A/N: (6/23/2021) Good news is that I have the next installment 90% finished, hopefully I'll have it out soon. Thank you for reading & following/ favoriting the story!
Hope you enjoy!
In this chapter: Sophia entertains a house guest while her siblings are away.
This chapter ranges from Season 4, Episode 12- Episode 15.
Warning: Canon typical violence
Sophia was less than eager to get to school the next day to help prepare for the 80s dance, but she figured she owed it to Caroline who couldn't make it herself since she was helping Tyler with his mother's burial arrangements.
At first Elena hadn't been excited by the prospect, insisting that they all stay at their home for protection. In a puzzling turn of events, not 30 minutes later Sophia's sister had changed her tune. Once the old soul had finished getting ready, her sister had practically shooed her out of the house. Distracted from talking on the phone with Caroline, Sophia didn't reflect back on her sister's action's until after she arrived at school.
Circumstances at the Gilbert household had been tense since the sister's disagreement. Elena agreed to put her 'kill Kol' plan on the back burner for the time being, and Sophia agreed that it was best for Jeremy to stay home for the day with Kol likely on the prowl.
Armed with Caroline's instructions, Sophia headed the decoration committee with a zeal she hadn't displayed for school since her sophomore year. While her aptitude for these sorts of things was not parallel to blonde vampire's own flair, the old soul aimed to make her proud.
'What's wrong?' Sophia mouthed to Bonnie, whose expression turned worried after hanging up on a phone call.
"I need to call my dad, I think he has the town's water infused with vervain."
"When-"
"I need to call him, I'll be right back," her friend said tersely as she stepped towards the gymnasium's exit.
Less than 10 minutes had ticked by when Sophia let her curiosity get the better of her.
She walked outside of the gymnasium, where a few feet down the hallway, a guy was on the floor, crouched over.
"Are you oka-" Sophia hesitated. All the lockers on her right were opened, and it was as if the papers and keepsakes they contained had exploded out of them. Many of the bright red balloons she had painstakingly blown up earlier had popped.
"Your little witch packs quite the wallop," the man snarled.
"Kol?"
Against her better judgment, Sophia moved closer towards him.
Still hunched over, he looked over at her.
"Terribly sorry about this."
Sophia found herself pressed against the lockers, needle-thin teeth puncturing her neck. She cried out in pain. Remembering Trefor, remembering Damon. Her mind remained lucid enough to realize that if Kol didn't reign himself in, this could be how she died. Her rescuer in one life, her killer in another.
Black dots clouded her vision, and reality slipped away from her.
"Do you truly not know why the elders hold you, and all palia psychi's so sacred?" wondered Qetsiyah as Sofia finished putting away her mistress's face paints.
"They are rather quiet on the matter." replied the handmaiden, apprehensive.
"My dear Sofia, the amount of power you emanate is confounding, and not unlike the magic we find in nature. I can only ascertain that the magic in your blood is quite a bit more potent. I think the elders are mistaken. Persephone must have meant for us to utilize you as an extension of nature."
Sofia remembered her mother's words.
and what she had learned from the elders.
Qetsiyah was not the first of her kind to suggest that palia psychi's may be of benefit to the witches' magic, but their wishes never came to fruition for it was widely believed that such an act would be sacrilegious and an affront to the goddess Persephone.
"I can see that I've frightened you, we will speak no more of it," vowed Qetsiyah.
Sophia felt an ache in her stomach as she woke up. She was starving. She curved into the fetal position in response to the familier beeping she could hear near her ear.
When it became clear she wouldn't slip back into sleep, she blinked bleary eyed at an all white, antiseptic room. Her window curtains were pulled open, revealing a descending sun amongst a dusky blue.
Feet clad in dark trainers rested at the end of her hospital regulated bed, one foot crossed over the other.
"Kol?" The vampire at her beside had yet to come into focus, and Sophia rubbed her eyes to no avail.
White earbuds plugged his ears as he peered lazily at his phone, lounging in an armchair.
"Afraid I let my appetite get the better of me, darling. I don't know how she managed it, and it is rather disconcerting when I am unable to distinguish dark spellwork, but this Bonnie seems to have made me feel decades worth of starvation."
The old soul frowned, only achieving a rough understanding of Kol's words.
"How-"
Kol looked up, meeting her eyes. "I keep circling back to Expression. Then I think, any self respecting Bennett witch should know better. That sort of magic obliterates witches."
Expression, Sophia thought. Where had she heard that before?
She attempted to sit up, a simple act that had her head swimming, and she promptly fell back against her pillow.
"I ran you over to a hospital, as we were both in dire need of blood. The doctors seemed to know how to best heal you once I explained that I nearly drained you of all yours. No worries, they've been compelled. And the nurses were ever so obliging in offering their own vein."
Sophia raised her arms to cross them over her eyes, trying to take away the sting of fluorescent lights.
"What's your next move?" She wondered sluggishly.
"It seems I'll have to move on to Jeremy. Again. How tedious."
Kol removed his feet from her bed in favor of standing up. His words registered to Sophia as he did so.
She tried to scramble out of bed, wincing as she pulled against the IV attached to her hand.
Kol mildly gripped her shoulder and pushed her back down, holding her there with ease. "Tell you what, I'll settle for chopping off his arm. Surely Jeremy can live without an arm, yeah?"
As he spoke, he insistently clicked this blue button near her head, and Sophia found herself lulled back to sleep.
Sophia woke to the sound of birds chirping out her window, and crisp morning air circulated her room. Concerned blue eyes stared at her.
"Thank god you're okay Sophie, we were worried when we hadn't heard from you. And Bonnie felt so guilty for leaving you behind at school."
