~Recap from Chapter 20~

Faithful and true.

These words held little meaning for me now. It might be best if we forgot it altogether.

The woman who promised to be faithful and true was gone. All that was left was my family.

And no matter what, I would never leave them. I will put them before anything else. Family above all.

Always and forever.

Faith might have broken her promise, but I would never break my word.

~TGITW~

Chapter 21: Family Above All

"You don't turn your back on family, even if they do." – Dominic Torreto, Fast & Furious 6

MYSTIC FALLS. 2010 A.D.

She had to do something.

She fumbled through drawers looking for something.

There must be something in this mansion that will help her.

Faith believed there must be some sort of loophole in Katherine's instructions. Yes, she was stuck in the place and not allowed to contact anybody. But there was nothing that stopped her from actually fighting her captor.

A plan was slowly forming in her head. She would somehow overpower Katherine then force the vampire to be the person to call for help. Faith knew it wasn't the best of plans, but it was something. And she was going to try everything she could to get out of this place.

She had a compelling reason to. Once this was all over, she was going to face Elijah. She was going to fight for him.

Faith paused in her actions as she thought about what he would say. She grimaced at the thought and continued searching. One problem at a time Faith.

As she searched, Katherine walked in on her.

"What are you doing?"

Startled, Faith mumbled back a reply, "N-nothing…"

Katherine eyed her suspiciously then walked away.

Feeling like a nervous wreck, Faith went out into a yard to calm down.

There was a dull ache in her heart. A longing. A yearning. The pain of having lost someone. The ache of missing them. It didn't matter how much time had passed, it still ached, it still hurt, and there was nothing she could do about it.

"You ok?" Katherine called out by the door, a worried look on her face.

"I'm ok." Faith tried to smile and failed.

Seeing her upset stirred something in Katherine. Wanting to comfort her, Katherine stepped out into the yard towards Faith.

In that instant, there was whoosh and a blur. Katherine's head snapped and fell to the ground. As she fell, the person behind her was revealed to be the Original Hybrid.

"Hello love," Klaus smiled smugly at Faith. "Miss me?"

~TGITW~

Faith found herself in a house full of Original vampires.

It seems like the gang had negotiated a deal when she was kidnapped by the doppelgangers. They would leave Elena alone and would focus on turning Klaus into a human then killing him. The plan failed miserably. They discovered that when an Original vampire dies, his or her sire line dies with them. To protect the others, Bonnie had moved Klaus' body. Then there was the whole fiasco with Pastor Young and the vampire hunter Connor. Turns out, when Faith was out of the equation, the plotline moved consistently with the original TVD plotline.

Eventually, Klaus had rescued her and brought her to the Mikaelson mansion.

So here she was in the Mikaelson house listening to them argue about her.

When she first came in, they had glared at her with anger. In one way or another they had lost something because of the curse, and she was the reason for it all.

Finn became a vampire and believed them to be all monsters.

Kol missed being a witch.

Rebecca was unable to find love and a normal life.

Elijah relived the pain of losing his loved one again and again.

Now, they would not talk to her. They would not even acknowledge her presence.

She was with them but was being ignored by them. Interestingly enough, they were arguing about forgiving Faith and letting her stay.

Faith could hear them in the room next door. Klaus was arguing on her behalf and his siblings were arguing against.

It hurt to think that they didn't want her.

This was her family. When she had been lost and without memories, they had accepted her into their home. They had welcomed her like family. She could never forget that.

That's why, she had made that promise to them all those years ago. She would love them faithfully. She would love them truly.

But when she woke up in present day TVD, she felt that they blamed her because it was her blood that changed them. She had tried to save them all and instead, she had been taken by Esther tied up and drained of her blood. She had felt extremely guilty because she tried to change the future only to be the very reason it happened. She did not have the courage to face them, to ask them what they really felt. Faith was afraid of what they would answer. That they would reject her.

Now she knew the answer.

~TGITW~

The Originals had reluctantly allowed Faith to stay. Most likely because Klaus had been so determined about it.

Faith looked around the room. It was fully furnished and looked luxurious.

