Hello! Thank you again for all your kind words and those of you who have taken my story to heart. It makes me want to write for you because you all enjoy it so much. Here is Chapter 4 for your reading pleasure... I don't know when I'll be able to post Chapter 5, but it will be sometime this week. I have a couple plane flights to look forward to, so I'll be able to work then. I'm sorry to tease you with no Klaroline action so far, but I promise after this chapter there will be more. It's just how the story has played itself out as I've written it. Again, thank you thank you! Your words mean so much. As always, please review and enjoy!

Chapter 4

It'd been a week since Klaus had found Caroline in New Orleans, but Caroline hadn't seen him since that day. She figured she should be grateful that Klaus wasn't drawing unnecessary attention to her by stopping by on a daily basis, but now that they were aware of each other's presence in the city, Caroline couldn't help hoping to see Klaus here and there. Rebekah came by during that time to see Sophie and pulled Caroline aside for a few moments before she left. "I want you to know I'm not pleased you're here. But for some ungodly reason, Nik's happier than I've seen him in centuries. Practically skipping about the house and it's bloody annoying. And Sophie trusts you, so I have to accept the fact that you're here to stay for the time being."

"Gee, thanks for that warm welcome and vote of confidence. I really missed you too, Rebekah." Caroline had had about enough of blonde Original, but she was Klaus's younger sister and a friend of Sophie's. It wouldn't do to get on her bad side, again.

"I'm just giving you my honest opinion. Since you are here though, I'm going to make an effort to include you in my social circles. I'm under orders from Nik to 'bring you into the fold naturally'. We'll start by casually going out for coffee and proceed from there. Tomorrow, 10 AM at Cafe du Monde. If you're going to live in New Orleans, you'll have to be introduced to the local flavor, starting with beignets."

"Just what I wanted to do with my Sunday morning, grab a coffee and doughnuts with you."

"First of all, a beignet is not a doughnut. You'll find yourself run out of town if you call it that again. Secondly, it's not my first choice either, but like I said, you're here now and Nik's happy about it. So deal with it."

"Fine!" Caroline waved her hands her front of her, accepting defeat, "I have one condition though."

"If it's got anything to do with staying away from Matt or Stefan, I can't accept."

"Get over yourself. No, that's not it. If we're going to do this, we've got to do it right. I want a fresh start. You and me, past forgiven. Although I'm still pissed at you for setting Tyler on us in the library, but I'm willing to forgive, forget, and move forward with everything else."

Rebekah looked at Caroline with narrowed eyes at this and waited a few moments before replying, "Agreed. I have a feeling the next couple of months are going to see some interesting occurrences happen."

And Rebekah held out her hand as a peace offering. Caroline took Rebekah's in hers and the two blonde vampires shook to a new beginning as Camille walked in.

"Oh good! You've met Rebekah! Rebekah's family knows New Orleans better than anyone I've ever met, except maybe Marcel. But you'll be well looked after going around with them. We should have a girl's night at some point now that we're all acquainted!"

Rebekah rolled her eyes (only Caroline saw) and turned to Caroline to mouth "We'll talk" before walking out of Deveraux's to leave Caroline and Camille to their work. The small dining room at Deveraux's only sat about eighty patrons, not including the extra twenty that could sit at the bar, but set up for lunch and dinner took the two girls about an hour and a half each day. Dishes had to be unloaded and placed in their respective racks, silverware had to be set on each table and organized at the waitress's station, glasses had to be wiped down for use at the bar and the liquor had to be accounted for at the bar and in the small cellar underneath the restaurant. By the time this was all done, there was about thirty minutes to confer with Sophie about the menu specials for the day and then doors would open for lunch from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm. The restaurant closed between 2:30 and 5:00 for clean up and prep for dinner the same day from 5:00 to 10:00 pm. The lunch crowd was lighter than the dinner crowd, so Caroline and Therese would switch morning shifts every other day.

When New Orleans would see an influx in tourists, Sophie would have the two girls working both shifts with increased hours until the population levels went down again. The restaurant was closed on Sundays and Wednesday nights for Sophie to buy groceries, prep, and give the staff one night off during the week. Caroline had grown used to her new schedule after two weeks and was happy for the set schedule she kept working under Sophie. Order still appealed to Caroline and while there were days when everything seemed to go wrong, Caroline could always count on the fact that the next day would see things settled once again. She went to bed tired, but pleased with her work for the day and woke up rejuvenated and excited for the new day ahead. Caroline loved the comings and goings of Deveraux's, she'd never met more interesting people in her life and she heard wonderful stories from patrons she connected with about the places they'd visited and their thoughts on New Orleans itself.

