Gonna Set Your Flag on Fire

Klaus stood in the doorway, leaning silently against the frame, arms crossed, as his eyes settled not on his daughter sleeping soundly, but on Lola.

She was sitting on the edge of the bed, leaning over Hope's crib as her hand gently brushed the peach fuzz hair of the infant, as if afraid that even now after everything, Hope might vanish. Her face was soft in the low light, a quiet reverence there; a woman holding on to a miracle that had been just out of reach for far too long.

Klaus didn't say a word.

His chest ached, but not the kind of ache that came from pain. This was deeper, warmer. A swelling of something he hadn't let himself feel for months. Peace. Wholeness. That impossible feeling of being in the exact place you're supposed to be.

Six months. Half a year of fear, bargaining with hope and despair. And now, in this fragile, perfect moment, everything had clicked back into place.

Love isn't always big moments. More often it was tucked up in the small moments connecting the major ones. Klaus understood this now as he stood watching his wife and child. Because finally, Klaus felt the one thing he had longed for; the feeling of being complete.

"She's been asleep for the last hour, love." Klaus' tone was calm and soft as he approached Lola from behind, "Hope isn't going anywhere."

"I know," The heretic sighed softly, "but we've just missed out on so much. I just want to stay and watch her for a little longer."

Lola had all night to sit and stare at her beautiful baby girl if she wanted to, but right now her attention needs to be elsewhere. On her husband. 

Lola followed Klaus out of the bedroom, slowly closing the door as Klaus put his jacket on, "Do me a favour? Bring Cami here? I think she would be able to help Elijah more than I can."

The hybrid seemed somewhat taken aback by Lola's request, given the nature of needing to keep Hope a secret to everyone around them, "Are you sure? You can trust her?"

"She's in the small circle of people I trust with anything." Lola's eyes were full of pleas. Yes, she knew Elijah and was close to him but he needed more than just Lola at this moment of time, "Please?"

—✤—

The sky was painted in slow-burning colours: deep amber, soft rose, and fading gold - bleeding into the horizon as the sun dipped low behind the trees. Lola stood on the wooden porch, arms folded loosely, watching the car grow smaller down the dirt road until it disappeared around the bend.

The wind was gentle, brushing her hair across her face, carrying with it the scent of pine and the faintest hint of lavender from the garden as Rebekah lingered in the back of her mind. There was fire in Rebekah's eyes; familiar, determined. 

The kind of fire that came with choosing a path not for yourself, but for others. She was going back to New Orleans not to escape, not to run, but to protect. To stand up for something bigger than herself. To fight against Esther.

Brave. Noble. Reckless, but undeniably Rebekah Mikeaelson.

The screen door creaked softly as Lola stepped back into the house, the last blush of sunset fading behind her. The warmth of the porch slipped away, replaced by a heavy stillness that seemed to live in the walls now.

She knew she didn't have to look far, Elijah was exactly where she knew he would be.

Sitting alone in the far corner of the living room, his posture was painfully straight, like he was holding himself together by habit alone. But the truth was in the details. The slight slump of his shoulders. The way his hands rested motionless on his knees as he stared into the crackling fire. The hollow cast to his face, like something vital had been carved out of him and hadn't yet grown back.

Lola didn't say anything at first. His eyes lifted to meet hers, slow and distant. And for a second, she swore he didn't recognise her, not really. Like he was seeing her from underwater, or a memory he wasn't sure was real.

Lola flashed a hesitant smile as she stepped into the room, "Hey." she said gently, voice warm, careful as though speaking too loudly might crack whatever fragile balance he was trying to maintain.

The Mikaelson matched the same hesitant smile yet his eyes looked distant, "I do hope your time back with your daughter is the peace you've desired after all these months."

"I feel like myself again." Lola said with a soft breath as she sat on the chair opposite him, "What about you?"

Elijah's jaw twitched at Lola turning the conversation onto him, "What about me?"

"Come on. Talk to me." Lola leaned forward on the chair, perched up as her full attention was on the man she wanted to help so deeply, "Lay it all out."

"Charlotte, I don't think.."

"Elijah.." Lola pressed further, "You know you can talk to me about this. You have before, remember?"

