A/N- Thank you all so much for your support of this story—I absolutely love writing it, and hearing all your thoughts and theories! Believe me, this rollercoaster is just going to get crazier from here on out…thanks for coming along for the ride! I have all sorts of fun things planned for all of you readers in the future as well—stay tuned!

Fight and Not Be Slain

Chapter Four

"Elijah, please...let me help you. You don't have to do everything by yourself," Hayley said softly from where she had been attempting to fall asleep on pillows propped against their antique headboard, unable to get comfortable, her hands resting instinctively on her massively swollen stomach. She watched Elijah crouched by the fireplace, gritting his teeth as he peeled off the makeshift bandages from his forearm, attempting to clean and redress them before he went to bed.

"I'm fine. Go ahead and get some rest," Elijah said, grimacing slightly with pain when one of the bandages took freshly formed skin with it and opened up closed over wounds, Elijah hastily pouring the water he'd heated over the fire to sanitize the cuts left from the deep claw marks on the top of his left forearm.

Blood immediately pooled in the irritated wounds, Elijah applying pressure and trying to staunch it with the filthy towel they had in their abandoned farmhouse in the woods where he and Hayley had been living among the werewolves. Hayley sighed, throwing off the quilt, climbing rather laboriously to her feet and walking over to him at the fireplace.

"Come to bed," Hayley insisted, holding out her hand to him. "I'm not kneeling down there with you, because it would take me an embarrassingly long time to get up again like this, so maybe I can't make as convincing of an argument, but please…come to bed, and I can bandage things up for you."

Elijah looked up at her for a moment, sighing, throwing some water from the pitcher on the fire to put it out, and taking her hand, holding the towel against his wounds with the other hand as he got to his feet and followed Hayley across the room to the bed. All their windows were open, and they were wearing as little clothes as possible, but they were still both soaked in sweat, the fabric of their clothes clinging to their skin, the bayou still miserably hot even in the middle of the night. Hayley was wearing just a blousy white nightgown, Elijah a white wifebeater and a pair of gray sweatpants. They'd gotten a closetful of clothes (that Elijah had a funny feeling had been taken from the clan's previous victims judging by the range in sizes and the occasional rips and tears) and use of this farmhouse from the werewolf clan as a sign of respect to Hayley and her child.

The werewolves had threatened an uprising when Hayley first wanted to take Elijah as her "betrothed" in the farmhouse ("They're a little old school," she'd explained to him, "but I thought you might get that"), saying that she should be with a werewolf not a daywalker, with one of her own, and Elijah, clearly tired of people saying he and Hayley shouldn't be together, had challenged the clan's alpha male to a fight for control of the pack.

Elijah had defeated their alpha male, and the clan had begrudgingly accepted him as Hayley's mate and their leader, but according to their rules, anyone else in the pack could challenge his claim at any time. And many had, sometimes multiple challengers at once. Elijah had been battling to keep his title as alpha constantly, and Original strength or not, it was beginning to take a toll on him physically and mentally. And there was also the knowledge that if he ever let his guard down for a moment and was bitten in a fight, he'd be severely weakened and unable to defend Hayley or the child from werewolves, witches, Marcel, his siblings—whatever next threat walked through their door. And on top of all of that, Hayley knew Elijah was already badly hurt and fatigued from what had happened with his siblings, both in his body and mind. She wanted to help him, wanted to make everything better, but she didn't know what to do other than stand beside him.

And she felt terrible complaining when he was risking his life every day just to be with her, but her pregnancy was rapidly becoming unbearable, her whole body aching, her ribs feeling like they were being stretched steadily apart from the inside by little hands aching to escape, exhaustion beginning to overwhelm her like a sickness despite the fact that she could hardly ever get comfortable enough to sleep for more than a half hour or so. She could sense her daughter's discomfort and unhappiness too in this last month of pregnancy, the little girl wanting to be born, wanting to get out of the darkness and into the light, and Hayley wanted to help her, wanted to hold her so badly, already wanted her happiness in all things, feeling as though their emotions had already become inextricably intertwined.

She arranged the pillows to prop up Elijah's head, helping him lie back before sitting down on the bed beside him.

"Comfortable?" she asked him gently, Elijah nodding, Hayley taking the rolls of fabric they'd been using as bandages from the bedside table. "Just try to relax, okay?

Elijah finally reluctantly obeyed, closing his eyes. Hayley cleaned and bound his wounds, looking down at him, brushing Elijah's damp hair back off his forehead afterwards. "Elijah?"

"Yes?" he breathed out, his eyes still closed.

"I know what you're risking staying here with me. And I…I just…I would understand if it was too much…"

Elijah reached up with his uninjured hand, holding her wrist, his eyes exhausted but half-open as they met Hayley's. "I told you I'd always protect you." He stroked the inside of her wrist with his thumb. "And that when I find love, I honor it."

Hayley pressed her lips together hard for a moment, her eyes burning with tears as she smiled. "I can't even believe you exist sometimes." She took his face in her hands, leaning down to kiss him. When they broke apart, Hayley lay down beside him against the pillows, Elijah turning slightly so they were facing each other, Hayley just looking at him, her hazel eyes dark and serious. "I really wish you wouldn't go tomorrow. You and I both know your family doesn't want to make peace. They're just trying to lure you out of hiding. Make you more vulnerable to attack."

Elijah sighed heavily, smoothing a dark tendril of Hayley's hair back that had been sticking to her sweaty temple. "You may very well be right. But when my sister and I spoke, she seemed truly motivated by a desire to avoid further bloodshed. I share the same hope that all of this…madness could be solved without further innocent lives being lost. And I can't help but feel as though I am the one largely responsible for starting the principle conflict. So I feel as though I should at least hear her out."

"You didn't do anything wrong." Hayley stroked the dark shadow of stubble on Elijah's strong jawline. She had never seen him anything but perfectly clean-shaven before, but his immaculate appearance was one of the many things he'd sacrificed for the sake of living in the woods among the werewolves. She didn't understand his decision to stay. She was so weak and sick and so incredibly pregnant that the baby could come any day now, so it wasn't as though Elijah was putting up with these miserable living conditions because he was getting laid on the regular—she wanted him, of course she did, so badly she could feel her desire for him in her bones like a deep physical ache, but there was just no way they could even attempt anything sexual with the state they were both in right now, and Elijah felt so guilty about everything already with betraying his family (in his eyes) that Hayley knew anything past PG-13 territory was completely off the table—and probably would be until they got as far away from his brother and sister as possible.

So it wasn't the awesome sex keeping him around. And she wasn't exactly scintillating company either—Hayley was so tired and brain-dead from this baby that she had become embarrassingly prone to losing her train of thought mid-sentence and even nodding off during one or two conversations.

But still, he stayed with her, and fought for her, and Hayley was grateful beyond what she thought she could ever truly express to him. The thought of him being gone, even for a moment, made her nervous and upset and Elijah going to "talk" to Rebekah and Klaus in the city just sounded like a set-up waiting to happen, and she hated it.

"So okay, fine, maybe Rebekah really does want to make things right. What about Klaus?" Hayley spat his brother's name like it was a dirty word, disgusted by the display he'd put on in the Quarter. "If he's had his ear to the ground at all, he'll know what's happened out here with us. He'd love the opportunity to defeat the alpha of the werewolves, and he's bitten you before for no reason at all. If he comes to this so-called 'peace' meeting, it will be for one reason only—to send you back here with a werewolf bite, weakened and defeated, as a message to me, so the clan can tear you to pieces, and he can come here, defeat their new alpha, and take me away from my people." Hayley shook her head, tears slipping down her cheeks. "Don't do it. All you and Rebekah ever do is give him second chances. Please. I'm asking you not to go."

"Hayley. Millions will die if this comes to war. Many who had no part in any of this. If that could be avoided and their lives could be saved by me swallowing my pride and admitting my culpability in what happened in the Quarter to my brother and sister, then I'll do it."

"You know, this is one the one downside of falling for the good brother," Hayley observed. "The whole 'you-doing-the-right-thing' part."

"I have to at least try," Elijah said quietly.

"I know you do." Hayley smiled wearily.

"Besides my brother didn't start the conflict that night. I did." Elijah's brow furrowed. "It's always easier to blame Rebekah and Klaus, because they fight and rage, but perhaps they're better off doing things their way. They put everything out in the open. I thought I was taking care of them all these years by staying silent, but I was just growing angrier and angrier surreptitiously and, in the end, I'm the one…I'm the one who ripped us apart." His voice caught slightly in his throat.

"Elijah, no," Hayley moved closer to him in bed, wishing her enormous stomach didn't prevent her from holding him closer, her hand still on his cheek. "You were strong for them. For all of us. And everything you said that night was true. You had to be honest with him. We both did. I think it was long overdue."

He nodded, but he rolled onto his back miserably away from her touch, staring up at the ceiling. "I think…I'm going to check around the house before we go to sleep. Make sure everything's safe for the night."

Hayley knew he was just making up an excuse to be alone, but she didn't call him out on needing to be by himself. "Okay." She did gently place her hand on his arm, looking over at him, needing him to hear something before he went. "But please…you can't keep punishing yourself like this. I know this makes you crazy to hear, but some things you can't control. Stop apologizing for having feelings. It doesn't make you a bad person to choose something for yourself and not for them. If telling the truth ripped your family apart, then it was already fucked up to begin with. Don't apologize for being the one who had the balls to say how fucked up it was. And if you do go meet with them, don't you dare apologize for being here with me. You don't owe your brother anything. You don't, and I don't. And I'm not going to apologize for things that were out of my control either. I'm not going to apologize to anyone for falling in love with you."

Elijah turned to look at her, usually so together and composed but suddenly looking like a little boy who'd just received the shock of his life. "What did you say?"

