manof_myword | The world is full of zanies and fools / Who don't believe in sensible rules (For Jack & Hayley)

Jack opened the door with a toothbrush in his mouth, his long-sleeved shirt unbuttoned and his braces hanging down around his knees. He was, however, mostly dressed.

And obviously surprised to see Elijah. He mumbled something through a mouth full of foam, and gestured him inside and held up a hand to ask him to wait for just a second so Jack could, um. Spit and rinse.

He was back in just a moment, though, with a more worried expression. "What's wrong?"

Elijah came in when Jack let him in, and waited for him to be done with his teeth. The surprise and worry made him answer more quickly than was his norm, wanting to set Jack at ease.

"Nothing's wrong," he assured him. "I just wanted to ask about the werewolf girl who told you about me, and...I didn't think about if it might be a bad time."

"It isn't a bad time." He was just half-undressed, but he looked down and began buttoning up, but glanced up in response to Elijah's answer. "Why?" It was possible he was a little protective, okay? Regardless of how he felt about the 'baby' thing, the poor girl had been through the wringer.

Elijah remembered he'd been protective before, not wanting Elijah to potentially retaliate, but that was the farthest thing from his mind. At the same time...he wasn't sure he was ready to talk about the possibilities that seemed impossible in detail.

"I don't mean her any harm--she may not even be the wolf I'm looking for," he said. "But my sister met a newly arrived wolf-girl from our world who may have some information about out brother. I thought he was dead when I arrived here. Someone who came here later than I said he survived the attack on him, but had no other information." That he'd been willing to share. "If the girl you know is the same who my sister met, then...she does. She started to tell my sister, but she refused to believe her and doesn't know where to find her. I'd like to talk to her myself."

That was good enough an explanation for Jack. He wanted some sort of reason, and Elijah had given him one. "All right," he said, after a moment. "She lives in the building. I'll run up and see if she's in and invite her down, but I'm not making her stay and if you scare her to death, I'm going to be irritated." That was said with a smile, though. "Make yourself at home. I'll be back in a few minutes."

"I promise to be nice," Elijah said, smiling back a little.

He did as instructed, moving in farther, though making himself at home seemed to mean more of looking around than sitting.

He was too anxious to sit.

Jack didn't wait to see if he settled, just headed to Hayley's apartment and knocked on the door. "There's someone who wants to talk to you. I didn't think leading them to you would go over well, but I promise it's nothing bad. I also promise if it is, I'll shoot him."

Hayley was surprised to see Jack at her door, but more surprised at his reason for coming. Instantly wary, too, but she nodded a little. "Okay..."

Making sure she had her keys, she locked the door. "Thanks for not just bringing him up." The people he hung out with, she wasn't anxious to invite in, honestly.

"I wouldn't have dreamed of it." He didn't transfer his trust of Elijah to other people, and Hayley had had a hell of a time. He didn't try to reassure her or explain, simply waited for her to gather her things and led her back to the elevator and then his apartment.

Hayley didn't ask any questions, though she was dying to. Somehow she already knew who--just not why. Still, when they got to Jack's and she saw Elijah, she froze and was tempted to shift behind Jack.

She didn't, making herself step forward instead, though maybe a bit more warily than she would have before she had someone else to protect.

For his part, Elijah breathed a sigh of relief that she was the right girl. He put what he hoped was a reassuring look on his face as he stepped forward. Gods, the girl's heart was hammering and racing, almost drowning out the baby's. How she'd ended up in Niklaus's bed if she was this scared of him, he didn't know, but it made him pause and wonder just how bad the encounter with Rebekah had gotten.

"It's Hayley, right?" He kept his voice quiet, gentle. "You know who I am?"

She nodded, not taking her eyes off of him, no matter how nice he sounded.

Elijah glanced at Jack. "Do you mind if we talk here? I don't want to intrude on her space or ask her to head anywhere else..."

"Not at all." He glanced at Hayley, and then gave Elijah a hell of an impressively steely look. "I'll be just outside." The offer to shoot Elijah held. Again, not that he thought he'd need it, but he didn't need to have super hearing to know Hayley was scared.

Hayley wanted to ask him to stay, kind of desperately, but she wouldn't let herself seem that weak.

