(Hosie) This is your home

Untitled Part 13

Hope is in her room, shes been in there on her own for the last couple of hours, just processing everything that has happened. She has been filled in on the deaths of Alaric, Cleo and Kaleb, She's beyond upset, Alaric was a father figure to her most of her life, and although at times she was treated poorly by him, she still loved him. His death hurts. Although she was betrayed by both Cleo and Kaleb and one stage or another, she had truly forgiven them and she hated the thought of her friends being killed. "I can't let anyone else I care about get injured or worse because of this woman" she whispers to herself.

She hears a car horn toot outside, so she walks over to her bedroom window and looks down, she sees the twins rushing out to the car and the Mikaelson's following. She doesn't recognize the car so she starts heading out of her bedroom and down the stairs to see who it is. She walks outside and see's both Josie and Lizzie cuddling Caroline.

Caroline greets them all and when she sees Hope she goes over to hug her, "Welcome back" she says. "You gave us all a scare."

"Hi Caroline it's nice to see you"

Josie asks her mother why shes here.

"Rebekah rang me and told me what happened firstly with Hope and then with Alaric, Kaleb and Cleo. I thought my daughters could do with their mother right now." She beckons the twins back and draws them in for another hug.

All Hope can do is smile, although Caroline had been absent from their lives a considerable amount of time, she was always there when needed, whether it was a cheering up phone call, or a shoulder to cry on, or just a bit of fun, she was always there.

She's welcomed inside and the Mikaelson's give Caroline and the girls some space, Hope goes to leave. "No don't go Hope, you are a part of my family too." She smiles and sits next to Josie on the couch, Josie looks at her smiling her brown eyes full of joy. Josie snuggles up to Hope and entwines their fingers together to hold her hand.

The next few hours consisted of the Mikaelson's in their study upstairs, Jed and MG exercising outside in the courtyard and Jed trying to help MG with his fighting skills. It's not going very well but for both of them they are having a bonding time, something they have never really had before. Caroline, Josie, Lizzie and Hope, catching up, laughing, crying but altogether enjoying each others company.

Caroline looks over at Josie and Hope snuggling and she smiles, she has a glint of happiness in her eyes, "when did this happen" she asks her daughter.

Josie just laughs and looks at Hope, "Well mum you know I've always loved her." Rolling her eyes as if it was completely obvious.

Caroline laughs and nods. "Hope?"

She moves around uncomfortably on the couch, she is really not used to or good at talking about her feelings. Josie looks at her and says "you don't have to Hope"

"I do, and I want to" she says still squirming.

"When I had to kill Landon I thought my world had ended, the love of my life dying at my hand. Although he knew I had to, it didn't help. So as you know my humanity switch flicked on it's own, but over the year I was on my journey, small emotions crept in, I kept doing terrible things to try and bury them deep into a part of my brain I simply couldn't access. But they kept coming. It was always memories or thoughts of Josie" she looks at her lovingly, eyes glistening.

"Then when I found out she had left Salvatore and gone abroad, I thought I would never see her again, and it hurt. It hurt more than I ever thought it could. I was confused about my feelings. When she helped my family bring back my humanity I was lost, I was consumed with thoughts about her and when I went back to Salvatore and she wasn't there, my home didn't feel like a home anymore. Which is why I retuned to New Orleans. Then when I saw her for the first time all the emotions came flooding back and it still confused me. When I died again" she laughs at that, Josie squeezes her hand. "I ended up in limbo, Landon was there, and although I still love him, I realized I wasn't in love with him." She takes a deep breath.