Mikaelson Mansion
November 19, 2010
Two days until the full moon

"Yes! This is exactly what I've needed," Katherine muttered, feeling rather victorious about her unexpected but still otherwise pleasing discovery.

Katherine retrieved her prize, placing the pint-sized bag of her coveted AB positive blood type from the fridge, before setting it on the countertop then still savoring in her recent win, she turned to look for something healthy to eat along with the tasty meal to come. Her mouth was almost salivating at the exquisite taste to come as anticipation built.

There was just something about the AB positive blood type she found so appealing. Unknowingly Dr. Karl Landsteiner had finally discovered the reason why her kind preferred the taste of certain humans' blood over others, not that she needed to worry about such mundane things. Still she had to give Klaus some amount of credit for the quality of labour he hired to routinely donate blood or cooked all the meals for everyone on the family estate.

It had actually surprised her to discover that particular facet of information from none other than Elijah himself. Out of all of the Original Family, she preferred him the most. Everyone else thankfully ignored her, not that she wanted to interact with them anyway, unless she was ordered to do so.

She'd privately hoped that Sage would be able to help her get out of this situation, but since her reunion with her lover things had changed for the worse. The Noble Original had informed her that while the humans working at the estate were compelled to keep them from overreacting to everything with respect to the supernatural around them, they were all being financially compensated for their services to the Mikaelson Family.

She managed to close the door to the refrigerator before turning around to place the items she scrounged on to the countertop when she pressed herself into the recently closed door. It was a miracle she hadn't dropped anything.

"What's the matter, Love?" Klaus asked far too casually, for Katherine's liking. It then surprised her that he was of all things holding an infant in his arms and to her continued growing shock seemed to be enamoured with the tiny face staring back at him.

"N… Nothing," Katherine murmured. By the way, his eyes shifted to her blood bag, and other food sundries, she knew he had heard her. She desperately wanted to make her escape back to her only sanctuary in this place, her room suite.

She still didn't fully understand, why Klaus hadn't already confined her in the dungeon yet. Not that he felt so inclined to tell her. Although she had done her best to appear nonchalant while being in his mere presence, after every encounter, she had troubling nightmares afterwards.

"Have you been the one, who has been partaking in all my favorite blood types? Here I was starting to think, it was my little brother doing it, just to annoy me." Klaus asked, and then he did something she would never associate with her nemesis. He actually made baby sounds directed towards the child still in his protective arms.

"Actually, this is the first bag of AB positive I've seen since, I was compelled to stay. I should know, since I've been forbidden to feed directly from any of the humans arrayed here." Katherine said rather defensively, but only after she collected herself to respond to his implied rebuke.

When she had first encountered Niklaus and Elijah back in England their brother Kol and Rebekah hadn't been around. Which, in retrospect was probably a good thing, since she hadn't found what she learned about them any better over the centuries.

"Hmm… I guess it seems. I will need to speak to your Uncle Kol then isn't that right Astrid?" Klaus said in a way that truly disturbed Katherine hearing it come from him. If that wasn't bad enough, to witness him shifting his weight from one foot to another, rocking the child, was just too much.

Katherine blinked when she realized that he was talking to the baby Astrid too, and all but ignoring her. For once in her life, she was conflicted about how she should feel about it. On one hand Klaus was distracted, but on the other she was being upstaged by a helpless infant. Picking up her things, she moved to leave, but Klaus was blocking her exit seemingly oblivious to her continued existence.

"Excuse me, Klaus."

"You're excused. Katerina," he answered, but didn't even look up at her or move enough to let her pass.

She was about to point that particular detail out when they were both interrupted. "Nik, she can't get around you with you blocking her way. Please don't be what's that word… A jurk?" Tatia said, but frowned when despite herself Katherine laughed aloud at her mispronunciation.

"I think you mean a jerk," Katherine explained, but only after Klaus shot her with a threatening glare.