Hayley swallowed hard. She hadn't done this in a long time, and she'd been wrong about guys before. Really, really wrong. But she'd never felt sure like this, and for the first time, it didn't scare her that what she was going to say next made a connection that couldn't ever be broken between two people in her mind. She knew what people thought about her. They assumed that the hippie bohemian werewolf chick who'd gotten knocked up from a one-night stand with Klaus was just a dumb slut who was basically just good for incubating the baby who was going to change the entire world—nobody really cared what Hayley wanted, or thought, or felt about any of this. Nobody but Elijah.

Elijah had always looked at her like she was this beautiful, wonderful person, and even though Hayley knew in her own mind that was far from the truth, the fact that someone saw any good in her at all had made start to look at herself completely differently—like she might actually be worth something more than the sad little orphan who slept around to try and find somebody to love her, but always ended up alone because she had always been attracted to assholes like Klaus in the past, who never called her again.

The idea of love and babies and family and a home had always been something she'd wanted, even though she usually kept that dream to herself, and the whole family aspect of the werewolf pack had been the main thing that had appealed to her when she had first been triggered. She had never hated her heritage, or been ashamed of what she was. Her pack was the closest thing she'd ever found to a family, until this pregnancy had come out of nowhere—along with Elijah, and the feelings for him that had hit her like a freight train.

He had been there for her through everything, and loved her when she felt her most unlovable. It didn't make sense, it had nearly gotten them both killed multiple times, it was going to make life so complicated she didn't even know where to begin—but even still—

"I love you, Elijah." She finally just said it.

He looked at her for a long moment, his expression difficult to read, but his dark eyes glassy with tears. He reached over, his hand on her cheek as he kissed her forehead, his lips pressed against her feverishly hot skin for a long time. "And my love for you only increases. Far more than you could know, or I could ever control." He pulled away from her then, getting to his feet and walking outside, clearly needing to be alone with his thoughts.

Hayley rolled over back against the pillows of the bed, looking up at the ceiling, letting out a long sigh of frustration. "Baby," she put her hands on her stomach, talking to her daughter as she had started doing more and more often, "I really am sorry about this whole living in constant peril with no air conditioning thing. Hopefully this will all be over soon, and the three of us can get the hell out of here. And Elijah and I will keep you safe and we'll always love you, okay?" Hayley rubbed her stomach with a small smile. "And then maybe one day, after you're born, mama can finally have some sex so she doesn't wolf out and start crawling the walls with insanity."

Her stomach stirred slightly against her hand, and Hayley laughed. "You better be agreeing with me and not protesting. This has been a rough road, little lady." She tried to arrange the pillows behind her head to get comfortable. It was mostly a lost cause, but she did her best, finally shoving a pillow under her lower back and feeling a little better. "Try and get some sleep, baby. He'll be back soon. He's just brooding outside," Hayley mumbled drowsily, her hand still on her stomach as she closed her eyes, and finally nodded off, slipping in and out of a light, restless sleep.

Elijah stood on the porch, his arms crossed over his chest, looking out at the bayou. He could see that Hayley was finally able to get some rest inside, and he didn't want to disturb her. Besides, he felt too anxious to even make another futile attempt at sleeping through the night. He knew he should just be happy that she'd told him she loved him, and while a part of him— the part he was still trying to actively repress, even here— was happy and wanted her more than ever, another part of him just felt even guiltier than he already did about what they were doing, running away together like this.

His mind kept returning to the night that all of this had started, the Jazz Festival where the truth had come out and he had lost control of himself entirely and finally stripped bare all of the things his family had been hiding away and pretending didn't exist. Elijah didn't know what had come over him, and he so rarely lost control of himself that he felt like he needed to examine the memory so the same fury wouldn't overtake him again when he met with his siblings tomorrow night.

He leaned back against the doorframe of his and Hayley's cabin, listening to the sounds of the cicadas and frogs chirping nearby. The heat and humidity were so oppressive and thick this close to the swamplands that it felt as though they were living underwater, all of their movements sluggish and labored. It was hard to even force his brain into action, but he made himself think back to that day, to every detail. He would make himself remember, even as a sort of self-flagellation—he had ruined everything. So he needed to understand what had happened…so that even more importantly, he could fix things with his family now.

"So are you coming out with us tonight?"

Elijah looked up at the sound of Hayley's voice, folding the newspaper closed from where he'd been reading it at the kitchen island. "I'm not convinced attending this festival is the best idea. For any of us. It's the full moon tonight. There are rumors of the witches completing their Harvest. No one has heard from Marcel in days, but it stands to reason that he would be…dangerously unstable at best, after what happened to Davina. The city is at the brink of a boiling point, and my brother has a way of sending things over the edge."

Hayley sighed heavily, leaning back against the counter beside him. "Elijah. There will always be reasons not to do something. But you can't just let those run your life forever." She put a hand to her rounded stomach. "She'll be here in a month, and then who knows? I may not even be able to get out of bed for awhile. I want to go do something fun for once, while I still can. And I want you to come with us."

Elijah's mouth curved into a small smile. "Why? I'm not fun. Just ask my siblings. Why would you want me to come?"

"Because if you're not there, I'll just be thinking about you all night," Hayley said boldly, the look in her hazel eyes almost a challenge as they met his and didn't waver or look away.

"Hayley…" Elijah breathed out, their shoulders brushing as he looked down at his hands braced on the countertop.

She covered one of his hands with hers. "Just tell me something. When is the last time you did something just because you wanted to do it?"

"No decision is ever that simple. Consequences must be considered before actions—"

"I don't care! I don't care about consequences! I care about right now! But clearly we're never going to agree, so just forget it, okay?" Hayley let out an exasperated sigh. "Just fucking forget I said anything. You know what? While you're at it, stop being so nice to me. Stop looking at me like you want me because it's fucking torture and I can't take it anymore. Stop pretending like this is going somewhere when clearly you've already decided it never can. In fact, why don't you just make everything easier for everyone and just stay away from me because I can't do this halfway shit anymore." She went to pull away from him, but Elijah caught her by the arm. "Neither can I," he said, and Hayley's eyes flicked up to his skeptically. They'd done this dance before, and he'd lost his nerve.

But suddenly, Elijah pulled Hayley's body into his against the kitchen counter, finally claiming her lips with his hard, Hayley reaching up to him hungrily as she kissed him back, her other hand sliding into his dark hair as the kiss deepened, Elijah's grip tightening on her arm still braced against the counter at the sound of a low groan from Hayley's throat as his tongue massaged hers, her oversized sweater falling off her shoulders as she unknotted his tie and threw it aside, starting to unbutton his shirt—

"So I have officially decided we need to start Vodka Tuesdays around here—who's with me?" Rebekah came in through the kitchen door, her arms full of grocery bags, looking up at the state of Hayley and Elijah and stopping with shock in the doorway. "Bloody hell, you two. What if I had been Klaus?"

Neither of them seemed to have any response to that, Hayley pulling her sweater back up over her black v-neck t-shirt, crossing her arms over her chest, looking at Rebekah with an expression on her face like she was a defiant teenager caught making out with her boyfriend by her mom, Elijah looking more flustered than Rebekah had ever seen him as he fumbled with the buttons of his shirt, his usually perfect hair sticking up in odd directions before he hastily smoothed it back down, bending down and retrieving his tie, shoving it in the pocket of his jacket.

As if on cue, Klaus walked in the open kitchen door then, looking downright chipper, not seeming to notice the awkwardness in the room. "Hello, hello, family of mine! Tickets for the jazz festival tonight have been successfully procured by yours truly—oh, and Elijah—" he pointed suddenly and accusatorily at his older brother, and everyone froze for a moment, "you're coming with us, and I don't want to hear another word about it. I've gotten you a ticket, and that's that. You're going, you're having fun, and that's the end of it."

"That's fine," Elijah responded after a moment, his voice slightly stilted.

Klaus looked around the room, Rebekah still clutching her groceries, Hayley staring determinedly at the floor, and Elijah looking almost pained. Klaus' brow furrowed with confusion. "All right, I'm getting the distinct feeling I've missed a step somewhere. What's happened?"

Rebekah recovered the quickest, a bright smile on her face. "Nothing, brother." She set her groceries on the floor. "You'll help me get the rest out of the car, won't you?"

"I suppose." Klaus still looked slightly bothered by the strange energy in his home, but followed Rebekah outside, and Hayley and Elijah could hear him talking to her as they walked out to the car—"I think she might finally be coming here tonight. She asked for our address, and said that she wanted to talk to me face-to-face."

"Worn her down at last, have you?" Rebekah laughed.

"Shut it, you."

"Still staying mum about what happened in the woods with you two, Nik? Must have really been something if Caroline's willing to travel such a long way to see you again. What in the world did you do to that poor girl?"

"Beks, I will hurt you." Klaus was laughing now too, but he sounded happier than any of them had ever heard him.

Hayley and Elijah were still standing in the kitchen in silence, both of them unsure what to do or say to each other now.

"I suppose…I should…" Elijah motioned awkwardly to the bags of groceries.

"Right." Hayley went to help him.

"Oh, I certainly don't expect you to—"

"Elijah, I'm pregnant, not dying." She rolled her eyes, picking up the bag of three vodka bottles Rebekah had purchased and carrying them into the walk-in pantry.

Elijah followed her into the pantry with the bag containing the cereal and crackers Hayley liked, that Rebekah had actually been very sweet to remember, Elijah and Hayley unpacking groceries onto the shelves in silence for a moment before Elijah turned to her, speaking in a hushed whisper. "Do we need to talk about what we…before…?"

"Probably." Hayley shrugged as she turned to face him, speaking in a whisper as well, looking up at Elijah. "So talk."

He looked fleetingly over his shoulder, but Rebekah and Klaus were still outside, laughing about something. "Here?"

