Disclaimer: I don't own Saving Hope or The Originals.

I'm really sorry this is late. Again. I had almost finished this chapter on Thursday, but then I'm moving house, so I'm really busy with that. Then when I finished it earlier, I got called and that jolted my hands causing me to delete the whole chapter and I couldn't get it back. The original chapter also had more words in it, so it was longer, but I could not remember any of what else I wrote besides what you're about to read now, but hopefully you still enjoy it. And even then, some of its changed, but what can you do I suppose.

Chapter 10

Joel got up from where he was lying on the floor after being knocked down by his overly energetic son. He smiled as he heard the feminine laugh. He had seen Sonja, his ex girlfriend, and her now 11 year old son in a coffee shop not far from his place and invited them over. Sonja had smiled a bright beautiful smile – her smile which made him remember of he had fallen in love with her, years ago – and accepted.

He smiled at her.

"You're never going to beat me, you know," he pointed out smugly.

"Really? It's three against one Joel."

"You should have got more people." These words, of course, sparked another mock battle with the three of them ganging up on Joel. Half an hour later saw Joel once again laying on the floor, this time trapped under Sonja. Her eyes glinted as her smile widened.

"Quick!" she shouted. "Get the brownies! They are the spoils of war!" The two of them heard giggling as the two boys ran into the kitchen to find the brownies.

"You'd never beat me one on one," he said with a glint in his eyes and a grin on his face. Sonja smirked at him.

"You got beaten by 2 under 12s, I think I've got you covered." Joel was about to report when her mouth crashed on to his and he was drawn into her kiss. Tongues clashed in a battle of dominance as his hand cupped her cheek, her hands coming up to run through his dark hair, the kiss deepened automatically. Eventually the two pulled apart, both breathing heavily with a dazed look in their eyes.

"You may have me covered," he said breathlessly, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips, "but you'll still never get the brownies."

"And why's that?" she asked challengingly, raising an eyebrow.

"Because I ate them all," he said with a cheeky grin, laughing. Sonja's eyes widened in disbelief before she narrowed her eyes at him with a strange glint in them. He only had a second to look concerned before her fingers brushed against his side accidently, making him laugh before he bit his lip and she froze, staring at him. Slowly, a grin made its way across her face.

"Is the mighty Dr Joel Goran ticklish?!"

"No," he stubbornly denied. This started yet another war, this one just between the two of them. The two boys came out of the kitchen a few minutes later and stopped, staring at the sight before them. Both 'adults' were rolling around the floor laughing, fully engaged in a tickle war. They looked at each other wide eyed, wondering how they were supposed to stop this. A letter came through the mail slot.

"Dad? Dad, there's a letter," Luke said. No response. Luke went over to them and poked his father's side. It's didn't make much of a difference as Joel thought it was one of Sonja's attacks and attempted to wiggle out of the way. Eventually Sonja rolled away from one of Joel's attacks, giving Luke a chance to interrupt. "Dad, there's a letter." He handed it to him, having walked over to get it earlier when there was no response. It was a card with loopy writing. In seconds, Joel was sober again, getting to his feet and helping Sonja up at the same time with an easy smile on his face.

"I'll see you again tomorrow, yeah? After work? We could have dinner?" Sonya once again have him that smile before nodding.

"Come on Ryan buddy, we've got to go." Joel showed them out the door, kissing Sonja goodbye, before shutting it behind them.

Joel sighed and turned to look at Luke. He kneeled down in front of him.

"Do you want to go stay with Uncle Josh tonight?" he asked. "Think of it as a sleepover"

"Do you have to do 'boring adult things'?" he asked. Joel sighed and nodded. Luke shrugged before nodding. "OK. Uncle Josh said that he should teach me how to play the piano next time I stayed over with him." Joel bit his lip to stop himself from laughing, not being able to hide a smirk. He had seen and heard Josh's attempt at playing the piano. It would probably turn out to be Luke teaching him how to play.

-TO/SH-

Josh walked down the stairs in the loft carrying some of the board games for him to play with Luke after a while on the piano , only to see Sofya sitting on the couch. Suddenly, he was very grateful for having told Luke to stay upstairs while he set everything up so they wouldn't have to do it later.

"Late start to the day Josh?" Sofya asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, wow. Hi… creepy. You know, normal people knock."

"Normal is boring," she stated.

"Uh, tomato, tomato." He hesitated. "Are you here to kill me?" he asked, putting the board games down on his table.

