This story is set after what I suppose will happen in the Season 4 finale. Klaus has been in New Orleans for a bit and he meets an old friend. I don't want to give anything away for the direction of the story, but let's just say that Caroline will be mentioned. She may even show up. Please review :)

Klaus sat at the bar sipping on another glass of bourbon. The witches had reached a stalemate with him, so he took the small break as a reason to celebrate. Tumbler after tumbler did not satisfy his thirst, so he had resorted to swigging on his third bottle. He took another gulp, about ready to walk back to his flat on Conti Street, but a shift in the seat to his right caught his attention. Slowly he turned his body to find two large green eyes smirking back him.

"Nel," Klaus breathed out.

"The recluse comes out of hiding." Nel grabbed his almost empty bourbon bottle and took a generous sip finishing the contents. "It's good to see you."

"I hardly reciprocate," Klaus said dryly.

Nel turned towards the bar and motioned for another drink. Her small face, or what of her profile Klaus could see didn't give away any reaction to his snide comment. Her light auburn hair had grown longer, but her tall frame still remained the same since he had last seen her. Once the bartender returned with two more bourbons her long, lithe limbs turned back to him. She raised her glass in cheers.

"Congratulations," She held her drink in the air waiting for Klaus to properly respond, "I hear Mikael is dead." He tightly clenched the full glass on the bar.

"How's Jakob," Klaus asked knowing the pain it should inflict.

"Dead," Nel said simply. Her eyes bore into his. He knew she was looking for a challenge.

"Condolences?"

"Congratulations actually."

"Really." His forehead crinkled as his eyebrows rose.

"Yes," she said, "So, let us drink to our mutual..." She hesitated for the right word, "Gains."

Klaus merely raised his glass in response. Nel clinked their drinks together and downed her bourbon in a gracious gulp.

"So what brings you back to New Orleans after all this time?"

Klaus licked the bourbon off his lips and stared back at Nel. Her tight, tailored white dress giving her the look of doe-eyed innocence. She didn't look a day over twenty-one, but Klaus knew the darkness that hid behind those beautiful honeydew eyes. The light color of those eyes was unnerving to others, but he had grown accustomed to them in the thousand years he had known her. "Always the curious one aren't you?"

Nel motioned for another drink. "Old friends. New stories. Time to catch up don't you think?"

Again, Klaus remained quiet. Nel was used to his mode of skirting around unpleasant topics, even though she knew most of his darker secrets. When one is cursed by The Five for half of a century, one has a difficult time discerning real from nightmare. Even though Elijah was there to help there was a time when even he couldn't bare the burden.

"Fine, Niklaus. Let me see if I can fill in the blanks." Nel flourished with her hands. "Stop me if I'm wrong. You come out of hiding and enter Mystic Falls to break the curse. Hijinxs ensue by a bunch of high schoolers. You break the curse and try to reconnect with your old bud Stef. Find out his a dull boy and return him back. Then, you make your hybrid army and kill your father. From there, you stay in town for more months than necessary." Nel again flourished her hands in a contemplative manner. "For what reason? That part is a little hazy to me."

"The doppelganger lived through the sacrifice. I needed to close up loose ends."

"Which you could have easily done in a few weeks."

Klaus' jaw clenched. His hand gripped his glass tight enough that his pale skin turned even whiter. He abruptly turned his face towards her, "What are you implying Nel?"

"Just that the Niklaus I once knew would have ripped through that town, killed the doppelganger and the annoying group of friends in an instant."

Klaus' control broke and he grabbed a bunch of the plastic cocktail swords from a cup on the bar. He quickly shoved the pointed ends into the exposed thigh of Nel as she casually sat on her bar stool. Nel grimaced when thirty or so of the swords broke her skin. Blood trickled down the side of her thigh and slowly dripped to the floor. Through the pain, Nel still broke into a satisfied smirk. "There you are. I thought Mystic Falls had made you docile."

He used his palm and bluntly shoved them deeper into her leg. "Perhaps." At this point, the hilts of the little plastic swords were flesh against her skin.

"Any deeper and I'm going to get blood on my dress." Klaus pulled them all at once and let them fall to the floor. "I apologize for what I said," Nel said as she used the cocktail napkins to clean the remnant blood off her leg. "And you should apologize for treating an old friend as such," She motioned to her now healed thigh.

Klaus gave a pointed look in return and ignored her comment completely, "What are you doing in New Orleans?"

"You seem surprised I'm here. I am apart of the founding of this city just as much as you are."

"A notion that Marcel doesn't seem to care about. Founding doesn't hold much weight over time."

"Marcel is a child. He can be easily eradicated to make room for the old ways."

"I would watch your tongue, Nel. I am his sire."

"Oh, I know," Nel replied dryly. "But I also know you. Siring doesn't hold much weight over power." His eyes furrowed. Nel merely smiled in response. "Don't you want that power back?"

"Remind me how you haven't been killed yet," Klaus remarked.

"You know I'm right."

"Or Marcel sent you to settle his unease and gauge my allegiances."

"So Marcel is uneasy with you? Interesting."

"Don't pretend to be ignorant. Common knowledge."

"It is, but I suppose that is what you get for attacking one of his vampire pals." Nel waited for Klaus to response, but again he remained silent. "You know I'm right."

"I haven't seen you in over two hundred years."

"You know I've always been loyal to you."

"Perhaps you've been persuaded otherwise."

"I still owe you."

"A thousand years is quite enough time to change your mind."

"Stop being paranoid, Klaus. What do you have to lose?" Klaus thought over her words. She had never betrayed him, but one could often change their mind on a whim. "If it helps, Sophie sent me here to reacquaint myself after all these years. Bury old hatchets, so to speak. Or in our case, a branding iron."

"Still haven't let that go?" Klaus smirked a little, but his eyes remained cold and calculating.

"Either have you. Otherwise, you wouldn't question my trustworthiness."

"You were trying to overthrow my family."

"Wrong," Nel said matter-of-factly. "I was trying to protect you and Elijah. Everyone else was trying to overthrow you two. And you being you, jumped to conclusions, and called me one of the mutineers. I only reacted to your anger."

"The fire consumed most of the city within five hours."

"Which you started by throwing the branding iron you used on face across the room."

"Vincente provoked me."

"I spent weeks in some shack with a witch trying to get rid of the wound. Whatever the hell you put on that iron, made me writhe in pain for quite awhile."

"I hope so."

"Even though I wasn't guilty. Real nice, Klaus." Nel downed another drink. "Old news, but like I was saying Sophie sent me here. She said you two had an agreement."

"So you know Sophie," Klaus remarked.

"We're old friends. I also knew the Deveraux grandmother."

"Well then, let's go meet your old friend."

Nel gathered her purse and stepped down from the barstool. She smoothed her tight white dress down her body. "Let's."

Klaus walked past her without once glimpsing at her tall form. He pushed open the bar doors into the afternoon light, which was blinding compared to the darkness inside. She quickly followed behind him all the while thinking, there is something different about him. There is something or someone that is making him so. Along with taking down Marcel and regaining her power, she promised herself to find out what was that something or someone.

Coming up: Meeting with Sophie. Nel is introduced to the whole NOLA gang and figures out about Hayley (and the baby, meh). Also, more back story of Nel and Klaus throughout the thousand years they've known each other and her connection with the other original brothers.