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It all happened so fast. One second she was preparing to take Josie to dinner with the rest of her family, the next moment Alaric was knocking on her door to tell her Josie had caught something. A stomach bug or the flu or whatever. Something in Hope clicked without her even noticing. She had to make sure Josie was ok. Shoving past Alaric with such force she threw him into her door frame she took off towards Josie’s room.
Alaric noticed the subtle change in the tribrid’s eyes. Upon delivering the news about Josie, Hope’s eyes suddenly had a barely noticeable gold tint to the edges of her normally clear blue eyes. Alaric followed soon after confused but not exactly worried. What he saw was puzzling for sure but he didn’t know what else to think after that. Maybe she was just upset that Josie got sick right when she was supposed to meet the rest of the Mikaelsons.
Hope burst into the twins room with purpose. She was at Josie’s side within seconds. Her eyes wide and searching.
“Hope what are you-” Josie started but was cut off as Hope lifted her up and off the bed bridal style and carried her out the door back in the direction of the tribrid’s room.
Alaric had just gotten to the door to be shoved out of the way once again, this time by the Mikaelson girl and his daughter. Josie was staring at him with wide confused eyes. He was too shocked to do anything but watch.
“Dad!?” Lizzie shouted rushing over, bringing Alaric out of his stupor. “What is she doing?!”
“I don’t really know” Alaric replied. “I went to tell Hope that Josie was sick, and something..changed?”
“What do you mean something changed, dad?”
“Her eyes and...she just seemed to go into a trance”
“What about Josie? Should we be worried?” Lizzie was starting to get nervous.
“No.. she seemed..scared...protective. Her eyes...they have a gold tint to them.”
Alaric was being honest. Hope wasn’t acting in a threatening way at all. Something had changed and he wasn’t sure what. Luckily Josie was supposed to be going out for dinner with Hope’s family. They wanted to meet the young Saltzman. Judging on Hope’s new and unexpected behavior, Alaric was betting on the fact that she had neglected to contact her family to tell them about her girlfriend falling ill so they would most likely still be showing up later.
Alaric sent Lizzie to keep an eye on Josie while he went to prepare for his guest's arrival.
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Meanwhile, Hope had brought Josie to her room and had carefully placed her on the bed.
“Do you need me to get you anything?” Hope asked, scurrying around the room. She was collecting blankets and extra pillows to bring back to Josie and was arranging them around her, almost like a nest. Hope had pulled Josie forward by the shoulders and started to stuff pillows behind her.
“Hope are you ok?” Josie asked.
Hope turned to look at Josie. “Yeah, I'm not the one who's sick. Why? Are you ok? Do you need me to get you anything?” Hope asked again, still wide-eyed.
Josie now noticed the gold in her girlfriend's eyes. “Um..not right now… Is this about dinner?
The tribrids face took one of confusion. “What? Who cares about dinner. I just want to keep you safe”
“...keep..keep me safe?” Josie thought aloud. She was utterly at a loss for words.
“Yeah..” Hope started wringing her hands together. “I-uh, You’re sick and I just wanted to keep an eye on you…. I can take you back to your room if you want.” Hope’s nerves were clearly getting the better of her and her wide blue-gold eyes cracking Josie right down the middle.
“No, no. It's ok. I’ll stay” Josie decided. She’d rather be here to see what the hell was going on with Hope.
The tribrid had dragged over an armchair that was in the corner of her room and slid it over next to the bed. Sitting down she brought her legs up in a crisscross position and stared at Josie.
“Are you sure you don’t need anything” Hope whispered.
Josie smiled. “I guess I could use some water. If you don’t mind that is.” She knew Hope would probably keep asking anyway so she gave her something to do.
Watching as Hope jumped up to grab a water bottle from somewhere in the room. She honestly moved to fast for Josie to see where it came from. Returning to Josie’s side to give her the water Hope asked once again “Anything else?”
Josie smirked with her sudden idea. “Yeah, I’m kinda tired but I don’t want to sleep just yet”
“What can I do?” Hope asked.
