Bring Me To Life | The Originals (1)

The River in Reverse

A/N: All sections written in italics are flashbacks.

The gentle breeze swept through the trees as Hayley sat lazily on the front steps of the stack in the middle of the bayou and she looked up at the starry night sky with a sad smile on his lips as she leaned back on her hands. There was something almost magically about the night sky in her opinion. Maybe it was because the stars had been one of the only constants in her life and even now, when everything was thrown in the air, it gave her some semblance of security and stability.

"Hayley?" a melodic male voice called out to her tentatively from inside the shack as the squeaky screen door was pushed open and the werewolf turned her body around as she sat up straighter on the steps.

"Elijah. You should be lying down." Hayley pointed out with a small smile on her lips as she looked up at the handsome Original brother and she felt her heart rate accelerate slightly in his presence as she took in his delicious molten chocolate eyes, strong jawline and soft smile.

"There is a period of time before the werewolf venom incapacitates me enough to leave me bedridden."

"Right. Sorry, I've never had to play doctor to a vampire with a werewolf bite." She told him honestly with a hint of humour in her voice as her lips curved into a smirk and he chuckled slightly as he stepped further out onto the porch, with the door closing behind him.

"I'm sorry that you have been abandoned out here in the bayou while I'm unable to protect you to the best of my ability." Elijah said apologetically as he frowned down at her with sincere contrition burning in his oak brown eyes and Hayley scrunched her nose up slightly in disbelief as she automatically shook head to combat his admission of guilt.

"This isn't your fault, Elijah. We both thought the worst of Klaus and we are both paying the price. You more so than me, but still..."

They both knew that the words she spoke were the truth. After learning that the blood of Hayley's unborn baby could turn a werewolf that had activated their gene into a hybrid and left them sired to Hayley, or the baby once it was born, their immediate thought was that Klaus knew of this fact from the beginning. When they confronted Klaus with their assumption, he reacted violently by biting Elijah and leaving them alone in the bayou to deal with the severe fever and hallucinations that came then the werewolf venom spread without his body, but Hayley and Elijah both couldn't deny that his innocence was sincere.

"Yes, I just wish that he had left us with some form of transportation." Elijah stated drily with a grim smile on his lips as he leaned his shoulder against the pillar of the porch and Hayley let out an amused laugh as she looked up at him with admiration burning in her hazel eyes.

The Original vampire instantly tensed as he heard the distance sound of a car heading in the direction of the small shack they were hiding in and his oak brown gaze snapped up to the dirt road that acted as a makeshift driveway as a black sports car appeared from in between the trees but with it being night time and the windows tinted, he couldn't see who the driver was. Elijah pushed himself off of the pillar as he strolled down the steps so that he was positioned between Hayley and the unknown individual who had just arrived as the car pulled to a stop just before the road ended.

Hayley narrowed her eyes at the car as she slowly rose to her feet with a defensive stirring in her chest and she watched warily as the driver's side door swung open, making Elijah stiffened protectively in front of her.

Elijah let out an exasperated sigh as a familiar brunette stepped out of the car with a smirk on her lips and he instantly relaxed his stance as he raised his eyebrows at her questioningly with a small quirk of his lips. "Imogen, what are you doing here?"