The next morning, Nik woke up with a phone call screeching in our ears.

"What?" he asked angrily before listening to the other person. He hung up the phone without saying anything else before getting up.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"Getting dressed. Stefan called and needs my help with Silas." He answered.

"I was thinking of going to New Orleans and helping Hayley." I told him. "I don't want Nikolas around Elena while she's in no humanity zone."

"We can protect him here." He told me.

"I don't trust her." I said. He sighed and gave me a small look before nodding.

"Are we supposed to be on our honeymoon?" he asked me with a small smirk on his face.

"Hey, it was your choice to stay here in first place." I reminded him with a smile of my own. He leaned over me and kissed me lightly before I pulled him to me. "Stay. Be late meeting him."

"I didn't give a time I would meet him." He told me.

"Even better. Then I'll be ate meeting Hayley." I said before giggling when he pushed me down and attacked my lips with his own.


"You're late." Hayley said when she opened her door to the hotel room she had taken residence in when I kicked her out of the house.

"I was distracted." I told her sitting Nikolas down on the floor as she prepared her bag for departure. "I am a newlywed remember?"

"Ew." She said giving me a look making me laugh at her. "Don't say anymore."

"Don't worry I won't." I told her. "So are you ready to go?"

"All I have to do is pay for my room." She told me.

"Handled." I told her.

"What?" she asked me.

"Yea, I took care of it. Nik and I paid for your room" I explained. "So? Ready to go?"


Once we arrived in the Quarter we walked around looking at some of the restaurants and bars around the area.

"So? Where to first?" I asked her.

"How about this place?" she asked me and I looked at the sign that said Rousseau's and nodded.

"Good place to start." I said and moved the stroller into the bar with Hayley opening the door for us before taking seats at the bar. I moved so I could watch my son play with the dangling toys in front of him with his pacifier in his mouth. I reached into the diaper bag and pulled out some food for him while Hayley told me what was on the menu.

"It says the most popular thing on the menu is gumbo." She told me.

"Then get some." I told her before I started feeding Nikolas after taking his pacifier from him. He made noises at me each time he wanted a bite.

"You're going to spoil him." She warned me.

"Isn't that what a first time mother is supposed to do with her child?" I asked in slight baby talk.

"I always thought a first time parent is supposed to worry the most about her first child." I looked at the youngish bartender smiling at me.

"Well I do plenty of that, but with his father around I never have to worry long." I said with a small smile.

"And where is his father?" she asked me.

"Away." I told her before seeing a young chef staring at me in mild shock. "Is she okay?" I asked staring back at her.

"That's our chef and of course she is. What would the two of you like?" she asked us.

"Two things of the gumbo." Hayley told her.

"And water." I told her. She left to take care of our orders and talk to her chef. "I still wanna know why the chef was staring at me."

"She's probably shocked you brought your baby into a bar." Hayley told me before the bartender came back with our food and water.

"Here you are ladies." The bartender said with a smile placing our food in front of us. "So what are you two doing in New Orleans?"

"I'm trying to find my family. What do you know about this mark?" Hayley asked showing her the birthmark. I saw recognition flash through the bartender's eyes and she nodded.

"It's the birthmark on a powerful werewolf clan that used to live around here. I haven't seen anyone with that birthmark recently though." She told us and Hayley sighed before she dug into her gumbo.

"This is amazing." She told the bartender with a large smile before she started eating again. I took a bite and hmmm at the taste. Hayley was right, it tasted great. Before she left she told us her name and encouraged us to ask around the French Quarter discreetly before we left.

"Thank you, Jane-Anne." I said before we continued on our way to find more information on the werewolves of the French Quarter.


Later that week found us sitting at Rousseau's once again at the bar, me feeding Nikolas and Hayley looking at the menu again.

"Hayley, what's the point of looking at the menu if you're going to order the same thing again." I asked almost laughing at her.

"Shut up." She said joining me in laughing.

"Third time in here this week." Jane-Anne said walking up to us behind the bar.

"I'm obsessed with the gumbo, Jane-Anne." Hayley told her.

