Author's Note:
Hello again, thank you so much for reading if you're here! I'm so sorry this update has taken a while, I've had a myriad of personal circumstances that have needed my attention, but I'm here now and barring another curveball from life, I'm hoping my updates will be once every 1-2 weeks, they'll probably become more frequent when I've fully finished the planning (I've still got some things to flesh out towards the end). There's been slight edits to Chapter One, just to reflect canon/characters better. I am still rewatching the Originals and I don't think I've missed anything from the storyline but if I get to the end and realise I have I'll come back and edit it… again :')
I'm sorry if this seems rushed, I just needed to get from A to B. Things level out a little more as we come into the present day over the next couple chapters. I'm kinda regretting this time jumping right about now, it seemed fine on paper but now I'm doing it it's a nightmare… but we're going with it lol
RETURNING READERS: YOU CAN NOW FIND OUT THE MAIN THREE SHIP ENDGAMES IN THE NOTES AT THE START OF CHAPTER ONE.
XXX
PRESENT DAY
End of November, 2037
Elena gasped for air, spluttering, but the blood Hope had given her hadn't been rejected. Damon had tears burning in his blue eyes and he chuckled lightly in relief as Elena took a breath.
"Would you look at that; tribrid blood trumps vampire cure."
Elena clutched at her abdomen and she winced in pain.
"Do you need more?" Hope asked, but Elena just shook her head.
Damon was taking Elena into his arms before Hope could even finish the question, cradling her face and affectionately stroking her cheeks. "What is it, baby?"
"It…" she took a few laboured breaths, thinking for a short moment that the feeling had passed and she was okay — that he was okay — but the pain quickly returned and made her clutch at her stomach again. "God, it hurts…"
At this point, Elena had given birth to three children. She'd miscarried before, after Lily, but it didn't happen as a result of trauma it just happened. Right now, she was sure that was what was happening, but she couldn't bring herself to say it. Her window of opportunity quickly closed when the pain became overwhelming and she cried out, trying to even her breathing.
"Oh, god," she breathed through gritted teeth, sweat beginning to bead and drip down her face as Damon held her tightly and he, too, sucked in a shaky breath. "Shit."
"What's happening? Talk to me," he pleaded, leaning down to kiss her sweaty forehead.
She looked up at him and her tears spilled and burnt tracks into her cheeks. "I'm losing him."
A range of different emotions crossed Damon's face, going from him being completely distraught to full-on vengeful, a look which was reminiscent of his vampire days.
He looked up at Hope, his eyes now alight with an intensity she'd never seen in him before. To her, Damon was always the fun uncle type, but now he was someone who she knew from the journals she'd read, someone who cast fear over those who crossed him or those he loved. In that moment, he reminded Hope of her own father.
"Go, find Stefanie — and if you see someone who looks like my wife, paralyse her and bring her to me."
Hope looked at Elena, who just nodded through the pain at her. Her jeans had already been ripped away from her body when the stab wounds had appeared and blood now pooled around her thighs as she sobbed and clutched at her stomach. Damon kept stroking her face and holding her free hand, cooing to her gently and telling her it was going to be okay as he blinked the tears from his eyes.
"It's okay, just look at me," he told her, trying to pull her gaze from the horrors that were unfolding. "Elena. Look at me."
She did as he told her, her face twisted in agony.
"Focus on me, look at me, focus on the sound of my voice. It's going to be okay."
She nodded, her breathing laboured as she tried to compose herself, but she only ended up bursting into tears again. "I'm sorry," she snivelled.
"What do you mean, you're sorry? This isn't your fault. This is Katherine's fault and I'm going to make sure she suffers a fate worse than Hellfire. She's going to wish she was lost and forgotten in the tomb."
Elena started shivering, the pain growing. "But she did all of this because I turned her human and we sent her to hell after letting her daughter die."
"She earned her spot in Hell. Are you forgetting all the horrible things she did before that? You turned her human because she tried to kill you."
She sobbed, burying her face in Damon's arm as she felt herself losing consciousness again.
"Elena, none of this is your fault," his voice cracked and he watched her eyelids flutter, "just stay with me, baby."
Elena's eyes slowly closed and Damon felt her weight drop into him.
He tapped her cheek to try and wake her, but she didn't.
"Elena?" His voice was panicked and he quickly moved so she was laying flat, looking her over again. "Elena!"
Hope was standing outside the boarding house and she sniffed the air, but the first thing she could smell was Lizzie behind her.
"Don't tell me you were about to go off without me. What happened to our bitter end? You've fallen a little short on that promise recently."
Hope didn't even respond, completely caught up in the task at hand. She started removing her clothes and hit the ground, watching her hands turn to paws before her own eyes. As soon as she could run, she took off looking for Stefanie's scent and she heard Lizzie's fast footfalls a few paces behind the thunder of her paws. Her scent wasn't difficult to catch, it was everywhere and she ran in loops around the woods, but then Hope caught something else…
Blood.
She ran towards it and halted when she came to a campsite. There were three grey tents, all splattered with a deep crimson, and the blood covered the ground like a flood. But that was not the most disturbing thing they were greeted with. There were six people sitting around a campfire in their camping chairs, their eyes emptily staring at the smoking fire. Their bodies were all positioned in the same ways, their hands in their lap and their feet planted firmly on the ground, with blood over their bodies.
"Can you hear me?" Lizzie asked.
The white wolf looked up at the heretic. "Yes."
Hope suspected this was something to do with her being Lizzie's sire, the fact they were bonded and that Lizzie is a heretic, but they found it very easy to get inside each others' minds. This included for conversations at times where Hope couldn't communicate using normal speech, or when they were better off being quiet, though her vocabulary as a wolf did become limited.
"I've read about this kind of thing before in the journals," Lizzie walked up to one of the bodies and, with a stick she picked up from the ground — almost as if the body was going to jump at her — she poked one of them in the chest.
The head and limbs tumbled off the body, the torso dropping into the chair as blood oozed into the smoking campfire, extinguishing the last of its glow.
"Stefan Salvatore was a ripper, like MG. I read about it when I was trying to help MG with his cravings. He would feed and then he'd feel remorse and put his victims bodies back together, Damon says it's his feeding signature."
"Burn them," Hope said simply. Then she sniffed at the air again. "Stefanie."
XXX
OVER TWO YEARS BEFORE PRESENT DAY
Spring, 2035
MG had found out about Hope and Lizzie. It wasn't pretty. Josie was so upset, she'd left the following morning. MG, however, had confronted Lizzie as she and Hope had left the bedroom and told her they were over. He hadn't even looked at Hope.
"Not the smoothest start to my homecoming," Hope had joked lightly with Lizzie, but she'd been in no mood for comedy. It was all a front; truth was, Hope felt extremely guilty.
The two watched movies together for days and Caroline joined in with ice cream; Hope was at least glad she had some time before she started working, or Lizzie would have been left to her own devices outside of teaching her magic classes on the days she had them. Caroline and Alaric had been fine with it when they'd found out — well, Caroline found out from Josie who didn't come out of her mother's bedroom for a whole day. Hope worried when she'd heard Lizzie speaking to Alaric on the balcony that she was going to face some fatherly wrath, but she didn't and they both seemed to understand their predicament to some extent. Granted, Alaric had dodged the topic endlessly because he "didn't need specifics."
It was bright and early in the morning and Hope was ready to see Elena about her new job — the second job she would be working — but she went into Lizzie's room at 8:30 with coffee and chocolate cookies, giving herself an hour to check on Lizzie and get to Elena's house.
"Good morning, Lizzie," she closed the door behind her. The room would have been completely dark if not for the slithers of light coming in through the gaps in the curtains.
Lizzie groaned in her bed, but then she opened her eyes and sat up, inhaling. "Is that coffee and chocolate cookies?"
Hope placed the tray down on the bed and carefully perched on the edge so she didn't spill the coffee. "It is, I figured if I didn't bring you this before I left, I'd probably find you exactly like this hours later when I got back…"
Lizzie shot Hope a begrudging look, shoving an entire cookie into her mouth.
"…and then who am I going to drag with me to go shopping later if you're not ready?"
"Cleo would go with you," Lizzie said depressingly with her mouth full.
Hope saw Lizzie reach for another cookie but she picked up the tray and held it out of reach, the coffee almost spilling.
"Hey!" Lizzie complained.
