Andy did her level best to ignore the pressure building behind her eyes as she swept the floor of the bar. Her shift was almost over, and the night rush would be starting soon. This place needed to be as clean as possible before it got messy again.

Rough hands cradle her - nope. Absolutely not. There would be none of that.

Suppressing her visions was already difficult enough, but the Impressions were a whole different ball game to contend with. They were haunting her every minute of the day, offering her tantalizing flashes of a future that could be hers if she would just pursue it.

In Andy's weaker moments, she almost gave into the temptation of Seeing who her mate was, but she knew she couldn't.

She just needed to remind herself that the risk was far too great to pursue anything.

Andy winced as a vision broke through, but thankfully it wasn't an Impression.

Her coworker was going to clock in right about…

"Hey girl."

Andy smiled as she put the broom away.

"Hi Celia. You ready for the surge?"

"I always am. Did you get a boyfriend or something, by the way?"

Andy's eyebrows rose at that question. "Why do you ask?"

Celia pointed her thumb at the doorway. "There's a guy named Elijah waiting for you. You want me to cover for you? I'll tell him to fuck off if he's a creep."

Andy's smile froze on her face and a mixture of anger and anxiety that she could only describe as profoundly weird rose in her chest.

Okay, she understood that she owed him, but waiting for her at work? Not cool. So not cool.

The words that came out of her mouth did nothing to reveal her disquiet, though.

"Oh, Elijah? Nah, he probably just wanted to surprise me."

One of the suckier parts of being an Oracle was that she couldn't lie for shit, but as a consequence she could dance around the truth with the best of them. Especially if deceiving Celia meant that her coworker wouldn't start shit with an Original.

Andy clocked out without further aplomb and let a goodbye float over her shoulder as she headed out the door to give Elijah Mikaelson a piece of her mind.

She shielded her eyes against the afternoon sun as she pushed open the doors to find Elijah waiting patiently outside, somehow not looking out of place in front of a dingy bar despite wearing a suit that cost more than her monthly paycheck.

"I get that I owe you and all, but showing up at my job is so not cool."

He looked completely unmoved by her anger. The utter bastard.

"I attempted to call you, but your phone went to voice message."

That almost took the wind out of Andy's sails, because oops that was 100% on her, but she wouldn't let go of it that easily.

"I'm sure you have better things to do than show up in person."

"I do not have anything better to do. In fact, I consider keeping my allies safe to be of the utmost importance. The city has grown dangerous as of late."

Andy's annoyance abated somewhat as she reconsidered the vampire in front of her. He didn't presume that she would See him or his phone call or that she would See any danger in advance.

It was funny, in a fucked up way, that a vampire that only needed her for her Sight gave her more consideration than her own family had.

Andy sighed, and decided to let it - and the snarky comment on the tip of her tongue - go completely.

"Fine. What do you want?"

Elijah gave a little half smile, showing an actual emotion for the first time since the conversation had started. He seemed rather attached to those half-expressions, Andy thought.

"I would like to walk you to your home and discuss a time for another vision."

That was how Andy, despite her better judgment, found herself being escorted home by an Original Vampire. And to her chagrin, said vampire wasn't terrible company. She might even go so far as to say that he was good company.

At first they only spoke about hashing out a time for her next 'consultation' - the upcoming Friday evening - but then the conversation drifted to other less business-like matters.

"So what brings you here?" She gestured to their surroundings of old buildings and worn-down pavements. "It's boring as hell."

This was completely against her creed of not asking questions, but Andy really was curious. She had chosen this place specifically for its lack of any sizable supernatural community, so why was the very definition of supernatural here now?

And more importantly, would she need to move again? Something like an Original left waves, whether they wanted to or not, and Andy wanted to know if she needed to get the hell out of dodge.

Searching the future would be of no use here. She could already tell that things were too nebulous for any true clarity.

Elijah looked down on her, seemingly amused. Maybe. She didn't know him well enough to read his little micro-expressions and she wasn't going to cheat with her Sight.

"I find this place to be the opposite of boring. You, for example, are quite interesting."

Andy's heart rate kicked up a few notches and her unlikely companion's bearing became very…intense. In what way, she didn't know, and she didn't think she wanted to find out.

Her eyes began to ache as she thought that. A sign of an impending vision.

She let out a nervous laugh. "You're not gonna find anything spectacular in me."

Andy was being perfectly honest, too. Aside from the Oracle thing, there was nothing outstanding about her. And to be perfectly frank, she quite liked being unremarkable.

"I find myself doubting that."

Andy welcomed the vision that came upon her then, if only to avoid coming up with a response to that.

Four people, no vampires, bearing rings of lapis lazuli waiting on a rooftop overlooking a familiar part of the city. The part by Andy's apartment.

"We'll wait until she gets home and then take her."

Another vampire, the shortest in the group, spoke.

"How rough can we be?"

The first speaker, the sole female of the group, responded.

"Cassandra wanted her not permanently harmed. Other than that it's free game."

The shock of hearing her sister's name jolted Andy out of the vision. As it began to fade, she looked at the watch resting on one of the vampire's wrists. 6:37.

