Chapter 14

"I don't understand why I'm being grounded!" Hope yelled indirectly at Hayley and Elijah sitting at the dining table withher. The long night before called for a late brunch the next day. Hayley, Elijah, and Hope were the only people at the table so far so Hayley thought it would be the best time to break the news to her daughter.

"You know exactly why," Hayley barked back. She wanted to ground the girl the night before but Klaus insisted she and Elijah sleep on the matter hoping that the mother of his child and his brother would wake up and feel like he did: Grateful for the girl's safe return.

"I saved a man's life," Hope defended. "Did you just want me to let him die?"

"Hope, you are a child," Elijah interrupted from his spot behind Hayley. "If you find someone who needs help, you get an adult, not skulk around the docks in the middle of the night."

"I was with an adult."

"You know what he means," Hayley spat.

A year ago she wouldn't have gotten so irritated with her daughter but the past few months she's spent with Klaus gave Hope the belief that she was impervious to punishment. All she had to do was get Klaus on her side and she could get away with anything. Hayley was determined to make sure that didn't happen this time.

"And the matter is not up for argument. You are grounded for three days. No phone, no internet, no friends."

"That's not fair!"

"I quite agree," a voice coming from behind drew their attention to Rebekah. "I think she's better off with her friends. I must admit, I dropped the ball babysitting last night but if it weren't for that Sebastian chap tipping me to Hope's location I would've been too late and who knows what could've happened."

Hope was grateful that her Aunt Rebekah showed up just in time to stop her from having to seriously hurt anyone but she couldn't help but feel slightly betrayed by her best friend whom she texted that night saying: Going to the docks to save a vampire. DO NOT TELL MY AUNT! BRB.

"All that proves, dear sister," Niklaus said silently sneaking up behind Rebekah. "Is your own incompetence. If I may throw my hat into the ring,"

"Certainly, Klaus," Hayley sat back and waited for Klaus's response which she was sure was going to be him in some way defending Hope's mistakes from last night. She had already made up her mind to ignore whatever he said.

"Hope, I agree with your mother," he said to everyone's surprise, especially Hope's. "What you did last night was very dangerous. The rules we set are for your own protection. We are the most powerful family in New Orleans and with that comes enemies; enemies who would try to hurt you to get what we have."

"I know, daddy," Hope stared up at her father with big, round sad eyes. "But…I was just doing what I thought you would do if your brother needed help."

Hayley and Elijah knew Hope had Niklaus exactly where she wanted him then.

Turning to them, Niklaus said, "Perhaps we are being a bit harsh. She's fine, after all and no one got seriously injured."

Amazed by the man's problematic sentimentality, Hayley stated, "She's grounded, Hope, end of discussion."

"But Mom," Hope whined.

"Hayley, let's be reasonable,"

Hayley pushed her chair back from the table and said, "I'm done talking about this, Klaus. Three days, Hope."

As Hayley left, Niklaus took a seat at the table beside his brother.

"Don't worry," he said noting the doleful look on his daughter's face. "Three days will go by before you know it. You can spend more time practicing magic with that little friend of yours."

"Hayley specifically forbade her from having friends over, Niklaus," Elijah warned.

"She'd go stir crazy here alone," Niklaus said sternly. "Wouldn't want that to happen…again."

Elijah understood the veiled reference to Marcel though he highly doubted Hope was in danger of becoming anything like Marcel and that was not a good thing.

Still, he remained silent on the matter. He vowed to not interfere with the way Niklaus choose to discipline his daughter (at least not in front of her and certainly not in a way Niklaus would see as interference).

The other Mikaelsons slowly made their way to the dining table. Kol just grabbed a blueberry muffin out of the basket of muffins in the middle of the table and darted out to start his day. Freya sat for a while with the family but she was completely focused on an old grimoire she found in a Tremé witch shop. When she left Hope followed her, intrigued by the little she read over her Aunt's shoulder. Marcel was the last to come down.

"Marcel," Klaus greeted. He and Elijah were still sitting at the table discussing their Kingdom when he saw Marcel groggily enter. "I thought you'd still be asleep after the night you had."

"I've been up since day-break doing 'chores'," Marcel yawned as he slipped tiredly into a pulled out chair and grabbed an orange.

Klaus was shocked to find out that Marcel had been up so long. He himself had only woken an hour ago but while he was fast asleep the man he called son was laboring tirelessly at purposeless work.

