-9-

Isolde

Isolde woke with a sharp jerk and a gasp. Her sheets were twisted around her suffocatingly and she struggled to whip them off her overheated body. Finally free, she thrust them to the floor. Isolde dropped her head into her hands and groaned as the morning light gave her a headache.

She was in her room, in Virginia. Safe. Free.

Mura cooed a little from the end of the bed, getting up and padding over the ample blankets to Isolde. Memories of those luminous and endless halls began to recede as she worked to control her heart rate. Mura climbed into Isolde's lap purring, Isolde pet her for a while while she calmed down.

After a bit, she wiped leftover tears on her sleeve. Isolde took a deep breath and grabbed her phone off her bedside table, grateful that Kol had left after Theon had come back last night even though she could tell he'd wanted to stay.

Three emails, two texts. The emails were standard check-ins from Sentries, one had been a response from the Legatus she'd mobilized, confirming the numbers she'd requested (she certainly didn't need a full legion) and that they'd be in Virginia before the week's end. They were taking Isolde's private jet into D.C. then a bus to various towns around Mystic Falls. A few would be staying in the town itself. All ready for command at a moment's notice.

She'd have to start preparing for that. Isolde would have to address them before they settled in. It had been a while, after all.

She fired off a confirmation and then checked her texts. One was from Vera saying she and her new apprentice made it to New Orleans.

Isolde could only hope that meant Vera had stopped by the Bennet household and offered to train Bonnie, which was what Isolde had hoped for when she told her sister of Qetsyia's descendant. The young witch would be a fool to let an offer like Vera's training pass.

The other was from an unsaved number. Elijah; with a list of all his family's numbers for her. She programmed them one by one and sent him a thank-you.

Isolde opened a new text and stared at the blank screen. Finn was the only Mikaleson she hadn't touched base with since the ball and she hadn't really spoken to him there either. He'd been trying to help Esther kill his siblings, including himself, and until Isolde had mentioned Dahlia the man had seemed like the stoic type.

But that was all surface stuff. Without the opportunity to get to know him she'd never come to understand him.

And she wanted to understand him. He was one of her bonds, just as his brothers. There was no reason to not include him. People don't want to kill themselves and their family for no reason. Not even she'd ever gone to that length.

But Isolde didn't know the story to be able to make assumptions. Just.. there was something desperately morose and angry in the air about him. If she could in any way help ease those things, she wanted to.

Isolde hadn't ever been shy so she shoved down those nervous flutters in her chest and typed him a message.

Good morning, this is Isolde. Elijah gave me your number. I hope your day is going well. If you aren't busy I wondered if you'd like to meet for coffee (or tea- or something stronger, I won't judge) at The Grill this afternoon? Say, 2pm?

No pressure, just a casual meet up for coffee. That should be okay, right? Acquaintances do that. Before she could overthink it too much, Isolde sent the message.

And then launched her phone into her laundry basket, gently removing Mura and heaving herself out of bed and out of the room. That way she couldn't be tempted to check for a text back every ten seconds like a teenager with their first crush.

She was going to run off to the basement and get some editing done on the songs she needed to work on but when she made it to the main floor the smell of bacon and coffee distracted her.

What was Theon doing? He'd never cooked anything in his life .

"I'm shocked at the lack of grease fire threatening to burn my house down, Theo-" she began as she turned into the kitchen but cut off.

Decidedly not Theon, then.

Elijah's back was to her, his suit jacket discarded over a chair at the table, sleeves rolled up to reveal corded forearms.

He turned with a slightly raised brow just as she recovered and let out a light laugh. "That explains it. Good morning."

"I'd call it a great morning, had your cats not tried everything in their power to trip me every step I've taken since I got here." He smiled, glancing down at Chaos who was lying comfortably between his polished shoes, batting her tail against his slacks and leaving little grey furs stuck to the fabric. Order was watching with an uninterested gaze from his food bowl. "I fed them hoping they'd remain distracted."

"Not the way those two eat. Don't move for a sec." She smiled, meeting his dark eyes as she closed the distance between them, he shifted just a fraction as Isolde swooped down to scoop Chaos up. The kitten purred loudly and brushed her head against Isolde's cheek as she stood again. "This one, especially. Her name is Chaos, her brother over there is Order."