"Where do you want to go? Your bedroom? Please. We both know you'll never touch me now that His Royal Highness has returned." Hayley rolled her eyes. "Klaus runs this place. Fun's over."

"My brother does not dictate my—"

"Elijah. Your brother controls every aspect of your life. You and Rebekah's. It's insane the amount of power he has over both of you. He makes every decision in this place. What, do you need a signed permission form from Klaus that says you can fuck me? Decide something for yourself for once! Don't let him do this to you forever!" Hayley looked up at him for a long moment. "Tell me that I'm wrong. Tell me that you can do something without him allowing it first," she put her hand on his chest, her eyes pleading with him. But Elijah didn't say anything, and Hayley breathed out, shaking her head in disbelief. "Wow. Okay. That's what I needed to know."

She pushed past him hard, walking out of the pantry and nearly running into Rebekah and Klaus coming back inside. Elijah turned to look at them all, seeing Klaus laugh out loud, Klaus taking Hayley by the chin teasingly and looking at her with narrowed eyes that were still sparkling from his present good mood. "You've got a mood on, love—what's this face about, then?"

"Fuck off, Klaus," Hayley muttered, shoving him off of her and grabbing a bag of chocolate candy from the groceries. She left the kitchen, stomping upstairs.

Klaus looked at his brother and sister, confused. "What's gotten into her?"

"Pregnancy hormones, probably." Rebekah shrugged, shooting Elijah a look over Klaus' shoulder that said "saved-your-ass."

"Lord. Let's hope that kid comes soon then. I swear she gets scarier everyday." Klaus shuddered slightly.

"Where the bloody hell's my vodka?" Rebekah rifled through the grocery bags, Elijah silently handing her one of her bottles from the pantry, Rebekah twisting off the top and mixing up a blood-and-vodka cocktail. "You boys better believe I'm pre-gaming this jazz festival—they only ever have beer at these ruddy things, and I want to get properly sloshed. I love listening to jazz drunk."

"You love doing any and everything drunk, sister. Remind me. Have we ever sent you to a rehabilitation program in any of your lifetimes?" Klaus laughed.

"No, and you can go fuck yourself," Rebekah rolled her eyes, motioning to Klaus with her martini glass, "We live eternally, Nik—and while sometimes it's rather fun to be an all-powerful immortal being, it's also a literal life sentence of people somehow managing to disappoint you in paradoxically both the exact same and new and exciting ways over and over—you've got to dull the edges of that fucked-up realization somehow." She took a sip of her martini. "What do you say, boys? Tonight we forget all our cares, forget the kingdom, and just have a decent time for once?"

Klaus seized the vodka bottle from her, taking a liberal swallow. "Fuck, yeah." He turned to Elijah, holding out the bottle. "Come on then, big brother. I don't know what's wrong with you lately and God knows you'll never tell us, but if you don't get out of this funk you're in, all they're ever going to say about you is, oh yes, that Elijah, he wore many, many well-pressed suits and often looked very morose. Live it up a bit. For once? Come on…just a little smile…for your little brother…"

Elijah smiled tightly, more accurately baring his teeth, Klaus giving Rebekah a small shrug. "It's not perfect, but it'll do! You know what, Beks, I could do a shot or six with you. Pour it on up, then."

"That's more like it," Rebekah giggled, getting down the shot glasses, Elijah walking out of the kitchen and up to his room, seeing that the door to Hayley's bedroom was pointedly closed.

"I must say, brother," Rebekah looped her arm through her Klaus', smiling brightly at him as they walked around the jazz festival with Elijah and Hayley trailing behind them, "one of your better ideas. I think we all just needed to get out of the house and just have some fun, for fuck's sake." She drank the rest of the pint of beer from the souvenir cup she was holding in her other hand, her cheeks red and flushed, already many, many refills in.

"I was going to go bloody mad if we stayed in that house a moment longer." Klaus nodded in agreement, finishing his pint as well, checking his phone for the hundredth time that night before he shoved it back in his jeans pocket, his eyes dark and disappointed for a moment before he seemed to shake it off or at least try to, his voice a little slurred, holding up his empty pint cup. "Where the fuck can we get these topped off?"

"We're not even going to be able to see the stage if we go wait in line again for you two to get more drinks," Elijah sighed from behind them, sounding more than a little annoyed with Rebekah and Klaus. He'd knew he'd been in a rotten mood all night, but he couldn't help it. Hayley had barely said a word to him since what had happened in the kitchen, looking tired and grouchy herself.

Klaus turned to look at his older brother. "It's a jazz concert, not a strip club, Elijah. Old men play instruments. Hot girls don't get their kit off. Who cares if you can see the stage? And I want another drink."

Elijah glared at him. "You're already drunk."

Klaus shook his head with a laugh. "So much for living it up, Elijah! If this is you trying to have a good time, maybe we should have just dropped you off at the senior center on the way…this is clearly too much excitement for you, gramps—"

Hayley rolled her eyes, stepping forward, one calming hand on Elijah's arm and the other on her pregnant stomach that was presently grumbling with hunger. "Guys. Anyway we can table this until after I get something to eat? The miracle child is seriously craving one of those turkey legs. Apparently she is one classy chick."

Klaus gave his brother a small smirk before looking to Hayley. "Of course, love. I'll get my drink and you something to keep our girl happy. My treat."

"Thanks, Klaus." Hayley gave Elijah a fleeting, apologetic look when Klaus put an arm around her shoulders, but then she looked away, seeming to remember that she was mad at him too.

"Why don't you and Rebekah go and find us a spot near the stage? Hayley and I will meet you down there in a bit," Klaus said to his brother and sister, leading Hayley away, looking very pleased with himself when he saw that Elijah was practically boiling with rage.

"Didn't even ask if I wanted another drink." Rebekah muttered, looking down at her empty cup when she and Elijah were left alone. "Typical."

Elijah didn't say anything, still watching Klaus and Hayley walk away, his brother's arm still around her shoulders, pulling up Hayley's oversized purple sweater when it fell down one of her tanned arms, looking to anyone who saw them like a happy couple with a baby on the way, Elijah suddenly seeing red and having to fight down the urge to rip out the heart of the next person who bumped into him in overcrowded, oversold mass of people.

"Are you going to be all right?" Rebekah asked Elijah quietly, her voice concerned. "Elijah?"

He didn't seem to be listening to her, shaking his head in anger.

"He's behaving like a drunken fool, and Hayley's indulging him. She has been all night." Elijah said through gritted teeth. "Playing happy family, after everything he's done to her. It makes me sick."

"I think she really was just hungry, Elijah. And he's just being…you know, Klaus." Rebekah shrugged.

"But why do we always excuse even his most appalling behavior so flippantly? If either of us acted the way or said the things that he does on a daily basis, he would accuse of the most vile treachery and we would have to beg his forgiveness before we were allowed back into his life." Elijah shook his head. "And we do it, Rebekah, over and over. We allow him to do anything he likes, no matter who he hurts or what he destroys in his wake." Elijah's hands tightened into fists. "It's not amusing anymore. For the first time, I find myself...growing weary of his carelessness towards everyone around him. Towards Hayley. Towards you and me."

"I know how you feel about Hayley," Rebekah reached out, her hand on her brother's arm, Elijah refusing to look at her. "But she's having his baby, Elijah. What did you think was going to happen? How did you see this ending well?"

"He doesn't deserve to be that child's father!" Elijah suddenly rounded on her, angrier than Rebekah had ever heard him, his dark eyes practically black with rage as he gripped her arm tightly.

"But he is."

Elijah looked into his sister's eyes for a long moment, breathing hard, seeming to be fighting down his rage, the instinct to give into his vampire impulses and just go blood mad on the crowd around them. He seemed to draw strength from Rebekah, letting out a long breath, some measure of calm and kindness returning to his brown eyes. "I-I'm sorry, sister. None of this is your fault. I just don't know how much longer I can stand…"

"…pretending you're not completely in love with her?" Rebekah supplied helpfully.

"Well…yes." Elijah sighed wearily.

"Klaus just does this nonsense like tonight to mess with your head. And because he's a flirt, and Hayley is too, so sometimes she does it back. That's how I think this little miracle happened in the first place, actually." Rebekah rolled her eyes with a little laugh. "But it doesn't mean anything to either of them, Elijah, not really. I've seen the way she looks at you, and it's completely different than the way she looks at him. She wants to be with you—clearly. I got an eyeful of proof of that this afternoon, remember?" Rebekah grinned. "But it's more than that to her too. She loves you just as much as you love her. I know it."

Elijah's breath caught in his throat, looking up at Rebekah, shaking his head as if she'd said something blasphemous. "Don't. Don't say that if you don't—"

"I mean it." Rebekah rubbed her brother's arm with her hand, seeming to think for a moment before arriving at a conclusion. "And I don't know how in the bloody hell we're ever going to figure all of this out, but we've weathered plenty of storms before, the three of us. We'll find a way. We're a family. Always and forever."

Elijah smiled at her. "The eternal optimist."

Rebekah smiled back. "Come on. Let's go and find a good spot so we can see the stage."

Elijah nodded, and Rebekah took his arm, leading him towards the main performance area, already full of people milling around. But suddenly Elijah caught his sister's arm, stopping her. "Rebekah…do you…"

"Something's not right," she said in quiet agreement, looking curiously through the crowd for the cause of their mutual unrest.

They could both hear it, a low humming noise underneath the normal sounds of people talking and laughing and the musicians running sound-checks—but it didn't sound like anything electrical. Elijah suddenly felt unbearably tense, as though his nerves were piano strings being tightened too far, the taut wires plucked over and over. Soon they were going to inevitably snap. But it wasn't just a feeling. He could hear something too—and by the look on Rebekah's face, she was registering the same buzzing drone as well.

