I am ever hopeful that this will eliminate a lot of the confusion.

"It's time," one of the minders told her. "Push," as though it was easy, as though it didn't hurt like a bitch.

Hayley wasn't a people person, werewolves generally weren't, but she found her current company exceedingly irritating; much like her current situation, "Shut up," she growled out before doing precisely what they told her to. Hayley had experienced pain, the excruciating pain of breaking every bone in her body, so it should have been well within her limits of endurance, only in the moment she found it difficult to recall having ever hurt so much.

"Just one more push and he'll be out," they told her.

Just one more and she'd have a daughter she told herself. One more and she wouldn't be alone in the world, if only for the few precious minutes... seconds...that they would allow her to spend in her company. Regardless, there would be another in this world that she knew for certain was of her blood, a connection to another that could never be taken however far the distance between them.

"Now," they ordered.

And so she pushed, and pushed, and then she heard, what was perhaps the most joyous noise she had ever heard, the child's cry. Her child cried and though she was aware that shortly she would need to exchange any claim she held on her in order to remain among the living she felt an overwhelming need to hold her babe, to possess her.

"Can I hold her?" she didn't like that her voice was weak, that she was practically begging. She didn't beg, she hadn't begged in her life. "Please," she pleaded, reaching out towards the bundle in the strangers arms.

"Let her see the child," a new voice ordered.

Hayley's eye rose to the new entrant, an equal mixture of gratitude and despair bubbling inside her. "Thank you Elijah," she breathed as her daughter was placed in her opened arms. She looked down upon her, she was perfect and for a short moment in time she was all hers. A smile claimed her features. Whatever befell her she would always be this child's mother.

"We should go Elijah," a female voice Hayley recognized as belonging to the blonde original sounded.

Her face fell; she sighed heavily and then looked up to meet their eyes. "Take her."

Rebekah smiled sadly and then said the last thing Hayley expected to hear. "She will be staying with you." The blonde flicked her wrist looking a particular brand of bored. "Elijah we shouldn't be here."

Hayley turned her attention to the other Original, his face told her nothing but his shoulders seemed tense. If he was worried she was certain that, whatever the cause, it couldn't bode well for her. And if there was any doubt the blonde's insistent upon their leaving removed it. A chill was creeping up her spine, her mouth was dry, swallowing was becoming difficult.

"I made a promise," Elijah answered looking directly into Hayley's eyes.

A thousand questions flitted through her mind, but none made it to her tongue. Her blood was icy in her veins, a horrid certainty gripped her, the stuff of her nightmares was to become reality. Elijah's words made it all too clear, Klaus was coming and her chances of surviving the encounter were slim to none. What of her daughter though? Why did Rebekah insist the child was to stay with her? Was she to share her fate? No, Klaus would not raise his hand against his own blood, not even he was such a monster. So why then was bile rising in her throat, why did her daughter cry out as though in warning?

There was no time to ask for at that precise moment Klaus himself entered the room accompanied by a strange-looking woman whose dark eyes were trained upon hers. Hayley felt her entire being quake, her daughter suddenly silent as though realising it was not in her best interest to attract attention. Time seemed to slow, she watched petrified as Elijah moved between the new comers and her, a shield she doubted would do anything but delay the now inevitable.

"Niklaus, she is your daughter, don't do this," Elijah's beseeching voice echoed in her ears.

Klaus' face betrayed no emotion, "I have no daughter."

Hayley gulped, he would not stay his hand, angry Klaus was one thing, but this deceptively calm one was something else - this was the legendary monster, the most feared of all the Originals, and he had come for her.

If she could have found the will she would have risen from her bed and left her daughter safe behind her, but she didn't have it and in the end could her daughter really hope to survive her when Klaus had already disowned her. Every frightening tale of Klaus' revenge upon others flooded her head, she had heard only one first hand, that of Katherine, and for a few brief shameful seconds she felt a spark of hope at the possibility that Klaus would kill only her daughter in order to punish her.

"Move your brother before I do," a cold voice ordered drawing everyone's attention to the strange woman by Klaus' side.

For a moment nothing happened and then Klaus was pressing Elijah against the far wall and the woman was beside her. "May I?" the woman asked hand poised above her daughter.

