Forever

New Orleans

I didn't know what I expected to see, but a courtyard inside their house was not it.

"Welcome home, my love."

"It's so-"

"Rebekah insisted on decorating for thanksgiving." Kol walked by my side, but wasn't touching me, thankfully.

It was May...

Just play to the role, push that awful grief down. It's only until Mikael comes. "I was going to say pretty."

A blonde woman appeared, she looked remarkably like Klaus. "You must be my sister in-law." She greeted warmly.

"You're Freya." She's the one who was helping them find me, the witch.

"You've heard of me?"

"Klaus mentioned you were a long lost sister." Which actually kind of made me curious as to where she'd been all this time. "I've met everyone else so it's process of elimination." And how did she have magic?

Didn't vampirism cancel out witch powers?

"I am interested to know why you ran from your soulmate? From what I read, the two of you should be inseparable."

Each brother shifted in their own way, Klaus moved toward what looked like a minibar, Kol crossed his arms, and Elijah put his hands in his pockets.

They knew.

She didn't seem to have asked it maliciously, then again, who could tell with this family. "Well your brother did murder my siblings, and my aunt, and a lot people actually."

"Why am I not surprised." Freya sent a look toward her siblings.

"You're missing the context." Klaus set his glass down. "Drew was the key to a nefarious plot. One that would have killed all of us, had she succeeded."

"Oh and Aunt Jenna was just for funzies?"

"That was for the cellar, and you know it." He pointed at me.

"It happened to Elijah too and he didn't get all murderous!"

"He certainly did nothing to stop me."

"Enough." Elijah sighed. "We have all done something to harm another. Kol and Drew haven't completed the bond, which means, she is in more danger."

"I've been fine for the twenty years I've been alive. Plus I spent two years on the run, actively hunted by the supernatural community, apparently, and still nothing."

"Cocky are we? Might I remind you, sister, that Freya still managed to track you down despite your best efforts." Klaus smirked.

Maybe it was because Bonnie was busier cloaking the Salvatore Brothers, better them than me. "Without Freya, how long do you think it would've taken you, because you suck at following trails."

He rolled his eyes. "How many times do I have to apologize for that."

"You haven't actually done that so-"

"What is she talking about?" Freya glanced around, confused.

"The one time I needed an Original to come save me and it didn't happen. I mean, granted the person who took me specifically hid me in a place far enough away to lose the scent, but really? She let me go." I crossed my arms. "Oh and to top it all off, he got the woman who tortured me, held me captive for days, the very same who kept telling me how much she hated Klaus, pregnant."

"She did what?" Kol's eyes darkened red and veins descended from them.

"I know. I mean I understand why someone would sleep with Klaus, but I'm just not sure why she did. She laid into me for weeks. Told me how she'd 'free all the hybrids' and 'finally take him down'. A little hypocritical if you ask me." It did give me a smidge of vindictive satisfaction knowing Hayley would get some form of retribution. "Oh, did Klaus not tell you? He figured it out when he was in my dream."

The siblings looked to the hybrid, who merely shrugged innocently. "I was coming to terms with it myself. Though are we really surprised considering her behavior during the pregnancy."

"Kol, I gave her my word that we would leave her be." Elijah was watching his brother suspiciously.

"I was fine to leave the wolf alone but now I find out she's hurt my soulmate. Enough that it changed her." He gestured toward me. "She used to trust us."

"You all did that on your own." But it is true that Elena and Jeremy might have been alive today if it weren't for Hayley's plot. "If this family wasn't so damn dramatic every time something happens, then I wouldn't be the only surviving Gilbert- which I'm keeping the name. I might be here but I'm not going to complete any soulmate bond. Just so we're all on the same page."

The boys looked away and I couldn't help but wonder if they were thinking about their own parents. What Kol told me, his dad forced his mom to do the bond, whatever that meant. It didn't sit well with me.

No one had been very forthcoming with any kind of information in that arena.

The biggest question I had, is why? Why was it all some big secret?

"Drew?" Finn called from the balcony. His shirt was covered in baby spit up and he looked far more tired than he had the last time I'd seen him. "You're back."

Klaus set his glass down. "Where's my daughter?"

"Sleeping, finally. She missed her father."

Klaus' stupid grin was actually kind of infectious. "I'll check on her later. You are relieved of your duties."

"Thank god." Finn threw a burping cloth on the railing. "So, tell me sister, are you back for good this time?"

There was a Mikaelson missing. "Where's Rebekah?"

"Ask Nik, he's the one who stabbed her in the back." Finn frowned. "He's still lording those insufferable daggers over our heads."

"If anyone is a backstabber here, it's her. She tried to plot with Marcel to put me in a coffin. She's learning a hard lesson." Klaus shrugged. "As will any of you who try to release her. Including you, little mouse. I know you have sticky fingers."

Of course Klaus would sentence his own sister to that. I kind of wished Rebekah had succeeded, give the hybrid a taste of his own medicine.

"That happened one time." I shot back defensively, the results of that particular plan turned me into a vampire. "I won't make the same mistake twice. Now, it's been a really long day and I'd like to go to sleep, where am I staying?" What I really wanted was a shower and some new clothes. I was still covered in Josh's blood.