Episode Six: Fruit of the Poisoned Tree

Caroline's clothes didn't fit her that the first thing that she noticed once Elijah had returned. It seemed that her belly had swelled up overnight, something that she was not expecting and not very sure that she liked. Her old jeans and blouses that she had brought from Mystic Falls didn't fit her anymore, and she had just stayed in her blue silk robe that was a one size fit all. She would have to think about buying maternity clothes.

She headed towards the living room and saw that Klaus and Elijah were reading, there was a dead girl sitting on the table. "Seriously?" Caroline groaned. "I just ordered a new carpet and it's already covered in blood."

"You can blame that on Niklaus," Elijah said curtly. "It seems that this his way of apologizing, something that I do not appreciate."

Klaus shrugged. "I just thought that you could use with a little pick me up, after being without blood for so long."

"I would prefer a change in attitude," Elijah snapped.

"Um, I don't mean to interrupt your debate, but where is Katherine? And Rebekah?"

Elijah politely told her. "They must be in the kitchen." Caroline nodded her thanks and went into the kitchen where the girls were having their breakfast. Well, Katherine had attempted to make pancakes and had failed and now the entire kitchen smell like burnt food and she was simply licking the batter from her fingers. Rebekah stood by her, looking slightly disgusted. "I'll do it," Caroline told her as she took the batter from Katherine.

"Thank goodness," Rebekah wrinkled her nose. "The last thing we need is for her to burn the entire house down." Katherine rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue.

"So how was your first night back with Elijah?" Caroline asked her curiously.

Katherine threw her an impish sort of smile. "Well, I always thought make up sex was the best, but reunion sex turned out to be pretty fuckin' fantastic."

Rebekah scrunched up her nose as she exited the kitchen. "All right, I am so not listening to this!"

Elijah came into the kitchen as soon as Rebekah left. He went towards Katherine and gave her a delicate kiss on the cheek. "Good morning."

"Morning," Katherine said. "Caroline is making pancakes."

Elijah nodded, though he wasn't too fond of sugary breakfast foods. He looked at Katherine's short black nightie. "Katherine, I really wish you would put on clothes."

Katherine shrugged. "What's the big deal? Half of the people living in this house have already seen me naked."

"Well, I haven't," Caroline said as she started putting pancakes on the plates. "And I don't want to start now."

"That makes two of us," Rebekah chirped as she came in dragging the dead girl across the hallway. "Remind me that we need to add bleach to the shopping list."

"You know I hope that my siblings and Katherine were hospitable during my absence," Elijah told her and Katherine scoffed.

Caroline stifled a giggle as she handed Katherine a plate of pancakes. "Ok, first of all your absence is a nice way of putting the fact that your brother who has quite a temper had bargained you like a chess piece. Not to mention that in the past few weeks I've been attacked by vampires, I had to live in a house where they store coffins, and a bunch of psychotic witches think my babies are literally devils from hell. Could have been worse right?" she smiled, looking slightly embarrassed. "They been ok, for the most part and Rebekah and Katherine have been a huge help, but I think that we should be focusing on in unlinking myself from Sophie and figuring out what to do with my, you know witch part of me before anything else."

Elijah nodded. "Yes, I think it's time we took care of that little problem."

"Finally," Katherine fluffed her hair. "I'm ready to leave this boring ass town, who do we have to kill first?"

Elijah narrowed his eyes at her. "You're not going to murder anyone, you can't afford to be someone's target, Katerina. If all goes well, we don't have to murder anyone." A pause. "Or potentially everyone."

"Poetry about poisoned apples from dead trees?" Rebekah raised an eyebrow as she entered the living room and saw Klaus reading a book of poetry. "Looks like someone is worried about impending daddy hood."

Klaus fought back a smile. "Nonsense, Elijah's back with him all problems turn to pixie dust and float away."

