The draft for this chapter was a mess, so a massive shout out and thank you to my amazing beta AryaTindomiel for her amazing work with this chapter! I hope you all enjoy this...we're getting towards the end with 7 chapters to go :)
"Oh shit!" Katherine whispered.
Hayley started to run from the room after a few steps stopped short and whimpered softly before continuing up to the stairs at human speed. Klaus quickly tried to follow his wife, but Rebekah and Kol blocked his path, stating that he was needed here for now to explain the presence of the Mystic Falls vampire. Hope slipped past the other adults and ran after her mother.
"Why didn't Hayley use her hybrid speed?" Elijah wondered.
"She's lost touch with her hybrid abilities," Freya sadly sighed, "Five years in captivity – weakened, beaten, and traumatised. Both her werewolf and vampire side has been disconnected from her so her powers are lost."
Before anyone could speak further, the newcomer at the door turned around (having had her back turned when Hayley and Hope had run upstairs), "Umm, is anyone going to invite us in?" She threw a noncommittal hand gesture to indicate Alaric, the twin girls, and herself (although she was the only one who needed an invitation to come in).
"What the hell are you even doing here?"
"Hey," Alaric exclaimed, lightly touching his daughters' heads, "Can we watch the language around the kids here?"
He was seemingly ignored, but Caroline's eyes flickered to her girls before retorting, "I could say the same thing to you,"
A slight narrowing of Katherine's feline gaze and an upward twitch of her lips appeared on the doppelganger's face. "I do believe a wife's place is where her husband is." She leaned her shoulder against Elijah's as she flashed her left ring finger which was adorned with a brilliant lapis lazuli, a diamond encrusted design streaked across the stone, cushioned on a thin, pale gold band.
Both Alaric and Caroline looked astonished but were not allowed to express their opinions on the subject.
Elijah's gaze mimicked his beloved's as he stroked his own pale gold wedding band. "Now as my wife has already asked, why is it that you are here?"
"Hey, we're only here to find prospective students for our school," Alaric paused with caution, "And to see if you'd be interested in enrolling Hope-"
"Absolutely not! My daughter is not about to attend an institution hundreds of miles away from her parents and her family, especially since she just got her mother back."
Caroline shifted her eyes toward Klaus. "So, you've found her."
"Yes, Caroline," Rebekah bit while stepping slightly in front of her brother, "And if you and your... family could be as so kind as to allow mine some time to bond now that we are whole again..."
Alaric took Josie and Lizzie's hands, "You know what, we'll be here for the rest of the week, so we'll come back-"
"We will come to you... if need be." Elijah cut off.
Alaric slightly grimaced but nodded anyway, giving Caroline a look before walking away with his twins. Caroline lingered in the doorway for a few more seconds, but when she couldn't catch Klaus's elusive gaze she followed Alaric.
Elijah quickly went to shut the door and lock it. No one else in the Compound's courtyard moved or spoke for the next few, tense minutes.
Klaus then tried to make his way upstairs again, ignoring the angry looks of the women in the room but said women blocked his way. "Will you lot bloody move, I need to-"
"Apparently, you need to reassess your priorities Nik." Rebekah gave him a look that was a mix of anger and disappointment.
"My priorities are Hope, Hayley, and the rest of my family," he vehemently stated.
Katherine scoffed, "Well you've got a funny way of showing it." Crossing her arms, she continued her verbal assault, "You don't really see her suffering, do you? Either that or you don't want to. She already had to go through so much pain directly from you when all she was just Hope's mother, but she's your wife and she's spent most of your marriage being tortured and abused by your enemies. Her physical wounds are healed but her mind isn't, and who knows what Aurora forced her to see or believe, and to rub salt into her wounds you had to send for your former blonde obsession?"
Klaus looked at Katherine with equal anger and anguish, ready to defend himself once more, but she gave him no chance as she used her vampire speed to go up to be with Hayley. Rebekah and Freya didn't speak but it was obvious that they stood by what Katherine said. The two sisters made their way up.
Turning to his brothers, Klaus appeared to be pleading for assurance. "I suppose you both agree with the women?"
Kol softly glared, "There isn't really anything I can say that they haven't already."
Once Kol had left Elijah spoke, "Brother," the elder Mikaelson settled a hand on the younger's shoulder, "You may deny it, but at your core, you have a soft heart and all who come into your life leave an impression on you. Most prominently Hope and perhaps her mother-"
"There is no perhaps Elijah-"
"-Of course, but the both of you both are in a precarious state. She is haunted by everything she was tormented with and you have been without her for all these years. There are many obstacles to overcome, but I know the both of you have never let such things stand in your way." Elijah paused for a moment, "I shall leave you with this: I know you love your wife, as I love mine, but as your former flames are all under the impression it is their time to come for you, you must let Hayley - and the world it seems - know of your love and from now unto forever ensure that there is never any doubt of it."
