Oh wow, you guys. I'm positively beaming after everything you guys had to say after the last chapter. I want to end some of your worries. Klaus is not going to cheat on Cassandra with Genevieve. Get those ucky thoughts out of your heads right now and breath easy. Someone else asked some stuff that happens later on down the line (Season 2) and you'll just have to wait and see how Cassandra deals with the situation in question. The theories and input you guys keep coming up with blows my mind. I love that you guys are just as invested in this as I am. I think you guys are really going to enjoy this chapter. There's some Cassandra/Cami, Cassandra/Elijah, some Forbes sister fun, and of course it wouldn't be complete without some Cassandra/Klaus fluff too. Someone wondered about Klaus getting jealous of how close Cassandra and Elijah are getting and, well, pay close attention because there just might be something to that in this very chapter. With that said, have fun!

Chapter 11 - Rebirth of an Enemy

Cassandra nearly dropped her phone as she stared wide eyed at her reflection in the mirror. I know I wasn't showing like this when I went to bed last night. Holy crap! She ran a hand over her now indisputable, blatantly obvious baby bump. She turned from to side to side, then faced the mirror again. It didn't matter what angle she stood at. Her round tummy was noticeable from all sides now.

"Wow," she whispered in awe. "No hiding it from the world anymore. Ugh."

She lowered her shirt and began to walk back into the bedroom when her phone began to buzz in her hand. She was surprised to see Cami's name on her screen and quickly answered the call. "Cami, hey! I totally meant to call you after getting your message but things got a little nuts around here."

"I'm sure they did. Listen, is there any chance you can get out of there and come over to my place? We really, really need to talk about Klaus," Cami spoke with urgency in her voice.

"I wish I could, but..." Cassandra trailed off, unsure of what reason to give her friend for why she couldn't leave the compound. She knew sneaking out was a bad idea, but what if she got someone to take her, like Rebekah or Elijah? But then, if they did that, they'd surely hear whatever it was Cami needed to tell her, and she wasn't sure that was a good idea. No, she thought it best she find out whatever it was that Cami wanted to talk to her about before involving anyone else. "You know what? Forget that. I'll find a way to get over there."

"Great. I'll send you my address. Come alone. I'll see you soon."

"Okay. See you..." Cassandra trailed off when she realized Cami had already hung up.

Exhaling slowly, she left her phone on the bed and got dressed. After she was ready, she started to reach for her purse, then thought better of it and recoiled her hand. If she took it with her, it'd be a dead giveaway that she was planning to go out. It's not like I need it anyway. All I need is my phone.

Before leaving the room she read the address Cami sent her and put it in her navigation app. She was relieved to see that Cami's apartment was less than ten blocks away. "The closer, the better," she murmured to herself as she turned off the screen and slid her phone into her pocket.

She kept her demeanor casual as she made her way down the hall to the second floor balcony overlooking the courtyard. She looked down and spotted Klaus heading down the corridor that lead to the front gate. Well, that's good timing, she smiled to herself. Noting the presence of Marcel's vampire posse milling about in the courtyard, she knew she needed to find another way out. The pool! There has to be a gate out back! Her mind raced as she made her way through the interior of the compound towards the back deck leading to the pool. She cautiously peered around to see if anyone was lurking and sighed in relief to find the area deserted. She panned around the area looking for a gate that led outside the property and felt her heart race when her eyes landed on an iron barred structure. She quickly strode over to it and held her breath as she carefully pushed it open, praying it didn't squeak. It moved silently and effortlessly. She quickly slipped past it and shut it behind her.

Relief flooded her body as she began to make her away around the corner of the property to the street. Now all she had to do was get back before anyone noticed her absence. Not wanting to waste any time, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and brought up the map to Cami's house. She made quick work of maneuvering her way through the streets of the French Quarter and arrived at Cami's apartment building in no time. She sent Cami a quick text to let her know she was there and headed up the stairs. She smiled as she reached Cami's apartment door and found Cami standing there waiting for her.

"You made it. Great. Come on in," she motioned for Cassandra to follow her inside.

"Yeah, piece of cake," Cassandra nodded as she walked through the doorway. Her lips curled into a smile as she looked around at the quaint, studio apartment. "Aw, I love your place. It's very homey."

"Thanks," Cami smiled.

