Lightning Strikes Twice

Forty Eight

Hot. Searing. Burning. Stabbing. The pain of labor. Shards of glass. Stinging. Whippings. Bone cracks. All kinds of imaginable pain reached from the far ends of her body. From the point of her toes to the roots of her hair. Then suddenly. Cool. Cool balm through her veins. Slowly at first. Like a snail. Then like a turtle. Then like a hare. Then like a horse. Then like a viper. Pain faded with the cooling sensation, each wave of cool brought less pain. The bad memories stopped rolling around enough for small thoughts. Then bigger ones. Then.
Her eyes snapped open, seeing Tunde's blade bloodied on her healing chest. She was in a back room of the Compound, probably hidden from her siblings. At least it's not a coffin. Niklaus probably didn't have the time to have matching one made before he stabbed her. Now to find that son of a bitch.

Jackson was gaping worriedly at Hayley as she stood in front of him.
"Hayley, what happened?"
"Hayley. Come to apologize for all your transgressions?" Klaus said smugly as he walked into the room.
At the sound of his voice, Hayley turned and rushed toward Klaus.
"Do you have any idea what you have taken from me?" She threw a punch at him, but he dodged it and grabbed her arm, twisting it behind her back. Hayley cried out in pain before breaking out of his hold easily by kicking him backwards in the gut before spinning and roundhouse-kicking him in the face. Jackson, furious at Klaus, twisted the chains around his wrists to try to break free.
"The very thing you sought to take from me-- the chance to raise our daughter. Your punishment fits your crime."
"Your family was ruining her life!"
Klaus vamp-sped toward Hayley and pinned her in a choke-hold against a nearby table, causing her to gasp for breath.
"My family saved her life while you were off playing hide-and-seek in the forest!"
Jackson, his yellow eyes flashing, broke one of the chains binding him to the wall, just as Freya started to stir awake after being knocked out by Hayley earlier. Hayley headbutted Klaus in the face, causing his nose to bleed, and Jackson completely broke the other chain, freeing himself. Freya, seeing this, cast a spell to keep him unable to intervene.
"Let me go! He'll kill her!" Jackson groaned.
"He'll kill you!" Freya shouted back.
Meanwhile, Klaus and Hayley were still fighting.
"There's a very short list of people who've tried to take Hope away from me, and you're the only one left breathing."
That comment enraged Hayley even more causing her to shout even louder. "Are you that delusional, Klaus? You cursed all of us! Every wolf that I fought for, everyone that stood up for our daughter. You took all of them away from their families! You took Alex away from her family!"
"Yes, yes, your precious pack, that family you chose over us, and in doing so, you chose over Hope."
Hayley was stunned. "Is that what you were planning on telling her when she got older and asked for me? That I abandoned her?"
Hayley, more furious she has ever felt in her life, broke an end-table and used the broken leg as a stake as she lunged for Klaus. However, Klaus grabbed the stake and threw it aside, watching frustratedly as Hayley jumped high.
She leapt into the air onto the staircase railing, which she used as leverage to jump onto the balcony. She leapt over to where Klaus had also jumped and started punching him, which he dodged at vampire speed. Finally, she started to angrily shove him in the chest, pushing him backwards as she yelled at him.
"My parents left me! Yours turned their backs on you! Look at us now, Klaus!" She continued hitting him hard in the chest, but Klaus, stricken by her words, could do nothing but stare in horror at her as she screamed in frustration.
Suddenly, Elijah walked into the courtyard and tried to intervene from below.
"Niklaus!"
Hayley ignored Elijah and kept shoving Klaus in the chest.
"She deserves something better than what we had, and all I have ever wanted for her is something better!"
Klaus continued to stand there silently, which only made Hayley more frustrated.
"Fight back! Fight back!" She screamed louder with each word. She stopped when she noticed Klaus' eyes widen as he noticed something behind her, and when she turned around, she saw Hope slowly toddling over to them on the balcony, curious as to what was happening. Hayley's mouth opened in shock, and a wave of guilt washed over her as she covered her mouth with her hand in horror. Below, Elijah, Freya, and Jackson watched sadly from the ground floor of the courtyard.
Hayley was overwhelmed. "Ohhhh. She's walking. When did she start walking?" She said quietly.
Klaus and the others remained silent, and Hayley felt she was on the brink of breaking down as she slowly walked toward her daughter. She finally picked up Hope, too exhausted to care about the fact that she's covered in blood, and she started to cry as Hope cooed in her arms.
"I missed it. I missed everything." She said, starting to choke up more.
Hayley kissed Hope's cheek as Freya, Jackson, and Elijah continue to watch sadly from the courtyard. Behind her, Klaus was looking tearful as well, and seemed to be guilty and ashamed.
Hayley walked down the steps with Hope, and Klaus followed slowly behind her. Freya had broken the shackles from Jackson's wrists, and as soon as she was finished, he rushed toward his wife and step-daughter to give them a hug.
"What happened? Is the curse broken?"