Elijah nodded a bit at Jack, but stayed focused on her. "Hayley...I swear, I'm not here to hurt you or threaten you or anything bad. In fact...I'm hoping I can help. I just want to talk about what you told Rebekah about you and Niklaus. Nothing you say is going to change that."

Hayley's look turned from scared to completely confused, because why did Elijah care who his brother hooked up with? But she relaxed, just a little. "There's not really anything more than I told Rebekah..."

Jack let himself quietly outside the apartment, but stayed in the hall with the door closed. He made no attempt to overhear what was being said, simply left them alone until there was either loud noise to alert him that he was needed, or he was invited back inside. He was, honestly, not concerned for Hayley's safety, in spite of remarks about shooting. He was concerned about her emotional well being, but that applied to Elijah as well.

But none of that meant he felt the need to jump in the middle or deny them the requested privacy.

Elijah moved to sit on the sofa, finally, then stood again, but waved at her to sit. "Please?"

Hayley moved warily to the sofa, but sat down and Elijah went back to moving around the room, fidgeting with Jack's few things. She watched him as he moved, then sighed.

"What do you want to know?"

"He's okay?"

She frowned a bit, then shrugged. "Last time I spoke to him, yeah."

"And that was?"

"About six or seven weeks ago, maybe?"

Elijah nodded a little, frowning slightly, doing math in his head, and listening to how fast the baby's heart was. "How did you two meet?"

This wasn't what Hayley was expecting to be asked about, but it helped her relax a little bit more. "I'm friends with Tyler. I came to town...pretty much right after the history teacher tried to kill you all and Elena became a vampire. Um...Ty was all entangled with Klaus and a bunch of the hybrids were friends of mine from before Klaus turned them, so. I stuck around for a bit."

"So, he was doing all right? I mean...after everything...?"

"Yeah?" Hayley frowned. "I mean, he's a little cranky over not having the cure in his hands, but. I have faith he'll get it back."

Elijah's head snapped up and he stilled, looking at her. "Cure?"

"For vampirism."

"That's a myth."

Hayley shook her head. "Apparently not. Katherine's got it. I think she wants to trade it to Klaus for her freedom, but he kind of wants her dead, because he's more worried that she's going to shove it down his throat, make him just a werewolf and kill him instead."

Elijah just stared at her for a moment, and then moved to sink down on the sofa next to her. "How did Katherine get it?"

Hayley shrugged. "Everybody went looking for it. She followed them, and stole it once they found it. I don't know where she is, now, which is what Klaus wanted to know."

"From you?"

Hayley nodded.

"Why you?"

"Because she was trying to kill me so I wouldn't tell him, so I called him and told him she had the cure and that I'd tell him what I knew if he'd protect me."

Elijah gave her a confused look. "Why would she have told you?"

"Mutual acquaintances. Look--she said she'd help me with what I needed if I'd help her find out about the cure, so she could have her life back. It seemed a fair deal, but she double crossed me and then tried to kill me, so I went to Klaus."

"And you thought he'd help you to get to her? Or because you'd...connected?"

Hayley snorted. "No. Because he owed me. I saved his life. It was his turn to save mine."

Elijah shook his head. "Saved his life?"

"Well, basically. I mean, no one was going to try to stake him or anything again, 'cause they knew they'd kill themselves, too. But his hybrids were trying to get a witch to pull his soul out of his body and trap him in Rebekah's body, which was daggered, then bury his in cement or something. But I warned him, so he turned the tables on them."

That was just...a lot of information, but Elijah was used to how things went in Mystic Falls, so he...actually followed pretty well. "I may ask you to start at the beginning, later, but--Rebekah's daggered again?"

"Not anymore," Hayley told him. "I mean, it was like for a week or two. Klaus didn't want her getting in his way in getting the cure, so he daggered her and was going to wake her up after he'd done whatever with it--probably given it to Elena so he could make more hybrids. But someone else woke her up, first." She held up her hand. "I don't know who, but. She's fine."

"Okay, so. You saved Klaus from the hybrids...when?"

"Christmas. Then I left town to go to New Orleans, where I met Katherine."

"Why New Orleans?"

