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INT. HEADMASTERS OFFICE - DAY
Hope sits behind the desk. She looks through the printouts of their attempts.
Lizzie enters. She stops in the doorway to give Hope a tense look.
HOPE
(without looking up)
Your dad stepped out for a minute.
LIZZIE
I wasn't looking for him.
Hope looks up. Lizzie has her full attention.
LIZZIE (CONT'D)
I was looking for you.
HOPE
I'm a little busy--
LIZZIE
If I'm dying, we're talking about what happened the last time I died.
HOPE
(forcefully)
You're not dying.
Lizzie gives Hope a look that says she needs to stop being so unrealistic.
HOPE
Look, if it's an apology you're after, I am sorry. I thought we already hashed this out, but I will keep apologizing until the day I--
(starting over)
What I mean is, killing Landon was hard, but it was no excuse--
LIZZIE
Not the no-humanity stuff.
Hope looks at her. She's too perplexed to even try guessing again.
LIZZIE
The sire bond stuff.
Hope's face shifts. She leans back in her chair. Lizzie finally wants to talk about the full weight of everything that meant and it's the day before she dies.
LIZZIE
I talked to my mom. She told me what the sire bond means.
Hope avoids eye contact.
LIZZIE (CONT'D)
Which I'm guessing you already knew. Why didn't you say anything?
HOPE
I thought you knew. I thought that's why you were so riled up about me using the sire bond against you. I didn't figure it out until after I turned my humanity back on and ... there was so much else going on.
LIZZIE
Not so much that you couldn't have told me the sire bond happened because of me.
Lizzie deflates, collapsing into one of the chairs.
LIZZIE (CONT'D)
You just let me blame you for it.
HOPE
I deserved a lot more blame than you gave me.
LIZZIE
But not for this. My mom said vampires can't control when people are sire bonded to them. She said it happened to my Aunt Elena and my Uncle Damon had no idea at first. It was my feelings that ... that were responsible for everything that snow-balled.
HOPE
No. No, if you had been sire bonded to me with my humanity on, we would have never killed those carnival vampires. You wouldn't have had to team up with Aurora to escape. She wouldn't have raised Ken. And we wouldn't be--
(reeling)
None of this would be happening if I had just not turned it off. Your feelings ... they didn't cause this.
LIZZIE
Then why does it feel like they did?
HOPE
(smiling sadly)
Years of being blamed for someone else's choices?
LIZZIE
Maybe. The thing is ... I don't want to die with that unfinished.
HOPE
How do you want to finish it?
LIZZIE
I almost ran back to MG. He told me he loves me--again. I told him I'm not great at delivering bad news, but It would be easy to pretend for a day. I even had the speech all prepared in my head about how uncertain the future is and how I would be beside myself if I didn't at least try. But ...
(considering her words)
I don't want to try. I never have. It's why I haven't. I keep giving him what he wants when I think I'm doing to die because I feel bad for him, but ... me dying should be about me.
Hope gives her a nod of encouragement.
LIZZIE (CONT'D)
I've spent my whole life too afraid to be selfish, too afraid to go for what I want. And it hasn't stopped me from accidentally hurting other people anyways. But it's not my fault if I don't return MG's feelings. It took talking to my mother to see that.
(steadying herself )
It also took talk to my mother to see ... it's not my fault if Josie had a crush on you five years ago and I still fell for you. She said feelings are complicated. She told me how my Aunt Elena was into Stefan Salvatore at the same time she was and everything turned out fine. She just ... waited her turn.
Hope stands up and steps around the desk to lean against it in front of Lizzie.
HOPE
Are you saying you've been waiting your turn?
LIZZIE
And I'll keep waiting. I know things are still gruesomely fresh with Landon.
(standing)
I'll wait for you until the day I die. Whether it's tomorrow or in a thousand years.
Lizzie takes Hope's hands in hers. Contrary to how it went with MG, both girls lean into the gesture.
LIZZIE (CONT'D)
Because I love you, Hope Mikaelson. I have forever and I will always.
Hope smiles. She brushes her thumb over the back of Lizzie's knuckles tenderly. Those were the magic words.
HOPE
Forever and always.
The two of them kiss, the camera pulling out slowly until it encapsulates the entire office and their bodies intertwined by the desk, soft light streaming in the window behind them.
END.