"She had something worth fighting for."

—

The next morning Camilla was woken up by a knock on her door. She yawns and stretches out a bit before walking to her door opening it slowly. She's slightly surprised to see Lizzie saltzman standing at her door with a big tray of breakfast.

"Good morning mom, I thought we could have breakfast in bed like old times and help jog your memory a bit." Lizzie says with a wide hopeful smile, barging into her room she sets the tray on the bed and starts getting comfortable on the left side leaving enough room for her mother.

Although they usually would be cuddled up together while talking and eating breakfast she was too scared of rejection to push her limits.

Camilla slowly closes the door and smiles softly towards the blonde. She didn't want to hurt the young child's feelings but she was still getting used to the whole having kids thing.

She walks over to the right side of the bed and sits down. They begin eating breakfast while Lizzie tells her about her troubles.

"Josie has been getting so annoyed with me lately but like what does she expect, I'm not even doing.." she gets interrupted by a knock on the door. Glaring at the door while Camilla goes to open it. She laughs a bit when she sees its Jace, Alec, and Josie with a tray of food as big as the one Lizzie had brought in with breakfast on it.

"Sorry if we woke you up momma, we just wanted to have breakfast with you like before." Jace says staring at her with a smile. He was trying to comfort her because although she was usually the one who comforted him it was his turn to return the favor.

"Do we all usually have breakfast together?" She asks curiously with an amused smile.

"What do you mean?" Alec asks with a cocked head, confused as to how she already knew that. Maybe she was getting her memories back.

Opening up the door more so they could see in the room the three crane their heads to see a smug looking Lizzie sitting on the bed drinking a glass of orange juice. Alecs idea immediately goes flying out of the window.

They had tried finding Lizzie this morning to bring her along but she was no where to be found. Now they knew she had obviously taken matters into her own hands like always and didn't invite them.

A little disheartened Josie mutters an 'oh' about to turn around to leave but Camilla seeing her facial expression calls out her name.

"Why don't you all come in we can have breakfast together." She says looking towards them all. They all nod eagerly. She sees Hope turning the corner walking through the hallways looking at an assignment she had missed during all of the drama lately. Hope hears her name being called and is surprised to see it was Camilla.

"Want to join us for breakfast?" She asks hopefully. She didn't want any of them to feel left out.

Hope smiles widely and nods walking into the room to see Josie and Lizzie glaring at her but was slightly glad to see Jace and Alec had on looks of indifference.

They both knew that Camilla was Hopes mom too, they couldn't keep her away from her. The twins on the other hand wished they could send her as far away as possible from their mother.

After a couple of minutes of silence and everyone eating on Camilla's king size bed she breaks the silence.

"Did we always eat breakfast together like this?" She asks again curiously not getting an answer the first time.

"You mostly ate with us individually. It depended on who crawled into your bed at night or if you thought we had a bad day the day before. You know, before Hope ever existed in our lives." Lizzie says glaring towards hope. Hope rolls her eyes trying to act unbothered but it really did bother her. They were supposed to be her sisters, but they hated her for something out of her control.

"Seriously Lizzie lay off." Alec says getting annoyed with the twin's competition on who gets mommy's attention. They all wanted her attention, but being a bully wasn't something their mom would've allowed.

"She seriously thinks she can-" Camilla cuts her off trying to calm the situation down before it gets out of hand.

"Guys lets just enjoy breakfast!" She says hopefully. But they all just continue arguing. The door opens loudly and in comes Caroline and Stefan. They stop when they see all the kids arguing and an exhausted looking Camilla.

"Everyone out!" Caroline yells, the kids knew they shouldn't stress Camilla out right now with everything going on and they couldn't keep their arguments to theirselves this once.

They all stop and looks at Caroline. "She started it!" Lizzie yells pointing towards hope like a toddler.

"I didn't even do anything!" Hope yells back fed up with being treated like trash.

"Being born was enough." Lizzie snarks back with a scowl.

Caroline opens her mouth to tell them to knock it off but a booming voice interrupts her. "Knock it off now!" Camilla scolds surprising them all.

"First of all Lizzie and Josie, she's apparently your sister. Act like it. Jace and Alec quit instigating." She says rubbing her temples as she feels a headache coming on.

Stefan sees how stressed she is and goes to grab her hand but she jumps in surprise making him retract his hand. "I'm sorry." She whispers. He just nods sadly but is genuinely surprised when she grabs his hand and gives it a squeeze.

Lizzie and Josie both storm out of the room with Hope and the two boys trailing behind but with less attitude.

"Am I doing something wrong?" Camilla asks tiredly looking towards Caroline who shakes her head.

"I don't know why the twins are acting like that. You usually handled that department." Caroline says with a small sympathetic smile. "I'm gonna go check on what everyone's doing." Camilla nods and watches as she leaves the room.

Stefan notices she's still holding his hand making him smile down at their intertwined hands. All of a sudden a blue glow starts to emit from their connected skin like when he first accidentally healed her and she woke up from the brink of death.

