EIGHT | RIVER IN REVERSE 

IT HAD BEEN A FEW HOURS since Klaus had left Hayley, Elijah and Octavia in the Bayou. Elijah with a vicious werewolf bite from Klaus. He wasn't getting better and Octavia was almost positive there was nothing she could do for him. The blonde walked over and offered a cup of water.

"Here, drink this." Elijah drank from the cup but almost immediately started to gag and cough. She could feel how much pain she was in, herself started to sweat and look paler. She didn't want Elijah or Hayley to worry about her though.

"Forgive me. Please." He gabbed onto Octavia's hand for support. The young girl placed her other hand on his head, taking some of his pain away and her strength onto him. It wouldn't be much, but she wanted to help him. Her head began to her and she started to sweat more.

"It's fine, Elijah, honestly. Just remind me to kill your brother once your better." She wanted him to suffer like Elijah was suffering, only ten times worse.

"Yes, remind me to remind you to get in line." The blonde held a smile on her face.

"It doesn't help that we decided to shack up in a swamp either." Hayley said and walked out on the porch. Octavia was almost positive that Hayley kept leaving them alone on purpose. She young witch started to flip through the Bible on her lap. Elijah then started coughing, really badly. She felt her throat itch and she wanted to cough, but she held it in.

"Are you okay?" Hayley rushed in when Octavia asked him that.

"I'm fine. Please, just... return to your reading." He spoke waving them both away. They weren't leaving him alone, he looked like he was about to drop dead.

"I went through the whole thing and Octavia's been through it twice. It's just a regular Bible... With an entry in a family tree that may or may not be me." The werewolf girl responded to him, it was true. The whole Bible was a Bible and then the end had names and dates. Octavia went through it twice just to see if there were any hidden messages that they didn't catch the first time.

"Hayley, please. This fever will make me unstable. And once the hallucinations begin, I'll start to see things. You must and Octavia leave here." He pleaded, he didn't want Octavia to see him in such a state of weakness. Of vulnerability.

"I'm not leaving you like this." The seventeen her old said and sat on the bed beside him and took one of his hands in her own.

•

A WHILE LATER Octavia is outside, she had removed her sweater and now was in a tank top. The Bayou was hotter than hot. Hayley was in the same boat, she had removed her cardigan and was in a tank-top. She heard Elijah groaning in pain inside and returned to his bedside. The blonde girl sat down on the bed next to him and placed her hand on his forehead to feel his temperature. She didn't need to, she was sure it was high. Her own was high, she felt like she was dying and no doubt she looked worse. When she touched his head she was placed in a memory of Elijah's from the 1800's.

A woman, Celeste, was relaxing in a bathtub when Elijah entered the room.

"Celeste?" Elijah spoke grasping onto Octavia. She was confused, maybe a little jealous. That couldn't be right, Elijah and her were friends. It was a platonic relationship.

She soon understood he started to have hallucinations. "Octavia, I'm sorry. I thought you were someone else." The Dalton witch gulped and nodded. His hands were still on her and he looked into her eyes.

"Celeste. Whoever she was, she was smokin' hot." She joked, but Elijah didn't seem to find it funny. Hayley was on the opposite end of the room, flipping through the Bible again and watching them interact. They were both denying the feelings they had for one another.

Elijah turned his head concerned and embarrassed, "Did I let you enter my thoughts? I'm not well. I should go. This is..." He stuttered.

"This is fine, Elijah. You're sick, I'm taking care of you. Let me take care of you." Octavia said to him, he sighed and then perked his head up lightly as if he was listening to something.

"We're being watched." He spoke and the girls looked at one another and stood up from their seats. They walked outside to see a blonde girl staring at them from several yards away. When she saw them she started to run.

"Hey. Hey!" Hayley shouted but didn't run after her, Elijah was still sick and they couldn't leave him. They walked back to the shack and took their seats again.

Octavia placed Elijah's head on her lap so she could wipe his sweat off with a rag. He continued to move restlessly. She didn't like seeing him in pain and she didn't like being in pain. She wanted to know what was wrong with her but she had to wait until Elijah was better. Again she gets transported into another memory of Elijah's.

Celeste was relaxing in a large bathtub in the middle of a bathroom when Elijah, entered the room. Celeste playfully threw her sponge at him, but he caught it deftly, and she giggled at him. "Assister-moi, please, good sir."

