Thanks so much for the lovely reviews, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter… its starts off with a flashback before the first chapter, you'll get the picture… Please let me know what you think, good or bad! :D

After plunging the dagger into Elijah's heart Klaus placed his brother into the coffin intended for him. He looked down upon Elijah's desiccated body in its indefinite slumber. He was quite accustomed to daggering his siblings, but he did feel badly about it. Not to mention he wasn't sure when he would see Elijah again, he was after all handing him over to Marcel. He felt guilty about his actions but the guilt he felt didn't usurp his need to win Marcel's trust.

"Sorry brother," he uttered as he closed the coffin, "but I can't have you getting in the way of my plans."

Xx

Klaus walked into the bar that he knew Marcel frequented. He saw him sitting at table with a few of closer vampires. They fell upon Klaus' entrance and Marcel stood to greet him. Marcel had been on edge with Klaus since he'd bitten Thierry. Sure, he returned with some of his blood to heal him, but if Marcel knew anything about Klaus it's that he is always working towards a bigger goal. By healing Thierry, Marcel couldn't force Klaus to New Orleans, so he had to grin and bear it, but he didn't trust Klaus in the slightest.

Marcel abandoned his friends and pulled Klaus off to the side, "What is it that you're up to? You're sneaking around, keeping in secrets, in my town –"

"Look, I know you don't trust me right now so I have a little gift for you, hopefully something to help put your mind at ease."

Marcel tilted his head to side, Klaus had peaked his curiosity.

"Come with me."

Marcel followed the unscrupulous hybrid to random parking garage where he was presented with a coffin.

"What the hell is this?" He questioned, taking a few steps back.

"Go ahead, open it, I think you might like what you find." Klaus responded with his hands behind his back.

Marcel hesitantly lifted the top of the casket, looked the desiccated original brother, and then gave a confused look to Klaus "I don't understand…"

"I know you're uncomfortable with the family reunion all at once so he's all yours, take good care him." Klaus smirked at Marcel before taking off.

Xx

The following weeks were an unproductive blur for Klaus. He spent a vast majority of his time with Marcel, all the while making no progress. Marcel was distant with him, he faked his friendliness of course, but he never let Klaus have any information about anything. It was a never ending loop of the same conversations all that, usually about how Marcel was able to control the witches in the quarter, but they never got any further.

Klaus was frustrated as ever about it, Marcel was as welcoming as ever to having Klaus in New Orleans, but Klaus still didn't have his trust, though Marcel seemed to play it off as though he did.

Most nights he would return home drunk, in a blind alcohol induced rage. He was feeling like he handed his brother over for absolutely nothing. Eventually, when Elijah would wake, he would have to earn his forgiveness. Not as though it was ever hard, but as the way things were going now it would all be for nothing.

Hayley could always hear Klaus return home at night, as it normally comprised of a lot of door slamming and things breaking. She quickly learned what time he normally got back at night and always made an effort to be in her room and out of the way of his temper tantrums when he got back.

She hated him, hated that he didn't care about her, and hated even more that his brother had left her here with him. She curled up in her bed every night with his words ringing in her ears – "kill her and the baby, what do I care."

Xx

One particularly frustrating evening Klaus returned to the plantation, his intoxication evident as ever. He had spent the evening with Marcel of course, making no headway and he desperately needed physical comfort. He was filled and anger and desire and his alcohol driven brain led him straight to Hayley's room.

His hand rasped against the door. "Little wolf…" he managed to slur out.