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“You know as well as I that we need her. We can’t do this otherwise.” Lizzie says.
MG looks unsure. He folds his arms around himself. “I don’t know Lizzie. The last time I did this I got kicked out of the connection and couldn’t get Hope out.”
“But you’re stronger now, right?” Lizzie asks. “Kaleb’s been teaching you how to feed on human blood without going all crazy?”
MG shakes his head. “Yeah, that. . . hasn’t really panned out.”
“Ugh.” Lizzie groans. “Please MG, can’t we just try?”
He thinks for a moment, and in that moment, Lizzie feels the weight of everything on her shoulders. The Necromancer. . . Malivore. . . the safety of the school rests in their hands now that Hope is gone. If she could just talk to Hope, see if she knows what’s wrong or what they should do. . .
Maybe everything will work out alright.
“Okay.” MG nods. “We’ll try. But I can’t promise it will work.”
Lizzie smiles brightly.
“Your dad is going to kill me if anything goes wrong.” MG says once they’re in Hope’s room.
She’s laying on her own bed and Lizzie thinks that she looks peaceful, but there’s no telling what’s going on inside of Hope’s brain. Is she alright? Has she been waiting for them to come to her rescue this whole time? Can she wake up on her own and does she simply not want to? Lizzie shakes her head. It’s no good contemplating these things.
“If something goes wrong, I’ll protect you from my dad.” Lizzie tells him.
He looks a little bit calmer at that. He sits in a chair next to the bed as Lizzie settles down on the bed next to Hope. She takes MG’s hand in one of her own and Hopes in her other.
“Ready?” MG asks.
“Ready.” Lizzie closes her eyes.
#
The sound of jazz filters in from the street through the open window, bringing along with it warm air. Lizzie stands in a room she doesn’t recognize, but there’s something in here that she does.
“Hope?” Lizzie asks, though she knows it’s her sitting at the desk.
Hope spins around with a look of shock on her face. “Lizzie?”
“Where are we?” Lizzie looks around. The space is pretty, open, with large windows and paintings on the walls.
“My room.” Hope tells her, then clarifies: “in New Orleans.”
Lizzie’s eyes widen. “Your childhood home.”
Hope nods.
It makes sense. If she were going to retreat into her own mind it would be to a place, she called home. Lizzie shakes herself. She came here for a reason.
“You need to wake up.” Lizzie says.
“I know.” Lizzie isn’t expecting her to say that. She’s expecting Hope to be unaware that she’s in a coma— to have to fight to get her to come back and save them all.
“Then why haven’t you?” Lizzie steps forward.
Hope stands from her desk and sighs. “I—”
“Hope?” And, well, there’s a voice Lizzie hasn’t heard in a while.
Hayley comes into the doorway and Lizzie starts to understand, without Hope having to say anything at all, why she hasn’t woken up yet.
“Hey,” Hayley crosses her arms and smiles as she looks from Hope to Lizzie. “I thought I heard another voice up here. Who are you?”
“Lizzie. Saltzman.” Lizzie smiles.
Recognition lights up on Hayley’s face. “Wow look at you! You’ve grown so much since I last saw you. How’re your parents?”
“They’re. . . good.” Lizzie feels awkward. The dream version of her is so real, so much like how a real version would be. But Lizzie guesses, that’s probably the point.
“Do we have company?” Klaus walks up to Hayley and it takes everything in Lizzie not to shrink away. His eyes find her, and he smiles. “Ah, it appears we do.”
“Lizzie was just visiting from Mystic Falls.” Hope explains.
“Will you be staying long? We can have a room made up for you.” he offers.
“Oh no.” Lizzie shakes her head. “I shouldn’t stay too long. Everyone in Mystic Falls would be so worried.”
She looks over to Hope pointedly.
“Well, would you girls like anything? I can grab food.” Hayley says.
Hope shakes her head. “We’ll just—”
“Hope was going to show me around New Orleans.” Lizzie says suddenly.
Her father smiles. “That’s my girl. It’s a beautiful city, I’m sure you’ll love it.”
