The next day arrived, Elena woke up feeling nervous, she had to call Bonnie today for the first time in months, she didn't know what to expect from her, she left without saying goodbye and hadn't even sent her a text. Although a part of her was excited to hear her voice, she was still more nervous than anything else.

She was pacing around the kitchen, she'd already had her 3rd cup of coffee and it was barely 11am, that definitely didn't help the nerves; Klaus was standing leaning against a kitchen counter and the others where sat at the table.

"Just make the call, Elena, you're making me dizzy," Rebekah smirked slightly.

"Fine," she responded, her phone was already unlocked and in her hand, she tapped in Bonnie's number, she memorised it years ago, it was hard not too when you where constantly talking, she hit 'dial', pressed the phone to her ear and it began ringing.

"Hello?" Bonnie spoke on the other end of the phone.

Elena froze for a long moment, her eyes widened as she looked at Klaus, she didn't know what to say, this wasn't an easy situation and she couldn't be casual with her anymore.

"Hello? Who is this?"

"Bonnie.." Elena spoke in a low voice, her nerves getting the best of her.

"...Elena? Is that you?" Her voice started to sound slightly frantic.

Elena looked around the room and smiled towards Klaus before exiting the kitchen; hoping for a bit of privacy, she went out front, "it's me, Bonnie, I'm sorry to just call you out of the blue like this."

"Oh my god, Elena, I've been so worried about you, where are you? Are you safe?" Bonnie was frantic and somewhat relieved to hear from her missing best friend, the incoming 20 questions she had anticipated where a sign of ow happy she was to hear from Elena.

"You can't tell anyone I'm calling, Bon, the least people who know where I am the better but I'm in New Orleans and I'm doing okay," she sat down on the front porch, trying to contain her whirlwind of emotions.

"Why are you in New Orleans? Is that where Klaus took you? Im going to kill him, I'm coming to get you and bring you home."

"I live here now, with Klaus and the rest of the original family, there's so much you don't know, you're going to think i'm crazy."

"You live there? With the thousand year old vampires who kidnapped you and tried to kill us all? What?"

"I can't explain over the phone but that's why I'm calling, I need your help."

"I'll be there tonight."

"Thank you, Bon, I've missed you so much, I can't wait to see you."

"I've missed you too, Elena, I'll pack right away."

"I'll text you the travel information, see you tonight."

"And you're telling me everything, got it?"

"Got it."

They both hung up the phone and Elena remained seated outside for a few minutes, replaying the conversation over in her head, she was slightly surprised by how calm Bonnie was, she thought she'd be mad but she just assumed that would come later; she went back inside the mansion, the whole family where patiently sat at the table, eager to hear the news.

"She's coming tonight," a small smile curled up on her lips, a bit of normality would be nice and seeing her best friend would give her that.

"I'll arrange the travel," Klaus spoke, before standing from the chair and walking towards Elena, he placed his arm around her shoulder and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek, "I'm glad she's coming, you seem happy."

"Thank you," she held onto his hand for a long moment before he left the room, making all the preparations for Bonnie's departure and arrival in New Orleans.

She sat down at the table beside Rebekah and facing Elijah and Kol, she had a giddy smile plastered across her face, "I can't believe she's coming."

"It'll be fun, we'll have a girls night," Rebekah spoke excitedly, "I'm sure there's plenty to talk about, I often wonder how Matt is doing."

"Girls night sounds like fun, I don't want to overload her with information about The Order, we have 5 days until the full moon and it's been pretty quiet, we have time to figure that out," Elena said, more than happy to accommodate Rebekah with a girls night.

"I'm rather looking forward to seeing the Bennett witch myself," Kol smirked amusingly.

"And on to my next point," she turned her head to face Kol and her voice turned to serious, "I need everyone to be on there best behaviour, especially you Kol, no taunting her, she's family, so keep the sarcastic vampire in you at bay."

"Yes, mistress," Elena just rolled her eyes at his words, he found his comments laughable and she couldn't help but let a chuckle escape.

"Please, Kol? For me?" She emphasised, letting her words turn innocent and coy; she batted her eyelashes and tilted her head towards him.

"Anything for the lovely Elena," he smiled playfully, "but you owe me one, it's not easy being even more charming than I already am, especially without my quirks."

"Fine but even one inappropriate comment and I'll torture you for a month," she quipped, a small smirk on her lips.

"Deal," they both laughed it off, she loved her relationship with Kol, they got along better than she thought they would have.

"We should get her a room ready," Elena turned to Rebekah, "there's plenty of them here."