Niklaus gave Elijah a nod to leave.

"I want to talk to you about your Manual," he said once they were alone.

"Yes, I know being late to brunch technically breaks one of your precious rules," Marcel said sardonically, "But give me a break. I'm running on fumes here."

"I perfectly capable of 'giving you a break'. I possess basic decency. That you felt you even need to ask that is why I think we should talk."

Marcel stopped pilling the orange to give Klaus his full attention.

"I don't want you doing those chores anymore, Marcel. Between the servants and the wolves learning to clean up after themselves this place doesn't need you to keep it in one piece. And you proved last night that it doesn't matter what the Manual says or even what I say, you're still going to do what you think is right so what's the point of it?"

Marcel set the orange on the table, his eyes staring straight ahead and his jaw tense. He knew he was risking exile to save Josh but he'd hope after his talk with Klaus that night exile was the furthest thing from his mind.

"I understand," He finally said but in fact he did not because exile was indeed the furthest thing from Klaus's mind. "But I stand by my decision and if I had to choose between letting Josh die and exile again, I'll ch-"

"Whoa. Exile? Who said anything about exile? I'm telling you, you don't have to follow that Manual anymore. Well, nothing except rules 1-5."

Marcel's eyes narrowed as he paraphrased the rules, "Don't lie, stay away from Hope and Rebekah, and…"

"Obey every order, do not use Compulsion, and-"

"No unregistered associates. Yeah, I didn't forget, I just didn't want to say them." He grunted. "So, is Josh a 'registered associate' now?"

"He is but since I'm assuming you'll be spending a lot more time outside the Compound now I don't expect to be able to meet everyone you come in contact with but know that I have eyes everywhere and if I hear about you being seen with the same person too many times without giving an introduction to yours truly…we will be chatting."

"You're just never going to trust me," Marcel said with a wide smile.

Niklaus smirked back. "Not today, mate."

-M-

Three days couldn't have gone by slower to Hope. To fill in some of the hours of the day Hope studied spells out of Freya's old grimoires. Freya was focused on a particular section in a tattered, old leather-bound book that could help her restore the Other Side. It wasn't going to bring Finn back but at least then if another of her family members died she would have the option of bringing them back.

Hope had her sights set on a spell that could rewind the aging process, making an old witch young again.

"What would you want that spell for?" Freya asked glancing over Hope's shoulder at the book in her hands. "If you get any younger you'll be back in diapers again."

But maybe if I make a few adjustments I can pause time, Hope thought to herself. She had created a couple of new spells of her own under Freya's tutelage: one that could turn a mouse blue and another that compelled a pencil to do her homework. She was confident in her ability to transfigure a time freezing spell from another vaguely similar spell.

"Aunty Freya, how can I use Callum root in a spell without the Lemma essence?"

"Callum root?" Freya took another look at the spell and realized that it was far too advanced for Hope. Spells that called for Callum root fed off the power of the witch which would weaken Hope. "Sorry, sweetie," She quickly snatched the book from her niece's hands. "But you're not ready for this yet."

"I am," Hope argued. "I knew about Callum root, didn't I?"

"You may be smart enough, Hope, but you're not physically there yet. You don't have the power to sustain this spell yet."

Hope watched her aunt walk out of the room with her arm wrapped around the spell book. She knew Freya was taking the book to her room where she kept all the books she thought Hope wasn't strong enough for.

Hope suddenly thought of the best use of her time for the next three days: Finding that grimoire and learning that spell.

-M-

Freya, who was so engulfed in her studies that she barely registered the change between night and day, went days without leaving the compound. Hope kept close by her the whole time waiting for the perfect opportunity to get to the grimoire. It wasn't until the day after her punishment was over that she found a chance to get the spell.

Freya left the compound to shop for more ingredients (she wanted to keep her potion stash in good supply in case a war broke out) and Hope went in search for the book.

She quickly went through all of Freya's magical items, being careful to put everything back exactly how she found it. When she found the grimoire she snapped a few pictures of the spell with her cellphone and put it back, her aunty none the wiser.

Hope and Sebastian spent days secretly preparing the spell. When they thought they were ready, they went to the bayou to perform the spell.

Hope made quick work of losing her tail by conjuring an illusion to make her werewolf bodyguard think a stray Tomcat was her while they were still in the Quarter.

"Are you sure about this?" Sebastian asked staring down at the perfect circle Hope had drawn in the damp bayou dirt.

