Chapter 4

Niklaus lounged sullenly in his armchair after hearing his brother's recount of his day's event with Hope.

"You didn't have to spank her." He griped.

Elijah sighed as he handed Niklaus a drink in the hopes of getting his brother to calm down. Hayley entered the room and poured herself a glass of white wine. She'd just come from the courtyard where Hope and her friend, Sebastian, were zealously practicing their magic.

"She followed a stranger to a hotel," Elijah stated for what felt like the hundredth time. "I couldn't let that go unscathed."

"I would've grounded her when she got back if you would've simply told me first."

Hayley chuckled. "Grounded her? You mean when you send her to her room, half an hour later she comes to you with big crocodile tears on her face and you let her out, you two share a Sundae or some cake or some other high calorie sweet and all is well? No, Klaus. What she did was impulsive and dangerous. She needed something a little harsher than a thirty minute time out."

"She's an exceptionally strong witch. I doubt some pervert would ever be able to get the jump on her."

Frustrated by his brother's obstinacy, Elijah declared, "So what if it wasn't some pervert, you still have enemies out there. Enemies who are sure to return the second they find out Klaus Mikaelson is back on his throne in New Orleans. They all know about your daughter and they know the easiest way to get to you is through her. You have to think about that before you go letting her explore the city unguarded."

"She is only allowed to explore the Quarter, she knows that. And I cleared this city of all wretch so my daughter could roam is unguarded and carefree. She is not a prisoner."

"Elijah's right, Niklaus." Hayley asserted. "I know my daughter and she may be a Mikaelson by blood but she is hardly one of you. She is far too trusting and innocent to be let go without reigns. You're too soft on her."

"I'm soft on her because she is too trusting and innocent. I don't want her to think me the bad guy. I refuse to have her grow up to resent me! I won't have another Mar-" Niklaus cut off his rant before he revealed a secret that he didn't even know he harbored but he'd already said too much.

"Brother," Elijah put a soft hand on Niklaus's shoulder. "Hope will never become like Marcel. His life was filled with so much pain before us whereas Hope has been showered by an endless supply of love her entire life."

Niklaus rose to his feet and anxiously paced the room. "Did we not shower Marcellus with the same love and affection? Did we not proudly dote on him for every achievement? The only misgiving I can think of, the only way in which we were like Mikael, was that we hit him and that is why he grew to resent us as we did our father."

"Hit him?" Elijah quickly made his way in front of Niklaus, forcing his younger brother to look him in the eyes as they spoke. "Is that what you thought of me when…when I spanked Kol that night? Did you…did you see me as Mikael?"

"I don't know what I thought. But I know that monster ruined me. I lived in constant fear until Mikael's ultimate demise and if I thought Hope felt even the slightest bit of fear towards me…I don't even want to imagine."

"Niklaus, we were never Mikael. We were never the object of Marcel's nightmares, callous sadists gaining pleasure from the pain and fear of the weak that rely on us for safety. We may have spanked him but we were never like Mikael. If you were to ask Marcel right now I'm sure he'd tell you the same."

"How would you possibly know that?"

Elijah stared reservedly away from his brother. "I spoke to him the day you banished him and he told me…that he might be feeling some regret over what he did to us. That…he was hoping for your forgiveness."

"Why didn't you tell me that sooner?"

"Because you were furious with him and I feared anything I told you about him, even that of his inner most reservations, would be coldheartedly cast aside. You needed to be vulnerable before you heard the truth and now you are. So tell us…how do you feel?"

Niklaus walked away, rubbing his hand roughly through his hair as he pictured Marcel out in the world on his own. He was an old vampire so Niklaus knew he was certainly capable of surviving on his own but he wasn't sure if he would. Marcel had hardly left New Orleans in two hundred years and for the most part he was always safe there, surrounded by a community of vampires that would die for him. Out in the real world, he had no one and in his travels Niklaus had witnessed all the creative defenses the vast growing world had thought of to protect themselves and Marcel knew of none of them.

"He betrayed this family." Klaus said lowly. "He plunged me into a dozen years of pain and torment. He tried to kill you and Kol. I've wiped out entire colonies for less. I can't forgive him for that."

"I think you can. I think you really want to but you're fighting it because you're afraid that the Marcellus who turned his back on us that night is now who he's truly become. You're afraid that the boy you loved is gone for good but allow me to say this: Marcel is over 200 years old and he spent half of that without you. He has long since abandoned the boy you raised and yet he still fears your eternal disapproval as any son would a loving father. You didn't fail him, brother, he failed you. Allow him the opportunity for absolution."

"It's too late. He's gone."

"Freya could perform a locator spell."

