He didn't have any real plans. He just needed to take a walk to clear his head, if he had been home he probably would have ended up at the cemetery. Here he ended up on a busy street full of tourists and little shops.

He found a small cafe that smelled amazing and ordered dinner. He had just finished and was waiting for his server to come back when he nearly jumped out of his skin as a body appeared in the seat next to him. When he looked over, he choked on his food and his hand shot to his pocket for his phone. A cool hand wrapped around his wrist pulling his hand away from his pocket.

"A word first," the vampire said. He didn't sound threatening so Jeremy relaxed his hand. The cool hand around his wrist let go and the vampire sat back in his chair.

"How are you alive?" Jeremey asked. Then he thought it was a dumb question. He was learning that death didn't mean as much as it used to.

The man's eyes narrowed, "I could ask you the same."

"I've never-" he was about to say 'died' but he had just not recently or anytime the vampire should know about. Then it clicked. He was human, giving the last time they were in the same building had been a couple hundred years ago, Mikael's confusion made since.

"Time travel." Jeremy explained. The Original gave him a confused look. He sighed, "It was a spell. I was sent back in time." He expected disbelief, maybe a comment or two about lying but Mikael seemed to think about it for a second and then accept it.

"You are here with my sons." He said changing the subject. Jeremy's body tensed.

"They are in danger," the man said, then he started to stand. Some reckless part of Jeremy's brain kicked in and he reached out and grabbed the man's arm.

"You hate them?" He said even though he knew it sounded like a question.

"I loathe what they have become." Mikael corrected him, eyes staring at Jeremy's hand on his arm. Jeremy thought about removing it, but he wasn't done talking yet.

"You want them dead. Why do you care if they are in danger?" He said. Mikael looked up from his arm and met Jeremy's eyes.

"I find myself rethinking my beliefs." the vampire said.

"Jeremy?" Tyler's voice startled them both. Jeremy rushed to his feet putting himself between his friend and Mikael and without removing his hand.

"I don't understand," he said, not bothering to reply to Tyler.

"You needn't." The man growled. Pulling his arm away from Jeremy. "Just know, I am not their biggest concern." And then he was gone.

"Dammit!" Jeremy cursed loudly. He got a few weird looks from the people sitting close by and gave them an apologetic smile. Turning around he found Matt and Tyler staring at him.

"What?" He asked, just as his server came up. She gave him a weird look as she handed him his bill. He quickly passed her it back with a little extra as a tip. Then moved around her to his friends.

"That was Mikael." Matt said as they started to walk away.

"Yep." Jeremy said.

"What the hell, Jer." Matt said, turning to stop in front of him.

"I didn't know he was here." Jeremy defended himself. Only now realizing how bad it must look. Him sneaking out and them finding him talking to Mikael. "He just showed up while I was eating."

"You have got to stop sneaking off." Tyler said with a chuckle. Matt shot him a glare which Tyler returned clearly unimpressed.

"Can we just go back?" Jeremy asked.

Both his friends sighed. "Are you going to tell them?" Matt asked as they continued their walk.

"I have too." He said.

"I'm thinking Matt, Care, Ric. Will, and I should go out tonight." Tyler said. Jeremy frowned at him.

Which made the hybrid laugh. "Dude, they are already freaking out about your new abilities, then you disappear on them, knowing how much they hate it. Now you are going to walk in and tell them their dad is back. Trust me, I don't want to be around for this conversation." Jeremy groaned.

Thankfully Matt and Tyler had driven, so they didn't have to walk back. Though it gave Jeremy less time then he would have liked to think about what he was going to say. In the end he had to agree with Tyler. Having the house to themselves might make the conversation easier. He told his friend that as they pulled in.

There was no real game plan when the three of them entered the house. Jeremy was nervous as hell, not because his boyfriends were upset with him but because they already had one enemy in town and he hated the idea of telling them about their father. The history there was bad and he didn't like bringing it up.

Matt and Tyler left him at the door. Both moving away to get the others so they could get them out of the house. Jeremy wandered into the kitchen. It was empty and he leaned against the counter and closed his eyes.

He wasn't there long when he felt someone walk up to him and wrapped their arms around him and pulled him against their chest. He took a deep breath, Elijah. He recognized the vampire's smell, a light cologne that Jeremy didn't know the name of.

"Want to tell me what's wrong?" The Original asked.

Jeremy shook his head against the chest. There was a chuckle close by that sounded like Kol.

