chapter fifty-five

mulder and scully

・❥・

WHILST KLAUS WAS in the shower, Jordanna was in the bedroom of the motel room, dressing her son. Once she was done with assisting Sebastian she sat down on the floor and opened up her mother's grimoire,  grabbed her grandfather's journal, and kept an eye on Sebastian from time to time as he waddled around the room.

Something her father said to her on the day she left New Orleans had been itching at her uncomfortably, she knew she couldn't trust anything that came out of his mouth, however, she had a feeling, a strange one.

'You think that'll bring her back? Think again.'

Now, she knew who he was talking about, but she didn't understand how he knew about her. No one in the compound had told him that Jordanna had children, so how did he know about her?

He also mentioned her ancestors, and hell, there it was, her answer. She had come up with a theory, one in which she was keeping from Klaus, because if she was wrong she didn't want to burden him with that.

A loud knock on the motel room door startled her, her brows furrowed as she checked her designer watch and came to a stand. She headed to the door, ruffling Sebastian's hair in passing and latched her hand around the door handle, pulling it open she was greeted with a beaming smile.

Bonnie let out a noise of excitement and immediately wrapped her arms around Jordanna before she pulled away and gave her a pointed stare. "Let me see it," Bonnie demanded and Jordanna stuck her hand out with a smug smile.

A delighted squeal left the Bennett's mouth, "Oh my God, it's gorgeous!"

"I know," Jordanna gushed, staring down at the ring on her finger, watching as Bonnie muttered incoherently under her breath and Sebastian caught her eye, she moved over to him immediately. Jordanna placed her hand on the door frame and glanced outside. "You gonna stand there brooding all day, or are you gonna come in and pretend you're excited to see me?"

Stefan rolled his eyes as he trudged over to her, but a small smile slipped on his lips, he wrapped an arm around her neck, pulling her close. "I saw you last week, Jords."

"I don't think me, you and Hayley being shoved in a trunk really counts," she muttered, pulling away from him.

Stefan huffed out a laugh and moved further into the room, allowing Jordanna a chance to close the door behind them, taking a cautious glance around before she did so.

Bonnie picked Sebastian up and hitched him up on her hip. "Are you sure everything's alright? It's just ... you didn't sound okay on the phone."

"Well, I'm currently living in this crack-of-the-ass motel room, wearing fucking flat shoes and my hair looks like this," she voiced, gesturing towards her very flat hair. "No, I'm not alright. I'm very distraught, Bonnie."

Stefan rose his eyebrows at the obvious sarcasm in her voice. "Sounds great!" He clasped his hands together before he turned to Bonnie. "Can we head off now?" Jordanna gave him a blank stare to which he shook his head softly. "Don't get me wrong, Jords, I've loved seeing you but one, Klaus might kill me if I stay here any longer now that he knows about ... you know, and two ... there is no two, but this room smells like an animal died in here."

Jordanna rolled her eyes, "Sit down for five minutes. At least pretend you're excited to see me."

Bonnie gave an amused smile in Stefan's direction and watched as he begrudgingly took a seat on the edge of the bed, glaring at Jordanna as he did so, while there was a part of him that tried to fight off the small smile that wanted to slip on his lips, he wouldn't let it show ⸻ he was in a bad mood that morning, listening to Bonnie sing the whole trip ensured that fact.

Jordanna gave a smug smirk and crossed her arms over her chest as she lent against the wooden cabinet. "So, how's everyone? Caroline? Alaric? Kath?"

Stefan let out a sigh, "Uh, Caroline's at a baby class or something, Alaric's hiding so he doesn't have to go to the baby class and God knows what Katherine's doing."

Jordanna let out an amused breath at Stefan's words. "Typical," she scoffed, folding up some clothes before shoving them in the old, tatty-looking duffle she had dug out of Hayley's closet. "How's-"

Before Jordanna could continue with what it was she was going to say, the squeaky door of the suspicious-looking en-suite pulled open, revealing a stoic-faced Klaus, towel hanging off of his waist.

Three different faces were pulled at his entrance. Jordanna looked as though if her friends weren't present in the room, she'd jump his bones, Bonnie rose an appreciative brow at the shirtless Mikaelson and gave the Jones a look that said, lucky you and Stefan? Well, Stefan shrunk in on himself.

