A/N: Thank you guys so much for sticking around. All of the follows, favorites and reviews mean so much to me! This chapter is three originals and a baby (vampire). But there won't be just three originals for long... We're going to hear from the Mystic Falls gang soon too. Thank you to red-as-a-rose12335, kasraya, S0U1 3AT3R16, Iansarmy, jessnicole, karmen238, Teamvampirebarbie22, deviljolie, and all the guests!

"Elijah!" I heard Rebekah yell, loudly.

Then I felt cool air and strong hands reached for me, gently trying to move me into a sitting position. I just so heavy, out of it. It was then I realized I was in a car. Why was I in a car? Then I remembered the restaurant, the two vampires who'd attacked us. The vervain…

"Get your hands off her!" Rebekah demanded and in an instant, those hands were gone. "Elijah!"

I jerked in surprise when something hit the car, hard, behind me. It sounded like a struggle.

"Have you lost your mind?" Klaus demanded.

"Have you lost yours, brother? Elijah!" Rebekah's voice was growing louder.

"What is all this about?" Elijah's voice was calm as he came towards us. "What has happened to Caroline?"

"Two vampires attacked us in Baton Rouge, one of them used vervain on her while Niklaus watched," Rebekah growled.

A deep sigh. Then the world spun as I was scooped up in very strong arms. He smelled wonderful, a hint of sandalwood. I realized then that it was Elijah who carried me.

"What happened to her?" another female voice asked. It took me a minute to realize it was Haley.

Very carefully I was set down on something soft. I struggled to open my eyes and saw that I was in the living room of the mansion, curling myself into a ball because I was too weak to do much else. Every part of my body hurt.

"I'm told that she's been vervained," Elijah answered Haley. "And I'm waiting for an explanation."

Elijah stood above me, leaning down to place his hand on my cheek. His movement was fast and I flinched from his touch because I hadn't expected it. He was looking into my eyes, examining me. I felt cold but it wasn't the reason I was trembling. That I couldn't seem to stop.

Removing his suit coat, Elijah draped it over me. Then he rounded on his siblings.

"Her assailant gave her a substantial amount," he told them. "While that wouldn't have much of an impact on us, she's a very young vampire and it could take a couple of days for her to get it out of her system and not without discomfort. Now what exactly happened?"

Rebekah stood feet planted apart, fists clenched at her sides. "They were Marcel's. They followed us to Baton Rouge. They wanted to know what happened to a couple of friends of theirs, namely the two vampires we killed for attacking Caroline the first time."

My gaze found Klaus and his face was etched in fury, his expression on me even as he answered his sister. "Again, Rebekah, this is all your fault. If you hadn't taken out that first lot of vampires because of your pitiful obsession with Marcel –"

"Don't you dare blame me, Nik!" Rebekah yelled at him. "Not for this. Yes, I regret what I did because my actions were the reason she was attacked the other day. But we weren't even in New Orleans! We weren't on Marcel's turf. Perhaps my actions prompted them to follow us but it didn't need to go that far."

Klaus shot her a murderous look. "You're slowing with age, sister. If you'd moved faster, they wouldn't have touched a hair on her head."

I snorted weakly. "I don't need anyone protecting me."

If anyone had heard me speak, they didn't show it.

"If you'd gotten your ass out of the car and helped me, they definitely wouldn't have," she threw back at him.

"So vampires working for Marcel approached you?" Elijah asked calmly.

"There were two of them," Rebekah confirmed. "We were at the restaurant waiting to hear from Nik and when he finally called me, I went outside so I could hear. One of them followed me and Caroline noticed, trying to head him off. By the time I was aware of anything, both of them were on us."

"How do you know of their intentions?" Elijah asked.

"The one asked about their friends, brother and sister," she explained. "Sound familiar? The ones we killed in the kitchen here? They thought to get the upper hand on us. Their plan was to vervain Caroline, which they succeeded in doing, no thanks to Nik, and take her back to Marcel."

"Did they realize who you were, Rebekah?" Elijah continued.

"Yes, Elijah, they did. That's why they thought to take her instead." Rebekah glared at Klaus. "Marcel loves blondes. I'm sure he'd enjoy meeting Caroline very much."

"You dare challenge me?" Klaus bellowed. "Why do you think I didn't leave the car? Why do you think I didn't lend a hand while they attacked her?"

"I don't know," Rebekah mused, "maybe it has something to do with you being a selfish ass."

Klaus used his vamp speed to get in her face.

"I was trying to protect her," he growled. "I was counting on you to be able to handle a couple of Marcel's pitiful minions."

"Protecting her?" Rebekah was outraged. "By what stretch of the imagination do you believe you were protecting her? Look at her, Nik!"

Klaus turned back to look at me, his expression hadn't eased in the slightest. The intensity in his gaze forced mine away.

