So after last Thursday's backdoor pilot for 'The Originals' I decided to go into deNile. And when I go there, I don't just dip a toe in. I take a running start for a flying leap to dive-bomb into the deep waters.
None of them are mine. No fowl, no harm.
!
"Caroline. I'm standing in one of my favorite places in the world. Surrounded by food, music, art, culture; and all I can think about is how much I want to show it to you. Maybe one day you'll let me."
Caroline blinks rapidly as she listens to the message during lunch break, wondering what the hell has gotten into Klaus.
She can't believe he just up and left for some place unknown. The music in the background of his voice makes her think it's still somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon, but it's not like she cares all that much.
"Suit yourself," she says waspishly and hangs up the phone.
She has ten more minutes before Biology and really no patience left for any of this. Graduation can't get here soon enough.
Several hours later, she's finally free to get out of school and into her car. She bites her lip and thinks about her options for a second. The pressure inside her is still building and she has been holding off all day. She needs a drink and she needs to vent about this to somebody. And there is really only one place left to go.
She sucks in an unnecessary breath and turns the key in the ignition. It's time to pay the Salvatore brothers a visit.
Caroline doesn't even hesitate before she barrels through the unlocked front door into the Boarding House and down the hallway towards the main living room.
"Stefan! Damon!" She continues without waiting for an answer. "You won't believe the message I just got from Klaus. Apparently, he's decided now is the perfect time to disappear off the face of the planet and enjoy some..."
"What the hell is she doing out?" Caroline's eyes narrow angrily as she catches sight of her least favorite person at the moment.
"Hah. This never gets old." The brunette lounging casually on the sofa in front of the fireplace leans her head back towards Caroline. "I'm not the doppelganger you're looking for," Katherine Pierce says in a lazy drawl, raising her arm and twiddling her fingers in a lazy salute.
"Katherine!" Caroline growls as the veins around her eyes intensify and her fangs drop reflexively.
"Whoa, tiger." Damon appears behind her with a whoosh of displaced air, and reaches an arm around her with a glass of scotch in his hand. "How about you sheath the claws and we have a drink first?"
Caroline doesn't have to turn around to know Damon is making faces at Katherine over her shoulder. It's one of his many nasty habits. She grabs the scotch anyway. "How about you explain what the hell she's doing here?"
"It's a long story," Stefan says as he moves over from the wet bar with two more glasses in his hand.
"Actually, it isn't." Katherine shrugs and takes the glass Stefan offers her. "Klaus left, so I came back."
"Well isn't that just peachy?" Caroline knocks back her drink, but doesn't take her eyes off Katherine for even a second. "And how do you know Klaus left?"
Katherine smiles like the cat that ate the canary. "Because I was the one that sent him away."
Caroline can't believe she's hearing this, or that Damon and Stefan are so damn calm about all of it. "Have I stepped into the twilight zone?" She takes a step closer towards Katherine. "Did you compel them?"
Katherine chortles and takes a sip from her drink. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Stefan, this is insane." Caroline keeps her eyes locked on their nemesis even as she steps closer to Stefan. "She's our enemy!"
She shakes her head in disbelief. "She stole the cure. She killed Jeremy, and she's the reason that Elena is desiccating in the basement! For all we know she might be holding Bonnie hostage somewhere! "
Caroline wants to shake him so bad she can feel her fingers itch and for a moment her concentration lapses and she whips her head around to glare at Stefan. "How can you just stand there and act like there's nothing wrong with her hanging out on your couch?"
"Lost the witch, did you?" Katherine cackles gleefully.
Caroline's attention snaps back to the older vampire with a growl. "As if you don't know! What did you do to her? Where is she? What do you want from us?!"
"That's enough!"
Before she can blink, Caroline finds herself backed up against a wall with Katherine's fingers tightly curled around her throat. She scrabbles at the tight hold, but she knows she's not strong enough to pry the deadly fingers off her neck. She glares at Katherine anyway.
Katherine flexes her fingers dangerously once, but the next second she's ripped away by the force of a full body tackle at vampire speed and when they both stop blurring she is flat on her back underneath Damon's considerable weight.
"Is that any way to seduce a lady?" She asks with a teasingly arched brow and rolls her hips against him.
Damon's grip clamps around her forearms like a vice as he keeps holding her down. "I don't see any ladies around here."
Caroline has had enough. "Screw this! I'm outta here." She pushes herself off the wall and bursts out of the boarding house at vampire speed.
She has no idea where to go now. Bonnie's been missing for three days, the boarding house has become home to not only one but two doppelgangers who would love to kill her, her mom is wrapped up in the investigation of the recent massacres, Tyler's gone and Klaus decided to skip town. Who else is there that she could even think about talking to about all of this?
"Matt!" She breathes a sigh of relief when she remembers her friend and changes direction, heading for the Grill.
She steps through the door into the dimly lit bar and grill and starts looking around for Matt immediately. Her eyes widen in shock when she catches sight of him sitting with Rebekah Mikaelson in one of the booths that is tucked away from most prying eyes.
Her protective instincts kicking in, Caroline makes her way through the sparse afternoon crowd at barely human speed.
"What do you want with him?" she asks harshly as she slams one hand down on the tabletop.
Matt nearly jumps out of his skin, but Rebekah merely turns her head to glare at Caroline. "That's none of your business. And if you don't want to find yourself on the business end of a stake, I suggest you leave us alone."
"Rebekah!" Matt's tone rings with reproach.
Caroline is just as surprised as Rebekah looks to be when the original vampire girl concedes and folds her hands in her lap.
Matt continues in the same tone as he shifts his chastising look to Caroline. "She came here to warn me about something, but you interrupted us before she could say anything."
Now Caroline feels like a bitch and tucks her head in. "I'm sorry," she says automatically before she realizes what she is actually apologizing for.
