Damage Control

Chapter Thiry-One

Hope didn't want to say she wished she never had to come back to her old home, this is where most of her pain was rooted but also all of her happiness. Freya, Lizzie, and Rebekah walked in like it was nothing new, arms full of bags. Hope hesitated at the threshold, Josie's hand linked with hers, she hadn't let go since they got out of the car.

Everything was exactly as she last saw it, she could almost hear the laughter of her family vibrate from the walls, it was better than the screams that were also trapped in the walls.
There was a large white circle in the middle of the floor, the same place Freya did all her large spells that required chalk drawing on the floor. Hope didn't recognize this one, she had read all of Freya's grimoires.

Freya, Lizzie, and Rebekah all paused at the table placed at the top of the circle. All eyes turned to Hope, whose hand started sweating in Josie's. "So..." She looked around nervously. "How does this work?"
Freya licked her lips. "It's simple really. You and Josie will lay in the circle, I," She turned to Lizzie. "Elizabeth and your aunt Rebekah will hold hands and chant the spell." Rebekah was who Lizzie was going to syphon for the spell. "As we chant you should be taken back to your past, emotional anchors in your life to help you relive them and hopefully move on from them."
When Hope's nerves began to rise she felt Josie's hand tighten in her's, she could do this, at least she hoped she could. "Better not waste any time then." She said with a nervous laugh.

"You can take as much time as you need Hope," Rebekah told her softly. Hope shook her head. "No, I need to do this before I lose my nerve." She stepped forward, trying to block out the ghosts of her memories before she was able to deal with them. It was a little awkward getting down while her fingers were still entwined in Josie's but she refused to let go, she was afraid if she did that she would never go through it.
Freya squatted next to her. "Drink this." She held a copper chalice up to her lips and helped her drink a cloudy liquid. It tasted like blood and liquor but she swallowed the mouthful as Lizzie helped Josie drink from a different cup. Following Freya's lead, Lizzie helped Josie lay down at the same time she helped Hope, Hope's vision already swimming, the room beginning to fade. She could barely feel Freya's hand on her shoulder but she felt Josie's hand in hers as everything around her clouded and she drifted off to sleep.

The shock of the night air forced Hope's eyes open. She heard Josie gasp next to her as they both awoke. They were in a field of grass, covered in a thick fog under the light of a full moon. Hope began to sit up, bringing Josie up alone with her. "Where are we?" Josie asked, sounding woozy.

