The floor creaked under the weight of Elijah's steps as he crossed over the threshold. Despite its wild exterior, the tiny cabin was in a charming state of neglect inside. The spacious living room merged into an open kitchen and while there was no refrigerator or central lighting a small generator out back allowed for running water.

A rustic chandelier served as a centerpiece for the main room. Instead of light bulbs it was fashioned with tall, white candles.

"There's your candles," Hayley announced to Philippe. "Though I guess we should buy some more or else we'll be sitting in the dark tonight. So, are we drawing lots to see who goes into town?"

"I'll go," Leah volunteered, setting the cooler down on the kitchen counter. Dust rose up around it and she wrinkled her nose. "I'm gonna need to add a duster to that shopping list though. Can I get the keys from you, Elijah?"

"I don't want you to go alone," Elijah responded, coming up around her in the narrow space of the kitchen and skimming his hand across her back. Leaning over Leah, he hesitated to hand the keys over just yet. "No one should be going anywhere alone," he added, generalizing his earlier request.

"Come with me then," she hummed happily. She turned away from the counter and into his arms, throwing her long limbs around his neck. "It won't be a chore if we do it together."

After so many hours with the others, Elijah knew she was bargaining for a quiet moment alone. He nevertheless had to deny her.

"Regrettably, I need to remain here and discuss matters with my brother. Another time perhaps, Leah. When things have settled a bit more - you and I will go together."

The corners of her mouth slipped down into a frown but he followed up his words with a kiss to appease her.

"Next time," he promised, guiding her arms from his neck. "Now give me a moment to check that everything's in order upstairs and then we'll find someone to go into town with you."

"I can go on my own," she called after him and Leah began to realize Elijah hadn't given her the keys yet because he was afraid she'd do just that.

"Okay – fine," she sighed, appearing in the main room. "Who wants to come with me then? Hope?"

"Hope stays here," Klaus announced, bringing in more bags from the car. "She does not leave my sight."

"And Philippe's starting to prep the spell," Rebekah apologized. "But make sure you pick up some of those little chocolates with the caramel centers, Leah, or cream puffs, Hope loves cream puffs…oh, and add ice cream to the list. It's still her birthday after all."

"There's no place to refrigerate all that," Klaus rounded on his sister, "and anyway we are in a war, Rebekah, there's no time for unnecessary celebrations. Leah – go – Hayley, go with her. Bring back only what we need. Compel it all. Leave no trace. No one, do you understand, can know we are here."

Hayley shoved open one of the windows in the living room more forcefully than was probably necessary.

"I don't see why Leah can't go by herself. She knows what she's doing - she doesn't need a babysitter."

"Hayley – please," Elijah asked gently, coming down the stairs. He extended her the keys. "Go with Leah."

His request was not without cause. Although he loved Leah and trusted her in all other matters, Elijah did not trust the young hybrid on her own in that small town, not when she hadn't feed since they had started on the road from Boston.

He had been counting: she refused one blood bag before Hope's party and another earlier today on the road. Elijah was more than eager to chalk Leah's abstinence up to her self-control but there had been incidents, in the past, that made him wary even now.

Within the last year Leah's handle on her urges had begun to waver, like a spring in a machine that had now wobbled loose; he didn't know if the ghost inside was crying out for help or simply settling into place. He knew his Leah…but hybrids were unpredictable. His brother was the worst of them. He wanted Leah to be the best.

Yet the change in her behavior since this summer had been marked: outbursts of anger, restless insomnia, the kitchen incident –

Perhaps that's when it had truly begun, this change in the person Elijah thought he had grown to know so well.

He couldn't help but recall: it had been August.

The end of the summer, another three months spent traveling the world with her. Now that was their thing, visiting the Old World together – foreign culture by day and familiar comforts by night. Any break Leah had in her school calendar he was always ready to carry her across the ocean, showing her the world one city at a time.

Germany had been next on the list, their last stop before responsibilities would call them back to Boston. His brother, who had apparently taken up collecting castles in recent years, had a property in the Black Forest and it had offered the perfect stop for Leah and Elijah's tour of the country.

A small, resident staff maintained it between visits and provided a fresh source of blood from the vein. For the few days they had stayed, however, Leah had rarely chosen to sample from the local delicacies. Certainly they had both been distracted by more intimate activities but he nevertheless should have noticed the red flag.

When he had questioned her about her feeding – incidentally, idly, with no real conviction in his ignorance – Leah had done as she had tried to do just now to him in the kitchen: cast her arms around his neck and charm all his worries away.

If only Hayley knew what had happened next, perhaps she would understand his concern.

"I'm fine," Leah had convinced him, "I'm just not hungry."

He was checking them into their bed and breakfast, having moved on from their castle retreat. Leah leaned against the counter and watched as he signed the guestbook. They continued to wait for the clerk to return with their room key.

