02: Taking Chances

[Manhattan, NY. June 22nd, 2088. 10:11 am.]

It’d been years since the last of ‘Team Machine’ had died. Of course, Sam was still around, but once everyone had visibly started aging, she had upped and left and in secret started another Team on the opposite coast. Mainly because the Machine had begun to evolve, despite her creator’s wishes, and there were plenty of people to save. To monitor.

But, just as with her last gig, people started to age around her, and she moved back to New York. She loved it how her friends were at the same cemetery, next to each other. It made it a whole lot easier to visit them. Not that she cared. Sameen Shaw didn’t do feelings very well, but on occasion, she couldn’t help but think of them and how brilliant they all had been and had to visit their graves to leave fresh mementos.

Harold would get a small piece of the latest technology, as he would have gotten a kick out of that. John, well, it depended on what her mood was, really. She left a gun one time, and that quickly got stolen, so she settled for the latest burger she was addicted to. Root was the hardest but had she been alive, she’d have appreciated the gesture of Sam leaving flowers on her grave. Detective Fusco always got superglue, Sam always imagined gluing his mouth shut for some reason and Bear… losing Bear was the hardest, he’d been the first, but it had been the hardest. Chew toys, kibble, a new collar… nothing was too expensive for that dog.

Sam wasn’t sentimental, but her friends needed to be looked after, even in their death.

The Machine was her constant companion now. Built to monitor threat levels for terrorism for the government, The Machine had slowly become obsolete. She kept upgrading herself but with so many new technologies for law enforcement – such as androids – and mini versions of The Machine with the newest technology and better software, now readily available for everyone but civilians; there wasn’t much she could do than to verify incoming threats. The Irrelevant; the murders, the home invasions, the frauds and everything else, became more of a priority somewhere in 2050, as they were, once again, overlooked.

As the Machine evolved, she started to find candidates to create small pockets of teams who would work the Irrelevant cases. Sam would have the final say, but it was the Machine who knew best. She felt somewhat proud that Harold Finch’s legacy continued to do so much good for the world in an age where it was harder to do things off the radar.

Both Sam and The Machine were showing their age, but at least they still had each other.

[Message:] It’s time.

“Time for what?” Sam took a sip of her drink as she sat on John’s grave with her back against his stone. One of the evolutions the Machine went through was proper communication just like Samaritan had done. Harold hadn’t liked it and had completely ignored it, but Sam had always been open to it. The Machine was precise. She knew things, and once she had started to communicate with her, she could appreciate why Root had always been so infatuated with her “God”.

[Message:] For your happy ending.

“I don’t do happy,” she huffed, taking another sip. She’d done happy, once. And maybe it was twisted or not, but it was when she met her maker. Literally. Niklaus Mikaelson had charmed her, wrapped her around his finger, saved her life by turning her and then broke her heart when he left without telling her where he was going. She had appreciated his honesty and the way that he seemed to care. On top of that, the sex had been incredible, but he simply upped and left.

She could have gone and tracked him down, but her anger told her not to. And even after all these years, she was still pissed off. Holding grudges was something she did best; it made her an awesome marksman. Sam wasn’t even sure he was still alive.

[Message:] Niklaus is going to need you.

Huffing again, she downed her bottle and set it atop John’s headstone. “He wasn’t there for me when I needed him when everything was still new.”

[Message:] You had help. You are all alone now. Niklaus will soon be all alone too.

“So?”

[Message:] History shows that he’s not good on his own. People will be in danger.

“What are you saying?” Oh, Sam knew what the Machine was telling her. Niklaus Mikaelson was going to be her newest project; it was time to face the hurt he had put her through and rip off his balls for doing so. Contain the monster, sort to speak.

[Message:] New number; name Niklaus Mikaelson, The Abattoir, French Quarter. New Orleans, Louisiana.

“Fuck you,” she grumbled as she got to her feet. “Send someone else.”

[Message:] Negative. Unable to comply.

“Fuck you,” she said again before nodding towards her friends and headed into the direction of her apartment. She needed to pack.

[Royal Street, New Orleans, LA. June 24th, 2088. 3:45 pm.]

She wanted to have all the facts. If Klaus would do something stupid, surely she’d get to hear about that before her investigation was over. Sam wanted to know as much as possible of her maker before she’d decide to kick his ass.

She wanted to investigate because she wanted to spend more time in New Orleans as she wasn’t sure how long she was going to be there in the first place. New Orleans was magical, even with all the added new technology, New Orleans, especially the French Quarter, hadn’t lost their touch. Sam had found the Abattoir yesterday, upon arrival in New Orleans. It surprised her that this old woman was shuffling behind a walking aid and right onto the courtyard at least twice that day. Sam couldn’t help but laugh when she used her vampire senses to overhear one of the conversations.

