𝕊𝕖𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕚𝕡𝕚𝕥𝕪 ~ 𝕂𝕒𝕚 ℙ𝕒𝕣𝕜𝕖𝕣

𝔽𝕠𝕦𝕣𝕥𝕪 𝕗𝕚𝕧𝕖

7 years later

"Tell me it isn't true." I say as I catch Dorian in the hall, he sighs and nods "I'm going to speak to her right now actually." I pinch the bridge of my nose, "I'll speak to her, how's Henry?" I ask, "Well he didn't survive the fall so he's a you know what, I've got to go and grab him as well." I nod, "poor boy, ok you grab Henry and I'll grab Hope." We nod and then split to find the kids.

I knock on her door and wait a second, "Come in." Her face drops slightly as she looks at me, "aunty Thea, What's up?" I give her a look at her attempt to stay cool, "Mr. Saltzman wants to see you. It's about Henry Benoit." She sighs and looks down, "Is, um, Mr. Saltzman calling my mom?" I give her a sympathetic nod, "That, and he thinks your dad should know what you've been up to." She scoffs, "Yeah. Good luck finding him." I frown and step into the room, "Hope, honey what were you thinking?" I ask her, "he came to me aunty Thea, I didn't do anything wrong." I shake my head, "Hope, we both know that you did, you should've said no to him, Henry's a young and confused boy, you're both too young to be making decisions like this." She looks down and so I put a hand on her shoulder, "you've gotta pack your bags, honey, You're going home." She nods.

"How mad do you think moms gonna be?" She asks me, "I'm not gonna lie, I think she's gonna be pretty mad." She sighs, "I'll try and get her to go easy on you, but you know your mom." She laughs slightly and nods, "thanks aunty Thea." She says before wrapping her arms around me, "it's fine but please think before you start selling your blood, you could sell cookies instead." I offer making her laugh and shake her head. "I'm not a bakery." She scoffs, "you're not a blood bank either."

***

"Come on sweetie, I'm driving you home." Hope looks up at me and I see the regret in her eyes, "moms not coming?" I shake my head giving her a sympathetic smile, "she said that she has nothing to say to you right now, but look on the bright side at least you'll get a fun road trip with your fun aunt Thea." She cracks a smile but I still see the slight sadness in her eyes, "what you're taking Hope on a fun road trip? No fair mom." Arabella complains, "aren't you supposed to be in class right now?" I ask watching in amusement as her eyes widen, "what no...fine yes but I heard my best friend had gotten suspended and you expected me to let her go without a good bye? Mom this could be the last time that I see her." I roll my eyes at my daughters dramatics as I try to hide a smile, "she'll be back Bella it's a suspension not an expulsion, this is why you need to stay in class, now say your goodbyes and get back to learning." I stop paying attention to Arabella's dramatic goodbye to Hope until after she's done.

"Where's your sister?" I ask, "you know Kaiara would never skip, shes in history." I nod and then make the shooing motion, "ok now scram." She rolls her eyes before hugging me, "be back soon." She says quietly making me smile, "I'll be back tomorrow, so behave." I warn making her laugh, "ok love ya mom, safe travels." She says pecking my cheek, "love you too, say bye to K for me." She nods and then turns on her heel and leaves. "Alright let's go."

***

"Can you just yell at me already?" Hope asks her mother desperately, "you didn't some to pick me up and then you've been giving me hostile silence which is punishment enough." Hayley turns around, "The whole point of sending you to that school and calling you Hope Marshall was so that you wouldn't draw attention to yourself, to keep you safe. Why? Why did you do it? What could you have possibly needed the money for?" She asks Hope, "That's my business." She replies making my eyebrows raise, "And selling your blood is mine. - You had no right." I quickly decided to leave not wanting to get caught in the middle of this.

***

I knock on the flimsy door waiting for a reply, Henry's guardian Lisina eventually opens the door, she takes a step back in fear noticing what I am, "hey Lisina right? You don't have to be afraid, I'm a teacher at Henry's school, I've just come to check up on him." I tell her giving her a kind smile, she relaxes slightly and turns to Henry for him to confirm what I was saying, he sees me and breathes out a breath of relief, "oh mrs Parker." I'm invited in and am at Henry's side at an instant, "Mrs Parker I didn't know that it was going to be like this, I just wanted to be able to stick up for myself, am I gonna be hunted?" I can feel his fear and it makes me feel so bad for him, "oh Henry, it's gonna be ok honey, I'm going to help you ok? I'll teach you how to handle yourself, your emotions and your bloodlust and I won't let anything happen to you, I'll take you and hide you if I have to." I tell him and he nods and seems more at ease.

"Thank you Mrs Parker." He says hugging me, I hug him back and pat him on the back, "it's alright Henry, try and keep yourself calm from now on alright?" I catch Lisina's eye and she mouths a thank you, I shake my head as a don't worry about it, "I'm leaving tomorrow but I'll be back to help you."

***

The next day I get ready to leave and make my way back to school, Hayley had gone to try and sort out the mess and I just had to say bye to Hope.

"I... I didn't think it was such a big deal at the time, but now that it's stirred up so much trouble I-I feel kind of bad." I hear her say as she holds her phone up, I stop for a second not wanting to interrupt her, "Darling, you can't get your knickers in a knot every time you have a little kerfuffle. You'll never have a moment of pleasure. And I, for one, thought you showed some real entrepreneurial spirit." She was talking to Kol, "Yeah, that's me, your friendly, neighborhood blood dealer." She chuckles, "I'm sure you've noticed by now the best people are black sheep." He tells her, "Like my dad?" She asks a smile making its way to her face, "he was referring to himself." I tell her before placing my head on her shoulder to say hi to the man on the other side of the phone.

"Hi kol, please stop encouraging Hope with your lunacy." He chuckles and shakes his head at me, "come on Thea you were never such a stick in the mud." Kol and I had remained friends over the seven years, with the love we had for each other we couldn't just pretend not to know one another, I even became friends with Davina. "I'm not a stick in the mud, I just balance your madness out."

"Anyways I've got to get going now, so you be good for your wife and say hi from me." I tell Kol before turning to Hope, "and you be good for your mom." They both nod and say their goodbyes in unison.

***

"I spoke to him and my god he is just as infuriating as always." Caroline says down the phone to me, "come on care we both know that you still have feelings for him." I laugh at the frustration in her voice, "I do not." She scoffs, "sure, but we both know the truth." I hum. "Thea." I laugh again, "it's ok if you do Caroline, you know that I've always supported it, you don't have to keep denying it." I tell her, "shut up." She sighs, "you're just saying that because you know that I'm right." I tell her smugly, "I'm not listening to this anymore Thea bye." She says before abruptly hanging up.