"What is that?" She looked at her brother, clearly expecting Elijah as always to have all the answers.

"I don't have any idea." Elijah scanned the faces of the people around them, recognizing no one in particular, suddenly wishing very much that Hayley and Klaus were back with them and they were all together, feeling as though things were about to go very, very wrong, the humming sound growing in volume, starting to hurt his left inner ear (it was oddly only audible in one ear) with its intensity, and make him feel slightly nauseous as the sound raised suddenly and steeply in pitch.

"Shit!" Rebekah clapped a hand to her left ear. "What the fuck?"

No one else at the concert seemed to be noticing anything, or reacting to any kind of noise, which seemed impossible at the volume level it had grown to now, Elijah pressing a hand to his left ear as well, trying to silence the sound but only intensifying the pressure, Rebekah suddenly letting out a small cry of surprise and pulling her hand away from her ear, finding it covered in blood. Elijah followed suit, and found that the same was true for him, both of them literally bleeding out their ears. He grabbed Rebekah's arm. "Let's find Hayley and Klaus. We're leaving. Now." He started to pull her through the crowd, Rebekah looking close to tears as she followed behind him—when suddenly the sound stopped, along with the pain, and the bleeding.

Elijah turned to look at his sister, bewildered, Rebekah wiping her bloody hand on her jeans and staring at him with wide, blue eyes. Suddenly, her hand tightened on his arm as she saw something over his shoulder. "Elijah," her voice came out as a slightly fearful whisper.

He turned around, following her gaze across the mass of people to the fringe of the crowd to see a very familiar, very unwelcome face. Celeste was standing there, her arms crossed triumphantly over her chest as she watched Elijah and Rebekah, looking close to laughter, her usually dark eyes white and electric with her apparent newfound power from the Harvest.

That was worrisome enough, but even stranger was her present companion. Marcel was standing with her, but not his usual self at all. He didn't look confident or full of laughter. He looked like the walking dead, his eyes devoid of any light, his posture slumped and arms hanging limply at his sides almost as if invisible strings were all that were holding him upright, not looking at anyone or anything in particular, just staring forward into nothingness. Celeste almost seemed to be showing him off like some kind of sick trophy she had procured.

"What's she done to him?" Rebekah breathed out, starting to push through the crowd towards Celeste and Marcel.

"Wait, Rebekah, wait." Elijah stopped her.

"Let go of me! I'm helping him!" She tried to pull away, but Elijah held on tighter.

"Stop and think, sister! Don't you think that's exactly what she wants you to do? Run right to her? After the Harvest, Celeste will have been looking for a public place to make a display of the witches' newfound power in the Quarter, with her now at the helm. Clearly she's chosen tonight, just as I feared. And she's using Marcel to make her point because she was able to capture him when he was vulnerable after Davina's death and he was known as an enemy of magic in this place. "

"Then we have to stop her," Rebekah said, "before she hurts him. Or anyone else."

"I agree, but first we have to find Hayley. And Klaus. Before all hell breaks loose. We need to stand together in this."

Rebekah cast an anxious look back at Marcel, suddenly looking confused. "They're gone. Elijah. Where are they?"

When they didn't see them, Rebekah and Elijah turned in opposite directions, Elijah starting to feel like he was living in some kind of nightmarish amalgamation of a carnival funhouse when he realized he saw no sign of Celeste or Marcel. They had disappeared. "We need to regroup, the four of us. Now," Elijah took Rebekah by the hand, his sister seeming comforted by him taking an authoritative role, Elijah leading the way across the festival grounds towards the snack stands, finally seeing Hayley and Klaus sitting on a bench and talking like they didn't have a care in the world, Klaus drinking his beer and Hayley happily eating her turkey leg as they looked at something together on Klaus' phone.

Elijah felt rage swell up within him again. What was this, fucking date night? He stormed over to them, dragging Rebekah along with him. "So sorry to interrupt, but I just wanted to inform you both that Celeste is here, along with Marcel—"

"Are you bleeding?" Hayley looked up at Elijah, climbing to her feet to gently examine the dried blood from his ear down to his neck.

He pushed her hand away. "I'm fine, Hayley." His voice came out harsher than he intended, and Hayley recoiled, her eyes hurt. "Dude, what is your problem?"

"My problem is that Rebekah and I were just warned by Celeste that she has chosen tonight to make a show of how powerful she has truly become, and you two are too busy making eyes at each other to bloody notice that anything's even happening!"

Klaus took a long swallow of his beer, shaking his head with a little laugh afterwards, having the audacity to look bored as he sat back slightly on the bench, supporting himself with one hand. "Ah, yes, Elijah. The dreaded 'bleeding-ear' curse. I'm terrified, really. If I had known things were going to get this intense, I would have hidden under my covers with a flashlight all night so the big, bad witches couldn't get me."

Klaus raised his cup to his lips to take another drink, but Elijah knocked it out of his hands, spilling beer all his brother's dark blue t-shirt. "Stop sitting there and smiling and being so damn glib about everything! Take something seriously for once in your life! The witches wield real power, especially now, and you know it!"

Klaus raised his eyebrows, wiping the beer off his face as he stood up, stepping forward so he was nose-to-nose with his brother. "Real power? What, like you? Acting like a bloody child because the only way you ever get the girl is if I let you have her?" Klaus patted Elijah's cheek twice with his hand. "You owe me another drink, brother. Go on then and fetch it, I'll wait."

"I don't owe you anything," Elijah's voice was quiet, but practically shaking with rage. "The only reason I came here to New Orleans is to help you. To protect our family."

"Ah, yes. That does sound noble, doesn't it? Too bad you're such a shitty liar." Klaus grinned. "Just admit it, Elijah. You wanted what I had, and you came here to try and take it all away from me. You've dressed up your plays for power as benevolence and brotherhood, but in the end, it really just comes down to envy, doesn't it? Your bastard brother ends up with all the power, and you…with nothing."

Klaus moved his hand to Elijah's shoulder, squeezing tightly. "And it just drives

you mad, doesn't it, because every time you look at your precious Hayley, all you can think about is the fact that it's my child growing inside her, the child you could never give her, and the fact that no matter what you do, or how hard you try to replace me…it won't really matter. I'll always be that child's father. And Hayley may have never loved me, but I still fucked her first. Tell him how many times I made you come that night, sweetheart. Go ahead, tell him." Klaus looked to Hayley, but she was staring determinedly at the ground, giving all the answer that was needed with her silence. Klaus turned back to his brother, his lips twisting into a sinister smirk. "You see? That's the difference between you and me, Elijah. Girls want you to save them…and me to make them scream." Klaus smiled. "And I'm happy to oblige. So why don't we both just stick to what we're good at?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Elijah asked.

"It means…remember your place, brother. If you wish to remain here, you do so in service to me. Hayley, the child, New Orleans—they're all mine. If you want to help me keep them safe, fine." Klaus stepped even closer to Elijah. "But do not think me blind. When I arrived home today, it was perfectly clear what was bothering you and what I had very nearly stumbled upon. And if I ever again get even the slightest notion that you're trying to take anything that belongs to me for yourself…I swear to you, I will make your suffering a thousand times worse than what father did to me. He was an amateur in the art of pain. I've had a millennia to perfect the practice."

"Stop this!" Hayley stepped in between them, pushing the two brothers apart, rounding on Klaus. "Jesus, Klaus! What century do you think you're living in? I don't belong to anyone, and definitely not you! Besides, weren't you just showing me text messages from your little girlfriend in Mystic Falls? Why do you care what I do or who I want? Clearly, you've already moved on! You barely even gave enough of a shit about me to notice me leaving the morning after we fucked! You laughed in my face when I showed up in New Orleans, and have hardly seemed to remember I exist for the past eight months except when I'm convenient to your plans or when you need an excuse to be a dick to your brother. You are a sad, miserable person, and I feel sorry for Caroline if she really is coming here to be with you. Now that Sophie's dead, you're damn lucky that I haven't already taken this baby and gotten her as far away from you as humanly possible."

Klaus's blue eyes were ice cold as he surveyed Hayley, his expression uncaring, but Elijah could see that his brother was visibly upset by her words. "Oh by all means, Hayley, do share with the group—what's kept you here, then?"

Hayley met Klaus' eyes steadily before she looked back at Elijah as if to answer his question, before turning back to Klaus. "You may have made her, Klaus. But you'll never be her father. I don't want you in her life. In fact, this whole family would be better off if you would just disappear, and you know it." Hayley swallowed hard. "I mean, it's not just me who wishes you were out of their lives. Your brother and sister, everyone in Mystic Falls, New Orleans...you really think you'd be used to the feeling of nobody wanting you by now."

Suddenly many things happened at once. Klaus let out a roar of rage, seizing Hayley by the neck with both hands and lifting her off the ground, his face transforming into its hybrid form, Rebekah screaming out, "No, Klaus, stop!" as she rushed forward to try and stop him from hurting Hayley or the baby. But before she could reach him, Elijah transformed into his vampire form with a growl of fury, something that even his siblings rarely saw happen, charging his brother and knocking him to the ground, catching Hayley before he shoved Klaus aside, Elijah holding a shaking Hayley in his arms, looking up to his sister, "Help her," he commanded Rebekah, Rebekah nodding, helping Hayley to safety, Elijah vaguely registering the clouds parting above him to reveal the full moon, hearing a distant howling.

Klaus had recovered by this point, appearing from nowhere and seizing his brother by the collar, lifting him bodily from the ground and throwing him into the nearest building and through a brick wall, Klaus following the chaos he'd created, even more people from the concert starting to gather and watch as Elijah pushed back up to his feet from where he'd smashed through a wooden table in the center of what seemed to be a hotel lobby.