"So," Cassandra faced her. "I'm here. What did you need to tell me? Not gonna lie, you have me incredibly curious."

Cami motioned for Cassandra to join her on the couch and waited until they were both situated to begin talking. "What I'm about to tell you is going to sound crazy and impossible to believe, but I promise you it's very real, and it's the god's honest truth. I can prove it."

"O...kay," Cassandra answered slowly.

"Klaus, the guy you've been seeing, the father of your baby, he's half vampire, half werewolf," Cami cut right to the chase.

Cassandra blinked in surprise. "W-what? How—"

"He and his family are the oldest vampires in the world. And his friend Marcel...also a vampire."

"How did you find out about this?"

"Davina, a girl Marcel was protecting, happens to be a witch. After your boyfriend compelled me, mind controlled me, to spy on Marcel and report back to him, then forget everything I'd learned since meeting him, she was able to undo it so that I could remember everything he'd forced me to forget, including the truth about what really happened to my twin brother, Sean."

"Oh my god. You know," Cassandra whispered. She took a deep breath and met Cami's eyes. "I was hoping you wouldn't ever have to find out about the supernatural world."

"Wait a minute," Cami stared at her. "Are you telling me you already knew about this?"

"That his family are The Originals, about the existence of vampires and witches, yes. I actually knew about Klaus and his family before we ever met. It's a long story, one best saved for a rainy day with lots of liquor handy, but I swear I had no idea he was compelling you. If I had, I certainly would have stopped him and found a way to get you some vervain so he wouldn't be able to manipulate you anymore."

"So you know about vervain."

"Yeah," Cassandra nodded and held up her necklace. "My sister gave this to me last year after I moved back home. There's vervain inside. As long as I wear it, I can't be compelled."

"Well, that's something," Cami arched her eyebrows. "Here's what I don't understand. How can you be with him knowing who he is and what he's done?"

"Oh man," Cassandra fought the urge to laugh. "I should introduce you to my sister. The two of you would be able to compare notes on how awful you both think Klaus is."

"So why are you with him then? He's narcissistic, paranoid, has abandonment issues, not to mention—"

"Cami, I know all of that. It's...complicated, okay? Just know that he does have a softer side. I think being a father will change him too. Did I tell you we found out...it's a girl?"

Cami's face softened. "No. You didn't. That's...that's pretty awesome. Congratulations."

"Thanks," Cassandra smiled, placing a hand on her baby bump. Knowing there was one other thing she had to say made a lump appear in her throat. She swallowed slowly and took a deep breath. "Listen there's something I need to tell you. About Davina. Something's happened."

Cami nodded and listened as Cassandra told her about what had happened in the cemetery. "We still don't know why it didn't work," Cassandra sighed. "And now she's, I don't know, stuck on The Other Side, or in some supernatural limbo or something."

"Oh wow," Cami gasped. "That's horrible. Marcel must be devastated."

Cassandra nodded her head. "Yeah, he is. I wish I knew what to say to him, but I know in the end nothing I could say will take the pain away. Anyway, I should probably go. Klaus will have a cow if he finds out I snuck out. I'm not really supposed to leave the compound, or at least I wasn't while I was linked to Sophie, but that's not an issue anymore."

They rose from the couch and walked to the door. "Well, this definitely didn't go how I had envisioned, but I'm glad we're on the same page." Cami sighed softly. She gave Cassandra a quick hug. "Take care of yourself, okay?"

"I will. I'm just glad you're not mad at me for keeping all this from you," Cassandra murmured.

"Unlike some other people, I can completely understand why you never said anything. I probably would have done the same thing if I were in your position. Now, go. Hurry up and get back before you get caught. I don't want to give Klaus any reason to be mad at you."

"Okay, I'm going, I'm going," Cassandra laughed and scurried out the front door.

She let out a breath as she walked outside and began to head back to the compound, taking the same route as before only in reverse. She was relieved that Cami knew the truth, but she was angry with Klaus for using her the way he did, and she intended to let him know it.

When she was halfway back to the compound, she rounded a corner and froze as her eyes landed on Elijah waiting to cross at the next block, the block she was headed towards. She thought about backing up to hide around the corner she'd just turned from, but he spotted her before she could attempt any sort of backwards movement. Aw, crap. Busted, she groaned inwardly. Well, better him than Klaus.

