Hayley had been in Atlantis long enough to know what was what. She knew that both Hope and Klaus came from the 'future,' a future she did not live to see (Klaus had already dropped that bombshell). She knew, too, that Elijah was here, and that Elijah was from… Well, she wasn't clear on that. She hadn't spoken to Elijah since her arrival. Not that she was avoiding him. She'd just had other things to do.
It was nice being in Atlantis. She had a routine here that she didn't have at home, a routine that helped her forget everything that had happened (and would happen) back home. Here, the little reminders of Jackson were gone. She could forget that she was a widower and that everything the Mikaelsons touched seemed to turn to poison (herself included).
It was early in the morning when Hayley set out for the compound. She had been assigned a job as a relations specialist, and while that wasn't exactly something she'd ever have seen herself doing, she thought it fit her. She could talk to people. It felt good to be doing something productive again. It reminded her of being back with the Crescents, a reminder that she carefully skirted in her mind as it brought up Jackson and, well, that was a taboo subject right now.
Elijah was anything if not polite. He could quite literally be the death of you and it was still entirely possible that you’d find him a polite individual. There was a balance to the two parts of him that somehow, against the odds, made that possible. He wouldn’t have attempted to explain it beyond that he found it more tolerable to be the way he was. Elijah was the noble one, the dutiful one, the cleaner. And with that came a want to not get in anyone else’s way and above all else - that list had Hayley right at the top of it.
Now, Elijah had been made aware by Klaus about… certain things that occurred and that, perhaps, added to the fact that he had largely avoided her - beyond a jab, of course, at said brother when she’d first arrived. Elijah had been very quiet the last several hours.
Of course, that meant that - of course - fate would decide that Elijah would be out for a walk with coffee and a book and almost run right into her. It went without saying that Elijah had more sense of his surroundings than to actually run into her, but it did come as relatively close as it might have ever. He marked the page in his book and closed it - taking a sip of his coffee as he walked up to her. There was a point, of course, where avoidance would be too obvious and one merely had to meet something head on. “Are you adjusting well?” He asked.
Of course, thought Hayley, she'd run into Elijah when she least expected it. She knew that the older Mikaelson brother was here. He'd made that clear in his comment to Klaus. But they hadn't spoken. She'd been unsure of how to bring up what had (or not) happened in their lives recently, and she'd hoped for more time on that point. She wanted to see her daughter, Caroline, anyone except for Elijah -- because seeing Elijah meant dealing with things that she'd not dealt with back home (mostly, Jackson's death) and that she wasn't ready yet to deal with here.
"As well as can be expected," she said, taking into account his coffee and book. "It's a lot to take in." She moved alongside him, hoping -- but not suggesting -- that they might walk together for a bit. She had time before she had to be to work, and she suspected that they couldn't avoid each other forever -- even if that was her preferable trajectory.
All Elijah knew at this point was that Hayley was from far more similar of a time that he was than many of the others were. There were some benefits to that, but given what he knew about their adventures from Klaus, he was still at a distinct disadvantage. He knew Jackson was dead, though he wasn’t entirely sure if Hayley did. The year she’d given that she was from… well, it could either mean Hayley did or didn’t - not that he had any intentions of doing anything other than keeping to his word that he was going to… well, Klaus had teased him a little on how that ended. He figured it was for no better reason than to have something to tease him about. Elijah, however, took everything rather seriously and hadn’t found it funny.
“I hardly think there are expectations here.” Elijah may have been stiff in many ways, but he wasn’t incapable of a joke. Particularly with someone like Hayley - the reasonings, of course, were hardly to be discussed. “I will agree its quite a… lot.” He looked around them, just sort of glancing at their surroundings before his eyes settled back on her. There were, rather obviously, several things floating at the back of his mind but he was fairly intent on ignoring all of those at this point and so, fairly lamely, he asked a question again instead. “Doing anything exciting?”
"I thought I'd head to work, actually. See what's what with intake and all that." She let a moment of silence pass. If nothing else, she and Elijah shared an understanding of each other that seemed to go beyond words. It was one of the primary reasons that she felt so guilty about Jackson's death. If she didn't have these feelings for Elijah, would she have been so willing to run into the burning building that was the Mikaelson family? Was it all really just for Hope and her happiness? Those sorts of questions seemed better left unanswered, at least for now.
