Klaus paced in front of the fireplace and Caroline tracked him with her eyes. His back was straight, but his hands were at fists by his side. Caroline wanted to reach out and kiss away the furrow from his brow and make it so that there was nothing but a smile on his beautiful face. But something held Caroline back.
It had been a while since they had been so close. Over ten years since they had been so close to one another. Would he welcome her touch? Had he found someone else? Klaus had told her once that there would be no one else but her, but Caroline could not really bring herself to believe his words. How many women had he told that to over the centuries? How many women before her had believed such words? Caroline may have been with him the longest but that meant nothing when they were vampires. That meant nothing when they could have whatever they wanted.
So Caroline tracked Klaus with her eyes. She watched him pace around, muttering to himself and destroying the room. Something in Caroline twitched. God above how she wanted to get up and give him some comfort. To show Klaus that he was not alone and that he had her, but she was rooted her spot. There was no way that she was going to get out of her seat when she did not even know where she stood with Klaus.
Kol entered into the room and plopped down into the seat next to her. The only bastion of peace in the room was the couch where they sat. Everything around them had been overturned or broken. Klaus had even ripped pieces of the mantle from the fireplace off and tossed them somewhere in the room.
"So they have Finn and Elijah, they will never turn against us," Kol said with a grin as he rested his arms on the back of the couch.
"We do not know what these witches are capable of," Caroline said with a frown. In the short time that she had been working with Kol against Expression witches she had found that there was always something that they had planned. Kol was acting too relaxed with the news of these witches. Caroline shook her head. "You know with Expression magic they can do anything. They can make anyone believe anything. And that is where the danger lies."
Klaus shook where he stood. Caroline could see the anger boiling in him. It was about to reach a fever pitch. That was when she got up and walked over to him. She grabbed one of his balled up fists and looked him in the eye. His eyes connected with her own and something strong and potent passed between them. His shoulder dropped from bunching up around his ears and Caroline felt it, in that moment, they picked up where they had left off all those years before in Mystic Falls. They were one once again.
"We will find Elijah and Finn. I'll call one of our witches and make sure that we find them," Caroline said. Her voice was low, close to a mutter than anything else, but she knew that Klaus was listening. Klaus sighed and shook his head.
"I should have secured the basement first. If I had only known that Elijah and Finn were the targets—"
"But there was no way that you could have known. There was no way that you could have read the minds of those witches and known what they were after. They ambushed us. Don't be too hard on yourself." She reached forward and swiped some of the hair away from his face. Klaus leaned forward a little and her fingers brushed against his forehead. What Caroline would do to lean forward in that moment and kiss him. Her body ached to do it. She wanted nothing more than to let Klaus know that she was here and she was with him like she always was like she always had been.
"But I have to wonder why were there three coffins instead of two?" Kol asked. And just like that the moment between the two of them was over. Caroline pulled her hand away like she had been burned and turned to look at Kol. He looked so much like Elijah that it was frightening sometimes. He leaned back in the chair with his legs stretched out in front of him. "What was in the third coffin brother?"
Klaus and Caroline turned to share a look. She knew that he kept the body of their mother in the third coffin. He had told her one night, that he had killed their mother but had blamed it on their hateful father. And now with Mikael dead there was no one who knew the truth except the two of them. Unless…
Caroline's eyes widened as she turned to Klaus. "I think that it is time you told them."
"What?" Klaus asked. There was a spark of something in his eyes, but Caroline shook her head.
"Klaus I think that whoever planned this has been communing with the Other Side. They may have spoken to someone who wants to bring her back," Caroline said in a rush. Klaus shook his head, but Caroline spoke again before he could refute her. "Klaus these people are capable of anything. They can do anything. Secrets put us at a deficit here. They need to know."
Klaus considered her words. She could see him weighing the words in his head. But Caroline know that he would listen. She was always the one that could get through to him in these moments.
"What are the two of you talking about?" Kol piped up. Klaus sighed and Caroline went to squeeze his hand. And then he spoke.
"The third coffin holds the preserved body of our mother, Kol," Klaus said. He said it like each word pained him. His jaw was clenched and there was something smoldering behind his eyes, but was telling the truth. "And I think that they are trying to bring her back."
Kol's mouth dropped open and Caroline squeezed Klaus's had again. The Original Witch was known for her hatred of Klaus and everything that he was. And it was worse knowing that it was his own mother. Caroline sighed and Klaus spoke again. "I've been keeping her body safe for years, but I fear that maybe one of the witches have made contact with her and will bring her back from the Other Side."
"And what does that mean for us?" Kol asked.
Klaus squeezed her hand back and sighed. "Total war."

