Chapter Text
Josie’s eyelids feels heavy as she struggles to open her eyes, her chest moving up and down with shattering breaths. She feels weightless, moving above the ground while the night air is chilly. She shivers and suddenly warmth envelops her, wraps her up nice and cozy. Josie’s hands touch bare skin and tight shoulders, her senses overwhelmed with vanilla and something else that she can’t recognize.
Strong arms hold her around the back of her legs and back, her head lulled to the side and Josie rips her eyes open. The first thing she notices is sparkling blue eyes staring forward, lips set in a tight line.
“Hope?” Her voice croaks painfully and Josie longs for the special soup that Caroline used to make for them when they were sick. But her mother isn’t here. She’s thousands of miles away trying to find a way to keep her children alive.
Hope’s head looks down at her and she halts in her steps, slowing down. “Hey, it’s okay. I got you.” Her voice is soft, soothing and Josie wants to fall asleep. Her chest feels heavy and everything hurts. Her memories are foggy and she doesn’t know what happened.
Hope adjust her hold on Josie, pulling the siphoner closer until she hears Josie let out a content sigh as she buries her face into her neck. Hope already carried Lizzie back to the school and Landon into the woods so he could resurrect without anyone watching, leaving Josie at the large oak tree, laying unconscious on the ground.
Josie’s skin is freezing and Hope feels the dark magic cursing through her veins. The image of Josie siphoning the sword, blackness filling up every inch of her body as her eyes blackens is burned into Hope’s mind. The feeling of helplessness as she watches Lizzie beg for Josie to kill her, to kill the demon inside her and Josie’s desperate expression looking back at her, screaming ‘help’ makes Hope loose her breath.
She, the daughter of the original hybrid, the first tribrid of the universe, Hope Mikaelson for the first time in her life didn’t know what to do. She just sat there, looking at Josie, the most important person in her life breaking down in front of her, trying to find a way around killing her only sister.
And Hope feels mad. Mad at herself that she couldn’t help. That she couldn’t take Josie’s place to spare her of the pain that she’s now carrying in her body. Hope’s heart breaks when she thinks about how her eyes are starting to turn hollow, the carefree, loving girl long gone.
“Dad?” Josie slips in and out of consciousness and Hope bits her lips to keep from crying.
“We’re almost there. Hold on.” She swallows the lump in her throat and leans down, placing the softest kiss against Josie’s forehead. Hope knows Josie doesn’t remember her but it doesn’t stop her heart from skipping a beat when she looks down at the brunette, so small and fragile in her arms. She wants to see her smile again even if she isn’t the one who caused it.
Josie falls asleep by the time Hope gently places her in her bed, tucking her under the blankets. Lizzie is passed out behind her, soft mumbles telling Hope that she’s dreaming. The tribrid can’t help her eyes as they look around the familiar room, memories of silly fights and not so silly fights, confessions, laughs and tears attacks her mind. She can’t remember the last time she was in here and her hearts longs to just crawl beside Josie and fall asleep, for once not thinking about what tomorrow holds.
But she knows she can’t. Her thumb gently brushes against Josie’s cheek for the last time, the siphoner stirring slightly before settling down and Hope’s out the door, leaving her heart behind.