Nothing was said the entire drive to Arkansas and as our black SUV sped down the driveway, I didn't let Nik have a chance to park before I jumped out of the car and sprinted towards the house. I froze at the sight of Elijah holding Katherine and Nikolas standing between Bekah and Elijah. I smiled at the picture of them all together as tears filled my eyes. I didn't see the smiles on their faces as Elijah moved to me and I was joined by Nik and Hayley. Elijah handed Katherine to me and I couldn't contain my tears any longer.

"Hi baby girl!" I said hugging her close to me. Bekah pushed Nikolas to us and Nik picked him up and wrapped an arm around my shoulders as we shared our second family hug. "Hey sweetheart." I said to Nikolas placing my hand on his cheek smiling. Katherine cooed happily making my smile grow and I laughed and cried lightly. Hayley soon joined Elijah and Bekah looking at us happily before we discussed what we'd learned.

"Curse on the first-born girl?" Bekah asked. "What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, according to Finn, our sister Freya didn't die of plague. She was taken as payment by our aunt Dahlia, who then cursed all Mikaelson first-born girls for eternity." Nik explained.

"Is any of this true?" Hayley asked looking us over worried. Nik and I had yet to let go of our children and stayed close together as though something was going to try and rip them from us and us from each other.

"It is if we are to believe Finn, who learned it from the bastion of truth— our mother." Elijah told her.

"Well, no wonder Finn hates us. He lost the sister he adored, and instead got a judgy pack of siblings who found him unbearably dull." Bekah said.

"Well you aren't wrong." I told her. "Is there any chance of us running into your lovely aunt Dahlia any time soon?"

"The fable's over a thousand years old. Dahlia is long dead." Elijah pointed out.

"...Like Esther?" Hayley asked him.

"If Dahlia put a curse on every first-born daughter in the Mikaelson clan you can be sure she probably found a way to stick around and collect." I added.

"No one's going to hurt Katherine, because no one's going to find her." Nik insisted looking down at our daughter. "There's enough wood, Rebekah. You'll burn down the whole bloody state of Arkansas." He told her as she continued to rearrange the wood for a bonfire. She rubbed her hands together excitedly as she returned to where we all stood.

"Well, we're just missing a key ingredient!" she told us.

"No, we're not." Nik sighed and I looked at them curiously.

"Yes, we are, Nik! Back me up, Elijah!" Bekah ordered making her eldest brother laugh.

"I suspect Niklaus would rather choke on the ashes." Elijah told her.

"Now I have to know." I demanded with a smile on my face.

"Yea, what are you talking about?" Hayley asked.

"Well, before we light it, we write down our wishes for each other to burn for luck! It was Kol's favorite part when we were kids!" Bekah told us.

"It's further evidence as to why we should ignore it!" Nik insisted.

"Nikky?" Bekah asked me hopeful.

"We didn't do bonfire season with Nikolas and it's Katherine's first. I like it!" I told her smiling up at Nik. "We're doing it!" Hayley rushed inside for paper with a smile on her face as Bekah turned to her bothers smiling smugly. I laughed before we all headed inside with her.


Hayley found Nik and me with Katherine and Nikolas in the kitchen sitting at the dining room table happily playing together. She held out with writing supplies she'd gathered.

"Here." She told him,

"I'm holding a small child, Hayley. This silly wish game will have to wait!" Nik told her happily and I smiled at him before taking Katherine from him sitting her on the table next to her brother.

"You write, I'll hold." I told him.

"You do realize it is not I who is to be the husband you can boss around?" Nik asked Hayley. "I already have a wife who believes she can do so, I do not need two."

"Shut up about that." She told him.

"You do realize that I had to endure horrendous labor twice and actual death birthing our children?" I asked him making him chuckle and wrap his arm around my shoulders.

"Fine. Since you two are so adamant about it then I'll make a bloody wish." He told us before picking up the paper and pencil and started to narrate aloud as he wrote. "I wish Hayley would tell Elijah you're marrying your werewolf suitor, at which point I will pour him a scotch and congratulate him on the bullet he dodged." He ripped the page out of the journal and handed it to Hayley with a smile on his face. She snatched the paper from his hands and crumpled it up in a ball before tossing it on the ground and leaving the room.

"You could have been nicer about that." I told him making faces at Katherine and Nikolas.

"She needs to do what is needed to bring our children home, Nicole." He told me. "The only other person who could do what she's doing is you and I won't allow you to be with another man."

"I don't want another man." I said smiling up at him.


After everyone had written their wishes, with the exception of Nik, we waited outside for Bekah. Nik lit the bonfire as Nikolas, with his favorite toy in hand, stood beside him. Nikolas had been hooked to Nik's side since he'd picked him up. Katherine had been moved from arms to arms, but never strayed far from me. I didn't let her. Bekah rushed outside to join us with a large smile on her face.

"Hey! Look what I found!" she asked holding up a large Polaroid camera making the boys groan. "I wonder if it'll work?"

"Oh, bloody hell." Nik sighed making me laugh lightly.