He sighed.

"Are the others still here?" He asked, not moving his head away. It might have sounded muffled but he knew they could still hear him.

"Just left." Kol said. "You kick them out?"

Jeremy snorted, "Nope. Tyler's idea."

"And why would Tyler want to leave only us four home?" Klaus asked.

Again Jeremy sighed, because he couldn't put it off anymore. The house was empty and all three of his boyfriends were in the same room with him. He lifted his head away from Elijah and then pushed gently at the man's shoulders. Elijah took a step back and Jeremy grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the kitchen. No doubt the others would follow.

Somehow they all ended up in Klaus's bedroom again. He dropped down on the edge of the bed, looking at the ground. The bed dipped on both sides of him and a chair was dragged in front of him. By the shoes he knew Elijah had taken that seat while Klaus and Kol sat at his sides.

"You're father's alive." He said, still not looking up. He heard Elijah gasped, while Kol and Klaus both growled.

"How?" Kol demanded from his right. Jeremy shrugged and mumbled, " I don't know."

"How do you know he is alive?" Elijah asked, "and where were you?" There was a suspicious tone to the original's voice that caused Jeremy to swallow.

"I needed to clear my head," he said, "I just wanted to walk around, maybe get something to eat. I found a cafe and everything was okay, until Mikael sat down next to me." All three growled and he smiled.

"He didn't threaten me," he finally looked up and met Elijah's gaze, "in fact he warned me. Told me you guys were in danger."

Kol snorted and mumbled a sarcastic, "Right."

"That's what I thought too," Jeremy said turning to look at him, "but he said he was rethinking things and that right now, he wasn't your biggest concern. Add that to the cryptic warning I got from a stranger while shopping," he took a breath, "I think I believe him."

"What warning from what stranger?" Klaus asked with a growl in his voice.

Jeremy winced. "When we were shopping, a woman told me things weren't how they appeared and that we needed to dig deeper." He took a second to look at all three, "I'm sorry, I should have said something, but with the fight I kinda forgot." Kol and Elijah let out a groan, when Klaus pulled him against him.

"Sorry." he muttered again. The room fell silent and Jeremy closed his eyes as he rested against Klaus's side.

Elijah POV

He knew his brothers wanted to talk about it, but when he held his hand up they remained quiet. He looked down at Jeremy, who was slowly drifting off against Klaus and let his mind wander over the new information.

The stranger warning Jeremy was probably a witch, which side she was on was unclear. She could be one of Vicent's trying to warn the hunter or one of Evie's trying to stir up trouble. It didn't matter, they had already planned on digging deeper into the witch Evie and the war in the city so all her warning did was make the three of them hold Jeremy closer. She had gotten too close to him, and he knew from the way Klaus and Kol sat as close as possible to their lover that it worried them.

As for their father, he sighed, it shouldn't have been a surprise, the man was alive. Not with Finn, Lexi, Anna, and Jeremy's aunt all coming back. What caused his stomach to sink was the thought that if their father was back, what about their mother?

A not so sane witch with a vendetta against them, one that even their father was worried about. She definitely fit the description, he really hoped he was wrong. Their mother had made them. She was powerful and knew all their weaknesses. She had almost seceded once at killing them, and he didn't want to give her another chance.

Taking a second he focused his hearing on Jeremy, their lover's heartbeat was slow and steady. Meaning he was asleep. He looked up at Klaus who with the help of Kol shifted Jeremy onto the bed and up towards the pillows. After tossing a blanket over him, they all left the room. He was surprised as his brothers followed him out of the house and away from the hearing range of the others in the house.

When they were far enough away it was Klaus that spoke first, "Mother." and with a single word, Elijah knew that all had the same thought.

"Has to be." Kol said, leaning against a nearby tree.

"What do you think of father's warning?" He asked Klaus, ignoring Kol's scoff.

His brother seemed to think about it. "It could be genuine. I believe he hates her more than he hates me. If he felt she was the biggest concern, it's possible he would work with others to get rid of her."

"Even us?" he asked, not sure how he felt about it.

"Possibly." his brother said.

"You can't be serious!" Kol snapped moving away from his tree to stand next to them. "You two are seriously considering working with him?" Kol sneered and then shouted, "He hunted us! Tried to kill us! All of us! What's to say he isn't working with mother now? Trying to finish what they both have been trying to achieve for centuries?"