Truth be told, deep down he was a little frightened, not knowing how Klaus would react to him now that he knew that Salvatore and Jordanna did, once upon a time, sleep together.

The fear on Stefan's face not only amused Klaus, but it boosted his ego just a tad. Men. "Bonnie," Klaus nodded towards her in greeting before his eyes flitted over to his 'old friend', a smirk pulled at his lips. "Hello, Stefan."

The Salvatore rolled his lips into his mouth, gave Klaus a brief nod and turned to Bonnie, "You ready?"

The Bennett gave him an amused look and debated whether or not to stay for a little while longer, making her friend uncomfortable and bask in his misery or leave.

She didn't want to leave ⸻ but she knew they had to. They had to ensure Sebastian's safety for the day and Jordanna and Klaus had business to do.

"Yeah," Bonnie nodded, softly shifting Sebastian on her hip. Stefan said nothing, but awkwardly grabbed the bag that Jordanna had packed for Seb.

Bonnie headed over to Jordanna and gave her a quick hug, "I will watch him like my life depends on it, okay?"

Jordanna nodded, a soft smile on her lips. "I know you will, buttt, just to be safe," the Jones trailed over to the rusty-looking closet, pulled it open and wrapped her palm around the baseball bat. "Here," she handed it to Bonnie.

Bonnie's eyebrows jumped up in surprise, "Really?"

Jesus, the Bennett thought, Jordanna must be really worried if she was giving her 'Barry'.

As Bonnie headed over to the door she watched with an amused expression painted on her face as Stefan awkwardly trudged over to Jordanna. He didn't know whether to hug her or not ⸻ feeling uncomfortable under Klaus' strong, stern gaze.

Jordanna rolled her eyes at his actions and pulled him into a hug. After a moment, Stefan did relax into her touch. As much as he feared the idea of Klaus quite literally grabbing him by the material of his jacket and pulling him away from Jordanna, he feared her safety more.

He knew that with everything going on right now, she and her family were at big risk and he didn't want this to be the last memory of them ( if it came down to that ), him not hugging her because he was scared of Klaus.

When the pair pulled apart, Stefan swallowed roughly under Klaus' stare before he rolled his eyes, realising he wasn't scared of Klaus ( maybe just a little ).

Stefan picked up the bag that Jordanna had packed for Sebastian and slung it over his shoulder. Stefan and Bonnie eventually made their way out and over to the car. It wasn't that much later when Jordanna and Klaus were too leaving the motel room, heading to a diner just across the road.

The couple continuously bickered as they approached the diner, Klaus thought it pointless to go, seeing as they had too much to do and no time to stop and eat, Jordanna argued that if she didn't eat now, she'd refuse to help him on their little 'mission' or whatever the hell you wanted to call it. Klaus' ego must've taken over when he stated he didn't need her help, to which Jordanna responded with a fork to his palm.

Not having much patience or argument left in him, Klaus said she had twenty minutes, she gave him a look, but nonetheless agreed.

So whilst Jordanna compelled herself a free latte and a croissant ( to-go), Klaus was on the phone, presumably with Elijah.

She watched him with narrowed eyes as he paced up and down the length of the diner, clearly anxious about whatever it was his brother was saying to him.

Jordanna's eyes briefly left his figure as the waitress placed the wrapped croissant and paper cup in front of the Jones, the raven-haired woman looked up at her with a small smile and muttered a, "thank you," under her breath before she headed over to Klaus.

Just as Jordanna reached him, he pulled the phone away from his ear with a sigh of defeat.

"Okay, so, there's like ten of those Kingmaker offices," Jordanna said, shoving her latte in his hand so that she could reach into her pocket and pull out a piece of paper with a list of addresses on it. "Which one should we check out first?"

Klaus said nothing, only he stared at her with an odd expression on his face. Jordanna's brows furrowed in confusion at this, "What? Did you want a coffee or something?"

At that, he rolled his eyes. "No, Jordanna, I didn't want a coffee," he began, his jaw clenched ever so slightly. "Lucien has revealed his true nature. He's taken Freya."

