The Hybrid's Humanity (A Klaus Mikaelson Love Story)

Chapter 23

   Rebekah hugged me the minute the door was opened. She came at me so quick with her vampire speed that she nearly knocked me over onto the bed had it not been for Klaus who reached out and stopped me from falling. Blond hair flying and arms like boa constrictors, she grabbed me around the shoulders and pulled me to her with a jerk.

   "Oh Adelaide, it has been too long my sister!" She exclaimed, squeezing me tightly.

   Dumbfounded as to how she had known, I looked up wonderingly at Klaus, but it was Elijah who responded. "Freya explained to us what happened after Klaus found you. We would've come sooner but we were detained by business."

   Rebekah, who was still hugging me, squeezed me a little tighter before pulling back to inspect me, "Is it true then? Have you regained all you memories?"

   She sounded so full of hope and sounded so genuinely happy that it reminded me of the friendship we had once had. Klaus may have been my best friend and my closest confidante, but Rebekah, being the only girl in her family of brothers, was the only other person I was confident enough to talk to when I first began to understand the feelings I was developing for her brother.

   I pulled her back into a hug, "I have." I was tempted to show her like I had shown Klaus the memories of our past, but she didn't need it. My response my was enough for her, and with one last tight embrace, she released me. Her usually strong eyes were wet with tears, and she wasn't the only one with damp eyes in the room. Walking up to Elijah who was looking down at me, his features softened with disbelief and happiness, I reached out and took his hands. "It is good to see you again as well Elijah."

   He smiled warmly and hugged me, but I was slightly stunned. Did I just...talk different? It was hard to tell since my past and my present were melting together as one now, but I could feel the difference by the way my tongue shaped the words rather than the way they sounded.

   "Are you alright Adelaide?" Elijah asked as he pulled away from me and inspected me up and down with concerned eyes. I smiled easily, hiding my worry. "Fine." I lied. He didn't buy it. I let the smile fall as a distant memory reminded me that Elijah wasn't the one who could easily buy my falsities. It was Kol, and sometimes even Rebekah. The other Mikaelsons were either nearly impossible to lie to and I just wasn't skilled enough in the art. "Just a little...disturbed. I feel as if I have two personalities that are merging and I have no idea how the end result will be."

   "Understandable." Elijah commented as I leaned against the wall and rubbed my throbbing temples. "In all respects you weren't our Adelaide when we met you, rather you were a stranger we were only familiar with through your features. But in both cases you were a warm and kind figure whom we knew we could trust instantly. Isn't that right Klaus?"

   Klaus looked strong, his features set tight as he nodded. "Agreed." Walking over, he grabbed my shoulders in his warm palms in a friendly gesture as a means to comfort me with his presence. It helped. Capturing my gaze, he said, "Anyhow you're sure to come to terms with this change sooner than you think. The "Aida" you were up till now and the "Adelaide" you had been weren't all that different. In both lives you still managed to be as selfless and bull headed as we remembered you."

   Rebekah agreed, "He's right you know. You weren't all that different. Perhaps the only things that were different about yourself was that you spoke more modernly and that you seemed more hardened to life than you had once been."

   I felt a little disturbed but relieved at that information. Was that it? Was that all the change that had taken place in me? Just a difference in speech and appearance? Was there really no big difference? I tried to look back at myself through my memories to see if they were right, and found that-through the little of the many lifetimes that I was able to discern- I found that they weren't entirely wrong. I wasn't the same Adelaide I had been when I had first fallen for Klaus, but the instantaneous change I had felt within myself wasn't exactly an 'instantaneous' one. Through my lifetimes of despair and loneliness, I had changed. Whether it was for the better or for the worse it was too soon to tell, but I was different. I, the Aida I had been, was just a happier version of all those lonely ones combined.