I do not own TVD or TO. If I did ELEJAH and KLAROLINE would be canon.

I'm having a baby, Elena traced the distinct circle on the printout, I'm actually having a baby.

Her eyes slowly dropped to her mostly flat stomach; she let her left hand settle over her naval. The gem on her finger sparkled in the gloom of the room.

It was an unusual colour, purple, and a strange choice for an engagement ring; everything about her situation was strange, but looking at the stone made her feel a little warmer, a little lighter, and a little safer almost as if a part of her recognized it and remembered the husband who had placed it on her finger.

But try as she did she couldn't summon the image. She couldn't recall his eyes, his voice, or his laugh; she had no idea what his name was.

"You still awake, hon?"

Elena turned to look at the door and a nurse who was leaning in the frame. She set the sonogram on the stand by her hospital bed and nodded slowly. She wasn't sure that she would ever sleep again.

"You having trouble sleeping?"

"I'm okay," she lied, "I took a nap earlier."

Elena silently cursed the heart monitor that caught the skip. She hated that machine; the beeping grated on her nerves and it caught each little lie she told. She wondered if it was only vampires that knew how to catch her dishonesty; she really hated lying.

"This machine is keeping me up," she tugged at the clip on her finger. "Do I have to keep it on?"

"The doctor was concerned about an arrhythmia," Elena read her nametag as she approached: Melody.

"Isn't it normal for the heart to skip a beat once in a while?" Elena smiled hopefully. Everyone told little white lies that made their hearts skip. "I might be able to get a little more sleep if it's off."

"Dr. Garcia wants a full report," Melody sighed. She glanced over her shoulder before moving into the room. "That doesn't mean you need to listen to the beeping all night."

Elena felt her lips lift in the first genuine smile she could remember giving since long before taking the cure.

"You're an angel."

Melody flipped a switch behind the monitor and it fell blessedly silent. She smiled and paused at the door. "You get some sleep."

"Thank you," Elena nodded. She made a show of lying back and pulling the blanket up over her shoulders. The moment Melody was gone she sat back up and reached for the phone on the bedside table.

She couldn't remember getting married, but there was one person who would.

She supposed it was too much to hope that the phone would automatically be connected. It made an obnoxious beep that went on forever when pressed to her ear.

Heaving a sigh she sat up and flung the blankets aside. Swinging her legs over the bed she stood and felt her knees buckle; she managed to right herself before she could fall over and took a deep breath to steady her shaking legs.

Elena made a vow then and there to get some actual sleep the moment she felt truly safe again. She had to be passed hour twenty now without rest.

She straightened up and pulled the IV from her arm along with the rest of the wires attached to her perfectly healthy body. She grimaced at the blood that welled up on her arm from the IV and grabbed some tissues to staunch the slow flow of blood; she'd lost enough of it already.

She was about to move when her legs buckled again and she was forced to grab the counter. Her eyes slowly lifted to the IV. There was something off about the colour of the liquid.

She took shallow breaths and clung to the wall. Slowly she made her way out of the room and allowed her eyes to lock on the nurse's station. It was thankfully deserted but her shaking legs seemed to go straight to her brain.

It was like a freaky Alice in Wonderland effect. The path that couldn't have been more than ten feet shifted and stretched until the station was little more than a speck and her legs had the strength of a toddler taking their first steps.

She clung to the wall and shuffled along while wondering why anyone would think she needed any type of a sedative. It didn't seem to be affecting her mind at all just her body; her mind was only fuzzy from her lack of sleep.

She supposed she could have just been tired, but she'd gone extended periods without sleep before. Whatever the reason for her shaking muscles didn't really matter right then. What did matter was getting to the nurse's station.

She practically dropped into the spinning chair and took a moment to catch her breath before reaching for the phone. This one had a dial tone.

She started by dialing the familiar seven digits and felt her irritation grow when the phone shrieked in her ear and refused to dial. She tried adding the code for the state next and got the same result.

Elena tried again and again. Each failed attempt increased her frustration until she slammed down the receiver with enough force that had she still been a vampire it would have cracked from the impact.

