The Wolf

by yokan87

When Caroline wakes up shackled, powerless and very far away from Mystic Falls, she knows she's in serious trouble. But when a woman named Sophie Deveraux reveals the reason why she's been kidnapped and taken to New Orleans, she realizes things are far worse than she could've ever imagined. [It's The Originals Season 1, but Caroline is a witch and she's pregnant with Klaus' child.]

2. S01E02: House of the Rising Sun

A/N: Just a small note on some liberties I've taken with the story. There are times in the TVD-verse where vampires and werewolves can identify a vampire/werewolf right away, and then sometimes they can't. Well, I just decided that they always can and that this is part of their natures as natural enemies. Wolves and vamps can sense each other. Neither can sense a witch right away (except if they are really old and therefore much more experienced/powerful) because witches are nature's keepers and nature doesn't want to screw with them. I'm not sure if this is a thing. If it is, great! But if it isn't, it is now.

Thank you so much to coveredinthecolors for helping me make this chapter better and giving me her honest opinions and commentary and also for listening to me whining about my fanfiction and not telling me to shut up.

As always, I ask that you have in mind that English is not my first language. Sorry for any mistakes you might find. All my warnings from chapter 1 still stand. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

---

Life at the plantation house is calm. Almost too calm.

Elijah wasn't exaggerating when he said he'd found a place where Caroline would have peace and quiet. The only problem might be that peace and quiet is all she has.

After highly stressful days at the hands of the witches and the emotional distress and uncertainty that followed Klaus' arrival, the quietness is a welcome reprieve from all the madness. She appreciated the space she was given. But having nothing to do and no one to talk to in the middle of freaking nowhere, considering her very unique situation, gets old pretty fast.

Turns out - who would've guessed? -, too much peace and quiet can be just as trying as being held captive by a bunch of crazy witches.

In fact — a week into her retreat and Caroline almost misses Sophie Deveraux. At least she gave Caroline something to focus on other than morning sickness and the complete downfall of her life.

The worst part, however, is Elijah.

Caroline bought his whole grand speech about honor and family. She believed him when he said he was going to be there for her. She was in such a vulnerable place, so confused and lost, that Elijah's excitement and hopefulness felt like a light at the end of the tunnel, and she held on to it without taking under consideration the very fundamental fact that he is still a Mikaelson and, as such, selfishness and betrayal are in his DNA.

Not a day after they moved in, Elijah simply disappeared. No notes, no phone calls, no nothing. Just vanished out of thin air, like he'd never promised to stick around. I will always protect you. Both of you. You have my word.

Yeah, right. Some word.

And like Caroline doesn't already have enough reason to be grumpy all the time, with Elijah gone, Klaus becomes her only company, however sporadic.

She never knows when she's going to see him. Sometimes he's there when she wakes up, skulking about the house; sometimes he's already gone when she gets up. Most days she doesn't even see when he returns. And he obviously never bothers telling her what he's up to, where he's going or how long he'll be gone for, or even if he's coming back at all. Caroline doesn't know what annoys her the most; the fact he hasn't even tried talking to her since the whole thing with the witches, or the puppy eyes he keeps sending her way, as though she's the one in the wrong here.

She's still very much pissed off at him, and the lack of any heartfelt apologies on his part doesn't make her feel like striking up conversation.

The only time she swallows her pride and addresses him directly is to ask about Elijah. Klaus says he has no idea where his dear brother has buggered off to and leaves it at that, which strikes Caroline as weird. After everything Elijah did to convince him to stay, wouldn't he demand his brother stick around to follow-through on his promises? Wouldn't he at the very least want to know why he's disappeared? The tiniest things can make Klaus testy, how is Elijah walking out on them not bothering him?

But getting answers to these questions would require her to talk to the father of her child with more than short, monosyllabic sentences laced with disdain, so she doesn't.

Her interactions with Klaus are limited to small notes she leaves hanging on the fridge, mostly lists of things she needs. To his credit — a very tiny credit - her requests are always fulfilled, even the most unusual ones.

Like when she spends the whole night up reading about the culinary traditions of New Orleans and wakes up desperate to try gumbo. There's a large plate waiting for her when she goes down to have lunch, with a tiny note underneath saying With the compliments of your friend Sophie. She claims hers is the best in town. Let me know if you disapprove of it and I'll have a word. -K

Caroline almost smiles at that. Almost.

So when she's going through the library for the third time in as many days, checking some of the odd and extremely rare books the Mikaelsons have gathered over the centuries, and hears the sound of screeching tires on the driveway outside, Caroline doesn't even think before she rushes to the door.

If she stopped to consider it for two seconds she'd probably conclude that running to possible danger is not the smartest choice. No one's supposed to know they're staying here, after all, and if anyone has arrived in such a hurry, even if it's Klaus, something must've happened. And if it's not Klaus... Well, then she's in a bit of a pickle.

But after extremely long days of complete boredom, she doesn't think before flying down the stairs. The front doors burst open just as she makes it to the landing.

It's a Mikaelson, but not the ones she would expect.

Rebekah.

Caroline narrows her eyes at her old foe, crossing her arms over her chest. No one said anything about Rebekah coming to join them. In fact, Elijah told her he'd called their sister several times and that she'd refused to leave Mystic Falls, to which Caroline replied, Thank God.

"What are you doing here?" she asks.

"I was expecting to see some kind of supernatural miracle baby bump." Rebekah looks her up and down, her eyes resting on her belly for a moment longer. Her expression changes for just a second, becomes softer, and Caroline knows she's listening to the baby's heartbeat. As quick as it goes, though, her resting bitch face returns. "Disappointing," she adds with a shrug.

"I was told that I had at least gotten rid of you. This is way more Original vampires than I can deal with at once."

"Well, too bad for you, darling. This is my family's home, I'll stay for as long as I want. But just so you won't say I've never done anything nice for you, I brought you a souvenir." Rebekah fishes a crumpled piece of paper from her back pocket unfolding it before handing it over to Caroline with a self-satisfied smile. "There. Congratulations. You just graduated high school."

Caroline's heart sinks. Her high school diploma. She spent the last couple of weeks trying her best not to think about all the things she was forced to leave behind. Like graduation. She was head of the committee organizing the ceremony, ordered everyone's caps and gowns because they were too lazy to do it themselves, had her valedictorian speech already committed to memory, and then she didn't even get to be there.

Compared to everything else, graduation might seem like a small thing, a detail. But it was supposed to be a milestone, and a big one at that. The beginning of the rest of their lives. And missing out on it stings like a bitch. In a single day, Caroline went from having her future all mapped out in front of her to not having the slightest clue of what lies ahead.

"How did you get it?" she asks quietly.

"I compelled someone at school. As far as they know, you were there, graduated with flying colors and touched everyone's hearts with your beautiful speech. Now you're off to university in California."

Caroline's head snaps up. "What?"

"Oh, yes. Congratulations. You just got accepted into Stanford."

"You compelled... everyone?"

"It was a bit of a challenge and a lot more work than I was honestly willing to do, but it did the trick."

So that is how they fixed the problem of Caroline's sudden disappearance. She was wondering why she didn't get any desperate phone calls from her mother when she missed graduation. They just erased Caroline from the lives of everyone she knows and didn't even bother to ask for her opinion.

The pain in her chest must show on her face, because Rebekah smiles almost sympathetically at her. "Look, darling. I know it's not ideal, but they can't know why you left and this was the easiest way to guarantee they wouldn't be coming after you. It's as much for your good as it is for theirs, trust me."

"How did you do it?"

"Easily, but not quickly. The vervain is out of the city's water supply, I only had to make sure a few of your more careful friends weren't getting it from elsewhere. I didn't tell them to stop talking to you, so I'm sure you'll get plenty of phone calls and messages. They won't forget about you, just... Think that you're in a better place."

Better place.

It would be genius if it wasn't so sad.

"And my mother?"

"She's thrilled. Couldn't be prouder," Rebekah says, and then, after a pause, "And she misses you very much. But she's all right. She'll be safer there than here. Wherever my brothers aren't, that's where you want your loved ones to be."

Well, she can't really disagree with that part.

The last thing Caroline wants is for her mother to get caught up in this mess. Liz gets herself in enough danger as it is just trying to handle things in Mystic Falls. New Orleans is in a whole new level of insanity — the city is literally run by vampires who have declared war on witches and werewolves. Her mom will be better off as far away from there as possible.

Which is not to say Caroline is better off away from her. What kind of pregnant girl doesn't want to have her mom near? Not in a million years did she ever think she'd have to go through this without Liz there to hold her hand and teach her all about motherhood. The prospect of bringing a hybrid child into this world is scary enough, but being all on her own to do it makes it so much more frightening.

"Speaking of my brothers," Rebekah continues. "Where's Elijah? I've been calling him for hours."

"How should I know?"

"You live with him."

"No, I don't. He's been gone for weeks now."

Rebekah frowns. "What do you mean, gone?"