"You'd tear our family apart," Klaus roared at his brother, kicking bricks out of the way and pulling him back up to his feet as he walked into the lobby through the hole he'd created in the brick wall, "for that she-wolf whore?"

Elijah punched Klaus in the face, sending his younger brother crashing through the wall-length side window, shattering the glass as Klaus slammed into the opposite wall of the alley outside. Elijah stalked towards him, his face stolid and serious even in its predatory form, stepping through the shards of the window and lifting Klaus by the neck up against the wall. "You will never call her that word again, brother. Never."

"Or what?" Klaus tried to laugh, blood seeping through his teeth, the sound of police sirens joining in with screams from the crowd outside the alley as the howls began to grow closer.

Elijah smashed the heel of his hand against his brother's stomach, snapping three of Klaus' ribs neatly in half, Klaus letting out a strangled cry of pain, crumpling to the ground as Elijah released him, stepping back, Elijah's hand shaking slightly as he pointed as his brother and stepped away from him, trying to keep his composure as he spoke. "You're the one destroying this family, Klaus. I've tried everything to make us whole again—"

Klaus clutched his injured side, shaking his head. "Really? Have you? By making the mother of my child wish me gone forever?"

"You did that! Not me!" Elijah roared.

"Bollocks! You've done everything in your power to make Hayley worship you and despise me! This must be the happiest day of your life, her finally admitting that you're the father she wants for my child! Your plan finally worked, Elijah—

congratulations! Now it's only a matter of time before you take the city as well." Klaus sneered.

"No, brother, you don't understand—"

"Then clarify for me." Klaus finally managed to get back up to his feet, walking towards Elijah, the sky splitting with lightning behind him, a sudden storm that didn't seem entirely natural descending on the city.

"I love her," Elijah said simply.

Klaus stopped for a moment, still clutching his side, looking at Elijah as if he'd just snapped his other ribs. Then he recovered from the surprise, letting out a labored breath. "Then you are an even greater fool than I imagined. Consider this a mercy." He lunged towards Elijah, clearly intending to bite his neck and weaken him, but Elijah anticipated him, using Klaus' momentum to heave him bodily across the square into the second story of one of the bars closed for the night. Elijah tore through the crowd, most people having the sense to make way for him, when suddenly he heard Hayley's voice, "No! Stop!"

Elijah turned to see what was happening, finally registering some of the chaos happening around him. Most of the humans in the crowd were struggling to escape, bottlenecking the exits, and Elijah soon saw why. The vampires of New Orleans had arrived. They had apparently made their way from the usual nightly post along the rooftops down to the concert grounds at the smell of blood and chaos. And then Klaus emerged, his silhouette framed by the wreckage of the second story of the building where Elijah had thrown him, Klaus looking towards the full moon for a moment before calling out to the vampires that were once in Marcel's army but had now joined Klaus.

"Brothers! Sisters! It is time to show the insurgents of this city where the true power lies!" Klaus called to his followers, and they raised a cheer, the younger and more irresponsible of his vampires going fully blood drunk and just feeding on the remaining helpless members of the crowd at random, but most turning and preparing to fight as a full werewolf clan descended from a hill down to the grounds as well, the werewolves surrounding Hayley who had somehow gotten separated from Rebekah.

The wolves were seemingly closing ranks around Hayley to protect her and her child, different members of the clan in varying stages of the transformation brought on by the night's full moon, destroying various parts of the fair grounds to arm themselves with wooden stakes to use against the vampires, either clawing or biting any remaining concertgoers in their path.

"Hayley belongs with us. With her people. As does her child." The largest male at the front of the werewolf pack, a young, muscular man, his eyes like a wolf but the rest of him still in human form, bellowed up at Klaus. He had clearly earned his position at the front of the army through strength instead of battle experience, still a very young werewolf, as evidenced by him still being in his early stages of transformation—and his utter stupidity in so boldly challenging Klaus. "Let us leave with her in peace, and we have no quarrel with your people."

Klaus leaped down from the second floor of the building, landing smoothly in front of the werewolf at the front of their army. He looked the man—practically just an overgrown boy— up and down, smiling and baring his fangs, Elijah experiencing a sinking feeling in his stomach, knowing what was going to happen before it did.

"I'm part wolf, mate, or have you forgotten?" Klaus suddenly plunged his hand into the werewolf's chest, seizing the foolishly brave fighter's heart in his hand, the werewolf letting out a howl of breathless pain as Klaus didn't extract his heart right away, different from his brother in that he preferred to relish this particular process, his vampires falling in around him, laughing and smiling, Klaus looking up at the young man. "Which means that I happen to know werewolves are notoriously difficult to kill." He finally pulled out the man's heart with brutal, exacting strength, crushing it in his fist afterwards, letting blood leak out between his fingers as his opponent keeled over at his feet. "Extraction of the heart is actually one of the only ways to kill a werewolf instantly." Klaus looked around at the rest of the werewolf pack. "Anyone care for another lesson? Or are you wise enough to give up the girl peacefully and join me?"

Apparently, werewolves were not the most peaceful of people, especially after Klaus had just killed one of their own so mercilessly, charging forward as a full vampire and werewolf battle began, Klaus seeming to be enjoying himself as he fought for the vampires this time, scaling buildings, clawing through brick with his bare hands.

Elijah sought out Hayley in the battle, fighting off werewolves to get to her, Hayley looking frightened for her child, but relieved when she saw Elijah. "Elijah!" she called out, but the werewolves closed in around her, three women and two men, in an effort to prevent him from going to her.

"I am not my brother, and I do not want to kill you all, but I will for her. Move aside," Elijah said sternly.

The wolves looked to Hayley, and she gave them a small nod, speaking in a voice that pleasantly surprised Elijah with her authority. "He's not like the others. He only wants to keep me and my child safe. Let him pass."

The wolves moved aside, and Elijah stepped forward to her, going to wrap his arms around her in a relieved embrace, but Hayley caught his face in her hands and kissed him hard, not seeming to care that his face was still transformed or that she could feel his fangs when she kissed him, Elijah so caught off guard and full of adrenaline that he couldn't stop his body from responding and kissing her back, holding her tightly against him until they broke apart breathlessly what felt like seconds later but, judging by the stunned faces of those around them, had been much longer.

"Hayley…" Elijah reached down to her, his face falling with shame, brushing the blood from the broken skin of her full bottom lip with his thumb.

She shook her head, laughing and smiling as she looked up at him, seeming almost half-mad with power and blood and freedom. "Elijah, I don't care."

"NEW ORLEANS! Is this really who you want for your leader?" A booming female voice suddenly seemed to fill the entire concert grounds, all of the werewolves and vampires and anyone else unfortunate enough to have fallen into their path and not been able to escape ceasing their fighting for a moment and turning towards the source of the noise on the concert stage.

Celeste was standing on the stage, Marcel slumped against the stairs slightly off to the side, Rebekah holding him and looking up at Celeste, Rebekah beaten and bloody herself, seemingly from fighting her way to Marcel. But Celeste wasn't looking at them—she was pointing at Klaus, standing at the front of his vampire army.

"You got a problem with my leadership style, love?" Klaus called back to her.

Celeste ignored Klaus, raising both hands now above her head and speaking to the crowd. "Niklaus Mikaelson is no true king! Look at this man! He can't even control his own family! The mother of his child is in the arms of his brother!" She motioned to Elijah and Hayley. "His sister has fled from his side to support the claim of his rival." Celeste indicated Marcel and Rebekah. She spoke next to the werewolves. "He has said himself that he is part wolf, and this very night, he brutally murders his own people, his own blood." Then the vampires. "He only won your loyalty through violence and cruelty, and if any one of you is no longer useful to him, he will dispose of you without thought." She then looked directly at Klaus. "Magic has run through the veins of this city from its inception. Under my leadership, the witches have broken every restraint placed on them, and we now have power you could never even hope to possess. We will take back our city, and throw you out of it. For good. Consider this my formal declaration of war. I will return to the Quarter seven days from tonight at this time to accept your surrender and your child, Niklaus, since we've protected her from the start and she rightfully belongs to us. Anyone who wishes to join us will be spared. Anyone who opposes us will be destroyed. There will be no negotiations. The time has come for all of you to make the final choice between my rule or eternal torment." Celeste reached down, her hand on Marcel's shoulder as Rebekah held him, and with a sudden flare of fire, all three of them were gone and all of the buildings surrounding the concert venue were suddenly engulfed in flames.

Absolute madness ensued again, and the battle began anew, but Hayley and Elijah managed to get away and escape back to the werewolf encampment, hiding out in a cave until the morning, when the rest of the clan returned from the massacre of the battle of the full moon.

Elijah rubbed his forehead wearily. Even after everything, he worried for Klaus. He hadn't seen him since that night, he had no idea what had become of him, and despite everything, Elijah wanted to make sure he was all right. He knew it was madness, he knew he should just give up and stop trying, but he also knew that he never could and never would give up on his brother.

They had to at least try to make peace between them, he, Rebekah, and Klaus, so that they could stand together in this and stop Celeste. It sounded impossible right now with the state things were in—but he agreed with Rebekah—they had to try.

Caroline kept her hand pressed against her bloody cheek, just standing there stunned for a moment after Rebekah seemingly disappeared from the restaurant bathroom. Surely there was some way out of this place she didn't know about—but she didn't really feel any kind of burning desire to go chasing after Rebekah Mikaelson.

She'd never really known what to make of Klaus' sister—sometimes Caroline felt intimidated by her, sometimes she felt sorry for her—and tonight had been a

combination of both. Yeah, Rebekah had thrown her around a rag doll—she was an Original, duh. They were the strongest vampires in the world. But even when she was making fun of Caroline, Rebekah's blue eyes had looked so haunted and exhausted and sad, and when she talked about Klaus, there was almost palpable longing in her voice. She missed her brother, no matter what crazy battle they were having this time. And Caroline felt a little bad for her.