"Yes… Thank you. Nik, don't be a jerk!" Tatia corrected, and she quickly added before Klaus could respond. She leaned closer and then pecked him softly on the side of his jawline.

"Besides, I believe little Astrid isn't going to stay silent for much longer." Tatia continued in a more soothing tone but stopped when the sharp, hungry cry of a child joined the fray. "Nor, it seems is her older brother, content to wait either."

Klaus seemed torn between lashing out at Katherine and surrendering to the needful cries of two helpless infants. To her own surprise she watched stunned, when still holding the tiny infant, he backed away, giving her a chance to escape from whatever was going to happen.

Tatia smiled weakly at her Doppelgänger descendant as she passed on her way back to her room. On her way, she could still hear the Original Hybrid and her ancestor continue their discussion.

"Nik, do you think that this plan of hers will work? I mean-"

"It will, trust me," Katherine heard the hybrid chuckle before he continued. "Back when she was with the Mystic Falls Gang. they had planned out my murder when I was at my most vulnerable. Actually rather clever of them, plus with the aid of my brother. I'll be honest they came very close to actually accomplishing it. With her on our side now it will work."

Katherine felt the temptation to stay and listen more, with each passing second, but the possibility of being caught wasn't something she wanted to deal with right at the moment. So instead, she retreated to her room to think. There had to be some way of getting out of this mess with her head still attached. Why Elena needed her still baffled her and that was troublesome.


Several Hours Earlier:

Intellectually Elena understood her own reluctance to enter her husband's dreamscape. Which was rather contradictory of her to be so reticent about her invasion into his mind. After all the times, she had visited his dreams over the centuries of their long but still necessary separation. While her family was dysfunctional as it was, they still had each other, Elena Mikaelson was all by herself. She might've been a vampire for over a thousand years now, but that still didn't diminish her very human feelings about her need to interact with others on some level.

Even with the knowledge she was willfully intruding, it never lessened her need to spend whatever time she could with people she cared for, as a means to maintain her sanity. She had been alone for so long that she had worried herself that she might never be awoken from her dagger induced slumber, not until when the time was right. Seeing and interacting with her family even with her limitations of Astral Projection, had for the most part helped. Although for obvious reasons, she interacted with Elijah's dreams no thanks in part to his altered memories of her; she had to either contend with being recognized as either Tatia, or worse, Katherine.

As with the previous occasion, of her having been daggered with the obsidian blade. When she had finally husbanded enough of her magical strength back, Elena could exert enough of her will to shape his dreams featuring Katherine or more accurately the Katerina his memories could never seem to let go of. Into a somewhat more pleasant period of their relationship, to be specific. For instance, when she was first introduced to the Lord Elijah and Niklaus at her brother-in-law's birthday party in England. Regrettably any time after, thanks to Elena's prompting of Katherine to make her escape. Elijah's dreams were decidedly more unpleasant, especially to be on the receiving end of his anger that was unfortunately directed at her earnest wise ancestor.

During the times, she didn't have enough magical reserves she either had to accept the role of her ancestor or leave Elijah's Dreamscape until she could use her magic to redirect them. Elijah would be mortified at how many times she stayed with him, despite his treatment of Katerina, all because she didn't want to be alone.

Shaking herself, she peered down at her sleeping husband. Elena could never shake the feeling that she was being a creeper watching him like this while in her Astral Form. It wasn't like he could see her unless she wanted him to, and the one time she accidentally had done that had reinvigorated his search for Katherine. Naturally thinking she was Katherine Pierce who had inadvertently dared to show her face to him.

"Come on Elena, we need to tell him what we learned," Elena muttered to herself, feeling rather irritated that she was doing it again. Talking to herself was a habit she was still trying to break herself out of, but it had unfortunately developed over the last couple of centuries. Clearing her mind, she couldn't resist touching fingertips to his handsome jawline before tracing them along to his forehead. Elena, smiled at the memories of the times she watched him like this, before she wordlessly slipped herself into Elijah's unguarded thoughts.