"Oh, shit," Jordanna breathed out, running a hand through her hair, displaying the stress that'd just overcome her body. However she couldn't help but raise her eyebrows and tilt her head, giving Klaus a pointed look. "Never trusted that guy. He has this look about him, you know?" She asked, meeting Klaus' eye, the man gave her an unamused stare back. "A crook, he looks like a crook. Fucking knew it."

"And while your silent assumptions about him were correct, it seems Freya's rescue depends on Elijah working with my ever-reliable brother Finn," Klaus voiced, watching as Jordanna began to pick apart her croissant, she paused abruptly at his words.

"I'm sorry... Finn's alive?" She almost choked on nothing, her eyes widened at the revelation, this was the first she'd heard about this.

Klaus gave her a blank, irritated stare in response, "Jordanna, I already told you this."

Her brows furrowed into a deep v shape, "Um, no, you didn't. When'd that happen?"

Klaus inhaled deeply, sometimes her selective hearing wowed him. Anything important that she needed to know went in one ear and out the other, but a small, petty mutter under the breath, oh, she'd hear that.

Klaus' tongue poked the inside of his cheek, "I told you this-" he stopped himself mid-sentence with a slow shake of his head. "That is not important, what's important is I did tell you and, unsurprisingly, you didn't listen."

"Yeah, no," Jordanna slowly shook her head, squinting her eyes at the man. "That's not really high on my list of priorities right now, Nik. So, what you gonna do? You heading up to New Orleans to help find Freya?"

Klaus hesitated for a moment, torn between the choice. Go to New Orleans and try to help Freya, or stay here with Jordanna, uncovering whatever mess Lucien was trying to keep under wraps. He let out a sigh and grabbed the small piece of paper she still held in hand, "No. The wolves, Freya's abduction... it can't all be a coincidence. We'll let my brothers peruse the obvious path. You and I... will pursue this one. No doubt all roads-" Klaus tapped his finger on the third address on the list, 122283 FOREST ROAD, "-Lead to the same treacherous bastard."

A smirk curved on Jordanna's lips, she folded the small note and shoved it in her pocket, grabbing the latte she shoved in Klaus' hand, "A romantic road trip, I like it."

・❥・

Jordanna and Klaus nearly killed each other.

They'd only been at this for a couple of hours, and they had spent half of it arguing. Klaus insisted that he could read the directions from a map, rather than Jordanna hooking her phone up to the car and using the GPS, he, much to Jordanna's petty delight, got them lost about fifteen times.

Not only that, but due to the fact they were coming up empty-handed so far, they were growing more stressed, and taking it out on each other. They were practically a married couple already.

The pair had gotten out of the car and began walking toward the large office in front of them.

Jordanna groaned at the same exterior she and Klaus had seen five times today. "Does he build these from a kit or something? Was there a sale at Ikea I don't know about it? It's the exact same for the last five offices. Same windows, same dead-looking plants..."

"And inside, same generic abstract art, same compellable receptionist," Klaus added on.

"You sure you don't wanna head back home?" Jordanna asked, glancing over at the Mikaelson. "I can do the legwork while you help Kol and Elijah."

A playful grin pulled at Klaus' lips. "And split up the team now? I'm too enticed by your karaoke skills," he let out a small laugh, to which Jordanna rolled her eyes at. "No, Lucien is playing a game here. Each unassuming little office building we search, the more sure I am of it. We keep going, together. Even if we have to scour one hundred of these poxy places."

Jordanna paused in place, "One hundred... Today? What if I've gotta eat, will I have time to eat?"

Klaus turned to her momentarily and gave her yet another pointed look.

"You know what? I'm not even hungry," she shook her head and began to catch up to him. "I'll eat tomorrow, yeah, tomorrow sounds good."

Klaus rolled his eyes as he reached the door, he pulled the door open, allowing Jordanna to walk in first. Once they were in, they approached the reception desk.

The blonde behind the desk put down the phone that was held to her ear and looked up at the pair expectantly.

"Hello, love, we're here for a spot of 'search and potentially destroy'," he grinned down at the woman before his eyes met hers and he began compelling her. "Do tell ⸻ where are the areas off-limits to general staff?"

