It has been far too long since this fic has been updated - but it is finally here. My beta has been exceptionally busy but has finally delivered. Thank you so much toe AryaTimodel for excelling in this chapter with moving around my plot ideas to make it different and make sense. The next chapter will hopefully won't take as long to update, but fingers crossed I actually remember what I want to write about.
Thank you so much to everyone for your patience - I have a new Klayley fic that I adopted - please check it out.
Chapter Fourteen
Katherine stood guard at Klaus and Hayley's door as she kept her eyes and ears alert. Elijah was pacing the hallway with his phone at his ear as he informed Marcel, Ansel, and Cary of their situation in the Compound.
Within the room, Kol and Freya laid out the ingredients and set up the spell. The Original hybrid and his daughter were on both sides of Hayley as Rebekah rubbed the young witch's back to soothe her anxiety.
"This spell will help my mom, right?" Hope asked as she stood beside her mother's bed watching her in a magical coma.
"Your dad and Aunt Bekah will be going into her mind to make sure of just that." Freya gently assured the young girl.
"You don't have to worry sweetie, your mummy will be better than okay when this is all over," Rebekah promised.
Klaus brushed some hair away from Hayley's face. "It's my duty as her husband and the father of her child to bring her back to us – I was five years too late to prevent her suffering, but I'll not let it continue now – she will recover."
A dark thought then crept into Hope's mind, "Dad, what if you and Aunt Bekah don't come back and Mum is stuck like this?"
Klaus looked at his child who had tears welling up in her eyes.
He bent down and held his daughter by the shoulders (for the moment her upset over the letter put aside, so she allowed the contact) and looked into the eyes that she inherited from him. "Aunt Rebekah and I will be just fine. We're going to bring your mother back and ensure that she suffers no more. We will come back and be together as a family again."
Kol stood next to his older brother grinning at his niece reassuring. "Come on, Hope. What's the family motto?"
Hope looked up with a hesitant smile on her face and blinked away her tears, "Always and forever."
"Exactly, my Littlest Wolf. We stand together, protect and save one another, no matter what and nothing and no one can or will ever stop us."
Freya came around the couch after she finished drawing the ceremonial circle on the floor and looked at her siblings and niece with arms crossed over her chest.
"Klaus, Rebekah you both realise that you might be psychologically affected by what you see. The unseen will no longer be unseen and it can damage you to try to heal Hayley and bring her back to us," Freya warned carefully.
"This can't be worse for me than anything Mikael ever did." Klaus set his blue gaze on his wife once more. "Whatever it takes, I'm setting Hayley free and bringing home."
"Hear, hear," Rebekah smiled hopefully. It was time Klaus had some peace in his life.
Kol gave his signature smirk and added, "Besides, if it were any of us, Hayley would do the same, no matter the risk."
With the last of instructions, precautions, and such out of the way Klaus and Rebekah then laid down side by side in the circle as Freya stood with one hand hovering over Hayley's head and the other holding Kol's to channel him for the spell. Young Hope stayed at her darling mother's side but her blue eyes shifted once over between her and the other members of their family in the room.
Freya began her chant as Kol felt his energy tapped into and the two originals on the floor felt their minds separated from their bodies.
Klaus and Rebekah found themselves in a rather desolate maze with doorways in every such rotation and state. Each door held a symbol upon it which they surmised represented the memory that took residence within. The two of them held up the enchanted crystals that Freya gave them to help banish away the false memories implanted by Davina, not to mention the real nightmares Hayley went through. Without a word, the siblings split up, putting doors that were off their hinges back up, fixing doors that were broken. Essentially, they were trying to put together a puzzle whose pieces were broken, rendering the task ever more arduous. Some of the things they witnessed were dark and morbid, bringing a sour taste to their palates but nothing they were unused to. Other things brought them terrible sadness that their own hearts hurt.
Occasionally, they encountered "Hayley" within a memory, but once the tableau ended, the figure of Hayley disappeared. However, in the memories of true significance, moments which defined who Hayley is at her core, an object was left behind in place of her spectre. This first happened when they came to the royal wedding memory.
Hayley was wearing that stunning lace ivory wedding dress of hers and, to Klaus, she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen in all the centuries he'd been alive. Everyone thought that it was finally their happy ending, but it was the beginning of a new battle. At a moment when the Klaus in the memory was otherwise occupied and "Hayley" had a moment to herself, Klaus and Rebekah attempted to cautiously communicate with her, but her form faded and in her place, was a wedding ring.