“When are you going to stop moping?” The old woman scolded someone. “They’re gone. Everyone’s gone. Soon I’ll be gone too and you have to take care of my family. Watch over them, because I certainly won’t be able to when I’m dead.”

“Quit your whining, you old bat. It’s the same discussion every single day,” Klaus snarled. Sam had to smile at that. He certainly hadn’t changed. It was fascinating to think of the reasons why he hadn’t killed the woman yet. However, Klaus’ spat was followed by a thud and him taking a deep breath as the woman seemingly had knocked out the air out of his lungs. How was that possible?

“I need to know you’re going to be okay, Klaus,” the woman sounded angry. “I’ve tried to reach out to Rebekah and Elijah, but they’re having too much fun on their own to look back. Mostly because they know Kol and I looked after you.”

“I don’t need looking after, Bella, now leave before I drain your body from the little blood it has left.”

“I’ve already outlived two of my children; I don’t think I’ll be around for much longer,” Bella sounded sad. Her shuffling feet coming towards the exit of the courtyard seemed heavier as when they’d first arrived. “Isabella and Kol already promised to keep an eye on you.”

“I don’t care about your grandchildren, Bella.”

Sam sighed as she retreated to the shadows. Klaus cared, he cared deeply. She could hear it in his voice. He was a scared little boy who was going to lose someone he cared about. He was going to be left behind, and that was a strange side of him that Sam hadn’t experienced yet. This was fascinating, she needed a little bit more time to figure out the dynamics of Klaus’ family. He had a family. Talk about entering Bizarro land.

[Accessing current feeds]

[Mystic Falls, VA. Former Salvatore Boarding House. January 15, 2311. 5:34 pm.]

Bella was sitting in front of the fire with a blanket around her as she tried to get warm and ignore the two rebelling vampires in the house. She had managed to persuade Klaus and Kol to release the restaurant back into human hands and had then bullied Stefan and Damon in allowing them to stay at their house for the time being. Until she was recharged. Until she was 100 percent.

Of course, she couldn’t do that with an easy mind if there were a chance of possible escaping of Kol and Klaus, on their hunt to cause more mischief. Kol’s realization that Bella was back had only lasted for half an hour or so before his mood turned sour again, but she wasn’t up for fighting him just yet.

She had recharged enough to cast a house wide spell that all vampires couldn’t leave the house. Damon and Stefan just took it in stride and retreated to their bedrooms to make sure that they wouldn’t end up in the fire Bella was currently staring into. Sam was trying to make sure that Kol and Klaus wouldn’t demolish the entire house trying to get out. There was no use. The spell was in place.

“You know, as much fun as this is,” Sam remarked as she sat down next to Bella to look at her. “Couldn’t you just have put them to sleep?”

Bella shrugged. “This is indeed more fun, but go ahead and do some neck snapping if you get tired of them. They’ll calm down eventually and accept their fate.” A playful smile appeared on her face. “I’ve done this to Klaus a few times in the past for threatening my children. It also involved some sharp implements following him around the compound. So much fun.”

“Sounds a bit childish to me.”

“Well, then he shouldn’t have threatened my children,” Bella replied as she looked at Sam. “I am sorry you had to deal with this,” she apologized. “Have you tried finding Rebekah and Elijah?”

Sam huffed. “I’m not stupid, of course, I have. They came back a few times and Klaus settled again under their influence, but they’re acting like selfish children.”

“Now, that’s not nice. They’ve been around for a very long time, and they have a good heart. They, along with Kol, saved my life. Sure, the first time they upped and left was after Kol passed. But they should have come back after I was gone. No offense to you, of course.”

“None taken, but so that you know,” Sam said as she got to her feet. “I’ve been loyal. I’ve been helping him get through this, and he started to get better until he resurrected your husband. Those two together are a nightmare. Was he like that before? Kol?”

“A nightmare?” Bella grinned as she tightened the blanket around her. “Never. It’s simply one of his quirks, and I loved him for it.” She thumbed over her shoulder to a sulking Kol sitting on the couch with his arms crossed over his chest as if he was a small child. “Vampire Kol is something entirely different but he doesn’t believe it’s truly me yet so,” she shrugged. “We’ll see.”

“You know we can hear you two speak, don’t you darling?”

“Yep,” Bella replied and then looked around for a phone. “I’m kinda hungry, how does one go about ordering food these days?”

Sam snorted as she got up. “What are you in the mood for?”

“Anything, really.”

“Bella likes chicken. Fried, plain, grilled… as long as it’s chicken you’ll be safe,” Kol answered as he kept his eyes on Bella. “Whose body are you wearing?”