Hayley looked down, not wanting to say, but he was watching her so intently, and...it occurred to her that maybe he knew something. Maybe if she answered his questions, he'd answer hers. Elijah struck her as someone who knew things and maybe...more than Klaus about her family. "Apparently my family's from there. I've been looking for them, since I found out I was a werewolf and my adopted parents kicked me out."

Elijah watched the look on her face and fought the urge to reach out to her, sure he'd just startle her. "Someone told you they were in New Orleans."

"A couple of people, but it turns out Marcel ran all the wolves out of New Orleans years ago. I got a lead from a few witches that they might be out in the bayou. I was heading there when I ended up here."

Elijah filed away the information about Marcel in the "ask later" pile, as well as about her family, though he did give her a curious look. "How did a couple of people know about your family? Are they...active in the supernatural world?"

Hayley shook her head and shrugged. "I don't know. Shane--he was this occult professor--gave me a flash drive with some information on it, but it didn't tell me really what I needed. Then Klaus...he realized who I might be related to, and told me they were in Louisiana when he knew them...so I left Mystic Falls and headed back south."

Wolves in Louisiana, Elijah knew about, but only one that Klaus might have recognized in this girl after this long. "You have a crescent moon birthmark."

Hayley looked up at him, eyes shining a bit with hope. "Yes...on my shoulder." She turned her back on him for the first time so he could see her shoulder, the mark only partly hidden by her tank top strap.

Cool fingers brushed over her shoulder, tracing the mark. "I see."

"You know them?" She looked back at him, fear gone, leaning forward.

"I knew pack members who had that mark, yes. But it was a century ago, sweetheart. I don't know that I can tell you the names of any living now. But...I can tell you about then. Maybe not your parents, but they would have been your ancestors?"

That was better than nothing, and she gave him a tenuous smile. "What do you want for it?"

He looked a little stunned she thought he'd withhold it and shook his head. "Nothing. But...will you tell me...you slept with my brother, yes? The last time you saw him?"

Her cheeks heated and she closed her eyes, but shrugged. "Yeah. We got drunk and he showed me his art and we snarked and then we...yeah. It's not like some grand romance..."

"But..." He hesitated again, then moved closer and reached out tentative fingers to brush over her stomach, making her draw in her breath sharply. "You're with child."

She blinked, not making the connection. "...Jack told you? He seemed...really not happy about it."

It was Elijah's turn to look bemused. "...Jack?"

Hayley nodded a little. "Yeah. It's his. We were stupid. Didn't use a condom..." She took a breath. "I swear, I'm not a slut. I just...was going through a hard time."

"You slept with Jack..." Elijah was stunned, disappointment curling through him and making him feel a little sick.

"Yes..." Hayley gave him a concerned look. "...Oh, god. He's not your boyfriend or something, right, because I didn't know and I swear, it's not anything. I mean, he's been nice and all, but we're not...I'm not..."

Elijah stood and she looked a bit worried again, but he just moved to the door opening it and staring out at Jack, like possibly his heart was breaking. "...You slept with her..."

Jack didn't understand that look at all, but it worried him. "Yes," he said, slowly and carefully. "Why?" He was hoping like hell he got some kind of answer instead of a brush off, because he not only didn't understand why it had come up, he didn't understand why Elijah looked... like that.

Hayley followed Elijah to the door, still freaking out a bit, and nevermind that they were practically in the hall now. "Tell him it was just a thing, and it doesn't mean anything and I'm not going to get in the way or...whatever..."

Elijah was looking at Jack, then looked back at her and frowned, her freaking out finally penetrating. "No. I don't...that's not why..." He looked back at Jack. "The baby's yours."

Hayley tilted her head, and replayed the conversation, and her eyes widened as she remembered what she'd said to Rebekah. "...You thought it was Klaus's..."

"Well, apparently. Unless vampires are capable of reproduction the old fashioned way, in which case I hope you have stock in condoms." He was just instantly all but snarling. Not at Hayley or about Hayley, but because well. He was freaking out, too.

This was a nice scene... He'd feel bad about it, when he stopped panicking every time the word baby was said in conjunction to him, within his ear shot.

Elijah didn't understand the snarling, but he just shook his head. "He's not a regular vampire. He's a hybrid..." He looked at Hayley, and then the emotion was gone, shut down, just coldness there. "You lied to Rebekah."