Hayley's eyes sought out Rebekah's silently pleading for assistance; the blonde's eyes turned away to fix upon her brothers and with them went the last of her hope. She turned her eyes back to the woman, nodding her ascent. The woman's fingers descended and swept softly against her daughter's cheek, before coming to rest upon Hayley's arm. Hayley felt a small electric shock at the point of contact; then a flood of images flashed past her eyes, familiar and foreign all at the same time – like the memory of a dream. Soon enough the woman released her hold and stepped back, her face an unreadable mask.

"I am finished here," she announced to the room in general before turning towards the door.

Hayley finally found her voice, "What?"

The woman, whose eyes Hayley now noted were black - no distinguishable pupil - turned towards her once more. Though her face was unchanged there was something about her that led Hayley to believe the question was testing the woman's patience. "Your child is unexceptional. I have gleaned the limited knowledge you possessed, therefore you no longer serve a purpose and I am finished here."

Because that made sense, "What are you talking about?"

"Your child is a werewolf Hayley; she inherited the curse from yourself being that his father was human…"

"No, Klaus is the father," she cut in.

"You are mistaken, memories are relatively easy to manipulate for my kind and you had the misfortune to come in contact with one. Now, I have somewhere else to be so do excuse me," the black eyes refocused on Klaus. "I'll be in the car, don't keep me waiting long," and with that she left the room.

Hayley felt somewhat lighter as though a repressive weight had been lifted off her, and for a shining moment in time she felt as though she would escape unscathed. Naturally the Hybrid bastard felt inclined to ruin it. "I am aware of your transgressions sweetheart."

She molded her features in her best semblance of surprise, "I was certain she was yours, I still don't see how she isn't." She knew of course to what he was referring, but she firmly believed that her chances of leaving the place alive would increase if she could instill some measure of doubt that she had played a part in the whole Caroline affair. In fact she had the distinct impression that this would be her sole opportunity to distance herself, to save herself.

"Do I strike you as a particularly gullible individual Hayley?" it was the calmness of his voice that most worried her.

"No," the word barely made it past her lips.

He smirked, "as luck would have it sweetheart I've a pressing engagement, but rest assured I will be dedicating some of my rather considerable resources to hunting you down and delivering you to a most unpleasant and extended end. No one strikes at me with impunity."

"I swear I didn't know they were going..."

He cocked his head, "ticktock Hayley, my business won't take long so you best start running."

"Niklaus," Elijah interjected gaining his brother's attention.

"Big brother, I am aware you promised to keep the whore and her offspring save and have no doubt that, even in the knowledge that the child is not of my line, you are reluctant to break your sacred word. I'm going to make it easier for you," he spread his arms wide. "I promise that if you assist this slattern escape my wrath Katherine will face it in her stead, now I really mustn't keep the lady waiting any longer," he turned and exited, smirk firmly in place.

Her eyes focused on Elijah who stared at the space his brother had occupied, his forehead ceased with worry. As though he could feel her eyes fixed upon him he turned back to face her, his features forming a neutral mask.

"Are you sufficiently recovered?" he asked her politely.

Undoubtedly she was not in the best shape of her life, but she was confident that she was fit to travel. The words, in her opinion, were not well chosen as it was unlikely that she would ever recover - sufficiently or otherwise - her life as it was, was now over. She was not to endure the boredom of being stuck in one place again, running was to become her new favorite past time. She could only hope that she would have the same affinity for it as Katherine had. Her daughter snuggled into her chest. "What will happen to her?"

"She is your daughter, her place is with you," the male Original advised.

She held back the bitter laugh that attempted to force itself from her throat, so now the child was hers, now when her continued existence depended upon her falling off the face of the planet she was to take the child with her. Children needed things that adults could go without, whilst she could leave with the clothes on her back her daughter could not. Running with her would be the hardest thing she had ever had to do, she needed help but one look at the two Originals before her told her she would receive little of it from them.

Elijah held a wad of cash towards her, "take this and go."

Hayley pushed herself up, kept her face neutral by sheer force of will and took what she was sure would be the only help Elijah would be offering. Having spent most of her life chasing it, she recognized love when she saw it, Elijah would not endanger Katherine most especially not for someone like her. Her only value had been in the presumption that her daughter was a Mikaelson, that the one night Klaus had used her body in an attempt to forget Miss Perfect and was thought to have impregnated her in the process had made her worth saving. With that all now forgotten, the Originals had lost interest, in her and in her daughter.