Hope grabs her purse and a jacket and then hugs her parents before leading Lizzie out of her home.
#
“I was in Josie’s mind. I was helping her. Then her evil side turned me to stone, and I woke up here.” Hope is explaining.
They’re sitting in the outdoor area of some cafe. There are people on the street laughing and dancing and others busking.
“And I tried at first to find a way out. I really did. But it didn’t seem like there was anything I could do and. . .” she looks across the street and Lizzie reaches across the table to take her hand. Hope’s eyes find hers again.
“I get it. You get to be with your parents in this made-up world in your head and you don’t have to deal with all the drama and danger out there.” Lizzie says. “But we need you out there.”
“I know.” Hope sighs. “But Josie’s okay, right? And the Necromancer is hardly something you guys can’t handle on your own.”
“Josie gave up her magic.” Hope’s expression falls, but she lets Lizzie continue. “And we had to make a deal with the Necromancer to get the dark magic out of her. He’s more powerful now than ever.”
Hope looks conflicted, so Lizzie squeezes her hand. “We’re lost without you.”
Hope closes her eyes and lets out a breath. When she opens them, she doesn’t meet Lizzie’s eyes. “I still wouldn’t know how to wake up even if I wanted to.”
“Well figure it out together.” Lizzie says, like it’s easy. She’s hoping that it’s less of a magical thing keeping Hope here and more just a matter of Hope being willing to leave her perfect world.
Hope takes a deep breath and then nods. “Okay. Where do we start?”
Lizzie narrows her eyes. If it is that second option, it won’t be as easy as just saying “I would like to wake up now”. No, Hope’s going to have to believe those words, and she isn’t going to do that until she’s had her fill of everything here.
“First, you have one more perfect day, then tomorrow you come back to the real world.” Lizzie offers.
Hope looks a little brighter at those words. There’s a small smile that pulls at the corner of her lips.
"So why don’t you show me around this city of yours?” Lizzie smirks.
#
The sun is starting to set as they walk around. Hope starts out with showing her around.
“It’s so loud here.” Lizzie scrunches her nose. “How do so many vampires manage to live here and not go crazy?”
Hope laughs a bit at that. “I know it’s not quiet like Mystic Falls, but there’s so much life here.”
Lizzie looks at her adoringly. Hope continues, “when I was a little girl my father told me I was a princess and that one day this town would be mine.”
“Do you still want it to be?” Lizzie asks.
She shakes her head. “It was a silly fantasy.”
Lizzie slips her hand into Hope’s and squeezes it. “Show me your favorite place.”
Hope shakes herself out of whatever thoughts she was having and smiles before tugging Lizzie down the street.
She takes Lizzie to a bar that she’s sure they would have been kicked out of had this not been a dream world. The sign above the door reads “Rousseau’s”. Inside it smells like sweat and alcohol and, strangely, cool mint. There’s a jazz band playing on a small stage in one corner. Hope’s smiling wider than Lizzie has ever seen. Her eyes seem to light up.
“Come on.” Lizzie says softly, leading Hope into the middle of the room as the band starts to play a slower song.
Lizzie pulls Hope close and the two of them begin to sway to the music.
“When I was in Malivore. . .” Hope starts, looking up at Lizzie. “I know you said no one was better off without me, but at least you guys were safe. There weren’t monsters attacking all the time.”
Lizzie narrows her eyes, “So you’re, what? Just going to stay asleep for the rest of eternity? Come on, Hope, we both know you’re too heroic to do that. Things are getting worse up there and I know you can feel that.”
“No, I know. It’s just. . . If I hadn’t come back neither would Clarke have, and then Josie wouldn’t have done all that black magic.” Hope says.
“Yeah, and if Landon never came to the school last year, he never would have touched that knife.” Lizzie points out. “Playing the blame game is pointless. Besides, we’re supposed to be having fun here.”
“Lizzie. . .”
“I know we’re literally in your subconscious so it’s a little hard to avoid talking about what’s really on your mind, but please try.” Lizzie smiles at her.
Hope rolls her eyes. “Okay. I’ll try to have fun.”