"Make that too." I told her.

"You know, ladies in the 9th ward say my sister, Sophie, bleeds a piece of her soul into every dish." Jane-Anna said looking at the chef who I'd catch staring at me every so often.

"I asked around the Quarter about my family..." Hayley told her.

"And?" Jane-Anne asked her.

"Nothing. Zero. I can't find a single person who remembers them." Hayley said. She was getting discouraged.

"Because, Hayley, people like you were run out of here years ago." Jane-Anne told her.

"By who and why?" I asked her. She walked around the bar to stand between the two of us before setting a map in front of us.

"In the bayou, they call the werewolves "Roux-Ga-Roux"." She said before circling a point on the map. "You head out there, you'll find what you're looking for. Be careful. It's the last place you'd ever want to go." She told us placing her hands on our shoulders. Hayley took the map and nodded at her smiling. I gathered Nikolas' things as he made talking noises at me before the two of us left the bar. I put Nikolas into his car seat in Hayley's car and sat in the passenger seat before Hayley and I left for the bayou.


It was dark, by the time we made our way to where the map had indicated. Suddenly it ignited in my hands. Hayley stopped the car and looked at the map confused.

"What the hell?" I asked before rolling down the window and tossing the flaming paper out of the window. "We better get out of here. I don't feel like getting lost in the swamp." I told her shaking my head. She put the car in reverse but the car started to produce smoke from the front and stopped working.

"Are you kidding me?" she asked annoyed. She and I stepped out of the car and she instantly pulling out her phone. "Hey, I'm looking for a tow service?" she soon pulled the phone away from ear, grimacing in discomfort, and threw it on the ground.

"Hayley? What's wrong?" I asked her. I saw a shadowy figure behind her and my eyes widened. "Hayley let's get back in the car! Now!" I told her scared of what might happen.

"Nicole behind you." She said and I turned to see the figures behind me as well. Suddenly my world went black and I fell into someone's arms.


When I came too I didn't recognize anyone around me and instantly started to fight the people holding me down.

"Let me go! Leave me alone! Where's my son?! Where's Hayley?!" I demanded but they didn't tell me anything as they continued to do, whatever they were doing to me. After a few hours they put me in a vault where Hayley and Nikolas were.

"Nicole! Thank god!" Hayley said relieved holding Nikolas. I rushed to her and took Nikolas in my arms and held him to me tightly.

"Who are these people?" I asked her.

"They seem to be the local witches. We've been eating at their bar all this time." She told me irritated. I groaned in frustration.

"I hate witches!" I shouted so they could hear me before looking Nikolas and Hayley over.

"Are you two okay?" I asked her finally.

"Yea. They didn't want us." She told me and I held Nikolas close to me again.

"Then why me?" I asked but knew I'd receive no answer from her.


Days later three witches finally came to us and told us to follow them. We did as we were told and found ourselves in a cemetery where I also saw Sophie talking to a very familiar family member.

"Elijah." I said smiling at him in relief.

"Give us a moment, please." Elijah asked Sophie and he, Hayley, Nikolas and I moved back into the vault where we'd been held. "So, have they been holding you here against your will?" he asked me.

"They lured us out to the bayou and grabbed me. And they did all these... weird witchy tests." I explained to him. "They confirmed that I was pregnant, again."

"How could this happen?" Hayley asked confused. "I mean, vampires are dead. They can't have children!"

"Perhaps if you knew my brother's story, it might explain how this is possible. Here, if I may." Elijah said raising his hands to our heads, but Hayley recoiled.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

"Relax. If you open your mind to me, I can show you." Elijah said and Hayley relaxed closing her eyes and allowing him to touch her head.

"In the beginning, our family was human... A thousand years ago, now." Elijah told us and I could see a human Bekah running past a young boy I didn't recognize.

"Come, Henrik. Our brothers are fighting again." Bekah said and I stared at the youngest Mikaelson who never got a chance at growing up.