She turned around and smiled at him. “Why? You like?” She teased as she twirled her blonde hair. “This is one of the last girls of our line, at least so far. She willingly gave it up, apparently.”

“Well, nobody ever said that we Mikaelsons weren’t bonkers,” he said with a shrug. “And yes, I like but I miss your face.”

“Ah,” Bella nodded as she fumbled in her jeans for some paper and used a spell to take it to Kol. “I nicked this from one of the books they had in the loft.”

He caught the paper, and when he opened it, a huge smile appeared on his face. “That’s us at your graduation party,” he said as his eyes kept focused on the image. “That’s such a long time ago.”

“But we had fun,” Bella pointed out.

“I dared you to do something stupid and you didn’t do anything stupid because you were such a chicken.”

“You got me to dance, wasn’t that dumb enough?”

“Oh no, because you didn’t do something stupid, I did and kissed you.”

“You nearly killed that teacher in revenge for sending us off that dancefloor,” she countered. She was happy that even though he was back in his rightful body, his memories of her were still there. The memories of their life together. She didn’t know if she’d be able to handle it if Kol’s resurrection had lead to full or partial reboot. And despite they both felt a little bit uneasy about the whole resurrection business, she was glad that at least the bickering still felt the same.

“Exactly. Nearly isn’t the same as actually killing him,” he retorted as he finally slinked off the couch and sat down next to her. “Did they get you back so you can turn me back to being a human?” He eventually asked as he looked at his hands.

“No,” she said softly as she reached out to caress his hair. “We have a lot of work to do in New Orleans, and I know that you can’t enter, that’s why they got me back. So that I can lift the spell because the Mikaelsons who are still alive don’t want to raise it, and they wanted me to fix everything for them without you.”

Kol huffed as he leaned into her and put his head on her shoulder. “That’s entirely Nik’s fault, he kept terrorizing generations of your lineage and went on killing sprees to thin out the population even further.”

Our lineage.”

“Technically they’re all yours. Yours and Kaleb’s. There wasn’t a drop of Mikaelson blood in our children. They carried the name, but they’re not Mikaelsons.”

She knew he was right, technically, they weren’t his by blood. But they were his because she made them with him even if he wasn’t in his right body. And to hear him say that his kids weren’t his, simply hurt. They were. She was there when they created them and when she had to go through labor to get them out. “You’re an asshole,” she said as she pushed him away from her.

“Yeah, I know, but I’m right. They’re still my kids, I mean, you and I created them and had so much fun while doing that, but they’re not related to me. Not to this Original body. And that means not to your current body either.”

“Stop it.”

“No, because don’t you see, Cuddles? It means that I can have sex with you in your current body without feeling incestuous.”

“You just want to have sex with this body, period. It’s a hot body,” she stated as she looked at him. It was true, her own body had been without curves, almost looking like a boy and he had loved it, but this body, Daisy’s body, had hips and bigger breasts. Hell, Bella would do herself if she could.

“Oh yes,” Kol said as he hungrily licked his lips. “It is. But I’m just glad you’re inside of it.”

She huffed as she hugged her knees to her chest. “Sorry to disappoint you, but until this afternoon I was quite dead and before that I was old and creaky. No sex.”

“Ever?”

“I didn’t say that.”

~0~0~0~

Klaus wasn’t too happy with his mate right now, especially because he was currently confined to a house. He couldn’t go out and exert his rage and still his thirst, and that made him even angrier. “I’m going to sink my teeth into the delivery guy,” he snarled as he opened the door and waited. He couldn’t get out, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t invite the poor human in.

“You will do no such thing, you’re already high on blood.” Sam just stated as she looked at him. “Besides, they deliver with drones now, in case you’ve forgotten.”

He growled as he turned to his mate. “Why did you resurrect her? She didn’t want to be resurrected, in fact, I went as far as trying to delete her from history so she’d be left in peace!”

“You’re afraid because she can actually kick your ass better than I can.”

“Sameen, don’t test my patience.”

“I didn’t resurrect her,” she countered as she crossed her arms over her chest and relaxed. “The witches were desperate for help, so they asked me. They spelled me so I could get through the barrier that’s keeping you out. Apparently the latest batch of Mikaelson witches do want a change in New Orleans. However, it’s being made impossible because their regent has gone off the reservation. Then there’s the influx of new witches and the werewolves taking over the city. They thought I could help.”

Klaus huffed. “They should have allowed us back in.”

She grabbed the nearest heavy object and threw it at him. “If you might recall, it used to be my job to help people, before I became your babysitter, asshole.”

“Continue,” he said as he expertly caught the lamp and set it down at his feet.

“Something about a harvest, I don’t know, I wasn’t really paying attention to that.”

“Bella and Kol made sure that wouldn’t be necessary anymore when they became regents,” Klaus said surprised. “Not that I care about the lives of the witches, but why did they reinstate it?”