Rebekah loved Paris. There were few places like it. Everyone here understood what they wanted and went after it and every day in Paris was like a fashion show. Unlike New York, where everyone did not care what people thought of them, people in Paris knew that every eye was on them when they stepped out of their house. Parisians dressed to impress and boy did they make a statement. Rebekah knew that she looked good because more than once she could feel eyes giving her the once over.
Her shoes were Hermes; her bag was Louis Vuitton; her dress was Versace; her sunglasses were Oscar de la Renta; and her hair was done by the best stylist that money could buy. She looked good and so she felt good. She walked into Café Fringe, a cafe that she had been frequenting because of the sophistication and how good it looked on her instagram.
The moment that she entered she was welcomed with a friendly hello from the baristas. She sat down at her favorite chair by the window so that she could people watch. She found that she enjoyed this hobby, just watching people and coming up with stories for them and their lives. She smiled as someone walked by wearing an atrocious outfit. Did they not know that the patterns clashed? One thing that needed to be understood about fashion was that when wearing patterns you needed a solid to make sure that the patterns did not overwhelm the outfit. She shook her head.
There was a woman with a small little rat dog, that was wearing an overwhelming perfume that Rebekah's sensitive nose could pick up from her seat near the window. Whenever the door opened, the smell of her perfume wafted in and Rebekah scrunched her nose. The door dinged as another patron walked into the cafe and Rebekah's nose was overwhelmed with another scent: blood.
Rebekah could smell the heavy stench of iron a mile away. The moment it hit her nose she raised her head and looked to see who had just walked in. There in the flesh was a vampire. His heart beat was slow in her chest in the way that all vampires were, but it reeked of blood. Rebekah's hands went to his fingers and she could see the grit of blood clinging to his fingernails. Rebekah scrunch up her nose. He could of at least washed his hands before coming outside.
A flash of silver caught her eye and she looked at his ring finger. Lapis lazuli, this was a vampire that was friendly enough with a witch to get a daylight ring. How interesting. That made this a lot more interesting. She looked up and caught the vampire looking at her and she smiled when she saw the face.
"Stefan, ça fait longtemps," Rebekah said with a grin. She leaned back in her seat and Stefan walked over, taking the seat across from her. This Stefan was different from the one that she had seen in Mystic Falls all those years ago. This Stefan was the one that she had fallen in love with in the 1920s. This was the Stefan that let his malevolence show on his skin and wore blood as perfume. She breathed deeply from her nose and she smelt the scent of iron and mint. It was all Stefan and something in Rebekah ached to sink her teeth into him.
"Je ne m'attendais pas à te voir à Paris, Rebekah," Stefan answered back in French. Where else would she be except in Paris. It was her favorite place to be and here she was always top dog.
"Oh, and wehre did you expect me to be Stefan?" Rebekah said, leaning forward in her seat. She rested her head on her hands and looked at him from behind her sunglasses. A low chuckle rolled through him and he leaned back in his seat. HIs arm muscles flexed and Rebekah's eyes caught it. God, Stefan had always been a beautiful specimen. Especially when he was like this.
"You are never far from your brother. I thought that you would have been with him," Stefan said.
"Nik and I are apart sometimes. He is not my keeper you know," Rebekah said.
"Oh I know that you can more than handle yourself."
Rebekah smiled at his words. Out of all her lovers Stefan was the one that underestimated her the least. He trusted that she could make decisions for herself and made sure everything went smoothly. All her other lovers saw her as nothing more than a stepping stone, a way to get close to her brothers and the power that they welded. It seemed that they forgot that she had power all on her own. She may have been the youngest but that did not mean that she was meant to be underestimated.
A barista brought over her drink and set it down in front of her. A warm cup of expresso was placed in front of her and Rebekah breathed in the scent of the coffee beans and the little sweetener they put in for her. She smiled at Stefan.
"So what brings you to Paris and with your humanity off too," Rebekah said. She was not going to complain about that but it was interesting.
"After Mystic Falls, I was struggling so I just flipped the switch. Besides I am more fun this way. You even said," Stefan said. Rebekah nodded her head. The Stefan that she saw in Mystic Falls was a terrible bore. All he did was mope about and lament about the things that he had done as the notorious Ripper of Monterrey. Now, he was much more relaxed, much more fun.
"And what are you going to do now?" Rebekah found herself asking. Something in her was hoping that he had no plans. She wanted to spend time with Stefan, her Stefan once again. It had been a while since she had had any fun and Stefan was always a joy. Stefan smiled as though he knew her thoughts.
"I'm not doing anything," he said.
Rebekah smiled from behind her coffee cup. She had only taken the barest sip from her coffee before her phone rang. Rebekah was quick to pick it up not even glancing at the caller id.
