-4-
Elijah slid to the hardwood, back against the door when he was certain Hope left for home. He blinked rapidly, feeling each abrasive movement as if his lids were fashioned of sandpaper. He forced himself to look; Hayley's bite was already festering with boils and acidic heat, causing his thoughts to grow scattered and vision to blur.
A dog barked from the street and a car horn bleeped. For a moment Elijah thought it was the very same as Niklaus's Model J from the 1920's. But it was not possible. Merely a trick of werewolf poisoning racing through his vampire veins.
It was only a matter of time before he was at the mercy of the venom affecting his mind. The hallucinations would thrust him through memories and when you are over a millennia old, there was an abundance of material to draw from- and not always good.
For the time being, his mind rested on Hayley's statement at the bayou tonight. I will never forgive you if she gets hurt trying to save me. You promised me, Elijah. You swore it. But he made such vows under the complete belief that this curse would never progress so horrifically or span so long without a cure.
Finding the culprit had been heart-wrenching in itself. Elijah feared he would never be able to erase the way Hayley looked, so tragically anguished, when he explained softly into her ear why it was she suffered- for whom she suffered.
Elijah slipped further down the door before giving in and laying on his side. The air felt both too hot and too cold from his floundering lungs to the skin that looked more alien than monster at the present.
"Heavens, Hayley. Your bite would be worse than my brother's..." he chuckled out loud. This induced a coughing fit and only then did he begin to regret turning Hope away. It was unfortunate his principles often got in the way of his own self care. But. Such was the way Elijah maneuvered this wretched life.
And what's this? The somber tune of Moonlight Sonata played heavily, ivory piano keys plunking out each note in an echoing reminder that he was not in control. It was best not to fight the pull towards the insanity a wolf bite brings, though it was instinctively nagging at his spine to do so. It was always frightening once he lost that last thread...
"Uncle Elijah, what is that?" Hope asks, sitting aside him on the cool piano bench. The acoustics inside the tunneled rooms below the compound are remarkable and he has moved their music lessons there for this very reason.
He leans into the notes, smiling down at her as she watches his fingers glide over the keys. She smells like the bayou; earthy and sun-kissed.
"This, dear niece, is a must for old vampires." He trills a note a little to earn him a grin. She has her father's dimples but her mother's beaming smile. "Moonlight Sonata. And...," he continues, "it is by Ludwig Van...?"
Hope blinks knowingly, eyes wide and alert, "Beethoven."
"Precisely."
She ducks under his arms to wedge herself between his swaying form and the sleek onyx piano he bought off of a closing down jazz club. Her small hands, still dirty with her wolf training for the day, lay atop his. She aligns her fingers with his and feels what it feels to play such a piece with the precision of one who has played it hundreds of thousands of times by now.
"I'm hungry," she states as his fingers halt over the last notes. The child is a bottomless pit these days, all nine years of her. He lets her hang off his neck on the way up to the kitchen, her legs dangling like a swinging monkey's. He thinks of Rebekah doing the same once. Long ago.
Hayley is there crying against Niklaus, sharp afternoon light outlining their embrace in front of the large bay window- but it is too late to shield Hope from it. How much Elijah wishes he could be the one holding Hayley now, smoothing her hair and whispering how he would make it all go away.
The scene started to fog and Elijah found himself confused and uncomfortably hot.
"Hey-" Hayley's voice echoed. He felt the sting of someone kicking at his side.
The acrid burn of blood to his nostrils reminded him he was famished and in excruciating pain.
"Brought you something," she added. His eyes cracked open and trained on bare muddy feet. His cheek was stuck to the polished tile of his restroom. He didn't remember ever moving from the entry at all.
Elijah drank from a cup of her blood, gagging on the thickness as it trickled down his raw throat. She set it aside with a hollow clank before he heard the spray of his shower start up. Elijah let out a long groan as he waited for the venom to die off and his dying tissues to regenerate.
"Thank you," he rasped. Hayley yanked her dress off, back towards him.
"Yeah well," she stepped into the shower, "you know I can't stand for someone to suffer alone and I knew you wouldn't take from Hope."
"Yet you choose to suffer alone yourself."
The sound of his shampoo bottle being cracked open offered pause. Then she said lowly, "don't start, Elijah. It had to be this way. Klaus…he can't deal. He shouldn't have to."
"I would have."
"You couldn't and you can't," she replied over the splats of water, "And that's the hand we were dealt." So matter of fact. It always stung, as if he were the only one who grieved their intimate losses.
He pushed himself to his feet, fingers unsteady as he unbuttoned his shirt. "So that's it then. You are giving up."
"Never that, Elijah."
He found a new shirt and shrugged into it, deftly buttoning towards the hollow of his neck. "Then let Hope and I get the cure for your curse. It is the only way."
"I can't do that."
He clenched his jaw and closed his eyes. "Then forgive us when we do."
"I would never forgive you for putting her in that position. You can't possibly think that memory travel is safe let alone appropriate considering whose mind it is."
"Hope doesn't give up either. She is made of you, she's mostly you."
The spiced smell of his body soap permeated the room.
Hayley snapped, voice vibrating,"You act like I want this. Like I wanted to show up to her birthdays and on holidays so doped up on potion that I can barely remember any of it. All so she doesn't have to see me sobbing and begging for relief."
He stalked up to the shower, yanking the glass door open. She doesn't seem the slightest surprised and continues to lather over her skin. Elijah states firmly, "I will ensure her safety."
"Stop acting like it's only her safety that's at stake. We both know your mind is nowhere for my teenage daughter to be inside."
"We are getting you back."
"She's not just mine. I won't do this behind his back. I can't do that to him after…everything."
"I appreciate and respect that, but Hayley," he stepped forward to brush her hair away from her face. Her eyes are tired but attentive and he wishes he could hold her. "You have missed so much."
He could see the curse affecting her and knew his words just aggravated it further. She swatted his hand away and turned to shut off the shower, the knobs squealing loudly.
"Take me back now, before I start to say some things you don't want to hear," Hayley muttered, moving around him. He knew it was part of the curse. The worst parts of her bubbled out with no filter and she hated the loss of control. Still, it was hard to accept.
As if she hadn't already said everything he'd never wanted to hear these past ten years of utter hell. As if she hadn't asked him to step in and take over with Hope when it should have been Niklaus tending to her all along. But life never was that kind to Elijah Mikaelson. Just as nature would have it, the only person in this world that could make Hayley feel any sort of relief from the curse swirling magically inside her, was the only other hybrid in this world.
Something Elijah could not offer that his brother could was the bond of werewolf kin. When they made Hope, something more was created and it had taken despair to find it...but it had been found.
A/N: More answers ahead! Reviews appreciated!
Also, I'm delirious with fever (maybe not wolf venom level delirious- but I feel like shit) and tested positive for the flu today so if there are a ton of errors in this chapter, lets just blame it on Influenza A and not on me because I don't like to take the blame for anything. ;) :P