“Good.” Lizzie steps away from her and looks toward the band. “Can we get something a little more upbeat here?”
Every member of the band glares at her, but this is a dream so Lizzie’s not too worried. True to what she imagined, the band sighs and begrudgingly start to play a more energetic song. Lizzie turns back to Hope with a smirk. Then, since in a dream world no one will care, Lizzie siphons off of Hope and waves her hand in front of them both.
Hope is transformed out of her usual school outfit and into a black skirt and long-sleeved red shirt with her hair half pinned up. Strands fall out of the front to frame her face. Lizzie puts herself in a flowing, knee-length, blue dress. Hope looks down at herself and then nods in approval.
Lizzie takes Hope’s hands and, after a bit of prompting, the two of them begin to dance to the music. Lizzie can see the subtle changes as Hope lets herself go, forgets about what was keeping her down, and dances with renewed energy. The lights get a little shinier, the energy in the bar livelier. More people come into dance.
Lizzie does a spell that makes the ceiling disappear, replacing it with the night sky and bringing in much needed cool air to their dancing.
“You really shouldn’t do that.” Hope shouts over the music.
“Do what?” Lizzie shrugs, then does another spell. This one makes lights explode like fireworks into the air before falling down softly. The crowd around them gasps in awe.
Hope glares at her.
“What? It’s your brain, it’s not like we’re going to get into real trouble for it!” Lizzie reasons.
“You don’t know that. I think my brain has made this world very accurate.” Hope crosses her arms.
Lizzie sighs. “Oh, come on. Live a little!”
Hope rolls her eyes, but she can’t help but smile at uncross her arms. She does three spells then. The first, to move the tables out of the way to make more space for the dance floor. The second, to create a light show of dragons in the air, flying around each other. And the third, to turn the floor into a disco dance floor that changes color.
Hope and Lizzie laugh, then continue dancing as more people pour in to dance alongside them. The band gets really into it, playing just as jovially. They dance for what feels like hours but might have been only a few minutes. Hope’s expression changes from having fun to suddenly worried.
“Shit. Lizzie.” she grabs Lizzie’s hand and pulls her through the crowd toward the door.
“What?” Lizzie turns her head to look back but doesn’t see anything worrying. “What is it?”
“Vincent. He’s a friend of my family. He’s probably here to chew me out about using magic.” Hope says as they burst through the door.
“Really? In your dream world?” Lizzie asks.
“Look, fake or not, I don’t really feel like getting yelled at, do you?” Hope fixes her with a hard stare.
Lizzie shakes her head. “Lead the way.”
They take off down the street and they don’t stop until they’re near the compound. Hope laughs into the cool air, causing Lizzie to as well.
“Thank you.” Hope says to her, leaning against a wall.
“For what?” Lizzie shakes her head.
“For coming into my mind to get me.” Hope says.
“You would have done the same for me.”
“Yeah. But thank you, all the same.”
“You ready to go back now?” Lizzie asks.
Hope takes a deep breath. “I think so.”
“Do you want to say goodbye first?” She gestures back to the house.
Hope looks back at it and hesitates for a moment. Then, she turns back to Lizzie and shakes her head. “It’s better if I don’t have a weepy goodbye.”
“Okay.” Lizzie takes her hand and squeezes it. “See you on the other side.”
#
Lizzie wakes up first.
“So?” MG asks. “Did it work?”
Lizzie looks around. Time doesn’t seem to have moved as fast as it did inside Hope’s mind.
“Yeah.” Lizzie says.
And then Hope blinks her eyes open, finding Lizzie’s, and then she smiles.
“Hey.” Lizzie smiles back. “Thanks for coming back.”
Hope smirks. “Like I had a choice.”
“Oh, thank goodness. We were all getting really worried over here.” MG says.
Hope looks over to him. “Thanks for helping get me back.”
MG beams. “No problem! No, super squad member gets left behind.”
Lizzie rolls her eyes and stands. “Come on, Disco Girl. We’ve got work to do.”
Hope laughs softly as she gets up and follows Lizzie out of the room.