"How'd you know where I was?" Sophia asked as she reached to squeeze Caroline's shaky hand.
"It was Stefan who tracked you down before their flight to Nova Scotia. There were only three hospitals where it made sense for Kol to leave you at- and with vervain in the towns water supply-"
"Nova Scotia?"
Caroline continued on in a quiet voice. "Wh- It's close to the island where Silas is supposedly buried."
"Everyone knows what a creep Shane is now, and they have no intention of letting him wake up Silas." Caroline's attempt at comforting Sophia failed.
With Kol dead at her sister and brother's hands and Klaus trapped in her living room... Shane was the least of her worries.
Sophia's eyes were swollen from tears shed, face pale and nose bright red as she blew indelicately into a tissue.
"What were they thinking?" moaned Sophia.
She and Caroline both sat at the blonde's dining table, where Sophia, after insisting she wasn't hungry, was polishing off a loaf of garlic bread.
Kol had made it known he had had Sophia stashed away somewhere, and Elena seemingly agreed that in exchange for her brother and sister's safety, she would let go of the search for the cure.
As proof, Kol had the doctor he compelled send a picture of her in the hospital, with the assurance she would make a full recovery.
As it turned out, it was a double cross, and at the end of all Elena had helped Jeremy kill Kol.
"How was Rebekah able to forgive that? And when does Bonnie's spell wear off?"
Sophia wondered if Kol saved her (after nearly killing her) for the same labyrinthe of reasons she found herself disconsolate over his death. The immediacy of Klaus's rampage, indulgent memories of him when he had still been mortal, and the fact that they had been friends of a sort.
"Apparently," began Caroline, "Kol had tried to kill her first. Bonnie estimated the spell would hold him there for three days, and they're hoping to force the cure on him when they get back."
A painfully stupid plan, she thought. That damn cure.
Sophia felt hollow. Deflated. She wanted nothing more than to see…
She let out a defeated sigh. It had been Elena and Jeremy who had killed his own little brother. Nevermind trying to talk him out of returning the favor, the chances were likely slim to none that Klaus would want to hear anything at all from her. Condolences. Appeals on behalf of her family. To check in on him.
Caroline eyed her perceptively. "Gilberts are persona non grata to him, Sophie. Based on what Elena said, I don't think even you can talk him down."
A blanket of stars littered the sky as Sophia and Caroline drove by her house on the way to Tyler's, who the blonde hadn't heard from all day. Caroline huffed at the sight of the teenage hybrid's car parked out front.
"You should stay in here," muttered the vampire as she unbuckled her seat belt.
"Not a chance."
"You're still here?" Caroline griped at the sight of her boyfriend in Sophia's kitchen. "What are you doing?"
Sophia trailed right behind Caroline, her gaze meeting Klaus's, who Bonnie trapped at the back corner of the house, in the den.
She froze as his eyes caught her.
"Hello Sophia," he stated measuredly, his voice face gave nothing away.
She opened her mouth to say… Something. Anything. But the words wouldn't come to her.
Caroline grabbed her hand and pulled Sophia over with her, away from him.
"Gloating," Tyler answered simply as he poured himself some water.
"Come home. Don't stoop to his level," Caroline begged.
"He destroyed my life." Tyler stared harshly at Klaus. "I plan on being present for every second of his misery until I can kill him myself."
Sophia squeezed Caroline's hand, but she stayed quiet.
She looked towards Klaus, who averted his eyes from her, opting to stare at the floor.
"Fine. You can gloat and multitask. This place is a disaster." Caroline declared, and the old soul recognized the domineering look in the blonde vampire's eye. Her friend squeezed her hand, then let go. "Not you, you really should rest more. Me and Tyler will start with the horrifically burnt corpse."
Sophia flinched after Caroline let go of her hand, and turned again towards the not so metaphorical elephant in the room.
Or an ancient sanguinary hybrid, as the case may be.
He looked on with unconcealed regret as Caroline and Tyler worked to cover Kol's body with a tarp, then turned steel eyes onto Tyler. "Tyler's mother is dead. So is my brother. I haven't hurt Elena and Jeremy. We're Even." Klaus looked at Sophia. " Call Bonnie… Get her to let me out of here," he said reasonably.
Sophia edged near him, already knowing what he asked for couldn't happen.
He hadn't hurt Elena and Jeremy… yet. And they wouldn't ever be even.
A lack of common sense surely ran in the family, as Sophia couldn't help this want in her to get closer to him.
Before she could walk past the dining table, Caroline was standing protectively in front of her.
"One of your brother's last acts was draining Sophie dry of all her blood, she almost died. You and your family have brought nothing but pain and misery to her life. To all of us." Caroline turned her eyes on her. "Don't let him fool you, Sophie."
The blonde turned as Klaus spoke up again. "How quickly you forget the part where I saved Tyler from the misery of being a werewolf. Or the night where your mother invited me into her home to save the life of her precious daughter. And don't flatter yourself into thinking you know what lies between me and Sophia."
Caroline was irate. "How delusional are you? You killed his mother. And let's not forget that we're standing in a house where Sophie's aunt Jenna used to live. Or did you think your charm would make us forget how you killed her too."
Sophia shut her eyes at the mention of Jenna.
When she opened them, she found that Caroline had moved closer to Klaus, glaring at him.
"You know- You know what? I'm not even going to engage in this. You're not even worth the calories I burn talking to you."
In a matter of seconds, Sophia was staring helplessly in horror as Klaus impaled Caroline with a wooden lamp, pulling her into the den with him, and biting her.
"No!" shouted Tyler.