The receptionist only smiled a sinister one and leant further back into her chair, "You just wait right here... and I'll have someone out here to help you with your inquiry."

The receptionist pressed a button under her desk and an alarm blared throughout the building. The lights all shut down and red ones began to flash as the room flooded with armed guards.

"Stay right there!" One of them yelled out.

They surrounded the pair, who looked bored at the theatrics. Assault rifles pointed at their hearts and all they could do was smile.

Klaus angled his head towards Jordanna and looked down at her, a glint of amusement shone in her eyes. "How are we doing this, then? I mean, you could kill them with your magic, make the job faster or would you prefer a slow and painful death for them all?"

Jordanna gave him an obvious look, "I need to work off all the crap I've been eating this week, besides, this'll be a lot more fun."

A deep, humoured chuckle left Klaus' lips at her words and he held a hand out in gesture for her to step forward, she did, inching just in front of him, he leant down and with a sinister smirk his mouth lowered down to her ear, lips brushing the shell of her ear as he whispered, "Ladies first."

Jordanna sped towards them, fangs bared for all to see. She didn't stop as she felt a bullet lodge in her shoulder, in all honesty, it kept her going.

She ignored the pained screams that echoed throughout the room, not looking back to see whatever sinister thing Klaus was doing to the guards behind her.

Jordanna was sure, in another life, she would've been a trained spy or something. I mean, the way she moved, it was tactical, it was thought out, she was smooth with it.

One by one, they took out the guards. Guns were impaled into their guts, scattered pencils from the receptionist's desk were rammed into necks, necks were snapped, and bones were broken.

It went on for all of five minutes until finally, Jordanna grabbed the last man standing by his tactical gear and threw him through the glass doors.

Jordanna let out a heavy breath and pushed her hair away from her face. She hovered a hand over her shoulder and felt the strong tug of her magic as it slowly pulled out the bullet that was lodged in her shoulder until she heard a clink and it hit the ground, now forgotten.

The pair then made their way through the building when they spotted a frantic scientist in a white lab coat trying to make a run for it, when unfortunately for him, he bumped into Klaus' chest.

Jordanna rose her hand and twisted her palm, causing the man to go limp as his neck broke, Klaus caught the man's body as Jordanna reached forward and plucked his credentials from his lab coat.

She twizzled the card around in her hand with a smirk and watched as Klaus dropped the man to the ground, stepping over him, Jordanna made her way over to the locked door and held the key card in front of the scanner, allowing them into the laboratory.

Inside the lab, Klaus and Jordanna spotted at least a dozen men and women strung up and attached to IV drips, whilst the corpse of a transformed werewolf laid still in a cage.

Jordanna looked around with a look of disgust written on her face. "What is this, the X-Files?" She muttered to herself, walking over to where a young man was chained up, her eyes fell on what looked to be a breathing mask over his face, only it had two vials on either side of the mask, full of reddish-orange fluid.

"This is soooo freaky," she whispered to herself, prodding at the side of his mask, her head tilted in astonishment and she went to prod him once more when suddenly the man's eyes opened, revealing yellow-gold werewolf eyes. She jumped back in shock, hand cradling her heart. "Holy shit," she cursed before a short chuckle left her mouth, she craned her head backwards, catching sight of the Mikaelson. "They're still alive."

On the other side of the room, Klaus pushed back a clear plastic curtain to find a dead woman bound to an exam table with lesions all over her face and neck. "This one's a vampire," he voiced, turning to face Jordanna, who had slowly began to approach him. "What the hell is Lucien up to here?"

Jordanna puffed out her cheeks and let out a harsh breath, her lips pursed and she turned to Klaus with a serious expression on her face.

"Crook shit," she stated, nodding along to her own words.

Once again, Jordanna was right.

・❥・

Jordanna wasn't usually influenced by her friends, she wasn't influenced by anyone, period. But she knew she had to save these wolves, and she knew she was only doing it because of Hayley.

Screw you, Hayley Marshall, for making me soft, she thought as she began to pull off the werewolf venom-removing mask from one of the werewolves' face.

As Klaus helped the others, Jordanna began to help the man out of his restraints, she gently sat him down and bit into her wrist, offering it to him.