"There are plenty of options here, Leah. Have some strudel or a servant girl - my dear, I just want to see you eat something."

"I'm on vacation, Elijah. I want to spend my time seeing the sights not… eating the locals," Leah whispered. She leaned in close in case anyone might overhear. "Anyway, we'll be in Tübingen tomorrow. I'll just wait until we get into town and then raid the blood bank. It won't be a chore if we do it together."

Elijah dotted the i's in his name and proceeded to sign her name next to his. Finishing, he set down the pen and turned to face her directly.

"Leah," he warned lightly, "the longer you wait the harder it will be."

"You said the same thing about learning German," she teased, "and I showed you, oder nicht?"

Elijah nodded appreciatively to the desk attendant as she slid him the key across the counter. He then turned back to Leah, his open gentility now replaced with a more pointed tone of voice.

"You have two choices. Make one and then let's not waste time on this discussion anymore."

Leah frowned; that was Elijah's polite way of saying he was tired of repeating himself.

"Fine," she relented, trying to keep the peace. "I'll eat something - later - but for now can we please throw our bags in the room and just go do something fun?"

The rest of the evening had passed most enjoyably but in the middle of the night Elijah had awoken to find the other side of the bed empty. He rolled over, called her name, got up and searched; Leah was nowhere in the room.

He had not immediately panicked. It was not unusual for her to wander off, especially in hotels. Perhaps, he had reasoned, Leah was simply in the kitchen compelling the staff to make her a grilled cheese at 4am – it would certainly not be the first time.

She was indeed in the kitchen, but Elijah had to push the first body aside simply to open the door. Three more of the staff were piled up carefully against the far wall; blood pooled around them and seeped into open drains.

None of them were yet dead - which made their casual discarding all the more disturbing. Stepping further into the kitchen Elijah moved around the storage shelving until the pile of bodies came into open view. Their heartbeats were faint and everywhere ugly wounds: on their necks, on their wrists, on the back of the shoulder.

Two others lay sprawled across the small kitchen. One woman still had a knife in her hand; the pastry chef had almost made it to the door.

The stove was still lit; eggs stewed in their pot and the water hissed and cackled as it boiled unattended – and there was Leah, on the floor, on her knees, oblivious to anything but her task.

He called her name but she didn't seem to hear it, to recognize it. With a dishtowel in hand she was busy scrubbing the evidence of her slaughter from the walls.

There was blood on her knees, on her shirt, and on her hands. He stepped through the red streams to reach her.

"Leah…" he called out again. "Leah – what have you done?"

"I'll clean it up," she snapped back, wiping her cheek with the back of her stained hand. Where there had been tears was now only a streak of blood; it accentuated the feral look in her eyes as she continued her frantic attempt to wipe up the wall. "I…I'm sorry. I've made a huge mess but just give me a minute and I'll clean it up."

A huge mess? A huge understatement.

Elijah surveyed the carnage, gesturing to the walls in disbelief.

"The walls, Leah? The walls are the least of your concern."

"I've got it," she shouted, throwing the soaked towel aside and standing up to pull a fresh one down from above her. Immediately, she returned to wiping down the blood-splatted wall.

She was fixating, he realized – she had lost control and was now trying to reclaim it. She didn't realize the inefficiency of her actions because she was in shock. Reasoning with Leah now would be a useless endeavor. He needed to just get her out of here – away from this. Stepping in closer, Elijah offered her his hand.

"Leah, come away, please, come away now."

She looked up at him with large wild eyes and Elijah clearly saw the terror in them – she was afraid, of what he wasn't quite sure. Their usual clear blue had clouded over from the over-feeding; drunk was what she was, off an immense amount of blood. Simply getting her upstairs was going to be a struggle.

When he moved in closer Leah backed away, throwing herself against the wall and brandishing the blood-soaked towel at him.

"I'm not done, Elijah! I need to clean everything up. This…this was not supposed to happen…"

She was back at the wall, pushing the blood across it like paint on a canvas. There was no point to her being here any longer; Leah wasn't helping anything. Elijah watched her in tense silence for a moment before spinning around to catalog exactly what she had done and exactly what he would need to do.

Once he had her safely upstairs he would need to work quickly. It was almost dawn; the world would be waking soon.

"Leah - we need to go. I will take care of this - all of it - but first I need you to come back upstairs – "

"No!" she screamed, dropping the towel as if she had frightened herself with the sound of her own voice. Her hands, now empty, were coated in blood and Leah stared down at them for a long moment before turning her eyes toward him.

"Please," she muttered, wiping her hands down the front of her nightdress, "don't be upset with me - this was an accident. I didn't mean for this to happen, Elijah, so you can't be mad at me."

"Mad? Leah, I'm—"

He sighed, stopping himself from speaking his mind. It would not help the situation. Elijah crushed the palm of his hand to his temple as he considered his next move. He did not mean to be harsh with her but there was no other way.