"Caroline!" cried Sophia.
Klaus let her drop carelessly to the floor, then turned to stare at Tyler. His lips and teeth were stained with her friend's blood.
"Now that was definitely worth the calories."
Klaus let Caroline stumble over to the living room, where Tyler pulled her onto the couch. Sophia hovered near them, shocked into a state of inertia.
"Oh my god." Caroline kept repeating, hysteria in her voice.
Klaus sat on the leather couch in the den, looking all too pleased with himself.
Caroline didn't share Tyler's optimism for her recovery as Klaus's blood was necessary to heal her. Even so, she agreed with relief as her boyfriend pledged to fix her.
"She'll die if you don't heal her," Tyler said to Klaus matter of factly.
"Okay." The arrogant original hybrid made a show of rolling up his sleeve and biting his wrist. "Beg me to save her."
Tyler made concessions as Klaus haughtily smiled, taunting and mocking.
Sophia couldn't stand to look at him. "Please Niklaus," she choked out in a half-whisper from where she sat, holding Caroline's hand.
He paid her no mind, all his attention focused on Tyler. The first successful, sired hybrid went as far as to vow to be Klaus's slave again, only for Klaus to turn down the offer.
"Get me out of here." Caroline's voice was deep and raspy.
Sophia stood up and Tyler went to help Caroline.
"Sophie lets go," the blonde called out, cradled in Tyler's arms.
The old soul stayed put, staring fixedly at Klaus. A cool rage sparked within her, and the ancient hybrid's refusal to meet her eyes inflamed it even more.
"Please Sophie, don't bother with him."
Tyler looked back and forth between his girlfriend and her. "Sophie, c'mon-" he tried.
"I'm staying here." Her voice left no room for argument. "I'll be okay, really."
Caroline wanted to argue when she lurched forward in pain. "It's okay, Tyler. You should get her out of here."
Tyler nodded sharply as he helped Caroline out of the house despite her protest.
"You think hurting Caroline is going to get you what you want?" Sophia asked in a low voice.
Klaus tilted his head, smirking. "You wouldn't happen to know where Elena stashed her blood bags? It's been a day and I'm rather famished."
Sophia echoed Tyler. "If you don't give Caroline your blood, she'll die, Klaus." Stupid, stupid argument to make on behalf of her friend, as Klaus knew who was at risk here. But it was all she could think to say.
"Then she'll die." The hybrid now leaned casually against the archway that faced the kitchen, his eyes tracking her as she paced back in forth
Sophia thought of Caroline, whose patience and understanding for her friends was almost unparalleled.
Her voice hardened. "How can you do this to her?" she choked out.
"I'm a thousand years old, call it boredom."
"I don't believe you."
"Fine. Then maybe it's because I'm pure evil. How about that blood bag, sweetheart?"
Sincere craving momentarily shone in his eyes, and Sophia didn't know how she could have missed it. She thought hard back to Kol's last words to her.
He had come close to bleeding her dry because Bonnie had made him feel decades worth of starvation.
Klaus was silent as Sophia stared clinically at him. She hoped she was right, and that Bonnie had done the same thing to Klaus. Sophia never would have guessed, if that was the case.
Klaus had never been daggered and stuffed in a coffin for centuries at a time. Perhaps he was simply more adept at masking his hunger.
She pulled out a rather redundant, small red ice cooler from the fridge (Jeremy had found the blood bags off putting).
Sophia opened one, squeezing the thick plastic so that the blood it contained dripped out and down her arm.
Dark veins dance along Klaus's face as his teeth elongated, eyes turning bright yellow.
"As many blood bags as you want in exchange for you curing Caroline."
Klaus's face shifted back as he snorted in contempt.
"Unworthy trade."
Maybe so, but now, at least she had hope a bargain could be made.
Despite his nonchalance, something ravenous lurked behind his eyes as Sophia used a kitchen towel to clean up the spilled blood.
Okay. So blood bags wouldn't do the trick.
She thought aloud, desperate for Caroline's sake. "How about from the vein? My blood," she offered unceremoniously.
His laugh was short, disparaging. The blue of his eyes was entirely hidden in the artificial light that lit her home, their color indistinguishable. She walked closer to him, now only a foot away.
Klaus quiteted and stared unnervingly at her, still as a statue.
"Excuse the faux pas, I imagine you've never found blood bags particularly appetizing." She spoke airily, her rapid heartbeat betraying her. "Blood from the vein is more filling than a blood bag. Kol sure thought so."
Brief sadness and gratifying anger warred on his face. "Do not mention-"
"If my blood is good enough for your brother, then surely it's good enough for you. What? You don't want his sloppy seconds?"
Sophia could feel the blood pulsing within her, her own words driving her nervous system into a frenzy.
She eased closer, now only a breath away. "If you're so famished, then I'm right here. And in exchange, you cure Caroline."
Sophia stopped breathing as the veins on his face darkened. His eyes turned a haunting yellow, and his teeth elongated.
His words were gruff and husky. "Very well, little love."
She stood up to her full height, growing taut as the wolf stared at her with undisguised possessiveness.
She didn't know if she truly believed him, but this seemed to be her best shot.
Remembering how hungry Kol had been, she wondered if Klaus would practice the same control with her, or if he would be responsible for two deaths within the last hour. (Maybe she should have kept those blood bags on standby.)
Had it been a trick of the eyes that she could almost believe he was still in love with her after all this time? What other reason was there to entertain the whims of Sophia Gilbert?
No matter. There wasn't much else Sophia could do to help Caroline, but she could do this. And if he killed her… Well, a Gilbert for a Mikaelson. Then they would be even.