Josie just held out her arms and widened her smile. The shorter girl wasted no time climbing into the makeshift nest and burying herself into the brunette’s arms. Both girls steady heartbeats lulling each other to sleep.
Alaric and Lizzie had come to check on Josie every now and then. Well, they tried to at least. Whenever they knocked on the door no one would answer so just to make sure everything was ok they would poke their heads into the room and every time, Hope would pick her head up and stare at the door with full golden eyes. If they tried to go anywhere past the doorway she would growl and tighten her hold on Josie until the door was closed once again. The siphon had no idea mostly, as she slept the whole time in an attempt to recover.
Alaric, for the first time that he could think of, was happy that the Mikaelson clan would be arriving so they could tell him what the hell was going on and possibly what to do about it.
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It was a few hours later when a massive limo breached the boundary of the school. Leave it to Freya Mikaelson to just bust through the boundary spells and not just call and ASK for them to be brought down temporarily.
Upon pulling up to the front door the whole clan was quick to get out and rush to the front door. Alaric could tell that they were all pretty anxious.
Freya was the first to speak. “Wanna tell me why my niece has been radio silent all of a sudden? She sounded pretty excited over the phone and then boom, nothing.”
“Yeah, something happened,” Alaric replied. He watched all the Mikaelson’s tense up and realized his mistake. “Ok poor choice of words, she's fine. It just that she’s different.”
“What does that mean?” asked the tall dark skinned man still leaning against the side of the limo. Marcel. Alaric had heard some about him from Hope.
Alaric lead them inside and to an empty common room before continuing.
“Josie got sick. Might be the flu, we don’t all have supernatural healing. I told Hope and… it was like a switch or something. She walked into the twins room and took Josie. Literally. She took Josie back to her room and hasn’t let anyone come near her, she growls when we try to enter. I was hoping you could tell me what’s going on.”
Freya spared a knowing smirk towards her wife, who instantly blushed. “Are her eyes gold tinted?”
“Yeah.” Alaric replied. It was then that he noticed the real, genuine smiles on everyone’s faces.
“It's a wolf thing” Keelin explained. “She just wants to keep Josie safe. I do it when Freya gets sick-”
“And it’s adorable” Freya cut in.
“Anyway,” Keelin continued, elbowing her wife. “Hope’s human and wolf sides recognize that Josie is sick, but her wolf side is pulling her into a panic because she can’t do anything to help but wait for Josie to get better. In an effort to try and balance the panic she must have thought taking Josie would help.”
“So the nest of pillows and blankets are…?” Alaric asked.
“Safe space” Kol cut in. “She's trying to provide a space where Josie won’t feel threatened or distressed.”
“This is a step farther though.” voiced Freya. “Keeling usually only stays glued to my side when I'm sick… She’s never taken me and held me hostage or growled at our friends. I wonder.. When was the last time she shifted?”
“A while ago. She only shifted before to blow off steam and clear her head. After she started dating Josie, Hope hasn’t really needed to blow off as much steam. Josie doesn’t let her bottle up anymore.” Alaric said with a smile.
Josie was such a good addition to Hope’s life. She forced the tribrid out of her shell and wouldn’t take no for an answer. While at the same time Alaric couldn’t be happier with how well Hope treated Josie. She was always patient with Josie. He could tell that Hope wasn’t a fan of being second to Lizzie but she never gave Josie any problems about it. Often when Josie had to help her sister through whatever dilemma she would return to Hope at ungodly hours of the night exhausted and completely spent the shorter girl would welcome her with open arms, tight hugs and forehead kisses.
