A/N: Can I just start by saying I am OVERWHELMED by the amount of love and support that came in for the last chapter! I was so worried about being late by two days with the update... mostly because it was one of the toughest and most hard-hitting chapters I've had to edit so far. But the way you guys responded to it just made me think: damn, that was totally worth putting in that extra time. I read each and every review and responded to the ones I could; to my darling guest reviewers, I see you and appreciate you even if I can't reply directly!

I was especially happy to see other people in the fandom who respect all characters for who they are - I'm talking about Camille, Klaus & Caroline. It gives me hope that together as fans of the show we can take steps towards diluting some of the toxicity in the fandom out there.

I'm glad some of the readers brought up the whole aspect of whether Klaus' blood can actually heal wolf bites since he's not an 'Original' Hybrid anymore. Good one! Guess we'll find out this chapter so why don't y'all get right to it ;)

Disclaimer: I am not the creator of the TVDverse. Seriously.

20

Work hard, Play hard

Klaus gave Caroline a quick run-through of what he had learned from the dream while she shifted to her chair that she had pulled to his bed-side; she raptly listened as she slowly drank from the tea cup filled with his blood.

It was only when he was done narrating his story that Klaus noticed Caroline was being uncharacteristically quiet and saw that she was now leaning back in the chair in with her arms down and eyes shut. He wondered when was the last time she got any sleep since she was spending all her nights with him and her days out in the city.

He gingerly sat up and extended his hand to reach out and touch her cheek. "Sweetheart?"

He frowned; she seemed to be burning up and her face was moist with sweat. Caroline stirred slightly.

"Klaus?"

"Yes, love?"

"Why am I not healing?"

Klaus' eyes widened as he gently took Caroline's hands and turned them over to look at the deep scratch marks he had left across her arms. She was right; the wounds didn't seem to be mending… if anything it looked like it was getting worse.

Klaus groaned in frustration; Caroline's lack of healing had confirmed what he had suspected since Rebekah had brought it up the first night he had spent turning; he had denied it then but now he was sure.

He was no longer an Original. He was simply a werewolf-vampire Hybrid.

Oddly, the former realization didn't bother him too much… at least not as much as the latter did. If he needed yet another reason to feel like an outsider in his family, that would probably be it.

On that thought he was suddenly hit by an image of Elijah earnestly assuring him that he was still a part of the family, his brother, and whether he was an Original or not didn't matter.

He really missed his brother.

Just then, Caroline whimpered and Klaus turned to grab his phone off the bed-side table to make a call.

"Rebekah? I need you to get me that spare vial of Hope's blood we'd kept for emergencies."

Later that morning, Klaus and the rest of the family sat around the table in the dining room as he told them what he had learned from Mary-Alice. Caroline had rushed out after healing completely from drinking Hope's blood, having decided not to stick around for breakfast citing work related to her daughters.

Klaus would have been lying to himself if he thought he was unaffected by her eagerness to leave; he simply chose instead to be grateful for the time he did get to spend with her as friends. Besides, it was completely understandable that Caroline was just worried about her children.

"This is good," Freya said. "Things are finally starting to make sense."

"Are we really going to trust that damned witch from Nik's dream?" Rebekah looked surprised. "How do we know it was even real and not just, I don't know, a dream?"

"Don't speak ill of a Claire witch Rebekah," Kol's voice rang out on speaker from her phone. "They're definitely smarter than you. But then again I can say that anyone with a brain is smarter than –"

"Kol, you do realize I can just hang up and get you to shut your –"

"Enough!" Klaus barked impatiently at his siblings, his fist banging on the table. "I agree with Freya. As much as I prefer not to trust her, it's the only plausible explanation for what I'm going through. I do however, need a Claire witch to perform the spell that gets the remains of the Hollow out of me. He turned to the phone screen with a forced smile. "Kol? Care to make yourself useful?"

"I'm sorry, Brother." Kol responded in a sincere voice that took Klaus by surprise. "There's absolutely no way that Davina will do anything for you. Even with my marvelous convincing skills –"

"I don't doubt you there, Kol; you did manage to convince Davina to marry you," Rebekah remarked and Klaus couldn't help the amused smile on his face from his brother sounding like himself again after barely two seconds of seriousness.