She held her arm out into the den, wrist readily offered up over the invisible boundary. As soon as she did, Klaus grasped her hand and drew her effortlessly, entirely to him. He smoothly lifted her chin and angled her head to the side.
Her eyes closed shut. Despite the seeds of dread planted in her, she somehow found solace in that it was Nik.
How his nose skimmed almost reverently along her jawline and down her neck.
One hand in her hair, keeping her head tilted as he wanted it, and the other on the small of her back, holding her flush against him.
She felt a feather-light brush of lips on her pulse point.
"Second thoughts ?" he murmured.
Sophia gulped. "No."
A second passed. Then another.
She opened her eyes. (Is he gonna-)
Oh.
His finely thinned teeth finally pierced her. An initial, acute sting. His lips impossibly soft and gentle against her neck as he drank from her.
Her eyes fluttered shut. Sophia trembled against him, her knees buckling.
Somehow, she was aware of the sensation that he was taking his time. Drinking slowly, savoring her.
Her every nerve ending dazed with pleasure.
She melted against him.
Klaus swiftly turned to press her body against the wall, holding her in place with his own. Rough sinew and unyielding muscle where she was pliant and lithely supple. She gave in to the overwhelming urge to hold him even closer. One of her arms looped around his neck, her other hand gripping his hair.
She felt a pressure at the edges of her mind, and the empty darkness behind her closed eyes was enveloped in gleaming silver, gossamer threads.
Klaus shut his eyes tighter, not wanting to open them. A familiar weight laid on him. Her nimble fingers pulled at his curls and let them spring back, soothing him. He smelled flora and fauna… and the brine of the ocean?
Against his better judgment, his eyes opened.
They appeared to be at the center of the meadow where they had been wedded, surrounded by luscious grass and brilliant wild flowers. Mere feet to his left, he could hear the sound of waves crashing. The night sky blazed with stars.
Looking down at him, Sofija. Her eyes briefly shimmered gold, as they had been prone to do so long ago. Her wolf? Her face was pleased as her iris's shifted back to that fathomless dark hue.
Unruly sable curls fell in a curtain around his face, and her smile was particularly feral as he stared at her with wide eyes.
He felt… mortal. His own hair fell below his neck in hapless waves and curls, his clothing simple and scratchy.
He struggled to sit up, and with hardly any effort on her part, she kept him still.
Her upturned lips eased, and turned into Sophia Gilbert's sweeter smile. She pressed teasing kisses down his neck, causing him to squirm beneath her and laugh despite himself.
"Tell me, are you still this ticklish at a thousand years old?" she murmured against his collarbone.
He stayed silent, catching his breath.
"No matter." She attempted to slide off of him, and as punishment Klaus used her momentum to roll on top of her, quickly balancing his weight on his forearms so as not to hurt her.
She smiled adoringly up at him, pressing a kiss at the corner of his lips.
"After a millennia, I am hopelessly in love with you as ever, Nik. I never stopped."
The tightening in his chest loosened. He opened his mouth to speak, when the meadow dulled around them, growing dismal and greyer by the second.
Her eyes, sad and forgiving.
One by one, the stars above them extinguished as easily as a candle flame. Hysteria and urgency clawed at him as Sofija closed her eyes.
Sophia felt faint and numb as Klaus retracted his teeth.
His gaze was stricken. "I've taken too much from you," he said urgently. He quickly bit his wrist, and held it to her mouth.
Sophia wrinkled her nose at the warm, metallic taste and turned her head to avoid the spill of blood, but her feeble protest was no match for Klaus.
After a minute, she cared not for the offputting taste, holding his wrist in place as she drank. Her senses grew sharper, her body warmed and charged with much needed vitality.
She wasn't sure how much time had passed when Klaus gently pulled his wrist away. She licked at the blood that had stained the ridges of her lips as she looked up to meet his gaze.
He looked ill at ease, agitated as he intently studied her.
Then… she remembered. Somewhat.
A locked up and guarded corner of her mind. A shadowed nook that her latent instincts misdirected her conscious mind from. And- intentionally or not, she wasn't sure- she had invited Klaus in.
The bewilderment on his face when he found himself in her head. Subject to her whims.
Sophia entertained the thought that perhaps she wasn't healed of the blood loss quite yet. Not when she could still smell the ocean and the sweet scent of springtime flowers, heady and potent. Felt the ancient binding of the law of surprise.
A restless energy just beneath the surface stretched and unfurled within her.
She looked at Nik. Not the hybrid, first of his kind. Not the ruthless, fatal Klaus Mikaelson. But steadfast and ardent Nik.
It was as if those thousand years apart had never come to pass.
Klaus parted his lips to speak, but before a word could be said, her lips were on his.
Her arms wove around his neck as he responded to her instinctively. Enthusiastically.
His hands, which were gripping her waist, journeyed lower. Sophia let out a shuttered breath as he pulled his lips from hers to kiss down her neck. Her legs turned to jelly once again as he sucked and nipped at her pulse point with blunt, human teeth.
Then, a phone trilled.
My phone, Sophia recognized with alarm, nearly jumping out of Klaus's arms.
"Nik," she flusterly admonished as he briefly held her in place. After one last peck on her collarbone, he let her go.
She rushed to the living room, taking a seat on the plush couch, barely taking the time to note that it was Tyler who was calling her.
"Hello?" she answered breathlessly. Sophia placed a hand to her rapidly rising and falling chest, meeting Klaus's attentive gaze.
"I don't think she has much time left," he said wretchedly, "Care- She's asking for you-"
"Bring her back," Sophia said urgently. "Ni- Klaus agreed to save her. Hurry Tyler, please."