Elijah folded his arms across his chest and arched his eyebrows at her as she approached him. "Cassandra, what are you doing out here?"

Cassandra clasped her hands together and rested them against her stomach. "Uh, well, I was meeting a friend. She needed to talk to me about something. It was urgent. I saw no reason why I couldn't meet her at her apartment. I'm not linked to Sophie, my pregnancy is no secret anymore."

"You shouldn't be out without telling someone. We would have had no way of knowing if something happened to you."

"Okay, I will admit sneaking out may not have been the smartest move, but I don't regret it."

"Why not ask Niklaus or I to take you to this friend of yours?"

"I thought about it," Cassandra answered. "And I knew if I asked Klaus he'd outright refuse because he wouldn't have wanted me to find out what my friend had to say about him, and I knew if I asked you to take me, you'd end up hearing whatever it was my friend needed to tell me, and I preferred to hear it without any of you around first."

"Does this friend have a name?" He asked as he motioned for her to start walking beside him.

Cassandra nodded. "Cami O'Connell. Bartender over at Rousseau's."

"Ah, she's an O'Connell. We had dealings with her ancestors after we first built this city," he mused.

He fell silent as they walked, mulling things over in his mind. She waited to see if he was going to ask about what she and Cami had talked about, but was surprised when he said nothing. She wondered if he knew all along what Klaus had been up to, but she couldn't know for sure if she didn't tell him what she knew first.

"Klaus was compelling Cami to spy on Marcel," she blurted out. She went on to tell him everything else she'd learned. "Did you know about this?"

"No. I did not."

"Oh. Well, good. I don't have a reason to be mad at you then."

"Lucky me," a tiny smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

"So," she twiddled her thumbs nervously as she stared ahead at the path in front of them. "Are you going to tell Klaus about my sneaking out?"

"Only if he asks me directly," Elijah murmured. "Though I think it would fare a lot better coming from you."

Cassandra nodded silently. She didn't want to tell him, but she couldn't help admitting Elijah was right. By the time they'd reached the entrance to the compound, she still hadn't decided what she was going to do. She was surprised to find the courtyard completely empty, and figured Klaus must have sent the vampires she'd recalled being there earlier out on some sort mission. Shrugging it off, she slowly made her way upstairs. She could hear the sound of Klaus's voice and followed it to the Parlor room where she found him and Marcel. Judging by the tone of Klaus's voice he was annoyed with Marcel.

"If the men see you shirk your duties, they'll likely do the same," she heard Klaus scoff as he spoke. She arrived at the doorway as Marcel leaned forward in his seat and declared he wasn't in the mood for vampire hijinks, confirming her suspicions on why the courtyard was currently deserted.

She tapped on the door lightly with her knuckle, making her presence known and interrupting Klaus before he could say anything further to Marcel. "Hey," she murmured lightly. "Sorry for interrupting."

"Cassandra," Klaus smiled at her as she walked towards him. "I wondered where you'd disappeared to. No apologies necessary, love."

"Right. Well, now that I have your attention, we need to have a little a little chat about something," she folded her arms across her chest. Before continuing, she turned her head toward Marcel. "Stick around, Marcel. You'll definitely want to hear this, too."

"Okay," he nodded.

"What's this about, love?" Klaus eyed her curiously.

"This is about you manipulating and using my friend Cami to do your bidding," she told him.

Marcel stared at Cassandra in surprise. "You know Cami?"

She glanced from Klaus's surprised face to Marcel's. "I do. I met her my first night here, months ago. I ended up at Rousseau's for dinner after catching the smell of Sophie's gumbo, and she happened to be bartending that night. We started talking, and clicked pretty fast. We've stayed in touch since then." She paused and turned back to Klaus. "I would have told you, but I knew what you'd do if you knew the things I'd told her in confidence. Yet, it doesn't even matter anymore, because you went and did the very thing I was trying to protect her from in the first place."

"I can assure you, love, I had my reasons for it."

" Oh yeah? Well, do something like that again to her or anyone else I care about and you'll find yourself sleeping alone. Indefinitely. And if you think I'm bluffing, try me and see."

Seeing the seriousness of her words reflected in her eyes, he let out a soft, resigned sigh. "Fine."

"Good. Thank you," Cassandra smiled in victory. She turned to leave so Klaus and Marcel could get back to their previous conversation, but before she had the chance to take a step Diego walked into the room.

