Hayley walks down the stairs of the compound looking utterly confused as a bunch of obviously compelled humans are walking around with decorations. 

"I told you the streamers were needed on the north side of the building, this is obviously west!" Caroline groans in frustration as she points them in the right direction. 

Hayley raises an eyebrow at her. "We were heading out, and now we're throwing a party? I see."

"One that will be attended by New Orleans' most influential creatures." Klaus muses from beside her. "This is when having you as a sister in-law really proves it's worth, love!" Klaus calls out to the blonde. 

"Bite me!" She snaps. "You could've given me a better heads up than telling me this morning." 

"How long has it been since you planned a grand event, Care?" Gabriel strolls out of the room they were sharing and leans against the balcony rails. She pauses. "Ms. Mystic Falls." 

"You do realize that everyone hates you?" Hayley brings the conversation back to Klaus wanting to know exactly what his plan is. 

"But they love Marcel. And as the invite states, he is the co-host. Tonight we celebrate our truce." He tells her. 

"So you're throwing a fake party, in honor of a fake truce, and your guest of honor is in a dungeon? This is what you have Caroline stressing about? Really, Klaus?" 

"Marcel's attendance would only complicate matters, besides I'll have my hands full weeding out those in league with The Hollow. Just trust the process."

"Have fun with that. Hope's with Mary, I'm just looking for Freya." 

"What do you need from Freya?" Gabriel questions curiously. Hayley shrugs with a nonchalant look on her face. "Just a favor." 

He watches her walk out of the room as Klaus resumes his ice sculpture carving. "Do you think that was odd?" 

"I've learned not to call the mother of my child things like odd." Klaus smirks. Caroline rolls her eyes at the hybrid and stops by the pair. "She's asking Freya to do a reading at the home that her parents died in. She thinks it may be tied to the Hollow." 

Gabriel and Klaus share a look. 

"What?" She snaps annoyed. 

"I didn't realize you and Hayley were the best of friends now, love, that's all." Klaus purses his lips in attempts to withhold his laughter. 

She places both of her hands on her hips. "Well, that's what happens when you raise two babies as single mothers for five years together." 

Elijah joins the three and inspects the ice sculpture. "Ah, you've outdone yourself."

"I'm inclined to agree. It's such a shame these lovely linens will soon be red with blood."

"Violence must only be seen as a last resort, it will only weaken our position." Elijah shakes his head. 

Caroline leans into Gabriel. "Why does he talk like he's going to war?" 

Gabriel snorts, ignoring his brother's side eye. "I've asked myself the same thing for a thousand years."

"Brother, please, remember that the point of tonight is to create a false sense of security. A little music, a little champagne, some stealthy reconnaissance.. no bloodshed. Do we understand each other?" He resumes his lecture to Klaus like a parent scolding a child.

"They threatened me. They threatened my child. Bloodshed is inevitable." 

"I agree." Gabriel hums.

"And how do we protect Hope and Lizzie from all of this?" He points out. 

Klaus is slightly speechless. "She worships you, Niklaus. And she must not see the monster. I also don't think Lizzie will react well if she see's you killing people in her name."

"I do not wish for her to see me as a monster, but I cannot sit idly by while threats to our family go unanswered." Klaus lowly responds. 

Gabriel shrugs. "Lizzie won't see it." 

"They won't. Now let me do this. Please. And should any turmoil arise, should anyone dare to disrupt our kingdom, let them answer to me." He questions both of his brothers. Klaus nods and when Gabriel doesn't respond Caroline smacks his side. "Fine." He grunts. "Then my family and I will go see how the apartment has faired in the past five years." 

"And this is where we used to live." Caroline gently tells Lizzie as they open the door to the apartment. 

"It's surprisingly clean of dust." Gabriel side eyes her knowing she must have hired someone to keep the place clean. 

"Why is there so much stuff here?" Lizzie questions as she explores the rooms.

The blonde's smile slightly fades. "We had to leave really quick, mommy and daddy didn't get the chance to bring everything with us." 