"Okay, I just said the S word and you didn't even make some comment about my style being years out of date. What happened last night when you went to talk to MG?"
Lizzie frowned, looking between Hope and the tray with the cookies until she finally put them back on the bed. After shoving another cookie in her mouth and chewing on it for a moment so she could push the food into her cheeks and talk without spraying crumbs, she began to explain between chews and swallows.
"So… I went there… tried to apologise but he wasn't hearing it…" another swallow, but her cheeks still looked as full as a chipmunk's, "and he told me to leave and he was walking away from me and we ended up in his bedroom… and I told him we were really drunk and that it was more of a feeding thing than it was a sex thing."
Hope cringed. "Oh, no… you didn't…"
Lizzie mirrored the expression. "I did. I regretted it. It really was terrible. I also may have gone into a teensy bit of a rage because he made a stupid comment about you that I know he didn't mean, but at the time I was really angry so I asked him how he could possibly expect me to not be a vampire when I literally am a vampire. And from there, it was basically over. There was no coming back from that."
"Okay, maybe not the most sensitive way to go about it… you do have a point, though," Hope shrugged and Lizzie looked at her confusedly in the darkness, shovelling the last cookie into her mouth as she listened. "Realistically, MG can't drink anything other than animal blood without going off the rails, but you can. It's not your fault he doesn't have that control, anymore than it's his. But that doesn't mean you should have to make sacrifices you're not happy making. Think about it. Can you really give each other what you want? Because if you've realised that's what you want to do, but he's not okay with it and it's not something you can give up, you guys aren't going to get over this bump, it's just going to be a problem."
Lizzie took the coffee in her hands and seemed to ponder Hope's words for a moment, before she settled on, "I suppose I should think about that. Forever is a long time to be with just one person."
"It's not long enough if they're the right person."
"Okay, stop it, you're freaking me out with your genuinely helpful advice and if you do want to go shopping then I'm going to have to shower," the heretic waved a hand towards her curtains and they opened, letting in the light.
Hope smiled. "Mission get Lizzie out of bed is complete."
"Go see Elena, the sooner you get back, the sooner we can leave."
"I'm going to see Bonnie today, too. She's been pulling together some research for me for the last few months and she's just finished, so she's going to drop by," Hope got up from the bed and slung the bag that had fallen off her arm on her way in over her shoulder again.
"Well, don't keep me too long now that you've woken me up at dawn's asscrack with the promise of retail therapy. If I get bored—"
Hope cut in, "I'll be paying to complete school repairs; got it."
Lizzie's expression was angular with offence and she picked up the empty cookie plate with the intention of launching it at Hope's head, but the tribrid had already dashed out the door and closed it behind her, so she heard the plate smash and Lizzie's frustrated growl following.
"Love you!" She called back as she walked away.
XXX
Hope arrived at 9:30am as Elena had asked her to and she was greeted with a hug. Elena offered her coffee, which she accepted, and the two got down to business, but not before a quick catch-up.
"I got a very interesting call from Caroline the other night," Elena had said pointedly, "and when Ric was over yesterday and I brought it up, he went paler than a starving vampire."
Hope explained that she still felt immense amounts of guilt for what had happened — and the trouble it caused — which Elena seemed to relate to and she'd simply smiled and placed a hand over Hope's on the table.
"I'm not judging you," she'd reassured her, "and you can tell Lizzie I think things with MG will even out in the end. People make mistakes and things haven't exactly been going smoothly for them recently, and worse things have happened in Mystic Falls. Just give him time. I'm sure Josie will come around too, she always does when she and Lizzie fight."
The advice offered Hope some peace of mind, but she knew she wouldn't feel like it was completely resolved until MG and Josie were back on speaking terms with Lizzie.
The two had talked about Hope starting work, agreeing on her schedule and her responsibilities so it wouldn't clash with her clubs and classes, though she'd mainly be helping Elena and tending to patients. Their conversation had strayed to chatter by the time feet plodded down the stairs and Stefanie walked into the kitchen, wearing plaid pyjama pants with a black tank top and a silky grey gown.
When her eyes met Hope's, she pulled the robe around her body. "Jesus, Mom, you could have told me we were having company."
"Honey, its 10am. Aunt Bonnie will be here soon, too."
"Aunt Bonnie has seen me run around naked in the yard when I was four."
Elena laughed. "I remember that."
Stef's voice was bitter. "Yeah, so do I, I tripped and ate concrete, then you had to stitch up my face. I still have the scar."
"You're not a morning person, are you?" Hope smirked.
"Har-har," Stefanie narrowed her eyes, going over to the coffee and pouring herself a large cup. She stomped over to the table and sat down. "I'm sorry. Hi, by the way. I'm normally fine, but those herbs have had me on my ass. I don't remember anything beyond the first sip…"
"It'll clear, just stay hydrated and take it easy. You might never get those memories back, though."
Stefanie looked at Hope with dread. "Honestly, do I want to?"
Hope shook her head, laughing again. "Probably not."
The front door opened and Bonnie walked in carrying three large grimoires in her arm, kicking the door closed with her foot. They all exchanged hi's and hey's, and when she made it to the table and placed down the grimoires, she smiled at Hope widely with outstretched arms.
"I know I've seen you twice already but I'm not over the fact that you're home."
Hope stood and gave Bonnie a big hug. "I know, it's crazy to be back."
"Yeah, really crazy, based on what I heard from Josie," Bonnie quirked a brow.
"I forgot how much people in this town talk," Hope jested, laughing nervously.
"I'm honestly just happy that Lizzie's finally coming to terms with her sexuality… that, and Damon owes me a hundred bucks."
Hope's laughter echoed around the kitchen, but she stifled it when she saw Elena's disapproving glare, taking a seat again at the same time as Bonnie.
Stefanie blinked. "Wait, what? What happened?"
"After Lizzie was sired to Hope, I bet Damon that she would end up sleeping with her at some point. I won."
Elena blinked in shock and Stefanie looked at her with a new-found level of appreciation, her eyes only momentarily flashing possessively at Hope, the glance going unnoticed by all but Hope herself.
"Aunt Bon," she said in awe, "I never took you for a gambling woman."
"Only when the odds are right," Bonnie said with a shrug, then to avoid Elena questioning her about why she and Damon were making bets about whose now-adult kids would sleep with whose, she tapped the top of the grimoires. "These are just a few of the things I found, but there's lots more. Are you looking for any spell in particular?"
Hope shook her head, "No, things are kind of at a trial and error stage right now, I don't know what's going to work and what isn't."
"Well, what are you trying to achieve exactly?"
"It's a personal project."
Elena narrowed her eyes at Hope and Stefanie glanced between everyone at the table while she sipped her coffee quietly.
"Are you sure you don't want to go to your Aunt Freya with this? I mean, I have a lot of information to give you and you're welcome to it, of course, but I can imagine she'd be just as capable of pointing you in the right direction — if not, better."
Hope hesitated, sliding the grimoires over to her side of the table. "If I asked her about this, she'd insist I tell her why I'm looking into it."
Bonnie slid the grimoires back over to her side, both her hand and Hope's now on top of the stack. "That leads me to believe I should be insisting on the same."
Hope forced a smile. "It's nothing, really. I'm just playing around with my magic, I promise I'm not doing anything harmful. Freya is just really protective and she worries."
Bonnie leaned in, hand still pressed on top of the worn brown books. "Traveler magic isn't playing around with your magic."
"Light reading, then?" Hope suggested, pressing her lips together and looking hopefully at Bonnie.
When the Bennett witch's expression didn't falter, Hope sighed, feigning resignation, "Okay, heavy reading."
"Seriously, Hope," Bonnie's eyes softened with the concern that spread across her features, "whatever you're doing, be careful."
"Don't worry, I'm not doing anything dangerous," Hope got up to go and refill her coffee cup while Stefanie slouched down further into the dining chair.
She groaned. "Ugh, this headache, it's like someone's breaking my skull."
Hope put her now-full cup of coffee on the table where she was sitting, but she walked around to Stefanie and stood behind her. She gently placed the tips of her fingers against each side of Stef's skull, rubbing in small round movements around her hairline as she chanted something inaudible under her breath.
Stefanie's pained groan turned into a sigh of relief as Hope finished the pain-relieving spell she'd performed. "Okay, I'm gonna need you when I start drinking."
