((Hello all! Long time no see! I've decided to continue the Elijah/Elena saga following my last story "Why We Fight". This is just an idea that came to me. Of course, we will see all the other surviving members of the original family and there will be a mystery and some surprises as well. Enjoy! This is just a taste. Will update soon!))

New Orleans, Louisiana….

"Ma'am…May I just—" the teenage flower assistant pleaded in a southern drawl, trying to push his way past Caroline, who had stopped him in the courtyard of the Mikaelson Mansion when she noticed that the boxes of freshly cut and arranged flowers inside were not what she had ordered.

"No!" Caroline said, narrowing her eyes and raising a finger to silence him, "You may not! I'm not going anywhere! And neither is that abomination in your arms!"

"But, it's quite heavy—" the young man sighed, adjusting the weight of the box of flowers in his arms with the aid of his knee.

"Ah! Quite!" Caroline cried victoriously, standing in the middle of all the commotion, people swirling about her getting ready for the day ahead, in her white satin bathrobe and large curlers in her hair, "The correct use of 'quite' in the sentence that just came of your mouth and your extreme politeness suggests to me that you are an educated man?"

"Yes…" the young man winced, "Ole Miss, Ma'am. This is my summer job while I'm here visiting my grandparents—"

"Well…" Caroline cooed with fake batting eyes, putting her hands on her hips, "Ain't that sweet as pie?…"

Then her eyes grew darker, "So tell me Ole Miss Frat Boy Number Four, how is it that there are white roses walking past me in huge boxes of bouquets and table vases and decorative valences, when I ordered orchids!?"

"Charlie, let me take that for you…" one of the other floral assistants came up from behind Caroline and offered to take the box from his co-worker

"Oh! Thank God!" Charlie sighed, ready to hand it over

"NO!" Caroline cried, whipping the box away from both of them in the middle of the exchange with vampire speed, "NO! Not one more box of roses makes it past me until I see white orchids, gentleman…white orchids! O-R-C-H-I-D-S!"

"Ma'am, we just deliver the flowers," the second assistant said sheepishly, though he was a good foot taller than the blonde firecracker standing between him and his co-worker, who looked like a lineman on the college football team, "We don't know anything about the orders, we just deliver—"

"Yes! But, you carried them in, didn't you?" Caroline replied, holding the heavy box without breaking a sweat

"Yes—yes, Ma'am," Charlie answered, looking her up and down, perplexed by her strength

"Well…now that I've told you the order is wrong, you two can carry them all out! Then, I want you to drive your little truck back over to Dauphine Street and tell that gayer than a maypole florist that my fiance hired to decorate this wedding, to get onto his magical unicorn and personally bring me my damned orchids!" Caroline screamed

"Alrighty, then!" Rebekah chimed in, seemingly wedging her way between Caroline and the boys out of nowhere, then taking the box of roses and lifting it high out of Caroline's reach, "I think you've terrified these poor boys enough, Caroline. I'll take it from here. You should go upstairs and finish getting ready."

Caroline and Rebekah stared at each other for a long time before Caroline finally took in a calming breath and straightened her robe. She gave Rebekah a smile and nod.

"Thank you…" she said softly, then turned and looked at the two boys with narrowing eyes that focused hard on them as she backed away.

"White…orchids…" she said in a menacing voice, pointing a finger at them.

"Yes, Ma'am," the second assistant replied, his voice a little haunted

After a few moments, when Caroline had turned and disappeared into the crowd, Charlie let out the breath he had been holding in and looked at his co-worker, "Holy Christ on a cracker…"

"Try living with her," Rebekah smiled, handing the box of roses back to Charlie, "So…what do you say I help you gents load up your van, before the ice princess comes back?"

Both men nodded readily, though still dumbstruck.

After another moment of silence, Rebekah said, "Well…hop to it! Or she'll climb down from her crazy tree and tear out all of our livers!"

Her words seemed to snap the boys out of their daze and they immediately set to work.

Charlie turned back toward the van with his box and the second assistant rushed in among the tables set up in the courtyard and began organizing the boxes they had already brought in.

