Lightning Strikes Twice

Twenty Four

"I'm not going to join you for Father Kieran's wake. Alex and I are going to pick up her stuff and then set up her room." Méalla told Klaus, Hayley, and Elijah. "Call me if you need anything."
Alex had said an immediate yes to living with Méalla when she asked her. Alex's leg was still broken and she didn't want to take vampire blood, which is understandable and her choice, so Méalla wanted to help her take it slow.

They were just finishing Alex's room when the girl mumbled something, too quiet for even Méalla to hear.
"What was that, Alex?" Méalla carefully sat next to the girl onto the bed, which now had bright green sheets and a quilt that Alex said belonged to her mom.
"I'm scared. All the time. And I don't want to be." Alex mumbled, clearer this time.
Méalla's heart broke at the look on Alex's face. She's been through so much and it's had a toll.
"Stay here, I'll be right back." Méalla went to her room across the hall and pulled out a plush wolf she had made for Alex.
Walking back in to Alex's room, she said. "I know what it's like to be scared of what seems to be everything. And while people paint it as weak, it's okay to be scared. And it's okay to say you're scared. However, I find it's hard to admit. So, I made you this." Méalla again sat down next to Alex and held out the plush wolf.
"This is a wolf, just like you. However, it's a worry wolf, not a werewolf. She doesn't transform into a human, but rather you tell her your worries and fears at night and she howls them to the moon, so they don't weigh you down." Alex took the wolf and ran her hand over its back.
"Really?"
"Really. It helped me and I think it'll help you, although it's not a magical cure. You need to heal after everything and that takes time, even if you want to be fine." Alex nodded, wrapping her arms around the wolf.
"I'm going to name her Howl. She'll stay by my pillow every night."
Méalla smiled. "Okay, but you two have to go to bed when it's lights out. No giggling when you should be sleeping." Alex grinned mischievously at Méalla's words.
"Can you braid my hair? Like you do yours?" Alex asked.
"Certainly. If you can just scoot down a bit so I can sit behind you." Méalla carefully maneuvered behind Alex so that the girl was between her legs. Méalla picked up the top Alex's dark hair and split it into three strands. She started to do a Dutch braid as she and Alex sat in a comfortable silence. For the first time in a thousand years, Méalla found herself acting as a mother and while she never expected it, she wouldn't have it any other way.

"Wait, so you're saying Francesca Correa is potentially behind the Bayou bombings?" Méalla said quietly into her phone, not wanting to wake Alex in her room across the hall. She was sitting on her bed, having come in when Hayley called her to check in.
"From the way she stalks around and reacted to what I said, I believe she knows much more than she is letting on."
"I mean. That could make sense, why her sudden interest in taking Kieran's spot, her antagonizing Diego and Oliver at the party." Méalla mused.
"I'm going to do a little more digging. I'll tell you what I find tomorrow. Are you going to the funeral?"
Méalla leaned back across her pillows, watching Alex shift uneasily in her bed.
"I'm not sure. Either way, I'll talk to you tomorrow."

Méalla woke up in the middle of the night in cold sweats, having had a dream of Mikael. Brutal, painful and terrifying. She saw him rip Alex to shreds and crush her baby between his fists. She turned over to get up to check on Alex but found Alex had already curled up beside her in the bed. Méalla scanned her and her even breathing, clutching Howl tight and her chest loosened. She lay back down, wrapping a guarding arm around her charge and tried to fall back asleep.

