His Hope (Only His Series: Book 2) *NEW VERSION*

Chapter 42

Alex's P.O.V

November 16th, 2013

It had been two weeks since Klaus gave Cordelia and Leo to Rebekah. They couldn't be anymore safer in her hands and I slept well with that thought in mind. The city believed they died by the witch's hands. I'm sure Oliver seeing the stillborn baby Marcel procured from the hospital helped sell our story the most. Then Klaus compelled Marcel. Elijah had informed Kol on what happened so we wouldn't have to lie to him, as Klaus - for good measure - called up my friend Aaron from Georgia. He found a spell to make it possible for Hayley, Victor, and Daniel to be compelled. I wanted them to remember that the twins were alive, I didn't want to risk the possibility they could spill the information to anyone. Now they could never speak about it to anyone that wasn't an Original or myself.

They only two people who hadn't been informed on the whole ordeal were my brothers. I was staring at my phone with my thumb hovering over Damon's contact information. Since Kol was in Mystic Falls, he said he would compel them the same way Klaus had compelled the others. I finally clicked it and it went to voicemail, so I tried Stefan next.

"Stefan?" I asked when the call connected.

"Alex," Stefan said and he sounded sad.

"What? What is it?" I asked him. "What's wrong?"

"It's Damon," Stefan stated. "He's dead." Stefan then went on to explain what happened but his voice was muffled. I felt dizzy and stumbled back onto the couch in the living room with a thump. "Alex! Are you ok?"

"What? Yeah, I'm fine," I managed to say. "Did you try and find a way to bring him back?"

"Every lead was a dead end." He explained. "For the past two weeks, I went from Florida all the way to Portland to find a way so I could bring him back - and there isn't one."

"You're giving up." I realized. "You can't give up Stefan!"

"Alex," Stefan sighed. "I've gone down every road-"

"Then go down them again! You can't give up on him! I can't lose Damon not after-" I stopped talking and broke down crying.

"Alex?" Stefan asked softly. "Not after what?"

"The babies," I said to him. "They died." It broke my heart to lie to him, but I couldn't let him know. Not if Damon was ever going to know.

"I'm so sorry," Stefan said solemnly and I sat there.

"Where are you?" I asked him.

"Doesn't matter."

"Stefan-"

"I'm not in Mystic Falls. I couldn't stay there after Damon died. So I'm going to restart my life." Stefan explained.

"What? Go back to High School? Fall in love with a different girl in a different town?" I asked him.

"No, I just - I just want a normal life," Stefan stated.

"Yeah well having a normal life, given what we are, is not that easy. The universe proved that to me when it ripped me away from my children." I scolded and ended the call before throwing my phone to the other side of the room. It broke the window and fell on the street outside.

Hayley came into the room and found me sitting on the couch with tears running down my face, but no readable emotions attached to them. She slowly moved over to me and sat down. "Are you ok?" Hayley asked me.

"Am I ok?" I shot back at her and stood up in anger. "That's all everybody on this motherfucking earth has been asking me. 'Am I ok?' Of course I'm not fucking ok. My children are gone. My little brother is trying to reset his life again, which I know will fail. My boyfriend hasn't talked to me in the past two weeks, and will only come to bed after he knows I've fallen asleep." I took a deep breath. "I fucking need him and the only time I see him is before he wakes up in the morning, then he leaves me to continue on acting as if I don't fucking exist! Then-THEN my older brother is dead," Hayley looked at me shocked. "My older brother is dead, Hayley. Damon was always there for me. He was there when my mother died, he was there to protect me from out father, when my first love died, when I got married and had my son, then all the other shit I went through after I turned. But now he's gone and I wasn't there to help him or say goodbye," I dropped to my knees on the floor. Tears were running down my face as Hayley rushed over to me and pulled me into her arms. "Why does this always happen to me?"

"I don't know, Alex," Hayley confessed as she rocked me back and forth. "But you're going to be ok."

"No, no I'm not. Everything I love is gone. My children, Klaus, and now Damon." I whimpered.

"Stefan isn't," Hayley mentioned, hopefully.

"And if I know him, he'll ignore me while he tries to reset his life," I replied and groaned as I sat in front of Hayley. "I wish I could just turn it off."

"No." Hayley demand and forced me to look into her eyes. "You are not turning off your emotions Alex, do you understand?"

"Why not?" I asked her as I stood up angrily. "Damon's dead, Stefan's MIA, and Klaus's obviously doesn't give a shit about me!"

"Of course Klaus cares about you! He loves you, Alex!"

"Well, he has a funny way of showing it," I exclaimed.

"No, he cares about you, if he didn't he would have moved back into his old room," Hayley argued. "He just doesn't know how to comfort you and look at you without seeing his children. He's grieving in the only way he knows how to, even if it's not the best way."

"So he's ignoring me because I remind him of our kids?" I sobbed.

"No," Hayley hushed and wiped away some of my tears. "He's ignoring you because he is ashamed with himself since he doesn't know how to help you. He hates seeing you cry and it hurts him to see you in so much pain."

"But all he needs to do is be there," I explained. "Be here, in the position you are in."

"I know, and no matter how many times Victor, Daniel, Elijah and I tell him that, he doesn't believe us," Hayley told me. "But he'll stop doing all this when he's done processing his grief for your children as well and can think clearly enough to realize that you need his help." I looked at her and continued to sob in her arms, as she continued to gently rock me back and forth.