She wonders if Matt knows how much unwitting authority he exudes with his calm personality.
Rebekah blinks in surprise and pauses for a moment before she leans forward. "I suppose you'd tell her anyway." She takes a deep breath and releases it slowly. "Before my brother left, he betrayed us all."
"What?" The word tumbles over Caroline's lips before she can stop it. She hates how disbelieving she sounds.
Rebekah gives her a meaningful look before she turns back to Matt.
Caroline chooses to ignore it and slides into the booth next to her friend. "What are you talking about?"
"Katherine gave Elijah the cure," Rebekah says apropos of nothing.
"Wait, what?" Caroline interjects before the original can move on from that very confusing point. "Why would she do that?"
Rebekah rolls her eyes and sighs in exasperation. "My oldest brother has been in love with Katerina Petrova since he first laid eyes on her. She's been yanking him around by that chain, but apparently recently decided to prove her 'genuine feelings' to Elijah by giving him the cure."
"Wow." Caroline falls back in her seat as she tries to absorb that tidbit of information.
"Anyway." Rebekah stresses the word as she gets the subject back on track. "Klaus and I were vying for it and I won, but then somehow Klaus tipped off Silas and he mimicked me and got the cure from Elijah."
Caroline sees Matt blanch next to her and if she was still human she would have done the same. "When was this?"
"Prom-night," Matt and Rebekah say at the same time.
"The night Bonnie disappeared." Caroline looks back and forth between the pair and wonders what else she missed that night.
Rebekah leans forward and takes a hold of Matt's hand with both of hers, looking at him imploringly. "Silas has the cure. It's no longer safe here." She looks down at the table for a moment before she raises her gaze and pins him down. "Promise you'll leave. Pack your things and get out. Please, Matt."
Matt looks back at Rebekah without flinching. "Is that what you're going to do?"
Caroline feels like she's intruding but at the same time it's almost like she's not even there. She's not sure if she should clear her throat to draw their attention or silently slip out of the booth and leave.
Rebekah clears her throat and looks away from him uncomfortably. "It doesn't matter." She purses her lips resolutely and looks back at Matt with renewed determination. "Just promise you'll leave. I need to know that you'll be safe."
Caroline has a pretty good idea how he's going to respond when Matt starts to smile that adorable half-smile that used to melt her heart a life-time ago. It's creepy to see it have the exact same effect on Rebekah.
"That's not how it works, Rebekah." He turns his hand around and folds his fingers over hers, stroking his thumb over the side of her hand. "Being human means you'll have to let other people help you."
Caroline can't take it anymore. "Alright, that's enough!"
Her outburst snaps the wanna-be lovebirds out of it. They both hastily pull their hands away and sit back to glare at her.
"So, Klaus pretty much handed Silas the cure on a silver platter and then decided to skip town for parts unknown?" Caroline huffs out a breath and blows a curl out of her face in frustration.
"New Orleans," Rebekah says blandly.
"What?" Caroline is ready to throw her hands up in surrender. "Why would Katherine send him to New Orleans of all places?"
Rebekah's interest is piqued and she raises her brows in curiosity. "What does Katherine have to do with that?"
Caroline does throw her hands up at this point. "How am I supposed to know?"
Klaus has really done it this time. He's left her and his sister a deadly mess. How could he just up and leave after handing the cure to their most dangerous enemy yet, leaving the door wide open for a previous enemy to return to Mystic Falls?
And how is she supposed to deal with it all? Bonnie is gone, Silas has the cure, Elena is an emotionless wreck, Katherine's back in town, Damon and Stefan are useless, Jeremy's dead, Matt has the hots for Rebekah, Rebekah wants to be human for Matt and Caroline is somehow in the middle of it all with no one to turn to.
She sucks in a deep breath and exhales it very slowly. "But you know what? I'm going to find out."
She lays both her hands flat on the table to keep herself from smashing it into a million pieces. "And then I am going to drag Klaus's sorry ass back home and make him help us clean up the mess he made."
She wipes the subject matter off the table and gets up. "And you two are going to help me."
"And just why should-" Rebekah stops abruptly when Matt lays his hand on hers and squeezes gently.
"Okay," Matt says slowly, looking at Rebekah before he turns his head to look up at Caroline. "We'll help you."
Caroline nods in satisfaction. "Go and pack some things. I'll meet you at the mansion."
Since she's the first to arrive at the Mikaelson Mansion, Caroline uses the opportunity to snoop around. She has absolutely no qualms about going through Klaus's things. There are a few new sketches and some interesting abstract paintings. There is one that looks like the close-up of a naked shoulder with a crescent moon on it.
"Really?" Caroline rolls her eyes at the overly dramatic scene of a lonely figure in front of a fading sky standing near a bare tree. "Get over yourself, drama-llama." She giggles as she imagines Klaus's expression if she said that to his face.
Leaving the sketches behind she starts to go through his desk. There is relatively little of interest, until she comes across a letter in an open envelope. She pulls out the single sheet of paper and starts to read. Her eyebrows twitch in interest as she realizes who the sender is.
Klaus,
I hear Elijah has refused you the cure and in return you have refused me my freedom. Shame on you both. But while you boys sort out your problems, I have one last thing to offer you. I've caught wind that there is a witch in New Orleans named Jane-Anne Deveraux plotting a move against you. Hunt her down. What she has to say will rattle you so deeply to your core that chasing little old me will be the least of your concerns. It's been a fun five centuries, Klaus, but I've worn down too many good heels running from you.
Love and hate,
Katerina.
Caroline picks up her cell-phone and dials Klaus's number. She doesn't think too deeply about the fact that she knows it by heart. She is not too surprised when she gets his voice-mail.
"Klaus, I'm coming to New Orleans." She hangs up the phone.