Elijah put the spatula he was using down and turned, raising a hand to scratch the Chaos' head. She meowed at him, playfully batting his hands and trying to bite. He let her, and Isolde smiled, leaning to put her back on the ground. Chaos immediately turned her playful mood on Order, walking right up to him and batting him on the head. They tumbled their way out of the room, little mewls coming from them as they went.

"They're only ten weeks old. Their Mom is upstairs. Don't expect to see her, it takes a minute for her to warm up to new people. What are you making?" She peered over his shoulder.

"Eggs Benedict. There's coffee in the pot. I took liberties with your kitchen; Theon said you wouldn't mind?" He said, turning back to the stove. She wondered briefly if he felt uncomfortable. Something in the way he mentioned taking liberties...

Isolde stepped close to him, until there were mere centimeters between them. She saw him go ridged with awareness, his head turned just enough that he could meet her eyes over his shoulder. A sharp breath puffed out of his slightly open mouth and she could smell the mix of his cologne, toothpaste, and the coffee he'd already had. With the most sultry smile she could manage, eyes never leaving his, she leaned forward, brushing up against his back as her arm traced down the side of his, fingers brushing against the skin as she went, then his wrist, then past his fingers to grab his mug off the counter.

Abruptly, she pulled away, proud at his stunned expression as she turned away from him. "I don't mind, take over my kitchen anytime. So long as I get a plate." She lifted his mug. "I'll get you a refill."

Isolde: 1

Elijah: 0

She felt his eyes linger on her while she poured mugs for them both. "As happy as I am for your company and a breakfast I didn't have to make, is there something on your mind? You seem less relaxed than you were yesterday." Isolde asked, teasing a bit, handing him both of their mugs and lifting herself on top of the counter, making a grabby hand for hers back.

"Mix the hollandaise?" He asked, lifting one of her mixing bowls and a whisk. She put her mug down after a sip and took the bowl from him. She started beating the eggs while he grabbed a small pot of melted butter off the stove.

Elijah stepped in close, his side brushing against her leg causing a jolt of pleasure at his reciprocal teasing while he drizzled a bit of butter at a time into the mixture. "I wanted to apologize for yesterday, I shouldn't have put you into the position to be harmed by Niklaus." He admitted softly.

She could see why he wanted her occupied for that. It meant she'd have less time to scrutinize his face while he took the blame for something his idiot brother did but Isolde was a master of multitasking and she saw his expression close down, betraying nothing.

"You have nothing to apologize for, yesterday was not your fault, Elijah." Isolde insisted, still mixing the sauce. "There's no feasible way you'd have known about my traumatic past encounter with tunnels. And despite being older than him, you are not responsible for Klaus' behavior. Just like I'm not responsible when Theon and Vera run off to do some dumb shit, or Emeric decides to be an enormous douche. Our siblings' decisions are their own weight to bear, right? The best we can do is help them deal with the fall out."

There was a shift in his gaze and Elijah leaned around her to set the now empty pot in the sink. One hand planted atop the counter on her right side, the other now settled on her left; boxing her in. She continued to whisk as he stepped in closer, his torso now flush with her legs. After only a second of hesitation, a glance at the heat in his eyes and the thrill it shot through her, Isolde set the bowl off to the side and opened her legs enough for him to step closer.

He moved in, and damn if there wasn't something about a man in a suit and a somber smile that just made her insides ache with want. Call her a masochist but Isolde had always had a soft spot for sad men. He was so close she could feel the heat of his body before her thighs were pressed against his hips. In this position, Isolde was almost level with him.

Which was a tad irritating, why were all of her bonds so fucking tall?

His right hand lifted from the counter top to slide around her back, jerking her forward so they were chest to chest. Not expecting one of her bonds to be in her house, Isolde hadn't even gotten dressed yet. Braless under a thin nightshirt, she felt every inch of Elijah's lightly muscled body, the curve of his pectorals and the shape of him against her.