"What?" The coldness was creepy, okay, but Jack was snarling, and Hayley didn't know if she should drift nearer to him or back away slowly from them both. She was predator enough to know not to run. She settled on backing back into the apartment. "No, I didn't."

"You told her that there hadn't been anyone else. That it had to be Klaus's."

Hayley gaped at him. "That is...a ridiculous interpretation of that conversation. I told her I wasn't pregnant, because there hadn't been anyone else except Klaus and vampires--and hybrids who are still dead--can't reproduce." She was near snarling now, too, wolf temper flaring. "Apparently I jinxed myself."

"But you had slept with Jack."

Hayley forgot she was afraid and stepped into him, gaze snapping. "I slept with Jack after I met your fucking sister."

The coldness actually didn't bother Jack, because once he hit the tripping point for his emotional circuit board, he did similar things. He just didn't turn cold, but rather inappropriately light. Like everything turned off and he got carefree, except what he really did was just stop feeling. It did, at least, make thinking easier.

He recognized the position being bad, though, and followed Hayley back inside. "All right," he said, cheerfully. "Let's back this up a little bit. Hayley, didn't you tell me you were further along than you thought you should be, and it was a werewolf thing."

Ric lived in that building. Ric was a vampire with minimal control of his senses. Living in an apartment at all was obnoxious. Living in it with raised voices was harder. When one of those voices was Elijah's? Fuck that.

He left his flat and started toward the source of the sound. Quickly.

Edited 2013-06-20 02:30 (UTC)

Elijah was rapidly processing that. "The night of the full moon. That was barely three weeks ago..." He was almost getting excited again. "You didn't turn."

"Because the moon is fucked up here!" Elijah might be getting excited, but Hayley was starting to panic. "No. I said the Internet said that at home tests probably wouldn't pick it up for another week, but maybe that was a werewolf thing..."

"Or maybe because you were already pregnant," Elijah said, pretty much right on top of her.

"I was not already pregnant," Hayley said, ready to go for Elijah and not giving a damn. Fuck, if he thought the baby was his niece or nephew, he wasn't going to hurt her. But it wasn't. Because it couldn't be.

She stopped mid-snarl, though, at the rapid appearance of...fucking. Hell. Another Original?

Elijah turned a little and blinked, as well. "...Ric?" He was so very unexpected that Elijah was just...confused. "Why are you here?"

Jack was hoping like hell it wasn't his, but watching Hayley's reaction he felt kind of bad about that. He was also concerned that she was about to fly at Elijah's throat and he didn't know how vampires and werewolves worked, but that was going to end badly from someone, so he stepped in, subtly toward her from the side. He was rapidly becoming more concerned with a brawl than the paternity of a fetus. Though, it must be said, Elijah was making sense.

He didn't have a chance to do anything, before Ric appeared, and Jack startled fairly hard. Jack almost responded to that as a threat, as well, and came damn close to reaching for a gun (for all the good it would have done) in sheer reaction.

"I live three floors down," he said, excessively calmly. "There's yelling, and I recognized your voice. What the hell is going on?" upset people, everywhere, a werewolf that, actually, was the first real exposure to one since he'd turned, and Jack, and his adrenaline and pulse and indefinable differences. Hence, really, the excessive, almost zen-like, calm and quiet.

Elijah had a flicker of nerves and wanted to step in front of the snarling girl, just to...keep her and the child safe, but that would be saying he didn't believe Ric was sane. Then again, it was hard to put all his faith in that.

Hayley was not stupid. Ric. Original.

Sadly, not being stupid and putting it together just heightened the panic, and she did step back from Elijah toward Jack, and then pulled him, hard, back through the door, across the threshold. No use with Elijah but she didn't think the other one could get in. And Elijah didn't seem inclined to kill her, at least.

Elijah slid a look at her, then Ric, and shrugged, pulling his own calm to match the other vampire's, though, clearly, Ric had heard the yelling and likely wouldn't be fooled. "Family dispute."

Hayley squeaked in outrage at that. "I am not part of your family!"

Jack was completely taken off guard by being yanked through the door by Hayley, but once he had been, he very intentionally positioned himself between her and... everyone else, actually. She was either going to try to kill someone or get herself killed, and honestly, none of it sounded like a good time.