Andy snapped back to the present. She was under the awning of one of the shops lining the streets. Eliah was waiting patiently a few feet away from her.

"What time is it?"

Elijah checked his phone, unperturbed by her question.

"6:27."

Andy ran a hand through her hair, mind whirling. There was no way she could take four vampires by herself, but if she asked for help she would be even further in debt to Elijah.

But she'd rather deal with him than go back to Cassandra. Andy loved her sister, even after their estrangement, but she knew that they were far better off living separate lives.

She knew why Cassandra wanted her. For her Sight. But she also knew that she wouldn't be strong enough to walk away from her own blood a second time.

Which meant that she needed Elijah's help, even if she would have to continue doing the very thing she was trying to avoid to get it.

Andy spoke in a bare whisper. She didn't know where those four vampires were at this moment, after all.

"There's going to be four vampires outside my house by the time we get there."

She didn't look at Elijah as she kept talking.

"I can't take care of them on my own. I'll give you four more visions if you…"

Her voice trailed off before she finished her sentence.

Maybe she should just go back to Cassandra. Better the devil you know, right? Because she'd keep sending people. And that meant that Andy would either have to live on the run, or keep asking for help, which would put her in the exact situation she was trying to avoid being in again.

"That's not necessary."

Andy looked up at Elijah in surprise.

She was practically offering him all the information in the world on a silver platter, and he was denying it? Why?

"You are one of my allies, and that means I will keep you safe, if it is within my power. No renegotiation needed."

Something about the first part of the statement sounded…off to Andy, but the declaration of protection did not.

She wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, not when she could already feel her own panic residing.

"Thank you."

The words were tinged with desperation to her own ears. She could only hope that Elijah didn't pick up on it.

They walked the rest of the way in silence, slowing only when they got near her apartment complex.

She checked the time on her phone. 6:28.

That meant that the quartet of vampires were definitely here. And probably surprised that she wasn't alone.

She saw Elijah cock his head slightly, as if listening for something. She didn't know what he could hear, but, by the completely emotionless demeanor he'd adopted, he probably didn't like it.

Andy risked a glance into the present for a split second, "- should leave for now, this bitch isn't -" and spoke, for the benefit of the audience.

"I was going to go out and get some food in an hour. You wanna come with?"

She needed the four to think that they'd have another window of opportunity to strike. Andy figured that Elijah would have no problem hunting them down if they decided to leave, but she may as well make it easier on him. Especially since he was making this whole situation much easier on her to his own detriment.

Elijah picked up on the deception, like Andy knew he would. He had to be smart to survive for as long as he had, and that was something she'd never ask someone she barely knew.

Elijah barely knew her, but Andy was sure he had that much about her personality figured out.

"No, I have some business to get to."

Andy smiled as she felt the future lock into place. The four would stay.

Elijah obviously remembered the way to her apartment even though he had only been there once, and he even politely waited while Andy fumbled with her keys and got her stubborn door to open.

He could see into her apartment, even if he couldn't enter. It was full of worn, second-hand furniture. There was a small kitchenette, a table and one folding chair, and an old sofa. A book shelf rested against the wall by an old, but obviously well cared for, upright piano.

It wasn't much, but it was all she needed.

Andy wondered, for a moment, what Elijah thought of it. It was no million dollar penthouse.

But there wasn't a hint of judgment on his face. If anything there was just curiosity, maybe? She didn't know him well enough to say.

All she really knew was that of all the people in the world that she could owe a debt to, she was content with it being him.

She no longer thought that he would take more than she was willing to give.

"Have a good evening, Andromeda. I'll see you tomorrow."

Andy stepped through her doorway, and gave the vampire beyond it a dubious look.

"Are you gonna barge into my job again if I don't have my phone on?"

He gave that smug little half-smirk of his.

"I'll let it be a surprise."

Andy very maturely made a face at his receding figure, charmed despite herself, and closed the door.

The tension she had been carrying ever since she had Seen those vampires drained, now that she was safe beyond her threshold.

She deliberately avoided giving into her curiosity about what Elijah was going to do to them. They would die. She didn't need a blow by blow account of it in her head

Andy's feet automatically carried her to the medicine cabinet, where she kept an array of painkillers, but she stopped midway there when she realized that her head didn't hurt.

In fact, her head hadn't been hurting since she got off work. Her eyes hadn't ached with breakthrough visions. She hadn't needed to suppress her Sight.

During that walk home with Elijah she'd had peace. There was no past trying to consume her, no present trying to overcome her, and no future trying to claw its way into her head.

The only thing Andy had Seen was of vital importance. And the only vision she'd had after that was one she had wanted to See.

She hadn't had to fend off a vision of a potter from some thousand years ago deciding which paint could be used, or a vision of some highschool girl in the now trying to figure out what to wear on a date, or of the numerous ways that some frat boys impending party could go.

There had been no unimportant moments that stole into her mind and threaded to push her to the brink of madness.

Just blissful peace.

…It was just a fluke. It had to be. It had to be.