Blinking once or twice, or what felt like it to her at least, sometimes helped adjust to her abrupt immersion into an individual's dreamscape. Over the centuries, she learned not to judge people too harshly by what she encountered in others' minds when by right they should feel secure from possible intrusion. Looking about she frowned when it looked familiar, but no that wasn't exactly true, she realized surveying the familiar village of Pre-Mystic Falls.

While she could hear distant sounds of all too familiar sounds of the villagers going about their daily business, Elena had yet to see anyone in person. Hearing the giggling laughter of two small children, she didn't know why, but Elena felt a strange pull toward them. She could have hurried, but lessons learned from previous excursions into others' dreams, had taught her to take her time.

Passing by the Mikaelson Longhouse on her way towards the still giggling children she was resisted the temptation to explore it. She increased her pace slightly, rounding the corner of the Longhouse into a field that had remained unused for reasons she never quite learned the reason for. But Elena halted when she came to a complete stop at the new Longhouse that had been built in the once disused space.

It wasn't the structure that had so captured her attention instead it was the two tiny children a boy and a little girl no older than six years. By all appearances were playing together with a man all decked out in leather vest and other vintage Viking accouterments his shoulder length dark chestnut hair brought back fond memories of her running her hands through it after making love to her husband. Even in his dreams her husband looked swoon worthy. She felt a touch guilty wishing that it was just them, it had stung if she thought too deeply about their various encounters over the centuries but it had been as Katerina in most instances. Pushing those thoughts away, she admired how he looked to her.

There was a however brief notion of trying to somehow convince Elijah to allow his hair to grow out again like he once had back in the past but ultimately rejected it. Knowing him, it would be a exercise in futility. Instead she watched him kneel so he can be at the same eye level with the two children. Her breath caught, making her heart ache when she finally recognized them for who they were supposed to be. Her little Eirik and Astrid were older, but even she could see their shared similarities to both her and Elijah. Her heart stuttered a beat watching the three of them.

"Little princess what are you making?" Elijah asked. From her vantage point, she could see that the older version of her daughter was playing in what looked like mud or clay. Eirik it seemed was content to add to her pile of earth from the hole he was currently digging.

"A pie! Daddy! Do you want some?"

Astrid held it out for him to inspect. It wasn't the best crafted mud pies she'd seen, but from what Caroline and Bonnie had both told her that her skills of cooking, even pretend at that age, had unfortunately been sub par. It had taken years of hard work to get her baking skills up to something her deceased parents had complimented her on. Her brownies had become a solid hit at the Founders Council's bake sale for nearly three years until the year her parents had died. Even after her trip back in time, she still missed them.

"Mmmm… I'm really tempted, lovely Astrid. But wouldn't us having some of it now, might make mommy sad? She's been working on our meal for sometime now. What if she learns we had something else to eat before supper?" Elijah said gently.

Elena couldn't help but to smile; she had actually gotten upset that none of her friends had wanted to try her own similar mud pie as a child at the time as well. Tyler had been a dick to her and ultimately made her cry. That was, until her best friend Caroline tore into him with a verbal assault, which reduced him to utter tears.

"Okay," Astrid said sadly, Elena couldn't miss her daughter's lower lip trembling.

Elena was moving before she fully realized that she was even doing so. She was kneeling on the other side of her daughter opposite of her rather startled as well as confused husband.

"Hmmm… I think a small bite of it, should be alright. What do you think?" Elena asked, the pair of them. The perplexed look both of them shared quickly faded when Astrid nodded enthusiastically at her. Making a show of taking a tiny bite out of the mud pie, Elena stealthily managed to get enough on her lips to give the impression she had taken a bite out of it.

"Mmm… It's really good Astrid, but if we had this instead for supper, there isn't enough for all of us."

"I can make more! But I need Eirik's help." Astrid exclaimed, then looked pointedly at her older brother.