"Although our mother dabbled in the dark arts, we were actually just a family trying to survive in a time when it was quite difficult to do so. And, for better or worse, we were happy." Elijah told us and I watched with a smile as he and Nik practiced their sword fighting. "That is, however, until one night, our youngest brother was killed by our village's greatest threat." I watched as Nik walked home quickly carrying Henrik's body.

"Mother!" he called for his favorite parent and his siblings and parents left their house to see Henrik dead and Nik crying soon to be comforted by his only sister.

"Men that could transform themselves into wolves during the full moon. Our family was devastated, none more than Niklaus. Desperate to protect the rest of us, our father forced our mother to call upon her black magic in order to make us stronger." I saw Mikael hold the bleeding arm of a human girl in front of Bekah in transition.

"Drink!" he ordered and she did as we told.

"Thus, the first vampires were born. But with this speed, this strength, this immortality, came a terrible hunger. No one felt this hunger more than Niklaus." I saw Nik attack his first human and fed on him until he was dead. "When he killed for the first time, we knew what he truly was." I cringed as Nik screamed in agony at his bones cracking forcing Mikael and Elijah to come running.

"Niklaus!" the newly turned Elijah called to his brother.

"What is happening to me?" Nik asked fearfully. The young Elijah started to run to his brother, but couldn't go far because he was being held back by Mikael.

"Don't!" Mikael ordered his second oldest son.

"Father! It hurts!" Nik called to him.

"He's a beast, an abomination." Mikael told the young Elijah.

"He wasn't just a vampire." Present day Elijah said.

"He was also a werewolf." I finished.

"That's how the werewolf curse works. It isn't activated until you take a life." Hayley said.

"Niklaus was the result of an indiscretion our mother had hidden from us all. An affair, with a werewolf like yourself." Elijah said nodding Hayley.

Esther knelt in front of a fire, casting a spell across from her was her husband, Elijah and Nik.

"Infuriated by this betrayal, my father forced our mother to cast a spell that would suppress Klaus's werewolf side, denying him any connection with his true self." Elijah said.

Mikael bound Nik to a wooden cross as Elijah stood watching.

"Elijah! Elijah, hold him down!" Mikael ordered.

"Brother, please! Don't let them do this to me!" Nik begged and Elijah look conflicted between his father and brother.

"Do it now, boy! Now!" Mikael ordered and Elijah moved to help restrain his brother.

"Help me!" Nik begged him.

"Your dad was a dick." Hayley said.

"You didn't meet him." I told her and Elijah chuckled.

"I'm Hayley, by the way. You should probably know my name if you're gonna tell me your whole life story. I mean, I know yours. Your family is legendary. Your brother is a notorious psycho." Hayley told Elijah.

"Who I'm married too." I reminded her.

"I cannot excuse his behavior, but you must understand, when our father hunted him – hunted us – for centuries, every time we found a moment of happiness, we were forced to flee. Even here, in New Orleans, where we were happiest of all. Not long after Niklaus broke the spell which prevented him from becoming a hybrid, he defeated our father. I thought this would make him happy." Elijah said before shaking his head. "He was angrier than ever. The only happiness he had when he was with you and Nikolas." He said looking at me before a thoughtful expression. "I wonder if perhaps you and your children might be a way for my brother to save him from himself."

"I'm glad you feel that way, because we need your help." Sophie said from behind us.

"What, precisely, is it that you want and what does it have to do with my sister?" Elijah asked her.

"We want to run Marcel and his vampires out of town. Klaus is the key. Everything Marcel knows about being a vampire, he learned from Klaus. Marcel trusts him, looks up to him, and he won't see the betrayal coming." Sophie told him.

"Yes, well, as I'm sure you're aware, my brother Niklaus doesn't like to be told what to do." Elijah informed her.

"That's why I brought you here. Marcel drove the werewolves out of town decades ago. Do you really think he's going to welcome two hybrid babies to the neighborhood? Convince Klaus to help us, and no one has to know about the newest members of the Original family." She threatened us.

"That sounds remarkably like blackmail." Elijah said.

"Like I said, I'm desperate." She reminded him.

