I stood at a table in the courtyard munching on some fruit from an array of fruit and other breakfast foods when Nik joined me.
"So, which restaurant's missing a compelled chef?" I asked him.
"It's certainly a card I've played in the past, but I had no hand in this." He told me confused while gesturing to the food on the table.
"Hmm. Well, then, I guess we have Elijah to thank?" I said. "Think this was for Hayley?"
"This wasn't my doing." Elijah said coming downstairs to join us in the courtyard while looking confused.
"Then, where did this all come from?" I asked them. Suddenly the silver lid on a platter began to rattle startling me and Elijah so much we jumped back in fright for a moment. Nik looked uneasy and lifted the platter, which released two starlings that flew up towards the ceiling, causing the three of us to reflexively duck to avoid being hit. We all shared a puzzled and nervous look as we stood back up.
"What the hell was that?" I asked confused. We watched Nik reach for a piece of paper that was laying on the platter and read it.
"An invitation from our mother." Nik said before we all shared a concerned look.
A short time later I was laying on our bed as Nik stared at the invitation on the balcony before joining me in our room.
"It is times like this I'm really glad I never knew my birth mother." I told him.
"We have enough enemies here. And now, the war for our home is to be fought against my own family." Nik said as I sat up.
"Your bitch mother and her disciples tried to put a carving knife through our child's heart and your father tried to kill me and Katherine while I was pregnant. I will happily add them both to the body count I've been piling up." I told him getting off the bed and standing in front of him. He smiled down at me before Elijah entered the room.
"You will do no such thing. Esther's a master in the art of possession. We know whose body she currently inhabits. We must decipher her intentions before she finds a new host." Elijah told us.
"Well, her last invitation was an assassination attempt on all her children. I think we can assume her intentions are decidedly foul." Nik reminded him and Elijah shrugged.
"Well, then. We have—" he checked his watch "— this afternoon to prepare for the worst." He said before leaving us alone.
"Shall we?" Nik asked me holding up his hand for me to take.
"Do we really have a choice?" I asked him as I took his hand and we left our room.
That afternoon I was with Nik in the dining room making arrangements for the evening's dinner with a group of compelled caterers.
"Skip the salad course. Let's not make this dreadful evening any longer than it needs to be." Nik ordered one of the caterers before choosing a whine and dismissing him as Hayley entered the room.
"So, I guess letting Oliver live paid off. He just informed me your mother has a partner-in-crime... another witch." She informed us.
"Building alliances in her quest to destroy us, I imagine." Nik said.
"Why does she hate you so much, Klaus? She had six kids- it's not like she doesn't have the maternal gene." Hayley commented.
"Seven." I corrected her. "Esther had seven children."
"I think at one time, she loved us very much." Nik told her before anxiously began folding napkins on the table. "One died before I was born."
"I didn't know that." Hayley said feeling guilty for bringing it up.
"Years later, my brother Henrik was killed by the werewolves in our village. The loss of another child pushed my mother over the edge. So, she used her magic to turn us into immortals. I think that's when she loved us the most. But, it was her undoing. It triggered a sequence of events that led to the reveal of her long-held secret. My birth father was the werewolf whose pack killed my little brother. Of course, when Mikael found out, he murdered my real father, and so, my mother lost her lover, too." Nik told her.
"Wow. No wonder she's crazy." Hayley commented.
"I'm out of my mind having just given away Nikolas and Katherine... I can't imagine if they'd actually died." I said feeling pity for the woman who tried to take my family from me.
"You know," Nik said getting teary eyed. "My siblings used to tell each other she didn't hate us- she hated herself for what we've become. I think they believed that even after she tried to kill us all."
"What did you believe?" I asked him, never knowing that.
"I don't know. I just knew I wanted her dead." He told me. I held his hand in mine comfortingly and offered him a smile.
"Well, every good story needs a wicked witch." Hayley said winking at us trying to cheer us up.
"It'll be all the more satisfying when we melt her." I said referencing the wizard of Oz making her chuckle. I looked to Nik again to see him smiling at me appreciatively. I gently kissed his cheek affectionately before we continued with our work.
"Marcel's witch is being held captive in the Quarter." Hayley informed us.
"Oh, perfect. Mother's a step ahead, as usual." Nik complained.
"Oliver's with her. I'll go, and I'll get her to do the spell. But, I need the necklace." Hayley told us.
"I don't like this whatso—" Elijah started saying but she cut him off.
"No. You don't get to ignore me for days and then suddenly act like you're concerned, Elijah." She told him.
"I'll go with her." I told them. "Two Hybrids are better than one." Elijah looked as though he was about to speak, but shut his mouth at the last moment. "Nik, you can trust us." I said trying to convince him this was a good plan. He sighed before pulling out the necklace from his pocket and handing it to me. "Thank you. Let's go." I told Hayley and we made to leave.
"Wait." Elijah called to us.
"I don't car—" Hayley started to tell him but he cut her off this time.
"No, there's something else. A disciple of Marcel's was instructed to fetch another ingredient. Ask for Gia." He instructed.