The sudden movement tugged at her stitches. She stifled her scream and pressed her palm into the bandage; the anesthesia had worn off at some point and she hadn't realized it until the thread was stretched.

Her brows dropped in confusion as a tiny voice started whispering in the back of her mind.

Instinctively she lifted her hand and spun around. Her eyes darted furtively along the empty corridor. Slowly she returned her palm to the wound and heard the voice again; it whispered foreign words and it took Elena a moment to realize the breathy tone was only in her head.

She opened her mouth and repeated the foreign syllables in the hope that hearing it aloud would allow her to make sense of them. She must have been putting too much thought into the project and too much pressure on her arm because the words were still unknown and her skin grew uncomfortably warm.

Her mouth popped open a second later. She recognized the feeling of her skin knitting together. The area that had grown uncomfortably hot suddenly cooled.

She tore the bandage from her arm and gingerly touched the line of stitches. The thread dissolved and fell away leaving unblemished olive skin.

Elena bit into her bottom lip and stared at her arm as heavy steps approached her from behind. She blinked slowly and came back to herself when an accented voice reached her ears.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm…" she tore her gaze from the healed skin. "I'm fine."

Elena turned the chair around with the intention of waving off the man's concern so she could return to her earlier task and froze.

Her eyes grew round as her mind attempted to catalogue and make sense of the impossible. He couldn't be there. He never dressed that way, and why was he looking at her like he had no idea who she was?

He always knew who she was; he was one of the only people capable of instantly recognizing her.

"Elijah?"

Kol stood from where he was watching the blood track across the map and turned around to address Klaus. He didn't care how Dahlia had managed to get her so far away during his conjured storm but he had no intention of waiting to see her again; which meant he was going to need the plane he knew his brother kept on standby.

His eyes narrowed when he found the space his brother had been occupying empty. It was a moment before his human ears tracked the sound coming from the courtyard.

The blood drained from Freya's cheeks.

Kol's spine stiffened.

They both felt the pull of powerful magic coming from around the corner.

Freya swallowed once and stood from her place on the floor. She placed her hand on her baby brother's elbow and steered him back to the map.

"Stay here with Amara and finish the spell."

He nodded once and watched Elijah and Freya exit the room. He knelt and cursed; the blood had formed a circle around South Carolina and refused to budge an inch further.

He glanced up when Amara knelt on the other side of the coffee table and extended her hand for the knife. She dragged the sharp blade across her wrist; up until that point they had been using the blood Klaus had harvested from Ellie.

"Try it now."

"Where the bloody hell did you come from?" Blue fire blazed in Klaus' eyes. His jaw clenched as he took a wide stance.

"Now that is my business," Dahlia smiled. Her eyes flickered from Klaus to Freya and Elijah as they rounded a far corner.

The elder witch tilted her head and considered the children of her sister. If not for her Esther would have never conceived a single child, and yet here three of them stood.

She had no need for any of them.

"Where is the child?"

"Far away from you," Klaus' lip twisted in a sneer.

Caroline froze in the hall on the familiar path towards the stairs. She shifted the wiggling child in her arms and began to back away slowly when she heard Klaus below.

Her feet made a silent path backwards as she tried to think of somewhere safe to hide. Inspiration struck when Hope released a tiny sneeze that was luckily quiet enough to only be picked up by a vampire.

She spun on her heel and flashed through the hall until she was inside Ellie's spelled bedroom. After ensuring the balcony and windows were closed she took up a post by the door and hissed.

"Rebekah!"

Twenty feet away a door opened revealing the other blonde. Caroline could see the confusion in Rebekah's narrowed eyes; it seemed the Original had not been listening to the goings on of the house.

"She's here."

Caroline sealed the door when the Original nodded and turned back to Hope. In the moments she had been hissing into the hall the baby had crawled towards the bed and was now reaching for the pink pig sitting on the side table; it was a childhood toy Caroline had packed when helping her friend leave Mystic Falls.

"Here you go, sweetheart."

"She's not far," Dahlia tilted her head to the right. Her eyes raked over her nephew slowly. "You wouldn't send her far."

