New Orleans had always been among his favorite places on the planet, but he found his enjoyment of it limited at present. He was exasperated, four long months he'd been playing Marcel's game pretending to be precisely what he could never be, content to follow and the insufferable King had managed to keep the secret safe. Klaus was no closer to discovery what it was that held the witches prisoner, he doubted he'd ever lived four less productive months in his existence and that included his time under the Hunter's curse. What was worse was that he was required to not only keep company with Marcel's lackeys but play nice when everything in his being demanded that he rip the insolent pricks' hearts from their chests.

Even bleeding human's dry had done little to elevate his frustration; still …there was no harm in trying. So while he quietly seethed in the darkest corner of a dive that the formerly pretentious, but now just very dead, owner had the audacity to call a bar he alternated between sipping from the finest bottle of amber fluid he could find in the cesspool and sucking out the last few drops of life from the only woman still unfortunate to be breathing in the place. He figured if nothing else he had done the health department a favour in closing down the place, he'd seen sewers with less grime. He couldn't prevent the desolate sigh escaping his lips as he heard the familiar footfalls coming closer, followed by the unmistakable scent and semblance that somehow managed to darken his already abysmal mood.

"Big brother, what a pleasant surprise, I'd offer you a drink but it appears the bar has run dry," he smirked sculling back the last of the bottle before tossing it behind him, the dull thud it made upon landing indicating it found a body rather than the floor. He glanced at the woman propped up beside him, at some point she had left the land of the living without him noticing, one light shove and she joined the other corpses littering the floor – for some reason that lightened his mood and he chuckled softly.

Elijah didn't appear to be amusing his eyes narrowed and mouth down-turned a disdainful manner which Klaus was all too familiar with. "I take it you haven't made any progress."

It was more of a statement than a question so Klaus didn't waste any calories in responding. He waited out the judgmental silence with a raised eyebrow and self-satisfied smirk that he knew would irritate big brother no end.

Elijah pursed his lips together before sighing heavily, "the witches grow impatient brother; I'm worried that they may do something drastic."

It took all Klaus' self-control not to burst out laughing, as it was he didn't manage to prevent the mirth from dancing in his eyes. Elijah visibly blanched, Klaus wasn't sure if it was for worry that his indifference would ruin his brother's dream of rebuilding their family around the newest bastard or if he was despairing that he was beyond redemption at this point. Klaus felt inclined to put an end to his brother's fantasies but the flash of a pair of black eyes made him think better of it. "I am trying Elijah, Marcel is not cooperating and despite all his lofty speeches about how they are family it appears that he hasn't trusted his minions with that particular secret."

"It's been six months, and we have little over three months left," he paused, "The longer this continues the greater chance of discovery. What do you think the witches will do if pressed?"

Maybe they will do me a favor, kill the bitch along with her unborn bastard. How he wanted to just tell Elijah that, tell him anything, but he'd have to just add that to the growing list of annoyances this pretense required him to swallow. If at the end of all this, he wasn't the King of New Orleans and blissfully happy he swore he would bathe the city in blood.

Elijah seemed briefly mollified, too briefly really, "what happened to every King needing an heir?"

His fingers flexed involuntarily, the urge to reach across and tear out his brother's heart agonizing. He'd never wanted children, never, but for the transient instant it had been alluring. One being in this miserable world whose love for him might be completely and utterly unreserved - a shining light always and forever on his side.

Of course, knowing his luck the little bastard would have deposed the King first chance it got. So it really was for the best that children were not to be a part of his future, still…there was that moment. "I know what I said Elijah and I am doing all that I can."

Elijah's hand swept the room grandly, "I can see that."

Klaus wondered what it would be like to be an only child. "The witches won't do anything brother, I am their only chance and they know it," he offered his best attempt at consolation, hoping Elijah would just bugger off.

Elijah stood and nodded, "we need this Niklaus." He turned to leave, but then paused and turned back. "Haley is getting bigger, have you considered going to see them?" Elijah looked almost happy, eyes light in remembrance.

Klaus felt his latest meal churning in his stomach; he surveyed the room to avoid his brother's eyes when he answered. "It's best I keep my distance, wouldn't want to alert Marcel, now would we?" He felt more than saw Elijah's nod of acceptance. Klaus got up abruptly, "speaking of, I best get back. Clean this up will you?" he didn't wait for a response, of course Elijah would clean it up. Didn't he always?


