When Rebekah and Hope find out what really happened between Hayley and Elijah in that farmhouse, Hope decides she needs to grow up and fix this. But, are the Mikaelsons prepared for watching Hope embrace the other half of her birthright?

~The Path To Forever~

"Yes, Elijah. It's good to finally hear from you, too." Elijah winced at that, but his baby sister wasn't quite through with him, yet. "Now then. Are you going to answer my questions?"

"I'm in Manosque. There's a bar that my fiancee owned. She's gone, left the bar to me. She didn't want to have to try to compete with Hayley. But, speaking of her—"

"No. You don't get to change the subject. There is absolutely nothing you can possibly have to say about her that is so important that it can't wait until we've finished our chat. What is going on with you, anyway?"

Elijah rolled his eyes. "You know what? We're not going to talk about that, right now. Because it seems that I have lost time to make up for with you. Apparently, while I was gone, you decided to throw everything you've ever wanted away. For no reason that can possibly make sense."

Rebekah scoffed. "No, Elijah. We are not talking about me, right now. You want to talk about throwing away a future? What about you? Hayley came to you, said you needed to talk, told you she loves you. And what was your response to that? You went and gave yourself magical amnesia and walked out of all of our lives without even saying goodbye. I had to hear from Marcel that my brother was gone. Hayley and Freya had to hear it from Vincent. From Vincent! You didn't even have the decency to actually say goodbye. To anybody. I can't even forgive you for me. But for her? You just threw her away like she didn't mean anything to you! Do you have any idea what that did to her? Do you have any idea how long it was before she could even bring herself to say your name? Do you know that she still has trouble saying your name, sometimes?"

Elijah wiped at the tears rolling down his face. "She's better off without me. You know that she is. Maybe there had been a time… but after what I did to her in Freya's pendant…"

"Oh, bloody Hell! You weren't yourself, Elijah. That wasn't you. And she knew that. There was… there was a lot going on, and it took her a while. She was scared. Not of you, not really. She was scared of everything going on around her. And, you want the truth? This time, Hope wasn't in danger because she was a Mikaelson. This time it was because she was a Labonair. Suddenly, there was somebody who wanted her daughter dead because of her. And I don't think she knew how to deal with that. So, she lashed out at you, because she needed somebody to blame. I'm not saying it makes sense. She's never blamed any of us when it actually was our fault, not really. But when it was her fault… she needed somebody to blame."

"It doesn't matter anymore. None of it matters, anymore. Whether she was better off without me before or not, she certainly is now. I'm nothing more than a reminder. And, she's moved on. And I need to let her. But, that doesn't mean that I'm ready to watch it."

"What are you even talking about, now?"

"Don't, Rebekah. It's okay. I know. I know that Hayley and Niklaus are together, now. And I'm trying to be okay with it. But, I'm not ready to deal with either of them. I'm not ready for them to come out and tell me."

There was silence on the other end of the phone for so long that Elijah pulled the phone from his ear and looked at it to make sure the call hadn't been dropped. "Rebekah? Talk to me, sister."

"You are a bloody fool, Elijah. But, how?"

"How do I know? Stupid little things, that maybe wouldn't have seemed like a big deal, but… you know that her werewolf side was bound, I take it?"

"Yes, I know."

"Well, you know how he was always calling her Little Wolf?"

"Yes. What's your point?"

"When we rescued her, he didn't just call her 'Little Wolf'. He called her 'my Little Wolf'. After she commented on not being his little wolf anymore."

"So, it's the possessives in that that have you—"

"Not entirely. When I told her that I knew what he had been up to while I was gone, her reaction… She kind of jumped. And almost looked guilty. And then, a bit later, she told me that she needed to tell me something. And I could tell from the look on her face and the tone of her voice that it was going to be something I didn't want to hear."

"And so, you cut her off so you wouldn't have to hear her say the words. You know what? I can't deal with you, right now. I'm going to let you go for now. You have my number, now. Call me."

"Wait! Before you go, I need you to do something for me. I'm going to give you Antoinette's phone number. I need you to find out where she is, and then do to her what Marcellus did to Roman. I need to make sure it's really safe leaving her alive. She sounded genuinely remorseful when I told her what her mother was planning, but I need to be sure. For Hayley and Hope's sakes I need to be sure."

"Yeah, fine. Give me her number. I'll deal with this for you. I guess it's my turn to clean up the Mikaelson messes, huh? Only fair, really. You've been doing it for so long, it's about time somebody else picked up the slack."

He gave her the number and then the phone went dead. He just stared at it. Something wasn't making sense. Why did Rebekah sound surprised to hear that Hayley was dating Niklaus? Why would they keep it from her? Or had they simply been worried that she would be angry on his behalf? Then again, who knows what Rebekah's reaction was really all about? She could have been simply wishing that he would fight for Hayley. And never mind that he'd be fighting his own brother. But, why the hopeless romantic in her wasn't happy that Niklaus had found someone actually made no sense.

