A/N: Title inspired by song 'Clarity' - Zedd.

~ If our love is tragedy, why are you my remedy?
If our love's insanity, why are you my clarity? ~

Chapter 41: Clarity

The room grew incredibly silent and felt as if it were now shrinking smaller around them; the decrease in volume resulting in the connection between them outweighing all other impulses. A peace glided into the air to replace the sickly strain that had been clinging to them just moments before. In those few seconds it was only they who existed.

Hayley gradually glanced up at Elijah absorbing his momentous words as the back of his hand tenderly brushed away her soft fringe. He stroked the side of the face touching her in a way so elegant, that even she almost believed for a second that she was priceless.

In Elijah's mind she was nothing less than invaluable, as precious as anything could possibly be. Her eyes shone at him as if they were rays from the heavens lighting up the dark hell which secretly hid within him. He struggled to believe that he was worthy of even a drop of her affection. Yet he was beguiled by her in every way.

Hayley looked into his eyes deeply and found she was almost able to picture the young man she had seen in his memories on the very day they had first met and then looking at him now, she saw it clearly. Despite not aging for a thousand years her Elijah was grown. She thought about how it must feel to bear a thousand years of self-loathing deep and dammed into the pit of one's heart and her own organ ached. He was doing it right now. He was constantly carrying that burden, continually feeling it's consequence.

Hayley saw the confusion as it glimmered in Elijah's eyes as he began to wonder what she was looking at with such a bittersweet expression.

"He doesn't know." Hayley breathed to herself inside, her heart thudding soft but also hard like the padded foot of a wolf.

"He has absolutely no idea." She sighed internally with a soft heartache with shock.

"He's beautiful." She spoke to herself and her eyes could have pricked with tears any second, for he really was beautiful... inside and out and what magnified it a million times over was that he was completely blind to the notion.

Hayley's hand gradually reached out to tenderly stroke the smooth side of his flawless face and watched him intently as he warmed to her sweet touch, his striking eyes closing almost tightly shut as if to relishing his ration of peace. He was acting like she was some rare concoction, the last vile of a remedy to his impossible disease.

Hayley's eyes flickered towards herself for a second and she stared into the distance in thought. Maybe he was right. Maybe she really was... and so she vowed in that perpetual second that she would try; she would try her utmost to be the salvation he was secretly so much in the need of.

Elijah sighed letting her aura flood over him, praying inside that her touch would never end. That this moment would just become a soothing symphony on a broken record and all his worries, all his terrifying concerns about the next few days would be the end of the song that never got to play.

Hayley gestured ended however and he felt a sudden anxiety run through him, his hands reaching out and sliding around her waist clutching her firmly against him in order to be reminded that she was real. He rested his chin lightly upon her shoulder as she returned his required embrace with equality.

They stayed like that for quite a while but it was in no way awkward.

It was needed. It was filling. It was right.

"Hey..." Hayley was the first to speak softly, only moving the slightest bit away after she knew Elijah's heart was in danger of falling out of his ribcage. She held his arm gently guiding him back a little to look at his tired eyes. He looked so vulnerable. It was if a layer, but a thin one had been removed from her line of sight.

"It's okay." She told him reassuringly and because it was her voice in which the words were spoken, they now had the power to convince him into actually believing it.

Hayley stepped back picking up his weary hand and holding it within her own firmly and Elijah let her lead him towards the bed. He then slipped of his shoes mechanically and followed her lying down so that his head rested on a cushion against her stomach. His eyes closed as her hand covered his forehead and he exhaled deeply. It's like she could suck out the stress with her skin upon his.

"Elijah, we're going to find Klaus & Rebekah tomorrow. I promise." She spoke strongly her voice bubbling with her determination.

Elijah felt her reassurance do its work inside of him, his mind growing clearer and his own will widening. His heart smiled a small smile at her resolve.

"Don't make promises you can't keep." He spoke slowly, his eyes still closed and he didn't need to see her to know she had smiled.

She shoved him gently.
"Don't make me slap you again" she replied, her tone of fake warning and Elijah already felt better. He rose from his position to face her directly, the light returning to his eyes.

"I love you." He spoke impulsively because that is what he had been thinking and the ancient phase had just tumbled off the curve of his lip. Hayley smiled a full smile and it didn't waver as she noticed the fear wash over his eyes for second after speaking the words.

I love you too." She told him and she watched his half closed eyelids flash open with surprise which shouldn't have needed to be present.

Hayley's head tilted a little to one side as she fought the urge to roll her eyes and she though. "When is he going to realise?"

Elijah as confused as he was about her thought process sometimes had followed her head tilt to see nothing of significance but the clock which ticked in time on the wall facing back at them. He read the time and then tumbled into thought soon finding himself swaying in the direction away from the bed about. He was about to get up but Hayley swiftly caught his shirt knowing him all too well now.

"No. You're not going on a rescue mission now." She glared at him and he paused but returned to his previous position facing Hayley an expression of reasoning piling up onto his face.

"I know you want to save them as soon as possible." Hayley told him as she curled a strand of her disarrayed hair around her ear and he listened to her carefully.

"But making rash decisions is not going to help." She explained and he knew she was right. Celeste's plan had worked flawlessly; all the cards were in her hands now which meant they were almost sitting ducks.

"She has us exactly how she wants us." He thought out loud in disgust. If they were going to get this right, they would need to have an intensive method.

"Tell me what happened..." Hayley then asked observing him carefully. She thought getting him to speak about it might help and plus she wanted to know what was going on. Despite being over their fallout concerning his "Sabine theory" she didn't want to be kept in the dark about anything anymore.

Elijah was immediately ready to answer her. He was a man who learned from his mistakes and with Hayley he wished to make no other. They knew now that either of them keeping things from each other tended to have awfully bad consequences and more than with the average couple, or supernatural couple even and so he began with Sabine's tour leading up all the way to here and now.