New Beginnings

Hope had managed to climb back into bed without Landon ever noticing her absence. 

When he woke up the next morning, he seemed to already be in a better mood.
“Morning,” he greeted, placing a kiss to her forehead. “Sleep well?”

“Yes,” Hope lied with the most convincing smile she could muster. “Slept great.”

Hope, in fact, had not slept at all. After sneaking back into bed, she could not seem to switch her mind off. Her head was clouded with confusion, completely clueless to what she could have done to piss Josie off the way she did. She tried to convince herself that it was just the out-of-control emotions acting up again, and turned on her side in an attempt to doze off. But then the guilt of feeling she had any role in upsetting Josie started gnawing at her stomach.

She decided the only way she was going to feel any better was by tracking Josie down in the morning and apologizing for any grievances she may have accidentally caused.

“Glad I left you feeling exhausted too babe,” Landon chuckled, snapping Hope out of her thoughts. 

Not now Landon, She groaned internally, trying to ignore the nauseous wave of disgust that briefly washed over her. Huh, that’s new.

His hand reached out to pull her closer to him, his fingers settling on her forearm, drawing and tracing invisible spirals there. But it didn’t feel right, his fingers were too large and callous to bring her any comfort. She wished they were small and delicate like - 

Like Josie’s .

What is wrong with me this morning? Hope argued internally and tried to shake the thoughts from her mind.

“Babe are you okay? Your breathing is all over the place.” Landon frowned, placing a hand on her back.

Hope struggled away from his touch and sat up straight in the bed. “Coffee!” She managed to choke out. “I need coffee. Will I get you some too?”

“Umm sure?” Landon responded with furrowed brows.

“Great,” Hope smiled, sliding out of bed and grabbing the first hoodie and pair of shorts she could find. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

Hope was relieved to find Lizzie in the kitchen sitting on the granite counter top, drinking a mug of coffee of her own. “Lizzie, hey!” She greeted with a warm smile ad reached out for the coffee pot.

The blonde’s expression immediately turned sour. “What do you want Mikaelson?”
“Wait, why are you angry with me?” Hope questioned, had she missed something that she was now in two of the Saltzmans' bad books?
“Because you’ve obviously done something to upset Josie. I thought you said you were going to look out of her!” Lizzie replied with narrowed eyes.

“I was! I mean, I am. I don’t understand what I did or said last night to make her storm out on me. What’s wrong with her?”

“I don’t know. She stormed back into our room in the middle of the night from wherever you two were frolicking about, disturbing me from my sleep might I add, grumbling something about you reeking of sex?”

Hope tilted her head quizzically. “But I don’t understand what that has to do with anything.”

Lizzie put a hand up to stop her, “Look,I don’t need to hear about you and the Hobbit’s sex life, especially this early in the morning. But you need to figure out why Josie is upset, and fix it.”

“But I don’t know what I’ve done wrong!”

Lizzie hopped down from the counter, landing on her feet in front of Hope. “That’s something you’re going to have to talk to Josie about then.”

“Okay, where is she?”
“She’s in our room, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go see her right now Hope.”

The tribrid’s face fell.

“She’s on edge, and she’s been crying all morning,” Lizzie continued. “Mom’s upstairs with her now,even though she says she wants to be alone. I know this is a side effect of becoming a vampire and all, but I hope it passes soon. Josie’s been through enough, I can’t watch her go through all this emotional distress too.”
“But how am I supposed to fix whatever problem I created?”

“Just wait for her to come around Hope, she’ll come to you when she’s ready trust me.”

Lizzie flicked her mop of blonde, unruly curls over her shoulder before grabbing her coffee and exiting the kitchen leaving Hope more confused than she was when she entered. Was she supposed to go apologize to Josie or let Josie come to her when she was ready? 

Hope didn’t know where to go next. Josie didn’t want her around, and she wasn’t exactly in the mood to cuddle Landon for the afternoon. No, right now she needed to clear her head and usually the only thing that was going to help with that was a good run.

The minute her paws hit the soft, wet ground , Hope instantly began to feel better. There was nothing like a morning run in the crisp, spring air to help her relax.