~The Path To Forever~

Rebekah ended the call with Elijah, and stared at the phone number he had given her. She was going to have to take care of that. And soon. But first, there was something else she needed to deal with. Specifically, his asinine theory that Hayley was dating Nik. And of all the things to make him think that… He made no sense, sometimes.

She sighed. But, she didn't call this Antoinette person. Instead, she called the one person who would know if Elijah's theory was correct, that wasn't actually a part of that theory. She couldn't say anything to either of them. Nik would throw caution to the wind and go to France to deal with Elijah personally. And Hayley… This just might break Hayley's heart all over again, to know how badly Elijah was hurting.

"Hey, Aunt Bekah! What's going on?"

"So, I have a question for you. Are your parents dating?"

There was silence for a minute. And then gales of laughter. "You can't be serious."

"Oh, I am very serious, baby girl. Are they?"

"Umm… no. If they were, none of the crap that happened over the past week or two would have happened."

Rebekah frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that until mom was kidnapped, I hadn't spoken to my father in almost seven years. It wasn't all that much after the last time I talked to him, that he stopped taking Mom's calls, too. The whole reason I had Henry kidnap her for me was to force Dad to come talk to me. Everything that happened after that, was because of what I did. Stupid impulsive teenager that I am."

"Bloody Hell…"

"Aunt Bekah? What's going on? Why did you think they were dating?"

"I didn't, really. But, your uncle Elijah does."

"Uncle Elijah thinks my parents are dating? Well, that explains why he ran away the way he did. If he could see Mom, now… But, what in the world gave him that idea?"

"Stupid things, that if he was thinking clearly, he would realize didn't necessarily mean what he thought they meant."

Hope started laughing. "Why did you even ask me about it? I mean, you know that Mom had a boyfriend, right?"

Rebekah groaned. "Declan. That was what she had tried to tell him about. But, he thought she was going to tell him that she was dating Nik. The bloody idiot!"

"All right. Well, now we know what the problem is. Time for me to figure out a way to fix it. Don't worry. I will fix this. They deserve to be happy. I'll figure something out."

And then she was gone. Rebekah sighed for a minute. And then she called the number Elijah had given her. While Hope was fixing her siblings' love lives, she was going to start dealing with the rest of their problems. Not that she was really looking forward to this in the slightest.

~The Path To Forever~

Hope put her phone down with a sigh. Why were grown-ups such idiots, anyway? And how her Uncle Elijah was the worst of the bunch was really beyond her. He was a thousand years old. You would think that he would have acquired common sense somewhere along the way. But, he was worse than she was.

But, the other question was, how to get him to listen? There were really only two people that he would listen to about this. And they were the two people that couldn't be told about it, right now. Her dad would go and do something stupid. And her mom was hurting enough without adding Uncle Elijah's pain to it. No, she was going to have to get creative.

And then she realized that there was a third person he might listen to about this. But, before she could ask that third person to help her with this, she needed to be able to explain what had really happened. And maybe it wouldn't be a great idea to do that without even telling anybody that she was going to. The last time she had acted impulsively, it had nearly gotten her mother killed. It was time she grew up. But, she needed time to prepare her arguments. It could wait until the morning.

~The Path To Forever~

Hope pulled her laptop out, opened Skype, and started a group chat. Within minutes, her entire family except her parents and Uncle Elijah were staring at her from her screen. She had even included Josh and Vincent. Which, to be fair, considering what she was about to suggest, she kind of needed them to be included.

"All right, baby girl. What are you up to?"

"What makes you think I'm up to something?"

"You're a Mikaelson, of course you're up to something. I recognize that particular glint in your eyes. It is one hundred percent your father."

"Okay, so I've been thinking. And New Orleans has been remarkably quiet for a while, now. But, we all know that that's going to be changing. Greta wasn't alone. Her people are still out there. And, eventually they're going to recoup. And when they do, they're going to be coming for us. For all of us."

"And we'll deal with it. Are you worried?"

"Actually, I'm not. I say let them bring it. We can show them that they messed with the wrong family when they came after us. But, the New Orleans council isn't really complete. And, that was fine, before. You were keeping the peace just fine. But, that's the thing. It was peaceful. It's not going to be peaceful for much longer. Greta's cult is not going to just go quietly into the night now that she's dead. If anything, they're going to want revenge. This isn't going to just go away. They are going to come for us."

"Which is a matter for the council, Hope. It doesn't concern you. And it certainly doesn't concern Marcel, Rebekah, Kol, or Davina. And where is your mother? Shouldn't she be included in this conversation?"