"Well, then, I have my work cut out for me, don't I?" Elijah asked her. "Nicole, you Nikolas and Hayley wait here for me. I will return for you with Niklaus." He told us before using his vampire speed to find his brother.


A few hours later a small group of the witches collected me from the vault. I was trusting my sleeping son with Hayley before I followed them to a mausoleum where I could hear Nik, Elijah and Sophie talking.

"You know you're famous in this town? Witches tell bedtime stories about the powerful vampire Klaus. We know Marcel was nothing but an orphan street rat, until you made him what he is. And now he's out of control. He does what he wants, he kills who he wants. I'm gonna stop him, and you're gonna help me." Sophie told Nik.

"This is why you brought me here?" Nik asked her.

"Hear her out." Elijah ordered his brother.

"I don't need to hear her out. I assure you, love, there is not a thing on this earth that will matter enough for me to waste even thirty more seconds of my time. Elijah, what madness is this?" Nik asked him.

"Nik." I said drawing his attention to him and his eyes were flooded with relief. "You need to listen to them."

"Nicole." He said moving to me. He held me close to him and held me in the one place I felt safest, his arms. "Where is Nikolas?"

"He's safe with Hayley." I told him.

"Marcel may be able to keep up from practicing real magic in this town, but as keepers of the balance we still know when nature has cooked up something new. For example, I have a special gift... of sensing when a girl is pregnant." I felt Nik tense at her words.

"What?" he asked her.

"Nik, stay calm." I said quietly to him, knowing he could hear me.

"What are you saying?" Nik asked her again.

"Niklaus... your wife is pregnant, again." Elijah told him.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked me.

"I didn't know until they told me." I told him.

"Vampires may not be able to procreate, but werewolves can. Magic made you a vampire, but you were born a werewolf. You're the Original hybrid, the first of your kind, and this pregnancy is one of nature's loopholes. Just like the first one." Sophie told us.

"How long have you kept my wife and child in this place?" Nik asked calmly, but the signs of his anger head leaked through.

Hayley, Nikolas and I've spent days held captive in this place. They've been taking care of us but Nikolas needs a real bed to sleep in soon." I told him when they didn't answer.

"My sister gave her life to perform the spell she needed to confirm this pregnancy. Because of Jane-Anne's sacrifice, the lives of this girl and her baby are now controlled by us." I looked at them surprised at this news. "If you don't help us take down Marcel, so help me, Nicole won't live long enough to see her first maternity dress."

"What?" I asked. Now I was getting really irritated with them.

"Enough of this. If you want Marcel dead, he's dead. I'll do it myself." Elijah told her.

"No. We can't, not yet. We have a clear plan that we need to follow, and there are rules." Sophie told the vampires by my side.

"How dare you command me… threaten me! You will release my wife and our children from your spell or I will slaughter the lot of you!" he threatened them.

"That's not going to happen." Sophie told him. Nik started towards her but I stopped him and forced him to look at me.

"Go and calm down. Elijah won't let them hurt me. Go." I told him and he creased my cheek with his thumb gently before leaving.

"Find another way to take down Marcel. We're not playing this game of yours." I told Sophie before going to leave only to be stopped by the witches at the entrance to the mausoleum.

"No one touches the girls or my nephew. I'll bring him back." Elijah said and Sophie nodded to him.


A few hours later a few of the witches were talking and all I wanted to do was go to my son, but they wouldn't allow me to leave their side.

"Marcel and his vampires are out of control. Something had to be done." Sophie was telling two of the witches.

"And the solution is to bring in more vampires?" Agnes, the coven's last elder, asked her.

"These aren't just any vampires, Agnes. They're the Originals." Sophie reminded the woman.

"What makes you think you can control the hybrid?" Agnes asked her.

"She can't." We all turned to look at Elijah. "I'm not entirely certain that I can, either. The only one who seems to be able to is Nicole. But now that your coven has drawn his ire, I have a question: What prevents my brother from murdering you instead of cooperating?" Sophie moved to one of the decorations lining the wall of the mausoleum and took a doll and moved back to her original spot. She took out a needle from the doll and showed it to the Original and myself before stabbing her hand with it.