Hayley… it's me." Katherine softly knocked. When she didn't hear a response, she let herself in and closed the door behind her gently. Her heart sank when she saw one of her best friends silently sobbing with her daughter in her arms. The brunette vampire walked over to the hybrid's side and wrapped her into a tight side embrace. "Everything is going to be okay." Katherine ran her hand down the back of her head, trying to calm Hayley down.
"Nothing will be okay. I'm broken, Kat… I'm unwanted by my own husband, I don't know what to do anymore." Hayley shifted and cried into her shoulder.
Katherine's dark brown gaze moved to the little girl on Hayley's other side. "Hope, why don't you go and find your Uncle Kol. It is about time for Lucien's weekly gifts to arrive for Aunt Freya and we all know how you and Kol love to raid those."
Glassy blue eyes looked dolefully at the vampire, "Won't Aunt Freya be mad?"
"Of course, I won't," Freya walked in and assured her niece, "You and Kol have fun and you keep anything you want that Lucien sent."
Hope looked at her mother. "Mummy, will you be okay?"
"She's going to be just fine, she just needs some time with her sisters," Rebekah reassured.
Hayley met her daughter's eye and often a small, comforting smile, "Go and have fun, baby girl."
Once Hope shut the door and the Mikaelson sisters settled on the floor with Hayley and Katherine, the latter continued to speak.
"You are not broken. You are the fucking Hybrid Queen, you will find your way back, just like you always have. Even if you're not the same as you were five years ago, you'll be a stronger, better you! And we're all here to help you – every single one of us. None of us, especially, not Hope and not to mention Klaus – who, by the way, will always want you – will ever leave you."
Hayley tried to take in Katherine's words, but other words other images kept surfacing to the forefront. "It won't stop!" she shouted frustrated, "It feels like I'm going crazy. What Davina did to my mind, it won't stop. I live it in my sleep and, even when I know what is real and what isn't or at least I think I know... I-" she cut herself off, ready yet fearful to recall the last five years of her captivity, but also out of sorts in general.
"Talk to us, tell us what happened, Hayley. It's been a month since you came home, and no one knows exactly what happened to you. Tell us, don't let any of it keep you, prisoner, anymore." Freya smiled gently at Hayley as did the other two women.
The hybrid tensed at their request, but she knew that they weren't going to judge her and she needed to get it all out.
"Aurora was behind it all, I mean obviously but... well the crazy ones are always undercover geniuses, right?" She tried to insert her usual sass, but it was more to delay divulging the dirty details than anything. "Tristan and therefore the Strix followed her, Cami got roped into it because she felt the way Aurora did, betrayed by Klaus because of me so she followed through to get her own sick revenge. Davina got on their side, but... I don't fully blame Davina with what happened – when she could she gave me blood, healed some of my wounds."
"She still hurt you, Hayley and the rest of us. She sided with our enemies instead of the family," Rebekah snarled.
The hybrid shook her head. "Her hatred for Klaus ran deeper than our friendship and unfortunately even her relationship with Kol. I hated her for what she did to me, but when she came and tried to help me, I couldn't completely see her as my enemy. The rest of them, I can't say the same. Aurora, Tristan, and Aya wanted Mikaelson secrets and the plans set against. I wouldn't tell them anything, so they would punish me for it." Hazel eyes grew blank and withdrawn. "I'd be hung on the walls and from the ceiling with rusted chains laced with vervain. Cami broke my bones and fed on my blood, afterward, Aya would drug me with wolfsbane. I don't think I ever slept, just blacked out from the loss of blood and the pain, so I couldn't heal properly. Aurora enjoyed giving me equal parts physical and mental torture: sharp objects, whips, ice baths, burns," she laughed humourlessly, "Actually everything Tristan had ever put Aurora through for her mental illnesses she did to me." Hayley then flinched and froze.
Freya tightened her hold on the female hybrid, "Go on."
Hayley trembled as she tried to get the words out. "T-Tristan, h-he... he would... mostly he would watch as the girls hurt me, but sometimes he'd brush my skin, touch my hair... slip his fingers between my legs-"
Everyone in the room froze in apprehension, Hayley bowed her head in shame and knotted her fingers nervously. Rebekah dared to gain confirmation of what they all dreaded, "Did he...?"
Furiously shaking her head, the hybrid answered, "No," still knotting her fingers, "He said I wasn't good enough for him or any other Strix member."
Her sisters scoffed angrily but didn't speak as they could sense Hayley had more to say. "Ahem, Davina would be ordered to use her powers on me. Aurora would taunt me with her words and Davina would embed these visions into my head – I would always see the same thing repeatedly and it just seemed so real. It was always so clear, Dahlia cursing me with Klaus standing there holding toddler Hope in his arms and then walking away with her to Caroline..." Hayley felt equally anguished and angry at that sight.