Hope scoffed. "Doesn't it concern me? This is my city, too. It's my home. Not to mention the fact that I'm the one they most want dead. So, explain to me again, Vincent, how this doesn't concern me? But, what I'm about to say, isn't just a city thing. It's also a family thing."

"And where is your mother?"

She ignored him and continued. "Now, we have a lot going for us. Speed, strength, magic. The wolves have a bite that is deadly to vampires. If we have to take the city back from Greta's people by force, we can. But, I can't help worrying that they may have numbers on their side. But, what if they didn't? What if we utilized the largest faction in the city? What if we had the humans working for us? Obviously, most of them really couldn't. But, even without having all of their numbers working for us, they can still do things that we really can't. They can be places we can't. And they can keep guard, even if they don't understand what it is that they're guarding, or guarding against. It's past time that the human faction had a representative on the council, again. And, we actually have the perfect person."

"Absolutely not!"

"You haven't even really heard me out. You don't know who I'm going to suggest."

"I don't need to know who you're going to suggest. We don't need a human on the council. You're being ridiculous."

"Or maybe you don't care if the Mikaelsons all die. She was going to kill me and my mom, Vincent. Both of us. And maybe the humans couldn't have done anything about that. But having a few thousand extra pairs of eyes and ears couldn't hurt. Even if most of them don't actually know what they're watching out for."

"Hope! That isn't fair. Of course Vincent cares about our family."

"I'm sorry, Aunt Freya. But, right now I'm having a hard time believing that. But, that's not what's important, here. What's important, right now, is what we're going to do to protect ourselves. Not just ourselves, but the city. Because there is a group of vampires out there that seem to want to turn New Orleans into some supernatural version of Nazi Germany. Stopping them needs to be our priority And, right now the council isn't complete. We need a human. And, that human should be Declan. After all, he's an O'Connell. He's Father Kieran's nephew. This city is as much his birthright as it is mine or Vincent's. I say that it's past time we tell him the truth about what has been going on around here, and let him take his rightful place on the city council."

~The Path To Forever~

Marcel listened to Hope in awe. Vincent seemed pissed, not that Marcel really cared. And he couldn't help wondering what Hayley would say to all of this. But, there was one person that he knew damn well would be proud as Hell. A man that none of the others had ever met. The glint in her eyes when he first got onto the chat may have been all Klaus, but the speech she was giving was one hundred percent Victor Labonair.

Eventually, she exited the chat, but he had a feeling that this wasn't actually over. This wasn't a council meeting. She wasn't putting anything to a vote. This was her informing them of her intentions. He wondered if anybody else realized that.

"Well, there is no denying that that girl is a Mikaelson."

"Nah, Kol. That's not a Mikaelson."

"Really, Marcel? I think it may be a little late to try to claim that she's not a Mikaelson. I mean, between Aunt Dahlia and the Hollow, there is no doubt that she's Nik's daughter."

"Oh, I'm not denying that. You just seem to forget that she has two parents. That wasn't Klaus's blood. It was Hayley's. That speech wasn't coming from a Mikaelson. That was all Labonair."

They were all staring at him, looking confused, and he sighed. "Ladies and gentlemen, we just met the future Alpha of the Crescent wolves. And, you know what? I think they're going to be in good hands. She's going to formidable. Be prepared."

His phone rang, then. He glanced at it and smiled. Speak of the Devil. "Well, I need to take this. I'll talk to all of you, later." He closed out of the chat and answered the phone. "Hey there, baby girl. That was quite a speech you just gave. Your grandfather would be proud."

"Fuck him."

"I'm not talking about Mikael. You have two grandfathers. Actually, you have three grandfathers. But, I was referring to your maternal grandfather."

"I keep forgetting that you're the one that saved my mom, and that you knew her parents. You really think they'd be proud of me?"

"So proud. But, I don't think you called to talk about them. What's up?"

"Uncle Elijah is being an idiot. And I have an idea for how to fix this. But, I need your help first."

It took her ten minutes to explain her plan, and his part in it. He had to laugh at her using her father's own lack of foresight against him. It was a good plan. Most of the others would be pissed, but he was going to put his money on the winning horse. Besides, she was right. Something needed to be done. And this actually made as much sense as anything a Mikaelson could possibly come up with. And her reasons for why she thought it was the best solution were also sound.

"Yeah. All right. Let's do this. I'll call you when everything is ready on my end. Here's hoping it works. Somebody in this damn family deserves to be happy."

"Maybe I'll deal with Aunt Bekah once I've fixed my mom and Uncle Elijah. But, I need to put the other half of my plan into motion. This should be fun. I'll talk to you later."

He ended the call, and then he laughed out loud. Oh yes, the others were going to be pissed. But, Victor would be proud. And when this worked, they'd all be thanking her.