CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
SINS OF THE FAMILY

"What do we say to the god of death? Not day."

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     Henrik spent the next few hours drifting in and out of restless sleep. He was aware of his siblings and Hayley talking around him, but he couldn't focus on much of anything. He jerked fully awake twice, once to Elijah draping a blanket over him, and another time to Hope wailing at the top of her little lungs. When he finally came back to consciousness, he was immediately attacked with a fit of rough, painful coughing. He rolled until his chin was at the edge of the couch, coughing blood onto the floor. It was splattered with dried blood. He wondered how many times he coughed while asleep, how many times a member of his family had to roll him over just so he wouldn't choke.

Did it really count as sleep, he wondered, if he had no choice in the matter? He thought it wasn't, but he was trying to be positive. That was what Francis would have wanted, right? For him to stay positive? Unfortunately, it was hard to do that when his entire body was wracked with pain. It was doubly hard when he knew that he was dying. It was quite hard to be optimistic in the face of something like that.

"I suppose we should have prepared for this," he found himself saying, pressing his head back into a throw pillow. He curved onto his side a second later, feeling his stomach jerk with nausea. He pulled the blanket tighter around himself, groaning under his breath. "It was only a matter of time before karma caught up with our family."

"Perhaps it's what we deserve after what we did to Davina," Kol said. He was in a worse state than Henrik was, thrashing in his spot and hissing through clenched teeth. Freya was trying to keep him still, since more movement meant the venom worked through his system faster.

"Davina didn't want revenge, okay?" Freya asked, sounding desperate as she pressed a cold washcloth against Kol's forehead. Kol pushed her away, utterly exasperated.

"Just put me out of my misery!" Kol cried out. "At least put me to bloody sleep!" Freya slowed her movements at that, looking at Kol thoughtfully with a frown, before she glanced over at Henrik. He was staring at the coffee table, eyes bloodshot so much that it was worrying. Freya waited until Kol calmed down before she got to her feet and went to Henrik, kneeling down to press the cloth against his cheek. Henrik's eyelashes fluttered against his cheeks as he tried to keep his eyes open. He let out a soft sigh when he felt the cloth against his hot skin.

"You should rest," he murmured, noting how pale she looked, how much her hands were shaking. She shook her head, as stubborn as ever. She wouldn't be a Mikaelson if she wasn't.

"Putting you to sleep," she whispered, pushing his hair off his forehead. "Casting a spell to freeze your body like it is right now. Would it save you?" Henrik murmured an affirmative. He wanted to add that it was only a temporary solution, wanted to point out that when he woke up he'd be right back to dying. He just didn't have the strength to say so many words. Freya sighed in relief and placed a gentle hand on his cheek, patting it until he opened his eyes again. "We can stay asleep until there's cures for us all. Could you recreate the spell for the cure out of memory alone?" He didn't answer for a long moment, long enough for her to pat his cheek again, harder this time. It came dangerously close to a slap. "Henrik, you have to focus."

"What?" he murmured, voice weak. His eyes kept falling shut without him even noticing. It took him a moment to process her question, but when he did, he forced himself to nod. "Yes. Yes, but I need the ingredients." Henrik frowned. "Freya, I can't—what are you gonna do? I don't—" His mind was working too slowly. The plan hadn't exactly clicked yet, which really didn't matter. He couldn't have possibly helped anyway. He stopped talking when Freya shushed him.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of it," she whispered. Henrik grumbled at that, only to get shushed by his sister again. "Henrik, let me take care of you. For once, just let me."

Henrik didn't have the energy to argue.

He wanted to go back to sleep, but Freya insisted that he needed to stay awake now, rambling about how his exhaustion was starting to get concerning. She also mentioned something about him being delirious, too out of it to even communicate properly, so he didn't bother arguing or even trying to put up a fight. He just let Elijah pull him up into a sitting position, though it didn't do any good. As soon as Elijah sat beside him, Henrik's head rolled until it landed on his brother's shoulder. Every few minutes, Elijah nudged him awake. Henrik didn't know how much longer nudging him awake would work.

"Good news." Henrik jerked awake again when Klaus spoke. He kept his eyes closed as Klaus continued. "Rebekah has managed to talk Marcel down, at least from his initial rage. He's not going to hunt us through the city, nor is he going to come after each one of us individually. The price for that, however, is that he wants me to stand trial for my sins." Henrik's eyes immediately flew open.

"What?" he asked, trying to sit up but ending up falling back against Elijah anyway. "No, Nik, you can't."

"It's not a trial," Elijah agreed, though he did stop Henrik from trying to get up again. "This is a suicide. Take Hayley, take Hope, and get the hell out of the city."

"No," Hayley refused immediately. "We won't leave you."

Henrik didn't hear anything they said after that. He had already drifted back to sleep.

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He wasn't asleep for long. He could tell by the placement of the sun outside the huge window of the penthouse. It couldn't have been more than an hour, maybe less. He licked his lips as he sat up, then scrunched his nose and twisted his mouth when he tasted blood. He wiped at his mouth. Blood was smeared across the back of his hand when he pulled it away.

