Sorry for disappearing but the last three weeks at work were crazy. I didn't have much time to write and needed longer than usual for this chapter. It is full of big sister Freya, so enjoy!

Much thanks to Senema for her beta and always making time to help me with my stories, I really appreciate it.

Instrumental parentification is a real thing, as are the symptoms and effects I mention in this chapter. I read about it in an article a few months ago and just waited for the right time to work it in. I read this article and I just thought, this is Elijah and it explain so much about him, so forgive me this little indulgence. The rest are my opinions and the conclusions I took from them.

I wish everyone who celebrates happy holidays and should it be my last update for this year, I wish you all a Happy New Year.

Chapter 25

Freya couldn't remember the last time she had been so angry and so full of justified hate. The memory of that room and the knowledge that she had almost lost her entire family would haunt her for many years to come. So much greater was the satisfaction she'd felt at punching Vincent out with her fist.

They were back at Lucifer's Penthouse. Luckily, he had his own elevator, so nobody could see them with their bloodstained clothes. As Maze had promised, the room the Originals put their captives in was quite suitable for their purposes. In fact, it was so soundproofed that even vampires with their superior hearing couldn't hear what was going on outside, as Elijah remarked impressed.

To secure their prisoners Klaus and Rebekah compelled Marcel and Sofya to not move a muscle without their permission and to not make a sound other than to answer questions.

Elijah and Kol chained the werewolf to the wall with the available shackles in the room, which only left the still unconscious Vincent.

Freya and Davina were still too exhausted to contain him. And Freya didn't have anything with her she could use to temporarily take away Vincent's magic, so she decided to ask Charlotte for a favour.

"Charlotte, can you do with this room what you did in the warehouse?" Freya looked questioningly at the goddess. "I mean, can you prevent Vincent from using his magic?"

"Of course," Charlotte replied generously and closed her eyes for a few seconds before opening them again. "It's done."

Elijah picked Vincent up and chained him up next to the werewolf, this time with Maze's help. With a wicked grin, she then went to a small closet, opened one of the drawers and took something out, then she went back to Elijah and gave him the elaborate gag. Elijah blinked slightly surprised but then he started to smirk quite vindictively and forced the gag between Vincent's teeth.

"Honestly, I've wanted to do this for a very long time." Elijah winked at Freya and Klaus mischievously. "It will be a real blessing not to have to listen to Vincent's sanctimonious voice anymore other than when we want to."

Klaus laughed aloud and nodded in agreement. "You are absolutely right, brother."

Freya chuckled softly, she could hardly blame her brothers for the dislike they felt for Vincent's false and hypocritical righteousness.

Danny opened the previously closed door and entered the dungeon with a worried expression; to Freya's knowledge, he had led a lengthy conversation with Gwennie. "I have a message for you. The police are already at the Council meeting place. It is too late to clean up there and cover all your traces."

Elijah sighed. "That's quite unfortunate." He looked at Klaus. "Did you leave clues that can lead to us, when you killed the old witch?"

Klaus thought for a moment. "Nothing to indicate the existence of vampires. I bit her but then ripped her head off, so there are no suspicious bite marks to find. The blood loss isn't big enough and can be explained away. Otherwise, I was careful not to leave my fingerprints on anything and I wiped the doorknob when we left the hall."

"Just like I did." Elijah looked at Lucifer. "What are the odds that Chloe will be assigned to this case?"

Lucifer looked worried. "Unfortunately, they are quite high. Chloe is a first class detective with a high clearance rate, thanks in part to my help." He took out his cell phone and looked at the display. "There is no message from her yet that we have a new case."

"Will it become a problem for you should Chloe get involved?" Elijah eyed Lucifer carefully.

Lucifer sighed. "It won't be easy for me but in this case I can live with it. It wouldn't be the first time I've kept secrets from Chloe about things that are about me or my world."

Maze nodded in agreement. "Yes, it is better for her."

Klaus shrugged. "So there is nothing to find there, which indicates our personal presence. And I bet there are already efforts underway by those in the know to cover up anything that suggests there is something supernatural about this case."

Danny nodded. "Gwennie confirmed as much to me and she promised to take care of the fallout."

"Well then, all that's left for us to do is deal with the conspirators. But let's wait for everyone to be awake for it." Elijah smiled lazily and not a little mean. "Let's give them time to think about their fate and that they have no reason to complain about it. After all, it is not as if they didn't know who they were messing with when they started their conspiracy. Well, except maybe for the werewolf."

The other Mikaelson siblings chuckled amused and then they left the room with their allies.

Freya took one last look at Marcel and gave him a chilling smile. No matter what Klaus or Rebekah might say or try to do to save Marcel from death, she would make sure that this time he paid with his life. She would not allow Marcel and Vincent to put Elijah in danger ever again.

When Freya joined the group outside, she heard how Lucifer asked for everyone's favourite Italian dish, as he wanted to order take-out. She wasn't surprised when Elijah remembered her favourite pizza and ordered for her before she could do it herself.

Lucifer then offered those who could use a change of clothes to go through his closets. "Former lovers of mine have left enough clean clothes in there. I think every one of you will find something that fits him or her even it is not your usual style. My penthouse has enough bathrooms, so you can freshen up at the same time, while we wait for the food."

Lucifer contributed several expensive bottles of wine to drink while they ate. He watched how everyone ate quite hungrily. "I see I'm not the only one who gets hungry when punishing the guilty."

Klaus laughed. "Oh, for me it is enough to get revenge on my enemies."

Freya smiled as she saw Elijah rolling his eyes and chuckling. She had noticed that Elijah was much more relaxed than usual and attributed this to Lucifer. She liked him; he resembled Elijah so much in some ways that he felt for her like a more carefree and not so traumatized Elijah. She imagined, perhaps her brother would have turned out to be like this too if she could have grown up with them and been his big sister.