Elena's eyebrow raised. "When you start drinking?"
Stefanie glared at her mother. "Yes, when. You and dad drink bourbon like it's the human equivalent to a vampire needing blood."
Bonnie looked at Elena, mocking disapproval. "You told me you were being good."
Elena opened her mouth to defend herself but the words were caught in her throat when she saw her daughter and her best friend looking at her with the exact same smug expression.
"I love you, Aunt Bonnie, you're my favourite," Stef smiled, then she looked up at Hope who now had her hands resting on the back of the chair. "You wanna come hang out if you're done having to be an adult?"
"I can't," Hope made a little pout, and she was genuinely sad that she couldn't hang out with Stefanie, "I made plans to shop with Lizzie and you know her; she needs a new favourite sweater. But another day, I'll get everyone together and we can go and get milkshakes at the Grill. Sound good?"
Stefanie nodded. "Will you come take my headache away if it comes back?"
Hope smiled, ruffling the top of Stef's wavy dark head of hair. "Sure, you have my number."
Hope glanced to the side where Damon was slowly approaching Bonnie, creeping up on her with his finger to his lips, until he got right behind her and clamped his hands down onto her shoulders with a "Boo!"
She jumped in her seat, smacking at him immediately as he laughed and ran around the kitchen island in an effort to get away from her, but she flicked her fingers as he was running and made him trip with a spell. They watched him disappear behind the counter and heard him hit the floor with with a thud.
"Ouch," he groaned with a chuckle. "I'll get you for that, little witch. I'll even the score."
"I can't believe you're still counting," Elena sipped her coffee as Damon picked himself up and hobbled dramatically over to sit in the empty chair next to Bonnie. "What are you even on now?"
"What are you counting?" Stef asked before anyone could reply.
"Your dad and I are running a competition, pranks and things like that, it's been going longer than you've been alive. A win is one point. We were tied at eight-hundred and seventy-three when Damon spooked me, but when I tripped him, I got back my one point lead."
"Wait, so when does this end?" Hope asked.
"When one of us dies," Damon shrugged.
"Oh, that's morbid," the tribrid commented with a laugh. "I knew you guys had it out for each other but I didn't think it was a contest."
"Well, it's not just like that. The one who dies first gets fifty points. So if you die first, it's like, I don't know, catching the Golden Snitch," Damon smiled jokingly and looked at Bonnie who shook her head at him, "and the rules are that you get a point per prank, you can pull more than one prank in one go."
Elena looked at Hope and Stefanie and stage-whispered, "They're insane."
"You owe me a hundred," Bonnie told Damon smugly.
"Oh, yeah," he sighed disappointedly, looking at Hope, "couldn't keep it in your pants?"
Stefanie snorted into her coffee cup, trying not to spit out the sip she'd taken.
Hope's smile was dry. "It won't happen again."
"Unfortunately, the bet wasn't for you to sleep together again, so I'm still out a hundred dollars."
"Poor you," she pouted at him.
Damon stole Bonnie's coffee mug from the table, ignoring her protests. "Lesson of the day, don't underestimate Hope's love for the ladies."
He smirked as he took a sip of Bonnie's coffee.
The Bennett's lips tugged up into a small smile. "I backwashed."
Damon didn't flinch, holding unwavering eye contact with Bonnie as he took another sip.
There was a very dramatic sounding thud from the living room followed by an even more dramatic childish scream, then silence for a short moment before Lily yelled, "That's mine!"
"But mom said Aunt Care got it for all of us!" Jenna argued.
Elena abandoned her coffee and got up with an eye roll, going into the living room. "Okay, well, there's no need to fight over it."
Stefanie rocked back on her chair enough so she could see round the corner, curious about what her siblings were fighting over. When she saw the object of their desire, she gasped in outrage and jumped to her feet.
"You're both insane, that's mine!" She snapped as she stormed through the archway joining the two rooms.
Damon groaned and hauled himself up. "Oh, c'mon, Stef, don't make it worse."
Hope and Bonnie looked at each other with a chuckle as the family continued to argue.
Hope downed her coffee, "Should we just-"
"Go?" Bonnie interjected with a forced smile.
The Mikaelson nodded and they both immediately got up from their seats and headed towards the door.
"We love you guys," Bonnie waved as the family played tug of war with a gaming console accessory.
Damon was pulling on Stefanie's left arm, trying to pry her off the controller as Elena tried to intercept Jenna and Lilly
The doppelgänger glanced up momentarily, her hair sticking to the stress sweat that was starting to bead up on her flushed face, "We love you guys, I'm sorry."
Hope laughed. "I'll see you Monday."
XXX
On the twins' twenty-first birthday, Hope had finally had enough of Josie freezing them out. Early that morning before she went to work at the clinic, she arrived at Finch's apartment building and climbed the rickety metal stairs until she reached the dark brown wooden door and she knocked.
Finch opened it and she looked surprised to see Hope standing there, but her eyes also darted back and forth nervously. "Hey! Hope, I didn't know you were stopping by…"
"Hey, Finch."
"So, uh… what can I do for you?"
"I'm sorry for intruding, I was actually looking for Josie and I tracked her here," Hope raised her voice, "I know you're in there, Jo-Jo. Come out. I just wanna talk…"
Finch's awkward body language was enough to tell Hope Josie was was in there, despite the fact that she still hadn't come out.
"Come on, Jo," Hope called again. "I'm really sorry, I know you're upset, but this day is your epic day. This is it, you're twenty-one! You can drink and it's not potentially yours or Lizzie's last year of life. This is what we all wanted. I'm really, really sorry Lizzie and I fucked it up. I promise it won't happen again, we were just really drunk and completely out of our minds and we were confused. I mean, it was so weird…"
Nothing, but when Hope listened, she could hear Josie's heartbeat from just behind the door.
Hope's voice was now softer, a sincere plea. "Please. It's not the same without you, this wasn't how I wanted things to be. MG won't speak to Lizzie and we both need you. I just got back, I don't want you to disappear again."
After another painful moment of silence, Josie slowly stepped out from behind the door. She stood in front of Hope, but didn't say anything, barely even holding eye contact at first.
"Forgive me?" The Mikaelson asked with a small pleading smile.
Josie sighed, finally holding Hope's eyes. She seemed to think about things, before finally she nodded and the corners of her mouth pulled upwards just a little, but it was enough for Hope to know that — even if she wasn't fully forgiven now — she would be.
When Josie returned to the school, she hadn't accepted Lizzie's apology, instead just pretending nothing had ever happened. Lizzie seemed caught off guard by it all at first, but eventually they fell back into their normal sisterly dynamic. Of course, this was helped by the fact that Lizzie and Hope were not interested in each other romantically; had there been more between the two, Josie would never have moved on from the situation so quickly. Despite her, Lizzie and Hope getting along like they used to, Hope couldn't help but feel like things were still off.
XXX
It had been decided that Hope would open the clinic on Saturdays and Elena would come in for a few hours in the morning, the two of them then leaving in the afternoon and handing things over to Tate, who was the other doctor Elena had working there. Sometimes, Stefanie — who wanted to pursue a career in medicine — would visit her mother, always arriving around an hour after to allow herself the extra sleep. Since Hope started working there, she'd jumped at every opportunity to go.
Having worked there for a week and now in the swing of things, Hope was confident doing just about anything that needed to be done. Elena loved it, because it looked as if she would be able to work less and spend more time with her family if Hope could take care of everything. She loved how productive she was and she trusted her fully; she would feel entirely confident handing the clinic over while she took some time off. Tate was a good doctor, but things had fallen into unorganised shambles when he'd taken over for her last two maternity leaves.
That particular Saturday, Hope and Elena were sitting at their desks in their office space. It was a large room with fridges and cabinets, big metal tabletops covered in paperwork and research equipment, and two desks at open angles to each other. They were starting to sort patient files into a new software so the reception staff could finish it on Monday. Hope had stopped working and was looking at Elena, very deep in thought. She was thinking about blood; her own, specifically.
Elena noticed Hope staring and she stopped her typing, "Are you okay?"
"Do you use vampire blood?" Hope asked.
Elena seemed surprised, taking a moment to answer the question. "Well, that's how I was turned into a vampire: Meredith Fell gave me Damon's blood and didn't tell anyone until it was too late."