The middle-aged wolf weakly shook his head, "No vampire blood."

Jordanna let out a short breath and threw her head back in annoyance. "Nik," she called out, the Mikaelson immediately made his way over to her with a questioning glance. Jordanna said nothing, only she grabbed his wrist and pulled out a scalpel that was sat on one of the medical trays nearby and cut into Klaus' wrist, the original looked at her in offence as she shoved him forward, towards the man. "He's a hybrid, drink up."

The werewolf looked at them hesitantly before he reluctantly began to drink the blood. Once he was done, Klaus pulled his wrist away and turned to look at the Jones beside him.

"He needed their venom," he told her, trying to piece together what was going on. He glanced around, eventually finding a small refrigerator that he opened, discovering a vial of cloudy white liquid. "He harvested the venom he needed, then reverse-engineered a vaccine. Clever bastard."

Jordanna's face scrunched in confusion, she looked up at him. "Wait, I don't understand all this science-y stuff, what does she have to do with this?" She jerked her head toward the dead vampire who was still strapped to the exam table.

Klaus' eyes narrowed on the woman's body for a second before he answered. "It was the wolf venom that killed her," he picked up a syringe full of werewolf venom and examined it. "Just Lucien testing his cure."

Jordanna's face furrowed into deeper confusion, "Why does he need to test out something he already knows works? To boost his ego?"

・❥・

Jordanna examined the room as she strolled around, blue eyes flitted from one thing to another. The faded stains of blood that ran across the floor as though a body had been dragged across the floor a while back. With the many, many trays of medical items, Jordanna crouched down in front of the one closest to her and rummaged through the items mindlessly.

On a mere guess, Jordanna stopped searching and grabbed the first thing her hand touched, she twisted her palm and read the small, but informative, description of the drug, she pulled a face and shrugged, placing the small glass tub in her pocket.

If she and Naomi wanted to get rid of Aurora, they'd need to be prepared.

"Freya's safe," Klaus voiced, breaking Jordanna from her dazed stare, the Jones woman turned around and slowly came to a stand.

"Good, what about the others?" She asked with furrowed brows as she stared at him in anticipation.

"Well, Finn's in a bad way. Some werewolf bite. Elijah thinks I should return home and heal him, ease his pain," Klaus said, almost scoffing at the idea.

Jordanna gave him a look, "You should go, I'll stay here, make sure these get home, gather what I can, and torch the place."

Klaus let out a chuckle as he slowly made his way over to her, "No, Finn can purge it himself, he's earned the agony. Besides, you know how much I love burning things to the ground."

Jordanna gave him a weird look, and exhaled deeply. "Look, he's still your brother, okay? Maybe this is a chance for you to be the bigger person, maybe even fix your relationship. You've both fucked up massively, you mainly," she muttered the last two words under her breath, earning narrowed eyes from the man. "It could be like, I don't know... a fresh start for you both."

Klaus said nothing for a moment, he only stared at her with an unrecognisable look in his eye, "You-"

"Don't even say anything," Jordanna mumbled, turning around to shuffle through files that were carelessly strewn across a counter-side. "I know, I'm getting soft, it makes me sick."

Klaus huffed out a laugh, but nonetheless didn't comment on the fact. He slowly approached her and gently grabbed her arm, he turned her around to face him and cupped her cheek in his hand.

"Be careful," Klaus said, looking down at her to meet her eyes.

Jordanna gave him a look, "I'm burning a building, not going on some secret spy mission, I'll be fine."

"With you, that could mean the same," he scoffed before lowering his head to press a sweet kiss to her lips.

After Klaus had left, Jordanna had stifled through the last of the files, she put the ones that seemed important into her bag and urged all the werewolves that were still alive to wait outside.

She began to pour gasoline over the laboratory, humming to herself whilst she did so. The middle-aged wolf she and Klaus were helping earlier, stood beside the door, watching her.

Jordanna turned to him, trying to appear kind-looking, though she was weirded out by the fact that he was just stood there. "Go outside, as soon as this place burns I'll take you to uh... the Crescents, I've got a friend down there, she'll take care of you."

