Hello, my lovely readers. It's time for Haylijah to meet. Yay! #HaylijahShippersDon'tGiveUp On with the show…
Chapter 3: Mind Games
December 1, 2012
Her eyes were burning. Lids trembling. Lips moving, silent words stuck in her throat. Hayley felt waves of a newborn headache, kicking its tiny feet against her temples, screaming for her undivided attention. Her phone rang and she looked at it. It looked like a small, black blob of plastic. The sound it elicited sent her trembling fingers to her temples.
"Hello?" Hayley said quietly.
"Hayley, I have an Elijah Mikaelson here," Aurora called into the phone cheerfully.
And now the headache had grown into a group of teenagers, starting a grunge band, with an electric guitar and drums. "Oh, dear God," Hayley moaned.
"No, Elijah Mikaelson," Aurora repeated herself.
Hayley let out a sigh. "Yes, Aurora, I know that. Send him in." Forcing herself to stand up, Hayley walked around, to the front of her desk and waited.
Elijah came into her office in his ever-present, crisp, tailored suit. "Ms. Marshall," he greeted her with a smile that most women probably found disarming. Not Hayley, she knew that he meant to set her at ease before tearing through her like a shark with his chum.
"Mr. Mikaelson," Hayley replied, crossing the room and holding out her hand to him. He took her hand and shook it with another one of those smiles. "What can I do for you?" Hayley asked him, all business as she walked back around her desk and took a seat.
Elijah pulled out a chair in front of her desk. He took his dear sweet time. Yup. He meant to make her uneasy by changing the dynamic. Her space needed to suit his comfort. They would talk once he was ready to. This meeting started because he willed it into being—instead of making an appointment—like anyone else would have.
After he sat down, Elijah took the time to sit his briefcase down and to unbutton his jacket, his eyes on Hayley. She could tell he was accessing her: gauging her age, her posture, how she decorated the office. Every little thing could become a tool to ruin her case.
Another smile appeared on Elijah's face as he looked around the room. "This used to be my office. I suppose that no one told you that I used to work here. Did they?"
"Rebekah did," Hayley retorted so quickly that Elijah's eyes snapped from the wall to the left of her to look her directly in the eye.
"My sister?" Elijah's smile changed just so slightly that most people would not notice. A tiny flash of warmth appearing under that seasoned professional exterior. "How is Rebekah? We do not see nearly as much of each other as we should."
Hayley folded her hands on her desk top. "Rebekah's fine. If Marcel would stop chasing her around the office—she might get some real work done—other than that, she's great." Letting out a laugh, Hayley titled her head to the side, allowing her eyelashes to lower. "So, tell me, Elijah, what is it that you're really doing here since I know you're not here to talk about your family?"
Chuckling, Elijah nodded. "You are right. As much as I love my family—business must come first." He opened his briefcase and withdrew a folder. "It looks as if my client, Niklaus Mikelson, is suing your client, Caroline Forbes, for custody of a minor child, Fiona Forbes. Yes?" Closing the folder, Elijah laid it on his knee, his fingers tapping the top of the folder.
A smile appeared on Hayley's face. "And this case has nothing to do with family?" she quipped.
"Klaus is my brother, as you know," Elijah replied calmly. His fingers continued their rhythmic tapping. Hayley knew that Elijah had a million little ways of causing opposing counsel to become distracted. She would not allow him to throw her off her game.
Elijah continued to speak while Hayley sat, the headache making her want to slink under the desk and hold her head in her hands. "And Caroline is your friend. I suppose that means that this case is personal, for both of us." He paused, still watching Hayley. "Have you met with your client yet?"
Hayley looked at the clock. "Caroline is due to come in, an hour from now."
"Good." Elijah nodded. "Did she tell you that she had not informed Klaus of her pregnancy?"
Hayley nodded. "Yes."
Elijah stopped tapping his folder. "And how long did you know about the child, Hayley?"
"How is that relevant?" Hayley replied slowly, watching Elijah watching her. She could tell he wanted some piece of information and believed she was a weak link who would offer it to him.
"I'm not sure that it is. I'm curious. After all, the child shares my blood, and, still, you, a friend of the mother, seemed to have knowledge of the child's existence before any member of her paternal family did. Does that not strike you as odd?" Elijah's eyes bore into hers and Hayley felt frozen to her seat. Damn, he was good. He meant to make her question Caroline's decisions and judgment when it came to Fee. If he could do this to Hayley, what could he do in the middle of a custody hearing?