Caroline shrugs. "One minute he was here, talking about family and the redemptive powers of love, and then... Poof. Gone. Didn't tell me he was leaving, where he was going or if he ever means to come back. I guess it serves me right for being fool enough to think I could trust any of you Mikaelsons."

"Elijah doesn't break promises," Rebekah says through gritted teeth, anger flaring in her blue eyes. "Which means Niklaus has done something dastardly and Klaus-like. Klaus!" She bellows, storming off after her brother. "Get out here and tell me what you've done with our brother, you narcissistic backstabbing wanker!"

"Enough with all the shouting!" Klaus emerges from one of the rooms, much to Caroline's surprise. She didn't even know he was home. "Little sister," he drawls, a sly smile curving his lips. "I should've known you were on your way. Marcel just mysteriously lost six of his nightwalkers. I assume that was your doing?"

Rebekah snorts. "They were very rude, trying to victimize a poor innocent girl just trying to find her way to the Quarter. So sorry. Were they friends of yours? Oh, that's right. You don't have any friends."

"I do have friends. I have Marcel. You remember him, don't you? He fancies himself the king of the Quarter now and has all these rules about killing vampires. It'll be fun to see what sort of punishment he comes up with for you."

Oh, lord. Caroline rolls her eyes and decides to go back to the library. Already she regrets begrudging the quietness. Those two are going to be at each other's throats for hours and the last thing she needs in her miserable life is more Mikaelson family drama.

Billions of perfectly healthy, living men in the world and she had to get the hots for an undead one with an apocalyptic temper and terrible familial bonds.

Way to fucking go, Caroline.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

She's perusing a book about the lore of werewolves written sometime around the 16th century by a priest who claimed they had been personally created and sent to earth by Satan himself, when Rebekah barges into the room.

Caroline sighs, looking up at the youngest Original, who's grimier than ever after a long quarrel with her brother.

"Yes?"

"What did Nik do?" she demands.

"You're gonna have to be more specific."

"To Elijah."

"I have no idea."

"What the bloody hell have you been doing here all this time?"

Caroline lifts the book, arching her eyebrows. "It's cute that you'd think your brothers would bother sharing anything with me."

"You didn't even ask when Elijah went missing?"

"I did. He told me Elijah left on his own accord."

"No, he didn't!" Rebekah barks. "Haven't you learned anything yet? Elijah is the good brother, Nik is the evil one."

Caroline's brow furrows. Rebekah's standards for good and evil are probably more than a little askew. As far as she's concerned, they're all equally bad.

"Something tells me he's lying somewhere right now with a dagger in his heart. I'm gonna search every inch of this house until I find him," she says, and then, almost as an afterthought, she adds, "And you're helping."

Rebekah storms out of the room, her stilettos clicking as she goes. It takes Caroline a second to realize she's meant to be following.

In all truth, she doesn't really want to be pulled into the Mikaelson drama more than strictly necessary. They have a thousand years of hard feelings to work out among themselves and she's got enough issues of her own to occupy her time. But if Klaus really did do something to Elijah... Well, then she has terribly misjudged a man who did nothing but show her kindness.

If Rebekah's right, he's the one in need of help now, and while she could've been using all that free time to search for him, she spent her days sulking about and mentally cursing him for leaving.

Also, she is so bored.

Rebekah goes straight to the basement, a part of the house Caroline hadn't explored yet. Mostly because it smells really bad down there. She figured, because the house was abandoned for such a long time, that it's filled with rats. But when they get to the bottom of the stairs, what Caroline finds is even worse than a rodent infestation.

"Are those...?"

"Yes, they are," Rebekah says, walking around four coffins lined one next to the other. The coffins Klaus had back in Mystic Falls, where he used to carry his family. All of which, as far as Caroline knows, are dead.

"I thought he'd gotten rid of those after they... died."

"Nik carried our dead mother for a thousand years."

"Yes, but she was preserved, wasn't she?"

"You never know when the opportunity to resurrect a dead family member will arise," Rebekah says, her hands lingering on one of the coffins. "Nik likes to be prepared for when his misbehaving siblings inevitably disappoint him. This one's mine. But I don't see Elijah's. He must've stashed it elsewhere."

"This is sick."

"Like you didn't already know that when you slept with him. But hey, welcome to the family," Rebekah says, punctuating her sentence with a sardonic little smile. "Knowing my dear brother, he's already planning a box for you the second you give birth to whatever's cooking in your tum."

Caroline gazes suspiciously at Rebekah. She's used to the vampire's mean quips, but she doesn't sound like she's joking now.

"He wouldn't," Caroline says, more to herself than to Rebekah. If anyone had told her that a month ago, she wouldn't have a single night of sleep over it, so certain she would've been that it would never happen. Now, however, her confidence wavers.

"Wouldn't he?" Rebekah stops in front of her, looking straight into her eyes. "I'm not sticking around for long. As soon as I find Elijah, I'm out of here. I won't spend another decade in a box. I suggest you find a way to break that hex the witches put on you and run as far away from Niklaus as you can. Consider this a friendly advice."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

She waits until Rebekah leaves to take one of the cars and escape.

While she was staying with Sophie, the witch mentioned a store in the French Quarter, The Cauldron. It's supposed to be a tourist trap sort of souvenir shop, but it's run by actual witches who sell all sorts of ingredients for spells and potions, most of which cannot be used anymore since Marcel's ban on magic.

Klaus would freak out if he knew she left the house, but it's gonna be a quick stop. They ought to have what she needs, it's a simple enough ingredient. And no one knows her there anyway. She'll blend in, get the herb and go back to the plantation before anyone realizes she left.

Finding the place is simple. A quick Google search gives her the address and the historic city center isn't that big. But when she gets there...

She stops.

All she has to do is go in, ask for what she needs and get out. It'll take a minute. Not even that. But something holds her back.

The implications. The weight of her choice. She won't be able to walk away from it. And even if she knows it's the right thing to do, the only thing to do, it's still not an easy decision to make. This isn't the kind of thing a woman should have to do out of fear, or in a hurry. But she's desperate and alone and kind of terrified too and the only person who would listen to her, who she feels would understand, is currently AWOL, thanks to the father of her child.

This is the most messed up Caroline's ever been in her life, and considering some of the things she's been through, it's saying a lot.

She curses under her breath, nervously pacing across the street from The Cauldron. The longer she takes, the more likely to get noticed she is.

And if Klaus finds out she's here...

What's the matter, Caroline? Just freaking do it already!

It was something about what Rebekah said. About the way she said it. No one knows Klaus better than her, not even Elijah. And she is pretty convinced that, as soon as the baby is out, Klaus will turn on her. The only reason he's keeping her around is because of the precious cargo in her womb. Although why he'd want a baby for himself, Caroline can't imagine. But the Mikaelsons have always been very weird about how they relate to one another, this always and forever thing they keep repeating. In a very twisted, very misguided way, family means something to them.

Whether Klaus wants the baby or not, it is his blood. Caroline isn't.

And the thing is, she wants so badly to believe Rebekah is wrong but, so far, all the evidence points towards her being right. Klaus has done nothing to disprove his sister's theory. Quite the opposite. He hasn't tried to win Caroline's trust or reassure her in any ways. It's like he doesn't even care about how she feels.

All the affection he's once shown for her has completely vanished. Klaus barely even looks at her. Whenever he is home, he locks himself up somewhere and drinks himself into a stupor, putting physical barriers between them to go along with the emotional ones already in place. She hasn't the slightest idea what his frequent excursions into the French Quarter have been about, whether it has anything to do with the witches and the baby or if it's just personal business of a completely different nature.

To all intents and purposes, he wants absolutely nothing to do with her. His interest died the second he learned about the pregnancy. So why would he want her to stick around once the baby is born?

Caroline doesn't even really want this baby. It messes with everything she had planned for her near future. She wasn't supposed to get pregnant for many years yet, and certainly not with Klaus' baby. But even if she doesn't want it, even if she knows she's absolutely not ready to be a mother, she can't imagine leaving the baby in the hands of the Mikaelson clan. What kind of life will it have, being raised in a family of immortal psychos? What kind of person will it become? She already has a responsibility to it and bringing a kid into this world just to suffer is worse than not having it at all.

Caroline can't do that to her own child. She won't allow it.

Right now, she's being used as a pawn in the witches' game. But if there is no baby, then they have nothing on Klaus, and consequently nothing on her either. It's an easy and quick way to end this misery, for everyone. She'll be doing a favor not only to herself, but to Klaus and their unborn child as well.

So what the fucking hell is keeping her from crossing the goddamn street and get the freaking wolfsbane?

Caroline stays for so long locked in her inner battle that the lady who runs the store prepares to close. And it's only when she realizes she's going to miss her chance that she decides to move.

"Hi!" she says as the young woman locks the front door.

"I'm sorry," she says with an apologetic smile. "We're closing."

"Please. I just need a tiny bit of herb."