"If Marcel finds out about her, he would try and take her from me. He would use her as leverage against me," he said in a voice that wasn't completely steady.

"Leverage," Haley mused. "Can't imagine what being used as leverage is like."

Elijah turned his head in Haley's direction. She stood by the couch I was lying on.

"Haley?" Elijah asked.

"Have you guys even told Caroline what's going on down here? I doubt she even knows who Marcel is," Haley pointed out. "You brought her here to keep her safe from Silas and that mess. Seems to me you just handed her another set of problems and dangers that she's not even involved in."

"Indeed." Elijah turned back to his siblings.

She was right. I had no idea what Klaus was dealing with here. I just knew I couldn't leave the house. Not without Klaus. Haley couldn't leave the house. What was up? Who was Marcel?

"What became of the vampires who attacked you?" Elijah asked.

"I snapped their necks," Rebekah told him. "We got them out of the city and I pulled out their hearts. The remains are in the truck. I doubt they were aware Klaus was even there. I know I barely was."

"Marcel is going to find out who keeps killing his helpers," Elijah pointed out.

"But he can't prove anything without a witness," Rebkah replied.

"Marcel can't know about her." Klaus pointed at me now.

"Reclaiming the throne of New Orleans means that much to you then?" Rebekah taunted him.

If looks could kill, Rebekah would be a gray, withering corpse on the floor.

"What if more of his minions saw us, Nik? If they did, Marcel already knows she is with us," Rebekah pointed out.

"Then he might believe her to be merely a friend of yours," Klaus' voice was low.

"As opposed to thinking what?" Elijah asked.

"A friend of mine?" Rebekah asked at the same time.

"He can't know that I love her!" Klaus answered them, but he was looking at me when he said it. "The moment he knows that, he'll stop at nothing to take her. Just to spite me."

I think the only one not taken aback by his rant was me. Still, to hear him admit how he felt about me to his siblings and Haley caused my heart to swell with something like hope. When had anyone ever spoken with such conviction about me?

Until that moment, I'd been the diversion, the second choice, the rebound girl, the expendable one, the hostage, the bait. Maybe on some level it was why I couldn't bring myself to be so angry at Klaus for not helping when the two vampires attacked us. I was used to that role. Why would things be different now? Sure, I felt horrible physically but I was also the reason everyone was at each other's throats.

I felt like I needed to do something to stop the fight. I struggled to sit up but just couldn't. I ended up weakly propping myself up on an elbow.

"Please, just let me go home," I spoke as loudly as I could. "I don't know who Marcel is but I'm only making things worse for you … Elena said Silas was gone. I'll go…home. Probably safer for me…"

Klaus' eyes were shining, every muscle in his body tensed. He glared at me, taking a step in my direction. "You are not leaving me!"

Elijah moved to stop Klaus with a hand on his shoulder. "You will calm down, brother," his voice took on a lethal edge.

Klaus stormed from the room, Rebekah on his heels. "Nik!"

I could hear them yelling somewhere else in the house as I slumped back down on the couch and closed my eyes. I hated vervain. I tried to relax. The tension just made the pain worse.

"You're smiling," I heard Haley say above me.

"Yes," Elijah was also there. They must have assumed I was unconscious.

"Want to share?" Haley asked. "Have anything to do with a certain declaration of love we just heard?"

"Very much so," Elijah told her. "You see, until very recently, I'd given up hope that Niklaus could be … redeemed. He learned he was to be a father and his first thought was to rid himself of you and the child. It was troubling."

Again I was being lifted. I tried to pry my eyes open but it was hard. So I just listened.

"Then my brother brings this young lady back to New Orleans with us. I was aware of her from our time in Mystic Falls. I knew Klaus was infatuated with her. But this is a different matter entirely. I've never seen him act this way."

Hayley walked along side Elijah, her voice low. "That's great. But last I heard, she was still claiming to be Tyler's girlfriend. Klaus can't make her love him back."

"Granted," Elijah said. "But in your time here, Haley, I've heard you mention Tyler far more than she has."

"Not much lately," Haley told him, sounding chagrinned.

"Not much lately." Elijah repeated, sounding as if he were smiling.

"I'm holding out hope," he told her, carrying me as if I weighed little, "that she'll give him a chance, Haley. I think she wants to."

"Yeah but how do you tell your friends and family that your boyfriend is the big bad hybrid?" she asked.

"How is it different from telling them that you're carrying that same hybrid's child?"

"It's not like I have a lot of friends to tell," Haley told him. "I don't have any family… aside from this one."

"The choice is before her," he continued before lowering me down onto a bed. I felt his jacket lift away while Haley pulled off my sandals. Blankets were pulled over me, making me feel even heavier.

"You think she's good for him," Haley stated.

"I do," he told her. "She brings out the best in Niklaus, his humanity. She's pleasant company here in our home and Rebekah has not only warmed to her, but is protective. And given your mutual history with Tyler, you two get along remarkably well."