"I'm not sure," Hope answered her. Freya explained that the spell would show them her memories as if she was a third person observing them from the outside, so she was not reliving them through her eyes but watching them like a movie, but they were nowhere she had ever been before.
Hope and Josie got to their feet. As soon as she did, voices swirled around her like ghosts in the wind. "My littlest wolf."
Her heart lurched in her chest.
"Hope Andrea Mikaelson." Her mother's voice caressed her.
"Just as sure as my blood runs through your veins, you will return to me."
"Dad?" Hope's voice cracked.
"It's alright darling, auntie Bex is here." Her aunt's soothing voice calmed her.
"Look," Josie's voice whispered like the rest, she almost mistook it for a memory. Flashes were going off in the sky, faces, motion, like fragments of her earliest memories, the ones she couldn't fully remember were flashing across the sky.
Her father and mother's blurry faces kept flashing by, as well as some other familiar ones. "Cami," Hope felt herself smile, she didn't remember much about her but she knew how important she was to her father.
Her father's face appeared once more, not fully formed, his voice in her ears. "A better life might have awaited you if another man were your father." She felt her eyes sting with tears. "All of those who have loved me have lived to regret it, but I do know this, my littlest wolf," Hope tried to swallow the lump in her throat. "I will do right by you." She didn't realize her shoulders were shaking until Josie wrapped her arms around her from behind.
A flash and they were no longer standing outside. A small bedroom with the soft glow from a nearby lamp took over the space. A woman sat on the tiny bed, a child in her arms. "Tell me the one about dad." A small voice asked.
A warm laugh came from the woman. "Okay but this is the last time," She poked the little girl's nose. "It is way past your bedtime."
"Mom," Hope choked on a sob. This was all too much too fast.
"Once upon a time, there was a strong, fearless, man who loved his family...." The old bedtime story trialed off. Josie turned Hope so she was facing her, Hope pressed her face into Josie's shoulder and didn't hold back her tears, letting them soak Josie's shoulder.
Josie stroked Hope's back as she cried. "Let it out." She said in a soft voice. For what seemed like hours they stood there until Hope was able to collect herself. She pulled back to look at Josie, who offered her a small smile as she wiped the remaining tears from Hope's face with her thumbs. "Are you okay to keep going?" It wasn't like she had much of a choice, she needed to finish the spell, to go through this. But she nodded. She turned from Josie as the room turned again, this time she was on the front lawn of the house she grew up in.
A group of people stood on the porch. Her family. "This is the day I met them," Hope said in explanation. "They had been under a sleeping spell, and my father locked up, until my mother brought them back, with Keelin's help." She didn't elaborate on how her aunts met. Her family was arguing about something she couldn't make out the words. She remembered hearing their voices from inside the house, she had dreamt of this for years and when it was finally in front of her she was terrified.
"And I'm not asking!" Her father said as the front door opened. Hope remembered hearing his voice, scared about the man she was about to meet. But then his eyes softened when he looked at her when they all did, and it was too much. She could hear their hesitant hellos from where they stood. Then the younger version of herself ran off into the garden. They watched as time sped up, to her sitting at her table in the garden, her father coming to find her.
The first time they drew together and then their walk through the woods around the house. It was lovely. The sky turned dark blue, and a chill set in the air. "The Hallow," Hope said aloud to herself.
"What?" She felt Josie's hand on her arm.
"This is when I started to get infected by the Hallow." She swallowed a few times. "This was the beginning of everything bad."
Josie looked over at her in disbelief. "But you're only seven." What she meant was it was years before her father died as a result. Hope only nodded and watched as the next few memories zoomed past her like a VHS on fast forward.
Her getting sick. Voices came with the memories. "I am going to keep you safe, always and forever." Her father spoke to her. "The heart that beats in your chest is a warrior's heart, the heart of a Mikealson."
More memories swirled, smiles, anger, bad people, screaming.
Marcel talks to her, telling them they are family. Telling her to close her eyes and sing.
Her family the church, Davina trying to kill her father as he lay in a circle on the floor. Hope uses her powers to stop her, then runs into her father's arms.
Dr. Saltzman in her house. "What is my dad doing here?" Josie asked from her side. Young Hope was explaining something magic to him.
"I don't remember," Hope said when her mother walked into the room. "I think he was helping my dad with something. But this is the year I joined the Salvatore school so maybe it had something to do with that."
Hope watched herself help her aunt Freya with a spell, her mother laying in a circle on the compound floor, just like she and Josie were now. She was helping her mother and aunt save her uncle Elijah.
All of these memories were muted like she remembered some of them but it was so long ago that it was hard for her to remember exactly what happened.
Kol pops up in the memories, asking her for her help. Kol always has a special place in her heart, even though she doesn't see him much. Her father and Kol fought that day. When the scene changed to her father putting her to bed, calling her a princess, and New Orleans her kingdom. "This is when the Hallow had me when it took over me." She commented for Josie, who tightened her grip on Hope. She felt Josie's hand anchoring her, making her feel like she wasn't losing herself to the pain unfolding around her.
Her father telling her a story when things got foggy when she was lost to the Hallow. "From the moment I saw you, I wanted nothing more than to be worthy of being your father." She felt the tears again. "I am afraid, Hope, I am afraid that without you I will return to the darkness, so I need you to fight."
"I will daddy." And she did, but she lost.
Hope laid in her mother's arms, in the centre of an intricate black square. Her eyes flutter open to see her father looking down at her, her mother smoothing her hair. Hope could feel this memory because for the first time in a long time everything in her tiny body was quiet. She watches herself sit up. "Daddy, what's happening?" Hope clenched at the anticipation of what was coming next, Josie rubbed her arms when she felt her flinch. "Hope, I love you." Her father's soft eyes stayed on her for only a moment longer before he rushed away at vampire speed before she could blink, he was gone. Her mother held her, much like Josie was holding her now as she called out for her father, pain laced in her words, so unsure of what was going on.
Hope collapsed back into Josie's arms, tears threatening her eyes again. "I am so sorry, Hope," Josie whispered to her.
"This isn't even half of it." She said as the memory changed again. 

A/N 

Sorry for the very long time between chapters, I've not been really okay lately. 

Also I don't think I ever watched the Originals, this was me picking through scenes on Youtube so Im sorry to TO fans :/