Elijah rolled his eyes as he came in carrying a large, torn out grimore. "I don't recall any pixie dust in that coffin I was forced to endure." He paused as he looked at his siblings. "I promised Davina that in exchanged of my freedom, I will give her a few pages of mother's grimore to help her control her magic. I thought we should start with an unlinking spell."

"I'll drink to that." Katherine said as she came along. "So we should get going."

Elijah frowned as he looked at her. "You're not going."

Katherine threw him a dirty look. "Oh, I most certainly am, thanks to your brother, I've been locked away for the past two months. I'm going." The truth was ever since Klaus basically confirmed that she was a sitting duck, she had become a nervous, walking mess and she had been wanting to tell Elijah, but she hadn't had the courage to tell him.

"Come on, Elijah let her tag along," Klaus said. "Hopefully, someone from her past will come and finish her off."

Fifteen minutes late Katherine was entering the church's attic with Elijah which was apparently where Davina resided. Elijah stepped into the room holding a grimore. "I made you a promise."

"Come on in," Davina squealed, but stopped short when saw Katherine. "What is she doing here? You do know that Klaus was using her to manipulate me."

Katherine crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, you sure didn't make things easier."

"And that was her way of apologizing," Elijah said dryly. "Katerina is not an enemy, Davina." He pulled out a rope with a knotted middle. "And I already thought of your first spell. This a sanguine knot. The new witches used this to learn control, once the rope becomes untangle, the spell is broken. Once you complete it, I'll return with another spell. A spell of your choosing next time."

Katherine cocked an eyebrow when she saw that Davina looked skeptical. "But of course if you don't think you have it in you, we can always call another witch-"

"No," Davina said as she gripped the rope. "Give it to me."

"Let go off me!" Sophie shouted as she tried to pull the chains that were holding her hostage. She couldn't believe that she had been stupid enough to get caught in the first place. She had been talking with Sabine when suddenly they had both been attacked and Sophie had been taken away and drugged and was now being held hostage.

"Leave her be," Agnes said as she entered the room and nodded towards the two large men. She pulled out a long, rusty needle.

Sophie looked panicked. "Killing me to get to Klaus-to get to his babies will not solve the problem."

Agnes looked almost offended. "I'm not going to kill you, Sophie I was there, the day that you were born. I am the least remaining elder of our coven, it's my duty to protect our power. Our power will mean nothing if those babies grow another day. Sabine's vision was clear those babies and that girl will bring dead to all of us." She grabbed the rusty syringe with an old needle. "I changed this object a little, it now contains a werewolf venom that will kill her. A vampire-witch hybrid, nothing has ever happened like this and I don't want to find out. This will kill the girl."

"No, Agnes, no, no!" she cried out in despair and Agnes gripped her neck and injected the needle into the side of her neck.

"What are you thinking about?" Rebekah asked curiously when she saw Caroline staring out the window.

"Just about what had been happening lately," she bit her lip as she looked at her. "Has this ever happened a witch-vampire hybrid? I've been meaning to call my mom, but I haven't had the guts."

Rebekah shrugged. "Not that I know off, if it did the whole witching community would have a heart attack."

"Ow!" Caroline suddenly cried out when she felt something sharp against her neck, she drew blood.

Rebekah handed her a napkin. "What happened?"

"I don't know," she stared at the blood on her fingers. "Though I doubt is a good thing."

"What happened?" Elijah growled as he picked up Sabine, who just a few seconds ago had been on the floor. They had arrived at Rosseus'looking for Sophie and they had gotten a nasty surprise, someone had attacked Sophie and left Sabine on the floor.

"It was Agnes," Sabine clarified as she rubbed her arm. "Her men took Sophie."

Klaus glared at her. "Where and for what reason? Whether I like it or not that woman is liked to Caroline and to my future children."

Sabine threw him a reproachful look. "If I tell you where she is, you'll just kill her." She paused. "Look, I know Agnes is a little crazy, but she's out last living elder, I know that may not mean a lot to you, but it means a lot of us. Only the Elders can do important spells."