"No, I'm much happier taking in such a wondrous view. It's perfection." Elijah answered and walked closer to her. Her smile widened at him.

"Your brother is again up to no good. He's challenging the gentry to duels as though they have any chance of a fair fight." Celeste replied to him, Klaus was getting worse by the second.

"I do grow weary of sacrificing my joy to temper my brother's mischief. Surely, you can cast a spell to put him in his place." He sat down next to the bathtub.

"It would take a hundred witches to put him in his place. Besides, he only ever listens to you."

"Yes. He certainly needs a little discipline. Spanking of some kind is in order. I think I shall need some rehearsal. Come." Elijah leaned down and kissed her passionately.

Octavia gets pulled out of the memory when Elijah shivered and groaned in pain. "Octavia, please. This fever. My mind is flooded with these torturous memories. You have to leave." She wasn't going to leave, he had to know that by know.

"What is your deal? You don't like people taking care of you? Too bad." She wiped some of the sweat off his forehead with the rag.

"There are consequences for those that care. I will not have you pay that price." Elijah said, Octavia shook her head. Yes, she was helping him get better because she cared about his wellbeing, but nothing was happening to her.

"So, you're having weird, retro sex dreams? Get over it, I'm staying." She deflected his previous statement, she was fine and Hayley was fine. Everything was okay.

"What about our visitor? What does she want?" He changed the subject, for which she was glad. Octavia didn't want to discuss feelings with him, especially feelings about him. She realized that she cared for him more than a friend would.

"I'm guessing she's the one that left the mystery Bible on the doorstep last night. Would be nice if she'd stick around long enough to tell me why." Hayley replied sitting across from them. The Bible still in her lap as she flipped threw its pages.

"Hayley, you came here to gather an information about your family, go find her and please take Octavia with you. Learn what you can." Elijah told them, the blonde gave Hayley a look which she understood. Octavia wasn't leaving Elijah and neither was Hayley. Hayley had seen what a werewolf bite did to vampires, she wondered what it would do to an original. The witch on the other hand had never seen a vampire get bit by a wolf.

"No, we're staying." The Dalton girl argued, besides she didn't want to move anyway. Her body ached and she was sweating more. She felt terrible, Hayley could see it. Elijah was too sick to notice. He began panting loudly she placed her hand on his head.

"Celeste. Forgive me. I'm sorry." Elijah pleaded.

Klaus and another man were standing back to back with revolvers in their hands as they prepared for a duel. Klaus gave unintelligible orders in French, and they walked away from each other as Klaus counted them down. "Huit, sept, six, cinq, quatre, trois, deux." They each turned around and shot. Klaus remained unharmed, while the man fell down and died from a headshot. "Is that it? Is this the best New Orleans has to offer?"

Another man dragged the duelist's corpse over to a pile of bodies several feet away. Elijah arrived to the field, looking furious. "Brother! Please, this is high folly. Is it not enough you have slaughtered dozens in just these past several weeks? Word of a city littered with bodies will surely travel the oceans. Do you want to bring our father upon us?"

"Relax, brother." Klaus said nonchalantly. "I've sent rumor that the bodies are result of the witches seeking blood sacrifice for their rituals."

"You did what? Have you forgotten? Celeste is one of those that you recklessly point your finger at?" After everything his brother had done, this shouldn't have been a surprise to him. He should have known better.

Klaus feigned ignorance, "Who's Celeste? Wait..." Elijah glared at him angrily. "Oh, yes! The witch you've been knocking around with. Well, fear not. Harlots are like rats in the Quarter. You trip over one every step you take." Elijah snatched a revolver from a nearby man and shot Klaus in the chest with it. He looked down at his bullet wound in annoyance and sighed. "You care about her. Well, that is unfortunate. I hear they're rounding up the towns witches as we speak."

Elijah awakened with a start and screamed. Hayley and Octavia looked over at him, worried expressions across their faces. Octavia just wanted to know if he'd be okay. "Elijah?" She whispered to him. He was hallucinating that she was Klaus and grabbed her in a choke-hold and pinned her against the wall.

"Niklaus! I'll kill you, you bastard." He yelled and she couldn't breathe, Hayley was trying to get him off and Octavia was terrified. This is what a werewolf bite did to vampires.