"I know and I appreciate that, Charlotte, it's just.." Elijah swallowed harshly, his eyes shut as his hands turned into fists as though he was fighting away the demons in his mind, "The things I've done. The images of who I am."

"Was." Lola corrected him with a firm yet soft tone, "Past tense."

He gave the smallest nod, like he was trying to acknowledge it, but the words didn't land fully. Like everything he heard had to pass through too many broken pieces to reach him, "It's a lovely gift from Mother. I can't turn it off."

"Show me."

Elijah glanced up at Lola, eyes wide. He was ashamed of everything Esther made him relive constantly, so ashamed he didn't want the one person he trusted most to see and to potentially once again tarnish what they've built, "Charlotte.."

"Elijah, please." Lola reached forward, grabbing Elijah's hand, "Show me what she made you go through. Help me understand more."

The elder Mikaelson hesitated for a moment but knew Lola would be the one person who would understand and not judge what was behind that door. The moment Elijah's fingers closed around hers, something shifted in the room. The air grew heavier, cooler, almost electric. 

Lola didn't flinch. She just looked at him, at the way his eyes had gone glassy, unfocused, as if he were staring into something far beyond the walls of this house. The red door. The space was dark, endless, a void painted in shadow. In the distance stood a single door. A deep, almost luminescent crimson.

Lola closed her eyes and was greeted with everything Elijah keeps hidden. Blood on his hands. His fangs sinking into the necks of innocents. The cold, emotionless face he wore as he ended lives. The brutal, merciless man he became when loyalty demanded it. And beyond that, his mother's voice, whispering in his ear, twisting every action into something dark and selfish.

It all became so overwhelming for Lola, she gasped and broke her hand away from Elijah's which snapped her away from the red door and the darkness that lies behind it. Lola's eyes were wet but steady as she looked across the living room to see Elijah with a look she has rarely seen in the Original's eyes; vulnerability. 

"She unravelled me," He murmured, "Piece by piece. She made me live in it. Over and over. Every day. Until I believed I deserved it. Made me remember that every good thing I'd ever done was just another mask over something rotten."

Lola's chest ached for him, "You're not rotten, Elijah. You've always carried too much weight but you did it because you cared. Because you love. And what happened with Tatia? Was not your fault. You were forced to become a creature you didn't understand. You were given the power with no rule book."

He looked up at her then and for the first time, something flickered in his eyes. Pain, yes but also the faintest thread of recognition. Of someone reaching for something real in the middle of the fog.

"I don't know who I am without that weight," he whispered.

"You're still you," Lola said, voice steady now, "Even in this. Even when it hurts. Especially when it hurts. You came back, Elijah. You fought to come back."

She leaned forward, resting her hand lightly on his, "You're not lost. You're healing."

Elijah closed his eyes, just for a moment and for the first time since he'd returned he let out a breath that wasn't clenched inside his chest. It wasn't peace. Not yet.

But it was something.

Lola could feel her heart breaking repeatedly as she watched Elijah stand up from his seat, standing over the fireplace. She exhaled a shaky breath as she stood up and immediately pulled him in a tight embrace, "You're not that person, Elijah. What's behind that door doesn't define who you are. Have you ever thought, maybe..maybe you could open up to Klaus and—"

"I appreciate what you're doing, Charlotte." Elijah inhaled a sharp breath, breaking the embrace but his hands remained against Lola's arms, "I do. And I am grateful you have kept things I have shared in the past to yourself, which is why you should know it would be the worst thing to do in sharing this with Niklaus. Hearing his brother killed his first love..you know how much that hurts, regardless of the time in between."

The heretic's heart felt like it weighed ten times more at Elijah's words. Something stirring in her own chest raw, familiar as she was reminded of Dominic and his tragic end at the hands of her own brother.

Lola cleared her throat, stepping away from Elijah to take a breath for herself. This was harder than she thought it was going to be and could only think about how much easier it would be to have Cami by her side through this to help.

But thick tension filled the room making Lola look over to Elijah who stared out the window, his posture as hard as stone. Lola's brows knitted together, "What is it?"

"We're not alone." Elijah's tone was cold as his eyes darkened with veins underneath. 