"Who are you?" Jack asked, Ric.

"Ric," was the full extent of Ric's answer. He was too busy watching everyone else, and not even trying the threshold. "Drop the crap, Elijah. I live three floors down. People chewing on the tenth floor chewing keeps me awake at night. Someone's pregnant. I'm guessing it's not you. So, you might want to back down before you stress the crap out of who is." Hayley just got a level work. "And I'm not going to hurt you, and that includes ripping things out of your body. So, you can relax, too. I don't care. I just want my ears to stop ringing, okay?"

"You need to learn to tune it out," Elijah said automatically. Not the issue, but, responding to what was said, at least. He wasn't forcing his way back in, either. "And not repeat a word of this to Damon." There was something almost pleading in his eyes, looking at Ric, who, really, would still be able to hear every word and he was too, torn up to try and hide right now. He looked back at Hayley. "Hayley, please. The only difference in werewolf pregnancies is they don't turn, to protect the baby. Three weeks, and you didn't turn. And I..can hear the heartbeat."

Hayley was still terrified, though maybe less of Ric than the whole thing. Her fingers curled around Jack's arm, hard, and he'd probably be glad he didn't really bruise. "All those pro-life billboards through Florida are always saying how the heartbeat starts at eighteen days. It's been more than eighteen days."

"But I heard the heartbeat at the party last week." His voice was calm, but he was visibly trembling.

She'd been so sick at the party. It's why she'd gone and gotten a test. "It's. Not. Possible."

"We don't know what's possible."

"No!"

Elijah could understand not wanting much to do with Klaus, but he didn't understand why she was so hysterical about it. "Sweetheart, would it be so bad? We'll keep you safe. You don't have to let Klaus anywhere near it, if you don't want to. I won't let him hurt you, or the baby."

Hayley snorted, an edge of a hysterical laugh--or tears--in her voice. "You think I'm scared of Klaus? He's an overgrown teenager, and he would throw a tantrum, accuse me of trying to trap him and then wouldn't want anything to do with me, and I don't care. I don't need him. I can do this on my own, just fine. Just like if it's Jack's. Keep me safe? From Klaus? Sure. He doesn't care enough to threaten us. But how many people want you dead, Elijah? And even those who are maybe okay with you and Rebekah...how many people want Klaus dead? How many people would do anything to hurt him? They aren't going to care that he doesn't give a damn about us. If it's his, my baby is always going to be a target. So how the hell are you going to keep me safe from the whole damn world? How? You can't even keep yourselves safe. Your mother is a psychotic ghost who is not going to stop trying to kill you. And it's not like it's that hard. A high school football player killed your older brother. A teenage girl took you out with a dagger, and then did it to Rebekah, too." She bit back anything about Kol, for now. They didn't need that on top of everything. "And Klaus? The mighty, unkillable hybrid? Got incapacitated by Sabrina the teenage witch and would be dead if he--" She pointed at Ric. "--taught physics instead of history."

Edited 2013-06-20 03:40 (UTC)

Jack winced a little at Hayley's grip on him, but didn't try to remove himself. He sure as hell didn't try to get a grip on her. He had no idea what the hell was going on, and he was having steadily less of an idea as Hayley continued to talk. All he caught was the emotional thrust of it, and that was... enough, really.

Ric, for his part, inclined his head a bit but didn't seem unduly upset. "I don't see any reason to say anything to Damon. If I do, I will." That was just flat as hell. He didn't think it would come up, but he could imagine too many scenarios where he'd need to say something, if only to back Damon off. And, oddly, he thought it would. "And really, for a child you're concerned about the parentage of, you both seem to be trying really hard to stress it right out of existence. Stop it, before something goes awry, here. Blood pressure and stress does matter, especially this early. Yes. Klaus has enemies. No, he's not the worst threat out there. Yes, Esther is the worst grandmother in existence, but she's also dead and not hanging around Mystic Falls, even as a ghost. There are a thousand ways to avoid anyone knowing who the baby belongs to, and you have The better part of a year to figure it out, especially given the flexibility of due dates."

Tuning things out he was working on, but this was way too in his face to cope with well.

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