A/N: Sorry, it took a while to post the next chapter I had been sick for the past few weeks.

Chapter 31: Faith Mikaelson

"There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies." – Martin Luther King Jr.

MYSTIC FALLS. 2011 A.D.

Klaus swallowed nervously as he waited for Faith's response.

He had come to say goodbye before heading to Louisiana.

"Please Klaus, don't go."

Faith knew what he would find in New Orleans and what path it would set the Mikaelsons on.

"I have no place here."

"Yes, you do–"

"You don't know what it's like Faith. When everyone thinks badly of you, when they only expect the worst." Unlike his usual self, Klaus was baring his heart out to Faith.

"Look Klaus–"

"You were always good." Klaus cut her off, not wanting to hear anything from her that would sway him. "You don't know what it's like to see darkness in yourself and not know what to do about it!"

Now, it was Faith's turn to swallow nervously.

"You…," His words triggered something inside of her. "You can't do this Klaus."

She began pacing back and forth while ranting.

"You can't put me up on a pedestal! You see only the "good" things about me, well, I'm not perfect! I can be selfish, manipulative, bitchy! And I hate it! I hate myself for it! Why do I hurt the ones I love?! I thought with Elijah, finally I can find someone apart from my family who will not give up on me…"

Faith stopped pacing and sighed. She could still remember what her mirror self had taunted her with. Who knew the ugliness and darkness better than herself?

"The reason I loved, wanted Elijah is because I know my own darkness…brokenness…ugliness and I…I wanted someone who…yeah may get angry, may get hurt by me…but would never give up on me…ever."

"It's the rejection that scares us, Klaus. The thought that this would be it, we've gone and pushed too far and there's no coming back." She looked at him as if she was about to break down in tears.

Klaus understood that feeling. And in that moment, he knew. Faith Mikaelson was just like him.

Broken.

~TGITW~

SOMEWHERE. 2011 A.D.

"Please Klaus, don't go."

Faith's pleas still echoed in his ears. The girl had tried to stop him from heading to New Orleans, but he would not be stopped. There was a pressing matter he had to get to.

Faith had tried to warn Klaus just as she did in the past. Only this time, he did not listen. More like, he didn't want to listen. He wanted to be somewhere far from her and his brother.

So here he was on the road to New Orleans. Driving in the middle of the night.

Oddly, the drive was allowing him to clear his mind. It gave him the chance to look back and reflect on the happenings of the past few days.

"So that's it?" Klaus asked incredulously. "You just want me to forgive her?! Forgive Katherine and give her my blood to save her daughter?!"

Even saying Katherine's name left such a bad taste in his mouth. And now Faith wanted him to save Katherine's daughter who had been bitten by Tyler.

"Yes." Faith answered meekly.

Klaus stared at her in disbelief.

"Don't you realize it after everything? We always end up creating our own worst enemies."

Her statement gave him pause.

"Hate only creates hate. Maybe it's about time we start showing mercy and forgiveness. We may not be able to control other people's actions. But what we can control is our response to their actions. Maybe by doing good, we can create good."

Klaus studied her thoughtfully. Faith Mikaelson had always been such a person. Always seeing the good in others.

"Fine. I'll do it." Klaus gave up. "I'll do it for you…Because it's you Faith."

Klaus had given his blood to heal Katherine's daughter. Not wanting to owe anything to anyone, Katherine had told Klaus about a plot against him brewing in New Orleans.

Klaus smirked. Faith had been right. Good can create good.

~TGITW~

MYSTIC FALLS. 2011 A.D.

Movement to her side caused Faith to look up. It was none other than Katherine Pierce.

"I heard I have you to thank for the antidote."

Faith smiled grimly and nodded.

"Ok." Katherine smirked at her. "I owe you one."

"No, you don't." Faith shook her head.

Katherine looked at her quizzically.

"Yes, I do." The doppelganger asserted firmly. "Katherine Pierce always pays back what she owes, whether that's bad or good."

"Look," Faith sighed. What was with all these stubborn vampires? "There was a time when I wanted to die. When I wanted to give up. I just felt so hopeless, like nothing would change…"

Katherine listened soberly.

"Then someone reached out to me. Someone saved me. He brought light into my darkness."

Faith paused. The story always made her sentimental.

"I–I just want to be able to do the same for someone."

"And also," Faith continued. "And this may be presumptuous…but I wanted to…I wanted to correct the wrongs of the past. I wanted to fix things between you and Klaus, between you and your daughter."

"That is presumptuous." Katherine's words sounded angry but the smile on her face said otherwise.

"You are a good person Faith Mikaelson."

Faith shrugged and brushed off the compliment. Growing up, she always had a strong sense of justice, of right and wrong. One of the things that bothered her about the TVD show was the fact that everyone was pursuing their own happy ending without making up for their past sins.

"Before I leave, I'll let you in on something." Katherine spoke with a knowing smile. "Klaus and I are the same. We manipulate. We thirst for power. We control. We punish. But our actions are driven by one, singular place, deep inside. We're alone and we hate it."

"I know." Faith reassured her. "Cause I'm the same."

And she was. People were complicated creatures. There was always a little good and a little bad in everyone. She had to accept the same thing about herself. Both the good and the bad.

~TGITW~

Faith stared at the kitchen in a panic.

It looked like an explosion had taken place. An explosion of food and mess. There were pots and pans everywhere. The walls were plastered with some sort of sticky goo and the floor had spills all over the place.

Faith didn't even know where to start cleaning up.

It was just her and Elijah for the weekend. Rebekah was with Matt on a camping trip. Klaus had gone to New Orleans for some business. Faith had gotten up early this morning, hoping to cook some breakfast for Elijah and her.