Before she could explore more of her room, she noticed Rebekah standing at the door.

She had her arms folded and was leaning on the doorframe.

Faith gave her a smile. Rebekah returned it with a scowl.

"How could you?" The vampire questioned the girl sharply. "How could you march into our lives again after what've you've done…?"

"Rebekah, look…" Faith began speaking. It was time to resolve this misunderstanding, the one where Rebekah thought Faith killed Esther.

"No!" Rebekah unfolded her arms and glared at her. "You don't get to make apologies. You don't get to explain yourself. You don't deserve it."

Entering the room, Rebekah walked right up to Faith.

"You may have my brother fooled," Rebekah stared intently into Faith's brown eyes. "But I will never allow myself to trust you again."

With that said, she left the room.

~TGITW~

Kol was with Caroline.

The moment it was decided that Faith was staying, he had stormed out of the house in fury.

He had rushed to be with Caroline.

It was funny how their relationship had changed over the months. What with Kol being an Original vampire and then being stabbed by Caroline. You would think that would have ended things between the two. But there was an attraction between the two that seem to draw them together.

There was a twinkle in Kol's eyes as he recalled the moment things change between them.

Caroline had gotten into a fight with Tyler Lockwood. She had asked him to stay but he had left her behind.

Kol fumed at the thought that someone could hurt this beautiful girl. Kol had found her when she was crying and he was going to comfort her when he saw her crying face.

Seeing the way her face had scrunched up into an ugly looking expression, he couldn't help but burst out in laugher.

As beautiful as Caroline was, she was an ugly crier.

Caroline had been annoyed at him that day but ended up bursting in a crying laugh at the sound of his laughter. She had found his laugh dangerously contagious.

It was the beginning of their friendship that day.

Kol found that he was comfortable enough to be himself with Caroline. And Caroline, found herself loosening up. She knew she could be serious and a stickler for organization and the rules. But with Kol, he reminded her that there's more to life than following a plan. Life can be spontaneous, fun, and amazing.

Since then, their playful banter had evolved into a close friendship.

So here he was, with his best friend, ranting about Faith Mikaelson.

Suddenly, a movement caused both vampires to be on alert.

Arrows started flying at them from all directions.

Both vampires fought all the arrows with ease.

Then an unexpected explosion threw both of them against the wall.

Splinters of wood embedded themselves into their bodies. Splashes of vervain fell on their skin.

The bomb that exploded was a combination of wooden nails and vervain. It was something that the vampire hunter, Connor used.

The last thing they saw was the vampire hunter stepping out of the shadows before they passed out.

~TGITW~

Faith was on the swing on the porch when Finn walked up to her.

It had surprised her greatly to discover that Finn was not dead and that he was human.

And it gave her some hope. That things could be changed.

"I'm sorry." Without looking up, she apologized.

Finn clenched his jaw, partly out of anger, partly out of contemplation.

He was wondering what he felt about Faith.

He had been angry at her for the longest time it was hard to feel anything else.

He sighed. Then nodded.

He was just so tired of being angry. Being a human with Sage had given him a fresh start. He didn't want to start it by hating this girl.

For all her faults, he had once viewed this girl like a younger sister. Someone he cared deeply for.

He watched as tears rolled down her face. She looked relieved, as if a burden was lifted up.

He knew that she felt the same way too. She saw him as her older brother, someone she could depend on and trust. He didn't know why she did what she did. But at the end of the day, she too, like the others was family. He had chosen to love her as family. Even if she had hurt them, it was his decision to love her.

Family may hurt you, may turn their backs on you, but at the end of the day, they were still family.

~TGITW~

Caroline and Kol woke up in an old, abandoned building. They were tied to a chair with ropes soaked in vervain.

"You're awake." Connor commented.

"What do you want from us?" Caroline asked angrily.

Connor pointed a knife at her and said: "From you, nothing."

Then he pointed the knife at Kol.

"From him, everything."

Caroline and Kol glanced at each other in confusion.

"You see, I know all about Faith Mikaelson's blood being the cure so now I'm testing it on this guy. If it does turn him into a human, it'll make it easy to kill him and end his sire line."

