Rebel Just For Kicks: Kol Mikaelson [1]

83: After School Special

Two months.

Two months since Elena had been turned into a vampire.

Two months since Ric had died.

Just under a month since Carol had.

The town had put off the public memorials until after the holidays, giving everyone a moment to process the situation. Waiting until the new year also meant Liz had time to cover up the unexplainable details.

It had all been obnoxiously slow.

Tyler hadn't left town.

He hadn't been able to force himself to go.

MJ thought that part of him wanted to get caught by Klaus, ready to get it over with.

The rest of him was keeping him alive. His anger got him out of bed every morning. He got up, kept an eye on Caroline and MJ, spoke to Liz, and basically avoided everyone else.

The press release made it seem like she'd been too drunk to function.

It was insulting.

Tyler and MJ were still staying at Ric's.

Tyler and Kol were the only vampires invited in, so it was pretty safe.

The pair of them had been granted a leave of absence from school, since Carol had been down as MJ's guardian post-Ric, and the few times MJ had risked leaving Tyler alone, people had given her cards to pass on to him.

The letter informing her that she was going to be valedictorian had come a few days into the new year too.

MJ wanted to be happy about it, but she couldn't.

Tyler had tried to use the news to lighten the mood, but nothing could sugar-coat the fact that they were basically in hiding until they figured out where Tyler was going to go.

It had been just under a month since his mother died.

Just under a month since MJ had un-daggered Rebekah – three weeks since she'd last spoken to her.

Just under two since her last text to Kol.

Nearly a month since she'd seen him.

MJ couldn't let herself actually see Kol.

She refused to do that to Tyler.

In a way, she understood why it had happened. Tyler had taken Klaus's hybrids, so Klaus had killed his mother, but...

MJ didn't even know what to think anymore.

When they'd found out about the death, she'd just wanted to sob in her bed for the rest of time, but Carol wasn't actually her mother. She'd been Tyler's. Tyler was the person who officially had no family left, MJ was just someone who Carol had gone out of her way to help.

Within two months, she'd lost her mother, Ric, and Carol.

...

Klaus had let MJ live.

She couldn't tell if he'd done it because she'd been right, he wouldn't kill her, or if it was because she'd brought up Kol.

Track record-wise, dating one of his siblings shouldn't have saved her life, but it probably did help. He'd just wiped out his whole pack, his new family, so he wouldn't want to enrage his blood family, especially when Rebekah was firmly planted in the 'I hate you' area of his life.

MJ should've stopped Tyler.

She'd never been on board with the plan. She hadn't liked the fake dating idea, the revolution, or the planting him in Ty plan, but it had been Tyler. He'd been trying to help people – she hadn't wanted to stop him from trying to help people.