"He didn't have to," a hard voice came from the top of the stairs. "He just needs her out of the way until we've dealt with you."

There was a brief moment of silence followed by a rush of wind and a rattling of chains.

The air stilled in Dahlia's lungs as she looked on. The chains had grown silent, but it was the wrists to which they were bound that made the older witch freeze.

Klaus narrowed his eyes when something flashed in Dahlia's dark eyes, for a moment it looked as if she was going to cry. And cry she did, but they were tears of mirth. His expression shifted as his aunt laughed in their faces.

"Is this some pathetic attempt to keep me from taking Hope?" Dahlia got her laughter under control, but the amusement clung to the corners of her mouth. "You present me with my sister in chains. Is she to buy your freedom?"

"Our freedom?" Rebekah frowned. Why should they need to buy their freedom?

"How quickly you forget that I possess this," Dahlia smirked. She reached into her coat pocket and extracted the white oak stake.

"What exactly do you plan to do with that, dear aunt?" Klaus watched the stake with an incredulous expression.

"You've only got one stake, and three Original vampires in the room," Freya agreed.

"Even if you don't hesitate," Klaus scoffed, "the other two will rip you in half."

"Such sound thinking," Dahlia nodded. The amused smile never left her lips; she knew the child was somewhere in the house. She had sensed the magic on entering. "Sound thinking… but so small."

Rebekah's heart leapt into her throat as Dahlia raised the stake over her head. She hadn't left the compound all day but she was certain the sky had been clear a moment ago and as such she had no idea where the thunder had come from.

She moved slowly to circle around her aunt as the stake was thrown into the air.

The silver melted away leaving behind naught but wood and when the last of the metal was gone the stake vibrated.

What felt like an eternity to the siblings was only a few seconds; seconds was all it took for Dahlia to destroy the stake. Ashes rained down around them as Freya fell to her knees and began to choke.

Invisible fingers curled around the eldest Mikaelson's throat as ashes were waved into the open mouths of her siblings. She watched through watering eyes as they all dropped to their knees.

Veins became visible on their faces as their blood boiled.

Freya managed to choke out in a desperate voice. She had only just reunited with her family and wanted to see them survive.

"You're killing them!"

"I've no need for them," Dahlia stated simply. "Niklaus has already produced a child, as has Kol, and the other two are incapable of it."

Elijah was the first to fall onto his side. Every inhalation of air stoked the fire raging in his lungs and tore at his throat. The flames licked at every inch of his body and it was all he could do to cough. It was no time at all before he was followed by Rebekah and Klaus.

"Now then sister," Dahlia smiled gleefully, "let's watch together as I burn your children from the inside out." The moment the Originals were gone she would search the house for what was owed.

"What the bloody hell is going on out there?" Kol turned towards the sound of violent coughing. He didn't miss the way Amara's face drained of colour. There were few things he missed about being a vampire. Really in that moment it was only one thing: his advanced hearing.

"I think it's time we found out," Amara swallowed audibly.

Esther felt her throat clench as she watched the agony play across their faces. These were her children. She had brought each of them into the world and now they were dying at her feet. It had been what she wanted, to right the wrong she had inflicted, but her children were dying at her feet.

Her body felt leaden, but she forced her feet to move.

"You still carry so much anger for me after all these years?" Esther locked eyes with Dahlia. She saw the moment the fury flashed in the dark depths.

"You broke your vow," Dahlia took a menacing step. "We were to stand together, always and forever, and you left me to marry that brutish Viking." She drew in a deep breath and leveled her sister with a look of anger and hurt. "You broke my family and they," her lip curled into a sneer as she glared at the dying, "were the result."

She gestured to them with one hand and knocked them back as they struggled onto their knees.

Klaus clawed at his throat as the veins turned blood-red and swelled.

Hot tears leaked from Rebekah's eyes.

Freya struggled to draw in an unrestricted breath.

Esther's voice shook with angry tears. Sorrow threatened to close her throat

"You call this my wrongdoing?" She pointed wildly to her sister; the chains rattled on her wrists. "You made me bargain away my firstborn child! My daughter!" Colour rose in her cheeks.