"Hey guys," his face was covered in worry as he stared at Klaus and Marcel. "We got a problem."

"Use to run things down here for Marcel," Thierry told Rebekah as they walked through a warehouse down by the docks. The two had recently formed an alliance after Thierry had been released from Marcel's prison in The Garden, deciding to join forces. "Thought you'd like to see what I found before Klaus did."

"Not a day out of The Garden, and you're already proving yourself useful," Rebekah was pleased by his quick rush to share his discovery with her before anyone else.

"We made a deal, and if it screws things up with your brother, I'm all for it, though to be honest, this stuff makes my skin crawl," he stared at the ground as they came to a stop next to a salt circle with bones and candles arranged inside it. "I've never seen anything like this."

Rebekah's eyes widened as recognition flashed into her mind. "I have, a long time ago. Somebody is copycatting a very dangerous witch. They draw their power from sacrifice. I just don't understand why someone would leave it here for us to find…unless they wanted it to be found."

"Mademoiselle Mikaelson," a voice Rebekah never thought she'd hear ever again called out, causing her to spin around towards it in a rush.

"That's not possible," she stared in disbelief at the man known as Papa Tunde appeared, wearing a white suit and gold bow-tie.

"Sure, it is, chére. It's magic," Papa Tunde tilted his head slightly. Rebekah rushed at him with vampire speed, intending to kill him, but he grabbed her by the neck, stopping her, and began to chant as Thierry watched frozen in fear. "Symbole du masque et de l'ombre, embrace-toi."

He repeated the chant over and over, slowly weakening her with each repeated phrase. Not wanting to become the next victim, Thierry whooshed away faster than a bat out of hell. As she dropped to her knees and began to desiccate, he pulled out a curved, bone blade and used the tip to carve a symbol into her forehead. Once she was completely incapacitated, he laid her in the middle of the salt circle and brought out a snake. Holding it over her, he sliced it open, allowing it's blood to flow and sprinkled it all over her before laying it down on the ground beside her body. It was an animal sacrifice, part of his sacrificial magic ritual. To complete it, he moved and knelt down beside Rebekah's head, carefully pressing a thumb to the symbol he'd carved in her forehead and held it there until the link was complete. As he stood up, Celeste, in Sabine's body, came walking up to him in the warehouse.

"It is done," he spoke, keeping his back to her. "The power of the Original Sister flows through me."

"And will that be enough to make Klaus suffer?" Celeste/Sabine asked

"I will hurt Klaus Mikaelson as he hurt me. When I am done, he will wish that he could die," he slowly turned to face Celeste with an evil, look of determination in his eyes.

After Klaus had taken off with Marcel and Diego to investigate whatever it was the vampires discovered in the Quarter, Cassandra made herself comfortable on the couch and decided to call her sister. Caroline apologized profusely for being out of touch for so long and filled her in on what had happened, the most startling and amazing part being the news that Bonnie was alive. Cassandra had nearly dropped her phone when she heard the Bennett Witch's voice in the background. The way Caroline had explained it, Silas's true love, Amara, had been made into The Anchor to the Other Side by Qetsiyah. The Anchor was a mystical being that the spell creating the Other Side was tethered to. Amara wanted to die, So Qetsiyah transferred the role of Anchor over to Bonnie, giving her the ability to interact with both the living world and The Other Side. She'd been so wrapped up in listening to Caroline that she didn't notice she'd wandered into Davina's old room until she saw the sketches on the tall easel.

"So when are you going to come back here for a visit?" Caroline's subject change was a big relief to Cassandra.

"As soon as they take care of this new threat that's emerged. Some witch is practicing Sacrificial Magic and using vampires as it's victims. I think I heard something about channeling their energy, but I'm not completely sure. I'll have to pick Elijah's brain later. He'll be more quick to give me answers than Klaus."

"Well, tell them to hurry up already. We need to set a date for that epic baby shower I'm going to throw you so I can start planning and get invitations out," Caroline chirped with excitement.

"I know, I know," Cassandra let out a soft chuckle. She walked up the easel and grabbed the stack of sketches, carrying them back over to the bed. "I promise, you'll be the first to know whatever's happening here's been dealt with."

"Good. I better be. I miss you, Cass. I got my best friend back, now I just need my big sister," Caroline murmured.

