Lightning Strikes Twice

Thirty Five

Teeny, tiny time jump here because Brotherhood of the Damned has stumped me for months.

Hayley started to walk away from the wolf gravesite. "I am done listening to you. Let me know when you want to have a real conversation."
Klaus chased after her and grabb her arm to stop her. "Hayley!"
Hayley yanked her arm away. "I'm not gonna stand here quietly while you tell me what I can and cannot do to protect my daughter."
"Our daughter. And Méalla's daughter, by proxy."
"Right. Ours, but it was your mother who tried to kill them, and who knows what your equally psychotic brother is up to?"
"Méalla and I will deal with Finn."
"And then what? Hope will always be the daughter of Klaus Mikaelson, the hybrid killer with 1,000 enemies. Saoirse is the daughter of Klaus Mikaelson's most loyal sibling and also feared Hybrid, Méalla Mikaelson. Don't you get it? It's you. You're the threat. You're so paranoid that you can't see that this wedding can help her. She can come home. They can come home. The wolves will be on our side."
"The wolves cannot be trusted."
"In your paranoid mind, nobody can be trusted. Not even Méalla! Where does it end?" "I trust Méalla more than I'll ever trust any of of your swamp wolves! There is no end to motives therefore no end to my distrust. Need I remind you I killed my own father in order to protect her?"
"Really? That's why you killed him... or is it just that you were so terrified of letting someone, anyone, in?" Hayley is quieter, voice breaking a bit. "I know this wedding can work. We can bring our little girl home, but you have to trust me." Klaus nodded at her and gently caressed her face with his hands.
"I do trust you, more than you, more than you know." Before she can say anything, he snapped her neck and caught her right before she fell onto the ground. "I just don't trust Jackson. And never question my trust of Méalla."

"Elijah, are you sure Finn thinks they're alive? Can, for once, it be possibly anything else?" Méalla asked, clutching Saoirse tight. Apparently, Finn had forgotten he had another sibling when putting her brothers in the Chambre de Chasse. Elijah shook his head and Méalla grumbled something about killing the eldest Mikaelson years ago.

"Hayley? What's up? Thought you were preparing for the wedding?" Méalla asked, watching over the room where Alex and Cami were playing with the babies. She had been thinking about Finn and his suspicion and a plan.  Nothing.
"Well, I would be, if Klaus wasn't so paranoid! The trials include a divulgence ceremony. Any secrets not told and the marriage won't work and we lose the wolves."
"Secrets being two beautiful baby girls who are alive and well?"
"Yes. Méalla, I know this isn't ideal, but if we do this wedding they can come home. They'd have an enhanced werewolf army, three hybrids, two being original, the original vampires and the vampires of New Orleans protecting them."
Méalla took a deep breath. Jackson was a good man, she was sure, but she wasn't placing her daughter's life in just a good man.
"Hayley, do you trust the wolves and Jackson this much?"
"I have no doubts."
"Then do it. I think you need to run, because you're going to have to make Klaus see this is the way before there is no Jackson to trust."

"I've drawn this out for long enough," Jackson groaned in pain "but you can hardly blame me. I find the sheer audacity of your plot quite offensive. Hayley is part of my family now, and you would seek to use her for your petty ambitions."
"I'm not using her."
"Just admit your true intentions for this farce of a wedding, and I will end this quickly." Jackson was still crawling away. "I love Hayley, and I will fight for her." He pulled a wooden blade he had tucked in his waistband and stabbed Klaus in the abdomen with it. Klaus cried out. "Till I'm dead." Jackson fell to the ground, completely exhausted. Klaus pulled the branch out of his stomach and threw it onto the floor.
"Well, you've got more fight in you than I'd have imagined," He puts Jackson in a choke-hold and points the tip of the blade under Jackson's chin. Jackson tried his best to hold Klaus' arm back, but he's become weaker.  "but I remain unimpressed."
"You told me once that my people were yours, too, and if you kill me now, promise me that you will help Hayley set our people free."
Klaus was surprised by these words and hesitated for a moment. Suddenly, Hayley appeared out of nowhere and tackled Klaus. She landed on top of him and straddled him as she punches him in the face violently several times until Klaus grabs her fist and tosses her off of him. Getting to his feet, Hayley stood between Klaus and Jackson, protecting the latter.
"I trust him, Klaus. Do you hear me? You're not gonna kill him, not unless you want to go through me."
"You truly believe that he is worthy of your trust?" Kalisz sounded impressed.
"Yes. I told Méalla and I'm telling you. I. Trust. Him."
"Oh, you are stubborn, little wolf. Perhaps you two were meant for each other. Go on, then. Tell him. Have your wedding. Save your wolves," he turned to Jackson. "but you mark my words. If you ever betray her, I will find you, and I will deposit your head on the end of a spike. Perhaps I'll leave it in your grandmother's garden. And don't get me started on what Méalla would do."
Klaus gave Hayley and Jackson one last look before vamp-speeding away. Hayley turned to tend to Jackson, who was still healing from his many injuries. She caressed his face as he leaned against her for support.
Mary puts a bandage on Jackson's stomach. "There. You let that sit. You'll feel better in the morning." She patted him on the shoulder as she got up to leave. Hayley returned to the cabin.
"Mary, I am so sorry."
"For what, knowing a monster, having baggage in your past? We all got that, some worse than others." She put a hand on Hayley's back. "When Jack was down, you fought for him. Lot of married folk never get that far." Mary smiled at Hayley as she left her to speak with Jackson alone. She walked onto the patio and sat next to him.
"You ok?"
"I'll live. That's the thing I can't figure out. Why didn't he kill me?"
"Klaus was afraid of trusting anyone. I think he realized that not trusting you would be worse. He'd end up surrounded by enemies, alone." Hayley smiled at Jackson before taking his hand in hers. In a whisper, she said, "I want to tell you a story. About two beautiful baby girls," Jackson looked at her in shock. "and the three, confusingly, intertwined parents who swore they would die to protect them."