Chapter Two
The Plantation, New Orleans - Present
A short time later Nikolah and Hayley sat on a bed in Rebekah's new room. Rebekah was unpacking her limitless bags that somehow fit into her tiny red car. It seemed that finding Elijah would take more time then she predicted, and with the unplanned appearance of her little sister, New Orleans had now become a semi-permanent residence.
Rebekah searched for items of clothing that her sister could fit into and not deem too lude. Luckily for Nikol, Rebekah was as similar build, and shared the same shoe size. Unfortunately however, Rebekah did not own many conservative items of clothing.
"Well, I looks like you are going to have to wear pants for the time being, there is no way around that. I'll take you out shopping soon, so a day or two won't kill you." Rebekah said pulling denim jeans from out of her bag and stylising it with a somewhat modest lacy white top and matching brassiere.
Rebekah and Hayley were making sure that Nikol was up to date with the whole miracle baby, missing Elijah situation, which seemed to take priority over getting Nikol up to speed with the New World.
Rebekah then sat Nikol down on a chair and got out a pair of scissors, cutting Nikol's waist length locks into a hairdo a few inches shorter so now her hair hung just above her mid back. She also gave Nikol some layers and cut some hair shorter at the front, giving her bangs to frame her face.
Rebekah then sent Nikol off to take a shower and get changed. It took Rebekah a full twenty minutes to explain what a shower was and how to use it, another five minutes to explain shampoo and conditioner and another five to pry Nikol away from the fluffy white towels.
Once Nikol was cleaned up and dressed like a normal human being, Rebekah had to depart.
"I have some things I need to deal with in order to get Elijah back safely, that way we can leave this dastard town. Nikol, stay here with Hayley, don't go wondering around until I get back, it'll be very confusing out there, you know how scary the world can be when you're new to it." Rebekah gave her a kind hearted smile before she left leaving Nikol sitting awkwardly next to Hayley.
"So, you um...had...you know with my brother." Nikol said looking embarrassedly at the floor.
"Yep, not my shining moment" Hayley replied turning her head to the window.
"Welcome to the family!" Nikol snorted half-heartedly as Hayley laughed with her before they once again sat in awkward silence.
"Do you know where I can get some more blood? Forgive me but it has been a long time since."
"It's alright, I'm surprised you haven't drained me yet." she said rising to her feet before exiting the room, Nikol following in suit. They reached the Kitchen where Hayley showed her how to open the fridge door. She removed three bags and they both sat down.
"How are you so ok with this? Your brother locked you up in a coffin for nearly 200 years and you don't even look angry about it. If that were my brother, I would be out hunting him right now." Hayley said confused by the younger Mikaelson's strange calmness.
"Well, firstly I don't have a daylight ring, so even if I wanted to track him down, I wouldn't be able to reach him for another five hours. Secondly, we are immortal, as far as I know only our father has a stake to be able to and I am in no rush to go looking for the man who wants me dead as well. And thirdly, those mystical daggers are useless against him so I cannot subject him to the same fate. So why fight it? Why complain? There is no point, the best I can do is wait for Rebekah to free Elijah, play happy family with psychotic Klaus and carefully formulate a plan to get us the hell out without being daggered for a second time.
"But don't you want revenge? To make him suffer? Klaus has thousands of enemies, I am sure any number of them will be willing to help you." Hayley asked, not quite understanding.
"He's still my brother, no matter how many enemies he holds, he can't be killed and even if he could be, I couldn't, because no matter what, we're still family. A thousand years is still enough for that kind of loyalty, and Elijah would never approve anyway, nor would Rebekah no matter what she says." Nikolah said finishing the last of the blood before getting up.
"Now after almost 200 years of being asleep, I kind of feel rather tired, if you will excuse me." Nikolah said walking away from the still silent Hayley.
Nikolah slowly clambered up the stairs, she pondered about the new world she had woken up too and where the rest of her family were since her brothers Kol and Finn were as they were no longer in their coffins as she expected them to be. Casting the thought from her mind, she fell softly asleep in her sister's vacant room.
Nikol later awoke to the echoing sound of the front door slamming open. This was quickly followed by the loud, angry voice of her brother Niklaus shouting at someone downstairs. Concerned for the safety of her sister, her unborn niece and the child's mother she hurried towards the sound of the ruckus. Nikol reached the balcony where she saw Hayley in a heated match with Klaus.