"We will." I told him before the two of us left.
Hayley and I made our way through the cemetery to where Oliver was waiting with Lenore, who was chained up. A python was wrapped around an hourglass, which was ¾ full. I looked at it confused as Hayley broke the chains binding Lenore.
"They worked her over pretty good." Oliver told us.
"We need to get her out of here." Hayley said and I moved to help her.
"Huh? Then what? They'll know that I let her go! Look, you asked me to infiltrate Cassie's coven, I'm not gonna blow my cover for some has-been hippie-witch!" Oliver told us and Lenore groaned and gave him a side-eyes, which made him look guilty. "No offense!"
"We could always make it look like you got jumped. Tell Cassie that Lenore got rescued by her people." I offered.
"Let me guess, you, uh, wanna beat the hell out of me? Make it look convincing?" he asked me sarcastically.
"As much as I want that pleasure again, it's not my turn." I said looking to Hayley. Oliver laughed weakly and sighed in defeat before bracing himself.
"Okay, just... just not the face, okay?" he asked us.
"No promises." She told him. After she was done with beating the crap out of him Lenore checked him over to make sure he'd live. I still watched the hourglass confused to the reason it was here. It was now half-empty.
"He'll be okay, I promise." Hayley told her.
"What's your dog in this fight? You're not a Mikaelson." She asked us confused.
"Yeah, I am." I told her and she looked at me shocked.
"The Hybrid's wife?" she asked. "The doppelganger mother?"
"Turned witch-rescuer, apparently. Listen, can we do this spell, or not?" I asked her wanting to get off that particular topic.
"After what that bitch and her lackey did to me? I'll do any spell that you want!" she told us leaving the crypt.
"Get the snake." I reminded Hayley before following Lenore.
Hayley and I followed Lenore back to her shop and waited around for her to start the spell in her back room. Hayley handed the snake to Lenore when she was ready for it.
"How long will this take, exactly?" I asked her checking my phone for messages as Lenore scoffed at me. Nothing.
"You want me to soul-brand the resurrected spirit of a thousand-year-old witch? It's best I take my time and do it right." She told me as she looked up from her work to me. I watched her face soften into a sympathetic expression. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry. No one should ever have to lose a child."
"No one should." I said as Lenore lit a bundle of sage and wafted the smoke around her work area.
"You have the talisman?" she asked me. I pulled it out of my pocket and handed it to her.
"So, how does this work? You brand Esther with the spell, and then what?" Hayley asked her as she set the necklace on top of the cauldron so that it laid across the diameter of it with the ends hanging over the rim.
"The next time she jumps into a body, she'll be marked with a distinctive symbol on the back of her hand. This way, you'll always know who she is." She said pulling the python out of bag.
"We still don't know why she's here." Hayley sighed.
"When Esther held you captive, did she give you any idea why she's doing this?" I asked her as Lenore put the python around her neck before looking at me with a serious expression.
"Love!" she said and I laughed as Hayley rolled her eyes.
"How hard did they hit you?" Hayley asked her as she took the python from her neck and held it in front of her with one hand.
"What besides love can inspire such pain and cruelty? And Esther?" she said before taking a knife with her free hand and slicing down the length of the snake with it before disemboweling it and squeezing the entrails in her hands, dripping the blood in the cauldron. "Her love is very, very strong." Hayley and I shared a stressed and worried look before looking back to Lenore as she did the soul-branding spell.
"Le vu ut em bu l'espirit la vu ça." Lenore chanted before suddenly fall forwards, leaning against the cauldron to keep her from falling onto the table. I moved closer to her as she started looking around the room in confusion.
"Are you okay?" I asked her worriedly.
"Yes." She said sounding dazed.
"You sure-?" Hayley asked as she straightened herself while still looking around the room.
"Just getting my bearings..." she said quietly. She listed her hand to her face and I pushed Hayley back at the mark on the back of it that hadn't been there before. She looked at me in confusion as I glared at her.
"The mark..." Hayley said noticing it finally. Esther looked down at her new body.
"Hello Esther." I practically growled at her. She looked to us and smirked in amusement. My phone started ringing in my pocket and I quickly pulled it out to check it as Esther washed her hands of the snake's blood. I looked at her anxiously before Esther nodded in encouragement.
"Go ahead. You can answer it." She encouraged. I quickly answered the phone after glancing at the name.
"Nik I'm at Lenore's shop with Hayley…" Esther thrusted her arm forward using her magic to kill my phone.
"That'll be enough!" she told me. I took a deep breath as I glared angrily at my mother-in-law
"They're gonna come for us." Hayley told her.
"That's been the idea all along." Esther told her. "Hello, dear Nicole. It's so lovely to finally see you again. Tell me, do my sons ever acknowledge the good you two bring into their lives? After all, it was you who gave them hope." I froze at the sound of my daughter's middle name. "Hayley, you've given Elijah the freedom to love, even if he hasn't acted upon it. Nicole, I've never seen Niklaus so happy or in love with any woman, including Tatia. The promise of a child shows us all the possibilities of a future that could be. Children are meant to save us from the worst parts of who we are. A truth that makes my own circumstances all the more tragic, wouldn't you say?" she asked us.