Somewhere in the last month she'd started again, she wasn't sure when, it was probably a gradual process but there was a pivotal moment she could point to when she knew that she was going to be okay. She'd just been to a lecture, on what she couldn't really recall, and then a butterfly settled upon her hand. A feather light touch alerted her to its presence and just prior to following through on her natural instinct to shake off its contact and send it on its way she noticed just how blue it looked. It wasn't the washed out color that the sky seemed to her eyes, it was real blue - the color that existed when Bonnie had - and not just that the creature was dotted with red and orange and…was that a little bit of brown when it pulled its wings up? It was beautiful, really truly beautiful and suddenly, after operating on autopilot for much too long, Caroline was in control, breathing…dare she call it alive?

The creature that had brought color back to her world left her much too soon, but as he eyes followed it she had taken in her surroundings and found that the world around her was as bright as the butterfly. Without realizing it she had smiled, not one of the fake ones that had placated her friends, but a real one and it made her as vibrant as the world she again resided in. Following that moment she went from going through the motions to actually enjoying college life. She had gotten involved, she had made friends, she had grabbed life by the balls and she regained something of herself in the process. There were still times when she felt like crawling into the fetal position and mourning her losses, but became fewer and further between.

Whether she was a better actress than she had thought or Tyler and her friends were more self-absorbed than she would have imagined, no one seemed to have noticed her return to the living. She didn't mind, well okay, she did kind of mind that the people who were supposed to care about her couldn't tell the difference between her empty smiles and her real ones, but it wasn't like complaining about it would change anything. So she decided it wouldn't matter that they didn't notice, it didn't mean they didn't care, they were probably consumed by their own grief. So she would take the high road, forgive and forget, her friends loved her and she was a glass half full type of person anyway.

Of course just because they didn't notice things, didn't mean she was oblivious. She knew that her friends were hiding something from her, and it didn't take a whole lot of brain power to figure out what that something was. They were clearly still looking into the whole bringing Bonnie back regardless of the cost angle, she didn't blame them, she just didn't agree with them. So while they held their clandestine meetings on how to screw up the world further she pretended to be blissfully unaware and entirely too caught up in her new life.

It was easy enough to avoid that reality, firstly when she said friends it was really only Elena, Stefan and Damon who were a part of the how best to destroy the world as we know it plan, the others had their own – equally valid reasons, in her opinion – to stay clear. Secondly, it seemed that all discussions on how to end the world this time were held off campus in the little town with the highest number of animal attacks in known history, a place she was happily determined to avoid till the world really did end.

All in all, easy to pretend and avoid getting involved in the newest plan to get them all killed.

Less easy to avoid was that niggling guilt that she had let Stefan down on a colossal scale. Okay so he missed her massive meltdown, but he had reason to be less than observant, and she'd already determined it was best to forgive and forget. Stefan was clearly suffering, she wasn't exactly convinced that it was wholly the result of losing out to Damon, but he had clearly needed her and she wasn't there for him.

She had the perfect excuse, complete and utter mess, but now that she'd patched herself up she felt that she should be doing something, anything to help him. Problem was that aside from her new found enthusiasm for all things college and his continued mission to end the world which left little free time for a heart to heart with your bestie, there was a part of her that kind of, sort of wanted him to fix himself. She didn't really know why that was, well she did, but she didn't really want to admit it.

Still, she had made every effort to seek him out, but they never seemed to cross paths. She suspected that he was avoiding her and though Elena assured her that wasn't the case, it needled her. He had always…almost always been there for her so she could understand that he might be feeling just a wee bit offended that she wasn't there for him of late. She conceded that he might possibly be feeling she let him down, perhaps even that she betrayed him, but it wasn't intentional.

Yes, she hadn't stuck around to console him after Elena's big decision instead roaming the world with her mum, and then she hadn't sought him out on her return, and then she flat out refused to help them with the end of the world plan, but did that really mean he had to avoid her like the plague?

Of course, she hadn't forced the issue had she now? And why was that Caroline? The answer was getting awfully close to those things that she didn't really want to contemplate; deep down she was just a little too happy that he was avoiding her because his latest persona kind of made her skin crawl. The fact was the longer he avoided her, the longer she could escape confronting those ominous feelings that threatened her reclaimed balance. Just how bad a person did that make her?