Cassandra could feel her eyes instantly welling up with tears. "Ugh! Okay, no saying things like that. You'll make me cry," she laughed and wiped her eyes before the tears could fall.

"I'm done. I swear. I should probably go anyway. Bonnie's giving me the impatient Bennett glare."

"Heh, okay. Give her a big hug for me. I promise I'll call again soon with an update and hopefully some travel plans. Let's not tell mom so it can be a surprise."

"Deal!"

The two sisters shared a giggle before hanging up. Cassandra stuffed her phone into her pocket and began thumbing through the sketches, though she had no idea what she was looking for. She was alerted by the sound of approaching footsteps, but she wasn't worried and kept her eyes on the drawings.

"There you are," Elijah's soft voice called out as he stepped into the room.

"Here I am," she replied lightly as her eyes flickered up to him.

He walked further into the room, taking notice of the sketches in front of her on the bed. "Davina's drawings."

"Yeah," she nodded. "Morbid, I know. I was just thinking, we never figured out why she drew those pictures of Celeste. I'm not really sure what I was looking for or hoped to find. I guess I'm just killing time now that I'm back to being on vampire lock down with the new threat that's out there."

"Whoever did this, we will deal with them. It won't be long," he tried to reassure her.

"Good. The sooner the better," she flashed him a small smile.

"Yes, I believe you were hoping to make some kind of travel plans in the near future," an amused grin creeped out onto his face.

"Ah. So you heard that, huh? Well, yeah. I was talking to my sister. I miss her. And my mom. I want to go back home to Mystic Falls to see them. I know it's out of the question until the witch or witches causing mayhem is dealt with, but once you guys have taken care of it I'll be able to go see them."

"I think that could be arranged. You've more than earned it."

"You know what?" She stood up from the bed and scooped the drawings up into her arms. "I have." She walked over to the easel and placed the bundle of pages back on it. "I just hope your brother feels the same way."

"Oh, I don't think he'll be against it. And if he is, I'll take you myself."

"Now that," Cassandra turned around to face him, a wide grin on her face. "I'm gonna hold you to."

They walked side by side back downstairs to the courtyard. Once they were there, Elijah pulled out his phone and called Rebekah. She could tell from Elijah's face that Rebekah wasn't answering. She dug her own phone back out and tried Rebekah's number, but it went straight to voice mail. She shoved her phone back into her pocket and walked up to Elijah as he made another failed attempt to reach his sister.

He turned toward her with worry on his face. "Rebekah is not answering her calls."

"Yeah, I tried calling her too. Same result," she folded her arms across her chest. "You worried about who ever killed those daywalkers still being out there?"

"Frankly, I'm worried that she had something to do with this. Despite her knowing how much Niklaus means to you, she still has her own anger towards him for everything he's done to her. She's afraid he's going to pull the rug out from under her if she lets her guard down long enough."

"Oh, she better not be behind this. Not if she still wants to be part of her niece's life."

"Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves, shall we? She may, perhaps, even be conspiring with others," he turned around and stared at a table in the corner where Thierry sat with a glass and a bottle of bourbon. Elijah called out to the vampire as he made his way over, with Cassandra following right behind him. "Thierry, isn't it?"

"That's right," Thierry gazed up at Elijah warily.

"My sister is rather fond of you. Strange, she's not typically drawn to unremarkable men," Elijah spoke with a hard face. "Would you care to explain your sudden magnetism?"

"I don't know what you're—" Thierry started to answer when Elijah grabbed him by the neck and pinned him against the wall in the blink of an eye. Cassandra had to jog over to catch up with them.

"You can either tell me what you know or I can distribute tiny pieces of you throughout the Quarter," Elijah threatened in a cool, velvety voice.

Thierry gasped for breath beneath Elijah's stone grasp. "She asked me to keep an eye out on witch stuff. I found something, and when I showed her, we were jumped by some guy. He desiccated her with his touch."

"Oh my god," Cassandra covered her mouth with her hand as she gasped softly.

Elijah tightened his grip on Thierry's throat and banged him backwards against the wall. "And like a coward, you left her."

"What was I supposed to do? Fight some warlock that took out an Original?" Thierry stared back at him with terror filled eyes.

"Where was this exactly?" Cassandra spoke up.

Thierry shifted his gaze onto her. "The docks, Warehouse Fifty-seven. I was just doing what she asked. You cannot tell Klaus about this."