"Great idea, let's go," Rebekah agreed before they both stood from there chairs and exited the kitchen, scurrying through the house until they found a room that would be suitable; it was down the hall from Klaus and Elena's room and even further away from the rest of the family, she had privacy and she didn't have to listen to the family after dark.

It was dusty and the furniture was still covered, Elena and Rebekah got to work on sprucing it up; they vacuumed, dusted and wiped down the furniture, Rebekah steamed the mattress and the sofa and Elena made the bed with fresh linen and steamed the carpet.

It took them a couple of hours to get it perfect but they had fun, they listened to some music, had a chat and a laugh, the time flew by quicker than they thought it would and it was all ready for Bonnie's arrival, a few last minute cushion fluffing and window wiping and Elena was satisfied.

They went back downstairs and into the kitchen, Elena took a bottle of water from the refrigerator and guzzled half of the bottle, Rebekah done the same.

"So, everything's ready, what do we do now?" Elena asked, the boredom overcoming her, "I should get a job or something, lazing about the mansion all day is starting to become boring."

"We shouldn't go out, not before Bonnie gets here, we shouldn't draw any unwanted attention to us," Rebekah was being the smart one for a change, she was usually always up for an afternoon out.

"I guess we'll just have to wait until everyone comes back," Elena shrugged her shoulders, looking out the window above the kitchen sink, "I could laze in the sun for a while."

-w-

A few hours had passed and according to the flight information, Bonnie should be arriving in a couple of hours; Elena was getting ready to meet her at the airport, she wanted to go alone but Klaus wouldn't allow it, not with everything going on with The Order.

Elena argued it probably wouldn't be best if the first person she saw was the murderous hybrid who wreaked havoc in Mystic Falls for a while, they where at a crossroads; in the end, they agreed Elijah was the best bet, he had only betrayed her once and she moved past it, he tended not to involve himself in the affairs of his brother and he very rarely hurt someone unless he had too.

They set off for the airport, Elijah drove and Elena sat beside him in the passenger seat, she out the radio on low for background noise and watched out the front window as he drove.

"Are you nervous?" Elijah asked, his gaze briefly flickered to Elena's before returning his attention to the road, "I can heart your heartbeat, if you're not nervous, I suggest we find a hospital."

Elena laughed slightly, thankful for the distraction, "yes, I'm nervous, I haven't seen her in months, she doesn't know anything about Klaus or the life I live now, she's going to freak."

"If she wasn't willing to hear you out, she wouldn't come," Elijah spoke, his voice was warm and he always knew exactly what to say to her to make her feel better, "try not to worry, everything will be quite alright."

"I guess you're right, she's my best friend, I'm happy to see her," a small smile curled up on her lips, "thanks, Elijah."

After a short drive, they had arrived, Elijah stayed in the car whilst Elena went inside the airport; she waited in the lobby, the flight was due to land any moment. She just watched all the tourists walking past her, they all seem excited to be on holiday in New Orleans but Elena knew the truth about the city, although the constant party was fun, the supernatural trouble that lurked in the shadows wouldn't be.

She couldn't help but think that they where all going to be here during the battle with The Order and how they where none the wiser, it was disconcerting for her; she was snapped back to reality by the plane landing and the door opening, people started walking out, Elena stood on her tiptoes to try and spot Bonnie.

Then she saw her, a wide grin appeared on her lips and she walked towards her, "Bonnie!"

"Elena!" they where both shrieking and hugging in excitement, she couldn't believe how long she hadn't seen her for, the gossiping and talking began almost instantaneously. Elena took one of the two bags she was carrying and they both began walking out of the airport.

"How's Jeremy?" Elena asked, a small smile on her face.

"He's good, doing well in school, we got back together and he's been living with Alaric still," Bonnie explained, as they both exited the airport and approached the car.

"That's amazing news, I always knew he had it in him and I'm glad you two could work it out," she was genuinely happy to receive the news but a small part of her couldn't help but feel guilty for bringing all the vampire trouble to Mystic Falls, the true curse of the doppelgänger.

"And Caroline? How's she doing?" She asked, as she opened the boot and loaded in her bag, Bonnie doing the same.

"All good, she's still dating Tyler but she hasn't seen him in a while," Bonnie spoke as Elena closed the boot.

"Oh god, I forgot about that," she spoke quietly.

"You mean how Klaus has threatened to hunt him down and kill him?"

"Yep, that! I'll talk to him, he'll come around," she smiled, offering help wherever she could.

"It's still so crazy how you're living here with them all, I don't understand it," Bonnie spoke confusingly.

"And one of them is here right now, Elijah drove me, he's in the front," Elena grinned innocently, Bonnie just rolled her eyes and laughed, they both walked to either side of the car and climbed into the back together.

