Running a hand through her slowly unraveling dark curls, Lilith climbed the stairs with the borrowed strappy heels hanging from her fingers. It certainly hadn't been the first time she'd been threatened by an Original, but it had been the most terrifying. If Elijah had ended up killing her that night in Elena's hallway, she would have woken hours later as a vampire. Klaus had gotten upset many times during the summer, but his annoyance was never enough for him to act on any of his threats.

If Mikael had driven that stake through her chest, there would have been no revivals, no second chances, no do-overs.

Sometimes, life in Mystic Falls sucked.

She'd just closed the door to the bedroom that everybody called hers when her cell phone buzzed from the bedside table. There hadn't been a need for it at the dance – and there were no pockets in her dress – so she just hadn't brought it along, and it was a surprise that it even went off after everything that had happened less than an hour before. Her hands were still shaking with slight fear at the memory of the stake dangerously close to her chest. What would have happened if Klaus hadn't called out to her? What would have happened without his helpful words? Would he have folded to save her? Or would she be dead?

The repeated buzzing of her phone pulled her out of her thoughts and she grabbed it before the noise could alert anyone to the fact that she was still shaken up and would probably be awake for hours. Against her better judgment, but too exhausted and on edge to really care, she accepted the call without checking who it was.

"You wouldn't happen to know where your uncle is, would you, Love?"

The very voice that had saved her life had her frozen in an instant. What could he possibly want from her at a time like this? Did he not understand that she was still trying to process what exactly had gone wrong in their plan? They'd failed. The very person on the other end of this conversation was supposed to be dead. "I don't, Klaus. Find someone who didn't just get their life threatened to ask."

Without another word, she ended the call and dropped the phone onto the bed. She was done dealing with him for the night, hopefully forever. The last thing she needed was for him to start something up again while she was in desperate need of a good night's sleep.

*LIT*

The dial tone signaled the end of the call as he kept the phone to his ear. He needed to know exactly where Stefan had taken his coffins and he'd called the only person he'd actually trusted to tell him the truth – someone who quite literally owed him her life, not that the hybrid ever hoped he'd have to cash that favor in. Shouldn't she have been slightly less… cold to him?

He had just saved her life, after all, so why was she acting as if he'd ruined everything for her? What Niklaus had done for the former dhampir was quite the opposite; if he hadn't said anything, she could very well be dead – and not the kind of dead that vampire blood allows you to return from. If he couldn't count on her for information when she owed him so much, who was he to put any trust into? Maybe he'd wished to speak with her about a bit more than just her uncle's location, but he was only being gentlemanly to the poor damsel he'd saved from distress.

It had absolutely nothing to do with the thoughts he'd had while slaying the only father he'd ever known – that the monster shouldn't have threaten someone Niklaus cared for. Because he certainly didn't feel anything for the young immortal he'd merely become fond of. Surely, it wasn't a crime to wonder if she was still frightened or shaken up over the situation.

He was Niklaus, the Original hybrid. He cared for nothing and no one but himself, let alone some young girl who barely knew what he was capable of. The witch he'd spoken to before – Amelia – was wrong; he didn't care an inkling about Lilith's life, let alone did he love her. Love was for those weakened by loneliness and their own mad thoughts. Vampires, especially Originals, such as himself, were not mad, nor were they weak.

If what he claimed in his thoughts then was true, then why did he risk going against and possibly being destroyed by Mikael simply to save her own eternal undeath?

*LIT*

With a sigh, Damon closed his bedroom door behind him. Was it really so hard for a plan to just go as they'd hoped it would? Or would everything always be blowing up in their faces? Everything seemed to be going so perfectly until Mikael turned the situation around on them. Why he chose to use Lilith of all people for bait, they'd never know. Klaus wasn't one to care about anyone but himself, so a hostage was a bad idea, period. They were lucky he knew enough to help them get out of the mess that had seemed to boil over far too quickly. There had been absolutely no reason for him to save her, and now they were in his debt.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?" He asked the empty room under his breath, shaking his head. It had been far too long since he'd last quoted Shakespeare, though it was only because so much had been going on with Lilith supposedly dead, and then they'd been trying to get her used to life in Mystic Falls when she'd finally returned. There simply hadn't been the time and he hadn't had the energy to muster up a quote that made sense, or even a coherent sentence. "When the hurly-burly's done, when the battle's lost and won."

For once, he could actually think of something that applied to what was happening around him. He'd finally united with his daughter after far too long, but it wasn't until everything was truly over. The battle was over – the time when she should have been using her own planning skills to help them was over, replaced with days with an emotionless, mostly drunken shell.

"When should the three of us meet again? Will it be in thunder, lightning or in rain?" There would have been no good time for them to reunite. Everything happened so fast in Mystic Falls, and there was never a relaxing or calm day. There would be no metaphorically sunny day, only thunder and lightning in the form of hybrids and Originals and werewolves and other supernatural entities. The sunny days of simplicity and happiness had passed the moment Klaus moved into town. "We'll meet when the noise of the battle is over, when one side has won and the other side has lost."

They'd lost; they'd failed. Klaus was still alive and they had no weapons to destroy him after what he'd done to Mikael, so what were they to do now? Hope for some miracle so that they could try again in a week? In two? No. There wouldn't be another opportunity. Every chance they'd had of defeating Klaus had been torn away the moment Mikael changed the plan.

A/N

I know, this chapter is beyond short compared to others, but I'm already started on chapter eleven and it should be posted by Friday if I can get time to type during the week. Instead of doing a fancy disclaimer like normal, I'm just going to say that I DO NOT OWN THE VAMPIRE DIARIES. Okay? Okay.

Peace In!