"Elijah?" She started to hit him anywhere she could get, but he was too strong. She placed her hand on his head and tried to give him an aneurism, which didn't seem to pain him. Eve appeared with a stake and stabbed him in his back.

Octavia grabbed her throat gasping for breath, "Oh, thank you! I thought I was going to die." Hayley went over and comforted her friend. She blonde felt entirely helpless, her magic wasn't strong enough. It was always strong enough.

•

AN HOUR HAD PASSED, Octavia was better. Still spooked, but better. Hayley, herself and the blonde girl, named Eve, sat outside around a fire. No one had said anything, the silence was deafening.

Then finally Eve spoke. "I'm sure you got questions." Her statement directed at the pregnant werewolf. Octavia looked down at the fire, she didn't want to intrude on a family conversation. She assumed a family conversation.

"Only a thousands of them. Like who are you? Why are you following me? Where the hell is everyone? And, if the people in this book really are my family, what happened to them?" Hayley rambled, they were all fairly good questions. The Dalton witch had a better one, how does one find their way out of the Bayou?

"I'm Eve. I'm following you because you brought an Original to Werewolf Country, which is pretty much the same reason why everybody else skedaddled. If you wanna know what happened to the people in that family tree, I'll sum it up nice and quick: Marcel happened." Octavia's head shot up at the familiar name. She knew Marcel had a past with pretty much all supernatural creatures, but Marcel wiping out an entire pack of wolves didn't seem like something he would do. At least not in the time she had known him. He was a protector, he protected Davina and he protected her.

"What did he do?" The blonde asked Eve. Eve's eyes drifted away from Hayley and to Octavia who had a bruise forming on the side of her neck.

"He killed most of them. Later, the descendants of the ones who dodged death, he strong-armed a witch into putting a curse on them."

"What kind of curse?" Hayley asked before Octavia could say anything. How could Octavia defend Marcel, when what Eve was saying seemed like the truth.

"Swap nature around, inside out. Made it so their natural state is wolves. They only turn back human on the full moon. We're hunted by the marks we carry. That crescent moon birthmark- that's why I got rid of mine. I didn't wanna get found up." She explained and she pointed to a spot on her back, just a scar. The blonde tucked her head between her knees. Suddenly, Elijah appeared in front of the shack.

"Good evening. Think I might have something which belongs to you." He handed Eve the stake she used to stab him earlier. Octavia stood up and walked in front of him.

"Elijah, are you okay?" She asked him carefully, just in case he went psycho on her or Hayley again.

"The wound is healed, the fever is broken, but for some strange reason I have this sharp and lingering sensation in my back." He answered and looked at Eve again, the blonde didn't seem bothered by the glare Elijah gave her.

Hayley turned to look at her, "I have to get him home. But I'll be back, okay? I need to know more." Elijah didn't look at Octavia and she didn't look at him again. Even though he was sick, it still scared her. He never scared her, that was Klaus's job.

"Keep that mark covered up." Eve said, the werewolf nodded and left with Octavia and Elijah who didn't say a word all the way back to the car that Klaus had left them.

"What happened?" The original brother questioned the two girls.

"I just met part of my family." Hayley replied with a smile on her face. Octavia was happy for Hayley, really, but Hayley getting to meet her family made the blonde realize how fucked up her situation was. She didn't have a family, not a blood family, not anymore.

•

THE CAR RIDE BACK TO the plantation was quiet and peaceful. Hayley sat in the backseat, Octavia sat in the front. Elijah leant her his suit jacket and she accepted it even though it smelt like swamp. The car pulled up to a stop in front of the house. The original nor the witch moved, the pregnant werewolf took this as an opportunity and quickly exited the car to sit on the steps of the house.

"So, thanks for the ride." She said, she didn't know why she was being awkward. It was Elijah of all people, he understood her, he saw her at her worst, and he cared for her.

He smiled weakly, "Quite the awkward little adventure, wouldn't you say? I'm sorry I tried to hurt you. I would never want that." Octavia looked up at him, he was being sincere. She knew that he would never deliberately hurt her.

"Elijah, tell me what happened to Celeste." She didn't know why, but she had to know. Maybe Hayley was right and she was developing some sort of... feelings for him.