An unbidden wave of desire wracked through her, and she suddenly wanted nothing more than to scatter the buttons of Elijah's fancy shirt over her kitchen and find out what he tasted like. Instead, her hand found his tie and wrapped around it, pulling him closer still. His other hand lifted from the counter to slide up her back and into her hair, gripping the back of her head and pulling it back; forcing eye contact.

There was a brief second where Isolde realized Elijah and Kol looked quite similar, especially when Elijah's eyes smoldered like that before her breath caught in her throat. His eyes traveled down to her mouth and stirred the desire she felt to a point it was almost impossible to ignore.

"Isolde…"

When had his voice gotten that deep? She was pretty sure it hadn't been like that yesterday but the sound of it made her shiver. His lips were now mere centimeters from hers, (when had his head moved?) and the need to feel them pressed against hers became overwhelming.

"Elijah." She whispered, lips ghosting over his.

"Breakfast is ready." he responded, releasing her and stepping away. Taking all of his warmth with him.

Isolde took a sharp, steadying breath as her body temperature seemed to level out as she watched his strategic retreat. She was glad to have been seated on the counter because the way she felt right now, she wasn't sure her knees wouldn't have buckled and sent her to the floor.

'Okay, Elijah.' Isolde thought, glancing at his back as he plated their breakfast. 'Message received. Whatever is done to you is getting returned tenfold."

Isolde: 1

Elijah: 1

At first the conversation was idle, like they'd had as they'd eaten lunch the day before. It wasn't until she'd finished the last bite (and drank half a glass of water at Elijah's insistence) that the man breached what he'd actually come for.

"Earlier you asked what was on my mind."

Isolde nodded with a smile, pointing her fork at him. "And you apologized for something that wasn't your fault, go on."

He nearly rolled his eyes, she saw it, before he responded. "I had a reason for wanting to go into the tunnels. My mother's coffin was down there, you see, and I wanted to ensure that nothing was left with it that could endanger my family." He pulled his phone out of his pocket and tapped at it a few times before handing it over to her.

She glanced at the pictures he'd taken of the cave wall, seeing markings depicting the Mikelson's names. She swiped to see more, revealing drawings that looked a bit newer in a language she didn't know. She looked back to Elijah, holding the phone out to him. "I understand the elder futhark but I know nothing of the native languages or imagery from this region a thousand years ago. The one in the second picture looks like a tree, though."

He nodded, hand gently settling over her wrist to steady the phone and she felt a jolt of pleasure as he began to rub his thumb over her pulse. "It is a tree. The white oak, in fact. This swirl is what was once the natives calendar. These images together depict a new white oak tree rose in place of the one that my family burned to the ground." He made eye contact with her, his thumb still brushing back and forth across her wrist and so easily reigniting the desire she'd felt earlier. "Three hundred years after we fled back to the old world."

She pursed her lips and gently removed her wrist from his hold. "I haven't seen one, and I've been settled here for just over five decades. Whatever happened to it, it happened before I got here." Isolde leaned back in her chair, folding her arms over her chest in thought. "I recall, however, that when I first came to town and the men-folk heard there was a single woman building a house way out in the woods there were many offers of assistance forthcoming." She looked back at Elijah who was watching her with elbows resting on the table, head braced against his folded hands.

"The Salvatore's lumbering company were particularly insistent that I utilize their services, and for the price of a glowing endorsement they'd give me a discounted rate. They boasted that they were the best in the region, that they'd used an ancient tree to build the Wickery Bridge. I admit I didn't pay too much attention to them. I aided in the construction of the fucking Giza Necropolis including the Sphinx, the Library of Alexandria, and the Pantheon. I wasn't going to entertain a bunch of over confident amateurs. Plus, I was happy to prove to myself I could still build something on my own." She waved her hand at the house in general and Elijah's eyes widened just a fraction.

"You're saying it's likely that the Wickery Bridge was made of the white oak?" Elijah asked.

"I'm saying that it's possible . If you'll wait until tomorrow for answers I can slip into the Salvatore's home and search their records, find out for certain. Their private ledger won't be available at the library. If it wasn't them, then it'll be difficult to dredge up the other companies that have been around for the last several centuries. If I can't find anything from the Salvatore's records, I'll get my people on the case and they'll find out where that tree went before the end of next week. You have my word."