"My point is, there's no chance that Davina – yes, my WIFE – will agree to it," Kol stuck his tongue out on the screen, looking straight at Rebekah. "She left everything she went through in that city behind her and has no interest in getting sucked back into all of that."

"It's fine." Freya spoke up, gently putting a comforting arm on Klaus' shoulder. "I can do it, Brother. As soon as you're completely un-sired, I can start to prepare with some –"

"Okay, hold on." Keelin stared at her wife from across the table. "Freya, you're seven months pregnant. It's not safe for you or our baby."

"I'll be fine, Keelin," Freya reached out and squeezed her hand. "We will be fine. I'm strong enough…"

"Keelin's right," Klaus interrupted, turning to face his sister. "I can't ask you to do this, Freya. We'll find someone else. If anything happens to your child…"

"I'm fine, Niklaus," Freya insisted. "I can't explain it but I have a really good feeling about being able to do this."

"I don't like this," Keelin frowned. Freya looked at her apologetically.

"It will be fine, Keelin. I promise. Besides, I have nothing to worry about since you will be by my side the entire time. I'll channel you for energy when doing the spell so there's less pressure on me." Freya smiled. "Now do you feel better?" Keelin sighed in resignation.

"I trust you, Freya. But are you sure about this?" Freya nodded reassuringly at her wife.

"That's not our only problem," Marcel spoke up, "Is no one worried about what is going to happen to the expelled magic?" He turned to look straight at Klaus. "Don't you remember the last time the Hollow magic just possessed me and you like it was nothing?"

"If Mary-Alice was confident about anything it was this – that the amount of Hollow magic in me is too weak to be capable of anything of that sort," Klaus asserted.

"And yet it is capable of giving you nightmares that make you tear your skin out," Marcel said pointedly. "Klaus, there's a lot we don't understand here. Are you sure you want to go through with this? And what about Hope, you plan on telling her? What if the magic somehow finds its way back to her?"

"Hope doesn't need to know about any of this," Klaus said through gritted teeth. Marcel shook his head at him.

"Are you really going to start keeping secrets from your daughter? Because that's a slippery slope to go down and we all know how she responds to you hiding things from her."

"If keeping her in the dark until I get this thing out of me is what I have to do in order to spare her unnecessary worry and to keep her safe, I'll do it." Klaus glared at him.

"Klaus is right," Freya agreed. "We all know Hope is not one to stay away when she knows her family is in trouble, she'll willingly put her life on the line to save the ones she loves."

"Regardless, she's a smart kid. She deserves the truth!" argued Marcel.

"Just like you thought she deserved to know about the St. James incident when I specifically told you not to tell her about it?"

"What? I didn't –"

"Marcel, you of all people should know I don't like being caught unawares, much less when it comes to my daughter. So imagine my surprise when she began to question me about who really killed those wolves that night."

"You and I had agreed not to tell her about it Klaus, and I didn't." Marcel glared at him.

"How convenient, considering Hope refrained from mentioning her source," Klaus growled back.

"Can everyone just calm down?" Rebekah stood up looking between her brother and her lover. "Let's keep this debate on hold for now and just deal with the important things first – Nik, you need to focus on getting un-sired. Freya, you need to get your hands on that spell and we'll all help. Depending on where we stand by the weekend, we'll decide whether Hope needs to know or not. Are we done here?" Klaus raised his eyebrows.

"For once, I agree with Rebekah," he smirked, ducking his head as she picked up a beignet and tossed it right at him.

"Landon!"

The curly haired teenager looked up from a table he was wiping down to see Hope looking at him from the entrance of the Mystic Grill. He waved and walked up to her.

"Hey, Hope. Can I get you your usual?" he asked with a friendly smile.

"Actually, I was wondering if you know where Jake is."