Hayley smiled wryly. "It seemed easier than trying to wrap my head around my daughter going from two to eighteen in less than a day. I can't believe she's all grown up, and -- off on missions." Hayley wasn't entirely certain what those missions entailed, but she imagined her daughter to be just as brave as her father (something that she would never, ever tell Klaus, thank you). "We must have got something right." She looked up at Elijah, including him completely in her next three words. "As a family."
Elijah was unsurprised she’d been posted there - Hayley was good with being honest with people which is something he imagined was welcomed in intake. She was also a good Mother and the sort of person who actually gave a damn - qualities he obviously didn’t like about her and didn’t draw him to her in the slightest. No, not in the slightest. “Ah, yes, the joys of being a professor here are that I do have the summers off - for the most part.” Elijah didn’t exactly need to do research like others in his position may have needed to do. He had lived through a great deal of Earth’s history so it was quite easy for him to throw together a syllabus. For his other courses, it was more of a labor of love. Elijah had always believed woman to be strong and deserving of independence in their own right - so it came at least a little easier to him than to most.
There was no part of Elijah that had really wanted to jump in on ‘another’ war, but he hadn’t wanted to go running either - so for him, he’d found the middle ground. Merely making a life here and being useful where he could be. So far that had only been once. “She was an infant last I saw her before here.” He said, with a light joking sort of huff. Hope clearly had some hesitations about him and he hadn’t prodded at that, he could only imagine from what Klaus told him that it was because of any number of factors. And he was more keen on giving her her space, rather than invading it. “As a family.” He agreed, without saying too much - given he wasn’t precisely aware of what she knew or not.
Hayley hesitated. She had spoken to Klaus, true, and she had read the interactions on the network. But she remained unclear as to when exactly Elijah came from. Did he know about Jackson? It was the sort of question that she couldn't come right out and ask. For one thing, it would be terribly rude, and for another, it wasn't like it changed anything between them (right?).
"Elijah -" She paused, searching his face. This was it. The moment where they actually had to Talk, as Klaus so often suggested that they do. "How much do you know about the future?"
There weren’t many things that would have stopped Elijah dead in his tracks, but that particular question invited a moment of pause in which he stopped there on the street and searched Hayley’s features for a moment. He had an inkling about what precisely she wanted to know about - at least, he’d known she was from quite a bit earlier than Klaus and if she was from when Hope was still quite young there were a much smaller number of very specific things she could be wishing to know if he knew about. If she were from much more farther ahead, that may not have been the case. Right now he would have put a fairly large bet on her wanting to know if he knew about Jackson.
“Niklaus made sure I was very well informed - about the good and the bad. For better or worse, he decided I should know precisely as much as he did.” He brought a hand up and gave his face a little rub, “Though I believe you’re asking for a little something more specific.” The admission was sort of a slow build to the fact that he was equally as unable to find a suitable answer that he knew she was looking for as she seemed to be when it came to just directly asking. Not that they’d ever been entirely fantastic about such things regarding each other. “I am very aware, whether fortunately or not, that there are more than a few sacrifices that are made and losses.” He opened his mouth as if he was going to add something, but stopped shy of it.
"We do seem to always end up on the losing side. Don't we?" She paused, not looking at anything in particular, and then said, "Jackson's dead. They - well, I'm sure you can ask Klaus for the details." There was a tinge of anger in her voice, and defeat, not directed at either of the Mikaelsons but at the world in general. "I think we can both agree that Jackson didn't deserve to go out the way he did."
Klaus had explained Jackson’s death all too well to Elijah. He had explained how Hayley and Jackson had both been taken and that Jackson had been killed - rather ruthlessly and in a way all too familiar for Elijahs’ conscious to feel comfortable with. Having his heart ripped out was… poetic in the worst sort of way - given that it was Elijah’s own favoured style of a quick execution for other supernaturals. That was one of the things that had sat the worst with Elijah. That and how he’d some how been willing to just leave his family, allowing his memories to be wiped, disappear for a decade like that… He understood the why and how - it just didn’t mean he could fully comprehend it. There had been so much that had happened, and most of it Elijah was certainly content to tuck away - and then Hayley had shown up, of course.