"Come away from the wall," he commanded her, so sternly she actually did. Like a newborn fawn Leah stepped toward him, uncertain and shaking, and he let her fall into his arms.

"You do not need to do this," he promised her. "I will do this for you…but you need to do something for me. "

He had coaxed her to return upstairs quickly and unseen and he himself set about the kitchen in similar haste. By the time Elijah had healed, compelled, and disposed of the necessary parties, he'd written off the events of the night as the inexperience of a new vampire. That was what she was, after all, barely five years a hybrid; her natural carelessness and propensity for overindulgence had only been heightened with her transformation.

Still, this felt like something his Leah would never have done.

Fresh-faced and damp-haired from her shower she now sat on the edge of the bed, her hands clasped tightly in her lap as she nervously waited for him to return.

She stood as the door opened, immediately rushing forward.

"Elijah, you're back. You're – "

The sight of him had stopped her in the middle of the room. Elijah looked down at his own appearance, realizing nothing he wore had survived the cleanup. The front of his collared shirt was still damp with water and dark crimson stains began at the cuffs and snaked up his white-clothed arms.

His shirt, however, was the only casualty of the night.

"It is done," he announced, closing the door behind him.

"I am…so sorry," Leah muttered, stepping forward to apologize. He didn't seem to want to hear it – or perhaps he had already accepted it. She trailed behind him as he made directly for the en suite, pausing in the bathroom doorway to watch him at the sink.

"Elijah, I really am sorry. I don't know what happened down there."

"Yes, what did happen?" he managed to ask evenly, turning to her as he began to unbutton the cuffs of his ruined shirt with frustrated fingers. Leah no longer seemed affected by the bloodlust and perhaps now with her new clarity of mind she could finally shed some light on the situation.

"I…I was hungry," she began carefully, "and I went to see if I could get an early breakfast and – I don't know. I can barely even remember, it just happened."

He started now on the buttons of his shirt, beginning at the top and working his way down as he kept his eyes on her intensely. She took his silence for unvoiced disapproval. Looking down at her feet Leah shuffled anxiously in the doorway.

"You're mad at me. Please don't be mad at me."

"Leah - anger is the last emotion I could ever feel for you. Right now I am simply concerned - this has never happened before."

He turned away from her, leaning over the sink to wash the dried blood from his hands. "I know you and I know you can control yourself when you feed. I simply don't know what happened in that kitchen."

"But I don't know either, Elijah. Something came over me down there. It didn't even hit me until I came back to the room and then I realized…and then I realized what I'd…"

He turned around instantly upon hearing the tremble in her voice. Her heart was beating so fast he could hear the sound of it over the running water. Turning off the faucet, Elijah came to stand before her, framing the side of her face as he bought his hand around the curve of her cheek.

"Everyone lived, Leah. Tonight is not a burden you need to carry with you any longer – but we can't have it happen again."

She nodded confidently, but tears had already begun to form in the corners of her eyes. He pulled her to him, holding her as she cried.

"I don't know what happened. That wasn't me."

"I tried to tell you this morning—as a vampire you must feed regularly or there are consequences."

"Elijah, I can do better."

"I want more than just better for you, Leah. I never wanted what happened down there to happen to you. You were lucky this time. I won't be able to bear to see you suffer the one time you are not."

He was jarred from his thoughts as Leah yanked the keys from his hand.

"No way," she stared him down, "am I letting Hayley drive. I've got this one, Elijah. You can trust me."

He nodded in agreement, leaning in to kiss her cheek before sending her on her way. As the last traces of the memory of Germany faded Elijah told himself Leah was right - he should trust her.

"Okay –" Hayley spoke up from the foyer, a list in hand, "any more requests before we go? I've got sage, salt, candles, Pop-Tarts, marshmallows…I should probably throw some actual food on that list but whatever."

"Add shampoo," Rebekah threw out, coming down the stairs, "and soap. I don't care if we're in the woods, I refuse to smell like an animal."

Hayley added it all to the list. She was already planning to pick up a cake as well so her daughter's birthday wasn't a complete disaster. Hope was now pulling dresses and blouses from one of the few suitcases they had managed to throw together before fleeing.

"Can you bring my sweatshirt in when you return, Leah? I think I left it in the car."

"You got it," she chirped, slipping out the door with a wave toward Elijah.

Before Hayley could follow, he delayed her departure with a hand on her arm. Elijah raised a finger to his lips, gesturing outside where Leah was now starting up the car.

"Can you keep an eye on her," he whispered. "Please. For me."

Hayley didn't see the reason for his request. Wasn't Klaus supposed to be the paranoid, domineering brother?

"She'll be fine, Elijah. You buddy up with Klaus and just worry about getting us home."