"I understand why you wouldn't want to off the back of your own experiences, but that was a human doctor without a willing blood donor, who was working completely alone. You would have been fine if Dr. Fell had told someone… or if Aunt Bex hadn't run Mayor Donovan off Wickery. And if you did use it, I could always compel people to stay or spell them unconscious until it's out of their system. No one would need to know besides us. And obviously, only life or death situations. If we do it right, we could save so many more."
Elena was processing what Hope was proposing. Her first instinct had been, "Hell, no." But as she listened to what the young woman said, she started to actually consider it. It was a terrifying idea, but Elena had watched many critical patients pass over the years, patients she knew she could have saved with Hope's help. The sheer amount off loss she'd been through herself was just even more of a reminder that everyone was someone's mother, father, brother, sister or friend; she knew Hope felt this deeply, just as she did.
"So long as it's done properly, we have to keep them in, I couldn't handle it if someone turned because we… that's just not our decision to make, I don't want to do that to someone."
Hope nodded. "I don't, either, but I do want to save every person I can."
Elena pondered it for a moment, then she nodded. "Okay, I'll keep a few vials in the combo fridge."
The combo fridge was just like the other refrigerators they had, only it had a combination lock on the front; it was where Elena kept her restricted substances and she was the only one with the code.
She stood and walked through a doorway which lead to their storage closet, coming out with all the necessary equipment to take a three vials of Hope's blood. "You sure about this?"
Hope nodded and offered her arm with a smile. It didn't take long and Hope continued to use her free hand to organise paperwork. It was only when Elena was placing the vials of blood in the fridge that she heard the clinic's door open and close, footsteps getting closer and closer.
"Someone's here," she disposed of the used equipment in a flash and was back in her seat before Stefanie walked in, Elena closing and locking the fridge before her daughter could glance inside.
"Hey, mom. Hey, Hope," she looked up from her phone, placing it on the table and dropping her bag on the floor.
"How's it going? Feeling better?" Hope asked as Elena stood to hug her.
"So much better, whatever you did worked, I've felt fine," Stefanie's eyes landed on Hope and, over her voice, Hope heard the hitch in her heart rate.
"That's good," Hope returned to her paperwork but continued the conversation, "so now we know not to take weird shit from witches."
"They told me it was fine," Stef said defensively, pulling a chair up next to Hope's desk, "but yes, now I know. Dad already threatened to ground me for pretty much breaking every ground rule he set."
The tribrid turned to her when she sat down, peering over her shoulder at the paperwork she was doing.
"Can I help you?" Hope raised a brow.
Stefanie just smiled. "What you doing?"
"Paperwork…"
"How come I never see you actually tending to patients?" Stef placed her elbows on the table and held her head in her hands with a dramatic sigh. "I want to see you doctoring, and why are you using paper when you have the tablets? What is this, like, the nineties?"
Hope laughed, but she kept her eyes on her work tasks. "I am doctoring, I usually see patients in the mornings on weekdays, Saturday mornings aren't usually busy, sometimes there's a couple appointments in the afternoons but I don't handle those, and we don't have any inpatients right now. As for the paperwork, when you're working with certain types of substances, you have to have physical copies according to law."
"How official," Stef blew over the desk, making the paperwork flutter. "And then after this you have classes to teach?"
"Only on weekdays. I teach a sixth grade class in the afternoons."
Stefanie sighed again, this one coming out a little more longing than the last. "So you're free after work?"
Hope paused, looking up again from her paperwork to glance pensively at the young Salvatore girl. "I am."
"You wanna come over and play video games?" Stefanie's smile was wide and excited.
When Hope held eye contact with her, she noticed Stefanie's heart begin to race again.
"You want me to call Lizzie and Josie, too?" she asked.
Stefanie hesitated, her eyes narrowing momentarily before she came out with, "We only have two controllers, the others broke." But her heartbeat blipped, a clear indicator that she was lying.
"Okay," she couldn't help the small chuckle escaping, "sure, we can play video games."
Elena peered suspiciously at the two, but Hope's affection towards Stefanie appeared to be completely platonic. Of course, she saw the way her daughter had been blushing around Hope since she'd returned. It was bound to happen, she knew it was, she just hadn't fully considered the idea of Stefanie crushing on someone older or supernatural… but with all that had happened, she trusted Hope far more than she trusted anyone else; despite her anxieties, she knew Hope wouldn't make a move on her daughter. She felt like it may have been a different story if Stefanie was a couple years older, but told herself that the crush would probably have fizzled out by then anyway. So, with her newfound peace of mind, she went back to her work.
"Can we get milkshakes first?" Stefanie was standing again and she'd flung her arms around Hope and rested her chin on her shoulder.
Hope nodded. "Yes, but, you're gonna have to let me go so I can finish my work."
Stefanie didn't move, pressing her cheek against Hope's and tightening her grip. "I thought you were supposed to be, like, all-powerful 'n' shit."
Hope's shoulders shook with laughter, mostly because she did find Stefanie hilarious, but also because she was trying to distract herself from the smell of Stefanie's blood and the sound of her artery so close to her ear. "I am, but you're fragile."
"Am not!" Stef protested, and Hope felt Stefanie's heart beating faster against her back when she inhaled.
Hope gently pried Stefanie's arms from around her neck and pushed her away, the act seeming effortless even though Stefanie put all her weight into pushing back.
"Okay, so you're stronger than me," Stefanie shrugged and slumped down into the chair she was in before. "I'm better at MarioKart."
"Is that a challenge?"
"Maybe."
"Oh, you're on, little human girl," Hope taunted. "You think you've got better reflexes than me?"
"I just think I've had more practice. Ric told me you used to hide in your room and binge watch cooking shows when you were my age; I've been playing video games since I was tiny."
Hope made a mental note to confront Ric about dishing on her depressive teenaged habits.
"You think I'm exaggerating?" Stefanie lay dramatically over the table with her cheek atop Hope's paperwork, speaking as if it were the olympics she was challenging her to. "Uncle Jeremy taught me everything I know about video games. You may be older, stronger and faster, but I'm made for this."
Hope's laughter continued throughout Stefanie's speech but she carried on with her paperwork. "Okay, I'll give it my all this time, no letting you win."
"Are you trying to tell me my title as reigning champion from when I was a kid is bullshit?"
Hope smiled at Stefanie. "What can I say? You were a little kid, I didn't have the heart to break yours."
Stefanie's pulse jumped and she sucked in a breath.
It's a little too late for that, she thought.
She knew that may be dramatic for a fifteen year old, but she truly was in awe of Hope and everything she did. She always thought Hope was pretty, but after she found out about the supernatural and she heard about some of the things Hope had been through, she found her to be more attractive than she'd found anyone to be, ever. It was as if she was under a spell, but she knew the Mikaelson would never do such a thing. She'd had crushes in school, but none of them had felt like this.
She pounced on any opportunity to spend time with Hope, almost addicted to her company, even if the longing did appear to be one-sided. Stefanie was sure that one day, when she's older, Hope would notice her in the way she wanted her to.
XXX
ABOUT 6 MONTHS FROM PRESENT DAY
Spring, 2037
Hope sat at the bar in the Mystic Grill, swirling her drink around in its glass. The last two years had been the closest Hope had felt to being human in a long time. Something about going to work at Elena's clinic made her feel at peace.
She and Lizzie were now business partners with Caroline — a gift from Caroline and Alaric to Lizzie on her twenty-second birthday — and Josie had received the deed to the Forbes' house. Caroline had told her she knew she wouldn't want a share in the school and that this way, both of them would have a home. Better yet, Caroline knew they'd always have Hope. Despite the ups and downs, she was confident that no matter what happened to her and Alaric — and everyone else — her children would always have Hope, who she knew would protect them at all costs. After all, protecting their family above all else was what Mikaelsons did best.
Lizzie and MG were capable of being in the same room again, but it only happened if Cleo or Alaric called MG to help, otherwise he tended to avoid the school unless he was visiting someone else. Hope still felt guilty, the feeling wouldn't leave; it had become one of the many things she distracted herself from by working.
A sick part of her had thought teaching Origin of Species would be painful, perhaps a penance she still felt she needed to pay for the things she did while her humanity was off and all that happened with her family, but she actually enjoyed it. Not all students were too enamoured with her, but most took the opportunity to ask her all kinds of questions. Usually, this would lead to her telling her class a humorous story, but sometimes the question would lead Hope down a path she would have preferred to skip the turning for.