Elijah also was well aware at what price Jackson’s death came to Klaus. Being separated from his bloodline, everything that came from that. Cami’s sacrifice. Having, himself, to play dead for a bit. Davina’s decisions. The lack of security that came from it all. Not that it was of any question, but there had been no one better off at the end of all of that. It had, decidedly, been a loss for the family. For all of them. From every angle. Things had, quite clearly, become a mess in New Orleans and he wasn’t sure what she knew of beyond Jackson’s death and he… wasn’t necessarily keen on bringing any of it up.
Sighing softly, “I don’t know that I’d use the word losing - but certainly not the side of ease.” He responded, for lack of a better way to do so. Elijah wet his lips again, nodding, “Klaus already informed me and I’m-” He paused a moment. “-well aware that there isn’t anything I could say to heal that.” Though he did hope that she knew if he could have, he would have without any question.
"Right, no," said Hayley, with a shrug, "I didn't mean for you to heal it. I just - I thought we should be on the same page here. Start over."
The words felt awkward on her lips. Atlantis did sort of feel like a place where 'starting over' made sense, not that it had ever been anything she'd been good at, but she didn't see how they could start over exactly. It was too soon for her to consider what their relationship had been (if it had been at all) and what it could be. But Klaus had already intimated that they didn't get to see that thread out very far, and well, then there was the whole guilt thing. It felt strange (wrong somehow) being here with Elijah, knowing that if any of them should have got this chance it should have been Jackson.
"I do know some of what happens. Klaus told me. He wanted me to be prepared for when Hope gets back because I -" She let that thought hang in the air, unfinished. She didn't need to tell him. If he knew about Jackson, surely, he knew the rest of it. Klaus wasn't the sort to leave those sorts of details unturned.
Elijah stopped in his tracks and reached out, gently grabbing Hayleys’ bicep to stop her from continuing to walk as well. The eldest Mikaelson left (unless you counted possible time-space-continuums of his parents or Finn - and he was still getting used to the idea that Freya existed, so to Elijah he still fit that bill) his hand there for a moment, just sort of looking at Hayley. He was well aware they both died. He was well aware they didn’t get much of… well, sacrifices always had to be made for the better of the family. Unfortunately, Elijah himself wasn’t from a time or place that aligned enough with Klaus’ information for him to… throw any sort of caution towards the wind. He knew he wasn’t particularly good at voice his emotions or opinions unless he was pushed to the edge. However, on the same note, there was always that bit of a tell in the way he physically reacted.
“Hayley.” He said, the concern and empathy in his voice more than obvious. “Atlantis can be whatever you wish it to be.” It probably wasn’t the reaction she was expecting, but he thought it was the best one to give. “You can watch Hope flourish, you don’t have to tell a single person anything about yourself, you can take whatever time you need.” He took in a breath and let it out slowly, there were a fair few things he wanted to add to the list that he couldn’t bring himself to. “Atlantis is an opportunity that can’t be replaced, with all of the pain and uncertainty that it brings - you only have to trust that it offers something in return.” At the least, he thought it was better than dwelling on inevitable deaths back home.
Hayley stopped when he touched her arm, meeting his gaze. She didn't know what this island held for them, but she knew what happened back home. She knew that they didn't have a future together any more than she and Jackson did. It was the sort of thought that, ordinarily, might have caused her to throw caution to the wind. They had this moment, perhaps only this moment. But still, she hesitated. Whatever future exist between her and Elijah, she just wasn't there yet.
"Klaus said something similar," she said, instead, "I'm glad that we have this opportunity to all be together again, I am. It's just been...a lot of take in." Her voice became softer as she spoke, acknowledging that her comment about Klaus hadn't been meant to antagonize him. "At least we know we can take anything Atlantis throws our way."
There was an awareness that Elijah had that caused him to not allow his hand to linger - immediately shoving it in the pockets of his pants. He wanted to offer her some level of comfort that he knew he wouldn’t be able to. He wanted to… well, as usually, it really didn’t matter what Elijah wanted. What mattered was what was right. What was right, in this moment, perhaps for however long they managed to be on Atlantis was… to just nod (which he did) and to give her a reassuringly soft smile (which he also did). “You’re here now, that matters most.” He responded. Not meaning it to be anything other than an honest statement, “Though, I should let you get to work and not interrupt your morning further.” Even polite, he took a singular step back, though that little reassuring smile didn’t leave his features.