Well, clearly not all the Originals, one of them was very interested, just not in her well being. Hayley imagined that however hard running might prove, getting caught would be beyond her worst nightmares, there was a reason Klaus was the most feared. She didn't want to feel his wrath first hand. And so, with her daughter clutched to her chest, she began her new life.

She ran.

Caroline was bored out of her brains. She felt as though Connie had been gone for an eon and with absolutely nothing to occupy herself other than sipping from blood bags the woman had left her or sleeping or thinking, and she was about ready to pull out her hair in frustration. Time didn't just drag on it crawled slower than a snail scaling Mt Everest, blood bags, sleeping, thinking, ranting, sleeping, ranting, ranting ... well you get the idea. Of course it could have been worse, instead of dying of boredom on the bridge to nowhere she could have been hanging on the Other Side with Bonnie, then again that wasn't an entirely unattractive prospect. She had plenty of time to miss her witch bestie, her doppelganger bestie, her vampire bestie, hell there were times she actually missed Salvadork, and if she was dead on the Other Side at least she wouldn't be alone.

She had already drunk a blood bag, ranted about the injustice of being once again held against her will, and slept for an indecent amount of time, so she was back to thinking. Specifically about life AB, After Bonnie. Reviewing the last few months - on the out side, who knew how long she'd been coped up - she couldn't help but wonder what she had been thinking, why she hadn't finally left all the Mystic Falls crap behind her and forged a new, better, existence without it. Going to college so close had been a mistake, she was a vampire for god's sake she could have compelled herself in anywhere ... hell, she didn't even need to compel she had gotten in to schools elsewhere, far far away elsewhere.

She should have gone, she should have left the drama behind her - she didn't need the badie of the week rubbish. Caroline shouldn't have been hanging around to be kidnapped for the umpteen time, she should have been off in the big wide world enjoying her eternal life, but she hadn't. It had taken time to piece herself back together AB that was true, but once color returned to her world she needed to get her arse out of dodge and yet she'd stayed. Why didn't she ever do what was best for her? Not even when doing so wouldn't have really hurt those she loved? Elena was fine, her mother was fine, Jeremy, Damon, Matt all fine. Stefan? Well, he could have left with her. And Tyler, of course, they would have left together. They could have all lived happily ever after if they could only get far enough away from Mystic bloody Falls.

It was what she needed, she really should have done it. But she didn't. Why was that? She wondered for what felt like the thousandth time. For the first time in the long while she had been trapped with naught but Connie for company she was overcome with that uneasy feeling that she had forgotten something. That important something that sent her to be captured in Mystic Falls, that something that she had been oh so desperate to discuss with Bonnie, yet somehow managed to push aside since. She tried to remember the first time she had felt it, the first moment that perpetual queasiness had taken over, but she couldn't recall other than it was certainly AB. Before her friends death it wasn't there, she was sure of it, even with all the Silas drama and end of the world as we know it disaster in the making it hadn't been there. So what brought it on?

It wasn't something she could put her finger on, much like she couldn't quite determine the moment Stefan came undone and was remade into his latest version. "Uh, my brain hurts," she told the ether.

"You're over thinking it, it's actually quite obvious," Connie surprised her by answering.

"You're back!" it wasn't that she actually enjoyed Connie's company as such, it was that she was sick of being alone. She flashed to the woman's side and hugged her before she even realized what she was doing. Needless to say Connie didn't hug her back, she merely stood stock still until Caroline removed her arms and moved to a respectable distance. "So how was your trip?" she asked brightly, grateful for the end of her solitary confinement.

"Not as productive as hoped, still I neutralized a threat and now know the identity of the responsible party so it was well worth the effort."

Caroline wondered who had suffered the misfortune of being "neutralized" but thought better than asking, instead, "who was the responsible party?"

Connie meet her inquiring gaze, for a moment it appeared there would be no answer, but then, "one of my kind."

"I thought the whole reason I was here was because you couldn't leave this place, well except when you have a poor unsuspecting vampire acting as your placeholder," it had been a while since she ranted with an audience.

"That is true of myself, but not of him. Things are not now as they once were. Long ago this place was not required, my kind moved freely, too freely. My kind is not, for lack of a better word, humane. We do not feel as you do, we are not affected by the suffering of others, we were not made that way," she paused, her gaze fixed upon something Caroline could not see.

