Note: I do not own TVD or any of its affiliates.

Any sort of feedback makes my day! So things are going to get emotionally intense starting with the bombshell in this chapter and the decision Kol has to make next chapter. Just a warning, I'm keeping the first part of this story to 30 chapters or less. Then I'm going to take a short break between part one and part two since I'll be moving from Russia to the United States (it should only take a couple of days to get settled). Arya, thank you so much! I actually kind of enjoy having Charkol not directly talk about their feelings and just having things unfold or external factors address it (like this chapter). I understand exactly what you mean, thank you! Kilera, here's more and the last of Rebekah. Really this story is about Kol and Charlotte. I removed Elijah and Rebekah from the tags to clear up the confusion. Mary VA, I'm glad you enjoyed the fluff! I'm glad you enjoyed it because I can't promise a happy ending to the first part of this story. Thank you Kelly, yes it's a lot of Charkol for the rest of this ride. Note, I did change some canon things from TO, because... well I don't watch it and that's the point of fanfiction, right?

"Look at yourself, Kol. How long has it been since you've cared about someone more than yourself?" – Rebekah Mikaelson

[Jet – Look What You've Done]

Everything in New York changed a few days later. It had started off as a normal afternoon. Kol surprised Charlotte by swinging in the café at the end of her shift and walking back with her to the penthouse. It was during that walk she introduced him to the concept of iced coffee. She laughed and found it amusing how he made faces over the traditionally hot beverage being cold. The laughter subsided when they returned to the penthouse. It only took a few moments after dumping their empty cups and jackets before they noticed something seemed off.

Kol heard the sniffling first. He exchanged a look with Charlotte and she nodded to. Her suddenly serious expression told him she heard it too. Wordlessly, the two moved towards the source in the living room with Kol in the lead.

That was when they spotted Rebekah sitting by the window wall. She had one of the chairs dragged up to the glass. Her body was angled, they could only see the profile of her tear stricken face. She had a wine glass in one hand and her shoulders shook with the frequent silent sobs.

"Rebekah…" Kol drew her name out with concern and alarm, rather than taunting. It wasn't the first time he's seen his sister cry, but he generally liked to know the cause of it. "What's wrong?"

She shook her head at first. She used the back of her hand to sloppily wipe at her cheeks, causing the wine to swish around in the glass. "I got a call from Elijah and Nik," She said.

"Ah," Kol mocked lightly. "I would be upset at the sound of their voices too."

"Shut it, Kol," Rebekah snapped out, not amused in the slightest. Her eyes went back to the window, her face reflecting in the glare of the glass. "Everything's turned into a goddamn mess," She murmured.

"Did you tell them about me?" Kol asked her seriously this time.

"No," Rebekah answered him, the attitude still a little present. "We were a little occupied with the war about to break out in New Orleans."

"War?" Kol repeated, his brow furrowing.

"Uh, yeah," Rebekah looked back to him, gesturing with the wine glass. "That peace treaty the factions signed was a bunch of bullshit from the beginning. It's going to be a bloodbath soon."

Kol's head jerked back slightly and looked to Charlotte. He could see the same confusion. Marcel had certainly failed to mention just how bad things were in New Orleans. Trusting him had been a risk from the beginning. He should have expected it.

"And now on top of the vampires, werewolves and god knows who else at each other's throats, Mikael is trying to come back," Rebekah's voice hiccupped a bit from the rushing of her words. "I wouldn't put it past those bloody witches to make sure he does."

"Wait, Mikael?" Kol startled, his alarm growing to a new level. "He's trying to cross back over?" His tone had a nervous edge in it.

Rebekah nodded before taking a large gulp of her wine. It made much more sense now why she was a wreck. The anxiety of that prospect would do either of the main three in.

Kol, however, had mixed feelings about it. Yes, he used Mikael before to tip off their locations in the past, just to rub some salt in the wound and knock Niklaus off his pedestal. He would also likely help Kol with he came to him in New Orleans. But the problem that laid with Mikael was the fact he wanted Niklaus dead, not desiccated. In the past, he didn't have white oak, so he didn't feel particularly guilty about conniving with Mikael. But after experiencing death himself, Kol was torn.

"You weren't kidding about the Other Side falling apart," Rebekah choked out. "Apparently he was haunting Elijah and Nik… He even took a pass at Hayley."

Kol averted his eyes and fell silent. During that silence, Charlotte looked to him, feeling her stomach knot at the tension. She could see him stuck in a hard place. She knew of his plans with Marcel, but yet, even after everything that happened, there was still family.

"What are we going to do?" Kol asked in a low voice, not giving away how he felt. He knew his options, but he needed to hear them aloud.

"I'm going to go back," Rebekah knew they would need her help. Her brothers were incapable without her. She couldn't help but the disbelieving mutter between words though, "Just when I got free." Then she looked to Kol pointedly and rose to her feet, "But you're not coming with me."

Kol opened his mouth to question why, but then her body turned to face them fully and revealed something he hadn't seen before. At her side, she held a long piece of sharp wood, which had a glistening web of silver around it.

Kol let out a swear, his eyes widening. He visible startled several steps back and threw out an arm behind him, forcing Charlotte behind him by the waist. His shoulders ceased up with tension like a bear trap set off. He raised his other hand pointing to the infamous indestructible White Oak Stake.