"Ow!" I said drawing Elijah to my side. He looked at my hand and we saw a drop of blood on it, exactly where Sophie hurt herself. "What the hell is this!?" I asked angrily.

"The spell my sister performed, the one that got her killed? It didn't just confirm the pregnancy. It linked me to Nicole. So anything that happens to me, happens to her, which means her life is in my hands. If I have to hurt Nicole – or worse – to ensure that I have your attention, I will." She told us and he looked at her amused.

"You would dare threaten not only one, but two Originals?" Elijah asked her.

"I have nothing to lose." Sophie said and Elijah's grin disappeared. "You have until midnight to get Klaus to agree to my terms."


I held my breath as I heard the bells chime for midnight.

"His time is up. What're you gonna do now, Sophie?" Agnes asked the young witch.

"I'm gonna do what I said was gonna do." She told her elder.

"What, kill the girl? Kill yourself?" Sabine, her only friend it seemed, asked her.

"Klaus does not care about the woman or the child." Agnes said.

"I do." We turned to see Nik coming back into the mausoleum, carrying a body in his arms with Elijah behind him.

"Nik. Elijah." I said smiling.

"And we bring proof of our intent to help you: the body of your fallen friend, which we procured from Marcel himself." Nik laid the body down on the ground and they moved the wrapping from her face to reveal Sophie's sister.

"Jane-Anne." Sophie sighed.

"May she be granted peace." Elijah said sympathetically.

"I will agree to your terms." Nik told them, "But Nicole and our children as well as the werewolf girl must be allowed to remain with me.

"For now, accept the deal. The girls and the children remain unharmed, or Klaus will kill you all." Elijah wanted them, before turning and walking away. He stopped walking and looked back at the coven. "And I will help him." Nik smirked and looked at me.

"We shall find a home for us and we'll return for you." He told me and I nodded my understanding.


A short time later I watched as Sophie performed the consecration on her sister's body and I looked behind me with a smile at Hayley holding Nikolas in her arms as he slept. She and I stood close to each other and we watched as Sophie said goodbye to her older sister.


The next day, Hayley and I were in the living room of a large white house uncovering the dusty furniture making her cough.

"Are you alright?" Elijah asked her and I looked at the two of them with a small smile.

"Just dust. This place is ancient." She said looking around the room and at Nikolas who was sitting in a baby walker we'd gotten for him when we'd arrived. He was more interested in the toys on it than walking, but I was okay with that for now.

"Yes, it should serve our purposes. It's a sanctuary from our business in the Quarter." Elijah told her before looking at me. "Nicole. Right now, you are the most important person in this family. This should serve as a good home for both you, Nikolas and your unborn child."

"I'm sure it will, Elijah. Thank you." I said smiling.

"You are my sister now, Nicole. And if there's one thing the Mikaelson family is good at, it's being there for one another." He told me and I smiled at him.

"The family I never knew I wanted." I said mostly to myself knowing the two of them could hear me.

"I will always protect you and your children. You have my word on that." He told me and I smiled my thanks to him, knowing he would protect me even without him giving me his word.

"And noble Elijah always keeps his word." Nik said sarcastically and I grinned at him moving from my spot to him. He enveloped me in his arms and we looked at the other two in the room. So sue me, I was feeling a bit clingy to my husband at the moment.

"Is it done?" Elijah asked him.

"As a matter of fact, yes. Your underhanded deal worked quite well. Marcel was only too happy to accept my blood even as he accepted my heartfelt apologies. His man, Thierry, yet lives and I remain a welcome guest in the French Quarter. My only concern now is this coven of impudent witches." Nik told him.

"I believe them to be honorable. They did release Nicole and Nikolas to us. Although, they haven't been entirely forthcoming. Marcel obviously has something that they need. They don't want him dead. There must be a reason why." Elijah said.

"Then they might not be as honorable as you want them to be." I told him. "We'll have to be on our toes around them." The two vampires moved away from us to another part of the house as the two of us continued to remove the dusty cloth from the furniture as Nikolas tried moving towards us making us laugh.