Lights Flicker And Fade : Kol Mikaelson [3]

247: The Glass Menagerie

Despite the discussed teams, getting everyone inside to cause the most chaos started them in a slightly different formation. Rhea had headed off with a spell from Clio, teaching it to a gathering of people at the Lyceé, sending a 'ready to go' text to cue Marcel to drive into the Estate, Stefan, Hayley, and Sam hidden in the trunk.

"Are we close?" Stefan murmured.

Hayley checked the map on her phone, "A few more minutes."

Swiping up to see her lock screen instead. A picture of Hope smiling in her crib, reaching up towards the camera, till the sound of the laugh was so easy to hear in her head. Hayley's own face morphing to match the expression.

"She's a cute kid," Stefan commented.

"Yeah," Hayley glanced at Sam, "She is."

"You know I love her, Hayley," Sam kept his voice quiet, "It's just complicated."

She bobbed her head.

"It's my own fault for not – "

"You're actually sire bonded to a baby?" Stefan wanted to laugh, "Like?"

"I know," Sam let his eyes flitter shut, "Take her over Klaus any day, though."

"Klaus is her father," Hayley let herself say it, "If you want her to be happy, you shouldn't want her to grow up without a father."

"That wasn't your stance when Dahlia was around."

"No," She tucked her chin back, "But it was MJ's. And..."

Letting herself stare at the top of the trunk.

"And Jack was..."

Sam let himself look at her.

Well, as much as they could while all lying down in the trunk of a car.

MJ, Klaus, and Elijah were all about to potentially die.

"I'll start a fight we might not win, put faith in strangers – do anything, on the off chance it means she doesn't have to lose any more of her family."

"Depends on the family," Stefan mused, "I could have done without my father."

Sam made an agreeing noise.

"If it weren't for my brother, I probably wouldn't have survived the guy."

"He stood up for you," Hayley wanted to change the topic, "And now you're risking your life for him?"

They'd gotten a bit more context to Stefan's hunter situation.

"Something like that."

"Doesn't MJ and your brother, like," Hayley thought back to her time in Mystic Falls, "Not get on."

"She thinks I cut him too much slack."

"MJ's rarely wrong," Sam hummed.

"True," Stefan smiled, "But sometimes there are bonds you just can't shake."

"I never understood the brotherly bond until I met Klaus and Elijah," Hayley admitted, "They hurt each other more than anyone, but..."

"They're vicious," Sam suggested, "When it comes to each other."

"To anyone they care about," Hayley offered Stefan a smile, "So, who's on your homepage?"

He half-laughed, pulling out his phone to offer it forward.

"Caroline?" Hayley wasn't too surprised, given the calls she'd overheard, "She still hate me?"

"For snapping her neck or screwing over her ex-boyfriend?"