"I can help!" Chirped Eirik, before he started to dig up more earth from the ground. He stopped giving Elena a strange look that left her feeling something was off about her appearance.

"What's wrong?" Elena asked, carefully. The boy pointed to her stomach with a puzzled expression.

"Your tummy is flat. What happened to our baby brother?"

"Umm… I… Ah… " Elena stuttered not really knowing how to respond.

Elena found herself feeling dizzy as the world around them suddenly shifted and was quickly replaced by what looked like her bedroom she had grown up. Both Astrid and Eirik had disappeared, but Elijah now with his hair cut short and his usual attire, watched her from the window seat.

"Why!?" She blurted. Intellectually she understood they were manifestations of his subconscious mind, but she still felt the pang of loss of not having their children with them.

"My apologies, my Eskān, but it took me a minute to get over my initial shock of seeing you in my dreams," Elijah said. One second he was perched on the window seat, the next he was enfolding her in his arms.

The instant his velvet lips touched hers, the dream world around them was for now temporarily forgotten, but like all good things it ended far too soon for either of them.

"How did you figure it out that it was me?" Elena gasped still recovering from their shared intimacy.

"I don't really know. I just knew it was you," he stopped abruptly, releasing her, leaving her confused as to why.

"Elijah?" she asked, a frown line appeared on his now troubled brow

"This isn't the first time you have visited me in my dreams is it?" Elijah said more than as a statement than as a question.

"Yes, but-"

"How can you stand the sight of me, then? After how I treated you in some of them?" Elijah asked, cutting her off while looking angry. It took her a moment to understand he wasn't angry at her, but at himself. He turned away from her, as if he was ashamed to even look at her. It tore at her very core he felt this way.

"Elijah Mikaelson! Look at me!"

Thankfully he did as she had commanded, but his mollified obedience didn't affect his apparent self loathing.

"This is about your altered memories?" She asked when he nodded she continued. "I did my best when my magic was strong enough to make things more agreeable and less confrontational sometimes when it came to Katerina after her supposed betrayal. Please understand I don't hold anything you did to her or more accurately me against you."

"But-"

Elena stopped him by cupping the side of his face. "But nothing! I spent a thousand years literally alone, and I did what I had to keep my sanity. If that meant taking up the guise of Katerina or Tatia, for that matter, in my interactions with you then so be it! Elijah, please we don't have time for this! I need to tell you something!"

He looked like he wanted to argue with her more but the fire behind her eyes must have told him to listen to her for now. Elena knew that this wasn't over only delayed for the time being. Taking a breath, she started to explain. Yet she couldn't forget how seeing older versions of her children had affected her, nor the fact he had dreamed that they were expecting another child. She hoped that at least some of it would come true in the future. Hopefully they could come up with a plan to finally liberate herself from the Salvatore brothers.


Mikaelson Mansion
November 19, 2010
Two days until the full moon

Rebekah held the door open for her brother to enter their home with the unconscious Stefan slung over his shoulder as if he were a sack of potatoes. She tried not to grimace how Kol treated her former lover like a sack of potatoes either. Especially when he so carelessly, dropped the vampire to the marble flooring of the mansion's foyer.

"Brother! We're back!" Kol called out.

Rebekah rolled her eyes at her brother's antics. He hadn't really taken to calling their older brother, by her preferred nickname for him. Other than their brother Finn, Kol had had the most occasions where Klaus had daggered him for some altercation or other. They had originally hidden their respective daggers, but despite their collective efforts to get Elena back. All five silver white oak ash daggers, had mysteriously disappeared. No doubt Klaus had seen fit to reacquire them.

She hated how every time he felt insecure or threatened about their siblings wanting to do something he didn't approve of, he would unilaterally make decisions that stretched their family motto of 'Always and Forever' to the breaking point.

"Niklaus!" Finn's voice startled his sister. He had always been able to move silently even before their parents changed them into what they were. Turning around, she found him standing in the still open door to the outside, by his expression he looked like he wanted to slam his fist through the nearest wall. She had a good idea what his simmering emotions were directed towards, but now wasn't the time to deal with it now. They all knew their part and Sage should be doing her part right now as well.

