"I see we're in for another normal Mikaelson breakfast." Freya mused, rolling her eyes at the sight she, Audrey, and Elijah had come across. 

   Klaus merely smirked as he looked over at them, the police chef he gripped tightly by the throat gasping desperately, as Klaus dangled him over the balcony railing. He'd compelled the city's police to help aid them in their attempts to find Aurora, who was still cloaked by the Strix witch, despite the fact the witch had turned up dead. Though, to say his patients was running thin would be an understatement, it getting worse the longer Aurora remained a threat. 

   "Niklaus, for heavens sake." Elijah rolled his eyes, giving him an exasperated look. "Release the poor creature."

   Audrey made a face, seeing how the smirk on Klaus's face grew. "You shouldn't have said that." She muttered with a sigh. 

   With a simple shrug, despite the whimper and pleading head shake the police chief gave, Klaus dropped him and allowed him to fall to the courtyard floor. Freya and Elijah looked at their younger brother in disbelief, as Audrey just rolled his eyes, giving him a look that he just smiled smugly at. 

   "That's not what I meant." Elijah let out in annoyance.

   "He'll live." Klaus waved off, walking past them into the living room. "And he'll remember to do better."

   "Maybe you should try do the same." Audrey suggested, earning a eye roll in response.

   Freya nodded in agreement as they followed him in. "Is all this torture necessary?"

   Klaus ignored her question as he sat down. "Where have you been?" He called toward the hallway.

   "I was making sure that the Strix and their witches are out trying to find your loony ex-girlfriend." Marcel answered, looking annoyed at the hybrid. "Is that okay by you?"

   "Gentlemen, please." Elijah interrupted, before their fighting could go further.

   Though Marcel wasn't in the mood to listen, giving Elijah a look. "All of our heads are on the chopping block because he lost the one thing that can kill an Original."

   "It's not his fault that Cami was waving the white oak around like a kite, or that Aurora made a deal with one of your witches." Freya defended. 

   Marcel looked at her, irritated. "Oh yeah, it is--"

   "I'm quite capable of defending myself, thank you, Freya." Klaus cut him off, rising to his feet to stand between the pair. "What I cannot do is cast a spell to find Aurora." He commented, giving her a cold smile. "In that respect, we're alike."

   "Aurora is cloaked." Freya reminded him, looking frustrated as she looked at her younger brother. "Most likely by the very witch she killed. I have been working nonstop every day."

   "Well, you've stopped now, haven't you?" He shot back with a petulant look.

   "Do you talk to our other sister like this?" She asked him with a scowl, her look growing cold as he remained silent. "Didn't think so." She shook her head, before turning and storming out of the room.

   "Freya..." Elijah sighed, but she just ignored him and kept going.

   Audrey crossed her arms as she looked at Klaus, who tried to hide the guilt appearing on his face. "You're on a roll today."

   Elijah took a deep breathing, giving his brother a unimpressed look before he changed the subject. "What do we know about this traitor in the Strix coven?"

   "Nothing." The Gerard vampire sighed. "No one knows how Aurora got to her. No one knows where Aurora is. Our coven hit the same cloaking spell as Freya."

   Klaus made a face at that, tilting his head at him. "Your coven? Making yourself quite comfortable with the Strix, aren't you?"

   Marcel scoffed at what he was inferring. "Yeah. Yeah, to help you."

   He then turned to leave, but Klaus grabs him roughly by the arm and spins him back so they're face to face. "Any other news from your new BFFs you'd like to make us aware of?"

   "Dear God." Audrey let out, moving pushing the pair apart. "Go, Marcel. Ignore him."

   Marcel nodded, glaring at Klaus before he walked out of the room, leaving him alone with Elijah and Audrey. Elijah walked over and gave his brother yet another look, who watched Marcel leave with narrowed eyes. "Niklaus. Why don't we reserve any malevolent intentions for ex-girlfriends?"

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

   The bell tower at the cathedral was trashed when Elijah and Audrey got there, having went to check in on Freya. The couple exchanged a glance as they looked around, before Elijah got out his phone to call Klaus, both of them having a a very good what had happened. 

   "Can I assume our very gifted sister has finally found my lunatic ex?" Klaus asked instantly when he answered.

   "From the looks of things, I would say the lunatic ex found Freya." Elijah answered worriedly.

   "Well, then, we'll procure another witch to track her." Klaus replied.

   Audrey moved toward the table Freya usually worked from, noticing what had been left neatly on top of burnt map remains. "Elijah." She glanced at him over her shoulder, nodding to what she'd found.

   Elijah frowned and walked closer, taking a look at exactly what she'd found. A note, a spring of cut lavender, and a bronze compass laid out of them to find. "There's no need. We've got something." He mumbled before he hung up, picking up the note to read it.

   It didn't take long for Klaus to arrive, and he took the note to read for himself. "A forest of pine, and a box made so fine. Come quickly. If not, then poor Freya will rot, buried in dirt for all time." He read out, before slamming the letter down on the table. "The woman is insane."

   "That might be an understatement at this point." Audrey muttered.

