Mystic Falls, 2013

DS*DS*DS

His neck hurt as he came back from the temporary death. Anger simmered in him as Damon recalled what happened to put him in this position. He shot out of his bed and stormed downstairs.

"Felicity!" He bellowed striding into a sitting room fuming and ready to demand an explanation. But the blonde he was looking for was nowhere in sight. Only residents of Mystic Falls were scattered around the room.

Stefan shot up from his crouched position in front of Elena. "She left."

"I see. What did you said to her?" Damon asked harshly his eyes narrowing, and his hands forming fists.

"Nothing. She left with Klaus." Bonnie piped in.

"What?! And you let him take her?" He turned to go out through the door. "If anything happens to her it's on you." Damon threatened the gang.

"Damon." Stefan stopped his brother with a hand on the shoulder. "She left with Klaus and Rebekah on her own free will. She was the one to suggest it. She- "Stefan paused not sure if or how to say it. "She is their sister."

Damon's eyes widened, before shadow of realization crossed his eyes. He tightened his fist even more for a second before he let it relax and sharply turned to go back upstairs.

"Damon -" Stefan shouted after him again.

"Not now, brother." Older Salvatore didn't look back as he strode away. And soon hard slam could be heard as he pushed his bedroom door closed. Nobody was brave or stupid enough to follow after him.

FS*FS*FS

Felicity slowly opened her heavy lidded eyes. Spell took a lot out of her. She barely remembered driving to her family's mansion last night, probably because she fell asleep in the car on their way there. She was too tired out to talk, so Rebekah just showed her to the empty room with available bed and gave her something to change into for a night.

Felicity was asleep before her head hit a pillow.

And now that she was finally awake and sun was shining through the windows, all she craved was a cup of strong coffee.

Still laying in the bed between fluffy pillows and soft covers blonde vampire listened to the sounds of the house. In the next room she heard rustling and soft, even breathing as Rebekah was still in dream kingdom. Somewhere deeper in the house she heard familiar sounds of brush covered in wet paint hitting canvas. Nik was letting out his frustrations through one of his favorite methods - painting.

Otherwise house was empty.

With effort Felicity left warm bed and went to look for the kitchen hoping to find some caffeinated goodness.

However her search was fruitless, because from the looks of the kitchen and the rest of the house, she glimpsed at on her way downstairs, nobody lived here for some time. Only thing she found in the fridge was few bags of blood Nik and Rebekah probably brought with them. Felicity scrunched her nose in mild disgust.

"It would have to do." She muttered. At least until she'll find fresh source.

That's how her siblings found her. Sitting on the kitchen counter sipping warmed up blood from the cup she found in one of the cupboards.

"Morning." She greeted other two Originals. "You've done with your brooding?"

"I don't brood."

"Yeah." Felicity said disbelievingly. The look Rebekah was giving him also indicated that she wasn't convinced by his denial.

"When is your flight back to New Orleans?" Felicity asked changing the topic.

"Tomorrow." Klaus said looking through the window. Felicity didn't know what he saw there. If it was up to her she would have never set foot on the ground what only brought pain to their family.

"Didn't find time yesterday to torture Katerina?" Felicity wiggled her eyebrows having a feeling what he did yesterday with one particular blonde. Slight blush on his cheeks confirmed it.

"I decided that she was not worthy of my presence at her death bed."

Felicity hummed noncommittally. "So what are you going to do today?"

"Pack up things we left behind, arrange furniture transportation."

"So you have all day planned. And speaking about packing, Bekah could I borrow something from your closet, cause my luggage still in my car which I parked in front of Mystic Grill, and I'm in desperate need of a cup of strong coffee."

Rebekah rolled her eyes at her sister's addiction to caffeine, for which she never got taste for, she much more preferred tea. "Help yourself. Just know that you own me a shopping trip." Rebekah yelled out last part because Felicity already flashed upstairs.

Not five minutes later Felicity skipped down the stairs dressed in powder blue linen shirtdress with slim gold colored belt and matching it with rose gold glittering heels.

"Okay, I'm leaving." She shouted towards the kitchen. "And Nik, I forgot to tell you that I have a plan to save Katerina. Talk later. Bye!"

Not waiting for response Felicity hurried out through the door and speed off in vampire speed toward the town, because as Kol told her once their family sucked at communicating.