Cassandra met Elijah's eyes, knowing neither of them had any desire to be the bearer of this particular news to Klaus, especially after the big show he made of releasing Thierry from The Garden. Elijah turned back to Thierry and effortlessly tossed him by the shoulder against an adjacent wall, effectively rendering him unconscious.

"I shall take that into consideration," he smirked at Cassandra before turning to head down the corridor that led to the gate.

"I'm coming with you," Cassandra started to follow after him.

"No, stay here," Elijah turned and held a hand out. "Compound is safe."

"Rebekah is in trouble. After everything she's done to help me and keep me safe, I have to help her, Elijah. I'm going," She started to walk past him when he grabbed her by the arm, forcing her to spin around and face him again.

"Do not leave my sight. Understand?" He spoke softly as he made eye contact with her. She nodded her head vigorously.

It didn't take them long to get to the docks. Once they found Warehouse 57, they made their way inside. As they rounded a corner of stacked wood pallets, Cassandra noticed a salt circle with a bunch of symbols drawn inside and candles placed around it. A few yards a head was a second circle, and this one contained Rebekah's body.

"Rebekah," Elijah murmured, running towards her. Cassandra followed, and let out a squeak when they were both stopped by an invisible force field as soon as they had reached the edge of the salt circle.

"What's happening?" Cassandra gasped, taking a step back.

Elijah held a hand out to keep her away. "Some kind of boundary spell."

"Like the one Esther used to keep the vampires inside the school the night of the Twenties Decade Dance," Cassandra recalled the last time she'd witnessed the use of such a spell.

"I wasn't aware of that, but yes. Something like that," Elijah nodded. He stared at Rebekah's lifeless, desiccated body. "Someone is channeling her. Typically it's a lethal process, but because she's an Original, she cannot die. Instead, she's an endless source of power."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Cassandra stared at the spelled circle.

Elijah spun around to face her. "You have to get her out of there."

"M-me? What can I do?" Cassandra stammered, taken aback by Elijah's words.

"Give me a moment to find that out," he answered as he pulled his phone out. He called Sophie's number and put her on speaker phone before explaining the situation to her as he paced back and forth. "We cannot enter the circle. There's some kind of confinement spell or—if I can't remove her, we can't break the link."

"It's a convoluted spell," Sophie told them. "It's like a witch's recipe. You can spoil the balance by adding a more potent ingredient, a mystical binding agent, I don't know. Volcanic ash, rock salt, anything up to and including eye of newt."

While Sophie was talking, Elijah turned to look at Cassandra as a realization occurred to him. He slowly moved his gaze back to the circle and knelt down. "What about the blood of a witch?" He spoke softly. Cassandra's hands moved up to rest on her stomach as she realized what Elijah was getting at.

"Do you have the blood of a witch?" Sophie asked, puzzled. Ignoring her, Elijah ended the call and put his phone into his inside jacket pocket. He gazed up at Cassandra, who had her hands protectively on her stomach.

"I need a favor," he murmured.

"The baby," Cassandra spoke in a soft voice. Elijah nodded. "She's a quarter witch."

As Elijah stood up, she walked up to stand beside him. She stared at Rebekah, her heart beginning to pound in her chest as she thought about what she had to do to save her friend. Determined to do whatever was necessary, she met Elijah's eye and held her wrist up to him, nodding to let him know he had permission to bite her. Holding her elbow in one hand, he placed his other hand along the outside of her wrist and lowered his mouth onto her skin. She pinched her eyes shut, wincing as his fangs punctured her flesh, and opened them again once he pulled his mouth away. He guided her arm and held her wrist over the circle, allowing her blood to drop onto the white outline. The salt began to bubble and fizzle as the blood made contact, slowly spreading until it covered the entire outline.

Once Elijah was sure the spell had been broken, he released Cassandra's arm and carefully stepped over the barrier. He scooped Rebekah up into his arms and whooshed over to where Cassandra stood, effectively cutting off the witch who had been channeling her. Rebekah's natural color instantly began to return to her skin as the desiccation wore off and her body began regenerating itself. Not wanting to stick around and wait for her to wake up, they rushed out of the warehouse and headed back to the compound.