Camilla sees this and panics a bit trying to seperate their hands but she's unable to. All of a sudden she falls to the floor with a pained gasps and begins screaming holding her head with her free hand in pain.

Stefan tries pulling his hand away but is unable to. Shouting his brothers name in panic hoping he can hear him. Damon and Kol who were both on their way together to one up each other in gaining Camillas friendship hear this and speed into the room.

They both attempt to speed to her but get thrown back like the first time Kol tried to push Stefan away from her before she woke up.

"What's happening?" Damon yells over Camillas loud cries.

"I can't move my hand!" Stefan screams. By now everyone had heard her cries and sped into the room worried.

In Camillas mind she was seeing small flashbacks. As a little kid going to the Gilbert house with 3 other little girls she recognized as Bonnie, Elena, and Caroline.

She sees visions of Elenas teary face at her parents funeral. She sees Elena and Stefan fall In love. Then she begins to see flashbacks of meeting Klaus and their time together.

Flash back

Waking up to soft kisses on her neck she smiles and slightly opens her eyes to a beautiful sight that she wished she saw every morning.

Niklaus looks up from her neck shirtless smiling widely at her, "good morning love."

"Morning Nik." She smiles leaning in to kiss him on the lips.

Flashback over.

She sees the excitement and nervousness she felt when she found out she was pregnant with Jace.

Flashback

Finally gaining the courage to look at the test she sees the two lines indicating she's pregnant.

After a long conversation with an unhappy yet slightly excited Bonnie she figures out it must've been Klaus' wolf side.

Flash back over

She feels the heartbreak all over again.

Flashback
Skipping happily into klaus' home she walks into his bedroom too excited and nervous to even hear the moans and slams open the door with a large smile but it soon fades.

She sees klaus on top of who she thought was her friend, Hayley who was a moaning mess naked.

Gasping in pain and stumbling backwards she physically felt like someone stabbed a knife through her heart.

Niklaus turns around quickly hearing her gasp and his eyes widen in guilt and regret. He tries to quickly put on his pants and run after her but she was already long gone.

Flashback over

While she was reliving the heartbreak all over again in her head everyone in the room stares at her in worry and panic with teary eyes when her screams suddenly turn into loud cries. She was grabbing at her chest heaving for air like she was drowning.

But they all could tell. This was not a cry out of pain, it was as if she was being emotionally destroyed. Like someone tore her heart apart.

"She's getting her memories back." Caroline whispers. She knew that cry. She heard it every night for months. But there were only a few times when she cried like that. When she hit rock bottom.

Camilla was living through her past like it was the first time. She felt everything just as strong as she did the first time. It was pure agony. She felt like her heart was ripped out. In the midst of still being locked in her memories she screams out, "No! How could he do this! He cheated on me Caroline! And then he left!" She screams sobbing her eyes bloodshot. In her head she was with Caroline in her own home a sobbing mess in the living room.

Caroline closes her eyes covering her mouth with tears running down her cheeks remembering this exact moment. It was days after finding out Klaus had left to New Orleans after cheating on her. She was so broken and then she had finally just snapped.

Everyone in the room had tears running down their faces including Klaus and the kids watching her fall apart. Actually seeing the damage he did to her made his heart break into pieces. It made him finally realize he knew what he had to do.

Even Elijah had a few tears running down his face. He had never seen a woman so broken.

Although they knew how heartbroken she was when it happened they never witnessed her break down like Caroline did. Bonnie, Damon, Stefan, and Elena all stand there in complete sadness finally understanding how hurt she truly was in that moment.

"I fucking hate myself!" Camilla sobs out screaming making everyone that much more heartbroken. "Maybe I'm not good enough! No. Maybe I'm not."

Caroline begins completely sobbing remembering how much she hated herself. She blamed herself, saying she wasn't good enough. But then She looks towards the kids in slight panic knowing what was coming next. She rushes towards them trying to usher them out of the room but they were having none of it.

The rest of the adults look at her in slight confusion, how could it get much worse than this? Until the next words that came out of Camilla's mouth made them all suck in a sharp breath.

She begins struggling trying to get out of Stefans embrace in her mind it was Caroline she was struggling against. "Let go of me! Let me die! Please! I can't do worse than this! It hurts so much! Make it stop! Please just let me go!" She screams sobbing harder than they thought possible. They all stop frozen.

Jace, Josie, Lizzie, Alec, and even Hope all stare at their mom while she's completely broken and can't help the tears running down their faces like a river. She had been through so much, that much they already knew. But no one ever talked about how much it had hurt. She made it through every day with a large smile and never showed any weakness.

All of a sudden she stops completely staring at the wall with a numb face.

"Cami?" Stefan whispers sniffling. But she soon gasps her face turning into one of horror.

"It's not over." Bonnie whispers her voice cracking.

"Someone do something!" Kol yells completely torn with bloodshot eyes watching her go through this.

"We have to let her do this to get her memories back." Freya says sniffling.