"Which herb?"

"Uhm... Crushed aconite flower."

The woman's eyebrows arch up to her hairline. "Wolfsbane? That's a poison. Looking to kill a wolf?"

Caroline feels her stomach churn away inside of her, her mouth tasting bitter all of a sudden. "Just a tiny one."

The woman motions for her to wait and goes back inside the store. She returns not a minute later with a small package. "A few drops in some hot tea. That should do it."

Caroline tries to pay for the herbs, offering all the money she had on her - it's not much, but should be enough to afford a tiny bit of wolfsbane. The witch puts a hand around Caroline's and gently refuses to take it, smiling sympathetically. "This is an ugly town for little wolves. You're doing the right thing."

"Thanks," she mumbles, before storming away, the package burning in her hand as though she were a werewolf herself.

That's it, then. Time to fix her mistake.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Klaus snaps his fingers and the blond bartender promptly brings him another bottle of bourbon — not without an eye roll first. Camille, says her name tag. Pretty little thing with a big attitude. Marcel's always had an appreciation for the feisty ones, as evidenced by his centuries long obsession with Rebekah.

"It's not strictly part of my job to come serve you here, you know," she says as she pours him a drink. "I work behind the bar. And the snappy fingers thing is unbelievably douchey, by the way."

When she tries to take the bottle away, Klaus holds her arm and forces her to put it down on the table. "I'll take the whole thing."

Camille arches her eyebrows at him. "That's the second one." And then, after a pause. "Rough day?"

"Rough century," he mumbles, taking a swig from his glass. "Don't worry, love. You'll be well rewarded for your extraordinary efforts."

"That's the least I expect. A thank you doesn't hurt either." The woman turns around and saunters back to the counter.

Klaus has been keeping a close eye on her since he arrived in New Orleans. Marcellus is quite enraptured, and she's new in town, apparently unaware of New Orleans' more obscure facets, therefore unlike to be on vervain, which makes her the perfect candidate for a spy.

Besides, as a bartender, she's an excellent source of information.

He's been diligently working on securing Marcel's trust and infiltrating his inner circle, making himself available for whatever his old friend might need. But even on his absolute best behavior, Marcellus remains suspicious. He'd have to be an imbecile not to be. Klaus taught him too well, which is why extreme measures have become necessary — like delivering Elijah to him as a peace offering.

His brother's presence was raising red flags all over the Quarter. He and Marcellus had been like father and son, but Marcel's relationship with Elijah was strained at best. It didn't matter how agreeable he made himself to Klaus; he'd never be completely open with Elijah lurking around.

That's the very fundamental thing Rebekah fails to understand. This is war. His little sister has always been so very sentimental, allowing her feelings to take the best of her. It's why she's ended up with a dagger in her chest so many times throughout the centuries. She trusts far too easily. Marcel is not the enemy, but he needs to be taken down, and they won't achieve that by playing house in the swamp.

Or that's what he's been telling himself anyway.

It's possible Klaus' decision to leave his brother in the hands of Marcellus was made in an unreasonable fit of rage and it's possible he may be having second thoughts.

He and Elijah had been estranged for a long time, the brief moments they shared in Mystic Falls notwithstanding. Klaus had forgotten what it was like to have his distinguished, virtuous older brother casting judgement upon his every move all the time.

Elijah looks at him as though he's a disappointing project, a broken toy he means to fix, now more than ever. Always so noble, so magnificently upright, with his morals and values and unbreakable promises. Klaus feels small next to him. Lesser. None of his own achievements, none of his efforts or his intentions seem good enough, dignified enough, next to Elijah's obfuscating presence. And the way he'd been looking at Caroline...

His unwavering dedication to the mother of his child, raptly tending to her every need, hanging on to her every word...

It unleashed the beast inside of Klaus.

If Rebekah finds out what he's done, he might have to dagger her as well, otherwise he'll never hear the end of it.

He never thought he'd say it, but his sister should've stayed in Mystic Falls.

Alcohol doesn't make anything better. It doesn't change the fact he, once more, acted like the bastard brother that he is and handed a defenseless Elijah over to Marcellus. It doesn't change that Rebekah will hate him forever. It doesn't change that Caroline already does. But it certainly takes the edge off. And in any case, it's still better than going home to his sister's shrill chidings and Caroline's seething glares.

If he were here, Elijah would take pity on him. Klaus can almost hear his voice, encouraging him to make amends. Perhaps that's exactly why he had to put his brother in a box and send him away. Sometimes it gets too much to live with the weight of Elijah's expectations, his unshakable faith. It's an eternal reminder of all his failures, of the insurmountable gap that separates him from the noblest of his siblings. It's like looking into a mirror and seeing all the darkest bits of his soul, made bare for the whole world to see.

For Caroline, a voice in his mind says.

Klaus drowns it all out by pouring himself another glass.

That's when the front door opens and Marcellus comes charging straight to him, looking grave and preoccupied.

Klaus smirks. "I know that face," he says. "Woman trouble. Your pet was here just a moment ago."

"I'm not here for Cami. I'm here for you," Marcel says, jabbing a finger lightly into his shoulder. "You're a dick, you know that? Why didn't you tell me your sister is back in town?"

Of course, Klaus thinks. One hundred years and still Rebekah's presence shakes him up like nothing else. It's woman trouble, indeed. Just not the kind he'd imagined.

"I thought it'd be more amusing for you to find out for yourself."

"Is there anything else I need to know?"

"Only that she's grown considerably more insane in the last century."

"Or maybe that it was her who killed my guys?"

"Doubtful. Unless that biker bar is frequented by small-town high school quarterbacks, I can't imagine she'd be interested."

Oh, Rebekah... His favorite sibling, for certain, but also the one to bring him most trouble. If she'd only told them she was on her way before cutting her Eurotrip with that busboy short to make a surprise appearance in New Orleans, they could've avoided attracting any more of Marcel's unwanted attention. If he was apprehensive before with the news of Elijah's arrival, now that three Mikaelsons have made their glorious returns he'll be more suspicious than ever about their motives, and less likely to let his guard down around any of them.

Before Marcel can contest his answer, however, his phone rings.

"Yeah?"

He turns away and walks to the other side of the bar, which is obviously useless.

"Just got a tip," Klaus hears the voice of Marcel's right-hand man on the other end of the line, the one he nearly killed the other day. Thierry. "Some story about a pregnant werewolf in Bienville Park."

Klaus sits up straight, sobering up in a second as his attention is suddenly piqued.

"Pregnant?" Marcel asks.

"It's what I heard," Thierry says. "I haven't seen her yet."

"Get a couple of nightwalkers to run it down. No werewolves in the Quarter, pregnant or not."

A prickling sense of unease spreads through Klaus' chest. Something tells him Thierry's information might not be entirely accurate. Werewolves don't disrespect Marcel's ban, especially in broad daylight. They know better than to try and face his band of vicious and bloodthirsty vampires on their turf. Many have paid greatly already for them to learn their lesson.

It would have to be a new one. Or perhaps not a werewolf at all.

"Werewolf in the Quarter?" He does his best attempt at nonchalance, pushing down the urgency at his guts while calmingly swigging from his glass. "I guess that solves the mystery with the riff raff."

"I don't have time for Mikaelson family drama," Marcel says. "Keep your sister in line."

He's already out the door when Klaus yells back, "I have a greater chance of draining the Mississippi with a straw!"

As soon as Marcellus is out of earshot, Klaus drops a hundred bill for the bartender and whooshes out of Rousseau's.

He has no idea what Caroline could be possibly doing in the French Quarter, but Klaus needs to get to her before Marcel and his men can do.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

A sharp wave of nausea hits Caroline as she steps outside the house and into the back yard. Instinctively, she puts a hand across her stomach in a protective gesture. But her nausea has nothing to do with the pregnancy, and everything to do with the pile of bodies on the driveway.

Bodies of vampires who tried to kill her unborn baby.

It doesn't take inhuman senses to feel the stench of death. Even from a distance the smell of still fresh blood and decomposing flesh fills her nostrils. Vampires decay a lot faster than humans when they died. Without blood pumping through their veins, keeping their hearts beating, they're nothing but old corpses.

Caroline swallows down past the bile in her throat to keep from retching as she approaches the two bickering Mikaelsons outside.

The moment Klaus' eyes falls on her, dark rage flashes across them.

He's furious.

"This is why I told you not to leave the house," he seethes, pointing a finger to the bodies behind him. There are four in total, but for some reason one is still writhing on the ground, the stake driven into his chest conveniently grazing his heart, but not enough to kill him. "Werewolves are not allowed in the Quarter. The second someone senses a presence, you're being hunted."

"I'm not a werewolf," she says, although she regrets it the second the words leave her mouth.

"No," Klaus says, slow and cold. "You're not."

Caroline knows vampires and werewolves can sense each other. They are common enemies, two extremes of a scale — the natural and the unnatural. It's part of their most primal instincts to be able to pick each other in a crowd, which is why it was so easy for Marcel to ban them from the Quarter. They're only lethal to vampires on full moons; any other day, they're prey.