At least, that was the plan.

Faith bit her lips at the chaos before her.

She wasn't sure when things had gone awry. Was it when she tried to make eggs and the oil splattering startled her? Or when she decided to make something easier like toast but ended up burning it? Or maybe, it was when she had tried to make a smoothie and the machine had gone haywire on her? One thing led to another and now she was faced with the mess before her.

Faith massaged her head and frowned. Then she started laughing as she remembered the last time she had cooked in Mystic Falls.

It had been when she had just arrived in town. The gang was still suspicious of her. So, she had decided to cook as a sort of peace offering. Only, she never did learn how to cook. Not in the past with the Mikaelsons and not in her previous world.

She ended up doing a bang-up job of the cooking and making a mess in the Salvatore kitchen.

Funnily enough, it was that incident that allowed for the group to drop their suspicions about her. They figured a girl who was so helpless in the kitchen could probable do them little harm.

That day, she became friends with the gang. It had been a good day. Faith could still remember the laughter in the room as everyone helped in cleaning up.

Faith smiled to herself as feelings of déjà vu swept across her.

~TGITW~

Faith watched Elijah busy cooking in the kitchen.

It had just been the two of them for days now. After the first morning mishap, Elijah had done all the cooking since then.

Even in the kitchen, he looked handsome in his business attire. He had taken off his jacket suit and rolled up his dress shirt to move around better. Faith had to admit, there was something very appealing about a man who knew how to cook.

Sensing her eyes on him, Elijah looked up and found Faith with dreamy smile on her face.

Chuckling, he asked, "Are you smiling because of me or because of what I'm cooking?"

"Both." She answered without hesitation causing Elijah to laugh.

She leaned in towards him, loving the sound of his laughter. It was moments like this that she treasured.

They had spent the past couple of nights staying up late and catching up. They had talked about everything from their siblings and to their current hobbies. It was then that Faith found out that Elijah liked cooking.

She loved their late-night talks and cuddling together. In fact, despite his stoic exterior, Elijah had been an unexpectedly great cuddler.

Elijah lowered the heat on the stove allowing his sauce to simmer. Then he checked the chicken in the oven to make sure it was roasting well. He had some time until the meal was ready, so he wiped his hands cleaned and pulled Faith into an embrace.

He planted a chaste kiss on her lips. Faith laughed and teased him, "Is that all, Mr. Mikaelson?"

"Well, I'm just trying to be careful." Elijah eyed her coyly. "As I recall, someone had a hard time breathing when we kissed once."

Faith blushed furiously as she remembered. It had been shortly after Elijah had confessed his feelings for her. He had kissed her hungrily. And having never been kissed before, she did not know what to do. She had held her breath and had passed out during the kiss.

Elijah smiled at the memory. He had been in such a panic when she had passed out. He had ended up shaking her awake.

Faith snapped out of the memory, and she punched Elijah's shoulder playfully. The latter pretended to be hurt then both of them laughed.

Again, Elijah pulled Faith into an embraced. He gazed at her adoringly as he caressed her cheeks gently. Then, he drew his lips an inch away from hers.

"You remember to breathe now." Elijah teased her in his seductive voice.

Then he kissed her.

He poured all his feelings into that one kiss. The longing, the hunger. The joy, the love.

Finally, he pulled away and they both gasped for air. There was a dreamy look on Faith's face, one that he was sure he had as well.

"I love you." Elijah whispered.

"I love you too Elijah."

~TGITW~

"You might not make it."

She walked nervously towards the house as she remembered the witch's words.

It had been a couple of days since Bonnie had visited her.

Faith had spent the time deciding what she had to do.

Should she tell Elijah?

She knew she should. If it happened to him, she would want to know. But Faith did not want to hurt him.

They were just beginning to reconcile and heal after everything and now there's a possibility of being separated?

She couldn't stand the thought of leaving him.

She knocked and Elijah opened the door.

"Oh good, you're here." Elijah smiled faintly and welcomed her in.

He led her into the library, and they sat facing each other.

"Do you need coffee? Tea?"

"No, I'm good. Listen, Elijah–"

"Faith," He cut her off abruptly. "I'm leaving for New Orleans."

Faith felt as if the wind got knocked out of her.

"There's something going on there that involves Niklaus. I have to go and see…see what it's about."

He looked at her sheepishly, but she kept her face blank.

Finally, Faith began speaking in a quiet voice, "What if…what if we just let him be? I mean, he's Klaus, he'll figure it out eventually…he always does."

She let the words hang in the air surprising Elijah. She usually was the one looking out for his brother.

Faith ignored the slight surprise on his face and continued, "Stay. Stay here with me."

Elijah studied her. This was unlike her. She would always put family first.

"Faith, is there something wrong?"

"No, nothing. I just thought we could…" She left the sentence unfinished and shrugged.

Elijah leaned forward and took her hands in his.

"Faith. He's my brother, my family. You know I can't leave him."

Faith sighed and answered, "Yes, I do know. You were always faithful, never giving up on family."

"Yes, that's right and it was because of you," Elijah squeezed her hands lovingly and continued. "You always saw the best in me, even when I couldn't see it."

"Even when I thought you betrayed us…some part of me held on to that."

Elijah kissed the back of her hand gently.

"I failed you…this I will never forgive myself. I do not want to fail a loved one again."

Faith pulled her hand away and touched his face.

"I understand." She replied as she stroked his cheeks.

And that was when Faith realized it. She had always liked the Elijah who would put his family first regardless of everything else. She loved him just the way he was.