"I had to feed you my blood," Klaus said quietly, making Henrik jump. He hadn't even noticed Klaus sitting on the coffee table directly across from him. Klaus frowned when he jumped, looking even more concerned. Henrik wasn't out of it often, if at all, not to the magnitude he was now. "You weren't waking up. I will not have you die today, Henrik." Henrik stared at him for a moment, then suddenly had an overwhelming urge to lay back down, so he did.

"I'm so tired, Nik," he whispered. Klaus reached forward to squeeze Henrik's shoulder harder than necessary, but perhaps that was because Henrik's eyes had closed again.

"You only have to stay awake just a little bit longer, baby brother, and then you can rest. You just have to wait for Freya to set up her spell." Henrik hummed. He vaguely remembered Freya mentioning something about sleeping. Sleeping sounded wonderful to him. It wasn't long before Klaus was shaking him. "Henrik, bloody hell. I don't have long and I can't stay here shaking you awake."

"What d'you mean?" Henrik asked, the words coming out slurred and low.

"I'm going to meet with Marcel." Henrik knew he should've made a huge fuss about that, knew that he should have tried to keep him from going, but he couldn't get his limbs to move. His eyes had slipped closed again, and even Klaus's hard grip and harsh shaking didn't make them open again. The last thing he felt was Klaus pressing a kiss to the top of his head, and the last thing he heard was his brother saying, "I'm going to fix this, Henrik. I promise."

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The next time he woke up, Henrik was inside a garden.

For a brief, bewildering moment, Henrik thought he was dead. He looked around himself with wide eyes. The garden was a lush green, and the only flowers growing were pretty white roses. There was a white bench nearby. When Henrik moved toward it, he noticed the clothes he was wearing. Tight white jeans, white dress shoes, and a soft white silk shirt. He picked at it curiously, then looked up when he sensed a presence. Freya was standing in front of him, in a white dress. The entire place had a beige coloring to it. It was only then that Henrik realized what it was.

"A Chambre de Chasse?" he asked. Freya smiling softly was the only response he got, but it was enough. He never thought he would end up in an imaginative dreamland, but he wasn't about to complain. The last thing he could remember was being so tired that he could barely even open his eyes.

"Not exactly what I was expecting," Kol said, appearing beside Henrik and throwing an arm over his shoulder, "but beggars can't be choosers." Henrik snorted at that, glancing around the garden again. That was when he noticed the country house behind Freya. His breath caught in his throat. Now that he was getting a good look at his surroundings, he realized that the dreamland actually looked quite lovely. He grinned at Freya as he passed her, making straight for the closest batch of white roses.

"You like it?" Freya asked as she watched him, sounding hopeful. He picked a rose and twirled it around with the stem between his fingers, telling Freya that he did over his shoulder. She released a relieved breath. "It's what I always dreamt of. A home away from the city, just family."

"It seems we have similar tastes," Henrik admitted, walking back toward her. She was smiling at him. "I enjoy cities, but whenever I dreamed about settling down, it was always in a place like this." He sobered at the thought of settling down, thinking of Francis. Frowning to himself, he ran a finger against one of the rose petals before he brought it to his nose.

"This creation," Elijah said, and Henrik whirled to see that he was standing beside Kol, wearing a light blue shirt. Behind him, a few feet away and facing away from them, was Rebekah in a white pantsuit. Henrik wanted to go to her, but he could sense that she was upset, so he decided to leave their reunion for another time. "Is it yours or Niklaus's?"

"We're linked to his life force by the same spell our aunt Dahlia used to keep my alive for a thousand years. I realized it was the only way," Freya explained, wringing her hands together nervously. "We're in a deep sleep. It'll buy Hayley enough time to find cures for us all." Henrik immediately opened his mouth to ask about the ingredients for his spell—and to ask how in the world she was supposed to find a cure for his problem—but Freya stopped him with a raised hand. "She's going to get your grimoire and all the ingredients you'll need. I also recommended she find a siphoning witch to help with both your problem as well as Rebekah's." Henrik closed his mouth. It seemed Freya had already thought of everything.

"And the Chambre de Chasse?" Elijah asked, changing the subject back toward Freya's initial point. She smiled at him, shifting on her feet.

"My little addition to the spell," Freya admitted. "In here, we can remain together until we wake." Henrik raised an eyebrow and turned toward the country house. He hoped there were enough bedrooms for each of them, because he didn't think they would last a week together without some kind of escape. He didn't say that out loud, though. He was sure all of his siblings already knew.

"Will we all wake separately, once we're cured?" Kol asked, frowning. Freya immediately shook her head.

"No," she assured. "I tied it to myself. Once I wake, so will all of you. That's why I told Hayley to cure me last."

"We could be waiting for years," Henrik murmured. Freya nodded slowly, attempting to smile again.

"Well," she said with a small laugh. "There's a pretty garden, at least."

Henrik hoped that would be enough. He doubted it.

END OF PART ONE

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter was originally going to be much longer than this, but once I edited out things that wouldn't have been possible with Henrik's state, it ended up barely over 2k words. It's short, but it's sweet. Hope you enjoy.

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edited: 7.8.18