Hidden | Elijah Mikaelson |

2.4 Traditions

"How's that?" Rebekah asked me as she stepped back to admire her handiwork.

I tilted my head to the side and squinted my eyes. "It's crooked," I answered.

"Crooked?" She repeated and shook her head, readjusting the wreath. It was just one of the many Christmas decorations that Rebekah picked up on our way here. She claimed that she got all this stuff to comfort Hope and bring the family together. I hated Christmas ever since my parents died, but I guess I had a new family to spend it with now.

"Better?" She asked after a few seconds of messing with it.

"Perfect," I lied with a smile.

Rebekah nodded her head in satisfaction and we walked inside the warm house to see Elijah standing in the living room. She picked up a bottle of wine from the kitchen as we walked. "Well, isn't this place rather nice?" She asked him. "Nik must have compelled a wine lover to keep it up, because I found a 2005 Bordeaux. Fancy a sip?"

"I appreciate the sentiment, Rebekah," Elijah spoke. "But I do recognize when I'm being handled with kid gloves."

"How are you feeling?" Rebekah asked and awkwardly set the wine down.

"Patronized," he admitted and turned around to face us. "I am here to protect you. All of you."

"I know you mean to, Elijah," she assured him.

"Yet you found it necessary to render me unconscious before bringing me here," he finished.

"Well, you weren't yourself, and I needed to get us out of that diner," she defended herself.

"What happened back there?" I asked gently and crossed my arms.

"I don't know," he admitted and looked down at the baby in her play pen. "Niklaus sent me to protect Hope. My job is to keep her safe." He walked back into his room and closed the door.

I glanced at Rebekah, "Any ideas?"

"About what?" She raised her eyebrows.

"What to do with Elijah," I said quietly, not wanting him to overhear. "You've known him a lot longer than I have. I'm kind of out of my league here."

"Let's just give him some space and worry about getting this house ready for Christmas," she told me and headed outside. "I need your help collecting firewood for the bonfire."

"Bonfire?" I asked as I followed her out the door.

"It's a family tradition," she explained as we started throwing the firewood into a pile.

"I think I'm part of the reason Elijah's acting this way," I admitted. I needed to get it off my chest and I didn't know who better to trust than Rebekah. "He blames himself for what Esther did to me. I keep telling him that it's not his fault, but he won't listen."

"Elijah has a tendency to blame himself for every bad thing that happens to the ones he loves. And the one thing he wanted to do was protect you from all this," she answered.

"It's not his fault his mother is a psychopath," I shook my head as I threw down another piece of wood. I glanced at Rebekah when I realized what I said, "No offense."

"Oh, I know just how crazy Esther can be," she promised. "I hate her even more for what she did to you. I know what it feels like to have this life forced on you. I'm sorry, Addie. But I'm glad you're gonna be around for a while. Someone needs to keep my brothers in check."

I heard the door open behind us and Elijah walked onto the porch with baby Hope. He sat down on the edge of the porch and set Hope into a carrier as he gently rocked her back and forth. Rebekah shook her head at him, "It's all right, Elijah. She won't break. Everything you did was in the name of protecting her. I'm not worried."