But why had she kept bringing up Hayley Marshall, of all people? Caroline hadn't even thought about her in what felt like years, and she had barely tolerated her when she had briefly been in Mystic Falls and spent most of her time basically living with Tyler while he assured Caroline nothing was going on even though Hayley was one of those girls that drove Caroline crazy. Hayley was just effortlessly "sexy," always with slightly rumpled perfectly-boho-wavy hair like she'd just fucked your boyfriend, that perma-smirk that looked like she knew something you didn't, and vintage, loose-fitting clothes that somehow always seemed this close to falling off. Girls like Hayley made her secretly furious. She knew she would look stupid if she ever tried to pull off that look, and "pretty" or "cute" was usually the best she could hope for after striving for hours and guys usually just seemed mostly indifferent to her appearance, like oh, yeah, that's just always how Caroline looks, shrug, (except for Klaus, she reminded herself, feeling a little better), but girls like Hayley never even seemed to be putting any effort in and guys got all tongue-tied and stupid around them.

Whatever. Who knew what Rebekah was talking about half the time? Klaus had said he'd tell her what was going on with his plan, so she'd ask him about Hayley then. Caroline removed her hand from her cheek, examining the cut in the shards that remained in the mirror. The bleeding had stopped, but she was going to have a bruise. Suddenly there was an urgent knocking at the door.

"Caroline?" Klaus' voice. "Caroline, are you all right?"

"I'm fine." She went to the door, opening it, Klaus' eyes widening when he saw her bruised and bloody face, the broken mirror, and the fallen tiles from the bathroom wall. "Don't freak out." Caroline put her hand on his arm.

"What the hell happened?" Klaus stepped past her.

"Blond, angry, stripper heels, about ye high…" Caroline held her hand up way above her head.

"Rebekah was here?" Klaus turned around, stunned.

"Yeah. Didn't your hear us?" Caroline asked him.

"I had to step outside to take a call…" Klaus breathed out, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck before walking towards her, taking Caroline's face gently in his hands, looking at her wound, his eyes hardening with anger towards his sister. "She did this to you?"

"Klaus, I'm fine." Caroline sighed with a small smile. "Your sister's not the most subtle person in the world. But she doesn't scare me. She never has. And I think that pisses her off. So, you know, she throws me into bathroom mirrors."

"She's just jealous of you," Klaus said quietly, but he didn't elaborate further even when Caroline looked up at him quizzically. He leaned forward, kissing her briefly on the lips. "I'm so sorry, love. Let's just go home."

Caroline nodded, taking his hand and following him out of the bathroom and into the private ballroom dining area he'd reserved for them on the second floor of the restaurant. A delicious looking dinner was already on the table, and he'd apparently compelled the wait staff to leave once they'd served dinner so he and Caroline could talk privately, red curtains drawn on all the doors, candles lit on the table, a glass chandelier turned to dim light over a glossy black piano in the far corner, and low level lighting built in the edge of the private bar on the other side of the room. There was a full-length window on the far wall with what seemed to be a stunning view of downtown New Orleans, but the red velvet curtains were closed over the window as well, leaving only a sliver of the city lights visible where the curtains didn't quite meet in the middle. It seemed a shame to walk away from such an elaborate dinner and beautiful arrangement, but Klaus hardly even seemed to notice any of it, leading Caroline towards the closed door to the front staircase out of the restaurant. But Caroline stopped him while they were still in the private dining room. "Wait, Klaus. Rebekah did give me a message for you."

He turned and looked back at her. "What message?"

"She wants you to meet with her and Elijah. Tomorrow night at three o'clock. To try and negotiate some kind of peace treaty between the three of you. She said you'd know where. And that if you don't show or if you bring anyone with you, they'll take it as you declaring war on both of them."

Klaus was stunned into silence for a moment. "Is she out of her fucking mind?"

Caroline shrugged. "I'm just telling you what she said. And she said that Elijah's agreed to the meeting already." She swallowed, suddenly feeling a little nervous to go on and not knowing exactly why. "For Hayley's sake. What…what did she mean by that, Klaus?"

Klaus dropped Caroline's hand, shaking his head and walking over to the bar. He poured himself a shot of whiskey, drinking it and letting out a long breath. "That traitorous fucking bitch," he muttered to himself.

"Hayley?" Caroline blinked with confusion.

"No, my darling sister." Klaus poured himself another shot, drinking it down disturbingly fast before pouring himself another. "I really am getting more and more attached to idea of just getting it over with and killing her myself."

Caroline walked over to the bar. "Klaus. Just tell me what's going on."

He turned to look at her, his expression softening slightly as guilt seemed to overwhelm him, sighing heavily and sliding the shot over to her. "Go on then, love. I wish I'd had a few of these the first time I heard what I'm about to tell you."

"No." Caroline shook her head, her small hand closing around the shot glass. "I want the truth first."

Klaus nodded, sliding out a bar stool for her. Caroline sat down nervously, having absolutely no idea where this was going as he took the stool beside her, not looking at Caroline as he started talking, just staring at the taps and bottles behind the bar in the dim light, his voice emotionless as he began to speak. "I made the acquaintance of Hayley Marshall when I was trying to gain more information on Katherine and the cure. Not that it really matters now, but once it became common knowledge in the underworld that Hayley could provide possible access to Katherine, she needed protection from someone powerful enough to keep Silas, the Salvatores, and any other possible threat at bay. Even my siblings had proved…disappointingly fallible to the constraints of mortality, but I had not. So she turned to me for protection, and seeing as she was my only possible link to Katherine, we decided to form a mutually beneficial alliance, albeit a temporary one." Klaus fell silent for a moment. "Even she could see how in love I was with you, Caroline, and what a fucking mess wanting you had made of me, and she was lonely too, and we…I don't know, I suppose we just didn't want to think about how miserable our lives were for a moment. So we both drank too much, and ended up sleeping together."

Caroline stared down at the bar, a strange pounding in her ears, not able to quite articulate any one feeling yet. "When did all of this happen?"

"Towards the end of your senior year. I didn't…you had your own matters to attend to, with Elena's recent decision to abandon her humanity and Tyler leaving Mystic Falls. I just wanted…to try and forget you for a night, and Hayley was—"

"Okay, okay!" Caroline stopped him, her laugh a little too high-pitched. "Hayley's super-sexy and dangerous and cool and everything I'm not, and you were trying to get over me. Got it. Move on to the next part of the story, please."

Klaus looked up at her, the side of his mouth curving into a small smile before he cleared his throat and continued. "She left the next morning, and I thought I'd never see her again, and, er…let's just say, neither of us would have been broken-hearted if that had been the case. But then Katherine contacted me about the witches planning something against me in New Orleans. When I arrived to confront the coven about what they were planning, my brother Elijah was here, along with Hayley…" Klaus braced his hands against the edge of the bar for a moment. "…and they informed me that Hayley was pregnant with my child."

Caroline's entire mouth went dry. "But…how is that…" she sputtered.

"Apparently because I was born a werewolf—the normal rules of hybrid procreation don't apply."

Caroline did take the shot then, drinking it in one swallow, staring sightlessly at the mirrored panels behind the bar for a long moment of silence. "I mean, do we even know the baby's yours? Hayley's not exactly a blushing little flower of innocence. Maybe she just thought…your family's totally loaded, and, from some stuff Tyler told me, she like grew up homeless and living on beaches in tents, and like hitching across the country with truckers…"

Klaus turned to look at Caroline with a small laugh. "Caroline. That wasn't very kind."

"Well, I'm just saying…"

"No, I actually thought…remarkably along the same lines when I heard the news initially. But this is no ordinary child, Caroline—that has been proven time and time again. The pregnancy has given Hayley abilities that could only come from carrying the child of a hybrid descended from a witch. There's no denying the parentage at this point. And once she's born, she may very well surpass even me in her power."

"She?" Caroline asked quietly.

"Yes. The witches have confirmed that Hayley's having a girl."

Caroline let out a long breath, resting her forehead in her hands for a moment. "Do you want to be with Hayley? Raise your daughter together? I'd rather just know now if you do."

"Of course not. I only want to be with you. You know that." Klaus put his hand on Caroline's back. "I…I can acknowledge that Hayley will be a part of my life now that we share this child, and our daughter should know both of her parents and spend time with us in some way that works for all of the parties involved, but that's all. I love you, Caroline. Only you, forever. And moreover, Hayley…has decided to share her life with my brother. From what I hear, they're living together in a home in the bayou."

Caroline did look up at that, her blue eyes wide. "Hayley and Elijah are together? Before she even…I mean, she's still pregnant with your kid but she's already shacked up with him?"

"Yes. They were already carrying on some kind of…relationship while they were both under my roof—I don't know to what extent, but they were definitely involved. And then, during the Jazz Festival insanity, Elijah confessed to me that he was in love with her. They left that night together with Hayley's werewolf clan. I haven't heard from them since."

"That's…Klaus, I'm sorry." Caroline didn't know what else to say.

"It's fine. It's not as if Hayley and I were together."

"I know, but your own brother? That's messed up. I thought it was super-weird when Elena just basically wandered down the boarding house hallway and switched Salvatores, but at least she wasn't pregnant with one of their babies when she did her little do-si-do…" Caroline's voice trailed off for a moment. "So this is all what really caused the big fight during the festival?"