"Elijah, why don't you ask me a point blank question?" Hayley retorted with a smile.
Elijah nodded. "Alright. Why, do you believe, Caroline choose to tell you about her pregnancy and not the father of her child?"
"At the time that Caroline found out she was pregnant, your brother was not in the country, and she had no way of contacting him." Hayley picked up her phone. "If you'll give me one minute." She held up a finger. "Aurora, can you bring me a cup of coffee?" Placing her hand over the speaker; she looked at Elijah. "Would you like anything?"
Elijah shook his head. "No, thank you." Crossing his legs, he set his folder on her desk. Hayley's eyes moved to the folder. She could tell that he did this on purpose. Of course she wanted to grab the thing and search it for anything that might help her win the case which is exactly why Elijah placed it there, as bait.
"Thank you, Aurora," Hayley said, hanging up. "Where were we?" she inquired like she didn't remember exactly what Elijah had been up to.
"We were discussing why Caroline told you about Fiona and not Niklaus. You said that it was because Caroline had no way of contacting Niklaus? And this is correct to the best of your knowledge?" Again, his eyes bore into Hayley's and she felt the urge to squirm under the intensity of his gaze.
"Yes," Hayley replied, sitting back and waiting for Aurora.
"Right." Elijah picked up his folder and began to move pages around that Hayley could not see. "And would you say that she would be able to contact any other members of Klaus' family to find possible contact information, is that correct?" Again, the folder closed. Again, it moved to his knee. Again, his fingers began to tap the manila colored paper.
The question left Hayley's mind reeling. Damn it. Had Caroline tried to contact anyone in Klaus' family? Damn it. She would have to add that to her list of questions to ask Caroline. "I have no idea if Caroline attempted to contact anyone in your family."
Nodding, Elijah's fingers paused before drumming along again. Hayley could feel a spike of pain shoot through her left temple. A groan escaped her lips. Her eyes closed. "Are you alright?" Elijah asked her. She opened her eyes to find him, leaned over her desk, his hand moving to lay on top of her folded hands. "Hayley?"
"I…" Hayley began when the door to her office opened and Aurora came inside.
Taking a step backward, away from her desk, Elijah slid his right hand into his pocket, his body pivoting to the side so Aurora could move around him. "Your coffee," she announced with a wide, perky smile. "Did you need anything, Mr. Mikaelson?" she inquired, turning to smile up at Elijah.
"I am fine. Thank you." Elijah watched Hayley pick up the coffee cup with both hands. She blew on the steam and took a slow sip. "I should be going. I will call and make an appointment for a deposition," he added.
"Okay," Hayley said before taking another sip of her coffee.
For some reason, Elijah did not move to leave the room. Aurora looked from him to Hayley. "If anyone needs me, I'll be at my desk," she said perkily.
Once the door shut; Elijah spoke up. "Are you sure that you are alright?" he questioned her.
Hayley nodded. "I'm fine. Thank you for the concern."
His eyes dropped to the floor. "Thank you for taking the time to talk with me," he said softly. He walked over to the door and opened it.
Hayley's gaze moved to the desk top. "Wait! You forgot your folder!" she cried, picking it up from its place on the edge of her desk.
"Keep it," Elijah replied, offering another smile before he walked out and closed the door behind him.
Sitting back down; Hayley frowned. She felt confused. Why did Elijah want her to have a copy of his work? Was he trying to help her? That did not make any sense. Opening the folder, Hayley fell back in her seat. "You jerk," she groaned, pulling out blank page after blank page. She would laugh but it would make her headache worse.
Hayley got up and walked out of her office. "Aurora," she called.
Aurora's head popped up from the fashion magazine she'd been reading. "Yes, Hayley."
"Can you go to the shop downstairs and grab me a bottle of Advil. I have a killer headache," Hayley said, placing her hand to the side of her head.
"Yes. Is there anything else you need?" Aurora asked.
"Nope," Hayley shook her head and walked back into her office. She had all of fifteen minutes to get ready before Caroline was due.
As if giving her time to breathe would be too much for the universe; a knock sounded at the door. "Seriously!" Hayley sighed. "Come in," she called warily.