"Don't chicken out on me now. Just think about it, the next time you forget to do your fourth period homework, you can just freeze time and copy someone else's. Just make sure it's not mine because I'm probably gonna have to copy yours."

"What if we freeze time and it stays like that forever."

"I know how to transfigure spells, Sebastian. I made sure that the effects of the spell never last longer than ten minutes."

Convinced by Hope's confidence, Sebastian continued putting the spell together with her. The sun slowly began to set. Just as they were prepared to start chanting the incantation, Hope noticed the size of the glowing moon above them.

"Oh no," she muttered. "I didn't know tonight was going to be a full moon."

"What? Will it still work?"

"Y-yeah, but we have to hurry. Full moons mean werewolves."

"I thought your mom controlled the wolves."

"The wolves of our pack. New packs have moved in since we came back and they don't have my mom's ability to change at will which means there will definitely be some wild wolves running around here tonight."

"Uh, then maybe we should come back tomorrow."

"We can't. Once my mom finds out that I tricked my bodyguard it'll be another week before we can get back out here. Let's just hurry and do it now."

Hope grabbed Sebastian's hands and pulled him into the circle with her. A goblet with a mix of ingredients stood between them.

For a long time, nothing seemed to happen as the two teens stood in the circle chanting. The sun had gone down and the moon was in full effect but they continued. Then, Hope began to feel a tug on her magic. From her studies of the spell she knew that had to be the effect of the Callum root. She watched Sebastian's face contort with pain and knew he must've felt the effects too.

"What are you doing?"

Hope and Sebastian jumped from fear at hearing the man's voice coming from the thicket. They continued to hold hands so the spell wouldn't break but they were both trembling until out came Marcel.

"I said what do you think you're doing?" Marcel barked. "Do you know where you are? Do you know what tonight is?"

"Uh…what are you doing here? Did you follow us?" Hope said attempting to draw the line of questioning away from her.

"No, I came…to meet a friend."

"Yeah, right, my dad put you up to this, didn't he?"

Before Marcel could answer he felt a strange tingle go down his spine. He knew that tingle. It had kept him alive for over 200 years. It was the sensation he got whenever danger was near.

He glared out into the dark woods and saw the silhouettes of bloodthirsty wolves surrounding them. An entire pack. A dozen at least. Marcel was sure he could take them all on himself but he knew he couldn't save both children though it wasn't going to stop him from trying.

He sped to the circle prepared to grab Hope and Sebastian and run them to safety but he was blocked by the spell's protective barrier that kept everything outside the circle outside the circle.

The wolves came out one by one.

"Let go," Hope barked as she tried to pull her hands away to help Marcel fight.

"I'm trying," said Sabastian and it was then the two teens realized that the Callum root feeding off their magic wasn't going to let them go until the spell was over.

"We have to finish." Hope stated.

Reluctantly the two teens continued their chant, praying that the spell worked because once the barrier was down they were going to need to freeze time to escape the wolves.

Marcel fought valiantly outside the barrier. He tried to avoid killing any of the wolves since they were acting purely on their animal instinct but after the second venomous bite laced him he felt no other choice in the matter.

He went for the biggest wolf, putting its big furry neck in a headlock. In one easy move his snapped it. Two more came lunging at him, one getting a big chunk out of his calf. He made quick work of them also. After seeing three of theirs perish, the other wolves scampered away, yelping for dear life.

The spell was nowhere near being complete by the end of the brawl but both teens were standing in silence, gripping each other's hands with all their might. The pain of the Callum root had become too painful to bare. Again, they tried pulling their hands apart but the magic was too powerful. The spell demanded to be complete.

The poison coursing through his veins made Marcel writhe in agony but he refused to leave without Hope. He knew that with the amount of venom in him right now, it would be a miracle if he could survive another hour without Klaus's blood but he refused to leave Hope out there with the wolves still roaming around.

As the spell began to draw to an end, Hope felt an ease to her pain. A big flash of fire in the goblet was supposed to be the sign that the spell was complete but as Hope watched Marcel staggering to stay on his feet while standing still, she knew it failed.

"Did it work?" Sebastian asked.

"Is time frozen?" Hope replied sarcastically.

"What were you trying to do?" Marcel began scolding. He stepped one foot into the circle and there was a flash like a lightning bolt that knocked all three of them out of the circle. Hope and Sebastian quickly made it back to their feet but Marcel didn't move an inch.