Unless, of course, they're Klaus.

Caroline just didn't think vampires would ever be able to sense an unborn werewolf.

All the way home, she kept replaying the day in her head, trying to figure out how the vampires had found her. She didn't see any on her way, not that she noticed, and she was extra careful. She did her best to mingle with the crowds of nondescript tourists as she made her way around the city and the only person she spoke to was the witch at the Cauldron.

The only moment she could've attracted unwanted attention was while she bid her time outside the store, trying to make up her mind. Perhaps her behavior made them suspicious. But wouldn't they have struck earlier if that was the case? Why wait so long?

It doesn't make sense.

It's just a tiny, ten weeks fetus. She's not even showing yet. How the hell would they ever be able to sniff werewolf essence on her if they weren't very specifically looking for it?

"You're not a werewolf, but I can smell wolf all over you. Shacking up with the wrong crowd, doll. Such a shame. You're coming with me."

The memory still makes her shudder. Blind panic exploded inside of her as she found herself surrounded by Marcel's nightwalkers. She hadn't had an encounter with them yet, only heard of the kind of treatment they disposed to witches and werewolves alike. So maybe they couldn't tell what she was, but an older vampire — such as Marcel — might, and if she was brought to him, an unknown witch, pregnant with a werewolf baby, strolling through the French Quarter...

A possible union between wolves and witches represents too great a risk for Marcel's unchallenged rule. Caroline would've been made an example of. And the second those vampires jumped out of the shadows, she knew what her fate would be if they'd ever managed to get their hands on her.

That's when something kicked in, an instinct stronger than her fear, stronger than her doubts. There was only one thing on her mind: the baby. She had to protect the baby. The baby she'd been thinking of getting rid of not an hour before.

After she got the wolfsbane from the witch, she stopped by a café to buy a steaming cup of tea and then found a quiet corner to sit down and just breathe. All she had to do was mix the herbs with the tea and drink it. It would taste awful, but it would be over quickly. The regular means to get an abortion were not an option; too much bureaucracy, too little time. Her only alternative was to find a magical solution — one that didn't involve actual magic, which she was banned from practicing, lest it alerted not only Marcel's army but also the witches, who would never let her go through with it.

She needed something irreversible, something Sophie Deveraux wouldn't be able to stop.

Truth is, she wasn't even sure if the wolfsbane would work. Until the vampires showed up, smelling werewolf on her, she wasn't sure what her baby was. Well, she still isn't. It's at least part werewolf, but it could be part witch as well, although Caroline has never heard of a witch werewolf before. Nature's way of keeping its own balance does not include the creation of all-powerful hybrid beings. It's hard to imagine that, in the thousands of years of history since the first werewolves were born, no witch has ever gotten impregnated by one of them, or vice versa. But babies were either one or the other, never both.

Her baby is no ordinary baby, though. It shouldn't even exist. It's an impossible child who not only has witch and werewolf blood, it also has weird vampire blood. What in God's name that makes her child, Caroline has no idea.

If it had been all witch, the wolfsbane would've done nothing. But since it has the werewolf gene, drinking that tea would've been the end of it. It would've caused a miscarriage.

She spent an entire hour staring into her tea, watching as it grew cold, trying to make up her mind. There's no way this freak child will grow up to have a normal life, not with the ancient blood it carries, not if it's to be born in a place like New Orleans. The war in the city has been raging for years, but, in many ways, it's only just starting. And she feels it in her bones that this child inside of her will be at the heart of it, for better or for worse. Reason told her that drinking that tea was the right thing to do.

But still she couldn't bring herself to do it.

Reason, as it turns out, is not everything.

In the end, the vampires made the decision for her. Their attack was all it took for her to realize that as much as she isn't ready to have a child, she is already a mother.

It was four of them and just one of her, but she felt this strength inside, an energy electrifying her entire body. She could take them down easily using her powers, give them a stroke they'd remember for days and incapacitate them for hours, long enough for her to run. That much magic was bound to show on Marcel's radar with the help of that mystery weapon of his, but if she was fast she could be out of there before anyone else arrived. Or maybe not. Maybe she'd have to fight ten vampires. Maybe Marcel himself would jump out of the shadows. In that moment, Caroline didn't care. She'd fight whoever she had to if that meant saving her child.

She was ready, and she was pissed, and as the first words of incantation came to her lips and the magic started singing in her blood, coursing through her body like lightning, Klaus showed up.

He snapped the neck of the one closer to her and ripped off the hearts of the other three so fast it was all a blur to Caroline. She only realized what had happened when the bodies dropped all around her.

"Did they hurt you?" Klaus asked her, his golden eyes lit up.

She just shook her head, letting out a breath that felt trapped. In the middle of the adrenaline-fueled haze, Caroline hadn't noticed how nervous she was, how absolutely terrified. Now her knees were threatening to give in.

She could've died there. Her baby could've died. And so stupidly. So pointlessly. In the hands of bloodthirsty vampires.

For just a second, when her eyes met Klaus', she saw a measure of her own fear in them. He seemed frightened, shaken. Not a common look on him, and one that made her very confused. Why would he be so worried? If things had gone his way, Caroline and the baby would've been long dead now. But it lasted only a heartbeat and then it was replaced by a cold fury.

He gave her the keys to his car. "It's parked around the corner. Go home, lock the doors and wait inside."

"But these bodies -"

"I'll handle it. Now go."

She didn't dare question him, just nodded and left.

He arrived about an hour later in Rebekah's car, with his sister whining about the blood staining her leather seats while he used less than polite expletives to blame her for letting Caroline leave the house on her own.

"I came here to find Elijah, not to babysit your girlfriend. She's not a child, she can take care of herself."

"Clearly, she can't! She would've met Jane-Anne Deveraux's fate, been murdered in cold blood in front of an entire audience of riffraffs and sycophants, if I hadn't found her in time."

"She's a witch, Niklaus, and one who's taken on your ass several times before, if my memory doesn't fail me. She could've handled them."

"And then she would've gotten discovered by Marcellus! Her end would've been much worse!"

Caroline watched from her bedroom window as the two of them continued to argue as they dragged the bodies to the back of the house. Klaus made a bed with some wood and dry leaves, putting the dead on top of it. Soon enough the whole house would smell like rotten barbecue, and her stomach was already roiling in disgust.

Objectively, Caroline knows what she did was reckless, going out on her own in a city that's taken with vampires just waiting for an opportunity to latch their teeth into a witch's neck.

But she didn't feel like she had an option. There was no one she could talk to, no one she could confess her fears and worries to. Rebekah straight out told her to run, that her brother would put her in a box the second the baby was out, and maybe a few months ago she would've called her bluff, but right then, with Elijah missing and Klaus being distant and cold, she wouldn't put it past him.

She never felt more scared or alone in her whole life, and that plantation house is her prison. A beautiful, elegant, blood-stained prison. Even the air in that place feels heavy with the weight of all the horrible things that must've happened there in not such a distant past, and the horrible things that might yet come to pass.

She didn't want to be trapped. Not again. Caroline had escaped too many inevitabilities in her life and dodged too many bullets just to end up here. A victim of circumstances, unable to fight the inescapable ties of her own destiny. Maybe years ago she would've surrendered to the tides, but not anymore.

Caroline will make her own fate, and that of her child's. She won't let her spirit be crushed at the hands of the Mikaelsons, or the witches, or anyone else for that matter.

"So you think I'm supposed to sit at home all day and do nothing?" she asks, all defiance. "What else do you want? Dinner waiting for you when you get home from your exhausting days doing God knows what?"

Klaus snarls. "I had a plan and your little nighttime stroll put it all in peril."

"Well, maybe if you would bother telling me what your plans are I wouldn't accidentally ruin them!"

As they spar, Rebekah gets apparently tired of hearing the pathetic whimpers of the last remaining vampire and moves to put him out of his misery, but Klaus turns to her like a beast. "Leave him!" he roars.

It's a scream that would scare the crap out of any sensible person, but not Rebekah.

"Bite me, Nik. And don't give me this crap about having a plan. You've had all the time in the world to execute a plan and no one's seen you do a damn thing. Elijah promised to protect your child so that he could save you from your selfish, rotten self. You obviously don't give a damn about the child or Elijah because what have you done to honor it?"

"I have done everything," he hisses, words catching fire as they tumble out of his mouth. "From the day I arrived, Marcel hasn't trusted me. From day one, he's had his vampires ingest vervain. I needed a spy. Someone on the inside who Marcel would never suspect. So I created a day zero and got there first. Marcel had just lost six vampires, thanks to your little murder spree, and he needed new recruits. So I made the new one mine before he'd had even a drop of vervain. But we all know the real way to a man is through his heart." Caroline snorts at that, and Klaus glares at her. "So I compelled a bartender he had his eyes on. And this one." He kicks the vampire on the ground, who lets out a painful groan. Caroline would feel sorry for the agonizing pain he's been in for hours if he didn't actually deserve it for trying to attack a pregnant woman. "I'm gonna drain him of vervain. Compel him to believe his mates found religion and moved to Utah so that he can explain to Marcel why he lost three more bloody vampires tonight."

