Heeey guys! :D

Thank you all very much for your feedback, it's heartwarming, it really is. :)

Rbenham2: Oh there are definitely going to be more scenes between them, but they're probably going to be less friendly for a while. :D – also: thank you for your feedback. :)

yasminasfeir1: Thank you very much ^-^ and no, it doesn't sound dramatic, don't worry. :D I'm right there with you. I have so many things planed, like big events that I am so excited about but won't happen 'til TVD Season 5 or TO Season 2 and I can't just skip to them and completely drop character development and such, it drives me crazy. :D

Enough rambling, here comes chapter 4! :D

CHAPTER 4

A little girl with long brown hair and large brown eyes sat in the middle of a beautiful children's room, it was mostly white, with a few purple and ebony accents every here and there. She was surrounded by a ridiculous amount of toys, but was mainly occupied with building, what seemed like a fortress, out of Lego bricks.

An older woman walked into room and smiled down at the little kid, her resemblance to the girl was more than obvious. "Hello little one. Having fun?", she spoke up with a loving voice.

"Yes mommy.", the little girl answered and smiled brightly at her mother.

"That's nice, now come here and give mommy a hug, you sick freak of nature", the woman said, her loving and cheerful tone not matching her words at all.

The little girl however ran to her with a big smile in her face and hugged the woman tightly. "My little girl, my lovely abomination", the woman sighed in content, detached herself from the hug and held her daughters arms, looking at her as if she was the most precious thing in the world. "How could anyone ever love you?", she asked as she smiled widely and caressed the little girls cheek.

A man walked into the room, with short brown hair and a slightly darker skin tone. "What's our little freak up to today, huh?", he asked as he kneed down next to the woman and gave his daughter a kiss on her head, softly stroking her hair.

The little girl smiled brightly at her parents and turned around to her toys, to show them what she had created, but as she turned back, the man and the woman were on fire. They didn't look affected by it however, they didn't scream in pain, they just smiled contentedly at the little girl.

"Mommy? Daddy?", the girls lower lip trembled as she was on the verge of crying.

"How could you do this to us?" , the man said in a sing-song voice, as both of them were closing in on the little girl, all the while smiling sweetly at her. "Why, Rachel? Why did you do this to us?"

Rachel woke up with a loud gasp and a racing heart. She immediately sat up straight and ran her hands over her face, wiping away the hair that had stuck to her sweaty face.

Her gaze roamed frantically through the entire room, searching for something to focus on as she tried to get a hold on herself, before she finally manged to steady her breathing a little.

Still shaking, Rachel held a hand against her forehead, closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the headboard, failing to push the horrifying images of her dream out of her head.

Looking over to her nightstand she saw that it was only 5:30 in the morning, which was way too early on any day, but since she couldn't find any sleep last night, it was even worse.

Until 4 o'clock Rachel had tossed and turned in her bed, trying to find some rest, but the thoughts about Klaus, Elijah, and everything that had happened in this town since her departure, had denied her the satisfaction of sleep.

As she slowly lay back down again, she kept her eyes glued to the alarm-clock, somehow hoping that the monotony of watching the numbers change every second, would help her push back all the thoughts and memories her dream had brought back to the surface. Closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath, Rachel let her gaze wander away from the clock to the framed picture next to it.

It showed herself hugging a good-looking guy, average height, beautiful face, crystal-blue eyes and blond hair. They were looking at each other with big smiles on their faces. Rachel remembered this picture being taken by a friend of theirs, without them knowing. They looked so happy in that moment.

She took the picture in her hand and turned on her back, starring at it with many different emotions, as she glided her fingers over the portrayed figure next to her. Dylan. Words could not describe how much she missed him.

Tears started to fill her eyes, as Rachel wondered why he had to be taken away from her, too, why her life had to be such a constant disaster.

Before Dylan, she somehow managed to get through everything, always came out the other end, remained optimistic, welcomed the possibility of her life eventually starting to turn around. And it was good, somehow, that she did that, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to let him in, let him love her, let him make her happy... but then again – where did that got him? And where had it left her? How could she still believe that one day, the happiness she knew existed and was lucky enough to experience a few times in her live, how could she still believe that she would find that again, and even if she did, that it would finally remain forever. On the thought of forever, Rachel's hand automatically reached to the beautiful golden ring she wore as a necklace, reminding her once again that forever could end rather quickly.