Caroline had only ever been exposed to many of these topics in history books and novels back in high school and college, and hearing about them through other's first hand experiences made Caroline realize how big the world really was. In moving to New Orleans, Caroline had been exposed to more in a short few weeks of her life than twenty-two years in Mystic Falls and Charlottesville. To actually have the opportunity to visit these places she only believed she'd ever read about in books made her excited for her immortal life ahead. She knew she was going to be in New Orleans for a few years at least, but after that the world was her oyster. As for whether or not someone would be by her side as she sought of these future adventures, Caroline wasn't sure yet. She knew she wanted Klaus at her side, but these next few years in New Orleans would help Caroline sort out where exactly she wanted Klaus in her life.

The next day dawned bright and beautiful, and Caroline sat up in bed and stretched her arms over her head before reaching over to her nightstand for her phone. She saw she had a text from Rebekah, probably checking in to make sure Caroline wouldn't ditch her on their coffee date. No mention of little K or H today... Can't trust the ears around us. Delete this message too. Caroline frowned slightly, but acquiesced to the order anyways. She figured it had a lot to do with Marcel's well-informed network around New Orleans and she could follow along to help keep Kol safe. She still only had the information Sophie had given her about the child, but likely in the coming weeks she would find out more about him. She tried to picture in her mind what he would look like, but images of a small boy who looked a lot like Hayley kept popping up. Even though Caroline wasn't angry about the affair anymore, the thought of Hayley still made her slightly uncomfortable.

After getting out of bed and dressing herself for the day, Caroline made her way over to Jackson Square where Cafe du Monde sat kitty corner to the square under a green and white striped awning. She found Rebekah at a table close to the edge of the patio and walked over to sit down with her. Caroline saw that Rebekah had already ordered a plate of beignets and two cafe au lait's for the two of them. "You're coming to dinner tonight," Rebekah said by way of greeting, "I figure it will make it a little easier for you and Nik to see one another, or at least casually run into each other, if people know you've met. And we always have family dinner on Sunday, which you now have a standing invitation to, so you will be expected from now on."

"Good morning to you too," Caroline said, "I don't have much choice for Sunday dinner do I?"

"No, you don't." Rebekah grinned cheekily.

Caroline smiled to herself and sighed at Rebekah's demands. At least that hadn't changed in five years. Even the most annoying of habits could be seen as a source of comfort if it was something one was accustomed to. Caroline drew her cafe au lait to her and reached over to pick up a beignet from the plate in the middle of the table. She took a bite and almost groaned aloud as she chewed on the fried dough smothered in powdered sugar. She looked up to see Rebekah laughing with delight, "It's good isn't it?"

"Good doesn't begin to describe what this is. How is this possible?'

"It's the magic of New Orleans. Everything here tastes better."

Caroline smiled and went to take a sip of her cafe au lait. The result this time wasn't quite the same as the beignet. "Ugh! What is in this coffee?!"

"Chicory. It's a Louisiana thing. You get used to it after a while and if you put a little sugar in it, the bitterness isn't as strong."

"I'll stick to my coffee sans chicory for a while, thanks." Caroline took another bite of the beignet to rid herself the bitterness in her mouth from the chicory.

"So, Rebekah, how've you been? Might as well catch one another up while we're here."

The rest of the morning passed quickly and Caroline found herself enjoying the time she spent with Rebekah. She found out that Rebekah had pretty much been in New Orleans since leaving Mystic Falls five years ago, and Caroline assumed the biggest reason was for little Kol. She attended classes at Tulane University here and there to pass some of her time, and had gone to visit Stefan once in New York. "He's happy it seems, but I keep inviting him to come down to New Orleans and visit me. He just laughs and says he had enough of New Orleans in the 40's and wants to stay north for a while. He said he was thinking about going around Europe for a bit."

"I know! We talked about going together, but our schedules never coordinated well enough, especially since I was so focused on getting through college. We keep in touch though and try to talk a few times every other month."

"He always passed along how you were doing. I think he knew Klaus was always looking for information about your well being."

Caroline blushed at the thought that Klaus would be concerned about her, but given what he said about waiting for her for an indefinite amount of time, she wasn't all that surprised by the news. "Speaking of Klaus, what did you mean by 'We'll talk' yesterday at Sophie's?"