Klaus grabs the dying vampire by the foot and drags him back inside the house, a cacophony of cries and moans in his wake as he takes the man to whatever torture chamber he has set up in one of the many hidden rooms in the house.

Rebekah catches her eye, looking suddenly sober and concerned now.

"Are you all right?"

For the first time ever, Caroline looks at the youngest Mikaelson desperate to see more than just a ruthless vampire who was out to make her life hell and whom she vowed to hate for the rest of eternity.

Rebekah hadn't just been an Original murderer like the rest of her family; she was Caroline's personal nemesis. She had fun messing up the one part of Caroline's life she managed to have a measure of control over, the tiny little things she could keep organized and unaffected by the craziness that surrounded her. School life was her refuge, her method of working out her frustrations in a positive, constructive way. Then Rebekah showed up trying to take over the reins of as many committees as she could, giving useless ideas to the school dances just to mess up with her plans, using her vampire abilities to cheat in PE. If Klaus is the devil, then his little sister is a demon - and one with a ridiculously pair of inhumanly perfect legs to flaunt about.

Caroline never thought there would come a day when she would wish to find a friend in Rebekah. It just goes to show how desperate she truly is.

"I'm fine," she says, heading back to the house.

When they go in, Klaus is already waiting for them at the foot of the stairs, having dropped his prisoner off somewhere.

"Now is my turn to ask the questions. Caroline," He fixes her with a steely gaze. "What were you doing in the bloody French Quarter in the first place?"

"Leave her be," Rebekah says, attempting to intervene, but Klaus grabs his sister's arm before she can push him out of the way.

"She will answer me."

Caroline feels something snap inside of her. A bubble of rage and frustration bursting, leaving her hot all over and seeing red. The sheer arrogance of him to think that she'd owe him explanations when he is the explanation.

"You wanna know why I went to the French Quarter?" She sticks out her chin, words tumbling past her clenched teeth. "I was buying poison to put this baby out of its misery."

She watches as a complex set of emotions flashes across Klaus' eyes. He's taken aback by the ferocity in her voice, then shocked as realization finally dawns on him. That's when the true blow lands, and his expression becomes a jumble of hurt and resentment.

He steps away from her as though she'd just punched him in the face. Just saying it out loud hurts, sends a chill running through her, but this is too heavy a weight for her to carry alone. He needs to know what he's done. The kind of burden he's left on her shoulders. It's not fair for it to eat away at her while he distracts himself with his plotting and scheming to steal Marcel's crown as though that is all there is.

Maybe to him it is. He wants to be king and this baby is a mean to an end. Something he can use to harvest the support of the witches and even the werewolves when the time comes.

But her child is not a weapon, nor it is a stepping stone. And she's not going to drown in guilt and remorse while he acts as though he's got nothing to do with it. He must know that every day that goes by with him refusing to acknowledge her presence took her one step closer to making the biggest mistake of her life.

It's his fault, too.

For a second, Caroline thinks he's going to lash out. The way his eyes flash, a snarl crossing his face. But then he turns around and storms away, disappearing through a door down the hall.

Caroline lets out a breath with an element of a sob, feeling as all that anger suddenly leaves her body like a dead weight. Without it to support her, she falters. Her legs feel unsteady.

She can feel Rebekah standing beside her, brimming with questions, but she can't face her now. Instead, Caroline rushes up the stairs and into the cold, scant comfort of her room.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

It's safe to say absolutely nothing about this return to New Orleans is going as expected.

For starters, Rebekah didn't think she'd still be here by now.

The revelation that her devil of a brother had somehow managed to impregnate someone — Caroline Forbes, of all people — was, in all honesty, quite shocking. But not shocking enough that Rebekah didn't appreciate the fact that Niklaus had taken off to another city and she would finally get a much deserved moment of peace away from his craziness.

She hasn't forgiven him for the cure yet either.

When Elijah first called her, thinking that she'd jump on the first flight to Louisiana, she was adamant to resist her own curiosity. No Mikaelsons had been born for a thousand years. She was itching to see it with her own two eyes. Rebekah has always been a softy where her family is concerned, and when her stoic unshakable brother keeps making heartfelt requests for her to join him, which had never happened before, it's safe to say she was shaken.

And, well, she felt sorry for Elijah. He'd been away from them for so long he forgot how much of a handful their brother is. Jumped headfirst into this insanity thinking that he'd be able to control Niklaus' erratic and impulsive ways and turn him into a dad. Poor thing. Somebody had to give him fair warning. Elijah's eternal quest for Nik's redemption will be the end of him one day.

And that day might be closer than ever.

When Rebekah decided to leave Mystic Falls, it was supposed to be temporary. She didn't even properly say goodbye to Matt, with whom she spent a fabulous time touring Europe. She was going to make a quick stop in New Orleans, point some fingers at Caroline, tell Nik how sorry she feels for his kid and give Elijah a good luck hug before returning to Virginia.

Then her brother went missing. Caroline got attacked by a mob of angry vampires whilst considering whether or not to terminate her pregnancy. And now she found out that Nik gave Elijah over to Marcel as a gift. To put him at ease. Gain his trust.

Their own brother. In a box.

All Elijah did was believe in Niklaus. Give him his unconditional support. He promised to take care of the mother of his child so Nik wouldn't have to, so he could go out and get as crazy as he'd like, not bothering at all about the pregnant girl at home. And in good Niklaus fashion, he punished Elijah for being too virtuous. Too honest.

It's unbelievably cruel, even by Klaus' standards.

In his diabolical little head it all makes sense. All the horrible things he does, the pain he inflicts upon his own family, it's all perfectly justified. I have a plan. I'll honor Elijah's wishes.

Her brother has become so twisted that he doesn't even realize the fault in his own actions anymore, is incapable of seeing what would be obvious to anyone else. As much as Rebekah tries to remember him as the sweet boy who used to make her toys and hold her when she was afraid of the storms, it becomes harder and harder by the decade. There's nothing there anymore. Somewhere along the way, her favorite brother perished, ceased to exist, and all that was left in his place was this soulless monster who doesn't care about anything or anyone but himself.

"If you don't like my plan, there's the door. See if I care."

Oh, how she wishes she could just turn around and leave... Go back to Mystic Falls and continue on with her small town life, away from the darkness that surrounds her family wherever Niklaus goes.

But she is not like him. She can't leave now, not when Elijah lies in the hands of the enemy. Not when Caroline is... Oh, Caroline.

That poor, poor girl. Rebekah never really liked her, had fun teasing her, watching her fume whenever their classmates decided to go with her — much improved — suggestions. Too uptight, too righteous, too bossy, too bubbly. Caroline Forbes was just too much. But there was a lot about her Rebekah came to admire, if she were to be frank.

Caroline was loved by her friends, could command a room wherever she went without ever needing to compel anyone. When she started talking, people listened — including her soulless brother, whose murderous bestial eyes would become soft and follow her around wherever she went. It's ridiculous how many times he got played and tricked by the Mystic Falls gang simply because Caroline sat down for a drink or offered him ten minutes of her time.

Above all, Rebekah envied Caroline's independence. She was strong, fiercely resolved, determined to the point of stubbornness, but she knew what she wanted and she never backed down without a fight.

If she were human, that's what Rebekah would want to be. Her own person. Away from her family, from all the men in her life. Unfortunately, her last name and history never allowed her to make a life for herself, which means she always held a grudge towards people who had what she couldn't, especially the ones who didn't value it enough. Freedom is so underestimated by those who've always had it.

Now that strong girl Rebekah used to love to hate has been reduced to a jumble of nerves. Caroline is a mess. The way she looked at Rebekah outside, as Nik piled up the bodies of her attackers...

She was lost. Rebekah doesn't think Caroline Forbes has ever been lost a single day in her life, but in that moment, she was. So, so lost.

Nik really does ruin everything, even that which he cares for the most.

Rebekah can't even begin to imagine what must've been going through that girl's head as she went all on her own to buy poison from a witch in a strange and hostile city where basically everyone was out to get her. Elijah will be so furious when he returns. And not just at Niklaus...

Rebekah never meant for Caroline to go out and put herself in danger, or to terminate the pregnancy, when she told her to run.

She stands by her advice, still thinks that the best place for Caroline to be is as far away from her family as possible, but if she had thought, even for a second, that her words would've led to this, she wouldn't have said it. Not like that, anyway. The girl was in desperate need of a friend, someone to offer her support and make her feel welcome and safe and instead Rebekah walked in and tore down everything Elijah tried to build in the short time Niklaus allowed him to breathe outside of a coffin.