"Hales? It's me," Caroline said, walking in. "I'm sorry, Fi caught a cold, and I had no time to find a babysitter." Her words came tumbling out as she came in with a large bag over one shoulder and a small child with a red nose and droopy eyelids. "I hope this is okay."
"Its fine," Hayley assured her.
Caroline let out sigh of relief. "Okay. So… I have no idea what we're doing here."
"I'm going to ask you some questions," Hayley began before she looked at Fiona who looked miserable. "But before I do that, I think we should wait for my assistant to get back."
Nodding, Caroline rubbed her daughter's back who let out a loud cough. "Mommy, I don't feel good," Fiona moaned, squirming around in Caroline's lap and then she sneezed. "I want to go home!"
Aurora came in with the bottle of Advil. "Here is your medication. Oh, what a pretty little girl," she said before getting a good look at Fiona and taking a huge step back. "Is there anything else that you need?" she asked Hayley, her body edging toward the door.
"Yes. Can you take Caroline's daughter? Just for, like, half an hour. We really need to get these questions answered and you know little people have big ears." Hayley gave Aurora a pleading look.
"Must I?" Aurora blurted. Caroline pinned her with a glare, her eyes narrowing and her arms tightening around her child. "I really should be going on lunch break…" Aurora looked like she might run through the door to get out of the room.
Gritting her teeth, Hayley got to her feet. "You know what, Aurora, go ahead. Take the rest of the day off."
Aurora's eyes widened. "Really? Thank you."
"And don't come back," Hayley snapped, stalking over to the door and opening it.
Aurora's shoulders slumped. "Oh, I didn't mean it like that. Hayley, please. I love sick children. You know that I was awfully sickly growing up. My brother used to care for me all the time," Aurora pressed her hands together. "Please!"
Hayley shook her head, looking across the hall as the door opened. Marcel was just finishing up with a client. "Hey, do you have a minute?" she asked him.
Marcel's eyebrows rose. "Yeah. What's up?" he asked, walking over to Hayley's office. He looked around at Aurora, Caroline and Fiona. "Hey there," he greeted Caroline and Fiona.
"Hi," Caroline replied, rubbing Fiona's back. Fiona looked up at Marcel through wide, red-rimmed eyes. She placed her thumb in her mouth and began to suck at it
"Caroline Forbes, Marcel Gerard. Marcel, Caroline. Marcel is a good friend of mine and he is absolutely the best with kids." Hayley said, patting Marcel on the shoulder.
"I am?" Marcel looked at Hayley. "You're right. I am great with kids." He went over and kneeled in front of Caroline and Fiona. "How about you, Rory and I find some paper dolls to play with. Kids still like that stuff?" he looked at Caroline who nodded. "Cool."
"The shop doesn't sell paper dolls," Aurora pointed out before closing her mouth when three adults glared at her.
"We can always make our own. We'll just cut out some of those models from your mags and some dresses and mix and match," Marcel informed Aurora who pursed her lips. She looked like she wanted to object but she caught Hayley giving her a hard look.
"Right. Of course. Sounds delightful. Come along, little lamb." Aurora offered Fiona her hand.
Fiona let out a whimper and buried her mass of honey blonde curls into her mother's chest. "No!" she cried out.
"Baby, it's just for a little while and then we'll go straight home. Tomorrow, we'll go out for ice cream with lots of sprinkles." Caroline took her daughter's chin and kissed her forehead, stroking her curls away from her rosy cheeks.
Marcel held out his arms and Caroline handed her child over to him. "I've got you, kid," he said and Fiona buried her face into his suit jacket, letting out a loud cough.
"Thank you," Hayley mouthed as Marcel walked out of her office with Fiona and Aurora.
Hayley strode back over to her desk and sat back down. Uncapping the bottle of Advil, she poured two pills into her hand and downed the rest of her coffee. She really needed to go on a vacation already. Looking up at Caroline, she noted the dark circles under her friends' eyes and the way that her head inclined toward the door. "You okay?"
Caroline forced a smile. "Yeah. I'm probably going to come down with Fee's cold but other than that everything is just fine." She stretched out in the chair that Elijah had vacated not so long ago.
"Elijah Mikaelson was just here," Hayley said, turning on her computer and pulling up the questions she'd written for today.