Hope hurried to his side. Marcel laid with his eyes closed and his body stiff as a board. He looked dead and his cold vampire body wasn't helping ease Hope's fear. Assuming the wolf venom was keeping him too weak to move Hope cut her hand, pried his clenched jaws apart, and dripped her blood into his mouth.

His wounds didn't heal.

"Maybe he's frozen," Sebastian suggested, trying calm his frightened friend. "Yeah, I'm sure that's it. Something went wonky with the spell and it backfired and now he's frozen. You said it wears off in ten minutes? Well," Sebastian tapped the face of his watch. "We still have 8 ½ minutes to go."

Ten minutes turned to eleven, then twelve."

"We have to get him out of here," Hope fretted. "We have to get him to my Aunt Freya. She'll know what to do."

"Hope," Hope turned shimmering eyes to the trees where Rebekah was standing, staring at the sight in disbelief. "What happened?"

-M-

"I don't know how to wake him up," Freya announced somberly to the room of Mikaelsons. "I've tried everything. I'm not even getting a spiritual feedback from him."

Marcel had been unconscious for an hour with no sign of waking up.

"He may already be dead." Kol added sitting confidently on the armrest of Rebekah's chair.

"Kol," Elijah bit, furious at Kol's quip while Niklaus was so obviously afraid.

"What? I'm telling the truth. He's shown no sign of life in the past hour. Hope altered that spell and who knows what she's created."

"He will wake up," Rebekah said stubbornly. "We just have to figure out what that spell does."

"Which we will not be doing," Freya stated trying to remain calm in the mist of her sibling's passionate expressions towards Marcel's condition. "We don't know all the effects of that spell and the one we do know seems to be at least semi-fatal. Now, I'm going to need some time to study this spell and find a cure for Marcel. Let's just…hope for the best until then."

-M-

Niklaus sat in an armchair beside Marcel's bed all night. He didn't sleep a wink waiting for the man's eyes to pop open at any moment. Elijah brought him breakfast that morning and dinner that night.

"Why don't you go to sleep," Elijah said. He'd come to retrieve Niklaus's empty dinner plates but he couldn't pretend to not be aware of Niklaus's drowsiness.

"I'm fine, 'Lijah," Klaus responded gruffly.

"Just for a few hours, brother. I'll take over watching Marcel. You need your rest."

Niklaus stared down at his pale faced son, his body completely indefensible. He'd never been so helpless.

"We had a terrible father, Elijah." Niklaus muttered. "But in the end, he managed to keep us alive and isn't that truly the main goal of any parent. I mean, he lost one but then again, that was my fault…just as this was my fault."

"He's going to be fine, Niklaus."

"And what if he isn't? What does that say of me? My teenage daughter killed my adopted son. There's something vaguely Shakespearian about it, don't you agree."

Elijah stared down at Marcel's blank face. "What was he even doing out there?"

"He was meeting me." Rebekah stood at the doorway. Her face as emotionless as Marcel's was at that moment. She hadn't seen him since she carried his ridgid body from the bayou to the Compound. "We met out there as often as we could. It was the only way we could be together outside of your prying eye."

Niklaus didn't know what to say. He wasn't angry; he couldn't be. Being angry at her would mean being angry with Marcel and he couldn't be angry at Marcel.

"Well, who would've guessed my paranoid distrust in those closest to me could lead to the death of someone I hold dear. Certainly you lot could."

Elijah nodded for Rebekah to leave. She did so delightedly. It was eerie seeing Niklaus admit he was wrong.

With a heavy sigh, Elijah said, "Promise me you'll go to sleep eventually."

"Eventually," Klaus promised.

A couple of hours later, Klaus heard footsteps creaking in the hall.

"I can hear you," he said teasingly. "It's okay. You can come in."

A tiny foot in bunny slippers came around the corner. Hope's eyes fixated immediately on Marcel.

"I thought you'd be asleep." Hope tried to scold but the tears threatening to breach her eyes gave away true feelings.

Klaus held his arms open for her to come in for a hug. Hope hurried in but to Marcel's side instead. She held his stiff hand gingerly as if she was afraid he would break.

"I didn't mean to…I didn't think…Is he going to be okay?"

"He's gonna be fine," Niklaus said hopeful. "Come here,"

Hope flung herself into her father's arms, her tears freely falling. "What if he doesn't wake up?" She wept into his shoulder.

Niklaus stared at Marcel fretting the same thing.