The Red Herring Revives: A Mikaelson Love Story

Chapter 22: I Wish That I Had Nikky's Girl

"Doodle on your own time."

"This is my own time!" She shrieked. "You steal it from me!"

And with that, she packed up her things and fled from the room that threatened to suffocate her.

~Iliana POV~

I held my hand on Elijah's head to check his temperature but was quickly transported into his memory. There was a beautiful woman in a bathtub who looked happy to see Elijah. And even worse, Elijah looked happy to see her.

"Celeste?" Elijah shouted as he sprung up from the bed. I pushed him back into bed with concern and dabbed his sweaty forehead, hoping to calm him down. "Iliana, I'm sorry. I mistook you for someone else."

"Yeah I know. Celeste. She was smoking." I told him with what I wished was not coming across as a hint of jealousy.

"I let you enter my thoughts." Elijah said with embarrassment. "I'm not well. I should leave you. I—"

"Elijah. Don't worry about it. You're sick, and I'm taking care of you." I said as I switched the cloth on his head for a new one.

"Iliana, you have to go." Elijah pleaded. "There are consequences for people that care about me. I cannot allow you to pay that price."

"So you're having retro sex dreams? Who doesn't?" I teased. "Get over it, I'm staying."

"My brother punished me, not you."

"He is very big on punishments, so long as he's the one doling them out." I murmured tiredly.

"Niklaus is not familiar with the two-way street, no." Elijah said with a wry laugh.

"So why stay?" I asked him. "I mean; I don't get it. You don't want me to help you get better but you've spent most of your life just trying to fix Klaus."

"I have a whole eternity to accomplish one single task: my brother's salvation. If I surrender this, then tell me—what value would I be to my family? To myself? ...To your child?"

"To Celeste?" I asked, causing him to shunt away.

"That was a long time ago."

"I guessed." I replied. "But you've got a thousand memories to choose from and you chose her. Why?"

"You remind me of her." Elijah muttered with a stricken look. "She cared for me. And she was killed."

"Because of Klaus?"

"Because of me." He snapped, startling me. "Because I cared too deeply for her. I had allowed my brother to slip through my grasp. I loosened the reigns while Celeste consumed my every moment. I had abandoned him in the name of my own happiness. Celeste paid the price."

"One day, you'll realise that there is more to life than Klaus' happiness." I told him as I held onto his hand tightly. "You can have yours too."

And for a moment, I saw it. I saw Elijah realising he was allowed to live for himself too. But then he took his hand away and shook his head with misery.

"Iliana, please." He murmured. "You know what happens."

~Elijah POV~

Elijah and Iliana had driven home in an uncomfortable silence and he knew it was all to do with her annoyance in his dedication to Klaus and his stubbornness in remaining devoted to him. He entered their home only to find his two remaining siblings already in the midst of an argument.

"Elijah's home." Rebekah said as she acknowledged her eldest brother's presence. "Let's just get this over with, shall we? There's only one dagger so which one of us gets your punishment today?"

"I thought about playing ip-dip-doo, but you betrayed me." Klaus began, turning to their sister with a fiery rage.

"Niklaus, you wouldn't dare." Elijah threatened as he stepped in front of her protectively, forgetting the rage Klaus already had towards him.

"Maybe it will be you, older brother." The hybrid pointed the dagger at him and moved forward with a menacing determination. "You that is continually trying to steal my child with every fawning moment of affection you show to Iliana."

"Don't pretend like it has anything to do with Iliana." Elijah shot back.

"IT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH HER." I bellowed. "She adores you and now my child will call you father. And not me."

"So that's what this is about?" Rebekah asked in disbelief. "You're scared that you will be left behind! You never learn Nik, we never abandon you, you drive us away with your unchanging paranoia!"

"Is that so? What have I done lately, other than cooperate? I bow down to you, Brother, to make up for daggering you. For the greater good of our plan to reclaim our home. Looked the other way, Sister, while you repeat the same cycle with Marcel. Falling again for a man you shouldn't be with, while he controls the empire that we built! That he took!" Klaus raged, his siblings now looking back sheepishly. "Now, I make no excuses for past sins. But in the one moment when you two could have chosen to stand by me—to believe in me, to believe my intentions for my own child were pure—you chose to stand against me, to side with my enemies. I wanted our home back. Now I have it. I'm going to live there. And the two of you... you can stay here together and rot."

He thrust the dagger into Elijah's hand who watched as he went to the front porch where Iliana stood with concern, clearly hoping the siblings would have quickly returned to their peaceful state.

"Come on, Iliana." Klaus said as he headed towards the car.

"Where are we going?" Iliana queried, but he just kept going to the car. "Klaus, I'm not going anywhere until you explain what is going on."

He sighed but turned to her with a warm look, that reminded Elijah why he refused to be with Iliana. Klaus loved her. And the noble brother's feelings had to remain irrelevant.

"Iliana, the only things that matter to me on this earth right now, are you and our child." Klaus told her. "And I'm not leaving you here with them. You can try to fight me on this but—"

"I won't." She interjected. "Let's go." She kissed him on the cheek and sighed before entering the door he opened for her.

But as she sat down, she made eye contact with him. And Elijah swore there was a longing for him, but all he could do was turn away from her. Because falling for her would only end bad for both of them.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed! If you did, please vote, comment and follow! Love you as always! Until next time!