On and on they continued this trend until they had six small objects: a ring (wife), a crown (queen), a branch of holly (mother), a crescent moon (wolf), a yellow rose (friend), and a shield (protector). Rebekah and Klaus had gathered these objects and arranged them together. At best, they'd hoped that the objects would give some sort of sign in the direction of where their Hayley was. Klaus simply knelt and pondered while Rebekah paced, she started to say something to her brother when another "Hayley" attacked her. Klaus got in between the two women and fought "Hayley" off and away from his sister.
Rebekah felt some invincible force pushing and pulling on her as scrambled to her feet, her eyes on "Hayley" and Klaus. The next thing she knew there was only darkness, accompanied by the heavy feeling in her joints and the grogginess of her mind. She could vaguely hear Kol speaking to her and Freya calling Hope. What Rebekah didn't realize yet was that she was forced out of Hayley's mind and now Hope decided to push herself in.
The young witch stood a few feet away from her parents as she released her magic within Hayley's mind all the while calling out for her Mummy. The "Hayley" that was fighting Klaus then retreated to a corner as the light of Hope's magic touched her. When the light faded Klaus approached the corner and found that it was unoccupied save for a lone stalk of hay. The last symbol, H.M (initials of Hayley Mikaelson) was left abandoned and alone as the very woman Klaus was trying to save had been once upon a time.
The objects began to glow and the surroundings shifted. Klaus held Hope close as a precaution, but there was no need. From a door that rather resembled a vault walked out Hayley, their beloved Hayley – once an orphan, nomadic wolf, but now a dear friend, a loyal protector of her family, a beloved, wife, mother, and queen. She approached her husband and daughter with trepidation in step and glazed eyes, but when all she could see was love in their identical blue eyes she easily fell into their lovingly warm embrace. The golden light then eclipsed the hybrid family as the eldest and the youngest members returned to their respective bodies.
Hayley woke up with a pounding headache that was quickly receding as she gained consciousness. Her body felt stronger, even as her head was out of sorts. She could feel her heightened senses registering her surroundings as she took a deep breath. She shifted her body and felt the muscles and joints cracking; then she came to the realisation that she had triggered her hybrid abilities.
She felt a hand caressing her side. She relished the touch of that hand that was once again becoming familiar. She turned her head and opened her eyes to look at the person she was snuggled with. "I've imagined holding you every night since you were taken, but since then I haven't been able to peacefully sleep." He said quietly, not quite able to look at his wife. Hayley, who was still trying to sort herself out, could only look at him.
"Are your real memories returning?" He tilted his head down and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. An intimate touch that he hadn't done in so long (but that was more her fault than his).
Hayley answered slowly, "I think so... bit by bit." She rubbed her temple and sighed as various memories past through. "I was talking with the girls about... what I went through... and then it was like a bomb went off in my head..."
Klaus nodded, "That was almost a week ago." Hayley's eyes widened at that revelation and her husband proceeded to tell her what was done to heal her, paying special detail to Hope's involvement. "She is brave, our Littlest Wolf."
"So, she was my saviour after all," Hayley commented while worrying her lower lip.
Klaus held her closer and pulled her on top of his chest, lightly resting his chin on the crown of her head, "As she has been all of ours really," He then added good-naturedly, "But you shouldn't disregard the rest of the family's involvement, poor Rebekah nearly became intimately acquainted with your venomous teeth."
For the first time since she returned to the family, Hayley offered Klaus a truly content smile one which he could not help but return until a thought came to his mind.
"I swear when I find that prick who touched you, I will enjoy ending his miserable soul."
Hayley's expression became haunted, her begging eyes gleamed at him. "I only need you to promise that you will never let me go. That no matter what you'll always find me."
Klaus looked down at his wife and his heart ached to see her so troubled. "I promise. For the rest of eternity, it will be you, me and our family. I swear to you that I will never let you go and I will go to the ends of the earth to find you."
"Thank you," Hayley whispered with unshed tears and then aloud she voiced, "I love you."
"And I love you." Klaus sighed and bent down to kiss her gently. The feel of her soft lips against his felt like heaven – more than five years without kissing his soulmate. The kiss was filled with the love, passion, and hope that she has been deprived of all those years – it was the touch, feel and warmth from Klaus that she never forgot.
"I hate to ask this but how are you feeling?"
Hayley dipped her head a bit and sighed. "Better than I have been, but... I don't think that I'll be who I was before everything happened, not completely."
Klaus caressed her cheek soothingly. "You are my love, my Hybrid Queen, the mother of our child. You are strong, brave and tough. You are a fantastic mother to Hope and you are a magnificent woman who deserves the best and I intend to give you the world. No matter what's happened, all that can never be taken." And for all the darkness that Hayley had surrounding her, she could do nothing but embrace his words and believe her darling husband.