"Bekah…" Charlotte heard Kol's shake with a lot of emotions before, particularly anger, but this was the first time she heard fear. "What are you doing with that?"

His last living moment with Rebekah had been spent threatening her with the same weapon before he burned by it. This felt too much like her threatening to do whatever it took to stop him.

"I took it with me when things got bad in New Orleans," She explained, remembering how difficult it had been to get it from Klaus. For a moment, she looked down at the stake. If you looked close enough, you could see the faint tinge to the wood from the last victim. "I don't want to lose anymore brothers," She murmured tearfully.

Kol's expression began to splinter between looking at the stake with anxious fear and suspicion and to his sister with cracking resolve.

"You're right, Kol," Rebekah stated with sad resignation, her teary blues meeting his. She admitted, "I've been a terrible sister. A shitty one, really," She dropped any eloquence for frankness. "I've done a lot of despicable things to you. I wasn't there, none of us were. Then a dagger to your back and even worse after that… All for a Cure that I didn't even get."

"And before that…" She paused to wipe her cheeks with the back of her hand. Seeing the movement of the stake caused Kol to subconsciously tense again. Behind him, Charlotte was watching, barely breathing. She had one placed on his shoulder blade, letting him know where she was without him looking at her. Her other hand wrapped around the bicep of the arm shielding her.

"No matter how much I apologize, how much I beg, grove… Nothing is going to change what I've done or what I didn't do," Rebekah's hand tightened on the stake, shaking with the emotions sending her nerves on edge like a livewire.

"But I can change things," Her voice began to shift with determination. "Now is a chance to change things."

"What are you talking about?" Kol asked of her. He looked more like the older brother she remembered huddling in the caves at the full moon. The one that told her that everything would be okay, even if he didn't know for sure.

"I didn't tell Elijah and Nik that you're alive. And no one in New Orleans knows. If that's where Mikael is, he doesn't know either, but he will if he traces me back to New York and finds you here," Rebekah wasn't going to tell anyone either, even if it was possible to compel her. "And that's why you're going to run, far and fast."

"What?" Kol was practically speechless. It didn't happen often, but his mind was in a whirlwind at everything that was happening so fast.

Rebekah could see that he wasn't getting it through his thick skull why she was doing this. "You wanted your own life back, right?" She reminded him of what he said to her the first night. "This is that chance, Kol. This is your chance to be free, of all of it, for the both of us." For once, she was going to be selfless rather than selfish for him. "Nik, Elijah and I… We can deal with Mikael, but you should run. Take Charlotte with you and go have that life."

Kol squeezed his eyes shut briefly and shook his head, like if he was trying to shake the words he heard out of his ears. Even Charlotte had something to protest at that point, but Kol beat her to it.

"What does Charlotte have to do with this?" He wondered, getting thrown off guard again.

Despite her emotional state, Rebekah managed to pull together a knowing reprimanding glare. "Come on, it's obvious you're in love with her, you dolt," She snapped out.

She really wanted to resent the girl that had weaseled her way into the family property. Especially when Rebekah witnessed over and over how much Kol doted his rarely shown affection on her. Even the twisted affection, like the way Kol used to obsess over who Rebekah used to be out all night with. Now when he was tangled up with Charlotte, he didn't even notice her leaving. It made it even harder when she started to get to know Charlotte and found it was difficult to hate her.

Kol balked and sputtered immediately. His head jerked back, his expression twisting with various degrees of disbelief. "What? Don't be so ridiculous, Bekah," Kol scoffed immediately. "What would –"

"Oh, please!" Rebekah's voice rose suddenly, almost a shriek overpowering Kol. "Look at yourself, Kol!" She gestured with the tip of the stake towards him.

The movement caused his expression to snap shut quickly, his eyes darting down again to the offending object. This time it wasn't pointed at his heart though, rather the arm he had held out behind him.

"How long has it been since you've cared about someone more than yourself?" Rebekah challenged him, lowering her voice, but it was still just as powerful. Even after everything that happened to him, he still subconsciously placed himself between Charlotte and the stake.

Kol's mouth hung open while he followed her gaze. He looked down at his arm, seeing Charlotte's hand wrapped around it. She could see the profile of his face as that expression morphed into a clenched eyes and jaw. A condemning grimace passed through him. It seemed to pain him and he had no retort. He didn't dare look Charlotte in the eyes and he didn't say anything to his sister.

Rebekah was sure that Charlotte had gone stiller and paler than many statues she had admired before.

"And that's why you're going to take this stake," Rebekah choose then to continue. She turned the stake around to offer the blunt end out to Kol. "Hide it, destroy it if you can, but I don't ever want to see it again. We'll find another way to get rid of Mikael," She said stubbornly.

Kol looked to her and despite the hard locked features, she thought there was a gloss to his eyes. Or maybe it was just the blur of her own tears in her eyes.

"When the day comes it safe again, I'll find you," Rebekah promised him. "But until then, run. Go live, Kol. And don't look back, ever."

She gave the stake an insistent shake for him to take it. He looked as if he had a million things he wanted to say. A million disagreements or balking. Hell, she would even take a condescending remark about her being too emotional and impulsive, but he said none of those things.

Hesitantly, he raised a hand towards the stake. There was a slight shake in his fingers before they wrapped around the wood and Rebekah let go of it.

"Not even once," She whispered and she knew that he understood.

He gave one resigned nod.