"Not just this firstborn," Dahlia snapped; her fingers waved to Freya, "but every firstborn. And even then, you found a way to deny me that which you had sworn to be mine. How do you think that felt?"

Dahlia raised her hand and sent Klaus flying backwards. The blade he had been holding dropped onto the stones with a clatter. With another motion she dragged Freya across the floor and placed her in a magical chokehold.

"Let's say goodbye to your children sister," Dahlia smirked sadistically. She was preparing to launch a killing blow when two sets of feet sounded in the hall.

Dahlia turned with narrowed eyes to gape at the newcomers. Her mouth dropped open in surprise.

"Impossible."

"A few months ago I might have said the same thing," Kol smirked. His mind was already calculating the distance from his body to the blade and Dahlia. The amusement fell from his face as fingers curled around his throat, but he managed to stay upright.

With a flick of her wrist Dahlia sent Amara flying back through an open door to bounce on the leather sofa.

"Stop!" Esther rushed the last of the distance to Dahlia. She held out her hands in a placating gesture and motioned to her children. "You've won. You've bested us all."

Kol gasped as the hand released him. He saw that Freya had been loosed as well, but his sister was in no condition to wage a war; her airway had been restricted for much longer than his. He drew in shallow breaths and slowly pulled the blade from his coughing brother's side while trying to focus on his mother's voice; anything but the dying breaths of his siblings.

"… let me try to make amends, let me share with you," she moved until she was face to face with Dahlia, "the glorious freedom that I have found…"

Dahlia tilted her head suspiciously.

"In death…" Esther wrapped the chain of her shackles around the neck of her sister and pulled as tightly as she could. She looked over her shoulder to Kol and saw the hesitation in his eyes.

For all her faults she was still his mother.

Dahlia released the hold she had on Freya to fight off the grip around her throat. She saw her niece use her magic to pull the sickness from the lungs of the vampires.

"Kol?" She saw her other children sit up as their bodies healed. Blood and sawdust coated their lips, but otherwise they were alright.

Amara moved faster than any of the vampires could see and appeared at Kol's side. She gave him an inquisitive look and held out her hand for the blade as the Originals got to their feet. She saw his eyes dart to his mother once more and caught the encouraging nod. It was an odd thing for a mother to do, encouraging her child to land a killing blow against her, but she did.

Kol waved Amara off and tossed the blade to Klaus. He was doubtful of his ability to force the steel through two bodies. He frowned as the sword ended the long lives of his mother and aunt and their bodies turned to ash. Even the steel melted away leaving nothing but a pile of grey and black on the courtyard floor.

Freya spoke through the constriction in her throat.

"I really hope you got the locator spell to work."

"I did," Kol rubbed the bruises on his throat, "and I'm going to need a plane."

Amara lifted her gaze from the piles of ashes.

"Where's my daughter?" Klaus swiped the sawdust from his bottom lip. The question was directed at them all, but the answer came from the balcony.

"Here."

He looked up to find Caroline balancing Hope on her hip and searching for any sign that she should take the child and run. He wiped the last of the blood from his mouth and flashed up the stairs.

I know I said this chapter was going to be mainly Elena, but then I started writing the bits at the Abattior and it got a little out of hand. More Elena in the next chapter and a bittersweet reunion coming up.

Imagine if Ellie sent Hope to Jeremy instead… I was thinking of that when I was writing this chapter. Ellie sent Hope away from Dahlia and she sent her home, but if she wanted to ensure the child wasn't found by Dahlia she could have also sent her to Jeremy. Of course the odds that Jeremy would have still been living in the same house are low it would have been an interesting twist.

Anyway I'm thinking she's gonna be afraid when she first sees Kol because the last memory she has of him is when he was killed by her brother.

As always I love hearing your thoughts. Can you guess the cameo yet?

I'm totally disregarding the events of the show I've pulled the appearance out of, or you could look at the events of this story as taking place before the events of the other show as it began in 2012, and this story is set a few months before the beginning of that one.