"No. After what he did, what would it say about me as a King if I let him return this quickly? People need to know that no one is above my laws. Not even Marcel."

Hayley rose from her spot on the couch and strolled over to the father of her child. "You once compared Marcel's death…to that of Hope's. Just…think about that while you leave him to roam the Earth alone."

Elijah followed Hayley out of the room, leaving Niklaus to ponder things on his own. There was nothing he hated more than being alone with such dark thoughts though he would never let anyone know.

-M-

The day after being almost discovered by Elijah, Marcel moved his residence from the hotel room to a cabin out in the bayou and at least once a week, Hope would find a way to sneak off to see him. Since she found out about Elijah's secret trackers she was extra careful to lose them before she ever went out to the bayou. Elijah and Haylee were always livid when she returned home but she could always count on Niklaus to come to her defense.

Thanksgiving was soon upon them and Hope couldn't have been happier.

"Let's do Thanksgiving together." Hope declared as soon as she walked in Marcel's cabin.

"What about your family?"

"I'll still do it with them too but we can have it here first."

"That's…very generous of you but I haven't celebrated the holidays in years. I can't even cook Thanksgiving dinner."

"I can. Mom and I used to cook it together every year. Dad's having it catered this year because he says the Mikaelsons haven't cooked a holiday meal in a thousand years so I'll be completely free to cook here."

"I don't know. Do you really want to waste your Thanksgiving break here cooking for me?"

"Of course I do. You're my brother and you'll be all alone otherwise. It's not fair what my dad is doing to you, forcing you out of the city you lived in your entire life in to the bayou away from your only family."

Marcel cringed internally. That was almost the exact thing he'd done to the Mikaelson and her obvious disgust at Niklaus but not him told Marcel that her family had yet to tell her the truth about where Niklaus was and who rendered the rest of the Mikaelson clan inert.

"Still, I'd feel bad making you cook." Marcel changed the subject. "Something about it makes me feel like I'm breaking some child labor laws or something so how about we skip Turkey Day and you spend the rest of the week with your family and we can do Christmas together."

"But…you'll be all alone."

"I'll be fine. I've got a few plans of my own."

"Like what?"

Marcel smirked at his sister's inquisitiveness. "Okay, I'm going to tell you this but don't freak out. I'm leaving New Orleans."

Hope's jaw dropped. She moved her mouth to speak but Marcel quickly held up a hand to silence her.

"I know but let's face it, there's nothing here for me anymore. I'm living alone in a cabin in a swamp and the only friend I have is a thirteen year old girl who has to ask permission to stay out after dark. I've thought of a hundred ways I could return to the city but they all end with your family hating me more than they already do or with me lying dead in the streets and I don't really win in either of those scenarios."

"Please, Marcel. I'll think of something. I'll talk to my dad. He'll do anything for me."

"That is such a bad idea. Klaus hates me. If he found out we've been secretly chatting behind his back he'll go berserk. He'll accuse me of trying to turn you against him and then he and the rest of the Mikaelson clan will sweep the bayou, killing everything in sight in search for me and once he gets his hands on me he will rip me apart and end me in the most painful way he can think of."

Hope refused to believe that her father would be so cruel.

"He-he wouldn't." She stammered. "My dad couldn't hurt a fly."

Marcel laughed sarcastically. "Klaus Mikaelson? Girl, please. In the 15th century, your dad and your uncle, Kol, drained an entire convent of nuns just to get the King's attention."

"No, no, you're wrong. My dad would never do something like that. My daddy's a Saint."

"Then you go ask him. Ask him about the Convent Massacre or the Shelby Suicides. Ask him what happened to the Roanoke colony. He's a monster, Hope, and the only reason you don't know about it is the same reason I grew up thinking Klaus could do no harm – because he wants you to think that. He wants you to trust him more than anyone so when you're strong enough, you'll feel obligated to him."

Hope's emotions flared at Marcel's accusations and he was awarded the chance to bear witness to a stunning surge of chaotic magic more powerful than he'd seen since Davina. Hope's magic ripped through the furniture and doors. It ripped through the walls, shattering the windows, destroying everything until all the remained was a pile of ash and Marcel. Marcel was shocked. There was no way he should've survived the destruction. Her power was uncontrollably tearing through everything without basis and even as a vampire he body should've been ripped to shreds. Then he realized that even in her frantic state, Hope had still managed to put a force field around him to protect her brother.

Drained of all her energy, Hope's body hit the dirt floor like a log.

Rushing to her side, Marcel picked the girl's limp body up. He checked for a pulse and was swept with relief when he found it.

"Great." He groaned staring at the demolished remains around them. "Now what am I going to do?"


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