AN: I'm back and this story is nearly finished! I'm working on the next chapter that will feature Dahlia and the one after that may be the final one.

Also to any people who know fairytales-doesn't what Esther went through sound like a messed up Rumplestiltskin deal? It's going to be mentioned!

Chapter 15: Month 8-After birth

As soon as Elena was ready (after she had transitioned hours ago) and Hope was asleep, she and Elijah made their way downstairs (after he helped her get dressed in a pair of jeans and a white tunic underneath a black leather jacket) where Freya was sitting on one of the couches with Rebekah. Klaus was standing with his hand on Aurora's shoulder as she sat on the high back chair and Kol was sitting on the loveseat with Davina curled into his side.

"Our older sister Freya has a story to tell," Klaus drawled out as his fingers drew circles on the wood of the chair. "Perhaps this is Esther's final ploy on killing us all."

"Who's Esther?" Elena asked as she sat on the other loveseat on Elijah's lap. "Is she like your cousin or an aunt that you're not friendly towards?"

"She's our mother who tried to kill us," Kol told her and Elena looked horrified. "We didn't know she wanted us dead when we had a huge ball. In Mystic Falls. Where Finn died."

"Did she give you a reason as to why she wanted you all dead?" Elena wondered, as she felt sick to her stomach.

"We didn't ask," Rebekah whispered as Freya felt her sister shiver and wrapped an arm around the younger female Mikaelson. "She claimed to want peace and then she tried killing us. Like we were nothing."

"There's always a reason," Elena told her gently. "Maybe Freya here," she motioned towards Freya, "can give you insight."

Freya nodded and looked at her siblings.

"Do you know the story of how Mikael and Esther met?" She asked. "He was a Viking and part of the group who ravished the village where Esther and her older sister Dahlia lived. They were kept in servitude because they were witches and when Mikael began to show kindness towards Esther, she began to fall in love with him." She shook her head. "She abandoned Dahlia who delved into the darker side of magic-near the borderline of Expression but never crossing that bridge." She took a breath and released it. "Many months after Mikael and Esther married it was soon known that she couldn't have children."

"Then how did a woman give birth to seven children if she was barren?" Davina asked in bewilderment.

"It happens when she asked Dahlia to help her become fertile through magic," Freya answered. "Dahlia warned Esther many times that the price for this type of magic was high."

"Desperate times call for desperate measures," Elena breathed. "She wanted a family and to her, the price didn't matter." She looked at Freya in complete shock. "You were the price."

Freya nodded.

"The first born child of Esther and Mikael was the price and when Esther refused to hand me over Dahlia made it so that the first born child of her children would be handed over to Dahlia."

"Hope," Elijah breathed as he held his wife. "I'm not giving her up."

"I'm here to put an end to her," Freya told them. "I know what's needed to get rid of her."

"Then what is it?" Kol asked as he held Davina.

"Sacred soil from her home in Norway," Freya whispered, "ashes of her oppressors and blood of the one who broke her heart."

"So we need dirt from Norway," Davina said. "That, ash from a Viking and blood. Who's blood do we need?"

"Esther's blood," Elena realized. "Esther broke Dahlia's heart and only Esther's blood can be used against her. You also need a Viking's ashes." She gave a dry laugh. "I don't know where to find a Viking I want dead. The ones I know I want alive." Elijah chuckled at her and kissed her temple.

"I have Mikael's ashes," Klaus admitted. "I have them and Finn's."

"I'm guessing that Mikael is the douchebag father," Davina murmured. "He's gotta be better than mine."

"Ours chased us down for a thousand years," Rebekah told her. "He wanted to kill Nik but the rest of us stood together-always and forever."

"I don't know why but this reminds me so much of Rumplestiltskin," Elena couldn't help but add. "When you look at it you can see that's what it is essentially."

"I'm sorry what?" Kol looked dumbfounded but Davina gasped.

"Oh no," she whispered. "Oh no."

"What is that?" Kol asked the two women.

"Rumplestiltskin is a fairytale story," Elena answered him. "Basically a prince or a king-I forgot since it's been a while since I've heard it-wandered into a village where a man in desperate need of money told him that his daughter can spin straw into gold."

"Was she a witch who could do this?" Aurora asked and Elena shrugged.

"The story was made for humans," Davina told her smiling. "So basically this human girl with no magic was taken and lived in a cell where a pile of straw and a spinning wheel were waiting for her. She asked any divine being for help one night and a little man in the shadows came. He offered his help for jewels the first two times and the third he wanted her first-born child. She agreed."

"I think I know how the story ends," Rebekah whispered in understanding. "He got the jewels but the child he didn't get. Something happened."

Elena nodded.

"He made her a deal after she and the guy had gotten married and had a baby," Elena told them. "If they could guess his name they will be freed of the debt but if they didn't…he will take the child for some reason." She shrugged. "No one was clear on why he wanted the child in the first place."

"How did they guess his name?" Klaus asked as he squeezed Aurora's shoulder in an effort to calm him.

"Someone from the king's guards stumbled upon the little guy's hut and saw him muttering to himself loud enough that he could hear," Davina decided to finish the story. "So that person told the king and queen and the next day they said it after two guesses. Once it was said I guess he died or he was sent to hell-it varies."

"So who is going to get the soil?" Kol asked, trying to get off the subject of the story.

"I believe we will," Aurora said as she pointed to herself, Klaus and Rebekah. "The three of us will go while Freya explains the spell again to you and Davina while resurrecting Esther and the new parents actually have more bonding moments with the baby."

Freya watched Elijah and Elena that night with Hope, Elena unable to leave the baby in the crib and placed her in the bassinet on the bed.

"I'm going to tell you a story little angel," Elena cooed as she lay on the bed next to Elijah. "The story is about a little wolf girl who was lost and in the most unexpected way she found a new family and a love that not only consumes her but makes her burn for more." Her eyes sparkled as she looked at Elijah with adoration and love as his eyes shown the same thing when he looked at her.

"That love she found in a vampire never thought he would find someone like her as he had been burned by others," Elijah said smiling at both his wife and daughter, "so when he found her he showed her kindness and compassion which led to an everlasting love."

Little baby Hope yawned cutely and began to whimper for her bottle that her father obediently obliged by getting it for her. Elena picked her up and as she settled her in the crook of her arm, Elijah came back with the bottle that was at the perfect temperature for her.

"May I feed her?" He asked and she smiled, placing the baby in his arms. She watched with her chin on his shoulder as he placed the bottle's nipple in her mouth and she began to greedily suck the formula. "She looks beautiful and I have a feeling she will have your looks." Elena snorted.

"She'll have your nose and cheeks I bet," Elena said as she placed her cheek against his. "What I know for sure is that she will be protected by all of us-you, me, Davina, Kol, Klaus, Bex, Aurora and the pack."

"Do you not believe that Freya will protect her?" Freya was still watching from the shadows.

"I believe that she will," Elena agreed. "I just don't know how much you and your siblings plus Aurora and Davina will allow her."