Whatever We Lose

About that...

"Over there is where the Rousseau's is. Actually it was originally Marcel who ran the bar but after he left with Aunt Rebekah to New York so that they could keep the hallow from each other and prevent it from getting back inside me, Josh practically kept the bar on its original state. But things got ugly after the first time I snapped and he died."
"I remember that. Your father actually came to us for help. The great evil as the books addressed him came to us, asking for help so that he could keep her daughter safe. He didn't really seem evil to us. He is a father, who's concerned about her daughter's safety."
"That he is. You see, he is really evil towards the others but regardless, he is a father to me. A father that loves his daughter. And I don't really care what others say."

Lizzie who noticed the big shift with Hope's mood decided to change the topic.

"I'd really like to see that place but I know they'd pass us up." and then chuckled, making the other two do so as well.
"So babe, where to next?" Josie asked while giving the back of Hope's hand a kiss.

With that, Hope pretty much gave the girls the tour of their lives. It felt special since Hope is the one doing it. The girl who has experienced a lot of miserable moment here. Her family's death.

In fact, as much as she imagines Klaus in every direction she turns to, she also gets a glimpse back of her pain. Pain that felt more like a bittersweet feeling.

Pain that she is now able to handle and face with so much bravery because finally, she's not afraid to let people in. She's finally opened up and it felt so nice to finally have real friends. Things that she used to shut out mainly because she's afraid of the probabilities of loss coming back anytime were actually the things that she needed to be happy.

'You are the architect of your own unhappiness.'

She remembered that sentence that Camille had said to her father as he talked about her once very much briefly.

The tour went on until they've finally reached their final stop.

"The Bayou." Hope says as she lets her companions take in the magnificent night view of the river. The girls are in so much awe specially with the moon light shining so bright letting the details of the woods be seen. "Beautiful, isn't it?" Hope smiled as she remembers discreet visits here with her mother. She even remembers the one with her Uncle Elijah.

Hope is the first one who sat by the porch outside the smal cabin in the midst, just right beside the river while the others followed along.

"I still find it amazing how you control turning, tonight's a full moon." Josie says as she looks at Hope.
"Perks of being a tribrid, I guess." Hope smiled.
"Are you happy now?" Lizzie's worry has finally been voiced out. "I mean, after everything."

Hope smiled at the girl's question.

"Of course I am. Genuinely. Tragic as it is, I am happy with how it turned out. Although of course I still wish sometimes for things to have gone rather differently."

Hope took a sharp breathe.

"My father, the great and legendary Klaus Mikaelson, believed even though she had daggered Aunt Rebekah for countless time to spend hundreds of years in a confined box, that his place is always by her side. Such as Uncle Elijah, whom despite of father's madness never seized to believed that he could still be redeemed. While Aunt Rebekah would throw away her comfort of being away from my father as long as she ensures that Uncle Elijah is safe."

"They would always say, 'Family above all. Always and forever.'," Hope gave both Lizzie and Josie a smile. "Marcel used to mock those words when in fact in the first place he admired them. But he only realized it late when he saw dad's will to save his family. To save me... he has actually been redeemed. His redemption that Uncle Elijah never stopped reaching out for has actually happened. Klaus Mikaelson, the greatest evil as the books would say. But despite his endless life of darkness, evil and misery, he was saved. I happened to be his reason for redemption, and then he was saved. Nobody would ever have killed him. He chose to die in peace."