"Meaning maybe she's not too broken up over being separated from Tyler?" Haley's tone was teasing.

"You haven't been," Elijah pointed out.

I tried to open my eyes to see what was going on then, but I couldn't make out much. I realized I was in the room I'd picked for myself. They sounded very… friendly. I just heard them quietly walk out of the room and from there I just let myself drift off to sleep.

I awoke some time later, still feeling heavy and sick. I felt something touch my face. Between waking abruptly from sleep and the horrible effects of the vervain, I flinched away from that touch.

"Shhh," came a low whisper. "It's okay, you're safe. It's me."

It's me.

He'd said the same thing when Elena helped me escape Alaric's classroom after he'd tortured us at the school. He'd rescued me, sent me home.

"Klaus?" I asked weakly. I lifted a hand meaning to try and touch his face above me, but it landed on the smooth plane of his chest instead. His bare skin was warm and I heard his sharp intake of breath. Then I felt his hand cover mine where it rested on his chest. It was as if he knew I was too weak to hold it there.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," he whispered. "I'm so sorry."

I tried to answer him, to tell him it was okay, but my voice wouldn't cooperate. I slit my eyes open enough to look up into his gorgeous face, his eyes still shining. He was sitting on the edge of my bed, just like that time he came to save me on my birthday, only with no shirt and black pajama pants.

"Rest," he whispered.

I whimpered. I was trying to tell him I was okay.

I felt his other hand smoothing over my hair.

"I learned something tonight, Caroline," he said as my eyes slid closed. "You see over the centuries, I've never failed to get what I wanted. No matter what or whom I had to sacrifice, including my family, I let nothing stand in my way. I was ruthless in getting what I desired. I think you know that about me."

"That includes this city," Klaus continued. "I should have told you. My family and I built the city of New Orleans, it was ours. And then one day Mikael came and we ran from him, losing all that we'd worked so hard to build. My family and I were lured back to New Orleans now under false pretenses by the witches who tried to use my unborn child as leverage against me. Once I was here, regardless of the reason, I wanted it back, all of it. It was ours. Marcel is a vampire I sired long ago and he considers this city to be his alone. And my only thought was how I could reclaim it for our family, for myself."

"The only thing that could even begin to distract me from that desire is you. And tonight, after a rather useless meeting with the witch, I risked even you in my quest to take back New Orleans. Just as I would my siblings. But… it tore me apart to watch what happened. In thinking of Marcel and my plans to conquer him, I decided it was best that he didn't know what you meant to me so he couldn't use you against me. I should have thought of you first and all the pain you've been through. It shouldn't have mattered what it did to my plans. I shouldn't have let them touch you. I could have lost you, Caroline. Rebekah knew that and she was right to be angry. I may have lost you yet. Will you ever be able to forgive me?"

I still couldn't speak, couldn't open my eyes. The whimpering sound I made was pathetic, even to my own ears.

"Caroline, I swear that I'll never let another thing happen to you," Klaus promised. "Tonight made me realize that my plans are worth nothing if I lose you… Please don't leave me."

My heart squeezed in my chest. His tear was a silent wet drop on the skin of my wrist.

Once I came out of the vervain-induced fog I was in, I knew I would be pissed at him for what happened. But my heart was breaking for him right now, in this moment, when he thought I was mostly out of it and unable to hear him or unlikely to remember. Had he ever made himself vulnerable to anyone like this before?

"At least let me take away the pain," he whispered.

I forced my eyes open to see him lift his wrist to his lips.

"No." I wanted to stop him.

The hurt on his face was unmistakable. He thought I was rejecting his offer. I slid my hand from his chest up to his neck and with all the strength I could muster, it wasn't much, I pulled him down to me. Confused about what I was trying to do, he pulled back and climbed into the bed next to me, pulling me into his arms with my head on his chest. I remembered sleeping next to him and wanted that comfort. I did want the healing power of his blood…

I lifted my head, gazing at him. His blue eyes were wary but held a note of curiosity too. I angled my head so I could press my lips to the hollow beneath his ear. Feeling with my lips, I searched for the right place. I knew the minute he understood what I wanted because all tension faded from his body. Hauling me up, a little closer to him, his fingers slid into my hair at the back of my neck. My fangs dropped and I slid them carefully into his flesh.

"There you go, sweetheart," he whispered.

He let me drink from him for long minutes, the act more intimate. I managed only shallow pulls of his blood but each drop erased the pain in my body, helping me to relax. When I finished, I was able to slide down enough so that I could use him for a pillow. My head was on his chest, an arm and leg thrown across him.

I briefly wondered if he'd leave me once I fell asleep. But his arms tightened around me, his own body completely relaxed and I knew he intended to stay as I'd hoped he would.