"As if I would pity you, Esther." I told her. She looked at me offended for a brief moment before shrugging it off.
"It's a terrible thing, for a mother to fail her child." She said looking down at Nik's starling necklace still laying over the cauldron and picking it up so she can look at it closely. "As you well know." I closed my eyes briefly before looking back at her. "But now, I offer you both freedom. The gift of a new body. Freedom from being a hybrid." I felt Hayley stand a little straighter behind me. "I have the ability to return to you all that you have lost, Hayley. To make it so that you could have a family of your own. More children of your own. Wouldn't that be nice?" before we could say anything Nik came over to us and held me close to him.
"I assume you've had the misfortune of speaking to my mother?" Nik asked her angrily. Esther picked up a handful of unidentified powdery substance and threw it towards us, creating a magical barrier to keep us from coming any closer to her. "You hide behind your spells like a coward!"
"I did not come here to wage war!" she told us before grabbing another handful of the substance and throwing it sideways towards Elijah, who had just revealed himself coming towards her.
"Everything you do is an act of war. If you touch her, so help me—" Elijah started telling her, but she cut him off.
"Hayley and Nicole are free to go. I've spoken my piece, they knows why I'm here. I have come to heal our family, Elijah." She told him.
"Well, that's a grand sentiment, coming from you." Nik said before looking down to me. "Go. Now."
"I'm not leaving you." I told him stubbornly. Hayley turned to leave before Esther threateningly exploded a light bulb with magic.
"My intent was never to harm! Only to heal, as I have already healed your brothers Finn and Kol. For you, I will undo everything that has been done, thereby giving you a new life!" Esther told us before another light bulb exploded overhead, and Lenore stared intensely at the three of us. "One without the vampire curse I inflicted upon you." Esther started waving her hand above a cauldron and the earth began to shake, rattling all of the inventory on the shelves. "Ask Nicole to share with you my loving proposition."
"You're a fool if you think we'll accept anything that you offer!" Nik told her angrily.
"Oh, you are wrong, Niklaus!" Esther told him as more light bulbs exploded and the earth continued to rumble below us. Esther held her arms open wide towards us. "There will come a time, my darlings, that you will beg for it!" The glass in the windows shattered inward causing Nik, Elijah and I to raise our arms over our faces from the broken glass. Esther lifted her arms over her head as hundreds of starlings burst our way through the windows and descend upon the store.
Back at the compound the four of us were in the courtyard processing all we've learned this evening from Esther.
"Of course she used those damn birds to make her offer!" Nik said.
"Besides the offer of rebirth, what else did she say?" Elijah asked us.
"I don't know. She rambled a lot. She blamed the two of you for what happened to Nikolas and Katherine, to us…" I told them. Nik looked instantly appalled by my words and stopped his pacing so he could stare me in the eyes.
"Well, I hope you're not thinking of taking her offer?" he asked. Hayley looked down guilty and before I could say anything Nik spoke again. "NICOLE! HAYLEY! I'm talking to you!"
"What do you want us to say, Klaus?" Hayley asked him defensively. "When your mother offers to wipe the slate clean, excuse me if I'm tempted." She then turned to Elijah. "By the way, thanks for your help tonight, Elijah. I'm sorry that it takes me being in danger for you to even talk to me." She then stormed off. Elijah started to go after her, but Nik called out to him.
"Leave her. I need you with me. Our mother, Elijah- the woman who brought us into the world, made us what we are- and the whole time, she lied to me! She made me weak." Nik said staring at me still. I hadn't answered his question yet.
"You were never weak, Niklaus." Elijah said sadly. "You are- you have always been- the most fierce of us all. In a thousand years, I have never seen anyone successfully stand against you. Not even our wicked father. Not one of the countless devoted to your destruction. You'll protect our home, even in the face of an adversary such as our mother, because that, brother... that is what you do." Nik looked at him both surprised and grateful for Elijah's response. He moved towards his brother and gripped his shoulder in a gesture of thanks.
"You remain ever the wise counsel, brother. The rest of the family could learn something from you." Nik said before leaving the room. Elijah looked after him shocked at the kindness in his younger brother's words. I soon followed Nik out of the room towards my own. I passed Nik sitting alone in the courtyard before going to the Nikolas' room and holding one of his toys in my arms.
Later that night, I was getting ready for bed when Nik walked into the room. I didn't say anything to him as he stared at me.
"Nicole. Are you going to take her offer?" he asked me quietly.
"I never got a chance to speak when you yelled earlier." I said. "I would never take an offer from her. She tried to kill you, Nikolas, and Katherine. I never even thought about it." He stared at me before using his vampire speed to push me against the wall behind me before kissing me roughly. I put my arms around his neck and pulled his face to mine even though we were still connected to each other. He quickly tore my shirt from my body as I pulled his shirt off him. He picked me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist as he moved the two of us to the bed and we had sex for the first time in a long time.