"Like completing the Harvest ritual," Katherine frowned. "That's the only reason you want Agnes alive, because she is valuable to you."

Klaus looked grimed. "Well, it seems that we have a long list of things to do today, mainly unlinking Sophie from the woman who is carrying my child. This Harvest or Elders have nothing to do with us, now talk or face the consequences."

"Time for the Demon's spawn to snack!" Rebekah called out cheerfully as she handed Caroline a bag of B positive blood.

"Seriously?" Caroline cried. "Just because my children are related to Klaus does not mean that they are evil."

Rebekah smiled. "That's exactly what I mean, so have you picked names yet?"

Caroline shook her head. "But I ordered a custom made book of baby names on-line it should be arriving any day now." She took a sip of her blood. "You know, Rebekah you're not so bad, you're actually kind of nice, which you rarely were in Mystic Falls."

She rolled her blue eyes. "I was nice, you just never appreciated it." Her face became serious. "Remember that when I'm gone."

Caroline frowned. "Gone? What do you mean, gone? Aren't you staying for the birth of the twins?"

Rebekah threw her a brittle smile. "I only came to town to make sure that Elijah is all right, now he and Klaus are as thick as thieves again and I'll be left to clean up the mess. It's time for me to fly the coop. I don't expect you to understand."

"No, I kind of do," Caroline squeezed her hand. "I get what you're going though and what Klaus has put you through, wherever you end up with, I hope you're happy Rebekah."

"Thanks, Caroline."

Caroline let go when she felt a sudden wave of dizziness hit her. "That was weird, it kind of was like morning sickness."

Rebekah touched her forehead. "You're burning up, actually."

Katherine saw as Klaus and Elijah broke off the chains with a loud bang as Sophie rubbed her arms. "Agnes injected me with a needle from a curse object from a long time ago. We would use curse object so that we didn't get busted by Marcel for using magic. It's called the needle of sorrow-"

"Move it along, love." Klaus said impatiently.

Sophie's jaw tightened. "It has only one purpose to kill a child in utero by raising its blood temperature and Agnes made it worse by adding werewolf venom so that it would kill Caroline as well."

"How much time do we have?" Katherine demanded.

Sophie bit her. "It will do, what's it's meant to do by high tide, that is if Caroline doesn't go crazy by the venom first. I doubt that we'll be able to find Agnes."

Elijah glared at her. "This is preciously, why we need to unlink you from Caroline."

Sophie looked annoyed. "If you do that, I will lose my leverage to you. We had a deal!"

"We are no longer on the same side, our deal no longer stands!" Elijah barked. "Klaus go to Caroline, Katerina and I will go to the church and see if Father Kieran has, had any luck locating Agnes."

Klaus did as he was told and Katherine followed Elijah to the church, something suddenly caught Katherine's eye. A woman. A woman with dark hair, brown eyes, and a leather jacket was staring at her with amusement, a small smirk on her lips. "Elijah," she said. "That woman, she's staring at me."

Elijah turned around, but there was no one there. "What woman?"

"She was just there, dammit," she bit her lip, hating that she sounded so vulnerable. "Look, I don't know what Klaus has told, but whether or not I practice magic, I'm still consider a Traveler and worse a doppelganger Traveler which means that I'm a walking target and whether I like it or not, they are going to come after me, and I'm honestly more than a little freaked out."

Elijah rubbed her cheek. "Katerina, and I promised that I won't let anyone hurt you." He kissed her forehead. "If you see that someone is following you or anything strange at all, promise that you'll tell me."

She nodded. "I will, now let's go to the church."

When they entered the church, they found Father Kieran glaring at Agnes. "Hello, Agnes."

"You're working with him?" Agnes demanded.

"After what you did to Shaun, I will work with the devil if I have too." Father Kieran snarled.

"You can't hurt me, her entire witch community will turn against you."