"You wanna know what I was doing? I was buying poison, so I could put your little baby out of its misery." Nikol heard Hayley sneer at him. Next thing she knew Klaus had Hayley pinned up by the neck against the front door gasping for breath.
"Nik! NIK!" Rebekah shouted at him. Without thought Nikol sped down the stairs and grabbed her brother from behind, sending him flying towards the foot of the stairs. He lay there confused as to who had the strength to do that, as it was not Rebekah.
"Don't you dare touch her like that." Nikol yelled at him. He looked up not expecting in a million years for her to standing there.
"Nikolah?" he questioned his eyes confused and hurt as he then turned angrily to Rebekah.
"Why the hell would you wake Nikol up.?"
"Oh, I don't know Nik, maybe it's because she's our sister. Or have you forgotten after a thousand years." Rebekah replied bitterly to him.
"A little tip for the next time you decide attack a pregnant lady, because I know that's not above you, make sure it's not your own child you're attacking." Nikol replied resentfully.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm leaving, I've had enough of this hell for a life time. I'm not going to wait for Elijah to give up on his foolish quest for your redemption and I am certainly not waiting for the day when you decide to care for your own flesh and blood, because obviously not even your own child can bring out the best in you." Nikol said heading for the door, she hoped that Klaus would be too wrapped up in his own problems to notice her leave.
"Please Nikolah, don't leave, not again, everyone leaves." He looked down at the ground making no physical attempt to stop her like he had before. His eyes were downcast and his voice croaky. Nikol stopped at the door, unmoving she spoke.
"No one leaves you Klaus hasn't a thousand years taught you that? You push everyone else away with own ambition and diabolical plans. We just don't want to be around for the fallout."
"It'll be different this time Nikki, you'll see." He said, pulling on her heartstrings with the childhood nickname he gave her the day she was born.
"We will be a family again, like we once were. You, me, Rebekah, Elijah and the child."
"What about Kol and Finn?" Nikol whispered as she turned around to face him, the look in his eyes confirmed enough.
"They're dead, aren't they, they weren't in their coffins and there would be no way you would let them walk free unsupervised. Is that what you said to them before you killed them, that we'd be a family again like anyone would believe that?" She laughed bitterly, tear falling down her face at the news of her brother's passing.
"I am guilty, but I didn't kill them, I swear to you Nikki, I tried to save them. I am guilty of failing them that will rest on my conscious for the rest of my days, but I won't fail you, I promise. You are welcomed to go, you have my blessing, I won't stop you this time." He declared staring right into her familiar dark brown eyes that sparked with the hope of a new future behind the glassy exterior of her face. Slowly she walked over besides where he sat. Lowering herself onto the floor, Rebekah followed in suit, sitting right by him on his other side.
"Then tell me, where is Elijah?" Nikol asked quietly.
"I gave Elijah to Marcel." Klaus replied slowly, the atmosphere of the room grew cold.
"What?" Rebekah asked glaring at him.
"Marcel was nervous. It's bad enough one Original returned to town, but two? His crew was getting antsy. He wanted Elijah gone, so... I gave him a peace offering." He said without an ounce of sentiment on his face.
"You bartered our brother?" Rebekah asked furiously. Nikol rose to her feet before she kicked him harshly at the knees with full force.
"What did you just say about it being different this time? I should have known you would be full of shit, once a Mikaelson always a Mikaelson, isn't that what you used to say. Less than a minute ago you sprouted crap about it being different this time around, you leasing-monger. You gave our dear brother over as an offering, a sacrifice, for what, glory. Is that all we are to you, offerings, is that why you keep us close to you in boxes, as bargaining chips for every vampire who makes you feel edgy." Nikolah glared as he looked calmly back at her.
"I have a plan. Gain Marcel's trust, dismantle his empire, honour Elijah's wish that that the baby be born. I am executing that plan the only way I know how. If you don't like it, there's the door. See if I care." He said pushing pass Nikolah as he left the room in silence. Nikol fell back down beside her sister in defeat, laying her head on Rebekah's shoulder as they sat still pondering over what Klaus had argued.