"Come on, let's try it! Hey, Nik, do you think you can cram us all into a selfie?" she asked him.

"Oh, Niklaus is a virtuoso at cramming his siblings into confined spaces." Elijah said.

"Well, I'm just glad I traveled hundreds of miles to visit my mentally ill brother, only to have him insult me to my face!" Nik complained.

"Oh, come on, just take the picture!" Bakeh ordered. Nik sighed and held up the camera after picking up Nikolas so he'd be in the picture. I stood next to Nik with Katherine in my arms Bekah standing behind me. Hayley next to her with Elijah at her back. Everyone smiled, except for my blank-faced husband as he shot the photo. The picture spit out and we all watched as the photo developed.

"Aw, see? I wish that it could always be like this." Bekah said as the picture completed.

"If wishes were horses..." Elijah started saying.

"...Beggars would ride." Nik sighed ruefully. We all looked happily at the photograph, before Nik suddenly sighed. "You realize we'll have to burn it. You want me to make a wish for the family, Rebekah? I wish it didn't have to be like this. But, it does." He handed me the photo and I took it from him. "We can't risk it falling into the wrong hands." I stared down at the photo sadly before reluctantly throwing it into the fire.

"No!" Bekah said suddenly. "This isn't right. We deserve this. We've earned this." She looked at all of our unhappy faces when I saw an idea pop into her head. "I won't let it slip away. I know what to do to stop Esther."

"Rebekah, no—" Elijah said tensely.

"I'm going to take her deal. And, when I do, I'm taking her down with me." She told us. She stared at Nik, gulping anxiously. We put out the bonfire and moved inside and she explained her plan to us. "It'll work. She will be distracted during the spell. She'll be vulnerable."

"No. If we kill her, she body-jumps." Nik told her.

"Then stop her from jumping!" Bekah told him.

"If I knew how to bloody stop her from jumping, don't you think I would have happily murdered her ages ago?" Nik asked her.

"Well, ages ago, you didn't have a Harvest girl or a Mikaelson witch. Kol knows all of her tricks." Bekah reminded him.

"She's right." I said.

"Now, you're both insane." Elijah scoffed.

"Hardly, Elijah. It was your idea! You're the one who said she needed a win, and if we get this right, then she'll have one." Bekah told him.

"And if we get it wrong, you're no longer in your own body!" Elijah said.

"Would that be the worst thing? You were ready to do it yourself." Bekah told him. Nik and I looked at Elijah shocked by this news.

"Elijah?" I asked him.

"It was a foolish moment, and one that you sagely dissuaded me from." Elijah told us.

"Hopefully, we'll get lucky and stop the spell before I jump." She told him.

"And, if we're not, you'll get what you always wanted." Nik said. Bekah swallowed nervously, confirming Nik's suspicions. "I mean, that's what you're saying, isn't it? You're willing to lose."

"I'm willing to risk losing, yes." She corrected.

"Well, we need to find someone for her to jump into. Someone anonymous. Someone who could disappear with Katherine and Nikolas." He said.

"Rebekah, we've been together for centuries. If you were human—" Elijah started telling her making her roll her eyes at him.

"When I'm old and wrinkly, you can dump me back into my old body. Nik already has a coffin he can store me in." Bekah said.

"But to trust Kol?" Elijah asked.

"It's not about trust, Elijah. It's about finding the proper leverage." Bekah reminded him.

"We can trust Kol with this." I told them. "We only have each other and we've added Kol into the mix. We have to try. Besides, Esther just might kill him and put him into a body without powers if he doesn't show with something that she wants."

"She's right. Kol will do what's best for Kol- we just have to meet his price." Nik said pulling out his phone and calling them.


We spent the rest of the day with our children before heading back to New Orleans with Bekah. As we drove Nik relayed the deal Marcel and Kol had made to get him on our side.

"You are mad to give Kol that diamond." Bekah told him.

"Our little brother has been plotting against me for years, and he hasn't got a lick of it right. I'll take my chances." Nik told her. "Do you know what to do?"

"Yes. But, if it doesn't go to plan, will you handle my body with care, please? I may miss the old model." Bekah told her.

"If everything goes south, we'll be there to pull you out. We just have to take Esther down before she body-jumps. I don't want all of this to have been for nothing." He told her.

"You and I on the same team. It must be Christmas." She said smiling.

"'Tis the season of miracles." I said smiling at them from the backseat.


When we arrived back home Kol was talking to Marcel and Davina trying to convince them of something.

"Well, I haven't been back in a while, and the only way she won't suspect me is if I bring back the thing that I was sent to find." Kol told them.

"And that thing is...?" Marcel asked him.

"...The white oak stake." Kol answered.

"Are you out of your mind?" Marcel told him exasperatedly giving him a look as Davina gaped at him.

"Kaleb!" Davina said unhappily.

"Look, it's the only way she's gonna trust me! She doesn't want to kill them, she just wants to make sure that the weapon doesn't fall into the wrong hands." Kol explained. "I swear, as soon as she's gone, I'll give it right back to Klaus."

"Like hell you will. Deal's off." Marcel told him as we walked in excluding Bekah.