"Hey, Elijah," Bonnie spoke wearily, unsure about how to act around the original vampires, she still had a lot of pent up anger towards them but for the sake of her best friend, she was going to try.

"Miss. Bennett, it's good to see you again, I hope you"re flight wasn't to tedious," he spoke, as gentleman as he could, Elena smiled towards him and he caught it in the rear view mirror.

"It was fine, quicker than I thought," Bonnie glanced between Elijah and Elena, her discomfort growing.

"That's good to hear," Elijah started the car and they took off, the two girls just continued to talk away, mostly filling Elena in on everything she had missed in Mystic Falls, Elena wanted to wait until they where alone to catch her up on her life events, they needed the privacy.

Once they arrived back at the mansion, Bonnie was in shock at the size of the place, "now I know why I didn't need to stay in a hotel."

"You know, I technically own this place," Elena spoke, a small chuckle escaping her lips.

"What?" Bonnie exclaimed, "how?"

"Elijah put me on the deed," they both turned there gaze to the original vampire, he was grabbing the two bags from the boot and locking the car up.

"She is correct, this does technically belong to her but it's a family house, we lived here centuries ago," he explained, a small smirk appearing on his lips.

"But still mine," she mused, both of them giggling away.

"Elijah, do you mind if me and Bonnie have a few minutes alone out here? I want to talk to her before we go in."

"Of course, I'll be inside if you need me," he took the bags.

"Thanks, Elijah," they both looked at each other with kind eyes and a smile, before he walked into the plantation, closing the door behind him. Elena took Bonnie a short distance away from the house as to avoid vampiric hearing.

"So, now you're going to tell me what's going on, right?" Bonnie asked, her curiosity piqued.

"Where do I begin..." she paused for a long moment, she didn't want to overwhelm her best friend but she couldn't keep things from her either, "the night Klaus took me from Mystic Falls, it was apparently just for my blood to make hybrids and keep me safe but then Damon woke up Mikael and we made a deal, if I stuck around, kept giving him blood, he wouldn't hurt anyone I love, I obviously took the deal, we killed Mikael and Esther, which triggered the awakening of an ancient magical cult called The Order who are hellbent on killing everything supernatural so they can bring forth utopia."

Bonnie was speechless, she couldn't process any of the information given to her; Elena noticed how overwhelmed she was becoming and decided to wait before filling in the rest of the details.

"I don't even know what to say," she finally said something but her brain was firing.

"Are you ready for the rest or do you need a minute?"

"Tell me everything, leave no small detail," she mentally prepared herself for flood of information Elena was going to give her, it shocked her how much had changed for her in such a short time.

"After we killed Mikael, Klaus reunited his family and they're all together now, except Finn, who he killed for trying to hurt me."

"So, Kol and Rebekah are in there as well?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Yep, the whole family, we're all good friends now actually and then there's Elijah, we're really close, I look to him for a lot, he's always there for me."

"And Klaus?"

Elena paused for a long moment, this was the part she was nervous about, her reaction to the news, "we're together."

"What?" She exclaimed loudly, her lips still parted from shock, "you know who Klaus is, right?"

"I know him better than anyone, he's not the same person he was in Mystic Falls, promise me you'll at least try to get to know him? I love him."

"Oh, Elena," Bonnie pressed her hand to her face, a small chuckle escaping her lips, "only you could fall in love with the thousand year old hybrid."

Elena couldn't help but laugh also, it was nice to see it from a different perspective, she had spent so long with the original family that she had meshed too much in there way of thinking and living, she needed to remember sometimes that she's just a normal girl. She wrapped her arms around Bonnie and pulled her into a tight embrace, "I've missed you."

"I've missed you too," Bonnie held onto her for a few long moments before they separated, "shall we get this over with then?"

"Let's!" They both walked back towards the plantation, Elena unlocked the door and they both stepped inside, Rebekah was in the hallway waiting for them both to enter, she was excited to have another girl in the house.

"Oh yeah, I forgot, girls night tonight," Elena spoke quickly with a wide and innocent grin plastered on her face before Rebekah jumped on Bonnie and gave her a hug.

"It's good to see you again, Bonnie," Rebekah spoke kindly, before she released Bonnie from her hug; Bonnie just smiled awkwardly as they all walked into the living room to join the others, Elijah and Klaus where stood by the fireplace and Kol was sat on the sofa.

"Ah, Bonnie," Klaus spoke, before approaching her, "thank you for coming so quickly."

"Anything for Elena," she spoke, her eyes piercing him like daggers, everything Klaus had done was still fresh in her memory, she wasn't going to be too quick to forget but she was going to try for Elena.