CF*CF*CF

Morning after Katherine's supposed last day on this planet found Caroline Forbes sitting alone at the outside table of local coffee shop, her fingers absentmindedly playing with the necklace around her neck.

The necklace she found this morning hidden in the pocket of the jacket she wore yesterday. The necklace she often saw around the neck of Original hybrid. The necklace he left her was silver pendant in the shape of the triangle or maybe arrowhead on leather string, and it meant for her more than diamond bracelet he gave her for her eighteenth birthday. It was a memento to remind her of the afternoon when she was honest with herself and him of who and what she wanted. However hard she tried she didn't regret it in the light of the new day. And now she had a new problem - it was so much harder to push down her feeling and go back to the time when she would tell herself that she hated Klaus. Apparently now that the truth was out of the bag it was here to stay.

She was so deep in her thoughts that she was startled when a shadow fell over her. Blonde woman from yesterday was standing next to her table holding cup of coffee in one hand and a plate with two muffins in another.

"Hi! Caroline, right? Do you mind if I join? It's quite crowded and I would love to enjoy the sun. Where I live now it's a rare occurrence, it's very gloomy there. And when I noticed you I picked another muffin, I hope chocolate one is fine. And I'm babbling again. I will stop in 3 2 1."

Caroline looked at blonde with wide eyes and slightly agape mouth for a few seconds before she saw that other woman was still waiting for permission to join her.

"Oh, of course." Her inherent southern hospitality pushed her to act and baby vampire motioned to the chair on the opposite side of small table. Felicity deposited her coffee and a plate with two delicious looking muffins in the middle and gracefully took her seat.

She took one of the treats and pushed the plate with the other one towards Caroline.

"Thanks…" Younger woman trailed off, blushing slightly.

"Felicity." Woman offered with a friendly smile.

"Felicity Salvatore. Damon's wife?"

"Yes. And in full disclosure it's Felicity Mikaelson Salvatore. But I try to keep that quiet. Life tends to be a lot easier when people stop trying to kill you just because they want to be able to brag about killing original. And again anyone who tries to end me doesn't know that simple stake to the heart is not enough, so that is a plus too. Sorry I'm babbling again. You'd think after thousand years I'd be able to shake this habit off."

Caroline blinked few times and then started to laugh. Blonde original gave her inquiring look.

"Damon got hitched with Klaus' sister. Oh wow."

"Katherine had a similar reaction. But complications of my love life are not why I've come over."

Caroline straightened, her mind going wild trying to come up with all reasons why Original would want to talk to her.

"I wanted to talk about my brother. Nik seemed quite smitten with you. I haven't seen him like this in… very long time." Felicity raised her cup to her lips looking straight in Caroline's eyes

Caroline looked away, as blush was creeping up her face, warm feeling filling her insides. She wanted to say something, to deny that it had anything to do with her.

But as she looked up at Felicity, she was no longer pinning her with her stare. Instead she was looking across the street, but Caroline doubted Felicity saw the book store or flower shop there. Her mind was thousand miles away or maybe more accurately thousand years away. She saw similar look on Klaus' face few times, especially when he talked about the past. It was like he could actually see everything as it was before.

"As often as possible Nik would find the reason to come to my cabin. He would always volunteer to bring any messages from father or Esther. But it was not because he wanted to see me. No, it was because we… I lived farther away from the main settlement and to reach the cabin he had to walk through the forest where he would pick up everything what might make some kind of color. When he'd spend hours mixing up paints and trying them on every possible surface. I think my home was the most colorful place." Felicity said, small smile gracing her face. Caroline wondered where it was going. When after small pause Felicity looked at Caroline her face was deadly serious and her eyes shone with determination. "I want you to know that no matter how old or powerful Nik might be, for me he will always be my little brother who used to seek a safe place in my home. And I will always protect him. So try not to hurt him."

Caroline stared at other blonde wide eyed as she tried to stop the bubble of laughter rising to her treat. She never imagined, in the million years that she would be getting a shovel talk about Klaus. Everyone were always more concerned with her safety around hybrid not the other way around.

She didn't know how to answer.

Fortunately it seemed that Felicity wasn't waiting for it. She checked her phone and with the last gulp from her cup risen from the table.

"I was nice meeting you Caroline. I hope it wasn't the last time." It sounded sincere. "And a piece of advice, if I may. Get as far away from this place as soon as you can, while you can. Mystic Falls attracts trouble and death it always did."

With those ominous words Felicity walked away.