Lola heard two car doors closing outside and a familiar voice speaking up, "I didn't know why Klaus told us to come here when we left Mystic Falls. I also didn't know when we got on the plane, nor when we landed so I definitely don't know now. So stop asking me, dumbass."

"Elijah, it's fine." Lola said quickly just as Elijah was about to go outside, her hands against his chest to try and get eye contact with him, "It's fine. It's my brothers."

Elijah's jaw twitched once more, he cleared his throat as he nodded and soon walked away further into the house. Lola sighed as she watched him, knowing their conversation needed to continue.

Lola couldn't help the smile tugging at her lips as she stepped out onto the porch to see her two brothers walk towards the home. Even now, even after everything, they were still them, bickering like teenagers, carrying the weight of decades but still acting like no time had passed at all.

They both glanced up, smiling instantly at the sight of their sister and despite her smile, she still looked confused as to why they were in Arkansas, "Not that I love seeing you both, why are you here of all places?"

"Well I was hoping you would give me some insight, little sister," Damon's gruff voice spoke with his infamous smirk, "Why'd loverboy send us here?"

Klaus. Of course it was him.

Lola could see it now in the timing, the way they'd appeared not long after Klaus and Rebekah had left. Lola let out a slow breath, eyes drifting past Damon and landing on Stefan. And Stefan, he was already looking at her.

His expression didn't shift, not noticeably, but something flickered in his eyes. A quiet understanding. A weight neither of them voiced. He knew. He knew what Klaus had told him. Knew what waited behind that door at the end of the hallway there was a tiny room filled with the soft rise and fall of a miracle's sleeping breath.

Hope.

Stefan looked away for only a moment, then back again, just enough to say, I didn't tell him. I wanted you to.

Lola gave the faintest nod.

And beside them, oblivious for now, Damon was still talking about the drive, about a terrible gas station sandwich, about how this house looked like it belonged in a ghost story. He had no idea that just beyond that door, his niece—his blood—was sleeping soundly inside.

She looked at him then—really looked. At her big brother, loud and arrogant and loyal to the point of madness. At the way his eyes still scanned the porch like he was searching for something. For the catch on why the brothers were demanded here by the hybrid.

"Damon," she said softly, and he paused mid-sentence, eyebrows raising, "There's someone inside I want you to meet."

She didn't need to say more. Damon stared at her, confused as he looked over to Stefan who was smiling faintly at his brother which made Damon scoff, "Alright, what the hell is going on? Am I being pranked? Is the hybrid dick inside with some twisted torture designed for me or something?

Lola reached for Damon's hand as she laughed softly, "Come on, it's time."

"Time for what?" Damon huffed, still as confused as ever being dragged inside by Lola with Stefan following, "Am I being sacrificed?"

But Damon froze in his place as Lola opened the door leading into the bedroom where Hope continued to sleep soundly. Her chest rose and fell in soft, steady breaths. Wisps of golden-brown hair fanned across the pillow. One hand was tucked under her cheek. The other rested over a small stuffed rabbit, clutched gently like it had always been there.

The silence in his chest cracked wide open with something that wasn't pain—it was too big for pain. It was the rush of grief unwinding. It was shock and wonder and a kind of joy that came with teeth, tearing through him from the inside.

His voice, when it finally came, was raw. "Is that..?"

"Hope." Lola whispered softly as she squeezed her older brother's hand, "She's alive."

He staggered a step forward. Not dramatic. Not loud. Just a man who'd spent months convinced this child, his niece, was lost to the world and was now trying to comprehend the miracle standing in front of him.

"But you said.." His hand reached out without thinking. Hovering, never touching, trembling in the air above her soft curls. His breath caught in his throat.

"I know," Lola whispered, her voice just as broken.

"We had no choice," Stefan added, which caused Damon to turn back to him in shock, "It was to protect her life."

Lola stood beside Stefan, glancing at her younger brother before she looked back to Damon, "We'll explain everything."

—✤—

lol imagine not updating for over a year..who does that? 

i'm not even apologising bc this year has been insane for me so i needed this time

it was a short chapter but i will be updating soon (not in 12 months this time i promise..maybe 6)