She had been so angry - at Niklaus, at Elijah, at a thousand years of deceit and agony that never seem to end - that she didn't stop to think of how her words would resonate with someone who was already so confused. So it's her fault, too. Caroline had been hanging by a thread and Rebekah pushed her over the edge.

They're all cursed, the Mikaelsons. They destroy everything they touch. She can be as mad as she like at Niklaus, but the truth is... She's not much better than him. None of them are.

How unlucky of this miracle baby to have come to a family that has done nothing but smother light for a thousand years.

As if on cue, Rebekah hears the sound of soft footsteps approaching the back porch. Niklaus walks like the floor has wronged him terribly, so it can only be Caroline. She stops close to the door, hesitating for a second before pulling it open and taking a seat on the chair next to Rebekah's.

They stay in companionable silence for a while. Caroline has every reason to be mad at everyone in the family and yet she doesn't feel like it. Her presence is cool. Serene. Even after everything that happened today, she still has her mind in place, if only barely.

It makes Rebekah think that she never gave the girl the credit she deserved.

Rebekah can hear the second heartbeat inside of Caroline, tiny but as strong as ever, but she still has to ask. "You didn't take the poison, did you?"

"No," Caroline says, simply.

There's a pause, and then Rebekah says, "Nik gave Elijah to Marcel."

Caroline turns to face her, eyes wide in a mix of dread and disbelief. "What?"

"He said Marcel was getting antsy, suspicious with two Originals back in town. So he put a dagger through our brother's heart and gave him over to Marcel as a peace offering. It's all part of his grand plan, he says."

Caroline is quiet for a moment. "I knew Klaus was... complicated. But this is..." She trails off, shaking her head.

"Disgusting? Unacceptable? Unbearable?"

"It's like he's not the same person he was in Mystic Falls anymore. Or... He's gone back to being how he was when he first arrived. Like this city has messed up the little he'd managed to pull together."

"Don't fool yourself, darling. This is Nik's default, what he's always been like. That tamed version you fooled around with was the exception."

Caroline looks down, her expression pinched as she seems to retreat into a place inside her own head, mulling over what Rebekah just said.

Great, she thinks. Me and my big mouth again. Next thing she'll jump in front of a moving car.

"Look," Rebekah starts, waiting until she has Caroline's attention before continuing. "Nik says he doesn't want this baby, that he doesn't care about what happens to it. But the truth is... I think he might care too much, and it terrifies him. Nik doesn't handle emotions well. He's always at his worst when he's scared."

"Scared of what?"

Rebekah doesn't know what to tell her. To be honest, she isn't sure herself. Lord knows she's tried tirelessly for ten centuries to understand her brother's reasoning only to fall short every time. There is no telling what goes inside that deceptively beautiful head of his. All she knows is what she sees, and what she saw when she arrived at the Quarter to pick him up with the vampire bodies was someone shaking with the need for revenge. What she saw in his eyes when Caroline confessed what she'd been up to in the city was fear. Whatever that means, she doesn't know.

Caroline puts her hand inside her coat and pulls out three daggers. Three silver daggers.

"Oh my God," Rebekah gasps, her eyes going wide as she recognizes them. One of those spent decades at a time stuck in her chest. "Where did you get these?"

"I found it in your coffin," Caroline explains, giving them to Rebekah. "Yours, Kol's and Finns'. So the only one missing is the one currently with Elijah. Which means..."

"Nik doesn't have any more daggers."

Caroline smiles softly at her. "If this is all he had on you... Then there you go."

"Why are you giving them to me?"

Caroline shrugs. "I don't like the way your brother handles things around here. So I decided to change it."

Rebekah feels a sudden surge of appreciation for Caroline. She definitely didn't give her enough credit.

Now that Nik can't put her in a box again, she can go get Elijah back.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

There's a suite at the Palace Royale paid in advance under Klaus' name. He hasn't spent a single night there, only stopped by a couple of times, when he knew he was being followed. It would probably be easier for him to settle down at the hotel for the time being, considering he spends most of his time at the French Quarter anyway, but that would mean not seeing Caroline at all, and that just won't do.

Rationally, Klaus knows that would probably be the smartest thing to do. Marcel can't know about Caroline, about the baby she's expecting, and the best way to do that is to distance himself from her. The less crumbles leading back to the plantation, the better. But Klaus just can't do it.

He comes back every night, no matter what, shows up at odd moments throughout the day, sometimes to bring her things she's requested, sometimes just to make sure everything's in order. Duty and ambition takes him to the Quarter every day, but an even stronger force drives him home every night.

Every morning, before he leaves to start his daily pantomime of being seen around the Quarter just to placate Marcel's suspicions, Klaus stops by Caroline's room. He makes sure she's asleep, and uses all of his vampire stealth not to disturb her.

A brief look from the door is the closest he dares come to her, can only bring himself to do it when she doesn't know he's there. When he can't see the contempt in her eyes.

He can only leave the house once he knows she's all right. Safe. Resting. Not being plagued by nightmares likely starred by him. He wants the same as Elijah, for her to be as comfortable as possible in their family's home, and he thought the way to do it was by not forcing his presence upon her, letting her decide in her own time when it was appropriate to cut the distance short.

Apparently he was wrong.

He's been wrong about a good many things lately.

Klaus felt possessed as he scavenged the city after Caroline. He would ruin his cover and all his plans if he had to, he didn't care who he had to kill. He'd murder Marcellus himself if he dared to touch a single hair on her head.

With her life in danger, absolutely nothing else mattered.

An image of Caroline's dead body, ripped apart by vampire bites, drained of all her blood, her eyes blank and unseeing, was seared onto his mind. It opened a hole in his chest, made him want to roar in crazed anger. If she'd been harmed... If he'd been too late... There wouldn't be a single force in nature capable of restraining him. New Orleans would be no more.

He was awash with relief when he finally found her, alive and unscathed, ready to fight her attackers. So tough, his Caroline... They'd never take her easily. Actually, no — they'd never take her, period. She's strong, his little witch, and even from a distance he could see that she was possessed by her own kind of beast in that moment.

He would gladly let her take them out. It would serve them well to be punished by that which they underestimate. He always loved to see her in action, the way she commands her powers with such elegance, bending the forces of nature to her will, as though it's all an extension of herself. He was obliged to step in not because he didn't think she could take those men down, but because her magic would attract unwanted attention.

After the initial relief of finding her settled, in came the anger. At Caroline, for being foolish enough to think that a witch pregnant with a werewolf wouldn't raise any eyebrows in a city where both are preyed upon. At Rebekah, for leaving her alone. But most of all at himself, for letting this happen, for not paying enough attention, for not being as good as Elijah.

Klaus had yelled and raged at her because he couldn't do it at himself, but it's safe to say he blamed his own missteps more than anyone else's, and that just made him all the more frustrated.

He thought he had it under control, that he didn't need anything or anyone, least of all Elijah, to take back the city and make it safe for Caroline and her child. And yet how quick had everything escaped his grasp... How so very close to falling apart it all came...

If anything had happened to her, it would've been his fault. All his fault.

He spent the whole night in a futile attempt to bury his shame in a bottle of bourbon. All it did was unnerve him further. It didn't help that all he could think was that he wished Elijah was there. His big brother wouldn't have let it happen.

Elijah would never forsake Caroline as he had. And he would never let Klaus ruin things so drastically that she would feel her only way out would be to get rid of the baby, cutting all ties to his family - to him - once and for all.

More importantly, Elijah would know what to do now. He'd know how to fix this. How to apologize. Klaus has never learned how to do it, not in a thousand years. It's strange for someone like him, who's always wielded his words as the sharpest of weapons, to suddenly find himself so bereft of speech. So uncertain.

Even if his brother's eyes glowed with admiration whenever Caroline was around, even if her smiles lit up his face as though he were a child seeing snow for the first time, he would at least not let everything crumble this way.

Oh, what had he done...

As in every other day, when dawn finally breaks through the dark, Klaus stops by Caroline's room, quietly peeking inside. She's still asleep, so small in that enormous bed Elijah got for her, surrounded by pillows and soft duvets.

His brother, ever the gentleman, allowed her to choose her room before anyone else. She didn't pick the most luxurious or the one with the largest closet. She went for the one Klaus would've favored; the room with the largest windows. The light in there is perfect, especially at this hour. It bathes everything in a golden hue. Klaus flexes his fingers, wishing for a pencil and his sketchbook.

Even after such a long time, it still strikes him how beautiful Caroline is. Like this, peaceful and untroubled, under the warm sunlight seeping in through her windows, she looks like a Renascentist muse.

Perfect. Pure. And unattainable. To a monster such as himself, at least.

It reminds him of another sunny morning, not too long ago. Caroline asleep in his bed, tangled in his sheets, gloriously debauched. He remembers the sinful smile that graced her lips as she looked at him through heavy-lidded eyes that still sparkled with pleasure.

