side-stepped and held out an arm for Freya to pass by him. "Right."

Freya forced down anything nice she might try to say to break the ice. She wanted him to know that today he would be treated like a colleague. Nothing more, nothing less.

They went through the hospital before making it to the ER. Thankfully for both of them, there seemed to be a swelling of patients with a mystery illness and this left them with little time to think about anything other than figuring out what the symptoms might correspond to.

"Flu?" Vincent tried.

Freya shook her head. "No. People don't usually break out with the flu. Or I've been dealing with the wrong cases." Her eyes went to a rash on a twenty-year-old woman's arm.

"Maybe they were exposed to something," Vincent tried again. "Perhaps some type of poison oak, or ivy?"

Freya continued to shake her head when her patient displayed a new symptom. The girl leaned over and vomited. Blood. The machines began to beep as if they wanted the attention all to themselves as the girl dropped onto her side.

"She's flat-lined!" Vincent cried. "Crash cart!"

Freya groaned and began to do compressions. If only they could get a handle on whatever these people might been exposed to. The crash cart arrived and Vincent took the paddles. He pressed them to the girl's chest. Her body bounced on the gurney. Freya checked the machines. "Still no pulse. Push epi," she shouted.

The nurse did as Freya commanded. Resuming compression, Freya's eyes went to the monitor. Nothing. "Come on. Come on!" she cried.

"Dr. Mikaelson!" Vincent called.

Freya moved out of the way and he shocked the poor girl again. Twisting her head around, Freya noted the machine beginning to beep at the steady rhythm. Falling back on her heels, Freya grinned at Vincent.

For a moment, Freya felt sure that Vincent echoed her zeal with their win before he peeled off his gloves. "I'm going to check on Mr. Avery," he muttered, turning to go.

"Vincent," Freya called.

Vincent paused. "Good job," Freya said.

Vincent nodded and then turned his back on her. Feeling alone, Freya looked down at her patient. For now the girl was stabilized but without figuring out what made her ill in the first place; she might not make a recovery.

~0~

Sitting in an office close to the nurse's station, Freya typed in various illness in the West and then in the East that any of the patients who had come in the last five hours could have. They had five patients, all with the same symptoms and Freya felt lost. Nothing. She could not figure out what the cause of these people's illnesses was and it was making her grit her teeth. She felt certain they would lose one of these people in the next twenty-four hours if she didn't figure it out. Sighing, she picked up the phone. She hated to make the call, but it felt like this might be something for the CDC to deal with.

Just as Freya began to dial the number, the door to the office flew open. "I've got it!" Vincent cried. He moved across to Freya, perching on the desk. "On my second day as an intern, you told us to always look at the charts. So, I looked back at the charts, hoping that all of these patients had something in common, other than their symptoms and guess what the common denominator is?"

Freya sat back in the chair and waited. "They were all seeing a Dr. Silas. Check this out," Vincent turned toward the computer and Freya slid over for him to use it. Switching to a screen where he could pull up Google; Vincent typed in Dr. Silas.

The smiling face of a young-ish doctor in a lab coat stood with a bright smile. Above his head: Don't Fear. The Lung Cancer Doctor is Here! Freya glared at the screen as she skimmed the information.

"He's selling people on a drug which is killing them. Not helping them," Vincent told her.

Sighing, Freya rubbed her temples. With so many patients coming in with vaping related illnesses, she expected more of these so-called doctors to pop up with "miracle cures." Shaking her head, Freya glanced at Vincent. "It looks like we're going to have to send their drug to the lab and see if we can reverse whatever damage this idiot caused."

Vincent nodded. "I'll go see if anyone brought in their meds."

Turning the chair around, Freya added. "Good job, Vincent."

"Thank you," Vincent replied as he exited the office.

Freya's mind was no longer on her next romance; it was on figuring out to put people like "Dr. Silas" out of business.

Bonnie

"Wine?" Phil asked. He held up the still mostly full bottle and Bonnie smiled over the rim of her empty glass.

"Maybe one more," Bonnie replied. She held the glass and watched as Phil poured. The candlelight that danced in front of his face made Bonnie feel like she was in the middle of a cheesy rom-com. And she kind of loved her current life.

After one, mind-blowing night with Philip Walters, Bonnie had given into his ride-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of lifestyle. Today, they were having a romantic dinner out. Tomorrow, Phil might drag her off on a weekend to Napa. With him, Bonnie felt like she never knew what she might be up to.

"You know, I have work to do," Bonnie said, running her thumb over the top of her wine glass and tilting her head to the side, grinning at her lover.

Phil nodded. "Yes. Lots of late hours. Still, so much research to do. You know I plan on keeping you up laaaaattttte tomorrow night." His brows went up as he spoke and Bonnie crossed her legs under the table, sliding her foot up and down the side of his leg.

Eyes widening, Phil leaned across the table. "Bonnie," he said, in a serious tone of voice.

"What?" Bonnie replied, leaning over and her foot stilled.

"There's a woman's foot on my thigh. What should I do?" Phil demanded, his eyes wide and then he grinned at her. His hand went down and her shoe fell off under the table cloth. His finger slid over her arch and she bit her lower lip as his fingers rubbed her ankle and made their way up her calf.