“How the hell should I know?” Sam countered angrily. “All I know is that the girls’ mother is the current regent and off the reservation. Then this other witch came with a solution, some witch she found in old books.” She pointed at Bella. “She talked about her as if she was the most powerful witch ever, almost in a creepy way, like… she’d worship the ground she’d walk on.”

“I wouldn’t say she was the most powerful witch ever,” Klaus said with a smile on his face. “Determined, yes. Powerful, sure. Not the most powerful witch, but of her line, yes. Definitely the most powerful.”

“Oh, not you too,” Sam rolled her eyes at him. She had just overheard Kol saying it to Bella, and she couldn’t believe that someone would actually say that to a mother.

“Well, it’s the truth, isn’t it? The only reason I kept so many of them alive was because of Bella.”

Sameen shrugged. “Bottom line, they resurrected her so she could help them with their problem and me with mine,” as she pointed at the boys.

“And what’s your problem, love?” He foolishly asked.

“You and Kol,” she replied as she intercepted the drone and grabbed the bag before throwing the drone back out the door. “You two are out of control and without your siblings to reign you in, I needed the help before I took an extended vacation myself.”

Klaus laughed. “We’re not even that bad.”

“Yes, you are,” Sam walked over to Bella and handed her the bag with food before returning to Klaus. “You need to seriously calm down and get yourself under control before you do things that are irreversible.”

“Such as?”

“Destroying Mystic Falls, for one,” she stated and then sighed. She didn’t do feelings. “You could go down even further down the slippery slope you’re on and kill me.”

“I could never.”

“You don’t know that, and frankly, right now, I don’t even know that. So I welcome the help that Bella can provide. I don’t mind being locked in a house right now until she’s back to full strength.

“No, I don’t, but at least you’re a vampire. Bella’s a human,” he said as he pointed at his sister-in-law, who was quietly chatting to his brother. “He could easily flip the switch back to rage and kill her, thought about that before you agreed to resurrect her to help you fix your problem with us? Or what about us?”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, dear Sameen,” he sighed as he tiredly rubbed his eyes. “We both have a healthy dose of rage within us. We could end up killing Bella, despite your best intentions. Then Kol could end up killing you for taking away his mate and then we’d both be without the ones we love.”

“I trust in her for knowing this and take the right course of action,” Sam huffed. “She’s a witch. Look at us, she locked us in a house!”

“And she’s fizzled out because you didn’t think she needed to save her strength first. Well done,” he slowly clapped before reaching for a bottle of Whiskey. “Better get drunk, so we’re easier to fight off, shall we?”

“She’s not fragile.”

“Yes, she is!” Klaus breezed as he threw the full bottle across the living room, startling Bella, causing Kol to jump to his feet, ready to protect her when needed. “She’s locked herself in a house with five vampires. Sure, she could run if she’s fast enough.”

“I didn’t know you cared that much,” she simply stated. Oh, she knew. And maybe she had been foolish, but the girl could take care of herself, couldn’t she? She wasn’t sure anymore.

“It’s that they both rejected my offer to turn them. Had they accepted, they wouldn’t have died in the first place, and they wouldn’t have left me. Kol can’t be killed, he’s an Original. But I can’t see her die again, Sameen, not by our hands or of old age,” Klaus quietly spoke as he found another bottle in the cabinet. “As you said, Kol and I are unstable right now, but so are you, my love. You just don’t see it.”

She didn’t know what to say about that other than that she was sorry, but she didn’t apologize. Instead, she watched how the little witch walked towards them and pulled Klaus into a hug.

“It’s going to be okay,” Bella softly said as she caressed his back. “I promise you, everything is going to be okay. Just take a deep breath, I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.”

“Promise me, Bella,” he said as he took a deep breath, just as he was told, and significantly calmed down. He remembered spending hours with her holding him after Kol died and after his other siblings left. At first he had thought it was quite weird for him to do this, so out of character and was ashamed to admit it that he needed it from time to time. But as Bella had been gradually progressing towards her old age, he realized that she needed it too. She wanted to make sure he was going to be fine after she’d gone, and he hadn’t been.

Yes, Sameen had helped. Her companionship was needed, but for some reason, she couldn’t give him what he’d missed. Hugs from Bella. Her soothing words. Apart from Sameen, she had accepted him the way that he was and hadn’t been afraid of him. Especially after Bella learned to control her magic, she was never afraid of him and even took the piss out of him. He admired that in her. The first human to like him and not to be scared him.

“I promise,” she said as she let go of him and smiled at him. “Just try to control yourself while I’m still recovering, okay? I’ll be fine.” Bella gently caressed his arm before walking back to her spot near the fire to finish her dinner.

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