Freya couldn't help but question, "But why her and not Aurora or Camille?"
Hayley was too afraid of what the truth of that meant, but her other sister-in-law had no qualms voicing what she thought.
"She's the only one Nik hasn't killed or publicly rejected yet," Rebekah answered with an uncaring shrug and reached out and squeezed Hayley's hand. "But we all know my brother would never do such a thing to you. He loves you so much. He was miserable and a complete tyrant without you, but he had to hold everything together for Hope's sake. If it wasn't for Hope, he would've been his own worst enemy again. He barely slept for the first year since you were captured. He would lock himself in his art room or Hope's bedroom telling stories about you and looking at your photos. Then he'd hours with Elijah, Kol, the wolves, the vampires trying to find any leads to find you but it was always a dead end."
Katherine added, "But we should've looked harder!"
Although in the back of her mind, she agreed, she couldn't break their hearts even more by voicing that. "You couldn't have. Not only were they cloaked, they kept me in this dark underground/underwater chamber hidden in a cursed maze that magically changed locations every few weeks and the moves never left any magical signals."
"Which is why it took so long to find you," Freya gravely stated. "And we couldn't have done it without Hope."
Hayley smiled, although it was sad, "My daughter, my saviour... As amazing as she is, I doubt even she can heal me though."
Rebekah was quite grieved at those words. "Don't say that."
Growing angry, she couldn't help but bark, "And why not?! None of you kept me safe from them. And the only thing I could do while playing their prisoner was retreat into myself, the visions wouldn't let me alone in my own mind so I shut off and let my tormentors do whatever they wanted because I was already too weak to even think of fighting them. I had no hope of saving myself let alone Klaus or any of you coming for me because you were right Katherine, all of you didn't do more, you just went about living your own lives while I couldn't even hope for the release of death." The other women winced at that last bit. "And now, I have lost touch with all my hybrid abilities, but everything is coming back, I'm practically schizophrenic. I-" The throbbing in her head increased and her vision started getting blur, "It won't stop!" Hayley shouted in pain causing Klaus – who had been eavesdropping the entire time on the other side of the door – to enter the room to help soothe her.
Klaus held her loosely against his chest, "I'm here, Little Wolf." It was all he knew to do for her as she seized and cried out.
All eyes turned to the family witch.
Freya exhaled deeply. "I didn't want to try this until I was sure what was wrong with Hayley and that she would be okay afterward." She didn't get any responses, they were all eager to hear what she planned to do. "Hayley will be put into a magically induced sleep then we can go into her mind and help heal it and therefore her. Her mind will, at least, be whole again, she should be able to tap into her hybrid abilities, and hopefully, our Hayley will be back."
Klaus was uneasy at the thought of anyone invading Hayley's thoughts, even himself. "And who is this we that will be going into Hayley's mind?"
"We can debate over it when we get to that point," Freya conceded before leaving the room to get necessary ingredients for the spell, while Rebekah and Katherine were instructed to gather the rest of their household to inform them of what was going on.
Klaus placed Hayley on their bed then sat next to her. She had eventually lost consciousness from the mental attack but continued to twitch and mutter indiscernible words. He smoothed her hair and softly spoke to her. "I am so sorry, Little Wolf. You're right – I could've prevented everything that happened to you if I had been stronger, but we were always stronger together. When I find them, they will suffer for everything they have done to you." He paused. "You're my wife and I love you. These years without you was torture, not just because I lost you, but Hope had to grow up without her amazing mother again. But this will be the last time either of us will be away from our daughter. We'll spend the rest of eternity watching her become a woman who is the very best of both of us. And nothing and no one shall ever tear us apart again – we will be together… Always and forever." Klaus promised as he lovingly kissed her forehead.
Freya cleared her throat and after her brother nodded for her to do what she had to. The other Mikaelsons entered the room as the blonde witch spread the enchanted sleeping powder onto Hayley's body, putting her into a comatose state, stilling her form.
"Dad... will Mum be okay?" Hope asked quietly looking at her father with sad eyes. Klaus reached out to her, she flinched, while she civilly addressed him, Hope was still upset over the business with the letter.
The original hybrid could see this, so he opted for a simple smile toward his little girl. "Yes, she will be. And we're all going to make sure that she will always be safe and happy."
It was agreed that Klaus and Rebekah would be first to go into Hayley's mind in case there were things too dark for young Hope to see, but the little witch was on standby waiting for her turn to help her mother. Kol would supervise Freya with doing the spell to put their niece into her mother's mind while Elijah and Katherine would be both the bridge and barricade to the occurrences outside of the room.