It filled Klaus with such lust, such hunger. He thought finally having her would cure him of his juvenile affections, of that warm feeling that possessed him like a force, plaguing his every moment, dominating his every thought. He thought he'd wanted her precisely because he couldn't have her, because she kept refusing him, making the pursuit all the more exciting.

He'd never been more mistaken before.

He wasn't prepared for the taste of her. For what having her in his arms, writhing underneath him, her nails digging deep into his back, would do to him. For how hearing his own name as a plea - as a prayer - on her lips would bring him completely undone.

Having her only made him crave her more, and it would never be enough. Caroline was an addiction.

It is in Klaus' nature to be restless, to always crave for more. He wants, that defines him. There was a very specific reason why he ended up in Mystic Falls, in the same woods where it had all began, a thousand years before, and it was never a part of his plan to stick around for so long. His ambitions were always much too great for such a tiny place. But in that one brilliant moment with Caroline he came to find something he had no idea he was looking for, something he never found anywhere else, never thought possible, not to him: peace. Balance. Completeness. His spirit was satiated. The turmoil in his head, such a constant companion, ceased; the beast that roars inside of him, quieted.

That, for one such as him, is a treasure greater than any spoils or riches or conquests. Of course it wouldn't have lasted, as it didn't; Klaus is much too volatile and restive for it to remain. But he keeps the memory close to his heart. It was happiness. A kind of happiness. And he wouldn't change it for nothing in this world; not for a crown, or a brand new doppelganger, or even an entire army of sired hybrids.

That was the day their child was conceived. Seems fitting that something miraculous would come out of such a wondrous moment, the only night they've ever spent together. There might've been others, but life got in the way. Silas. Graduation ("I'm head of three different committees!"). Elena Gilbert.

Then, before Klaus realized how much time had gone by, Caroline went missing, he got a letter demanding his presence in New Orleans and now here they are.

That night two months ago feels almost like a dream now. The only proof it was real is growing inside of Caroline.

That connection they shared, once so strong, so inevitable, is now shattered. Where there had been tenderness and desire now there's only resentment and animosity. The child changed everything. It's hard to share Elijah's enthusiasm when already things have deteriorated so drastically.

And yet, for some inexplicable reason, when Klaus heard her say with such vileness, such anguish, that she'd gone in search of something to kill it, it had felt as though being stabbed in the heart. Raw hurt spread across his chest, and suddenly he didn't know what else to say. To do. It was a feeling he could not understand.

He'd never wanted that child, then why was he so disappointed? Why was he so angry?

As he watches her sleep, it dawns on him that the source of his heartbreak might not have been the child at all. Ridding herself of the pregnancy would rid her of him as well. Would break the last frail cord connecting them. And through no fault of her own, she hadn't even felt like she could trust him enough to come to him for support.

No wonder she had grown so fond of Elijah so fast...

A faint familiar scent catches Klaus' attention, and he realizes it's coming from her purse, open on the edge of the bed. The last thing he should be doing now is going through her personal things, but it's almost stronger than him. He knows that scent; it prickles at his senses.

He finds is a small empty vial of an aconite flower concoction. Wolfsbane. Poison.

It brings a sour taste to his mouth.

"You don't have to go through my purse. Just ask." The sound of Caroline's hoarse voice, thick with sleep, startles him. He pulls his hand away, takes a step back, and when he looks at her, he finds her watching him through those same heavy-lidded eyes, except they're cold and calculating now, sharp as a knife. So different from the look she'd given him on that morning two months before...

"You're awake," he says, walking to the window, unable to hold her gaze for longer.

"I couldn't really sleep last night."

"Is it the heat? I can have air conditioners installed here."

"You know it's not the heat." After a brief pause, heavy with implications, she says, "I didn't use it."

He knows that much. The sound of the baby's strong heartbeat has been echoing inside his head since he stopped by the door. If she'd taken the herb, she would've miscarried by now. Klaus remembers the desperate women who used to line up outside his mother's door, begging for help to end undesired pregnancies. Aconite flower never failed the ones accidentally impregnated by their despised neighbors, the werewolves. He always wondered why his mother hadn't taken it herself. So much could've been avoided if she'd only made use of her own medicine.

He can't help but wonder the same of Caroline now.

"What stopped you?" he asks, still facing the luscious garden outside. Elijah had it manicured before they moved in, so Caroline would have a beautiful view from her window. Always so mindful, his brother. "You could've been free of all this... Of me."

He hears the sound of sheets rustling as she sits up. "Do you wish I had?"

Yes. No. Maybe. "I wish you'd told me."

"What would you have said?"

"I don't know," he replies, earnestly. "But we could've discussed it. Discussed your options."

She scoffs. "Because our communication has been so great. Yesterday was the most we've spoken to each other since I got here and it was basically all yelling. I barely even see you."

"I didn't think you wanted to see me."

"How would you know that if you don't even show your face?"

"I know you're mad at me."

"Damn right, I am!" she says, the beginning of real heat in her voice now. "You tell the witches that you don't care if they kill me and then simply disappear from sight? Like you owe me nothing? Not an explanation, or an apology, or even a freaking good morning?"

"You wouldn't even look at me, Caroline, I didn't think you wanted to hear anything I would have to say."

"If you mean your lame ass excuses, then you're right, I didn't. But you should've tried anyway, and taken everything I yelled back at you on the chin because you damn well deserve it. I didn't make this baby by myself, so it's your fault too that we're in this mess. No, actually - it's more your fault than mine. If anyone should've known of any complications from your hybrid transformation, it should've been you."

"And how was I supposed to know? My dear mother never left an instruction manual for something she never wanted me to achieve."

"Figure it out! And would you freaking look at me when I'm talking to you?"

Reluctantly, Klaus does. "Trust me, love. It wouldn't have happened if I'd known."

"But it did. And you can't force me to stay here, live under the same roof as you, and not own up to it. You either let me go, or you stop hiding."

"I'm not hiding. Marcellus doesn't know about this place. He thinks I'm staying at a hotel, and I'm doing my best to keep him convinced of it. I don't want him sending any of his nightwalkers to scout the area and end up learning more than he should."

"I don't care, Klaus. I don't care about Marcel. I don't care about New Orleans. All I care about is that I'm pregnant, all by myself in the middle of nowhere, while the father of my child refuses to even acknowledge my existence."

Klaus inhales the air in slowly. The truth sears, tastes like a bitter drink burning down his throat.

"I don't know how to do this," he admits in an uncharacteristically sheepish tone. "I know I have to bring down Marcel so the witches will let you go unharmed, and I'm doing it the only way I know how."

Something about Caroline's so far ironclad posture shifts, the hard shield in her gaze softening just a tad. "Do you think I know? I may be slightly better equipped for this than you, Klaus, for obvious reasons, but only barely. I have no idea what I'm doing here. I don't know how to handle myself. You're right, I am mad at you. Because you should've come to me by now, you should've reached out because you screwed up and I don't know how you can think that the way to fix it is by disappearing. I never know where you are, what you're doing, or even if you're coming back. You say you have all these plans on how to take down Marcel, but you don't tell me any of them. What do you expect me to do?"

"I've wanted to speak with you. But I... Didn't know where to start."

"How about with I'm sorry? 'I'm sorry, Caroline, that I told the witches to kill you and then fucked off.'"

Klaus' eyes flash. "I told you already, I was trying to keep you safe."

"That is not a fucking apology! You told them to kill me!" Caroline's voice escalates, all indignation now. "Well, genius. That's exactly what they were going to do. You haven't spent enough time around Sophie Deveraux. She's desperate. She doesn't care about dying anymore. If you tell her to murder me, that's exactly what she's going to do."

"How do you suppose I should've reacted, then? A thousand years on this earth and that was the first I ever heard of offsprings. Forgive me if I didn't find it easy to believe the witches."

"You think I would lie to you about this?"

"Not you. But they could've done something, tempered with your pregnancy tests, cast a spell to give you false symptoms. I thought if they believed they wouldn't be gaining anything from me by threatening you they would let you go. You're one of them, after all. I didn't think they'd hurt another witch."

"You and your family founded this city and you don't understand how the Quarter covens work? They're their own species, Klaus. I'm not one of them. My magic doesn't even come from the same source. They couldn't care less whether I live or die. Especially given the situation they're in."

"Well, then that would've been the last mistake they'd ever make because there wouldn't have been a single witch left in New Orleans to tell their sob story if they'd dared to harm you," he grits out.

Caroline looks away from him, down to her own lap. "You asked why I didn't go through with it. I wanted to. I was convinced that it was the right thing to do. The only thing to do. Not just for myself, but for the baby, too. We wouldn't exactly be parents of the year, and given the circumstances... I didn't want to bring a child into this. I sat there for hours with that poisonous tea in my hands. But I couldn't. Something stopped me. It wasn't reason, it wasn't logic... It was something else. And then, when those vampires showed up, I finally understood. I was ready to fight them to the bitter end, to kill every last one of them if I had to. Because they wanted to hurt my baby. I wasn't protecting myself, I was protecting... It. Right or wrong, I'd already taken the plunge. I'm gonna have this baby."