"What?" she said.
"Rebekah," Kol's voice said on the line. "We have a problem."

Katherine lounged in her room. It was a studio apartment but it was spacious and in the minimalist industrial style that was all the rage in New York right now. This was the apartment that her and Elijah were supposed to be sharing. They were supposed to be enjoying New York together. This was supposed to be their base of operations.
Elijah had established himself in the city and made it so that this was his city. Rebekah had Paris and Klaus had New Orleans, but New York was Elijah's. This was the city that he had built from the ground up. This was the city that ran on his orders with or without his presecene. And they were supposed to be ruling it together. Katherine was supposed to be his Queen and rule this city but she was a Queen without a king now.
And it burned.
The thought of Elijah wasting away in that coffin with a dagger in his chest made something in Katherine burn. Their plan had been perfect. Bring together all the part of the ritual and present it to Klaus and make it so that they could be together. Klaus would be grateful and let Katherine go and then they would be together. It was flawless but then Klaus and his fucking temper had ruined it.
He could not see past his anger and rage towards Katherine. He could not see the olive branch they were offering and instead burned that bridge. Well that had been Katherine's mistake. She had thought to reason with a monster and it had burned her. Well no longer.
She was not going to cater to monsters any longer. And if there was one thing that she understood about fighting monsters was that you had to be worse than the monster that you were fighting. If Klaus was going low, Katherine would go to Hell.
She opened her phone and smiled. In a few clicks she pulled up Klaus's number and pressed the call button. The phone rang once before it was picked up.
"And who is this?" Klaus said. His voice was deceptively calm. It always was when he was boiling on the inside. Katherine could play this game.
"I hope my witches weren't too much of a bother. I told them to be welcoming and nice when they came to your house," Katherine said with a grin.
"Ah, Katherine. So those witches were from you. And what do you plan to do with the bodies now that you have them?" Klaus asked.
"Wake Elijah. Take you down you know the same old, same old."
"You think that you can take me down with measly witches. Darling you have another thing coming."
Katherine smiled from her end of the phone. Oh, he did not know what she had in store for him. "Oh, Klaus this is just the beginning. I'm not going to stop until you're six feet under and waving at me from the Other Side."
"And you think that Expression is the best way to go about this?" Kol piped up from somewhere.
"Kol, babe this is nothing against you. It is all Klaus's fault. I am going to make sure that your brother suffers for what he did to me and Elijah."
"Lemme talk to her," Katherine heard Caroline say. The phone changed hands and then Caroline's voice came through loud and clear. "Katherine don't do this."
Something in her chest clenched. When was the last time that Caroline and Katherine had had a moment to sit down together. When was the last time that they had to be nothing more than Katerina and Carolina, two girls who ran away together and always had each other's back. Things had changed. Things had changed the moment that Klaus entered their lives. And things would never go back to the way they were before.
Now the only person who would see Katerina was Elijah. And the only person who would see Carolina was Klaus. The two girls had chosen a side and sadly, they were on opposite sides of the spectrum. Katerina's eyes watered.
She wished they could be friends again, but too many things had changed. Too many people had been lost for them to ever go back to the way things were before. Katerina had evolved and Katherine was born.
"Sorry Care, but there are line that just should not be crossed. You understand," Katherine said.
"You don't know what you are getting yourself into. These Expression witches are something even you cannot control and you do not know their end goal."
"I know they have power and they can make sure your boy toy never fucks with me again. I'm sorry Caroline, but Klaus has gone too far."
The phone was snatched away and Klaus spit venom on the line. "I will kill you and everyone you have ever loved."
Katherine smiled at those words. "You already have." She thought of her mother and father and her whole family, massacred because she had the sense to not die. Murdered because she wanted to live. She smiled. They would all be avenged. "Have fun cleaning up the mess my witches left behind. And make sure that you come up with a good counter plan. No fun if you don't fight. Ta-ta."
She hung up the phone just as Klaus growled. She placed the phone down and went to the large floor to ceiling windows that lay just next to the bed. She looked out to the city and tilted her head. This was Elijah's city and soon they would rule it together. Just the two of them.
Her phone rang again with the special ring tone that she assigned to the witch. She picked up. "Did everything go as planned?"
"Even better," the witch said. "We got all three coffins." Katherine felt a grin stretch across her face. She and Elijah were one step closer to their dream of being together. She wanted to crow for joy, but held it inside.
"Okay then, let's move on the phase two."

Author's Note: Okay and that was all I wrote. I wrote this all today so hopefully it comes out good! I hope that you all enjoyed it. What did you think? Be sure to tell me in the comments/reviews. Hope you all have a happy Juneteenth and Father's Day if you're in the USA. See ya soon!