Considering in what kind of situation she had managed to get herself into now, the thought of ever being that happy again was even harder to believe. If only he'd still be there. If he'd still be here, none of this would have happened. She wouldn't have slept with Elijah, she wouldn't have met Klaus, and even if she had, she wouldn't have looked twice at him, she never had while she and Dylan had been together, especially not after they had been engaged. It had always been just him.

Her knuckles turned white as Rachel clutched the picture tighter, angry at herself for getting worked up over this again, when it wouldn't change anything about it. So she vigorously put the picture back, jerked the blanket of her body and decided to just get up and go about her day.

An hour later Rachel sat in the living room, the controller of her Xbox next to her and the pause menu of Red Dead Redemption showing on the television screen. Normally this would help. A good game had always been able to let Rachel completely dive into a world of her choosing, it was the best distraction from life she could think of. But today was an exceptionally bad day, she just couldn't muster up the energy to do anything, whatsoever. Every activity she came up with, was discarded a second later.

Fighting the temptation to throw her controller across the room in frustration, Rachel heard her stomach growl, which added to the annoyance she felt toward this crappy day. At least she could hope that going shopping would somehow help turn it around.

Rachel was on her way to the grocery store as she saw two familiar figures standing on the sidewalk. They were both dressed in sportswear and seemed to be out of breathe.

"Elena, Matt. Hey.", she smiled at them, but had a concerned expression on her face as she looked at Elena, silently asking her if she was alright after everything that happened yesterday. Elena just gave her an almost unnoticeable nod, as if to say, that she would somehow manage.

"Rachel!", Matt exclaimed in a cheerful but still breathless tone, before he hugged her, "I heard you're back in town."

Rachel nodded and scratched her head uncomfortably. Now that she knew what happened in her absence, she felt kind of guilty for leaving, especially considering that she had cut all ties to her life in this town, including leaving her phone behind so no one could reach her.

"Yeah, a few days ago", she informed Matt, "How is everything with you? How's school treating you?"

"I pull through, somehow. We can't all be mathematical geniuses like you.", he joked and Rachel chuckled lightly.

Just as Matt opened his mouth again they were interrupted by the sound of Elena's phone, who apparently, was receiving a call from Sheriff Forbes. Rachel looked questioningly at Elena, wondering why the Sheriff would call her. "Hey what was that about?", Rachel asked, immediately regretting butting up in her business like that.

"It's about Alaric, he got into trouble.", she said as concern crossed her features. "I have to go to him", she turned to Matt with an apologetic look, who just nodded in understatement.

"Wait, did you just say Alaric?", Rachel questioned, not believing that it was actually him, it couldn't be. The coincidence would be too much. But then again, she went from North Carolina, to Virginia, back to North Carolina and back to Virginia again, it wouldn't be that far of a stretch to assume Alaric somehow made his way to Virginia as well. Besides – how many people were called Alaric?

"Yeah, Alaric Saltzman, he takes care of Jeremy and me, ever since Jenna...", Elena didn't finished the sentence, as sadness clouded her features and she didn't need to. "Why do you ask?"

"I think I know him.", Rachel said, still not completely convinced herself, even though Elena mentioning his last name didn't leave anything to chance anymore. It was definitely him. "Would you mind if I come with you?", she asked and Elena just nodded quickly, obviously in a hurry to get there.

Both of them waved their hands to say goodbye to Matt and started walking towards the station. They didn't stay silent for long as Elena began to speak almost immediately.

"So I haven't gotten the chance to talk to you since the ball. I wanted to stay after the whole balcony incident, but Elijah asked me not to and ensured that you would be taken care off. Were you?"

"Yes, actually, given the circumstances and ignoring the fact that Kol was there, it was surprisingly alright", Rachel answered, thinking back to the night where everything had already been complicated and confusing enough, if she had only known how much worse it would get.

"Good", Elena said and looked genuinely glad. "So... please don't get this the wrong way, but what were you doing there anyway?" Rachel could hear how ill at ease Elena was with the whole topic.