"Of course," Klaus smiled before returning to fireplace, his arm resting on the marble surround.

"You must be Kol," Bonnie said as she turned to face him, he stood from the sofa and extended his arm towards her, she took his hand and shook it.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet the all powerful Bennett witch that almost killed my brother," he spoke, antagonising Klaus, much to Bonnie's surprise, he just rolled his eyes at his comment instead of threading him with death or attacking.

They all sat around the sofa and chairs for a short while whilst they reacquainted, Elijah and Rebekah where more than happy to accommodate Bonnie and Kol took heed in Elena's warning to not antagonise her and it was going well, Klaus was putting in the most effort, something which Elena was incredibly happy about.

They got her completely up to date on New Orleans and everything that was happening within it, from Marcel running the quarter to Davina and the harvest and all the way to the Order, she was in shock with information overload but she was handling it well, in fact, she was just happy to see her best friend, considering she was missing or dead, under the circumstances she was relieved.

"So we have 5 days to come up with a plan to kill The Order?" Bonnie started, trying to figure it all out, "but we can't be caught trying to plot against them or they'll take Elena again and hold you all hostage?"

"Yes, exactly," Klaus answered.

"They shouldn't know I'm here, if you still have your mums grimoires, I should be able to translate them and see what spell she used last time, maybe do a re-write to make there deaths more permanent," her mind was firing away, she wanted to help them so Elena could live a normal life, even if it was here.

"The grimoires are in my study and they're at you're disposal," Elijah responded, "hopefully there is something in there that will destroy them all."

"That's my best guess," Bonnie spoke.

"We'll start tomorrow, it's already late and I'm guessing you two girls have some catching up to do," Klaus smiled towards them both, before leaning down and giving Elena a kiss on the cheek, "have fun."

Kol and Elijah said there good nights and went on there way also, all that was left was Rebekah, she sat with the two girls, a wide grin appearing on her face, "so, girls night?"

Elena and Bonnie quickly glanced at each other, a sheepish grin appearing on both of there lips, Bonnie just nodded her head, "sure, why not?"

"But we're not going out and we're not going to nuts, we're just going to have a nice and quiet night in, we're exhausted," Elena interjected before Rebekah got too excited.

"Sounds good," Rebekah agreed, "if we're not going too wild, what shall we drink? Scotch will have us in Rousseau's by 10pm."

"How about we just have a glass of wine and talk?" Elena spoke, her and Bonnie laughed slightly but they all agreed; Rebekah fetched a bottle of red and three glasses and they all sat on the floor in front of the fire.

"So, tell me us what's going on in Mystic Falls, how's Matt?" Rebekah asked, not too subtly; both girls laughed at her words.

"It's all pretty much the same except there isn't too much supernatural trouble, I'm with Jeremy, Caroline is actually with Stefan, I don't know how that happened and Damon is Damon, we go to school everyday, every now and then a vampire tries to cut through town so we take him out, pretty normal at the moment," Bonnie explained.

"Caroline and Stefan?" Rebekah exclaimed, her lips parting slightly.

"Are they happy?" Elena asked, her voice a tone lower than usual.

"Yeah, they're doing well," Bonnie responded, a sympathetic smile appearing on her lips.

"Then I'm happy for them! They deserve to be together," Elena smiled, she didn't feel any sadness towards there relationship, she was happy with her new life and she only wanted the best for her friends.

"Seriously? That's all the news?" Rebekah sounded quite disappointed, "Mystic Falls is usually more interesting than that."

"I guess all the interesting parts left with you," Bonnie spoke to Rebekah, a small smirk curling up on her lips, "don't get me wrong, there's still some stuff that goes on but it's bearable."

"I'm just glad it's all calmed down, I'm sorry I dragged you into all this mess, Bon," Elena spoke, placing her hand on Bonnies.

"Don't be, I was happy to hear from you, it's been months."

"I know, i'm sorry for disappearing like that."

"You didn't disappear, you where taken and then you fell in love with your kidnapper," Bonnie mused slightly, Elena just chuckled awkwardly.

"When you put it like that," all three laughed for a minute before Elena took a large sip of wine, "I can't help it, once you get past the bad, there's a whole lot of good there, his heart is kind."

"All that matters is that you're happy," Bonnie spoke, "and that he's treating you right."

"Everything is perfect."

The three of them continued to talk until the early hours of the morning, they had caught up on everything; by the time they had finished the three bottles of wine Rebekah had offered, they where all laughing and forgetting all there past indiscretions, Elena saw hope for a relationship between the three of them in the future; it was important to her, Bonnie will always be her best friend but Rebekah was really close to her too, all she wanted now was for the rest of the family to be the same.