Set during season six of 'The Vampire Diaries' and season two of 'The Originals', only there is no baby-plot.

"I cannot believe that we are actually calling the Salvatores for help right now. We have really hit rock bottom," Rebekah snarked, sitting on the large, brown leather couch situated right in the middle of Elijah's study, with said sibling on her left and Hayley on her right.

Klaus, comfortable on the matching armchair positioned next to Elijah's end of the couch, rolled his eyes.

"I remember you didn't have any qualms getting quite acquainted with both of them at one time or the other, little sister. It's unbecoming to scorn what you once feasted on so eagerly," he taunted, smirk ever in place.

Rebekah's eyes narrowed, her teeth grinding together as she growled underneath her breath. Luckily, Elijah intervened before things had the chance to get out of control.

"Niklaus, Rebekah," he turned to each of his siblings with a severe, reproaching look in his eyes, "let's concentrate on the matter at hand, shall we?"

The other two Mikaelsons agreed somewhat begrudgingly, and Hayley gave a silent sigh of relief. No matter the whole year that she had already spent with them, the young werewolf wasn't sure if she would ever really get used to how intense the Originals could be, especially if all in the same room at once.

Finding out that her dead parents and therefore herself as well were part of the pack descending from Klaus' biological father had been quite the shocking surprise, and, no matter the distant kinship and all the long months that had already passed with both of them under the same roof, the situation still weighed heavily upon her shoulders since the hybrid mostly refused to acknowledge her existence or gave her the cold shoulder whenever he did.

Klaus was still extremely wary of her after she had helped Tyler unsiring his hybrids, and Hayley was pretty sure that she would have already fled New Orleans ages ago if it hadn't been for Elijah's reassuring presence and the growing feelings that she had for him.

"Let's, then," Klaus brought his hands together and hunched forward, arrogant and expectant as he looked at his brother.

Elijah was definitely the one, out of them all, that the Salvatores would have less likely immediately hung up on, so the desperate call was necessarily going to be his responsibility.

Quickly dialing the right number on his tablet, the oldest Mikaelson sibling put the call on speaker and then waited as the phone rang on the other end.

The whole room seemed to fall completely silent around him as a distinct click echoed through the black device, signaling that, at last, someone had picked up.

Nobody spoke for a moment, and then—

—"Hello?"

Klaus' breath hitched as a soft voice that could only belong to one particular blonde swept across the line, allowing him to hear its sweet, familiar notes for the first time in way too long.

Rebekah rolled her eyes in response, Hayley barely managed to rein in an amused smile, and Elijah simply frowned, the only one disoriented by his brother's odd reaction.

"Hello?" Caroline repeated, stressing the word and sounding more than just slightly annoyed at the prolonged silence coming from the other end.

Finally, Elijah regathered himself, clearing his throat as he answered.

"Hello, Miss Forbes."

"Elijah?"

It was obvious that the young vampire was both confused and surprised by the Original's call, and Klaus couldn't help but crack a small smile at how adorable she sounded.

"Yes, Miss Forbes," his brother answered, calm and extra polite as always. "I was hoping I could talk to either Stefan or Damon?"

"Oh. Uhm, they're not–" Caroline stuttered for a moment, but she didn't get to finish her sentence anyway. A new voice suddenly interrupted her, the thick accent and the endearment that came along with it immediately making Klaus' blood boil.

"Gorgeous, who are you talking to?" someone asked, seemingly moving something around the room before stopping.

It would have been nearly impossible for any human to hear the second person speaking far off in the background, but none of them was human and they could all understand every word perfectly.

There was some shuffling then, probably caused by Caroline's useless attempt to cover the receiver with her free hand.

"Nobody," she answered, hurriedly—too hurriedly.

A few silent moments passed before she sighed and then spoke again. She sounded somewhat aggravated, and Klaus could just see the small, tired crease that always formed in between her eyebrows whenever she felt frustrated.

"Fine. It's one of the Originals."

"The Originals who unfortunately failed in ridding us all of Miss I-can't-do-anything-wrong's existence?"

Caroline gasped, but sounded mildly amused as she admonished her friend.

"Enzo! I told you to stop calling Elena that!"