   Elijah just scoffed. "Does she have to punish us with the most unfortunate limerick?" He began to pace the room. "Is it not enough that we're forced to play her wretched games?"

   "Freya saw a vision of herself buried alive." Klaus reminded them.

   "Aurora will do everything in her power to bring about this miserable prophecy." Elijah shook his head. 

   "Then let's go stop her, shall we?" Klaus spoke determinedly, grabbing the compass off the table to leave. However, he paused as Audrey went to go with them, shaking his head. "No. You're staying behind."

   She looked at him in disbelief. "Excuse me?"

   "Aurora has already taken Freya." He told her firmly. "She intends to kill one or both of us with her games, and your life is already linked to Elijah's. That won't matter to her, she will harm you either way to get to us, and we can't focus on staying alive and killing her if we're worrying about you." He shook his head. "Stay behind, go meet Hayley. She's spending the day helping Camille."

   "Klaus--"

   "Audrey." He grabbed her by the shoulders. "Please." He took a deep breath. "I was the reason my brother and my niece almost lost you once. I won't be that reason again. I will not let Aurora hurt him, and I will keep you both alive. But you coming puts you at more risk then you already are."

   Audrey sighed, looking at him for a moment, it wasn't hard to see the genuine concern on his face. Slowly but surely, she nodded, but the worry she'd been hiding came bubbling to the surface. "Keep him safe." She whispered. "And stay safe too, okay?"

   Klaus nodded and squeezed her shoulder, before he left after Elijah, leaving Audrey alone in the bell tower. Taking a deep breath, she pulled out her phone and called Hayley as she made her way downstairs.

*  *  *  *  *  *   *   *  *  *

   "So this is you taking me to school?" Cami commented, as she and Hayley walked into the gym, where Audrey was stood waiting for them. "Oh, and you got Audrey in to help teach me?"

   The two mothers looked at one another with the same look, exchanging a nod before Hayley looked back at Cami. "There is a fight coming, Cami." She told her. "That's what the prophecy says. And you're not gonna be much good to the home team if you're just standing around, waving a bunch of antiques."

   Cami rolled her eyes and scoffed as she pulled out a small wooden box. "Huh. You see this? This will paralyze anyone who tries to attack me."

   "Great." Hayley nodded and raised a brow. "But... then what? You need to learn how to defend yourself."

   "Come on." The O'Connell woman gave them both an obvious look. "Everyone knows a baby vamp is borderline useless. Even Josh could wipe the floors with me. I need these."

   "Is that so?" Audrey raised a brow, crossing her arms. "I've not been a vampire that long, but you don't see me clinging to some witches toys to get by."

   "That's not fair." Cami shook her head. "You've lived with the Mikaelsons for years now. You learned how they fight, you learned all their tricks. Before that, you lived around vampires from your hometown. Elijah and Marcel trained you when you turned, they made sure you know how to fight."

   "We're not saying throw them away." The Marshall-Kenner hybrid says, making Cami narrow her eyes on her in confusion. But Hayley just carried on, looking around the room as she spoke. "This used to be a church, right? And then it got condemned. If Marcel hadn't seen the possibilities, someone would've bulldozed it and turned it into some generic chain store. It's still a church. But it's also something more. I'm a hybrid, but I'm also a mom. And a widow. And an Alpha."

   "I'm a vampire." Audrey continued, knowing exactly where she was going with this. "I'm also a doppelganger, a soulmate, a fiance, and a mom."

 "You are a psychologist. And a bartender. And, yes, you have some insane family legacy that comes with a bunch of cool toys, but..." Hayley walked and stood in front of her with a serious look. "If you don't embrace the fact that you're also a vampire now, you're gonna end up dead. For real, this time."

   Cami stared between the both of them for a moment, looking a mixture of annoyed and impressed. "You know, I'm not used to being on the receiving end of solid advice."

   "Well, you caught me on a good day." Hayley shrugged.

   She raised a brow at them. "So now what?"

   "Now is the fun part." Audrey mused, as she moved and open the cage door to the ring.

   Hayley nodded in agreement, a small smirk appearing on her lips. "We're gonna get in that ring and you're gonna try and punch us."

   Despite the skeptical look on her face, Cami stepped up into the ring with them, and three began to spar. If Audrey was honest, she was grateful she had this as a distraction. It was stopping her mind drifting to what could be happening with Aurora, wondering if Elijah was okay or not. She trusted Klaus's promise that he wouldn't let anything happen to him, but with how unstable Aurora was, it kept her worrying still. Worrying about him and Freya too. 

   Taking a deep breath, Cami lunged forward toward Hayley to try and punch her in the face, but Hayley dodges each hit, tripping her so she falls into the chain-link fence surrounding them. "Again." She orders.

   This time, Cami focuses her attention on Audrey and turns to punch her, but Audrey grabbed her fist in her hand with ease. She twisted her arm behind her back, and rushed her up against the fence once more, pining her against it with ease. "Again." She repeated Hayley's words.