"Kol! Whatever grudges you hold against me, we're doing this for the good of our family. Do I have your word that, for once, you will honor that?" Nik asked him.

"You have my word, Nik. Swear on the face of us all." Kol swore. Nik and I exchanged a look and I nodded.

"I'll get the stake." Nik said smiling hesitantly.


Nik and I hid on the tomb close to where Esther, Kol, and Bekah were standing, which just happened to be where Katherine and Nikolas were going to be sacrificed only hours after my death. The hourglass connected to the one with Davina, Marcel and Cami. The hourglass was surrounded by a circle of salt and sand. We watched as Esther finished setting up the spell and fire suddenly sparked in four metal bowls surrounding her. She then laid the white oak stake on the end of the alter, which made me nervous.

"What the bloody hell is that doing here?" Bekah asked nervously.

"As each of you comes to your senses and takes my offer, I will destroy your vampire bodies." Esther told her.

"Mother, you said you wanted the stake to protect them!" Kol said confused.

"Yes, but not in their current bodies. Once they accept my offer, I will be righting two wrongs—" Esther explained.

"No." Bekah said overwhelmed.

"—Having brought this evil into the world, then having subjected my own children to it." Esther finished.

"No, that wasn't the deal! Stop the spell!" Bekah told her.

"The spell is already done! I prepared it to be locked in the moment I turned over the hourglass." Esther told her. I exchanged looks with Nik who was angry by this revelation as the sand continued to pour through the hourglass.

"Mother, think this through. You gave birth to this body, you can't destroy it!" Bekah tried reasoning.

"I am only destroying its flesh! Your beautiful soul will live on in the body of another." Esther told her. I looked at the hourglass only to see 4-5 centimeters of sand left. "I have chosen well for you. A beautiful girl. Strong."

"MOTHER! Stop the spell!" Nik said suddenly standing. I joined him and we both made our way to stand next to Bekah. "You and your traitorous son."

"Nik, I didn't know anything about it, I swear." Kol said anxiously. Esther looked stunned before looking to Kol at his realization he'd betrayed her.

"Oh, good. I'm glad you two boys are friends again. I did wonder what you'd been up to in your time away. Now, I know." She said trying to cover it up.

"Stop the blasted spell!" Nik ordered through the gritted teeth.

"I'm afraid that's impossible." Esther told us.

"Anything is possible." Nik said stepping in front of me and his sister protectively. "Take me instead."

"No!" Bekah and I shouted at him.

"If only you'd taken my offer when it was still mine to give!" Esther told us and I felt my blood run cold. "Unfortunately, you've left me no choice but to make a... deal... with Mikael."

"Mikael?" Bekah asked sharing my horror while Kol and Nik looked mutinous.

"What did you do?" I asked her.

"When Finn and Kol went missing, I needed a new ally." She said looking at us furiously. "All he wanted was the right to kill you."

"For a woman who claims to love her children you sure do have a habit of trying to kill them." I said angrily as Nik turned away from us.

"Kol, I would ask you to deliver the stake to your father, but it seems your loyalties have been compromised." Esther said ignoring my comment.

"STOP THE SPELL, ESTHER!" Nik ordered once more.

"No, it's okay, Nik. I can do this." Bekah told him as the sand in the hourglass goes even closer to being gone.

"So, you're feeling murderous again. You should know, I've already chosen another body." She warned.

"NOW!" Kol called out. Nik used his vampire speed to reach his mother, grabbed an athame off the alter and stabbed her in the neck. Beside me, Rebekah suddenly started seizing.

"Rebekah!" I caught her before she fell as Nik and Kol joined us. The hourglass exploded on the alter and we all shared a horrified look. Nik picked up Bekah and we made our way home.


Once we reached the compound we went inside to see Cami laying in an armchair with Davina at her side, gently brushing her hair off her face. Nik laid Bekah down on the couch before pulling me close to him.

"Cami's not awake yet, either." She told us before Marcel rushed into the room.

"When she's up, we gotta get her out of the Quarter. She's not safe here. Someone busted Finn out!" Marcel said.

"My mother is using Mikael to do her dirty work now." Nik informed before Cami suddenly woke with a gasp. "...Camille?" Cami looked around before smiling at Nik.

"I suddenly love that stupid name!" she said. Davina laughed in relief hugging her friend. I turned to check on Bekah to see her still unconscious. Marcel sat next to her body and caressed her face with his hand. After a moment, when she still hadn't woken up, Nik sighed in realization.

"I couldn't stop the spell." Nik said before releasing me and taking off.

"Please tell me that your mother's dead!" Marcel called after him.

"Rebekah and I took extra precautions. Esther is exactly where she needs to be." Nik told him before walking out.


We moved Rebekah's body to her coffin. Nik, Marcel and I stared down at her sadly. After a moment, Kol joined us and pulled out the white oak stake.

"A promise is a promise." Kol said handing it to Nik. Nik smiled and took the stake with an unnoticeable sigh of relief.

"Now we wait for Bekah to join us again and take care of Finn and Mikael." I said before we closed the lid on Bekah.