Lizzie runs off without a response wanting to see everything the home had to offer while Gabriel and Caroline stayed near the living room. "I do miss this place." Gabriel sighs. "So many memories here. This place was a safe haven from my family on many occasions." 

Caroline smiles as she lifts a picture from the shelf. "Look! It's you and Lizzie when she was first born." 

Gabriel nears her and smiles over her shoulder. "Hope and Lizzie's births were the scariest I have ever had to witness." 

"Coming into the world in true Mikaelson fashion, no doubt." Caroline snorts. 

"Mommy!" Lizzie calls. Both parents follow the sound of her voice, their faces slightly falling when they realize she was in Davina's room. Caroline briefly turns to him before they enter. "I can tell her she can't go in there." 

Gabriel sighs. "No, it's okay, Love. She was her sister." 

Caroline studies his face for any signs of a lie and then enters the room with him closely behind. Lizzie holds up another photo of Gabriel and Davina smiling wildly at the camera. It was after she had finished her online schooling and officially graduated among the chaos that was their lives at the time. "Is this Vina's room?" 

"Yeah, sweetie. This was Davina's room." 

She slightly pouts. "Daddy why am I not in the picture?" 

Gabriel chuckles as he rubs her head. "You were still in mommy's stomach." 

Lizzie hops onto the bed. "I think i'm sad." 

Each of them take a seat on either side of her. "Why do you think that, hun?" 

"I wish Vina was here." 

Gabriel kisses the top of her head. "I do too, Lizzie Love. More than anything in the world." 

"Is it really necessary to go through everything?" Gabriel sighs as he throws a little trinket in the donate box. 

"Some of these things you have had here since the early nineteen hundreds." Hayley snorts in amusement.

"Yeah, like what is this?" Caroline holds up a what seems to be a wooden stick with intricate carvings. Gabriel snatches it out of her hand. "Be careful, Love! This was once a dark object that could kill vampires no matter where it stabbed them." 

She tilts her head. "So if it stabbed a vampire in the foot... They died?" 

"Exactly." 

"Why would you need that?" Hayley crinkles her eyebrows in confusion.

"I made it for a vampire hunter." 

"Gabriel!" Caroline gasps. He huffs. "It was obviously before I met you, my love. Besides, I had to strip it's magic because she tried killing Marcellus." 

"She?" 

Gabriel winces. 

"Ah, yes. What was her name again? Anna was it?" Klaus approaches the three with a smirk on his face. 

Gabriel scratches the back of his neck avoiding Carolines eyes. "I don't recall." 

"That's odd. Weren't you and her quite close for a better part of a decade?" Klaus' eyes widen slightly at the threat in Gabriel's eyes and clears his throat deciding to change the subject. "Are you hosting a yard sale?" 

"I just figured while we're stuck here, I may as well work out which stuff to keep and which to donate." Hayley gestures toward all the junk. "We didn't exactly have time to do that the last time around."

"Listen, I found Hope and Lizzie exploring the rubbish in the attic. They're restless."

"They're not restless. They're bored." Hayley sighs. 

"Most kids their age would be at school. They'd have friends to play with." Caroline explains further, Gabriel frowns. Truth be told, with everything going on he hadn't even thought about schooling for Lizzie. 

"Well, once Freya teaches her to hone her magic, she'll be powerful beyond measure. She won't need friends. She'll be worshiped. Same with Lizzie. The two are already two pea's in a pod when it comes to magic." He gloats.

"She doesn't want to be worshipped. She just wants someone to hold the other end of the jump rope."

"She'll be above such things. She will have power enough to protect herself from anything. We won't have to trap her in bloody boundary spells just to keep her safe."

"Neither of the girls need or want to be worshipped. They just want a normal childhood." Caroline tells him. 

Everything goes black. 

Gabriel groans as he awakes on the compound floor. He rushes toward Hayley and Carolines still bodies as well seeing that their necks were also snapped. It had been an extremely long time since he's had his neck snapped and he could only guess this was the Hollow. 

