One year ago:

I sat at in a club at a car nursing my drink.

"Mind if I sit down?" a man asked me and I rolled my eyes.

"That question just lost you the right to sit in that seat." I told him and he left quickly. I watched everyone dancing in the mirror behind the bar and lowered my eyes to the drink.

"What are you drinking?" I looked at the empty seat to my left at the British voice and saw a man sitting in it.

"Rum and coke." I told him and he smirked at me.

"You don't look twenty-one." he told me.

"I'll take that as a complement." I told him giving him a smirk of my own.


Present:

When I woke up I saw I was in someone's room, and I didn't recognize it. I looked around a bit before someone walked in. Ric.

"Hello Nik." I greeted him as he closed the door behind him.

"Nikky."


One year ago:

"Forgive me. Where are my manners? My name is Niklaus." he introduced himself stretching his hand out for me to take.

"Nicole Gilbert." I said taking his hand. "Pleasure to meet you." I said smiling at him.

"The pleasure's all mine, Nicole."


Present:

He sat next to me and smiled kindly at me.

"How are you felling love?" he asked me. I looked around at the room and saw a picture of two people. Ric and Jenna. "Nikky?"

"I didn't know you could posses a body." I said looking at him.

"There are a lot of things about me you don't know." he told me. Someone knocked on the door and walked into the room. He bent down and spoke to Nik quietly before walking out. Nik stood up and held his hand out for me to take. I took it and he helped me off the bed. We walked into the main part of the apartment. Nik let go of my hand and walked to the door with his witch as I stood in the kitchen with Katherine who was making coffee.

"I'll be back as soon as I can." the witch told him.

"Yes, do hurry. I'm anxious to get out of this body. And if you get hung up, call me. You know how impatient I get." Nik told him as he left then he closed the door.

"Where is he going?" I asked him.

"To retrieve me. So I can get out of this bad hair-do." he said walking to me and wrapping his arms around my middle. I moved myself out of his hold and stood closer to Katherine.

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Klaus?" she asked him.

"Well, the full moon is almost upon us." he said putting the moonstone on the table in front of us. "I've killed the witch, I have the moon stone, and the doppelgänger is waiting in the wings. Ohh, I am ready to break this curse."

"There are two doppelgangers. You don't have to use Elena." I told him.

"Do you really think I'd kill the mother of my only child?" he asked me and I put my hand over my abdomen again.

"Why would you have to break the curse here? There's so many people that would try to stop you." Katherine pointed out to him.

"Because I have to. It's the birth place of the doppelgängers." he said.

"I didn't realize that was a requirement." Katherine said.

"Well, how could you? You betrayed me and fled England before I could give you the details, Katerina. But I did find your birth place and I slaughtered your family. So I guess we're cool. Let's just hope that Elena isn't as stupid as you were." he told us.

"She won't run. She'll die before she lets anyone that she loves get hurt." I told him and he smiled at me.

"And that's exactly what I'm counting on." he told me before turning to Katherine. "You can't leave until I tell you to." he compeled her before grabbing my hand and leaving the apartment.


One year ago:

"Niklaus is an unusual name." I said smiling at the man.

"Is that a bad thing?" he asked me smirking.

"Not at all." I said smiling. "It's to long though. It doesn't really roll off the tongue easily."

"Call me Klaus." he told me.

"No. I'll call you Nik." I said.


Present:

Nik just got off the phone with Jenna having her meet us at the grill.

"You know Elena and the others wont let you near Jenna if they can help it." I told him.

"They wont be able to stop me. I can walk into any house uninvited in this body." he told me.

"I know. The Salvatore house is in both mine and Elena's name. In your true body you wouldn't have been able to walk in." I told him.

"You're still wearing the lockets I gave you." He said smiling.

"And why wouldn't I?" I asked him.

"With you pretending to die to get away from me I would have thought you threw them as far as possible." he told me.

"No." I said simply.

"I had a witch spell the stone in you locket so that if you were turned you could use it as a daylight necklace." he told me and I smiled.

"Thank you." I said playing with my necklace. He smiled ans we continued driving.

"So if they wont let me talk to Jenna in a public place, I'll settle for private." he said smiling.


One year ago:

"You're new in town, correct?" he asked me and I smiled.

"Yes. Am I that obvious?" I asked him.

"No, I just remember faces and I've never seen yours here before." he told me.

"That's quite a talent." I told him.

"Thank you. Would you like another drink?" he asked me. I looked down at my drink and noticed the glass was empty.

"I would love another drink. Thank you." I said.


Present:

After Nik and I went to my house Nik pretending to be Ric told her he'd tell her everything. Nik was cooking when we heard a knock on the door.

"I'll get it." Jenna told us and she left for the door.

"Hey, Jenna. Thank you so much for not going to the grill." I heard Stefan say.

"Um, Stefan…" Jenna started telling him we were here but she never got the chance.

"No, listen. I can explain." he told her with his back to us. She looked over his shoulder as Nik made our presence known.

"Hi, Stefan. How's it going?" he asked him.


Nik was chopping up some food with a large knife as Jenna, Stefan and I watched.

"You know, I find chopping... Calming. The feel of the blade in the hand." Nik told us.