Alaric wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about his daughter being with Hope. He had nothing against her really, but she was still a Mikaelson. His opinion honestly did a complete turn around a few weeks ago. Alaric had gone to say goodnight to his daughters and walked right into Josie and Lizzie at each other's throats. He had done his best to contain and defuse the situation, but one last comment from Lizzie sent Josie tearing out of the room with tears streaming down her face at two in the morning. Alaric had quickly chastised Lizzie before chasing after her. He found his daughter standing outside the Mikaelson girl’s door barely holding herself together. Alaric paused as the door whipped open to reveal a quite disheveled auburn-haired girl standing there. With one look at the brunette, Hope’s eyes flared gold and all signs of sleep were gone. She took Josie’s face in her hands and started pressing warm kisses to her forehead and rest of her face. Hope didn’t ask anything she just comforted Josie, and when the exhaustion finally caught up to her and Josie stumbled the tribrid didn’t hesitate to pick her up and disappear back into the room. He didn’t see either of the two until around dinner that night, Josie sporting a New Orleans sweatshirt and the bright smile returned to her face.
Now was different though. Josie could be in danger. Hope was a Mikaelson after all.
“The full moon is in a few days,” Keelin said interrupting Alaric’s thoughts. “She might not be forced to change but she still feels the pull. I'm guessing her instincts are ten times as strong because of that and the fact that she hasn’t shifted in so long.”
“Is there anything we can do about it?” Alaric questioned. “I mean I don't have a problem with Hope’s wolf side, but Josie is going to have to leave that room eventually and I can’t have Hope growling at every student that looks at them.”
Freya looked skeptical. “I...yes there is something I could do.”
“Freya...Are you sure?” shot Keelin.
Alaric was interested. “What? What is it?”
“There's a potion...a type of magic concoction” Freya started. “We use it sometimes on Keelin when her wolf is a little too much. It uses a small dose of wolfsbane and a few other ingredients. It drains a wolf of ninety percent of its energy leaving them really sluggish for about twenty-four hours. The problem with Hope is that shes a tribrid. I’d have to use a higher concentration of wolfsbane and add vervain. And we don’t know what it would do to her.”
“Can’t hurt to try.” Stated Alaric. “Tell me what you need.”
Freya handed Alaric a list and with a nod, he was off to the storerooms. While the Mikaelsons helped Freya clear workspace in the classroom.
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Everyone was standing outside Hope’s room waiting. The plan was to have Marcel use his vampire speed to rush into the room and inject Hope with the finished serum. They’d deal with the aftermath later.
Alaric’s nod was the signal. Freya spelled the door open and Marcel rushed in. Upon the door flying open, both girls jumped up. Hope is fast but Marcel is faster. She had just enough time to roll on top of Josie in an attempt to protect her from whatever threat had just come through the door. She felt a sharp pain in her shoulder and then heard a voice.
“Sorry Kiddo”
Hope’s eyes widened. She knew that voice. Turning her head she saw her foster brother. “Marce-”
Her entire body felt like a million pounds. She went dead weight on top of Josie, causing the girl to wrap her arms around her protectively.
“Who-Who are you?!” Josie shouted. “What did you do to her?”
“Relax kid” said Marcel.
The whole Mikaelson clan was making its way into Hope’s room now but Josie didn’t know that, after all, she had never met them before. They were just strangers to her. So she did what any other person would do when people bust into their house and stab their girlfriend with a syringe, she siphoned some magic from Hope and raised her hand ready to recite an offensive spell.
“Josie wait!”
“Dad?”
“These are the Mikaelsons” Alaric replied.
Josie’s eyes widened to an impossible size.
“Oh” was all she managed to say.
A strangled grunt brought them all back to reality. Hope’s body was going haywire. She couldn’t move a muscle but she was trying. Her heart was racing at an incredible speed.
Marcel and Keelin had both picked up on it.
“Freya, her heart, shes panicking” whispered Keelin.
“The concentration must have been too strong, it sucked too much energy out. We just need her to calm down. She needs to know she's safe.” Voiced Freya.
“No.” said Rebekah, causing everyone to look at her. “She needs to know her girlfriend is safe. She’s her father’s daughter. She would do anything for the person she loves.”
All eyes fell on Josie.
“I- um- ok, ok just um- ok.” Josie stammered out. A certain four-letter word still hanging in the air throwing her for a loop. She recovers quickly.