"We'll be right there," he said shortly, then hanging up.
Sophia raised an eyebrow at the hybrid in question, silently daring him to contradict her.
He dimpled at her, arching an eyebrow in return.
Sophia frowned at her reflection the next morning. Her eyes were smudged with dark circles, her skin lackluster. Not sleeping did not agree with her.
Artfully placed concealer and a bit of blush went long ways into tricking even herself that she had had a decent night of sleep. Caffeine would take care of the rest.
"Morning love," Klaus called out, the blue of his eyes shining brightly that morning. Angelic was the word that came to mind with how the early morning light seemed to make him glow. The suggestive smirk on his face hinted otherwise.
Sophia frowned at him, staying silent as she went through the motions of making coffee. As she gathered the nerve to talk to him, her phone rang.
"Morning Hannah," Sophia greeted tiredly.
"Sophie, Shane's friend got back to me last night, and I've been going over the articles he sent me," Hannah said in lieu of greeting. "The legends of the island where Silas is entombed say if you pour your blood over this well that was built there, you will be able to talk to deceased loved ones. A lot of bodies have been found there, with the impression that they bled themselves to death, along with a group of missing college kids. I have the articles here. And Sophie- rumor had it that Shane visited the island last summer. After an accident that killed his wife and child," Hannah concluded somberly.
Sophia turned her baffled eyes on Klaus, who was clearly listening in.
"Shane seeked Silas's grave so he could be reunited with his family," Sophia murmured. "It has to be a sham- Silas. He's showing people these visions?" Sophia placed a hand to her neck, where Klaus had bit her. "He's full of shit, but maybe there's something to Shane's logic about immortality, in any form, requiring blood. And Silas is preying on people's grief to get it."
"That's probably the safest bet, yeah," Hannah said softly.
"Thank you so much Hannah, can I call you later?"
"Of course, take care of yourself Sophie."
"You too."
With shaking hands, Sophia called Elena.
"Sophia-" Klaus began.
"Sophie?" Her sister said over the phone.
"Elena, get Jeremy and get off that island. Please-"
"Jeremy's missing."
Sophia felt as if a piano was dropped on her, and sat then and there on the floor, her back against the kitchen island.
"What happened?"
"Jer, Bonnie and Damon and Shane went missing last night. It had to have been Shane who sneaked Bonnie and Jeremy away, to cast the spell. I just don't know how he got past Damon. He's missing too."
Sophia's mouth was dry. "Th- This happened last night?" She snapped. "Why are you only telling me this after I've called you!"
"There's nothing you can do to help, Sophie. You just got out of the hospital, it would have been unnecessary stress."
Sophia scoffed.
"Look, I already reached out to Caroline, she's at Klaus's house looking for the sword so we can use it to translate the map, which will lead us to Shane and Jeremy. He has to be on his way to the cure." Elena reasoned.
Sophia looked over at Klaus, whose expression had turned smug.
"You never should have gone to that island," Sophia said grimly. "Look, there's a legend that says if you pour blood over a well-"
"Shane told us-"
"It's a trick Elena, to lure people in. Watch out, and don't trust it." Sophia took a deep breath. "Be careful, find Jeremy, and get the hell out of there. Please trust me on this."
And with that, Sophia hung up.
Her head was pounding as she grabbed at the corner of the granite kitchen island to pull herself up.
With shaky legs, Sophia walked over to Klaus.
"Need my help anythi-"
Sophia wrapped her arms around Klaus's neck and hugged him, hiding her face in the crook of his neck as she breathed him in.
Her voice was muffled. "They're idiots. Complete idiots."
Klaus' arms wrapped around her waist. He said nothing.
Sophia pulled away after hearing her phone chirp, and lifted it from her back pocket.
A text. "Caroline found the sword. She's on her way back."
Sophia grabbed Klaus's hand and pulled him over to the couch, leaning her head on his shoulder as she shut her eyes. She felt his arm wrap around her.
"Sophie? What is going on here? What did you do to her?" A familiar voice asked accusingly.
Sophia felt Klaus's arms tighten round her shoulders as her eyes blinked open, startled awake from her brief nap.
"Well, if it isn't little orphan Lockwood. Come to show how laughably impotent you are against me?" Klaus remarked.
Sophia huffed at the reminder of his callousness as she stretched her arms. Everything was so forked up. Letting Klaus drink from her yesterday had opened a can of worms, and now she didn't know which way was up and which way was down.
"I'm fine Caroline, where'd you-"
"Sophia Gilbert what- how- Get away from him!" The blond demanded.
Klaus dimples cut deep, his smile savage. "A fickle one, isn't she? I admit, Sophia's variable affections give even I whiplash-"
"Nik-" Sophia cut herself off at the sight of Tyler's betrayed expression and Caroline's pinched face. She cleared her throat. There would be plenty of time for shame and self pity over how she fell into Klaus's arms later.
"Look, this is all beside the point. Yell at me after we decipher the map and find Jeremy."
Tyler and Caroline shared a glance and seemed to arrive at an unspoken agreement as Caroline took a seat on the couch.
Sophia pointedly avoided Klaus's eyes as she crossed her arms and moved to sit on the coffee table.
Tyler mentioned how he and Caroline had figured out the hilt of the sword was a cryptex, and deciphering it was integral to using it to understand Jeremy's tattoo.
"If you happened to want to help," Caroline's eyes darted unsubtlely between Klaus and Sophia, "We won't stop you."
Sophia studied the markings in the hilt, surprised at how she was able to make out every other symbol.
Klaus smiled. "Right, well I suggest using the magic of the internet to purchase an Aramaic to English dictionary from your nearest retailer."