After a string of unanswered texts, Hope actually began to worry and decided she needed to find him to make sure he was okay. Doing a locator spell was pointless without any of his belongings to use – she had attempted it on a whim using the birthday gift he had gotten her and it ended up pointing back at her.

So Hope decided to go with a good old-fashioned search and the Mystic Grill seemed like the best place to start.

"Oh. He had actually taken a couple of days off but he's come in today. I should know, sometimes I have to deal with an earful when people in the kitchen are overwhelmed, you know?" He was about to continue with his tangent when he saw Hope's confused face. "Err, he's almost done with his shift anyway so you can wait here. I've got to get back to work."

Hope's eyes widened. "Wait… so he's here? Right now?"

"Yeah. In fact, he should be coming out soon so there's no way you can miss him." Hope scoffed and as if on cue, Jake stepped out of the kitchen looking as grumpy as ever.

"Lan, I'm heading out, I –" He stopped when he saw the very angry looking girl standing next to his friend Landon.

"Hope."

Klaus stood at his balcony gazing at the early evening crowd spilling on to the streets, taking a quiet moment alone to think. So lost was he in his thoughts that he didn't realize that someone had entered his room until they came and stood next to him. He turned to see Freya smiling at him.

"Are you okay, Brother?" she asked, gently squeezing his shoulder.

"I thought I was done with the Hollow once and for all," Klaus shook his head in frustration. "As much as I hate to admit, Marcel's right. We can't just do a spell and assume the magic is gone, hoping that it doesn't come back to haunt us one day. It could target Hope. Or any of you. Even your child."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," Freya said, shrugging. "There's some good news; Kol just sent us copies of the pages for the spell we need to do." Klaus looked at her, surprised.

"What?"

"Davina isn't going to help us but Kol was able to convince her to at least share the particular Claire witch spell we need out of her Grimoire and she agreed. So that's a start."

"Looks like Kol managed to prove his worth after all. He always was a sneaky one, the bastard."

"So, as soon as you're un-sired, I'll be able to do the spell on you," Freya confirmed, idly rubbing her belly. Klaus frowned.

"Sister…" he started, "I was serious about getting another witch to do this, you know. I can't have you and your child standing in the line of fire for me…"

"Brother, I have to do it," Freya insisted. "You don't understand… and honestly I can't explain it either. Keelin was worried that all the magic I'm doing will weaken the child I'm carrying but the truth is, I feel like the magic inside me has never been more powerful. It's like… he makes me stronger." Klaus smiled and tilted his head at her.

"Well, between you and me, you're the only one I trust to do this right anyway." Freya snorted, giving him a look that said 'obviously'. Klaus' eyes shifted back to the street view and he gripped the railings, a grimace forming on his face. "You know this would have been so much easier if I could just go and drag that wretched witch back here and torture her into doing the spell for us."

"But you're not that man anymore, Brother," Freya said softly.

Klaus merely grunted in response.

"There is one thing, though. I think…" Freya hesitated and Klaus raised an eyebrow at her. "… I think this particular spell might work best if we combine my magic with that of a certain kind of witch." Klaus frowned at his sister questioningly for a moment before his expression slowly changed to one of understanding.

"You want Siphoners."

"Think about it… part of this spell involves extracting the Hollow from your body and frankly, your idea to use the Saltzman twins to remove the magic out of Hope back then was quite inspired." Freya watched her brother carefully. "Is there any way you'd be able to convince Caroline to let her children do this again?" Klaus sighed, shaking his head.

"I highly doubt it. And even if I did…" Klaus pursed his lips. "There's no way Alaric Saltzman is going to allow his daughters to be at the service of the Mikaelsons again."

Jake's eyes widened on seeing Hope but his look of surprise barely lasted a second before it went back to his default expression of indifference. Hope continued to glare at him and Landon cleared his throat, laughing awkwardly.

"Okay so I'm just gonna…" He shuffled off to the kitchen before elaborating any further, leaving the two of them to continue their staring contest. Hope nodded at an empty table nearby and they slid into the seats across each other, not breaking eye contact. Hope had her arms crossed in front of her chest and spoke up first.

"Guess you're not dead," she scowled at him. He scoffed.