"Our nature, our lack of regard for the feelings of lesser beings, heaped misfortune upon your world. Our interactions with your ancestors boarded on disastrous, and some among us believed we were lessened by the pettiness of it all. However, the amusement granted by your kind was difficult for all of us to forego, there was a war - a long insufferable thing in which weapons were forged to kill that which could not die and those who had never known what it was to bleed turned the earth red. There were no winners understand, all lost, your kind included. When it was over we closed each pathway to your world but this, and this can only be opened by me, only exists whilst I keep it open."

She really didn't understand a whole lot of what she had been told, it sounded like the stuff of legends, then again wasn't she now a thing of legend? "Why do you keep it open?" she figured she had to ask something.

"Not all of my kind retired, some were too weakened by battle to find their way home, most died. A few, a handful, survived. The door remained open for them, and now it appears all but one has past from your world."

"The responsible party?" she ventured.

Connie gave that little smile of hers, "yes."

"So what, now you both leave?" was it wrong to sound so hopeful?

"He has no intention of leaving, that much is clear."

"How is that clear?"

"However weakened he may be he infused within a girl the power of the witches of old, such interference is forbidden - even before the war."

It didn't take much to connect the dots, the girl was clearly the threat that was neutralized. Caroline wondered what the girl had been like, had she had a family that loved her, friends that would mourn her, was she like Caroline herself?

"What happens now?" she asked in a small voice.

"Now, I shall wait for him to show himself, and you ... you shall go back."

Caroline's spirits soared. "I'm going home?"

Connie shook her head, "you still have value to me, so I'm afraid you cannot return to your old life."

Somehow even though she had decided she didn't want to go anywhere near Mystic Falls being told she wasn't allowed to made her angry. "So what? Am I to be held prisoner for the remainder of my days now?"

"Not at all, merely until I end him or he ends me, afterwards you are free to do as you will," she paused, "Of course should I be the one consigned to oblivion your days will surely be numbered. No matter, whilst awaiting the outcome you will reside in New Orleans and make every effort not to die in the fast approaching battle to take place there."

What? "So because I'm so important, you're shipping me off to a war zone?"

"Caroline, no matter where you go you will be a target, but in New Orleans you will have protection."

Great, she'd have protection. Hopefully it was of a better variety than she'd had to date, cause frankly that sucked. She couldn't help but feel a wee bit bitter, here she'd been Connie's little blood slave for like ever and as her reward she was being shipped into yet another battle zone. "Gee, thanks."

"Caroline, I am not ungrateful for your service, however unwillingly given. If there is something within my power which you desire, other than a return to your old life of course, I shall give it to you."

Was there something? No, the only things she desired were beyond anyone's abilities, even freaky black-eyed supernatural mental cases. "I don't think you have anything I want."

Connie's eyes bored into hers for a moment before she placed her hand upon her arm and patted it, much like one would a dog Caroline mused.

"I am placing you into the care of one who will make every effort to insure that not only will you survive, but that you will be kept safe while the war rages," though her tone didn't change, she seemed a touch condescending.

Caroline's heart leaped, she was fairly certain to whom Connie was referring, but she just had to ask. "Klaus?"

The black-eyed woman nodded, "he awaits you my dear." She waved her hand and then Caroline found herself in the open air stumbling in her disorientation.

Two hands slid around her waist holding her steady, she knew without looking whose warm hands held her. "Klaus," she whispered, her eyes closing briefly before opening to find his beautiful blue-green eyes, more blue than green today she noted, staring back into hers.

His fingers brushed her cheek. "Caroline," he said her name like he revered it, his breath ghosting across her lips leaving them tingling. Her brain switched off as he pulled her further into his arms, crushing her to his chest and as she inhaled his scent she was overcome with a need to be as close to him as possible. For the first time in a long time, she felt like she was home.

"Caroline," the voice interrupted their moment.

Caroline's head snapped up, her body gravitating towards the voice, she would recognize that voice anywhere. "Bonnie," she stuttered out, tears pooling in her eyes as they settled upon her friend standing not five feet away from her. Her eyes turned to Klaus, "do you see her?"

"Yes," he uttered seemingly just as astonished.

Caroline turned back in time to take a leaping Bonnie into her arms, tears streaming down both their cheeks. Thank you, Connie. "Thank you."