Josie began to play with Hope’s hair, running her hands through it and looping it around her fingers. It took a few minutes but after Leaning down to whisper and coo reassurances in her ear she felt Hope start to relax. Her blue eyes still cloudy and a very unfocused but at least she was doing better.
After a few more minutes Josie spoke. “So...What did you do to her...and why?”
Freya and Alaric explained the situation to her. About her wolf side being turned up to eleven and how they wanted to contain the situation.
“Ok, I’ll make sure she runs more often.” she said, earning another grunt and a playful glare from the girl on top of her. “uh...How long will she be like this?”
“Probably until tomorrow” Stated Freya.
“Josie, I think we should take her to one of the cells in case anything happens” stated Alaric.
“You want her to be alone?” Josie scoffed. “Get out”
“Josie-”
“No. I’m sick of this. I have a phone dad, you could have called me or texted me to see what was up,” She said throwing her phone towards the end of the bed. “ and I would have told you that nothing was wrong but no, Hope Mikaelson is acting strange so better do something about it before she kills everyone right? God. Pick one. Shes either a teenager or a threat. She can’t be both, it’s not fair. You can’t treat her like you treated her father and then use her for some scheme the next day. I’m not gonna let you do that to her anymore. She was just being protective. She finally gets some form of happiness and you come in and literally stab her in the back? What kinda message does that send?”
“Hey, listen kid We were just trying to help.” said Marcel, bringing Josie’s ice cold stare off her dad and onto him.
“Help what? Nothing was wrong. And let's not forget. You came for dinner. One night. What about after? Are you just gonna disappear to the corners of the world again? She might be too scared to admit it but I’m too scared for her not to tell you myself. You think phone calls and astral projections are enough? She put so much effort into bringing your family back together and almost died for it. Her parents died for it and what do you do? You dump her at a school where her father is in the history books as the literal devil.”
Josie was so furious she was crying.
“Where were you when she had nightmares? About her parents, or about you guys? Did you hold her when she cried or was afraid to sleep? Were you here when she had to fight all the threats to the school?! The real threats?!”
Josie was sobbing now.
“W-were you the ones, who- who- who cried yourself to sleep when- when she got hurt during those fights? And you didn’t know if her super healing would be enough? And now you want to throw her into a cell and wait? So you can come back tomorrow and act like this never happened?” Josie finished, tightening her hold on Hope. She was breathing hard. The only reassurance she got was Hope nuzzling her face into her stomach, it was all the girl could to anyway.
“J-Josie” repeated her dad.
Siphoning magic from Hope, Josie raised her hand and spoke a quick spell, pushing everyone back a few steps. It wasn’t anything strong, just enough to get her point across.
“Get. Out.” she said through clenched teeth.
Marcel took a step forward and Josie tensed. She was angry but also scared out of her mind. She just yelled at the Mikaelsons. Even more, she had just used magic against the Mikaelsons. His forward step was halted by a hand on his arm.
“Let’s go.” said Rebekah. She turned and strolled out of the room as elegantly as ever. The rest of the Mikaelsons and her dad followed.
Hope mumbled something incoherently. She looked down to see Hope plant a kiss on her shirt over her stomach and then stick her tongue out. There were a few tears in her eyes but Josie couldn’t tell if they were from sadness or from pride.
Josie pulled Hope up so her head was now laying on her chest.
“Wanna go back to sleep? We can talk about this whole thing later?” Josie asked.
Hope planting a kiss over her heart was the only answer needed. She pulled the blankets back up, wrapped her arms back around Hope and closed her eyes.
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Josie was woken up hours later by something poking her side. She swatted whatever it was away and tried to return do dreamworld. Unfortunately for her, whatever she shoved clearly didn’t appreciate it because the next thing Josie felt was a sharp pain in her side.
Jolting awake she attempted to sit up but the weight on her chest didn’t let her go far. Picking her head up she was staring into blue eyes.
“I'm hungry” Hope choked out. Her voice was coarse and rough.
“Did you pinch me?”
The tribrid just stuck her tongue out.
“How are you feeling? You got your voice back I see.” Josie stated, a small smile playing on her lips.