Klaus watches her studiously, the determined set of her jaw, the fire burning through the storm in her eyes. That's the Caroline he knows. The feisty girl who captivated him and made him chase her against all reason, against his own pride at times. She's still in there. Suspicious, scared, even hating him right now. But he hasn't broken her beyond repair, not yet.

"I realized later that I don't even know if taking the wolfsbane would've really freed me," she continues. "Maybe the witches would've still been able to use the link to hurt me, even kill me, just out of spite. But it would've freed you. If there's no baby, they got nothing on you. You could just... Do whatever you want. Kill Marcel. Take the city back by the end of the week."

"They would've had plenty on me if that connection could still hurt you," he says, softly. She seems surprised for a moment, almost like she thinks the only thing keeping him here, dancing to the witches' tune, is the child. Doesn't she know? Hasn't she realized it by now? "I understand you're upset, Caroline, about being confined in this house, but while you're here, you're safe. I can't work this plan out if I'm worried about you."

She rolls her eyes at him, slumping back against her pillows. "Pregnancy is not a disease, Klaus, and I'm not some damsel in distress."

"I'm well aware, love. And I fully trust you're perfectly capable of handling a couple of inconsequential vampires. But until we figure out how Marcel controls the use of magic, you'll never be safe. And I need to know that you are."

Caroline seems on the verge of a protest again, but ends up letting out a resigned sigh instead. He won't be able to keep her on the fringes for much longer. Caroline's spirit is just as restless as his. She needs projects and action and purpose to keep going, to feel alive. Trying to lock her out of the loop has proved to be a mistake. They'll need to find a common ground.

"We've been backed into a corner," he presses. "We were never given a choice. Now we have no option but to fight."

"It's kinda hard to get out of the corner when you can't use your best weapons."

His lips break into a smile, the first honest one in many days. "I'll fight for you. Just for now. You just have to worry about keeping the little wolf inside of you protected, I'll do the rest."

Caroline places a hand across her stomach, mindlessly, as though her arm moves out of its own will.

"What about Elijah?"

"What about him?"

"You have to get him back."

Klaus lets out an impatient sigh. "My affairs with my brother are my own."

"Not if I'm to live here, it's not. Your brother is the reason I'm still here, Klaus. He negotiated with the witches so they'd let me go. He chose this house for us. He convinced you to stick around -"

"Your point?"

"My point is that you can't just put a dagger through his heart and send him away like it's nothing. He is a part of this already. And then you lied to me about it. How could you look at me with such a straight face and tell me you had no idea where he was?"

"I didn't think you'd care."

She scoffs. "I was mad at him for leaving. Why wouldn't I care?"

Klaus' lips twist into a scowl. "You barely know Elijah."

"So? He was a friend to me, and I don't know if you've noticed, but I don't have many of those hanging around anymore."

A friend. She spent no more than a few days in his brother's company and already she speaks of him with such regard. Klaus doesn't need to get scolded by Caroline to know he made a hasty mistake in handing Elijah over to Marcel, but the fact she does makes him even bitterer.

"I'm being expected at the French Quarter," he says, drily, drawing a line under the conversation.

Before he can exit the room, she calls him again. "Elijah told me about you and Marcel. That you two were like family once. What happened?"

Klaus takes a deep breath. His history with Marcellus is yet another thorny relationship he finds himself in at the moment. That seems to be all there is these days.

"I made Marcel everything that he is," he starts, trying to find the simplest possible way to explain something that is so fundamentally complex. "I treated him like a son, and when my father chased me and my family from New Orleans a hundred years ago, we believed Marcel was killed. We each mourned him, in our own way. Yet when I returned, I found not only had he survived, he had thrived." He grinds his teeth, feeling a stab of anger again. "Instead of seeking us out, instead of sticking together as one, he made a choice to take everything my family built and make it his own. Now he is living in our home, sleeping in our beds. That M he stamps everywhere is not for Marcel; it's for Mikaelson. And I want it back. I want it all back."

Caroline stares at him, her gaze flat and speculative, but he can tell she doesn't like what she hears.

There isn't much to be done about it. He'll do whatever it takes to keep the mother of his child safe and honor the deal Elijah struck with the witches. But he will take Marcel down for himself. Because his apprentice has stolen something precious from him and it's only fair that he procures it back. New Orleans has once meant the world to Klaus, and he wants to be its king again.

Preferably with a queen by his side, but if not, he'll settle for having her under his protection. For now, anyway.

"I'll have someone see to the air conditioning," he says, before leaving her to her own thoughts.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"I want it back. I want it all back."

The thrum in Klaus' voice made Caroline shudder. For just a split second there, his eyes flashed yellow, and she got a glimpse of the monster within. The unstoppable Original hybrid. She has no doubt he'll get what he wants. If she were Marcel Gerard, she'd be well on her way to the other side of the Atlantic by now.

The problem is that she isn't sure she shouldn't be too.

It's hard to tell what is on his mind. Caroline prides herself on being excellent at reading people, but ever since she arrived in New Orleans, Klaus has been harder to crack than a black box. The fact he's kept his distance hasn't helped, but even now, staring straight into his eyes, she has no idea what he's thinking.

That his decision to stay in New Orleans has been strongly motivated by his burning desire for revenge against Marcel is obvious. But what are his plans for the baby?

He doesn't seem to want it at all, no fatherly instinct in him whatsoever. And yet... He seemed so hurt when she told him she wanted to get rid of it. So betrayed by the fact she'd made the decision without consulting him.

Mixed signals had never been a thing with Klaus. The man is blunt like a thump to the head, never shy about what he wants, however absurd or preposterous. And now all of a sudden he's incapable of being straightforward.

At least they're talking again, she guesses. At least they managed to exchange more than two words without trying to bite each other's heads off. That's progress. Some progress, anyway.

She's pulled out of her thoughts by the front door opening and slamming shut with a loud thud, and then Rebekah's shrill voice reverberating across the house. "Niklaus!"

Caroline jumps out of bed and follows the commotion, stopping at the top of the stairs.

"You were right," Rebekah tells her brother, sounding totally out of breath. "The girl, Cami. The bartender. She's the key. Marcel likes her."

"And? I already knew that."

"I barged in on their little date, threatened her a little bit and because he likes her, I got to see the secret weapon you've been going on about."

Klaus' stance shifts, his shoulders setting. "Well, don't stand on ceremony. What is it?"

"Not a what. A who. A girl. Davina. She can't be more than sixteen and I've never seen power like that."

"A witch."

That explains a lot, Caroline thinks. Marcel has been keeping a powerful witch prisoner and using her to sense whenever anyone does magic anywhere in New Orleans. It's possible, but it takes a hell of a lot of concentration and definitely a lot of power to be able to pull something like that off. For someone to be keeping it going for months on end and with such precision... It's astounding.

"She's not just a witch," Rebekah continues. "She's something I've never seen before, something beyond powerful. And now, because of you, she has Elijah! Who knows what she could do to him?!" Rebekah's voice escalates to a near shout, her eyes brimming with tears.

Caroline can't see Klaus' face from where she is, but she can picture the stonily fury. "Where is she?" he asks, low and grave.

Rebekah goes blank for a second, and then she snarls. "That clever little bitch. I don't know."

"What's wrong?"

"She wiped my memory of the location." She shakes her head, becoming more indignant as realization dawns on her. "Marcel possesses a weapon bigger and more powerful than an Original and you handed our brother to him! How many times will Elijah forgive you? How long until his hope for your redemption finally dies?"

"I did what I had to do!" Klaus snaps. "Marcel took everything from us! Even our home!'

"And our home is worthless without our family!" Rebekah takes a step closer to her brother, and her voice sounds dangerous as she says, "I am finding Elijah and I'm getting him back. Whatever it takes. Will you help me or will you stand in my way?"

There's a pause. Caroline's fingers close in a white-knuckled grip around the bannister on the staircase, her heart hammering against her ribcage as she waits for Klaus' response. This could be the moment when he declares war on the last family he has standing.

But then he puts a hand on his sister's shoulder. "Whatever it takes," he grits out, and Caroline isn't the only one who lets out a relieved breath.

Undoing Klaus' mistake will be difficult enough with him on their side. But without Klaus, it would be damn near impossible.

So that's it, then. They're getting Elijah back.

TBC

---

The response to this story has been absolutely incredible so far. I did not expect it to do as well as it did, considering what it's about. I was in a very bad place writing-wise, almost giving up on fandom altogether, when coveredinthecolors convinced me to post this. I cannot thank you guys enough for the support and the really sweet and thoughtful messages and comments I received. The bar has been raised, but I hope you'll enjoy this chapter and the next ones as well. So THANK YOU, so so so much! Your feedback is very much appreciated and I cannot tell you how much it motivates me to keep going at this point.