"I ran into Elijah two days before the ball, I didn't know who or what he was, we had a nice talk and so I accepted his invitation", Rachel explained, hoping the answer would satisfy Elena. Of course it didn't.

"He invited you to the ball, after just meeting you? That seems strange.", she said thoughtful, probably trying to think of an ulterior motive Elijah could have had for his actions.

"Yeah, well, I guess he was just in need of a date and knew I was available.", Rachel replied, deciding to definitely not go into further detail regarding her first meeting with Elijah.

Elena paused for a moment and looked at Rachel sympathetically, who was now standing, too. "I'm sorry, I didn't even ask you how you were holding up."

At the moment Rachel realized how thankful she was that Dylan used to live in Mystic Falls and still had relatives living here. Everybody already knew he was dead, she didn't had to tell everyone and go through the pain over and over again. "I'm fine", she lied for the umpteenth time, "And I'm sorry about your parents, they were really lovely people.", Rachel said sincerely and Elena nodded thankfully at her, before they both started walking again.

As Elena and Rachel walked into the station they ran into the man Rachel had met at the Mikaelson ball, the one with raven-black hair and crazy blue eyes. Thanks to her new-gained knowledge Rachel assumed that this had to be either Stefan or Damon and considering the bad-boy vibes he almost radiated, Rachel placed him as the latter.

As they started having something that could be interpreted as an argument, Rachel excused herself to go and find out where they were holding Ric, and most importantly trying to convince the Sheriff to allow her to see him.

Thankfully Sheriff Forbes could be persuaded, even though it took Rachel quite some time to do so, but apparently she didn't really seem to think that Alaric was guilty and so she wasn't as strict as usual.

When Rachel walked down the corridor with small cells left and right, a feeling of dread started to creep in. This place just looked downright depressing.

However her feelings completely shifted to one of worry when she found Alaric in his cell, laying on the bed as he starred at the ceiling in deep thought. It was weird to see him like this, locked up as if he were a criminal.

Rachel smiled a little to herself, she had thought that she would never see him again. She had met Alaric after she moved back to North Dakota to go to Duke, attempting to get a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering. At the time he had taken over his dead wife's research, studying folklore and parapsychology. She had actually given him quite a few information about vampires and such, but not too much or too detailed since Rachel didn't want to give away that she was part of the supernatural world herself.

They started to share a few drinks every now and then, talking about everything and anything, both of them trying to distract themselves. Alaric from the fact that his wife died mysteriously, without her body ever being found, Rachel from the fact that her fiance was somewhere overseas, fighting battles he shouldn't be fighting, while she hoped for his safe return. Oh, the irony.

"Hey Ric", Rachel said quietly, her hand closing around one of the bars, as she brought her face as close as possible.

"Rachel?", Alaric asked in disbelieve, immediately sitting up straight and looking at her as if trying to figure out if she was really there or if he somehow imagined her presence.

"So... watcha doin'?", Rachel joked with a lopsided grin which got Alaric to chuckle lightly. "Ah, just hanging out.", he answered and Rachel smiled brightly. At least he hadn't lost his humor.

"What are you doing here?", Alaric asked, his forehead furrowed in confusion, as he stood up and walked over to Rachel.

"You're sitting in an actual jail cell and ask me what I'm doing here?", she laughed before answering his question, "I grew up here. For the majority of my life at least.", she said and felt how much she hated talking about her past. Suppressing just wasn't as easy if you had to talk about it constantly. "So, I've got a good reason for being here, seems like the real question is, what are you doing here?", Rachel asked pointing her finger at him.

"My search for Isobel took me here, about a year ago.", he answered, his expression becoming more serious.

"Oh", Rachel said, sympathy dawning on her face and she slowly slid down to the ground, sitting against the wall, legs cocked and leaning against the bars, while her arms hung loosely over her knees. She had the feeling that this conversation could go on for a while. "Well, did you have any luck?"

Alaric sighed and mirrored her movement, sitting across from her so that their feet would touch if it weren't for the bars between them. "Yeah, well, it turns out that she wanted to become a vampire. So the one I saw feeding on her and thought had killed her actually turned her."