"I'll explain later. We're safe... for now." Hayley said wearily.
"Good for you. I'll have your bedroom made up."
Hayley glared at him. "The only way that I will stay under your roof is if I'm in a coffin."
"If you think I will allow Hope out of my protection for a second--"
Hayley spoke firmly and with venom. "What you'll allow doesn't matter, Klaus. Welcome to a 21st century custody battle. Moms win them now."
Elijah, wanting to prevent another fight, interrupted them.
"If I may? The apartments across the street have recently been renovated. I might pay a visit to the management."
He turned to Klaus, who was visibly unhappy, and glared at him.
"The fact that Hope will never be out of earshot should assuage your incessant paranoia."
"So we are to listen as my daughter is raised by savages?" Klaus scoffed.
Jackson scoffed right back. "Because everyone here is so civilized?"
"Brother, you created the problem. This might well be the solution." Elijah said curtly to Klaus.
Hayley looked at Elijah gratefully and nodded:
"Put the place in Jackson's name."
She looked over at Klaus and glared at him."
"Klaus won't be invited in."
Klaus scowled in anger at this news when everybody froze.
"Why is my daughter in chains?" Came a cold voice from the top of the stairs. When everybody slowly looked up, there was a very chillingly calm Méalla. She walked down the stairs as Hayley carried Hope away from Klaus, and Jackson and Elijah backed up, clearing a path for Méalla straight to her bastard of a brother.
Méalla walked right up to Klaus and with lightning fast speed, ripped her hand through his throat and yanked out his vocal cords.
"You won't need your voice for this Niklaus. I heard enough of them gloating while I was down."
Méalla's voice was still calm. The air was calm. Until she grabbed her brother and tossed him across the room, hearing an audible bone snap as he hit the wall.
"I was protecting our daughters. And you joined up with the thing we were supposed to be protecting them from!" She screamed.
Méalla stalked over to Klaus and picked him up by his broken shoulder, slapping him across the face.
"Not to mention the thousands of enemies you have on so kindly made us through the years! If they stayed in New Orleans, Hope would still be the daughter of Niklaus Mikaelson, the big bad wolf who's killed millions and Saoirse and Alex the daughters of his most loyal lackey!" She yelled as she once again threw Klaus across the room. As she followed to where he tried to get up, she kicked him straight into the column. And did it again after more audible bone snaps.
Everybody looked on in shock at the way Méalla was treating her brother. The one she put above all else. The one she'd do anything for. They were scared of what was happening.
"I have stuck by you through everything! I should have expected this from you you bloody asshole but I didn't, because you were the one person I trusted all through my life! Yet you had to endanger my daughters and torment me for god knows how long!"
Méalla turned and walked to Elijah. "How long was I down?" She asked in that chilling cold voice.
"Six months."
Méalla whipped back around to Klaus. "Six months! You have kept me from my daughters for six months!"
"What else did he do?" Méalla asked not turning to Elijah.
"Put the Crescent wolves under their curse again, including Alex." Elijah obliged.
At that Méalla eyes grew almost black they were so dark and the veins under her eyes started to show.
"Méalla may-"
She ignored Elijah and vamp sped towards Klaus, thrusting her hand into Klaus' chest, wrapping her fingers around his pulsing heart.
"I should rip out your heart. And do it again and again cause you can never die and maybe you'll understand a fraction of what you've done. To me, to my daughters, to this family. I swear on my life Niklaus, you shall never have me as your most loyal lackey ever again." Méalla threw Klaus on the floor and sped over to Alex.
"If they're under the curse, why aren't they wolves?" Méalla asked Freya.
"Davina put the curse on hold as long as I did something for her." Hayley answered, Méalla now seeing she's covered in blood. She nodded slightly.
Looking down, she saw a head of red hair. "Hey baby. You're walking. And you're so big." She whispered in shock as she picked up Saoirse. "When did you start to walk?" She pressed a kiss to her head and then one to a taller Alex's head. And as she looked over Alex, she noted all the injuries. Her eyes darkened again.
"And who hurt you so much Alex?"
"I'll explain everything about the injuries later Mom." Alex said wearily.
"Freya, can you take the chains off? We are going to my room."
"And if the curse resumes?"
"I can handle my daughter." Méalla said coldly. Freya released Alex from the chains and Alex wrapped her arms tightly around Méalla.
"I missed you so much Mom."
Méalla wrapped an arm around Alex and started ushering her towards the stairs.
"Wait before we go." Alex turned towards Klaus and whipped out her hand, sending the man struggling to get up straight back into the wall, breaking his back.
"Been wanting to do that since he cursed us. And there's more where that came from."
Méalla gently squeezed Alex with the arm around her shoulders, careful not to jostle the still healing shoulder too much.
"Come on. You can tell me who I need to kill for those gunshot wounds and are those puncture wounds too?" Méalla said, eyes hard but voice gentle.