   Hayley gave her a flat look. "Come on, post grad, you can do better than that." Looking frustrated, Cami rushed and lunged toward Hayley to try and punch her once again, but Hayley just swatted her arm away and grabbed her in a choke hold. She raised her up in the air slightly, before she threw her down to the ground. "Again."

   Before Hayley can even react farther, Cami rushes toward Hayley, tackles her, flips them so that Hayley is on top, and then kicks her across the ring, where she's thrown against the wall and bounces down onto the floor. Rather than looking mad, Hayley actually looks impressed as she wipes the blood from her mouth and the two stand to their feet to catch their breath. 

   "Damn, Cami." Audrey blinked, looking impressed herself at that.

   "Oh, look at you." The hybrid mother mused. "We keep that up, you might be giving Josh a run for his money."

   The O'Connell vampire watched them both as she caught her breath, smiling at them both appreciatively. "Hey... Thanks for coming to find me today."

   "Oh, don't get all mushy on me." Hayley rolled her eyes, wiping the blood from her lip with the sleeve of her shirt. "You're a bartender. You can thank me with a beer."

   Audrey tilted her head at that with a slight grin, nodding as she pointed to Hayley. "She has the right idea."

   Cami chuckled. "Deal."

   Before they could do anything else, they were interrupted by the sound of Hayley's phone ringing, and she walked over to answer it. "Hey."

   "Hayley, you have to listen to me." Davina spoke seriously. "Aya's witches are coming to kill you."

   "What?" Hayley asked in disbelief, both Audrey and Cami looking alarmed at what they heard. But before any of them could process what she said, the doors to the gym open as the Strix coven walk inside. With wide eyes, Hayley looked back at Cami as Audrey moved to her side protectively. "Get out of here! Right now!"

   One of the witches thrusts her hand out in front of her, sending Hayley flying backwards and crashing into the wall, landing on the floor where the sacristy used to be. Audrey looked at the witch and rushed at her, but she flicked her wrist, sending her crashing into the pile of weights on the floor, knocking her out cold as she head smacked against one.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * 

   When Audrey woke up, Hayley filled her in on what happened. Marcel had saved her life, stopping the witches and Aya from killing her. Once Audrey knew exactly what had happened, the pair took Cami back to her apartment, before they made their way back to the compound. It was quiet, with Hope and Mira at Mary's for the time being, all of them knowing it was probably the safest place for them at the moment. Both Elijah and Audrey were more than grateful to her, as she was continuing to treat Mira like she was her grandchild, despite everything that had happened to Jackson.

   She still didn't like the Mikaelsons, nor would she ever be a fan of vampires, but she did seem to have a soft spot for Audrey like she did Hayley. 

   When Klaus and Elijah got back, they told the two girls what happened with Aurora. Hearing she'd shot Elijah with one of the bullets, the color had completely drained from Audrey's face, and she found herself glued to his side. He didn't mind, keeping their fingers laced together as they sat on the couch in the courtyard, as Hayley told the two men what had happened at the gym.

   "The attack was about breaking the sire link." She explained, as she paced up and down in front of them. "Marcel told me that Aya's witches already have a spell to do it."

   Klaus raised a brow at her. "And how does your heart play into all of this?"

   "I'm the only un-sired vampire in history." She told them. "Apparently, that's the key to making it work."

   "And yet, Marcel neglected to mention it this morning." The Mikaelson hybrid scowled.

   "Hey, ease up." Hayley shoots him a look. "He saved me."

   "But the Strix might yet come for you." Elijah realized with some worry.

   "Let them." She shrugged honestly. "I'm not an easy target. They'd be better off trying to find some witchy workaround."

   "Unless they already have." Klaus mumbled in concern.

   "Is that possible?" Audrey asked, looking between the three. "They need Hayley's heart, or an exact match of it."

   In that moment, all of them realized what Klaus had. "Jackson." Elijah breathed out.

   Hayley closed her eyes and sighed deeply. "The Unification Ceremony didn't just marry us-- it also made his heart a mirror image of mine."

   The two brother shared a significant look, as Klaus leaned forward in his seat. "We need to dig it up."

   "Klaus." Hayley gave him a look as he stood.

   "Aurora's bullet very nearly killed Elijah. When she returns-- and she will-- I would prefer the vampires of New Orleans be obligated to protect us. They'll be more likely to do so if our lives remain linked to theirs." He stated firmly before he left ahead of them all, not taking no for an answer. 

   "Hayley..." Audrey bit her lip in guilt, knowing Klaus had a point. Hayley sighed, knowing what she was going to say, and still didn't look happy. "He's right."

   Elijah nodded in agreement. "The sire link has to remain unbroken. We have to go."

   Despite her displeasure at the idea, Hayley nodded her head in agreement, and three left after Klaus to do just that. But by the time they got there, it was already gone. 

We're up to the crossover episode next, which means a certain Salvatore is in New Orleans. I'm really looking forward to writing this one for Audrey, but it likely won't be posted until Monday. I'm working tomorrow until 11pm, and when I get home, all I plan on doing is crawling into bed to sleep. 

We only have 8 chapters left of season three now, and it's going by really quickly. 

I hope you all enjoyed!