"Why do you even care?" He shrugged at her and Hope frowned.

"Why? Because that's what friends do. They care, they reply to texts so others don't worry. They call and they certainly don't leave cryptic messages giving bad news and disappear for two days with no –"

"What do you want me to say hope? My phone was dead? I had personal problems? Whatever makes you feel better you can take your pick and believe it because I don't want to talk about it."

"What is wrong with you? I thought you'd moved on from being the monosyllabic chauffeur who doesn't seem to care about anything. Guess I was mistaken thinking we were actually becoming friends."

"That was before your father decided to go about killing our kind in the Quarter."

"OH no… YOU don't get to be mad about that. My father simply stepped out of the house for the first time since he got back. You were the only one who knew where he was and all of a sudden this crazy bunch of wolves shows up ready to kill him!" Jake started to argue and stopped, raising an eyebrow.

"Wait, you think I did this?"

"What else was I supposed to think?"

"I don't know! That I was worried about you? That you might be concerned for your father's safety?"

"You just accused him of killing those werewolves that night!"

"And you accused ME! How do you expect me to give your father the benefit of the doubt when you don't think I deserve to be extended the same courtesy?"

"I did give you the benefit of the doubt! I was ready to talk to you and you just VANISHED! You still haven't given an explanation for that by the way…"

"I told you I don't want to talk about it." Hope shook her head at him and stood up from the table.

"Fine," Hope spat. "At least now I know I don't have to waste my time worrying about you anymore. Clearly, we aren't friends." She stomped away from him and out the door, not seeing Jake's shoulders slump in resignation at her words.

Caroline entered her hotel room and slammed the door behind her, exhausted after another long day in the Quarter, running on barely any sleep. As a vampire sleep wasn't as much a necessity as it was for a human but it was still essential.

She hadn't fed in a long time either, the last time was when Klaus had offered her his blood – followed by a shot of Hope's – but she needed nourishment. Caroline had always thought of the blood of an Original Hybrid as decadent, more comparable to chocolate cake than a proper balanced meal.

Except Klaus wasn't even an Original anymore, at least not physically. The look of gloom that had crossed his face when he realized his blood couldn't heal her anymore wasn't something that Caroline missed even in her feverish state. It was a surreal moment considering it was that very unique aspect of his blood that had brought them together in a way all those years ago. What made it stranger was the sense of loss that she felt; Caroline promptly attributed it to being an unfortunate side-effect of her mind being hazy from the Hybrid venom.

She opened her fridge and grabbed a blood bag. Popping the cap off, she drank straight out of it, immediately feeling all her energy coming back.

Having satiated her hunger, she got into the shower. The steady gush of water droplets relaxed her body and she scrubbed her hair as she mulled over everything that she had learned over the past couple of days upon meeting the few witches that Sylvia had referred her to.

"…Should one find a way to expel the very dark magic every Gemini is burdened with or bond them remotely and clear of the hosts…" Caroline read the line from the passage. "What does that even mean?"

Agatha, a witch who owned a flower shop in the French Quarter – and was also a supplier for herbs required for practicing witches – looked at the sheet on which Caroline had scribbled the line from the journal entry.

"If I'm interpreting it correctly," she said thoughtfully, "it might just be possible to nullify the deadly side effects of the merge if you figure out a way to get the dark curse out of their system and merge them externally."

Caroline let the now lukewarm shower water wash the soap suds off her smooth shoulders. Agatha had given her another important piece of information. Her interpretation was that they had to basically find a way to remove the dark magic in her girls and recreate the Merge outside their body.

Caroline didn't need to guess if that was much less simpler than it sounded; it most definitely was. And that was what she had discussed with Sylvia's other contact, an old man named Pierre who used to have distant connections to the Gemini coven and now spent most of his days reading in the Square.

"You may be right, ma fille," Pierre said when she told him about Agatha's theory. "But this Gemini magic, it is one that is, what do you say… parasitaire."

"A parasite?" Caroline frowned. "I guess that makes sense…if you're planning to curse someone you might as well design it to make sure it stays in the person, right?"