"Oh that! Camille fancies herself infatuated with Nik and it's bloody annoying. I think the only reason she wants to hang out with me is that she thinks I'll put in a good word for her. Fat chance. For being a thoroughly insightful human being she's incredibly dense at times. She studies Psychology at Tulane and fancies herself the "be all end all' on the existence of evil. She's finally come around to the fact that vampires live and breath down the neck of the French Quarter, but still.

"And Nik's never given her any encouragement and she still throws herself at him. Mind you it's subtle, but I know flirtatious behavior when I see it. Hopefully she'll give up on him now that you're in town and she sees why he never paid her any attention."

Caroline couldn't continue her laughter during this rant and giggled incessantly at Rebekah's dislike of Deveraux's bartender. "She's been kind to me since I started working at Sophie's. I've never had a problem with her."

"You'll likely have one now. Just give it time or compel it out of her and things should will settle down."

"Does no one know about or use vervain here?"

"Marcel keeps a tight hold on the supply in town, so few people know about it. Works out for the vampires because we don't have to worry about it when we feed."

At the mention of feeding on humans, Caroline got a little uncomfortable. She still followed the blood bag and animal diet she'd taken on when she first turned, and Sophie had been kind enough to put in a fridge in her personal cellar filled with blood bags. At the look on Caroline's face, Rebekah quickly said, "Very few humans die in New Orleans. Marcel does try to keep a more harmonious existence between the two and there are 'feeding lounges' where one goes for blood. Marcel understands that if things were too out of control, no one would come to New Orleans and where would that leave him. These lounges have 'volunteers' of sorts and they make sure to keep everyone under control. Marcel usually kills the ones who get too violent."

While this didn't completely alleviate Caroline's discomfort, it made her feel slightly better that vampires didn't go around New Orleans causing death on the reg. She and Rebekah stayed and talked a little while longer before getting up and parting ways for the remainder of the day. On her way home, Caroline stopped in a small tourist shop to browse for something to send to her mother. She found a little snow globe with a tiny scene from the French Quarter in it and purchased the small gift. As she made her way back to Sophie's, a small smile crept on her face at the thought of seeing Klaus tonight.

As Caroline got dressed for dinner that night, she noticed herself taking a little extra care with regard to her dress and make-up. She'd texted Rebekah asking what time to show up and appropriate dress code, and Rebekah had responded with Casual dress, but Elijah will be in a suit. As always. Ignore him. And come here at 4:30. It'll still be light out and you get can here without trouble from anyone. When she was satisfied she met the casual stipulation, but also still looked put together, she went downstairs to head out the door. "Heading to the Mikaelson's for dinner tonight?"

Sophie had come out of the kitchen to see Caroline off for the night. Caroline could smell the spices from Sophie's gumbo and knew she was busy making a big batch for the week. "Yes, I'll be home early tonight. You don't have to wait up for me."

"Nonsense. To both of those claims. I'll wait up until I hear you come in the door. Just promise me you'll have Klaus or Elijah walk you home tonight." Sophie's tone and look on her face said she wouldn't take no for an answer.

Caroline smiled at Sophie's care, normally the witch didn't wear her emotions on her sleeve, "Yes, I will make sure one of them walks me home."

"Thank you. Have fun tonight."

Caroline gave Sophie a small wave and let herself out the door. Spring was coming to New Orleans and while the temperatures rarely dropped below the 40s, even in the dead of winter, there was a slight chill in the air as the sun set. Caroline wove her way through the groups of people on Bourbon Street, many of them making their way over to the restaurants and hotels on Chartres Street for the night. She smiled to herself as she walked down the street; she had a small sense of pride at the fact she was familiar with the layout of the French Quarter and could easily find her way about the historic town after only two weeks. It made her feel more comfortable in her surroundings. She turned up St. Ann Street and finally found her way to Burgundy Street. As she looked at the numbers on the houses, searching for the right one, a wave of nervousness broke over her. When she finally found the right house, her heart was beating wildly and her palms were slightly damp. The gray three story home didn't stand out amongst its fellow neighbors, but Caroline knew from experience the interior would put most houses to shame. She let herself through the iron gate with an "M" worked into the design and knocked on the dark mahogany colored door.

Klaus opened the door to find Caroline nervously standing on the front step. At the sight of him at the door, she smiled and Klaus felt the wind taken out of him. He always forgot what her smile could do to him. "When Rebekah told me she was inviting you to dinner I got angry at her for beating me to it."

Caroline laughed at his comment, "I don't think it's a big deal and besides, for now it looks better like this."

"You're probably right, but that still doesn't mean I didn't want to extend the invitation first. Come in, please. You're in for a lovely evening."