"Well, I mean, it was everything else I told you also, but the Hayley issue was certainly a…contributing factor." Klaus took Caroline's hand on top of the bar. "I'm sorry, Caroline. I should have told you all of this sooner, but it's…it's a difficult thing to explain, and…"

"Kind of a mood-killer. I get it," Caroline said thoughtfully, putting her other hand on top of his. "When I first got here, I didn't give you any reason to think I was staying past this week. I wouldn't really have been dying to talk about all of this baby mama drama either if I was you. But after today…I feel like...things are different. And you promised me I could trust you now. Don't make me regret it." She squeezed his hand tighter. "No more secrets, okay? No more waiting until someone else forces the issue to tell me the truth. I don't care what it is, I don't care if it's hard to hear or not nice, just tell me. And I'll be honest with you too." Caroline swallowed hard, looking at him seriously. "Klaus, when your sister was here, I told her…I told her that I wouldn't leave you. That I'd stay with you and never betray you, and I meant it. You're not fighting this war alone anymore. So we have to trust each other."

Klaus looked shocked and happy and slightly terrified, but he just nodded, gripping her hand back. "You'll never know how much that loyalty means to me. I'll tell you anything you want to know, Caroline. Even the unpleasant parts."

"Well, you did promise to let me in on this precious plan of yours," Caroline smiled, "but if you don't mind, we're letting a perfectly good dinner go to waste, and I was kind of thinking I might multi-task. Eat and listen?"

"Of course, love." Klaus smiled back, offering her his arm and leading her over to their candlelit table, pulling out her chair and letting Caroline sit down before he took the seat next to her, Caroline eagerly drinking more of that delicious blood wine and starting in on her gourmet shrimp gumbo as Klaus launched into the rather lengthy tale of his history with Marie Laveau. Once he was finished telling her about that, he reached the part of the story he'd been dreading— informing her what had really become of Elena, and why Damon and Katherine were arriving tomorrow so he could procure enough Petrova doppelganger blood for Marie Laveau's spell in exchange for returning Elena to her body. He carefully explained the details about Katherine initiating the Passenger spell, and made sure to further emphasize that it was reversible.

"Reversible how?" Caroline blinked, horrified just by the Elena and Katherine switching bodies part of the story—that her best friend was trapped in some dead lady's body, that she had been unknowingly living with Katherine Pierce for three weeks, that she'd let that bitch use her straightener and drink her blood bags, that stupid Damon and disgusting Katherine were crashing Caroline's sexy Klaus party—none of this was particularly thrilling to her.

And it looked like Klaus knew what came next wouldn't make her happy either, taking a long drink from the blood wine himself before continuing. "The Passenger Spell can only be reversed if the intruder spirit is made to suffer such unbearable torment that it, in essence, "snaps," returning both spirits to their proper bodies, causing instant death for the intruder spirit once it is forced to return to their deceased mortal casing, thus allowing the hijacked spirit back to its proper place. So I just have to make it unpleasant enough for Katherine to live that she has no choice but to give up the ghost at last, so to speak, so that Elena can be returned to her true self."

"But the only way to make that happen is to torture Katherine, in Elena's body, until she basically surrenders?" Caroline asked uneasily.

"Yes. Damon tried to do it himself, and was…unable to perform, so he asked me for help, and I told him I would assist him with this unpleasant task in return for the Petrova doppelganger blood Marie requires for the spell we need to defeat the coven challenging me and demanding my surrender and my child."

Caroline finished her glass of wine, her voice very small and quiet when she spoke again. "What are you going to do to Elena?"

Klaus looked up at her sharply. "It's not Elena, Caroline. The woman arriving tomorrow is not your best friend. Your best friend is trapped inside a corpse right now, because of Katherine. She'll look and sound like Elena because she mercilessly stole Elena's body, but it's Katherine. You have to remember that. Remind yourself of that, whenever you start to pity her."

Caroline nodded, but didn't look anymore convinced this was the right thing.

"And if I do nothing," Klaus went on, "and Katherine's daughter finds a way to destroy her mother's corpse, which she most certainly will eventually, Katherine will win control of Elena's body permanently. You will never see your best friend again."

"I just wish there was another way." Caroline pushed her food around on her plate miserably.

"Breaking someone doesn't always mean stretching them out on a rack, Caroline. There are many ways to push someone past a limit of pain they can endure. It doesn't even necessarily have to be physical torment. It could be mental. Emotional. There are many different tactics I can employ. I actually think outright violence would be the least effective methodology against someone like Katherine."

"You won't hurt her then?" Caroline looked up, relieved.

"I won't physically harm her. Especially not if it would displease you."

"Do you…do you still think you can get Elena back without…you know, putting a Saw bear-trap on her head?"

"Yes. As I said, Katherine is overly accustomed to physical pain. She is very capable of compartmentalizing it, distancing herself from it in her mind. Attacking her mind, her emotions—she won't expect it, certainly not from me, and I don't think she would be as adept at withstanding psychological assault as she probably thinks she is. I was actually…I was thinking you would be able to assist me in this, if you were willing. You're quite good at getting in the heads of the demented and deranged." Klaus raised an eyebrow at her.

Caroline nodded solemnly. "If it will help get Elena back. I'll do whatever I can." She raised her fork to her lips, taking a thoughtful bite of shrimp. "So Damon and…Katherine will be staying with us? Like in the house?"

Klaus looked about as pleased with the idea as Caroline. "I know. It's not exactly an ideal arrangement, but I think it's the only option. The home's…unique enchantment will at least ensure both Damon and Katherine have no choice but to remain in one place. They will be unable to venture off on their own and engineer any kind of deceptions or double-crosses while they are here with us in New Orleans. Damon may claim they are enemies now, but I assure you, war tends to make for strange bedfellows, Katherine is a born seductress, and she still inhabits the body of the woman he loves. Damon's flesh is weak and he owes no true loyalty to any one of us here—I wouldn't be at all surprised if Katherine manages to somehow win him to her side."

"Really?" Caroline considered this for a moment. "Even if that meant he would lose Elena forever?"

"He already has Elena here with him, physically. Katherine will surely exploit that angle in any way that she can to cloud his judgment and his ability to make wise decisions when it comes to her. I could certainly see Damon temporarily losing sight of the larger overall picture in favor of…satisfying more fleeting desires with her."

Caroline wrinkled her nose. "Ew."

"Agreed. Shall we change the subject?"

"Please. Quickly. Mental images are starting to form." Caroline pushed her mostly-finished plate of food away. "Besides—sorry, but just a final note on the topic—even if you're right, and he or Katherine try to get all sneaky and take Elena away from me, you don't have to worry. I'll handle them myself."

"I don't doubt it." Klaus' mouth twisted into a slow smirk of approval of the darker side of her nature. "So did you enjoy your first real taste of New Orleans cuisine, Caroline?"

"I did." Caroline smiled as she looked up at him, the candles from the table casting shadows on their skin. "Klaus, can I tell you something?"

"Of course."

"I know it's been the weirdest day ever, and this is going to sound totally nuts…but…" Caroline shook her head, her blond curls falling over her shoulders, "…this, here with you, right now, is the best I've felt in a long time."

He smiled back at her, but Caroline saw a hint of nervousness in his blue eyes. "Perhaps it's just the wine," he shrugged.

"Yeah, maybe," she rolled her eyes with a little laugh, Klaus laughing too before she leaned forward and kissed him softly, her hand on his cheek. She didn't pull away from the kiss when a few seconds had gone by and the time had come to end what would have qualified as a sweet "thanks-for-a-nice-dinner" kiss. She didn't feel like pulling away, not when her heart sped up like this just from the feeling of his mouth against hers. Instead she slid her hand to the back of his neck and leaned into the kiss, and to her relief, Klaus responded in kind, apparently similarly disinterested in stopping at a polite embrace, gripping either side of her waist, his fingers clenching on her hips as her lips parted against his and Klaus growled into her mouth at the feeling of her tongue working against his, Klaus standing and pulling her up to her feet with him, Caroline wrapping her arms around his neck as they stumbled across the room, Caroline sliding his tuxedo jacket off his shoulders, pulling off his bowtie and starting to unbutton his shirt as he reached up to the zipper at back of her high-necked black dress with both hands, seizing both sides of the zipper with his hands and ripping the back of the dress open as they reached the piano in the far corner, Klaus shoving the piano bench out of the way, the bench careening across the room and smashing into the bar, breaking in half as he lifted her up on top of the piano.

Caroline pulled him to her, kissing him deeply before she lay back on top of the piano, stepping and sliding on the middle piano keys as she kicked out of her high heels, Klaus pressing down on five of the lowest piano keys at once with the palm of his left hand as he started to move Caroline's dress up around her hips with his other hand, accidentally causing the piano to emanate a deep, threatening sound that made them both laugh before he shook his head, muttering, "Oh, fuck it," just climbing on top of the piano with her, Caroline smiling up at him before they kissed on top of the piano, Caroline undoing his pants before Klaus reached up under her black dress to pull off her underwear, looking genuinely surprised when he discovered she wasn't wearing any. Caroline broke away from the kiss with a little laugh as Klaus still seemed confused, his hand up her dress.

"What, you want to send in a search team? I'm not wearing anything down there."

Klaus shook his head with a smile, Caroline's breath starting to quicken as he started to do more interesting things with his hand between her legs, her vision growing a little hazy, hearing his low, accented voice speaking in her ear, making her whole body tremble, sounding like he wanted to devour her whole, "Covering every inch of that perfect body of yours in a black dress cut up to your chin without a stitch underneath…Caroline…" She closed her eyes, and heard the sound of his hands squeaking slightly on the glossy surface of the top of the piano, and then his mouth hard on hers as he kissed her, long and deep, Caroline letting out a shaky breath after, her hands tightening at the back of his neck when he thrust into her, and they started. Once he was inside her, things grew less frantic and oddly peaceful, and she opened her eyes, looking up at him and not feeling afraid of what she looked like or what he might be thinking. She felt like she knew what he was thinking. Suddenly it was as though Caroline was hyper-aware of the connection between their bodies—their heartbeats. Their breathing. The way he looked at her during, his blue eyes searching and hopeful and honest like they so rarely were any other time. And as the heat spread through her body and the pleasure grew, she became acutely aware of one thing above all else—the blood pounding through his veins when they were together like this. And how much she could finally admit she craved it.