Klaus, haltingly and leisurely, eventually helped to read the sword. As frustratingly as he was being, it was still better than Sophia on her own with her butchered Aramaic.
The old soul held the sword for him as he interpreted it, goosebumps on her arms as Klaus raised his eyes to hers, a vindicated smile on his face.
There was only one dose of the cure.
Klaus was all too pleased with himself after he managed to relay what he learned to Rebekah over the phone, before Caroline had the chance to hang it up. That's what they got for letting him filibuster the phone call.
Tyler and Caroline panicked over what this meant. If Elena couldn't get to the cure first, no cure to shove down Klaus's throat, keeping him from retaliating against them. Against Tyler.
"Please Niklaus. Just let him live. For- for me."
Klaus stared at her with snake eyes as she pleaded on behalf of Tyler. Tyler, who had had the gall to turn Klaus's hybrids against him, who had made it his life's mission to find the cure to force feed to Klaus.
If Sophia was her friend's best hope, they were screwed.
Klaus's eyes searched her face as he came to a conclusion. "The mercy I will extend for your sake… A head start."
Sophia was curled on the edge of her bed, unable to sleep. All her calls to everyone on the island had dropped, and she had no clue if Elena had gotten to Jeremy.
She felt a weight settle onto the other end of the bed.
Caroline? She wondered as she rolled to face the other way.
Blonde and blue-eyed, but decidedly not Caroline.
"How are you here?" she croaked.
"I fear something awful has befallen your friend Bonnie." He sounded the opposite of sorry.
Klaus laid with his back on the mattress, his arms crossed behind his head as he stared at the ceiling.
She wondered what had happened to her friend, then shivered, remembering why Klaus was entrapped in the first place.
"Because of you, little love, I've shown kindness. Forgiveness. Pity. Because of you, Sophia. It was all for you." His tone was imploring, as if he needed her to understand this.
Sophia's stomach rolled. She didn't want to be in the business of being Klaus Mikaelson's moral compass.
… And on the other hand, she feared for her siblings, wondering what the odds were she could persuade Klaus to leave them be.
"Assuming I get only one 'get out of jail free' card, am I terrible for regretting using it on Tyler?" she asked sleepily.
Klaus laughed and shifted to face her, propping his head with his arm bent at the elbow.
"You're in love with me," he accused. Despite the airs of nonchalance his body language suggested, his eyes were confused.
Sophia snorted. Because- duh. How wasn't that obvious to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention. Even amidst her denial, this had been true.
She thought back to the fairytale meadow, that bright night sky. She had let herself be honest in ways she could never be in the cold light of day.
Sophia swallowed audibly as she recalled why she tried so hard to let her love for him go unacknowledged, and kept him at arm's length.
"I can't- I let things escalate too far yesterday, Klaus-"
"Is it Klaus now?" He muttered.
Sophia sighed, and her lips quirked.
"Nik," she corrected softly, "Can you stay the night?"
Sophia mentally cursed. That was not what she had meant to say. But she was tired. Through no fault of her own, Klaus had been invited into her home, and his intimate proximity caused her stomach to somersault. Thoughts of Silas plagued her mind, encouraging unwanted memories to float to the surface.
In spite of him being the boogeymonster to the supernatural community at large, Klaus staved them off.
"Say it." He demanded. Rather petulantly, she noted.
She rolled her eyes. How unfair of him to ask with her defenses lowered, when he already knew his answer. "I'm in love with you Nik."
She smiled sleepily as he looked at her with large eyes, and shrugged minutely at him. Eh, what are you gonna do?
Then she rolled to her other side to turn off the lamp, and settled back into bed as she shut her eyes. Klaus remained where he was, so she reached behind her to grab his hand and laced their fingers together as she tugged his arm over to hug her. Taking the hint, Sophia felt Klaus curl around her.
"I'm sorry about Kol," she whispered sadly in the dark.
His only response was to hug her tighter.
Sophia woke up the next morning alone in her bed. Alone, but absurdly well rested, with a smile on her face
Laid atop the pillow beside hers, a blank page that looked like it might've torn from an old notebook.
Raising it above her, she saw that it was a sketch of herself, asleep. She traced the dark lines with her index finger, and absently pondered how many other women and men had been gifted a drawing by Klaus over the last millenia. Ever the artist, the hybrid openly admired what he thought was beautiful. Surely being over a thousand years old was incentive enough to thoroughly explore where one landed on the Kinsey scale, Sophia mused. Maybe he would tell her about it sometime.
"Sophia Gilbert I know you're awake, get your ass down here!" She heard Caroline shout out.
"You had a boy in your bed," the blonde accused as she poured cleaning solution into a plastic bucket. "Sorry- not a boy, an old man. A homicidal hybrid who nearly killed me, scared Tyler into going on the lam, and who wants your family dead."
Feeling a twinge of guilt about the crack she made about Tyler that night, and even more at the reminder that Klaus nearly killing one of her best friends was what accelerated her feelings for him, Sophia felt remarkably less buoyant than she had only minutes ago.
Being reminded of all these terrible things was good, she told herself. Sobering.
"You're just- You're all over the place Sophie, and I know you can't help it. But Klaus is taking advantage of that." Sophia opened her mouth to respond, but Caroline barreled on. "Look, even I can see that in some sick, twisted way- he loves you. So he's not the complete pitch black hole I would like to think he is. He's just- he's not good for you. Over the past two days, I know he's made what probably seem like huge gestures on your behalf, but they were really the bare minimum." Caroline's tone softened. " I know he's beautiful and he's charming- I know how tempting it is to let him sweep you off your feet. I just don't want you to forget what he is, what he's done."