And then there was Stefanie…
Hope looked down at her drink, pouring it into her mouth and swallowing when she thought about the human girl who just wouldn't stop getting under her skin. She saw Stefanie a lot, working for Elena, and the excitement she felt about going into work every Saturday morning bugged her. That kind of enthusiasm, the kind that made her feel warm inside and safe in someone's company, was usually accompanied by tragedy. It was posing as more than just a romantic problem for her, every day she spent near Stefanie was a day she felt herself lose control just a little bit more. The sound of Stefanie's heartbeat was always the loudest in the room to Hope's ears, the heartbeat she couldn't ignore, and she hated how badly she wanted just one taste…
"Is this seat taken?" A tall woman with warm tanned skin and a thick head of dark hair — straight, but somehow appearing just as unruly as if it had been in curls — motioned towards the bar stool next to Hope.
She shook her head. "Not at all, I was just leaving."
Hope didn't make habits of speaking to strangers in bars and she wasn't about to start now. She just wanted peace to think, to be with her thoughts and feelings alone… but the witch stopped her in her tracks.
"You're Niklaus Mikaelson's daughter?"
The tribrid turned and eyed the woman suspiciously. "Who wants to know?"
The woman laughed, the corners of her mouth stretching up in a wide smile to reveal a perfectly pearly, strait-toothed smile. "Oh, put away your claws, your highness."
"Are you patronising me?" Hope's eyes narrowed and she stepped closer, her voice hushed so the other humans in the bar couldn't hear, besides the bartender who glanced at her with wary eyes; he was no stranger to the tribrid's temper when people wouldn't leave her alone.
The woman's face dropped into something serious and, as if hit by a sudden invisible blow, she dropped to the ground on one knee, her head bowed. "On the contrary. You are just the person I've been looking for."
Hope looked embarrassingly around at the people who were now staring and she grabbed the woman's upper arm and hauled her to her feet, dragging her far enough away from the bartender that he wouldn't hear them. "Would you cut it out? Tell me, who the hell are you?"
"My name is Tala," the woman spoke, her voice now hushed, "and I've returned here in peace."
"What do you mean? What the hell am I missing here?"
"I've come here to ask your blessing, to live here and practice here, so I may access my family's magic. When my sisters and I were young, we used to sing songs about the Rise of the Wolf Queen, the blood of the magical woman that would cleanse the world of the greatest horrors. You are truly a wonder."
Hope laughed. "Tell that to my student populous. Look, you don't need my permission to access your ancestor's magic because it resides in the land I call my home. I'm not unreasonable… so long as you aren't harming anyone and you're not causing any trouble, your business is your business. And you do not need to address me like royalty, you can just speak to me like a normal person."
Tala's eyes pierced Hope's with a lively stare, despite the rest of her face seemingly relaxed. "Then perhaps, a dance?"
Hope looked down at Tala's hand which was waiting for hers, her skin clean but under and around her nails was black with dirt, and she hesitated.
"Come now, don't tell me your father never taught you to dance."
Hope didn't reply, but she gingerly placed her hand in Tala's, and she felt a surge of power rush through her.
"Oh my god," she blinked, stepping closer in a daze, "you're a very powerful witch."
Tala's laugh was verging on embarrassed as she lead Hope out into a space on the floor of the Grill. "Please, for you to say such a thing? Well, that's quite the compliment."
"There's no music playing," Hope pointed out with a raise of her eyebrow.
"Ah, how observant of you," Tala towered over Hope, her chin easily in line with the top of Hope's head, and her brown eyes softly flickering over her features. Using her free hand, she loudly clicked her fingers and soft jazz began to play through the speakers.
Hope looked worriedly around at the scattered customers who were confusedly looking between each other and the two women.
"You have to be subtle here," Hope said in a low whisper as Tala took the lead on their dance and placed her hand gently on the tribrid's hip.
"My apologies," Tala sighed as they stepped in time with each other, "it's been a time since I was anywhere but a big city, where a few brass acts can go unnoticed. I spent time in New Orleans, it's where I heard about you before I planned to return home. And I thought, what an honour it would be to breathe the same air as the famous Hope Mikaelson… and here we are, dancing."
Hope gasped when the witch pulled her closer in time with the music, their bodies pressed against each other, breathing in synchronicity for three beats before Tala released her grip and they returned to stepping.
"You can't possibly be that in awe of me," the tone of Hope's laugh matched the disbelief strewn across her face.
"If you truly believe that, you must underestimate yourself and the prophecies which follow you, even dating back thousands of years ago."
"I'm sorry, what?" Now Hope's chuckle was one of humour, but she didn't falter in her step. "There's a multi-thousand year old prophecy about me?"
Tala's face was set into something bordering on dark. "Prophecies, there's more than one."
"Tell me about them," Hope watched Tala's eyes intently, trying to read the mystery woman who was leading her, but she was difficult to decipher.
"One I remember from my mother; a Seer dreamt of a young tri-blooded woman bringing the end to a frightful evil. Another speaks of the one with the blood of three, and how it's capable of lifting any curse."
"Is that why you're here, because you're cursed?" The Mikaelson was expecting a plea for help, but Tala only shot her a playful smile.
"It's the worst curse of all," the witch held Hope's waist tighter and pulled her close, now having both her hands on her hips, "curiosity."
Hope could feel the sheer strength of Tala's magic coursing through her with every touch and it was exhilarating to be near. She raised an eyebrow at her, linking her own hands around the back of the taller woman's neck.
"About?"
"You, of course," Tala halted their dance so they were at a standstill. "When I heard the vampire who killed my family was dead, I wanted to wait just a few more years before returning to my ancestors, to be sure it was safe, but then I heard about you: the tribrid who made her home in Mystic Falls… I just couldn't wait any longer."
Hope found Tala puzzling, but as they drank and danced that night, and Tala shared stories about the places she'd seen all over the world, from a different time. Hope found her story impressive; a witch of nearly three-hundred years, devoted to returning to her family's roots. She even found it endearing, endearing enough that she woke up in Tala's bed the following morning.
She blinked, sitting up and looking around the loft. She couldn't stop squinting, it was so bright.
"I'm sorry," Tala's voice came from the other side of the room and she shut her blinds with one swoop of her hand. "It's a protective measure, enchantments like these amplify sunlight, which makes vampires burn faster."
"You don't mess around, do you?" Hope jested. If she were a normal vampire, she would have felt on edge.
Her phone rang from the back pocket of her jeans, which were laying on the floor.
"That's been going all morning," Tala said with mild annoyance.
"Shit!" Hope scrambled for it and picked it up, realising she had half an hour to get to work. "Um, I have to go, I'm going to be late for work, but uh…"
Tala watched Hope with a small smile as the tribrid pulled her clothes on and shoved her belongings in her pockets. Finally, she looked up at the tall woman and she smiled apologetically.
"I'm so sorry, I can't be late for work."
"Don't worry yourself," Tala shrugged, her smile lingering, "come and see me whenever you'd like."
XXX
Elena and Hope were working a quiet Saturday morning with no patients booked. They made jokes here and there; every now and then, Elena would ask Hope to do something or Hope would offer to do something she knew Elena had to do. When it was just the two of them, Hope would flit around the room with her supernatural speed, often completing tasks faster than Elena could give them to her.
"Wanna know something juicy?" Hope asked after a period of silence, the two of them at their desks.
Elena's eyes flickered up. "Always."
"I met someone at the Grill last night, a very powerful witch," the Mikaelson smiled.
"Oh," Elena's lips pursed and her brows raised, "does this have anything to do with you still wearing last night's makeup around your eyes?"
"I was in a rush, I didn't want to be late for work," Hope let out a guilty chuckle.
Elena laughed. "Do tell!"
"Oh, it was nothing special, I probably won't go back, but-" Hope's head snapped up when she heard the door open and close, but it was followed by the familiar sound of Stefanie's boots on the clinic's vinyl flooring.
"Stef's here," she whispered.
"Hey, sweetie," Elena spoke when she looked up from her paperwork and saw her daughter walking through the door. She knew Hope wouldn't want to talk about that kind of thing around Stefanie and she was sure she didn't want to deal with the fallout of it all, either.
"Hey, Mom," Stef smiled, then her eyes shot from Elena to Hope and her smile grew. "Hi, Hope."