"Well, frankly I don't care about you witch politics, I do however care about this," he pulled out the needle of sorrow. "Undo the curse, now."

Agnes smirked. "Dark objects don't come with an off switch and Sophie is liked with these devil children and Caroline has wolf venom in her system. It's only a matter of time, I won't allow any more hybrids in my city."

"Stop fussing will you," Rebekah scolded Caroline trying to hide her worry as she placed a cool cloth on her forehead. Caroline's fever had spiked as she was slowly becoming delirious and she had stripped to her tank top and panties. "Klaus will be here any minute."

"Why is everything spinning?" she whined. "It's like my mind is playing with my sanity."

Rebekah looked worried. "Just because you're carrying babies doesn't meant that you get to act like one, I'm sure my niece and nephew are healing you up as we speak. Klaus's finally." She stopped short when she saw Klaus gripping Sophie's arm. "What is she doing here?"

Sophie looked worried. "I think I can help."

"Help?" Rebekah's eyes flashed. "You're the reason we're in this bloody mess!"

"I think I know of a way to bring the fever down, but I need some herbs."

"Rebekah." Klaus ordered.

"Fine," she curled her lip as she exited the room. "Happy to play fetch girl."

Klaus went over to Caroline who was barely awake and her forehead was covered in sweat. "Love?" he whispered. "Can you hear me?"

"Tyler?" she croaked, it wasn't until her vision settled that she saw it was Klaus and he looked annoyed that she had confused him in the first place. "I'm sorry, I-"

"I know," Klaus patted her hand. "You have wolf venom is your system. This should fix it, but we have another problem to deal with." He bit his wrist and gave her, his blood. "Drink love."

"Klaus," Caroline gasped as she clutched his arm. "The babies!"

"I know," Klaus said as he ran a hand though her blond hair. "Don't worry, Caroline we'll save them."

"This is not how I envision spending my pregnancy," Caroline said grumpily. She, Rebekah, and Klaus along with Sophie were standing around the pool. Caroline had a towel wrapped around her.

Klaus touched her forehead. "She's burning up, we need to do this now!" Klaus barked.

Sophie nodded. "Get her in the water!"

"I don't see how a midnight swim is going to help," Rebekah responded frustrated.

"Her temrpature is rising, the water along with the herbs should help cool her down," she handed Caroline a glass of herbs. "Drink this, Klaus you need to get her heart rate down."

Klaus looked annoyed. "And how am I supposed to do that?" he picked Caroline up easily as they started going into the pool.

"Hold her," Sophie instructed. "It's a natural human remedy to slow down the heart."

Klaus gritted his teeth. "Davina better break that bloody link."

The water wasn't helping and Klaus holding her, was just making Caroline more nervous. They hadn't been this close in a while. She could feel Klaus wrap an arm around her waist as she tightened her arms around his neck for support. She felt a sharp pain in her abdomen as she cried out. "I can't breathe. I'm burning up, Klaus!"

Klaus noticed that the water around him seemed to be evaporating slowly and the wind around them seem to pick up. "Caroline, listen to me, your powers they are spinning out of control. Your body senses that you're in danger and your body is burning up and that is your own self trying to help, but now is not the time for a witch hurricane. Focus on my voice and breath. Do you trust me?"

She nodded slowly.

"Then breathe."

Caroline tightened her grip. "Breathe, ok breath." She could feel Klaus' arms tightening around her. "Aah!"

"I just felt a lift." Sophie said as she looked at the sky.

"It worked," Caroline whispered, gripping Klaus's shoulders. "I'm free and our children are safe." She could feel Klaus' grip around her waist and she looked up at him. He looked relieved too. He did care, even if it was just a little bit. Without thinking, Caroline pressed her lips against his, kissing his softly.

"Ugh, you two get a room!" Katherine scowled as she came in with Elijah. "Did it work?"

Caroline cleared her throat. "Um, yeah."