She knew she should probably have asked Alaric for permission before wolfing out, but surely if he trusted her to turn his daughter into a vampire, he could finally trust her wolf not to bring harm to anybody on school grounds. 

Even after all these years, and all the monsters Hope had helped protect the school from, Alaric still seemed to find it difficult sometimes to see her as more than the little girl Klaus and Hayley sent to the school when she was seven. 

Alaric needed to see that Hope was an adult now. An adult capable of making adult decisions - like how to cheer up Josie, while also not spending too much time away from Landon who now all of a sudden had some grudge against Hope’s friendship with the Saltzmans?

The more she thought about Josie and how upset she was leaving the library last night, the more on edge Hope could feel her wolf become. She let out a whine as she remembered how Lizzie said Josie had been crying all morning.

The white wolf found herself with a desire to sprint back to the school to find and protect Josie, to shield the emotionally vulnerable girl from harm.
No,  she commanded herself before turning in her tracks to head towards the falls. Josie wanted space right now, and Hope would have to respect that - no matter how uncomfortable that thought made her feel. Besides, a good run would set her straight.  She just needed to clear her head and then she would be able to find the right words to talk to Josie.

Placing pressure onto her back legs, she jumped off the ground and began to sprint through the forest.

By the time Hope made it to the falls, she was exhausted. She assumed it was from her lack of sleep the night before. Her wolf set its eyes on a small cave behind the falls that she had often used as a napping spot in her school days. She figured a quick nap could do her some good before heading back to the school to fix her messes. 

Careful as not to get her fur coat too wet and heavy, she did her best to tiptoe around the curtain of the waterfall and retreated into the warm depths of the cave until she found herself in the familiar comforts of the pitch black darkness there. Letting her legs buckle in underneath her, Hope lowered her head onto her front paws and allowed to herself get some much needed shut-eye.

Hope’s heavy eyes blinked open sometime later to find that the sun had disappeared and the evening sky had begun to close in.
Damnit, she cursed herself. She must have been asleep for hours. Landon was certainly not going to be happy with her disappearing act.

She rose to her feet and scampered back in the direction of the school as quickly as her four legs would allow. 

As she drew closer to the place where she had left her clothes, she realized she was no longer alone in the forest.

Caroline Forbes Salvatore stood at the edge of the Old Mill, staring as though she was waiting for Hope to join her.

Hope padded closer to the vampire, worry starting to kick in as she began to think of all the reasons as to why Josie’s mother would be seeking her out.

As she made it to the deck of the old mill, she nodded to her own pile of clothes on the ground as an indication for Caroline to give her a minute’s privacy so she could transform back.

“Oh I’m sorry!” Caroline exclaimed, quick to catch on to Hope’s gesture and turned on her heels so her back was to Hope.

Hope quickly shifted back into her human form and threw hoodie and shorts back on.

“You can look now Caroline,” she called out. “Is everything okay?”

Caroline turned back around to face her. The look of concern on her face immediately answered Hope’s question. “Not exactly” the vampire replied. “Josie’s been looking for you.”

“She has?” Hope quizzed. If anything she had expected Caroline to front her about upsetting Josie, just as Lizzie had earlier that morning.

“Yes, and I think you could really help her right now.”

They fell into a synchronized step as they began walking back in the direction of the school.

“What’s wrong with her?”

“Well for one, she’s not feeding.” 

“What? I thought she fed last night?”

Caroline shook her head. “She could barely manage more than a few sips. I thought she would drink more this morning but she’s still refusing. She’s maintaining that she’s okay, but I can see the thirst in her eyes. And I can't have her around her sister or human father until she gets that thirst under control.”

“So what do you need me to do?”
“I need you to try and convince her to feed, Hope. I had a feeling Josie would have an issue with blood, especially considering she’s pretty much been a vegetarian her whole life. I thought maybe it was just the human blood she didn’t want to drink so we tried giving her animal blood from the school supply but she only reacted worse to that.”

Hope scratched her head. She’d never heard of any vampire, let alone a newborn, refuse blood. “But why do you think she’ll listen to me? Last time we spoke she got angry with me. I don’t think I’m going to be able to convince her anymore than you guys.”

Caroline flashed her a small smile. “I just have a gut feeling about this.”