"Hey, Stef," Hope pointed to the microscope, "you wanna look at this funky bacteria we found in some guy's foot?"
Stef looked disgusted, but it wasn't because of the foot bacteria. "Is that even a question? Yeah, I do."
She ran around to where Hope was, dropping her bag on the floor under one of the tables, and Hope moved back a little in her chair to allow Stefanie room to look down the scope.
As Stefanie leaned over, Hope could hear the girl's pulse quicken. This happened every time they were close ever since Hope's return to Mystic Falls, which Hope found sweet, but it was quite the problem for her now. She was excellent at controlling her bloodlust at this point, but — when Stefanie was close and she could hear her blood bumping faster and louder through her veins — she couldn't help but think about what it tasted like… every single time.
"That's gross, what is that?" Stefanie asked as she pulled away from the scope, looking at Hope, who was now absentmindedly looking at her neck. Her voice came out on the verge of excited. "You're looking at me like you wanna eat me, are you waiting for an invitation?"
Elena turned just as Hope blinked away her thoughts. "Stefanie!"
The doppelgänger's daughter shrugged her shoulders. "What? I was joking."
"I'm sorry, it's my fault, it's been a while since I ate," Hope got up from her chair, taking a seat at the other end of the table and awkwardly avoiding everyone's gaze while she recorded her findings on the tablet.
Elena looked empathetically at her, walking around to a tall standing fridge and she pulled out a blood bag, dropping it onto the table in front of Hope.
"I'm okay," Hope shook her head, glancing over at Stefanie who was now watching from the chair by the microscope, but her eyes flashed yellow and felt the all-too-familiar ache in her jaw.
Elena nodded, her expression soft but her tone teetering on the edge of dry. "Like hell you are. You know I trust you around my kids, but what kind of mother would I be if I let you around them hungry? Especially someone as mouthy as this one."
"Hey!" Stefanie protested, but Elena ignored her.
Hope stared down at the bag.
"Either you drink here or you clock out and drink somewhere else, but I won't watch you starve yourself and I won't let you look at my daughter like she's a walking breakfast," the doppelgänger said lightly with a motherly sigh, as if it were all perfectly normal, and she went back to her work.
Elena, despite no longer being a vampire, had been a great help to Hope before she went to college and was always on her back about not letting herself go hungry. Elena showed an empathy towards her that she hadn't expected, but it was something she appreciated. The care Elena showed her reminded her a lot of the time of her Aunt Freya.
Stefanie was still watching, almost as if she expected Hope to just drink it right in front of her, but Hope turned her back first, grasping the bag in her hands and — unable to wait to rip the top off — she sunk her teeth into it a little too enthusiastically. She let out a relieved sigh and closed her yellow eyes to allow them time to change back to their usual blue, her hands falling into her lap with the empty bag. As she stood and put the bag in the appropriate waste, she felt Stefanie's eyes on her.
Elena looked at her briefly and smiled. "Better?"
Hope nodded. "Thank you."
"How long has it been?"
"Must be over a week," she said quietly, and she could feel Elena's eyes burning into the back of her head.
"Over a week? I thought you would have fed last night?"
"Yeah, would you have guessed? I'm a third vampire, with disordered eating, and I can't even bring myself to bite into someone who could heal themselves with a simple incantation."
Elena didn't look up from her paperwork, but her voice was still warm and sincere. "I know a thing or two about that. Trust me, you don't need to starve yourself. There's plenty here. And isn't that one of the perks of being a vampire in the medical profession? You're not hurting anyone, you may be taking something but you're also giving back."
"I know," Hope tried to keep her voice light, "I've just been busy. I'm okay now, I feel better."
She did feel better, but when she put a chair down next to Stefanie and peered down her microscope again, she could hear Stefanie's heart pounding faster than ever. It was like a constant drum in the tribrid's ears and she pulled away from the microscope, unable to stop herself from looking at the girl with a sigh.
The Salvatore reached up to touch the woman's face. Hope was unsure of what she was doing at first, but she simply felt Stefanie wipe over the corner of her mouth, pulling away until she could see the crimson stain on her thumb.
"You wouldn't want to give a patient a heart attack," she said playfully, plucking one of the antiseptic wipes from the packet on the table and wiping the blood on it.
"Thank you," Hope didn't mean for her voice to come out so shaky. She hadn't expected the simple act to get under her skin, but it did. Stefanie hadn't been scared. In fact, fear was the furthest thing from the feelings she could smell in the air.
When their eyes met again, Hope felt paralysed. On one hand, she found the action arousing on a human level, but on the other hand, she felt like Stefanie had just prodded a very hungry wild animal. The interaction replayed in her mind over and over, her senses prickling. She'd both loved and hated how intense things were since she activated her vampire side, but this was one of those times where she absolutely despised it. Hope didn't feed directly on humans; she drank from blood bags and other immortals — which she actually found could sustain her just fine — but she still had the desire to feed like any vampire and in that moment, she wanted to feed on Stefanie. It wasn't just because of the bloodlust, it was because she found Stefanie's confidence alluring and the monster in her saw it as a challenge.
She held Stefanie's eyes and the two looked at each other for a long moment before Elena, who had her back turned, made an aggravated noise as she rustled together a stack of paperwork.
"Okay," she turned to Hope, who had looked at her when she'd heard the frustrated growl, and handed her the paperwork. "This is every physical copy we need. I need you to leave this for Jess so she can scan it and file it, but make sure you put it on the front desk with a sticky note because otherwise you know she'll forget."
Hope nodded, still a little bewildered. "You got it, boss."
"Thank you," Elena let out a sigh. "God, I'm so glad it's over."
"I'll do it next time," a smile tugged at the corners of Hope's lips, "and I'll put my supernatural speed to good use… again."
"That would be forgery," Elena's eyebrow raised and she tilted her head judgmentally, but then a smile stretched across her face.
"No one needs to know and, let's be honest, I could have finished the whole thing in two minutes, you've been doing it for two hours," Hope placed a hand on Elena's shoulder when she started laughing. "You have a supernatural employee, you're not cheating if you make the most of it. I'll even make you pay me the two minutes in overtime to compensate."
She laughed and seemed to consider it, but in the end she shook her head. "It's okay. I hate it but it was my choice to be human again and I'm happy living with it. But thank you, you're already doing more than enough."
Hope's eyes fell on the fridge containing her blood and she nodded. "Whatever you need me to do."
Hope's blood had successfully saved nearly forty people since Elena started stocking it; all those people were compelled or spelled to stay in for observation and they all lived on with their human lives. Elena now took five vials at a time, restocking when she fell down to two or three. The vials remained in her fridge, which only she and Hope knew the combination for. The only thing Elena felt guilty about was the fact that she hadn't told Damon. Hope, true to her word, had kept it between them, but Elena felt guilt eating at her from the inside. She hated hiding things from him… but she'd incessantly told him that she wanted their human life to be free from the cheats and tricks of the supernatural world. She was fine having supernatural people in her life, but she just didn't want their supernatural aid. Her using Hope's blood in her clinic was in direct violation of everything she'd stood by for the sixteen years prior to Hope's offer. She was sure she would never hear the end of it if he found out, but most of all she was sure he would talk her out of it; he would use all the reasonable and logical reasons she'd given him about why it's a bad idea to dabble with supernatural things and he'd tell her to stop. Elena, however, didn't want to stop saving lives with Hope's blood. She might even go as far as to say it was a rush, the kind of rush she'd oddly missed.
XXX
The party for Hope's birthday that year wasn't only organised by Caroline and Lizzie. Since Hope had gone to New Orleans for her previous birthday, Rebekah had the idea of bringing New Orleans to Mystic Falls. When Hope had finally been allowed to see the school's playing fields, she saw that they had all but built actual homes across the stretch of green. The party was huge; Hope didn't think she could possibly have known this many supernatural people. She looked towards the school building at one of the already-drunk guests stumbling too close to the magical protective barrier that separated the party from the children and the school. There was a fancy line of decorative rope that hung from decorative posts to mark the area, signs pinned on every post that read "don't go here, it will hurt you :)" in Lizzie's neat script. The drunk, however, clearly missed these and his hand sizzled as it slipped over the barrier. He yelled in pain, then pulled it back and clutched it to his chest, walking back towards the crowd. Hope reckoned it was Freya's work. After all, her aunt's own child was in that very building, probably watching a movie and getting ready to settle in his dorm with his friends.