Klaus' jaw clenched at hearing the affection with which Caroline pronounced the other man's name, even when reproaching him.

That Enzo person snorted, and his apparent dislike towards the latest doppelgänger quickly granted him Rebekah's stamp of approval as the female Original smirked. Hayley looked neutral to what was happening, waiting, while Elijah sighed in impatience, bothered by the unexpected hindrance that they had encountered.

Klaus scooted forward on the armchair, closer to the glass table that the tablet was lying upon, almost as if being nearer to it meant being nearer to Caroline as well. And, no matter his brother's obvious frustration, there was no way he was going to let that conversation end before he had gotten some answers.

"And not this one, anyway," Caroline added, finally answering. Of all the Originals, Elijah had definitely been the only one trying to protect Elena rather than killing her.

"Then he's no fun," Enzo deadpanned, unimpressed. "What does he want?"

"I don't know, he asked for Stefan or Damon."

"As if you would ever be here if one of those two dickheads was around too," Enzo half snapped, becoming angry at the mention of the other two vampires.

Caroline swallowed thickly. "He doesn't know," she replied, sounding somehow embarrassed.

The exchange made Klaus frown. He knew Caroline had never exactly been a fan of Damon, but she and Stefan used to be almost inseparable as far as he could remember. Jealousy was something that the hybrid didn't like and that he wasn't at all used to deal with—not in the romantic sense, at least—but he couldn't deny that, during his stay in Mystic Falls, such a feeling had been directed towards Stefan more than once because of how close he and Caroline seemed to be. Had something changed in the past year?

He didn't have the time to keep pondering on that, though, as a spark of the aforementioned jealousy started to eat at him again.

Enzo seemed to move closer to Caroline, his voice becoming slightly louder through the still covered phone even as his tone noticeably softened.

"Well, then ditch him, Goldilocks. We have places to be," he sounded excited, almost giddy as a child on Christmas morning, "the flight to London is not going to wait for us."

For the first time since she had picked up the call, Caroline laughed, and Klaus' heart constricted in both happiness and pain because of how genuine the sound was... if only it were meant for him.

"Yeah, because you totally wouldn't compel us into the next available flight if we happened to be late. And we're only packing right now! You know we're leaving tomorrow, we have time."

But Enzo gasped, pretending to be appalled as he teased her. "Caroline Forbes, did you just encourage compulsion?"

She giggled, probably slapping his arm as the light noise the action produced traveled through the phone line.

"Shut up, you know what I meant!"

The vampire on the other line hummed, jokingly unconvinced as Caroline kept laughing.

"Sure, sure."

Then, right before the sound of footsteps wandering away, there was the faint clicking of lips on skin, and Klaus growled, not even attempting to hide what he was feeling anymore.

Elijah turned to him, arching a confused eyebrow in question, but the hybrid didn't even notice, his full attention focused on the expensive device lying in front of them.

His younger brother seemed troubled in a way that he had never seen him be before, and, as much as the notion was completely foreign to him as Klaus had never once shown that kind of interest in any woman throughout his centuries-long life, Elijah had an inkling that his sudden mood swing was connected to Miss Forbes and her current male company.

The eldest Original couldn't help a small grin at the thought, before Caroline eventually spoke again through the phone.

"Uhm, sorry about that," she apologized, sounding hesitant and almost flustered. "Anyway, Stefan and Damon aren't home."

Elijah's lips were still turned up in mild amusement when he answered. "Yes, I had gathered that. Thank you nonetheless, Miss Forbes, I will be in touch."

The call disconnected then, the room remaining silent for a brief but tense moment before Klaus abruptly stood up with a dark look shadowing over his features.

"Pack," he ordered everyone through gritted teeth. "We are going to Mystic Falls."

Rebekah smiled knowingly just as Elijah's eyes widened in surprise.

"Niklaus, that won't be necessary. I will call again–"

"Do as you please, Elijah, but I am not willing to take chances or lose any more time. I need to check things for myself."

The hybrid exited the room then, leaving no room for argument and no doubts in the other three people's minds about what, exactly, he wanted to check for himself.

After all, while he had promised Caroline that he would be her last love, that he would forever wait for her to come to him—and while those were promises that he meant to keep more than anything else—a little reminder surely wasn't going to hurt, was it?