Chapter Sixteen: Floodgate
Hayley left Niklaus' room quickly and did her very best not to sprint towards Hope's playroom. Instead, she waited for the cover of night to wake her sleeping daughter in her bedchambers. Hayley paused when she saw Hope, a girl who seemed so peaceful and happy here, who seemed to have found her forever home. Hayley grimaced in the darkness as she took a deep breath to steady her resolve. She knelt down by Hope's bedside, rolled her shoulder to keep the backpack in place, and gently rocked Hope awake.
"Mama?" asked Hope drearily.
"Hope, sweetie, do you remember what I've always told you about staying in one place?" whispered Hayley as she brushed Hope's hair out of her tired face.
"It's dangerous," said Hope. She'd heard this before.
"And so what do we do?" asked Hayley.
"We keep moving," said Hope as her eyes finally opened. Droplets hung on her lashes.
"Be strong," said Hayley as she kissed Hope's forehead and helped her sit up.
"I don't want to leave, Mama, I like it here," said Hope.
"I know, honey," said Hayley as she helped Hope into sneakers, not bothering with Hope's pajamas.
"Is Papa coming?" asked Hope as she wiped her eyes.
Hayley didn't reply at first. She tried not to lie to her daughter, but this wasn't one of those times. Lines of regret formed around her lips as she answered.
"They'll meet us in the new place," whispered Hayley, "but we have to be quiet. There are bad people hiding in his house. Do you understand?"
Hope nodded mutely. She had been through this before.
Hayley took Hope's hand and led her through the dimly lit hallways of the estate. Her mind had been made up from the moment she understood the depravity of this household. She loved Elijah desperately. She cared for Niklaus - deep down. She might have even stayed if it had just been her and her alone, but she couldn't risk Hope. Hayley grit her teeth as old memories resurfaced. Growing up in a broken foster care system and bouncing from broken home to broken home, she had witnessed more than enough variations on incest to last a lifetime. She would be damned if Hope was caught up in this. She only hoped that Elijah and Niklaus were too distracted by their reconciliation to notice her escape.
Finally, painstakingly, they had made it to the gates of the courtyard.
Hayley grabbed Hope and jumped to clear the fleur-de-lis spikes at the top of the iron-wrought gate. She quickly wrapped herself and Hope in cloaks to evade watching eyes, but it was too late. There was a man perched on the raised garden beds across the entryway, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
"Kol," breathed Hayley as she pulled Hope closer.
"Going somewhere with my niece?" asked Kol as he stood and stepped towards the cloaked mother-daughter pair. His approach was cautious, but unyielding all the same.
"Don't come any closer," warned Hayley as her eyes searched for an exit.
"I won't bite," said Kol with the charm of fox. He kept walking forward as he asked, "I presume you're trying to escape my awful brothers?"
Hayley didn't answer. She just shifted to stand in front of Hope.
"You know what they say about abuse…it's passed down generation by generation…" said Kol slyly, as if he already knew, "Tell me, Hayley, what did my brother do? Something unseemly? Something untoward?"
"Why are you here?" demanded Hayley.
"To help you, of course," said Kol with open arms – an innocent gesture for anyone whose entire body wasn't already predisposed as a weapon.
"We don't need help," she said. The gap between them was closing. She couldn't outrun an Original.
"Come on," he said softly, "doesn't it strike you as odd that my brother's own adopted son tried to kill him? Doesn't it make you worry…what could my brother have done to make poor Marcellus despise him so ferociously for so many years?"
Kol clicked his tongue and shook his head.
"You're doing the right thing, Hayley," said Kol, "Hope would have been next, trust me."
Hayley's heart was pounding in her ears and she felt Hope start to shake. Kol's words mirrored her own worst fears – that the Mikaelsons were sexually depraved and beyond saving – that they would change Hope for the worst – that they would hurt her precious daughter.
"I don't trust them, but I don't trust you either, Kol," said Hayley as she started to lift Hope. She was going to make a run for it.
Kol laughed with flushed cheeks as if he had just heard a wholesome joke, but his gleaming eyes were locked on and never lost track of their targets.
"I'm afraid you don't have a choice, my dear," said Kol quietly. In a blur, he rushed forward, and the fight was over before it began.
When Niklaus woke to check on Hope in the morning, he found a note in Hayley's handwriting. It was a simply message – one that struck fear straight into Niklaus' heart.
Girls' day – brunch, gun range, and a movie.
Niklaus frowned as his innate paranoia ate away at him. He wouldn't stand for this.
"FREYA," bellowed Niklaus, waking the entire estate instantly. The note crumpled in his white knuckled first and he stormed out of the room with a scowl.
"It's too early," whined Freya as she cracked her bedroom door down the hall. She was up all night reading, and she was hung over from indulging in the century old wines.
"I knew I shouldn't have trusted that goddamned fucking bitch with my child," yelled Niklaus as he stomped towards Freya. He waved the crumpled paper in the air as if this proved his point entirely. Freya curled inwards to avoid the bad vibes of Niklaus' sour mood. She had just smudged the room with burning sage. Still, there was no stopping an angry Mikaelson, much less this one in particular.