"Nik was so happy to see us today," Keelin, Vincent and Freya were standing with drinks in hand while they spoke with Cleo. "We're glad we brought him here, he's doing so well."
"And quite the heartbreaker, I hear," Hope chuckled as she joined the conversation, "he's turned down all but three of the girls in his grade, said he wouldn't hold their hand because he's waiting for someone special."
She'd been having a great time so far, as she usually did at parties where all her remaining family were present. She got lost in conversation with everyone, finding peace in small moments where everything just felt right.
"A quarter of a century," Rebekah said with amazement after Kol had made a sarcastic comment about Hope finally getting old, "my, my… how do you feel?"
"Like forever is a long, long time," Hope sighed nervously, then she caught sight of Damon, Elena and Stefanie approaching and her eyes raked appreciatively over Stefanie's body in the tight tank top she was wearing.
She barely glanced back at Rebekah as she placed an affectionate hand on her aunt's arm. "Excuse me."
Stefanie caught sight of Hope walking over to her and her heart felt like it might explode out of her chest when she saw her dark blue dress, something she was sure Rebekah had brought with her. It was elegant and classy, and yet, it made Stefanie's mind drift to places that would be considered far from classy.
"You look amazing," Stef complimented her in a low voice.
"You do, too," Hope's tone was flirtatious.
The Gemini twins looked at each other from where Hope had left them and both raised a brow, turning their gazes simultaneously back to the two.
"I bet she's got a present or two for her this year," Lizzie quirked.
"That's gross," Josie told her with a scowl.
Davina stepped up next to Josie and joined them in their staring. "What's going on?"
Lizzie leaned forward, talking around Josie at a low whisper. "Stefanie's had a crush on Hope for forever and over the last few months, Hope's clearly been interested… we're just waiting for it to happen."
The witch laughed, looking at Hope smile up at the dark-haired girl. "She seems happy."
"I need a drink," Josie sucked in a breath, walking off to one of the many minibars at the party that had a selection of alcohol and Davina watched her leave with confusion.
Everyone was standing around, dancing to the music, or sitting at the tables which had been laid out across the grass. People seemed to be having a good time and, even though the party was confined to the fields, it felt like it stretched for miles.
Hope told Stefanie to come join her with the others, taking her hand and lacing their fingers as she turned to lead her back the way she came, but she came face-to-face with Tala and her hand dropped out of Stefanie's.
"Tala," she smiled at her kindly, hiding her surprise, "what are you doing here?"
"Well, I heard someone in the Grill today mention they were going to Hope's birthday party and I thought, what are the chances?" The tall woman stepped closer to her, her eyes holding the Mikaelson's with an odd intensity. "And I wanted to give you something."
Stefanie watched Tala bring out a box, which she handed to Hope, who opened it to reveal a sparkly bracelet. Stef scoffed, knowing all too well that Hope hated the style of jewellery Tala had picked, and unbeknownst to the tribrid, Tala's eyes briefly flickered menacingly to Stefanie.
"Thank you, it's beautiful," Hope told her. She was only half-invested in the conversation, the rest of her attention on the sound of Stefanie's heart pounding louder than it ever had before; she could even smell the sweat break out on the back of her neck.
"I was hoping you would dance with me," Tala stepped closer again, taking Hope's hands in her own, "like we did at the Grill."
Stefanie pivoted and scanned the party for her dad, stalking over to him as soon as she laid eyes on him. He was sitting with Alaric and Bonnie, who were laughing at something he'd said. She snatched the bourbon from his hand, but he snatched it back as she went to take a sip.
"None of that for you," he scolded.
"I'm having a terrible night," she complained.
"Trouble in paradise?" Bonnie smiled.
"Aunt Bon, please," Stef held up her hand dramatically. "This isn't the time."
Then she stormed off again, mumbling something about finding her mom.
"What do you mean by that?" Damon asked, eyes narrowing.
Bonnie shrugged, looking at him with a false innocence she knew he could see through. "Nothing."
Stefanie continued stomping through the field and all the people, looking for Elena. She just wanted her mom to take her home, or she was thinking about just walking it herself. She kept seeing the shitty look Tala had given her, every time she blinked, as if it were burnt into the back of her eyelids. Her blood was boiling, but she wasn't even really sure what exactly she was so angry about. It all just kept bubbling up from a pit in her stomach, making her feel like she was going to actually vomit.
She scanned the crowd again, only to turn and bump into Josie.
"Hey, I thought you were with Hope," Jo's smile fell when she noticed Stefanie's expression.
"I think Tala beat me to it," Stefanie grumbled bitterly under her breath.
"What's wrong?" Josie asked, placing her arm around Stef, who just looked down at the ground. "Come on, don't you remember all the girl talk we had when I came and lived with you? You can tell me."
"How do people get over other people?" Stefanie asked, moving to slump down into a chair at a nearby empty table.
The Gemini seemed to ponder her options for a moment before she took a seat next to her, placing a hand over hers on the tabletop. "In my experience, it's always better to be honest about how you feel to the person you feel about. Sometimes it's messy and complicated, sometimes it doesn't turn out the way we want… but the truth frees you, it takes the weight off your shoulders and makes it easier for you to move on in most cases."
Stefanie pondered this for a moment, her eyebrows furrowing deeper the further she drifted into thought.
"There you are!" Hope's voice came from Stefanie's left and she looked up, her expression softening. "I've been looking all over for you."
Josie turned so Hope couldn't see and shot Stefanie a look that wordlessly said, "I'll leave you alone," before she got up and headed away.
"And where are you going? What is with people today?" Hope looked at Josie, who just turned, still walking backwards as she spoke.
"Lizzie text me and asked me to help her with something party-related."
Hope narrowed her eyes as she watched Josie walking away, knowing she was lying by listening to her heartbeat; not that she needed her hearing to tell when Jo was lying, she knew her far too well.
Her attention turned back to Stefanie and she saw the look of misery on the girl's face as she downed the rest of whatever drink Josie had left on the table. "Why'd you leave?"
Stefanie didn't look up. "I thought you were too busy with Tala to notice."
Perhaps not the kind of honesty Josie was talking about.
The tribrid watched her get up with the empty glass and refill it at the bar a few paces to the left. She found bourbon, smiling, and poured the glass over half full.
"You know, you're not supposed to fill the glass that much."
"You've clearly never seen my dad drink after he's finished driving me and my sisters home from school on a Friday."
Hope followed Stefanie through the crowd, the young woman heading towards the school building with her glass, undoubtably to find a quiet corner to nurse it in. Thankfully, as one of the guests who was permitted to enter the school, she simply passed over the protective barrier with no repercussions, as did Hope.
"What is wrong with you?" Hope grabbed Stefanie's arm, not meaning to do it with such force, and the motion stopped Stef in her tracks so violently that she spilt half her bourbon on the grass.
The Salvatore stared at Hope hatefully, filled with such bitterness and rage that she wasn't sure how to contain it. But it didn't take long, just a few short breaths worth of eye contact, before Stefanie was lost in Hope's beautiful blue eyes and her expression softened into one of longing.
"What?"
"Is there somewhere we can go to talk privately?" Stefanie asked, now all too aware of the fact that anyone could be listening. She wasn't about to embarrass herself in front of the entire vampire student population.
Hope nodded and she held out her hand, waiting for Stefanie to take it. After a moment of consideration, she did, but she wondered what it really meant to Hope — whether it meant to the Mikaelson what it meant to her. She thought, perhaps, that it was all in her head; Hope was a kind person and was practically considered family, her acts of affection towards Stefanie could easily be platonic. But there was something about the way she caught her looking at her that Stefanie just found so gay.
She questioned herself momentarily, but her "gaydar" had never failed her before, she was never wrong.
The looks, the hand-holding, the hugs that last just a little too long… this can't be in my head, she thought.
Hope lead Stefanie to her bedroom, closing the door and motioning for Stefanie to take a seat on the couch.
She did, watching Hope grab a small glass bowl and some sage from one of her shelves. She placed the bowl on the coffee table in front of Stefanie, lighting the sage with magic and gently blowing on the flame until it shrivelled and the red-orange embers glowed white.
With an incantation, she placed the sage in the bowl. "No one will hear us so long as it burns."
