When Hayley first saw the signs, she did not want to believe it.
Hope hadn't told her everything that had happened while she had been possessed, and Hayley hadn't pushed her daughter to relive the awful experience. She intended to get her a therapist - she had connections who could find one that could help Hope'sā¦ special circumstances. But for now, all she could do was watch her seven year old become unrecognizable from the girl she once was.
She got angry easily, lashed out. Hayley knew that was normal for a child going through PTSD, and Hope had certainly suffered trauma. She cried all the time and was unable to tell her mother why she was sad. Again, a symptom of PTSD.
But when she got so angry that she couldn't control herself, her magic would act out too. Her bracelet could only do so much to quell the seemingly unlimited and uncontrollable magic that a firstborn Mikaelson witch held, and when Hope destroyed the compound kitchen - every plate shattered, every cabinet smashed - Hayley took her daughter and left New Orleans.
Freya spent every day in her tower, studying every book available, sending messages to every witch she could find. There had to be something she could do to help her niece, and she was going to find it.
She knew there would likely be lasting effects on Hope from her possession. Hope was so young, and even an adult would be forever changed from that experience. She once tried to enter Hope's mind, as Hayley had Elijah's, but found only a void of darkness. What that meant, Freya was afraid to know.
She threw herself into studying anything she could about The Hollow, possession, child witches. Vincent traveled wherever he could, talking to witches over the country, overseas. Finding obscure texts and books and information that no one would be able to understand, but Freya was 1000 years old.
If there was anyone who could fix Hope, it was going to be Freya.
And she did not intend to stop until she found a solution.
Once they arrived back at their safe house, the one they'd spent years living in while the Mikaelson siblings slept in coffins, Hope shut herself in her room and did not come out for a week.
Hayley was hoping that being home, in a familiar place, a place she'd spent the longest time she could remember, would help her daughter. She was also hoping being in a secluded area, far from other supernatural beings, would clear her daughter from potential sources of magic and dangers.
But also, she was hoping that if it got more dangerous than they could control, in the safe house there would at least be no civilian casualties.
Hayley left her daughter alone for the week. She had to believe that Hope was setting her mind straight, realigning, and that she needed to be alone. She left meals on a tray outside Hope's door, bowls of snacks in between meals, and water and milk. She knew her daughter was eating, since the trays turned up outside the door again, mostly empty, every meal.
Hayley never saw Hope leave her room. Her bedroom connected to a bathroom, and so she knew that Hope had access to a toilet and a shower. Her hybrid ears informed her of Hope's smallest movements, and her heart ached at the sound of Hope pacing the floor at night, whimpering to herself. The shower turned on one morning after three days, and Hayley felt a breath of relief at the sound, knowing that her daughter was, at least, functional enough to perform hygiene.
Hayley spent days writing to Freya and other witches, old friends from her pack and her years alone, looking for advice on anything to do to help her daughter.
She could barely sleep at night, she was so worried. Her heart always felt like it was pounding at any sound she heard, and the imagination of what her daughter was going through was enough to make any mother burst into tears at a moment's notice.
And that's what she did one night, as she laid in her bed down the hall from Hope's room. Her own stress and anxiety poured out, finally, as she curled herself around a pillow and sobbed uncontrollably.
She was so tired of being scared, and confused, and worried about Hope. She was terrified of being helpless. And she couldn't even tell Hope's father; the risk of him running back to her was too great to risk.
She felt like she was breaking, and she was so focused on herself that she didn't even hear Hope's bedroom door open, and her footsteps patter down the hall. Her daughter replaced the pillow in her arms, and Hayley tried to calm down as she squeezed Hope for the first time in a week, relieved that she knew Hope was here.
The relief was another thing though, and she felt like she broke all over again.
Hope whispered a few words, and Hayley felt herself calming a little as she noticed a butterfly lighting up above them. A calming spell.
Even when Hope was breaking down, herself, she took the risk and found a way to help her mother.
A/N: This isn't a show I normally write about, but I got inspired after starting the second season of TO (again) with my boyfriend. (Yep, I got him hooked too š).
It's a short chapter but it's just the beginning and I intend to keep going. This story will be Hayley/Hope centric, but Klaroline will show up too in later chapters.
Idk I just feel like they kind of glossed over the whole trauma Hope endured at such a young age, you know? Like she was possessed, then the powers were distributed to her dad and aunt and uncles, then they had to leave her after she just got to meet them... and then they just sent her to boarding school and that was that?
No way, she's seven. At seven, I could start crying if I dropped a spoon (yeah she's more powerful and a TV character but. you know.).
And Hayley watching her kid go through that? Nope, she's gotta have trauma too.
(Also I find it a little unbelievable that The Hollow never killed a human while she was inhabiting Hope).
So yeah. Let me know what you think. This might be terrible and I might be entering a fandom where I will get knocked down by Klayley shippers, but I always saw Klayley as good friends and parents more than lovers.
I do love feedback, whatever you've got for me :)
Kisses,
C
(P.S.: I'm sorry to my GMW readers, I'm still blocked on those stories :( I'll get back to them soon.)