“Barely” replied Hope. “I guess whatever that stuff was isn’t lasting as long as it was supposed to. I can move a little, but every part of me still feels like supernatural lead.”
“Supernatural lead?” Josie asked.
“Well yeah… I have supernatural strength so… regular lead is too light. But you get what I mean”
“Sure.” said the brunette with a smile.
“I’m hungry” Hope repeated. “I keep some snacks in that drawer over there for when I’m feeling particularly anti-social.”
“Yeah… we uh, we did miss dinner” Josie mumbled. “we‘re gonna have to talk about that you know…”
“I’m sorry” they both said at the same time.
Josie was utterly confused. What did Hope have to be sorry about?
Hope took the initiative to continue at Josie’s expression. “You just got a face full of the classic Mikaelson drama. That and my foster brother threatened you. I- I couldn't move or do anything. I thought he was going to do something when you pushed them. For the first time, I was scared of my own family. I know that your dad and my aunts would never let him do anything but still...”
“Well… I'm sorry too… I didn’t mean to completely ruin the first time I met your family… I can’t imagine how bad they want to rip my heart out.”
Josie had made it back over to the bed with a bag of chips, some candy bars, and two water bottles.
“They won’t ever hurt you.”
“How can you say that Hope… What if my dad or your aunt isn’t there next time.”
“Because the next time I see them I'm going to make it clear that if they EVER so much as look at you menacingly, they’ll lose me too.” Hope whispered while reaching out to take Josie’s hand.
“Hope, you- you can’t be-”
“I’m serious. You mean too much to me. And… what you said to them was right. They might be my family and I’ll cherish Always and Forever till I die but… you’re my family too now and If they don’t see or accept that, then too bad for them”
Josie leaned down to give Hope a passionate kiss, which the still pretty out of it girl returned as much as she could.
“You wanna watch a movie?” asked the brunette.
“Sure” Hope smiled. “My laptop is over on my desk. It should be charged. But can you help me roll over… I still can’t move that well.”
“Yeah” Josie giggled.
Josie aided her girlfriend in getting into a comfortable position. Which turned out to be nestled into her side, leaning her head on the siphon’s shoulder.
They were about twenty-five minutes into the movie when Hope spoke again.
“I’m sorry for always scaring you. I- I didn’t know it affected you that much”
“I-” Josie tried, pausing trying to figure out the right words. “I wish you would get it through your stupid, stubborn, wolf head, that you aren’t your father. You don’t have anything to prove. Not to me. Not to anyone. Everyone needs to stop comparing you to him, Hope. It's not healthy. You are Hope Andrea Mikaelson, and you have bits of your mom and dad in you. The good and the bad. And that's ok, that’s life. But you’re not them, you’re you. And that’s also ok. You don’t have any expectations to live up to. There is no bar set, it’s all in your head.”
Josie leaned down to press a quick kiss to Hope’s forehead. Placing a hand on her chin and gently turning the girl’s head, Josie looked into stormy blue eyes with a mischevious smile.
“I change my mind. You have to live up to my expectations. Lots of cuddling, soft silky hair that smells like outside, stunning blue eyes, that kinda stuff. I’ll make you a list.”
The tribrid fixed Josie with her classic ‘bitch please’ look.
“Oh! And she definitely has to be a little spoon.” Josie added with a wink, leaving Hope looking mortified.
“I am NOT a little spoon.” she said, turning away to pout.
The movie totally forgotten Josie closed and placed the laptop off to the side along with the snacks and water and turned out the lights before pressing her lips to Hope’s cheek. She then laid down behind her, wrapping her arms around the shorter girl and pulling her as close as she could.
“keep telling yourself that” she whispered.
Josie couldn’t see it, but she cracked Hope’s fake pout and left her with a sleepy smile. Both girls still exhausted from their day and having their rest interrupted.
“The pieces will fall wherever they please Hope. But everything will be ok in the end. If it isn’t, then it’s not the end. Who knows? Maybe we’ll even get to try dinner again.”