"I'm still waiting for someone to tell me what the hell's going on." Jenna told us.

"Well, would you like to tell her, Nikky, or should I? How about you Stefan?" Nik asked us.

"Tell me what?" Jenna asked him.

"Do you believe in vampires, Jenna? No?" Nik asked her before laughing. "Well, who does, right? But believe it or not, they do have a place in our history. And as a history teacher, I find them fascinating."

"Why are we talking about this?" Jenna asked him.

"Well, you've been angry with me for keeping secrets, and this is one of my secrets. I'm obsessed with vampires. There. I said it." Nik said laughing at his own joke.

"Are you joking?" Jenna asked him.

"Not at all. How about you, Stefan? Nikky, are you a fan of vampires?" he asked us.

"In literature. Bram Stoker. It's dense, but I appreciate it." Stefan said walking closer to the counter Nik was cooking on. Nik looked at me and I just looked away from him.

"Hmm. Did you know that vampires are the oldest creatures of the night? Except for werewolves, of course." Nik told us.

"Werewolves. Werewolves. Now I know you're joking." Jenna said walking towards the table before turning back to us.

"You know, I've read that there's an Aztec curse on both species that keeps werewolves slaves to the Moon and vampires bound by the Sun. Isn't that right, Stefan? You know, they say these creatures would do anything to have this curse broken and that they wouldn't care who they had to kill to do it." Nik said looking at me.


After Nik was done cooking we all sat at the table and ate the food he'd prepared.

"Oh, I know this all sounds so crazy, but... vampires are real. Would you care for some more wine?" he asked Jenna as he got up and grabbed a bottle of wine.

"Get out." Jenna told him dropping her fork on her plate.

"Excuse me?" Nik asked her.

"I don't know what it is you're trying to do or why you're saying these things, but…" Jenna started saying but Nik interrupted her.

"Jenna…" Nik started saying but she didn't let him finish.

"I said get out!" she told him. Stefan got up and stood between Jenna and Nik.

"You heard her." Stefan told him.

"I'm afraid I don't want to." Nik told him.

"Fine! Nickky and I'll go." she said grabbing my hand. Nik grabbed the knife he'd been cutting food up with and looked back at Jenna.

"You're not going anywhere with her." Nik told her. Stefan used his speed and pushed him against the wall and put the knife at his throat.

"Stefan!" Jenna called worried about Ric.

"Jenna, Nikky, get out of here now!" Stefan told us.

"You can't kill me, Stefan." Nik told him.

"Watch me!" Stefan told him.

"Stefan!" Jenna called out to stop him.

"I may not have a witch protecting me today, but if you kill this body, what's to stop me from choosing Jenna as my next one?" Nik asked him.

"Jenna, Nikky, go." Stefan told us.

"But you're… you…" Jenna couldn't get the words out of her mouth when Stefan turned on us with his face transformed.

"I said go!" Stefan told us. Jenna ran out of the house and Nik turned to me.

"If you leave me, Nikky, I'll hunt you down and kill everyone who helps you." he told me so I stayed put. "Kill me, Stefan. Just remind Elena how easy it will be for me to get my revenge if she tries to stop me from breaking this curse." Stefan punched Nik in the face and Nik fell to the floor. Once he was on the floor Stefan kicked him in the stomach twice before throwing the knife on the floor and turning to me.

"Nicole, let's go." he told me and I shook my head.

"I can't. Go. Tell Elena that I'm safe. Apologize to Jenna for me, please." he nodded and left the house. I sat down and waited for Nik to wake up.


Nik and I could hear the music from Ric's apartment. when we walked in the music grew and Katherine was sitting on the couch with a bottle of bourbon on the coffee table.

"You mind turning that down?" Nik asked her. She grabbed the remote and turned down the music as he requested.

"Why so grumpy?" she asked him.

"Well, this body has outlived its usefulness." Nik told us.

"Do you want a drink?" I asked him seeing the bottle in front of her.

"No, Nicole, I don't want a drink." he told me.

"Come on. It might loosen you up." Katherine said taking the bottle from the coffee table and standing up, trying to give it to him. He grabbed the bottle in her hand the threw it at the wall before grabbing her and pulling her close to him.

"What I want is for you to sit down and shut up." he said compelling her. She sat down as Nik's witch walked in. "Maddox, what took you so long?"

"You've got a lot of luggage." Maddox told him as two men entered with luggage. A girl walked in not long after they did and smiled at him.

"Greta. Finally." Nik said.

"Hello, love. Nice body. You ready to get out of it?" she asked him as two other men arrived with a giant box. I looked at Katherine and she looked from me to the box.


Maddox and Greta were casting a spell together, knelt on the ground with candles all around them. Nic was standing next to the box with Katherine and I looking at them from behind the candles. They stopped chanting and looked at Ric. Ric opened his eyes and looked at us.

"Elena? Nicole?" He collapsed and Katherine held me back from running to him. Maddox opened the box and Nik stepped out of it. He looked at it and walked to me.

"Hello Nikky." he said before walking behind me to look at the witches. He wrapped his arms around me, resting his hands on my abdomen. "Now this is more like it." I looked at Katherine and worry and fear filled his eyes.