Both women start to wake up just as Klaus enters the compound with Lizzie and Hope. All three of the parents rush toward the girls engulfing them into tight hugs. 
"Mom, we made a friend." Hope tells Hayley. 

"He's so cool!" Lizzie gushes. "His name is Marcel, he knew Vina." 

Gabriel's eyes widen as he looks towards his brother questioningly who shakes his head. 

"If you came to fight, it ain't gonna end well for you." Marcel calls out as Klaus and Gabriel enter his penthouse. 

"We didn't come to fight. You told them to close their eyes and to sing. I used to say that when you were young." Klaus softly replies. 

"Yeah, well, they're better listeners than I was. You didn't tell them." He pauses eyeing both men. "About our history."

"Right, yeah. How dare I deny my daughter the heartwarming tale of the boy I loved as a son.." Gabriel scoffs. "She has enough sibling trauma." 

Marcel rolls his eyes. "That is now the man you hate enough to keep locked in your basement."

Klaus clicks his tongue. "Yeah, but the thing is, we're not men, are we, Marcellus? We're monsters. And I intend to protect my daughter from that truth for as long as I can."

"I knew you were a monster from the moment I met you. Now, I may not have known you were a vampire, but I knew you." Marcel tells Klaus directly. 

Klaus sighs sharing a look with his brother. "The Hollow wants us dead. And it will tear through anyone to get what it wants. It doesn't matter who. Elijah, Hayley, Hope, Lizzie, Gabriel. I won't let it take them. And I won't let it take you. The only chance we have to survive is if we work together." 

Gabriel enters Davina's room that Lizzie had all but claimed as her own to find Caroline wide awake cuddling a snoring Lizzie. "Care?" He whispers into the room, not wanting to awaken his daughter. 

Caroline snaps out of her thoughts and gently pulls away from Lizzie. She slips out of the bed and follows him out of the room, closing the door behind herself. 

Gabriel pulls her into his arms savoring the small moments of peace they get together nowadays. "I'm scared for her." She confesses. "I don't understand why this thing wants her." 

"Siphon's are incredibly rare and Hope is a first generation Mikaelson witch." Gabriel sighs but decides to be honest with her. "The hollow has practically hit the jackpot." 

Caroline frowns. "How are we going to protect her, Gabriel?"

Gabriel stares down at her allowing his bright blue eyes, a different shade from the Hollow's effect, glow. 

"Your magic." Caroline breathes out. 

"Don't worry too much okay?" He firmly cups her jaw in her hands. "My magic... It's been a long time since it's been able to fully replenish. With the hex gone and the Hollow trying to invade my mind, it's practically jumpstarted it again." 

"We don't know how strong the Hollow is." She sighs. 

"I will be as strong as this family needs me to be to keep us safe." He swears. 

Caroline nods and relaxes into his embrace. "It feels like just yesterday we were in here with Kol and Davina." 

Gabriel slightly tenses at the mention of the girl and the blonde is quick to notice. "Gabriel.. Y-you haven't had the time to really grieve her or even talk about her on your own terms." 

Gabriel pulls away and wipes his hand down his face roughly. "What is there to say?" 

"I don't know?" Caroline throws her hands in the air. "You could say you miss her?" 

"Of course I miss her, don't be ridiculous." He huffs and turns away from her. 

"You haven't talked about Davina, you won't talk about these past five years, you haven't checked in on Kol.." She begins listing but then trails off into a quieter tone. "I understand these past five years have changed a lot. Do you-do you still want to be with me?"

Gabriel snaps his head towards the blonde with a disbelieving look. "I really hope you're kidding Caroline." 

Caroline looks to the ground. 

"I-I just spent five years in unspeakable torture.." He raises his voice and then promptly closes his mouth once he reminds himself his daughter was sleeping in the other room. He takes a deep breath in. "For you. I did it for you. You, my wife. And I lost my daughter because of my own family, and then I lost five years with my newborn, and then I lost my magic which is one of the biggest parts of myself. You know what, I can't even talk to you right now."

"Gabriel-" Caroline calls after him but he was already gone.