(Hosie) This is your home

Untitled Part 4

Hope wakes up suddenly hearing a very familiar voice. "Josie?" She uses her advanced hearing to make sure she's not dreaming. When it's confirmed she gets up, has a shower, gets dressed and stops at her bedroom door. She is scared, the last time Hope had seen Josie she had threatened her and all their friends and spelled Josie into the therapy box the guilt washes over her and she's unable to move.

Rebekah from downstairs looks upward her advanced hearing has heard Hope is up and looks at Josie and tells her to go to Hope's room. "it will probably be easier for you both to be alone" she says.

Josie obeys, slowly ascending the grand staircase and walks to Hope's room, where she breathes and knocks. "Hope, it's Josie, can I come in please"

She hears the creaking of floorboards and the door until it finally opens and there Josie see's Hope for the first time in a year, standing there cautiously, an unknowing look in her eyes. Josie just moves quickly and embraces Hope tightly and doesn't let go. "i've missed you so much Hope" and with that all Hope's worry is pushed away.

"I don't know how I can ever thank you Josie"

"You don't have to Hope, you never gave up on me, so I will never give up on you!

Before Freya helped you to die so you could transition, both Lizzie and I had promised you we would be there with you and you wouldn't have to face Malivore alone. We weren't and that guilt has been with me all this time." Josie says, her voice breaking with emotion. "We should have been with you! You should have woken peacefully, fed and become the tribrid with your friends at your side, Kaleb took that from us and even though we've learned to accept kaleb again I will never forgive his betrayal to you and us." "we should have been there for you when you were forced to kill Landon and if we both were I'm sure your humanity would never have shut off. So don't be so hard on yourself, I think we all need to just put the guilt behind us and move on. I couldn't be by your side then but I will be now"

"thankyou Josie, that means a lot to me, I thought you hated me"

"hated you what would make you think that?"

"I had heard you left Salvatore and your friends and family because of me and what I did to you all. I thought you had abandoned me Jo"

Josie moves in towards Hope and grabs her hands rubbing them reassuringly. "Hope when are you going to realize I could never hate you? And I don't know who told you that but the reason I left was to find out how I could help you, without all of the constant distractions in Mystic Falls. Please tell me who said that to you?"

"It was Finch...." Hope says quietly.

Josie face changed to anger, she had trusted her then girlfriend and never expected her to flat out lie like that. "I'm sorry she said that Hope but lets just forget whats happened in the past and move forward.

"So this is a new chapter and we're in your childhood home and the city you grew up in, would you care to give me a tour?"

Hope spent the next hour showing Josie around the Mikaelson Mansion. She showed her where she used to paint with her father. Her mother's room and the large library full of history books and large artefacts, Josie aslo spies some very old looking grimoirs as well. She also takes Josie on a tour of the massive, sprawling outside grounds. There's large fences all around the property and Josie can feel the very
powerful bondary spells, protecting them from the outside world. She thinks to herself there must be a lot of Klaus's enemies longing for a shot to wipe out the rest of the original family. A chill travels up her spine, and she quickly gets that thought out of her head.

Josie can also hear in the distance music, jazz music, she had read up on New Orleans years ago and read all about the history and the live music parades etc that makes this town so unique.

They walk back inside and walk through to the front door ready to open it. "Where are you going" Freya asks. "I'm going to take Josie for a walk around New Orleans and show her some important places to me"

Freya looks at Rebekah and Rebekah looks at Freya with a strange look on their faces. "I'm sorry Hope, you can't go out of our grounds"

"What?, Why? She asks"

Rebekah and Freya are hiding something from her, they're not wanting to scare her when she's only just come home, so they brush her question off and give a hurried excuse that they want to spend time with the both of them and they can go out some other time. Rebekah is texting someone silently and has a look of concern on her face.

They are interrupted by the sound of a car outside it's their driver with a very excited passenger, just bursting to get out. A young boy comes running in through the front door, he ignores everyone and runs and jumps into Hope's waiting arms. "Hope" he says. " Hi Nik, ooh how i've missed you!" "I've missed you too, will you watch some cartoons with me please" "absolutely I will"

So the afternoon consists of snacks, fizzy drinks, Nik making a fort so he, his cousin Hope and Josie can sit inside and watch a medley of cartoons. Hope felt at home for the first time in a very long time. She smiles at Nik, then lies down and snuggles into Josie, with a smile Josie snuggles back into Hope.

Outside in the woods surrounding the mansion, some branches move. Moved by someone watching, and reporting back to someone via cb radio.

"Well well, she is back in town the leader says over the cb. I knew she'd come back eventually. Just stay in position and tell me if there's any movement or anymore unexpected visitors. It's time we rid this world of the tribrid" an evil cackle comes over the cb.

The man goes back to his original position and stares into the mansion again, ready to report back. The occupants in this house have no idea what they're in for, he thinks to himself.