The man frowned, "I'm not from there. One was, he died last week. We're from the seven packs: Deep Water, Malraux, BasRoq, Barry, Poldark... and I'm Paxon."

Jordanna rose her eyebrows in surprise, pausing from the task she was doing, "They had to look long and hard to find one of you, I haven't heard of half of you in years."

"Yeah," the man let out a short, humourless laugh. "They wanted our venom," he walked towards Jordanna and pointed at the dead vampire on the surgical table. "They kept... pumping it into her over and over and over again. Then they'd heal her with some drug. Except the last time, they shot her up with something so powerful... there was no saving her."

"Jesus," Jordanna muttered to herself, taking this information in, trying to piece it all together with what Lucien was planning. She turned back to the man one last time and gestured towards the door. "You better get out of here."

The man nodded, glancing around with a glum look in his eye before he exited. Jordanna grabbed the bag from the counter and took a step back. "Incendia," she muttered, watching as the room lit up, orange danced across her skin as she turned around and sped away.

The second her feet touched the concrete outside, the lab blew to pieces.

・❥・

Jordanna stood outside of the compound, staring up at it with mixed feelings bubbling in her stomach. She was happy to be home, of course, but she knew with New Orleans...  came trouble.

She made her way through the compound, looking around for anyone in sight. It looked the same, except for the fact it was visibly cleaner due to none of her shoes or Sebastian's toys being strewn across the floor. She just knew for a fact that Hayley would've cleaned up, and she also knew for a fact that the Marshall would've tried on her shoes since Jordanna wasn't there to guard them with her life.

The raven-haired vampire pushed her hair back from her ears and listened closely, soon finding her family.

Upstairs, in the living room Freya, Elijah, Klaus and Hayley stood in front of the blazing fireplace, quietly discussing what had happened. The three Mikaelsons in mourning for their brother.

"Lucien did all this to become like his maker, and yet, my bite cannot kill an original. What are we up against here, brother?" Klaus couldn't even cover up the fear in his voice, knowing that once again, they were facing a threat bigger than themselves.

Elijah slowly shook his head in disbelief. "I truly don't know." He muttered solemnly.

"Luckily for you, I do," Jordanna voiced as she walked into the room dramatically. Hayley met her eye, and no matter the situation at hand, she smiled widely at her friend. "We found Lucien's R&D lab full of werewolves. He's harvesting venom, he's not looking for a cure... he's trying to create a more lethal strain."

Freya scoffed angrily, ferociously brushing away the tears that sat under her eyes, "Well, that must be what he added to the spell to make him whatever the hell he is now. He kept boasting about having something that would make him better than an original."

Jordanna nodded at her words, "Nik came from one of the seven original wolf bloodlines, Hayley came from another. Lucien's venom, it's from all seven of them."

"Giving him a bite that not even I can cure," Klaus' eyes widened at the discovery.

"There were two vials of serum, and he only drank one. Maybe it's because the spell will wear off eventually and he'll need another dose?" Freya questioned, a hopeful tone to her voice.

Jordanna slowly shook her head, "No, he's thought this through, he wouldn't have settled for it if it ran out. He made enough for two... one for him and one for Aurora, and I say that hoping she's still buried."

Elijah and Klaus looked at one another, a terrified look in their eyes as they sped down to where Aurora had been buried, Jordanna and Hayley followed after them.

Suddenly, Klaus and Elijah stopped in their tracks.

"She's gone," Klaus let out a disgruntled sigh at the sight of the brick wall that had been broken.

Jordanna clenched her jaw and lifted both hands, smacking both Mikaelsons across the back of the head. "This is why we kill people!"

Author's Note!
guys i just realised bonnie and enzo aren't even together rn so that comment she made ab enzo a few chapters ago ignore it!!!! id edit it out but i cant find it and im too lazy to look for it anymore

qotd: (i saw this on tiktok and wanted to know what u lot thought ab it) would u rather have hayley alive and rebekah dead or hayley dead and rebekah alive

also i know for the past year i haven't been updating as frequently as i used to, i just don't have as much motivation or time like i used to, so i apologies for that but i won't just ditch the book, i will still update this until the end but it will take a long bloody time lmao

rest in peace Matthew Perry 🫶🏽