-o-

Cassandra stood with her arms resting on banister of the second floor balcony, watching and listening as Klaus addressed the congregation of vampires in the courtyard. He was trying to rally them into joining him in the fight against the witch uprising in the Quarter. She wasn't surprised to see a handful turn their backs and leave. Quickly losing interest, she turned around and headed back down the hall, completely unaware that Elijah had been watching her from somewhere in the crowd of vampires below.

She wasn't paying much attention to where she was wandering to and eventually found herself on the balcony outside her and Klaus's bedroom, overlooking the Quarter. She was incredibly bummed over the fact that Klaus hadn't been able to kill the witch responsible for harming Rebekah, and even more surprised to learn the witch had been someone he, in fact, had killed a hundred years ago.

"It has to be because of the Harvest," she murmured to herself. Sophie said after the Harvest came the Reaping where the four girls were supposed to basically rise from the dead. But it didn't work, and now I think I'm beginning to understand why.

"A witch Klaus killed a hundred years ago is back from the dead. Davina and three other girls were supposed to be brought back, but they weren't. Which means somehow someone was able to use the power that was supposed to bring back the girls to instead ressurect this other crazy witch. Does that mean three other crazy witches were also brought back? And how does Celeste fit into all of this? Ugh!" She growled in frustration, banging her fist lightly against the balcony rail. There were too many questions that still needed answers. She let out a sigh and stared down at her stomach, rubbing it slowly with her hand. "At least you're nice and safe in there lit—no, that's your father's nickname for you, not mine. I guess I'll have to come up with my own."

She felt her body slowly start to relax as she began brainstorming ideas, smiling at the different possibilities. She knew, though, that it wouldn't be something she could just think up on a whim. It would more than likely come about on its own, once her daughter was born and began developing her own personality. The possibilities of the kind person her daughter would be like sent a rush of anxious excitement through her.

"I can't wait to meet you," she murmured softy, continuing to rub her baby bump.

"Nor can I," Klaus appeared in the balcony doorway with a smile on his face. She turned around to face him and leaned back against the railing as he walked up to her and brought his hands to her waist. "I heard you had quite the eventful evening."

"You spoke with Elijah," she realized. "Okay, I know what you're going to say. It was reckless, right? Stupid, dangerous, all of the above."

"Well, yes," he chuckled. "That is very true, but I was actually just going to say that I am very grateful, as is Rebekah, that you were able to aid in saving her, and you are never to do that again. Leave the witch hunting to us immortals, okay?"

She nodded her head slowly. "Okay. So did Elijah tell you how we saved her?"

"I didn't stick around long enough to ask for any details," he answered. Her lips formed a small 'oh' in surprise. "But perhaps I should have. How did you do it?"

"Sophie said we needed a strong binding agent to break up the spelled circle. Our daughter is a quarter witch, so we used my blood to do it. Only, because neither of us had a knife to slice open my hand, Elijah had to bite my wrist to draw blood."

"He what?" Klaus whispered, his eyes narrowing as he pressed his lips together and tightened his jaw. It wasn't an expression she was accustomed to seeing on his face.

"Oh..oh my god," she covered her mouth, fighting the giggle that rose in her chest as her eyes widened. "Wow. You're jealous." When he didn't say anything, she held her wrist up in front of his face. "Here. If it will make you feel better, go right ahead. Seriously. Have a taste. I'm giving you full permission."

Klaus too her arm in his hands and brought her wrist closer to his face, pressing his nose against her skin to inhale her sweet human scent before raising it to his mouth. Instead of biting into her flesh, he pressed his lips gently against her wrist in a warm kiss.

"No, love. I do not wish to bite you. Not now, not ever. Now then," he pulled her into his arms. "What's this I hear about you wanting to take a trip to Mystic Falls?"

"How…?"

"Elijah, of course."

"Of course," she shook her head, laughing softly as she rested her arms on top of his shoulders. "I miss my family and I want to go see them. I know it's too dangerous right now with all the attacks going on in the city, but now that I'm no longer linked to Sophie and Silas is dead, I want to take the trip sometime in the near future, preferably before the baby gets here."

"I think that is a very reasonable request, and one I am most happy to grant," he paused, bringing a hand up to stroke the side of her face. "As soon as we've taken care of this new threat, I'd be glad to take you."

"Mmm, I'm gonna hold you to that," she grinned and leaned in, capturing his lips in a sweet kiss.