Her heightened senses picked up the muffled sounds of her brother and Tatia as they made their way toward the foyer. No doubt they were busy, either in their rooms or in his art studio. Ever since her rescue Tatia had spent every spare moment with her brother, and Rebekah wasn't sure how she should be reacting to their growing relationship.

"We're coming!" Klaus's voice echoed through the mansion. As they waited impatiently, Rebekah looked about, wondering where most of the human staff had wandered off, before she remembered they were taking an evening meal, in the servants' quarters.

Appearing at the top of the stairs, her brother and a slightly dishevelled Tatia, looked down at them. Klaus's eyes glinted with something that told her at least not to broach the subject. Kol on the other hand.

"Brother, have 'we' been getting it 'on'?" Kol smirked. As if on queue Kol's body slammed into the wall nearest the door, Klaus had always been stronger of all of them even with his wolf's side bound but now he was even faster than before. Rebekah had barely tracked his flight down the stairs in to the foyer.

"Would you care to repeat that?" Klaus hissed as he pressed his forearm into Kol's neck. To her and Klaus's surprise Kol didn't fight back, instead, he actually laughed.

"Lighten up, brother. I honestly don't care what you and Tatia do. I do however love getting a rise out of you and once again you don't fail to disappoint," Klaus grated his teeth as his eyes flashed dangerously yellow, Kol had the good sense to be look fearful towards his enraged brother.

Klaus was about to strike when Tatia, who had made her way down the stairs at a much slower pace, finally caught up with where Rebekah's brothers stood nose to nose. Placed a gentle hand on his arm. The same one that was restraining Kol.

"Nik, calm down, you know how Kol can be. And Kol, for your information we had just put Astrid and Eirik down for a nap after feeding them. In the process, one of them spit up over my previous outfit and I was changing when all of you had come home." Tatia said first towards Klaus, then followed by giving Kol a cool stare.

Rebekah watched the spectacle unfolding before her, as did their eldest brother.

"Congratulations, sister, on getting the younger Salvatore. Did you have any problems?" Finn asked, edging closer to her as they watched the others. Rebekah glanced down at Stefan, and she could hear the bones in his neck repairing slower than it normally would take for a vampire. Not surprisingly to her, thanks to Elena visiting Elijah in his dreams that Stefan had run out of animal blood a few days ago.

"No, it was almost pathetic really," she answered.

"Do you want to come with me while I secure him in Klaus's dungeon?" Finn asked, watching their siblings bicker like children. It was almost comical watching Tatia remind them there are two sleeping children. Who will wake up if their uncles don't watch themselves?

"Sure, to be honest, I haven't been down here yet."

Finn picked up Stefan, and they quickly moved into the basement. As her brother started to fasten the manacles to the wrists and ankles of their latest guest, she regarded his tense stature.

"You know she is only doing this to get herself into the Boarding House to find their family milling ledgers," Rebekah said pointedly.

"It doesn't mean I have to like it!" he almost snarled, snapping the first manacle in place.

"Sage can take care of herself brother. I was just as surprised by her willingness to volunteer, but try to look at it this way. One way or another the barrier is coming down, regardless of who stands in our way. Either we stop it from out here or Elena will work on taking it down from the inside. None of them except for Caroline knows that Sage is with us or that she is in town."

Finn grunted his reply and finished securing Stefan's limbs. Just in time, Rebekah noted as the brooding vampire slowly stirred awake, when he finally came around was with a sharp intake of air.

"I… I… can't breathe!" Stefan gasped.

Finn regarded the struggling vampire with a cool expression before giving his sister an reproachful look. Rebekah was feeling rather annoyed with her older brothers, she really missed having her sister around.

"Don't blame me! Blame Kol! How on earth was I supposed to have Tatia invite him inside, if he had his bloody neck broken?"