"What?", Rachel would have definitely fell over, if she wouldn't have already been on the ground. "Why would she do that?", her voice was barely audible at this point, since she asked this question more to herself. Why would anyone choose this? Especially someone who's happily married to a nice, sweet and considerate guy like Ric? That woman had to be a real nutjob.

"I'm sorry.", Rachel said with a soft voice, disrupting the silence that had fallen over them.

"Don't be. Turns out my luck with women is just naturally tragic.", Alaric said with a weary smile.

Rachel darted a look at Ric, so many questions in her mind. "Elaborate.", she prompted him.

Alaric sighed and began telling Rachel all about how he had managed to find knew love in form of Elena's aunt Jenna, casually slid in the fact that Elena was actually Isobel's daughter, who she had given away right after birth when she was sixteen and never told Ric anything about it. He told her how this new-found happiness was ripped away from him as well, when Klaus used Jenna as a sacrifice in order to break the Hybrid curse, and how, after he finally managed to get over that, the new woman in his life turned out to be the very reason he was in this cell now.

"Wow", Rachel said and drew in a long and deep breath, trying to take all that information in. "Your love life sucks", Rachel joked, trying to lighten up the mood.

Alaric scoffed lightly. "Yeah, tell me about it.", he said and gave her a half-smile. "So how is it that you are associated with Elena and her friends anyway? Isn't she at least 5 years younger than you are?"

"Gee, thanks Ric. Way to make a woman feel good about her age.", Rachel acted offended, but ended up smiling at the older man in front of her.

"I used to babysit some of them and as they got older they used to come to me when they were completely hammered and needed to sober up before going home. Sometimes they came to get some advice, or play the newest video game, 'cause they couldn't afford it themselves. That kind of stuff", Rachel smiled fondly thinking about some of these memories. "They're sweet, I kind of used to see them as my little brothers and sisters, they can be incredibly annoying but it's always nice to have someone look up to you."

"Yeah, I know what you mean... Taking care of Elena and Jeremy has been an incredibly rewarding experience, no matter how exhausting it can be.", Alaric smiled affectionately.

"I think that's really amazing, you stepping up to look after them.", Rachel said sincerely and titled her head slightly, leaning her it against the bars by doing so.

"Yeah, well... Sometimes I wish there was someone out there who's more eligible for the task.", worry crossed Alaric's face, as he hung his head a little.

"I bet you're doing just fine.", Rachel said and meant it. He was a great guy, that much she was sure of.

Klaus was pacing around his study for two main reasons. The first one being the revelation that wood from the white oak tree was still in existence. The other being Rachel Davis.

After they parted ways the day before, Klaus had been rather preoccupied, barely thinking about her, but today she was on his mind constantly.

He couldn't stop picturing her. Her long, wavy hair that looked so luminous in the sun, her large eyes who seemed to be sparkling at one moment and looked cloudy in the next, her lightly toned skin, which looked soft as silk, her bright smile and how it seemed to lighten up an entire room...

She really did look like straight out of a painting, created by the world's best painter, as he completed the task of illustrating the most beautiful woman he could imagine.

He had asked Elijah about her, before he left, but he wouldn't say anything and now Klaus was left to wonder what her association with his brother was. But however they became acquainted with one another, he could understand why Elijah would be interested in her.

Her obvious beauty aside, he couldn't remember the last time he met someone who had such a cheerful glow surrounding them, yet at the same time such heaviness and misery. Usually one would clearly dominate over the other, but not with her... And damn his brother that he shared his 1000 years of experience and knowledge of human nature, since he was able to see this fascinating qualities just as well as he could.

It drove Klaus crazy, that she and his brother were so close, so quick, for whatever reason. Part of him thought, that he was mainly interested in her because they were. It was rather typical for him to begrudge everything that could make Elijah happy, especially if he couldn't have it himself. He started to convince himself that this was the only reason he took notice of her in the first place, it was way more reasonable than the thought that a mere human-being had somehow manged to garner his affections.

Yes, his desire to touch her smooth looking skin, in an attempt to figure out if it was as soft as it looked, had to be due to the rivalry, nothing else.

To proof that, he decided to simply win her over, bed her, and be over with this. Getting it out of his system, whilst tainting the girl his brother took interest in, would help his current situation immensely, he was sure of it.