Elijah understood his brother's anger and took a step forward, placing his hand on Kol's shoulder, "We are just going over options." His brother glared at him but closed his mouth.

He stepped back and looked at the both of them, "I'm more worried about Jeremy." He almost chuckled when his brothers both raised an eyebrow at him. "The woman in the store and father both sought him out. Not us, not the others, him. And they waited until he was alone."

"Which means we are being watched." Kol pointed out.

"Or at least he is." Klaus finished with a growl.

"Exactly." He agreed, "It also means they think he is either the weak link or-"

"They know he is important to us." Kol hissed out angrily, before he turned around and punched a tree. The crack echoed around them and Elijah sighed. His brothers both had such a temper and while they had gotten better at controlling it recently, he wasn't sure they would be able to control it if Jeremy was in danger.

"He needs to stop sneaking out," Klaus sai sounded frustrated

"Not likely." Kol snapped as he walked over his bleeding hand slowly healing. "He does it when he needs space. He won't stop now, especially with everything that's happening." Elijah flinched when Kol looked pointedly at Klaus. Who growled.

"Enough!" he snapped at the two of them. "We will have to find a way to make sure he stops. At least for now."

Kol looked at him and smirked, "You really think that's possible? Jer is stubborn and he knows he can take care of himself. With his new gifts, he will be even more sure. Telling him we want him to stay home or at our sides will not go over well." Elijah unfortunately agreed. And from the nod of Klaus's head so did he,

"I don't know-" He stopped, his mind racing over images from the past. A time that normally he fought against remembering. None of them really talked about what had happened when Kol and Jeremy had been stuck in the past, each keeping their own experiences to themselves. Out of the need for privacy or to protect Jeremy. At least Elijah had kept one secret from his brother's to protect Jeremy.

Compulsion.

Jeremy had never brought it up, not in the present. At least not to him, and Elijah had figured he didn't want anyone else to know. Hell, Elijah wasn't even sure it would work, not here in the present, and as guilty as it made him feel, he hoped it would. It gave him and his brothers a way to protect Jeremy even if their lover didn't like it.

He looked over at Kol. The only other person who might know. His brother had never mentioned it to him, but Elijah remembered the compelled kiss from the past, the one that had confused the hell out Jeremy. Did Kol remember it? Or were his memories not the same as Klaus's or his own. After all, Kol would have two sets of memories, wouldn't he? Maybe it was hard for him to pinpoint certain memories or perhaps he just didn't think about it?

"Elijah," Klaus said, pulling him from his thoughts, "You have a plan." He shook his head but his younger brother just glared at him, "I know you, and your face says you have a plan. Though it's not one you like."

"What is it?" Kol asked.

He hated what he was about to do, he really did. But the desire to protect Jeremy out weighed any guilt he had about revealing this weakness, after all he knew Kol and Klaus wouldn't use it to hurt their lover.

"Compulsion." He whispered, meeting Kol's eyes. His youngest brother's eyes went wide and it seemed Kol did remember the past.

"I forgot." Kol muttered and then he swore, "He'd never forgive us."

"Want to explain it to me?" Klaus snapped.

Thankfully it was Kol that explained, saving Elijah from having too.

"In the past," his brother ran a hand through his hair, "whatever magic that tied us all together, it allowed me and Elijah to compel Jeremy, despite him being a hunter." His brother growled and stepped towards Kol.

"Easy Nik, all I did was compelled a kiss out of him, to see if it would work." Elijah did not flinch when Klaus's yellow eyes landed on him, clearly waiting for his explanation.

"I was trying to figure out who he was and what he wanted with our family," he explained, "and later, I had to compel him to leave with us instead of waiting for Kol. I've never used it against him since." He felt relieved when his brother's eyes returned to their normal blue. It seemed the wolf inside his brother was going to be even more protective than Klaus already was.

"Kol's right, he'd never forgive us." Klaus said after a second.

"Are we even sure it will work still?" Kol asked.

"I don't know," he answered, "but he still wears the vervain bracelet Elena gave him. So before we could even test to see if he could be compelled. We have to get rid of the bracelet."

"It's just us, correct?" Klaus asked, looking at him with worry in his eyes. Elijah thought about it. They had never tested it. He had always assumed that it was the connection and spells that had allowed him and Kol to compel Jeremy. But what if the spells had damaged whatever magic that allows hunters to remain protected?

"Hell," he muttered, "I do not know."