In her research, preparing for Nik's birth and learning, what parents of the 21st-century should or shouldn't do, she'd come across a term. When she read the definition, she immediately thought of Elijah. Instrumental parentification explained so much about Elijah, his character traits and his problems.

As much as Freya had loved Finn, she knew he had let Elijah down when growing up. He had never helped Elijah with their siblings, to offer Elijah and them the love Esther and Mikael had never been able to provide.

Mikael had physically abused Klaus, which had been bad enough, but what Esther and Mikael had done to Elijah had even more far-reaching and insidious consequences that left scars on Elijah's psyche to this day.

After learning about this syndrome, she had asked Kol and Rebekah a few tentative questions about their childhood, assuming they had a little less distorted perspective than Klaus. The two confirmed to her that Elijah had often been overwhelmed with the care of his younger siblings, a task, which would have been the duty of their parents. In addition, he had never received any praise, recognition or encouragement as Esther and Mikael had taken everything for granted.

As a result, Elijah had had virtually no childhood. He had occupied an odd position between child and adult, with all the disadvantages of each position and none of the advantages.

His parents left Elijah alone with all his problems and fears, so he had never had the opportunity to develop an identity of his own or self-love. It made him insecure, which explained why Elijah was so fixated on protecting his family and his inability to live without them. The way, how his siblings had always relied on him was the only positive affirmation Elijah had ever received for his efforts. To lose them in the aftermath of the Hollow must have devastated him und she was sure, it was one of the main reasons, why he had erased his memories.

A part of Freya wished she had known all of this back then. If she had, maybe then she would have been able to anticipate Elijah's reaction and save him.

No wonder Elijah so seldom fell in love and when he did sacrificed everything for his partner to make them happy. She hadn't been there then but the way he'd supported Hayley in her decision to marry Jackson was another example for this. Elijah never cared about his own well-being or happiness, he always thought only of those he loved and prioritized them over himself.

Elijah once told her that their parents made them vampires but not monsters. However, Freya firmly believed that their neglect, at least in Elijah's case, had played a large part in the fact that he had never had a chance to be anything else. She wondered, how an Elijah with a fully developed personality and sure in his own self-worth would have dealt with the temper tantrums of his siblings and especially Klaus's? Unfortunately, they would never know.

"I think we should better return to our hotel and don't meet again until tomorrow", Freya said calmly. She didn't say that Elijah in particular needed the time to think about everything and to deal with the events of the last few days. "It might be suspicious if we stay out all night."

"She's right", said Elijah. "A few hours will not surprise anyone after I spent a night in prison but the whole night would indeed lead to uncomfortable questions. And the humans among us need sleep, too." He looked meaningfully to Freya and Davina, who looked absolutely exhausted.

"Let's say six o'clock tomorrow evening", suggested Lucifer. "By then I'll know if Chloe and I will get the case." He grinned slightly. "Also, if they have any suspicions against your family."

"That could be an advantage", Elijah agreed thoughtfully before grimacing. "Now we just have to somehow prove my innocence, so I don't have to go back to jail. But how to do this, I haven't the faintest idea."

"Let's sleep for a few hours; maybe one of us will have a good idea how to do this later." Davina suggested tiredly.

"Yes, love, you should definitely sleep. Lucifer, would it be okay with you if one of us were to stay here?" Kol asked calmly.

Lucifer looked confused. "Of course, but why?"

"I just don't think it's a good idea to leave our captives without anyone keeping an eye on them," Kol replied with a shrug.

Klaus nodded. "Yes, one of us should stay here."

"And I think Kol or I would be the logical choice for this", Elijah added.

"Oh, no, little brother, you're coming to the hotel with us", Freya said sternly and pointed her index finger at Elijah. He would not sacrifice his much-needed downtime. However, she shared Elijah's view that Klaus or Rebekah were not good choices when it came to guarding Marcel and looked with a raised eyebrow at Kol.

Kol sighed. "Okay, Freya, I'm volunteering." He grimaced at the last word.

"I'll keep you company, Kol", Maze offered eagerly.

Kol looked hesitantly at Davina. "Is that okay for you?"

"Of course, Kol." Davina smiled slightly. "I am sure you will have enough to talk about."

Kol winced slightly.

Freya was amused. She knew Davina wasn't jealous of Maze and had no reason to be. But it didn't hurt Kol to be reminded of his faux pas, either. Kol, especially, sometimes needed a reminder that his wild years were over if he wanted to keep his wife.

Freya and her family left Lucifer's penthouse and went back to their hotel.

Danny parted from them in front of the hotel and said he was going to Gwennie's to give her a fuller account of what had happened in the last few hours.

Freya on the other hand made it her personal mission to bring Elijah to his room and she glared at Klaus, when he wanted to follow their brother into his room. "Elijah needs sleep. You two can make plans of how to destroy your enemies tomorrow, for now leave him alone."

Klaus looked suitably cowed and went to his own room.

Freya glared at Elijah too. "And you won't let him in either, should he try to come back later when I'm gone."

Elijah raised his hands in surrender. "OK, I promise." He yawned suddenly. "To be honest, I'm glad you sent Niklaus away."

Freya smiled. "Sleep well, little brother." She hesitated. "Should anything happen or if you need someone to talk to, you can wake me up anytime. You know that, right?"

Elijah looked at her seriously. "Yes I know. And should the need arise, I will come to you." Suddenly he smiled softly. "Sleep well, big sister." He entered his room.

Freya sighed. Now she could only hope that Elijah actually rested and that he would feel better tomorrow.

Freya yawned, she would definitely use the next few hours to sleep and get some of her strength back.