"Can I get you two dessert menus?" their waitress asked with a huge smile. She had impeccable timing.

"No. Thank you. I believe we'll be having dessert elsewhere," Phil replied, not looking away from Bonnie.

The girl did not seem to understand. "We have an extensive menu. And our chef would be more than happy to accommodate you if our menu is not to your liking."

Bonnie moved her foot. "Phil, give the poor girl a break and let her bring the dessert menu," she ordered him with a shake of her curls.

Phil rolled his eyes. "I thought we agreed to have dessert at my place."

"Well, sometimes we have dessert at a nice restaurant," Bonnie retorted. She looked at the waitress. "Thank you."

The girl still seemed confused but nodded and hurried away.

Looking at Phil, Bonnie could not help but laugh. "You are a bad man."

"Give me that foot, again, and I'll show you how bad I can be," Phil replied, reaching under the table and Bonnie giggled as she moved her feet out of his reach.

"Ah, Phil. Good to see things don't change much, no matter how old you get." Bonnie glanced up and gulped. Tiffany Marshall stood by their table. A little smirk on her lips. Her eyes burned into Phil.

"Tiff. How lovely to see you. Here. Tonight," Phil straightened up and smoothed his tie. "You've met Dr. Bennett?"

"Yes. I believe I have. Nice to see you, dear," Tiffany said, nodding at Bonnie before turning back to look at Phil. "Well, I do so hate to break up such a sweet-looking dinner for two. You have fun." She moved to walk past them and head toward another table.

Bonnie found her eyes going over to the table for one that Dr. Marshall have gone to sit at. The waitress returned with the dessert menus and Bonnie inhaled. "Um…"

"What would your recommend?" Phil asked, not bothering to look at his menu.

Bonnie peered over hers at Dr. Marshall who picked up a glass of water. Narrowing her eyes, Bonnie noted how the glass trembled in the woman's hand. Then it fell to the floor. "Oh, boy," their waitress muttered as Dr. Marshall's waitress went over to help.

"Ma'am, are you alright?" the other girl cried.

Dr. Marshall nodded. A smile began to form on her face when her body suddenly shuddered and she fell from her chair. "Tiff!" Phil shot to his feet. Moving across the room, he knelt over Dr. Marshall. "Give me that," he snapped at the waitress closest to him. She handed him a folded cloth napkin and he slid it into Dr. Marshall's mouth, holding her arms still at her sides while other diners stared at the drama unfolding.

Bonnie made her way over to them, attempting to block the view. She pulled out her phone, to make a call when Dr. Marshall grabbed Phil's wrist. Her head rocked back and forth, her eyes were wide and Dr. Marshall was looking at Bonnie. Kneeling down beside the woman, Bonnie watched as the seizure abated. "Don't…call...anyone…" Dr. Marshall moaned.

Bonnie's eyes went to Phil. He helped his ex into a sitting position. "I…have…Parkinson's…" Her eyes went from Phil to Bonnie. "Don't tell…anyone…" Phil did not seem surprised by this news which gave Bonnie the impression he already knew. So, this news was for Bonnie.

"Ma'am," a man in a suit had come to hover over them. Bonnie caught sight of his manager tag. "Is there anything we can do for you?" he asked, wringing his hands.

"Yes. You can get me a glass of Merlot," Dr. Marshall got to her feet, with Phil's help and Bonnie watched as Dr. Marshall offered on-lookers a smile. "Sorry about the bit of dramatics. I'm diabetic. Thankfully, my fellow doctor and his lovely assistant were there to provide excellent care for my condition."

The other diners traded looks before they burst into applause. Phil held up his hands. "We're just doing our jobs," he called to them with his usual confident smile. His hand went to take Bonnie's and she offered their audience a tight smile. Leaning closer to Bonnie, Phil whispered into her ear. "Do you mind if I have a quick chat with Tiff. Make sure someone's going to come pick her up."

Bonnie nodded. "Not a problem. I'll just order dessert." She returned to their table and picked up a menu with shaking hands. This night had changed, and not for the better.

~0~

Thirty-five minutes later Bonnie held a tinfoil swan in her arms. The dessert which had gone untouched in the restaurant and was the only thing she would be holding tonight as she stood on the sidewalk, just outside her own home.

Phil hurried around the side of his car. "I'm so sorry, Bon. I promise, I will make this up to you." He kissed her on the cheek and then returned to the driver's side of his car.

Tiffany unrolled the window to the passenger side. "Thank you for being so understanding, Dr. Bennett." She offered Bonnie a smile which made Bonnie's stomach tighten and her hands curl more tightly around the swan. "Have a good night."

"You, too," Bonnie called back, offering Dr. Marshall a smile in return. She made her way to her front door, almost dropping dessert on the walkway as she dug for her keys. It was once she was inside the confines of her home that Bonnie leaned against the door and slid to the floor. Jealousy had little to do with tonight. Knowing that she had no chance when it came to two people with the kind of history those two had, did.

Opening the tinfoil, Bonnie shoved her bare hand into the cool lava cake and lifted it to take a bite. She nodded. "Still good," she muttered. At least one good thing came from tonight: She had two, ridiculously-priced lava cakes all to herself.

Thank you for reading, faving, following and reviewing.

Peace,

-J