Caroline paled at his words and Kol growled fiercely at the hunter.

"Tsk, tsk, you don't want to do that." Conner waved his knife at the Original. "I can still make this as painful as possible."

"So wait," Caroline interrupted. "You're telling me, Kol's a human now?"

"I'm hoping he is." Connor walked up to Kol and stabbed him in the leg.

Kol screamed in anguish at the pain.

"This will be fun."

~TGITW~

Knock Knock

"Can I come in?" Klaus asked.

"Yes."

Klaus came in and sat beside Faith on the bed.

For several minutes, silence filled the room.

Then Klaus smiled and spoke: "Heard you made up with Finn."

"Yes." A smile slowly forming on her face.

"Sorry about the others."

She sighed, "It'll take time…."

Klaus felt a sense of guilt. He had not yet told anyone that it was him who killed Esther back in the 1000s. He had somehow passed over that topic. He knew he had to tell them. That they would eventually find out. But it worried him.

"All I could do is keep trying." Faith continued calmly. She knew it would be an uphill battle to regain the trust of the others.

"How can you still keep trying? Even after they've rejected you? Refused to listen to you?"

"Someone once told me this: We are only reflections of what we have seen. If people have been good to us, it's natural for us to show good. If we've been hurt by people, we tend to hurt those around us as well."

"Well, that was a very wise person who said that." He flashed her a classic Klaus grin.

"He was." She returned grin with a wolfish grin of her own. "He was the closest to a father figure to me."

"What was his name?"

"Father Jacob."

"Supplanter." Klaus let out a small chuckle.

"Huh?" Faith asked, looking confused.

"A priest whose name means supplanter."

"Oh, interesting."

"That's funny, our brother's middle name is actually Jacob too."

"Which one?" Faith asked curiously.

"Henrik, our youngest. His name was Henrik Jacob Mikaelson."

~TGITW~

After what seems like hours, Connor was ready to put the Original out of his misery. He had been venting his frustrations on Kol by torturing the vampire. Despite Caroline's pleas, he refused to listen. He was filled with hate and anger towards what these vampires had done.

He grabbed Kol's head and looked him in the eye. He wanted this vampire to know that it was Connor Jordan who dealt the finishing blow. Slowly, he pierced the knife through the vampire's stomach, twisted it, then pulled it out. It was like gutting an animal. This would cause the vampire to bleed out and die.

Seeing this, a surge of adrenaline went through Caroline. The ropes that she had been slowly working to untie had become worn. She ripped it apart then jumped at Connor. She threw the hunter across the room knocking him out. She then rushed to Kol's side and pulled the ropes off him. Lifting him out of his chair, she laid him carefully on the floor.

Caroline sobbed as she embraced the dying vampire.

"No, no, no," She kept repeating as she rocked his body back and forth.

Kol reached out a hand to caress her face.

"It's ok darling. Don't forget, you're not a pretty crier," Kol chuckled and ended up coughing out blood.

"Shhh, it's gonna be ok, Kol." Caroline said in between tears.

"In my room, in the bedside table, there's a journal," Kol mustered up the last of his strength. He needed Caroline to know. He couldn't die without her knowing. "I want you to read it. I want you to know how I feel about you. The words I never got to say."

Kol paused as he studied Caroline's face. He could feel the life slipping away from him. And he wanted her face to be the last thing he saw.

"About Faith…" He stuttered once more. He couldn't leave with regrets. He couldn't leave without having expressed his true feelings for the girl, however late. "At the beginning, I had a bit of a crush on Faith. But she never saw me as a man, and what with her gaze always on Elijah and Klaus, I gave up on her. Now I wonder what would have happened if I didn't. Maybe she would never had been involved in all this Original business. Maybe she would have been better off."

Having voiced out his last regret, Kol Mikaelson breathed his last and passed on to the Other Side.

~TGITW~

EndNote: Shipping Caroline and Kol together have been inspired by their interactions in the fanfiction trailer, Rumor has it ( watch?v=9QwARTT7HE4&t=3s).