Not even knowing her like everyone else did it was a heart wrenching sight to see. Everyone in her family always mentioned the good parts, her and her brother being madly in love, and they talked about him cheating on her. She guessed none of them knew the true extent of the pain she went through.

In Camillas mind...
flashback

"Come on bonnie's this way! We're going back Kol!" Camilla exclaims excited. "We're finally getting out of here!"

Kol laughs, this woman had become his best friend. He didn't know what he'd do with out her. "Yes darling we're going as fast as we can."

A bright light pops out of nowhere and Camilla tries to get to Kol but in a flash he disappears.

In reality....

"Kol!" Camilla screams looking around. Kols face softens and everyone turns towards him in confusion.

"Bonnie!" She screams sounding as if she's out of breath from running, which at the time she was. Bonnies breath hitches knowing exactly when this happens. "Kol's gone I can't find him he just disappeared." She says breathing heavily tears coming back to her eyes.

"Is this when..." Kol trails off looking towards the Bennett witch who merely nods her head towards him closing her eyes.

"No! I refuse to leave with out him! I have to find him Bonnie! We can't just leave him, I won't leave him!" She yells pulling at her hair. "H-his family abandoned him and he's all alone. I can't." She begins sobbing. "He's my best friend I will not leave him."

Kol rubs a hand down his face trying to calm down his tears. Damon looks at him sympathetically, he finally understood how much she cared for him.

She freezes once again and they all prepare themselves wondering what could happen next.

In Camilla's mind...
Flashback

"I-I don't understand." She says shakily covering her mouth.

"Katherine finally told me what got the Mikaelsons to flee mystic falls so quickly." Damon says calmly looking at her with sympathy.

"He got her pregnant? And he's taking care of her and her child?" She says holding onto a desk nearby trying to steady herself.

In reality...

"Damon tell me you're lying." She says harshly trying to stop herself from crying. Everyone looks towards Damon in confusion never having heard this before.

"Damn it." He mutters under his breath, but everyone heard him. It seemed all of the hard memories were hitting her the hardest. This was the moment their friendship really began.

"He left me pregnant, while he's taking care of the girl he cheated on me with. Because she's having his baby." She gasps holding onto her throat like she couldn't breathe. "Elijah and Rebekah just left with out saying goodbye, to take care of her."

All of the Mikaelsons look down in guilt, shame and regret.

"Damon tell me you're lying to me! Please!" She screams sobbing. Everyone was heartbroken over how many breakdowns and heartbreaks this one woman had in her one life time. The worst part was that this wasn't the end.

She's frozen once again. Everyone just wished it was over with so she didn't have to keep reliving her worst moments.

In Camilla's mind...
flashback
"Mom. Mom please wake up!" She screams crying over her mothers dead body.

Caroline runs into the room alarmed.
"Caroline she's dead, she's gone."

In reality...

"Caroline shes g-gone." Her voice cracks.

"Who is she talking about?" Lizzie is the one to speak up, what more could her mom possibly have gone through?

"Our mom." Caroline whispers biting on her nails thinking about that moment.

In Camilla's mind...
Flashback
Caroline, Ric, the twins, Jace, Alec and Camilla had just gotten far enough that If the hellfire destroyed mystic falls they'd be okay.

"Stop the car!" Camilla yells.

"Cami-" Alaric begins sympathetically but she just yells at him again and he finally pulls over.

She swings the door open and visibly stumbles out of the car grabbing out her phone calling Stefan praying to god he answered.

Getting sent to voicemail she squats to the ground trying to muffle her sobs but Caroline hears it and gets out of the car to check on her sister.

"Stefan.." she sobs.

In reality....

"Stefan.." she sobs holding her mouth attempting to hold in her sob.

Stefan closes his eyes crying along with her having heard that tone of her voice once before. He lays his forehead against the back on her head while everyone from the Mystic falls gang sighs sadly watching the two lovers knowing what happened next. The originals and the kids all look towards them confused.

"I want you to know it's okay. I understand." She sobs. "I love you so much. A part of me wants to beg you not to leave me like he did but I know you won't listen. Just, j-just wait for me."

She continues crying whispering 'he's gone' on repeat for a few minutes but suddenly passes out in stefans arms.
Everyone's silent for a few minutes and all that could be heard is sniffles and hiccups.

"Why would she want to come back to all of that?" Jace speaks up for the first time with a croaky voice. Everyone looks towards him in confusion. "Who would want to come back from all of that?" He says waving an arm towards his mother.

"How could she even survive all of that heartbreak and still smile everyday. How did she go from wanting to die to how she is today?" Lizzie says crying into her brothers shoulder.

"Because she had you guys." Caroline smiles softly. "She had something worth fighting for. And that's why she's going to be okay."

Everyone just stares at the strongest woman they know in sadness and amazement.

Heartbreak was no stranger to any of them but this was a whole new level.

𑁍  𑁍  𑁍
Vᴏᴛᴇ & Cᴏᴍᴍᴇɴᴛ
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Rᴏsʟʏɴ Mᴀᴅʏsᴏɴ