Sophia remembered how Caroline was one of the beautiful things Klaus had let himself be taken by, and how she was in a unique position to understand how entrancing he could be. She walked over to the kitchen island, and grasped the granite so hard her knuckles whitened. "I know that, Caroline. Every time I catch myself slipping with him, I run through a list in my head. Jenna. Elena. Jeremy. Bonnie. Then Tyler, now you. And it's not that I ever forget any of that- It's… It's a lot of things. It's that everyone I know and love has done terrible things, myself included- So it's not that I ever forget what he's done, it's that a part of me doesn't care. And I have to work to keep that part in check." Sophia thought back on last night. "Some days, I have to work harder than others."
In the before, things had been messy, sure, and contradictorily speckled in shades of grey. But she had had her sister, her brother. There was no forgetting the family she had lost, but the pain became bearable. Livable. There really hadn't been much of a choice, in that respect.
And she had understood that her friends were also her family. Caroline, Bonnie, Matt. They had never been especially close, but even Tyler. Even the Salvatore brothers had become welcomed fixtures in her life. As intrusive as they had been, she had grown used to them.
The before. Sure, there had been Silas and his acolyte to worry about, and Klaus with his penchant for chaos, but even those obstacles hadn't seemed completely insurmountable when surrounded by well-meaning loved ones.
If only- If only what? If only that hunter hadn't come to town? If Elena hadn't had to choose between dying at age 18, or living on as a vampire. The brotherhood of the five. If Klaus had left well enough alone. If her family had left well enough alone. If Sophia herself had been more forthcoming with what she knew of the Shakspearean tragedy that was Qetsiyah, Silas, and Amara.
Where did it begin? It was hopeless to linger on, and ultimately, inconsequential.
But the after, the price paid, was unacceptable.
Hardly any time to grieve. To point fingers, to lay blame. To live in blissful denial.
Sophia had been right about this fools hunt for the cure, but what did that matter if nobody listened? None of it had mattered.
There had been Elena, clinging on to that very last inch of hope. Hanging on by a thread.
Dangerously optimistic, and unhinged when anyone gently tried to get her to acknowledge the obvious.
No. There hadn't been time for Sophia to mourn, to be mad. Not with her sister's mania guiding her. Elena needed her.
Sophia had been pleasantly surprised when Caroline told her she heard Stefan pull up to the house that late morning, Elena and Jeremy with him.
Upon hearing them, the blonde vampire put more effort into cleaning the hardwood floor, still stained from Kol's death.
"Hey, you're home," Caroline said brightly, and Sophia trailed after her into the living room as Elena walked in. "I was trying to clean the burn where Kol-" she trailed off at the sight of Stefan walking in, cradling Jeremy.
"I couldn't get the spot," the vampire breathed at the sight of Jeremy, too still. Deathly pale.
Sophia grabbed Caroline's hand in what should have been a death grip.
Maybe- her brother couldn't be-
It was Stefan's despondent nodd, his sad eyes, and Sophia knew.
"He'll be fine Sophie, you'll see. We should be here with him when he wakes up."
Sophia sat by Elena at Jeremy's bedside, silent tears rolling down her cheeks.
Her brother. Her supernatural little brother, who the Gilbert ring couldn't return to life. Not this time.
"What's that smell?" Caroline asked numbly.
Sophia had joined her and Stefan outside on the front porch.
She wanted to wretch.
"It's his body. He's starting to decompose." He turned apologetic eyes onto Sophia.
Katherine, a voice hissed and snarled. She had been the one to sacrifice Jeremy to Silas. Silas, who according to Damon, was roaming around his former prison. Based on Meredith Fell's observations, Silas had drained her brother of his blood, snapping his neck in the process.
Even Sophia found herself swept up in the hope Bonnie offered. That had been short-lived.
"Once the veil is dropped, there's nothing separating us anymore. We're all just one," the petite witch shared excitedly.
Sophia looked at Elena, and saw that they were on the same page. Reality had finally slammed into her sister, and Sophia found herself wishing it hadn't.
It wasn't fair, and it wasn't right. Jeremy shouldn't have died. He had been young, with so much to look forward to.
But… In spite of the dead and deceased previously running amuck in Mystic Falls, that didn't make it right to bring down the veil, to unleash the other side. Even if it meant they wouldn't see Jeremy again.
Elena was frantic in her search for… something.
She had just ordered Damon to place Jeremy's body on the couch.
"Got it," her sister stated in a strong voice as she pulled out lighter fluid, and immediately began to douse all over the kitchen, the living room, Jeremy.
Elena didn't let herself be talked down.
"This is the truth Stefan, I don't want to live here anymore. I don't want these sketches. I don't want this x-box! Not gonna need this bourbon anymore," Elena's voice was laced with hysteria.
Sophia's body trembled with growing anger.
"It's not just your house, Elena! It's mine too. Maybe you can't stand to live here anymore, but I do-"
"What else are we supposed to do with the body, Sophie?!" Elena asked in a raised voice. "I mean, there's no room in the Gilbert family plot." Elena smashed and threw framed family photos, the crash of them jolting Sophia. "Jenna and John took the last spots!"
Her sister lit a match, the small yellow flame held out before her. "There's nothing here left for us Sophie, don't you see that! Every inch of this house is filled with memories of the people we loved that have died. Mom, dad, Jeremy, and Jenna and Alaric. John, I mean, even John! They're all dead! Everyone is dead! I can't- we can't- There's nothing left for us here anymore!" Elena cried out as the match stick burned out, stinging her fingers.
Sophia eyed Stefan in relief as he caught the falling flame.