Stefanie's eyes followed Hope as she took a seat next to her. The Salvatore's heart was pounding in her ears and she sucked in a breath. "I like you."
Hope smiled, the type of smile you couldn't tell what kind of smile it was. "I like you, too, you're really cool."
Stefanie sighed. "No… I like you, like you."
Hope stopped, unsure of what to say. Of course, she liked Stefanie the same way, she knew she did. She had never felt that way about anyone since activating her vampire side — and the horrors that proceeded it — and it became even more complicated for her when the person she was falling for so happened to be human.
Stefanie continued when she saw the expression on Hope's face and watched those sea-coloured eyes she loved so much flicker briefly to her lips. "I think you're beautiful and strong. You're literally incredible. When I found out about supernaturals, I asked my dad how he felt safe in a town so crazy, where there were evacuations and monsters. He told me he knew you would move heaven and earth to keep the people of this town safe; he and my mom both trust you with our lives, and he doesn't even trust a certified babysitter to take my sisters for an evening."
Hope remembered some of the things she'd heard about Lizzie and Josie's childhood and she nodded. "I think there's a pretty good reason for that one, actually."
"Regardless," Stefanie took Hope's hands in hers. "I think you're the most amazing person I've ever met. I've always been so bored, but I'm not bored when I'm with you. I just know life will always be exciting if you're around."
Hope raised her eyebrows. "The kind of excitement I bring usually means danger."
Stefanie felt herself lean in a little, the alcohol she'd drunk starting to make her feel a lighter. "What if I want that?"
The Mikaelson's eyes flashed with something animal, one of the things that drew Stefanie in. It baffled her; all the things about her that scared others away only made Stefanie want her more.
"This isn't what you want, I can promise you. You're just too young."
"Bullshit," Stefanie called, fingers still entangled with Hope's, but her expression had turned stern, "don't tell me what I want. And you told me Tala is old, and my father is just shy of two centuries old because he took the cure for vampirism to be with my mother, so don't tell me that I'm too young or that it's not what I want, tell me the real reason."
Hope heard Stefanie's blood pump around her body, but it wasn't the same as when she'd have hunt-driven cravings; she wanted to wrap Stefanie in her arms and sink her teeth into her pretty neck, drink her fill and heal her, so she could do it over and over and over again.
"You're human," Hope eventually settled on, her eyes looking longingly into the Salvatore's, "and it's not that I don't have feelings for you, I do… but you're young and I don't wan't to ruin your life."
"Turn me," Stefanie said without a second thought. "I hate being human, so turn me."
"No, Stef," Hope's eyes had turned pleading, "it's not that simple."
"What?" Stef challenged, taking her hands away, "it's not as simple as me making my own choice?"
Hope sighed, feeling winded as she searched for the right thing to say to calm a now-heated Stefanie. "No, it's not just about that. I'm pretty much the closest thing we know in this world to being truly immortal."
Stefanie pinned Hope with a puzzled expression. "And?"
Hope took the young woman's hands in hers again and her eyes glistened. She looked down, blinking away the tears before they could form enough to fall.
"I would lose you… one day. And…" she took a deep breath, exhaling shakily, "after everything, I just- I can't see myself wanting to live through that kind of pain again."
Stefanie moved so she was sitting closer, placing her hands either side of Hope's face. She held her eyes and looked at her fiercely. "You're not gonna lose me."
"You can't know that. All it takes is one vengeful supernatural — someone my father enraged, or someone I hurt when my humanity was off — and your heart could be ripped from your chest, or someone could take your head off, or stake you with a fucking piece of wood. And if you're human, you know, I could lose control with you or someone I'm around could lose control, and then what would I do? If you were dead because someone drank every drop of blood from your body? What if it was me? You think I haven't thought about us? I have, but when I think about it, that's what I end up seeing; I see you dead because I've been selfish and I've put you in danger by keeping you too close to me."
"I'm gonna die someday. I'd rather die young and feel like I've actually lived my life than die old and bored, and feel like I've wasted everything on a stupid, fragile human existence," the Salvatore leaned in, closing the distance when she saw Hope look to her lips again.
Hope thought for a split second of kissing her — she wanted to — but she pushed her away and her voice came out as a small whisper. "Stef, please, don't make this harder than it has to be."
Stefanie's heart felt like it might shatter into a million pieces. It was the feeling her dad secretly told her about, when he told her stories from before he'd won her mother over, which usually happened when he'd had too much to drink. It was the feeling as if her heartbeat was about to come up through her throat, like every breath just winded her even more.
"Fine," Stefanie straightened herself up on the couch, her face blank and expressionless, but her eyes burned with fury. "Why don't you give Tala a call, she seems to do it for you."
Hope narrowed her eyes at Stefanie as she got up and started walking out. The Mikaelson stood and locked the door with magic, sealing Stefanie inside. "Why is this about Tala? She's just some witch I slept with because I was bored and I thought she was kind of interesting, I don't actually like her, I didn't even invite her."
The dark-haired girl spun, pinning Hope with yet another angry glare. "Well, I just think that since she's so immortal and all, she ticks all your boxes."
"Oh my god, why are you acting like this? I don't even know this version of you," Hope spat, her own blood now pumping in her ears along with the sound of Stefanie's, which was practically boiling with rage at this point.
Stefanie closed the distance in a few strides, looking down at Hope. Her voice almost came out angry — she meant it to — but it ended up being soft and her face twisted with a type of emotional pain Hope had never seen her experience. "And what version of you prefers some shitty one night stand over something meaningful with someone you trust? Isn't it worth the risk?"
Hope's rage faded at the final question; she remembered the musical Landon had written and what Puck had said to her about opening her heart, despite the risks, and it made her wonder if she had drifted from that open mindset. She looked up at Stefanie in bewilderment, getting lost in her icy blue eyes for what felt like far too brief a time than she would like.
The Salvatore girl couldn't stop looking at Hope's mouth and she wanted desperately to kiss her and show her what she was missing, show her that she doesn't need to run off with ancient witches or confine herself to a supernatural dating pool to be satisfied or feel safe.
Eventually, Hope spluttered out, "Stef, I- I just- I can't put you in harms way like that-"
Stefanie waited until Hope's eyes flickered away to avoid her piercing gaze, silencing her when she caught Hope's lips in her own. They melted into each other instantly, bodies pressing together, but their hands remained by their sides; Stefanie was worried about being pushed away if she took things too far and Hope was scared she wouldn't be able to stop if she started. Right now, she knew she should pull away, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. It didn't matter how loud the voice in her head screamed at her, it just faded into nothing as Stefanie slid her tongue over the Mikaelson's bottom lip. Hope balled her hands into fists, digging her nails into her palms until she heard the light popping noise of her skin finally breaking and felt blood pooling under her fingernails; then she bit down gently on Stefanie's bottom lip and raked her teeth over it as she tugged softly. Stefanie made a pleasured humming noise that made every inch of Hope's skin tingle, but then the Salvatore pulled away.
She hovered, their bodies still pressed together, before she whispered, "Happy birthday, Hope."
Hope's eyes flickered over Stefanie's face, looking a little too long at her lips, but before she could lean in for another kiss, Stefanie had turned and was walking away, unlocking the door and leaving without a second glance. Hope stood in that same spot for a long moment, nails digging further and further into her palms until she finally looked down from the open doorway to see blood dribbling down to the floor from her clenched fists. She looked at the gouges in her hands and rubbed them together, muttering an incantation to heal them quickly — she knew she wasn't going to heal very fast from her vampire powers with how hungry she was — before she cleaned herself and the floor up with another incantation.
Her breathing came more laboured than usual Stefanie's scent lingered in the air, driving her more and more insane with each inhale.
If I run, I can catch her, part of her thought. But then what?
Her mind filled with a thousand different ways she could feed from Stefanie, from different arteries she could sink her teeth into to the way she could sit Stefanie in her lap or hold her against a wall. Each image flashing in front of her eyes until she felt herself about to take the first step in her pursuit.
But she raised her hand and the door slammed, the lock twisting so hard it broke off. Not that it was much of a line of defence; her balcony doors swung open in the wind, which carried in the smell of the bonfire and the sound of happy chatter.
It was enough to draw her away and she left her room through the balcony doors, jumping down off the ledge and landing with her feet firmly on the ground. She followed the sound of Rebekah's voice as she mercilessly bantered with Kol, returning to her birthday party.