"Oui, that is the problem," he said shaking his head at her. "It is very strong magic and difficult to remove. If you manage to get it out you need to destroy it immediately…it will not go long without a body to latch onto. Easiest way to destroy otherwise is the host itself." Caroline stared at him.

"Wait a second… what are you saying?"

"If you want to get rid of the curse, you have to remove and then merge both of the twins' magic in another body. And only the death of that person would destroy it. Kill the host, kill the parasite."

Caroline squeezed the last bit of dripping water from the ends of her short hair and wrapped a towel around her body. She stood in front of the bathroom mirror, wiping the foggy surface that now reflected the anxiety in her eyes.

Finding a way to extract the curse out of her daughters was one thing. Merging them and then placing them in another body… And who would that even be? Was she supposed to find someone who wanted to die?

No. Just because her world had gotten grey when it came to killing, it didn't turn her into someone who didn't value life. She wouldn't sentence someone to death, willing or not, even if it meant saving the lives of her daughters. And that's when the small voice that had been whispering to her all this suddenly made itself heard.

What if you let your body be the host…

She shivered, which was a strange sensation for a vampire to feel considering they weren't affected by extreme temperatures. But then again, it was an understandable reaction to the very real possibility that she might have to die in order to save her children.

It would be one death to end the curse once and for all. Her rational side argued.

Are you willing to rid your children of their mother in order to save them? Her emotional side asked.

One thing was clear… saving her daughters would come at the cost of one death, be it her or anyone else.

Caroline suddenly felt a surge of admiration towards Klaus for how he handled things when Hope had first consumed the Hollow.

A parent does whatever it takes to save their children.

She swallowed, nibbling her lower lip as she made a decision.

If it came down to it she would give herself up. But for now she decided to keep this information to herself.

Her somber thoughts were interrupted by the sound of her phone ringing. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself before stepping out of the bathroom to get to her phone she had left on the hotel room desk. She glanced at the caller ID and picked up, clearing her throat.

"Klaus?"

"Hello, love. You sound…refreshed."

"W-What? How did you –" Caroline stammered, suddenly acutely aware that she was practically naked and talking to Klaus, a situation she did not see herself being in... again. "Please tell me your Hybrid hearing did not actually catch the sounds of water dripping from the showerhead in the bathroom!" Klaus didn't respond for a few seconds.

"So you did just step out of the shower?" Caroline scoffed; she could have sworn she could hear a smirk in his voice.

"Yes. And before you ask, I'm fully clothed." Klaus chuckled.

"No, you're not."

"What! There's no way –"

"You're speaking in your naked voice," Klaus said simply.

"I do NOT have a naked voice!"

"Yes, you do. Trust me, it's not something I can forget easily, Caroline. It's beautiful, sexy, alluring…"

"If you think this is some new way of complimenting me or making me feel good or thanking me for helping you out –"

"Am I making you feel good?"

"KLAUS!" Caroline was fuming and she heard an amused snort from Klaus on the other end.

"I'm just teasing, love," Klaus laughed and before he could say anything more Caroline burst into a bout of giggles herself; it was a welcome relief from all the anxiety she had been experiencing only minutes earlier. "Truth be told, Caroline," Klaus spoke as their laughter slowly died down, "The reason I called you is somewhat serious. I need to ask you for a favor."

"Erm, okay?"

Caroline listened silently as Klaus told her about everything he and his family had discussed in the morning. He told her about the Claire witch spell they had obtained from Davina to get the Hollow out of him. He also told her about the aspects of Freya performing the spell on him.

"I hate to have to ask," Klaus said finally. "But I was hoping the support of your daughters with the spell." Caroline huffed and ran her fingers through her damp hair.

"Klaus, you can't be serious. You can't just avail the services of my children as you please, there has to be another way to do it."

And I currently have bigger problems to deal with regarding them.

"Of course there's another way to do it without them. This is just a request; if your girls can assist with the spell it will be much simpler for Freya to carry out."

