From Cradle to a Grave

Elijah burst through the doors of the church stumbling, blurry-eyed, and on the verge of exhaustion. The bites on his body certainly were having an effect on him, but he didn't care. He physically felt nothing. All he needed to do was make sure she was okay.

"HAYLEY!" he screamed. His legs brought him to a staggering halt as he tried to focus on the scene in front of him. He gasped for breath as his blurry eyes began to clear, but the scene in front of him made him wish he couldn't see at all.

Klaus was sitting on the steps in front of the sacristy bloody and slumped over from exhaustion. A body laid across the Original hybrid and Elijah thought he was going to be sick. He knew instantly. He was too late. Hayley's head rested on Klaus's lap while the rest of her body was stretched over the same steps. The scent of blood had never disgusted him until today.

"No," he breathed as he began to walk towards them. "No, no, no…"

The closer he got, the more his body couldn't take it. As he reached the two people that he loved the most in this world, he fell to his knees. Blood streaked the corner of Hayley's face, but even in death he could not believe beautiful she still was. Elijah reached out a hand to touch her face and immediately began to tear up. He bent his head, shaking it in disbelief, and let the tears fall from his face freely.

"She's gone," he heard his brother says numbly. He knew the reality of the situation but refused to acknowledge it. She wasn't gone. She couldn't be gone. How could the woman that had been so vibrant and alive just hours earlier be gone? No. It wasn't possible.

Eventually his knees gave out and he fell backwards utterly defeated. Klaus was right. There was nothing he could do. She was gone and once again, he was alone feeling as though someone had ripped the heart out of his own chest.

"You've been bitten. Here," Klaus said as he bit into his wrist. He held it out to Elijah, but all he could do was stare. The light in his life had once again been extinguished and covered with a blanket of darkness.

Elijah laid her body down on the table at the sacristy and numbly stroked her cheek. He mentally begged her to open those mesmerizing hazel eyes. He urged her to take a breath and let oxygen fill her lungs. He pleaded that she would reach out and hold him once more.

"How?" Elijah croaked. How could the most powerful being on this planet lose the fight to a group of insignificant witches?

"I was bested," Klaus spat. Bested.

"You were bested… huh," Elijah breathed. He turned away from Hayley's body and walked towards his brother, filled with a rage he hadn't experienced in his entire life. Every cell in his body was set ablaze and Elijah felt the urge to drive a stake right through his brother's heart.

"You were BESTED!?" Elijah screamed. Klaus's eyes widened in shock, but he said nothing. He didn't have anything to say for himself? The great Niklaus Mikaelson, the king of hybrids and ruler of New Orleans, had nothing to say for himself?

"My invincible brother," he whispered in disbelief.

Klaus weakly managed to pull himself up from the stairs and looked at his Elijah fully understanding where his misplaced anger was coming from.

"They took the baby. But, there's still time. We can save her."

And save her they would.

The two brothers walked through the maze the witches had created, both frustrated and losing precious time. Klaus struck a rock against a tomb creating a third white tally mark noting that they had yet again passed through the same place.

"It's ingenious. I can see them, I can feel them, and yet, they are not real," Klaus sighed. Elijah walked away slowly whilst running his hands through his hair. This wasn't it. He would not give up and let Hayley's death mean nothing. He couldn't.

"There has to be a way. Even if we could just push through – "

" - What we need to do is focus," Klaus responded. Elijah turned quickly and furiously on heel.

"My only focus right now is that child and her safety, do you understand me?" Elijah snapped. "This - all of this - this is the world that you created, Niklaus."

"Brother – "

"All of your scheming, the enemies that you have made every single day of your miserable life - what results did you expect? That your child would be born into a happy life? That the mother would be alive to know her daughter? That we could live and thrive as some - as some sort of family?"

"That was your fantasy, brother, not mine!"

"NO, brother!" Elijah screamed. "This was our hope. This was our family's hope."

Elijah began to try and catch his breath, but the reality of the situation was settling in. He couldn't bear it any longer.

"And now she is gone," he whispered. "Do you understand? I let this person in. I let her in!"

Tears began to form once more and he did his best not to break down, but his voice and expression betrayed him.

"I don't let people in! You knew this. You've taken her from me… I needed her, and you've broken me."

Elijah sat down on the stoop of one of the tombs and put his head in his hands. This woman… he had loved her. And now she was gone. Klaus quietly sat down next to him and gripped his arm in comfort.

"You can tell your niece how much you cared for her mother when we save her."

Elijah looked up at him, chin quivering and eyes watering, but all he saw was the determination in his brother's eyes. They had to save her. They must. Now they were Hayley's last hope in saving her child.

Klaus and Elijah broke through the wall of yet another tomb gasping for breath. The room was full of lit candles, and for a split second, they thought that maybe they had found the witches. As soon as they saw two white tally marks on the wall though, the realization that they were getting nowhere hit them.

"We've passed through here twice already. We're running out of time!" Elijah said as he punched through a wall in frustration.

"Then we move faster," Klaus grumbled as he added a third tally mark.

"Or smarter."

Elijah froze. The hair on his body stood rigid on end as he turned to see just who had spoken. It was as though he had been hit by a bolt of lightning. Hayley. She was there, a silhouette against the night sky, standing looking confused and tired.

"Hayley."

Elijah rushed over to her to make sure she wasn't a sick illusion that the witches had created to further torture him. When he reached her and let his hand touch the solidness of her cheek, it felt as though the weight of the world had been lifted off of his chest. He eyes flickered to his, and though there was something about them that had changed, it was her. She was alive.

"Hayley… how are you here?" he whispered. Her gaze shifted to the back of the tomb obviously trying to remember what had happened.

"I woke up in the church. I felt this hunger... I knew what I needed," she said numbly. "I can feel her. She's here. I can feel my baby."

"You died with the baby's blood still in your system," Klaus said as the wheels in his head began to turn. He looked at his brother sympathetically and said what Elijah already knew. "She's in transition."

"Which means she has to drink the blood of the child if she is to survive," Elijah said weakly.

"To be reborn a hybrid."

"I don't care about me," Hayley said icily. She turned to look at Klaus and with gritted teeth said, "I'm gonna go find our daughter."

Hayley and Elijah slowly walked into the Mikaelson compound, both tired and taking in the loss of the baby. Suddenly, Hayley stumbled into Elijah's arms who held her up firmly.

"Hey. Hey! This is the hunger. You must feed," he told her. She looked up at him, tears filling her eyes as she shook her head.

"I woke up this morning a wolf and a mother. Now I don't know what I am," she whispered. The woman in his arms looked utterly lost and exhausted, but Elijah knew sleep wasn't what she needed. He swept a piece of hair from her cheek and stroked her face softly.

"You are both of those things still. And we will explore all that you are and all that you can do. But first, you must feed."

She looked up at him terrified. Partly because she didn't know what the hell tomorrow would bring or the days following, but also because he was right. She craved blood and it disgusted her.

Elijah saw the conflict in her eyes, but knew that if she did not feed soon, she would pass out. He angled his neck towards Hayley and watched as the black veins under her eyes grew visible. With tears streaming down her face, Hayley bit into Elijah's neck and sobbed as she let the weight of everything sink in.