Elijah reached for her hand and Isolde leaned forward to drop her fingers in his. "I refuse to ask if you're certain you won't get caught, considering all I've learned about you in the last day, yet… it would be remiss of me not to ask you to be cautious."

"Oh, Elijah." She smirked, dragging his hand to her face and planting a soft, open mouthed kiss on the back of it. "They won't even know I was there."

By the slight tremble she saw work it's way through Elijah's shoulders and the way his eyes darkened and dilated, Isolde decided she'd won that interaction.

Isolde: 2

Elijah: 1

Finn

When he'd heard the little ding sound on his rectangular contraption (A telephone, Elijah had told him. A means to communicate instantaneously.) Finn had wondered who could possibly be trying to reach him. He'd nearly dropped the blasted thing when he read the message. Isolde wanted to meet with him ?

It had taken him far too long to figure out how to confirm he'd meet Isolde. He couldn't ask his brothers, Elijah wasn't home. He wouldn't dare bring Niklaus into anything involving Isolde right now. And Kol would just see the message and decide to invite himself, without helping Finn in the slightest.

The youngest Mikaelson had spent most of the night with Isolde and Finn didn't want Kol intruding upon his first time speaking with their mate.

In the end, he'd gone to Rebekah for help.

He found her embraced by Theon on the couch in the living room. A moving picture was on the television (that's what Elijah had called it) and the two of them were laughing at it. For a moment, he considered not intruding on their time together.

Then he remembered that each second he didn't respond was another moment Isolde thought he would reject her meeting.

"Rebekah?"

She looked up at him from the couch with a grin stretched across her lips that lightened her whole face and for a heartbeat he saw what he thought Freya might've looked like had she grown with them and it nearly gutted him.

"What is it, Finn?" She asked him, leaning up and letting Theon's arm fall from her shoulders. Theon leaned forward and touched something on the coffee table and the television stopped, all movement and sound ceasing. "Everything alright?"

"Everything's fine," he swallowed, feeling pathetic, "I was hoping you could show me how to respond to a message on this?" He brandished the telephone and waved it a bit for emphasis.

"Oh." She said, waving him over to the couch. "Of course. It took me a few weeks to sort out the new technologies, too."

It was the first time any of his siblings had spoken to him about something without degrading him or treating him as though he was invisible and he hesitated a second. Was she truly willing to help him so easily?

"C'mon, mate. It's not so bad." Now Theon was waving him over, sliding away from Rebekah and making room on the couch between them. Finn strode towards them and sunk into the offered seat. "The mortals out did themselves, certainly, but cell phones are a truly marvelous technological advancement. What was it you were having trouble with?"

Finn turned the phone towards Theon and showed him the message from Isolde. "I don't know how to respond and tell her I will be there."

"Oh, great." Theon said with a grin, already typing a response on Finn's phone. "You've got about four hours to go, I'll fire off that text for you this time so she knows." Finn heard a little 'swoop' noise indicating that Theon had responded to his sister. "There, that'll give us some time to go over some of the stuff you can do with this thing. So…"

Finn watched and listened closely as Rebekah and Theon taught him how to use the phone. He really did. He appreciated the time they were both taking out of their day to instruct him, knowing they'd likely rather be doing anything else.

But every few minutes he looked at the time to make sure he wasn't going to be late. The day dragged, every minute felt like an hour. He got showered and dressed far too early and had to linger around his room much longer than he'd thought.

At one thirty-eight he stepped through the doors of The Grill, got a table, and his leg bounced in anticipation while he watched the door and waited.

Note: Solijah has just begun. He's a total self-care dom, too. Rebekah mentions Isolde is very coffee before food ONE time and now he's gotta make sure she actually eats and drinks water. Lol And look, he's already going to her first with the dangers to their family.

The Solijah bit got long, I wanted to add the cute/nervous/adjusting Finn part and I had to cut it a little short or I'd go overboard. We'll get to the whole thing in the next chapter with Isolde's POV.