"Klaus, you said it yourself, you need to be completely un-sired before even attempting this spell," Caroline pointed out in a firm voice. "You're asking for my girls to come home this weekend to do this and that's like, a day away! Let's be realistic here; at the rate you're going there's no chance of the sire bond being broken within that time! I think you need to worry about getting that off your plate before even asking me to let my girls be any part of this."

"So if I manage to break the sire bond before the weekend, you'll allow your girls to do this?"

"You're not going to be ready by this weekend and you shouldn't be aiming to either! You're already stretched thin as it is with the Hollow slowing down your healing process."

"I'll take that as a challenge," he muttered and Caroline groaned at his stubbornness.

"Klaus… after months of being human, I'm sure being a Hybrid makes you feel invincible but there's only so much your body can take and we don't even know the extent of the Hollow's effect on you," she spoke as gently as she could so he would pay attention. "You really shouldn't be pushing yourself this much! What if my girls do this and you not being at optimum strength makes the spell go wrong? Your impatience and recklessness could be what puts them in a possibly harmful situation."

"Do you really think I would do anything that endangers the lives of your girls?" Caroline knew that if Klaus was standing in front of her right now, his deep blue eyes would have been boring into hers. She sighed.

"I think you should just concentrate on getting stronger for now," she said wearily. "In the mean time we will figure out another way to get the magic out of you, something that doesn't involve my girls."

"So you're saying you won't help me?" Klaus voice had turned flat. Caroline bit her lower lip, catching the hint of hurt in his voice.

"I'm saying…" she said softly, "…we'll find another way…together."

Klaus didn't respond immediately. "Fine," he said shortly.

"Okay," said Caroline, relieved that part of the conversation was somewhat done now. "So I'll drop by in a couple of hours for watch duty when you're done with –"

"Don't come in tonight." Caroline couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Seriously?" she pressed her lips together, annoyed. "Klaus, are you going to sulk about this?"

"I'm simply in no mood for company. I'll get Rebekah or Marcel to watch me today."

Caroline shook her head. He might as well have specified her company. She couldn't help but feel slightly disheartened at the way he said it to her though, unlike the last time when she didn't care if he was too busy because she was in dire need of a prom dress.

"Okay, fine…" she said resignedly. "Just… don't stress yourself out too much, okay?"

He simply grunted curtly in response. Caroline's tongue flicked across her upper lip, trying to remain patient.

"So… not tonight. Are we still on for tomorrow night, then?" Caroline checked with him, hoping he could hear the smile in her voice.

"Why?" Klaus's response surprised her.

"Well, it's my last night in the city before I head back."

"No Caroline, why are you doing this? Why did you decide to spend your nights with me when you made it abundantly clear to me at the start how wrong it was?"

Caroline was silent for a moment before she admitted, "I told Freya I'd take the night shifts with you for as long as I'm here in town because I owe you for helping me out."

"I see. Is that all this is? Repayment for a favor? Guilt?" Klaus' voice had grown colder. "Well, allow me to close the account so you can go home scot-free without a care in the world."

"Ugh Klaus, what do you want me to say? That I'm actually worried about you? That I care whether you're doing okay or not? News flash, I do care! But don't worry, you only have to deal with me for one more day because after that I return to Mystic Falls and then you can finally fulfill your wish to not see me again! Well, that is until the next time you have a siphoning crisis on your hands that you'll need my daughters' help with!"

Klaus groaned. "Caroline –"

"Don't." Caroline squeezed her eyes shut as she took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Just… focus on getting un-sired right now and we'll work out the rest in due time, okay?"

Klaus took a moment to respond and Caroline hoped he understood that she had made up her mind about her daughters not being available to help.

"Alright."

She felt slightly bad about turning him down, but at the moment she had bigger issues at hand she needed to find solutions to.

"Goodnight, Klaus."

J: I'm sorry.

Hope blinked at her phone screen unable to believe what she was seeing. Jake had finally reached out to her after she had walked out on him at the Grill earlier. Before she could think about replying, his next text popped up.

J: It's stuff at home. Personal.

Hope's eyebrows furrowed as she typed out a response.

H: You could've just told me that.