That night Nikol couldn't sleep, she spent hours laying in a new bed with her eyes open looking up at the ceiling. After Klaus had left Rebekah explained to her the entire story of what had transpired in recent years, from finding the doppelganger to her awakening. From six of them to four in as little as three years, both parents dead once again as they should have been. No more running from their father, no more grieving their mother, no more waiting for the day that Finn would be let out of his prison and no more waiting for Kol to act like an adult. But even now with the four of them left there was still no hope for a family in Nikol's eyes, not with Elijah daggered and given away and Klaus too busy with his petty revenge mission. That left Rebekah and Nikolah in a tough position to either help or to flee and become their own family.
As slight knock on the door was heard by Nikol as she sat up. The door opened to reveal Klaus standing there waiting for an invitation to come in.
"You can come in you know," Nikol said lying back down to look up at the ceiling. She knew that he was not there to apologise, Klaus never apologises. Her bet was that he was there to involve her in his plans in some way. He stood by the bed motioning for her to shuffle across. She complied by rolling over to the other side of the bed. He sat down leaning against the bedhead as she closed her eyes again.
"What do you want Niklaus, are you planning to dagger me up anytime soon?" Nikol asked turning her head to face him.
"Not at the moment, no, unless you are to take over father's role and hunt me down for the rest of eternity." he said smirking, she rolled her eyes.
"Don't worry Nik, I don't spend my every waking second plotting lifelong revenge, it's too much effort and it drains me." She smiled tiredly.
"Rebekah filled me in, about mother, father, Finn and Kol, about your creepy hybrid army and young Marcellus. Mostly though constructively ranted about her feelings about being locked in a box on multiple occasions in the past two centuries, that's a lot of men." I joked sadly as Klaus smiled a bit and I smiled back. He still didn't say anything, I sighed.
"If you're going to just sit there and stare at me then, I'd like you to answer a question of my own. I don't need you to explain why you murdered the love of my life. As morbid as it is, I get it, after watching it happen to Rebekah enough times I have learned to understand why you do what you do. But, what I want to know is why didn't you take me out along with the others? Why leave me in a cellar for 200 years?" I asked my voice breaking. He sighed as well and leant back.
"Back in the early 20th century, we were chased out of New Orleans our father, I was desperate to get all of you out safely. I didn't want to put you in danger so kept you hidden in the cellar in this lovely mansion hoping that one day I would get you out and we could live a happy life, the end" he said.
"I don't believe you, that taking care of me stuff is a load of bull, and you know it, you could have come back, Rebekah told me you had Mikael trapped for a good amount of time, and you could have easily come and got me. Instead you left me here to rot, while you were off playing happy family. It hurt's Klaus, it hurts that even if it was just for a perfect 24 hours, everyone was back together again, and I wasn't there. I was lying in a cold dusty coffin all alone." Nikol spoke everything about her sounded broken, nothing like the adventurous, sarcastic, strong independent woman she once was. She did not know it but Klaus swore then and there that she would be that once again.
"Why are you here?" Nikol asked in a board tone.
"I want you loyalty and your help in reclaiming New Orleans."
"Isn't my staying loyalty enough" She asked squinting up at him in confusion.
"No, you tend to be unpredictable where loyalty is concerned. One minute you are aiding my quest, the next you tuck tail and run off into the sunset when my attention is elsewhere, you never stick around for the aftermath." He had a point that Nikol was willing to admit to she was rather changeable where her brother was concerned.
"What do I get in return? If I'm sticking with your suicide mission the very end, I want something."
"Your brother back and the satisfaction of victory." He replied as if that had any meaning to her.
"I want Elijah home safely, my dagger, my coffin and my freedom."
"No, no, no, no, I'll give you your brother and my assurance that I won't bother you for the next life time if that's what you really want. But you're not getting the dagger or the coffin, I don't want that that falling into the wrong hands for your siblings sake." He said coming up with a deal for me.
"That was one time, and Kol was fine." She pointed out.
"It was twice, and we lost Kol to a crazy, power hungry witch for a full fifteen years." He argued back.
"Fine, I get my brother, and a century of peace. If I even live through this, you have yourself a deal."
"Good, now your sister has brought you some things." He smiled before getting up and walking outside the door, bringing back in over 10 full bags of clothes from several different brands.
"See you downstairs in ten, for a family meeting."
I sighed and threw my legs over the bed and got up looking for something to wear for the day.