"K-Klaus…" Caroline breathed out, her hand on his neck as he moved against her, not sure how on earth how to ask for what she wanted next, but knowing she had to do it or she was just going to end up just trying to take it.

But as she struggled for the right words, trying to think on higher levels as her brain currently seemed to be incapable of producing anything more sophisticated than KLAUS-SEX-IS-AWESOME-DRINK-HIS-BLOOD-NOW, the strangest thing happened. She didn't say anything else, but he rolled onto his back (carefully keeping them still on the piano), pulling Caroline with him so that she was now on top.

"What are you—" Caroline looked down at him, stopping sex for a second, momentarily confused.

But then Klaus opened the cufflinks and rolled up his left sleeve, raised his left wrist to his mouth and bit deeply into his own flesh before holding up his wrist to her like an offering. "Go on, then, Caroline," he said quietly. Caroline's already racing heart nearly pounded out of her chest as she looked down at his blood pumping out of the bite left by his fresh teeth marks, dripping down his wrist and arm, staining his rolled-up white starched formal shirt.

"I don't…you don't have to…" she stammered.

"Drink it," he said again, in a tone that brokered no argument.

She didn't even bother protesting anymore, so ravenous for him at this point that she couldn't have even constructed a feeble argument if she'd tried, gripping his wrist with both hands and turning her head to drink, letting out a moan of pleasure so intense it almost bordered on agony, pain that she couldn't consume more, quicker, the moment the taste hit her tongue, Caroline's grip tightening to a bone-breaking strength as she started to drink deeper as her fangs emerged, moving her hips against Klaus' body stretched out beneath her without even really realizing she was doing it, Klaus groaning with approval as they started to fuck again in earnest, Caroline still drinking so voraciously she couldn't have stopped even if she wanted to, circling her hips in slow, deliberate rhythm with her sucking and swallowing from his wrist, wanting to give him even some small fraction of the insane amount of pleasure he was giving her, her eventual orgasm shattering anything nice or polite or good that remained in her into dust for one glorious, explosive moment, Caroline throwing her head back with an animalistic cry of freedom, his blood dripping from her fangs, breathing so hard she felt like she was going to pass out.

She felt guilty when she remembered this later, but for a fleeting second, she almost forgot Klaus was there. Just for like one tiny little second, and then of course, she remembered. But it still made her guilty when she thought about it later.

Caroline looked back down at him, seeing that he was breathing hard too. He also looked pale. Like really, really pale. Good grief—how much of his blood had she taken? She was still holding Klaus' wrist with both of her hands, and she was still covered in his blood. There was a weirdly awkward post-sex moment of silence between them.

"Did I hurt you?" Caroline finally asked, gingerly releasing his bloody wrist and disentangling herself from him to sit beside him on the piano, her face returning to normal as she attempted to straighten her dress back down. The back of the dress was hopeless—Klaus had ripped it beyond repair. Her wardrobe was never going to survive this relationship.

Klaus laughed a little weakly at her question, but she couldn't help but notice he was really pale and sweaty as he sat up beside her, doing his pants back up. "Caroline. I can't be killed. No, you didn't hurt me."

"Are you sure?" She reached out, brushing his damp hair back off his forehead, noticing with a sinking feeling that Klaus stiffened slightly at her touch.

"Yes, I'm sure." Klaus took a deep breath, almost looking like he needed a cigarette or something. "I told you I wouldn't judge your desires, Caroline, and I don't. For some reason or another, you've been dying to feed off me since you got here. So I figured we might as well check another one off the list."

Caroline wiped off her mouth with the back of her hand, looking down at his blood on her hand and mentally commanding herself not to lick it off. Klaus already was looking at her like she was a psycho. Dial it on back, she told herself sternly. "How did you know I wanted to?"

"Call it a hunch." Klaus grinned at her, looking more like his normal self.

She pressed her lips together for a moment. "What's happening to me?" she finally asked quietly.

"How do you mean?"

"Why would I suddenly crave blood so much more than usual? And your blood more than anyone else's?" Caroline looked at him, her brow furrowed with confusion.

"I'm not sure," Klaus said thoughtfully. "You could speak with Marie about it tomorrow if you wish. She has this rather annoying habit of knowing something about everything." He smiled affectionately.

"Um, yeah, that sounds like it would go really well. 'Hey, old lady I just met who's basically the pseudo-mom of the guy I'm sleeping with—I seem to be insanely addicted to fucking him six ways from Sunday and have an insatiable craving for his blood—any ideas on why that might be?'"

Klaus snickered, but it didn't sound like he really though it was that funny. "Well, you might want to choose slightly different phrasing." He climbed off of the piano, unrolling his left sleeve and buttoning his shirt back up, looking slightly annoyed.

"What's wrong?" Caroline asked.

"I just didn't know you thought the sex thing…was some weird craving, or addiction, or whatever else is going on with you."

"Klaus, I was just joking. I just meant, because she's basically like your mom, I don't really want to tell her all the details of our sex life."

"Right, sure," Klaus said in a weird, clipped tone, picking up his jacket and bowtie off the floor, shoving his bowtie in his jacket pocket.

Caroline slipped off the piano, tugging her dress up to keep it on her shoulders, feeling more and more annoyed with him too for ripping it open in the back. "Don't make this into something it's not. I was totally kidding."

Klaus didn't say anything for a moment, going to the window and looking out at the sliver of New Orleans that was visible between the two red velvet curtains. Caroline sighed, going to join him, just giving up and holding her dress on her shoulders with both hands.

He wordlessly held his suit jacket out to her, and Caroline sighed, gratefully slipping it over her shoulders, crossing her arms and looking up at him, the lights of the city reflecting in his light blue eyes. He still wouldn't say anything, so she gave in first, ending the silence between them. "What are you looking at?"

"One of the reasons this is my favorite restaurant." Klaus smiled softly. "Come here, Caroline."

She blinked with surprise. He could change moods so quickly it gave her whiplash sometimes, but okay, whatever. She moved closer to him, Klaus' hands on her shoulders as she stood in front of him, Klaus leaning closer to her, his mouth against her ear. "Do you see those lights on the water?"

"Yes."

"That is the location of the very docks where Rebekah, Elijah, and I first landed here over three centuries ago." Caroline could hear Klaus smiling at the memory, his hands sliding down her arms. "We were never happier together than when we first called this place home."

Caroline didn't say anything for a moment, choosing her next words carefully. "Maybe…maybe you should hear what they have to say tomorrow."

"I honestly don't see the point."

Caroline turned around in his arms, looking up at him. "What would you lose by going? Maybe if you just give them a chance to—"

"I've given them enough fucking chances!" Klaus practically snarled, Caroline sighing, knowing he only talked like this when he had his feelings hurt.

"Klaus, if you don't go, and something horrible happens to them, you'll regret it. You know you will."

"They've both made it perfectly clear how much better off they all think our family would be without me. Perhaps it's time I grant their wish. Let's see them fight their own battles for once." Klaus shrugged. "No more of Rebekah crying to me to protect her when life gets too hard for Daddy's little angel or Elijah working himself into a frenzy trying so hard to nail himself up on a cross and save my immortal soul. Both are equally exhausting and insufferable, and I'm done with them."

"So, that's it? If you don't go, Rebekah said they could join forces against you—her, Elijah, Marcel, Hayley, the witches, the werewolves..."

Klaus shrugged. "Let them come. We're stronger than all of them. I have faith in the people fighting for me. And also remember this— they don't have a weapon powerful enough to stop me, even my fellow siblings. Elijah and Rebekah are no match for me in a fight, even together. Marie Laveau is the greatest witch that has ever lived. And once she has Katherine's doppelganger blood, she can defeat Celeste's coven easily. As far as the werewolves, they look to Hayley because of her royal lineage within her clan but she does not know how to rule them—they're disorganized and reckless and sloppy. My vampires—especially the ones I entrust with leadership—have the discipline and training and battle structure they lack. And with you beside me, Caroline—"

"Me?"

Klaus reached down, smoothing her blond curly hair with his hand. "I think you have immense untapped potential as a fighter. Battle skills come remarkably naturally to you. It always angered me greatly that no one trained you properly when you were initially turned. You have the instincts, the ferocity, the speed, the strength—all of the things I look for in my leading generals."

"You're just being nice," Caroline said skeptically, interlacing her fingers at the back of his neck.

Klaus looked offended. "Lying about this could get you killed. I would never. Caroline, I told you that I want you to be my queen. My true queen, who stands with me in everything, including battle. And good instincts or not, there are some things you could stand to learn, just as I had to. If you'd like, I think it would be beneficial for you and I to go through at least basic combat training this week at the house."

"I'd like that." Caroline studied his face for a moment. "Who taught you how to fight?"

Klaus' jaw tightened. "My brother."

"Elijah?" she asked.

"Yes." Klaus looked lost in thought for a moment. "But that was all a very long time ago." He seemed to be trying to come back to the moment with her, but she could tell he was still struggling with wresting the fingers of the past loose from his mind completely, Klaus determinedly placed his hands on Caroline's waist. "They've made their choices. And I've made mine." He leaned forward, brushing his mouth briefly against hers, before wrapping his arms around her in an embrace, cradling Caroline's head against his shoulder as she hugged him back, trying to hold him close enough to bring him back into present with her, but thinking to herself, he's looking out the window at those lights on the water—he may not be fighting alongside them, but Elijah and Rebekah can still take him away from me whenever they want.

A/N- Until chapter five!