"Elena, I need you to calm down," Damon began calmly.
Elena cried out hysterically that she couldn't, descending further into her grief.
Sophia bypassed Damon and grabbed Elena's wrists, bringing them down.
"You have me, Elena," Sophia said roughly, tears cascading from her eyes. "And we have each other." She fell to the floor with her sister, and hugged her tightly.
"We'll get through this Elena-"
"You were right," Elena sobbed into Sophia's hair, clutching her tighter. "About the cure, about Silas. I'm sorry. It's my fault! It's all my fault!" Elena pulled back, and looked pleadingly into her eyes.
Sophia took a deep breath, and stamped down her anger, her despair. She needed to reel Elena back.
"It wasn't just you Elena, almost everyone had a stake in that cure." Sophia paused. " What happened… wasn't your fault," Sophia choked out, a sob stuck in her throat. She wasn't able to meet Elena's eyes. That had been her fatal mistake.
Sophia cried out in pain as Elena grabbed at her hands too tightly. "No, it was. And you know it. Poor Elena couldn't handle being a vampire!" Elena said roughly. "How many times did you warn us to stop, and I ignored you? We all did!" Her sister declared, staring accusingly at Damon and Stefan as she let go of Sophia, standing up.
"Why- how- But it was my fault, and it hurts!" Elena cried. "It hurts, it hurts! Please make it stop."
Stefan nodded at his brother. "Help her."
Damon stepped forward, and hugged her sister. Pulling back, he grasped her face gently. "I can help you," he comforted.
"How?" Elena wondered.
"Turn it off," he told her.
"What- No, no," Sophia heard Stefan mutter as she stared up in dawning horror.
"Just turn it off," Damon soothed, "And everything will go away. That's what you have to do. It's what I want you to do. "
That's what had done it for Elena, who had been resistant. Now, her face turned glassy as she grabbed at the lifeline Damon offered.
She was still Elena… and she wasn't. Sort of absent. Detached. Dispassionate.
She wandered around zombie-like throughout the house, studying their photos and keepsakes as if they were foriegn to her.
"You should pack a bag," Elena stated matter of factly.
"Wh- What?" Sophia rasped, her throat sore.
"Burning down the house is our best bet. Less questions for people to ask, takes care of the body," Elena explained cooley as she examined a picture they had taken with Jeremy back in middle school. "You seemed against it earlier. But unless you have a better solution?" Her sister turned to her, arching an expectant eyebrow.
Sophia's mouth fell open, Elena's callousness stunning her.
"I thought so," Elena nodded to herself, unimpressed. She dropped the already broken photo frame onto the floor, smashing it beyond repair.
"Fifteen minutes. That should be plenty of time, and I don't want to be here longer than I have to."
Sophia sputtered, the guilt of not comforting her sister as she should have hanging like a noose around her neck. "Then leave. I'll take care of it."
Elena tilted her head, and stared at her contemplatively. "You don't have it in you."
Jenna's college sweatshirt. Elena's favorite boots. A drawing Jeremy had gifted her during Christmas. Her mother's jewelry box, which among other things, contained her mother's engagement ring, passed on for generations throughout the Gilbert family. And lastly, a single, family photo album. One of many.
These were the only momento's Sophia allowed herself. If she could, she would pack up the whole house.
As it was, she didn't know what Elena without her compassion was capable of. Staring into her sister's eyes chilled her. The lack of warmth, the monster in her at the wheel.
Sophia used her last eight minutes to grab treasured jeans, shirts, and pajamas. Bras and underwear. Whatever fit in a carry-on suitcase.
This is ridiculous, Sophia thought, resolving to talk Elena out of this.
"- what if one day, when this is all over, you'll want to come home again?" Sophia heard Stefan ask as she walked downstairs, dragging her suitcase aside her.
Elena had already lit a match.
"I won't," Elena told him, then looked over his shoulder at her. "Perfect timing." She let the flame fall, and Sophia watched with childlike fascination as fire raced through her home.
Jeremy would have-
Jeremy.
She was supposed to have two minutes left- She had meant to tell him goodbye!
Sophia hiccuped as she tripped down the rest of the stairs.
"No- not Jeremy. What about Jeremy?" she asked, frenzied as she tried to run to the kitchen in an attempt to get to the den. Her brother's final resting place. She choked on the smoke, her eyes burning as the flames grew.
In a blink, she was outside, being gently set on the lawn by Stefan.
"You- you already had the match lit when I was still upstairs," Sophia said, immobilized as Elena strolled out of the house with Damon.
"I didn't want this," she whispered.
"I told you fifteen minutes," Elena shrugged.
"You- I didn't get the chance to say bye to Jeremy."
"You had all day, and that husk wasn't Jeremy," Elena said candidly.
"Wait- you said Sophie agreed to this." Stefan turned perturbed eyes onto Elena, who turned her back to him, walking away.
Sophia watched her house burn from the inside out.
Damon joined her and his brother, a frown marring his face as he handed her her bag.
"This is your fault," she told him quietly.
Lucky for her, Stefan had thought to pocket her car keys. Initially, he had deemed her unfit to drive, but eventually gave in when she promised to drive straight to Caroline, who lived roughly 9 minutes away.
Instead, she drove to the 24 hour diner outside of town, drinking a much needed pot of coffee as she contemplated where to go next.
Looking at her phone, her finger hovered over Klaus's name.
Ultimately, she decided against calling him, a part of her scared he would view her brother's death as poetic.
She needed to get far away from Mystic Falls, and only one person came to mind. A gray eyed woman who was too considerate for her own good.
"Sophie?" Hannah answered kindly.