"Why would you think that?" Sofia asked, getting off the couch and walking towards him.

"Well, that's what you did the first time we met, and our relationship hasn't evolved since then," Josh pointed out. Sofia picked up the invitation to the Mikaelson's party laying next to the games, looking at it.

"My priorities have changed," she said simply. "Right now, I'm focused on event planning. For example, don't you think it's strange that the Mikaelsons cohosting a party with Marcel when no one had seen him for over 24 hours?"

"Because he's locked in a dungeon?" he said. Sofya looked at him and he hurried to explain before she, you know, changed her mind and killed him. "After Marcel disappeared, construction workers sealed off the entrance to the tunnels under Rousseau's, so, you know… One plus one equals captured."

"They invited you hoping to sell the illusion that it was Marcel's idea," she told him. "It's your lucky day. Because I'm your plus one."

"Yeah I actually wasn't even planning on going. Even if I wanted to, I'm babysitting."

"Bring the little brat with you," she said, not caring. "I'll be damned if I let Marcel rot right under Klaus's feet. This might be your one chance to get him out. I'll deal with Klaus. You find Marcel. Or I reconsider allowing you to live." This last part she said with a smile as she walked out the door.

Josh sighed as she left, looking around the loft. What the hell was he supposed to do now? Maybe he could leave Luke with Hope and Hayley so that he wasn't involved? Hayley might still like him enough to look after him for a while.

-TO/SH-

Joel, obviously dressed in one of his suits with a deep blue shirt, walked into the Mikaelson Compound, looking around. People were everywhere, half of them shooting him angry looks and glares. Probably because of his likeness to Elijah Mikaelson, he wasn't an idiot, he knew everyone hates the Mikaelson's. He ignored them all. It was decorated well, with streamers and balloons, other various decorations, even an ice sculpture. It all reminded him of the hospital thing he and Sonja went to on their first date.

'Power plays and supernatural creatures. Yeah, because this will go brilliantly.' It was then that he saw someone who definitely shouldn't be there.

Josh was looking rather uncomfortable on the other side of the room.

Not in his loft looking after his son.

Joel scowled and made his way across to him. Josh glanced over in his direction and Joel could see his eyes widen. He wasn't currently reading his mind, but if he was, he could guess he would be hearing oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.

"Where's Luke, and why aren't you with him?" he demanded, scowling at him with his arms crossed. It was at times like this that Josh was reminded that his latest friend was, in fact, a Mikaelson, even if he was 1000 years down the line, and that as a doctor, Joel would know excruciatingly painful ways of killing him. And because he was a vampire, he would just come back and Joel could start with another technique. It was also times like this, that he was extremely thankful that Joel was his friend, and therefore would – hopefully – never hurt him.

"I kinda left him with Hayley..." Josh risked a look at his friend's carefully blank face, the only inkling of his anger being the look in his eyes and the tick in his jaw, and winced.

"You left my son with a woman I don't know, so that you could attend some stupid party held by people you hate?!" he hissed angrily, only just managing to keep his voice down.

"I trust her!" he rushed. "Hayley's a friend, and she has a daughter, she won't let either is them get hurt!" He made sure to leave the sort of out of the sentence, because he knows what Joel would be like if he heard that. Klaus would run for the hills for gods sake!

Everyone's attention was drawn to the stairs where the Mikaelson brothers were standing, Elijah preparing to give a speech. All throughout the speech, people closer to them were shooting Joel confused looks as they could clearly see and hear Elijah on the stairs. The whole time, Joel was shooting daggers at Josh, ignoring everyone else in the room. After the speech, Josh have Joel Hayley's number so that he could check up on them. He was pretty sure it was the right one anyway. Joel walked off to the side and into a corridor so that he could call the number where he was promptly stopped by Klaus who has his hand on his shoulder and a smirk on his face

"There you are," he said. "My favourite doppelganger." Joel shot him a look.

"What do you want Klaus?"

"Well," Klaus said with a shrug. "You're a witch with a specialty in mind magics. It just so happens that I need to get into the mind of a witch."

So here it is, the 10th chapter. It would have been longer, but it was already a day late and it's gone 11, and I didn't want to leave you guys without a chapter for too long, so if I was going to split a chapter in half, this would be a good place to split it. I will obviously make the next chapter essentially be an episode and a half to make up for this one essentially being half a chapter, so it'll probably be a long chapter next week.

Enjoy the chapter and please leave a review, I'd love to know what you guys think.

- Kyrian Mikaelson