"What happened?" she asked deadpan – reserving her panic until she could decide if this were a real issue or just another irrational tirade.
"Just look," demanded Niklaus. He practically threw the note in her face.
Freya glared through old mascara before she read the note a few times. She even whispered a quick revealing spell to see if the note had been forged. Everything seemed okay. Freya was leaning towards irrational tirade as the evidence stacked against Niklaus.
"Hayley and Hope used to do this every first Sunday of the month," said Freya, "she told me about it when they first moved in."
"It's the third Sunday," growled Niklaus.
"So it's a rain-check," said Freya as she fought against rolling her eyes.
Niklaus tried not to punch the wall.
"ELIJAH," bellowed Niklaus suddenly and Freya flinched backwards a foot and a half. This was the first time Niklaus had interacted directly with Elijah in nearly a month, but the man came groggily when called just the same.
Elijah stopped at the end of the hallway when he saw that Niklaus was in the middle of an outburst. They hadn't spoken in weeks, and he hadn't imagined that their reconciliation would be quite so public and volatile.
"What's wrong?" he asked as he approached the tense pair.
"Hayley took Hope," seethed Niklaus through clenched teeth.
"God damn it, Klaus, no she didn't," groaned Freya.
Elijah frowned as he thought back on Hayley's uncharacteristically good-natured response to their family's dirty laundry. His frown deepened.
"Niklaus is probably right," said Elijah firmly.
"Fucking thank you," yelled Niklaus in Freya's direction.
"What the fuck did you do?" asked Freya as she eyed them with suspicion. Hayley had been content just days ago. More than content.
"Nothing," said Elijah and Niklaus in unison.
Freya crossed her arms and widened her stance. She didn't want to hold Hope's wellbeing hostage, but she absolutely wasn't going to help her brothers unless they told her the truth.
"Spit it out," said Freya with the tone of someone who had really come into their role as a big sister.
Elijah and Niklaus traded uncomfortable glances down the hallway. Elijah gestured aggressively for Niklaus to start talking. Niklaus scowled and waved his hands in a flippant 'what the fuck' motion. The irony was not lost on either of them that their torrid affairs were coming out at a time when they refused to speak to one another.
Niklaus sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He was desperate. Judgments be damned, he had Hope to worry about.
"Hayley found out yesterday that Elijah and I had been…" mumbled Niklaus with a vague wave of one hand, "…and that's why she's taken Hope."
His explanation explained nothing.
"Had been what?" asked Freya with exasperation.
Niklaus said something under his breath, and Freya put a hand behind her ear.
"We were together," said Niklaus a little louder, "briefly."
"I don't understand," said Freya, but that was before she noticed two pairs of cherry red cheeks. She stared at them with her mouth agape, "you mean…together together…"
"Don't, " warned Niklaus.
"But – " the blood left her face.
"Not another word," he fumed.
"You two – " she started to blush.
"Help me find Hope before I rip out your throat," growled Niklaus as his eyes turned.
Freya swallowed, fearing that Niklaus would make good on his threat, and beckoned them into her study. She had a lot of questions. She was sure the men would provide zero answers. All she knew was that Hayley was probably long gone – that girl was always quick to run, and Freya could hardly blame her. This revelation was strange, taboo, and unusual. Still, she tried not to think about the mechanics of their household breaking down around her, and she set to work on a locator spell to find her niece.
Meanwhile, the two brothers stood on opposite sides of the room and avoided interacting as per usual. Niklaus' fingers had started to blacken, but he ignored the sensation. His tolerance had grown in the past few weeks. Niklaus found that he could push for days at a time without needing to seek out Elijah. And then, even while forced to touch for survival, Niklaus refused to look at his brother.
This day was no different – although, in fact, it was worse. His worst fears had come true. Their incestuous relationship had cost him his daughter.
"I'm sorry," muttered Elijah from across the room, as if reading Niklaus' thoughts.
Niklaus growled through a mouthful of fangs. Elijah was right to confront him now. With Freya working diligently in the center of the room, it was a solid bet that Niklaus wouldn't rip out his undead heart.
"What the fuck did you do?" asked Niklaus.
"I don't know how she knew," said Elijah quickly.
"Well that doesn't fucking matter now, does it?" spat Niklaus.
"I'm sorry," said Elijah again. He chanced a glance in Niklaus' direction, only to see rage and fire and brimstone.
"Fuck you," said Niklaus, who seemed to barely be holding himself back from starting an all out brawl.
Elijah sighed as his chest tightened.
"I'm sorry," said Elijah again, under his breath.
"I found them," said Freya, and the brothers raced to meet over the map in the center of the room. "Here," said Freya as she pointed to a set of apartment complexes that the brother's knew all too well.
"Marcellus," said Elijah with a pit fire in his stomach.
Niklaus' fears outweighed his anger.
"Mikael," he muttered.
"He won't hurt his granddaughter," said Freya with unease. Her words felt false as they fell from her lips.
Niklaus and Elijah glanced up at each other. For a moment, they could forget their fallout in the wake of battle.
"We need to leave," commanded Niklaus, "now."