The One You Once Were

Oh, so that's what "needing time" looks like?

A cough elevated from Heather's room and I quickly rushed to her side. I saw blood running down my friend's face but holding a three-year-old in my arms, I couldn't really help right away.
"Elisabeth, could you please look after your brother?", I called out but the only answer I got was an annoyed grown. Please don't tell me she had one of her teenage mood swings again. Not now. "Elisabeth!"
"Don't boss me around!", she shouted back but dragged herself to the room nontheless.
"Hold him for just some time, please.", I begged of her and she rolled her eyes.
"Fine, give him here.", she gave in and took the boy out of my arms. Confused, he started crying but she quickly managed to calm him down. Meanwhile, I kneeled next to Heather and checked her temperature. She was burning hot once again and only half conscious from what I could see. In vamp speed, I got some cold towels and put them on her forehead to cool her. I also wiped away the blood from her mouth and rolled her into a different position in case she'd vomit or needed to spit out more blood. It was horrifying to see her this way, all sick and by this time's standards already pretty old. And that even though my friend was only about thirty-five. Her four kids were just as freaked out about all this as I was but unlike me, hid it very well, which to me seemed like a bad idea. Elisabeth was about fifteen now and she did help whenever she was not moody. The other teens her age acted quite differently from her but maybe she'd been influenced by me a bit too much so sometimes she behaved like a teen in my time would. And don't get me wrong, I didn't blame her, however, I myself didn't exactly know how to perfectly handle the situation and that caused me a lot of stress. As you can imagine, having a teenager around then, does not help diffuse the scenario. Kilian tried to take as much of the pressure as possible but I wasn't blind. I saw how much he suffered emotionally due to all of this and I sure as hell wouldn't burden him more than absolutely necessary.
"Heather, hey, can you hear me?", I reached out to her. Another cough was the answer. If this continued at this rate, the woman had not much longer to live. It bugged me because I could probably heal her with my blood but she refused to take any since it was "unnatural". Perhaps it was but wasn't it better than death? But well, it wasn't my decision to make. Following another cough, I quickly got something to drink for Heather and forced her to sit up.
"You have to drink this.", I eased her sleepy mind and her eyes fluttered open. "Please, it'll make you feel better, okay?"
Thorn giggled in the other room, I reckoned it was because of something his sister had shown him. At least, Elisabeth was actually taking care of him. What a relief.
"Heather.", I called out to my friend again. "You need to drink."
She shook her head violently and almost made me spill the drink.
"It's not my blood, I swear. I wouldn't do that.", I spoke truthfully. "You know me. Come on, drink."
Hesitantly, she leaned forward and sniffed the liquid. After being convinced of my words, she finally took a sip. Thank god.
Afterwards, she fell back exhausted and closed her eyes again. She didn't seem strong enough to do anything else yet. Her face was still unnaturally pale and her lips had taken on a weird purple. Looking at her in this state broke my heart. It was like she was so easily breakable as if any second, she would crack and it would be over. The thought alone brought tears to my eyes and I had to turn away and leave the room to calm myself down. My heart ached even more when I saw Aiden, the second oldest, staring at the scene from the hallway, his eyes blank and with no emotion.
"Aiden, honey, are you sure you want to be here?", I asked carefully since he had always been the one who took this very badly.
He didn't avert his eyes from the sight of his mother, only whispered something to himself and so, I decided to leave him alone with his thoughts. If he didn't want to speak, it was best to leave it alone or he would have an outburst of power. We saw that happen multiple times already and I was not about to add another one to the list.
Instead, I made my way to the workshop where I found Kilian with Dalia, the middle child of now ten years. She was practising cutting wood into useful shapes and seemed highly focused when I stepped in. Kilian stood up when he heard me enter and I already knew what he was going to ask.
"How is she?", his lips were trembling as he tried to remain calm.
"Not better, she coughed up blood again.", I told him quietly to not disturb Dalia in her work. Kilian inhaled deeply and then let out a loud sigh.
"I'm sorry, you had to go look after her again. I would have done it myself but couldn't really leave Dalia alone."
Shaking my head, I signaled it was totally okay. Of course I understood.
Dalia seemed to be at the finish line of her work, carving in decorations to make it more like she wanted it to be. Just as she put her knife to the wood one last time, Elisabeth stormed in, her brother in her arms. He quickly started crying and Dalia looked up in suprise, disturbed in her concentration. Her knife slipped and pieces of wood fell to the ground. In disbelief she stared at her now destroyed work.
"Elli!", she growled through her teeth. "Are you serious?"