Caroline's eyebrows rose. "Huh? What did he want?"
"He came to rattle my cage and see if he could gain any info that Klaus couldn't have known." Hayley peered into her empty coffee cup.
"And?" Caroline said, sitting forward. "Did you say anything?"
Hayley scoffed. "Caroline, I'm new at this job, I'm not stupid."
Blowing out a breath, Caroline fell back into her seat. "Okay. Sorry. I'm just scared. What if the court finds against me?" Tears began to run down Caroline's cheeks. "I still can't believe that Klaus would do this to me."
"He's Klaus. He's always been a bit of an ass." Hayley rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. "So, Elijah brought up a good question that I didn't think to ask."
"And…" Caroline waited, biting at her lower lip.
"He wanted to know if you tried to contact his family—to find out where Klaus was while you were pregnant—so you could tell him." Hayley hadn't even finished speaking before Caroline began to shake her head. More tears ran down her friend's cheeks and she placed her hands over her face.
Hayley got up and walked around the desk. She sat down across from Caroline and placed a hand on her knee. "Care, hey, it's going to be okay."
"What if we lose?" Caroline sobbed. "I can't. I just can't see my life without my little girl in it."
"We're not going to let that happen. Now, I wrote down a set of questions. Do you think we can go over them?" Hayley asked quietly.
Sucking in a deep, shuddering breath, Caroline nodded and Hayley walked back to her chair. Turning to her computer; she began. "Caroline, what is Fiona's favorite color?" Hayley knew that Elijah would begin with easy questions. Questions that might elicit a smile from the opposing side. What is Fiona's favorite toy? What does she like to eat for breakfast? Does she hate her dentist; I know I do. Questions like that would begin the case but it would finish with questions that would have Caroline on the defensive.
"Fee's favorite color is pink. Yesterday it was blue. The day before it was red." And there was the smile. The smile that accompanied a good memory. A memory that Caroline could wrap herself up in like a favorite blanket. "Is he really going to ask me something that easy?" Caroline's brows knit together while she spoke and she looked at the blank pages that Hayley left on her desk. "What are these?"
"Elijah's fake notes on the case," Hayley said, looking at them and dismissing them. "You want a harder one?" Caroline nodded. "How long have you been dating Tyler Lockwood?"
"I've been dating Tyler for the past year and a half," Caroline replied.
"And you knew Mr. Lockwood before?" Hayley added, her eyes moving from the computer to Caroline who shifted in her seat.
"Yes." Caroline's answer was accompanied by a pause.
"How did you know Tyler?" Hayley asked, she placed her elbow on her desk top and her chin on her curled fist, watching Caroline look at her hands.
Caroline looked up at Hayley. "Do you really have to do this?"
"Yes. Elijah's going to do this," Hayley retorted, picking up her empty coffee cup and setting it back down in disgust.
Tugging at her bottom lip, Caroline looked down at her hands before looking at Hayley. "I knew Tyler through Klaus. They worked at the same news magazine. Tyler makes those political cartoons. We see each other on the weekends." Trailing off, Caroline shook her head. "Do you really think that Elijah's going to bring up Ty?"
"Yes. I do. Tyler's a part of Fee's life which means it's not just your relationship with Fee that's in question; it's also Ty's." Hayley watched Caroline begin to massage her temples.
"Hold on a minute," Hayley said, she picked up her phone. "It looks like we're going to be at this for a while." She dialed out to Aurora's phone. When no one picked up, she rolled her eyes and got to her feet. "I'll be just a minute." Walking to the door, she opened it to find Marcel, Aurora and Fiona sitting on the floor. Marcel looked at her and Hayley let out a laugh. "Oh. Wow."
"He's pretty," Fiona said, holding up a bright red lipstick that she's used to decorate Marcel's lips, cheeks and eyelids.
Caroline came out of the office and let out a laugh. "Oh, baby, look at that."
Aurora huffed. "You owe me a lipstick," she told Hayley.
"Yeah. And this is going to Rebekah's e-mail account," Hayley said, taking a pic of Marcel who tried to get up but slid on a glossy magazine cover. "Watch your step!" Hayley cried. "Aurora, Caroline and I are going to get some coffee. We'll be back soon. Marcel, don't be shocked if this shows up in the company newsletter."
Thank you for reading, faving, following and reviewing.
Peace,
Jessica