Convinced that this would work he grabbed his jacket and went to see her...

When Klaus arrived at Rachel's house she wasn't there, but he could see that she was just on her way home, only a few yards away. To carry out his plan he needed to be his most charming and attentive self, so he walked to meet and help her carry the two heavy looking bags she held close to her body.

"Let me help you with that, love.", he said as he walked up to her, a charming smile tugging at his lips.

"I don't need your help, nor do I want it", was all Rachel said as she glared daggers at him, which caused Klaus to be slightly taken aback.

"What has gotten you into this sour mood? Is it because I took off rather abruptly yesterday? I wanted to get back to you but sadly, I don't have your number. Mind if we change that?", he said smirking at her, sure that whatever it was that got her so riled up, couldn't be too bad.

"Are you sure that your weren't just way to preoccupied over the fact that your mother tried to kill you and your siblings?", she said to him in a way too casual manner considering the words that came out of her mouth.

Klaus stopped in his tracks, a feeling of immense dissatisfaction washing over him. She knew.

"So you know.", he said, his voice darker now. "And of course now that you do, you don't want anything to do with me. Makes perfect sense, especially considering that, compared to my brother, how can I be anything other than the cruel beast who looms over your little friends. The disastrous abomination.", this somehow made her stop walking, as she looked at him in disbelieve.

"You think, that I'd judge you because of what you are?", Rachel's forehead creased distinctly, "I would never do that. I judge you because of what you did. If you didn't know, those are two very different things.", with that Rachel set back into motion, closely followed by Klaus, who had felt a little relief at her words, no matter the angry tone she said them in. He told himself that he only felt like this because he didn't want his plan to be jeopardized, but he knew that this wasn't the real reason..

They walked silently to her front door, which she opened and took a few steps inside to place her bags in the hallway. As Klaus began to follow her, she quickly turned around and help up a hand, looking at him with narrowed eyes. "I'm sorry, did I say you could come in?"

"Well you already invited me once, love. No need for another invitation.", he said determinedly, his shoulder leaning casually against the door frame.

She scoffed at him as she folded her arms, looking at him with narrowed eyes. "Could you at least act as if familiar with the concept of simple human decency?"

"I could, but I'm afraid I don't want to.", he said and lifted his shoulder in a half shrug, "However, I might be inclined to make an exception for you, dear.", Klaus said with a smug grin on his face, leaning a little bit closer to hers.

"Good, you do that and while you're at it would you mind stop doing that?", Rachel asked, gesturing between them.

"Stop doing what, love?", Klaus asked innocently, which caused Rachel to roll her eyes at him.

"This. Your whole flirtatious act. How you constantly lean in way too close-", Rachel suddenly took a step toward him, reducing the remaining space between them to almost non-existent, as she continued talking. "Or whisper something in my ear in a low and seductive voice-", Rachel whispered in the exact way she had just described, "... or how you constantly make not-so-subtle physical contact.", Klaus gulped as Rachel slowly glided her finger along is his chest, before she took a step back and looked at him with a stern expression, continuing her lecturing speech. "Because you are Klaus Mikaelson and you don't have to respect boundaries or personal space. You want something, you take it. I get it. And I'm sure that over your thousand years on this earth, countless women swooned over your proprietorial ways, but let me make one thing very clear: It is not gonna work on me.", determination set on Rachel's face as she leaned back again and watched him like hawk.

Klaus was taken aback at first, not to mention a little turned on by her being so close and talking like this, even if it was only to wipe the floor with him, but he quickly regained his composure.

"I have to say, you're quite the actress. There wasn't one thing about your facial features that gave you away, but you know the thing is", Klaus said, his voice turning more and more into a husky whisper, as he leaned closer to her, "Your heartbeat tells a whole different story, sweetheart."

Rachel's stoic expression faltered for a second which satisfied Klaus immensely, but just a moment later it got back to its previous state, before she slightly shook her head, went inside and slammed the door shut behind her.

Maybe, it would be a little harder than he thought...

AN: Congratulations, you have reached the end of chapter 4! :D

Did you like it? I hope you did! :D

Don't forget to review if you happen to find the time, it really helps me a lot. ^-^