Rebekah sighed as she walked over and grabbed one of the vases of cut white roses that had already been set out on a table by one of the staff…then she looked up and saw Kol rush by.

"Caroline threatening the help, again?" he asked as he rounded the front of the table, quickly kissed Rebekah's cheek, then made for the stairs that would lead up to the second level of the mansion.

"Of course," Rebekah smirked

"Then we are staying right on time!" Kol replied with a chuckle, looking at his watch and taking two steps at a time up toward the family quarters.

"How's Nik coming along?" Rebekah called as she moved toward a second table and took another vase of flowers from the hands of one of the caterers who was about to put it out as a centerpiece.

"He's in his room, hyperventilating into a paper bag!" Kol called over the open rail with a laugh

"Well….then we are right on time…." Rebekah said to herself as she turned around and smirked as she picked up another vase of roses.

# # # # # # # # # #

"We are going to be so late!" Elena observed as she walked out of the kitchen of Elijah's mansion on the coast, in one of the flush pink dresses that Caroline had picked out, putting on her earrings as she went, "Caroline's going to kill me."

When they were both on, she stopped at the full length hall mirror to check her hair, then leaned forward and pursed her lips together to fix her lip gloss.

Elena then turned toward the stairwell and called up it as she sat gracefully down on the bottom step and put on her high heels, "Elijah! It's nearly eleven! Let's go! You can primp in the car!"

As was his character, Elijah didn't yell out a reply, but the scuffling she heard upstairs meant that he had heard her.

When her shoes were on, she walked over to the table by the door and grabbed her clutch, opening it to check and makes sure she had everything she needed.

Suddenly, Elijah came bounding down the steps, fully dressed in a black three piece suit and shoes, his hair perfectly combed.

"For the record," he said as he stepped off the stairway, "Whoever came up with the idea of pink neck ties should be put to the firing squad."

"Well…if it's any consolation, they've most likely died from old age by now…or if we're lucky, in a painful accident brought on by a mob of men wearing pink ties..." Elena smirked as she walked forward, tucking her clutch under arm, and straightened his pink tie.

"And yet their terrible legacy lives on…" Elijah quipped with a smile, then leaned forward and laid a quick kiss on her mouth.

When their lips parted, Elena smiled back, then turned around, "Zip me up?"

"Sure," Elijah said then stepped forward and took hold of the fabric and the zipper as Elena tossed her dark hair over her shoulder.

When the zipper finally came up and Elijah hooked the top of the dress, he kissed the back of her neck and Elena giggled a little as she let her hair go and turned around to face him, "Ready, 'Best Man'?"

"Yes…" Elijah said, suddenly remembering the day ahead of them and hurriedly walking over to the table by the door, knowing how late they were running.

"Wallet…keys…watch…" he said methodically as he quickly acquired the items on the table, then picked up the folded piece of paper next to the items and put it in his pocket, "Speech…"

"I cannot wait to hear the thousand years of brotherly love and drama you've packed into that..." Elena quipped under her breath, then called out "Ring!" and tossed a small box from her clutch toward Elijah and he turned and caught it with one hand and put it in the front pocket of his tux jacket.

"Okay…" Elijah said with relief, as he turned back to her, his face suddenly filled with nervous excitement, "I think we are ready…" then whispered to himself as he walked toward Elena, straightening his shirt cuffs, "Wallet…keys…watch…speech…ring…Am I missing something? I feel like I'm missing something..."

"Pants?" Elena suddenly interjected

"What?!" Elijah cried, breaking out of his trance as he stopped immediately and quickly looked down in horror at the thought of walking into his brother's wedding without pants on.

Suddenly Elena's hysterical laughter made him realize she had played a joke on him.

"Not funny!" he chuckled with relief and started pushing her ahead of him out the door.

"Yes, it was!" she cried out, trying to stop laughing as she crossed the threshold, "Your face…oh! Your face!"

"God…You don't say that to someone, Elena, you could scare a person to death…" Elijah said in amused exasperation as he closed the door behind them.