J: I know.

The conversation lay stagnant after that with neither of them appearing to have anything more they could say to each other. Hope put her phone aside and began to get ready for bed when her phone pinged again.

J: I can explain everything. I'm driving you home this weekend so maybe we can catch up then?

Hope considered his suggestion for a moment before responding.

H: Maybe.

After a restless night of sleep, Caroline spent most of the next morning busy with research. She had a compilation of spell books she had collected over the past few months from various sources that she had been poring over for hours, looking for anything remotely related to transferring magic from one person to another.

The only time she took a break was when she called Ric to inform him of the latest discoveries she had made about the curse of the Merge. Maybe she conveniently left out the part about someone having to die but Caroline was not ready to entertain that possibility just yet and didn't want to let Ric know until she was.

One thing that was annoying her though was how Klaus seemed to cross her mind every now and then. She knew he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself and even if he was at a disadvantage of any kind he had his family around to help him.

But for some unknown and incredibly frustrating reason, not knowing if his night went okay weighed on her. She tried to ignore it but that only made her feel worse and that compounded with exasperation at being distracted by him eventually advanced into an overall infuriating guilt-fest.

She looked at the time; lunch could be a good excuse for a change of scenery and a breath of fresh air. She was starting to get sick of the smell of old grimoires and text books.

She grabbed her coat and stepped out to get a snack at a nearby café. Unfortunately as soon as her croissant came to her table and she was hit with the aroma of freshly baked bread, a memory of Klaus' offer to take her to Paris so many years ago flooded her mind and that was what finally did her in.

"Damn it, Klaus!" she grumbled to no one in particular. She fished her phone out of her bag and paused for a moment before dialing a number. It was picked up on the third ring.

"Caroline?"

"Hey, Freya." Caroline was starting to appreciate Freya as being a reliable person she could turn to in times of Klaus trouble. "I just called because…" Caroline just realized she hadn't really thought about what she wanted to say. "I was just worried because my last conversation with Klaus didn't really end on a solid note. I mean, he didn't seem to be in a great state of mind."

"Ah yes, that seems to be a trend with you two lately. He mentioned you weren't comfortable with your daughters helping us." It sounded bitter but something about the way Freya said it, Caroline knew it wasn't intentionally so.

"It's just… I didn't want to put my girls in that position again… I'm so sorry, Freya."

"Caroline, I understand. And trust me, Klaus understands too." Caroline smiled softly upon hearing that.

"How was last night for him? I'm hoping at least the nightmares have gone away since the witch managed to get the message through to him." Freya didn't respond immediately, which worried her. "Freya, what's wrong?"

"Caroline…" Freya hesitated again.

"What is it? Tell me!"

"Klaus… he never went to bed last night."

A/N: Uh oh, looks like Caroline had reason to worry after all! What do you think happened?

So I've got an announcement: since this story is written as my version of Season 6 of The Originals, in true TVDverse style, this chapter is officially my MID-SEASON FINALE! In terms of updates, this basically means there's going to be a short break - just a little time for me to catch up and completely flesh out and write ahead the rest of the story so I can post uninterrupted once I get back.

This mid-story break wasn't unplanned - my initial idea was to do it on the Camille cliffhanger but then I told myself I'm not that evil :P Besides Chapter 20 seemed like a nice even break. Moreover, my primary estimation for this fic was about 33 chaps but at the rate I'm delving into it I wouldn't be surprised if it hit 40 - essentially making this the actual halfway point in the story!

Also, honestly I didn't like not being able to update on time for you guys. Yet another reason for the mid-season break! There's a lot happening in the second half of the story as everything comes together and I want to make sure I do it justice for you all to have the best reading experience I can offer :)

That being said, what did you think of the chapter? Another eventful one I had fun writing!

I know I already decided on the break for now (I'm estimating up to a month, not more) but I might start sooner if I get a confident enough head start.

All I wish for is one thing: I hope you stick around for the second half :)

Until then, Follow this story so you know as soon as I update! And of course, spread the love to others who may enjoy the story too.

Cheers, T :)