"That's not important."

"It is important. Thousand years of memories and that's what breaks through your fever? I wanna know. Show me, please. Elijah..." He stared at her and then gently placed his hand on her temple. She closed her eyes and saw the memory.

Elijah rushed into the bathroom, where he found Celeste underwater, sunk down to the bottom of the tub. Elijah desperately tried to save her by pulling her out of the water, but it was too late- she was dead. Elijah began to sob over her lifeless body.

"It was a cruel and bloody time to be a witch, courtesy of my wonderful brother." Klaus hates witches. Not a surprise, he still did. Octavia sighed, Celeste died and she knew that Elijah blamed himself.

"She died because of Klaus?"

Elijah shook his head. "She died because of me. Because I cared too deeply for her. I had allowed my brother to slip through my grasp. I loosened the reigns while Celeste consumed my every moment. I had abandoned him in the name of my own happiness. Celeste payed the price." Octavia wanted to comfort him, but she couldn't begin to imagine all the pain Klaus had put Elijah through. A thousand years worth of pain.

She shook her head, "I don't understand it, why? Why are we here? Why are you trying so hard to put your family together when it's so clear that one part of it is broken and has been for a very long time?" Elijah always had to fix Klaus and it wasn't fair, why couldn't he ever be happy. Klaus has damaged his brother, he manipulated him, Elijah thought that anything that went wrong in the Mikaelson family tree was his fault. That wasn't the case.

"To me, the very definition of the word 'broken' suggests that something can be fixed. I have a whole eternity to accomplish one single task: my brother's salvation. If I surrender this, then tell me- what value would I be to my family? To myself? ...To Hayley's child? To you?" Octavia placed her hand on top of his, gently. Elijah squeezed it and then quickly jerked his hand away from her dainty ones. She was hurt, but didn't let it show on her face. The blonde was confused, how could he say things like that and then reject her touch, her attempt to comfort. "Please, Octavia. You've seen what happens."  He squeezed her hand one last time before he exited the car and headed toward the house.

The Dalton witch took a moment to gather herself before she exited the car. Elijah was so confusing, all the originals were, and all the original drama that came with it. After she exited the car her whole life would change. Elijah and Klaus would be at each other's throats again, Hayley and herself caught in the middle. Marcel would probably never speak to her again and neither would Davina if he told her the truth.

She gulped and opened the car door to see no Elijah, but Hayley was sitting on the steps of the plantation house. The blonde sat next to her and laid her head on the werewolf's shoulder. Hayley comforted her, she was like an older sister. The girls sat in silence and Hayley grabbed Octavia's hand. They were spooked by the front door opening and closing, an angry Klaus walked out.

"You're coming with me, little wolf." He demanded and Hayley didn't move. She refused to be treated like that. Besides she wouldn't leave Octavia or Elijah for that matter.

She scoffed, "Why would I go anywhere with you?"

"Because, Hayley, that child you carry is the only thing on this earth that matters to me. Now you can fight me on this, but you will lose." He opened the door to the passenger's side of the car and waited for her to get in. "As will anyone else who tries to stop you getting in this car." He looked back at the house and then down to Octavia. Hayley sighed and reluctantly got into the car. He closed the door and then opened one for the backseat. "You are coming with me as well, little witch."

She was so sick of him, she didn't hate Klaus, but the way he was going she would begin to. "No." She stated simply, she refused to go. She had enough of their family disputes. She wanted to go home, make amends with Marcel and hand out with Cami. She wanted to sneak Davina ice cream and chips, she wanted her old life back. "I'm done being bossed around by the original family. Okay? I'm done. All you've done for me is make me lose my friends." Klaus looked at her with amusement.

"You must be mistaken. That wasn't a question, now you can do this the easy way, you can get into the car. Or I will drag you, your choice." He said and the seventeen year old witch scoffed. She was powerful and didn't have to take any of his crap.

"Klaus, I'm tired. I just want to go home, to my apartment and sleep in my bed and not have to worry abo-" She didn't get to finish her sentence because she was being thrown over Klaus's shoulder and hauled into the car. The hybrid buckled her in like she was a child and then sped to the drivers seat of the car and starting it. Octavia glanced at Hayley through the mirror, and the werewolf gave her a frown.