The next morning, Alex and Méalla both slept late. Klaus and Elijah had left her a note in the kitchen saying they had left for the funeral and that they didn't want to wake her. She appreciated that, as she had a lot of trouble of falling back asleep after her dream of Mikael.
While Alex got dressed upstairs, Méalla started to make breakfast. Bacon sizzled, and pancakes bubbled. She was just finishing when Alex came in with her crutches, wearing a cute green sweater and black leggings.
"Hey, sweetie. I made breakfast." Méalla smiled as she pulled a chair out for Alex at the table and put a plate in front of her.
"Thank you." Alex said, voice still sleepy.
Before any breakfast can be eaten, Méalla heard commotion out in the courtyard.
"Stay here. I'll go check it out." She told Alex, who nodded quietly.
Méalla walked out into the courtyard as Elijah was carrying a limp Hayley with Klaus and Genevieve trailing behind. She sped over, helping clear a table for Elijah to put Hayley on.
"What the hell happened?" She asked as she took in the completely limp werewolf.
"She started coughing up blood and collapsed." Klaus answered.
"I can help..." Genevieve started but Méalla blocked her.
"Don't you touch her!" Méalla growled.
"Let it be. She was a nurse." Klaus said to Méalla who stepped back after hesitating. "There's a spell I can do. Klaus, get chamomile from the pantry," Genevieve looked at Hayley, who is barely conscious. "She's trembling. Your jacket, Elijah." Elijah removed his jacket and laid it over Hayley.
"She's not breathing, I can hear the baby's heartbeat, but not hers." Méalla said, anxious.
Genevieve pressed damp bundle of chamomile against Hayley's forehead and starts to chant a spell.
"Coeur la sais patri avec mwen. Coeur la sais patri avec mwen."
Klaus, frustrated and scared, bit into his wrist and dribbled the blood in into Hayley's mouth in vain.
"Come on!" He looked at Elijah and Méalla in fear.
"She's still not breathing. It's not working!" Méalla tossed one of her newly fixed chairs against the wall, shattering it.
Elijah and Méalla paced at Hayley's bedside as Genevieve continued to work her spell.
"Couer la sais patri avec mwen."
Elijah moved to pick up Hayley. "I'm taking her to a real doctor."
"If you move her from here, my spell will break. There won't be enough time to get her to a hospital." Genevieve spoke, trying to be calm. "Will the baby survive if delivered now? I'll rip it out of her myself!" He started towards Hayley but Méalla sped in front of him, her amber eyes showing.
"Hayley will bleed to death!" Genevieve told him.
"I won't lose that baby." Klaus said, voice breaking a bit.
"I won't lose Hayley either!" Méalla growled at her brother.
"Patri avec mwen. Coeur la sais patri avec mwen." Genevieve seems stunned for a moment before leaping into action.
"I know what to do. Get my bag, the gris-gris pouch! Now!"
Hayley continued to lay still on the table, as Genevieve dabbed a wet cloth on her head.
Genevieve crushed herbs from her bag with her fingers and spread them over Hayley's body, still chanting.
Hayley awoke with a loud gasp on the table, Klaus' blood still covering her mouth and neck. Elijah helped her sit up, and Klaus rubbed her shoulder affectionately.
"You're alright, love. You're alright." He tried to sooth her.
"I saw him. He tried to kill me. I saw Mikael." Hayley said, eyes frantically looking around.
Meanwhile, Méalla had collapsed to her knees in relief, shaking, after Hayley woke up. She tried to take a deep breath to calm her heart and the tears that were threatening to fall. Klaus and Elijah saw this, never really having seen Méalla this way.
"Go do something." Klaus told Hayley. She gave him a look but approached Méalla, kneeling in front of her. She had never really Méalla terrified before and she never wanted to again.
"I'm okay, I'm right here." Hayley said, not expecting Méalla to wrap her arms around her tightly and start to cry into her neck a bit. She hugged Méalla back just as tightly.
They broke apart a few minutes later and as they stood up, Méalla turned to Genevieve with a sincere look of gratitude.
"Thank you. For saving Hayley." Méalla's voice trembled and Genevieve nodded.
At that moment, Alex came out and made her way to Hayley, hugging her tightly. Méalla watched and felt a little relief that both she and Alex didn't go through the pain of losing anyone else.

Hayley is sitting on her bed, thinking, when Klaus approached her room. She noticed him, but he still stopped and knocked before he fully entered.
"You've proved quite resilient, little wolf. Fighters, both of you."
"I guess we've had to be. Especially lately. I've decided that I'm going to move back in."
"Well, I'm relieved to hear it." Klaus said softly. "But no mouth-breathing bodyguards, no telling me what to do."
Klaus smiled. "All I ask is that the child is kept safe."
"And what about me? What happens after she's born? If you try to take her away from me, I..." Hayley started.
Klaus interrupted. "Come with me?" He headed out to a door adjacent to Hayley's room, but stopped when he sees she wasn't following him. "Please. I want to show you something."
Hayley reluctantly got up and followed Klaus out the door. He takes her into a nursery, complete with a crib, a basinet, and a gorgeous mobile hanging from the ceiling, among other things. Hayley stared in surprise as she took everything in.
"Believe it or not, Hayley, I would actually like you to be here. Our daughter should be raised by her parents, in her family home."
You, me, Méalla, Elijah, Alex, and miracle-babies, all under one roof? Sounds like a bad reality show." She bantered.
Klaus chuckled nervously before asking, "Uh, you said you saw my father."
"Why do you call him that? He's not your real dad." Hayley said, genuinely curious.
"He's done damage only a father could do." He waited a moment before continuing. "What did he say to you?"
Hayley smiled gently at Klaus. "Nothing true." Klaus considered this for a moment, and then genuinely smiled before starting to leave the room.
"Klaus?" Hayley stopped him. "Did you make all this?" Looking around the crib, the paintings and mobile, and a rocking chair in the corner.
"I'd like to say yes, but I had some help. Méalla did a lot of the building." He smiled before she let him leave this time, and she felt her heart swell that Méalla helped build her daughter's nursery, as well as her own child's most likely.

Hayley watched the party winding down from her balcony as Méalla entered slowly.
"If I died and someone threw a party, I would be so pissed." She grinned ruefully, turning to Méalla.
"You almost did. In a long time, I haven't felt so scared. In a long time, I haven't felt so much as the past few months. You helped me come alive again, see there's still something worth living for."
Hayley said nothing, and Méalla instinctively turned to leave. Hayley turned around.
"Méalla..."
"Yes, love?"
After a moment of hesitation, Hayley stepped into Méalla's personal space, and kissed her. Méalla's eyes closed, savoring the feeling of Hayley's lips on hers. They seemed to align perfectly, just as if lightning struck twice. They finally broke away, foreheads still touching.