"What?", her sister just snapped back  "Dad, you got to take him, I've taken care of him long enough now."
Kilian took his son in confused and tried calming him down, which wasn't so easy since Dalia was now really angry at her older sibling.
"I wanted to give this to Mama and you destroyed it!", she yelled and held up what she'd been working on. "What am I supposed to do now? It's unfixable!"
"Well, sorry, but Mom wouldn't have been able to see it anyways!", Elisabeth rolled her eyes. "She's unconscious most of the time, you know that!"
The air seemed to heat up as the family continued to argue. Normally, I would say, it was just a feeling but living in a house full of witches, I wasn't so sure.
"Girls, calm down, please!", their father pleaded. "And no magic in fights, you know that always ends badly!"
Elisabeth tossed her hair back and stormed out the room, leaving Dalia with her broken goods.
"Father!", upset, she looked at Kilian, clearly wanting him to do something about this. But holding his son, he didn't seem like he could.
"I'll go talk to her.", I sighed and followed Elisabeth outside.
"Sweetie, wait up, please!", I called out to her and to my surprise, she really did stop in her tracks.
"What do you want?", she wanted to know annoyed.
"Can we talk about your behavior?", I asked softly and she immediately scoffed.
"Again? What would you tell me that you haven't already?"
I tried to form easing sentences but she wouldn't let me speak.
"I'm sick of you telling me what to do! You're not my Mom and I don't need to listen to you!"
Wow, that was harsh. Where did that come from?
"I am not you mother, that is true, and I never pretend like I am.", I said. "I do however love you very much and am concerned for your well-being as well as the entire family's. I'm trying my best here!"
"Oh, I'm sure!", she scoffed. "But maybe, it's not good enough! I mean, you couldn't even make your loverboy stay so don't act like you're so in control!"
What did she just say?
"Take that back, please.", I ordered, my voice trembling. "That's not fair to bring up."
"Really? Then tell me, where is he, huh?", she sounded challenging. I kind of wondered what she was trying to accomplish with this. If she wanted to hurt me, she was on the right track, that's for sure. "Does he need time? He's needed time for years now and I'm not a kid anymore, so don't tell me that's just how it is."
I wanted to think of something to say but didn't know what and so I was left to staying silent.
"You want to know what I think?"
Not really, no.
"I think, he's off with some other girl and has forgotten all about you!"
"He wouldn't do that.", I finally found my voice again.
"And you know that how? You haven't spoken to him!"
"Enough!", I snapped. "Go to your room, you're grounded! Are we clear?"
"You don't tell me what to do!", she turned away and rushed away, probably not to her room.
Only now did I realize, I'd been clenching my fists. Even though, I didn't want to admit it, she was right about one thing: I had given him years of time and had heard nothing of how he was. Should I go check on him? No, he would say when he was ready... right? Would he? Perhaps, I could just go and talk to Rebekah again, I hadn't seen her in years either. I would still give him time then and check in. Yeah, that was possible.
Before I knew it, I was speeding through the woods. Why was I doing this? I had no idea where they were exactly and still went there. Was I that desperate? But I had a right to know, I did this all for him. I gave my life for him. Even though, I should know better. Sure, I also stayed because of Heather and her family because I sincerely loved them but without him and our love I wouldn't be here in the first place. Damn me and this uncertainty.
A laugh reached my hearing and I stopped immediately. Where was I? The building in front of me looked like a castle, it was huge. Of course the Mikaelsons would settle in here. Why wouldn't they? I heard the laugh again and was now sure of it. That was Klaus. A weird force drew me to follow the sounds of the laughs. There was another person with him, a female one if I heard correctly. A friend of his, maybe?
I turned a corner and my heart seemed to stop. There he was. Talking to a very pretty girl in a dark red dress. He seemed to have told a joke because she didn't stop giggling and apparently, her laugh was infectious to him.
I just stood there, didn't move a muscle. Just stood there and looked at the two of them. They finally stopped laughing and calmed down but now they just stared at each other. Maybe the laughing was better, could they go back to that?
A smile crossed the girl's lips and he tilted his head a bit.
"Aurora, are you okay?", I heard him say, then she leaned in and kissed him.
Oh. Okay. Elisabeth had been right. Good for her. This was fine. Totally fine.
I spun around and began running.
Needing time, huh. He had needed time. Had I given him too much? Was I stupid? I wasn't crying, no, why would I? The tears were because I had something in my eye. This was fine, I was okay. I should've know. Oh my god. I should've know.

I did it guys! I wrote a chapter in time. Wohoo! I might turn to a different upload rhythm from now on though because of time issues. After all, quality over quantity, right?
Feel free to comment your thoughts on this chapter, I'd love to read them!