"Brother," Elijah said. "We must get going." Klaus nodded.

Sophie turned to Elijah, a pleading look on her face. "Please, you can't kill her, she's the only source of power we have left."

"The only thing I can promise you is that I will end her life swiftly." Klaus snapped.

"Brother," Elijah interrupted him. "Sophie, I promised you that Agnes will not die at my brother's hands, now Klaus come."

Caroline exited the pool, her blue eyes focus on Sophie. "If you ever put my life or my children's life in danger, I promise I will end your life myself."

"The unlinking work," Rebekah said brightly once she saw Elijah enter the house. "Perhaps now we can make plans to-"

"Not, now Rebekah," Elijah sounded distracted. "Can we discuss this when I return?"

Rebekah gulped. "I won't be here when you return. The only reason I came to New Orleans was to make sure that you were safe. And now that you are, I know you'll never leave this city. You'll never leave Klaus. The things going on with Marcel and the witches I want no part of it. I just want to be free."

Elijah kissed her cheek. "Then go, you're free!"

"You're a piece of work, Agnes," Klaus snarled once him and Elijah had reached the church, the fury still hadn't quite left his veins, but it was hard to concentrate when he still felt Caroline's soft lips on his own. She hadn't pulled away which Klaus knew wasn't much, but it was something that distracted him from her earlier coldness. "You almost killed Caroline and my children. Now how should we punish you, should we display your organs around the cemetery for everyone to see?" he gripped her by the neck. "Don't touch my family."

"I was doing you a favor," Agnes choked out. "Witch . . . and vampire, hybrid children it's immoral."

"Leave her," Elijah said coldly. "I gave my word."

Klaus looked annoyed, refusing to let her go. "You seem to forget that she threatened my family, Elijah and no matter what you promised I can't let a deed like this go unpunished."

"And I promise you it won't," Elijah said calmly. "You asked for my forgiveness earlier, so this is why I ask, don't make me break my word. Let her go."

Klaus did as he was told and Elijah approached her, "Now, I said that you wouldn't die at my brother's hand, I said nothing of my own." He tilted her head backwards. "No one hurts my family and lives." He snapped her neck. "No one."

"Where is he?" Marcel's newest sire, the baby vampire Josh and Klaus' plaything asked Caroline nervously as he stood by the doorway. "Marcel knows that Klaus lied about where he lives."

"He's not here Josh," Caroline told him her eyebrows creasing in concern. She should have been happy that she was unlink from Sophie, but honestly all she was feeling was bone tired and it didn't help that all she could think off was Klaus' lips on hers. They even felt warm. "But I'll tell him to call you as soon as he gets here."

"Ok," Josh still didn't look convinced. "Thanks Caroline."

Caroline nodded as she closed the door, but a second late the doorbell rang again and she opened it. "I told you Josh-"she trailed off when she saw Marcel.

He smiled at her with curiosity, staring at her pregnant belly that seemed more prominent than before. "I'm Marcel and you must be the famous Caroline Forbes, I don't believe that we've had the pleasure of meeting!"

After kissing Katherine on the cheek and promising that he would join her in bed soon, he went towards Caroline's room to see how she was holding up. When she didn't answer Elijah pushed the door open, but found the room empty. "Caroline?"

He dialed Rebekah's number. "Goodbye means goodbye, Elijah." She said curtly.

"Is she with you?' Elijah asked worriedly. "Caroline, she's gone and-"

"What?" Rebekah shouted over the phone.

At that moment Klaus appeared, looking both pale and frightened. "Marcel was here." Was the only thing he said.

-End of Chapter Six-

Next up Bloodletting: Caroline finds herself captured by her ex-boyfriend Tyler who tells her that her babies are capable of making hybrids and suggests an abortion. Katherine, Elijah, and Klaus go in search of Caroline who has gone missing. Finally, Elijah argues with Klaus who decides to punish him in the worst way possible and leaves Katherine off in the worst possible position.